Nikon D40 w/ 18-55mm at 55mm, f/5.6 @ 1/400, ISO 400

Portraiture is an elusive art. The best create an image that evokes both the spirit of the subject and the location in which it is taken. But when shooting commercially and you’ve got an hour’s sitting fee as a budget, most portraits are reduced to finding the best images under poor, or at best mediocre, conditions.

This shot of my son Aidan is a perfect example. While I know him well and can say that this image does impart a little bit of who he is, it is really just a good picture made under poor conditions. The weather was severely overcast–so much so that even getting the soft pastels usually associated with overcast skies was nearly impossible. Everything was gray and bland with a fine mist of rain beginning to fall.

Nevertheless, I would not be afraid to give a picture like this to a client. Sometimes great artistry can be successfully substituted for good craftsmanship.

Nikon D40 w/ 18-55mm at 18mm, f/3.5 @ 1/6, ISO 1600, -1/3 EV

Night shooting always brings unexpected results. I shot this in October of 2008 at about 8:00 p.m., well after sunset. To my eye, the sky was completely black both over the silos and off to the Western horizon (to the right of the silos). The silos are illuminated by reflected quartz lights shining on a bank of food booths beneath them.  They felt very much like two giants waiting their turn for corn dogs or chicken on a stick. I, sadly, had neither.

I never expected the strong blues seen in the lower left of the image. I suspect that much of it is the smoke and steam rising from the grilling foods and open flames. There’s just enough light fall off as the silos meet the sky to suggest they are much larger than they appear. Fortunately, I was able to hold the camera steady enough at 1/6 sec shutter speed.

If you don’t shoot at night, I suggest going to a fair or festival of some sort and shooting a couple dozen shots at night. There is enough light most of the time to hand hold and get good results.

Nikon D40 w/ 18-55mm at 55mm, f/8 @ 1/400, ISO 400, -1/3 EV

Taking photos of children is not the easiest thing to do. It can be very rewarding, though. I shot about 25 frames of Molly before I got this one. I walked up beside while she was on the monkey bars and said her name. She turned and started to talk to me while I snapped a few. This one was the best.

With 3 kids, I’ve literally shot thousands of pictures over the years, mostly with the family point and shoot. Ninety-nine percent of them don’t rise above snapshot quality. The only thing missing from this gem is a little touch up work.

Black and white conversion, curves, and levels adjusted in CS4.

Nikon D40 w/ 18-55mm at 55mm, f/8 @ 1/8, ISO 200

I normally don’t shoot sunsets. There are a lot of sunset pictures out there. So many, in fact, that most stock agencies don’t accept them anymore.

I liked this one though. The high desert of Arches National Park in Moab, UT painted a pretty sky for us as we had an evening hike after picnicing among the rocks.

I would’ve liked a little more detail in the foreground but longer exposures washed out the beautiful oranges and purples in the clouds.

Nikon D40 w/ 18-55mm at 55mm, f/11 @ 1/250, ISO 200

I shot this on a recent trip to Mesa Verde National Park in Colorado. When we entered the park, we noted the tremendous damage done by forest fires over the years. Park information seemed to show a pretty big fire every 3 or 4 years. Nearly 80% of the park has some sort of damage.

We were on our way to visit a pueblo site when we turned off the main road and onto this side road that went through a burned out area. This shot was evident almost immediately. We continued on to the ruin while I kept thinking about how to frame this road as it snaked through the fire damage. We came back from the ruin and I pulled over to try to shoot what I saw in my head. I took about a half dozen shots with 3 or 4 different compositions.  This one brought out the main elements of road, sky, and landscape better than the rest.

B&W conversion and channel adjustments were made in Adobe Camera Raw.

I like how the road invites the eye into the shot. Many memorable shots have similar points of entry. They take you by the hand and ask you to be a part of the shot. Even though this road meanders up and off to the right of the frame, the eye wants to travel with it and take you to what lies beyond the ridge. In this case, it was more pueblos.

Take the time in your photography to find these types of natural patterns and your images will take on a new depth.

Nikon D40 w/ 18-55mm at 18mm, f/10 @ 1/320, +.33ev

Thanks for stopping in to see my new PhotoBlog. Enjoy the pictures and take a look at my other pages to learn more about my photography services.

This image is the uncropped version of the one in the header. It was an awfully cold day for late summer, even at 11,000 feet. We couldn’t get all the way to the peak and had to stop here at the lake. I was only able to grab a few shots before a snow storm blew in and nearly blew us off the mountain.