February Brag Post - Ruben Tinajero

Talk about perfect timing--Only about a week left in February (and therefore time for my Brag Post) and Ruben Tinajero goes and kicks butt in a DP Challenge! Definitely brag-worthy : )

Ruben has been impressing everybody with his work all year long. What can I say? His photography is just plain awesome. When he comes into class every day it seems like he's always got something new--new pictues he wants me to look at, a new camera or lens he's thinking about buying, or a new technique he's perfected. It's become something I look forward to each day : ) It challenges me to stay up-to-date and informed. One of my favorites among Ruben's work is his Homelessness Documentary Part I and Part II. The photographs are amazing and the effort and guts that went into locating, approaching, and photographing the high desert's homeless are commendable. More recently I liked his photo of the Disney Concert Hall.

Just the other day Ruben entered his first DP Challenge. The contest theme was Leading Lines and Ruben's photo of the aqueduct and star trails placed 9th out of 119 entries! Here's a direct link to his photo in the contest.

**So Proud!!**

The Leap - Help Me Choose

All four of us went out to shoot some more silhouettes tonight--it's way more fun that way. People driving by must have thought we were crazy. Run, jump, check the shot, back around, run, jump again, check... It was worth the workout, though, because while I am no dancer these are just the shots I had envisioned. Here's the problem--I can't decide. Yes, I could re-shoot, and I may still do that, but the sunset tonight was stunning. Blog readers: your input is requested. Which one is "the shot"?

#1. Got a lot of height on this jump.

#2. Stepping on the sun... kind of cool.

#3. My personal favorite, but just couldn't get that foot above the horizon! I love the shape.

It's not called VANOVERBEKE PHOTOGRAPHY for nothing. Let me introduce my team. While it was my vision, Dustin actually took the three shots above. That's what I call teamwork! Emerson and Ansel were there to cheer us on (which they actually did--I'm not usually the jumping around type. I think they were impressed.) They also enjoyed searching for rocks, sticks, and coyote poop.

Sycamore Canyon Silhouette

Since I just assigned all of my students to take a silhouette, I thought it'd only be fair if I took some myself. There were definitely a few hurdles to get over to get this shot. The first big challenge was getting up above all the houses and trees. Dustin suggested the Sycamore Canyon hiking trails--perfect! Unfortunately he was unable to join us, which made it quite a bit more challenging to shoot, since I had to try and keep the boys on the trail while taking pictures. The other obstacle was that we got rear-ended the other day and now our back hatch won't open--which means that our fancy jogging stroller with the big wheels (which is perfect for the trails) won't fit in the car. So, I had to push the regular old double stroller with it's tiny wheels up a very steep hill to get up high enough (and stupidly I was wearing my chucks instead of hiking boots... dumb, dumb, dumb!) If you're wondering about the tilt it's because I had to shoot from the ground to get the boys above the horizon, so I wasn't able to use my viewfinder.

Long story short, students: If I can manage to take a silhouette, so can you.

1/800th sec. f/8 ISO 200 (wish I'd have dropped it down to 100) 18-55mm lens Slight blue curves adjustment and levels.

An Ode to No One

I wanted to play around with off camera flash. For this shot Dustin had the SB600 with a mini-softbox perched on his knees as he played (I'm so lucky that he's always such a good sport.) I added a little fill with my pop-up flash set really low (like 1/128th or something around there.)

ISO 100 1/200th sec. f/3.5 85mm lens

Things That Inspire Me

Black & White and Lots of Contrast and Textures

I learned photogrpahy with black and white film, so maybe that's why I love it so much. As for contrast and textures... I just like a photograph to pack a bit of a punch. Blah, gray photos drive me crazy! Here is a photo I took last weekend that fits with this topic. My family and I finally climbed Mt. Rubidoux, and this rock was about half way up. I'm not much into Bible verses, but I thought this one had a kind of universal message. It reads, "Let not your heart be troubled. John 14-1" and then is signed (as best as I can read it) "Ernest E. Roby 11-11-1941 St. Mary's WVA"

First Brag Post - Joey Aceves

"There are two ways of spreading light: to be the candle or the mirror that reflects it."

~Edith Wharton

I really like this quote, because while I do enjoy being the candle from time to time, as a teacher I get to be the mirror reflecting nearly 200 candles each year. And that is a lot of light. This post is about one particularly bright candle...

This is very long overdue (and I almost missed my deadline!) My student of the month for January is Joey Aceves, so it fits that he's the subject of my first Brag Post. At the beginning of the year Joey's awesomeness honestly caught me by surprise, because he didn't seem that interested in beginning photography. Since then he's continued to impress me with both his drive and the quality of his work. He's really taking his photography business seriously--he's invested in a whole bunch of nice equipment, his blog is professional looking and updated often, he's employed by a wedding planner, and is selling his work in a store in the mountains. It's hard to select a favorite photograph among his work, so I'll just say that I'm currently loving the Casa Romantica pics and the San Clemente Sunsets. If you haven't seen his stuff go check it out!

Sorry if I'm embarrassing you, Joey : )

Homemade Paper Ring Flash

I thought this DIY Photography.net Tutorial sounded really interesting, especially since I've always wanted a ring flash. Honestly, it took about two hours to cut out and assemble the thing, and I'll admit it looks pretty ridiculous on the camera, but I do like the results. It softens all the shadows, eliminates glare, and gives that cool catch light in the eyes. This is my student, Jason.