Listen to your wife!

One thing I've learned when shooting weddings especially is to listen to my wife.

When we were very quickly shooting these images (due to drizzle) this past weekend in front of the courthouse in Harrisonville, my wife called out to the groom of this couple to "dip your wife!". Well, that little dip provided a moment for the bride and groom to have some fun, and I think it gave me a great shot that showed something more than a posed shot would have. Often times on shoots Dionne will speak up that she wants to try something and people will even say that the pose she puts them in feels uncomfortable or unnatural, but inevitably later they will love the result of the pose.

Shot spex: RAW Image, Pentax K10D, ISO 800, 78mm, f5.6, 1/180 sec., fill flash.

PhotoShop spex: Smart Sharpened, cropped, changed to B&W, colorized the flowers, added diffused glow filter. Adjusted Contrast and Brightness.

Tunes listened to while editing: Angels & Airwaves - I-Empire. I'm on a huge Angels and Airwaves kick right now. You need to check them out if you haven't. They are a really great "supergroup"!

Still alive and shooting!

Yes, I am still alive and shooting pictures. 24 hours ago I didn't feel very much alive, but after a nights rest I am feeling better. Yesterday my lovely wife and I traveled down to Harrisonville to shoot our first wedding in 2 years. Now we both remember why we stopped chasing this kind of work. It is a tough way to make money.

Anyway, despite the rainy conditions we managed to squeeze in a few shots outdoors. The groom managed to secure the use of this 1937 Chevy (I think) and really wanted a few pictures using it. Dionne and I saw this neat court house and as it was only a few blocks away from the church we knew we had to swing by between the ceremony and reception.

As the day was kind of gray, I decided in this version to go with Black and White. Plus I kind of wanted the "old time" look as we had the old car and the old courthouse.

As I'll be editing over the next week or so, I hope to post more frequently again here. I hope you enjoy seeing images from me again.

Shot spex: RAW Image, Pentax K10D, ISO 800, 18mm, f4.5, 1/180 sec., no flash.

PhotoShop spex: Smart Sharpened, cropped to exclude sky, changed to B&W. Adjusted Contrast and Brightness.

Tunes listened to while editing: well today I've listened to 5 disks while working on images. The one that I listened to while working on this image was Angels & Airwaves - Love.

Where's The Beef - This Day In History

On this day (January 9th) in history in 1984, Clara Peller was first seen by TV viewers in the "Where's the Beef?" commercial campaign for Wendy's.

Peller's "Where's the beef" line became an instant catch phrase across the United States. The diminutive octogenarian actress made the three-word phrase a cultural phenomenon, and herself a cult star. At Wendy's, sales jumped 31% to $945 million in 1985 worldwide. Wendy's senior vice president for communications, Denny Lynch, stated at the time that "with Clara we accomplished as much in five weeks as we did in 14½ years." Former Vice-President Walter Mondale also used the line to effectively demolish rival Senator Gary Hart in a bid for the Democratic nomination in the 1984 presidential campaign (Mondale eventually lost in a landslide to President Ronald Reagan).

While hugely popular, the advertising campaign proved to be short-lived, at least for Wendy's. Peller had made actor scale wages - $317.40 per day - for the initial Wendy's TV commercial of the campaign in January 1984.

At least all this made for a good excuse to run to Wendy's for a late night snack! And for what it's worth, even though this was one of Wendy's Value Menu Triple Stack burgers, it was very beefy!

Shot spex: Jpeg Image, Pentax K10D, ISO 800, 130mm, f19, 1/90 sec., flash aimed directly behind me with an Omni-Bounce attached.

PhotoShop spex: Smart Sharpened, Went to Channels and adjusted each channel individually to make the burger look more appealing. Adjusted Contrast and Brightness.

Tunes listened to while editing: Lovetap - There's This Girl. Great album - kind of a modern approach to classic 50's rock (IMHO).

Calling London - London Calling

On this day in history in 1927 the first transatlantic telephone call was made – from New York City to London. The first thing I thought of when I read this was of how far telecommunications has come. The second thing I thought of was the Clash album, London Calling. The third thing I thought of was, "hey, I could pull up a picture of that album in less than 60 seconds with my HTC Hero"!

This image was tricky. I played with all kinds of lighting tricks and just couldn't create a 100% color image I liked of it. Then I decided that a blend of Black and White and Color was exactly the right way to portray the idea of a phone that could simply make a transatlantic telephone call (B&W) and a phone that houses a portable computer capable of amazing things like communicating transatlantic color images (Color).

Shot spex: Jpeg Image, Pentax K10D, ISO 800, prime 50mm, f2, 1/20 sec., flash aimed directly behind me on a sync cable with an Omni-Bounce attached.

PhotoShop spex: Smart Sharpened, Layered and Desaturated. Adjusted Contrast and Brightness on each layer to my liking.

Tunes listened to while editing: Again nothing - too lazy to trek upstairs to get my iPod!

Impressive Wing Span!!

So today, January 5th is denoted as both Bean Day and Bird Day. As I already shot a bean type picture on New Years Day I decided to use a bird picture. I shot some pictures of a pretty red cardinal a couple of days ago, but the images turned out pretty bad (shooting through a window screen). So I dug into my archive and found a picture I shot last August while atop a very tall observation tower in Eureka Springs, Arkansas. I have no idea what this bird is (some kind of hawk or vulture) but it was immense! The image was kind of bland and so I decided to try some creative techniques to see if I could make something more interesting out of it. I applied a watercolor filter and then messed around with the contrast, brightness and such until I had what I liked.

Shot spex: Jpeg Image, Pentax K10D, ISO 100, 200mm, f8, 1/350 sec., no flash.

PhotoShop spex: See above.

Tunes listened to while editing: Nothing - too lazy to trek upstairs to get my iPod!

One Ring To Rule Them All

How could I possibly turn down creating an image to commemorate the fact that today, January 3rd, was J.R.R.Tolkein Day! What can I say? I'm a nerd, and I love the Lord of the Rings series written by Tolkein. In fact my buddy Donovan and I are such Tolkein nerds that we play the Lord of the Rings trading card game. I bought a replica of the sword named "Sting" for my son a few years back and the ring used in this shot is actually my wedding ring. The initial shot was of the entire sword, but I realized when editing that too much was not a good thing.

Shot spex: Jpeg Image, Pentax K10D, ISO 200, 40mm, f4.5, 1/90 sec., flash with Omni-Bounce attached and aimed straight up at ceiling.

PhotoShop spex: Cropped in really tight, adjusted Levels and Brightness/Contrast. Desaturated and applied a Sepia filter. Colorized ring.

Tunes listened to while editing: Owl City - Ocean Eyes.

Happy Mew Year!

Believe it or not, January 2nd is designated as "Happy Mew Years!". That time when felines, ever above mere humans in the great chain of being, have a day unto themselves to celebrate the “mewness” of a new time.

Well, I decided to shoot a picture of our cat, Bella. I thought this would be easy as she is almost always in the same place - right on the top of the sofa in the picture window. I thought a nice natural light shot of her would look great! But, as I should know by now having had cats for many years, they rarely cooperate. I could never get her to go to her favorite spot in the window, and even tried to move her there only to have her dash away in a flash! So I dug into the archives as I remember having shot a few pictures of her over the years and found this one. I did some cropping and applied a film grain to the image. I then desaturated everything and brought back the color for Bella's eyes and nose. I have never used type effects on a picture so this is a new skill I attempted as well. I think it turned out okay. Kinda cheesy but what do you expect on Happy Mew Years?

Shot spex: Jpeg Image, Pentax K10D, ISO 100, 68mm, f5.6, 1/60 sec., no flash.

PhotoShop spex: Smart Sharpened (as always), adjusted Levels and Brightness/Contrast. Desaturated and colorized eyes and nose. Added Film Grain.

Tunes listened to while editing: Weezer - The Red Album. A permanent part of my top 25 albums.

A spoonful of good luck for 2010!

I'm not actually that superstitious, but I've heard that eating Black Eyed Peas on News Year Day will bring you good luck. But you have to eat at least 365 of them, obviously 1 for each day of the year. According to Southern folklore this must be the first food you eat on New Year's Day for luck and prosperity throughout the year ahead. That would probably put a damper on those midnight kisses if we really followed the practice in this manner!

Anyway, this is the first image of what I hope to be many this year as I participate in my friend Jeff's photo challenge called "This Day In History - 2010". Enjoy and watch out for many more posts this year!

Shot spex: RAW Image, Pentax K10D, ISO 200, 200mm, f6.3, 1/90 sec., flash aimed at ceiling with diffuser attached.

PhotoShop spex: Smart Sharpened (as always), adjusted Levels and Brightness/Contrast.

Tunes listened to while editing: Nothing tonight as I am in the process of rebuilding my iPod! Bleck!!!