Canon 5D Mark II, Canon 24-105 f/4L lens – 1/160 second, f/5, ISO 100

It’s been a long day with client work in the studio today and speaking at the Scott Bourne event at Pictureline tonight in Salt Lake City. I’ll save the detailed recap for later, but I thought I’d post a picture from the session before calling it a day.

The event was a sell-out with 150 photographers in attendance. I am flattered to have had the opportunity to be the opening speaker before turning over the microphone to Scott. Thank you everyone who came out and made this event a success.

Canon Powershot G11 – 1/20 second, f/3.2, ISO 1600

Canon 5D Mark II, Canon 24-105 f/4L lens – 1/160 second, f/16, ISO 100

I spent this morning in the studio working with photographer friend Suzanne Reed Plant on a “Living Marionette” photo shoot. Suzanne dreamed up the concept of photographically transforming her daughter into a marionette puppet and asked for my help. I absolutely loved the idea when I heard about it and eagerly offered my assistance.

Prior to the shoot Suzanne put in many hours gathering the props to use and sewing both the costume and the velvet curtain. Her idea was to portray Abigail (her daughter) as a marionette on a stage. She visualized both solo images and the “living marionette” among other puppets.

We used a three light arrangement to create the scene. The main character was lit with a snooted monolight. Two other monolights were placed on either side with colored (blue and yellow) gels.

The 2 hour session was a lot of fun and both Suzanne and I left with some great images. It’s always fun help others achieve something they have pre-visualized and I’m flattered that I was asked to help. I have shown a couple samples of Suzanne’s images below. Her complete set from the shoot can be seen by clicking here.

Canon 5D Mark II, Canon 24-105 f/4L lens – 1/160 second, f/5.6, ISO 100

This past Saturday’s Lensbaby Photowalk at Pictureline in Salt Lake City was a great success. We had over 60 photographers participate in the event that featured Lensbaby lenses for the photowalkers to try out. This was the first time Photowalking Utah has held an event like this, one where the photographers had an ample supply of demo gear use.

Thanks for everyone who came out and especially to Lensbaby and Pictureline for their support. The success of this event lets us know that this (gear demos) is something we will try again in the future.

Canon Powershot G11 – 1/500 second, f/4.5, ISO 80

I fell into some free tickets to last night’s Utah Jazz game versus the San Antonio Spurs (thanks Shawn & Wes). Apart from the camera on my Android phone, the only one I had with me was my little red Digital Elph (Canon SD780). During the game I was playing around with the camera and decided to shoot some images to later stitch together as a panorama.

For the image featured today, I quickly captured three shots of the arena from my upper bowl seat. I didn’t do anything special to line them up, just simply shot them handheld. The camera was set on Program mode. To stitch them I selected the three captures in Lightroom and selected “Merge to Panorama in Photoshop”. That was it, apart from some selective dodge/burn and a final crop.

This is the first time I have used Photoshop’s panorama function since CS2. I’ve got to say that I’m impressed with how well it worked. Considering the limitations of the lighting and camera, the image quality isn’t too bad. I’m going to have to put together a “real” panorama with my 5D Mark II sometime and see the feature’s true capability.

To view the full-resolution version of the image, click here.

Canon Powershot SD780IS – 1/40 second, f/3.2, ISO 200

Have you ever seen a photographer shooting with a little bendy lens on their camera? Maybe you even were bold enough to ask them what it was and you heard the name Lensbaby. Now is your chance to get to use one.

The Lensbaby is a special effect SLR lens that creates a unique out-of-focus area (bokeh) with a focus area that can be moved throughout the image. The above image on Nicolesy was taken using a Lensbaby.

Photowalking Utah, in conjunction with Lensbaby and Pictureline, is hosting a Lensbaby Photowalk on November 7th in Salt Lake City. At the event we will have over 20 samples of the product (Canon, Nikon & Olympus mount) for participants to use.

The outing will be led by Pictureline’s own Nick Gilson. Here is the schedule:

November 7th, 2009 – Pictureline SLC, 305 W 700 South

1:15 – 1:30 pm Meet at Pictureline (Salt Lake CIty)
1:30 – 2:00 pm Lensbaby orientation and how-to session
2:00 – 3:30 pm Photowalk starting/ending at Pictureline
4:00 – 5:30 pm Optional Dinner at Charlie Chow’s (255 E. 400 South)

As always, these events are free of charge for photographers to participate in. We can’t take any responsibility though if you fall in love with the Lensbaby and end up buying one :)

If you are planning on attending (or have any questions), please head over to the Photowalking Utah Flickr group by clicking here and let us know.

I’m really excited about this event and hope to see many of you there.