Engagement at EMU

Engagement at EMU, originally uploaded by Breathe in Digital.

My friends Sam and Jenny have been engaged for a little while now, but the planning phase of their wedding is in full swing. That means I got to be their engagement photographer! Practically free for them, and the experience gave me a lot of time to play with lighting setups. I think it was mutually beneficial.

This is just one of many, many photos taken. You can see two more on my Flickr site if you click on the photo and view the set "Sam and Jenny." I'll most likely have one more post from this shoot later on.

Let's not forget about the flowers

Bee, originally uploaded by Breathe in Digital.

In the euphoria that has resulted from all of my new lighting toys, I nearly forgot how great it can be to just walk around and snap shots of things you see. Yesterday I had the opportunity to search around the Matthaei Botanical Gardens for photo opportunities with Kathleen. The flowers there are not in full force yet, of course, but there were some great sights to see. This was my favorite capture of the trip.

In the meantime, I recently did an engagement shoot with my friends Sam and Jenny, and a couple of photos from that session will definitely end up here once I work some more on the set (650 photos, egad!), and tomorrow I'll be doing a shoot with Holly. A proper shoot, not just a shot at a bar like last time, though I really did like that shot.

Until then.

UPDATE: A big shout out to my roommate, David Wizard, for putting together my new banner! Much better than that pile of rubble I had picked out before.

Oberon Season

Over Oberon, originally uploaded by Breathe in Digital.

It's been Oberon season for a while now, but I personally don't consider it to be officially started until I get to have a drink with my friend Holly. Our Oberon celebrations started many years ago while we were both still in undergrad. Back then, the Oberon would often be accompanied by huge slabs of oranges and various cheeses. We liked to pretend we were classy ;)

In other news, a photo of mine got featured on the Mod Cloth Blog! While the post is basically just about Cammila and her blog, I can still revel in the use of the photo. I'm going to see if I can get them to put up an attribution while I'm at it . . .

UPDATE: The very nice people at Mod Cloth have added the attribution to that photo! It was certainly just a case of oversight, no worries. Thanks!

They Rise!

They Rise!, originally uploaded by Breathe in Digital.

From the very bowels of the earth, they come to consume us all!

FINGER PUPPETS!

My roommate suggested that this be a caption contest, so if you have a witty thing that these awesome finger puppet monsters are saying, just post it in the comments. If something awesome gets suggested, I'll post up an editer version later :)

If you're interested in any of the information as to how I set this up, or to see larger versions click on the picture. (For those of you uninitiated, when you click on the photo and go to Flickr, click on "all sizes" at the top of the picture to see the big version).

This is what happens when you get it right the first time!

A gentle obscurity, originally uploaded by Breathe in Digital.

View this on a black background

It feels exceedingly good to be figuring more out about my lights. This photo required virtually no editing whatsoever, just a few minor tweaks for the sake of it, but no hours of post production like my dance shots.

Cammila, as always, is gorgeous and a great model to work with (okay, the only model I've worked with). It helps that she's one of my best friends ever and lives in the same apartment complex as me, of course, but still, the fact that she runs an awesome fashion blog and I run this little photo blog makes our friendship suddenly even more mutually beneficial than it already was. Thanks, Cammila, for being awesome!

Here's one more to tide you over. See the full set at my Flickr (Cammila has her own album on my site, now).

A Celebration, originally uploaded by Breathe in Digital.

My Test Subjects

My Test Subjects, originally uploaded by Breathe in Digital.

The ECA dance was a pretty big success, all things considered. The kids had fun, the staff had fun, and I got a chance to play with my off-camera flash setup.

Ellen and Dave were happy to be my test subjects before I got to all of the students who wanted to be photographed (none of those pictures will appear here as they're all minors). Now, my skills at off-camera flash are pretty weak, and everything that I shot was under exposed and pretty awful looking. That said, this terrible mishandling of my new toys gave me a chance to learn even more about post production. After all, I had to make usable photos for the kids, lest they be heartbroken. So, the above photo is the kind of quality I was able to pull out of these things using my new favorite post tool, Adobe Lightroom.

The last shot here is of Ellen and Dave dancing. This was just taken with on of my sb-600's on top of the camera and required a lot less post production.

ECA STAFF: If you'd like to see photos of the kids, send me an email.

Let's Dance, originally uploaded by Breathe in Digital.

Proof

Proof, originally uploaded by Breathe in Digital.

This is not artistic expression. This isn't even really that interesting to look at. However, this is, in fact, a statement. That statement? I have the power of off-camera flash in my hands!

That's right, my new remote triggers came in the mail. They allow me to take both of my flashes, attach a little device to them (a receiver, if you will) and attach another device to the flash mount of my camera (the transmitter, if you will) and thusly make the flashes go "flash" whenever I snap a shot, even though they are in no way connected to the camera.

You know, just in case you couldn't figure out what the words "remote" and "trigger" were doing together.

Anyway, I took a bunch of other shots tonight, but none of them were any good. It looks like there will be a learning curve for using my new equipment. But fear not, many more interesting photos than this will appear in the weeks, months, and dare I say, years to come.