Pushing my limits...

There comes a point in time when every photographer must step out of their comfort zone, and practice a skill of photography that they're unfamiliar with.  Tonight, after my beautiful wife went to bed a tad early, I explored the PC port on my D300.  Yes, that sounds odd, but it's been a long time coming.

You see, a few months ago I ordered some Yongnuo triggers.  Beyond just triggering off camera flashes, they can actually act as a shutter release for any camera with a PC port and can even auto-focus for you!  Impressive for $56 when you consider you get one trigger, two receivers, all of the PC and other cables you'll need, along with true Duracel batteries.

I'd like to say that I spent hours figuring things out, learning them, and using them.  But it was so simple that the longest part of my setup was screwing the cable into the port, and setting up my tripod.  Below are a few images that I captured tonight of myself.  Just good ol' lazy ol' me.

Why do I post this?  Because I believe it's important to push my limits.  I believe it is important to stay on my toes.  While my focus and my true love is shooting people... Your wedding, your family, your kids...  I have a VERY firm belief that all photography skills play a vital and key role in other aspects of photography.  Going out and shooting a football game one weekend may give me ideas or skills for the next wedding.  Taking pictures of my wife making the bed or vacuuming may help me the next time you call me to shoot your family portraits.  In fact, shooting street scenes in San Francisco might give me an amazing idea for taking keep-sake photos of your kids.

I'm in a constant effort to improve my passion.  So that's why I stay up late, fiddle with my gear, practice new skills from new angles and crank out new ideas... and live to blog about it.

Have a great evening friends... and you photographers!  Make sure to get out of your comfort zone over the next week!  Strictly natural light?  Shoot with flash.  Shoot only families?  Go shoot a lacrosse game.  Only do pets?  Go snap some landscapes.  And keep yourself on your toes!

 

 

My favorite holiday, you ask?

Halloween.  Simple as that.  I love Easter for the eggs and worship.  I love Christmas for the midnight church services, gathering of family, and the acceptance of everyone being in their pajamas until almost noon opening gifts.  The laughing, having a fire in the fireplace, eating hot chocolate and, thanks to my mother-in-law, "monkey bread" (how did I live without that stuff?) and... of course... taking pictures.  Thanksgiving?  Well, not my favorite holiday.  Let's just say that I tend to overeat and jump on my cousins' enormous trampoline a little too much.

But Halloween is the fun holiday.  You get to be someone else for an evening.  The fall colors are in full bloom.  Kids are laughing and smiling.  And!  People decorate.  Not because they feel like they're missing something if they don't... because they want to.  Heck!  Some neighbors a few blocks away from our house did an entire Jaba the Hut/Star Wars thing in their yard.  Why?  Because it's HALLOWEEN!  Duh!

What I like most about this holiday is that there is no stress involved like other holidays.  The running around, visiting all sorts of family... not that I don't love my family.  But I can put some Dracula teeth in my mouth, and hand out candy to kids at our front door.  OR... I can get dressed up, hit the town, and have a blast.  This year will be more mellow than some, but still fun nonetheless, and I think we've gotten off to a great start already with pumpkin carving at my folks' house last night.  Here's just a few photos.  Enjoy!

Oh!  DUH!  I should probably try to make this somewhat photography related, even though the pictures are photographs...  I'm normally a Lightroom addict, but for these I used CS4 for the diptych and watermarking, and then adjusted colors right in CS4.  A little preset I just made up in case you're curious:

Vibrance tab:
Vibrance: -69
Saturation: +43
Color Balance tab:
Cyan - Red: +57
Magenta - Green: 0
Yellow - Blue: -27

Photographers helping photographers. :-)

 

Eric and Amy - Gettin' hitched!

Amy I've known for years.  Since high school, really.  Eric?  I just met him this past weekend, but I'm super stoked for the both of them.  They're both easy going, relaxed people with kind hearts, and they have a super cute son!

Their wedding went probably more smoothly than I've ever seen a wedding go, and they didn't stop having fun the entire time, especially after the Giants won the first of their playoff games and everyone in the hallway and bar were cheering.  :-)

Here's just a few from their special day.  Congratulations Amy and Eric!  Wishing you both the best in your life together.  It's pretty easy to see you have good help behind you, as you both have AWESOME family!

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A little update...

Been busy.  VERY busy.  Taking pictures, working on the house, and having someone very close to me pick up a new camera - My wife.  My wonderful, lovely, amazing wife.

Picked up the new camera for her a little over a week ago, and man... she seems to love it.  She's already taken it with her to a few different places and I can't wait to see what she has in store for me.  I know she has such an artistic eye.  She's going to be awesome.

The couple that shoots together, stays together.

Earings make great rings... {Delila and Johnny Engagement}

Here's a sneak peek from Delila and Johnny's engagement shoot from this past weekend.  They were so amazing - laughing and grinning the second I met them.  And THANK GOODNESS they were 49ers fans.  If they were Raiders fans, I might have had to send them packing!  I kid... I kid.

But seriously, they were so much fun to shoot with.  I think they laughed non-stop.  To quote Johnny only five minutes into the shoot, "If I keep smiling like this, my face is going to hurt by the end of the afternoon."  And based upon how much he and Delila were smiling, I must apologize. Your face is probably STILL hurting!  :-)

A little inside joke - "Earrings make great rings."  They'll know what that means.