This weekend, my wife, our baby girl, and I drove back to our home town for a friends wedding. It had been many years since I had seen or spoke to him. I was glad to see after all these years, that he has succeeded with his career and found that someone special to spend the rest of his life with.
While watching the ceremony I reminisced the great times we had growing up and I’m happy that things have turned out well for him and his family.
As I was walking with my friend Elijah in San Diego, I decided to stop in the middle of the street and take a picture of the on coming traffic. At night, the car lights can add an additional dimension to the scene and in this shot it gives you a sense that they are coming at you (technically they were) but in reality I was safe because of the light.
I have to admit, I didn’t come up with this one but I really like how it turned out. I wanted to get one great out of place picture or pictures that would really stick out. I found a picture of someone who took a self portrait of themselves in a old, 70’s style bathtub while wearing dress clothes.
My sister’s house is very nice and one of their spare bathrooms has a shower and tub that fits a 70’s style theme. I talked my nephew into wearing his dress clothes and getting into the water and letting me shoot a few portrait shots. Personally, I think they turned out great!
Recently, my wife, our baby girl, and I drove to Madison Wisconsin to visit my sister and family. My nephew Sage, who is a senior in high school asked if I would consider taking his senior pictures. My comfort level for portrait photography has significantly improved and I decided I would be up for the challenge with the exception of one stipulation, I could be creative in the pictures I take.
I have to give credit for my wife for this one. She thought a pic with Sage against a tree and an arrow above his head in the tree while going through an apple would be unique. I would have to agree with her, these pics came out very well.
P.S. The out of focus portions of both pictures is not created by post processing. I was able to do this with my 50mm Summilux.
Often, photographers are attempting to find symmetry or patterns within their environment that would be eye catching. This picture is a great example.
I was standing in the airport waiting to get on one of the trains and noticed the adjacent train sitting there. I noticed the ceiling tiles, train doors, windows, floor tiles, and even the trash can all had a similar linear pattern. I felt this would be a great place to focus on the train and hope that a subject would walk through. Fortunately, I got lucky. This man carrying a piece of paper walked right where I wanted him. I love that I caught him in mid stride because his front leg, back foot, upper torso, and paper all became symmetric with the environment. By focusing on the train, I was able to blur the subject so the viewer could get a sense of motion.
A few weeks ago we went to the Fort Wayne Taste of the Arts festival. For a small city, there were many vendors there. Unfortunately, I didn’t find a whole lot worth taking pictures of. This picture was taken while walking through the crowd with my 28 summicron. Something caught their attention.
Here in northeast Indiana there are many nature preserves. Probably the most well known is the ACRES Land Trust. ACRES Land Trust is made up of many preserves throughout northeast Indiana. All are free and have nice trails.
One after noon I drove to one of the preserves west of my home. This preserve is mostly forest and swamp. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to capture any exciting shots (the foliage did not have much colors). I took this one shot of of an isolated tree within one of the swamps.
Its been a few days since I’ve posted anything on the site. I’ve really been busy with work and want to spend as much time with my little girl as possible therefore at times the website will just have to be on hold.
The picture uploaded today was taken in 2008 at my residency graduation party. I have to give my wife credit for this one. We were all at a friends house and the second year resident decided he would play guitar for us. My wife took this picture and I later edited it with Silver Efex Pro. I think she did an outstanding job.
I thought today I would show a before and after picture taken in Chicago using Nik Software Silver Efex Pro 2 for post processing. All my pictures that become black and white are processed through Silver Efex Pro. I’ve been using it since the first version. The second version is far better because it has more control sliders and has “U point” technology. “U point” is unique to Nik Software programs because it allows you to edit only certain parts or colors of your picture instead of making global changes. I highly recommend the software if you are going to be making black and white pictures.
This picture was taken with my M9. I was hoping to get a since of motion with the car. I was able to get this by making sure the rest of the scene was in focus. The initial color picture is boring, changing to black and white and adding some vignetting makes it much more interesting.
This past Saturday I participated in the Leica Akademie M9 Shooting Experience Chicago. I wasn’t sure what to expect. I’ve never met any other Leica users with the exception of speaking to Steve Huff, of Steve Huff Photo (the online Leica guru!). Simply put, the experience was wonderful and could not have expected a better instructor, Leica representative, and professional photographer to guide us through the workshop. What made the meeting even more pleasurable was interacting with the other participants.
Before the workshop started, I ran into Steve Huff of Steve Huff Photo. I frequent his site daily and have spoke to him via email a few times and felt he was a terrific guy and after meeting him, it confirmed it. He reviews many Leica products and other cameras, mostly rangefinders and micro 4/3’s. He does a phenomenal job and I have to give him credit for guiding me towards Leica.
The workshop started out by meeting the Leica representative Matt Butzow and the instructor Tom Smith. Next, Matt allowed us to pick a Leica lens to borrow (I wanted to get my hand on the noctilux but unfortunately someone got to it before me).
Next, Tom Smith spent the remaining morning going through the ins and outs of the Leica M9 system. All I can say is that I learned a tremendous amount and if you are new to Leica or rangefinders in general this is a must do class!
After lunch, Carlos Javier Ortiz presented on his work as a photojournalist and showed many of his ongoing projects. Some of these projects are listed on his website. He also showed us a current project that him and other photojournalist around the country are participating in. The project is called “Facing Change” (I don’t consider it politically motivated) and you can see pictures from the project here.
Next we went out and shot for about an hour. Like most participants I followed Tom around and he showed us his perspective in street photography and also taught us some invaluable camera tips.
Last, we came back and Tom showed us his typical workflow when downloading pics from his computer and uploading to Lightroom. I found this info useful, but I have to admit I’m a die hard Apple guy and use Aperture 3.0.
As stated above, I found the workshop a great learning experience and 100% worth the cost. I’ve heard rumor of maybe a 3 day Leica course in the future in Chicago, I will definitely be there.
If you are interested in Leica Akademie you can see upcoming events here.
P.S. I mentioned that we did go out and shoot for a while. Here are a few pics I took (more in the next few days) and you can go to Michael Sullivans flickr page to see pics he took (another Leica shooter at the course, great guy).
