Holiday Portraits

Well, we have finally made it to the start of Holiday Portraits. We officially start shooting tomorrow (11/12/09). I think we will have a good turn out. We have been handing out flyers all around the community, as well as word of mouth. The set is very colorful, and a little bit different from the traditional red and green Christmas. Our waiting area is set up and ready to go as well. We have paper on the wall where the kids can color on it if they wish. Damian had a great idea about bringing in the fireplace prop and placing the TV in the opening. We also have a Christmas tree in there as well. However, by adding the fireplace prop, it really added that "homey" feel.

Santa Chair Search Continues

I thought I had found a great chair; however, when I spoke with George Mosca, president of Mosca Designs, I was sadly disappointed. The chair is too expensive, but it would have looked great on our Holiday Portraits set. So I won't be taking that whirlwind trip to Raleigh, NC.

Inspiration Needed

As I prepare for one of my next assignments, I am feeling a little low on the "creative juices". Must be because of the rain! I was reading some information about Ansel Adams. He was such an amazing photographer. I was reading some of his quotes and came across this one, "Photography, as a powerful medium of expression and communications, offers an infinite variety of perception, interpretation and execution." I repeated this to myself several times, and I have a more positive attitude about completing the assignment. I found this video of an interview of Ansel, and I hope you enjoy as much as I did.

Update on Santa Chair

Well, keep fingers crossed. I may have found a Santa chair for our Holiday Portraits set. It is available in other colors as well, but I think the green works best. If everything works out, such as the right price, I'll be making a whirlwind trip to Raleigh, NC to pick it up. I found a commercial holiday decorations website that has some really gorgeous stuff. They work on a large scale by decorating for malls. They have mall size Santa sets. They have a large variety, so hopefully everything will work out! I'll keep looking just in case this falls through.

Photojournalism - Fill Light Assignment

Our next assignment for Photojournalism is fill light. I need to improve in this area. I end up over-exposing more images than ones that turn out normal. As I prepare, I was researching on the internet and came up with this demo. I also found this site as well. Hopefully, it will be helpful too.

Holiday Set 95% Finished

We have worked diligently on our Holiday Portraits set, and it has paid off. We are very close to having the set completely finished. We are currently working on getting the lights right. I am still searching for a Santa chair. If you have any ideas or suggestions, please let me know.

I'm Moving...Maybe

Our Multi-media instructor is having the class set up blogs on Wordpress. I have gotten my feet wet, but I have not made a decision as to which blog site I like best. However, for future class assignments, I will be using Wordpress. I will also be blogging on this site as well.

Amazing Article

I've just finished an article about Scott Bourne in the current issue of Professional Photographer. It is titled, "Internet Famous: How Scott Bourne harnessed the power of the World Wide Web." Please take a few minutes and read this article. If nothing else, take a look at his images. They are amazing as well. Also, he will be presenting, "Social Media Will Expand Your Business" at Imaging USA 2010 in Nashville, Tenn. This is definitely someone I want to put on my list to meet as well as see what kind of tips he can drop my way!

Scooter

This was my buddy, Scooter. He was a Miniature Schnauzer weighting about 12 pounds, and he was the best dog I ever had. I had him trained to hand signals. He was a very smart dog. I wish I had taken more pictures of him. He was a wonderful companion. As I was going through our pictures, I realized that I have just a few pictures of him, and none of those do him justice. He had silky hair and not the wiry hair like most Schnauzer's have. He was completely black when he was a puppy and turned to a beautiful silvery gray. I found two sites about pet photography and I wanted to share it with you.
One is by Digital Photography School and the other is Best Friend Photography. Also, there is an article in the September issue of Professional Photographer titled, "Animal Instincts." It is written by three pet photographers, Bev Hollis, Teresa Berg, and Barbara Breitsameter. They have formed Unleashed Workshops for other pet photographers. I wish I had read this information before we had to shoot our pet portraits. Nonetheless, life goes on and we now have another dog, a Chihuahua, but Scooter has a place in my heart that no other dog can fill.

Nikon External Battery Pack

I have the Nikon SB-800 on camera flash, and I have had issues with the recharge time. I was shooting a graduation and unfortunately it wasn't recycling quickly enough. I purchased the Nikon SD-8A external battery pack, and I have not had any problems with the flash recharging time. The following video demonstrates the external battery pack.


I would recommend this to all. I have been very pleased.