Thanksgiving 2009
I know I’m a few days late, but still getting use to this daily ”blogging” thing. Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!! Hope it was great!
26lbs - 5.5 hrs cook time - 170 degrees internal temp - moist and delicious
Marucci Baseball Bats
If I even began to try to explain how this job came across my table, I’d get confused trying to make the connection, and you’d probably think I smoked crack. So let’s just go with I got a phone call from a good friend needing some help with a photo shoot in Baton Rouge to photograph Marucci Baseball Bats. Marruci is a company that takes pride in their bats. It seems like they make more bats then they ship just because a lot of the bats don’t make the cut. Bats that other manufactures would ship out, Marucci deems “souvenirs” and piles in the corner. Each bat is hand made individually, inspected, weighted, sanded, and then inspected again before they get shipped out the door. Quality, was definitely a word that was heard a lot on this shoot. This was a full day for us. We spent the first half of the day in the warehouse where the bats were made documenting that process. The second half of the day was spent out on the field getting the product in its environment. Here are some of the photographs I got that day:
1/50 - f/2.8 - 24mm - iso800
1/50 - f/2.8 - 28mm - iso800
1/160 - f/2.8 - 24mm - iso200
1/250 - f/1.4 - 50mm - iso400
1/100 - f/2.8 - 60mm - iso800
1/250 - f/22 - 34mm - iso200
1/250 - f/11 - 65mm - iso400
Singer Songwriter
Let’s talk about cool photog toys today…. I got an email from singer/ songwriter Rachel Lynn who asked me to take images for her new CD due to be out in December. I of course said “HECK YES”, and immediately began thinking about location, lighting, etc etc, you know, the normal stuff that goes through photogs brains…. We did some scouting and both really liked the location Bull Creek park here in Austin. This shoot came at a great time because I had just ordered my new Radiopoppers and was super excited to get to test them out in the field. These images were shot with my Alien Bees 800 through a medium soft with the vagabond battery triggered by the radiopoppers.
1/160 - f/5.6 - 82mm - iso125
1/160 - f/14 - 28mm - iso400
1/200 - f/5.6 - 140mm - iso400
And here is an example of the set up:
So, details about the cool toys. First off is the Vagabond portable. Although a bit on the heavy side (18.6lbs), this pure sine wave inverter allows you to shoot Alien Bee (as well as other Paul Bluff lights) strobes on location with super fast recycle times and can handle multiple flash units. These batteries can handle, for example: 1 AB800 at full power (320Ws) an estimated 1200 flashes with only a 1.2 second recycle time. Which basically means I can get a lot of flash power on location anywhere I decide to lug this thing to and not have to worry about where the power outlet is. And as you can see from the above photo, it makes a great weight when you strap it to the light stand so you don’t have to worry about it falling over. Bonus!
The other really cool thing that WOWed me were the new Radiopoppers JRx transmitter and receivers that I just purchased. What makes these things so cool you ask? “They’re just radio triggers… I can get those cheap ebay ones for like $20 bucks.” If that’s what you’re thinking, stop now. Don’t do it. I have been down that aisle and it’s lame. As they say, you get what you pay for. I should have just burned the $20 dollars with a match, it would have given me more entertainment. The RPs are, for lack of a better word, bad-ass… For starters, you have the ability to wirelessly fire your strobes from easily over 300 ft. I have read on the internets where some tests have reached over 600 ft, but not with super consistency, but still, that’s pretty awesome. As an added super bonus, if you are shooting Alien Bees (which I am), White Lightning or Zeus strobes, you can adjust the power output of your strobes from the RP transmitter. WHOA! SRSLY?!?! Yup. It’s really awesome to be able to set your strobe down, walk 50 ft from your subject, and adjust the power of said strobe from your camera. So you get a reliable wireless flash trigger system that you can adjust power output from over 300 ft away…. “That sounds pricey!” Actually, the starting price for both the receiver and transmitter is only $120 bucks, which, if you are pricing wireless trigger systems, isn’t to bad. I went ahead and upgraded to the “studio” set so someday (once the RPcube comes out, or I DIY my own wire) I’ll be able to adjust the power output on my SB800s as well.
So with all of these great products available for photographers now a days, it’s really helping photographers to have the ability to really push the boundaries of what you are able to do especially on location. It’s definitely fun times!!!
Exploration
I know, I know…. These photos are already in the gallery… I’ve already seen them!!! We want new content!!! I promise in due time, you will have it, but for now due to everything being so new, this is what you’re going to have to live with for now. So let’s move onto the post, shall we?
Last weekend AO, Raul, Vinny and I headed out to Lake Amistad to do some exploration. Let us back up about 7 months ago, when we went to Amistad the first time… We rented a boat, and headed up the lake, then down the lake and pretty much came up empty handed. We did find some stuff, but it didn’t feel like it would be worth coming back to. The last thing I remember before we had to turn around because we were about to run out of gas was seeing some cliff lines off in the distance, but we couldn’t make it. Here’s a link to the photos from that trip:
So it took a little bit more convincing to get me to go this next trip, but I remembered what we saw at the end of the last, and was told that’s where we were going to start this time, so I was all in! Once we got past some minor trip glitches in the beginning, it was on. Let’s just let the photos from this trip do the rest of the talking for me:
We put in at the high bridge and immediately headed up the Pecos river to see what we could see. Keep in mind here, we have no idea where we were going, just searching for psicobloc, and some low lying fruit boulders on the shore. We found both:
Up the Pecos from the high bridge. Boulders in the background.
Entering what we now know is Dead Mans Canyon.
Dead Mans Canyon. Check out the low bluff wave wall to the right. Fun!
Our camp spot.
The rock quality was super good! Nice and sticky. We will find a roof with these same feature. I can feel it.
Boulders and roofs and boats.
Close to the high point of the Pecos River that we went up. The water is high now, so once it drops...
Boat Owners
Locals
More low lying fruit
AO happier then a kid in a candy store.
Pictograph at Seminole Canyon State Park. This guy was about 7' tall.
So all in all it was a really really good trip. Not much climbing going on, but we see the potential of what this place has, and we know that there is A LOT that has yet to be explored. And just so you know, I didn’t even take any photos of the stuff that was below the high bridge… That’s where the psicobloc has amazing potential. I even caught myself saying “I can’t wait for the summer heat to get here…” Who says that kind of stuff?!?!
Here’s a link to all of the images from the trip
First Post!
Hello everyone, and welcome to the blog that I have been talking about for some time…. As some of you know, I have been doing an archive gallery of all my images since late 2003. I figured this would be a good replacement and will give people a faster update, rather then having to wait months to view the next gallery update. I will also be including my insight to commercial photography as well as sharing some of my ideas, thoughts and techniques to the profession. Hope you enjoy and looking forward to blogging!
