Imagination Included Photography

2012-01-09T08:03:00.001-08:00

This blog will no longer be updated. It will remain up so that you can enjoy the content.
To follow my new blog visit my webpage at http://iminphotos.com/37199/blog

Thank you.

Smashing Magazine Coffee Mug Photo Contest

2011-10-27T10:09:00.000-07:00

A couple weeks ago a fiend of mine told me about a photo contest that Smashing Magazine was doing. I didn't know about the magazine let alone they were doing a photo contest. After some poking around their site I found that is a huge resource for web developers. The contest was a coffee mug based contest and the result would be a mosaic poster of selected photos.

My first reaction was, yeah that is cool but I wont bother entering anything. Then after a couple days I started to think about a shot I had taken a few years back. It was the end of 2007, I had just decided to start showing my art (photographs). I made up a book in Aperture 1 and brought it around to some local businesses to see if they would let me have a show on their walls and heard a lot of "no's" (what I heard in my head was "get the hell out of here kid"). When I walked into Buster's 66 Coffee Shop in Nob Hill I was met by a great guy who was also the owner. I showed him my book and asked about doing a show. After flipping through just a couple pages of my book he looked at me and looked up at me and said "sure". I was floored!

I was not prepared for this to actually worked. I had no prints made, nothing matted, nothing framed, let alone even know how I was gonna pay for all that. But I said "cool, when?" like I had done it many times before. He looked at his book and said February of 2008. I would get my art up for a whole MONTH! and get to keep 100% of all the sales, this guy was awesome! I dont remember how much I spent on prints and matting and framing the 20 or so pieces, probably somewhere around $300 or $400, but my credit card company loved it. The show ended up being beautiful, with 8x10's and 8x12's in white 11x14 and 16x20 mattes and simple black frames.

The sad news was that halfway through my show the owner decided to close down the restaurant at the end of the month. This was really sad for me, as I had just found the place a few months back, but even more so for the college kids who would spend their mornings there and the locals who religiously spent their weekend mornings having brunch there.

Sometime during my show (one of my many visit there to just gawk at my art on the walls) I snapped this photo. Fast forward to 2011, I have now been in multiple galleries, done multiple art shows (solo and group) and this photo still resonates with me and am glad I pulled it out of the pile for this contest. I am honored that my photo was picked for the poster and also glad my friend's (the one who told me about the contest) photo was picked as well. Click over HERE to download your own version of the poster!

Great photos are like a great song, or like a good meal, it brings you right back to a moment in time that your mind has connected with it.

Click over HERE to download your own version of the poster!

Amya's 10 month headshots

2011-09-12T10:29:00.000-07:00

Amya is such a great kid, always happy to show you a smile. That is of course if you have her mom there to bring it out. Her last session was all about color and off camera lights. As much as I loved that, it took time to set up and took a lot of energy (hers and mine) to get the images. This time around I wanted to flip it on it's head. I wanted elegant, simple, clean, images and I wanted the session to last less than a half hour.

My house was built in the early 60's and it has some awesomely big windows. My bedroom is on the southeast corner of my house so I figured that if I placed her on the bed, facing the window the white(ish) wall opposite the window would be a nice gray shade. It was an overcast day which helped prevent direct sunlight (since the window is facing south and that is where the sun is all summer here in New Mexico).

The light was falling off a little too much before it hit the back wall so I pulled out a reflector (the one I made for the Criffin Designs Shoot) and bounced a little light onto the back wall. Below are three images of three different placements. In all three shots I changed my expsure, making sure her face was always properly exposed. The first is her closes to the wall, farthest from the window. This gave me a light gray wall. The second is an image of her sitting in the middle of the bed, about halfway from the wall AND window. You can see the wall is now a nice mid gray. The last shot is her closest to the window, farthest from the wall. The wall is now a dark gray, almost black.

Close to the wall / brightest wall

Halfway between wall and window

Closest to window / darkest wall

What does all that mean? Well, if you are shooting with available light you can still change the whole look of your images by changing the ratios. The distance of light source to subject vs. the distance of light source to background. For a more indepth (multi post) tutorial of the how changing ratios changes your images check out Zack Arias' blog.

In the meantime, check out the slideshow below and see all the final images from the shoot.

Another photography book

2011-08-23T09:31:00.000-07:00

Believe me, I am well aware that the amount of photography books available right now are a little ridiculous. I seriously think that if you give an ape an iPhone now he can shoot, edit, and publish a quality fine art book (since blurb.com now allows you to make a book from your Instagram app). That has become true with more then books now, quality movies are also more accessible with HDDSLR's.

So why, you ask, do I bother putting my hat into this ring? Well it is simple, because I am an artist first. I don't start with the thought "I need to make a new photo book." I create my photos because something deep down compels me to. Once I create the images I start to think about how I want them to represented. For some reason getting cell phone photos matted, framed, and sealed behind glass like some master piece dosen't sit right with me. These are snap shots, little bits of time that I stopped with my phone, that is it.

After snapping the shots I posted them to Facebook and moved on. A couple months later I tried to put them in a black and white "Pocket" (5"x8") sized book from Blurb. I liked it, but wasn't sold on the cream colored paper. But when Blurb.com annouced the would offer color, non-coated white paper versions of thier Pocket and Trade sized books I decided to give it another try.

The results are stunning. When I got my first copy of the image wrapped hard cover book I fell in love! This is a great little project to toss out as my first book because it is 20 pages, most spreads containing 4 images and with my little markup the cost is only $15 for a softcover and $35 for the image wrapped hardcover.

I am now working on getting my Lumen Print series book finished, it will be a Trade size, 6"x9", and 40 pages. Then I am going to be working on putting together a Journal for 2012 that will feature some images, calendars, and pleanty of writing and sketching pages. Stay Tuned!

Here is a preview of the book. Please order your own copy and help me make more art for you!

Squid Fight by Justin Thor Simenson | Make Your Own Book

An open letter to the San Francisco 49ers

2011-08-22T09:11:00.000-07:00

Dear 49ers,

A young boy with only ten short years of life lessons learned became a fan of your team in 1993 as Joe Montana moved on and Steve Young stepped in. The following year you graced him with a Super Bowl win. That win tattooed the red and gold in the young boy's mind.

The ups and downs in the years that followed gave him reason to hold true. You kept a place near the top but could never regain the top spot, giving him hope that "next time" you will get the win. That day never came. The young boy grew to a teenager and you fell to a losing team. With Jerry Rice and Steve Young gone you fell deeper into a hole of despair and loss. The teen, with loss after loss, held his 49ers hat low but tight. "One day, we will be back." He would say with the will and determination of a soldier preparing for battle.

Now a man, and still a 49er fan, he still awaits the day when he can raise his hat high and declare , with no uncertainty, "WE ARE NUMBER ONE!"

With love and devotion,
A 49er fan

Just add color

2011-08-04T09:02:00.000-07:00

The day my niece was born I became a de facto baby photographer and I couldn't be happier. Taking photographs is my natural reaction. This opportunity has made my photography grow, not just my portfolio, but my patience of waiting for the photo to present it's self as well as my technique of getting a good composition AND exposure while everything is moving.

On Tuesday she turned 9 months old and I realized I hadn't done a studio style shoot yet. I have done some make shift studio shots but nothing where I really set up my two lights and let her go to town. Another thing that I have been really wanting to play with is using color gels that I got earlier this year when The Flash Bus came through town. So I setup my spare bedroom as a studio by placing my white muslin backdrop over the bed since the wall is already white. I then set up my lights ( my Alienbee 800 and my Canon 430EX speedlight).

I started by setting up my AB800 on camera right about 6 feet from the bed. I then placed a shoot through/bounce umbrella on it in the shoot through mode (side note: the umbrella you get is a combo style that lets you take the outer shell off and use it as a shoot through). After a couple of test shots I realized that I needed to cover half of the umbrella because too much light from it was spilling on the back wall so I took the shell and put half of it back on and rotated it so that the half that was covered was on the back/wall side as you can see in the photo to the left. I knew I wanted to shoot some color onto the background wall with my second light so I set it up camera left at the head of the bed. After some test shots of that light I decided that I needed to stop the light from spilling onto the bed and decided to flag it by placing a piece of black foam on the bottom of the flash.

The next step was to decide what color. I picked blue for no particular reason. It worked out because my niece was wearing a tie-dyed shirt that was red and blue. Once I got her on the bed I took some shots and adjusted the power of the lights. I had read that the best thing to do is set up a big area of "safe light" (light that will get you a good exposure). Using the AB800 with the umbrella allowed me to be able to use the entire right half of the bed. We placed her near the wall and would have her crawl toward us (her mom was standing close by to reset her when she got too close to the edge). Since I shoot RAW I knew I just had to get the exposure in the ball park, +1 or -1, and I could fix it in Aperture.

When Amya was ready for a break (another great thing I learned is to take a lot of breaks so the baby doesn't get upset) I decided to do a wardrobe switch. My sister said she brought a yellow outfit so I decided to swap the blue gel with a yellow one and create a bright summery look. Without changing anything but my gel color and the outfit.....

I went FROM THIS TO THIS

We did some very similar shots in the yellow scene. I really like how it captured her personality in the different colors. I learned a couple of things that I will try to apply next time. Number one is that I wished the blue was a little deeper. What I think would help is that if my key light was smaller and closer to the subject, creating a higher contrast ratio. Number two would be that I wish I would have used more than just my 17-50mm 2.8 lens. I think some of these images would have been really fun with my Lensbaby 2.0. Number three is that I would love a smaller stand for my AB800. It was a good height for this shoot, but if I was shooting a tall person sitting on the ground it would be too high.

Here is a little slideshow of the final shots:

Philanthropy work

2011-07-14T09:37:00.000-07:00

There is something in human nature about giving. Not all of us practice the act of giving 100% without expecting something in return, we often sign up for this or donate to that with expectations of one thing or another. We feel good about ourselves and then move on to our daily lives of taking. It isn't until you spend the time to really give something to people, anything, with NO expectations of getting something in return that you receive the biggest rush of joy.

I have spent time in food banks, put together care packages for troops, and most of the other things that you see a sign up sheet for at your office or church. I really enjoyed them, but most of the time I was expecting something back, even if it was a lunch with friends or a drink after the work was over. Those actions were good and in the best intentions.

But last fall it all changed when a friend call me up. "My wife is on this board and they are putting together a walk for charity." he said. "Really, whats the charity?" I wasn't too interested as I was probably absorbed in Facebook or Twitter and expected a probe for money. "It is called Give Thanks Walk for St. Jude. They need a photographer and I was wondering if you would be interested." Well as soon as I heard that I could donate my time and "talent" as a photographer I was interested. "Sure! What do they need? When is it?....." I quickly went through my list of standard questions. "I don't know. I will have to have her give you a call so you two can talk about it."

The next week I was at the Cottonwood mall at 5am with my camera. They wanted some photos that documented the event. I shot for three hours or so, from setup to tear down. Capturing the spirit of the volunteers to the happiness of the walkers. I then put all the images onto a disk and gave them to St. Jude. The feeling I got from the whole experience was amazing. On the drive home I made the decision to donate my photography to great organizations that need the help.

After some searching on the internet I found PhotoPhilanthropy.org and realized I was not alone. This is a great website that helps bridge the gap of organizations who need photographers and photographers who want to help out a great cause. I contacted a few organizations late last year and early this year. A couple weeks ago I got an email from one of them, The Mission Continues. I am in talks with them and one of the people in their Fellowship program, they need some photos that show what the program is doing. I look forward to showing you some of the photos and maybe a story of my travels.

In the meantime, check out this video of the photos I took at the Give Thanks Walk 2010 for St. Jude.

Photos from the Thirsty Ear Festival Part 3

2011-06-28T15:33:00.000-07:00

Twin Revolver at the Thirsty Ear Festival 2011

My last two posts covered getting access, gear, shooting, etc. In this third and final post, I want to cover my editing techniques and the things I did to submit my photos for publication.

EDITING:

I don't think I mentioned it in my last post but I know I have said it before, I shoot RAW (Froknows what I mean). Also for you techy geeks out there, I have a 5 or 6 year old iMac with a 1TB Seagate Barracuda and 4 GB of DDR2 RAM. I use Apple's Aperture 3 for my file management and editing.

When I got home from the festival I dumped all my photos in a new Aperture library (I love the fact that with Aperture 3 I can easily have multiple libraries). The reason I put them into their own library is because I let Aperture manage my library and if I only had one library, that file (or package) is 250 GB or more. So I split up my work, for example my fine art series goes into one library and my family portraits into another. When I am in Aperture I can easily change over to one of my other libraries.

The first thing I do once I have all the photos imported is to close down and back up. I do that even before I format my memory cards. It just adds that extra layer of protection. I have never lost any data, even when I have crashed Aperture in the middle of an edit. I reboot and my files current. Another great thing about using Aperture is that it is lossless editing. Once I import all my RAW files I can start editing and not have to worry about "Save As".

Now that all my photos are in Aperture AND backed up, the first thing I do is pull them up and start rating them. My rating system is similar to how Chase Jarvis has mentioned in his various live photo shoots. I look through them and give the ones I like a one star, then review my one stars and give a two star rating to the ones I think should move on, and continue the process until I have a nice set of four star images. Along the way I might be cropping, doing some black and white, or color tweeks just to get some ideas. But once I get to my four star shots I already have a plan of what my final set will look like.

Going from the four to five stars is when I really start to edit the images to their final look. I will get my crops right, do some minor sharpening if needed and make sure the color is right. For these shots that is about all I edited. I wanted them to be very photo-journalistic in nature. I converted some to black and white, mostly the shots that where the red was way too saturated like the image below for example.

Dwayne Dopsie & The Zydeco Hellraisers at the Thirsty Ear Festival 2011

I kept my edits tight and kept each band's five star set to under fifteen final shots. I think that is a good number to stay under for my end result, which leads me to my next topic.

SUBMITTING FOR PUBLICATION:

As of writing I haven't been successful in getting any of my images published. Besides that, I did hear back from one New Mexico publication that is interested in using some of my images if any of the bands return to Santa Fe and/or the Thirsty Ear Festival.

Calexico at the Thirsty Ear Festival 2011

The way I went about submitting might be the issue, but I don't know since I have never done it before. What I did was set up a private webpage with Aperture's "Web Journal" feature and sent the link to about a dozen or so publication editors. Each band had their own section and thanks to Apple's sleek design, the pages were modern and all about the images.

I will keep you informed about this process, if I hear back, if I don't, if I get published. It is a waiting game, and I am getting the feeling I am the only one waiting. I want to get all my images out to the world so that you and the bands can seem them, but I wanted to wait until I heard back. If I don't hear back soon, I will release all of them on my WEBPAGE and let you know.

Photos from the Thirsty Ear Festival Part 2

2011-06-22T14:20:00.000-07:00

In my last post, as long winded as it was hopefully it was helpful, I covered how I got access to shoot and what gear I rented. In this post I will go over my experience of actually shooting the event. It was long hours, late nights, but best of all it was full of good times.

Friday night, June 10th.

Dwayne Dopsie & The Zydeco Hellraisers
at the Thirsty Ear Festival 2011

Dwayne Dopsie & The Zydeco Hellraisers were slotted for 7:30pm-11pm at the quaint Corazon bar in Santa Fe, I got there at 8pm. Just as I got in the door and got past the ticket booth (getting my weekend pass) I heard the band introduce Dwayne Dopsie. If you have never heard zydeco music, head over to Pandora now and type in Dwayne Dopsie & The Zydeco Hellraisers, it is so southern you can practically taste the jumbo as you listen to it.

The Corazon bar is the typical dimly lit small bar that you would expect. The building is narrow, you enter in on the south end there is a bar by the door, then a couple steps down bring you to a second bar and at the far north end is a dance floor and a stage that is raised about 8 inches or so. The lighting is red as blood and saturates anyone at the front of the stage. The sides and back of the stage are dark and get very little ambient light.

The last time I shot at the Corazon I just put on my 50mm 1.8 and shot from the crowed. That worked ok, but this time I also wanted to tight shots of the band themselves. With the rented 135mm 2.0 I could stand on the step at the south end and get some shot that covered the whole band.I also talked with the bartender and was allowed behind the bar to shoot. That allowed me to get about 10 or 15 feet away from the stage and not be fighting the crowed. With my 17-50mm 2.8 I got right to the front of the stage and captured some great shots (including the one above).

They played right up until 11pm and rocked the house. There were many problems shooting, me having my camera bag, the dance floor packed, the fact that I couldn't get a clear shot from the floor unless I was right up front, but in the end I just worked through them. I tried to put my camera bag down, but since I was alone and had a rented lens I decided carrying my backpack was far better than it growing legs and walking out of the bar. Even though the dance floor was packed (and movin' & shakin') they were all having a good time. I would work my way through slowly, with a smile on my face, and people even asked if I needed to switch spots to get the shot. When I couldn't get right to the front of the stage I would shot in between people. It is a fun technique and take patience.

Saturday evening and night, June 11th.

The Imperial Rooster at the Thirsty Ear Festival 2011

The venue I stayed at from 4pm-11:30pm or so was the Santa Fe Brewing Company. There are two stages here, one inside and one outside. The inside stage is a pretty cozy setup, the main dance floor is a couple steps lower than where the bar is and there is also a mezzanine level with tables and seating that overlooks the dance floor and stage. The lighting in here is OK during the day since there are plenty of windows and skylights, but at night the red lights attack! I do have to say though that if they set up the mic a foot back or set the lights a little lower they would form some good color on the singer (as you can see by the image left of the singer from The Imperial Rooster). Using both the rented 135mm and the 17-50mm I was able to get shots of the whole band and individual shots.

Cedric Burnside Project
at the Thirsty Ear Festival 2011

The outdoor stage is a dream to shoot. The stage faces southeast, in the afternoon the sun creates a great rim light (as seen by the image to the right of Cedric Burnside) and in the evening the sun sets behind the stage. The stage itself is raised about 3 feet and there is plenty of room to get around the crowd and get the angle you need.

Again, I used my 17-50mm and the rented 135mm both because when the bands took to the outdoor stage I was moving from right up close to farther back. I also shot some black and white and color film this day. But most of my black and white shots from during the day outdoors were underexposed. I thought I had the exposure right at 1 stop over, but it should of been two. The color shots came out pretty damn close to my digital files. The shot to the right is a digital shot, but it shows pretty well the light I was working with.

Below you can see the beautiful color change that the sky went through during The Handsome Family and the decent light quality of the outdoor stage at night during Calexico's performance. One thing that did happen though was that the crowed really packed the stage when Calexico took the stage. I ended up working my way through the crowd and too most of my images with the 135mm lens. Towards the end of their set I did get a spot dead center and got some shots with my 17-50mm.

Calexico at Thirsty Ear Festival 2011

The Handsome Family
at the Thirsty Ear Festival 2011

In all the two venues were different and the same. I shot wide open most of the time. I wanted the fastest shutter speed I could get. If you want to know the specifics, click the image and go to Flickr and in the upper right click my camera name and it will give you all the Exif data.

My next post I will go through how I edited and my attempt at getting them published. Stay tuned!

Photos from the Thirsty Ear Festival Part 1

2011-06-20T13:07:00.000-07:00

Calexico at Thirsty Ear Festival 2011

As many of you know, I had the great pleasure of photographing the 12th Annual Thirsty Ear Festival in Santa Fe a couple of weekends ago. Although I haven't released all of my great shots yet (waiting to hear back from publishers), I wanted to post a series of blogs on the process I went through to get access, shoot, edit, and submitting for publication. I am no expert on any of this, but that is why I want to share my experience. We all have to start somewhere, and this is me starting.

Step One, getting that foot in the door:

Well it is hard to define where you really begin this. Before I even contacted the promoter of the event I put together a set of images that showed I could take photos of live music. To get my portfolio shots I befriended small musicians, venues, etc. and really just shot and shared images. I gave copies of my images for free to the musicians in return to show my appreciation. This step took me a couple of years of going out and shooting when I had free time, but if you are really passionate about music photography you can accomplish it in a good month.

I took my 20 or so images in my portfolio and really edited them tight. What that means is if an image had a flaw it was tossed. A set of 10 solid images is a million times better than 10 solid images and 5 so so images. Once I had my set I looked for a music event that I would pay money to see, not just a local band or the next thing. I found the Thirsty Ear Festival last December and emailed them from the contact info on their website. They said, "contact us again closer to the Festival" ( 7 months away). That put me on their radar, or "got my foot in the door".

Step Two, be persistent but not annoying:

That should be obvious. I am sure if I emailed them 20 times between December and May they would just filter my emails to the trash. When they said email us back, I sent a reply thanking them, then in late April I sent a reminder email about my request to shoot. That email read something like, Hi, my name is Justin and I am ... here is my portfolio ... I would like to shoot your Festival. They didn't get back to me, so I waited a couple of weeks and emailed them again, with the same info. That time they replied and said "sure" and attached a photo release that they required.

Step Three, read the fine print:

A few years ago I would have signed (almost) anything to shoot a multi-day music event. But I have been reading and following problems photographers have been having with copyright and stolen images, so this time I read it and thought, what does this do for me and what am I doing for them? It basically said I would give them a copy of all my images and they can use them for whatever they wanted. I retained rights to publish, sell, etc. but had to add the verbiage that the photo was taken at Thirsty Ear Festival 2011. I was cool with most of it, but changed the following things:

I changed the part that said I would give them all my images to say I would give them all edited images. This allowed me to control what my people saw of my images.

I also added a line that said when they use my images they had to add a verbiage saying I took the photo.

Those are the changes that made me feel comfortable. They might not work for you, but what I recommend is to read before you sign. If you don't understand it, get a lawyer or friend to read it for you. If you don't like what it says, propose a change. Be confident that you are good enough to propose that change.

Step Four, get prepared:

So in early May I got my signed photo release accepted and had a month to prepare. The photo release got me a photo pass to all the shows, a few of them had limited time/space. I picked the ones I wanted to be at and they put me on "the list". I was in like Flynn! Now to get to work. I was going to shoot at the Corazon Bar and the Santa Fe Brewing Company, I knew what Corazon was like from my Hawk and a Hacksaw shoot, but I had to figure out what the brewing company was like. After some searches on Flickr I found a handful of images from the indoor stage and with the help of the metadata found that the zoom length I liked/needed was around 100-150mm. I was still unsure of the outdoor stage, but kind of figured I could get close.

I knew low light would be the case so I needed some fast glass, FAST. I was gonna rent a 70-200mm 2.8 but it is heavy and since I would be using the 100-150mm range I decided on renting a 135mm 2.0 lens from Borrowlenses.com. Hindsight being 50-50 I would have loved to have that 70-200, the fact that when it got crowded I was switching lenses and felt a gap between my 17-50mm and the 135mm prime.

I also wanted to shoot some film and since I have two Canon AE-1's and some lenses it was a no brainer to get some film. To pick the film, I went through the rolls I have taken and looked for the color, grain, contrast, etc. that I liked best. I decided on Ilford XP2 400 for black and white and some Fiji Superia 400 for color. Both are 400 speed and since one of my AE-1's internal meter is broken I planned to get a meter reading with either the working one or my digital, so keeping them the same speed was nice.

Once I had the lens down I started to go over my basics on how I was gonna let people know who I was and quickly found I was almost out of business cards. CRAP! That would be silly, to have a card full of great images and no one knows who I am. So I pulled up Moo.com and in a couple of minutes I put together some beautiful business cards with my musicians portfolio on the front of them. I planned to hand them out to the bands and the attendees that seemed interested so I got 100 of them.

Finally I was ready to get there and shoot! In my next post I will go through the shooting conditions and the problems I faced, the great things that happened, and maybe even share some new shots from the shows!

In like company

2011-06-03T13:00:00.000-07:00

One of the hardest things to find now-a-days is a company that has a similar style and ethic as your own and finding one that has a product you need is even harder. But once you find that company, you don't feel elation because it just feels right, not exciting.

That is how I fee with Moo.com. They are a printing company that do the usual; business cards, post cards, etc. But they do it with pride. When you get your order it is in a padded envelope and in sexy white and black boxes. The best thing they have is "Printfinity" which allows you to print a different image on the front of every card you order. For photographers it is the best way to show off a portfolio, which is why I ordered my Musicians Portfolio as full size business cards with rounded corners, here are some shots of them:

But another cool thing you can do is order Mini Cards the same way and stick them to some magnets for a great product featuring your images. I have been selling these little guys over at The Octopus And The Fox and just ordered another set because I was running low! Check out these shots of my magnets:

So try them out, live a little, it is a good time! Also, stop by The Octopus And The Fox and check out my magnets along with MANY talented Albuquerqians.

Ideas abound..

2011-05-16T09:56:00.000-07:00

Things often happen in ways that surprise me.

As many of you know I started to use a Canon AE-1 film camera last year. I love the stripped down simplicity of a 50mm prime lens, manual focus and that aperture ring. Well last week a friend gave me a call, his parents were cleaning their house out to prepare for a remodel and had some things they wanted to get rid of. They had a Bell & Howell One Nine 8mm video camera, a projector, lights, and a screen. I was happy when they offered it to me for free. I picked them up and brought them home and after getting over the shock of the original boxes, I was in awe again of the camera itself. This thing is simplicity at it's best. All you do is set the aperture and point and shoot. It is truly the reason people got addicted to home movies and the reason we have products like the iPhone.

I am excited to find some film and get shooting.

Here is one more parting shot of it.

Los Altos Skate Park | April 29, 2011

2011-05-05T12:33:00.000-07:00

I was sitting at home, wondering what to do, when it hit me: GO TAKE SOME PHOTOS. Just go, don't worry about plans.

Just a few short miles from my house is Los Altos skate park, this is where I went, this is what I captured.

Lesson learned. Don't waste your time ... ACT now. All these skaters were very friendly when I stood in the middle of the park photographing them.

Good Friday Giveaway

2011-04-19T10:51:00.000-07:00

Here's the deal: I am giving away a one of a kind print of this photograph. The print measures 33"x49".

To get entered to win all you have to do is go over to my FACEBOOK PAGE and comment on the photo with a sentence or two about why you want it. The winner will be randomly picked on Good Friday. I will not mail this print, please be in ABQ or the surrounding area.

That is all. Thank you, have a great day.

Which one do you prefer? From Ocean Beach Pier

2011-04-14T16:39:00.000-07:00

Here are two more shots from San Diego. They are slightly different angels and one is an HDR, but I thought they would still be a good comparison of HDR vs. Non-HDR. Both images were shot with my Rebel XT camera and 17-50 2.8 Tamron lens.

Here is the HDR version:

Here is the Non-HDR version:

So which do you prefer? I would love to hear your choice as well as why.

Vacation!

2011-04-14T13:00:00.000-07:00

So I recently was fortunate enough to take a vacation with my lovely wife. We went to San Diego, a place that both of us really wanted to visit. I have always wanted to visit California, ever since I became a 49ers fan back in 5th grade. Rebecca had other motives, #1 was that her best friend lived there and #2 was because of the beach.

Needless to say we had fun, we did tons of things, went to many beaches, ate some great food, and drank some good beer (Go Stone Brewery!). I am still editing through the 1400 photos I took with my Canon Rebel XT and my Droid Incredible, but I wanted to share this image with you first.

Here is what is special about this image; I shot it with my Rebel XT with a Canon 50mm 1.8 FD mount lens. I recently bought THIS adapter to mount the FD lenses I have for my AE-1 onto my EOS body. I love the 50mm prime and to have one where I manual focus AND manually change my aperture is awesome.

Three Sails (aka Three Sheets to the wind)

Sunset Cliffs, San Diego, CA.

More to come.

A Hawk and a Hacksaw

2011-03-07T08:45:00.001-08:00

There is a little band from Albuquerque called A Hawk and a Hacksaw. Their sound is nothing you would expect from 20 or 30 somethings, especially here in the southwest USA. They play Eastern European folk music, and it is pretty awesome. It is interesting because I've met them through a friend of my wife, and they are great people.

I finally caught up with them in the quaint Corazon bar in Santa Fe and got to see their show. They got the crowd (a rather packed crowed) movin and shakin and finished off playing a song in the crowd.
Here are some photos I was able to snap in the dimly lit bar.

Eight months trapped in a car.

2011-02-21T08:17:00.000-08:00

In this increasingly digital age, we photographers are becoming very controlling. We demand our images to be tack sharp and we only shoot in perfect light. If everything doesn't align for us, we cast the image into the virtual trash can and it is lost forever in the bits and bytes only to be replaced by the "Perfect" image.

My secret weapon is happenstance. I let things happen and if my image works, then it works. If what I wanted to shoot isn't working, then I shoot what IS working. I read somewhere that when you are out shooting landscapes and the sky turns to a dishwater grey and the spectacular light is gone, the light is perfect for many other photographs, like flowers or portraits because now you are in a big soft box.

My favorite bio I have written said: "I am a roaming photographer. I place myself in nature and I let it guide me." I am not saying I don't make bad photos this way, I am not that full of myself yet, I am trying to say that bad photos can look really good.

The images below are more of my attempt at a process called Solargraphy. I have talked about this process before, but this time I want to explain the crazy circumstances that led to these beautiful images.

#1 This car had not been moved for many years, but a couple days after placing the cameras in it, it had to be moved by the owner. I expected that this would have caused some streaks to appear across the image area, but this didn't happen for some reason.

#2 The cameras suffered some dings and they called me to let me know, I went over and moved them back to their positions. Surprisingly the dings and dents in the cameras added some warping in the image that works really well.

#3 The cameras were only meant to be in the car for three months, but time slipped by me during the holiday season and they ended up staying in the car for eight months. I thought the cameras would be ruined (overexposed) because the paper used is extra sensitive to light. This wasn't the case because they were located in a shaded area that did not receive lots of direct sunlight.

Dog days of winter

2011-02-14T08:40:00.000-08:00

Here in New Mexico, February can be a weird month in our weather. One week it will be hot, the next cold and snowy. A couple of weekends ago it was warm so my wife and I decided to take the dog for a walk down by the Rio Grande and hopefully get a shot of the bald eagles that winter down there.

We didn't find any eagles, but our dog, Buster (a great dane/black lab mix), was sure happy to be out of the house. He started to get really excited and running around. I had my 75-300mm lens on so when he started to run around, I decided to take advantage of all the movement, excitement, and unique lighting and get a shot of him in a crazy state.

I ended up with one good shot of him coming right at me. In Aperture I made his eyes white to add to the demon/possessed look. I didn't mind the fact that he was out of focus, I felt it actually helped the image.Here is that image:

I uploaded it to Flickr and what not, but I wasn't 100% satisfied with it. I felt like it needed a little more. More what? Well, more fear. I wanted this image to be like that dream you would have as a kid, the one where the dogs are chasing you and you can run. Your trying as hard as you can, but your legs don't work and just before the dog bites, you wake up. That is what I wanted, so I sat down and looked through the other images I shot. Luckily I found another shot that was just a few frames before this one in the sequence. I applied the same adjustments to it in Aperture.

I love Aperture for this very reason, you can edit a photo, then pick up all those adjustments and put them on another image. This a life saver for when you have tons of images with the same lighting situation and you want to get them all to the same point. In Aperture 3 you can also make your set of adjustments into a preset which helps if you want to go back to those adjustments, but can't remember what photo they where on.

Anyway, after I got the second image looking the same as the first, I exported to Photoshop to merge the two. I also grabbed the eyes from the first image and used the same set on the second. I laid them over top one another and did a simple erase with a soft edge on the top image (the first image).
Here is the final product:

Maybe it is my subconscious talking but after making this image I have come to the realization that my photography is like the kid in that dream. It is trying to run but can't move. But, maybe it is like the dog, chasing and blood hungry, but with out a real reason.

Another inspiration for this photo was the opening scene to the move Waltz with Bashir.
Here is that clip:

Hockey by kids

2011-02-09T08:11:00.000-08:00

In preparation for a hockey tournament that I will be photographing I decided to go shoot some more images for the flyers. So before the superbowl this past weekend I headed over to the rink that will be hosting the event, talked with the owner and got permission to shoot where I wanted. These shots where with my Tamron 17-50mm 2.8 lens on my Rebel XT. I am renting a 50D and a Canon 70-200mm 2.8 from BorrowLenses.com for the tournament and am pretty excited to shoot with that bad boy!

A roaming bluesman

2011-01-27T08:43:00.000-08:00

The idea:
   To create a series of photographs that capture the essence of the wanderer.

The story:
   My father's life was a short 44 years. But what he did in that time, where he went, what he saw, that is what should be remembered. He was a wanderer, a free spirit, an explorer, a roamer, a hippie. What ever you want to call it he had an urge to find something new and live it. No one but him could tell you all the stories from all the places he visited and he wasn't going to tell you unless you asked.
   He was what I like to call an intellectual, a person that thinks more than talks. He was also a harmonica player, and enjoyed the blues particularly . He would rarely have the radio on though and when he did it would be set on some AM oldies station. But when you looked into his eyes, you could see that music was playing all the time in his mind.

The execution:
   On two different nights, a couple hours after sunset, I set out to various locations across Albuquerque. I went out alone, it wouldn't have made sense to use a model for a story about a lone roaming bluesman. The overall story of the images was that of someone passing through a town in the night while people slept. I would set up my camera with a 50mm lens and use a flash to cover my face and in a matter of 20 mins would have the shot at that location and move on.

The result:
   I edited all the photos and created the slideshow in Aperture 3. I exported the slideshow as a video and you can check it out HERE: http://vimeo.com/18485648

Laguna del Perro (north side / County Road A049)

2011-01-19T13:36:00.000-08:00

Just east of Estancia there is a unique feature, one name for it, Laguna del Perro (Dog Lake), doesn't say much to what is there. The other name, Salina Lake (Salt Lake), is a better clue. Geographically, the area is the low point of the Estancia Basin and these lakes from because the water has no place to go.

The common vantage point to see Laguna del Perro is from the south end, along HWY 60 just east of Willard. But that is for another post, this time I wanted to find a better, more intimate view of the mostly dried up lakes. Estancia is a sleepy little town and it is easy to miss as your driving south on HWY 41 from I-40 . But just as your entering the town from the north there is a little road heading east, County Road A049. You will know your on the right road if you see the Torrance County Detention Center, the road is paved up to this point.

After the pavement is a well maintained county dirt road that is typical of the area. These roads mostly run almost always run straight East/West or North/South and connect with a highway or ranch sooner or later. This area of New Mexico is heavily fenced, containing fields and cows alike. Sadly I could not find a gate or road that led down to the various lakes, but I did happen to find one point where a dry lake bed comes within camera shot of the road (about 7 miles from HWY 41). I stopped here and snapped the photographs you see here, then headed back to Albuquerque.

Grasslands, distant mountains, quiet ranch houses, and white cracked earth is abundant here. Let the sound of the wind in the grass spark your imagination.

I am a commercial photographer

2011-01-17T08:21:00.000-08:00

According to my logo I am a commercial photographer. I added that label when I did some work for Defined Fitness. But besides them, my commercial side of my business has been pretty slow. That is until a friend of mine shared something with me last August in a chat.

"I have been making earrings on the side" is what he said and he wanted to see if I would take some "proper" photos of them. I wasn't sure what kind of jewelry that he would be making, he is an airplane guy that also owns (and properly uses) a Jeep and a motorcycle. But when he sent me some cell phone pictures of them I was blown away. Of course I accepted his business and promptly began studying still life photography. I knew very little about it but my friend encouraged me to put my own spin onto it.

When I got the first batch he sent me, I played with many different lighting setups and props. I ended up shooting most of them in a makeshift light box. The sleek, modern aluminum jewelry was stunning and there were many different shapes and sizes of the stuff.
My friend began to get a lot of positive feed back on his work and decided to make a company out of it. Criffin Designs was launched on Thanksgiving and since then he has found himself selling his work.

The first time I laid hands on the actual jewelry I started to get an idea of a photo shoot with it. The jewelry is made out of new and reclaimed aircraft aluminum and their names come from nose art that was painted on World War II planes. The image I saw in my head was this:

I let it roll around in my head for a couple of days and then decided to pitch it to my friend some time in November. He loved the idea and told me to look for a model for the shoot. Luckily on Facebook I have befriended a cross section of local models. I gave him a list of my picks and he selected Kristyn. I met with her and I discussed my idea: A commercial shoot of the jewelry done in a fashion shoot kind of way. We would have a couple of shots planned out and the rest would just be to roll with the place.

The hardest part (well at least I thought it would be anyway) was finding a WWII era bomber. Luck and fate was on our side because less than 3 miles from my house is the The National Museum of Nuclear Science & History. They have a B-29 on display and were very happy to let us do a shoot with it.

The photo shoot was set, my friend would fly down on a Saturday morning and bring a big bag jewelry. We would meet the model at the Museum. My friend would not only style the jewelry, he also agreed to be my assistant and hold the reflector. I kept the shoot as simple as I could, just a single silver reflector. We shot in the middle of the afternoon and once we accepted the fact that the wind was going to blow, we just worked with it.

The images came out great and Criffin Designs and I have formed a great working relationship. It has really made me love the commercial photography side of my business.

Here is one more image from the shoot:

So if your looking for a great Valentines day gift for the women in your life, or you want to spoil yourself, check out Criffin Designs and buy something handmade and beautiful.

Glad to be back

2011-01-13T10:36:00.000-08:00

First off let me thank you for your patience. I took the month off with plans to focus on one project but ended up working on revamping my entire website, doing a commercial photo shoot where the client had to fly into town and we shot in front of a WWII era B-29. Anyway I was up late last night (midnight) working on getting my website finished and posting my project. All said and done, I got 80% of my wishlist done and 100% of the MUST DO's taken care of, not too shabby!

With out further ado, I would like to introduce you to my latest project:

Mark Allen Simenson was born on January 13th 1957 in a little northern Minnesota town called Thief River Falls. He became known as Smarky on the internet when he decided to rule the web.

He left us here on earth too early, October 21st 2001, but he has now returned. I got a chance to photograph him, see his story in the video below.

This is not a test.....

2010-12-13T09:21:00.000-08:00

This blog has been quite, and I apologize for that. But I am going to be unplugging from it for 1 more month. I will also be unplugging from Flickr, Facebook, Tumblr, etc. during this time.

Today is December 13th, in one month it will be January 13th and would've been my father's birthday. On that day I am planning to come back on here and launch a new series of photographs dedicated to him and his life.

Please be patient with me and have a safe and sane month.

Yours truly
-Justin Thor Simenson

Moon Landing

2010-11-05T10:14:00.000-07:00

If you have been keeping up with my stuff on Facebook or Flickr or even Twitter, you know that I have been obsessed lately with capturing the moon. It has captured me, I am in it's grips and can't break free. But why fight it? It is a beautiful subject, and I have found a peace with photographing it. Tomorrow is the New Moon so I decided to take advantage of this day off and write up what I have learned.

But first off, here are my first few images I have taken:

Full moon:

First Quarter:

Waning Crescent:

So, what have I learned?

#1 The moon is bright, really bright. The moon is bright because it is reflecting light from the sun so shooting it at an ISO 100 at f/11 for 1/250th of a second with my Canon Rebel XT and 75-300mm lens at 300mm is a good starting point for a full moon or gibbous moon.

#2 The moon is moving. A slow shutter speed is the first thought that came to my mind when I thought about shooting at night, but that really isn't an option if you want the moon to be sharp. It is moving so keep that in mind when you are shooting the moon. As their is less moon there will be less light, and this will make it more difficult to have a fast shutter speed. When I shot the crescent moon I had to move my ISO to 400 and I was still at a 1/10th of a second shutter speed!

#3 Crispy focus baby! OK, so you want to shoot a beautiful crisp, sharp moon shot. You put the camera on a STURDY tripod, set a self timer so you know you are going to be moving the camera, and you put the lens to manual focus and twist it to infinity.... why is the moon not in focus. It is really far away so infinity should be the right setting...WRONG, from my research, telephoto lenses focus beyond infinity. I know what you are thinking, that is not possible infinity includes everything beyond it, but I ask, where does it begin.... math teachers love that one. As far as photography goes, if you don't believe me, try it out. Then when you agree with me just set your auto focus point ( I use my center because that is the sharpest on my camera) on the moon and whola! Gotta love auto focus.

#4 Post processing is not like bacon, more is not better. An over processed image is easy to spot, and unless you love that look, don't do it. If you want a moon shot that looks natural and normal just adjust the sharpness a tad. On these images, I found that Photoshop Elements does a great job in sharpening the image without adding noise. I am sure pro Photoshop or Aperture users can get similar results, but with one command Elements did what I needed.

other notes: You don't need an expensive tripod for this, just a sturdy one. I use an old super heavy metal tripod I bought for $10 at the flea market. This thing is really basic but has a nice platform for holding the camera and is really stout so it stays still.

Proof of A Portfolio vs. Promise of a Resume: Take Action.

2010-10-19T10:41:00.000-07:00

I read Chase Jarvis' article and though, yeah! But then I saw Justin Eaton's response article and I said HELL YEAH! Justin's article made me think, why didn't I post a response blog post like that. Then I thought, why don't I write a blog post about not writing the post first.

Justin Eaton recently asked me a few questions about photography for his blog ( SEE THE POST HERE ). I was honored to share my thoughts (I never thought anyone cared including myself) and I personally think he has talent and wish him all the luck with his career!

So to my response to Chase Jarvis is this:

I have been wanting to do so many different types of photography lately. From fashion to abstract to more lumen prints. But one thing has really been sticking out and that is documentary photography. As and artist I have been in the "create" mode for a while but I feel like as a photographer I should also do some work in the "document" mode. Photographers record minute pieces of time, but to break that I wanted to document MONTHS of time in single images. Enter Solargraphy!

Solargraphy Camera #7
Exposure: 3 months

Canister: 35mm film can

Location: Chroma Studios window sill Albuquerque, New Mexico

Paper: Ilford Pearl Paper

Solargraphy Camera #3

Exposure: 3 months
Canister: 35mm film can
Location: Sandia Foothills just north of I-40 Albuquerque, New Mexico
Paper: Ilford Pearl Paper

Solargraphy Camera D

Exposure: 4 months
Canister: Red Bull can
Location: my backyard
Albuquerque, New Mexico
Paper: Foma Paper

Then I decided to start to document the commuters of Albuquerque. My first step to doing this was to document the mass transit system. Here is my first video of that series.

Creative process

2010-10-12T09:07:00.000-07:00

There are many downsides to being a self-taught photographer, way to many to talk about in one blog, but in this blog I want to talk about one that I tackled this year; THE CREATIVE PROCESS.

What is a creative process? Sure, I follow over 80 photographer blogs and daily I check them all and get inspired by a look of an image or the subject matter, but that isn't really a good creative process, that is just a source of inspiration. A creative process is coming up with your own damn idea and making it happen the way to envisioned it.

The photo above is a product of my first attempt at a doing a real creative process. A friend of mine wanted a photo of the Dog House, which I blogged about HERE. This image didn't just happen, there wasn't just a model hanging out in an evening gown at the Dog House at a time I happened to visit. This shot took about 6 months to make happen.

OBSTACLE #1:
I really struggled to first think of WHAT I wanted in front of the little hot dog shack. How could I capture it's ambiance, it's quirkiness, it's vibe? As months went by and I let it percolate, the idea hit me one day, what about the fact that it is a late night mecca for the people that visit the downtown bars!

OBSTACLE #2:
The next struggle was to think of HOW the shot should look. OK, I have a cool idea, put a model that is all dressed up in front of this little hole in the wall, but how do you capture it? I knew I wanted to capture the "night life" feel so I knew it would be at night but would I shot really wide, would I shoot high up, low to the ground, or at a normal eye level? After visiting the place one evening to see what the lightning was like, I knew the neon sign was going to play a big role in the story of the image. As I sat there eating, I started to "see" the image, a low, wide angle that would put the sign along the top and the model right in the middle of the shot.

OBSTACLE #3:
The time had really started to pass me by at this point. I felt like it wasn't really going to happen, but I still kept thinking about the image and realized I didn't know WHO I was going to shoot. I put the word out on Facebook that I was looking for a model, and after a couple of weeks a friend said, I might know of someone. After looking at her portfolio, Facebook to the rescue!, I knew she would be great. That is when the ball started to gain momentum. We met and talked about the shoot and within a week or so from our first conversation, we had a time and date for the shoot.

OBSTACLE #4:
After 6 months of kicking around and idea, the shoot was actually happening. During the shoot I started off by stopping my creative process and trying hard to get "the" shot. After about 10 minuets I realized that I needed to CONTINUE TO BE CREATIVE in the shoot. Working with the model and the location became fun and the photos got better. We had so much fun that we decided to go to another location and shoot, you can see that write up HERE.

The reason I decided to revisit this process was to help show young or just starting photographers that the creative process doesn't come easy. If you start shooting landscape like me, you get used to shooting with what you have and not manipulating the scenery much (in the field anyway). I also want to point out that it gets a lot easier once you do it the first time, and when it is successful you want to do it more. I am currnetly working with another friend/client on a really fun shoot and this time it has only been a couple of weeks and I have just about everything nailed down, including a real life WWII era B-29 plane!

I can't wait for that shoot and to share it with you, but on a closing note, I want to share an image I am in love with. It was shot with my Canon Rebel XT and processed in Aperture 3 with the cool presets (that I then tweeked a little further to get it to this point).

Sorry for the delay......

2010-09-27T08:04:00.000-07:00

It has been a while since I last updated my blog. I have been pretty busy with many things lately which has lead me to a few new things I want to share with you.

The first thing is that tomorrow, September 28th, is my birthday AND the birthday of Imagination Included Photography. I have decided this year to give out presents to fans of Imagination Included Photography. These presents will be mailed out by the end of the week, if you would like to be added to the mailing list, please send me your mailing address.

This month, I got to take a tour around the old New Mexico State Pen in Santa Fe, check out my photos from that HERE.

Another great thing I started to do this month is take my film camera, a Canon AE-1, out with me. I really love this camera. It is small, light, and with a 50mm lens mounted it takes awesome photos. The thing that I have decided to do with these photos is bring them into Aperture 3 and create some slideshow movies out of them.

This video is the first in a new series that will explore Albuquerque commuters. Mass transit in Albuquerque is pretty good for a western state. There are many people who rely on it to get them to the various place in Albuquerque.

This next video is from the Bernalillo Wine Festival. Some friends of my wife and I came into town over Labor Day weekend and we all headed to the little town of Bernalillo to enjoy some wine, food, and the beautiful New Mexico weather.

This year is really flying by and I know that soon it will be 2011, but this year has brought many things to Imagination Included Photography. I will return that favor soon as I am getting another art series completed soon, and not just in the computer, but this one is actually taking a physical shape and once I am done hand making them, I plan to get them into an art gallery or two.

Stay tuned!

Catchup or Ketchup or Catsup

2010-08-25T09:38:00.000-07:00

However it is spelled, I am needing some.

Photography projects are hard for me to actually complete for some reason. I have self diagnosed myself with photography ADHD because my mind is always wondering and creating projects for me. To help me not lose my ideas, I started to keep a list on Google Docs so that I can update it where ever I am.

Time, money, and time. Those are the three things that are slowing the progress of my projects. They are not excuses and I am not complaining, just explaining myself.

Working a full time job leaves me a couple hours after work each day to do something. The weekends seem to fill up a week or two in advance, so how does one do a time intensive project with limited time?

Money only limits me when it comes time to actually create an exhibit to show my project. That is where I am with my Lumen Art project. I have a couple of galleries that are interested in showing them, now I just need to find the extra money to make the final product. Luckily this project is very simple and the cost of materials is not out of control. When I did my Light Streaks series the cost of creating my prints was over $500. Selling only three of them didn't help.

It all comes to planning and opportunity. Taking out my calendar and marking the weekends months in advance is key. Just do it! I am planning out my Northern New Mexico project for times of the year when the people are working in the environment I want to capture them in. My Lumen Art was all opportunity. They take hours to create, but the sun is doing all the work so I would just set them up and I could actually be making art while I was at work!

All my other projects that are on the list will get done, I just have to wait for the time to present itself. Patience is key for me, there are times when I feel that nothing is getting done, like right now, but in reality I am taking my Lumen Art out of my head, getting it done, AND I am taking it to the people. Once that show is on the walls, it will be complete. I am also creating more solargraphs. Some of my cameras from April are still up and I also put out more in July. Maybe this year I can do some small workshops of the alternative processes I have become to love. Wait, that is another project let me write that down.

Also, December 4, 2010 is Help Portrait day. I am trying to gather up more photographers and make up artists so that more Albuquerque families can feel the happiness! If you are or know of a photographer, makeup artist, or family that can't afford a professional photoshoot, please contact me via email. Thank You!

Santa Fe Workshop RECAP!!

2010-08-03T09:57:00.000-07:00

I know it has been a long time since my last post, but I have been busy. I am caught back up and wanted to catch you guys and girls up.

Earlier this summer I heard that Santa Fe Photographic Workshops was giving away $1000 scholarships to their classes. I got my stuff together and applied for a residence scholarship. Sadly, I did not get a full $1000 scholarship but they did toss me a $250 note. I have had my eye on these workshops for some time, they are really well put together and bring in some big names as instructors. When I heard that I had a $250 credit toward a workshop called Northern New Mexico: A Photographic Adventure, taught by Tony Bonanno, I knew I had to make it happen.

These classes are not cheap, they run on average around $1000 plus a meal plan and location and model fees. I had some work ahead of me so I knew I could get close. Luckily with the help from some generous family and friends I was able to purchase my seat in time.

The class started July 4th and ran until the 10th. Everyday, and night, was busy with photography. From presentations by the instructors of the week on Monday and Tuesday night, to going out on location almost everyday and shooting thousands of images and then editing them for the review the next day. I got very little sleep that week, but in return I learned a TON, I gained some great friends, and my love for photography grew exponentially with every shutter click. I also got to shoot with a Canon 40D and really woke up to how limited I am with my Rebel XT. The autofocus is way better, the speed of it is amazing, and the images that came out of it where far better.

What did I learn? Well way too much to put into this blog, but to sum it up I learned how to approach a photograph different. I wasn't taking pictures wrong before, I was just not thinking them through in an intelligent way. I feel that now when I want to take a photograph, I stop and think through things instead of snapping the image. I played a lot too. I experimented with more HDR images as well as a pin hole body cap.

When I got home I started to edit the images and that is when I realized I took a TON! It really blew me away. I ended up with over 100 "5 star" images. "5 star" refers to the way I rate my images in Aperture. I go through my images and give 1 stars to images I like, then go through the 1 stars and give the ones that stand out another, and repeat until I have my 5 stars. I really like this because I see the images over and over and really get to a good selection in the end.

Here are my photographs from each day:

DAY ONE:

DAY TWO:

DAY THREE:

DAY FOUR:

"HDR = How i Do photography Really the same but different"

2010-06-30T12:09:00.000-07:00

HDR (high-dynamic range) photography has been around a while and I have been following some great blogs that feature it, my current favorite is Vanilla Days. The idea of HDR has really intrigued me because it pushes photography, it pushes it to closer to what they eye sees as well as pushing it beyond into a surreal realm.

I recently posted some of my work in what I call my "HDR Sandbox". I call it that because it is where I play in my own world, I prefer to take my HDR images beyond the "real" and play with them in the surreal realm. The response I have received has been great, I really did not expect people to fall in love with them as much as they have. One comment that I read a couple of times was "oh, I have heard about / seen these, they are amazing." So my response is this; make some of your own! They are fun and easy, what more can you ask for?

There are a couple of things to think about when you decide that you want to do an HDR photograph.

The first thing should be "What program will I use to create it?" Now, there are programs out there for every level of user, form the free stuff to the new version of Photoshop. I chose Photomatix from HDRsoft because they have a plug in for Aperutre but you can pick the program that matches you.

The second thing is "What will my camera do to help me?" As most of you know I shoot a Canon dSLR, it has a built in auto exposure bracketing feature that allows me to pick the "step" range and I just click the shutter 3 times. That allows me to take 3 different exposures (-1,0,+1 is what I used for this shot) without much difficulty. If your camera doesn't have this option or you want more images, you can manually change your camera to get each shot (which is what I did for this shot). That being said, you can also create an HDR from a single image by saving two copies and changing their exposure, one up and one down (which is what I did for this shot).

Another thing that you might want to consider is setting your camera on a tripod. I use a tripod as little as possible because I like the freedom and mobility of shooting free hand but slight movements of the camera between shots can create ghosting and not-so-sharp images. I am not saying those are bad things, just things to keep in mind. If your images wants to be crisp, use a tripod, if there is some play, just shoot!

I hope I have helped, please ask any questions that you have. I am sure I muddied the water more than I cleared it. Just remember that you can take these as far as your mind will let you. Have fun!

Make the party breathless

2010-06-24T14:47:00.000-07:00

After 50 years of being married their kids decided to throw a little party. I showed up at the synagogue with my iMac, my wireless router, and my camera gear. Set up was fast, plugged in the iMac, wireless router and hooked up the projector. They had a old projection screen set up in the corner and my set up hid nicely under the table with the projector.

I grabbed my Canon AE-1with a 50mm lens and myCanon Digital Rebel XT, with a 18-55 kit lens, and popped in my Eye-Fi card. What is an Eye-Fi card you ask? Only the best thing to happen to photography since color film (which I had in my AE-1)! This card is an SD card and it transmits your photos wirelessly (sp?) to your computer.

At the front entrance people came in greeted by the family. I snapped as fast as I could to keep up with the "Hi, how are you" and the "It is so good to see you". I switched back and forth from my film so that I could have both film and digital snap shots. I did the same during the beautiful renewal of vows ceremony.

Then something magical happened. As everyone was leaving the room and headed toward the room with a nice brunch, I went another way and started to transfer my images. No cords, no fuss. I just set the "protect" in my camera and that image would fly over to an instant slideshow. -side note: you can have the card transfer all images or selected images, in this case it was nice to pick the great shots and it allowed me the ability to shoot more freely.

Even before people where sitting at their tables, images of them where appearing in the slideshow. I could not help but to smile when I would catch them pointing and nudging the person next to them, saying "look at that, we are on the screen" or "awww". I didn't stop there. I walked around the room and continued to shoot as people sat and visited. I switched to my Lensbaby 2.0 because it is just a fun lens.

The people at the event loved the whole thing, I had many people come up to me and say "we really love the slideshow".

ON A TECHIE NOTE:
Eye-Fi cards only come in SD format and they do not support my set up (a SD-CF adapter) but I have not had any problems with it. I look forward to getting a Canon T2i and the Eye-Fi card that supports video transfers so that I can take it to the next step. Multiple Eye-Fi cards can send to one computer, also if you have an iPhone there is an app that lets you send your photos to the same computer as well, so if you wanted you could get a HUGE photo slideshow together at once, live, with no cords.

The program I used on my iMac is called Graphic Converter which is the only software that I have found that lets you play a "live" slideshow.

In the past I have also done a tethered live shoot into Aperture, check it out HERE.

Open for discussion

2010-06-16T09:46:00.000-07:00

I want to open up a discussion on some of my current work. I have been playing with new color schemes, films, and other things. I know that there is a wide berth of photography styles here, if you don't like it or see things I should work on:

PLEASE POST YOUR COMMENTS HERE ON THIS BLOG!

Again, I know that there is a wide berth of photography styles here, if you don't like it or see things I should work on:

PLEASE POST YOUR COMMENTS HERE ON THIS BLOG!

Giving a little class on class

2010-06-01T14:17:00.000-07:00

The Dog House in downtown Albuquerque was the location for a shoot that I did recently. In a previous blog I talked about the shoot with Candace under the rail road tracks along Central Ave, this shoot was pretty similar.

We meet up at the little joint around 9pm and where happy to see that it was not too busy. This little place can get pretty busy at some random times. When we showed up there was one truck in front of the building and just as I was thinking, we better block the other spots a car pulled up. I convinced them to move and let us shoot, but it cost me a chili dog.

The shoot was pretty fast, we worked around the car hop that kept coming in and out of the front door. I had been thinking up this shot for at least 8 months so I had the setups and general poses all ready to go. Candace was awesome and we got along great. That made us both just concentrate on our things and I didn't have to worry the minutia of her poses. I had my 430EX flash on a tripod camera right and fired it off with my Cyber Sync.

The post processing of these photos were not heavy. The most I did was smoothing out the wrinkles in her dress. I used Aperture to do the minor color correction, cropping, and sharpening. I then brought the files in to Photoshop to do the "ironing" of her dress.

This shoot was before the "Under the tracks" shoot, so after we finished here we headed over to that shoot. If you haven't read that post check it out here.

Vacation = Film Study

2010-05-24T08:26:00.000-07:00

I recently purchased my first film camera, a Canon AE-1. I bought a few rolls of film from the drug store to make sure the camera worked. I was surprised at the the quality of the camera, even though it was older than me and had been sitting around for years.

Once I knew the camera worked I started to read up on which film I should try out. T-Max was thrown out there a lot but something about Ilford film caught my eye. I also heard that expired film can return interesting results as well. When I went down to my local pro photo shop I was happy to find that they had a bin full of expired Ilford film. I bought a few rolls to test it out. A couple of weeks passed and nothing inspired me to pull out the film. But then my wife and my mom wanted to go for a road trip to Minnesota so I decided to load up that film.

From right to left: Parker, Victoria, Rebecca. Low light shot, only the ceiling light was on.

Old tractor in my uncle's barn. The light was coming from a window and the open barn door.

Maple Lake in the middle of the day.

Terrebone Church, mid morning light. This side was all in shadows.

Cross and flag in the cemetery. The mid morning light was perfect.

My wife fishing on Maple Lake. This was the middle of the day. This film has great shadow detail.

Terrebone cemetery cross. I love the shades of grey in the sky!

In Minnesota they are always preparing for winter. This shot was in low light because it was in the evening when this area was all in the shadows.

Another shot in low light. This mower was in total shadow and the ambient light was blocked on three sides.

Overall I really like this film. The shadow detail is perfect, allowing me to shoot in the middle of the day. I also shot these not just at the 400 that the film was rated but also at 100, 200, 800, & 1200. That is -2, -1, +1, & +2 stops without any push or pull processing. I have also shot some XP5, but until I set up my darkroom, I am can't develop it. I guess that is the best thing about the XP2, it is developed in color processing so I can drop it off anywhere.

I will keep you all posted as I experiment my way through it!

High Class Under the Tracks shoot

2010-05-04T07:48:00.000-07:00

While wrapping up a photo shoot, at an undisclosed location (that is for a future blog), Candace Gómez and I wanted to shoot more. We talked about various places and then she mentioned that at Central Ave and the railroad tracks there was a light installation that looked pretty cool. I had seen it a couple of times and as soon as she mentioned it, I knew that we were going to get some cool images there.

If your not familiar with downtown Albuquerque, Central Avenue at 9:30 at night is not the safest place to be, although it is a lot better than it used to be. Parking in that area is another issue, but thanks to Candace sweet talking a parking lot attendant we got to park across the street for free. Central Avenue it pretty unique because it goes underneath the railroad tracks, the light installation they put in is LED lights that are along the walk ways and on the pillars in the middle of Central.

The color of lights fade from one color of the rainbow to the next. This really added some cool effects, but it was also sometimes a pain because we would get a shot all set up then the colors would shift on us. I used my Canon 430EX flash via my three foot TTL chord. The first shot in the series below was bare bulb at the lowest setting. It did not look too good on my camera's LCD screen (although after bringing it into Aperture, it came out pretty nice). I wanted to get a softer flash but not change the ambient light from the LED's so I took two pieces of bubble wrap that I keep in my camera bag and put them over the flash and held it on with a Velcro strap. The result was a softer light that allowed me to keep the background colors and at the same time have Candace in a good exposure.

I did all of the post processing in Aperture 2 with only minor color alterations, with exception to the three square images where I took one image and change the color hue to the three different colors. If you have any questions about my photos please feel free to ask me!

One little speck of dust

2010-04-28T10:32:00.000-07:00

I remember one experiment from chemistry class that involved creating crystals. We created this mixture of chemicals that would just sit there, balanced and stagnant, until you added that one speck of dust or you scratched the bottom of the petri dish. The chemicals would react with that speck of dust or little scratch so fast, creating amazing crystals.

Why do I remember that experiment? Right now in my photography career I am setting up those chemicals. No, photography is not my full time job, hell it isn't even my second job. Photography, right now, is my passion, my second love (my first is my wife and family). My life feels crazy; working two jobs to pay the bills, fixing up the house with my wife, being the Historian in my Jeep club (The New Mexico 4-Wheelers), and finding time for my photography. But I do find time to continue to further my photography knowledge and experience, my mind is in photography mode most of the 24 hours in the day.

Last year my goal was to get my photography out of my house and into the public's eye. I feel that I accomplished that goal. Last year I had stuff up in at least one place every month. Currently I have stuff up at Chroma and New Mexico Tea Company. I did this by simply putting a portfolio together (I created a book in Aperture) and hitting the pavement and asking around.

This year my goal is to get people and business calling me. How will I do this? What is the best way? I haven't a clue. Getting my stuff out there wasn't enough. As I have thought about the best way to do this I came up with an approach that I am going to try. Albuquerque has tons of small business. It seems that every street corner has a shop with an owner that is working hard behind the counter.

My plan is to be their friend, shop there, and tell my friends to shop there. This is what I want them to do with my business, so why not start with doing it to their business? Once that ball gets rolling and they know me and know I am a good photographer and a good person, I think they will think of me when they need a photographer for their next ad campaign or product promotion. Small business need other small business as much as they need a community. They can't afford a high end photographer, nor can they stand out of the crowd with stock photography. That is where a small photography business comes into play, bringing professionalism and creativity at a reasonable price.

Will this be that speck of dust that will crystallize my photography career? Who knows. But truthfully, I don't care. It is a good thing to do and the right thing. Life should be about the journey not the end, so I will just continue to do the right things and I should find myself on the right road.

Old Town Engagement Shoot

2010-04-23T09:20:00.000-07:00

A couple of my friends decided they really liked each other and wanted to get married. As a wedding present I agreed to do an engagement photo shoot for them. After some talks we decided that the location would be Old Town Plaza in Albuquerque, New Mexico. I have seen some great images come out of that location and thought I would give it a try.

The location is perfect, there are lots of shady alleys that have great light and great decor. My wife came along to help me out and we showed up around 6pm. I wanted to get some shots with the fading light as well as some in full shade to get that soft look on their faces.

Basically we walked around the main gazebo and when we saw a spot that looked good, we stopped and shot. Here are the images that resulted from that hour or so.

Here are a couple of shots I snapped at their wedding. It was a great little ceremony at the Prairie Star in Bernalillo, New Mexico.

Three is a Magic Number

2010-04-15T08:24:00.000-07:00

What is a portriat, not a "portrait" but a "portriat"?

To me a portiat is a series of photographs that work together as on to capture the true feelings, emotions, heart, and soul of a person.

I found my photography migrating from landscapes with no trace of people to people in their environments. In this transformation I found for some reason that there would always be three photos that would work together, bringing the person's story to paper.

If you ever watched the first episode of Schoolhouse Rock you will have heard a song called "Three is a Magic Number". This series shows just how magical three photos can be.

Live projection of a live performance

2010-04-07T10:16:00.000-07:00

I have mentioned Chroma Studios a couple of times, Chroma is an art gallery/studio space that I show my photography at. Chroma has somewhere around 50 gallery artists showing many different types of art, it also has a great performance space and they host several performances a month. The first Friday of April marked two years for Chroma and the owners wanted to throw a big party/opening/concert/etc. and they succeed. They had a documentary showing, the studios were open for people to meet the artist, they even had an artist reciting haiku in the elevator.

The performance space was where I spent almost the entire night. I got there around 5:30 and started shooting right away. What was I shooting? Well there were poets, solo guitarists, a solo banjo player, a guitar duo, and a three man rock band. Let me get into the nitty gritty of my set up and how the process worked. There were some problems, but I managed to work around them and get some great shots.

The computer I used was my iMac (2007 Intel plastic version), the projector was a Hitachi (not sure the model but it was pretty sweet), my camera is the Canon Digital Rebel XT, and the lenses I used were a 24-70mm 2.8L and 70-300.

I decided to shoot tethered instead of using my Eye-Fi card for several reasons. First I wanted to shoot RAW format and I don't own a PRO card so it wont transmit the RAW files. Second I wanted the projected image to be just the image I just shot, with my Eye-Fi card I have only found a program that will do a slideshow and randomize the images. I wanted my photos to be brought into Aperture 2 where I could edit them live as well as do some different on-screen proofing for different effects.

To shoot tethered I had to install EOS Utility. This program will download your photos to a desired folder. The second program that I had to install was Aperture Hot Folder. This is a program that monitors a folder and imports the images (RAW files only) into Aperture. The biggest thing that I found was that you have to open the programs in the right order. If you didn't then things didn't seem to work quite right. First open EOS Utility, then plug in the camera, close Aperture or iPhoto if it automatically opens, then open Aperture Hot Folder and it will open Aperture. With those steps I did not have any problems with importing.

Inside Aperture I changed my view to not have the inspector tab open, only the large view and the strip of photos at the bottom. I wanted to show full screen but it would not work for me. After the show I found that if you set the projector display to NOT mirror your computers display you can the set Aperture to show a full screen image of the selected image onto the second monitor (the projector).

This set up worked really well. I shot for about four hours or so, until my battery died and my back up battery was not charged...oops! But after about a half our break I was able to finish out the night. I had read that shooting tethered would drain your battery pretty quick but I didn't know that EOS Utility will not work once your battery gets low. That is a pretty sucky thing. The other problem I encounted was my 430 Speedlite stopped firing via my Cybersync. I had to fall back to my three foot TTL chord. I am still not able to get it to fire, I think it is the shoe to audio jack that is bad.

Here is a nice video that I put together on Animoto of the photos that I liked. The music is by Aaron Lewis who owns Chroma with his wife Paula Manning-Lewis.

The pull of the polar opposites

2010-03-18T10:06:00.000-07:00

I would describe myself as a technology junkie. I follow the companies I love on Twitter, Facebook, blogs, etc. and try to stay on that cutting edge, even when that cutting edge makes me bleed. In the last 6 months my photography has expanded into off camera lighting with both big and small lights. This is something that I am really happy about and can not see how I got as far as I did without that knowledge.

So I find it interesting that lately I have also been drawn to "anti-technology" forms of photography. I somehow came across a form of photography called Solargraphy, which captures the tracks of the sun over many months (sometimes years) with pinhole cameras. The concept started with something called Solars Project. One person that has continued to do some amazing thing with some photographic paper and recycled Red Bull cans is Diego Lopez Calvin. What I have done is made 20 pinhole cameras and got some artists at Chroma Gallery together to put them up through out Albuquerque and other places in New Mexico.

Some other things that I have found and have been drawn into are Photograms and Lumen prints. They are similar in that you use light, photographic paper and objects to create the images. The difference is that Photograms use a chemical process and darkrooms while Lumen prints only use a fixer and rely on sunlight. Both are very simplistic concepts but I think that allows you to just focus on the art of the image. It is easy to get lost in the technology when you have to wonder if you have the right lens, the right ISO setting, the proper aperture...etc.

Why am I rambling on about this? Well I really feel that being pulled by both the simplistic and advanced photography concepts I really am being centered to who I am as a photographer. I will not fight the pull from either direction because I feel that doing that would only hurt me.

Being a "self-taught" photographer I have not had the pleasure or pain of sitting in classes that taught me the history of photography and the many different things that have been done. I have really felt blind at times, grasping in the dark for something. One night I woke up and wrote down something that was in my head; "Why am walking around in the dark grasping at rays of light when what I am searching for is the SUN!". I find that to be the perfect description of a person that is self-taught in anything. You are always scouring into your trade looking for something to inspire you.

Chatter A Chamber Ensemble

2010-03-16T09:06:00.000-07:00

It all started on a Sunday morning after showing my art at a great local function called The Church of Beethoven. One of the founding members of Chatter was playing and a couple of the board members were also in attendance. After the music was over and the coffee and espressos were gone I started to take down my photos (I was showing my Light Streak Series). The board members for Chatter came up to me and talked with me about my photography and what different types I do. After our conversation I finished packing and we went our separate ways.

About a month of so after that I got a call from them and after another meeting with them I agreed to do some promo photos for them. Chatter is a non-profit organization that is committed to helping the community through their music so I was 100% on board with photographing them. The big bonus came when I found that the two founding members were not only photogenic but also willing to collaborate ideas.

I have done a couple of shoots with them, with a couple more planned for the summer, but I wanted to share the recent St. Patrick's Day photo shoot and the end result with you.

The idea that I came up with was that the pot of gold was in the music so to show this I decided to put my speed light in the violin case. Normally to achieve the look of shining gold one would put a yellow or light green gel on the flash. I don't have any gels yet so I had to improvise. I lucked out by finding a piece of yellow paper and covered my flash with it. I played around with a couple of different layers of the paper to get the right hue I wanted and once I got it I just put the flash in the case. It was triggered with my CyberSync (I have the CST and 2 CSRB's). The shots with just the single flash was a little too dark so I added a little fill with my AlienBee B800 set at the lowest setting to the camera right.

Looking back I should have placed it next to me and bumped it up just a little more. One reason I didn't was because the place we where shooting was a carpeted stage and it would have looked pretty funny for the foreground to be illuminated showing the carpet. Another reason is because I didn't have my extension cord with me and I could not get the flash around to that side with the length of cord I had. Reminder: ALWAYS bring the extension cord, even when shooting in a building that has plugs everywhere because they won't be where YOU need them for your shot!

After only slight editing in Aperture I brought the image into Photoshop to create the flyer with the image and the verbiage they sent me. In Photoshop I added did a nice little oval crop with a diffused edge to eliminate the carpet in the foreground. Then I added some little pixie dust with a nice glow floating out of the case for a little more drama. An finally I added some outer glow to the text. The colors I used for the pixies, text, and glow for all were picked out of the image.

HERE IS THE FINAL PROMO FLYER:

Let me let you in on my little secrets pt. 2

2010-03-08T08:25:00.000-08:00

Today I will share my little jewels around Albuquerque. These are places that are so close that you can get to them in less than 20 mins from the Big-I.

The first one is what I call the "Rock House". From what I understand this rock house ruin used to be a big party house for high schoolers. In the recent years that I have been frequenting it, however, it seems to have stayed pretty clean of trash.

This house has a great back drop of the Sandia Mountains and since it is so close to them you can get balance of the mountain and the old house. I have used this location for landscape photography as well as for a senior portrait shoot.

Another great spot that I have found is along the Rio Grande river or "Bosque" as we call it. It is located on Central Avenue just east of the river. There are great cottonwood trees throughout this stretch as well as some cool graffiti under the bridge. This diversity allows you to get a great range of photos from a single location.

Through the month of October the leaves are changing in this area and this is when I did both an engagement shoot and a family shoot. Both shoot were jest great to do and I found that one of the best places to get an even light plus all of the great colors is right up at the parking area. The parking area is elevated and the sun sets behind all of the cottonwoods creating a huge shadow and rim light at the same time. Don't be afraid to walk around on the trails though. There are some great old trees that have tons of character.

This is the map to the Rock House:

View Larger Map

This is the map to the Bosque:

View Larger Map

Let me let you in on my little secrets.

2010-03-04T09:44:00.000-08:00

I started my love for photography in the new class of photography. No longer are the days when photographers can sit still and just do their one type of photography. Not to say that it is a bad idea or that they create bad images, but my generation of photographers have such a wealth of knowledge at our finger tips.

So when I started to read blogs or watch online videos by the likes of Chase Jarvis, David Hobby, Joe McNally and Scott Kelby I fell in love with the fact that these top photographers would freely share their techniques and ideas. With them pushing free information through the internet I think they are really pushing themselves to create new and different things.

Now I will not try to act like I am on their level, in fact I will say I don't want to be on their level. I love photography, but I do not want to put it in front of my family and my loved ones. Lets face it, they have to make a huge sacrifice a lot to travel the world, shoot for a week straight then get back home to just spend another week in the editing room to get the images finalized for the client in time to start the next job.

What I want is a career in photography that allows me to portray my art through lens. I was lucky to be born and raised in the state of New Mexico and to be raised by parents who had a love to explore the natural beauties around us. I have traveled all across the USA, spent some time in Mexico, Canada, and even have visited the Bahamas, but I am always drawn back to New Mexico. There are so many different types of culture, nature, and food to explore here.

Chase Jarvis posted a blog asking people to share where they love to photograph and I replied "the state of New Mexico". But as I got to thinking about it that was pretty lame because he wanted the photography community to give up it's secret places, where we go for that really cool shot that people love. So I have decided that I will post the exact places that I have photographed some of my favorite images. Some of the places might not be "legal" to get to, but my mind set is "I am in the middle of no where and all that stands between me and the right angle is that fence...screw it, I am hopping the son of a bitch!"

Here is a prime example, this image is of Laguna Salina which is a huge salt flat southeast of Estancia, NM. Hwy 60 goes right along the south edge of the lake. There is a parking area that you can stop at and get a good look at the lake, but to really get the feel I climbed down and hopped the fence and walked around. You really get a "moonscape" feel when you are down on the salt flat. This is an easy drive from Albuquerque, HERE are the directions from google

View Larger Map

I will post more of these location maps and example images. Stay tuned!

Eric Owens, Musician - Walls That Talk interview and photoshoot

2010-03-01T07:37:00.000-08:00

This is my last installment for my Walls That Talk project.... hopefully not for long. I had a really great time doing this project and hope to record more history and share it through Walls That Talk.

The project really happened fast for me. I came up with the idea at the end of December and did not act on it until the beginning of January. I had a family emergency that pulled me away from it for another week, but once I got back from that I was ready more than ever. Getting in touch with Hakim Bellamy at the Office of African American Affairs was the best move I made and without him I would not have found the people I did.

Eric Owens is one of those people that really touched me and made this project shine. I love music, I listen to music for over ten hours a day, so our connection was a quick one. We sat down in Eric's living room of his apartment. The room was small and dimly lit but you could really feel Eric's energy fill the room. We talked for a while just about this and that as we got to know each other more. When he was ready I pulled out the recorder and set it up on a tripod in front of him. His soft low voice was a bit of a challenge to get recorded at the right level but after a bit of messing with the settings we were off and rolling.

When Eric finished up his stories of traveling as a musician, being a father and helping in schools he then pulled out his bass guitars. As he sat down with his first guitar and started to play a little I set up my one flash that I had with me, a 430EX. He was sitting so I set the flash really low and pointed it up at his hands hoping the light would spill up his body and to his face. The first shot was pretty good but after adjusting the strength of the flash a couple of times I got the lighting I was looking for.

His second bass was not a normal looking bass it is a bass made by Barker just for him. You can see more about Barker at http://www.barkerbass.com/ With the change of bass I changed my light around. I switched it to be in front of him and again pointed it at his right hand. To me that is where the magic happens so I wanted the light to hit there first. I had to keep the light low again to avoid the shadow under the brim of his hat.

The whole interview and photo shoot took the longest with Eric, but that was mostly because we would let the conversation wander. It was such a pleasure to meet him and capture his story.

Here is the final digital product. The entire project will be on my website and a Chroma gallery.

Nandi Andrea Hill, Apprentice Midwife - Walls That Talk photoshoot and interview

2010-02-25T08:09:00.000-08:00

I meet with Nandi in a little house that is tucked away in the south valley of Albuquerque. The setting was perfect, kids playing in the yard, dogs barking, and a living room that filled beautifully with the morning sun.

We sat down and talked, taking our time to let the nerves and tension fall. After asking her questions and getting a plan in my head of how the interview will go I set up my recorder.

As she talked about her way through her life I was just captured in her words and the lighting of the living room. Her story says a lot in a short time which is what I was looking for. When she finished her story I could not wait to capture the images that I had seen.

The setup was simple, my 50mm at f1.8 and all natural light. The spots we chose to shoot were a couple in her living room and another couple outside in front of a huge cottonwood. The morning light was just what we needed for these shots. All I had to do was position her so that the light played well on her face.

I let the images got a little over exposed because it worked well with Nandi's personality. She is a driven women, wanting to take on big issues that are not easily solved.

Here is the final digital product, I also have the whole project on display at Chroma Studios for the month of February

Edward Hakim Bellamy, Slam Poet - Walls That Talk interview and photoshoot

2010-02-15T11:11:00.000-08:00

Hakim was my contact at the Office of African American Affairs. He is the one that put me in contact with the other people that I featured in my project. But it was also him that became my first interviewee and photo subject.

This being my first ever interview, recorded interview and also my first big step out onto the ledge of photographing and recording current history. Needless to say I was nervous. I meet up with Hakim at his office after closing time. We sat down and talked in depth about the project and where I planned to go with it. The connection that we had was instantaneous. All the nerves fell away and I regained my confidence in my project. As the interview progressed through his life I started to become aware of what I was doing, I was capturing this man's life stories. These were not stories that some writer made up for a Hollywood movie, these were what this man lived through, this is him!

As we wrapped up the audio we talked about the photo shoot. He mentioned that there was a conference room that we could use. When I walked in I fell in love with all of the great colors and was surprised that lighting was not bad at all. The wall that grabbed my attention the most was a burnt orange color. I had him stand under a recessed light that was shining straight down. I used my faithful 50mm lens and set it to f 2.5 to get a nice shallow depth of field. We took about 5 photos against this wall but I loved this one the most because it added movement to the photograph.

We moved over to another corner of the room where there was a piece of wood that was carved and painted, the piece had some orange in it that would carry from the wall that we just shot against. The piece of wood was pretty small and Hakim is 6 foot 3 or so, so I had him kneel in front of it. The first shot that I took was straight on with the camera stepped down 2 steps and was awesome. I took about4 more shots playing with more angles but in the end the first one was the winner.

For the last shot we moved out to the hallway where there were lots of different lights bouncing around. I knew I wanted to go black and white so I did not bother with gels to make all of my lights the same color. I grabbed my 430 EX flash and put it on a sync cord and snooted it. I switched my lens to my 18-55 so that I could get a nice wide angle.

Here is the final digital product, I also have the whole project on display at Chroma Studios for the month of February.

Tenagne Turner, Student - Walls That Talk interview and photo shoot

2010-02-08T08:32:00.000-08:00

Tenagne is a college student with a busy schedule so we had to split the interview and the photo shoot into two different days.

It was a Friday at UNM when we sat down in the Mesa Vista Hall for the interview. Getting the audio recorded was a challenge for a few reasons. First Tenagne has a very soft voice and secondly we were in the middle of a busy hallway where the background noises were frequent. So I set up my recorder (the Zoom H2) on a tripod and put it on the couch in front of her.

Tenagne's story flowed easy. There were few times when I had to ask more questions for her to continue. She is a driven women who knows where she wants to go and it came through in her story.

The following Monday we meet back up at Mesa Vista Hall for the photo shoot. I lucked out because the sky was full of low thin clouds that made the sky one big softbox. I scouted the area on the previous visit and knew where I wanted to do the shots which helped because again we were pressed for time. The first spot we sot at was a nice old tree in front of the building. I put her in on the edge of the shadow of the tree, letting just enough sunlight act as a rim light on the side of her face.

I used a 50mm prime lens and set it to f 1.8. I wanted her face to be in proper exposure and the background to blow out so I pointed my camera toward the ground and pressed the shutter half way to get the settings, then re-framed the shot and pressed down all the way.

After two quick poses and shots we moved on to a great outdoor hallway that had a series of columns. I had her lean up against one in the middle. The soft sunlight again was coming through at a great angle so we went with it. I didn't have to meter anything special for this shot because at f 1.8 the lens, camera, and I where on the same page. In post processing I added a little vignette to this one.

For her last pose we walked to the end of the hallway where another ramp intersected the hallway. The light at this time was getting more harsh as the sun hit a thin spot in the clouds. This really helped me get a whole different lighting style and still only use natural light. I had her lean up against a typical New Mexican brown stucco wall. The texture in this photo is really great. The jean shirt and stucco play well with each other.

A quick snap of the shutter and we were done. In all we took 10 minuets or so. That was it. With a quick study of the different elements of the surrounding buildings we got three photos that have different looks and feels.

Here is the final digital product, I also have the whole project on display at Chroma Studios for the month of February.

February's blogs will be all about Walls That Talk

2010-02-03T07:37:00.000-08:00

While planning my Northern New Mexico Culture Project I came up with another similar project called Walls That Talk.

Walls That Talk is a project that takes me into the lives of ordinary people in hopes to share their stories and dreams with the rest of my community. Like my Northern New Mexico Culture Project, this project includes audio from the interviews that accompany the photographs.

When I started this project I felt that it would help me gain confidence and experiment with different audio/visual techniques for the much larger scaled Northern New Mexico Project.

My goal for this project became bigger once I started it. I realized that this was a great way to really capture the culture and community that I lived in, preserving the moment for future generations to look back upon.

I hope that when people see my project, hear the stories and see the faces, that they really take up this idea of capturing the story of their community. This can happen on so many levels, you can get a fancy video camera, you could pull out your point and shoot camera and a voice recorder, you can even use a cell phone. Most cell phones now have decent cameras and microphones.

Anything to capture it, but then you have to share it. Use the web to share it with your friends and family.

Trust me, the people that you end up meeting and their stories will touch you and change you forever.

Is anyone out there?

2010-02-01T10:34:00.000-08:00

Does anyone really read these posts?

That is a question I ask myself every time I post something. My goal is to help spread knowledge that I learn through blogs, books, and just browsing the website.

Chase Jarvis, David Hobby, and Joe McNally are setting the tone for what they call "Web 2.0" and how us as photographers should use it.

So bear with me as I post random thoughts through the various bits of "How to's" and "Do It Yourself's". I really think that just sharing info for FREE is a way to better yourself and others.

Thanks
-Blog management (ME)

A long term goal/project of mine

2010-01-30T10:24:00.000-08:00

The idea of the project came when I was talking with my father-in-law, a native of northern New Mexico. The stories that he told of his father, brother, and him painted a great picture in my mind. When he put together a DVD of video that his brother had made, the project really started to come together. I could just photograph the people and their stories. Because much of their culture is verbal, I decided to record the interviews that way when people are looking at the faces and landscapes, they can hear the stories behind them.

In my research I have found there have been notable photographic projects of the northern New Mexico culture in the past. Alex Harris is one such photographer that I studied before starting this project. He lived in the El Valle area for many years and captured the landscape and people in both black-and-white and color photographs. In studying his work I find things that I want to use and have thought of new ways that I can create my own style. The one notable difference is the audio recordings that I will take. I feel it is just one more way for people outside of their culture to really feel who these people are.

When the project is complete I hope to have between fifty and one hundred people photographed and interviewed. I plan to put together a show that will be available to schools, community centers, and other public places around New Mexico and maybe around the U.S. The knowledge that I gain from this project will be my biggest gift and I will share it with anyone that wants to hear.

High School Baseball

2010-01-18T06:02:00.000-08:00

Through out the day we captured many great photographs of the kid learning from two minor league baseball players. The sky had some high thin clouds that helped soften the sunlight.

I recently had the opportunity to photography a baseball camp for the Pojoaque High School's baseball team. I have not done much sports photography but after reading David Hobby's post on Strobist blog I was inspired to take the challenge.

My brother-in-law and I showed up at the field and unloaded all of our gear. We both own Canon Digital Rebel XT's and Canon 75-300mm lenses. My brother-in-law alos has a nice Tamron 18-200mm lens. I had brought my Alienbee 800 and Canon 430EX flashes just in case I would get the opertunity to create a photograph like David Hobby did in his blog.

Michael Garcia was doing some practice swings at around 2:00pm and I saw my chance to capture the image I was after. I grabbed my 18-55mm lens, 430EX flash, and 3 foot TTL cord and ran out to where he was. I set my lens to 18mm and got as close to him as I felt comfortable. It is a scary feeling to have a bat swung at your face while looking through the camera. To frame him just right I ended up getting down on my knees he felt really tall and zooming to 24mm to capture the ball on the rope and the bat at full extension.

The sun was behind him over his left shoulder so I set my camera to shutter priority and put the shutter speed to 1/4000. After a couple of shots without the flash I realized that it was going to be needed. I put my flash at 105mm set the exposure to +3 and turned on the high speed sync to try to get the most out of the little flash.

After about 10 shots I finally got this one. I am pretty happy with the final photograph. Looking back I wish I would have took some non-action shots as well so I could get the same look as the photo that inspired it all to begin with.

In the end though I guess that is what photography is all about: GET INSPIRED -> INTERPRET -> CREATE. That allows us all to know the same things and to create different things.

First Blog

2009-09-16T08:38:00.000-07:00

Imagination Included Photography is a one man company based in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Owned and operated by Justin Thor Simenson, Imagination Included Photography has hit the photography scene in New Mexico with a bang in 2007.

With an eye for the unique, Justin Thor Simenson has dedicated his company's goal would be to make quality photography available to everyone. Photographing for trade, for food, or even free, Justin is committed to help better his community.

Stay connected with Imagination Included Photography at the following sites:

Official Webpage

Facebook

Twitter