Day 5/365 for my "Life is a "trip"...."
Friday, September 30, 2011
Our happiness....
....because it is not derived from the things that we own and our suffering should not be defined by the things we do not own. Today's post will be short and to the point. A minimalistic approach to life and photography.
click for enlargement
Day 5/365 for my "Life is a "trip"...."
Day 5/365 for my "Life is a "trip"...."
Thursday, September 29, 2011
Gladiators
Today I went and photographed a Community House Middle School football game. My friend Oneill Palmer is the coach and this is his first year coaching football at that school. My other friend Matt Shinall is coaching the defense, it's also his first year in that position. I have taken pictures for this middle school before during their track season but this is the first time I've ever photographed a football game. Pretty exciting, lots of action and lots of opportunity to learn. One thing about me is I rarely say no to a photography job because I use it as a platform for learning. What I do when I photograph the middle schools is I will capture the season and sell cd's or dvd's of the season to the parents.....they LOVE them.
On this image, "Chance" was taking a pitch to the right and made a couple people miss for a few yards. He did have one fumble in the game but his team recovered the ball. The final score was 7-7 and the Cavaliers this season are 0-1-1.
In this image, shot at f/4.5 at 1/600 of a sec, I converted it to black and white using a plug-in from Nik Software. I took it back to Photoshop and worked on some contrast. I didn't need to do much to the image, I just kept it simple. My next step was to crop using the Rule of Thirds, if you arent familiar with this, it is one of the basic principles of good photography. Painters have been using this technique for thousands of years.
Well this is my 4/365 in my project "Life is a "trip"...." I'm still going strong almost a week in.
On this image, "Chance" was taking a pitch to the right and made a couple people miss for a few yards. He did have one fumble in the game but his team recovered the ball. The final score was 7-7 and the Cavaliers this season are 0-1-1.
In this image, shot at f/4.5 at 1/600 of a sec, I converted it to black and white using a plug-in from Nik Software. I took it back to Photoshop and worked on some contrast. I didn't need to do much to the image, I just kept it simple. My next step was to crop using the Rule of Thirds, if you arent familiar with this, it is one of the basic principles of good photography. Painters have been using this technique for thousands of years.
Well this is my 4/365 in my project "Life is a "trip"...." I'm still going strong almost a week in.
Wednesday, September 28, 2011
Happiness is not something ready made. It comes from your own actions.
I love to get out and drive, and drive, and get lost. When I am lost it feels like I am in a new world where everything I see is brand new. I feel like a kid and all of the wonderment of the world is open to exploration. I usually drive alone, and slow, and get lost in my thoughts, and I find it extremely relaxing (I feel sorry for the people driving behind me on those one-lane roads though, I can feel them breathing down my neck.) I have to tell you the truth, sometimes I don't find anything on my drives, or if I do, the light is not right and I will jot it down in my notepad and come back another day. It's not always about the pictures, but more about me being at peace with the world. I get into a zen like state and everything else goes dark.
Today while driving I spotted a body of water and it seemed like a pretty big one. I followed the road and came upon a cove where you could park. It seemed to be a pretty big lake/pond but I never saw a sign for it. There was a sign attached to tree and it said "please pay before you fish," and since I wasn't fishing I figured it was all game and I really wouldn't have known who to pay any way because there were really no houses around. The sun was beginning to dip below the horizon and I set up in a perfect spot as the sun was setting.
Here is the image I had time to work on before my time was up to post my image for the day 3/365. It is an shot composed of 3 exposures (0, +1, and -1.) I merged them together in my HDR Efex pro from Nik Software. I don't usually push it too far in my HDR, it just helps me get all of the tones from the scene. Hope y'all enjoy.
Today while driving I spotted a body of water and it seemed like a pretty big one. I followed the road and came upon a cove where you could park. It seemed to be a pretty big lake/pond but I never saw a sign for it. There was a sign attached to tree and it said "please pay before you fish," and since I wasn't fishing I figured it was all game and I really wouldn't have known who to pay any way because there were really no houses around. The sun was beginning to dip below the horizon and I set up in a perfect spot as the sun was setting.
Here is the image I had time to work on before my time was up to post my image for the day 3/365. It is an shot composed of 3 exposures (0, +1, and -1.) I merged them together in my HDR Efex pro from Nik Software. I don't usually push it too far in my HDR, it just helps me get all of the tones from the scene. Hope y'all enjoy.
Tuesday, September 27, 2011
Back in the day they used to
Today I went to Central Piedmont Community College to meet up with my nephew Brandon Leighton. He is taking some film photography classes right now and needed a subject so I obliged. He was shooting with a Mamiya C330 twin-lens reflex camera. We were just using the artificial light by a window and a white board for some fill light on the darker side of my face.
I haven't developed film since my high school days in '96, so needless to say....it's been a minute. He walked me through the process and I remembered how daunting a task it is. You tend to appreciate your artwork more through this process as it is a labor of love. It is amazing how far technology has come and that film is not used as much these days, it's kind of sad. It's like when I was in high school and they were starting to switch from cassette tapes to cd's. I said "I'm never going to buy a cd," that didn't last very long, you are kind of forced to convert. But as technology changes, the old dies and they are slowly forgotten with fond memories. It is a magical thing watching the photo come to life in the tray. I had shot a roll myself with my dad's old Canon A-1 earlier last week but I messed up and opened the back too early before I rewound the film and all of my pictures were ruined. Lesson learned.
So here is a picture(2/365) for my project "Life is a "trip"...." It's from inside the darkroom with just a little light. I shot it with my Sigma 50mm F1.4 at 1/30 of a second at a very high ISO of 3200. This is taken right from the camera and just converted from RAW to JPG.
Thanks for stopping by and leave a little love or some constructive criticism.
I haven't developed film since my high school days in '96, so needless to say....it's been a minute. He walked me through the process and I remembered how daunting a task it is. You tend to appreciate your artwork more through this process as it is a labor of love. It is amazing how far technology has come and that film is not used as much these days, it's kind of sad. It's like when I was in high school and they were starting to switch from cassette tapes to cd's. I said "I'm never going to buy a cd," that didn't last very long, you are kind of forced to convert. But as technology changes, the old dies and they are slowly forgotten with fond memories. It is a magical thing watching the photo come to life in the tray. I had shot a roll myself with my dad's old Canon A-1 earlier last week but I messed up and opened the back too early before I rewound the film and all of my pictures were ruined. Lesson learned.
So here is a picture(2/365) for my project "Life is a "trip"...." It's from inside the darkroom with just a little light. I shot it with my Sigma 50mm F1.4 at 1/30 of a second at a very high ISO of 3200. This is taken right from the camera and just converted from RAW to JPG.
Thanks for stopping by and leave a little love or some constructive criticism.
Monday, September 26, 2011
And then the rain fell
I hope everyone had a great weekend. I went to DC for a friend's bachelor party and got to see The Leg Warmers perform. They are an 80's cover band, pretty dope, check them out if you are ever out that way. Today starts my "Life is a "trip"...." of posting at least one photo every day for the next year. I'm pretty excited about getting this started and I have wanted to for a long time. I have only been photographing seriously for a little over a year and I am still finding my niche. It is a process and I accept that. Through hard work and dedication I feel that the stars are the limit. "Do what you love, love what you do."
Today I had the chance of shooting a session with Tinesha Matthews and the band Blu Avenue. Tinesha had requested that I find a band so she could "rock out." I had located a place in Concord, NC that I drive by a lot, an old building with some pretty interesting characteristics. It took about 30 min or so to set up all of the equipment: band stuff, lighting stuff and by that time, about 7pm, the clouds started rolling in. I knew the rain would be soon to follow so we got off about 30 shots or so before we had to race and get everything packed up again. Overall it was a lot of fun, minus the mosquitos, and minus the rain. One thing I have learned in my short photography career is to go with the flow. You can't control mother nature and you just have to get what you can out of a situation.
A little about the set up that I used: I used a Canon 5d mkII with a Canon 28-70mm f2.8 L lens attached. My setting on my camera was f9.0 and 1/100 of a second. Attached to my camera and triggering the flashes was Cybersync transmitter and receivers. 1 Alienbees B800 flash unit camera right with an 86" inch umbrella attached on a boom arm. I had that set to a little over 3/4 power because I had so many people to light up. The strobe was powered with my Vagabond Mini Lithium I also had 2 canon 580ex's flashes to the right and left behind the band to give some Rim Light. I would have liked to play with the position of these more but the weather was not permitting it. These both were set at 1/2 power and shot through 46" inch umbrellas. I also used a step ladder on some of the shots to get a higher perspective. Here is the photo that stuck out most to me and this is straight out of the camera, the only thing I did was convert it from RAW to JPG.
So here is my 1st of many photos to come on my "Life is a "trip"...." hope y'all enjoyed. Please leave some comments or questions if you have any.
Today I had the chance of shooting a session with Tinesha Matthews and the band Blu Avenue. Tinesha had requested that I find a band so she could "rock out." I had located a place in Concord, NC that I drive by a lot, an old building with some pretty interesting characteristics. It took about 30 min or so to set up all of the equipment: band stuff, lighting stuff and by that time, about 7pm, the clouds started rolling in. I knew the rain would be soon to follow so we got off about 30 shots or so before we had to race and get everything packed up again. Overall it was a lot of fun, minus the mosquitos, and minus the rain. One thing I have learned in my short photography career is to go with the flow. You can't control mother nature and you just have to get what you can out of a situation.
A little about the set up that I used: I used a Canon 5d mkII with a Canon 28-70mm f2.8 L lens attached. My setting on my camera was f9.0 and 1/100 of a second. Attached to my camera and triggering the flashes was Cybersync transmitter and receivers. 1 Alienbees B800 flash unit camera right with an 86" inch umbrella attached on a boom arm. I had that set to a little over 3/4 power because I had so many people to light up. The strobe was powered with my Vagabond Mini Lithium I also had 2 canon 580ex's flashes to the right and left behind the band to give some Rim Light. I would have liked to play with the position of these more but the weather was not permitting it. These both were set at 1/2 power and shot through 46" inch umbrellas. I also used a step ladder on some of the shots to get a higher perspective. Here is the photo that stuck out most to me and this is straight out of the camera, the only thing I did was convert it from RAW to JPG.
So here is my 1st of many photos to come on my "Life is a "trip"...." hope y'all enjoyed. Please leave some comments or questions if you have any.
Wednesday, September 21, 2011
From this moment on
Hey, my name is Michael Dickerson and this is my blog, BAM! What an intro right? I will be spilling my life onto these pages in the hopes of somehow figuring out something about something. Make any sense(cents)? No? Then we are on the right page. I really have no clue about what I am doing, but I'm just doing it like Nike says. I hope to find my voice on here, and from that, learn a couple things about myself.
My focus will be on my journey in photography. I have been entrenched in learning everything I can about the art and I will aslo share what I have learned to others in the hopes they will share it with someone else, and so on. "Each one, teach one."
I will also be starting my 365 day project where I will post at least one photo from that day. Thank you for your time and I will holler at y'all monday when I get back from my boy Nick's bachelor party in D.C.
My focus will be on my journey in photography. I have been entrenched in learning everything I can about the art and I will aslo share what I have learned to others in the hopes they will share it with someone else, and so on. "Each one, teach one."
I will also be starting my 365 day project where I will post at least one photo from that day. Thank you for your time and I will holler at y'all monday when I get back from my boy Nick's bachelor party in D.C.
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