Black in White

Canon 5D, Canon 24-105 f/4L lens - 1/125 second, f/13, ISO 100

Photowalking Utah - One Year Later

Yesterday marked the one year anniversary of the very first Photowalking Utah event. Six brave souls ventured out on a rainy Saturday night to capture the sights of downtown Salt Lake City.

Roll the clock ahead a year and we have now had over a dozen events and have nearly 300 photographers who have joined the group. It has been a great year and I now count as close friends many of the photogs that I have met through these events.

I anxiously await the future of Photowalking Utah!

Pictured in the image (left to right): Harley Pebley, myself, Diane Pebley, Brian Jones, Ann Torrence and Scott Smith.

On Board I'm the Captain

Canon 5D, Canon 24-105 f/4L lens - 1/200 second, f/5.6, ISO 100

Happy Trails

Canon 5D, Canon 70-200 f/4L lens - 1/1000 second, f/4, ISO 100

Taking a Break

I'm up to my eyebrows in image editing today, so for today's blog post here is another shot from yesterday's Santa shoot.

Canon 5D, Canon 24-105 f/4L lens - 1/125 second, f/4, ISO 100

Santa in the House!

Here's a quick shot from this morning's Santa Claus photo shoot. I know what you're probably thinking, "It's barely October", but now is the best time for some new Christmas images for my stock portfolio.

Canon 5D, Canon 24-105 f/4L lens - 1/125 second, f/4, ISO 100

Private Pilot Photo Shoot

One of my recent stock photo shoots was a Private Pilot series of images shot at a local general aviation airport. I have a friend that is a pilot and he was able to let me shoot in and around the small Cessna he flies.

Before the official shooting began, the pilot and I took a ride around the Salt Lake Valley in the plane. Though the purpose of the flight wasn't to photograph, I did manage to get a few interesting shots that I will probably add to my portfolio. Here's a unique view of Herriman Utah.



The majority of the stock images featured Michelle posing as a pilot, complete with leather jacket and aviator glasses. There are a lot of images of male pilots on iStock, so I thought I'd go with a different angle and present a female pilot.

My good friend Harley came along and shot a few Behind-the-Scenes shots. As you can see in this example I kept the lighting pretty simple, opting to use a single speedlight to enhance the afternoon sunlight.



Why am I holding up one finger? That's a technique I frequently use when photographing to have the model follow my finger with her nose so I can position her face how I want it. It seems to work rather well and is a quick way to help get the shot I want.

All in all, I'm pleased with the images created in this session. Only time will tell to see how well they sell.

Hanging out with Cowboys

Being a stock photographer, I am always on the lookout for new subjects to shoot. Many times, these subjects are right under my nose - or in this case, right down the street.

I spent Saturday afternoon in the little town of Oakley Utah. The purpose of the visit was to photograph a group of cowboys. These particular cowboys all happen to belong to a family that literally lives right down the street from me.



I arranged with the family to do their portrait at their family cabin in Oakley, and then to spend a couple hours doing a cowboy themed stock photo shoot. Without exception, all the the men made great models. They were extremely willing to indulge me in my ideas for the shots. They even forgave the fact that I wore red tennis shoes - which I was told was a bit of a faux pas in cowboy country.



I left with a wide assortment of images on my camera ranging from action shots to portraits. I don't know how the market is for cowboy themed pictures on iStock, but I plan to soon find out.

In Flight

Canon 5D, Canon 24-105 f/4L lens - 1/1000 second, f/6.3, ISO 160

Word Cloud of Yesterday's Keywords

I was playing around on the Wordle.net website last night. If you don't know what Wordle is, it's an online tool that creates word clouds out of text that you provide.

I couldn't think of any riveting text to enter, so I simply pasted in the search terms from my server log that web surfers used to find this blog yesterday. When creating the 'cloud', the size of the words are determined by how many times they are repeated in the supplied text.

Give it a try: www.wordle.net

Published: Ad in Cosmo

I've been hearing about one of my healthcare images showing up in both full and half page ads in national magazines, but I hadn't been able to track it down. That changed this week when Alyssa (a model I frequently work with) got a tip from one of her friends who saw the half page version in the current issue of Cosmopolitan. it was a bit awkward picking up a copy of my local grocer (thank you self checkout!), but here it is.

(Click here to see the original image on iStock)

Christmas in September

As I wrote about earlier this month, when shooting images for stock portfolios it's important to think ahead. With this in mind, I began shooting fresh Christmas images this week.



The first of these sessions happened yesterday with one of my regular models Alyssa in studio. The theme of the shoot was to have Alyssa in front of a Christmas tree with presents. As can be seen from the samples here, she did a great job and I've got some nice images to add to my portfolio on iStock.



The blurred lights and ornaments of the tree combined with a wide aperture made for a nice "Christmas-y" background in the shots. I did have a bit of a challenge locating seasonal wrapping paper this time of year, but I found a great source in a local paper company.

I'm going to finish up most of my new Christmas images with two shoots next week. The final shoot will feature a return of a famous model from last year.

Best Friends

Canon 5D, Canon 70-200 f/4L lens - 1/100 second, f/4, ISO 100

Photowalking Utah Recap: Hangin' with Kenneth Linge

InStudio's Director of Seminars Julie playing the role of model for the group

Saturday's Photowalking Utah event was great. The two-part event started with a behind-the-scenes look at Kenneth Linge's new studio (InStudio) in Orem (Utah).


Kenneth holding a discussion with Photowalking Utah participants in his studio

Kenneth, an international award winning photographer, spent two hours talking to the 50+ attendees about all things photographic. His sense of humor came blazing through as he kept the group laughing the whole time.


Kenneth demonstrating tungsten lighting techniques on the streets (literally) of Provo

After a dinner break (Cafe' Rio....yummmm!), over thirty of the photowalkers reconvened at the Historic Utah County Courthouse for an evening photowalk. With Kenneth in attendance, the "walking" part of the event turned into a lighting workshop on the streets (literally!) of Provo. Kenneth purposely didn't bring a camera but instead brought along reflectors and portable tungsten lights. He graciously worked with the group for over 2 hours showing different lighting techniques.

I count Kenneth as a good friend and am delighted that the photowalkers were able to find out what a great guy he is.


The group of photowalkers during the second portion of the event

One of the things I really like about Photowalking Utah is the willingness of the group to try different types of events. This 'walk was no exception as we didn't do much "walking" but we sure talked a lot about photography.

The next Photowalking Utah event will be on Saturday October 18th. The group will be exploring the halloween decorated streets of Gardner Village in West Jordan Utah. I will announce the details here at LeggNet.com as well as on PhotowalkingUtah.com when they are finalized.

Links:

Flickr photostream of the participants' Photowalking Utah images
David Terry's great recap of this month's event
Kenneth Linge, International Photographer
InStudio - A Photographic Studio by Kenneth Linge
Photowalking Utah

Brotherhood

Canon 5D, Canon 70-200 f/4L lens - 1/100 second, f/4, ISO 100