Sunday, February 27, 2011 at 6:22PM Hey there. I am deciding on what logo to select for my photography business. Here are few options I came up with. The font of the text will change, so don't focus on that too much. The main thing to decide is the logo. Would love to hear your comments or suggestions.
Wednesday, February 23, 2011 at 10:44PM Ok, so you got your first SLR camera. It's an evening, and you feel like taking some photos. You do not have a flash (except for the built in one which is a big no no). What are your options?
How?
Indoors:
Shoot things that do not move, unless you want to capture movement. Forget about shooting children (unless they are sleeping) or animals. If you are at home, set up a mini studio on top of a coffee table or a desk. Pick your favorite toy, or any small item, and arrange it the way you want. (For this shot, I picked my super yellow super happy mini Eames chair.)
Then point the strongest source of light at it, or bring it closer to the strongest lamp in your room. (In the above shot, I used a reading lamp.) Set your ISO to 800 or higher and open up your aperture wide open. If you have a tripod, use it. Otherwise set your shutter release to "continuous", lean against a floor or something sturdy (to stabilize your arms) and shoot over and over and over. Keep the shutter button pressed to get at least 10 photos in a row. Hopefully at least one of them will not be fuzzy. If they are all too fuzzy, increase your ISO even more. Your aperture should be wide open as well.
You can also try taking some long exposure photos indoors, and possibly entering the exposure for few seconds. What I mean is basically you physically entering the scene for few seconds while your shutter is open. Yes! It's very unorthodox and awesome and you will have a lot of fun in the process. You can try changing your position a couple of times during the exposure like in the above photo. Or you can simply stay in one place for the "ghost" effect.
Outdoors:
Tripod is your friend in this case. If you do not have one, find a bench, railing, window sill, anything you can put your camera on to keep it still. Dial your camera to manual (M) and set the aperture to something high (F18 or so) and shutter speed to something very very long (25 seconds or so). Don't forget to keep the ISO small (at 200). You want to get very little light in, but for a long time. To avoid shaking the camera, set it on 10 second self timer and wait 10 + 25 seconds to see the result. I find night photography addictive. Every picture comes out different, cars come and go, people move (leaving dark shadows). The photos of lonely street corner, or a busy downtown intersection result in equally big "wow" effect.
The night photography is a great excuse to take a walk alone or with someone special. You end up discovering different parts of the city you live in. I love taking my camera on tropical vacations, where you can stay out at night without feeling cold. This above shot was taken in Waikiki, Honolulu.
If you live in a cold place, prepare for your night shoot and bring some fingerless gloves, scarf, hat, and extra blanket for sitting. The below shot of the Golden Gate bridge was taken on one of the coldest summer nights ever. You know, the coldest summers are always in San Francisco. But they are totally worth it. :)
Have you ever shot at night without a flash? I'm eager to hear what's your favorite technique.
Tuesday, February 22, 2011 at 11:17PM These are the two best shots from the session with Nick and Grace. I love the perspective. I don't think any more words are necessary.
What emotion do these pictures evoke when you see them? Can you guess how this was shot?
Sunday, February 20, 2011 at 8:48PM Rain stopped and the sky got filled with sun rays. Today was the day I shot Ashi and Becky. They've been together for three years now and they both recently moved from Denver to San Francisco. They love their new home and plan to stay a while. Don't blame em.
Giggly buch:
Ashi was wearing these rad torn up leggings.
Becky got creative herself. She improvised a heart for Ashi.
I really liked hanging out with these gals. In fact, we did some shopping. You know, girls gotta do what girls gotta do. Here we are in Bettie Page store on Haight Street.
Becky has some pretty unique tattoos. These are three cupcakes which she designed together with Ashi.
There are plenty of sidewalks with plenty of foliage to hide behind.
And last, but not least -- one of the best murals in San Francisco. We had quite a lot of challenge in front of this one. We kept thinking and thinking, trying to figure out how to use the giant lips, but none of us had any decent idea. And so we only took this simple shot:
As soon as the sun started setting, all three of us got immediately cold and ready to call it a wrap. And so we did.
I hope you enjoyed the pictures and could feel the happy loving vibe these two girls emit. I'm curious, which photo is your favorite and why?
Tweet, share, love!
Saturday, February 19, 2011 at 10:42PM My calendar was marked. It was 3pm. Grace and Nick were on their way and I had to think fast. The plan was to go to outdoor slides for adults, and shoot them as they slide. Well, it might have been fun to do this in the rain if we were in Costarica. But in the middle of San Francisco winter, at 44 degrees on a Fahrenheit scale, my sanity rejected the idea of water sliding. There are not many things that motivate me to leave house when it's rainy and cold. Getting my camera rained on is yet another fear I had.
Why did we go out then?
Because I don't give up. Because you can always find interesting things to shoot even in the worst weather. But mainly, because I don't have a seamless backdrop at my house. :)
When you shoot outdoors, even the walk to the photoshoot location is a good time to shoot:
We walked through a children's playground and spotted a carousel. The old-school one with horses, donkeys, and camels. We were the only people on the ride and the photos were absolutely fabulous.
Two rides later, little dizzy but happy, we walked out back to the rain and looked for another shelter. This time, it was at a different part of a playground, under a concrete walkway. Nick and Grace were freezing by now, so it was not too difficult to ask them to do something physical to keep the heart pumping. After Nick lifted Grace, Grace reciprocated.
We found yet another shelter. Under a water fountain. It's amazing how many shelters one finds when it rains. You never think of these things on a sunny day.
My subjects posing next to a creepy statue of a man with many hands and legs:
Almost at the end of our photowalk, we saw a lush green patch of bamboo-like plant. Notice the water drops in Grace's hair... and the love in their eyes.
Final thoughts:
Totally worth it. Wet, cold, but fabulous. Though am not a rain person myself, our walk in the rain was worth it and I hope Nick and Grace will have some nice memories. And if their memory fails, they can always fallback to these photos.
How about yourself? Do you like rain?
