Archive for the ‘People’ Category:
Swept Away
I’m really jealous of the SoCal wedding photographers – anywhere you point the camera is a good background. Still – the focus of the picture in any wedding is the bride and groom. Mostly the bride. It’s pretty hard to take a bad picture of Dano and Jacqie too – and this is another of my favorites from their wedding last fall. This was in LaJolla, CA right along the coast. We shot down here for almost two hours before the wedding. The direct sunlight made it a bit of a challenge since it creates hard shadows in mid-afternoon, but we were able to cope.
Vital Stats: Canon 40D w/Canon 70-200 f/4L @ 145mm ISO 200, f/6.3, 1/1250 sec.
Amy, Whatcha Gonna Do?
Apologies for the bad 70′s song reference..
This is Amy. I had the chance to shoot her picture on her birthday a few weeks ago. This is nothing but natural light, a big aperture, and a good subject. I really like the low-key sedate look of this picture.
Vital Stats: Canon 5D Mark II w/Canon 135mm f/2L ISO 3200, f/2, 1/320 sec.
Across the Bridge
Here is another photo of the Klein family that I took during their family portrait session at the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum. There story is a great one – after a lot of challenges they now have a beautiful little family that includes little Max.
Shooting 1-year-olds seems to be one of the biggest challenges – they want to do everything but look at the camera. The solution is simple – Don’t make ‘em pose! Get them candidly, and you get great shots.
Vital Stats: Canon 5D Mark II w/Canon 135mm f/2L ISO 800, f/2, 1/5000 sec.
Mister Seven
Recognize the man in black (and yellow)? Yep – it’s Mr. Livestrong himself. Since it’s the starting day of RAGBRAI, I thought I’d post a snapshot taken at RAGBRAI 2006 of Lance riding through a small town in Iowa.
Techically – it’s nothing to write home about. I had about 15 seconds to pull my cheapo point-n-shoot out of the saddlebag, run to the curb, and fire. I just love it because it’s photographic proof that for a few hours, at least – I was leading Lance Armstrong across Iowa.
Ah, what sad things we come up to make ourselves feel better. We’ll miss you in Iowa this year, Lance!
The Klein Family
Here is a picture of my friends – the Klein family. These are their first family photos – and I’m very honored to have been the guy that got to shoot the pictures. These were taken at one of my favorite spots – the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum. This is a spot right next to the Japanese Gardens.
Vital Stats: Canon 5D Mark II w/Canon 70-200 f/4L + Canon 1.4x II Extender @ 208mm ISO 800, f/8, 1/50 sec.
Tadliness is next to Godliness
This is my friend Tad – and when you see this picture, you’ll know what Tad is about. As his cousin-in-law said, “Ooh! That picture captures the Essence of Tad!”. Having known Tad now for almost twenty years (hard to believe it’s been that long!) – I have to agree, It’s him.
Vital Stats: Canon 5D Mark II w/Canon 135mm f/2L. ISO 100, f/2, 1/800 sec.
Elementary My Dear Carter.. or Watson..
Here’s another shot from the Sheard family shoot last fall. This time, it’s Carter and Watson – or is it Watson and Carter? Anyway – nothing better than shooting boys being boys and twins being twins!
Vital Stats: Canon 5D Mark II w/Canon 50mm f/1.8II ISO 100, f/7.1, 1/160 sec.
Duck.. duck.. duck.. duck..
I can’t describe how blazingly hot it was when I took this picture. It’s not that the temperature was super high, it’s more that it seemed that it shouldn’t be that hot right at dusk. We went for a quick run to the park at that time because it was simply too hot earlier in the day. This was also a really good excuse to bring my new Canon 135mm f/2 out to play. It did a fantastic job of freezing the action in low light – William was rocking vigorously at the time this was taken.
Vital Stats: Canon 5D Mark II w/Canon 135mm f/2 ISO 400, f/2, 1/1600 sec
High Score
Low light pictures in an arcade are hard to pull off – you have a choice between using a flash, a very fast lens, or a high ISO setting on the camera. All have disadvantages – using a flash gives that harsh ‘flash’ look (unless done carefully). A fast lens (like f/1.8) is good, but you have low depth of field. And.. unless you’ve got one of the modern generation of cameras, high ISO will give you a really ‘noisy’ shot.
In this case – since I didn’t want to use flash, I used my 50mm f/1.8 wide open to let in as much light as possible. I also juiced the ISO up to 3200 – which is very usable on the 5D Mark II.
Vital Stats: Canon 5D Mark II w/Canon 50mm f/1.8 II @ 50mm. ISO 3200, f/1.8, 1/60 sec.
Mmmm.. Frosting!
This is another picture from Elizabeth’s one-year-old “Cake Smash” photo shoot. She’s got a heck of a sweet tooth – so it really didn’t take much cajoling to get her to dig in.
I love high key shots – perhaps because you work so hard to NOT have white backgrounds when you do nature photography. It looks so clean and modern – and it’s so easy to do if you are set up correctly. Be sure and aim a flash head at the background and set it for 2 stops brighter than your key light. Bam! Nice white background!
Vital Stats: Canon 5D Mark II w/Canon 24-105 f/4L @ 105mm ISO 100, f/7.1, 1/200 sec.