Macro Photography Experiment!

I have been playing with macro photography recently. This is my first experiment. I used a bellows with a 50mm F1.2 lens. Talk about a shallow depth of field! The makeup was done by my friend Jenny Engard and a really awesome model named Maddie we met recently. I'll be posting more from the shoot with her in a week or two.

Longtime wish

Since I moved to southern california I have wanted to photograph the Blimp Hangers in Tustin. I used to pass them on the freeway and would say one day I'll shoot those! I was lucky enough to have the chance the other night.

They are massive! Here is some info I googled on them: “This field was originally built as a blimp base in 1942 as Santa Ana Naval Air Station. At first 6, then 12 blimps operated out of the station. The large, all-wood hangers were built to house the blimps and at the time of their construction were and still are the world's largest clear span wooden buildings. The hangars are each more than 1,000 feet long & 300 feet wide.”

Beware!

I really enjoyed seeing this sign the other evening. Still going through the photos. I really loved photographing the colors and textures there. I'm planning on posting some more from this mystery location over the next day or two.

June Gloom!

I've been hearing about June Gloom in Southern California for sometime now. Most people seem to speak of it despairingly, however as I realized this week June Gloom makes for some great photography! Here is a preview of what I have been up to the last few days. Can't wait to show you the rest!

TWO YEAR anniversary of my Blog!

Guess what? Two years ago today I started my blog! Might not seem too momentous of an occasion, but I'm dang proud of it. To celebrate I thought I'd do something I rarely do and post the photographs of another artist. Above is a photo of my Dad and below is a photograph that he took years ago that I always loved to look at. He is easily the most talented Artist I know. My parents are and always have been very supportive and encouraging of my siblings and I participating in the arts. Thus in a cheesy, but very sincere fashion, I thank my parents and dedicate this blog post to them! (PS. my Dad doesn't know I am posting his photos... hopefully he doesn't mind!)

Gamble House

Its no huge secret that I am an architecture geek. A little while ago I got to visit the Gamble House in Pasadena - designed by the famous Charles and Henry Greene. I went at night of course to photograph the exterior. Now I have to go back for a tour of the inside during the day. Not only is this beautiful home a part of the American Arts and Crafts movement, but its also the home in a very famous film... can anyone take the time to guess? No cheating! Post your guesses.

Singapore Night - B sides

Got a request to post some night city photography this week. I immediately thought of putting up a few shots I took this past January in Singapore as a few days ago I ran into some good friends I made there who are in LA for internships. More night city stuff to come!

Utah Winter Mountains at Night

Was there any doubt that my second favorite (in the nostalgia sense) place to shoot in Utah is a little snow covered field overlooking the mountains north of Provo. I can't recall ever having explored there during the day. But I have been there countless times at night. Normally by myself, but on occasion with a close friend or two. So many peaceful nights up there. A few years ago my brother bought me a Mountain Hardware down coat. Its bomber to say the least and it has kept me so warm on the often 5 hour long excursions to take photos. So partial thanks for any snow winter images goes to Mr. Mohawk Myke. Thanks for visiting. Check back for tomorrow's post. I promise some awesomeness.

Utah Landscape

I got a request to post a few of my favorite Utah landscapes. There are so many, so today and tomorrow I am posting two sentimental places. While Utah Lake (above) has been described as shallow, massive, and probably full of pollution... it reflects most every beautiful Utah sunset throughout the year. Definitely a favorite place to go at dusk. Check back tomorrow to see the next landscape!

The many looks of Emily.

My good friend Emily is always changing her look. This, as well as her outgoing personality makes her always a great subject. If you look back over my blog I am sure you'll see more of her!

Large format memories and... a CHALLENGE?

I am often reprimanded by close friends and family for having literally tens of thousands of photos that I have never shown anyone - negatives, prints, and digital files... many hard drives full. So I am declaring June to be Blog month. I am going to post 5 days a week, from the wildly random old stuff, to personal favorites or brand spanking new stuff. If you dig my posts, help encourage me with comments and let me know what you'd like to see more of!

The photos above are personal favorites of mine, taken when I was in John Telford's Large Format zone system class. I learned so much in that class (and really all of my photography classes.) The top photo was inside a seemingly ancient wooden train car on the edge of the Salt Flats in Utah. If you look closely in the ground glass, you'll see the image flipped upside down... why you ask? (sorry fellow photo geeks if you already know why) Lenses naturally flip the image, and most non-35mm film cameras don't have what is called a Pentaprism. (a part of the viewfinder that flips the image back the way it should go.) Cue the NBC more you know music.

The bottom photo was taken right before shooting one of the most difficult photos of my life. Why so difficult? Well, you can't tell in this photo that the stairs where I eventually set up the camera on, are very steep and narrow. In addition, they had piles of dirt pressed up against them and well... layers of excrement from either rodents or birds. This made this steps disgusting to walk on, and very slippery. The tripod I was using at the time was broken so that it would almost imperceptibly tilt far enough right to ruin the photo every 60 seconds or so. Also there were some crazy huge swing/tilt action on the film planes with a gnarly bellows extension if you know what I mean by that. Hope to see you back here often throughout june!

Peru Landscape

As promised, I am going through the rest of the Peru Photos, Still have some rolls of film to develop as well!

Peru

I recently got to do some photography in Peru. We hiked the Salkantay Pass 4 days till Matchu Pitchu. I fell in love with the light in the Andies. The clouds continually rolled through and the light bounced all over the mountains giving me the problem of having too much good light! I don't know if I have ever taken so many landscape shots during daylight hours! This is our Peruvian guide Joel at the top of the Salkantay pass. The mountain behind him had just erupted with several avalanches and made for a spectacular backdrop. I used my 580EXII and diffuser as a fill flash on him. Many more posts from Peru Photography coming soon!

a few more from Singapore

Some more random night shots... the first is a slightly abstract one of the water in the harbor, the second a backstreet in Chinatown and the last was near the business district.

Singapore Portrait

While shooting around the harbor one night I had the opportunity to take a picture of my friend Alvin. He is a producing student at the Chapman campus in Singapore. He was one of the many gracious hosts who showed us around and helped on the documentaries we shot.

Formalism in Singapore

I thoroughly enjoyed Singapore from an architectural standpoint. I found leading lines and geometric patterns everywhere. This is proof that I still take pictures during the day! 

Vertical is the new horizontal

I suspect that what few people we did run into during our night photography adventures in Singapore already thought we were crazy before I started taking pictures of the underside of a freeway. Sacrifice sanity for art is my motto! I always find it very fascinating that every location I shoot begs to either be almost completely composed horizontally or vertically. I have wondered if it depends on my mood that day or the subject matter. Singapore however is without a doubt, a vertical city. The looming architecture, beautiful trees and always changing sky make vertical shooting seem almost mandatory in every set up. See what I mean!?

Singapore Chinatown at Night

During the last night in Singapore my friend Chris and I explored the back streets of Chinatown. It was interesting to see the side of the city that so few tourists see, yet walk by every day. We expected to find it completely deserted. The more we wandered we realized there were actually tons of things going on. Restaurants open all night, people stumbling to or from a bar, and workers restocking hundreds of shops. We stayed out shooting till 5am. The best way to discover a city is by seeing it at night! I will be posting lots more all month from the trip!

Meteor Shower in the Fog

Hit up Laguna (top of the world) for this view. Its quite difficult trying to nail the right moment to capture a shooting star. Lots of luck. This would be one of my favorites from the night. The fog was rolling in and we saw quite the etherial show.

Long Beach - Los Alamitos Night Photography

The night started off with a random drive, not quite sure where we were headed. We found ourselves at the docks in Long Beach. Peaceful and calm... except for feeling paranoid of having the tripod fall into the water off the narrow dock... or my backpack smelling like barnacles... It was a unique challenge trying to avoid rocking the dock and making waves.