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