Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Josh and Michelle...........im a spoiled man!

Seriously!! How is it that i get to work with some of the coolest people on the planet?!?! I love my job, life, and everything that it has to offer. Super tired right now but really stoked, im not gonna write much but last Sunday got to do a shoot with Josh and Michelle..........gorgeous day, awesome couple, balboa park it made for a bitchin afternoon. Full details and more photos to come, ill also post some untouched photos later these have all been played with but i tried not to go too overboard. Enjoy!!













As always opinions and feedback are always welcome.

Saturday, March 27, 2010

Another Beautiful day in SoCal!

i went out yesterday afternoon in search of photos, more specifically panoramas. I have gotten into making panoramic images and doing the best i can to master this technique. It is a lot of fun doing these but can also be incredibly frustrating as youre waiting around for good even light and sometimes for elements within the composition to all come together. One added advantage of doing these is that i have to really scout for a good location to take them from, i also have to give a good amount of forethought to how things will line up and if they will match up once i merge the images together. It is Incredibly time consuming but has gotten me into slowing down and being more methodical with my images, something that i had gotten away from. I set up yesterday and spent about an hour getting setup and seeing if everything would work together, one of the things that i wanted in the image was the coaster train. But 1st i had to make sure that the entire train would fit into one frame or else the blend would not work, i also wanted it to beheading south so i could see the front of the train. Alas i had 2 opportunities, the 1st i screwed up as i had zoomed in to far and the whole train didnt fit into one frame, the second time i got it but it was heading in the wrong direction. So i stuck around to try again, confident that i had worked out the problems i stood there waiting. The sun began to fall and light was fading fast.......still no train. I was to find out shortly that the last train had gone by and i had missed my opportunity, it was beyond disappointing but i live to shoot another day. Frustrated and disappointed i tried to make the most of the remaining light and went out to shoot some more images, nothing to exciting but it was nice to be out again doing what i love to do. Enjoy!

Not willing to let the whole afternoon be a waste i stitched together the one panoramic that i managed to get with the Coaster in it. 10 photos in all, its not great but its a start.











Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Spring!!

It is in full effect in my backyard here at casa Menendez, I like this 1st image but im bummed at the same time as the 2nd bee isnt in focus. When youre shooting macro photos youre working with razor thin depth of field so i eventually forgave myself. Enjoy!





Sunday, March 21, 2010

I love working with fun families....

Had a great afternoon with the Monroes and the Sammons family on Friday! Shot around Carlsbad, ran around trying to get the most out of the afternoon light which always makes for fun and interesting times. Im pretty tired so heres a qucik fun shot for all of you to enjoy. Still continuing my quest to do minimmal processing on my photos, so heres 2 versions of the photo. 1st one has basic color and exposure corrections and the 2nd has a little processing done to it. Enjoy!!





More to come soon!

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

I was in an interpretive mood.......

I was out at the field with Koa again, he loves to go out there to throw the ball around. The light was fading and Koa was running like crazy, i decided to do some surreal motion stuff. So i cranked the ISO to get some nice grain and dragged the shutter.......i LOVE this 1st image! Dont know why but i was really happy with it, feels very painterly to me. I am continuing my efforts to do minimal processing on my images, the first two images have nothing done to them the last one has a slight reddish filter added to it. Overall im pretty happy with them, the next few weekends will be a challenge though. I have a few portrait shoots coming up and its going to be a challenge for me as my portrait work is where i can go a little overboard. Any thoughts or opinions are always welcome. Enjoy!





How can you say no to this face?!

Thursday, March 11, 2010

New Carlsbad Cover

New issue of carlsbad magazine is out, i have the cover shot for this issue. Go pick up a copy, its a good read for all things carlsbad!

For your consideration.....

I present to you 2 different versions of the same photo of my beautiful wife. One has very basic exposure and color corrections and nothing else done to it, the other has more contrast and some toning to it but still does not deviate to far from the original. I like them both but definitely am leaning more towards the natural one. What do you guys think? Any opinions and input are welcome. If you follow the blog you may remember that in my last post i vowed to do a lot less post processing on my images. There actually is a reason for this shift, in seeing the work of many different photographers i began to notice one common thread in all their photos. All of them were using color toning or cross processing effects on their photos, many photographers in their quest to become more artsy have jumped on the band wagon and started using color filters or actions on their photos. Like i said before i am very guilty of this myself and by no means am i saying that i am better or above any one else on this matter. I think that some photographers do it extremely well and have definitely redefined what a photograph can be, for me on the other hand i started to feel like much of my work was just over processed and began to look the same or just downright wacky. I have begun to study the work of the masters again, gone back to the basics to see what makes a photograph great to see why they stand out and what makes me say "that is so cool". Many of the great photographs that i have been going through all have beautiful light and great compositions.........and minimal touch ups. This is my continued goal to bring myself back to basics and reinforce the foundation of my craft, heck i even dug up the old film bodies and loaded a roll in there.............that felt good.



Thursday, March 04, 2010

Koa's pleased to make your acquaintance........

You should shake his hand he would love to meet you :) On another note, i feel that so many images now are getting on the artsy bandwagon and are looking over processed. I am not exactly innocent of this but its starting to feel like a crutch more than a tool. Ive been checking out some photographers who shoot some amazing photos and give their photos very minimal processing but they are still amazing photos. From here on out my goal is to use actions and filters less and less and to focus more on composition and lighting. If you follow the blog feel free to keep me accountable to this.......Wish me luck!