Riding dirty (if you can do it I can well kinda do too?)

      While I was at Hallmark, one of the guest speakers was Gregor Halenda, who shoots a tone of different things but is really know for his motor cycle work(you should defiantly check out his site, his work is amazing).  Since that day I really wanted to attempt shooting some bikes for my self.  After about a year I had to the chance too shoot an awesome Harley Division Fatboy that came out great.  I was really happy with it but it was a still-life shot, it was very exciting.

  

   

   Then after a about a year I came across a BTS video of a shoot that Gregor Halenda post.  I watched this video and I said to my self "hey I have a C-stand, a ton of sand bags, my friend has a pick up, and another friend with a motorcycle I could shoot, I should try this, see what I come out with".  So I just had to wait for the weather to get nice here in New England.  The video is below.

Scorpion BTS from Gregor Halenda on Vimeo.

    One day we got a warm sunny day and that was my chance.  So I to call up my friend Christian who owns a pickup, Chris to assist, and Edwin who had just bought a sweet Ninja bike.  I guess you could say this shoot and set up was very guerrilla style.  My set up was a White Lighting X1600 mono light, connected to a Vagabond 2 for power, with a 11-inch Long-Throw Silver Reflector, on a C-stand and boom, weighted down by about 12 sand bags (that thing wasn't moving any where),  and I was hanging out the back out of the pick up shooting with a Canon 5d Mark II with the Canon EF 24-105L IS Lens while Chris held my feet so I wouldn't fall out.  Hanging out the back of a truck, holding a camera about a foot off the pavement on a highway, going about 45 miles an hour, is defiantly not the safest way to shoot but well worth it after getting the final images.  Plus what's all the money I'm paying on equipment insurance going if I'm not doing something risky.          

 Image taken by Christian.  Left to right; me, Chris, and Edwin.

Chris & my view as we drove around.

   We shot and drove around for a few hours and ended up with great images, here are a couple the final ones.  Obviously my images aren't as great as Gregor's but they came out great for my first time trying this type off shoot.  I would like to take this time to thank Gregor for all inspiration.   

A wonder of the world in Colombia

     I went to Colombia this past December and I invited Hillary Dubie, a very good photographer friend of mine from Hallmark,  to Colombia to spend a few days with my family.  I was so pumped she had decided to go to Colombia so I could show her all the beauty it had to offer as well as show her that the bad rep Colombia has of being a dangerous country is all a lie.

    My family is from a small town on the outskirts of Colombia's capital, Bogota.  Next to where we're from there's another town Zipaquira and it has one of the wonders of the world, a Cathedral made out of salt.  When I say made of of salt I mean just about everything is made of salt, you can lick; the walls, the floors, the ceilings, the alters, some of the statues, and it will taste like salt.

   The mountains that Zipaquira are located are full of salt so after time the miners there made a chapel that then turned into a church and then into a Cathedral.  The Cathedral you visit now in days is not the original one, the first one started to fall apart so the miners made a second one that is located more then a mile underneath the ground.  These mines are still being worked and pull out tons of salt each day.

     My also family had a few friends from the States that had went to Colombia with us, so this day I was to be the "tour guild" while visiting the Cathedral.  They wanted me to take pictures of them while we were there, I didn't mine and I am a photographer that is my job so that would be fun.  The only thing is they wanted me to be in it.  I'm not a big fan of tourist pictures, stand if front of an object or place and take a picture type thing,  but they instead so I did.  The mines are extramily dark, they are caves after all, so to get a good shot I had to bump my ISO high, shoot wide open, drag the shutter, use a speedlite and on top of it all put the camera on self timer so I could run in and get in the shot.

(I was shooting with a Canon 5D markII and most shots were ISO-1600, f-4, shutter speed 1/40, Canon 580exii speedlite ETTL -3, and camera on a 10 sec timer)

     The image above is us drinking Colombian coffee a mile into the ground.  In the image below we're about half way down the mine and the yellow area you see on the right, that's where we were in the above shot drink coffee.

Workshop with John Ricard HipHop photographer

      In December I was invited by John Ricard, a great hiphop photographer, to a lighting work shop in his studio in Manhattan.  A lot of the information from the work shop I already knew from attend Hallmark and from assisting, but there was a a couple of great tips I learned, as well as getting to use some of John's awesome equipment.

      One of the points that John said that stuck with me was that for what ever portrait you are hired to do your subject wants to look good, that is your job as a photographer is to make that person look their best.  So before trying to make a crazy image, just try to make your subject look their best.  From reading about sport photography they always talk about having a safe shot, that is the shot that is not over the top but you're sure that what you good is good, then you can go and experiment with something more wild.  On all my shoots I have always tried to have a minimum of three set ups but they were just any three, now I have made sure one of the set ups is 100% about making my subject look great above everything else.  

     The second tip that has helped me a ton was when bring in you lights closer to you subject there's less fall of on you back ground. But the subject can't move as much or the f-stop on them will change on them.  This has help me working in my studio that I have set up in my garage, it's a small space and I was having problems with my lights spilling on my background and not getting a pure black.  On the other hand having you lights farther away form you subjects gives your subject more room to move, like for kids or action shots.

     It was also awesome being able to shoot with John's Profoto Magnum Reflector and the PML by White Lighting, I've set these up assisting on shoots but I have never been about to shoot with them.  I really loved the PML and planing on getting one soon.  These are my two favor shots and if you would like to see what John had posted on his blog about the workshop click here.

NYC holidays with my Hallmarkers.

            Back in December I got in contact with two of my photographer friends, Sam Turco and Gray Ricker.  I had graduated with them from Hallmark Instude of Photography and hadn't seen them since the summer, so since it was Christmas and we were in New York City we decided to get together and go check out Rocefeller Center's tree and then take a walk to Times Square.

            When we were at Rockefeller Center I notcie there was a huge crowd of people with camras and decide to go see what was going on, when I got there it was Cam Newtown.  Newtown at the time was starting quarterback for the Auburn Tigers, was nominated for the Heisman Trophy that he went on to win a few days later, and was going to play in BCS National Championship Game.  Friends jokingly have called me paparazzi a lot of times be for, but while trying to get a shot of Newtown it was the frist time I have ever aculy felt kind of like one.

            After all the fun at Rocefeller Center, my friends and I walked to Times Square, took a few pictures, and had dinner.

            While at Times Square an older couple stopped us and ask Sam to take a picture of them.  Funny part is they explain to her how to use the camera and how it works not knowing they were talking to a group of photographers.  That shows you, you never know who your talking to.

Weekend of been reunited with my Hallmarkers

So this weekend that just pasted I went to New Jersey to meet up with my photo school friends from Hallmark Institute of Photography. I haven't seen all of these people in about 3 months and it was a great to have spent a weekend with them.

We stayed at Michael Esposito's house who is a great photographer check out is site http://www.espophoto.com. The house gorgeous and is right on the water with a great view and an awesome breeze.

Just about a block way from the house there is a beautiful lighthouse, that we up to the top in, on Saturday. From the top there was a great view of the beach and the ocean. When at the bottom we started to talk to old lady that was sitting next us and she told us that she was there on a friends weekend out, just like us. She told us that she and her friends have been doing these friend weekends once a month for 50 years now. Knowing that gives us great hope to know that we will be Hallmark friends for a long time.

After the light house we walked on the beach and reconnected and talked about our plans for our future. Even thou we all have different plans and are going to live in different place we plan on still staying in touch with each other. Another reason this weekend was so great is because we was all in a house full of photographers and we all understand why we are so passionate with photos and didn't look at each other strange when some one said "OH look at that light!!!", like back at school.

Over all it was a great weekend in a charming place and with beautiful friends.

About time I get to use my new strobes

Right after graduation from Hallmark Institute of Photography and before going on my backtracking trip I order strobes from Whitelighting but was never able to use them because i had left. Tonight I got the chance to do thing I've been wanting to do; one got to use my new strobes and two shoot a motorcycle. Here is the shot I got, with minor Lightroom adjustments and the shot needs Photoshop clean up....