Walking in U. City

I am often that guy.  The guy who takes his camera at times and to places that most normal people don’t bring a camera.  I’m not talking about a camera phone or a small point and shoot, I am talking about an over sized, SLR with a large lens.  The kind of camera that gets people to comment on how nice that camera is.  I don’t know why size equals quality, but in cameras people often see it that way.    Nonetheless, I was that guy once again on Saturday morning.

On our walk to Bread Co. (a.k.a. Panera) I decided to lug along my camera.   (Yes. the big obnoxious one)  I started the day with a shot of my shoes.  They are new and I like them.  I also thought the contrast between the new, clean canvas and the damp, textured sidewalk looked cool.  Trying to tie that all in with a somewhat wide lens, this image resulted.

It was alright I guess.  What else should I photograph while I waited for the Sparks to meet up at our set corner?  Probably sticking with the cute girl in the stroller would have been a better choice.

But then Olivia asked for the camera and I am glad she did.  She rattled off a number of interesting shots, including the one of her green Chucks at the top of this post.  I guess it was a foot kind of day.

There are a few more  images posted on my Flickr page including some interesting sunflower shots and a giant turtle hiding under a bush.   Just look for the set, “Walking In U City 7/31“

Best Camera and Punishing Pixels

Taking what many people have said and Chase Jarvis has made gospel to the photography community, the best camera is the one you have with you.  The other evening in Forest Park here in St. Louis, my best camera was a BlackBerry.  The fountain at the base of the World’s Fair Pavilion is a classic location in St. Louis for wedding parties, families and any tourist with a camera to stop and get an image.

On Friday, after the kids going to prom had left, there was a few minutes before the sun went down when there were very few people around and it was a great photo opportunity.

One trick I have found with the not so hot camera on my BlackBerry is that if I change the color setting to sepia or black & white, the resulting images are often much more interesting.  With the tradition of the pavilion, the sepia look works pretty well.  It removes the distracting color and lets the interesting structure be the focus.  It can even work with Mia hiding in the tall grass.

Then at times, black and white together with a moving subject and a moving camera and a slower shutter speed can make for an interesting image.

Unfortunately, I have not found any apps for manipulating images in the BlackBerry, and as Frederick Van Johnson believes, “pixels were born to be punished.”  That is very true of these images.  The exposure, brightness, contrast, fill light, and black levels have all be manipulated in Lightroom.  A vignette has also been added along with some grain to enhance the feel.

Here is before:

and after:

Or when to really have fun an image of a tree can be transformed.

Jennifer likes the before image better than the after image.  I disagree.  I don’t think she likes either of the tree images.  What are your thoughts?

Jackson Park kindergarten visits zoo

The two kindergarten clasess from Jackson Park Elementary School took a trip to the St. Louis Zoo.  Above is the Animoto video made from the photos taken during the outing and the photos can all be found in the Jackson Park School gallery under Children heading on www.jeffreyphoto.com

Mom Me Makeover Fashion Show

I recently photographed “Soul Style” a fashion show held to raise funds for a couple non-profits that support abused and neglected women & children.  It was sponsored by Mom Me Makeover and was held at Quintessential Nightclub in St. Charles.  It was a good event and fun to photograph, but unfortunately the lighting was tough and one of my flashes crapped out in the practice run.   Fortunately I carry back up gear and was still able to get a few photos.

The night started with some opera music and then moved quickly into the fashion portion.

You can see all the photos from the fashion show jeffreyphoto.com.

Lensbaby photos at Bread Co

Saturday morning is a great time to go to Bread Company (a.k.a. Panera Bread) with friends.  today I brought my camera and Lensbaby selective focus lens.  It was pretty grey and gloomy outside and the light was not great, so I cranked up the ISO to 1600 and dropped in a f2.8 aperture ring.  There is a decent amount of digital noise in many of the photos, especially the first two where I still had in a f8.0 aperture ring.

But playing around with it in Lightroom allowed me to salvage something.  I kinda like the look of Maria “RealFitMama” Sparks in the photo above.  There are more photos from the day, all taken with my Lensbaby at my photo site, all in the Saturday at Bread Co gallery.

Pork Steak Photography

Sure,it is a bit odd but when I was grilling on Sunday I decided to bring out the SLR and a flash to see what type of photograph could be made when the subject was pork steaks.

Of course you have to start with the raw meat, sitting on a tray (covered in foil so you can discard the foil and use the same to bring them in).

My suggestion for the above image is different that what I typically recommend.  For it and other photos of slabs of raw meat, I don’t think it is wise to look at the image in the original resolution.  It is just a bit to meaty. (more…)