Wow, 15 years old. Where have the years gone?

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

I have had a stock photo concept bouncing around in my head for several months and now it is time to execute that idea. What’s the idea? A series of images for my stock portfolio portraying a large audience in a movie theater. And by large, I mean over 100 recognizable faces.

I have been putting the shoot together (securing a venue, ordering props, etc.) over the past couple of weeks and I am at the place now where it’s time to ask for volunteers to be in the audience. So here are the details:

Date: Saturday February 6th, 2010
Time: 8:00 – 10:00 am
Where: Sugarhouse area of Salt Lake City
Who: Anyone willing to participate (and sign a model release)

What I am looking for is models of all ages to be in the audience. Each person will need to fill out and sign (or if under 18, have a parent/guardian sign) a model release prior to the photos being taken.

For compensation, each member of the audience will receive a coupon redeemable for one free portrait or headshot taken by me in my studio in Draper. In addition, I will have numerous gift cards and prizes that we will be given away by random drawing during the shoot.

So, if you or your family & friends are in the Salt Lake area and are interested in participating in this photo shoot, please drop me an email at rich(at)leggnet.com or telephone me at 801.568.1000.

I promise one thing – it will be fun :)

I spent Thursday morning teaching my Ten Tips for Capturing Great Photos class to a group of 35 homeschool students. I spend a fair amount of time standing in front of people talking about photography. No offense to everyone else, but the most rewarding group to speak to is children. Their curiosity and excitement about what I do is so cool.

The homeschool group was a lot of fun. I look forward to continuing to share my 10 Tips… talk to local groups this year.

(Photo and Video © Nicole Young. Thanks Niki!)

Yeah, I know… “Another mug shot?!?”

I’ve spent this week wrapping up my series of stock images in the mugshot/line-up theme (see the growing set here). But now that I’ve got a mugshot wall semi-permanently painted in the studio, it’s just too inviting to take fun photobooth type of shots like this in front of.

Have a great weekend!

The plans have been finalized for the February Photowalking Utah events and they are going to be great. Again this year we will be having two separate but related events. The theme is “Studio Lighting” and since it tends to be a bit cold this time of year in Northern Utah, both will be indoors.

FEBRUARY 11th – Mini Clinic

On the evening of Thursday February 11th, I will be facilitating a mini-clinic at the City Library in Salt Lake City. The theme of the clinic is “Posing and Lighting for Great Portraits”. In the session, I will be demonstrating how to shoot portraits using various lighting techniques and get professional results. I will be using a model and shooting with a tethered camera so everyone can immediately see the results.

Date: Thursday February 11th
Time: 6:30 – 8:30 pm
Location: Salt Lake City Main Library – 210 E 400 South, Conf. room #4, 4th floor
Cost: Free

FEBRUARY 13th – 3rd Annual Studio Lighting Photowalk

In a repeat of the past two year’s most popular Photowalking Utah events, we will again be doing an indoor “Studio Lighting” photowalk. The event will feature six different studios set up within a large conference room. Participants will be able to walk to each setup photography station and try their hand at shooting. Models will be provided along with assistance from the host photographer at each station.

This year we will be working to create a variation in the type of lighting setups provided. This will give the participants a way to work with a large variation of portrait lighting arrangements.

I have arranged with several models to help us out. Just like the previous event, we are suggesting a $3-5 “tip” given that will be put in a pool and divided up among the models after the event. This is purely optional but it really helps to have dedicated models available for the photographers to shoot and this is a great way to compensate them for their time. I’ve got a pretty diverse group confirmed so far including different ages / genders / looks.

For those photographers that aren’t carrying around digital SLR’s, don’t worry. We will have a way to sync point-and-shoot cameras via slave to at least a couple of the setups. Everyone is welcome at these events regardless of skill or equipment. There will even be some higher end gear available to borrow.

Our friends at Pictureline have again donated a bunch of photography ‘swag’ to be used for door prizes at the “Pictureline Prize Table”.

Here are the details:

Date: Saturday February 13th
Time: 10:00 am – 1:00 pm
Location: Gateway Community Church, 584 E 12300 South – Draper
Cost: Free (though a suggested model tip of $3-5 is appreciated)

If you’re planning on attending, please drop an RSVP into the ongoing discussion thread on the Photowalking Utah Flickr Group (link).

For any questions, please feel free to contact me at rich@leggnet.com or 801.568.1000.

It is always interesting to me to see my stock images in use. This morning I received a text from Kylee about one of her shots that was spotted in the wild. A friend of hers had noticed her riding a horse on a video game cover and told her about it at school today.

The thing about stock images is that the buyer has the ability to integrate the licensed image into their design as they see fit (within the license restrictions). In this particular case, for some unknown reason, they opted to place Kylee’s head on the body of the horseback rider. We will never know what made them want to do the head-swap, but we now have a shot of Kylee on a horse.

It’s kind of funny, actually. :)

Canon 5D Mark II, Canon 24-105 f/4L lens – 1/160 second, f/10.0, ISO 100