Jus Sayin...

I really need to get more sleep.

Buizzzzy

I have been amazingly busy. From the holidays to getting ready for a new business venture (more about that in a few days) I have been swamped. I have been booking a lot of weddings and getting ready for senior season as well as doing a few stock shoots hear and there. I bought a new camera (the amazing Canon 5d Mark II), new wireless triggers for my lights, and some more storage space for my photos... yikes.

I am currently looking for models for a large shoot we are doing towards the end of January. Check out more info here: http://www.brewlypse.com

Here are a few photos I shot with my new camera:

Shot a promo card for an event coordinator and friend Stef of Star Fire Events who is putting on a fashion show in Milwaukee in March. More on that later.



Me just being me...



Don't normally take photos of landscape, but here are two that I shot the first day of my new camera. Pretty.




Polar bear plunge January 1st in lake Michigan. Crazy folks...




Shot with a Milwaukee designer, Tena Her, and model in the freezing cold. Shots turned out awesome!

Gil and Karen - Crazy Booth

I have seen a few blogs of wedding photogs who have set up a crazy booth at weddings. The photos they get are super fun and crazy! I thought to myself, “Simon, you are a crazy mutha… you need to do a crazy booth.” So the next wedding I shot I brought out my lights and found a nice lil corner and set up the crazy booth. Granted, it really isn’t a booth, but people get the language and know what to do.

Aight… enough rant, more rave!

I pulled out the crazy booth at Gil and Karen's wedding at the Milwaukee War Memorial and craziness ensued.







Only in WI... good 'ole Spotted Cow.





My crazy booth puts the Rrrr... in Relationship.



He was getting down all night.







Open bar... late night... crazy photos? I think she was trying to play dead and they were play attacking? I just shrugged and took the photo.





Lambeau leap much?




....


If I am shooting your wedding next year and you want me to bring out the Crazy Booth, shoot me an email and we will make it happen.

(I kinda feel like I need a different name other than Crazy Booth because I am ripping off that name. A free 8x10 print of your choice if you leave a comment with a better idea for the name.)

Decible/Deep Bar Shoot

I haven't really had time to work on my commercial portfolio and stock photos lately. That is a good thing, being that I have been really busy with seniors and weddings (all paying gigs!). This week I am almost all caught up with weddings and seniors, so I decided it was time for Simon to get out and shoot some stock.

First, there was a huge debate in my head about shooting. I pre-ordered the new Canon 5D Mark II, which is a beast of a camera. 21 mpx, 250,000 expandable ISO, Live View, HD Video, Full Frame sensor... drool... (All you really need to know is that this camera beats yours up... unless you shoot with a hassy). Ordered this camera and my 20D broke. I went to shoot with a model and found out that my camera wasn't working. The tip of the video cable broke off in the video out hole when I was trying to show some photos on a TV, so the back of the camera didn't work.

I thought to myself, self... you just ordered a bomb camera, just wait it out and after you get the new camera send yours in. So I waited, and waited, and the camera still hasn't hit the shelves yet. I sent in my broke camera to Canon in NJ this week and it was delivered there on Saturday. I'll probably get it back before I get my new camera, which is sad.

Anyoldways... I borrowed a camera from my friend Fuzz Martin, a guy I shoot stock with from WI. He let me use his Rebel Xt for the time being. I was hesitant to shoot stock with that camera because it was not as "good" as the other two that I had broke and pre-ordered. It took me until today, shooting, to realize that no matter what camera you use, you can take photos and they can come out good. I kinda thought to myself, I am too good for that camera, I have to shoot with something better. Sad thing is that I have shot my whole stock portfolio up to this point with MY old Xt and it is good enough. The camera doesn't make the photog, the photog makes the photograph.

So. That out of my system. My friend Stef and I pulled together a shoot on very short notice with 3 ladys and 2 guy models and a club. It was a lot of fun and I think that I got some killer shots for stock that are going to sell like mad. Let me know what you think:

Test 1,2,3

Just checkin out a new slideshow program I got...

P.s. The song is by Di Johnston. Awesomeness... I heard it on a Dove Commercial.

Mary - Senior '09

Mary was a lot of fun to take photos of. We met at Seven Bridges Park and went walking in the forest. I never realized that the park was so big and that there were so many different places to take photos. We had some amazing light in the morning and I got some great portraits with natural light. I brought along my studio light for a few shots and had some fun with that. It was hard for her to stop smiling and she was always cracking up. What a fantastic person!

Check out her great smile!:

Cameron - Senior '09

What do you do with a broken camera? I don't really know, but you can't really use it... I need to get my main camera repaired and just sold my back up camera, so I had a shoot and no camera. That was not so fun. Lucky for me I know a few people and Sam Dodge came out to help with my shoot and he let me use his D300 (shiver... Nikon) for the day. Everything was backwards, but all in all, I was able to turn the camera on and switch lenses by myself at the end of the shoot.

Cameron was pretty much the coolest girl ever. I showed her one of the photos and she told me that she looked like she was the ruler of the universe in it. Awesome. She was super fun to work with and we shot around Havenwoods State Park and a few streets near by. I was having a ton of fun with Sam's wide angle lens and ended up taking some of my favorite shots to date for senior photos. Check them out and let me know what you think!

Eric and Emily - Silver Spring Country Club

Hmm… where do I start… Perhaps I will start in Starbucks where I met with Emily and her mom. I knew Emily through her brother who worked with me one summer tutoring kids in the inner city. We played a few games of ultimate Frisbee and she mopped up in the end zone with Eric hucking (check out ultimate Frisbee lingo) it up to her. It would have been great if I wasn’t the one guarding her… no hard feelings though…

Where was I... Oh yeah… Starbucks. We met and discussed her wedding and it all sounded fantastic. After shooting it, I can honestly say that it was fantastic. From the crazy groomsmen, beautiful bridesmaids, and the really fun family. A great time was had by all... check out some of the photos.

The dress, rings, and shoes were lovely as well as Emily.





Don’t mess…




When I get married, I am gonna be a mess just like Eric was when he saw Emily walking down the aisle. (I heard the ladies dig that?)





Uh… left my iPhone in the limo. Oops. I felt naked.


The reception was at the Silver Spring Country Club and we had some great light.




Beautiful bride, handsome groom…


After the food, they g.g.g.got down

Eric and Emily

Sneaky, sneaky...

David and Sarah

Ooooooookaay... so this blog has been a long time coming. I have been outrageously busy with senior photos and the other job to sit down and get these photos up. Alas, here they are in all their glory.

David and Sarah are awesome. Great people and good times all rolled into a three person package. You might remember them from their E-Session and I have the story of how we met there, so go read up.

The time finally rolled around for their wedding and I was really excited for them and to shoot the wedding. I knew that they were gonna have it at the Milwaukee County War Memorial and I was stoked about being outside and shooting at a lovely place.

We met the girls at a friend’s house where they were getting ready and Sarah was getting her makeup done. She had a fantastic dress and great shoes to go along with it.





The buckles on her shoes were pretty crazy and it took three people to help get them on... it was funny... but they worked. As a guy, I will never understand women and their shoes...




It was super windy outside and cloudy, which is good for keeping cool, but not so great for hair.






Patrick was just awesome.




The light was sooooo... how should I say... amazing?








The party bus. The bridal party was super crazy, and it was really fun seeing them go nuts at the wedding.





We got to the reception and the party was on!




And the food was... (please refer to photo below)

Whats the Story...

Sooo... I have been talking with Erin Richards, a journalist at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, who was writing a story on Senior Photos and the trend of seniors wanting a more personalized shoot. I wasn’t sure when the story was going to run, so I didn’t post anything about it here, but one of my friends sent me an email telling me that there was an article in the paper that I was in. It is pretty cool having some of my photos online and my name in the paper.

If anyone reading this blog found it from the paper, it would be great to hear your thoughts.

In addition to Seniors, I shoot Weddings, Headshots, and Families. Check out my site at www.simonmcconico.com. I am booking fast for 2009, so get in quick!

Check out the article here: http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=807756

Lauren and Lucy

Yee Haw!! I don't know about you, but I like horses. I have had many an experience with horses, mainly good, but some bad (like when I was walking behind one and it decided to relieve it's self). I got an email from Lauren's brother, who's wedding I will be shooting in the Spring, saying that his sister needed to get her senior photos done. I jumped at the chance and was even more excited when they asked me to come out to the horse farm where Lauren rides. They own a horse named Lucy, who is absolutely beautiful. We brought Lucy out to shoot with Lauren and ran around the farm and took a ton of shots. It was a lot of fun seeing all the different horses named Meatloaf and Big Mamma... Here are some of the shots from that day:

Moda3 Boardfest

I was a busy lil bee today. Shot two senior sessions, thought I was suppose to shoot a third (my mind has been all over the place lately), and stopped by Boardfest in the Third Ward after finishing my last session. There were skateboarders all over the place. I pulled over and, since I had all of my equipment in my car, asked a group of boarders if I could take their photo. I set up in a parking lot and almost got hit in the face by a few boards, but got some great shots:

Seth - Senior '09

Walk tall... hmm... well, that wasnt an encouragement to stand up for what you believe in (which you should do anyways), but was rather a reference to the front cover of the movie staring the Rock. Seth came out early one Saturday morning and we shot in Walkers Point, which is just south of downtown Milwaukee. As I was flipping through his pics I saw a photo that, if he had a 2x4 in his hand, looked just like the cover of that movie.

Seth was a cool dude. We were chatting about a ton of random stuff from Halo to walking like a Monkey at work. It took him a while to wake up, but once he did we were running all over the place. Kicking fences and jumping off walls, it was a blast until... the cops showed up.

Well, it really wasn't a big deal, but Seth brought his truck and I had his sister park it on the sidewalk because Seth does what Seth wants (or something like that?). His sister just moved the truck and we were all good. Check out the sweet photos below:

Ally - Senior Photos

You might remember rainy day Ally from a few posts before. The Saturday we were going to shoot it was rainy and gray all day. No one likes that! Unfortunately she needed a photo for her yearbook and I was going out of town to San Fran the next week. What a conundrum!

Well, me, being the king of all things Ghetto when it comes to setups didn't let a little bit of rain stop us. Ally and her mom came over to my house where I set up a small head shot studio in a spare bedroom and we got her head shot. After the shoot we rescheduled the shoot for a later date and off they went.

I got back to Milwaukee in one piece and we met on Friday in New Berlin at a golf course behind a Walgreens. It was an interesting place, but we got some great shots there. After we ticked off the many golfers on the course (I think we saw one...) we went to a hotel across the street that had a gazebo in the back and a small courtyard area. We shot a bit in there then moved to another hotel that had a Grand Piano in the loby. Ally is a singer and loves music, so she wanted to get a shot with a piano. We got in the hotel and they were having a huge convention or something like that. There were people who looked like they just graduated from college or something like that and a bunch of business people milling about. Lots of people generally does not equil good for photography (specially when you are in a hotel lobby). We got in, I got set up, and banged out a few shots and got what we needed then moved out like a ninja. All in all it was a very fun shoot and it was hard to pick what to edit for this post. I can't imagine how Ally is going to pick the shots to order... Crazy!

New Logo?

Well, I have been toying around with getting a new logo and I think I have made one that I like. Let me know what you think about this bad boy:

San Fran Pt. 1

This week I went out to San Francisco for the weekend and then some. I went specifically to attend a workshop given by two amazing photographers who are an inspiration to me and my work. If I am able to get even close to the skill level of these two that would be amazing. The two photogs are Gene Higa and Jose Villa.

I had a few days to bum around San Fran and see some of the sights and chill with some of my homies doing it big out on the West Coast. I stayed with my boy Dj Debo and we had a blast. We went out one day to get some In and Out Burger, see the Golden Gate Bridge, and see the ocean. We came back to his dog Dodge who had devowerd a whole box of Nerds, a half a box of Gobstoppers, and a whole thing of Sour Straws. I get the Sour Straws and the Nerds, but how the heck does a Dog eat Gobstoppers?? Here is part one of my San Fran trip:

James the Kidzilla

James is awesome. I shot him at a rock star event that I was the photographer for and he was kinda mellow until he got on stage to rock out. He jumped up and his hair was everywhere. I was jealous. Well... kinda. I don't think I could pull off hair that long.

We went out and shot at Frame Park in Waukesha, WI, which had a lot of really cool things around to shoot on and in. We ran around for about an hour and made some amazing photographs. He was open to do whatever, which generally ends up being a recipe for great shots. Once someone can get past their inhibitions in front of the camera, it makes the photo process so much easier and generally better. Here are a few of the photos we made:

Seniors!!! 2009!!

Ahhhh!!! This past week and a half has been crazy busy. I have shot quite a few seniors and am still getting requests for more. The thing with seniors, and I get this, is that they like to wait till the last second to do stuff... well, at least I know I did. I got my senior photos shot at a studio in Minneapolis, one of the cheap studios, right before they were due. I enjoyed my shoot and the shots that I had, but looking back on it now, the photos really were not that great. I got a change of clothes or two and got to bring in my guitar, but they just ended up looking blaa now that I look at them.

Anyways... I digress... Seniors, if you are waiting for your photos, and you shot with me in the past week or so, I will have your photos up with the speed of Michael Phelps... or something like that... Anyoldways...

It rained yesterday and that was kinda annoying. Granted, I cant complain because I am not in Texas, where it is pretty crazy right now, but I had a shoot to do. Because I work during the week, weekends are my bread and butter. If it rains, I am kinda screwed. Well, yesterday I improvised and set up a studio in my spare bedroom at my house and shot some head shots for the yearbook. My senior was amazing! A lot of fun and I am looking forward to the real shoot, that will be coming up in a week or so (if it doesn't rain). Aight... enough rambling, I need to hop in the shower and get going for the day! (p.s. I do not encourage hopping in the shower... you could get hurt)

Mariah - Senior Weekend 1

Mariah was a super sweet girl. We shot early in the morning at 8:00 a.m. (That is early for me on a Saturday). There was some great light and we were able to make some amazing photos. We shot at Doctors Park, which is a great park on the North East side of Milwaukee. I shot another senior that evening that I will post really soon, so in the mean time, check out these shots!









Vote for me as the best photographer in Milwaukee

Amanda - Senior Shoot

Rios and Ruth

Albert is his real name, but in college he went by Rios. Rios has been a good friend for about 4 years and has done everything from eating spoonfuls of pepper to almost finishing The Matrix game in one sitting. Ruth... well, she is a little bit quieter. A lot of fun, but still much quieter. They started to date when I was living with Rios in college and got a chance to briefly meet her and got to know her a little, but by the way Rios raved about her, I was pretty sure that she was the right girl for him. I moved away and hadn't talked to him for a while when I got a call from him. I knew he had been engaged to Ruth but hadn't talked to him since then. He asked if I could shoot his wedding and I was excited to do that for him. I went up to Minneapolis (an amazing city... love it) for the weekend and shot the wedding with my friend Cooper. Here are a few shots of the very affectionate wedding.

p.s. it is a long post....

These two girls were so much fun... mention Hanna Montana and they got huge smiles.

Rios wanted to do an "Abby Road" photo with his 8 grooms men...

I rented a fish eye lens for the wedding and had a lot of fun with it.

We had some fantastic light in the evening

Brent and Christina Engagement Session

I was up in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area shooting a wedding and stuck around for an extra day to shoot with Brent and Christina. We decided to meet in Rice Park in downtown St. Paul.

St. Paul is quite different than Minneapolis. It is quite a bit older looking while Minneapolis has a little more of a progressive edge to it. We went from the park to an amazing library, to the side of a building down the street laughing the whole way. I don't know what it is about getting on a shoot that brings out the crazy in me, but that is just what happens. Keep em laughing and make them look good. That is my motto... I think? Check out the photos!

Rebekah

I love shooting Seniors. I think I have said that before, but I really do mean it. They are so much fun! Rebekah was the sister of Amanda, who I shot a while back. It is fun to hear peoples story and how they feel about their senior year. I get mixed reactions... some love, some hate, some just don't care. (I think I was in the don't care category when I was in HS). Asking the what next question always generates interesting responses and kinda gives an insight into who people are.

Rebekah is going to go to school for cosmetology somewhere quite a bit warmer then here in Wisconsin. I am secretly jealous of her, but I don't know if I could give up hot chocolate and snowball fights. Her hair was pretty fantastic on the shoot. I think she is gonna do well in that field... speaking of which... I need to get a hair cut. Check out the photos while I go do that!

Martinez Family

Stef

Bloooooggg

I'm in need of sleep. I need it bad. I'm gonna get some now, but soon... soon... I will have new photos up. A model shoot, a family shoot, and a wedding! I got it all coming very soon, so hold your pants.

Matt and Krista - Engagement Shoot

I met Matt at work and he saw a few of my photos in my cubical and asked if shot weddings. I in typical Simon fashion said, "Well... today is your lucky day, I do.". After that Matt, Krista, and I met at Starbucks to talk about their wedding. They saw my photos and we talked about their special day and they were sold. We scheduled an engagement shoot a few days later and here are some of the photos from that day. They are two really fun folks.

Katie - Senior Shoot

Today I got to shoot with an amazing senior. We shot over in Walkers Point, which is quickly becoming one of my favorite places to shoot, and on Bradford Beach. We had fun trying to chase Seagulls, falling through trailers, and kicking rocks. (I got some bruises on my shins from the trailer incident... but according to Katie, it looked like something out of a movie.)


When I got home, I removed my camera bag from my car. I grabbed it by one of the straps, but didn't realize that it wasn't zipped up. Tumbling out came my camera and a lens onto the concrete. My UV Filter shattered, but the lens works, but I cant get the broken piece off the lens. If you have any suggestions about that let a brotha know. Yeesh... not too fun.

David and Sarah

I am always running into people who know of me or know someone I know. Mutual friends. I have only been in WI for about 2 years (not including the time I was here in the summers for school stuff) and seemingly have met a ton of people who know each other or know of each other.

Last year, I shot senior photos for Joncarlos and out of the blue got a call from someone who was a friend of their family. She was getting married and was a photographer and wanted to talk about me shooting her wedding. Sarah, David, and I sat down to dinner and started to talk and from the get go I felt connected to them. They are fantastic peeps and it has been fun seeing Sarah spend money that David probably doesn't know about... buying photography gear... uh... oops.

We met up downtown and started to shoot outside. We were walking around looking for cool walls or empty lots that we could shoot in. I took a ton of photos while we went out walking and we had a great time. A little later in the evening, we went to the roof of the Metro hotel and took some photos up there. It was a beautiful evening and we got some amazing photos! Take a look!

Wendy... or Emily?

Emily and I met quite a while back when I inturned at her church. I interned during the summer and left and didnt really talk to her after that. Fast forward 3 years... I am in Wisconsin again (originaly from MN) working at a job that I got through a temp agency. We had one of our Customer Service Reps quit and we needed someone to replace him. They had been going through a temp agency for the past two employees and so they tried it again. I was getting out of my car the next morning and saw someone new walking up to work. It took me a few seconds to even remember who she was, but it was Emily. It was kinda funny that we ran into eachother at such a random place and both got there very randomly. Fast forward a few more months... Simon is still a CSR and Emily is doing something different. The job just wasnt for her, so she moved on. I was shooting Tom and Sarah's wedding (a few posts back) and ran into her again. We talked a little bit and decided that we needed to shoot together. So we Facebooked back and forth and finally found a time to shoot.

I shoot stock photography for istockphoto.com and so every now and again I do shoots for fun and for model release forms so that I can sell the images for advertisment. I had been wanting to work with a Makeup artist, Kristin, that I had met quite a while ago while I was shooting a local fashion show. I gave her a call and told her what we were doing and that I would love to work with her. She checked her schedule and was able to come and work with us. I was excited. We met after work (sadly, I still have a normal job... granted it does pay the bills) at Stone Creek Coffe right off of Lincoln and KK, got makeup on and wardrobe, then we were off to shoot. We stumbled upon a sweet location where there were no cars and little to no traffic. We shot in the street, we shoot in the grass, we shot with strobes, we shot with natural light... we did it all! It was a lot of fun and I think that we got some killer images at the end of the day. Let me know what you think!!

p.s. If you need your eyebrows waxed, or anything skin or makeup related go see Kristin at the Fringe Salon - 5630 N. Lake Dr. Whitefish Bay, WI - 414-967-0605

Amanda

Today I got invited to shoot with one of my friends Sarah G, who's wedding I am shooting in August. She is a lot of fun and great to hang out with. She wanted to shoot with a friend from work, so I dragged myself out of bed and went along with her. I am in love with shooting and creating art as well as meeting new people. We went to Seven Bridges and ran all over that place. We started shooting on a bridge then moved to the beach, got attacked by black flies, so we went to a stream, then went to a field... it was pretty crazy. Here are some of the shots that I got from today. Amanda made it easy, she was beautiful!

Face Off Winner

Aight folks. Simon calculated the votes and tallied all of the uh... votes and came up with a winner for the Face Off. Now it might not be the best “Crazy Face”, but it is a pretty great face. It was between two faces and one vote put it over the edge. Again, a big thanks, to everyone who participated in my odd little event.

There is a really great story behind this photo. At the Face Off there was a lot going on. There was music playing, people talking, some shouting, and lights flashing. Moriah was kinda shoved in front of the camera and she just stood there. I had some food around, so I got her a banana and she just kinda stood there. Still no response. Her dad jumped in and saved her from the mean old camera lens. From there I took photos of the family and she just kinda hid or made a few faces here and there. I took some photos of her sister and brother and started a roaring contest with her brother. We were making our lion faces and noises. I shot he brother then her older sister then she wanted to get in on the action. I asked her to make her lion face and it wasn’t to bad for someone 3 foot nothin. Then out of nowhere I made my lion face and roar… and the face that is in this photo was what she made. It was quite cute and funny at the same time. She had a full day standing in a strange place holding a banana and having lots of people shouting and roaring at her. Good times. Give it up for Moriah, the winner of the first Face Off! She (her parents), are going to get an 8x10 of her and a gas card. Keep checking back for the next Face Off or event from Simon McConico Photography.

Location, Location, Location

Somehow I get stuck in a rut. I go to shoot photos in the same place all the time. I hate that. Sooo... here is the deal. You send me a location (please include a small photo) and Simon will try to shoot there. I know that there are a lot of really cool locations around in Milwaukee and the other cities around, but I dont really know where they are. If I use your location, depending on what I use it for, Simon might pay a finders fee. Now, I am not a rich man by any means, but a good locations is worth a few bucks. So for the first month of this, the best location that someone gives me (judged by personal taste) will get a gift certificate to one of my favorite stores in the world, Target! Okay... so that was a little anti-climactic, but oh well. Shoot me an email at info@simonmcconico.com with an address and photo of the location and I will do my best to get out there and shoot around and perhaps if I like it a lot you can get something in return.

Run, Run, Run

Today I got a chance to hang out with a kid named Cayden. He was a handful and running everywhere. He wanted to play with his ball then he wanted to blow bubbles, then he wanted to throw the football. I have no clue how he could do all of that and still have more energy to play in the park. I think it has something to do with him just turning three, but who knows. I miss that energy... well... I don't know that I remember what it was like to have that energy. This was my first "official" kids shoot and I think it went pretty well. I shot just a little under 3 gigs, so there will be plenty of photos for Mom to sort through in the next week or so. Here are a few shots from today.

Tom and Sarah

Tom and Sarah got married today. It was a fun wedding that was almost ruined by a storm in the middle of the day. Luckily, the clouds and rain only stayed for a little while and passed on. This will be my third wedding and I am continually learning what to do and what not to do during the course of a wedding. It is fun and I can tell that I am getting better, not only from having more and more shots that I love, but from being in the right place at the right time. I am a character and it is always fun to see how people react to the odd things I say. It is always good for soliciting a smile or even a hardy laugh. I don't know how I got to be the way I am, but it seems like people are okay with that. Here are some of the shots that I got from today and from the rehearsal dinner.

Model Citizen

Sometimes I am slow. With working a full time job and also doing photography it can take a lot out of a person. I think I average 5 hours of sleep on a good day... that is trying. Oh well. I have got a few photos edited from an older shoot that I am excited about and some shots from a shoot done last Saturday that was fantastic. Take a gander at them.

Rock Stars!

So. Last night was pretty crazy. I got talked into shooting a bunch of crazy teenagers by my friend Liana. The church Poplar Creek had a contest going for quite a while with teams and at the end the winning team got treated to a Rock Star evening.

I finished up with work (You know... that thing that normal people do to pay bills) and rushed over to the church. They started to gather at about 5 and that was when i got off of work. I was shooting to get there by 5:30 and did pretty good pulling into the parking lot by about 5:45. I went and set up my lights the night before, so that helped. I came in and adjusted a few things then started to shoot.

My lighting was fairly simple. I used two strobes in the background pointed down and gelled pretty heavily. In the front I had an AB800 with a large softbox at about a 45 degree angle to the rockers. From there I just needed to turn on the fan and get them to rock out.

I shot all of them in groups and then we went out to the stretch hummers. From there we had pizza at a local restaurant and then went off to the lake front. Took some photos with my loverly 50mm 1.8. I love that lens! Get one. Now. We took the group photo, which was an interesting task. I packed my AB800, softbox, and stand and was ready to shoot, when I realized that I left my portable power pack in my car, which was about an hour away (I rode in the limos). So, no big light... that means I get to use a small one. Pulled out the 580ex II, put on the cactus triggers and shot away. I am a little frustrated with the lens I used though. It was the only option for the occasion, at least from my bag. I was using the Canon 28-135 IS, which has worked well for me, but it is reeeeeealy soft around the edges at 28mms. I hate that. Tack sharp in the middle, but soft as new socks at the edges. I really need a new lens. I am thinking of the Canon 24-70 2.8... anyone want to give me a grand? Anyoldways... I got the shot using the 580 on a stand over my head pointed at the crowd. It worked out.

After that we went to the bowling alley, where I didn't bowl, but I edited photos and had a mass of people watch me. It was kinda funny. I had a huge crowd watching me photoshop the photos, which was good because I got a lot done in a short period of time. Here is a before and after shot for you folks to see the lights and the original version as well as the PS version:

Pano!

Sooo... I was outside on Saturday just killin some time and doing a little reading. I saw Milwaukee and was like... hmm... I want to take a pano of that. So I leaned against a pole and took a ton of shots, pieced them together in Photoshop and presto, one hour later I had an 800meg file. Let me know what you think.

Pull!

I shot a shotgun once. Well... I shot it a few times, but I hardly ever hit anything. So since shooting a shot gun didn't seem like the thing for me I started to shoot a Canon... wow. Uh... Canon Xt to be exact. Got the camera and immediately went on a road trip to master the world and take amazing photos. Low and behold, my photos were bad. They were quite bad. I had no clue what I was doing. I didn't know how to make things brighter and didn't know what the M was or the different numbers that were changing. I just knew that if I moved it one way it got dark and if I moved it the other it got lighter. I think that I have come a long way from that, but my learning process is still the same. By the end of the road trip I could kinda use the camera to take an okay photo that wasn't all black and wasn't totally blown out. Which brings me to my point for writing this blog...

There are always new things to learn and learning how to learn is crucial for growth. I didn't know anything about weddings when I shot one and learned a ton. Didn't know anything about lights when someone gave me two and now I know at least a little bit. Didn't know anything about off camera flash, but got one and got some triggers to get that thing off my camera and now know a bit about it, but not half as much as Sir David Hobby of Strobist.

Tonight I got new flash receivers for my camera. Weeeeell, one for me and one for Sarah, who's receiver I happed to have dropped when it was attached to my flash. Oops. The other one that I needed was because I dropped my flash with my receiver attached to it. So I ordered two of them, one for me and one for her. I decided to break out the flash again and do a shot for my 365 photo project. I have always liked shadows. There are lots of stories in the shadows. You don't know what is hiding in them and you don't know if they hold something good or bad. If it is a horror flick, stay in a mall or someplace that is well lit, but if it is real life, go and explore (Unless you are scared of spiders like my brother). I had the idea of using a hoodie and getting shadows on the face and only having part of my face lit. Then I was walking in the kitchen and decided to take the photo outside.

Outside presents a problem because there isn't much light out there. That isn't much of a problem because it adds to the photo, but it makes it really hard to focus! The camera is good, but it is no eyeball that can see and focus with just the tiniest bit of light. It took a shot or two to figure out how to get the lighting to where I needed it and then a few shots to get something in focus. When you are shooting outside, bring a flashlight or some sort of light to constantly illuminate what you are trying to shoot, at least until your camera focus on it. I used my cell phone. I didn't know where my little pen light was, so I grabbed my phone and opened that baby up, focused on it, then took its place after I pushed the self timer button. Getting a shot in the dark without a remote trigger, without a flashlight, and without an assistant can be annoying, but I enjoyed the results.

365 (Part Deux)

So. Back again to blog. I guess that is a good thing. A few thoughts about some stuff I am working on today. I still have a ton of backlog images to edit, but I am getting there. I am on pace to get the Face Off photos up by Friday, so hold on for that.

I started a 365 project last year doing a self portrait every day for a whole year. It was pretty intense and crazy. I did a ton of work and it was hard to take a photo every day, but I learned a lot. I got a lot of guff from people, mainly in jest, but things such as, "Someone is a little vain eh?". Part of it was that I had seen other people do that, so I thought, heck, I can do that (not really thinking that about having 365 photos of me). In the process of shooting that whole series though I had some fantastic shots and some not so fantastic shots.

i.e.

bad

good

The most amazing thing though, is that when you force your self to take a photo of the same subject for an extended period of time you need to find new ways to present the material or it will just get boring. To present the material in a new way, I needed to learn new techniques that would help me achieve the image that I had in my head.

I am doing a new 365 project, which you can check out at my Flickr site, and already I am much more impressed with the photos that I am taking. In about a year and a half I learned how to use lights, tons of post processing tricks and tips, and many things about actually using my camera. You can do a 365 project and learn nothing other then how to sit still (2190 days) or be consistent, but if you push yourself to get out of your comfort zone and learn a little bit, in a year you will be in a much better place creatively. You have to sift through a lot of dirt and mud to find gold. Here are a few examples of my new 365 that you can check out at my Flickr site.

Post Face-Off

Sooo.... shooting all day is pretty crazy. Not that I haven't shot a whole day before, because I have, but every time I do I remember how tired I get. For the Face Off I had a fantastic turn out and a great time, so a big thanks to everyone who helped make it happen. I will be working to get the images up on Friday so voting can begin. The voting will be open for two weeks and the winner will get a free portrait session from me and a gas gift card (because gas prices will make your face contort).

Setting up was crazyness. I was going to set up Friday night, but ended up needing to get some other things done. Big mistake! I showed up about a hour early to set up and get stuff ready and we were still finishing set up an hour and a half later! That was not fun. I don't really like coming across as un-professional (who does?), but I think that as I am starting this business I live and learn and that makes it okay. Next time I will get set up the night before.

I was shooting on an all white background with a huge roll of Savage brand paper. I got it off of Amazon.com about a week before I needed it, which was good. Planning ahead... always good. I ended up using a TV to display the photos as I took them, much to the delight (and sometimes dismay) of the people that I was shooting (Got the idea from Mr. McDuff). After I got done shooting someone I would hand the card off to my friend Tory who was assisting me for the day and she would dump the card onto the computer and preview them with the people I just shot to seletct which photo of theirs would be entered into the competition. That was really helpful to have. That way I didnt need to go through all of the photos I took just to figure out which one needs to be edited. I still have a ton to edit, but that will cut hours off of the time that I need to finish the photos. There were also a few behind the scene photos taken that will get put up here sometime soon. Be on the lookout for new stuff often!

That is a quick recap of the shoot... soo.... now that it is 1:10 and I need to go to work in the morning to my non-photo related job, I bid you good night.