I do portraits too...

I'm currently teaching my portraits units in both beginning and advanced photo.  The other day we were critiquing student photographs in class and a student asked me to see some of my portraits.  So, here are a few from just a couple weeks ago.  Please critique... I'd love to hear your thoughts :)

Photography in an instant :: August

I've been really happy with how much more photography I've been doing since I downloaded Instagram.  I feel bad that I've been a bit judgemental of cell phone photography for quite a while now.  I'm surrounded by cameras day in and day out, but how many times have I gone for long stretches without taking a single picture?  How many times have I opted to leave my DSLR at home, when I should really be bringing it with me?  But my cell phone is with me all the time.  And now I've started seeing my everyday world differently.  I'm seeing photo opportunities where I had overlooked them before.  Here are my first 9 photos which were shot over eight days in August.  More to come later... 

1. Emerson by ring light
2. Emerson's cool shades
3. Ansel by window light
4. Live simply... that others may simply live
5. Crepe myrtle branch on glass
6. Fallen log in Wrightwood
7. Wine cork litter
8. Sara and I in Hollywood (ok, obviously I didn't take this one)
9. Bug hunting

No Remote? No Problem.

A quick cell phone pic of the setup from my Night Lights photo.  The whole photo outing was planned with the intention of doing long exposures, and I forgot my remote... meaning I'd be limited to 30 seconds exposures max.  Not good.  Luckily Ruben had encountered this same problem before and had a solution-- a rubber band and a wadded up piece of paper.  Wrapped tight enough the rubber band will pull the paper down onto the shutter release button and hold it for however long you want.  Definitely cumbersome, especially when working in the dark, but it worked! 

From the Vault : Salvage Yard

Woo hoo!  My 100th post!  Yay me!

 

While going through old pics and trying to clean out the junk I found these and figured I'd see what I could do with them.  They were taken in a salvage yard near Rialto.  I went in search of rust.  I think the guys at the gate thought I was crazy when I explained that I wasn't in need of any car parts... just some pics of old cars.

Grace :: 1 Year

Here's baby Grace last October at just one week old...

 

And here's Grace now... as beautiful as can be and about to turn 1!  Time flies!

  

 Isn't she beautiful!?  And that outfit... thanks Sara!

These were taken in Oak Glen, California, a tiny little town known for its apple orchards. It was a really fun place to spend a day, and from a photographer's point of view it held unlimited photographic opportunities-- orchards, historic buildings, wide open spaces, picket fences, brick walkways-- it was amazing. There were even some cool crates and wooden chairs just sitting around the orchards for us to use for posing Gracie. The best thing about the area is that it's so open--you can wander pretty much wherever you want to go and you don't have to pay a cent!

I did learn a valuable lesson from this photo shoot--Be over prepared.  I was very casual when planning for this shoot for two reasons.   1.) I knew Sara (Grace's mom) would be all over pinterest finding fun ideas, poses, outfits, etc. so I didn't feel like I had to plan too much in that department, and 2.) These are my best friends and this is something like the fourth session I've done of them (plus they've assisted me on two additional shoots.)  So, I pretty much just made sure I had a charged battery and headed to the location.  When we got there I popped in my recently emptied 8GB SD card, took two test shots of my boys to check the lighting, and that's when my SD card gave me an error message I've never seen before (and which I've since learned from SanDisk means the card is toast.)  So, here we are way out in the boonies, and I hadn't thought to pack extra cards.  Yikes.  Luckily I had one 1GB card in my camera bag (all my other cards are stacked next to my computer---shame on me!)  My 1GB card said I could shoot something like 60 pictures if I shot in RAW only--no Jpegs.  It turned out to be a blessing in disguise, because I am notorious for over-shooting, and on this day I just couldn't.  In fact, Sara and I had to weed out the bad shots on the camera every so often to be able to keep shooting.  It forced me to take my time a bit more, and, in the end, gave me much fewer pictures to sort through afterwards.  So, I guess there are two morals to the story here: be prepared but less is more.  Hope you enjoy the photos :)

Night Lights

I shot this on a photo get-together back in May.  We parked at a pull out by Silverwood Lake and hiked along a trail a ways to try and do some star trails.  I was having absolutely no luck with that, so when some fishermen with headlamps came walking by on the trail I switched gears and caught this picture. 

9/11 Memorial

Taken on the front lawn of Pepperdine University overlooking the Pacific Ocean.   There was one flag for every person who lost their life in the September 11th attacks.  Most of these were American flags, but interspersed here and there you can also see flags from other nations who lost citizens that day.