One a day challenge, getting back to it.

After a conversation with my friend and fellow photographer Nate Allred, ( http://treasurephoto.net )  I decided to get back onboard with my one photo a day challenge.  I must admit, the challenge is much more difficult than I originally thought it would be, but I did love doing it, and it is a great way to sharpen my skills, and stay on top of my game.  I was playing with my camera this afternoon, and noticed some interesting shadows caused by the window blinds on my 12 string guitar.  I thought that would make a great black and white photo.

This next part gets a little technical for the non photographers, Sorry.
 
I wanted it to have a heavy grain texture to the print, something that looks like the old Kodak tri-X 1600 film, so I set my Nikon D60 to the ISO setting of Hi-1.  This is an ISO equal to 3200.  In a color photograph, this setting creates an unusable photograph because the noise levels are so increadibly high that the image looks nasty.  However, in a black and white photo, instead of noise, it looks like film grain, which is at times beautiful in a photograph.  Earlier this week, fellow photographer Scott Bourne said "grain is the brushstrokes of photography."  And I couldn't agree more.
I wanted to maintain as little depth of field as possible, so with that high of an ISO, it required a shutter speed of 1/4000 sec and an aperture of  f 7.1.  After shooting it, I took it into lightroom and added a little contrast, otherwise it is right out of the camera like that.  I do love shooting black and white.  I have ever since I first printed my own pictures in a darkroom.  I hope you enjoy this print.  Please feel free to write a note below, and let me know what you think.  I love to get feedback, good or bad.

PCJBR Rodeo

Its hard to believe that it was about thirteen years ago that I entered the world of professional photography when I took a job shooting rodeos for my friend Mark Oakie's brother Alan.  I enjoyed my weekends on the high school rodeo circuit shooting rodeos all across the state of Utah.  I got the opportunity to push my skills and abilities as a photographer to their very limits every weekend.  And this was back in the days of film, no LCD screen on the back of the camera to check and make sure you got the shot.  You had to know your exposure and how to get the shot every time without being able to see the pictures until they got back from the lab a week later.  I spent about two years shooting for Alan, and I loved it, but I had moved on to weddings and portraits, and left rodeos behind for a while.

Last weekend I had the opportunity to step back into the arena and shoot another rodeo.  I must admit, I was a bit nervous.  It had been a few years since I last shot a rodeo, and I was hoping I had not lost the knack.  I was shooting the Pacific Coast Junior Bull Riders rodeo in Norco, Ca, which was part of the cities horse week festivities.  Once I got behind the chute gates, it was as if I had never left.  I felt right at home amongst the livestock and cowboys.  Once the event started, I got back into my groove in no time at all.  I ended up getting some good shots during the event, I did miss one calf rider due to my camera having a quick fit, and wouldn't you know it, he won his division, and his dad was interested in buying a print of his ride.  Its frustrating, but those things do happen.  In all, it went pretty good, and I hope to get the chance to shoot another of their events.

A young bullrider hangs on for one heck of a ride.

The bullfighter puts himself between the bull and the rider.  Either nerves of steel or a little insane, you decide.

This young bullrider looses his seat and goes over the head.

Once again the bullfighter puts himself between the bull and the rider.

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/ .

A day at the Los Angeles Zoo

I had the opportunity to go to the Los Angeles zoo last monday to shoot some stock pictures. It was a great day at the zoo, and nice to get away for the day. Here are some of my favorite shots from the day.

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.

# 15 Ferns and Clover

I love the deep green colors here with the palm leaves against the clover groundcover behind it.  This was shot in deep shade, so I got a wonderful soft light.  I love how much depth of field I was able to get on this shot.

ISO 100  f 32  esposure 3 seconds, tripod mounted, sigma 28-80 macro lens.  In photoshop I punched up saturation, contrast, adjusted hue, and brightness.

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.

Photograph #1 in my Challenge.

This is the first of 365 photos I will post over the next year in my personal challenge to develop my creativity and skills as a photographer.  For my first shot, I decided to go to downtown Riverside California at 11:00 at night, and brave the weirdos to get a few shots of town by evening light.  My first stop was the Chinese pavillion.  I knew with the wonderful cloud cover, I wanted a long exposure to give the clouds some defenition and color.  I used an off camera flash about fifteen feet to the right of the camera, about seven feet high, set off with a radio slave.  ISO 200, Exp. 25 seconds, f11  28-105mm Sigma lens at 28mm.  Manual exp, and focus.

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.

Portrait Photography with the Fantinos In Corona California

I finished my shoot with the Fantinos. It went quite well and we ended up with some nice pictures for their 60th anniversary. They were quite a fun couple to shoot and we had a good morning in the park.