In case y'all don't know him, get to....

Introducing my man Eric Hill, a super stand-up guy.  He is someone who is always willing to give his time and efforts into causes for the greater good of mankind.  While our relationship is still in its infancy, I see big things happening between us, lots of growing and learning.

Here is a shot from our little shoot today.

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Day 49/365

This is about the only thing....

....that gets between my and my baby.

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Day 48/365

Solitude

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"There is more to life than increasing it's speed."  Gandhi

Day 47/465

The battle of the ugly sweaters goes to....

I would like to say that all three of us had a blast doing this, but I would be lying.  They were skeptical at first, asking me too many questions like "Daddy, why I got this ugly sweater on daddy?"  "Daddy, why come I have to sit on this stool?"  I told them to keep their traps shut and just obey my commands. 

Before I started though, as you should with all of your models, I made sure they had enough water in their bowls.  Nothing worse than model with a dry mouth, slobber hanging everywhere, it's just not a good look.  I placed them both on my posing tool and began by giving them some simple instructions.  "Eddie, chin up just a tad,"  "Frank Frank, your back foot is too far back, bring it forward a couple of inches."  They were having nothing to do with it, they were planning their escape from the beginning.  I kept it short and sweet, I popped off about 8 shots and then let them recover from their traumatic experience.  Life is tough when you're a dog.

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Day 46/365

Redefined

You don't have a soul.  You are a soul.  You have a body.

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Day 45/465

ALONE

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ALONE

Last night
How to find my soul a home
Where water is not thirsty
And bread loaf is not stone
I came up with one thing
And I don't believe I'm wrong
That nobody,
But nobody
Can make it out here alone.

Alone, all alone
Nobody, but nobody
Can make it out here alone.

There are some millionaires
With money they can't use
Their wives run round like banshees
Their children sing the blues
They've got expensive doctors
To cure their hearts of stone.
But nobody
No, nobody
Can make it out here alone.

Alone, all alone
Nobody, but nobody
Can make it out here alone.

Now if you listen closely
I'll tell you what I know
Storm clouds are gathering
The wind is gonna blow
The race of man is suffering
And I can hear the moan,
'Cause nobody,
But nobody
Can make it out here alone.

Alone, all alone
Nobody, but nobody
Can make it out here alone.

MAYA ANGELOU

Day 44/365

A little action....

....to end my afternoon of work.  I was pulling off of hwy 49 in Concord onto 601 and was about five minutes from the house.  I was stopped at a light and all of a sudden, two fire trucks came screaming by heading down the ramp back onto 49.  So, being my adventurous self, I took chase.  I could see as I was heading down the highway ramp, about two miles out, thick clouds of black smoke billowing into the sky.  As I pulled up onto the scene a couple of firefighters were already on the scene.  Most of them must have just gotten there because they were still trying to get the hoses connected to a fire hydrant.  The fire was intense, I could feel it all the way across the 4 lanes of road and a median.  The building looked like a mechanic shop, but you really couldn't tell from all of the smoke. 

I don't bring my camera with me too often and today just happened to be one of those days I did.  I wish I had brought my telephoto lens because all I had was my 50mm prime and I was pretty far away.  Better than nothing though.  The fire pretty much ate up the whole left side of the building, there wasn't much the firefighters could do to save it.  It took them about 30 minutes or so to finally get the blaze under control.

Here are some pictures of the event.

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Day 43/365

Can't stop me

I understand that your property is your property, but when it's a vacant cornfield in damn near winter, I say all is game.  I was merely 20ft on this person's field when he was coming home from work and I guess he didn't like it, even though he has about 20 acres of grassland.  He pulled over his truck and asked if I needed any help....not unless you want to hold my other camera for me, or walk around the other side of that hill to see if there is a better perspective of the sun setting.  I mean come on, I'm taking pictures, not shooting animals, or slaughtering cows or out here destroying property, I'm documenting the world for when your kids get older they have something to remember about our country.  Seriously.  So what do I do....grab my telephoto lens and shoot from the road, problem solved.

This shot was taken a little after sunset where there was just a little light left in the sky.  I put the camera on Bulb mode and set my intervalometer to 1min and 15sec.  You can see as the clouds leave their traces in the sky from such a long exposure.

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Day 42/365

They say it's good luck....

....to get pooped on from a bird, well I wonder if I should play the lottery since it happened to me from a flock of geese.  I was taking pictures at this lake that I frequent and all of a sudden, I felt drops which I thought was rain, WRONG.  When I wiped my face, to my surprise, the back of my hand was a greenish brown, YUCK.  I looked up and saw a flock of geese flying by, one looked down at me and flicked me off, NICE. 

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This shot is a 20 sec exposure at f/22 to get maximum depth of field.  Day 41/365

Rich thoughts

It is usually a surprise to discover that most ugliness we see in other people is a direct relflection of our own nature.

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Day 40/365

Seeing the world with a new pair of eyes

My little friend Harrison, who is 2 years old, received some new eyes this week.  You would think that a kid his age would just keep taking off the glasses and throw them around but never once did I see him fiddle with them, only to adjust.  Here is a shot we took today, as I was photographing the Buckner family, of him having some fun in the fall leaves.

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Day 39/365

HDR plus long exposure

I was working on my long exposure at a stream.  I wanted to make sure that I captured all of the tonal range so I bracketed my exposure at 0, -1, and +1.  I then took my exposures into an HDR plug-in for some minor adjustments and then brought it into photoshop for some sharpening and the black and white effect. 

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Day 38/365

Master Your Craft

Whether your passion is painting, poetry, music, modeling, washing clothes, serving people, cleaning toilets, photography....do it to the best of your ability and practice, practice, practice.  Take every chance you get to improve your abilities.  Never take any job for granted.  Become the best "you".  Follow your own path.  Study the "greats".  Study books.  Study people.

I learned something about myself in this picture, shadows do not work well on my nose, they make my nose look a hundred times bigger than it is.  That is something that you have to take into account when you are photographing people.  Not everyone looks good in the same light.

Technical Info:

Lens:  50mm 1.4 set at f/8 for 1/125sec.

Lighting:  Beauty dish overhead, with a silver reflector in front to add just a little bit of fill light.  2 canon flashes, opposite of each other, pointed to the back/side of my face at a 45 degree angle.  You can see where the brighter highlights are on the sides of the face from them.  1 strobe pointed at background to make the spotlight behind my head.

Details:  I wanted this portrait to be a little dramatic with lots of shadows.  I was pretending I was a soul musician as I got into character.

Day 37/365

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Creatadome

Today Ashley and I  received our Creatadome from Moyeh.  If you haven't gotten one of these hand crafted pieces, please head over to her facebook page and inquire about them, they are warm, cozy and one-of-a-kind.  Moye is an inspiration to my art and I look up to her body of work.  Please check out her website http://profileartistmoye.com/ and you will see what I am talking about.

For this shot I used a three light set up.  For the main light I used a really big softbox camera right and the power was set to 1/2 power.  For the hair light, I used a strip box and the power was set to 1/4 power.  This is typical for these type of shots, usually you do a 1:2 ratio on the power between the main light and hair light.  All factors can be changed, this is just a starting point and it really depends how far your light is away from your subject and what-not.  For the spot light behind my head, I used a off camera flash with a grid over it and pointed it at the wall behind me. 

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For this shot of Ashley, we stepped outside and used some sunlight for some beautiful hair light.  I also used a canon 580ex flash on camera to add some fill light to her face.  My settings on camera were f/4.5 at 1/200 and iso 200 and the flash setting were set at 1/16 power set to manual.

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Day 36/365

To the Mountains

I went to the mountains this weekend with my fiance Ashley for our friend Christine's birthday.  The campsite that we stayed at was near Asheville.  There were about 15 other people who came to celebrate and about 7 dogs....AT LEAST.  Once the sun dipped below the mountain top, it got chilly really quick, thank god for adult beverages to keep you warm.  All I have to say is, say NO to Sailor Jerry.

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Sorry I missed saturday's post because I had no internet access up in those hills.  Day 35/365

"Life is pleasant. Death is peaceful. It's the transition that's troublesome."

I found out today an old friend passed away.  I learned from facebook of all things when I was sent an invite to her viewing.  I wish I didn't live so far away so that I could go and pay my respects.  It saddened me to know that she left three children behind, one who was just 6 days old and also a husband.  I still remember her generous smile, the picture is stuck in my head.  We all die, I understand that, but......

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Day 34/365 RIP Kate Jones Belcher

I love the winning, I can take the losing, but most of all I Love to play.

Well the first season is over for my friend, head coach at CHMS, Oneill Palmer.  I'm sure he has walked away with a ton of respect now for what it takes to be a football coach.  I'm sure he has learned a hundred lessons along the way also.

This game was tough to watch, I felt it from the beginning that there was a storm-a-brewin', and I'm not talking about the dark clouds that came rolling through.  The game started off well, with an onside kick recovery and a touchdown to follow, but that was about it for the highlights.  It seemed as though the defense could not stop the run at all, and the other team was just running right over them.  A bunch of mishandled snaps, some dumb penalties, and some costly turnovers cost the Cavaliers the game.  Not to mention the refs didn't help at all, with at least 5 missed penalties, and trouble spotting the ball where there should have been numerous first downs, but that's the way the cookie crumbles.  You lose some, you win some, but live to play another day.
 
Overall it was a good season, plenty to build on for the next one.  This picture is from the only score of the game for the Cavaliers.

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Day 33/365

REVOLT

I went and shot an event tonight for some of my friends Kelley Carboni-Woods, Tinesha Matthews, and Jessica Stanton.  They are owners of a natural hair salon called Revolution EGO.  The event went great, it started off with two different spoken word poets and ended with a hair, and fashion show.  There were two other visual artists there showcasing their work Carlleena Person and Chdwck, both dope ass artists. 

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Day 32/365

Reflection Eternal

I was driving around and saw a river below a bridge that I wanted to take some pictures of.  I was turning around on a private driveway when I noticed that they had a private lake.  Hmmmm.....I didn't see anyone home so I hopped a barbed wire fence and came upon a beautiful, little lake.  The wind was blowing and the trees making a reflection on the water looked so painterly.  This is the shot I came away with. 

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Day 31/365