Steve Schuenke Photography

Lesson Learned

2012-01-25T21:18:00.000-08:00

Last night the Bay Area Photo Club had their annual awards dinner -- the highlight being the announcement of the Photographer of the Year. This year, Larry Patrick won the award with a 191 point average for 6 assignment photos for 2011. Larry put some great images out there and ran away with the award -- his second time winning. In his acceptance speech he told the members that one of the keys to making photos with impact is to let the viewer know exactly where to look. I think that's always in the back of my mind when I take a photo and work on it in Photoshop, but I really took that suggestion to heart tonight as I worked on the image above of Kacey taken in September. Through gesture, color, and form, I tried to emphasize the intensity and beauty of Kacey's relationship with her horse.

Winter at the Beach #5

2012-01-23T20:37:00.001-08:00

Another photo from our December shoot on the beach. This is Lauren at the very end -- cold, windy and barely any color in the sky. She had this very detailed scarf on, so I asked her to put it over her head. Made for a different look, and I kind of liked it. The color version here was nice, but I liked the simple black and white conversion with Nik Silver Efex a little better. 1/640 sec at f/5, 85mm with on-camera flash in high speed sync mode. Seems like at the bitter end of each shoot we try and do the delicate dance of balancing flash and ambient, and when you get it right the scene looks almost fake, like a cut-and-paste job. Somehow, the monochrome here seems to unify things a little more to my eye.

Oak Creek

2012-01-17T19:59:00.000-08:00

From a series I've been working on recently, this image was taken in Sedona, Arizona in the spring. Lots of great stuff to photograph there, but what really interested me on this particular night was the low, warm sunlight reflected in the moving water. Started playing with sl0w shutter speed and ended up shooting 200+ images of abstract water movement. I figure if I shot 200 images here, there must be three in the bunch to make a series out of.

Winter at the Beach #4

2012-01-16T07:22:00.001-08:00

Another shot of Sarah at our beach shoot a few weeks ago. I've been playing with toning and texture on this one for a while. This is probably the one I like best. At one point, my file was up to 731 megabytes and I thought to myself: "this is getting a little ridiculous." Deleted about 15 layers and went back to the basics and added some nice warm tones only. Simple is better some times. 1/250 sec at f/9, 85mm, light from an SB900 in a Lastolite octa from camera right.

Under the Bridge

2012-01-11T20:02:00.000-08:00

The photo above was taken December 30 at Bay Area Park along Armand Bayou. I had hopes of taking a photo of an egret who was hidden behind some reeds, but that never materialized. Those egrets never seem to know how to position themselves and pose when I really need them to. Frustrated, I began taking photos of the Bay Area Boulevard bridge as it splits and crosses the bayou. Also began playing with long shutter speeds and reflections in the water. Saw the green reflection of the banks behind the bridges and the blue water in the foreground, so waited for large moving trucks to pass by and took photos as quickly as I could. This one was nice because it filled out the Red / Green / Blue combination pretty well. Must have waited 20 minutes for a nice big red truck to pass. The things you do as a photographer. 1/50 sec at f/32, -.67 EV, 300mm.

Winter at the Beach #3

2012-01-07T07:55:00.000-08:00

Another photo from last week's shoot at the beach in Galveston -- Sarah in the dunes. 1/250 sec at f/11; light from an SB900 in a Lastolite octa from camera right, mimicking the direction of the sunlight that afternoon. Postprocessed with Nik Color Efex 4.

Winter at the Beach #2

2012-01-02T21:07:00.001-08:00

Another photo from our shoot at the beach last week -- this one of Lauren near the water's edge. Seems like on any given shoot we end up at sunset trying to balance the ambient fading sun with flash on the subject -- sometimes successful, sometimes not. Since we had a mix of Nikon and Canon shooters that day, most of us went with on-camera flash and high speed sync -- trying to drive the ambient exposure down and fill flashing. In this shot, the sun was still above the horizon, so I placed Lauren right in between myself and the sun, so I got some nice gold rim light on her hair and shoulder while at the same time preventing flare. A nice technique that I'm sure I'll use again some day. Nikon SB900 in high speed sync, 85mm, 1/800 sec at f/6.3.

Winter at the Beach #1

2011-12-30T19:29:00.000-08:00

One of the great things about Texas in the winter is that you'll never know when you might get a string of good weather days. That happend this week, and we were fortunate enough to have scheduled a shoot with Sarah and Lauren on the beach in the west end of Galveston Island. Light from a Nikon SB900 shot through a 36" Lastolite octabank from camera right, 85mm, 1/250 sec at f/11. Postprocessed with Nik Color Efex 4.

Santa Fe Architecture

2011-12-27T08:30:00.000-08:00

Image above is from a trip to Santa Fe over the summer. I am always amazed how well Nik Color Efex brings out texture and color, and it did not disappoint in this shot. 1/500 sec at f/9.

Kari and Tad #2

2011-12-19T19:53:00.001-08:00

Another photo from the portrait shoot with Kari and Tad several weeks ago, again in the alleyway near the Strand. Light from an SB900 in a Lastolite EZYbox from camera right at about 1/4 power. Postproduction with Nik Color Efex 4. 1/100 sec at f/5, ISO 200.

Birth of Venus

2011-12-17T09:25:00.000-08:00

Splash screens. Every time you open a program, work on a file, or check an image you see them...probably take them for granted, right? Christmas, 1988 -- I was a new employee in the graphics department at the university where I work. A project had come in -- illustrations for a book chapter, and I somehow got picked to work on it. I think I was chosen mainly because most people were on vacation, but nonetheless it was my first big project. And long about the same time this new program was installed on our Macs -- Adobe Illustrator '88. Now back then, when Mac Draw and Mac Write were considered cutting edge, this new Illustrator program was a different beast -- vector-based drawing, setting type, all WYSIWYG. Pretty advanced stuff. So for about a week or two, I learned Illustrator and worked on this project. I bought a book about the program, and learned it from the ground up. Back then, before Adobe's Creative Suite and its monochromatic color coding of applications, there was this splash screen when Illustrator booted up based on Botticelli's Birth of Venus painting. I found an interesting history of the program and the splash screen here.

Fast forward 23 years, and Illustrator is still the program that I use every day for logos, medical illustrations, graphics to accompany manuscripts, and graphic design projects. Illustrator has become the swiss army knife of graphics programs and is usually the resting place for most things I work on. It's like an island in the tumultuous sea of Powerpoint graphics and Excel charts and graphs. If I can somehow get a graphic into Illustrator, there is hope. I never really thought about the splash screen change as Adobe transitioned to Creative Suite and dropped the Birth of Venus image in the early 2000s.

I took the photo above at the Renaissance Festival in late October. What initially drew me to the shot was the parasol and the radiating lines. But the more I looked at it, I realized how similar it was to the old Illustrator Birth of Venus splash screen -- the facial expression, hair, slight tilt of the head ... all harkening back to the time of a start of a career and the comforting thought that things are gonna be ok when Illustrator opens.

Kari and Tad

2011-12-08T19:20:00.001-08:00

Photo above was taken a couple of weeks ago at one of my favorite alleys to shoot in down in Galveston. This is Kari and Tad, a really nice young couple who I had the privilege of photographing. The plan was to work our way down near the water to shoot some ambient backlit sunset photos near dusk, but it was such a dull, grey day that we stayed in the alley. This was taken near the end of the shoot facing west. I was struggling to bring up the ambient because it was so dark and dull. Light from off camera left from an SB900 in a Lastolite EZYbox. 1/50 sec at f/5.6, ISO 320; postprocessed a bit with Nik Color Efex 4 to add some exposure and texture to the overall scene.

Taos Sunset

2011-12-04T15:49:00.000-08:00

Photo above was taken in Taos, New Mexico in July. I've been to that part of the country a couple of times, and you hear a common theme from artists and photographers -- how beautiful the colors are around sunset. This photo was taken near the Rio Grande River Gorge, which you can see at the very bottom of the image. The town of Taos and Taos Mountains are in the background. The view here is actually the eastern sky at sunset, opposite the setting sun. 3 bracketed exposures at f/9, merged together with Nik HDR Efex and enhanced further in Nik Color Efex 4.

Renaissance Festival 2011, #6

2011-11-29T23:26:00.001-08:00

Another photo from the Renaissance Festival in October. Please click on the image for a larger view. Honestly, when I took this photo I didn't realize what a spectacle the eyes were ... purple/blue irises and long black feather eyelashes. When you're in a hurry to get a shot and thinking more about your camera and light, sometimes it's those things that are lost ... until I looked closer at these files. 1/125 sec at f/3.5, light from a Photoflex softbox from camera left; postprocessed in Nik Color Efex Pro 4.

Renaissance Festival 2011, #5

2011-11-27T19:17:00.001-08:00

Photo above is from the Texas Renaissance Festival a couple of weeks ago. I've been reading a lot recently about color grading and gradient mapping colors, so this is color shifted a bit for artistic effect ... kind of towards vintage tones; also vignetted with a nice new technique from Calvin Hollywood.

Kacey High Key

2011-11-19T11:41:00.000-08:00

After Doug's comment below, I decided to give this image a square crop. Also made it black and white -- almost high key. There are literally so many different directions you can take images. It's really a matter of personal taste. I guess since I've been using Color Efex so much recently, I'm thinking more color than black and white these days.

Kacey

2011-11-18T22:07:00.001-08:00

Portrait of Kacey taken several weeks ago at Challenger 7 Park in Clear Lake. The usual processing: shallow depth of field, backlight, Nik Color Efex 4. Cheated the sync a little here: f/5 at 1/320 sec with light from a small softbox from camera left ... got a little vignette at the bottom, but in the spirit of David Ziser I think it doesn't hurt the image, in fact maybe provides a nice dark base.

Influences

2011-11-16T21:48:00.000-08:00

There are times as a photographer and artist work flows fast and furiously and other times painfully slow...peaks and valleys, I guess. It's inevitable. I have definitely been inspired recently and most of that is because of a couple of big influences: 1) the recent upgrade to Nik Color Efex Pro 4, which is truly one of the most amazing photo processing plug-ins out there. There are times when you wonder if an upgrade is really worth it. But hands down, version 4 is revolutionary. It puts so much power in one package, it's really amazing; 2) I've also been watching a lot of tutorials on retouching by the German photographer and artist, Calvin Hollywood. If you can make it past the German accent, he's doing some of the most innovative photo retouching out there. Sometimes you just have to sit and watch a video a few times and let it sink in ... like inverting a layer, converting it to a smart object, putting it in vivid light blend mode, then running a high pass filter on it to soften skin .... WHAT? ... but it works. Truly ground-breaking; 3) I've also been following the work of Boulder, Colorado photogapher Charles Hildreth lately. Not sure where I saw his stuff first, but I like his style a lot -- alt process, color shifted, backlit, shallow depth of field ... all things I've been tinkering with lately mainly because I've seen how it can be done well by Hildreth.
The image above was taken 10 months ago. It was basically an out-take from a photo shoot with Sarah in January. She picked up Larry Patrick's camera and I took a few photos. Now, 10 months later, I start playing -- color shifting and adding an illustrative look with Color Efex, skin smoothing and adding definition ala Calvin Hollywood, and desaturating like Hildreth. Influences.

Red Chair

2011-11-15T20:53:00.001-08:00

Taken in the Garden District of New Orleans on a hot August afternoon. Three exposures blended together with Nik HDR Efex, then finished with Nik Color Efex 4.

Sedona

2011-11-13T08:00:00.001-08:00

I was looking through some old files this morning and came across some images from Sedona, Arizona taken in May. We were there several days, and on the last morning (as we were leaving) some nice clouds moved into the area. I stopped at a few road-side parks and took some shots as we headed out of town. Three bracketed images merged together with Nik HDR Efex, finished off with a few adjustments with Nik Color Efex 4.

Renaissance Festival 2011, #4

2011-11-09T20:33:00.001-08:00

Motion blur abstract -- taken 10-29-11 at the Texas Renaissance Festival. 1/30 sec at f/11.

Renaissance Festival 2011, #3

2011-11-05T07:58:00.001-07:00

Bella Florita, Gypsy Dance Theater -- Saturday's Texas Renaissance Festival.

Renaissance Festival 2011, #2

2011-11-02T21:05:00.001-07:00

Tsura, Gypsy Dance Theater -- Saturday's Texas Renaissance Festival.

Renaissance Festival 2011, #1

2011-10-31T22:26:00.001-07:00

I made the trip up to Plantersville again this year to the Texas Renaissance Festival. Back in 2008 when I was first learning off-camera flash, we ran ourselves ragged shooting anyone who remotely looked interesting ... and there were plenty. Years go by, and you become more selective in what you photograph at the festival. This year it was photographing performers and doing a few select portraits. This is Soraya from Gypsy Dance Theater.

Fall Color

2011-10-26T23:18:00.001-07:00

Photo of Lauren taken recently, 85mm, 1/60 sec at f/2, Elinchrom Quadra with a beauty dish from camera left at minimal output.

Horse and Rider

2011-10-17T22:08:00.000-07:00

This image has made the rounds recently -- 500px.com, facebook, and the Bay Area Photo Club. It has only appeared in black and white until now. I always envisioned it as a high contrast black and white, but when I retouch an image I always work on the file in color until the very end and then do the black and white conversion. So those of you who have seen the black and white version either online or in print, this is the layer before the black and white. It was one of those rare instances of good luck ... when you have to react fast and things work in your favor. I probably took about 12 frames of Lauren in this basic pose. And for a brief second at about shot #3, the wind kicked up just enough to blow her hair in this great line following the horse's neck.

So, I took the shot and hoped for the best -- hoped that f/4 was enough aperture to carry focus from the horse to Lauren, hoped that the flash had recycled and was ready to fire, hoped that in my rush I framed it correctly. And at the end of the shoot, it's one of those frames you scroll to and zoom in a couple of times just to see if you got lucky.

Great White Egret

2011-10-10T20:50:00.000-07:00

Great White Egret at Armand Bayou on Saturday. Spot metered, 1/1600 sec at f/5.6, 300mm, -0.3 EV.

Kacey

2011-10-02T19:15:00.000-07:00

Photo above is from a shoot with Lauren and Kacey last weekend. I was experimenting with backlight, which seems to be a common theme for me lately. Modern cameras and lenses continue to amaze me in how they perform in these backlit situations -- holding detail, minimizing flare. No flash was used here; natural light; f/2.8 at 1/640 sec, 85mm. In postprocessing, I added some additional tint and texture.

Jackson Square, New Orleans #4

2011-09-30T20:00:00.000-07:00

After that last post, I couldn't help think that black and white was a possibility. I've been demo'ing Topaz's latest black and white product -- comparing it to Nik Silver Efex. So this was done in Topaz B&W Effects -- a selenium conversion with a lot more contrast.

Jackson Square, New Orleans #3

2011-09-26T20:46:00.000-07:00

Travel tip for New Orleans: August isn't the greatest time to visit. It's hot and humid like Houston. After a day of walking around the French Quarter and Jackson Square, I finally realized you could actually go inside St. Louis Cathedral. And the cool air in there feels pretty good. Tons of people milling around. I took some shots, played with ISO...but decided that I'd get there early the next morning after 7:00 am mass and take some interior shots with a tripod. No signs were posted against that, just that you couldn't shoot during services. So at 8:05, there I was with tripod firmly planted clicking off brackets. Must have shot for 20 minutes, until I realized a crowd had gathered behind me letting me have clean shots free of people walking up and down the aisle. Nice of them; and as anyone who has been around me when I take photos can tell you, sometimes I get a little preoccupied. I had great hopes for these shots -- surely an entry in our photo club's architecture assignment in September. But somehow I never got an image I was really excited about. Colors seemed muted -- cream, beige, gold. They are accurate colors, just not the rich reds, greens and blues you'd like to see in a cathedral shot. The shot above is 3 bracketed exposures, f/11 at 12mm.

Jackson Square, New Orleans #2

2011-09-24T06:50:00.001-07:00

Another photo of St. Louis Cathedral on Jackson Square in New Orleans -- this one taken late in the day from the plaza area in the front left corner. The colors were pretty blah, so converted to sepia, almost a split tone. Pretty non-traditional crop with the fence in the foreground, but somehow I was drawn to that. I have a few variations of this one in my files -- muted color, black and white, etc. But ultimately I think I like this one the best. I used Nik HDR Efex Pro on a single frame to bring up the texture in the clouds, also Nik Silver Efex for the toning. 1/100 sec at f/6.3, -0.3 EV, 35mm.

Jackson Square, New Orleans #1

2011-09-21T20:39:00.001-07:00

This is from a recent trip to New Orleans -- Jackson Square and St. Louis Cathedral, early morning on August 12. I wondered why the flags were at half staff and later found out that it was in honor of two Louisiana soldiers who were killed in Afghanistan. For the next week or two, I'm going to be posting some images of the square and church. This one was taken from across the street on the elevated plaza; three handheld frames merged together in Nik HDR Efex Pro.

San Francisco De Asis Church

2011-09-14T19:52:00.000-07:00

Taken in July, this photo is the back of San Francisco De Asis Church in Rancho de Taos, New Mexico. This structure is supposedly one of the most photographed, sculpted, and painted structures in New Mexico. People like Georgia O'Keefe and Ansel Adams have all taken their turn portraying this church. After I took this photo, I was looking through some portfolios of Ansel Adams and saw he had a similar view of the church as this one -- from behind, no windows, doors, or crosses shown -- just the graceful lines of adobe and stucco. My modern spin was to do a single image pass through Nik HDR Efex Pro to give everything a little more texture; also desaturated it a bit. If you're interested, here's Ansel Adams' image. I have to admit, it's a little like the Alamo in San Antonio. You hear of these places, and you imagine them to be out in the middle of nowhere, but just as the Alamo is in the heart of a busy city, San Francisco De Asis in the middle of a gravel parking lot with restaurants and tourist gift shops all around.

Backlit Bee

2011-09-10T07:50:00.000-07:00

Taken at a park in Santa Fe, NM over the summer. I was going through files recently and ran across this image. Maybe it's summer or maybe it's my evolution as a photographer, but I find myselft shooting more and more backlit. 300mm, f/5.6 at 1/320 sec, +1 EV, a little texture and tint added in post.

French Quarter at Dusk

2011-09-05T11:10:00.001-07:00

This photo was taken several weeks ago in the French Quarter of New Orleans -- three bracketed images merged together with Nik HDR Efex Pro.

Summer Portraits #4

2011-08-30T20:50:00.001-07:00

Here's another photo from our shoot with Nina earlier in August. I've been experimenting lately with some new software and techniques for retouching, so thought I'd try them out on this image. It doesn't look much like summer, but this was taken late afternoon, and I purposely was trying to darken the background to bring her face forward. Probably could have used some lights for the hair to separate her from the background, but the whole purpose of our summer shoots has been to work with one light. For this image we used an SB900 in a Lastolite EZYbox above left, and I had Nina hold a gold tri-grip to bounce a little warm light back in her face. 1/250 sec at f/4.5.

Oak Creek Blur

2011-08-22T20:32:00.001-07:00

Before I took the previous picture, and while I was waiting for the sun to drop a little, I walked down Oak Creek to see if I could get any better vantage point. I couldn't. But what I discovered was some swiftly moving water. So while a family and their dog played in the water, I started experimenting with blurring the water in camera -- slow shutter speeds in the 1/10th of a sec range, handheld -- just seeing how things looked and if I could get things composed and sharp enough. My tripod was back on the banks waiting for the Cathedral Rock shot. And while I was taking these images, I knew they were more artistic and interesting than the classic Oak Creek/Cathedral Rock photo. Must have taken 200 photos in about 15 minutes -- playing with camera angles and compositions. These will eventually become a series, but for the photo club's water assignment this month, I took two images and blended one into the other creating a longer-than-normal image, split it into two squares, and made the diptych above. The raw file was converted twice -- one cool for the water, another warm for the yellow highlights. Another adjustment layer was added in Photoshop for the auburn colors, which were the rocks just below the surface.

Cathedral Rock

2011-08-11T21:16:00.000-07:00

This photo was taken back in late May in Sedona, Arizona -- the very iconic Cathedral Rock and reflection in Oak Creek. About 10 years ago, I stood at this very spot, even waded out into the creek and watched the sunset behind me and saw an incredible sky light up this formation. And for some reason, there was no camera around then -- point and shoot or anything. I regretted it for years. This view is probably photographed every night from this very same spot. It's a postcard shot. It's cliched. It's, as they say, a mature subject. In fact, on this night there was a group of photographers from an Arizona Highways tour taking this very same shot. But something sticks in your head when you miss an opportunity, and cliched or not I'm glad I finally had the chance to drop my tripod on the banks of Oak Creek and get this photo.

Summer Portraits #3

2011-08-08T20:45:00.001-07:00

Here's another recent photo -- this one taken Sunday night at Bay Area Park near Armand Bayou. This is Bushra, a friend of a fellow photo club member. Still working on mixing flash with ambient, especially when the ambient sunset starts to get really interesting and you have to work fast to keep up with lighting and your exposure. 1/125 sec at f/4.5, ISO 200, -.3 EV, 32mm; light from camera right from an SB900 through a Lastolite EZYbox.

Summer Portraits #2

2011-08-04T08:51:00.000-07:00

Here's another portrait taken last weekend. This is Nydia, sister of one of our photo club members. For me it was a time to play with shallow depth of field portraits. After a year and a half of shooting sub-f/2.8, I'm finally starting to "see" interesting backgrounds for portrait subjects -- not really see, but recognize how light and pattern will render at those open f-stops. Light from an SB900 in high speed sync through a Lastolite softbox from camera left, 1/500 sec at f/2.

Summer Portraits #1

2011-08-02T20:13:00.000-07:00

The photo above was taken last Saturday at a portrait session with the Bay Area Photo Club at Clear Lake Park. This is Nina, who is the niece of one of our members and graciously volunteered her time to model for us. Flash from high camera left in high speed sync, 1/400 sec at f/3.2, -0.7 EV. In postproduction I used a glamour glow layer from OnOne Phototools that added a nice color and contrast boost.

Old Town Emporium

2011-07-30T08:43:00.001-07:00

This photo was taken in the Old Town section of Albuquerque last weekend. There are a lot of things I wish I could change about this image. Wish I could have taken it in softer light. Also wish I would have seen, as I took this photo, that the New Mexico flag to the right of the doorway was twisted around the flagpole and I had walked across the street and fixed that. Photoshop can do a lot, but it can't straighten out a flag. So when all else fails, there's the crutch of HDR. Single frame HDR done with Nik HDR Efex. Some day this will be re-shot and done right.

Migrating Hummingbird

2011-07-25T20:39:00.000-07:00

I was in New Mexico this past weekend, and was pleasantly surprised to see a bunch of migrating ruby throated hummingbirds at a stop we made near a ski lodge near Angel Fire, New Mexico. I'm not an expert, but I assume these are the same group that makes an appearance in the Houston area in August and September. It's always a challenge shooting these little creatures, made even harder this time because I was limited to my travel gear. Shot at 300 mm with the Nikon 28-300 with a pop-up flash, f/5.6 at 1/250 sec handheld while trying to duck as they buzzed me. My metadata said distance to subject was 1.5 meters.

Lauren Senior Photos #4

2011-07-23T18:50:00.000-07:00

Another senior portrait of Lauren. I really liked the peacock dress and had a lot of fun playing the color against the background. For this one I stood on a step stool to give it a little different angle. 1/400 sec at f/4, flash from camera left in high speed sync.

Lauren Senior Photos #3

2011-07-20T18:44:00.000-07:00

I used a vintage treatment for this one of Lauren in a swing. 1/60 sec at f/25, panning.

Lauren Senior Photos #2

2011-07-17T21:06:00.001-07:00

More high speed sync flash with Lauren -- 1/640 sec at f/4; flash from camera left. I liked the color combination here a lot so tried to push the colors a little to really emphasize that relationship. In post, I also tried to bring up the warm tones in the tops of the reeds in the background.

Lauren Senior Photos #1

2011-07-14T19:32:00.001-07:00

I thought I'd post a few senior photos I did with Lauren recently. She just graduated from Clear Lake High School. During the session I used high-speed sync a lot, trying to knock down the ambient light. This image was shot at f/4 and 1/640 sec, light from an SB900 in a Lastolite EZYbox from camera right. I've also been studying some of the postprocessing techniques of Calvin Hollywood. He's known for a very textured, detailed style. Thought I'd try some of those techniques here, although I masked them off all skin tones so the texture would only affect the clothes and environment.

Pikes Peak

2011-07-06T20:44:00.001-07:00

From our trip to Colorado in April -- this is Pikes Peak as viewed from Garden of the Gods Park near Colorado Springs in the early morning of April 11. Processed entirely in Nik HDR Efex. 1/320 sec at f/6.3, 90mm.

Chyree

2011-07-02T07:04:00.001-07:00

Photo above is from a quick photo shoot I did this week with David LeMaster and Neal Kelsoe. This is David's sister, Chyree ... shot at Clear Lake Park Wednesday night. I was experimenting with shallow depth of field portraiture, an ongoing project of mine. I asked Chyree to stand in the middle of some tree branches and began playing with the filtered light from a parking lot behind her. Nikon D7000, f/1.4, cheated the sync up to 1/320 sec, with light from an SB900 through a Lastolite EZYbox from camera right. Black and white conversion done with Nik Silver Efex Pro, followed by a color tinting layer to soften the contrast and add some warmer tones.

Boulder Karma and Bokeh at f/5.6

2011-06-20T21:08:00.000-07:00

The photo above was taken in Boulder, Colorado back in April. The portrait subject is Amy Tharp -- a Colorado native and author of a children's book that will be published soon. This was no planned portrait -- in fact, far from it. I was out walking along Boulder Creek shooting moving water, pretty much playing around with no real purpose, just killing time before sunset. Amy needed a head shot for the book she's writing, and just happened to be out walking near the same creek in Boulder. She approached me and asked if I'd take her photo. I asked if I could use my camera and did a mental rundown of about 5-6 things I would like to have when shooting a portrait -- fast portrait lens, speedlight with a remote trigger, softbox, some kind of diffusion for the sun, etc. Well, I had none of those things. I had a D7000, a 28-300 lens, and a pop-up flash -- not exactly awe-inspiring portrait gear. But this is when all those afternoons shooting impromptu portraits at Dickens on the Strand and the Renaissance Festival paid off. OK, I thought, let's make a portrait.
I threw everything on the camera into manual, shooting at f/5.6 to try and eek out some kind of out-of-focus background, placed Amy on a rock with the creek in the background with the sun providing some hair light, and used my pop-up flash as fill. Luckily, I found a place with some nice shade on her face, and the specular highlights from the water luckily turned into some nice bokeh at f/5.6. And the portrait was made. The image was double raw converted -- one warm version for Amy and a cool version for the water -- and both layers masked together in Photoshop.
It's funny how things happen when you have a camera in your hands. Sometimes you find yourself in the most unexpected situations -- in the center aisle of a church chapel in London as snow falls outside, on the back of a boat in the Gulf of Mexico hanging on for dear life, and knee deep in a snow bank in the Rocky Mountains. As a photographer, you curse the moments that you miss an opportunity, you become frustrated because all your images seem to look the same, and you take shot after shot knowing that the next one will be "the one." But ultimately photography can be a passport into so many things in life -- and this was truly one of those times that will be long remembered -- Boulder karma as Amy said.

Cathedral Rock

2011-06-05T08:24:00.000-07:00

Cathedral Rock from the banks of Oak Creek, Sedona, Arizona. 1/160 sec at f/10, 50mm, polarized.

Breezi #2

2011-05-21T07:08:00.001-07:00

This photo of Breezi is similar to the previous post. I'm experimenting with OnOne Software's PhotoTools product, so all effects here are done within the plug-in -- color enhancement, masking, and texturizing.

Breezi #1

2011-05-18T11:06:00.001-07:00

Here's an image from a senior shoot I did recently. This is Breezi, a soon-to-be graduate of Ball High School in Galveston. I've taken photos in this particular alley quite a few times and always had this long shot down the alley facing west in mind, but never really had the opportunity to do it. I was happy Breezi was willing. I did quite a few variations of this shot, figuring out how best to pose her, keeping in mind the shallow depth of field and her legs. I finally settled on this shot with legs out to the side. Highlights in the background are a block away and are the sky between buildings. 85mm, f/1.4, 1/200 sec. Light from top left from an SB900 in a Lastolite EZYbox.

Photo Club Portraits #2

2011-05-15T07:48:00.001-07:00

Here's another photo from the Bay Area Photo Club portrait field trip a few weeks ago. This is one of our models, Jessica. This was taken later in the day when I was experimenting with a color gel on the background light -- a dramatic orange filter ... again shot through a Lastolite EZYbox with DIY strips to create the pattern you see on the wall. Got lucky with the light direction and the wind on this shot as we were feathering the light and it just so happen to catch a nice highlight on her hair with the skimming light as the wind picked up. 1/125 sec at f/13, 52mm.

Photo Club Portraits #1

2011-05-09T21:54:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago, the Bay Area Photo Club had it's annual portrait field trip. This is one of our models, Shannon, who was nice enough to pose for us for a few hours. Black and white conversion done with Nik Silver Efex Pro. 1/160 sec at f/11, 75mm; back light from a Nikon SB800 in a Lastolite EZYbox with homemade black fleece strips in place of the diffusion panels; front light from a Nikon SB800 through a Photoflex Lightdome.

Boulder Flatirons

2011-05-03T22:13:00.001-07:00

I discovered this scene is pretty iconic in and around Boulder, Colorado -- the Flatirons. I saw photos of these mountains all over the city when we were there a few weeks ago -- in art galleries, city buildings, you name it. I figured I had to shoot them. No snow or no great cloud coverage here. About the only thing I did in post was to add a lot of extra sharpening to bring out the trees and texture of the rocks. Black and white done with Nik Silver Efex Pro. 1/30 sec at f/14, 50mm.

Rocky Mountain National Park

2011-04-27T20:26:00.001-07:00

Six elk feeding -- Rocky Mountain National Park. This image was processed 100% in Nik HDR Efex using the single image tonemapping feature. f/5.6 at 1/250 sec; 150mm.

Rocky Mountain National Park

2011-04-24T06:13:00.001-07:00

Another photo from Rocky Mountain National Park. This one is processed through Nik HDR Efex as a single frame for tonemapping, adding some contrast and texture throughout. Black and white conversion done with Nik Silver Efex. It may look like this was taken at some great location along a trail or at an overlook, but it was literally taken from the deck of one of the visitor's centers in the park; f/5.6, 1/400 sec at 135mm.

Rocky Mountain National Park

2011-04-20T15:36:00.001-07:00

...more experiments with HDR. This is from my recent trip to Rocky Mountain National Park, near Estes Park, Colorado -- 3 frames merged together with the fabulous Nik HDR Efex. It is quickly becoming my preferred HDR tool. You combine the power of HDR, the presets available in the Nik program and their U-point technology and you can come away with some otherwise impossible images. I tweaked the tones quite a bit in this one. As I sat on the bank and shot this, I had my doubts. The brackets seemed to have a strange flat blue cast. Nik HDR Efex did an outstanding job adding some color variation, and I pushed them a little further in Photoshop.
Too bad I managed to put the horizon right in the center of the frame.

Bishop's Palace HDR

2011-04-17T07:11:00.000-07:00

Photo above of Bishop's Palace was taken in late January in Galveston. This was part of the shoot where I wanted to get an image to donate to the Family Service Center auction in February. I ultimately chose a color image with a less HDR look. This one was taken early on in the shoot; 5 bracketed exposures merged with Photomatix Pro, shot wide angle from the front sidewalk at 12mm. I'm comparing Photomatix with Nik's new HDR Efex Pro software, so I'm searching my files for brackets ... I'll be posting some results in the coming weeks.

Pelican #2

2011-04-10T07:15:00.000-07:00

Pelican in flight in Galveston. 190mm, f/5.6, 1/1000 sec.

Pelican #1

2011-04-06T07:11:00.000-07:00

Taken several weeks ago in Galveston. I don't think I've ever seen the water along the Galveston Ship Channel as calm and pretty than on this particular day. I normally go for the in flight shots, but the water and the reflections kept drawing me to the birds floating. 300mm, f/5.6, 1/1000 sec.

Washington on the Brazos Panorama

2011-04-02T06:49:00.001-07:00

Another panorama -- taken several weeks ago at Washington on the Brazos, between Navasota and Brenham, Texas. This one is HDR -- 5 bracketed frames, 3 exposures each, stitched together in Photoshop.

Bryce Canyon Panorama

2011-03-25T19:16:00.000-07:00

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

2011-03-23T20:50:00.000-07:00

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

2011-03-20T08:18:00.001-07:00

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

2011-03-16T23:42:00.000-07:00

... 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

2011-03-14T23:18:00.000-07:00

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

2011-03-13T07:15:00.001-07:00

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

2011-03-09T21:41:00.000-08:00

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

2011-03-05T07:54:00.000-08:00

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.

Pelican in Flight

2011-02-28T21:12:00.000-08:00

I've been known to add a few well-placed clouds, even drop in a sky every now and then. But this one's completely natural. No compositing here. Sometimes when you're shooting birds in flight you are taking so many photos so quickly it's not until months later when you see something like this -- how the single strand of cloud lines up perfectly with the pelican's beak. The only postprocessing involved a little crop in Photoshop and some mild sharpening on the bird. Nikon D200 at 200mm, 1/1000 sec at f/5.6.

Eye to Eye

2011-02-25T20:57:00.000-08:00

Another pelican shot from January in Galveston. The crop here is as captured in camera. It's amazing how close you can get to pelicans as they are feeding. Also experimenting with minimum focusing distance and shallow depth of field. This one's right on the edge of both. Nikon D200 at 200mm, 1/750 sec at f/2.8.

Resting Pelican

2011-02-23T20:44:00.000-08:00

Pelican at rest. Photo taken in January down in Galveston. Nikon D200, 200mm, 1/2000 sec at f/4.

Renaissance Gothic

2011-02-20T22:19:00.000-08:00

Back to the Renaissance Festival for another shot. We found the guy in this photo first, asked to take his photo and he was great -- very animated. Moved him in front of an ivy-lined tree and shot him with our standard strobe through a Photoflex softbox. Doug shot him first and got some really intense stuff. We thought he had a great costume until he asked if we would take a photo with his girlfriend too. And then she walked over in what you see above. I was shooting by then and had them pose in more of a stoic stance. In a weird way it reminded me of Grant Wood's American Gothic.

Gypsy Dancers All in a Row

2011-02-17T21:51:00.000-08:00

Taken at the Texas Renaissance Festival in November at the Gypsy Dance Theater performance. Nikon D200, 116mm, 1/500 sec at f/3.2, ISO 400.

Black and White HDR

2011-02-12T16:35:00.000-08:00

Black and white HDR of Bishop's Palace in Galveston -- 5 bracketed frames beginning at 1/15 sec at f/8. Seems like whenever I've shot Bishop's Palace in the past I never had a wide enough lens. This time I made sure I didn't have that problem. Shot at 12mm.

Beauty Light

2011-02-09T22:21:00.000-08:00

From the session a week ago with Sarah. Worked with a high key background and really concentrated on composition, posing, and shooting with enough depth of field to get everything tack sharp. How nice is it to scroll through 200 shots and know that 195 are tack sharp? Very nice. I should shoot at f/13 more often. Nikon D200, 70mm, 1/160 sec at f/13. Light high right from an Elinchrom BXRi with a shallow Octa, triggered with Skyports.

Vintage

2011-02-06T06:57:00.001-08:00

Working on some different processing techniques -- this one light and vintage. It's from my November shoot with Alyssa. Created lots of separation between her and the background here and shot very shallow. Background is true; no Photoshop additions. 85mm, f/1.8 at 1/1000 sec, SB900 through Lastolite EZYbox from camera left in high speed sync.

Family Service Center Auction Item

2011-01-30T12:50:00.001-08:00

A framed print of the Bishop's Palace image above will be available Friday at the Family Service Center Benefit and Fundraiser in Galveston. It's a great organization doing very important work for children and families in need. I took the photo last Wednesday night -- 5 bracketed images merged in Adobe Photoshop, also known as HDR.

Sarah in Black and White

2011-01-27T20:27:00.000-08:00

From our photo shoot in December, this is Sarah in black and white ... again the greyscale conversion was done with Nik Silver Efex. We wanted to separate Sarah from the dark background so we used a Nikon SB800 from behind aimed straight at the back of her head at medium ouput. Ended up using it like that for the better part of the day --- for good and bad. Light from the front was an SB900 shot through a Lastolite 24" EZYbox. I used some different postprocessing techniques on this one. The skin and face were retouched based on some things I've read recently by Joel Grimes -- noted contemporary portrait artist.

Kelly at Armand Bayou

2011-01-24T23:13:00.000-08:00

This is from a photo shoot with Kelly Crabb that we did earlier this month. I struggled all day with white balance and direction of light that day. We introduced a gold reflector, which brought in some nice warmth, but ended up being very difficult to deal with in post processing -- balancing the skin tones vs the background. The photo above was taken without reflector, just a 24-inch Lastolite EZYbox with Nikon SB900 from high camera left. This is one of the few that I was generally happy with the direction of light. I thought the movement of light across the face and hair was pretty good -- dark to light to dark with a nice highlight from the sun giving some nice rim on the right edge. Nikon D200 at 85mm, f/4, 1/1600 sec, -.7 EV.

Lauren in Black and White

2011-01-18T20:22:00.000-08:00

From our photo shoot in December, this is Lauren in high contrast black and white. Shot at f/2.2 --- and I have no idea why Larry and I chose to shoot these so shallow. It's not like we were trying to take out a distracting background. The whole day we were shooting against a black muslin. Since I've been taking portraits, getting both eyes in focus has been a constant marching order. At f/2.2 you can see eye in focus, eyebrow not so in focus. That is the delicate dance you do when you drop below f/2.8. Life on the edge of sharpness. I heard today that Nik is updating their Silver Efex Pro software, which I used here to do the black and white conversion. Every time I use this program I am amazed at the results; and I wonder what they could possibly do to improve it.

Blur

2011-01-15T09:35:00.001-08:00

Playing with some intentional blur with camera movement. Tulips in January.

Bokeh Tuesday

2010-12-28T08:08:00.001-08:00

High res image can be downloaded from my Flickr page here -- for your texturing and toning pleasure.

A Different Dickens #3

2010-12-26T07:46:00.001-08:00

When we were at Dickens on the Strand a few weeks ago, Larry Patrick and I were taking a break and took this woman's photo sitting nearby. It was right about the time we were talking about how you can isolate a subject from a background, especially shooting shallow depth of field with natural light in a nice open shadowed area. Now, I don't think either of us really thought too much about this photo; we didn't even try to get her email address. We just took a few photos each at f/2.8 and waved to her as she left. It wasn't until we both got home that we realized what a nice background we really had. We both remarked about it a few days later. Photo above processed only in Adobe Camera Raw; 150mm 1/320 sec at f/2.8, ISO 200.

Renaissance Festival 5

2010-12-19T19:29:00.000-08:00

From the Texas Renaissance Festival a couple of weekends ago -- this was one of my favorite costumes of the day. It was Barbarian weekend when we were there, so I'm not sure if this was unique to that weekend, or he wore it for the entire festival. The level of detail is pretty impressive -- all the way down to the shark's teeth on the shoulder pads. Doug and I took this photo in front of a pavillion, so the background wasn't ideal. Ended up dropping out the background and adding my own, adding lots of texture with Topaz Adjust and some toning to even things up. Lit directly above with an SB900 shot through a Photoflex EZbox. As I look at it now, the hands and ball aren't in focus. Wish I would have dropped the focus point there instead of the face, but when you're shooting on the run like you do at festivals, those things tend to happen.

A Different Dickens #2

2010-12-12T10:56:00.000-08:00

Dickens on the Strand 2010, The Mad Hatter from Airship Isabella.

A Different Dickens #1

2010-12-07T19:53:00.001-08:00

I've been going to Dickens on the Strand almost every year for about the past 20 years. And for the last three years I've been taking impromptu portraits, much like we do at the Texas Renaissance Festival. Larry Patrick told me before we went this year he wanted to do something different. Enter Airship Isabella and the steampunk crew that were at this year's festival. Hard to describe these folks ... alternative, futuristic ... definitely colorful. We seemed to be drawn to them. Maybe it was their colorful outfits, maybe it was their interesting accessories, or maybe it was because their corner of Dickens on the Strand was in such nice light the entire day. Above is Amarante Leroux, who worked in the Airship Isabella booth on Saturday. Larry posted a photo of her today on his blog (link). Interesting how we both came away with such different shots, yet there is something in common -- natural light and more of a candid pose. Looking back at all my shots from the day, I seemed intent on turning my camera 45 degrees for some really unusual angles. A different Dickens for sure. Nikon D200, 140mm, f/3.5, 1/320 sec, +.7 EV; texture and edge added in Photoshop.

A Big Splash

2010-12-04T21:26:00.001-08:00

The last few times I've been down to Galveston to photograph pelicans I've noticed this behavior -- the pelican will sit in the water and pound his or her wings into the water creating this huge commotion. Water flying, wings beating. They'll do this for 5 or 10 minutes and then go fly up on a concrete piling and spend the next hour flapping their wings and preening ... the life of a pelican. 200mm, 1/50 sec at f/8, sun setting behind the pelican to create the warm tones.

Renaissance Festival 4

2010-12-02T21:16:00.000-08:00

Katia, dancer, Gypsy Dance Theater. Texas Renaissance Festival, Nov. 20, 2010.

Gull in Flight

2010-11-30T18:59:00.000-08:00

Here's a gull in flight from earlier in the day on Saturday. I normally don't photograph gulls, but this one was coming in at such a great angle, I couldn't resist. Sometimes you wonder what goes on in the camera when you're taking these types of photos. Like why is this frame in focus and the one after it not quite as sharp? And does a busy background confuse the focusing mechanism in camera even though you have closest subject selected? I guess it's part of the challenge of photographing birds in flight, but it can be frustrating. 200mm, 1/1000 sec at f/5.6.

We Have Lift Off

2010-11-28T18:28:00.000-08:00

I was down in Galveston on Saturday working on some focusing settings on the 70-200 lens. Ended up staying later than I anticipated and when the light go so low that there was no possible way to get a sharp shot, the mind wanders in different directions. For a while now I've been trying to capture unique views of the chaos that occurs when a brown pelican takes off from the water. Not sure whether or not this is a success, but it will go in the files. Wish I had a little more sharpness in the face and body. Setting sun off camera left created the highlight at the water level and the feet. 200mm, 1/30 sec at f/4.5, panning.

Renaissance Festival 3

2010-11-24T20:51:00.000-08:00

Sitar player. Texas Renaissance Festival, Nov. 20, 2010.

Renaissance Festival 2

2010-11-23T22:50:00.001-08:00

This is Vendella. It's the second year in a row that Doug and I have met her and photographed her. If I remember correctly, she was dressed in a Santa suit last year. This year she was in a food booth, and instead of shooting her against the back of the booth, I changed my position slightly and shot across the fairway to the other side of booths. Since it was early in the day, I caught some nice bokeh in the background since the crowds were thin and the light was low. So ... crazy colorful background, peacock feather hat, and full shade under the food booth ... and that's shooting portraits at Ren Fest. You meet someone, engage them, try to figure out some sort of interesting background, pose them, and light them ... in 5 minutes or less. It's a chaotic day of photography for sure. You hit some home runs and you make some total messes, but after 6 hours of it, you can't help but walk out of there a better photographer.

Renaissance Festival 1

2010-11-22T19:10:00.000-08:00

Tsura, violinist, Gypsy Dance Theater. Texas Renaissance Festival, Nov. 20, 2010.

Renaissance Festival

2010-11-21T20:28:00.001-08:00

That time of year again -- the annual photo club field trip to the Texas Renaissance Festival. If ever there is a time to kick up your heels, push your creative boundaries, try something new, and live on the egde of sharpness and exposure, this is it.

November Lights

2010-11-18T21:52:00.001-08:00

In 2009 I followed the work of Dustin Diaz on flicker (link). He did some fantastic night portraits on the streets of San Francisco, and I've been wanting to do something similar ever since. At our photo shoot with Lauren and Sarah on Sunday, we gave it a try. No, it's not San Francisco, but it's the best Galveston could offer. Above is Sarah battling the cold and rain, looking like she owns this shot. What a trooper, and what a striking image I think we created. Nikon D200, 85mm, f/1.4, 1/40 sec on a tripod, ISO 640. Light provided by Larry Patrick with an SB900 shot through a Lastolite EZYbox at 1/64 power high camera left. Two raw files processed into Photoshop (one for Sarah, the other for the background), the background was run through Neat Image to knock down the noise (oh, how I long for better ISO performance) and in a weird accident I did a hue saturation adjustment and tinted it slightly blue. I dunno, it was weird and I don't know why I did it, but I kinda liked it for the background so I went with it. It reminds me a little of the Saturday Night Live stills they show coming in and out of commercial breaks. Warmed Sarah's skin tones a bit, cropped wide cinema-like and here it is ... my homage to Dustin Diaz.

Serendipity

2010-11-16T23:28:00.000-08:00

Weird how things happen somtimes, like in this photo of Lauren taken Sunday in a Galveston alley. I don't exactly remember how we decided to shoot in this little niche. But what struck me about this as I began working on it in postproduction is how nicely the tones work in this image -- browns of the sweater and stone; and the reds of the door, the rust along the right side, and Lauren's lips. Was it an accident that we picked this spot to shoot before the rain came? Was it some subconscious act? Or was it that maybe after three years of shooting portraits, something finally clicks and you do by instinct what you never would have done before? Hard to know, maybe a little bit of all of these things. But in these days of doubt and pessimism, it makes you think. Maybe there is some guiding force out there.
Now if that guiding force can put a large shipment of D7000s at B&H in the next week or two, I'll be a true believer.

Something Different

2010-11-14T07:35:00.001-08:00

This photo was taken last Saturday on my shoot with my second cousin Alyssa and her boyfriend Andrew. This image of Andrew was the last frame of the session. I've been known to postprocess images pretty heavily into certain styles and looks, but honestly if you saw this image straight out of camera, it's not too different than what you see here. I was pushing fairly hard to get some different looks -- shooting backlit, pushing the flash pretty heavily to overcome that backlighting, not worrying too much about flare and exposure. It's fun to try a different style. Some frames looked terrible, others predictable, and others (like this) made me do a double take. These kinds of images don't often come up on the back of my camera. In postprocessing I did add a texture overlay for the scratches and texture you see near the edges. 1/320 sec, f/4.5, full power flash from SB900 in a Lastolite EZYbox softbox from camera right.