Spring is coming

365 Day Thirty-Nine, originally uploaded by BMCportraits.

It’s only early February and still pretty cold, but the first signs of spring are everywhere here in Durham already. Daffodils are pushing up through the hard ground, forsythia are budding, and there are flocks of birds making their way back from wintering south of here. I’ve been seeing orioles for the last few weeks, but yesterday I came across this bluebird. He was sitting on a fence post and basking in the sun.

I took this photo for my 365 project http://b3m6c5.blogspot.com/ It is my entry for day 39.

365 Day Thirty-Six: Head in Hand

365 Day Thirty-Six, originally uploaded by BMCportraits.

Literally.

This is a sculpture purchased many years ago in Charleston. I have photographed it a number of times. It has a great graphic quality and is a beautifully executed piece of art. I think it cost maybe $30 at the market.

I’ve photographed it a number of times over the years. Here, I’ve tried to make a 3-D effect by keeping the background and the sculpture in the same basic tone. I was hoping for the illusion of it coming out of the background. I photographed it against some white seamless paper and lit it simply to get the tones in the subject and the background close in value. Most of what appears as “shadow” is really just the shading that is on the sculpture itself.

I plan to rework the post processing to see if I can further enhance the 3-D look. For this attempt, I used split toning in Lightroom to make a bronze tinted monchromatic presentation. And it’s close to what I envisioned when I set up the shot. I think, spending some more time with it, this time in Photoshop CS4, I will be able to deliver the vision I started with. But this was taken for my 365 project and not shot until late in the day yesterday so I took it as far as time allowed and put if up on the project blog. http://b3m6c5.blogspot.com/ Please take a look at it there as it is better viewed on black.

365 Day Nine: Chosen for ADIDAP

365 Day Nine, originally uploaded by BMCportraits.

As those of you who read my blog regularly know, I am proud of the work of mine that gets chosen to be featured on the All Day I Dream About Photography blog. It’s a selection of the images from each week that are the best (in the opinion of the moderator) of the group’s pool. It is an honor mostly because of the fine fine work done by the others who make this weekly posting. I’ve found so many talented photographers to keep tabs on through his roundup posts. Whether one of my images makes it to a round up or not, I always browse through the photographs selected and always find new talented shooters to add to my Flickr contacts so I can see their work as it gets posted.

This is the first of my 365 Project (http://b3m6c5.blogspot.com/) photos to be selected for an ADIDAP roundup. I am hopeful that I will be able to produce the level of images it takes to make it to the roundup throughout the year long journey.

http://www.adidap.com/2010/02/03/adidap-flickr-round-2010-01-10/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+adidap+%28All+Day+I+Dream+About+Photography%29

Super Snow Sunday

Today was an absolutely beautiful day for sledding.  The sun was out, it was in the low 30s and lots of neighbors, of all ages, were out sledding on our street.  The shot above, of our neighbors Sunny and Nick was the official photo for my 365 project today (http://b3m6c5.blogspot.com/) but I wanted to share a bunch of others here as well. 

 

Soft and Dreamy

20100128-365 Day Twenty-Eight-53-4, originally uploaded by BMCportraits.

I don’t shoot a lot of landscapes, but as part of my 365 I am constantly working to expand my work. Living in Durham, NC there are lots of great farms and fields just minutes away. And yesterday was such a beautfiul day (ahead of a 2 day wintry mix forecast) that I decided to head out to the “country” and see what I could find.

My preference, when I do shoot landscapes, is to make the images vivid and dreamy. Not sure why, but looking back through the landscapes in my Flickr stream, most of my non-urban landscapes are processed to this soft and vivid look. Hope you like them. A sampling of others is below:

Featured on ADIDAP

Ken Rockwell Vivid Set-3, originally uploaded by BMCportraits.

This image has been featured on the All Day I Dream About Photography blog for the best of the pool for the week of 12/20/2009. http://www.adidap.com/2010/01/27/adidap-flickr-round-2009-12-20/

This was taken in a Target parking lot. The deep blue sky and vivid red sign remind me of the work of Ken Rockwell’s work (http://www.kenrockwell.com/gallery.htm).

Please head over to the ADIDAP blog and take a look at the other photos selected for that week. Always great images from a diverse group of talented photographers. And if you’re on Flickr, join the group http://www.flickr.com/groups/adidap/pool/ and share your work in a great pool.

Day Twenty-Five

Day Twenty-Five, originally uploaded by BMCportraits.

I set out yesterday to find a simple subject and compose a photograph to present it in a compelling way. The ability to take simple subjects and make good photographs is something I very much want to develop in myself.

It’s easy for me to get caught up in lighting a portrait, or in trying to capture fleeting moments as life moves by my lens. And those things have their place in my craft. But taking the simplest of static things and presenting them in a clear and artistic way will go farther toward moving me along on my photographic journey than those things ever can.

Making art is one thing…for photographers, finding art…seeing it in the little objects we drive or walk by in the course of a day…that’s something more.

Isaac’s hat

365 Day Twenty-Four rejects-4, originally uploaded by BMCportraits.

Molly and I set up a quick backgournd (thumbtacked to the wall in our basement hallway) and a couple of flashes (one on a gorrilla pod, the other on a folding chair) and worked them around until we got them just right.

Isaac got fussy about it all not long after we started, but got at least one other good one of him in his hat (the impetus for setting up in the first place):

And a cute one of Molly during setup:

Well…time for the second Conference Champion Games.  Colts and ?? in the superbowl.

Shot the NC State v. UNC Rugby Match Today

My buddy James (Jimbo N on Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jimbon/ invited me to come shoot his son’s Rugby Match v. UNC this afternoon in Chapel Hill.  My first ever experience shooting Rugby and maybe my third or fourth experience seeing Rugby played live.  In addition to the opportunity to shoot with a friend (always welcome) it gave me my 365 shot for the day (Day Twenty Three:  Rugby) which is the shot above.  Though I sometimes put up more than one image from a day (with one designated as the official photo and the others noted as also rans) I got enough shots from today’s shoot that I liked that I thought I’d make a full post here with all my keeper shots from the day.

I got to the field (er..pitch?) about 20 minutes before gametime to get a sense of the field and where I’d be able to shoot from.  Basically, as long as you stay out of the way of players, coaches, officials and fans, you can roam the sidelines and endzones freely.  Which at least gave me a fighting chance.  Just before the game, I caught the UNC team in a rally circle getting up for the game.  I liked the intent expression of the players getting their pre-game coach up. 

 

Once the game started, I found a spot on the sideline and waited for some action to come my way.   With only a 70-200mm 2.8 I didn’t have the reach to shoot play unless it was at least on my half of the field.  It gave James and I some time to chat and catch up, and still plenty of action to shoot when it came our way. 

Got one of the State coach:

And some of the spectators:

Even took one of James

I’ve still got a bunch of shots that I want to play around with in Lightroom.  A couple of potential panoramas I like.  One of these is below, as well as a parting shot.

Some recent work

365 Day Twenty-One, originally uploaded by BMCportraits.

The top photo here is my post from Day Twenty-One of my 365 project: http://b3m6c5.blogspot.com/

 It was cold and rainy and I was driving around downtown looking for something to shoot from my warm dry car. Slim pickings. But I think this photo captures the day pretty clearly.

While I’m at it, here’s some more recent stuff (shot for, but not included in, my 365):