Orange

I'm taking two photo classes this semester. One is studio - still life on tabletops. The other is color-portrait, where the color part is optional.

My first assignment for studio is a fruit or vegetable, using only available sunlight.

This is the result.

Not a composite, not much post processing either.

The water is from a squirt bottle. My original concept involved stopping the water much like this shot that I did last year. It appears this particular professor has a thing for starting off the year with fruit.

For this strawberry shot I used a single White Lightning strobe on a black background. 

For the assignment I shot yesterday, strobes were not allowed. I figured the sun would be plenty bright and I could still get some wicked water-freezing action. Unfortunately, the available sunlight I had to work with sucked so I wasn't getting shutter speeds anywhere near fast enough. I boosted my ISO significantly (from 200 to 1250) and got a shutter speed about 1/100 sec at F/4. 

Back to the orange.
My custom white balance gave me a reading pretty close to "shade" which made total sense, considering I had a big ol' diffusion screen above my orange. The fruit rendered a decent color, but because I had daylight spilling in and lighting the background - I get blue instead of black. I'm quite happy with that.

Over the course of 141 frames I sprayed it from a bunch of different angles and intensities. I shot into LightRoom3 tethered to one of the school's 27" imacs. Not a bad experience, and definitely helpful for deciding which frames had the best water spray.

The image you see on screen was my fall-back shot in case I couldn't get the water shots to come out correctly.

Post production was simple.
Decrease the brightness, warm the whole thing up, sharpen, saturate, crop.

That's that! Have a great Friday!

Comfort: Shoes

In yesterday's post I linked to the most comfortable shoes in the world.

Here's why.

In order for someone to be successful at something, there are a few requisites. First and foremost is the necessary knowledge - you have to know what you're doing.

Second, in my mind, is comfort. If you're hungry or tired or you've got a big wedgie, you won't be able to perform as well. If you spend all day on your feet, your feet get tired, and your mind gets tired. You get cranky.

Solution: Vibram FiveFingers shoes.

photo: www.vibramfivefingers.com

I'm not going to enumerate all the benefits and stuff for you - but I do suggest you check out their website and read for yourself. I've never been comfortable in regular tennis shoes for more than 5 hours at a time. With the FiveFingers shoes (I have the KSO model) I can stand all day and not care one bit.

I will warn you that the break-in period on these shoes can be unpleasant. Not because you have to break in the shoes - but because you have to break in muscles that you never use. These babies work your calves and feet like crazy for the first week or two. After that, you're good to go.

They're also pleasant conversation starters.

I've had mine for about two months and I wear them just about every day. I've hiked the Flatirons in Colorado in them. I've walked 8 miles on asphalt in them. I've ridden my bike in them. They are truly the most comfortable shoes in the world.

Disclaimer: I am NOT paid by Vibram FiveFingers or any of their associates - I'm just a HUGE fan!

Get in my way. I dare you.

As an event and sports photographer, I spend a lot of time trying to maneuver around people who insist on getting in my way, whatever the cost. Many of these people are referees, but zealous spectators are just as bad.

One of my new projects for the year is the "Get in my way" series. It will consist of unflattering photographs of people who get in my way.

Either I vent my frustration this way, or I start beating people to death with my monopod....

To start off the series:

Spectators at the cross country meet yesterday at Buffalo park. These offenses are particularly heinous because this meet is my only chance to photograph NAU's cross country runners.

This guy not only got in my way at the start of the race - but he's shooting Canon!

Just Kidding! - I got nothing against Canon shooters.

Rather than beating these people to death, I simply yell out "excuse me!" Most people are then courteous enough to scootch so I can shoot around them. When I'm shooting sports, I tend to look like a paid photographer. Aside from the most comfortable shoes in the world, I nearly look professional. This definitely works to my advantage - nobody wants to get in the way of a "real" photographer...

Headless Portraiture: Dahlia

Continuing with the headless portraiture series, here's a shot I got of Dahlia sitting on a wood floor that has a lot of character.

I'm going to avoid putting the same person in the series over and over again, but that doesn't mean I can't post the same person repeatedly on the blog. Especially when that person is my girlfriend.

High grain black and white. I like to think of that as artistic. I was feeling artsy when I shot it - if that counts for anything.

Have a great Friday!

August Contest Winner!!!

During the month of August, there was a contest going on here on The Vault Blog.

After receiving a really good comment from an anonymous poster, I decided to see if I could get more. The experiement worked out pretty well - the number of comments just about doubled.

This month, I'm giving away the Comment of the Month prize to Simon Hucko

Photo stolen from Simon Hucko

A lab tech by day and a passionate photographer in his own right. Simon runs his own blog over at [title of blog] - and I encourage you to check it out! I am not nearly as diligent about commenting as he is - but he's on my RSS feed and the blog is well worth a look.

Photo stolen from Simon Hucko

Simon posted three comments this month, the most out of any of my visitors.

The prize this month is a 4GB LEXAR memory card. I suspect he shoots Compact Flash, so I'll be sending him a 200x CF card sometime in the next week.

For the record - Lexar does NOT sponsor me or this blog - I'm just a huge fan. Everything I give away comes out of my own pocket.

The contest continues. Every month a winner will be chosen, so let me hear what you have to say! The more the merrier!

Here's a re-posting of the details.

Comment of the Month!

That's right. I'm so desperate for comments that I'm going to reward those of you who comment either on Facebook or on the blog itself. The reward will change every month, but here are a few of the things I'm thinking about giving away.

• Vault Photography hats/shirts
• Free business card printing
• Limited Edition prints (BIG ONES!)
• Headphones
• Photography books
• Memory cards
• USB drives

If you leave a comment on one of my posts, you're automatically entered to win. Of course, the better the quality of your comment, the higher your chances of winning. Dont BS me, but do try to say something more meaningful than "Great shot!" or "you suck."

Let me state that these contests will be entirely subjective - I will pick who wins. If you don't like it, too bad. <insert legal mumbo-jumbo about where contests are and aren't valid and No Purchase Necessary and stuff>

If you people make me hire a lawyer to spell out all that stuff, I'm going to cancel the contest (which I have a right to do whenever I want for whatever reason I want) and pout (which I am also allowed to do!)

Each contest will run from the beginning to the end of that month with winners announced whenever I get around to it.

September background

Welcome to September

I've grown rather attached to the sunflowers I used for the August background, so I dont think I'll change mine this month.

But, just in case you want the option, here are some new flowers for your desktop.

Click to enlarge!

A photographer's dream

Classic childhood playtime - the tire swing.

Dusk is upon us, the bugs are coming out with a vengeance. In the corner of the yard stands a tree as old as time, with a tire swing nearly as old. The rope is fraying, the colors are fading - but somehow, we just can't resist.

A photographer's dream. 

Shooting these was a real challenge - I was at ISO 3200, trying to (and mostly failing at) manual focusing in failing light using my 28mm f/2.8 lens. Shutter speed was around 1/40.

I kept at it, and managed to get a few decent images over the course of 100 frames.

Apparently today is the first day of September - it snuck up on me so I don't have a background for you yet. I'll be sure to get one online shortly!