Here Lies St. Pete
Today’s image of the day was another shot capturing the grandeur that is St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican. This structure is the baldacchino – a one hundred foot pavilion marking the spot where it is believed that St. Peter is buried. At one time it was thought to be the largest bronze structure in the world – and probably still is. This isn’t one of Michelangelo’s works – Bernini gets the nod for this one.
Vital Stats: Canon 350D w/Canon EF-S 10-22mm @ 10mm ISO 1600, f/5, 1/30 sec.
One Fall Day at the Park
This is Kristina and Glen’s video from their engagement shoot this fall. I’m really excited to show this to you since it’s something I’m very proud of. It’s the newest thing in content – a fusion mixture of images and what I call ‘long images’ – short video clips+sound. It adds another dimension to a slide show that really brings it to life. Their love and their spunky personalities really shine through on the footage in a way that just isn’t possible with images alone. I still smile every time I watch this even after hours of editing! I’m so happy that Kristina and Glen gave me the opportunity to create this memory of their love.
This video was filmed on a chilly October morning at the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum. We shot the video clips after we completed the engagement shoot since they were relaxed in front of the camera by that point. Once we started rolling, the were great sports and started to play around without a lot of coaching. Kristina and Glen showed this video on the big screen at their beautiful wedding reception in December, 2009.
All footage was shot with the Canon 5D Mark II. Lenses used: Canon 24-105 f/4L, Canon 17-40 f/4L, Canon 135mm f/2L. The sound was captured with the R0de VideoMic. Editing of the footage was done with Pinnacle Studio 14.
The Big Kahuna
Today’s image was inspired by Jon Cornforth during our recent trip to the Big Island of Hawai’i. We were at Place of Refuge for a sunset shoot, but the vog was so bad that we never even pulled out our cameras. On our way out, I wanted to snap a picture of the Place of Refuge sign for my trip memory. While I was doing this, Jon snapped a similar portrait of this head using his iPhone. I loved how it looked – so I turned my Lensbaby Composer-equipped Canon 5D Mark II up at the totem and took this image. This guy was part of the park entrance sign along with a few other totems.
Vital Stats: Canon 5D Mark II w/Lensbaby Composer – ISO 800, 1/200 sec.
Chad Rocks Buffalo
This is Chad Edwards – an awesome country singer that happens to be a good friend of mine. He’s the real deal – the chaps he’s wearing on his CD cover actually got used to break horses in northern California. Okay, northern California isn’t the most country place on the planet – but Chad spent a pretty good chunk of his 20’s in Nashville living his dream. Chad is focusing on playing in public more frequently – and we were able to catch him in Buffalo last weekend. Be sure to check him out if he’s in your area!
Shooting live music boils down to two simple rules:
- No flash. Ever.
- Catch a moment.
The no flash rule can be a real challenge since clubs tend to be very dark. Fast lenses and high ISO is the only way to fly. For these shots, I used my 135mm f/2L and my 50mm f/1.4 cranked wide open. I had my 5D Mark II set at 3200 and 6400 ISO in order to get a high enough shutter speed to (sort of) freeze action.
Vital Stats: Canon 5D Mark II w/Canon 135mm f/2L ISO 6400, f/2.0, 1/250 sec.
Desolate Shelter
It doesn’t get any more accommodating than this, folks! This, and a 2-story outhouse (yes, really) are all that greet you when you make the brutal 4-mile hike to Ka’aha. It isn’t much – it’s a three sided lean-to with dirt floors that is home to all manner of beasties that want to get out of the direct sun. All the same, it’s a very welcome break from that same sun that tends to make the black volcanic rock pretty warm.
The view from that three-sided lean-to is spectacular! When you look south out of the shelter, there is nothing between you and Antarctica.
That two-story outhouse? It seems it’s pretty tough to make an hole into volcanic rock – so they had to build a tank sitting on the rock. The second story was to ensure that you were on top of that tank. It also made a pretty good midday shelter – complete with throne.
Vital Stats: Canon 5D Mark II w/Canon 17-40 f/4L @ 40mm ISO 100, f/10, 1/40 sec.
Jason and Sue
These are our good friends and neighbors Jason and Sue. I’ve been blessed both with their friendship and with having them grace my studio with their beautiful family on a couple of occasions.
I’m dedicating this one today because Sue is having surgery today for sinus cancer which was diagnosed only a few months after this picture was taken. Early reports are good – though they had to remove more cheekbone than expected, the cancer didn’t spread to the orbit of her eye. Therefore – she gets to keep both of ‘em.
She’s had a heck of a fight in 2009 with chemo and radiation – and now surgery. Throughout all of it, she’s been a model of faith and grace. Her beauty is something cancer will never take away from her.
Our prayers are with you today and in the future, Sue!
Ka’aha Waves
Here is a beautiful dawn image from Ka’aha in Volcanoes National Park on the Big Island of Hawaii. This was taken during my recent photo trip to Hawaii with Jon Cornforth.
Jon suggested this area since it’s pretty and it’s pretty tough to get to. It was only a 4-mile hike, but in the four miles there is a 2400 foot elevation change between the trailhead and the campsite. 1800 feet of that elevation change takes place in the first mile. As you would guess, that’s pretty much straight down a cliff. The big wall in the background of this photo? Yep, that’s the big wall we hiked down and had to hike back up.
This photo was taken right at dawn the second day of our backpacking trip. It was just above our campsite on the plateau where the first rays of dawn light would hit these rocks. I took this picture because I love the rainbow wave texture in the volcanic rocks and I think it contrasts well with the lichen (or mineral) splotches on the foreground rocks.
If you can find this rock again at Ka’aha – look for my bubble level. I lost it when I took this shot!
Vital Stats: Canon 5D Mark II w/Canon 17-40 f/4L ISO 400, f/22, .8 sec.
Kohala Valley
“Do you ever think to yourself: Why the @#$^ doesn’t my good camera take pictures this nice?”
-Jon Cornforth, near Hawi, Hawaii
This picture was made on the iPhone using what was easily my iPhone photo app of the year – Autostitch. Autostitch is an app that takes several iPhone images The results that this program delivers are stunning – and it couldn’t be easier.
To make a panoramic picture with your iPhone and Autostitch, take several shots with your iPhone that overlap slightly (about 25% seems to be fine). Use Autostitch to select all the component images and press the “Stitch” button. Once it’s done – and it’s done VERY quickly with the latest version – select the ‘crop’ gizmo to automatically slice off the rough edges. The resulting image is pretty big – not hard to believe since it is several pictures stitched together.
It does a beautiful job of lining the pictures up and correcting for warp. It doesn’t do as well with things moving right on a merge line – and there is some of that in this image.
At the end of the day, it creates a beautiful – though not technically perfect – image… and that’s what it’s all about.
Vital Stats: 4 iPhone pictures + Autostitch
Mauna Kea Parrots
These two fellas (or ladies – I truthfully don’t know how to tell them apart) are permanent guests at the Mauna Kea resort on the Big Island of Hawaii. Jon and I drove there for lunch and to relax a little on the beach between shoots. Actually, I’m pretty sure it was the Ovaltine malt that was the real reason we were there.
These two were in a big cage in the breezeway of the hotel and the spacing of the bars was just big enough to shoot through with my Lensbaby. I was pleasantly surprised how sharp this picture turned out in the sweet spot – the Lensbaby is really capable of high-quality imagery!
Vital Stats: Canon 5D Mark II w/Lensbaby Composer and the double glass optic, ISO 1600, f/5.6 ring, 1/15 sec.
One Last Evening in Paradise
On my last evening in Hawaii, Jon and I made our third trek out to Place of Refuge (known locally as Pu’uhonua O Honaunau). The conditions and satellite predicted that we might not get the daily onslaught of vog, so we made a point of being in position if the light conditions materialized. As we did our 1.5 mile hike across the rough lava to get to this location, a large cloud filled the sky blocking any sun. Our hope was that it was still clear on the horizon.. so we might get a narrow window of golden light from the sun before it set.
I’m set up a little farther up the coast than I was on previous nights. If you look carefully in previous pictures, you can actually see this rock formation in the background. What appealed to me about this spot is a couple of things – the interesting shelves on the rock that water would cascade off after each wave and the very random way water would stream off the big rock in the foreground.
As predicted, the sun popped out from the clouds 15 minutes before the sun sank below the horizon bathing everything in a deep orange glow. Since it was so low in the sky, things were very dim requiring some long exposures. I knew this would do great things for the water patterns – but I honestly didn’t know how great until I got home and downloaded these pictures.
Vital Stats: Canon 5D Mark II w/Canon 17-40 f/4L @ 17mm ISO 200, f/22, 2.0 sec.