More Spy Stuff.

Though we were shooting at a motel, Richard’s car afforded some slightly different scenes. I grabbed these outside as we were beginning the day. I was really happy with the way the reflections came out on the second one.

What The–?!

A friend of mine on twitter gave me a small heads up about a local company that was looking to have some photography done of their baked goods. The client never surfaced but the idea stuck in my head.

How would I photograph baked goods without going the obvious route? I mean, without using bakery locations or chef’s hats or Jane Austen-esque women at high tea.

I started simply. I figured, what if I just put some cupcakes in some odd places? Nothing seemed to work in my head. Then I got to thinking that a lot of people describe confections as “guilty pleasures” and don’t always wanna admit that they’ve eaten them. I liked the way that was going and thought I’d take it a step further.

Before I could do anything I needed to shoot one to see if the concept held up as well in my camera, so I sent Joe a quick text message to ask him to stand in. I promised he could have the cupcakes after I was done. He was sold despite complaining that he wasn’t up to looking pretty.

This is what we got:

I think it’s pretty clever. The location needs a little bit of playing with and the lighting’s not exactly even, but for a 10 minute setup and 15 minutes of shooting, this is really close to what I was thinking.

I’m wondering if shooting the series and showing it to the client might not have some merit. I mean, they might just love the idea…

Forced March.

“It’s good for you!” is my wife’s refrain whenever we go on a family walk. She walks a whole heckuva lot faster than I do and up till recently, I’d quicken my pace to keep up (and she was the one pushing the stroller!).

This most recent trip, I wised up. I put my son in the backpack carrier and I grabbed my camera. Whenever something looked photo-worthy to me, I stopped. Sure, we walked a lot further than I would have on my own, but I never got really tired. And I got some fun snapshots, to boot.

I Always Hear This Song.

When I see these cars. Can’t help it.

Interestingly, I had no idea that Rosemary Clooney was the woman who sang the song.

Guard Your Grille.

And perhaps, “Watch your backside…”

I had buddies in college from New Jersey who used this as a motto. For those of you who don’t follow the title reference, it’s a bit obscure, but the lyrics are here.

The Kindness of Strangers.

I’ve found that when I carry a camera around and I ask nicely, people will let me make photographs of whatever I like. In this case, an old Ford Mustang. Richmond’s got lots of old cars around and the neighborhoods around Forest Hill Park seem to have more than their share.

I was driving home from the playground with my infant son in the back seat when I saw the car. The man who owned it was out working on his other car, a more modest, newer Ford. When I asked nicely if I could shoot a couple of quick pictures of his car, he was taken aback. Apparently, he’d restored it and the car was due for a touchup. It looked great to me.

He even opened it up for me. There’s nothing to lose by asking!

Car-pe Diem.

Usually my wife takes our daughter to daycare in the mornings and I pick her up (the daughter, not the wife) in the afternoons. That all changed when our son was born and my wife stayed home with him. I’m the drop off guy now.

So this morning, after drop off, I stopped at the gas station nearby the center and noticed the car in the photos below. I almost drove on and forgot about it, but something inside of me made me go into the ‘Mart and ask whose car it was. The worst the driver could say was no, I figured. The woman behind the counter who drove the beast smiled shyly and said that yes, I could photograph her car. She was pleased. I snapped a dozen images and ran along to school.

I wasn’t expecting much, but was pleased when I pulled them up in Lightroom. I worked ’em over using some preset treatments I’d downloaded here for free. I’m thinking I may even spring for the whole set of 52 ’cause I like what I saw.

If anyone can identify this car beyond the obvious, please lemme know. I can tell it’s a Chevy Bel Air, but its vintage is a mystery to me.

Chevrolet.

I was out riding my bike (probably with Jim) a few years back and shot this. I like it more now than I did when I shot it originally.

I actually have a fondness for automobile photographs but lack the space and time and lighting to ever really do it myself. The stuff car guys go through to get the images we look at is nothing shy of amazing. I’ll just stick to the occasional grab.

EDIT: Here are a few better links (with pictures and video) to car stuff:

Ken Brown, car shooter extraordinaire
A Strobist blog post illustrating his technique
A Prophotolife.com video post

How We Roll.

Sometimes it’s just how the suit fits that makes you cool.

Sometimes it’s the car.

Thanks to Ginna for the loan of the MG and to Professor Henry who really is the coolest.

Down My Street.

I pass this car every day when I bring my daughter home from daycare and think, “Man, it must be cool to ride around in one of those, now that everyone drives something that’s run by a computer and mostly plastic. I should stop and shoot a picture or two of it, just for me.” I never do. Last weekend, I got off my duff and did. I shot half a roll standing around this car.

Again, I’m not thrilled with the scans, but it’s the darkroom potential I’m interested in. My mother-in-law’s got a friend who’s curating a black and white show later this summer and because I have a few prints of my own hanging here in the house, I’ve been nominated. It’s the reason I’ve been working on black and white stuff at all. Well, that and it’s fun to work with an image from start to finish.

In dealing with these scans, I’ve come to realize that the thing about Photoshop I get the least – at least as far as black and white imagery goes – is how to deal with contrast. To be fair, I scanned these using a computer with which I was not completely familiar, but I kinda thought that rescuing the haze that’s in the first image wouldn’t be too hard once I’d dealt with the levels in PS. I’m not sure I’m right.

But since the stuff I post here on the blog is for practice (I have a guy for when I need to actually have stuff scanned for real), it’s not killing me. Anyway, it’s a fun car to look at…