It’s been some time since I have posted on this site. I have been putting my focus on my 365, but have had the intent to get my Great Projects blog up and running instead of this one. Well, you know about good intentions and all. I decided to come back and keep posting more summary and update style posts up here until I finally get around to consolidating some of my efforts on the business blog.

Last month I had the pleasure of attending another great Photowalking Utah event. Originally I was going to participate with a lighting set up, but had to bow out due to some conflicting obligations. Fortunately though I was able to catch the latter part of the event as an attendee and even make some photos – quite the unique thing for me! Though I didn’t make many photos, I enjoyed visiting with good friends and taking in the various lighting setups the generous volunteers had put together for our benefit.

The crop of models this year brought this 4th annual iteration of the event to an entirely new level. I was most impressed by the variety and professional manner they helped us all out with their efforts. Kudos to all. You can get a great overview of what the event looked like by viewing Cody Sims fisheye video view as he walked around the various setups.

Here are a few others from the day. Note that you won’t see these images in my portfolio as I do not take credit for the lighting, makeup, etc. Though I coached the models a little into the various looks I wanted to capture, these images are made mainly on the backs of others’ efforts.

More images from the day can be viewed (and downloaded) on my SmugMug site: http://www.gogetphotos.com/Photowalking/2011-03-Photowalking-Utah/

This weekend I had the opportunity to attend a workshop put on my Master Photographer Kenneth Linge. This class was the second in his 3 part “Photographing People” series, held in his Orem, UT studio. It has been a long time since I attended his first part of the series, so I was eager to get back and see what new techniques and ideas I could pick up in this second session.

I am always a fan of great portrait photography, and lately I have been working on improving my use of controlled lighting to get better photos created “in camera” as people will so often say. I know I have a lot to learn, and I find getting into group situations and seeing what others do is often the best way for me to see ideas I can incorporate into my own practice. Who better to learn from than someone that has been doing such masterful work for so long.

Kenneth just returned from a long trip teaching in Europe; and when I mean just I really mean it. Due to a delayed flight he arrived at the studio direct from the airport 30 minutes before class was to begin. Always the trooper, Kenneth dove right in.

This class was definitely different than my previous session, and I confess to enjoying most the hands on time where we were challenged to light our scene, pose the model, and receive direct critique to improve what we have done. Though we unfortunately had rain throughout the workshop, so we remained indoors instead of mixing in/outdoors experience, we made the most of it. From what I understand about part 3 of the workshop series, there are more models and even more time spent in actual practice, which is what I relish. I have so much to learn, and I’m not afraid to be told what I am doing wrong in order to get better.

Though we spent plenty of time with “big” lights in the studio, which was excellent, I was intrigued by the power of the two LED panels Kenneth is showing us in the first photo above. Daylight balanced – and above to be gelled for color – these surprisingly powerful light sources were easy to coordinate with the main window light.

I thought I’d share a few other images from the day, only a few of many taken during the learning process. Keep in mind I can’t take credit for the lighting or setting, I will take credit for anything wrong! It was a learning process, but with a beautiful model and some great lighting available it was hard not to be happy with the results of what we captured and what was I was able to take away in my head.

More images can be viewed in my gallery from the event. I may add more images later, but my goal really isn’t to process everything from the day for publishing. These images were made for my learning process and I’m happy with what I was able to gain.

Thanks for offering your knowledge Kenneth!

Madison Mecum 1997-2010

Madison Mecum was tragically killed in an auto accident while walking to the school bus on October 7, 2010. Even more unfortunate is this is another tragedy for a family that has been overcome with a series of hard hitting situations in recent years including losing their father to another car accident as well as losing all their insurance settlement to a Ponzi scammer. There are both immediate and long term financial needs. Your help is strongly needed.

See ksl.com, Deseret News and Daily Herald for more information.

The Mecums were neighbors in our previous neighborhood in Orem, and I am truly devastated at their loss. I have helped a group of close family friends create an online “Pledgie” account where you can donate easily online using your Paypal account, credit card or even eCheck. Every donation helps, so please consider visiting the the following link and helping however you can:

http://pledgie.com/campaigns/13712

If you can, please donate, and help spread the word by sharing this information with family, friends and social networks.

I had the wonderful opportunity to be the photographer for Nicole & Brodie’s wedding process, from engagement & bridals to the wedding and reception. I am not a frequent wedding photographer, so I feel like I need to work extra hard to rise to the occasion each time. I feel blessed for being a part of their experience and share in their joy. This post is long overdue, but I thought I’d share a few highlights from the various shoots. I am going to break from my normally concise post format and put quite a few photos on this post. As a result you will need to click through to the post page to see them all.

I hope you enjoy getting a peek into their happiness from these few photos. You can see their full event page with many more photos.

Continue to the full post to see the rest of the photos

A new project has been organized giving Utah Photographers an opportunity to showcase their work at the GAllivan Center on September 10, 2010. Some fine individuals I happen to have the pleasure of knowing are participating on the board which assures me this event is going to be top notch!

From the site:

In conjunction with the Gallivan Center’s Broadway & Opera Under the Stars, we seek photographs to continue the artistic and interpretive theme of the event on a visual level — poetic and visceral photos that make you feel first and think second.

From your submissions we will select 25 photographs and mount a print exhibition in conjunction with the Gallivan Center’s Opera Under the Stars on September 10. This show is coming up quick, so our submission deadline is 11:59pm, Friday, August 20.

The Salt City 50 are promoters of great photography and the creative endeavor. We strive to connect with the best artists, the known and the unknown, and provide a venue where a wide audience can celebrate their work.

See more details at: http://www.saltcity50.com/

A couple of days ago I wanted to create a new profile photo for my Facebook, plus I just purchased a new tripod that I was taking for a spin. The lights were set up in the basement for food photos I have been taking for Heather, so I rearranged things, put up the black muslin and used the wireless trigger to snap off some self-portraits.

I really didn’t give a lot of thought to how I looked in front of the camera, just made sure I was in frame, adjusted some lighting and snapped off some shots.

In the photos I took, I was partial to the the ones looking away from the camera. This feeling of introspection that I think this protrays seems fitting as I have felt a lot like this lately.

In my post yesterday I highlighted a few photos from our company outing where I shot a lot of candids of the day where we all had fun. One of the photos was of my co-worker and his young daughter enjoying the waterfront, as most little kids love to do.

The shot was a candid like the rest, shot with my versatile Sigma 50-500 lens. Because it was so bright, and the limitations of the lens, most of the entire scene was in focus. Unlike a portrait setting, I didn’t think about distracting elements in the background and just dealt with the lighting conditions as best as I could.

They loved the shot, and want to print & frame it, so I decided to play with a little post-processing to see if I could improve the image. I had read and seen examples of people using the Alien Skin Bokeh plugin to blur the background, so I downloaded the trial version to see what I could do with it (versus doing it by hand). After learning the various settings & options I was pretty happy with the results. Adding in a few “content-aware” and patch tool edits to remove distracting elements, the end result is what you see above. I was pretty happy with the results of just a few minutes of edits.

I was happy with how easy the tool was to use. I made a selection of the dad & daughter before entering the plugin, then used the “planar” setting to do a foreground to background blur emulating an 85mm f/2 DOF.

For comparison, here is the original photo again. Quite a difference.

Yesterday we had our annual company party/outing, and this year they decided to do a water fun day on Deer Creek Reservoir (Utah). We had a boat plus 4 wave runners for the afternoon plus all the junk food you could handle plus a great mexican dinner. If it is any measure of how much fun was had, my kids rated this “even better than Lagoon” which since they love Lagoon, that’s saying something.

I’m not sure if everyone necessarily likes me having the camera in hand on days like this, but I think their resigned to the fact that I will It’s always fun for me to try and capture the expressions and fun situations of events like this. Here are a few favorites from the day.

All of these photos were taken with the Sigma 50-500 lens, which was great for reaching out into the activities on the water. My only regret was forgetting my monopod to help hold that beast steady when fully zoomed!

It’s that family portrait time of year! Actually I usually am much busier with family portraits closer to fall, but I have had quite a number of requests much earlier this year. I really enjoy working with families and trying to make portraits they will be happy to display on their walls and treasure for years to come.

This session was the extended family of an old friend that came into town last weekend. He thought last minute of getting in touch with me and seeing if I could do their family photos. I was happy I could juggle my schedule a bit and make it work!

This location is Cedar Hills Heritage Park, Utah, which ended up being a bit busier than I had hoped with kids playing in the river & families lounging about. It was tough to find some angles without people in the background, but we made it work.

As usual, here are just a few from the session I thought I’d share. Hope you enjoy & if you are interested in family portraits in the Utah area, let me know!

Recently I had the opportunity to do conduct a portrait session for the extended family of some friends. They wanted a mountain scene as one of the looks for their group shot, but also welcomed some variety for options and for the sub-families. One of my favorite places locally for this kind of look is American Fork Canyon, specifically the Tibble Fork. Within a few miles you can find a variety of looks, from river to meadow to small lake along with the mountain range.

I always feel a bit more pressure when making portraits for family or friends as I want to do my best to give them the quality they are expecting, and hopefully exceeding those expectations. Here are just a few shots from the session showing this beautiful location and great looking family.