Bryce Canyon Panorama

April, 2010 -- Bryce Canyon, Utah; 5 handheld vertical frames stitched together in Photoshop CS5. Also used some Nik Color Efex filters to tone and enhance. Who needs HDR...

Assemble the Skyline #7

Luke, Assemble the Skyline -- at home in Galveston between practice sessions. ISO800, 1/60 sec at f/6.3. Black and white conversion done with Nik Silver Efex Pro.

Assemble the Skyline #6

Max, Assemble the Skyline -- at the Bacchus Wine Bar acoustic performance earlier this month. ISO 6400, f/4, 1/5 sec at 85mm; black and white conversion done with Nik Silver Efex Pro.

Assemble the Skyline #5

... also been a while since I've worked with textures and brushes. This one has a totally unique look ... and a few tinting, brush, and texture layers. During this shoot, I was shooting really warm on my white balance. Figured I'd adjust in post if it was too warm, but I wanted nice warm skin tones. I decided to really shift the white balance on this one. The cool greens and blues make this take a very different turn. I've always said, if you're going to throw a texture on a photo to add some pop, don't run it at 10% opacity. Be bold.

Assemble the Skyline #4

Assemble the Skyline chicken fight in the alley. It's been a while since I've used Lucis Art and/or Topaz Adjust -- thought it worked in this shot, so I used a pretty healthy dose. The red door in the background has been the backdrop for a few portraits over the past couple of years -- used here in this bridal shot of Lauren.

Assemble the Skyline #3

Another photo from the shoot with Assemble the Skyline. This one was one of the first we did -- taken in the alley behind the Scottish Rite Temple in Galveston at 22nd and Church. Lighting was from two Elinchrom Quadras from either side shot into silver reflective umbrellas; 1/125 sec, f/8, at 24mm. A little texture and tone added in post.

Assemble the Skyline #2

Another photo from the Assemble the Skyline shoot -- Nick, Luke, Austin and Max near the Mardi Gras main stage on the Strand in Galveston. There are times when you can break rules -- unusual angles, crops, shooting into sun -- and it works ... fits the subject. When we lined up this shot I saw the sun behind and I hesitated, then just went for it. Turned out to be one of my favorite images of the afternoon. Flare and sunspot captured in camera and seem to work here; normally you might shy away from it. Honestly, if I had to put a piece of flare in this shot with Photoshop I'd place it exactly where it wound up -- right between Luke and Austin. Sometimes when you drop your inhibitions, good things happen. In post, I added a tinting layer to warm things up a bit, also added a slight texture to frame it.

Assemble the Skyline #1

During the past week, I've had the opportunity to photograph the band Assemble the Skyline a couple of times. The band is made up of (left to right) Max Waller, Luke Boor, Nick Jordan, and Austin Hayman. They were in Galveston to play at Mardi Gras last weekend, and they also did an acoustic show at Bacchus Wine Bar on the Strand Thursday night. I've known the Boor family for quite a few years. I've seen Luke grow up from performing for friends and family in front of the TV to fronting an up and coming rock band in Los Angeles. All four guys above are really nice, hard-working young men. You admire those that follow their dream, resisting the safe route through life and using their talents to go above and beyond the 8-5 routine.

Larry Patrick and I did a photo session with them last Friday. Larry's been posting some images over on his blog. I'll be posting some too throughtout the next week or so. The image above was taken in Luke's parent's dining room, which has become a practice studio while they are here. While Larry was trying out his new Pocket Wizard Flex remote triggers, I decided to just use an on camera SB900 here and shot it straight up into the 12-foot high ceiling. Nothing too fancy here, desaturated a little in Adobe Camera Raw, and a little vignetting was added.