Canon 5D, Canon 70-200 f/4L lens – 1/500 second, f/4, ISO 200

Canon 5D, Canon 24-105 f/4L lens – 1/50 second, f/5, ISO 160

Today’s capture is a quick-n-dirty test shot of myself I did in the studio with two of my new lights. These lights are more powerful than my other lights and offer MUCH more adjustment.

For this shot I have a 24×36 softbox right of the camera for the main light and a 40″ umbrella behind as fill. The hairlight (which missed it’s target a bit) is a snooted monolight in the back left. This is my standard portrait setup. I usually start with this arrangement and then deviate from there depending on the look I want.

Canon 5D, Canon 24-105 f/4L lens – 1/125 second, f/10, ISO 100

There is another Photowalking event coming up on Friday evening (October 19) beginning at 5:30 pm. Here are the details from Ann Torrence:

Theme: The Grunge/Gentrification Interface

Location: Meet at the corner of 500 West, 200 South. (Parking is available in 100-200 block of 500W)

The walkabout is from 500W 200S to the new (?) depot at 6th west, down 300 S toward the back side of the Rio Grande station (which could be awesome in golden light), return north on 5th west toward the galleries at the corner of 200S and 500W as people start to arrive. If they are still working on the rails that late, there could be some fun shots after dark with their lights. Today (Tuesday) they are pouring the concrete on the turn at 4th west, who knows how far they will get. But they told me they are working late shifts.

I am probably the last person in SLC to realize that the construction on 200S is connecting the new Frontrunner to the TRAX, but the gentrification is happening RIGHT NOW, and there are photos that will be possible today but not next week or month. Lots of old brick with faded paint signs, Thomas Electric’s pile of rusty motors along Eccles Street, the old brothel (had a long chat with the bricklayers working on 200S about the area, naturally they had read the historic marker about a brothel.) The new/remodeled depot reminds me of an arcade in Auckland, NZ.

Late afternoon light is going to be as good, if not better, than after dark light. There’s not as much artificial lighting as on the east side to work with, except the gallery windows. At least 4-5 galleries in the 2×2 block area are participating in gallery stroll, so there should be some people about.

Special considerations: The safety factor needs to be considered, but I think we can work with it, if folks stick together and act like we are in an urban area. I’ll have a couple bills in an outer pocket for panhandlers, and will be traveling light.

I will be in Provo photographing a wedding and won’t be able to attend this photowalk, but I will catch up with everyone on the next one. The West side of Salt Lake City is an intriguing area and should provide plenty of interesting subject matter to shoot.

These events are non-competitive and a great way to get to socialize with other area photographers. Anyone is welcome to attend.

For more details (or to ask any questions), visit the Photowalking Salt Lake City Flickr group at www.flickr.com/groups/photowalkingslc.

p.s. Let’s hope it doesn’t rain this time :)

Canon 5D, Canon 70-200 f/4L lens – 1/200 second, f/4, ISO 800

I took this photograph last week on a ridge overlooking Lehi, Utah. I found the location a few days earlier and thought it would make a nice location to try some long exposure night shots. Even though I am not entirely pleased with how this image turned out, I thought it was worth sharing how it was done.

The shadowy figure looking over the city was created entirely in camera with a simple technique. I set the exposure for a shutter speed of ten seconds and put the camera into self-timer mode. I started the timer and took a stance in front of the camera standing as still as possible. Once I heard the shutter open, I counted to five and then quickly exited the frame. The result is the transparent outline of my body in the image.

This technique is similar to the way I created the Weeping Angels image last year (though I like that result MUCH better).

Canon 5D, Canon 24-105 f/4L lens – 10 seconds, f/4, ISO 100

Canon 5D, Canon 70-200 f/4L lens – 1/13 second, f/4, ISO 250

Yesterday afternoon this photograph of a load of pumpkins was my 5,000th image download to sell on iStockphoto.com. My portfolio on the popular microstock photography website has grown to over 850 images today from a mere 77 in March and my sales have shown a comparable increase. I am pleased to say that my October revenue will be over triple the amount I earned in June.

My goal for the future is to continue to grow my iStock portfolio by a minimum of 10 percent each month. In doing so, I anticipate my sales to grow at an equal or higher percentage. I am finding that my approval percentage (each image submitted to iStockphoto has to be personally inspected and approved) is getting better the more I upload to the site. I now have fine tuned my recipe for post-processing images and I average over a 90% approval percentage on my photos (up from around 50% early on).

As I said in an earlier post, I look forward to continuing to add images to my portfolio and monitor the growth. Is this a sustainable business long-term? We’ll continue to wait and see.

Canon 30D, Canon 24-105 f/4L lens – 1/125 second, f/7.1, ISO 100

The autumn colors have arrived full force in Northern Utah. I made this capture on a beautifully clear day atop Traverse Ridge. The use of a circular polarizer filter really helped the blue sky to stand out against the golden leaves.

Canon 5D, Canon 24-105 f/4L lens – 1/40 second, f/5.6, ISO 100

I made this capture while crossing Salt Lake City’s Main Street on a rainy Saturday night . The saturated color and high contrast were added using a Cross Processing effect in Photoshop. My favorite parts of this image are the the reflection created by the wet asphalt and the lines leading from the lower corners. The fact that the technical quality (noise, blur, etc.) of the image is rather low but the visual appeal is high is simply a bonus.

Canon 5D, Canon 70-200 f/4L lens – 1/30 second, f/4, ISO 250

I received a nice surprise yesterday when the UPS man dropped off a copy of Utah, Life Elevated by Kimball Thomson. The 200+ page book is primarily for the State of Utah to use as a recruitment tool for companies looking to relocate or expand into this area.

In February of this year I was contacted by the publisher to see if I was interested in doing freelance photography work for the book. The pay per image was reasonable so I accepted the offer. I am pleased to say that they used 11 of my images including four as full-page section dividers. While digital is cool, I never tire from seeing my photographic work in the physical “hold in my hands” printed form.

Today’s image is my favorite from those used in the book. Not just because of the particular photo, but also with the placement. It is a shot of the Utah Capitol Building at sunset and it is placed adjacent to the book’s foreword written by Utah Governor Jon Huntsman, Jr.

Canon 5D, Canon 24-105 f/4L lens – 1/125 second, f/11, ISO 100