Update on the Ofoto situation:

Apparently their automated system detected the copywrite I placed in the exif info for each of my files and caused their system to reject the "copywrited" work, even though it was my own. I had to fax over a form that required my signature to verify the images were my own.. no more (c)s in the exif from now on..

Ofoto has pissed me off. I get this e-mail today:

Dear Ofoto member:

Your order has been cancelled and will not be processed because it
appears to contain copyright-protected images.

The original photographer owns the copyright in any photograph, unless
the photographer has licensed or sold those rights. The copyright owner
of a photograph is entitled to control the making of any copies of the
applicable image.


What? I can't submit studio-quality work that's less than 48 hours old and get it printed? This is going to slow me down. I promised the bride she'd get her prints by the end of the week...

heh.. I get an e-mail tonight from a prominent local photographer (after I e-mailed him some jpegs of my work tonight), and he tells me he wants me working "under his umbrella".. wonder what that's all about. I do know that I'm going to make a few hundred this weekend working as his candidman at a wedding he's shooting. I do believe I might be able to make it in this business if I can hustle a bit more.

I already know how I want my studio laid out.. lot's of black of course, with some weird postmodern decor and some abstract crap lyring around.. with a Bose sound system throughout because I have to have the music.. I figure by then I'll have a dog or something, so it has to be pet-friendly. lol..

A full-length from this afternoon's shoot. I took a lot that looked similar to this. I have lost more sleep over this assignment than any of them for some reason. I used two lights. If I could have used more, I would have. I admit, I would have liked to get the bride farther away from the background, but the studio up there is too shallow. I had a 400 ws Novatron with a softbox for the main light, then a Novatron with a snoot to kick light into the veil. I used a large reflector for fill. I'm going to need to do some PS work to make it look a little crisper, but I like how it turned out.

Photographed a wedding Saturday: I learned several important lessons.

One, have an extra battery.. this should go without saying, but I had to resort to my EOS 1n film camera at the very end because the 10D battery blew out after 3 continuous hours and more than 200 shots.

Two, be ready to run. After the bride and groom kissed, I figured I would have time to get back to the end of the aisle to get them leaving. They bolted and I was forced to sprint through a wooded area to catch up. I nailed the shot, but just barely.

Three, screw the posed stereotypical crap. I got some shots with genuine emotion by just observing and using photojournalistic instincts.

Four, make sure to get the post-ceremony group shots immediatly. Too many groomsmen went off and got crunk right afterwards and I had a hell of a time rounding them up.

Five. Charge more.

Felicia and Cortney. I photographed the bride-to-be this weekend. Cortney is her friend.. she was helping frou her dress and do her makeup and stuff during the shoot. She seemed really familiar.. then I realized that Cortney and I went through the senior practicum in journalism at USC back in 1996. It was a really close knit group.. about 12 of us I would say.. and we produced a newspaper every week. Cortney turned me on to bands like Fugazi, Tricky, the Smiths, etc. Hehe.. I recall a group of us got high as hell on some cheap grass one night in the Village Idiot and she drove me back to campus. Forgot about that. Damn I'm old.

Christy and Steve....

Good lord. I've never seen so much fabric.. the Civichrome 10' x 16' hand-painted muslin came in today. I was worried it wasn't going to be big enough.. yeah it's big all right. I can't even unfurl it in my apartment. This piece is definitely meant to be setup in a studio and stay there.

The muslin is a bit of a work of art in itself. It's colored "Moorland Green" and it fades to black on the corners and edges to create a nice "old masters" effect. The portion that lies on the ground is a dark grey/black. It's more like a canvas because it's so heavy. I wasn't initially sure about the green, but I like it. It's rich and earthy. I think it's going to be perfect for the bridal portraits.

I picked this one up over at http://www.amvona.com and I will probably be using them again for other supplies if the business takes off. Highly recommended.

I had to turn down a request to shoot a wedding the other day because it conflicted with one I had already promised to shoot. I can't believe all this business. My Civichrome backdrop rolled in today also, but it's so large I need a small warehouse to set it up in.

I just about fell out this morning as I watched the Condoleezza Rice testimony.. some photographer in the media circle was lugging around a Speed Graphic 4x5 camera.. and using it! That's what I need to start using around here. heheh..

Mike went to the Masters today and apparently he ran into Jesus.. well rather, Jim Caviezel, in the throng. ahah.. he said asked him "Whuddup?"

I've never ever wanted to be a wedding photographer, yet it seems like I'm becoming one without even trying. So far, in just the last month, I have been hired for four weddings.. one at the end of April, one at the end of May, one in July and one in October.. possibly more.

I'm also scheduled to shoot an engagement photo on Saturday, have a sitting with a bride the next weekend, take a one year anniversary photo for a co-worker and just this past weekend, I photographed a mother and child.

All of this business is from word of mouth. I sought none of it .. and there's liable to be more on the way. I know I'm not charging enough for any of it, but the day will come when I will.

I really want to get some strobes.. like some Novatrons and some backdrop stands to hold the small collection of muslins I'm accumulating. This is all very exciting I think. heheh

I spent 1.5 hours today talking with a 92-year-old portrait photographer here in town. His portraits are exquisite.. no one else around here can get the tones and look that he can. 92!!! I can't believe it. He should be famous, but he isn't. Back in the day, he did black and white and his business partner -- his wife -- hand-painted them.

He slowly relinquished some of his secrets. I saw his studio and it was much smaller than I envisioned. All his stuff was old.. lights from the 60s and 70s.. a backdrop that was made on demand by a local painter. Pretty low budget really. But damn.. the results..

I was an hour late to work listening to this guy. He wanted to talk about digital cameras more than anything else. heheh

Wedding photography.. it's not an art, it's a craft.. I know this isn't eveyone's cup of tea -- it's certainly not mine -- but I have car payments...

Shot these on Sunday.

To the hairy ogre-like rednecks who defiled my tennis game this weekend:

Thank you so much for invading my court wearing cut-off camos, steel-toed work boots and budweiser tees.. thank you for mentioning your farmer's tan and the fact that you needed to take your shirt off to impress your britney wannabee girlfriends. Thanks for taking off said shirt and forcing me look at your slimy, ape-like 300 lb bodies in the 80 degree heat as you played a choppy doubles contest. I think I have been scarred for life.


To my tennis partner:

I'm sorry I hit you in the groin with an 80 mph serve. Despite what you think, I didn't mean to. Even though you probably deserved it. lol...

Work has had me out taking a few photos last week and today.

14-year-old jockey.. raced at a local event and killed the competition:



AP All-American dude... more sports.. blah



And another of the same guy..

N*E*R*D - "Fly Or Die" came out Tuesday and that was pretty much the highlight of my day, aside from being called "Big Pimpin'" by one of the ladies that works in the Highway 601 Subway.

I've been waiting on this record for about a year and a half, so when it went on sale on iTunes early this morning, I forked over the cash and downloaded it.

It's pretty good. Not great.. kind of mid-range.. none of the raunch that made "In Search Of" really good.. there are no songs like "Lapdance", "Tape You," etc.. Unfortunately, It's not as far off the chain as Andre 3000's "The Love Below".

Still, it's growing on me. The best songs are either the slow ones or the grinding tribal ones. "Wonderful Place" maps out some "Andy Griffith Show" meets A.M. Gold territory that somehow works. I think it's my favorite song on here.

( Read more... )

ahhgggg!! I found a gray hair. A co-worker pointed it out. I plucked it out and it wasn't just gray, it was shiny silver.. as if I had just plucked a filament of metal from my head.. and there are more. damn..

So I played tennis for four hours straight today. It took a match that long to get my head back into the game. I swear I lost at least several pounds out there just from sweating. That's good. Best of all, I felt completely at peace with myself afterwards. I felt like I had just taken a drug or something to make me happy.

Of course, it's the science behind it.. 10 minutes into vigorous exercise, the pituitary gland releases endorphins.. I can feel them kicking in. It's amazing. I typically get winded in the first 10 minutes, especially if I haven't played in a while, then all of a sudden, I get this huge rush of energy. I start bouncing up and down to build up the energy and focus. Then I start hitting good shots.

It's great when I start incorporating the grunt into each shot and some sort of testosterone aggression kicks in and the game starts bordering on violence. I actually try to hit the other person with the ball and I'm pounding it as hard as I can, screaming. I don't even think about it. It's just something that turns on by itself. I love it. Then I start getting that vascularity, where veins start popping out of my arms.. and it's really cool.

Now that the endorphins have worn off, I feel like I have been bludgeoned.. my right foot is turning blue and my racquet arm is twitching.. I probably got a little sunburned too.. oh well.

And now for something completely different... (assumes cocky intramural frat boy voice) SPORTS DUDE!!




I was assigned to shoot the state high school championship games on Saturday at the Colonial Center, when I would have rather been kicking it in Columbia with Jenny.

( Read more... )

the constant purveyor of pessimism..

BOO! (part 2, but not as scary as part 1)



Obvisously I used a little photoshop here (hey, it's a boring Friday night.. I leave work ready to shoot up the town and nothing's going on and no one is around to hang out... I was bored and I decided to play dress up).. because in reality I'm fairly pasty and I have bad skin.

Take a look at the before and after 100 percent crops if you dare...

( Read more... )

She'll get mad if she sees this but....



hehehe.. taking pictures was so much more fun when I didn't know what I was doing.. when seeing the film come out of the canister with images on it.. when there was still some degree of chance behind technique and exposure.. now it's too predictable.. I love digital, but there's still something about the look of film..

This image was.. hrmm.. damn.. about April 1997 I think.

Boo!