A Face in The Crowd
Weddings are so much fun! Too much work. maybe! Just a fast portrait at my last wedding - so much joy in her face! Canon 5d mkIII | Canon 24-105 f/4 L | 58mm | 1/50s at f/4
Dante’s View
5,500 Feet up and hard to catch my breath! Matt doesn't seem to have any issues perched on the edge - so maybe I should learn to relax! Canon 5d mkIII | Canon 135mm f/2 | 1/320s f/11
Birthday
It's your birthday! Just a spontaneous portrait of the birthday girl. Taken with my new Canon 135mm f/2 lens. Actually this was a mistake that turned out. I did not do a good job balancing my ambient with my flash and the shutter speed dropped too low. This was taken at 1/20 sec and I am amazed that it turned out. Typically I would not even think about a shutter speed below 1/100 sec for this lens and preferably 1/200. All's well that ends well I guess. Technical - the flash was flagged to avoid any direct light and bounced…
Luna
Staring at the supermoon
Lighting, composition, compression, exposure - all part of the tool kit for any photographer. The moon is one of the hardest things to photograph properly. Never had a camera that could expose the moon properly - the contrast between the bright moon and the dark sky always causes an over exposure. The moon is really bright and you have to adjust the exposure downward much more than you would expect! Canon 5d MkIII | Canon 70-200 f/2.8 + 2x teleconverter | 400mm | 1/200s at f/5.6
Sisters
Three beautiful sisters at a wedding. It has been a busy busy Summer - and looks like the Fall will be no different. Seemed like we had a long spell of no weddings and now everyone is getting married. I just love this photo as I think it captured the joy of being together to celebrate a wonderful day. This was taken with my Panasonic Lumix LX7. It is a nice lice little camera but hardly state of the art. But you don't need the top camera to have a nice picture! We are so lucky to have great cameras…
Hanging Out
Just a casual portrait in the park. Nothing fancy, nothing planned - just look at the camera and and the shutter snaps. This is both the easiest and the hardest portrait to capture. Sometimes it just happens and it is effortless, but just try and get this look on purpose. We are so self conscious today and we all "pose" for the camera. Fake smiles, fake poses, fake Facebook lives. Why is it so hard to be natural? Canon 5d Mk III | Canon 24-105 f/4 L | 105mm | 1/240s at f/4.0
Sunday Morning in the Park
Sunday Morning in Riverside Park. Not Much more to be said! Canon 5d MkIII | Canon 70-200 f/2.8L II | 180mm | 1/160s at f/5.6
Labor Day Sunday Worship
St. Mark's joined with Gloria Dei, St. Paul and Our Savior's for a public worship service in Riverside Park, Neenah. Wonderful time together and such a beautiful morning. Canon 5d MkIII | Canon 70-200 f/2.8 II | 200mm | 1/250s at f/4.0
Focal Length Impact – Photo Class
This series shows the impacts of focal length on a portrait. It cycles from wide to telephoto and then shows 24mm versus 200mm to stress the point. At wide focal lengths features and her body get exaggerated and distorted - especially nearer the edges of the frame. You can clearly see DeAnna's arms distorted at the wide end and the body shape becomes much more natural as we get above 80mm. She looks especially nice at 200mm! Why does this happen? Remember that as we increase the focal length we increase magnification so to keep her the same size in…
Another Sunset
Another sunset picture. The light was so beautiful and made everything so special. When you look around the world it is so easy to worry about the future - the news is all bad news! But, if you step away you see that there is so much beauty in the world. Yes, the news is bad, but it has always been bad! Always some crisis or flood or war or law and order issue. We live in this world and and we care so we want thing to be better. That is a good thing and we should never stop…
Photography Class – Update
Final preparations for my photography class are underway. The class will be "cookbook" hands on photography - minimal jargon and technical stuff and more how to set your camera to get the best results. Just finished up pictures with the beautiful DeAnna to help demonstrate what lens settings will do. Watch for updates on the days and times and enrollment. Class size will be limited!
3rd of July 2016
Just hanging with friends before the light parade in Neenah. Canon 5d MkIII | Canon 35mm f/2 IS | 1/80s at f/5.6
All Smiles
Funny thing about photography. You spend lots of money on high falutin' equipment to get the ultimate in image quality. And then you take a picture that fills you emotional self with joy - but it is technically horrible! How can something be beautiful and horrible all at the same time? The answer is simple: a picture is about telling a story. This picture is about joy and happiness and you don't need sharpness and resolution to achieve that! Good thing to remember when I get the urge to buy the next best thing - I don't really need it!…
Coffee Shop Portrait
A Coffee Shop Portrait in Steamboat Springs Colorado
Just a quick portrait in Steamboat Colorado. Funny how the non-posed / non-professional pictures are sometimes the best... Natural expression and so much in those beautiful eyes! Taken with my Canon 35mm f/2 lens. Usually 35mm is not a good portrait focal length as there can be distortion if you are not careful. Taken at f/3.2 which gives a good focus on her face while producing a nice background blur. I love this lens at is gives a classic organic feel - it sees the world how my eyes see the world. I tried the newest 35mm lenses and…
Moonrise over Corn
Just some fun on a Friday. The sun is coming our and maybe it will be warm today. I'll risk it to say Spring is Here! This is a composition (I think it's pretty obvious) of some fun photos. Friday should be about fun so here it is!
Hanging out
Hanging out at on the deck on a Saturday night. Taken with Canon 50mm f/1.4 lens. Not my favorite lens as I do not use it much, but when it's dark the large aperture comes in handy for keeping the ISO (and noise) down. This picture is right out of the camera with minimal processing. Canon 5d MkIII | Canon 50mm f/1.4 | 1/40s at f/1.4
Joy
A beautiful young lady in Madison. Trader Joes run this weekend for coffee, ginger snaps and various urban supplies. Just a simple portrait in a toy store. So much joy and happiness in this picture. You can see an awesome future ahead of her! A quick pose - no flash. Set the camera to aperture mode f/5.6 and let it meter the shot. The Canon 24-105 f/4 L is one of my favorite lenses for trips. It has a nice focal range, not too heavy and very nice color rendition. Only an f/4 so not the best at low light…
Innocent
A quick portrait on Sunday morning. No time to adjust so you point and shoot. Didn't turn out too bad I think. Something about a young person - so innocent, so open! Canon 5d MkIII | Canon EF 85mm | 1/60 sec at f/2.5
Creation
Creation is an act of patience, faith and love. A block of wood has its own kind of beauty. The grain and the color and all the details that the tree put into it as a function of the weather and sunlight and soil. But within that block is another kind of beauty. The creator sees a new form hidden within the block of wood. With time and work the wood slowly reveals the form within. The creator shapes the wood but I think the wood also has its say in the creation. The grain here fights the shape and…
Window Light
Another shot from the last portraits. Such a pretty smile and the light coming in from the windows is so flattering. I love doing this kind of portrait - catching the joy in a young person is so amazing. I took this portrait using a bit of bounce flash to fill in her face. The flash was flagged to block direct light and bounced off the wall and ceiling. The walls and ceiling are a nice light brown wood and I think gave off a nice golden light. Focus was on her eyes and I used a very shallow f/2.2…
A Winter Sail
End of February and I am dreaming of Summer! Kind of early this year but there it is... I love early Winter - the snow and the the cold are beautiful! But this time of year I am ready for warm and sun and boating. This portrait was taken last year and I used some magic to move from Neenah to the Florida keys. Looks like so much fun... Canon 7d | Sigma 18-250 | 31mm | 1/30s f/8.0 | Canon 430 Flashes
Saturday Portrait
Just a quick portrait at church on Saturday (for the Crossways camp meeting). Taken at f/2.2. to get a shallow depth of field - the focus was on her eyes. I used a bit of fill flash that I bounced off the walls. The rest of the light was from the stained glass windows on both sides. Canon 5d MkIII | Canon EF 85mm f/1.8 | 1/200s f/2.2
Second Birth
St. Mark's annual meeting was this past Sunday and I once again produced a video of the past year's memories. Here is one of my favorite captures of the year. Baptism is a wonderful birth - a second birth into the world of God's love! So much beauty in this picture, so much symbolism! The photographer in me loves the golden ratio composition and curves that lead your eyes to the baby. The Christian in me loves the awareness of the baby. The water is applied and the baby looks to the camera; what is he thinking? Was this random…
Portrait Retouch – 1917
I found an old portrait on some stock photo sites. All I can find is this was taken around 1917. I used it to practice my photoshop skills. The general procedure I followed was: Import into photoshop and resize to 4500 pixels wide Do a very hard noise reduction in Topaz Denoise to remove the banding and artifacts I then added back some skin texture with an add noise layer I colorized the picture using multiple color layers - one layer for each component I combined all the visible layers into a new layer I used Topaz Clarity to sharpen…