Tuesdays.

It turns out I have a buddy who minds the breakfast crowd at Garnett’s on Tuesdays. She and the owner told me I was welcome to come down one morning to play around. It was really quiet but the space is so amazingly photographic.

I got the staff (all 4 of them) to walk around. Well, all except one. The owner’s the one peeking over her newspaper there in the back.

Small vs. Big.

I really like (although I am not very good at) playing soccer. I coached in one place or another for about 10 years of my teaching career, growing to appreciate the sport and still not getting a lot better at it.

One of my favorite times as a player (did I mention that I wasn’t very good?) was when I played at an indoor sporting facility called RISE. Playing indoor means wearing slightly different shoes than playing outside. It also means that one can immediately enjoy a beer after a match with one’s teammates ’cause there’s a bar on the premises, but it’s the shoes that are important.

I wear these most of the time ’cause they’re comfortable and if they’re not too terribly beat up, they match a lot of my clothing, looking simultaneously neat and casual. They’re Adidas Sambas and when I found a pair that fit my daughter when she was still a baby, I snapped them up. Now that my son is that size, he wears them. ‘Cause after all, it’s not like either of them did (or is gonna do) a lot of walking in them,

I’d been thinking about doing a shot like this for a while and finally got around to it. I’m not sure I’m finished with it ’cause the placement of the shoes might need some work. Nonetheless, it makes me smile to see them.

Nice Legs, With a Side of Books.

A buddy of mine who blogs had a boooooring photograph as her icon.
I suggested that we fix it.
This is what we got.

She hemmed and hawed about the way her legs look, complained that they weren’t the ones she saw in the mirror every morning.
We got to thinking, how do you ever really know what you look like to other people until you see yourself in a photograph? I know that every now and again, I pass by mirrors and catch a glimpse of what I really look like instead of what I think I look like, which is who I was when I was 22. It’s funny.

And probably why I’m more comfortable on this side of the camera.

A Lack of Color.

I was moving my Lightroom catalog over from one machine to another and saw this image, shot digitally in color, and did a quick color conversion and crop. It works and makes me think it might be fun to sift back through the whole catalog to see what images re-present themselves to me.

The Catering Job.

My son was christened this past weekend and my wife hired some local caterers to do the food. The setup was so pretty that I had to shoot a few images.

This was not the first time I’d shot images of food. A notable other time was here. I find its harder to shoot do without natural light, but it’s still an interesting challenge.

One of my favorite photographers had this to say about shooting food. And I think she’s right. And besides that, “pie-ness” is a killer word. (grin)

Light Fare At Can-Can.

I carry a camera of one type or another with me all the time. Occasionally, it’s a film camera. There’s a romanticism to film that I like. Sometimes it’s a digital camera, a small point-and-shoot or a somewhat bulkier DSLR. I always have my phone with me, and you’ll have to remind me to show you some of the stuff I’ve seen with it sometime. Today, it was the DSLR.

I was meeting an old friend, the one who blogs. I’d cancelled on her earlier this week and, after giving me no end of e-shame (to include a blog post about standing her up, after which she went on a proper date, thankyouverymuch), we conspired to meet at what I’d almost blithely described as “the French place in Carytown,” Can-Can.

Though it’s been a bit drizzly here in Richmond lately, the light’s been beautiful. There’s so much to see, when you know what to look for. I figured that the light would be nice near the front of the restaurant to snap a few images for fun. In fact, every time I pass that place I marvel to myself how wonderful it would be to shoot a real portrait there, and then I never do. And I didn’t today.

What I did shoot however, were some images of the space, which always makes me wish my wife and I had more time to just lay about and spend money without a care in the world. Sadly, we have to work. But in addition to having beautiful light and being a fun place hang out and have a lazy Paulaner, Can-Can has great food.

We noshed and talked about old times and old acquaintances and did a fair amount of people watching, after which we parted ways. The general manager knows both of us from restaurant circles and bade us a nice evening as we left.

As I come to the end of this post, it occurs to me that there may even be a “she said” version of these events, and so there is. Check it out and have a good weekend.

She Was a Skater Girl.

I was looking to do a series like this a while back but couldn’t find any girls who rode skateboards. Then I ran into this young lady. These aren’t exactly the shots I was hoping to make, but they’re good sketches.

Zephyrus.

There are things that working in a studio makes easier: controlling the light, simplicity of background, even people on the set. Shooting on location often takes all of these variables from me, but the one I never think about until it’s happening is wind.

This image is an example of my good fortune when the god of the west wind gave the model a little kiss. And the light is straight from the bosom of Apollo.

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.

All She Wore.

Not so far on the heels of shooting glamour photos with Carlos Funn and Tim Wood, a friend of mine asked if I’d help her create some racy photos for her boyfriend. I agreed and we went round and round as to how best to stage them. We finally settled on finding a motel in town and came up with some amazing results.

There were several that looked a little like this that I really liked, the contrast of the reflection along with her petulant glare I thought worked well