One of my pictures of Niko from Davey Suicide was featured in the Russian Magazine Dark City. Sorry for the bad screen captures of the article, the magazine was sold out!
Few images from a Halloween themed photo shoot.
Took some pictures of the band Cut-Throat Queens this weekend. Had a great time shooting these images for them. They added a new drummer so that meant time for new pictures. Tested out my new soft box for my light and loved the results.
I am still in an ashes phase so I ended up doing some really cool images of Niko Gemini from the band Davey Suicide while he was in town during his last tour.
Had a chance to take more portraits of Tyra last month. I have been wanting to do more work with color in my images and I was very pleased with the results. I have another shoot this weekend with a musician from Denver and I plan to do some more along the lines as the ones below.
In my early photography days I loved making colorful images so it is nice to get back to my roots so to speak. If you want to check out my older work here on my website click here.
Side note....are you following me on Instagram yet? I tend to post more work on that page. https://www.instagram.com/mistypicscolorado/
I went to Los Angeles for a weekend photo seminar/workshop. I like attending a seminar from time to time as it is a nice way to motivate yourself to do more things. I also got a chance to photograph a musicians while I was there and I have a new list of gear I want to purchase!
Nikki Misery, MyChildren MyBride, Ace Von Johnson
Spent Friday night hanging out with some other photographers and a model. Had some fun taking these images of Sydney.
I haven't been posting too much because I have been working on my portfolio. I have about 24 printed 11x14 images on the way for my print portfolio. I have a portfolio review at a photo workshop in Los Angeles in 2 weeks so I am in the last minute push to get everything ready! Can't wait to show you what I shot when I get back from Los Angeles so stay tuned. :)
Few images from the last week or so. Been trying to take advantage of the nicer weather before winter starts.
Doing an attempt at a music video 2 days this coming week. Video is a challenge for me so wish me luck as it could be used on a bigger music magazines website.
Shoot with bass player Bundy of Seven Days Lost and Myth of Creation last night. I have had shooting at this location on my list for 1-2 years and even had a few no shows when I did try to shoot there. Was nice to finally test out some ideas that have been in my head for a long while. Did some experimenting with in camera effects and some were interesting(2nd image down).
I did have troubles with getting my studio lights to fire so I am buying the rest of the items I need to upgrade so that won't happen again!
The nice thing about having a drummer(Brundun with Goatsilk) who lives in your town is calling him up when you have a crazy idea. Had this idea in my head for awhile now but took awhile to get it worked out with our schedules and the weather in the evenings. Getting pretty cold in the evenings so this was a fast shoot so he didn't freeze too much. My mother and father were my two assistants on this shoot and I do have to say my mom couldn't stop laughing while she was spraying the water. She has known Brandun since we were little kids. :)
Still a few things I learned and will try differently in the future. I have another drummer lined up for this one but it may have to wait until next Spring/Summer when the temps are warmer again.
Had another set of images from a concert make it into The Pit Magazine. This time it was for Pueblo, Colorado band Myth of Creation. Check out the link!
http://thepitmagazine.com/myth-creation-sunshine-studios-colorado-springs-co-9-21-16/
First time being contributing to an online magazine! Check out my review and gallery of the Wednesday 13 show at Sunshine Studios in Colorado Springs, CO on 9/14/2016 in The Pit Magazine.
http://thepitmagazine.com/wednesday-13-sunshine-studios-colorado-springs-co-9-14-16/
This year I decided to really work on doing more creative shoots where I have total freedom. Up next was a shoot with Michael Stahl(Tomb Throne) that has been in the planning phase since about February. Worked on making a set this time including making a tree forest, digging a pit for water and I used about 4 bags of ashes for the main floor area. Had the body painter Sara Crow come down from Denver to give the shoot a little something extra. Shoot went amazing and I am very pleased with the images. This was a 3 light set-up which I had planned to make 4 lights but my brand new light stand decided to break so had to give up on one light.
Seems like this summer I am all about shoots having to do with water. Still a few more up my sleeve to work on just have to hurry and get them done before the Colorado cold takes over.
Took an image from my last shoot with musician Tomb Throne and played around with it some in photoshop. I have been wanting to try out doing a glow ball and I thought that concept just might work with this image.
After
Before
Took pictures at a few recent concerts including Vampires Everywhere, Motograter and Wednesday 13.
My live shooting skills are improving and I am nailing the focus more which can be hard during live events. I am also experimenting more with exposure so some have a darker feel. I wasn't much on living shooting as I prefer working with studio lights instead but I have to say I am starting to enjoy it more and more.
Here are a few recent images. Check out the new Band Photography gallery for more.
I haven't done a blog post in ages. Had a glitch with my other website that I store images on and took me a few to get around to working on it.
So since I last posted I had 3 more images make it into a magazine. 3 images of Laci and 1 of Alexis made it into FTP Magazine! See below for the tear sheets.
I have been keeping this a secret for a few months now and the wait was killing me! I am featured on Dark Beauty Magazine today. Click the link to check it out. https://www.facebook.com/darkbeautymag/photos/a.108425552545714.21069.107179966003606/992408797480714/?type=3
Few more from the last shoot with Michael Stahl(Tomb Thone). Been getting really good feedback on these images. They do say do what you love and it will show and I have to say that is true. Big things are in the works in the near future for one of these two images but I can't tell just yet. Also, in the works of planning a bigger creative shoot when the weather warms up some more. Colorado winter is killing me!!! :)
Had another shoot with musician Tomb Throne this weekend. This one was more just for me and letting me be creative and experiment with lighting and poses. Been trying to get back to some of my earlier roots from when I started in photography 20 years ago. (Click the personal work link at the top of the page if you want to see older work) I have to say I really enjoyed this shoot and felt some of my old self returning. Sometimes it can be so freeing not to have an exact end goal or client you are creating images for, having the freedom just to create art is amazing!
Here is the first one I edited. I know this won't be everyone's cup of tea. :)
So I have been out for the count most of the month due to a nasty ear infection. I did attend a photographers meet-up on Saturday night where I took these two portraits below.
Took my camera to the repair shop yesterday for a good cleaning and I have a new light to test when the camera is back from the shop. I can't wait to test this new light out and show you the results!
Did some work in the studio with some other photographers on Saturday night. Worked on taking some Christmas images with blurry(bokeh) backgrounds. Even did some where I turned the background circles into to shapes(all done in camera) see bottom image for example. Ended up getting a few really nice ones that I will use for stock photography.
I am still processing all the images I took of musician Tomb Throne. I am having so much fun with these as I have to say having no rules really allows the creativity to flow. I forgot back in my darkroom printing days I use to do really high contrast images, so I tried to do a few of those with these images. I also worked on a few more composite images including the first image below. I shot that background image about 2 months ago while out looking for fall colors.
This last weekend I worked on some more creative images of Mike aka Tomb Throne. Having fun getting back in touch with doing more creative lighting which I did many years ago but haven't been working on till recently. The second one was a composite image that was shot on a white background and then cut out and placed on an abandoned mine image I took a few months back.
Today's post is one that traces back to the start of my photography journey. I went to photography school with the plan of doing band promotional photos for cd covers, posters and so on. After I graduated from photo school I moved out to Los Angeles where all the bands are. Well I learned pretty quick that most bands didn't have money and back then it was really hard to work for free due to the costs involved with buying film and having it processed and printed. Going in the hole for most shoots wasn't ideal.
So I ended up deciding if I was going to work for free I was going to work on experimenting and trying out all kinds of different things with lighting and such. This lead to some of my most creative work and helped me figure out my photographic style. If you want to see some of that journey check out the personal work section of my website.
Fast forward to present day where I decided for fun I would shoot a local band. I had 4 hours of time in a local studio that I could use so I invited the members of Goatsilk to stop in. Had a blast taking pictures of them and I ended up making one into a composite image. Recognize this background image I used on a previous practice composite image!?!?
It is funny, all I seem to shoot here in Colorado is outdoor portraits but when I lived in Hollywood, California all I did was shoot in a studio. I had a chance to do some studio work again on Friday and it was a nice change of pace from all the outdoor shoots. Each have pros and cons and I do enjoy both.
Had a great time shooting a model and one local band. Below are two images of Tyra and I will have to show you the band ones another day as they have to make a line up change announcement before I get to post.
Took some pictures of Laci on Sunday in Canon City. I really enjoy taking pictures during this time of the year due to all the fall colors.
Met up with Alexis in Pueblo this evening to take some pictures for fun. Trying to stay in touch with my creative side!
Took a few pictures of the band Suspension 9 tonight. This round went much better as this club actually had lights inside!
Check out this image I took for Florence High School 2016 senior Selena. Starting to get some of the pretty fall colors which really made for a nice background. This image was taken in Pueblo, Colorado.
So I had my pictures taken tonight. This isn't an easy step for me as I do like being behind the camera and not in front of it. I am also struggling with coming to terms with weight gain(medical issues helped get me there) after being a person who ran 4-5 miles a day for 7+ years.
I understand the need to have yourself photographed and it isn't for you but for the other people in your life. I preach it but I haven't been so good with doing it myself. I think part of the problem is you are the one person not use to looking at you. Everyone else knows what you look like and are fine with it as that is who they see all the time.
So putting on my brave face as I post these tonight. Thanks go out to Paul Martin who took these.
One serious and one smiling.
I was going to have something cool to show but the model I had lined up cancelled on me at the time we were going to meet in Pueblo! So I packed all my lighting up and headed back home to Penrose. Don't worry I am working on finding another model for my creative project and hope to have something cool to show in the future.
I purchased a new lens for my camera last weekend and I am going to be testing it out with Trya tomorrow in Florence. I will show some from that shoot.
I have been working on a little secret project for a month or so now. Want to know what it is?!?!!?
Well come see me outside the gate of the Florence High School football came on 9/4 to see what it is. Game starts at 7 pm in Florence, Colorado.
I had a busy photo weekend! I am going to admit this but don't tell, I have lived in Colorado most of my life but I hadn't taken pictures of any of the Colorado Springs landmarks. Well it finally caught up to me as I have a large photo magnet order in and they were looking for images of Colorado Springs. Let's just say this weekend I took my turn taking some scenic images in Garden of the Gods. Friday night was a location scouting trip and I did happen to catch a touch of a sunset though it was storming so not much color. Then I headed out for sunrise on Sunday morning to catch all the images I needed. I was able to get a few images they liked and I do plan on shooting again in the future when there is some snow on the mountains.
I also had a photography meet-up at a local car salvage yard in my town. I asked a high school senior to join me so I could mix some portraits in with the old cars. I took a few extras of just the cars with my Infrared camera that came out cool.
On Saturday I headed out to the Rainbow Bar in Pueblo to take pictures of one of my friends who plays drums for the band Goat Silk.
I realized while I was there I haven't been out to take live band pictures in 10+ years and I had only used a film camera when I did before. Since I was shooting digital this time I played around with the images and did fun stuff like double exposures. This bar had no real lighting(just a beer sign) for the bands so it was a good challenge to overcome a dark room!
Did you see my ad in the Canon City Shopper newspaper today?
Here are two images of Amy from a photo shoot last weekend in Colorado Springs. One image is natural light and the other is my portable studio lights being used outdoors. Can you tell which is which? :)
This weekend I took pictures of 6 high school seniors in Colorado Springs. Sure was hot out but I got some great shots.
Here is a small tease of a behind the scenes of an image. Still working on editing all the pictures and will show some in the future.
Well I kept playing around with the image I last posted on here. Ended up shooting a background image I think works better with it. This also shows the images used to complete the final image.
I am pushing my artistic side and playing around with images more. I use to spend my free time just messing around in photoshop and coming up with some really cool images. Somehow I got away from doing that so I am going back to my playing around roots!
Here is a work in progress as I am sure I will keep tweaking this some more before I am done.
Showing before and after images. :)
Went out locally this weekend and shot some images to use as backgrounds in future creative photo projects. There really are great places around when you start really looking for them. Here are just a few images I took.
Yesterday I attended a photo seminar in Denver called the Photographers Creative Revolution with Joel Grimes.
Was nice to take a day listening to another photographers ideas on things. The main point of it was to make you think about how to take your business to another level creatively. So I will be trying some new things in the coming future and trying to work on more personal shoots to help me grow more creatively. Time to start pushing things to the next level!!
Come see me at my booth this weekend at Canon City Blossom Day!
I will be in the middle row in Veterans Park which is right off HWY 50/3rd St in Canon City, Colorado.
I will be selling landscape photos and I will have samples of my high school senior portraits. Stop and say hi!
Many local schools had prom last night. I am enjoying seeing pictures of everyone on social media with their hair fixed up really pretty and in their prom dresses. What color was most popular? Style? Anyone show up in the same dress?!?!
Few images from a recent portrait session in Florence.
I have had some pink smoke things for awhile now. I finally got a chance to test them out while we were waiting for the sunset colors to get started. First one was a learning curve as the smoke didn't go the direction I thought it would and to top if off a car was coming up the road! Second one went much better as I knew what to expect. These only last about 1 minute so I had to snap a bunch of pictures fast. I am thinking I will go ahead and purchase some more to play around with on future shoots. The only real negative is they smell terrible, like rotten eggs(yuck!).
So what do you think of them?
Tested a possible photo location this weekend. I had this spot picked out for a more empty desert type look. I am going to give this location a so-so as it wasn't as versatile as I usually like for variety in images from one location. I also waited too long to get out of the car and get set-up so the sun was already down. I had planned to take some images on the road but by the time we finished with the sunset it was really too dark to see the road going into the distance. Lesson learned is the sun goes down really fast when you don't want it to. :)
Still working on designing banners and brochures for the craft show coming up. Should make my deadline to get them off to the printing shop and back in time.
Signed up for the first craft show of the year which will be May 2 & 3 at the Canon City Blossom Festival. In the past I sold soap and photography out of the same tent but this year I am only doing photography. So that means time to redesign banners and samples for the booth. I am in the very early stages of trying to figure out what the banners are going to look like. I will be promoting high school senior pictures this year as well as selling landscape photography. Here is version one with no text added yet.
So hard to narrow down which images to use!
I was looking through some older picture folders to see if there were any gems I had overlooked. I saw this infrared image that I never paid attention to when I first looked these over. Going back and looking at images after time has passed can be very helpful!
I am having trouble motivating myself to take some winter pictures this year. I know I need to get out there and take some new images but I just can't get myself to leave the comfort of my warm home to do it.
Winter pictures are always a challenge for a number of reasons but the cold is the main one. I even picked up some snowshoes at the end of last season so I could move around better to take pictures.
Last year I took pictures in Steamboat Springs, Colorado(pic above). This year I am thinking I might want to take some pictures of the ice climbing walls they have in Ouray, Colorado. I also love that entire part of Colorado and haven't really visited it in the winter. Let's see if I can find the motivation to get out! :)
So another thing you will find me doing when I have free time is digging for gemstones here in Colorado. Anyone watch the show Prospectors on The Weather Channel? That will give you a basic idea of what I do.
I belong to two different local geology clubs so I go on digging field trips. I just started a crystallography class which is super hard but I am hoping to learn some new things about how crystals are formed. I will be starting a gemstone faceting class in a few weeks where I will learn how to cut gem stones for making jewelery.
My father, mother, 2 nephews and 1 niece all usually go digging as well so it is some quality family outdoor time.
What kind of things are you into or what are your hobbies?
Below are a few random pictures I have taken over the summer.
Digging out amethyst in Canon City area
Some of the amethyst finds getting cleaned. These are currently in the rock tumbler getting polished up.
Below is the hole where I am digging for black smoky quartz crystals. That is my mother in the background.
I have heard the current generation of kids are the most photographed with the least amount of actual prints. I think I have to agree and admit I haven't done that good of a job printing out pictures I have taken of my niece and nephews. My mother has made comments here and there that she has no pictures of the kids so for her Christmas present this year I will be printing about 400 images for her.
Please don't forget to print the images you take as technology is always changing and what you have them stored on now might not be accessible in 10 years. When I was in photo school and then graphic design school (10+ years ago) all my projects were put on zip disks. That technology isn't really around anymore and I have no easy way to get them off there. Cd's are already being replaced by USB as we speak and computers can cash. Print, print and print!!! :)
Below are a few I am printing out of my niece and nephews.
If I am home on a Sunday afternoon one of my goals is to work some images for stock photography. Stock photography is a good place for some of the images that were good but not the ones I sell. Many times I will take a few different angels and such of an image and then pick the best one to print. That doesn't mean the others aren't good they just weren't the perfect one. Rather than have those other versions gathering dust on my hard drive I submit them to a stock photography site so they can be sold.
While out shooting I also take images that I think would be good for stock work, most I never intend to sell as big prints. Some of these will be images that I can picture people using while they are writing an article about a certain subject such as the two bottom images being about hunting or camping. The hammock could be about relaxing or getting back to nature.
Guess stock photography is a good way to upcycle unused images!
It has been a month since my last post but I have a good excuse. My computer had a major problem when it tried to do the windows 8.1 update so I ended up having to have it reformatted. It took weeks for all my image files to be downloaded from my online backup place. I think I might need to do some image housekeeping to cut my number of files down. Have backed up your computer recently?!!?!?
I have been back to the same spot each year to take pictures of the Dallas Divide Mountains in Colorado(4 years ago I didn't know about the spot while I was in this location). This location is about 5 hours from where I live so it is always an adventure and a weekend vacation of sorts for me.
I still haven't nailed the shot I want! 2012 missed the fall colors and a snow storm was coming in so too many clouds. 2013 had the snow but no clouds. 2014 had the clouds but no sunrise color and no snow on the mountains. Still trying for snow on the mountains great color in sunrise with clouds and perfect aspens. Landscape photography isn't easy!
Had a print order this week from my etsy.com page that was on the unusual side compared to the normal orders. Could you tell the location of where the image below was taken?
The only clue in the listing was Wetmore, Colorado. The person who ordered the print lives in Texas and she asked if this was taken on a specific road and creek. She was correct on her guess and she said that was her parents horse! I took the image about 2-3 years ago while out taking real estate pictures. I happened to go across this bridge on the way back from taking pictures of a home and I decided to snap a quick picture of this horse by the creek.
What are the odds of someone knowing exactly where this was with what little info is shown in the picture!?!?!?
Back from my fall colors trip to the south west corner of Colorado. This is my favorite area of the state and no matter how many times I have been there I can't help but fall in love with the place all over again.
Took the large format camera out for spin while I was there. Used it for one sunrise and one sunset(see each picture below). Ended up getting rained out on Sunday so I only ended up with one day of shooting, which is a bummer!
Going to try and shoot some more things and then send a bunch of film off to the lab for processing.
Sunrise
Sunset
I did a test run of making a flower crown for the shoot with Veronica in Penrose last weekend. I am already planning which flowers to plant in my garden for next year so I can make even ore crowns. Notice this is the location I posted earlier in my blog that I was scouting for? Veronica really wanted fields and mountains in her senior pictures and she loved it here!
Sneak peek from this weekends portraits of a high school senior.
Did some location scouting the last few days for two different shoots that are coming up. One senior likes the boho chic look and was looking for field/mountain look. The other senior is more into vintage so I found some nice older looking buildings. One of the advantages of doing real estate photography is I have been down many roads I would have never been down otherwise. That has helped me to know more off beat locations for possible shoots.
Just a few teasers from my recent high school senior portrait shoot with Ali in Pueblo, Colorado.
4x5 film came back from the lab today. Mixed results on the proof sheet below. Had a good light leak in one image. I think I didn't have the film all the way down in the camera. 3rd image I took of my nephew(he is trying serious model face) came out decently. That was the one image I thought wouldn't come out. When I purchased the camera it came with a ton of film but it wasn't stored in proper temps so I figured it was no good. Really pleased all that film might still be good! Not bad for test 1 considering I hadn't used that kind of camera in many years. Should be good to go for shooting fall colors with the camera now.
I took the 4x5 large format film camera out for a test drive today. Needed to test it and the light meter to make sure everything is working before I use it for fall color pictures in September. Now to send the film off to the lab for processing!
Here is a view of what I was taking a picture of today. O'Haver lake, Colorado
Here is what it looks like taking the picture. 4x5 cameras show the image upside down and backwards. Takes some time to get use to seeing the world like that. :)
What are your perfect looks for senior pictures? Do you create style boards to get ideas? I threw a few things together that show my general style.
I am stepping back to the past. Acquired a 4x5 film camera today(the kind Ansel Adams used). I haven't used one since the late 1990's in photo school. Time to dig deep in the memory on how to use it! Should be something fun to mess around with.
Had my father build a portable dolly system for my studio lights so I can be more mobile. I saw one another photographer made and sells to the public, but after seeing it in person it really didn't fit exactly what I was looking for. So I told my father the basics of what I was looking for and it turned out great. See below for a picture of it with my niece and nephew(assistants). Also attaching a picture I took of a local Florence High School senior using it.
I am so glad Spring is here! Some how I ended up not taking any landscape pictures this winter. Had the best intentions as I even purchased a pair of snowshoes at the end of the previous winter to use this year. I think I must have went into hibernation mode and I am just now coming out of it.
The good news about the weather getting better is I can get some more outdoor high school senior portrait shoots in. Going to attempt one this evening if the wind and weather hold out. Fingers crossed!!
I was at a nice photographers outing yesterday to take senior pictures. Ended up with some super high winds so I wasn't able to use my studio light as planned but I still have some nice portraits to show for it. Wind blown hair is all the rage right?!!?
Here are 2 teaser images as I haven't even had a chance to look over all the pictures I took. These were shot in Pueblo West, Colorado.
Part of my day job is taking pictures of homes that are about to be listed. I have seen just about everything now from really nice houses all the way down to tear downs. But out of all of those these 2 images from different houses have stood out for the most in need of updating. Isn't it funny looking back at what we once thought was cool? Makes you wonder what we are doing now that will look silly years down the line.
How many of you make photo Christmas cards to send out? I had a number of other photo cards and this is just a sampling of the highlights.
I have been making them since I finished photo school and I moved out of Colorado to California in 1999. The beach image was my first Christmas card after being out on my own. It is funny how the images follow different chapters in my life. The next card is was on my move out of CA to AZ where I was going to get my BA in Graphic Design. Arizona was so hot and I couldn't wait to finish college and move back to California so the card for that year was meant to make everyone laugh so the sign I was holding said "Get me the hell out of here!!". I then followed it up the next year with standing in front of the Hollywood sign saying YES!! so everyone would know I had moved back to CA.
My favorite card was the year I got to meet Marilyn Manson. In my first year in California I worked at a photo lab where all the stars had their film processed so I meet a number of famous people but I always wanted to meet Marilyn Manson. Took me about 10 years to cross his path but it happened and made my year! Yes, I love goth/industrial music if you couldn't figure it out. This card is still on a few people's refrigerators 6 years later! :)
One day I decided I should be taking better advantage of living where there is an ocean so I went to a surfing school one summer and fell in love with surfing. Moving back to Colorado was hard due to my love of surfing so I thought it would be funny to show my current version of surfing.
I am totally slacking this year and I haven't gotten around to making my yearly photo card. Looking like it might be a New Years card kind of year.
What story do your Christmas cards tell?
Sometimes it is easy to forget how important being a photographer is. I took some corporate pictures in early 2013 and a few months after I took the pictures one of the guys became very sick and ended up passing away a few months ago. I ended up taking the last really good photo of him that I am sure his family will cherish for many years. I didn't think much of the pictures at the time I took them because they weren't super exciting but even the not exciting ones can still be important.
Sometimes I am capturing the changes someone goes through as they grow. I was lucky enough to photography Eres when she was 5 days old and I recently photographed her and her family for holiday portraits. Amazing to see how much she has changed now that she is 7 months old.
Eres 5 days
Eres 7 months
Sometimes there are some amazing innovations in photography. I came across both of these in the last week and I was in awe.
First up is a Marmalade which is a group that invented a system called Spike that really takes high speed photography to a new level. I am going to be on the look out for this kind of filming when I am watching commercials on TV. Check out this video http://vimeo.com/43455552
Next is two guys who did a kickstarter project to start production on Pixelstick. Pixelstick is a new way to do light painting(using flash light with long exposures in the old days) in camera and it takes full advantage of computer programing. Some pretty amazing results when you watch the video. Good to see they raised way above their goal so looks like they might have a hit on their hands.
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/bitbangerlabs/pixelstick-light-painting-evolved
Can't wait to see what people will come up with next! Have you seen anything else that I should check out?
Here is an attempt I did a light painting the mountain using a flash light. That Pixelstick sure would have come in handy!
Did a quick test of my new portable power supply tonight. One of my friends stopped by for a quick visit so I talked him into standing in for testing using my studio lights outside. My studio light kit might be a touch powerful for this power supply but it still worked ok for the most part. I am planning on purchasing a more portable light that does work with really good with this power supply. Not too bad for just standing in my yard taking a picture. :)
Dust is the enemy! Dust has been a problem that has followed me for many years. You battle keeping it off your lens or filter when taking the image and that is for digital or film cameras.
In the film days you had to be careful that you didn't get dust inside the camera or it would scratch every roll of film. One of my original film cameras is guilty of the one piece of dust that scratches the film. In the darkroom printing days you had to dust the negative before putting it in the enlarger or you ended up with dust (white) spots on your prints. Fixing dust spots on prints wasn't too fun as you pretty much had to paint the spots with special dye.
As things progressed but still not digital camera days you would scan the negatives so you could work on them in Photoshop. I have been using Photoshop since 1997 if that give you an idea of the time line. Instead of painting the dust spots you could retouch them out with the computer. This image is an example of dust from scanning. I am out of canned air so more dust was on the negative than the norm but you get the idea. See all the white specks and such!
Now in digital camera days the dust is internal for me. I am not one of the people who switches lenses so the dust I get on my images is caused by the inner workings of camera. That dust ends up on the camera sensor and causes black blobs all over the place and is most noticed in images that have the sky in it. See this image for an example of image sensor dust from my last photo trip. Usually I just take it out in the computer and put off having the camera cleaned but this last trip the dust has won so I finally took it in for a good cleaning. So much less processing time if I don't have to spend time fixing dust.
All red circles are to show some of the dark dust spots.
This is a portrait I took of my friend, Abraham Blue Eagle Sittingdown, of California. During a visit in Kansas, Abraham was recording his grandfather’s stories detailing their family history...It later gave me the inkling to pursue my grandmother for stories of her youth and the experience of the Dust Bowl and Great Depression. Following a few days of listening to Abrahams family stories, I took a portrait of him with bare feet...in the very soil that his family had so much history invested in. The portrait was taken on transparency film with a medium format camera, to still the memory.
I have shot a number of fall color images over the years so the challenge is always to find something different than what I already have. I spent this year trying to focus on experimenting and watching for smaller details. I took a walk up into a grove of Aspen trees and took some nice images and as I was getting ready to head back down the trail I noticed this grouping of leaves, snow and moss on the trunk of an Aspen tree that had to be photographed. This image was taken near Crystal Lake on Red Mountain Pass which runs from Ouray to Silverton in Colorado.
I went to the Pueblo Chile festival a few weekends ago to take pictures of the peppers and other fresh veggies. On my way back to the car I noticed how nice the light was looking in this spot between buildings. Had to pull the camera back out and take a picture.
Dallas Divide near Telluride, Colorado
Yep it is almost that time of the year again. It is time to get up super early to catch sunrise and fight for a space to put my tripod up with all the other people out taking pictures. I hit some spots that aren't so crowded but sometimes the crowded places really do have the best photographic possibilities. Crowds at Maroon Bells, Aspen, Colorado in 2012
This year on my hit list is Kebler pass which is near Crested Butte. This location is great because it has what has to be the highest level Aspen only grooves. Many places you find other trees mixed with the aspens so that makes that a bonus. Last year I was about a week too early so many trees were still green. Timing on catching the fall colors at the peak is hard to predict.
Kebler Pass, Crested Butte, Colorado
I am also planning a weekend in the Southwest corner of Colorado which is my favorite location in all of Colorado. I am still trying to catch a good sunrise or sunset with the Dallas Divide Mountains. I have made a number of attempts and the colds haven’t worked out to allow a good shot yet. Maybe I am saving up all my luck for this year so I can finally nail it!
While I am in that part of Colorado I also like to visit Ouray and the Box Canyon Falls which are just on the edge of town. During this time of the year the water levels are low so I can get in at ground level with my tripod. The tourists coming in are also few so that allows me lots of shooting time there without having to move out of the way for other people. Hoping to catch some more fall leaves down there this year.
Box Canyon Falls, Ouray, Colorado
Undecided if I will brave the crowds again at Maroon Bells in Aspen or not. I got a few good shots last year but I would still like to catch it with some colds during the sunrise and even better would be snow with the fall colors.
Maroon Bells, Aspen, Colorado
to purchase check my website mistysprouse.com
Take 1 for trying out some food photography. Going to be taking some pictures for a local restaurant one of these days so did some testing on my dinner. Yep guess I am one of those people now who took a picture of my dinner and posted it!
Raw food/Vegan dinner of organic greens, quinoa, sprouts and a natural salad dressing. I did forget to buy the tomatos so it is missing that pop of color but not a bad first test.
Figured it was time to start my photography blog. I blogged for years for my soap business but never really started one for the photography side. I have been finding I have more to say at times and considering so many posts aren't seen by people on Facebook anymore thought it was time to visit the world of blogging.
So for my first post I thought I would mention something that I am working on that is part of my long term photography goals. I am working on starting to build my photography studio in my garage. I have been shooting in my basement but I find I would love a better space. When I purchased my home 3 years ago it came with a good sized garage that the previous owner used to work in often. How often do you find a garage that has a bathroom with a shower in it? At the time I thought I will never use all this garage area but now that I found myself looking for more options it is a big bonus. Having what I thought was a useless bathroom out there is now presenting all the possibilities of what it can be and that I am lucky it is already set-up with one. Yes that is the toilet for the bathroom in the outside garage picture :)
I am working on a very limited budget so that is why it is on the long term plan. First up I am working on cleaning it out and maybe a nice coat of paint. Some of the bigger problems is the bathroom remodel as it is guy's bathroom which I don't care for and honestly have barely been in since I moved in. I also need to work out a way to control the temps in there so it will be comfortable for clients.
This weekend after thinking about it for months I finally got myself in gear and started cleaning it. Like most people the garage is often the place of clutter and the last thing to be cleaned out right!?!? These are the before pictures and I hope to keep you all up on the progress I make on it.