The Lofts

It's been really long time, and I've finally gotten around to adding a new photo.

About two or three weeks ago I did a shoot at the new (not even finished) Treemont Place Loft apartments (http://www.tremontplacelofts.com/) The owner Meryl, who Sarah just happens to know, was nice enough to let us shoot in one of his premiere spaces. It was a 3,000 square foot apartment, two stories with a long staircase, dark wood, really nice.

So, here's one of the photos from the shoot, with wonderful makeup, and location, once again thanks to Sarah...

Photograph Info:
Location: Treemont Place Lofts, Cleveland Ohio
Camera: Canon 5DMII
Lens: 24-70 mm
PostProcess: Portrait Retouch

A New York Wedding

This past weekend was Amanda and JD's wedding extravaganza. A location wedding up around the Finger Lakes in New York. Really quite a beautiful place in the fall, though I imagine it's nice no matter what time of year you are visiting.

So, knowing we'd be in a nice location, and staying in a huge lakehouse with a bunch of other people, I took the camera along for the trip in hopes of getting a few good shots. I did however take the camera along for the actual ceremony which took place in a gorgeous church on the Keuka Lake college campus... who knew. I've never been a big fan of shooting weddings, or interested in doing wedding photography for a ceremony, but I do think I got some decent shots for just mulling about.

Here are a few to take a look through.

The Market

Just a shot from the West Side Market. I was over there this morning for work and took a few photos.

Photograph Info:
Location: West Side Market, Cleveland Ohio
Camera: Canon 5DMII
Lens: 24-70 mm
PostProcess: Curves/Color

Artichoke Diptych

Well, I've had this idea for quite some time... I even scheduled a shoot for it, but because of a cancellation by the make up artist at the time it's just never happened. Since Sarah and I haven't shot together in a while, we decided to shoot something this past weekend, so I figured I'd give this a shot after all.

Sarah did the make up without knowing what my concept was...I just said, I want green and yellow, I'll be back shortly. I went and got equipment and the artichokes as well as some jewelry wire in order to make this neck piece. Between her and I it only took about half an hour to forty five minutes to make. It's basically single leaves wired together and then tiered on a ribbon to tie around the neck.

This really isn't my usual style, but I wanted to give this whole concept a shot. I've considered doing more, with different food types, to make an entire series. I'm just not sure yet, there is quite a bit of work behind this shot and the amount of retouching that goes into it. I've spent about two nights retouching skin and removing imperfections to single leaves of the artichoke...

Thoughts?

Photograph Info:
Location: Cleveland Ohio
Camera: Canon 5DMII
Lens: 24-70 mm
PostProcess: Tons.

Holgaphile

As an update to my most recent post, here are some images from the same shoot shot on my Holga. These are on 400 speed  120 BW film. I've just been toying around with this camera and shooting some film on it with some of my recent photo shoots and kind of like the results.

*Also, as an add on to this post and amendment to the previous post... while the concept and photo is mine, the make up and styling for this shoot was done by Sarah... which pretty much makes it.

 

Photograph Info:
Location: Tremont, Cleveland Ohio
Camera: Holga 120
Lens: Plastic (@ MidDistance Focal Setting)
PostProcess: Curves adjustment

The Bride and The Bike

So I haven't updated in quite some time. There really hasn't been a lot of time recently for random photography and updates, because I've been working quite a bit on shooting with a few different models over the past couple weeks and it's taken up a majority of my time... both in shooting them and the time spent retouching all of the images from the shoots.

This image here is one from my most recent shoot with Monika. She let me know ahead of time that she had a vintage wedding dress that she wanted to shoot in, but other photographers weren't really giving her the image she had in mind. So, I concepted a little bit darker of an image for a wedding dress using an alley by my apartment, and at the last minute decided to throw in my motorcycle as well.

Alas, here's the final image.

Photograph Info:
Location: Tremont, Ohio
Camera: Canon 5DMII
Lens: 24-70mm
PostProcess: Portrait Retouch

Willie Nelson

Saturday night I went to see Willie Nelson, John Cougar and Bob Dylan. I was lucky enough to get a press pass for the show, and take some photos from the pit. Unfortunately, only Willie here was letting us take photos from the pit area. Mellencamp allowed photos from the mix board, which was quite a distance and virtually useless, while Dylan (being prissy) wouldn't let anyone shoot any photos of him at all, from anywhere in the stadium. Really a shame, I would have liked to get a shot of him.

Anyhow, here's the first Willie photo that I finished up.

Photograph Info:
Location: Classic Park, Eastlake Ohio
Camera: Canon 5DMII
Lens: 70-200mm
PostProcess: Curves adjustment;  burn/dodge; saturation adjustment; vignette

An Arbitrary Photo

Sometimes I like an arbitrary, black and white, fine art photo with great dynamic range. This is pretty much that. I was walking around Station Square shooting for a commercial and saw this, so I snapped off a few frames just to see. I liked the shapes and balance of negative space, along with the sharp contrast from bright whites to full blacks.

Really not much else to say about this, it's a pretty pointless photo that I just happened to like.

Photograph Info:
Location: Station Square, Pittsburgh PA
Camera: Canon 5DMII
Lens: 24-70mmIS
PostProcess: Curves adjustment; Levels adjustment; black and white conversion; slight burn/dodge

Portraits of Ashley

As I said before, I've been busy with a lot of things, and part of that has been working on some images from my most recent shoot. This is a set of images I just finished with Ashley. 

One of the things that I've been trying to do recently is shoot more outside of the studio... use locations, use some natural light, change my overall style. This set was done on an overpass in Tremont around 4 in the afternoon. Definitely not the best light to shoot in, but I think it came out rather well.

Oh, and this bad ass outfit was loaned out from a designer who has a small shop in Tremont. If you like it, or even if you don't, you should check out her site or stop by her store sometime (http://www.pinkysdailyplanner.com/) 

More stuff coming soon, I think I'm getting back on track now.

Photograph Info:
Location: Tremont Ohio
Camera: Canon 5DMII
Lens: 24-70mmIS
PostProcess: Portrait Retouch;Color adjustment layers

Pittsburgh Skyline II

Just another view. Sometime around 7 am or so; right after I finished filming sunrise.

Photograph Info:
Location: Pittsburgh PA
Camera: Canon 5DMII
Lens: 24-70mmIS
PostProcess: Stitch; curves adjustment; cooling filter; hue/saturation adjustment

Pittsburgh Skyline

I've been busy. Traveling, packing, shooting, getting ready to move. I've lost track of this blog for a while now, so here's an update.

This is the skyline of Pittsburgh, around midday, as seen from the observation deck at the top of the lifts (click for fullview). Panoramic stitch of four images. Took this during my travels around western and central PA shooting a series of commercials for First National Bank.

More to come soon, I hope.

Photograph Info:
Location: Pittsburgh PA
Camera: Canon 5DMII
Lens: 24-70mmIS
PostProcess: Stitch; curves adjustment; gradient map; hue/saturation adjustment

Portrait of Sarah

So, I haven't posted anything here in almost a month now. The problem with the photoblog is keeping it up to date. I've been busy with a lot of things, like finding a new place to live, and with my spare time I've been editing shots from another shoot with Sarah Walker.

A few weeks ago we did a shoot, had a ton of outfits from multiple vintage shops in Tremont, and a few different locations. Ended up with tons of shots, and with my free time I've been working through getting them all retouched.

This particular photo was shot in Asterisk gallery (http://www.asteriskgallery.com) using clothes from the vintage shop Savant Creative.

Photograph Info:
Location: Asterisk Gallery, Tremont Ohio
Camera: Canon Digital Rebel Xti
Lens: 75-300mm
PostProcess: Super Secret Portrait Retouch Methods

Hemingway

Another from Key West. This is from inside Ernest Hemingway's lofted writing studio.

There was actually a gate at the top of the stairs to stop people from going all the way in, so this was shot with a long lens from quite a distance. Unfortunately, that mixed with low light means this photo has a touch of motion blur.

Photograph Info:
Location: Key West, Florida; Ernest Hemingway House
Camera: Canon Digital Rebel Xti
Lens: 75-300mm
PostProcess: Levels adjustment/burn and dodge/Curves adjustment/sharpen

Under a Bridge

A really old photo of mine. I can't even remember where it was taken exactly. This was with a super zoom point and shoot camera, nothing fancy. Just a snapshot while walking back to my car, but I like it.

Photograph Info:
Location: Unknown
Camera: Panasonic Lumix FZ15
Lens: Point and Shoot zoom
PostProcess: Levels adjustment/burn and dodge

Traveling

One good thing about starting this blog is that I tend to carry a camera a lot more and really look for things to shoot where I normally wouldn't... despite the fact that probably only three or so people actually look at the photos posted here.

For this, I had about two hours of wait time before boarding my flight back to Ohio, and while people watching in the airport is quite entertaining, I saw this scene out the window and really wanted to shoot it. I wasn't really sure what the regulations were on shooting in the airport so I ended up debating for quite a while whether or not to get out my camera. Eventually I just asked one of the police officers standing around if it was alright.

I ended taking this series of photos about two minutes before boarding, when the ground crew had finally cleared out of view. This is once again a panoramic, made from five total images. The full resolution file is actually 10,000 pixels wide, and as a side note, my computer really doesn't like working on a file that large.

Because of the dimensions and the details in burning and dodging, the final image took about 3.5 hours to edit. Maybe one day I'll get it printed large enough to take up an entire wall.

Photograph Info:
Location: PBI Airport, Florida
Camera: Canon Rebel XTI
Lens: 18-55mm
PostProcess: Curves adjustment/burn and dodge/Sharpen/Color Correction/Cloud Composite

Wicker and Wood

If you've never been to Key West, bikes and scooters are pretty much the preferred way to travel for many of the people around town. You end up seeing every kind of bike imaginable... rentals, custom choppers, tandem, etc. This particular bike was shot from the patio of the bar Willie T's late on my second night there. I thought it was an interesting, old bike. It wasn't until I got home and started working on this photo that I realized the entire body of the bike is actually wood with wicker accents.

There's something I really like about this photo. The colors are really nice, much more saturated then most of my photos. I actually shot this with my white balance in the wrong setting and decided not to adjust because I really ended up liking the blue hues in it. I think the reflecting lights in the street and shadowing up top add some nice dimension as well.

Photograph Info:
Location: Key West, Florida
Camera: Canon Rebel XTI
Lens: 18-55mm
PostProcess: Curves adjustment/burn and dodge/Sharpen

The Pier

So I just got back from my week long trip to Florida, and this is my first photo from the trip.

This was taken on my last day at the beach. A panorama of three images on a beach somewhere in the West Palm Beach area.

(Fullview recommended)

Photograph Info:
Location: West Palm Beach, Florida
Camera: Canon Rebel XTI
Lens: 18-55mm
PostProcess: Contrast adjustment/curves adjustment/saturation adjustment/crop/burn and dodge

Arcade Americana

A photo from Geneva-on-the-Lake taken sometime last year. If I remember correctly, it was actually winter, and I wanted to get out of the apartment for a weekend, so I made the long haul up to the edge of Ohio. Besides a few local people eating in the one breakfast cafe that was open, I think I was the only person in the whole town.

Not a great photo, but I like old americana imagery and yesterdays ferris wheel post reminded me of this shot.


Photograph Info:
Location: Geneva-on-the-Lake
Camera: Canon Rebel XTI
Lens: 18-55mm (@ 55mm/F5.6/1/1250s)
PostProcess: Contrast adjustment/curves adjustment/saturation adjustment/crop/burn and dodge/noise

Toy Cameras

This is from the first roll of film out of my Holga. Actually, it's from the only roll of film I've ever gotten developed out of my Holga. For those of you who don't know, a Holga is a small plastic camera with a plastic lens that shoots medium format film. It's most often referred to as a "Toy Camera," for it's simplicity, but it does have a certain cult-like following for the quality of images that it produces. (Questionable, unpredictable focus, vignetting, color shifts, light leakages, etc)

Personally, I really like the kind of images it's capable of shooting. This photo here is from the Strongsville summer fair in '08. Shot on a tripod with a long exposure while the ferris wheel was sitting still. I really should get out and use this camera more to see what happens... particularly some portraits on black and white film...


Photograph Info:
Location: Town Square, Strongsville Ohio
Camera: Holga 120
Lens: Plastic (@ Long Distance Focal Setting/Bulb exposure setting/Guessed extended exposure)
PostProcess: Contrast adjustment/curves adjustment/saturation adjustment

It's not all fun and games

It's not all fun and games. Sometimes, you have to head out to a hospital, re-enact a surgical procedure, dramatically over light and then process the hell out of it. Oh, wait. That is fun.

Actually, this was a shoot for Marymount Hospital here in Cleveland. One of our clients. Starring one of our art directors, John Ferguson, as doctor. I'm sure they won't use quite the dramatic post production on their versions. I like it though.

Photograph Info:
Location: Marymount Hospital, Cleveland Ohio
Camera: Canon Digital Rebel XTI
Lens: 75-300mm (@ 75mm/F4.0/1/100 s)
PostProcess: Quick and Dirty

Night at the Rock Hall

So, I've neglected this for a few days. On the bright side, during my period of neglect I was actually out taking some new photos.

This Thursday we rented an F2.8 Fish eye lens for some work in the office. I figured while we had the lens, I may as well go out and shoot some stuff with it to see what I could get. Besides, I've always wanted to go down and shoot the rock hall, so after living in Cleveland for three years, this was as good an excuse as any.

I actually went down there right after work and shot for about an hour or so, and there's some photos that turned out all right. What I really wanted, though, was to get a good night shot. So, I met up with Jennifer for dinner and then we rolled back down to the waterfront together to get this shot.

You'll probably see a few more of these on here in time. I really like how they turned out.

Photograph Info:
Location: Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Cleveland Ohio
Camera: Canon Digital Rebel XTI
Lens: 15mm Fish Eye (@ 15mm/F2.8/1/5 s)
PostProcess: Lens Correction/Sharpen/Curves Adjustment/Crop

Cafe Obscura

Another image from my walk in Tremont this past Saturday. Despite being sunny, the weather was actually quite chilly. We stopped at the coffee shop Civilization for a cup of coffee and a muffin. While I was sitting there going through some of the photos I had already taken, I looked up and this is what I saw. I liked it, so I grabbed one shot.

It's nothing fantastic in the way of content, but I like the fact that the words are partially obscured, how you can see the shadows of the letters on the wall, the effect the window has in reversing the letters in a reflection, and the way the electrical cords on the left (and corresponding reflections on right) provide leading lines to draw your eye to the images center.

Plus it looks neat. And coffee shops are some of my favorite places.

Photograph Info:
Location: Civilization, Tremont Ohio
Camera: Canon Digital Rebel XTI
Lens: 18-55mm (@ 180mm/F5.6/1/50s)
PostProcess: Burn & Dodge/Curves Adjustment/Saturation Adjustment/Vignette

Portrait of Christine

This is a portrait I did in January 08 with model Christine Law and makeup artist Erin Parsons. This has always been one of my favorites... mainly because it's one of the first portraits I did that I really liked and didn't think looked completely amateurish. Considering this was one of my earliest shoots in the way of working with a model (as opposed to a willing friend, which I'd done for a year or two before) it's probably one of the photos that kept me shooting portraits.

Photograph Info:
Location: Studio, Cleveland Ohio
Camera: Canon Digital Rebel XTI
Lens: 75-300mm (@ 180mm/F5/1/50s)
PostProcess: Burn & Dodge/Color Correction/Standard Skin/Portrait Retouch

A Walk in Tremont

Since this is my first post, and you'll probably see many portraits here, I decided to first post something more scenic. This Saturday I went for a walk in Tremont to take a few photos, and to specifically photograph this church after driving past it so many times. I've always envisioned it in black and white. Hopefully one day I can head back there and do something similar with my Holga to see how it turns out.

Photograph Info:
Location: St. Therdosius Orthodox Cathedral, Starkweather Ave. Tremont Ohio
Camera: Canon Digital Rebel XTI
Lens: 18-55mm (@ 33mm/F4.5/1/1600s)
PostProcess: Burn & Dodge/BW Gradient Mapping/Composite Clouds/Crop