Can you ever really be sure when something miraculous is gonna happen?
I mean, a plate of soft, fresh, glazed doughnuts could show up while you were sitting in the park, minding your own business. Couldn’t it?
As long as the confection-fairy is around, you’ll never know.
I was working with Joe last week on some concepts for headshots for a local branding company. One of the ones we played with was how to make a receptionist’s image more interesting than the standard boring company headshot.
This was one of the ideas.
We’re still waiting to hear back from the client if our concepts worked, but the idea of blowing the dust off old standbys is appealing.
After he fixed my bike, my friend Cary showed me around his house.
Y’see, when he’s not out riding bikes with the cool bike-race set, he’s a contractor. He builds things in people’s houses to make the houses pretty and raise their property values.
And he’s good at it.
Heck, the space he nonchalantly refers to as “The Bike Shed” is really a man-cave of the highest caliber.
Anyway, he asked me if I’d be interested in shooting some of his projects from time to time. I was all for it so when he suggested I start with some shots of the killer living room he’d put into his house, I was thrilled.
This is one of the ones from a hurried 1 hour session earlier this week.
I’m looking forward to working with him on more projects as the opportunities arise.
My son was christened this past weekend and my wife hired some local caterers to do the food. The setup was so pretty that I had to shoot a few images.
This was not the first time I’d shot images of food. A notable other time was here. I find its harder to shoot do without natural light, but it’s still an interesting challenge.
One of my favorite photographers had this to say about shooting food. And I think she’s right. And besides that, “pie-ness” is a killer word. (grin)
When I left Pentax to come to Canon’s range of DSLRs, I was actually coming back. The first autofocus camera I’d bought years ago was a refurbished Canon Rebel X from eBay.
After having shot a Minolta SR-T 201 beforehand, it was a revolutionary step. It was like trading in an old Volkswagen Beetle with holes in the floorboards and getting a Lotus Turbo Esprit . I loved it.
I think I still have that body somewhere, but I managed to dig up an old Elan II body that I’d used and threw some of the new lenses I have on it during a recent trip to the playground.
I was goofing off, as photographs of my daughter often tend to be, but due to the lateness of the day, I managed a couple of interesting images.
I didn’t bother to clean the dust out of this ’cause I think it lends it a little more honesty. I’d forgotten how easy it was to love 35mm film. I think I’ll be taking the film camera out more often.
I carry a camera of one type or another with me all the time. Occasionally, it’s a film camera. There’s a romanticism to film that I like. Sometimes it’s a digital camera, a small point-and-shoot or a somewhat bulkier DSLR. I always have my phone with me, and you’ll have to remind me to show you some of the stuff I’ve seen with it sometime. Today, it was the DSLR.
I was meeting an old friend, the one who blogs. I’d cancelled on her earlier this week and, after giving me no end of e-shame (to include a blog post about standing her up, after which she went on a proper date, thankyouverymuch), we conspired to meet at what I’d almost blithely described as “the French place in Carytown,” Can-Can.
Though it’s been a bit drizzly here in Richmond lately, the light’s been beautiful. There’s so much to see, when you know what to look for. I figured that the light would be nice near the front of the restaurant to snap a few images for fun. In fact, every time I pass that place I marvel to myself how wonderful it would be to shoot a real portrait there, and then I never do. And I didn’t today.
What I did shoot however, were some images of the space, which always makes me wish my wife and I had more time to just lay about and spend money without a care in the world. Sadly, we have to work. But in addition to having beautiful light and being a fun place hang out and have a lazy Paulaner, Can-Can has great food.
We noshed and talked about old times and old acquaintances and did a fair amount of people watching, after which we parted ways. The general manager knows both of us from restaurant circles and bade us a nice evening as we left.
As I come to the end of this post, it occurs to me that there may even be a “she said” version of these events, and so there is. Check it out and have a good weekend.
I should say that I don’t often shoot weddings.
Honestly, I’m as nervous as the brides and grooms are up to the day the event happens and I’m always afraid I’ll start watching the ceremony instead of documenting it. I never do, but it’s one of the things I worry about.
I put that fear aside a little while ago and shot a wedding with Joe’s help. We got some AMAZING results. Since it was a Brainchild Collective project, Joe’s doing post on the images, but this one is surely one of the best.
I’ll pop a few more up when I get them.
For what it’s worth, the ceremony was here, and this was the post about their engagement pictures.
I’m working on some new stuff that’s got atmosphere. Like this.
Thanks a lot to Jennifer who was all about having her picture made.
I got some help from Nia, who works just as well on both sides of the camera, evinced here and here. We set up the lights for this and had Jennifer stand in the cool rain for about 25 minutes before we wrapped.
This image is new and different for me ’cause the retouching will be done by my twitter bud, Tanya Nichols. She was interested in honing her skills and asked me if I had any images I could let her work on. I told her I’d have new images from time to time and that she was welcome to help out with them when they came up.
I’ll post an update when she sends me something back.
There’s an old Richmond Public School near my house that the city decided to close a couple of years back. It’s a beautiful old building and I’ve used it as a backdrop for shoots before, like this one and this one. So when the people who are spearheading the effort to make the charter school a reality called and asked if I had time to help, I was happy to oblige.
They had a cleanup day a couple of weeks ago and invited me to come. I didn’t have to dig anything up or move any dirt. My job was just to photograph stuff so that they had images for their newsletters and website.
They had a set timeframe and ended up with a whole passel of volunteers to help brush the dust off a facility that the city doesn’t use anymore. I’m really excited to see how their curriculum shapes up and thrilled to see new life in the building.
You know how in your circle of friends, there’s always one guy who rides bikes? A lot?
Yeah, well that’s not me. In my circle, it’s this guy.
And it’s through that guy that I met this guy, who lovingly and kindly tuned my old, beat up Gary Fisher Big Sur from like 1996 (that’s not my bike, but it looks a lot like mine (minus all those reflectors and the fender) and made it rideable again.
It’s an entertaining thing to watch a man tune a bike. There’s a sort of quiet that happens as he turns the crank around and listens to the gears click-clacking along. He turns his head just a bit as he fiddles with this set-screw or that and adjusts the tension that will keep the brakes on the bike from failing. There’s a knowing smile when he’s gotten all of the parts to work in unison. It’s a lot like poetry.
Thanks a zillion, Cary. I got the front tire changed (although it took a lot longer than I’d thought or hoped it would) and I’m in the process of getting the kid seat — purchased here, bike people — on the back.
And as an aside, if you’re interested in seeing what Cary does in his real life, check this out.
