Gardon Gnomes – January 11, 2013
My father in law, Tom Messner recently had a birthday. I know that surprises you. He has one every year. Last year his birthday cake was a card table with eucher cards. He likes eucher, he also likes gnomes. What could be better than a couple of dozen Gnome cupcakes? Jaz produced the gnomes in batches. Edible home made fondant was the base for the gnomes and mushrooms. Royal icing was added for the beards, and “spots” on the mushrooms. The gnomes hats were Bugles dipped in red chocolate. These guys seem to be waiting for their turn to get the finishing touches. I saved one of the little guys from getting eaten, and now he’s sitting on my desk at work. To see more of Jaz’s amazing edible creations click HERE! Canon 5D Mark II, EF17-40 L, F8, at 40mm, 1/60 sec, 580EX II bounced off the ceiling.
Neon Green Thing – January 10, 2013
If I remember correctly, this was shot in Billy’s yard, after one of our photography meetings. We used a spray bottle to add water droplets to the cactus flowers, and this bug crawled out of the flower, trying to dry itself. I shot one of my favorite portraits of Billy that day. He had just purchased his 5D Mark II, and was out crawling around in his yard for something to shoot. I’ll post that photo another day. Canon 30D, EF 100mm Macro lens, ISO-100, F2.8, 1/250 sec, 580EX II on camera for fill. I stopped by and saw Billy last night. I had told him about my photo a day blog, but he had not seen the site yet. We spent a couple of minutes glancing at the photographs I’ve posted so far, and talking about things and life in general. It’s always time well spent! I learn tips and techniques about photography, and general life tips as well.
The “assignment” is Yellow! Delanie – January 9, 2013
So the assignment was “Yellow”. Randy came up with a neat shot of the yellow lines in the road, with a “Yield” sign slightly out of focus in the distance. Billy, if I remember correctly came up with a picture of a yellow Corvette. One of my “yellow” images was Delanie at the park on a swing, with me shooting directly into the light, with a 580EX II speed light on camera for fill. The yellow in her dress is enough color to meet the requirement. It was an excuse to go out and shoot something, anything. A good exercise to strengthen composition, and basic camera skills. An excuse to get out of your comfort zone and try something new. We met many times, with many different assignments, and I enjoyed every one of them, and the friendships we developed. You had to show up with an actual “print”, (up to 5) and we would critique each others work. Sometimes we would go out together and shoot after our “meetings” More photographs from this shoot HERE. Canon 30D, EFS 17-85 lens at 17mm, ISO-100, 1/250 sec, and F-11.
Trash the Dress with Melody Weakland – January 8, 2013
This is an image I have used as my business card for the last couple of years. I asked Melody if she wanted to do a “Trash The Dress” session. The long and short answer was YES, but “I don’t want to use my dress”. Melody’s sister was able to provide a solution…… and Melody “borrowed” her sisters dress. This shot was taken July 27, 2008. It reached 113 degrees in Phoenix that day. Melody was wearing shorts and a halter top under the dress, and was able to remove the dress between locations, and shots to try to keep cool. Lots of fluids also helped. My daughter Jazmin, and Melody’s husband Bear helped with off camera lighting, and carrying gear from place, to place. The week before the shoot, I had scouted locations, but this field had not been cut and bailed. Sometimes you only have 1 chance to get the photograph of a lifetime. Shot with the Canon 30D, 17-85 EFS lens at 17mm, ISO-100, 1/125 sec, and F-22 is what allowed me to shoot directly into the sun, and create the “spot light” flare. Off camera strobes 2 each 580EX in light stands and triggered with the Canon ST-2E wireless trigger. If you look at the dress, you can see where the light falls off from the strobes. You can see the rest of the “Love The Dress” images HERE!
Ryan Messner’s 1950 Packard – January 7, 2013
This is my nephew Ryan Messner with his 1950 Packard. We took several shots of the Packard in various locations in downtown Phoenix, ending up on the top of a parking garage at sunset. This was shot March 30, 2009 just before dusk. The building behind Ryan had a lot of contrast with the bricks, and rusting steel grates. The image was processed using HDR (High Dynamic Range) software in Photoshop. The street sign was also changed to “Packard 1950”. A layer mask was used to preserve Ryan. The Packard is an original Arizona car, used as a lead funeral car with only a driver’s seat. The passenger’s seat was removed to make room for flowers. See more of Ryan’s Packard HERE. Canon 30D 17-85EFS lens, F5.6, 17mm, 1/80 sec, ISO-100, using 580EX flash on camera for fill.
Sky Dive Phoenix Tandem Jump – January 6, 2013
***** UPDATE***** Most of the images from the Sky Dive Phoenix shoot have now been uploaded and can be seen HERE!
One of a couple of hundred pictures I was able to capture yesterday out at Sky Dive Phoenix, of the Wounded Warriors sky diving in tandem. The instructor is coming in for a landing, turning, and going right past the moon. This was the first image I came to that really “popped” when I ran them thru Lightroom. I’ll have a gallery on my website within the next couple of days with all of the days pictures. Canon 30D, 100-400 F4 L lens at 100mm, F8, 1/400 sec, ISO-100. I removed a couple of “dust” spots from the sky, and bumped up the contrast and saturation a little. The RAW image was really good. The day started out at 32 degrees, or so, and when I left around 1:30pm, it was 60+ degrees, a very nice day. The guys jump 7 days a week out at Sky Dive Phoenix, and I look forward to shooting out there again soon. I would like to try photographing the sky divers from the jump plane…….. I’m just saying…..
GoDaddy Holiday Party James Johnson – January 5, 2013
I set this post to publish automatically for early this morning. I’m just getting home from shooting the sky divers, to find I set it to publish tomorrow. TEASER – tomorrows picture will feature a sky diver!
James Johnson my friend, and co-worker at GoDaddy.com invited me to go out with him to Sky Dive Phoenix, and take pictures of the tandem jumps with some of the Wounded Warriors today. This is a picture of James from the 2012 GoDaddy.com Holiday Party. I’m looking forward to it. Canon 30D F5, 1/100 sec. ISO-200, with the 580 EX II, camera mounted. James is certified to pack parachutes and has made over 200 jumps. I’m really looking forward to it.
Golden Tree & FedEx Plane – January 4, 2013
I went to visit my good friend Billy on my way home from work yesterday, and I drove past this tree. I’ve driven past this tree probably 100 times in the past year, but this was the first time there was no trucks/people taking advantage of the shade. I’ve wanted to shoot this tree for quite a while now. This was a perfect opportunity. This was shot with the Canon 5D Mark II. This was shot in RAW and is a whopping 34.8 megabyte (MB) file. (After some basic processing in Lightroom, saved to jpeg its 19.1MB). Below I will post a 100% crop to give you an idea of how big this image is. 5616 x 3744. The lens is the Canon 28-135mm and was shot at 38mm, F8, 1/100 sec shutter, ISO-50, hand held. (YES I said ISO-50. The Canon 5D Mark II has an ISO setting “L” that equals 50! I forgot to mention on my Olympus it had an ISO-50 setting as well). I spent 10-15 minutes walking around the tree and pumping station, when I noticed a FedEx plane coming in for a landing at Sky Harbour International Airport, and was fortunate to be able to capture this moment.
This is a 100% crop from above image.
ASU Park Bench – January 3, 2013
This is a picture of a park bench at ASU’s main campus in Tempe Arizona. I set the camera right on the bench, and am very happy with the perspective. This is one of my favorite shots of the day. Specifics: Canon 30D 17-40 L glass @ 17mm f8 1/100 second shutter speed and ISO-100. F8 keeps most of the bench area in focus and “blurs” the background nicely. Minor corrections in Adobe Photoshop.
After work Josiah and I walked around the main campus of ASU to see if we could find anything interesting to shoot. This was one of a series of “after work” shoots. We climbed what felt like 10,000 stairs, to get a different perspective of Tempe Town Lake, walked around the Phoenix Zoo, and scoured several local hotels to find the perfect spot for portraits, and to give us a reason to practice shooting.