New Website!!!

I have been working on a new website.  It is through a company called Showit which offers adobe flash based websites which are much easier to build than standard html sites.  I will eventually have it linked to my regular domain, but for now you can find it here.

http://thompsonphotography.showitsite.com/

Please take a look at the new site and let me know what you think.

New Cards

I have just finished a new 3.5" X 5" card to pass along to petential clients.  I like this size card because it gives a lot more room to show some of your work, and it dosn't get lost as quickly as a business card.  It is not as informative as a brochure, but much cheaper to print and gets clients to your website. I just have them printed at the local lab as a 3.5 X 5 glossy print, and on tuesdays and wednesdays, they are only 6 cents a print.  Not bad.  Let me know what you think of it.

Pamela and Vans Wedding at the Wayfarer Chapel

This weekend I was able to check a big feat off of my to do list.  I was able to shoot at the world famout Wayfarer Chapel in beautiful Palos Verdes California.  I have known of this chapel for years, and it is a wonderful location to have a wedding.  The couple were great fun to shoot, and we were able to get some wonderful shots for them.  It is located on a hillside overlooking the pacific ocean, which makes for some beautiful shots.  However once we arrived, an fog bank was moving in, and by the time the couple was ready for pictures, it had obscured our view of the ocean.  Fortunately for us, right after the ceremony there was an opening in the fog, and we were able to get some great shots for them overlooking the beautiful blue Pacific Ocean.   I hope to be able to go back there and shoot another wedding at this beautiful location.   If you would like more infromation on having a wedding at the Wayfarer Chapel, you can link to them here http://www.wayfarerschapel.org/ .

Crystal and Jays Wedding

I had the opportunity this weekend to shoot Crystal and Jays wedding in Norco California.  They are a great couple, and the wedding was held in the beautiful Norco Village Banquet Hall reception center.  The wedding went well, and the couple were absolutely glowing all night long. 

This kid stole the show with his break dancing.

Photo #10

Photo #10 of my Challenge.  For this one I wanted to do a still life, but not a bow of fruit kind of still life, something that reflected me and would be of interest to me.   I decided to shoot film!!!   I wanted to pay homage to the medium I learned on and all the hours and hours (and money) I spent shooting, developing, printing, and hunched over a light table looking at slides through a loupe.  The setup was a white seamless background I have made from some bathboard I bought at lowes.  I used two 500watt photoflood studio lights to light it.  The first was placed to my left and behind the film.  It was about a foot above the table.  Its job was to light up the bakground, illuminate the slides, and give some nice shadow detail on the front.  The second studio light was just to the right of the camera and back a couple of feet.  It was about 8 feet high and shining down.  I wanted this fill light to be less bright, but still give some detail to the front of the objects and bring some detail to the shadows.  The camera settings were ISO 100, f16 and 1/8 second, tripod mounted, incandescent wb setting.


In photoshop I made a duplicate layer, removed color from the top layer, erased that layer from the slides revealing the color base layer below.  I then bumped up contrast saturation, etc... to get the look I wanted.

Hope you enjoy the picture as much as I enjoyed making it.

Jessica and Victor Trejo Wedding in Anaheim California.

I had the honor of being hired as the wedding photographer for Victor and Jessica Trejos wedding this past Saturday at St. Michael's in Anaheim California. It was a beautiful day, and a wonderful old church. The bride was beautiful, and the groom was Suave and cool. After a beautiful ceremony, the party moved over to "The Place, salon para fiestas". There was wonderful live music, food, and fun for the entire wedding party.

I would like to thank Gabriel Mora, and Jenna Armstrong for Second shooting for me. They both did a wonderful job, and are extremely talented photographers which I was fortunate to have helping me out.

Thank you to Victor and Jessica for allowing me to be a part of this wonderful day and to help record their memories of their wedding day.