Goodbye to 2007, Hello 2008

On the last day of 2007, I'm up very early with a cold, a roll of toilet tissue, and a cup of mint tea. I'm sure I'll get the sniffles under control before the end of the day, but right now, I'm fairly miserable. So, it's probably not the best time to write my Year in Review entry, but I'm going to do it anyway. I've done this before in some other journals, as well as this one, and it's always been fun to write. Unlike other journals, though, my review is done with pictures.

January, like always, was a slow month for photography. Oregon in the winter is a dim, wet and gray place, and it's hard to get the creative juices flowing when the environment is so uninviting. So, I had to make do by shooting inside and/or building neat structures for my granddaughter to knock down. Having a baby around certainly made the year far more pleasant that it would have otherwise been.

This was the year she learned to crawl, learned to walk, expanded her vocabulary, and learned to say "Papa," much to the annoyance of her grandmother who has been trying to get her to say "Grandmama" since the day she was born. She's only called for her grandmother one or twice, but she uses "Papa" with great regularity, much to my delight. In fact, most of the bright points of the year were due to this little lady.

But, there wasn't much photography in the long, dreary month of January. But, occasionally, nature throws us a surprise and we get a nice day for some outdoor photography, and in January this came midway through the month with a nice, heavy snowfall that kept most of us at home and indoors, but I took advantage of the clear weather after the snow to get a few outdoor glamour photos in my portfolio:

February sported clearer skies, and after such a dreary January, I just had to get out for a walk in the sun. I live near a community college, so a walk on their campus was just the thing. There are lots of interesting structures and sculptures there, including this lovely fountain in the middle of a koi pond.

The koi were having none of the cold weather though, and they kept well hidden in the reeds and beneath the ice. Who could blame them?

In March I had a business trip to Arizona, so I took advantage of the dry weather there to spend the weekend hiking and visiting the Arizona Renaissance Festival. In March, Arizona's weather is quite nice, and it was delightful to take a short hike near one of the many mountains that rise around the city. It was great to be out in the sunshine with my camera.

That weekend, I met up with a friend and her father, and we headed out to the Ren Faire where we met a Pickle Vendor:
And lots of pretty faire wenches:




And even a mystical creature or two:

And as the year moved on, the grandbaby became quite the camera ham:

March went out like a lion, and April was very much a lamb. The weather turned and the days became warm enough to start some projects:



And to play with the baby in the grass:


May saw the project completed (at the expense of my poor back):


And the warm weather even had the rest of the family bringing out their cameras:


June brought a first birthday and party:





And the grill got lots of use:


In July, we went to Georgia for a visit with the extended family and to spend some time with my very sick mother. Although we spent most of our time at the hospital with her, we did manage to go to a local parade:



Take some silly pictures:


And I even found some time to shoot some glamour:



And, of course, there was the annual Oregon Country Fair:



August was a busy, fun, and sad month. We had a wonderful Luau party the first weekend of the month:



Enjoyed the Hillsboro Airshow with the Navy Blue Angels the next weekend:



Visited San Francisco, Napa Valley, and Jeremy and Kristin the following weekend:







Unfortunately, after a very long illness, my mother passed away later that week, and we had to fly back to Georgia to attend her funeral and settle her estate:



September meant a wedding:



Complete with flower girl:



A great birthday party for a friend:



And of course, the Portland Pirate Festival:



September also had me working with a lovely new model:



October brought a trip to the pumpkin patch:



Fall foliage:





Falling leaves:



And a little fairy's first Trick or Treating:



November, of course, means Thanksgiving, and Jeremy and Kristin managed to make it home for the festivities:







That brings us to December, and to the last few days of the year. The tree was decorated:




And presents were opened:







But the best news this year, came on Christmas Eve, when our son told us we were to be grandparents again in 2008. So, despite the sniffles, we end the year on a positive note with high hopes for 2008 and best wishes for our family, friends and acquaintances.

Holiday Self Portrait

Just a bit of creativity in taking a self-portrait.

Holiday Lights

The holiday season is upon us and lights are up everywhere except, it seems, at my house. I usually put lights up outside, and in past years I put up quite a lot. This year, though, I just haven't done so. The weekend I was planning to put them up, there was a major rain and windstorm here, and it was simply too dangerous to get on a ladder to hang lights, not too mention that it would have been terribly uncomfortable.

This past weekend there just seemed to be too much going on to get around to it. And frankly, I don' t think I'll be putting up any lights this weekend either. So this will be the year without outside lights. It's okay, though, as I can enjoy my neighbor's lights just fine. I have promised myself, though, that I'll take my camera and a couple of lenses and get out to photograph some lights this year. As long as it's not raining or too cold. :)

Writing

I enjoy writing. I'm not sure whether that's because I enjoy the process of communicating my thoughts and ideas, or whether it's simply that I enjoy the process of crafting the words, sentences and paragraphs together into coherent wholes that convey those thoughts and ideas. I also enjoy photography, and therefore when I write, I generally write about my photographs, about my cameras, lenses and other equipment or about the people, places and things that I have photographed in the past or want to photograph in the future.

Lately, I've been writing a series of articles for my personal webite. A list of those articles can be found here: Writings and Articles. I'm concentrating on lens reviews right now, and it has been great fun to go back through my extensive archive of photos to find images that best exemplify the characteristics of a particular lens. The image to the right, for example, is used in an article about the Canon 28-70 f/2.8 EF L lens, which has been my workhorse lens for over 5 years. I have an entire list of additional articles on equipment that I'm slowly, but surely completing, and I'm always looking for new ideas for articles.

This image is taken from my review of the Canon 100-400 f/4.5-5.6 EF L IS lens. The image shows just how sharp this long zoom can be even when it is wide open (maximum aperture) and at its longest focal length. The image also shows that the lens has good bokeh (the quality of the background blur) and color saturation.

The image itself was taken at a mid-summer celebration party in 2006. Although the party had a pagan theme, there were guests from all religious stripes in attendance, and the event included costumes, body painting, fire dancing and excellent food and drink (very important for any party). It was really a fun photographic experience, and I enjoyed shooting the event for the group and sharing the images afterwards, and I had no idea at the time that I would be writing an article about both of the lenses I was using at the event.

So, I look forward to writing the articles, and I hope that those that stumble across my personal website find them useful and informative. During the holiday break, I expect that I will be able to finish at least two or three more of the equipment articles and at begin writing a new article about photographic lighting tips and techniques.

Favorite Models

I'm writing a series of articles for my personal website. The articles include lens reviews, places to shoot, tutorials for photographic techniques, and other subjects photographic. I finished a couple of articles yesterday; one on the Canon 85 f/1.2 L lens and another on the Canon 135 f/2 L lens.

I illustrate my reviews, of course, with photos taken with the lenses or at the places of which I'm writing. In the case of the two lenses I wrote about yesterday, the model here was used prominently to illustrate the lenses capabilities and to provide example shots to draw the readers' attention. As you can see, Christine would draw anyone's eye.

Christine is an aspiring model, and I worked with her for a couple of years assisting her with some shots she needed for her portfolio and for some modeling applications. She works hard, shows up on time, and really contributes to the creative endeavor. I really miss working with her. It has been over a year now, and I do hope she is doing well with her career.

The last time we worked together was in August of 2006. We were working on getting her a portfolio established on one of the major online modeling publications. We had gotten several shoots completed for her outdoor glamour portfolio and were about to start working on some more generalized fashion and activity shots when she abruptly told me she wouldn't be modeling anymore for very well thought-out personal reasons. It's really a shame, because she was truly my favorite model and I do miss working with her.

When I was writing yesterday, I found the photos of her best illustrated the particular concepts forwarded by the articles, and that got me to thinking about Christine and how she was doing and how much fun it was to shoot with her. I miss her energy and her willingness to try new poses and concepts, as well as her ability to look at the positive.

Christine, wherever you are, I hope you're doing well and that you've taken up modeling again.

Pinup Photography

The other day a friend asked me aboutu 1940's and 50's style pin-up photography. She said they had never seen any on my site and wondered if I had ever done it. My answer to them was I had done it, but nothing recently and that it was a matter of costume, setting and lighting. After more thought, I realized that those three attributes determine the style or genre of any people photography.

In any event, I went looking through my archives to see if I could find any specific examples, and of my digital files, this is the closest I 've come to that genre of photography since moving to digital. I did find some slides done with other models that were closer to the style, but I've found that the older Ektachrome slides I used don't scan well to digital.

To be really more of a 50's pinup style, though, the model's pose in this photo needs to be more elongated, that is, her body should be stretched out with much more emphasis on the legs and torso. Additionally, the props need to be more closely aligned to the costume. In this case, a red toy sack and a Christmas tree background would be more appropriate.

So, I've been doing quite a bit of research on this style of glamour, and I think that will be one of my winter photos projects, i.e. to shoot a series of 1940's and 1950's style pinups. I'm working on getting access to the loft of a shop which may work out well for a winter photography studio. I have a number of models that will be willing to work with me for copies of the prints for the portfolios, or for a modest fee. It's really, then only a matter of buying the props and costumes and optimizing the lighting. I need to research the lighting styles a bit more, but I've ordered a couple of Bunny Yeager's books and those will provide good examples for what I'm trying to accomplish. With any luck, I'll be able to post a new entry here is a few weeks with some examples of these types of photos.

Favorite Lenses

I enjoy using different lenses on my cameras. The primary reason I bought my first Single Lens Reflex camera was the fact that I could change the lenses on the camera to choose the one most appropriate for the subject I was photographing. Although I've owned many Point and Shoot (P&S) cameras (and I still do), my tool of choice is still a Single Lens Reflex camera with interchangeable lenses.

I went digital with my photography in 1998 and at that time the only economically feasible digital cameras were Point and Shoots. Digital SLR's at that time cost many thousands of dollars. I still shot film, but what I really wanted was the convenience of digital combined with the versatility and image quality of a DSLR. That didn't occur until late 2000 with the release of Canon's D30 DSLR (Nikon had a DSLR earlier, but since all my lenses were Canon, it wasn't an economically viable option for me). With the release of that camera I had my wish and I've since expanded my lens collection significantly.

As I was shooting some photos this weekend for a lens comparison article I'm writing, I realized that there are few lenses that are just wonderful for photography and have to be listed as my favorites. One of these lenses is the Canon EF 85mm f/1.8 with which the posted photo was taken. This lens is a great deal because for the money you got a wonderful low-light lens with fast auto-focus and great image quality. It's big brother, the Canon EF 85mm f/1.2L II can produce better image quality and has lower light capability, but at a significantly increased price and with slower AF speed.

As you can see from the image here, this lens is quite capable and produces lovely images. I almost sold it last year, but pulled it from my "to sell" list at the last minute. I'm certainly glad I did.

Mark

Montana

I took a longer lunch today and did a photo shoot with a long-time friend of mine, Montanna. I've known Montana for about 5 years, I think. I met her through another friend of mine, and we've done a few photo shoots together. After modeling for a while, she took a break, but is now looking to get back into the business. She has a portfolio on One Model Place and I'll be helping her build and expand her portfolio over the next several months (I hope).

The photo shoot we did this afternoon was fairly quick. We shot under the St. Johns Bridge and it was quite cool down by the river. Montana is a slender young woman, and I could tell the chill was getting to her when we weren't in the direct sunlight. She was quite game and very enthusiastic about the photo shoot, though, so anyone that hires her as a model would be very pleased with the results, I'm sure.