Happy Halloween

Sadly enough, I had to work tonight. My little brother Matthew, however, dressed up as a ninja and had a wonderful time. He was also kind enough to share some of his candy with me. Sometimes it's really nice having a little brother. Happy Halloween!

Voting!

I went to the DeKalb County polling place for early voters today- and I voted! While I was waiting, however, I took some photographs of the reflections in the windows. It was very interesting, because at that time of day, from my perspective, the reflections of the trees were even prettier than the trees themselves.

MAC on Campus

Thank You MAC for coming to Gwinnett Tech!

Having fun at MAC on Campus

Every year, a representative from the Mamiya company comes to my school. He came last Wednesday and brought all this awesome equipment, like the Mamiya 645ZD and the Leaf digital backs. He also brought Profoto strobes, Induro carbon tripods, and gadgets like the PocketWizard.
He taught the lower quarter about the equipment and the really great student discounts Mamiya has. Then he set up a backdrop, took out the Profoto strobes, and let us handle and shoot with the Mamiya 645ZD. It was a really unique experience for me, because outside of school, I don't get to handle Mamiya cameras. We had a lot of fun! Thank you MAC!

Car Accident

A Dekalb County officer directs traffic to stop, while the accident's only victim stands in the background surveying the damage.

An officer allows the driver to retrieve a few personal items from his totaled vehicle before it is towed. (The car door is jammed shut.)

A tow truck flips the car right-side-up. Then the driver watches as police search the vehicle for alcohol.

This is the first accident I have ever shot. I was less than a mile from home when I came upon the scene of a car crash. A man had swerved to avoid an animal and had flipped his car over. There were already three police cars on the scene, but no ambulance because the driver was miraculously unharmed. I parked down the street and made my way back on foot. Surprisingly, but also luckily, the police didn't mind me taking photos at all. They allowed me full access and I just shot away. I was definitely surging with adrenaline. I couldn't have asked for a better "first time in the field." My biggest challenge was that I don't have a flash, but as the saying goes: you make it work with the equipment you have. So I set my ISO to 1600, slowed my shutter speed to a 40th of a second, and shot wide open at 4.0. The slow shutter speed resulted in some fuzzy images, but I also got some good images.

P.S. Thank God for seat belts and air bags. Drive safely.

Burt's Pumpkin Farm

I've uploaded a new set to my Flickr account. Click here to check out all the cute photos I took at Burt's Pumpkin Farm on Saturday October 18th.

Buyer Beware!

Lesson of the day: if it seems to good to be true, it most definitely is. We ordered a $200 backdrop for our Holiday Portrait set a couple weeks ago. It arrived the day before yesterday. It was supposed to be a skyline silhouette with the sun setting behind the buildings, but it wasn't at all what was advertised. We've got some very talented artists, so we're going to fix it up real nice, but it was definitely a learning experience. Before you order online, check out the business you're ordering from and see what the return policy is.

Holiday Portraits are Almost Here!

This is our promotional poster for our Holiday Portraits

We are adding the final touches to our Holiday Portrait set. Right now though, our main focus is advertising. We've been visiting all the local businesses and asking them to put up our posters, printing up business cards, and emailing all our friends and family members. Holiday Portraits are in full swing! To visit our Holiday Portraits blog, click here.

Soccer

For my first photojournalism assignment I went out and shot sports. I went to Henderson Park where TYSA (Tucker Youth Soccer Association) has all their games and photographed a group of boys between the ages of 8 and 10 playing soccer. It was a lot of fun. The biggest challenge for me, was getting a good shot with a 105 mm lens. I had to be patient and let them come to me. I also learned to anticipate where the action would be. There was one little boy who had much better ball control, so whenever he got the ball I would run down to the goal and set up the shot before he got there. I have all the photos I shot at the game on my new Flickr account. Click here to see them.

Sunset

Have you ever been driving down a curvy mountain road, when suddenly you come around a corner and the trees open up and there's a gorgeous view? I had the pleasure of coming across such a view this past weekend and I just wanted to share it.

Rain!

It rained the other day. It was cold and dreary. Later in the day though, when it had stopped raining, I went out to take photographs. The leaves are turning here in Ga. They are all beautiful reds, oranges, and yellow-golds. The heavy rain had knocked lots of leaves down, so there were piles of colorful leaves floating down the street. It was pretty.

My Header

This is a detail photograph of the mechanisms inside the door of an abandoned car. I took this photo in Providence Canyon State Park. Before the state bought the land it was a farm. Bad farming practices caused erosion, and eventually formed Providence Canyon. The farmers moved away and left several cars behind. Over the years, the woods have reclaimed the land, and even the cars. It's really neat. I tried to capture that feeling of recovered land by framing my shots with the shadows of nearby plants and trees. If you would like to see some of the other photographs I took of abandoned cars, click here.

This is also the photograph I used for my header. I changed the color, cropped, added text, burned it down and finally rounded off the corners. Now, voila!

Holiday Portraits Update

Never underestimate the aesthetic value of a train beneath the Christmas tree.

Our theme is Holiday Portraits in the Park." Here's the bench where we will photograph the majority of our clients (plenty of room for a large family to gather round).

I couldn't resist including a photo of our poinsettia.

I tell you, working on the set has gotten me in the spirit of Christmas. I've skipped Halloween all together. I'm ready for cinnamon candles, chocolate chip cookies, the smell of pine needles, and the warm fuzzies that come with visiting family. Come visit our Holiday Portraits and you can get into the holiday spirit too. Happy Holidays! (Enjoy your Thanksgiving dinner.)

Child Portrait

Can you say "yum?" I love cupcakes. I really enjoyed this shoot. I used warm colored balloons for my background to contrast with the blue icing. When I lit the background though, I lost a lot of light, so my teacher and I pulled in a second light and it was just gorgeous. Annikin, the little boy in the photograph, was very easy to work with; I handed him a cupcake, sat him down, and we just went at it. The strobe didn't bother him in the least.

My friend and classmate, Mirza, on the other hand, shot a little girl who just insisted on screaming and sobbing. He got her calmed down for a few minutes though and got a really cute shot.

Challenging Portraits

Of all the portraits I've shot, pets have definitely been the most challenging. I decided to shoot my 4 month old cat in the studio. I figured since he loves rolling in the laundry at home, he would roll in the laundry at school too. Boy was I wrong. Being a kitten, Optimus simply wanted to play (a favorite kitten pastime). I still got several cute shots, but I owe a large portion of my success to tuna (which I placed strategically in the set to get my subject in the correct position) and to the support of my fellow classmate, Darren, who acted as my assistant. Thank you Darren!

Burt's Pumkin Farm

I took off work on Saturday and drove into the GA mountains to Burt's Pumpkin Farm. I had a lovely time. There are families everywhere, fun music, huge pumpkins, hay rides, taffy and popcorn and pumpkin pie worth dieing for. I shot a ton of photographs and had a quality afternoon with my family. If you live in the area, I highly recommend going to Burt's to get your pumpkins this Halloween.

Holiday Portraits

This is me working on the Holiday Portrait set.

Here, I'm working on the platform that will support most of our set (and all the heavy stuff).

Every year in November the upper quarter students in the photography program at Gwinnett Technical College do holiday portraits. We invite families to come get their portraits taken in our studio in front of a winter/holiday scene. This year our theme is "portraits in the park." We're building a beautiful set with a park bench and lamp post surrounded by trees with the city skyline off in the distance. It's been a challenge getting donations this year because of the economy, but with a lot of effort and teamwork it is really starting to come together. If you would like to visit our Holiday Portraits blog click here.

Rain Feature

Jeffery walking through the rain to his car parked outside Northlake Mall.

I'm taking photojournalism this quarter at Gwinnett Tech. It was pouring rain on Wednesday, so my photojournalism teacher sent us out to shoot a rain feature. I was soaked and nervous about getting a good shot, but it was also kind of fun.