My First Time

My first paid gig was on March 18, 2008. It was for Chris Sandoval, owner of Artisans Of The Desert. Chris is a local fine furniture designer and wood craftsman. He needed some images for a website for the business and I had been recommended to him by FosterMilo - the folks building the site.

As it was my first time shooting for money, I was kinda nervous. When I shoot for pay, I am expecting the client to demand a high quality product and I want to supply them that. I was in-and-out of there in less than 30 minutes and realized I worried for no reason - Chris was great and did everything as I asked of him. Since then, I have come to understand that when you are behind a camera you have control like no other time in your life....you can tell a person to move here or move there, tilt your this way or that way, smile a little less or a little more and they will do it.

I no longer get nervous but was a little frustrated on my last shoot when I thought my camera had malfunctioned and said the "F" word in church - with the priest standing behind me. Forgive me Father for I have sinned.

People I Didn't Know

About 6 months ago I had a dream that I found a Leica at the flea market for $7.00....every other month since then we have went in hopes of landing a shark. Unfortunately, I haven't found anything that caught my interest. 

Today I did find a shoebox full of old photographs that immediately got my attention. There were some super cool images in the box of 60 or so and the owner wanted .50cents a piece. He took $8.00 for the whole box. I have collected old snapshots for a little while now but by far these are the best I have found.....Not sure who took some of these but I do love em - especially the portrait of the blonde lady looking out the window with great window light and the one of the gentleman and two ladies in wool coats.

Here are some of my favorites and who they are.....collecting snapshots of people I don't know is kinda weird but that's me :)

James Isaac

Donald Smith at Mack Ranch

Maude & Oliver Goodman

Mr. & Mrs. Ed Bill & Emma Jane

Unknown

Frank, Etta, Ollie, Lula & Bessie Kepple

Ed, Bessie & Ada Bill

Ollie & George Burruss & Family

Unknown Alcoholic & Wife :)

Donald Smith

Bessie Bill

Leland Smith

Clara Kepple Smith 1888

Aunt Annie Kenyon

Lam & Harriett Ritter

                                           

Don't Laugh....My Ghetto Tabletop Studio

One of my favorite things to shoot is anything on my kitchen table - usually with a strobe hanging off the light above the table. I haven't shot anything on my table lately but it all came together when we had to stop at Walgreens and then Staples before we headed home. Julie bought me some beer and I picked up some white posterboard.

I have shot lots of things on that table and always use the same things - white posterboard or copy paper as the background and as reflectors and colored paper for a snoot. Below are a few shots of the set-up and the final shots. The first is the original with a little dodging to the corners and to the upper, middle part of the label. The second is the same shot but with some added space to give a better comp....easily done with the crop tool in Photoshop. Make sure your color is set to white and that the crop ratio is cleared, drag the crop to the ends of your image and then just keep going til you get the size you like, hit apply and you have a new canvas size.

I used 2 SB-600s (thanks Brian for the loaner, I will return it soon) - one directly above the subject about 3 feet up, zoomed to 50mm and fired via CLS at 1/2 power. The other was camera left and slightly behind the subject, zoomed to 50mm, fired via CLS at 1/40 power and loosely snooted with a piece of blue colored paper. I torn apart one piece of posterboard and placed the pieces to get a nice bounce from the 2 strobes.

It makes me pretty happy that I can make something look kinda nice with just some posterboard and paper.