All-in

I couldn't be happier, what a great way to end the year on such a good note.  I had a wonderful photoshooot with Tony Burrus and Tinesha Matthews as my stylist.  Tony has big plans coming up, it's wonderful to meet people with great drive and passion in what they do, it only inspires me more to bring that out in their pictures.  I Look forward to working with this gentleman more.
This is just one of the many great shots that we took, I used my Lensbaby Composer Pro to give this a more artistic look.

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Day 72/365

Food for Thought

My fiance Ashley helped me with some of my photography tonight.  Her job on the set was food stylist.  What an excellent job she did, she's always game for my photography adventures.  I was watching some videos last night about food photography so I decided to try it out with dinner today.  We made chili covered in tater tots and cheese....MIGHTY HEALTHY....sometimes you have to splurge, you are only here for a short while anyway. 
For the set up it was pretty simple, one light source, a soft box umbrella with a canon flash.  I also used two reflectors to add some fill light to the dark shadows of the chili.  It's really intricate work and it's nice to be able to set up how you want the food to look.  I meant to take a picture of my set up but I forgot and didn't remember until I had broken everything down.  I want to add a picture of how I set up my stuff from now on and maybe it will help the six people reading this blog.  I did a horrible job of doing a rendition of the set up in Illustrator but you will get the point.

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  Day 71/365

Up in Smoke

Just trying some different things, I was looking through some content online and came across some smoke pictures and decided to give it a shot.  I used just one flash and a black poster board for the background.  The goal was to have it as dark in the room as possible.  I used two incense sticks for the smoke.  Basically I just set my camera in front of the smoke, a flash to the right of the camera, and a black background.  This is the result, basically you just keep firing until you get a good result. 
I took the image into photoshop and inverted the image, so now the background was white.  I then played with the color and this is the result. 

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Day 70/365

Let's go Diving

I was playing around again with the water in a tank and wanted to use one of my lego pieces.  I dropped this poor guy in the tank at least 40 times.  I set up the focus in the area where the lego man will be dropped but it is still hard to get maximum sharpness. 

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Day 69/365

Inspiration

I get a lot of my inspiration from reading books, watching movies, and paying attention to the world around me.

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Day 68/365

Always an Upside

We all die.  The goal isn't to live forever, it's to create something that will.

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Day 67/365

Vanity

Beauty is but a flower, which wrinkles will devour.

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Day 66/365

Practice, Practice, Practice

Finished up most of my work from these last couple of shoots so I had some time to play around with something I have been wanting to try for awhile now.  For the set-up of this shot I used a strip box with an alienbee strobe above a plastic container that held the water.  I also used two canon flashes, one to the right of the camera and one to the left of the camera with grid spots on each.  I also went to the store and bought some black poster board to use as a background.  I had the strip box above set to 1/2 power and each of the two flashes set to 1/16 power.  My camera settings were f/11(for  overall sharpness) and 1/200(to freeze the action) at ISO 100.  It took me about 50 takes to get this shot, and I'm still not completely satisfied with it.  I dropped everything from marbles to lego men in that water.  I will come with some better images another day, it was fun trying though.

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Day 65/365

Shadows of the Past

Strength and growth come only through continuous effort and struggle.

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Day 64/365

Bath Time

I've been away all weekend for a friend's birthday and then a christmas party.  Great to see old friends and family, I love this time of year. 

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Day 63/365

A Basic Necessity

I was washing my hands and then I started thinking about how thankful I am that I have clean water.  How I have a place to call home.  A telephone to call someone.  A car to get me from place to place.  Food in my refrigerator  Some people have none of these things.  Some people don't know where there next meal is coming from.  Where they are going to lay their head at night.  Where will they wash their hands.  Sometimes we forget about the small things, like water, which are big things for other people who lack it.

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I just had a meeting yesterday with the organizer of Speak Up magazine Matt Shaw, and we are going to collaborate and come out with some work that will definitely make you laugh, cry and hopefully gain a little knowledge about the homeless situation going on here in Charlotte.  You can also check out their website to get more information about them and their cause.  I will let you know next Thursday as the first edition of this piece is going to be ready.

Be Thankful

Day 62/365

Revolt 2: The Unwrapped Edition

Last night I went out and took some photos for the lovely ladies at Revolution EGO They put on an awesome hair show as well as a great fashion show, with great styling by Duppandswat  I also picked up some great artwork from the lovely and always huggable Carlleena Person  You definitely don't want to miss the next Revolt: free food, free entertainment and free to be yourself.  More pics to come shortly, sooner than later, but not too soon, like an in the middle between not right now and later on.

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Day 61/365

Mmmmmm.....cat poop

For the same reason we don't eat cat poop, our dog shouldn't either.  One, it's cat poop.  Two, you will get hives all over your body and even on your butt, which will itch, and in turn, make you drag it on the carpet everywhere.  Three, it will swell up your face and throat and make you look like a turkey.  Four, it's cat poop.

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Day 60/365

The Black Rose

I haven't had much time to do much of anything besides edit photos, so here is something that I shot over the weekend.  There is something about a rose that is on the verge of dying, with it's petals so delicate and withering away, that is so beautiful.  The death of beauty as we know it. 

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Day 59/365

The Mask We Wear

Reveal your true self and only then will your soul start to shine.

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Day 58/365

Carrigan Farms

My fiance, my future mother-in-law and I went to go look at the venue where we will be holding our wedding.  What a beautiful place Carrigan Farms is.  We sat down and chatted with the owner of the place and everything seems to be falling into place quite well.  We got something in store for y'all, just wait.

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Day 57/365

Still life

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One light.  One life.  One dream.  One love.  One heart.  One soul.


Day 56/365

Sleeping with my eye's open

If you can't see the dream in your head, you will never know how to get there.  Dreams are made through hard work and dedication. 

I decided to take a little drive after work and look for some inspiration.  I came across this scene not too far from the house.  It's a combination of three images bracketed at 0, +1 and -1 exposure value and combined into an HDR(high dynamic range) image. I looked up the company Dover's Super Market but I couldn't find anything about them.

Day 55/365

The Hand-Me-Down

This camera was my dads, given to me by my brother for me to use, it is the Canon A-1.  I have only used it on a couple of occasions and one of the times, I messed up and opened the back part up before the film was all the way rewound and it ruined my whole roll.  There are two lenses that I received with the camera, a 75mm-300mm f/3.5-f/5.6 telephoto zoom lens and a 50mm f/1.2.  The 50mm is pretty much what I use with this camera and it is a super fast lens, I'm sure this one cost a pretty penny back in the day.  The Canon A-1 was introduced to the world in 1978, right before I was born.  It was the first camera in history to have an electroinically controlled exposure mode which a lot of traditionalists were mad at because they said that the camera too much "automation" and it ruined the art of photography.  I never got the chance to ask my dad about his camera and what exactly he used it for.  I don't remember any photographs hanging on our walls but I do have a lot of pictures from my childhood but I'm not sure with what camera they were taken with.  I always wonder if I got my love of photography from him, maybe it runs in the family.  Maybe he just bought it because it was the new thing to have (which he was known to do.)  I'd like to think it was because he had the intention to change the world with it, just like me.

For this picture, I used one strobe and one canon flash.  For the main light I used my strobe with a 7" reflector on it with a grid spot, camera left, at about a 45 degree angle pointed down.  The grid spot helps to diffuse and direct the light in a more concentrated area.  I wanted the camera to stand out and make it the focal point by using the two lights.  The second light was a Canon 580ex flash positioned camera right, behind the Canon A-1, with a grid spot on it also.  The only thing I wish I did differently was to add a white reflector to the right of the camera to open up the shadows a little bit. 

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Day 54/365

It's all in the eys

"Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life."

Pablo Picasso

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Day 53/365

On a mission....

to be the best I can be, whatever that is.  The best fiance, son, brother, friend, photographer, artist, blogger, etc.... 

For this picture I used a softbox directly behind me and shot it into the camera, which in turn, made the background completely white.  I then had a strip light in front of me to light the front.  When shooting into light like this you have to be careful and keep your f/stop pretty high, mine was set at f/11, to keep the edges nice and sharp. 

day 52/365

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Hot sauce and fire

Boy I love me some hot sauce, I think it adds flavor to every meal.  I love all kinds of hot sauce, from mild to burn your face off hot sauce.  One christmas my sister and niece got me a bottle of hot sauce and it was called "colon cleanser", I loved it, I used the whole bottle.  My face gets sweaty just thinking about hot sauce, I can feel it getting all warm.  Just thought I'd share that with you, now you know something that you might not have about me.  Anyone else care to share something personal about them....hmmmm?

My nephew came over and we had fun playing with some strobes and flashes.  The shot of me with the hot sauce we used a total of 5 all together.  One main light beauty dish camera right up high and about 45 degrees to the subject.  The second light was a strobe with a grid spot on it to the left of the subject to light up the back of the hat.  Light number three, a flash was used to light up the hot sauce bottle from the back and was located to the back, right of the subject with a grid spot pointed in the direction of the bottle.  Light number four was also a flash which was left, and behind the subject to add a little rim light and to light up more of the hat also with a grid spot.  The fifth light was positioned on the floor pointing up to skim across the background to light it up a little bit.

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For my nephew's shot, we used a three light set up and a silver reflector.  Two lights were on both sides of him about a foot away.  The third light was blasted towards the back of his head for the rim light.  I wanted this shot to play with a little more shadows.  Apparently he likes lighters, he doesn't smoke, but decided he would like to play with them.  That is something about him you might not have known....care to share something personal yet?

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Day 51/365

I'm Baaaaaack!!!!!!

Sorry for the 3 people who keep up with my blog, I've been battling the flu for the last week.  As you can tell from the picture I have been on plenty of meds.  I must say one thing about the medicine, my dreams were very vivid and slightly scary, not sure if it was the Nyquil but I'm thinking it was.  I haven't had the urge to do much of anything photographically, just been working on my website and trying to get that together. 

This photograph right here I used a classic rendition of Rembrandt style lighting.  You can tell because there is a triangle highlight under my right eye which is an example of this specific technique.  One side of the face is lit well from the main light while the other side of the face interacts with the shadows and highlights to create this geometric shape on the face.  I used another light from the back of me to seperate myself from the black background and give a highlight on my right shoulder.  They say this style is good for people with round faces because the shadows add dimension and slims the face, but that's truly subjective.

Day 50/365

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