A while back, Jen asked me to do a shoot for her.  She said she wanted some boudoir-style photos, and I said two things in response:  ”Sure!” and “Fair warning – never have done a boudoir shoot before.”  Once that was said, we began planning the shoot.  I ended up renting a suite at The Citizen Hotel (@thecitizenhotel), and got to work.

It was definitely a fun experience, and learned a lot in the process.  Worked with small flashes in a fairly small area (I probably overlit it by a lot), and ended up going for more of a clean look rather than the typical boudoir style of either very dark dramatic lighting or soft, blown out wraparound light.  Whether that’s a good thing or a bad thing, I’m not certain yet.  But I definitely like what we came up with, and Jen was a rather fun to work with, especially since she’s a photographer herself.

This was shot with the Canon 24-105mm f/4L.  Camera was at 1/200th, f/5.6 @ ISO100.  Lit with a 580 EX II at probably 1/4 power through a 60″ umbrella at camera right up high as a main, and the LP160 almost directly to the left of her up not quite as high set to probably 1/8th power through the 43″ umbrella.

More of these photos are at my Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/digitalnoisephoto.

A few weeks ago I had a couple of shoots for some friends.  They were both new types of shoots for me, so it was a pretty interesting situation.  The first one of the day was for my friend Victoria.  Some of her family was visiting from out of state, and her mom (one of the visiting family members) wanted some photos before she left California.

The only time I’ve ever tried a group photo before was the rooftop shot with my midtown group of friends, and this was much easier in the respect that it was less people, and also not middle of the night hehe.

I definitely had a good time doing this shoot, Victoria and her family were amazingly fun to work with, and there were definitely some pretty fun and crazy shots out of the group.

This was shot in Capitol Park on the south lawn.  Key light was a 580 EX II at full power reflected in a 60″ umbrella, cross lit with the LP160 at half power with a 43″ umbrella.  Camera was at 1/200th, f5.6 at ISO200.

Seen on the side of the Pacific Market at 25th & P in midtown.

I’m lazy, and forgetful, I know this.  Also, despite having a new Mac Mini, I still HATE editing photos because it’s such a sloooow process.  After playing around with V’s 24″ iMac the other day, I’m TOTALLY buying one.  Or a 17″ MBP, not sure which.

Either way.  This was taken about two weeks ago at Natalie’s going-away BBQ out in Orangevale.  Ms. Natalie is leaving the valley to go to Humboldt State University and pursue her dreams in the medical field.  While I’m sad to see her go, I’m glad that she’s getting out into the world on her own, and of course that she’s going for such a great reason.

I got a decent handful of pictures that day, and had a good time as I shared this moment with her and her friends and family.  This is probably one of my favorites from the day (at least not counting the ones where she’s making a silly face–par for the course with her).

Hope all is well up in the Lost Coast Natalie!

I met Jimmy through some mutual friends recently, and she’s been nothing but awesome since.  She asked me to do some headshots for a project she’s working on, and of course I agreed.  She’s a pretty laid back person, not your typical girlygirl, and as a result is a blast to hang out with.

After we got the shots for her project, we just goofed off for another 20 minutes or so and snapped off some frames.  I like this girl, she has a really great sense of expression, and is just very fun to work with.

These shots were taken out at Ivan’s house (his garage).  Where it was extremely warm.  Key was the brand new LumoPro LP160 flash fired full blast through a Westcott 60″ shoot-through (both of which I’ve had for a month and hadn’t used until this day!).  Lit our backdrop from behind with my old Minolta flash firing through the sheet to help eliminate shadows to create the pure white background.  Camera was f/8, 1/200th @ISO100.

Steve, Andrea, and I recently went on a day trip out to Davis.  Why?  Well…  There was a Super Street Fighter IV tourney at Drom’s Comics & Cards, so we thought we’d give it a shot.  Seems that we were pretty much the only two people there who didn’t really know anyone else.  So, odd.  Plus, they use PS3s.  Our fightpads are for the 360, because the PS3 fightpads (which Steve also has) are worthless (Damn you, MadCatz!).  Since neither of us are joystick players, we had to throw down on some janky-assed Sega Saturn pads.  Lame.  Despite the competition we faced first round, we both went out in a blaze of fail.  Missing hadokens and air tatsus left and right.  Miserable.

So, on the way back to the car, I randomly snapped this picture of a bike rack at the Amtrak station.  No-look shot, just a one-off.  I didn’t really shoot much there, but perhaps next time.

Once in a while, great ideas are had.  They change the way you think, the way you look at art, and maybe society.  When these ideas spring to life, they can enrich your existence in ways never before thought possible.

This is not that kind of idea.

This is pure unadulterated humor, sprung forth from the sick twisted minds of sick twisted people.  And therefore, it is awesome.  Travis, the duder behind the oh-so-magical Whiskey For Breakfast, has come up with a rather amusing premise for what I’d call a comedic photo essay.  He’s had part one of this series up for a while now, but I’m just now getting to blogging about it.

The shoot happened the weekend of the iPad launch, and instead of standing around with a bunch of geeks and nerds, we drove around town shooting ridiculous photos of Steve in a bodybag.  All in all, good times.

More will be surfacing through the cracks of Travis’ demented frontal lobe as it leaks out.

Check out Whiskey For Breakfast, or follow Travis on Twitter.  Have an idea for a bodybag shoot?  Contact Travis on Twitter with the hashtag #thingstodowithabodybag.

Wow, what a weekend!  I had the pleasure of running a “photo booth” at the SCTA‘s annual awards dinner/dance.  Let me tell ya’, crazy, fun-loving, exciting people, these teacher-types are.  It’s a good thing that word didn’t get out that I work for a major school information software company in the support department, otherwise this would’ve been an even more frantic night!

After the awards dinner, the lights went down, and the party attitude went up, and from then on it was just a blast.  Fun people to shoot, albeit directing people was nearly impossible–loud music and a party atmosphere does not lend itself well to “Turn a bit left, chin up, bend the knee” instructions.  It was all I could do to keep everyone away from the “backdrop”, and even in front of it haha…  Either way, I’m not stressing, it was fun.

This shot was way zoomed out on the 24-105mm f/4L (Official review of this lens, btw: Holy mother of god is it SICK!!), and you can see the impressively powerful and reliable Paul C. Buff White Lightning X1600 over on the left.  Had two of these bad-boys blasting at only just around 1/4 power–if that, on 45 degree angles camera left/right.  Didn’t light the backdrop, although I should’ve.  I would’ve ended up getting small flash that I planned on lighting it with broken or knocked over, so I didn’t worry.  Either way, even though the “fourth wall” has been busted down on this shot, I like it as it kind of turns out to be a behind-the-scenes shot, as though as the’re going crazy inbetween “real” shots.  Works for me.

The rest of these photos can be found on my newly created Facebook fan page for my photography:  http://www.facebook.com/pages/digitalnoisephoto/102304529848

Why Facebook refuses to have decent URLs for fan pages is beyond me… But there you go, you should Like it.  Because I have more stuff coming soon.  Hint:  It has a hot girl in it.  Stay tuned.

Last Friday I went to the River Cats home opening game.  I’ve never been to a River Cats game, never been to Raley Field.  Haven’t even seen a ballgame since maybe high school.  Maybe.  Gotta say though, it was a good game.  The Cats ended up winning 8-4, and all was right.

I couldn’t get to my seat without squeezing myself through a pretty crazily packed row, so I just didn’t.  Stood at the edge of the concourse for most of the game, the ol’ 70-210mm f/4 strapped on, on my el-cheapo Walmart monopod on my Induro ball head.  I could’ve done much better with something out to 300mm, but hey, it’s better than nothing.

Either way, I had a good time, got some alright shots, and realized that I need an IS lens if I’m shooting that far extended even on a monopod hehe.

Maybe I’ll put more from the game up later, but it’s late.  I just needed to get something up tonight, it’d been nearly a week.

Ivan and I were killing some time in downtown, and I decided I wanted to shoot something.  We ended up in Old Sac, and he had the brilliant idea of trying to get access to the third deck of the Delta King, with the iconic Tower Bridge in the background.  The manager was nice enough to let us up there, and so we just put together a fun experimental shoot at night on Sacramento’s beloved Delta King riverboat hotel and restaurant.

I’m still working with my very less-than-adequate strobes, and it was pretty dark, so I was working with fairly long shutter speeds, between .5 and 4 seconds, depending on other settings.  Overall it was an interesting experience.  Basically, I learned to not wait until it’s actually dark to make a dark background.  A 30 minute jump on the shoot and I’m sure it would’ve come out better.  Either way, it was fun, we got some relaxing productive time, and basically had a good evening to end the weekend.  I’m just thankful that Ivan puts up with my crap while I’m trying to figure out crazy stuff like this, it’s much appreciated.

Anyways…  Technical details, summed up (it’s late, I’m tired):  The Minolta firing through the shoot-through camera right up close, the Phoenix firing bare about twice the distance as the Minolta, from camera left feathered behind him a bit.  Canon EF 50mm f/1.8, ISO 800, .5/sec @ f/11.