The 4th at the Cabin

One of my favorite family traditions is to spend the 4th of July at my parents cabin in Wisconsin. It has quickly become a place were a lot of great memories have been made. I had proposed to my wife there six years ago during the 4th and we like to try to go back to visit every year or every other. Boating, tubing, campfires, tents, the whole works comes out while we are there. It has also become a family hub and usually some Aunts, Uncles, cousins, and friends show up for the fun.

This year was no different. Mom cooks tons of food, family decides to show up last minute, and everyone laughs and has a great time (and learns a little bit too much about each other at the campfire.) Normally my wife and I will set up in a tent, but this year we were upgraded to one of the bedrooms due to her being pregnant. Lucky me. :-) We were greeted with amazing weather this year. When we came back two years ago it was 90+ degrees with like 99% humidity. This year it was perfect. We also usually take the pontoon boat out to the middle of our small lake and just hang out all day. This year my Aunt and Uncle brought up their new Wave Runner which let me sharpen my action photography skills. I did however miss the best shot of my dad. As he was pushing the limits of the Wave Runner he cut a sharp turn and almost tipped it and had the best "Oh $#!&" look as he knew everyone was watching. But that is how it goes, you nail some shots and you miss 'em.

Below is a book I made to capture just some of the memories of the weekend. I hope in years to come it continues to be the memory maker that it has been for us for so long.

Baby Parker

I had a the privilege of doing a shoot of my high school friends' newborn baby boy. I was coming back to IL for a little vacation and the timing worked out perfectly! Normally you want to do newborn shoots within 14 days of birth. They day we did his shoot he was 14 days exactly! He was so tiny. This being my first newborn shoot I was a bit nervous going in, but Parker was a trooper and we got some great shoots for Mom and Dad ( and family.) You could tell how much he is loved by his parents.  Below is a slideshow of the photos.

Photography wise, I used window light with a reflector, and a mixture of my 50 1.8, 28-75 2.8 macro lens for closeups, and my new 70-200 2.8 IS. I had a great time and learned a few tricks for in a few short months I will get to be taking photos of my first child. While apart of me is cherishing the nights of full sleep, I am very excited for our new adventure, and lots of photos. :-)

How I Shot It- InMaricopa Newspaper Cover

I've been a bit absent here lately. The last few weeks have been pretty busy! With finishing the school year at my old school, interviewing and getting a new teaching position, helping build the latest magazine of "The Copa" (Post coming soon) and shooting some assignments for a local newspaper, as well as enjoying my summer break, I haven't posted as much as I should have. I just accomplished one of my photography bucket list which was getting a photo on the cover of a newspaper and wanted to share how I went about shooting it.

While working for the newspaper I had a few shoots that day, one being the Mayor. Maricopa has had a bit of a traffic issue with the train for quite a few years, and there has been a big push to build an overpass to the intersection. So the concept of the shot was getting Mayor Price and other people that have been involved in the process in front of the intersection. Of course the only time I can get them there is during horrible 1-3pm sunlight. Game on...

After doing a quick scout of the location I find the best location to set up. I get their early to start doing some simple tests. I knew I needed to blast them with some light in order to offset the nasty midday sun. I put  3 speedlights with some CTO (Color Temperature Orange ) gels on the flash to warm up the light. I put them on each on 1/2 power just to get a decent recycle time.

So next came the toughest part, I knew I wanted to get them in front of the intersection with the train going by. Well option one was to wait till the train comes by, put the Mayor in the spot and take the picture, boom. But there were a few big problems with this. One, and most importantly, was safety. I wasn't about to put the Mayor and his associate in any sort of danger. Second was that I really had no idea when the next train would be. During my tests two trains came within about 20 min of each other, but I couldn't have the Mayor waiting hours in his suit in the hot Arizona sun on a train. So I went with option 3; Photoshop. Once the Mayor and his associate showed up, I told them my concept and how I didn't want them hurt or sweating in suits, I had them pose for the shots and away they went.

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ISO 100, 30mm, f8, 1/20 sec.

With the train I really wanted to take the shot up a few notches. I felt by getting a good blur on the train would add a great effect to it. So threw on my trusty variable ND filter which cuts the light to the camera to slow down the shutter speed but still keep the same exposure. When the next train came by, which was like 45 minutes after the Mayor left, I started shooting, trying different amounts of the ND filter to slow down or speed up the shutter. When keeping it open for 1/2 second or longer the train just all blurred together. I found that around 1/6 was the sweet spot. So I just kept shooting and would find the best shot in post.

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ISO 100, 30mm, f8, 1/6 sec.

One thing to keep in mind. I used a tripod to keep everything the same. Once I found the composition I liked I left everything still until I was completely done with both shots. This would greatly help me later when composting them together. Once I got the shots into lightroom I did my basic edits, then brought them both into Photoshop. Because I had used a tripod It was really easy to mask them into the other photo.

As for editing (besides putting the photos together), I really didn't to much after some general lightroom global adjustments. A little bit of blemish removal and removing the specular highlights (white shiny marks) on them and that was it.

Looking back I always try to critique my work to better myself for next time, I wish I had moved the mayor just a bit to the left so that the sign isn't coming out of his head, it's a little thing but it is something I should have noticed and changed. Oh well, live and learn...

Again I was super psyched to see that my photo made the cover. I started this hobby/journey not too long ago and am grateful of the opportunities that I get to explore my creativity and challenge myself. On to the next adventure/bucket-list assignment!

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Me and my first cover!