Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Visiting the home of Joshuas Tree.....

Last weekend we went camping with our Growth Group out to Joshua Tree National Park. We had a great time visiting Jumbo Rock, sitting around the campfire making smores and hiking around. I had some chances here and there to take some photos, took a bunch of panoramas (i wont post them here because they are huge and want to figure out a way to display them big). On the hike out to skull rock ( wich by the way was a little disappointing) we encountered a rattle snake wich really made my day being able to photograph it. The only thing that i was really bummed about was that i left my extension tube back at the car so i wasnt able to get any closer. Also did some night photos wich was a lot of fun, did a 40 minute exposure that 1st night wich came out pretty good in my opinion. So here are some pictures for you to enjoy, ill post some photos of our group later on or in a later post. Enjoy!






















Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Making the best of crappy weather.....

Last Sunday i had a incredibly fun shoot with Brandon Camillo. You may remember the Camillo name from a couple of years ago since i also shot his sisters senior portraits. Now i know that i had stated before that i would NEVER shoot at the old bonsall bridge ever again, alas on Sunday i had to eat my words. Sunday we had this gross overcast, no detail in the clouds just thick grey. Well this destroyed my plans to shoot around the coast and we didnt want to reschedule.......so in the grayness we shot. Since im not to familiar with the fallbrook area i let teylor and brandon choose a place, they suggested a park near the HS. So off we went!! We started at the park, and while the area itself was pretty..........i just wasnt feeling it at least not in that light. As we progressed i eventually learned that Brandon is really more of an outdoors kind of guy, likes to surf and skateboard AND whats this? you brought a skateboard with you?! 2 of them! FANTASTIC!!! How can we get to use these things? We needed something that provided a good backdrop and zero traffic...........The Old Bonsall Bridge. With little time and the realization that we didnt have time to find a different location, difficult as it was for me i suggested the bridge and there was excitement. As soon as we got there the skateboard came out and it was a different Brandon, i knew that we would have to have him ride it for some of the photos. As soon as we started to work on some photos with him riding around he was excited to work on the pictures and to look at the results, just much more engaged. We also had some fun rigging my camera to the front of his board and figuring out how to make a picture work. I had a blast! Brandon was awesome and once we got the board out was really energetic and i was glad to see he was having fun. Poor Teylor........i volunteered her to be the holder of the flash, she was such a good sport about it. Thanks TEY!! I couldnt have done it without you! As always the challenge is to come away with something unique and that captures who your subject is, especially when you've shot in an area that you've used so much before. I think we achieved that.......ENJOY!