Long Exposures: Light Up Frisbee

I’m still working out the kinks in how to get a good long exposure shot while including strobes and various light sources. It feels like I’m learning a new language because there are so many more variables that go into these type of photos. Not to mention trying to focus and compose the shot when it’s completely dark (even when using a flashlight). I want to figure out how to get the photo as light as the photo at the end of this post while still being able to maintain a solid subject matter (person) without them turning all ghosty. I suppose the trick is to not set the strobe off until the end of the photo.

The below photos are from tonight’s outing of throwing around a light up frisbee. I went out with my friends Eric and Sam, founders of the t-shirt company Lonely Dinosaur. They do quite a bit of long exposure photos as well which can be seen on their blog.

Camping: Cape Lookout

I joined my family  for camping on the coast this past week. We went down for the low tide which was supposed to reach   -3.0 (in our area it only got to -2.1). With such a low tide we were able to explore caves that are usually unreachable.

At night I experimented with long exposures and light painting. I’m still learning quite a bit about it so hopefully better photos will be coming soon of my experiments. For a couple of the shots I used my strobe to flash my brother multiple times. After the first flash we realized it is quite painful to have a extremely bright light in your face when your pupils are wide open. I ended up having my brothers face engraved in my vision for about 30 seconds. Quite a strange experience. Needless to say we didn’t do too many of these shots.

Biking to Sauvie Island: strawberry picking

A couple weeks ago a few friends and I rode our bikes out to Sauvie Island (about 15 miles north of Portland). When we got to the island we went strawberry picking. Yummy Oregon strawberries . In all we ended up riding around 40 miles.

viewbook example photographer

I got an email from viewbook today asking if they could use my website as an example on their site. It is pretty awesome to be an example on there next to some pretty amazing photographers. You can view the examples page here: viewbook examples

A screenshot is below as well. My website is in the bottom right corner. If you’re currently looking for a website to display your work you should definitely check out viewbook.

Test shoot: soccer and a handlebar mustache

About a month ago my roommate Mike shaved off his beard and rocked the handlebar mustache for a day. In honor of that we went out last minute and did a test shoot of him in soccer gear.

For the last photo with the ball flying through the air I had a softbox camera right to hit Mike. Then I also had a speedlight set up camera left to fill in the ball as it was out of the hot zone of the softbox.

Senior Portraits 2010: Keiler 2nd shoot

I did a second shoot with Keiler on Memorial day. 

For awhile I’ve been shooting more with lights than with natural light. Now that summer like weather is here I’ve opted more for using natural light. There’s just something about natural light that strobes or speedlights can’t touch (that is when it’s a nice day).

Senior Portraits 2010: Abbie

Here are more photos from my shoot with Abbie (one of my senior portrait reps) a week ago. 

Hiking: Dog Mountain

Today my mom, younger brother and I went hiking up Dog Mountain on the Washington side of the Gorge. The weather was beautiful and the wild flowers were in full bloom.

The below photo was taken of the same tree two winters ago. Quite a stark difference.

Senior Portraits 2010: Abbie {preview}

The weather has been amazing lately so that just means more chances to get out and shoot. This past week I shot the very photogenic Abbie, another one of my 2010 senior portrait reps. Abbie was a natural in front of the camera and a lot of fun to work with. It was only fitting that the weather was perfect for the shoot as well.  Below is a preview of the photos to come. I’m excited to shoot more seniors this coming summer and fall.

family photos: mom and dad

For Mother’s Day and my Dad’s birthday I took photos of my parents in their backyard.