Skate Park in the Summer

I went to the local skate park with a friend and fellow photographer Dave Block to grab some action shots. We simply showed up with the equipment and just started watching to see if anyone was going for the gold. After a little time and some apprehension on the side of the skaters we started pulling some great pictures. It took just a few minutes for them to adapt to having several strobes in their face while ten feet in the air. Then it really gelled when we started getting photos of them hitting some huge wall rides, and we showed them how the shots were coming out. From then on they were more than willing to hit all the spots in the park with the lights. It was probably the most fun I have had shooting in awhile, and it really made me miss skating.

Whitman

DIY Macro Photography Part 2 of 2

The How To Part:

Today I'm going to show you how I got from tiny spec on ballpoint pen to surprisingly fierce tiny spider. That is the same spider I promise.

So how did we get there. I used two lenses together, the first a telephoto zoom lens (70-300mm) and a 50mm turned around backwards and attached to the front of the telephoto. The Image bellow show what that looks like (kinda goofy and yes there are rubber bands involved).

To get this to work at home you are going to need to first choose the lens you mount on your camera. The longer the focal length on this lens will determine the amount of magnification you get. I feel like somewhere around 70mm is a good place to start. A 300mm lens feels like

a microscope, but can make you want to pull your hair out as the depth of field is about as thick as a hair. Next we need to break out that 50mm lens your friend kept telling you to buy. If you don't have a 50mm lens what we really want is a fast lens (large maximum aperture 1.4-2.8ish). Now we need to flip that sucker around and figure out a way to mount that on the end of the telephoto. I used a ton of rubber bands on the inside of of my telephotos's lens hood to keep my second lens in place. This is where you are going to have to get a bit creative, because the size and shape of your lenses are going to most likely be different than mine. Fancy adapter rings area available online so you can try and hunt one of those down if your too cool for twine and Popsicle sticks. The last step is to make sure that the aperture of your second lens stays fully open. On older lenses you can simply turn the aperture ring to the select your widest aperture, but on newer lenses more rubber bands come into play. In the photo to the right you can see how I wrapped a light rubber band around the pin that the camera uses to control the lenses aperture. Once you have gotten your lenses kissing its time to try shooting some frames and see what you get. If you are having any problems or have questions drop me a line or comment bellow.

Whitman

DIY Macro Photography Part 1 of 2

Putting baby in the produce, or my first venture in macro photography.

Some time ago I stumbled across a technique that

allows you to fairly extreme macro shots without the need for a specialized lens. I didn't jump on the opportunity to try it out because I honestly didn't care about the world of macro photography. Why would I want to waste my time taking close up pictures of plants and bugs in the backyard? Macro photography just seemed like a hop skip and a jump away from taking pictures of babies in a head of lettuce. I fully admit my aversion was probably fueled by some odd art school hangup, but regardless I never considered photographing the world on such a such a small scale.

Yesterday I was in need of excuse to be outside with my camera on such a beautiful day (one of 18 in a Seattle summer). I remembered back to that article I had read some time ago. My inner MacGyver said that mashing two lenses together with a fistful of rubber bands was a great idea Ann Geddes be dammed.

Well it turned out to be really fun. Before I knew it an hour had passed I had trapped and frozen a Bee (he had it coming), forced my cousin to stare into the sun and generally went around looking crazed in peoples front yards hunting for flowers. I had become that guy, and was loving it. Photography has always been my reason to explore the world around me, and this was giving me a whole new world to venture into.

Here are some of the photos from that hour:

I was amazed at how rich the colors were in these photos, and I realized how much potential shooting in this manner had. Once I started looking at how beautifully abstract some of the images were I became really excited to go out and do some purposeful shoots at this scale.

I love the fact that shooting like this is really surprising accessible to photographers with almost no investment. You certainly can spend the cash to get a nice macro lens or a bellows setup but for most people its not worth the investment.

So tomorrow I will go over the technique I used to get these shots. Most of the things you need are probably already sitting in your camera bag right now.

Whitman

Massive Monkees Day 2011

I checked out the Massive Monkees Day last night, and had one of the best times I have had in a long time. I have never had any experience with this community, and was happy to find that people were more than friendly and welcoming to someone that had no clue about break-dancing. This is a really tight community everyone is out to have a good time and push each other in their craft. The complexity of the foot work is unbelievable these guys move so fast and and effortless. I hope the photos can convey some of the amazing energy this place had. Finally congratulations to Knuckleheads Cali for winning the group battle, and Thesis for winning the footwork battle. Check out Massive Monkees for more info.

A cold morning in Seattle

Dear god it was way to cold to be out shooting this morning! I'm pretty sure the construction workers across the street were having a good laugh at me pacing around waiting for the sun to peak over the Cascades.

The Train House

I photographed my girlfriends grandfather in the train house he has been working on for about 20 years. The amount of work that he has put into this space is unbelievable. The maze of wiring underneath this city is absolutely astonishing. It was really fun to work in such tough lighting, and I think this is one of my favorite portraits I have ever taken.

I really love the shot with the spider webs. They really do great things in playing with the sense of scale in the photo. He was very proud of all the street lights that he had installed, at least a hundred, and it gave an interesting effect to use just the available light from these to capture the scene. I hope you enjoy the shots!

U-District & Magnuson Park

Here are a few shots that I have been working on that I have taken close to home. It really makes me miss the darkroom when I work on black and white photos like these.