Leaves

"Caress the detail, the divine detail."-Vladimir Nabokov

While walking down the sidewalk at my apartment and looking at all of the leaves, I had the idea to backlight them on a light table and shoot them with a macro lens to pick up all the fine details and capture the brilliance and variations in the color. I originally wanted to shoot it as a "pleasure" shot, for my own entertainment, but decided it might be a good idea to use it for my object lighting portfolio. Let me which one you like the best!



The leaves are one of the only things I like about autumn (I'm more of a spring/summer type person). There's nothing like watching the wind pick up a cloud of brightly colored leaves.

All leaves shot with a D300, 60 mm macro lens, and hot lights at ISO 200.
Leaf #1: f/4.5 @ 1/100 sec.
Leaf #2: f/7.1 @ 1/15 sec.
Leaf #3: f/7.1 @ 1/125 sec.

Caudill's Cabin Hike

"If the day and the night are such that you greet them with with joy, and life emits a fragrance like flowers and sweet-scented herbs, more elastic, more starry, more immortal--that is your success." -Henry David Thoreau

This past weekend for my birthday, I decided I wanted to get outdoors to celebrate instead of having a big party. My friend and I hiked the 9.8 miles up to Caudill's Cabin. This is one of the 16 stream crossings in the hike. The last light had reached the valley, and we still had a LONG way to hike.

Some of My History

"The goal is not to change your subjects, but for the subject to change the photographer."

I have yet to post any of film from the past 3.5 years of working with it. Here are some of my favorite photographs from first year and high school.


This was taken with a Canon AE-1 Program and a 50 mm lens on 35 mm black and white film. It was shot from the top of a parking deck after a wedding in downtown Greensboro.

This is a picture of my martial arts instructor, Dave, teaching one of the adult classes. I did a documentary project on him for my first year high school photography class. I used the Canon AE-1 and a 50 mm lens with 35 mm black and white film.




I took this picture of my friend, Ben, during my first year of high school photography. Once again using the Canon AE-1, a 50 mm lens, and black and white 35 mm film.


I plan on posting more of my old work every once in a while, and hopefully breaking out some more film in the near future to get some new darkroom work up.

Chocolate!!!

"All you need is love. But a little chocolate now and then doesn't hurt."-Charles M. Schulz

This is what I shot for the Chocolate Assignment. Had a lot of fun with this shoot. Partly because I love chocolate, and I found some I am not allergic to to work with, and partly because I just love shooting food. Let me know what you think!

This is my setup. I used one speedotron flash with a softbox, one fill card, and one black card. I shot it with a D300 at ISO 200, f/10, 1/30 sec., and a 60mm macro lens.

Want Some Lemonade?

"If life throws you a lemon - make lemonade."-Joan Collins

At the end of the semester, we must turn in a portfolio for the Biocommunications Object Lighting class. One of the requirements is that we include items with certain specifications. One of the images must be glass. While perusing the shelves of a store looking for a mug for my pharmaceutical shoot, I found this pitcher and was inspired to do a clean, simple, high key shot of lemonade.

I used a Nikon D3s, 70-200 mm lens, I shot it at 1/125 and f/11, ISO 200. I lit it using 2 Speedotron flashes and a fill card.

Water

Our last assignment in Biocommunications Object Lighting was to illustrate water. I wanted to show water's interaction with the human body. The above image is what I came up with. I shot it with a D300 and a 60.0 mm macro lens at 1/200" and f/5, 200 ISO.

It was the first time I'd ever used a macro lens, and really enjoyed it and plan on using it more in the future.

More Panoramas!

Here are two more panos that I messed up on (single stacked instead of double stacked 360 degrees). However, I still thought they were pretty neat.


They were both taken on the Reynolda House property in Winston-Salem.

Full view, please!

More Panoramics!

This is the panoramic that I am turning in for the assignment in Digital Imaging. I took this last weekend in Sparta, NC. Michael and I took a trip to shoot and made it an all day trip with the dogs, complete with wading in streams.



This is the second one I shot in Sparta. It was behind a church, shot from the parking lot.

More to come!

60mm Macro Lens

Today I shot my water assignment, and got to get checked out on the 60mm macro lens for the first time. This picture was a fun snapshot I took after the shoot for the actual assignment. Thanks to fellow classmate, Paul Budde for being my model. Make sure to check out Paul's blog for a similar image that he took while we were playing around with that lens, as well as his other work! (Links to his and all my classmates' blogs are on the right hand side if you scroll down.)

Fall Is (Definitely) Here

While shooting panoramas the other day at Reynolda Gardens I shot this picture inside the branches of this giant tree. Meaning, the tree was big, but between where the branches had leaves and the trunk, there was a giant walkway. This is my favorite part of the Reynolda House property, and when I am there, I always have to snap a picture of the backlit leaves.

Pharmaceutical #2

For my second pharmaceutical shot, I stayed with the same medicine, but showed how it benefits a patient. I also got some more experience with location shooting, which proved to be a lot more difficult than I had anticipated, due to some technical difficulties. Despite this, I was relatively pleased with the way it turned out. Thanks to fellow student, and good friend, Michael Hughes for modeling for me!