Beaches, Birds and Barns

Yep, March came in like a lion...and continues to show no sign of becoming a lamb (work or weather related). Since the last posting on our travels to Las Vegas for the WPPI show, I have been all over the southeast US.

We'll start in Cocoa Beach Fl and I had a real bug to get up early and get some sunrise shots at the beach, but first upon arriving in the hotel, while on the phone with my boss, this little guy was working hard on a tree outside my balcony-

 I was able to get up and get a decent sunrise. Its mornings like this I really wish I had remembered my ND filters to get a really smooth look to clouds and water... I need to get a second set to add to the other camera bags... back ups are always a good thing.

One friend told me it looked very "Bay Watch"ish... in which I pointed out the HUGE difference- theirs is a SUNSET, this is obviously a SUNRISE! 


Next was St Simons Island GA where I was able to get some sunrise shots before a workshop in Jekyll Island. These are from the St Simons Pier

Again, I am wishing for my ND filters...maybe its time to invest in a Variable ND filter! Yep, that's it, I HAVE to have one now.

From St Simons, I headed over to Jekyll Island for a Canon workshop with Parish Kohanim, a truly inspirational photographer and instructor, I HIGHLY recommend you take a workshop with him or at least go see one of his lecturers. Since I was working the workshop, I dont really try real hard to get images, since its our job to assist the attendees, but I was able to get a couple keepers...

Its hard to get a bad photo when you are working with professional models...

I was planning on going back to get some sunrise shots at Driftwood Beach, however a storm rolled in and all we had was clouds and rain in the morning...so off to the next site.

One of my accounts had scheduled a shooting event at Sylvan Heights Bird Park. We had about 30 attendees and a boat load of gear for them to try, I had the opportunity to bring a Canon EF 200-400 f4 L with me and get some shots.

The workshop was over and the staff and I were all exhausted, but we still had an hour drive back to town, so two of us decided to make a few stops along the way to see what kind of images we could get of what seemed to be hundreds of old barns and structures in eastern NC along the way.

Well that wraps up this post, its off to Vegas (again) in a week, so keep an eye out for more LightPainting.

Early Mornings and Late Nights

Whew! I am in need of a recharge! The last few weeks have been hectic- I am writing this post as I am doing laundry in a hotel in St Simmons Island, GA. Over the last few weeks, I spent the night camping in the desert, worked another show in Las Vegas, traced the outer edge of the state of Florida from Tampa to Miami, and now prepping for a workshop with Parish Kohanim in Jekyll Island, GA.

My boss and good friend Jeff Jensen and I decided to get some REAL camera time in the Valley of Fire (yes, we have become a little obsessive with that place) by going out to WPPI a day early. The goal was to scout for new locations so we could do a team building shoot, and to get some new light paintings done.

There are few places in the world where every single direction you look is as breathtaking as Valley of Fire. If you get to spend time there, make sure you see a sunrise or sunset, we got BOTH.

 5D Mark III f22 (HDR in Nik)

While the colors did not really "pop" like we wanted them to, the cloud cover was somehow "blown away" and by nightfall with no moon at all, we had stars... LOTS of stars.
5D Mark III f5.6 10min ISO 400

The "Cabins" were a great location to play with some new lighting tricks, "domes" and EL Wire we brought with us...its a good thing Jeff drove his Suburban, we had LOTS of gear.

 5D Mark III 14mm f5.6 6min ISO 400 and 6 or so pops of 3 600EX-RT's placed behind and on top of the cabins. the blue "smoke" is the EL Wire.

 

 We did one last shot that night on the way to the campsite, setting up a camera with an intervelometer to capture star trails. This is a 34 image stack from a  5D III 14mm f2.8 30sec. Thats either a plane or aliens streaking through.

Well, I did do ONE more that night... my little tent light painted. 

Like I said, sunrise or sunset, either one (or both) are spectacular!

 5D Mark III f22 1/25th sec ISO 250

Team Time

We did manage to convince some of the rest of the team to come out for some more on another night. I think we could have just left the cameras in the car and had just as much fun... but we did get some great shots.

5D Mark III 14mm f4.0 3.5min ISO 400

While Jeff spun an orb, I was waving the EL Wire to make a "river of light". Our coworkers were not sure what to think of this odd behavior until they saw the images on their screens... 

And then....

5D Mark III 14mm f6.3 4min ISO 400

This was the first time they had seen the steel wool set ablaze... 

5D Mark III 14mm f4 6min ISO 400

And for one final shot, we broke out the wheels again... NOBODY was going to come down that road.