Cherry Blossoms

Posted by Aaron - 31/03/09 at 05:03:00 pm

The cherry blossoms are finally shining their happy faces in Portland! I have been hoping to get a shot and even though the mid-day light was terrible, I decided to try to make a few things happen.

I pulled over on the way back from work appointments, and climbed a particular cherry tree of interest. My business socks were much better climbing companions than my shoes. Anyways, I tried to get some different perspectives. Still difficult but, hey, it was fun.

And I doubt anyone noticed the guy in business attire up in the cherry tree by Willamette Blvd…

Music Video from a Nikon D90 camera

Posted by Aaron - 31/03/09 at 05:03:00 pm

Doug Burr’s “Should’ve Known” from Jon Todd Collins on Vimeo.

Done with my camera. No excuses anymore…

Up & Down

Posted by Aaron - 24/03/09 at 09:03:00 pm

I’m often learning while tagging along with my kids, trying to experiment with different shots. This was a happy accident, catching Holly in a determined look while Jonathan was giggling. The flash helped grab their expressions while I dragged the shutter, following Holly down the slide.

Blackberry Hell

Posted by Aaron - 19/03/09 at 09:03:00 pm

Work has been incredibly busy. Work meaning my regular job, I guess which is an especially good thing to have nowadays. But I’m exhausted and many times end up trying to put together a photo later at night. Not the best for creativity when your blackberry has sapped every last ounce of hope and joy.

Memory’s Edge

Posted by Aaron - 15/03/09 at 11:03:00 am

I’m at the point in my photographic journey that I’m up for pretty much any challenge. A friend of mine who reviews hard drives asked me if I’d like to try my hand at some product displays, especially since most tech review sites use photos that are pretty much horrendous. Flash photos with a point and shoot. If the photos are decent, they are usually with the same old clean white background.

Since white backgrounds are a good starting point though and do eliminate distraction, I setup a makeshift white box on top of my new 4′x8′ tileboard ($13 from Home Depot). If you are a photographer and shooting studio work or white seamless, please check out www.zarias.com for his tutorials. Amazing.

Otherwise, I just experimented with shooting a flash overhead, softened through a fold-out diffuser with white foamcore on one side and black on the other to create a gradient. Angles have to be precise or you will get glares and lose the textures of the product.

Just by simple playing with angles and flash power, I was able to arrive at a few photos that I was happy with. Email me with any questions if you are trying to setup a project like this yourself!

Killer: Song & Slideshow

Posted by Aaron - 08/03/09 at 12:03:00 pm

At the request of a friend, I’m posting one of the last demo songs I recorded from back in 2004 and put it to a slideshow of photographs from the last year. Remember, the music is demo quality but hope you enjoy. – Aaron

Pizzazz

Posted by Aaron - 08/03/09 at 10:03:00 am

With the kids gone, I took a day off and headed up for some snowboarding at SkiBowl. It’s such a shame that it takes a whole entire hour to get up to ski slopes from my house. What drudgery. It was also a real shame that with an REI discount, it was $38 to ski from open – 11pm at night. My body wouldn’t take the abuse but it’s a great deal anyways.

Of course I took my camera, and was a little hesitant to pack my camera backpack up to the top. I did it anyways and took only ONE massive spill in the powder. Nothing broke that I know of. However, I was not so naive as to put my D90 in movie mode with a wide angle and shred powder through the trees.

I’ve recently been trying to experiment more with composition. Many details can be wrong about a photo but if the composition is not interesting, you may as well forget the rest (and everyone does!) So hopefully I will be sharing photos with better structure, shape, and interest. You know, photos with Pizzazz…

look for it