Happy New Year

Well, it will be a New Year in a couple of hours here (already New Years in most places) so time to make the resolutions. I have three. First is to lose the extra pounds I have put on (this must be the most common resolution for most of us), second is to really concentrate on my photography and third (which kind of ties in with the first) is to cut down on the beer (but not tonight). Hopefully I will stick to the plan. But tonight I will drink too much beer and spend time with my family. I don't go out on New Years Eve because I like to spend it with my kids and there are too many drunk drivers on the road. Better to stay home and party.

Been a real interesting year for me here. Job kind of sucks and the typical girl problems. But end of year started to look much better with my girlfriend and I getting back together and her getting pregnant. I'm looking forward to being a Dad again.

Well, I hope everyone enjoys their New Year. Thanks for visiting my blog.

lighting ala strobist (ok, not nude)

Ok, this is not a nude photo, but it's my blog and I posted a nude shot earlier so what the hell...... I was asked to photograph a basketball game today and considering I have ZERO experience I didn't really want to but figured would give it a try after explaining they should have zero expectations (can only go up from there). Wasn't sure what to expect so brought my canon 100-400 lens (which ended up being a too long) and two canon 550ex with pocket wizards. I was told the gym was bright but was glad I brought the flash as when I got there there were no lights and I would have to be at ISO 1600 @ f4.0 for 1/125 (which was too slow for basketball - or at least I think so). there was a higher level behind the net (about 5 feet up) so I ended up with a speedlight to the left and right behind the net on light stands. Power was at full and triggered by pocketwizards (manual of course). Got a couple of good shots but next time would actually use my 17-85 as even at 100 I was too long from where I was standing. I think these ended up being iso 800 f4.0 for 1/400 (or thereabouts).

The hardest thing is that the action is so fast I had a really hard time focusing. I used servo mode on the camera but it sure is a lot harder than shooting a model standing still. I give these sport shooters a lot of credit.

abstract

Well I did it. I purchased the CS3 upgrade last night. I felt it had enough enhancements to make the $199 upgrade worth it. I also am a frequent visitor to RadiantVista and all his tutorials are with CS3. If you use photoshop and have not checked out the radiantvista site www.radiantvista.com, you don't know what your are missing. Wonderful tutorials on a wide range of subjects and it if FREE. The only trick is you have to check back every couple of days to see if there is a new tutorial posted. Once archived, you would have to pay to view. I have learned so much on this site (although mostly for my landscape photos).

The photo to the left is an abstract of (well you know). Just goofing around in photoshop and came up with this. My friend and I had enjoyed the night and although she didn't want me to take any photos of her, I did convince her to let me take some photos of body parts that no one would be able to tell it was her. I always respect a person's wish not to have photos posted and always get a model release (unless it is a photo taken in public and there is nothing potentially embarrassing for the person).

Well tommorow is New Years Eve here (in some parts of the world Today is New Years Eve) so I'm thinking up my resolutions. Remember to party safe so you can enjoy 2008.

erotic black and white

No posting yesterday. After work I decided to go out to a nice dinner (I love to eat Sushi) and then went to see the movie I am Legend with Will Smith. I like these types of Movies and thought it was a great movie. I guess it didn't get great reviews, but I don't care. It's a movie you can sit back and enjoy without thinking too much. I do too much thinking all day at work and when I see a movie, I just want to relax. A lot of people don't know that it is based on a 1954 science fiction novel (bit of trivia).

Some of my photos are inspired from other sites. Hotel nudes is a blog that I really like and I especially like the simple lighting that he uses to achieve such great photos. This photo was taken in a hotel not too long ago and I liked the way it turned out. It was converted to black and white using an action in photoshop. I thought the photo looked much better in black and white and the expression on her face was very natural when I took this photo. Now I did use one speedlight fired into a 60inch umbrella for this shot.

There is something erotic about a woman playing with herself and I asked her to relax and do what comes naturally. There was a mirror in the hotel room that she enjoyed looking at and this was one of many photos I took. I feel this is an erotic photo, but in no way would I consider it pornography.

Girls

There is something about two girls that men find attractive. No not everyone, but I bet if you asked 10 men if they thought the idea of two girls was exciting, 8 of them would say yes. Funny thing is, a lot of women I know also feel the same way. Could be the type of people I hang out with, who knows.

These two girls are truly lovers. Been together for a while and although the one girl used to date guys, the other told me she just likes women. Actually great to hang out with and drink beer and not have to worry about anything except being friends. Too many people get the perception that two people of the opposite sex can't just be friends and I disagree. I have had some great friends that were women (one was an avid fisherperson like me and we would get up early and go fishing every weekend). Funny thing is my girlfriend at the time just couldn't understand our friendship and became so jealous we finally broke up. I figured it came down to trust in a relationship and she had a couple of friends that were guys and it didn't really bother me.

Day after Christmas

Hope everyone had a great Christmas. If eating too much turkey counts then I had a great Christmas. The kids liked their presents and actually didn't fight all day so my day was complete.

I'm still working on learning how to convert my photos to black and white. If you check out some of my favorite links, many of the photos are in Black and White. Granted, they are light years ahead of my photos and many are shooting film, but I really like the look of a nude photo in Black and White.

Great body and a great smile, what more can I say. Just another girl I was lucky to know.

Jill

Thought for a while what to post today on Christmas. Decided to be anti-festive and post a photo of Jill. Jill is a wonderful girl who fights for her sanity almost every day. I decided to post her as I remember her telling me how she never got a Christmas present in her life. A lot of time we think we are poor, but until you see how some people live overseas, you don't realize what poor really is. She figured she wasn't good enough for Santa to bring her presents when she was young and later figured Santa was only for the rich kids When I met her she was 19 years old and still had not received a Christmas present from anyone. I first met her in November and then later spent two days in December tracking her down just to make sure she got a present. In fact, bought her a whole bunch of stuff just for the heck of it, including her two younger sisters and brother. Never saw a bunch of people more happy and really made me feel good.

When photographing Jill I wanted to convey her somewhat dark mood and her feelings of solitude. I tried to capture this by having grainy and underexposed photos. A very simple photo.

In the second photo, I added some stuffed animals, but kept teh phto the same dark grainy appearance. Although I have other more happy photos of Jill, this is how I remembered her.