Summertime Wildlife

For this shoot I wanted to get outdoors and see some of this years Deer herd that had been moving around the area. This was a great oppertunity for me to break out the Canon EF 75-300 f/4/5.6 III lens, and play around with the Canon EF85mm f/1.8 USM as well.

I brought fellow Photog Ralph Kuhnley along with me as it's always great to be outdoors with someone to laugh at my cheap humor.

We started off the walk with me loading the 50mm on the Canon XSi body as I wanted to try to get some shots of turtles just under the surface of the water. I had on my handy dandy circular polarizer hoping to cut down some glare on the water, and off we went. I didn't get crap for images, but after walking out on a bridge which went across the lake, I was able to set my body on the rail, and make an attempt at this make shift panorama.


I was done playing, and was ready to go find the Deer! The real reason we came. It was time to see which ones had been eating the good stuff. I slapped the 85mm and went for a walk. It took us about 15 minutes of cutting through various trails before we found them. I walked slowly up on a group of about 8 of them. They busted me, and scattered but this brave little fella wanted to be placed on the cover of a magazine!


I spent well over half an hour playing with shots attempting different focal points and just learning what the 85mm could and couldn't do. I really wanted to get in close, to see if I could get me an eyeball shot with my reflection in the eyeball. The deer were to skiddish, or just plain didn't like how bad I smelled! After I was done playing with the 85mm from a distance, it was time to get the Telephoto Zoom out and let the 75-300 get some work. Now this is a very cheap lens for what it can do. I strongly recommend leaving the AF off on this lens, and working the focus manually!


As I was able to slowly push the deer out of the dense woods, and into a shaded clearing, it gave me a great oppertunity to try some spot metering, and adjust accordingly.


I worked with the deer in the shade a little bit so I could get some shots with them in the green grass with that sun being blocked.


I ended up naming this deer "Coconuts" for obvious reasons.










I don't know why, but I always end up falling into atleast 1 B&W shot per shoot!


After having them in the shade, I began to put on a push as I wanted to get them out in the sun, and pull some of those great Oranges and Browns out of them.




It took me awhile, and some carefull planning, but finally I got the girls to come out and show off.








I had a wonderful time, and came out with a few decent images. Nothing is like being in nature, and surrounded by free roaming animals and being able to capture them in pixels!

My House is on Fire!!

This evening was a heart stopping moment. We came around the dark winding road which leads to our house only to find a huge 3-4 story cloud of smoke in the air illuminated tremendously by bright orange glow. Immediately I felt my heart in my stomach but due to how close it was to the road I knew it wasn't ours. I quickly scanned the area, and I didn't see anyone.

I was puzzled at first, until I seen a guy standing outside watching the fire while on his cell phone. I was puzzled because it was quiet, and no one was outside besides him. I jumped across the ditch in my truck, and drove across the grass immediately to him. I asked him "is anyone inside the house?". His reply was a simple "I don't know". I couldn't believe his response, he has time to sit and watch, while talking on a cell phone, but not go and make sure anyone was in the house. I drove up near the driveway, then got out to run around the front of the house, and start getting the house, and the surrounded houses clear of pets and animals.

Once I cleared the 4 homes around the one w/the garage on fire I came back to find some of the other people had began to gather around the back. There was a vehicle that was parked in the driveway. Luckily the vehicle was a manual transmission, but it was locked. A propane tank was used to bust through the windshield, to gain access to the car. Shifted that bad boy into neutral, and we rolled it back out of the way. From that point we just kept people away until the fire department showed up. Once they showed up I moved my truck back to a much safer distance, as we began to hear ammunition firing off from the garage.

Once the fire department was on seen, it gave me an oppertunity to relax, and begin taking a few photos.







If you look to the far right in the background, you can see what plastic siding on houses do with temperatures this hot. They turn to saran wrap very quickly!








After 20 minutes of blasting the fire with water, it finally begins to smoke on out.

Back to School Outdoor Portraits - Junior

I stepped out to play around with the Canon EF50mm f/1.4 USM. This is a great everday lens that forces a photographer to move themself for composition instead of becoming lazy with the usual standard Zoom Kit lenses. The f/1.4 adds some great Bokeh and I wanted to put it through the ringer. I wanted to shoot it with white backgrounds, contrasting backgrounds, greens, browns, blues, and especially whites. I also wanted to see how it shot for Sepia, B&W, along with keeping colors faithful.

I wanted to shoot this using natural light w/no diffusers, reflectors, or grey cards as well. I placed the white balance on Sunny, dropped the ISO to 100, and ran manual focus to get the detail you see below.
(click on any of these images to see them up close)

























Overall, I'm definately impressed with the lens, however I want to control my DOF more, and shrink that focus zone down a bit. My next time out, I'll be playing with the Canon EF85mm f/1.8 USM.

Labor Day, what to do?

Labor Day weekend....What goes hand in hand with Labor Day Weekend? Well it is a MUST being a Texan, that there is a BBQ that you must be in attendance for. Whether you are in Zimbabwe, Cartagena, or Zurich, you must be in attendance at a BBQ somewhere! Well we aren't anywhere exotic as those places, just here in the rural area of Chesapeake, VA. I got an invite from a fellow Photog to bring my rugrats over, and enjoy some company while getting to try out my new Canon EF 50mm f/1.4 USM. Wait a second....Free food, great people, and unlimited photo ops with kids, kayaking, and laughter? That's a tough decision, so I flipped a two headed coin to aid my decision. Heads we go, tails I process images from a shoot that took place on the previous day. Somehow the two headed coin came up on heads, and off we went!

As soon as we were greeted, and welcomed to the backyard immediately the camera came out. Obviously my son seen something inviting, and he made a dash for it.


After getting him "safetyed' up, he was ready to take to the water.


First off, I'll toss in a few images of the most important people at the BBQ. THE RUGRATS, who else gives us such great photo ops?


This photo leads into our next group of shots...the people behind the scenes. As all great people do, we help educate our youth, and share our passions with them as well to help them grow.


To protect the innocent, I'll just throw up an Alias so you all can see the fellow Photogs that I had the privelage to be around that day.

Don


Tim


Ralph


Lilly


Jenn


Now with the quick introductions out of the way, it's time to get to work! Tim immediately went to town setting up and grabbing some of the Kayaking shots of the rugrats.


I went to work also so here is a few I was able to capture.




Mel was able to provide me the oppertunity to do some practice on shooting silohuette's as her husband was shooting portrait shots of her.


Lots of shots of Kayaking on the water were taken for an Outdoor Portrait session, but as the sun dropped I moved around to grab a few personal shots of my own.




What a close to a great day, now it's time for a shower, and a comfy bed!