I’ll be the Official Photographer for Social Media AZ
August 18, 2010 by Brad
Hey, I’m pleased to announce that once again, I’ll be the Official Photographer for Social Media AZ.
The premier business focused event to help companies understand and learn the latest techniques in digital marketing and social media.
Learn from industry experts and corporations that have experience in
how to do it right.
With a focus on real world experience which means
we share the good, the bad and what really works.
[TV Announcer "Troy McClure" voice] You might remember this image from the last time I covered #SMDAYPHX which wound up on Mashable.com.
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Ok, you can call it a comeback
August 18, 2010 by Brad
Where to start? Holy schmokes, friends…
Skip’s Summer School in Vegas – 180 degrees from my last visit when I was in bed by 9 each night. All the best parties, amazing new friends, incredible new contacts, VIP lists, and late late nights. One of the highlights had to be getting to assist Canon Explorer of Light Clay Blackmore and Nikon Legend Tony Corbell in an impromptu lighting seminar, which resulted in a handful of us AZ folks getting portraits made by Clay. Here’s just one of the images he made for me (he gave me permission to crop, color treat, etc.):
I went with Everardo Keeme, and was taken under the wing of presenter and local Phoenix luminary Kay Eskridge. Along the way, we were befriended by some amazing people like Yvonne, Sara, Elena, Christy, Beverlee, Tamara, Candace, Steve, Larry, and others I don’t mean to slight by stopping the list here.
Several of us are gearing up for a seminar in Portland soon. It will be great to get to visit with some of these folks again.
Since my last post, there have been a wedding, personal portraits, corporate portraits, group shots, more filming, editing, exploding lighting gear, storms, light-painting, dams busting, and more. I’ve been busy and it’s been exciting. I haven’t quite dialed in the blogging schedule. I’m realizing that blogging just doesn’t come quickly for me. I’m S L O W …
But I’ll keep trying to refine it. Thanks for checking in!
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Dani & Ben’s Wedding (sneak peak)
August 7, 2010 by Brad
Dani & Ben had a beautiful small ceremony at Freestone Park in Mesa, AZ which was a special place in their courtship. After the intimate ceremony, they arrived at Grace Church in Mesa where a much larger group of friends joined family for a wonderful reception. Being such a quiet couple who placed a high value on privacy and family, I was truly honored to be chosen to document their engagement and to be a part of their wedding day. The day was hot, but it was much nicer than it had been the day before at the rehearsal (I always attend rehearsals), so it seemed so much better!
I was skeptical when Dani and Ben suggested and outdoor daytime wedding in July (here in the Metro Phoenix area),but look at the beautiful sky we would have missed if we had played it safe. We had just enough cloud cover to give us some relief from the Arizona sun.
This and the photo below may be my favorite pair of reception images ever! I captured this one, while my wife Lisa prepared for the catch below. We had no idea about the last minute plan for the Maid of Honor to boost the Flower Girl into the air.
Giving new meaning to the title Flower Girl! I spoke with Kayla, the Maid of Honor, later. She said she had no idea this would work. It was one of the most fun moments at a reception I’ve ever been witness to. My wife and assistant Lisa says she saw Kayla’s hands go under those arms, into a “boost” position and focused in on them. So. Much. Fun!
Photography 101 Seminar: More students’ photos
July 19, 2010 by Brad
Last week, we worked a lot on showing motion through the use of shutter speed. Since we had already hit upon lot’s of accidental instances of fast shutter speeds freezing motion that the eye usually misses (mouths frozen mid-syllable, eyelids half shut, you know – real flattering stuff!), we worked mostly on slow shutter speeds creating motion blur. I’ll spare you the many images of my feet and let you see the students’ work that was aimed at Miss Nikki’s much more presentable peds. Nikki brought along some shoes and a few other items she had been doing photo homework with, in hopes of creating original images to populate her own shoe blog.
Even after we wore her out from walking back and forth for us, we worked on using available light to make some impromptu “product shot” images that might suit her blog needs. My goal was to explain how we could use household scenes and common light fixtures to come up with something beyond a snapshot. What goes into real commercial product shots is overwhelmingly painstaking, time-consuming, technical, and complex. It’s also really not suited to the level of class that we’ve got going on here. So we had fun, we made it fast, and we wound up with just what Nikki wanted!
Here’s the motion, captured by Bethany. Nikki, struttin’ her bad self…
After all that walking, we had Nikki stand just so, and worked on composition, filling the frame, depth of field, and low-tech lighting.
This is the behind the scenes view of the photo above. It’s really quite simple, which is what this first series of classes is geared toward.
This one has a story. I don’t normally like selective color (where the color is dropped out of everything except, say, the flowers in a bride’s bouquet) because it’s getting a bit tied to a particular time period (which is pretty much behind us now). But this is an image that Nikki first thought was going to be a throw-away, one we could just delete in camera. But I suggested that she consider its unorthodox composition as viable for alternate uses. I see it as a practical template or background for a webpage/blog-page that would have text (maybe slanted text, hmm?) in the empty space that grows from the top-left to the bottom-center. I dropped out the color entirely to further my point. Then, in an effort to suggest just how vast the possibilities were with this “throw-away” original, I clicked a pre-set in my software and brought back only the reds. She loved it! So here it is.
In the Bicycle Radio studios
July 18, 2010 by Brad
Last week I was graciously accepted into the Cat 5 Tattoo Studios; the home of Bicycle Radio’s Escape the Peloton, a live streaming internet radio show and downloadable podcast that reaches tens of thousands of listeners around the world. This being Tour de France season, the show’s audience was peaking, and the discussion was hoppin’. Spirits are always high on the show, and as the photos below attest, the broadcast is a fun combination of joviality, professionalism, and great music. Check it out.
After getting permission to bring my camera, I decided to approach the night as a no-flash, low-light challenge. It was much darker in the studio than it looks in the photos. I had fun stretching the camera’s (and this photographer’s) ability to perform in the dark. It’s always good practice, as the halls, churches, and hotel lawns where I photograph so many weddings and receptions are often barely lit. There, I usually have the option of working with flash, on and off-camera. But location limitation, church rules, or technical problems can occasionally leave one with no additional light. So this was a good low-pressure time to practice.
The Bicycle Radio’s production level sounds great — like top-notch terrestrial FM shows. But this is podcasting, right? DIY radio. I expected to find anything other than the slick professional studio that Sean & Larry have put together.
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The show’s host, Sean Mellor, comes from a deep background in commercial radio, and has taken to the new frontier of internet broadcasting with an unmistakable joie de vivre.
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Co-host and producer Larry Hendon is no silent partner behind the boards. His fingerprints are all over the show, and his commentary and insights are entertaining parts of every broadcast.
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Efraim Rojas is the show’s sage of professional cycling, Belgian beers, and all things linguistic.
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Staff-member Marty was there that night too, but he declined to have his image captured and shared with the world. I am one of the lucky few to have seen his face. And alas, the lass Jerri was unusually absent the night of my visit. Without her, the show was without its news and upcoming events for the week.
Did I have a good time? Of course! But I’m not going to spell it all out here. The photos above tell most of the story. Listen to the podcast for the rest. If you’re a cyclist or a fan of the sport, make it a regular part of your routine, especially the live-streaming music show that begins an hour or so before each episode of Escape the Peloton (Tuesdays 7-8pm MST).
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