In the Garden
Canon 5D, Canon 70-200 f/4L lens – 1/125 second, f/4, ISO 200
Repost: Photowalking Utah This Saturday
(Note: this is a repeat of an earlier post to serve as a reminder of this weekend’s event)
The next Photowalking Utah event has been set. The outing will be a 2-part walk on Saturday September 20th beginning at 3:00 pm. Participants are welcome to come to either or both parts.
The first part of the event will be a visit to InStudio, the new 8,500+ square foot photography studio of Kenneth Linge. Kenneth will give the attending photowalkers a behind-the-scenes look at Utah’s largest portrait studio. In addition to the tour, he will provide lighting demonstrations with both ambient and strobes and do a Q&A session. And there might even be snacks!
After the InStudio portion of the ‘walk, we’ll take a break for dinner before heading out on an evening Photowalk in the historic district of downtown Provo. We will meet at the Historic Utah County Courthouse to capture some great architecture before heading West through the downtown area. Kenneth will be joining us on the photowalk and be available to answer questions and chat with the other photogs.
Here are the details for the September 20th event:
Part 1. 3:00 – 5:00 pm
Photowalking InStudio
40 W. Center Street
Orem, UT
Part 2. 6:30 – 8:30 pm
Downtown Provo Photowalk
Meet at the Historic Utah County Courthouse
51 South University Avenue
Provo, UT
As always, these events are open to photographers of ANY SKILL LEVEL. We have everyone from first time shooters to seasoned professionals join in. If you’ve ever wanted a chance to hang out with some friendly photogs, this is the chance to do it.
For up-to-the-minute details and to check-in that you’re planning on attending, drop by the Photowalking Utah Flickr group at PhotowalkingUtah.com. Also feel free to contact me at rich(at)
Private Chef Photo Shoot
I spent Friday morning in a relatives’ luxury home doing a Private Chef photo shoot for my stock portfolio. The goal of the session was to create both portraits of chefs (above) and photos of them “in action” (below). I’m partially through the editing of the images and like the results so far.
It seems that when I finish a shoot I often have a “DOH!” moment when I realize something that I should have done differently. This one was no exception. When reviewing the shots I found that I missed doing some of them with Jenna’s hair pulled back. Even with the small oversight, I still will end up with a nice series.
Canon 5D, Canon 24-105 f/4L lens – 1/125 second, f/4, ISO 100
Jack-o’-Lantern Carving in September
Today’s image is a sample from yesterday’s stock photo shoot with Bethany and Michelle portraying a mother and daughter carving jack-o’-lanterns. I’m probably a little bit behind, but I figured it’s time to get some fresh Halloween images added to my portfolio.
One of the challenges for this session was locating pumpkins in early September. Thankfully, a friend’s parents own a nearby farm they allowed me to pick a few of their nearly-ripe pumpkins to use for the shoot. The pumpkins were still a bit green so I let them sit in the sun for a week to fully develop into a nice orange.
Instead of photographing this scene in the studio, I brought some lights home and we shot in our kitchen. Two large softboxes were all I needed to create the natural looking light for the scene. The 600 watt-second monolights were used at their absolute minimum power setting to permit a wide aperture (f/4) for a narrow depth-of-field.
Now, it’s time to start thinking about some new Christmas images.
Canon 5D, Canon 24-105 f/4L lens – 1/100 second, f/4, ISO 100
Photoshop World Recap by Dale Welcome
(Today’s post is written by guest contributor Dale Welcome)
Paris, New York New York, Caesar’s, MGM, Bellagio’s, Mandalay Bay…..what’s happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas, right? Ah, but not this time!
Las Vegas was the site of last week’s Photoshop World conference hosted by the National Association of Photoshop Professionals (NAPP) and its president, Scott Kelby. But what happened in Vegas just cannot just stay in Vegas…..its was all too good not to share!
What an extraordinary conference! Scott Kelby, world renowned instructors and artists and the NAPP staff put on quite a show, a tremendous learning experience, and truly a photographic inspiration.
By my guess, the conference had well over 3,000 participants and was hosted at the Las Vegas Mandalay Bay Resort. Aside from Kelby, instructors included the likes of Deke McClelland, Moose Peterson, Dave Cross, Matt Koslowski, John Paul Caponigro, Ben Willmore, Jay Maisel, Jeff Scheme, Joe McNally, and Corey Barker, to name a few. And the best part was that each was willing to share their knowledge, tips, experiences, and plenty of passion for the art and craft of photography.
I have attended many professional conferences, in photography as well as my various other “careers” over the last thirty years, and I cannot think of one in which I learned so much that “my head began to hurt!” I began the conference with a 4 hour Epson Print Academy workshop led by three artistic and technical masters; Jeff Scheme, Andrew Rodney and John Paul Caponigro. Over the course of the next 3 ½ days, I attended over 15 workshops ranging from still live studio shoots, portrait lighting techniques, retouching, Photoshop “jaw-dropping” tips, high dynamic range (HDR) imagery, color management, and fine art photography.
In addition to the sessions and great instructors, the tech expo itself was worth the price of admission. I spent over two hours talking and learning from Epson technical experts, doing hands-on demos of Wacom tablets (their 21” on-screen tablet is unbelievable!), trying the latest equipment, talking to print labs such as MPIX and listening to additional sessions sponsored by NAPP, Kelby Training and Microsoft on the expo floor.
However, with all of great instructors, equipment, demos, and photographic friends to meet, by far the most inspirational and capstone of the entire event was the 2 hour “digital panel” Friday night. After starting at 8:00 in the morning, I wasn’t sure I had the energy to make it through the last session of the day that ran from 7:00pm to 9:00pm. However, I am surely glad I didn’t miss this portion of the conference.
The panel consisted of some of the greatest digital photographic artists and teachers of our time. Each shared a slideshow or two of their personal work and passion as well spoke to the heart and soul they each put into their work. Words cannot describe the emotion these images evoked, the gesture they represented, the colors that impacted us, and visual stories they told. You simply had to be there to fully comprehend the significance of these works of art. These artists poured out their souls right before us.
I have returned from Las Vegas with a new sense of experimentation, inspiration and passion to this wonderful craft of photography that far exceeds the immense amount of learning I received from Photoshop World. We are truly blessed to be able to capture images with our cameras that tell visual stories, evoke emotion, paint palettes of color and record our reality as well an expression of what we might dream.
Go out and capture images!
Let’s Hear From You: Choosing Between Black & White or Color
Today’s post is a question for photographers: When presenting an image to the world, how do you decide between color or black & white?
In the stock photography venue making this decision is easy for me – I do all my images in color knowing that the buyer can covert them to black & white on their own if they want. But when it comes to portraits and/or fine art photos, I frequently have a difficult time deciding.
How do you decide? Do you go into the editing of an image already knowing or do you make the decision on the fly? I’d love to hear other photographer’s thought process on the subject.
Canon 5D, Canon 24-105 f/4L lens – 1/160 second, f/4.5, ISO 100
