Changes coming soon!!!

Given that the site content has not been updated in ages for various reasons mostly because of time issues, I think I have come to a point for a change in the site that probably will make me more involved with the site.

So by next week, look for a radical change in the design of the site with a much more emphasis on highlighting the photo portfolio. Still will be posting other topics but I think I need to focus on what I can handle right now

A busy few months

Finally! Now I am in a position to start posting again to this photography site I have created.

With the conclusion of this year’s edition of Heavy Rebel Weekender, a furious burst of photographic activity comes to a close. In the past few months, I have done dedicated photo shoots with such themes as Heavy Rebel, models at Fila, Celtic Festival, Dance Recital along with the standard family photos. By a rough count, over 2000 photos were taken over this three month stretch.

So I have a busy several weeks ahead of me in my spare time to process and post these photos to Flickr and then repost some to my dedicated galleries on this site.

Also, I have become more aggressive in using social media to promote my photographs. For one, Flickr provides access now to post photos to my Facebook and Twitter accounts. So for the more notable of my photos I am now doing so. This is in turn has provide me more visibility and has lead several people to start following me on Twitter or on Facebook. More exposure is always welcome.

I have also started following some photographers and businesses on Twitter for their feeds of links dealing with photography. The sheer volume of links on a daily basis makes it impossible to view them all but of the few I click through have proved most informative.

I will be following up this post with future posts discussing some of the photo shoots I have done recently but one thing  I need to mention is my evolution as a photographer.

Early on when I first start photographing with my then new digital camera, my subject matter fell strictly into two camps, Family and Landscapes. Looking back, if I was not taking pictures of the family I was shooting pictures of  farms and buildings. But now, while family pictures are still important to me and the rest of my extended family, I find myself increasingly focused on photographing people and events. There seems to be a vitality about these things that I can not never capture in a landscape. Indeed, when one excludes my autumn color photographs, it has been a long time since I spent a dedicated day to just taking photos of fields, trees or buildings.

Another aspect of my photography has emerged too in that I would like my hobby to be self-financing in that I am willing to take photos for pay. As it is, very few photographers make a living taking landscape photography. With people taking more photographs than ever especially with smartphones that have image taking quality that can match entry level compact cameras, the sheer volume of photos out there can address most people’s needs.

Still, there is a need to provide high quality photographs for weddings, children and family portraits. That requires equipment and experience to do it right.I still have much more to learn about photography but the experience is something I can improve upon by shooting more in all sorts of situations and environments.

Way behind on posting

I have a lovely new website and I have not been able to update it as much as I would like. Actually, I hardly have updated it all in several months now. Work is consuming me and even my photo excursions have been limited.

But I will find time soon.

Updated Portfolios

I updated some of the portfolios on the site. Check out the new photos from a photography session with Madeleine at Reynolda Manor and also some legacy photos from the Heavy Rebel Weekender of the best cars around

Experimenting with Depth of Field

In a recent issue of National Geographic, there was a cover story about the effects of Hurricane Katrina on the city of New Orleans. What made the story stood out for me was the accompanying photographs by David Burnett. Using a large format SpeedGraphic camera set at a very shallow depth of field, he created pictures that took on a fantastic quality making ordinary scenes of devastation seem surreal like a dream or a nightmare depending on your perspective. Quite compelling. This technique though is not unusual and can be accomplish through a standard tilt-shift lens. You can also duplicate the effect through Photoshop as well.

After coming across another article about photography using shallow DOF, I decided to give it a try. Since I do not have the right sort of equipment in doing it in the field, I used a popular technique using Photoshop software to simulate the effect. You can see this handiwork on my Flickr site. It is just a few photos taken from a variety of photosets.

The one limitation I had was that my photos generally do not make great subjects for this sort of technique which works best if you are positioned above a landscape, preferably one without people and have a quality of light that is bright and casts long shadows.

This is something that I will not spend much time on doing but it is a good illustration on what you can with some basic techniques using the Quick Mask tool and gradients.