Friday, June 3, 2011

Gadget Envy

Today I had a successful portrait shoot with a friend to test out some new lighting gear that I purchased from the other side of the world. It amazes me that due to e-commerce so much of the world has opened up as easily as the click of a button. The lighting kit that I purchased is possibly the most exciting thing that I've bought since my first digital lens. A professional 6-in-1 flash set, it comes with a softbox, honeycomb grid, conical snoot, barndoor, mini-reflector and a globe diffuser. Available on gadget.brando.com for less than $90. I've been wanting to play with it since I bought it. Today was the perfect day to do that. Pictures will be up soon.

Thursday, June 2, 2011

Mother and Daughter Point Defiance Photo Shoot

Last week I had the wonderful opportunity to photograph a session with a mother and daughter in Point Defiance Park. Working as a family portrait photographer in Tacoma at times yields fun and exciting opportunities like this one. The daughter in this session had recently had her birthday -and believe it or not, within the same week as my little girl's!

The excitement that both mother and daughter brought to the photo shoot was great for me. It allowed me to continue to be creative and utilize all of the fun tools that I bring with me to each shoot. I even got some snaps in with my new Holga lens, plus my complete fav -the Lensbaby Composer. More photos will be on their way soon.

The image I am focusing on tonight has a very simple concept. Mother and daughter, silhouetted while playing under a tree. The photo was quite easy to capture, yet, as always, the more difficult task is to now determine which version of the image I prefer. I enjoy "mixing my own paint," but each shoot is different. I can't rely on the same standard effects each time I crank up the computer to edit my family portrait shoots.
Here it is without any major adjustments. An increase in contrast and vibrance, is all.
Adding some colorization to the shadows, while washing out some highlight detail.
Similar to the first, with a slight hint of extra shadow detail.
Going for a vintage look with the highlights, some shadow detail in the silhouette.
Adding a vignette, along with custom tone colorization to highlights and shadows.

With as much fun as we all had last week, I want to deliver some amazing photos to accompany the fun time we all had shooting a mother and daughter family portrait shoot in Point Defiance park. For now, I'm still in that phase where I'm debating which image adjustment I like best. Comments are appreciated!

Wednesday, June 1, 2011

Nikon DSLR Bluetooth Controller

This is something that I find very exciting! Within digital photography, there are so many ways to explore and exploit what technology allows us to be capable of. The only thing that truly limits us is what we're able to imagine creating. Much like the personal vision for any photographer's work, the ability to execute what you envision is no longer a limitation anymore.

(via Nikon Rumors)