Waiting

I love the light at the end of the day. Even on a mostly overcast day like the day this was shot, the softness of the light, the punchy color saturation, shooting wide open to get a fast enough shutter speed on ISO 100 film. It just makes for the ability to make some really beautiful pictures. I was able to get a series of my children and my wife while we were waiting for the Christmas tree lighting in Apex.

My kids always make fast friends with other Children. They were all running around playing tag and having a great time. This was a brief moment when my daughter was contemplating how to spend her next burst of energy. 


You can check out some more of our December shots here.

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Playing around over the Thanksgiving break.  This was an idea that we had for a Christmas card.  We like the image just fine and it was great fun making the picture but somehow it just didn't seem like Christmas card material.  This and other pictures from November are available here.

Dejected Scooter

Man, I really thought the first time, that would be it. I mean I posed, everyone laughed. That wide angle shot really didn't cast me in the best light.

If you came a little closer, I'd chew that lens up so fast you wouldn't know what hit you, just like all those toys the kids keep leaving out. I hear you try to tell them not to leave them out or I'll get them. If you are anything like them, we'll be doing this picture thing for a long time. So yeah, I'm about as perked up as I'm gonna be now that I realize that.

Let me think about that for a minute.

Hmmm, hmmm, hmmm, no!

Practicing with some strobes out in the garage with Shiloh is always fun.  She makes the most wonderful expressions.  It is nearly impossible to get a shot where she isn't moving but if you ask the right question you can get her to pause and think about it for a moment, a very brief moment.

More film please

We are back from our trip out to Napa.  I stopped off at Wolf Camera to pick up a couple of rolls that I had developed and was greeted with some really nice 5x5 pictures of my kids.  I had forgotten how much fun it is to pick up a set of pictures and negatives.  I am really enjoying shooting with this old school TLR.  Batteries, we don't need any stinkin' batteries.  This camera doesn't have any light meter or well, anything as far as electronics go.  It is a light tight box with a lens and shutter, that's it.  Good times.
November pictures are here.

to Grand Mum's house we go

On the trail with the kids as the light was fading made for great portraits.  I'm so addicted to wide angle portraits, they are my absolute personal favorite.  This shot of Sammy and others are in our October folder on the site located here.

I've also started working with some film again which is fun. I had forgotten about the myriad of choices of film types each with a particular baked in look.  I picked up a medium format TLR, a Mamiya C330 with an 80mm lens for absolutely dirt cheap. $200 and the thing is capable of better image quality and higher dynamic range in a single shot than any of my whiz-bang digital cameras.  Nice.  Right now I'm shooting  digital shots to dial in my exposure the way I want and then snapping off a few frames of film.

This was shot with Fuji Reala NC, I had forgotten that was neutral and I like things slightly more saturated so I'll be testing out some Kodak VC next.

Another thing I like about the medium format film is the absolutely shallow depth of field, I had forgotten how great that looks with portraits.  This barn behind Sammy was only about six feet away and the TLR at f4 blurs it out nicely.  Fun stuff, there should be plenty of film stuff making a resurgence in my work.

private property

Another shot of this old barn out in Morrisville.  I think I finally captured it in a way that I'm happy with.  I went out on a rainy Monday afternoon looking for some interesting shots for my NC series that I'm working on and hit this spot again on the way back to the office.  I really like the light in this one.  This shot and more are posted in our October folder on our smugmug site here.

October!

October is here and the weather has definitely turned cooler.  We've got a couple of portrait sessions in the works and one possible one with a local band that should be fun if we land that work.  I've started the October folder and it is available here.

I grabbed this shot, again on the commute, on Koppers road out in Morrisville.  I remember reading a post by Ken Rockwell,  about how there are many photo opportunities around ones local scene but we tend to get so used to them that we don't see them. 

decepticon

I took this shot while on my commute in to work.  There used to be a farm here at the corner of Davis and Highhouse.  They've made great progress in erasing that memory from this location. You can check out this and other shots from September at our website here. 

Lake Crabtree

I went out to Lake Crabtree with the kids last night and got a few pictures of the sunset.  We had a great time and the weather has been absolutely beautiful over the last few days.  Check out this picture and others from last night here: Lake Crabtree