Band Promo Shots

After about two hours of shot selection, post processing and re-post processing, I've got a series of promo shots and headshots for my friend's band. I've shot them before but this was outdoor shots, and properly lit indoor work as opposed to the dive bar from last time.

The band members have changed up a bit too, so I was shooting some of them for the first time.

First, we did a quick series of headshots for promo use. I shot this with a three light setup: Key to camera high left, fill to camera low right and hair light subject high right and behind, all fired with pocket wizards. The key light was shooting through the Lumiquest SB3, the fill in a 43" shoot-through umbrella, and the hairlight was snooted with a Honl collapsable snoot.

All headshots were taken with the 70-200 at focal lengths around 130mm.

Lead singer - Jack


Lead guitar - JJ


Bass - Keith


Drums - Mitch


After, we headed out into the Winnipeg winter and shot some outdoor group shots. We hit the back roads and went looking for trucks, tractors, or wide open spaces.

Initially, we shot a bit on a nearby back road, but there was a bit of a lack of interest in the shots. One worked well enough to keep, but Mitch had stepped slightly forward in the frame. Not a huge deal, but noticeable and annoying in the shot to my eye:



A quick note on this shot and the following ones. I sharpened in post, cranked up the contrast and colour and then applied a very light texture from Totally Rad Actions called 'Dirt Bag'. This is a bluegrass band, and they wanted a rough look to the shots, and I found that this touch helped to capture the feel.

Our big break came when a friendly trucker gave us ten minutes or so to shoot with his rig while he was in a service station. We moved quickly, picked a few angles and started shooting:







My favourite shot of this session was taken down low, at a wide angle, with (to my eye) the best composition of the session. I'm quite fond of this one:



I just wish I had got that one boot all the way in frame! Gah!

Anyhow, thanks for reading, I'd love any opinions on these shots!

Backyard Buns!

Hey all!

Another length of time between posts, but this is just a matter of lack of free time. My passion to shoot is surely back, but I'm realistic about just how busy the next month will be.

I had a good opportunity today though. We fill our bird feeders all winter, and one reason is actually the bunnies! It's quite a sight to see, the rabbits dig in the snow for fallen seed, and when they leave, the birds come and scope out leftovers in the burrows. All winter long we have little guys popping out of the drifts.

I'm sure the rabbits know us by now, they are pretty fearless and he let me get quite close:



It's nice to see wildlife in the backyard, especially in the winter.

Taken with the 7D and 70-200mm at 200mm, AV mode at f/5.6 and ISO 100. Post processing to dull the blue in the snow, heighten contrast and sharpen.

Gotta shoot, gotta shoot, gotta shoot!

Hi everyone!

How long has it been, two weeks or so? The bug is coming back and today I finally had an instant inspiration, grabbed my camera, and shot something on the way home from the office. Oh, and it felt *good*.

With the Holiday season coming, maybe Santa will bring me back my inspiration.

Anyhow, here we go:



The parking authority here, like in most cities, is a brutal regime of heartless monsters that prey on the innocent and weak. No matter the weather, they are out looking for more victims. Well, maybe they are not that bad, but man they aren't good!

Pretty simple, a little bit of street photography, a hit of selective colouration and a slice of life in downtown Winnipeg in November.

Winnipeg means snow!

For day 37, my temporarily beloved 24-70 and I went out to shoot light trails. Just one problem: Snow.

I do live in a winter city, so trekking through knee-deep snow to set up a tripod on a snow drift is just second nature, but for long exposures, it *kills* any sharpness you night have had. Add to that the slippery roads reducing traffic, and my light trail shooting had to be aborted early. I also don't have a weather-sealed body so I was using my hat to keep the body dry.

This is the best shot of the night:



Not terrible, but you can see the lack of sharpness if you look at the railing on the overpass, and not once did I manage to get traffic coming and going at the same time.

Today's lesson, take what you can get.

The best seat in the house!

Day 32, and I swore I would take a picture *before* I got home. I like shooting macro, and playing in the lightbox is fun, but it's time to change it up, even if just for one day.

I had a subject in mind, but I wasn't sure how to frame it. I took a chance, shot two or three angles, and to my eye this is the best I managed:



I call it the 'Best seat in the house' but it's totally not. Irony! Technical details - ISO 100, f/4.5 and 1/400th shutter.

Composition in this shot really left me scratching my head, and it still is. There is a contrast effect between the fabric and snow that is nice, the graffiti on the wall is interesting but not distracting from the focus, but that's about it. Maybe I should have shot from closer, played with the perspective more. I'm not sure. This might be the subject of a reshoot later on.

This is where the back alley picture in this post opens into the parking lot, and you are looking back of a couple of hole-in-the-wall Chinese food restaurants. This couch appeared some time in November, and since then the snow draft has been fighting a battle of attrition with it.

I'm curious to see if the drift will completely engulf it before the melt hits.

Snowstorms!

-5 Celsius or so is incredibly warm for Winnipeg in January, so today was playing in the snow day again! It was fun to get out but tricky to keep my camera dry and snow-free, especially when my daughter decided to 'make snowstorms'. One more reason to invest in L lenses and weather-sealed camera bodies I guess.

It was afternoon though, and the light was failing so I had to keep my aperture wide-open to get anything remotely close to a fast enough shutter speed to freeze any action.

Here is my shot for Day 14:



This shot was at f/2.8, ISO 400 and 1/320th shutter on the 60mm Macro. f/1.8 or faster would have been even nicer, but a little blurring in the mittens is not too shabby.

I cropped this shot a bunch of times, but this is the nicest composition I could manage. A bit of rule-of-thirds with her body placed lower right, and she's looking into space with the flying snow all in-frame. I think I can only take a shot like this so far without quite a bit more post-processing, but I want to learn my camera and establish my shooting first.