Part 2

This is part 2 of a 3 part blog update.

I spent some time walking around Oakland and ended up at Mt Washington in Pittsburgh last Saturday. 

As I said in part one, when it comes to photos, I'm all about people.  Well I wanted to try and avoid taking photos of people.  I

Here's a few more photos from that day

This is a mural in (guess where) Oakland. 

I like the lines and shapes of this.  I enjoy the contrast of colors as well.

I just was walking by and I seen this.  Not really sure what it's all about.

In a shop window there were these absolutely faded beer bottles.  (in part one I spoke about seeing in b/w)  I imagined it as a b/w image, with only the pale blue of the Blue Moon bottle.

This is one of the more strange editions at the car show.  I'm not too sure what it is, but it was neat.

This guy was enjoying an apple, and I snapped a photo.

These women were taking pictures of each other in the grass.  I like taking photos of people taking photos.

This building is massive, but I exaggerated the foreground with my perspective and lens choice.

Just people walking across the street.

Mc FLY

I don't know much about the history of the Burgh, so I don't really have an idea of what I'm looking for in the Burgh skyline.  I'm also shooting it at 2PM...If only I was there for the evening.  The Burgh has such a pretty skyline.

Someone left it there on the bench...

 

 

Part three will have the remainder of the weirdo stuff and also the cars.  Thanks for looking.

Part 1 of 2...maybe 3

Today was an interesting day.  Without getting into the details of the arrangement, I was a back-up photographer for a group today.  Basically it goes like this.  I walk around the town where they have an event.  If their normal person calls in sick/dead/missing or something else awful, they call me to head to the location.  Otherwise, I just walk around.  In a way it's awesome because there's really no pressure...then in a few ways it stinks because of a few things.  First, it's always last minute.  Second, you are loaded up to shoot a wedding and may have loaded up for nothing.  Third, it's never close to home (I do this by choice though) and Fourth, it's the first time you'll meet that client. 

Well today I was in Pittsburgh.  Most of you know that I photograph people.  That's my thing.  People.  I love photographing people in action, or static.  Doesn't matter, just love shooting photographs of people.  When it comes to abstract and street photography...I just don't shoot it.  I look at the scenes and I think "well oh my, that looks great", but then I can't ever get a composition I'm happy with.  When I shoot street or abstract, it's always last minute as well.  Being a PJ at heart in my approach to this things, I don't want to clone out sets of power lines, light poles, cars and bird doody cacca.  I want the scene as it is, but then again, the scene...well it doesn't do anything for me.

That said, I gave myself an "assignment".  I figured that if I'm somewhere else, I should photograph different THINGS and not PEOPLE. 
I spent 7 hours walking around Oakland and ended up in Mt Washington.  I was totally a tourist...a camera around my neck and a starbucks in hand!

I shot some abstract things and some cars (there was a cool car show that seemed sort of hodge podge...there were lambos, porsches and high end bmw's.  Then I seen these guys with their newer camaros and no one was really paying attention to them...I mean, if you have the choice to look at a line of Lambos, or camaros, what are you going to look at?  Aside from running into a moving Lambo with my bike when I was 12 years old, or when I was driving around Dulles Airport (I swear my mid 2000's crv was the crappiest car on that stretch.  It was BMW, Acura, Ferrari, Lambo, but I digress) I had not seen them in person before.  So naturally that's what caught my eye.  I'll post those photos on the next update, but I'll post a goofy one of me in front of them today (totally easy to take a "self photo" with a 16-35 on a full frame camera with an out stretched arm).

Well here they are,

These are some dirty pillars.  The other sides of the building are clean, but these were (to me) more visually interesting.  There's a significant crop to this.  I may post the full one next time. Processing is minimal.  When I shoot B/W I imagine it B/W before I shoot it.  It's not a "oh let's turn this to grayscale to see if it looks good".  I am of the thought you've got to think of it as a B/W FIRST, then convert it.  Just a crop, conversion and a similar action I made up for my fight photos.

I'm just walking around and here's some dumpsters...really nothing more to it than that.  Remember, I gave myself the assignment to NOT photograph people.

How do you not shoot a photo of this?

I know it's a statue but they look like they are having a great time.  Imagine them flesh toned, they would be alive.

For no other reason than the faded and peeling sticker.

Remember when I said about shooting B/W, you have to (at least in my head) figure it out before you shoot it?  When I arrived in town, the sky was gray.  I seen these silver and gray fixtures with the black/dark gray.  Ilike the line leading you into the "OPEN".

It seems that every hydrant is a different color in town.  I swear, I may go back and only shoot a day of them.

As with the above comment.

I typically don't photograph people without them knowing it, unless it's at an event or wedding.  This guy coms out and he just looked like a character.  I only regret that I didn't have a longer lens with me (it was back at my "Operations Point" lol) to get in tighter.  I also would've probably still shot it this way with everything else in the field...just so I could be angry at myself later.  With that said, I wish I would've struck up a conversation with him and seen if he would let me take a few of him.

 

I love Coca-Cola, and that deep black with this mural painted just JUMPS out.

I seen this place and thought...what an ODD dentists office...no windows?  The woman walking in was completely accidental.

 

This is yours truly.  just holding the camera and "guessing" where my face was in relation to the focus point (did pretty good!).  Photo is straight out of camera then hit with a boost in the shadows.

 

Stay tuned for part 2!  Thanks for looking!

 

(meanwhile I'm thinking about how I bring all of my old blog posts to my new website...)

An oddball post

I'm taking care of some paper work and I've got a few photographs that I want to post on the blog.  Don't worry, the new launch of the site isn't far out.  Just getting the final colors/layout under control.  I've also completely blown off writing any words about myself.  I really do need to get around to that part!

So what's going on?  I'm going to post a few photos that were taken today and also at the MMA show in Millersville PA.
In Millersville I was running around with an ultra wide angle zoom on a full frame camera. It exaggerates perspective pretty easily and sometimes it's just what I'm looking for. It gives a distinct and unique perspective.

 Jim wanted Brent to text him the address of the place we were going to eat at, after the fights.  Well Brent didn't want to text it and they fought back and forth for a few minutes over it...finally this was the solution, brent brought it up on his phone and Jim typed it on his...I can't remember off-hand but the address was three digits (I think 109) and Prince...

 This is Bill Bookwalter, and he's been in the cage a few times (inside joke, but seriously he has been).  I have no idea why but I felt it appropriate to take his photo a few times. Also Kevin Killian is on the left of the frame.

 Like I said I have no idea why but I was talking photos of Bill.

Jim spent half of the night typing on his phone.

This photo is funny because I believe the 2 are a couple.  The guy was our waiter/bartender.  He was a nice guy and had the kitchen staff stay to make our food.  The girl she was taking photos of our table like a paparazzi.  Well I caught her.  Had I been about 1 second sooner, I would've captured that on camera.  I don't know why but I think taking a photo of someone taking your photo is neat...only if they don't know that you know.

 

 

So today we decided to go for a walk.  Well Dad can't leave the house without a camera.  Sometimes it's incredibly convenient to capture what I see.  Other times I feel bad that I'm looking through the lens at something rather than looking with my own two eyes.  I think though that having the photos of my son are going to be worth it.  He's not quite 18 months, but it's fantastic looking at how much hes grown from birth to now.  He was a little late to the walking game, but he's loving it so far now.  I fear though that I'll have to worry about the constant bruising from him exploring and learning what he can do and where he can go.

This is him chilling out in his wagon.  The ducks were coming up by and he was smiling, cooing and laughing at them.

Remember what I typed a second ago about him exploring?  He thinks grabbing his wagon wheels when it's moving is cool.  Mommy and Daddy tell him it's an ouchy, but he doesn't care.

Back to lounging

Now he thinks it's a game. 

After awhile he had enough of being pulled around and he wanted to push the wagon.  He became frustrated quickly because the wagon doesn't push well.  Those steer wheels don't work well in reverse.

This is just a photo of the waterfall there.

Same with this one.

 

 

Alright, see you soon! 

 

Warrior Challenge 9-22-12

I was at Millersville University for the most recent installment of Warrior Challenge MMA.  It was a great show, good fights from start to finish.

The full gallery of photographs for sale can be seen on my website at, THIS LINK HERE!

Here are a few photograph highlights from the show,

I shot the show using my usual set up of 2 Canon 1DIV cameras.  However I wanted to test out how well the 5D3 would do with its limited frame rate (6fps) and more limited buffer (partly because of the size of the files, they are monstrous).  The auto focus at times was worse, at times on par and at times better than the 1DIV cameras.  This consequently means that the 1DIV's were at times worse, at times on par and at times better than the 5D3.  The ISO handling of the cameras is similar (the 1DIV is a great high ISO camera) with an advantage towards to the 5D3 at higher ISO.

My verdict as of now is, I wouldn't repalce the 1DIV's with a pair of 5D3's, and I wouldn't replace a pair of 5D3's with a pair of 1DIV's UNLESS the feature set of the other camera was something that you needed more.  What I mean by that is this, the 1D series has spot metering linked to the af point...that's freakin' awesome.  The 1D series has a higher sync speed (1/300 vs 1/200) which is again awesome.  The build on the 1D is better (300,000 shutter rating vs 150,000, better weather resistance et cetera).  The 1D also has the appearance of increased magnification as a result of the 1.3x APS-H sensor vs the full frame 35mm sensor in the 5D3. 

I'm not really interested in doing gear comparisons on a photo blog aimed to show images to prospective, and past clients, along with fans of photography and what I shoot in general.  I do know a few photographers follow this and will find the information helpful.

Thank you for the read.

CDMMA 9-15-12

Hello all.  First I want to touch upon a subject before I post any fight photos and a link to the fight photos as well.

When I shoot a photograph, I own the rights to that photograph.  That means you cannot take, reproduce, edit, change or do anything to that photograph without my permission. 

My to my surprise, I've seen my photographs on news sites, and nutrition sites...photos that weren't bought, and photos I'm given no credit for (even though I took them). 

I am a friendly individual and I do not look for any problems.  I know that some people do not understand the damage they are doing when they do this.  I know that there's other people who simply do not care.  The fact of the matter is simply this.  I am a business.  If I am being stolen from, then means my income decreases.  If my income decreases, I am no longer feeding my business.  If it continues to decrease, I'm no longer feeding myself.

When you look on my site and see a digital download for $4.99 or an 8x10 for $10.99, and you find a way to take which doesn't belong to you,  you have essentially stolen that money from me. 

Okay, enough of the drudgery because I do hate that kind of talk, I just find that I've been taken advantage of quite a bit lately and I'm going to do my best to put a stop to it.  This means if I see that you've used a photograph without permission, you'll be asked for payment and a credit. 

I photographed Complete Devastation MMA at the Clearfield County Fairground on Saturday 9-15-12.  It was a great night of fights.

Here's a few highlights of the evening,

 

The full gallery, with photos for sale is here Fight Photos CDMMA

A few flowers, a lens review and a personal update.

I'm posting a few new stills to both the blog, then they will be processed and for sale shortly on my website.

I don't tend to get asked this very often by clients, but I do get asked by other photographers what system I shoot.  I use Canon cameras, and Canon lenses.  I don't use any third party items.  I recently added a new lens to my line up.  The Canon 24 1.4ii L.  The lens is one impressive looking piece of glass.  It weighs (guessing) as much as my 24-105 (which is less than my 24-70).

I added it because I wanted another low light prime.  Well I bought 2 of them that just couldn't focus to save their life.  When I used them and they hit, the results were magical.  They were simply unobtainable by another lens.  It's the fastest wide angle lens with auto focus Canon makes.  I did some research and it appears that the 24 1.4 that Nikon has it equally a piece of crap to use in the focus department and isn't even as sharp as the Canon version.

What good is sharp when I can't get the stupid thing to focus?  People have suggested sending my cameras in because they could be the problem.  Seriously, what are the chances that I have 3 professional level Canon bodies that work FLAWLESSLY with 8 Canon lenses, zooms/primes, but have a problem that they can't work with another lens?  I actually had someone suggest to me that perhaps the bodies and lenses I have were ALL out of adjustment just enough, but close enough to each other to work.

Seriously?  No, I either got 2 bad 24 1.4ii's (I went through two of them extensively) or the 24 1.4 just sucks.  It was a 1599 after the 200 dollar rebate piece of crap.

I sent it back and I won't be revisiting it anytime soon, that's for sure.

Someone suggested using manual focus, but sorry I didn't buy a lens to use as a manual focus only lens.  I would've bought a Zeiss instead if I wanted over priced manual focus only optics.

Aside from being a professional photographer, I do have a few other interests/hobbies.  I enjoy working out, playing music and studying Judo and JuJitsu.  I received my black belt in Judo this month.  I plan on doing a write up and some photos of that here soon.  I'm excited and looking forward to that write up.

Here's the still's I was talking about before I started the wall of text :)

They will be available for purchase on my website shortly. Thanks for tuning in and stay tuned for the new website launch.

Status update!

The website redesign is going well, so well in fact that I think launch isn't too far out.  Just finalizing details, and *gulp* writing some bio stuff up for you guys to read!  I'll keep you posted.








A friend of mine and I were having a discussion about things in life that are never not worth something.  There's multiple types of watch movements.  Automatic, and quartz.  Basically self winding and battery.  A self winding machine is true to real watch making as you get.

There were other items on the list as I'm sure you can imagine, but it was a good talk.

Pictured is a 90's era Omega seamaster (Think James bond circa 95, only the first three they had were quartz and not automatic) with a faded bezel. 

I'm going to see if my friend wants his collection photographed, because it's always unique trying to get cool concept photos of nice items.  He's definitely got some cool/interesting pieces and like I said, I'm going to try and photograph them.