Some Fun

Old, Beautiful, Blur

Those three words are all I was given for my school assignment in photography. This is what happened. I thought- something beautiful: easy, Lynn. Something old- uhh.. a photoshop texture that makes a picture look old. Something blurry: the frosted piece of glass hanging in the marketing office at work, taken down and borrowed for the night. Done

In Color

This is a picture of my wife in color. And with a new hairdo. This is part of a project for school that's due tomorrow. It is a grid over the light source that causes the light to be very focused in the middle of the frame, then fall off quickly on the outer parts of the frame. Good tool for a bit of a spooky effect.

The Larkins

In July I had the opportunity to spend a week in Salinas, CA with my wife's wonderful family. These are some photos of her immediate family. I always love spending time with them. Even though they have very stoic expressions, they are some of the nicest people I have ever spent time with. I believe that the serious expression gives the viewer the opportunity to peer un-obstructed into the personality of the subject. These are truly amazing people who have experienced great things in their lifetime. Many more to come. Thanks.

Lightning Crashes

So this is what it might look like to have a huge lightning storm roll right over your town. This is also what it looks like when, during that storm, you take your camera and tripod outside and stand next to it while the ear-splitting, spine-tingling thunder splits the air, the ground shakes, and... you don't run into the house screaming in terror. You stay. Finger on the button. Crouching lower than the tripod. Just in case. Click. Click. Click. Boom. Why think of how scared you are when you are getting photos like this?

Bridal/Groomals

Again, I couldn't resist getting the lights out again. This time we used a car battery instead of a generator. Much easier to move around. The timing and weather were perfect, not to mention a great couple to work with, that always helps.

More Engagements

Here is what happens when the sun doesn't go down as soon as you expected. The ideal time for shooting on location is one hour before sunset. Here is something I figured out to work pretty well: soot with the sun at their back and expose for their faces while ignoring the fringe highlights that may blow out on their hair and the sky. This is going against my perfectionistic need to have detail every pixel in the frame. Sometimes we just have to step out.

Senior Pictures

Here are some senior pictures I did a little while ago. I really pulled out the stops and went all out with the whole shoot. I needed a few assistants on this job but it was well worth it. I had a generator with a full studio light setup on the location. Moving everything around was a bit of a hassle but worth every spot we shot at. My favorite style is mixed lighting at sunset. I was very happy with the results, and needless to say, my client was also very pleased. Thanks for all who made it happen.

Two Really Beautiful Women

It was great to be able to spend the evening with the two most important women in my life; my mother and my wife. Amid the conversation, I managed to lure them outside to photograph them.

The Day After Tomorrow

I watched a movie on FX last night that made me so concerned about how we are destroying our mother earth so fast that soon the frost will chase us down and eat us like it almost got Jake Gyllenhaal. The movie freaked me out so bad, I created this image in order to do my part to take our earth back from our worst enemy: hollywood filmmakers. I also uploaded it to istockphoto and shutterstock to see if I can make some money with it, even though the real reason is to just raise environmental awareness.

Stock

Just for the heck of it, I decided to do some conceptual stock-style images. It was a lot of fun and I'm excited about the idea of it possibly turning into an alternate (and maybe permanent) revenue stream one day.

Where I've been

I was remembering today the wonderful experience I had to go to Ketchikan, Alaska and work as a tour guide for 2 summers. It is the most beautiful place on earth. It is also where I bought my first professional digital SLR, hence the semi-good-quality pictures.

Homework/Playing with Fire

Some nights I lay in bed and think to myself, "I wonder if there is a way I can poor gasoline on something, light it on fire, watch it burn, take pictures of it, and be productive at the same time." Then I took a class on alternative processes. This is only the beginning. An image of the finished project is coming soon. The process was really the fun part though.

Some Film

It's always fun to go back to the manually wound roll of film and reminds me of my early days in photography. Here are a few pictures from Utah Lake. The photos can't express how cold and windy and muddy it was that day.