dwrd.net

Dragon*Con Prep Begins

deweese — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 19:18:44 +0000

Well we are at 37 days until Dragon*Con, and I have been trying to narrow down plans for what I want to try and shoot while at the con. I should be shooting for Geeks of Doom again this year, so once the final schedule is out, that will determine what panels etc need to be shot, so that leaves the various group shoots to sort through.

As of now I plan to go to the Ladies of DC photoshoot on Friday evening, and then the slave Leia shoot on Saturday. Other than that, I am pretty much undecided about what other shoots to attend. Any shoots that you suggest are can’t miss?

Plurk This Post Digg This Post Ping This Post

Travelling Nightmare

deweese — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 01:13:52 +0000

This morning i left to go to Tulsa for a few days for work. Today has overall, been a terrible travel day. I had the joy of sitting in an airplane at the gate for over an hour in St. Louis while apparently someone fro me the previous flight was arrested, so my 50 minute flight turned into an almost 2.5 hour flight. Once i finally got to Tulsa, my iPad gps took me to the wrong side of the city, so i got to tour the greater Tulsa area on small backroads. Elapse to 6:30 when I finally get to my hotel, which was clocking on a 14 hour day to find out that somehow the hotel managed to sell out except for one room, a smoking room. They apologized and said they would move me to another room tomorrow, so i wasn’t happy but I said that I would try to deal. Upon walking into the room, I instantly started coughing. I called the front desk and said that this really isn’t going to work, but due to this being a company direct bill situation, I don’t have many options of what can be done. The one big kink is that there is some sort of baseball tournament in town so there are no rooms available anywhere else either. I am just going to leave stuff in my rental car tonight and get clothes in throning so that they do not smell like smoke. I still smell the smoke on what i am wearing just from the hour i was in the room waiting for the manager to call me back, which never happened as I just got calls back from the front desk clerk. I went to Walgreens and got some candles to try and make it through the night without my lungs dying. I plan to seek out a nice hurt to heart with the manager in the morning before heading to work to make sure that this is resolved in my favor. Their guarantee is 100 percent satisfaction or the night is free, so I expect them to hold up to that even though it will really be my company who benefits, not me.

I still need to do some research to figure out what there is here to take some pictures of when i leave work tomorrow. I figure that there has to be something worthwhile, and i plan to find what that is. I just hope that the rest of my travel and hotel time goes smoothly.

Plurk This Post Digg This Post Ping This Post

July 4th Fireworks

deweese — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 19:27:42 +0000

I was able to make it out to the fireworks display in Brentwood, TN held at Crockett Park. I had a couple of friends with me, and I was able to get a few decent shots. The big problem that I ran into was that I wasn’t sure what direction the fireworks would be coming from. I made a guess, and it turns out, that I was off by about 180 degrees. Luckily, I was able to quickly move my tripod and switch to my wide angle lens and get some shots. This was my first time using a remote trigger, and to use the bulb function on my camera. I was pleased with the results, and look forward to trying this in the future to do some light painting.

The rest of the pictures can be seen at
http://www.dwrd.net/photography/galleries/july-4-2010-fireworks/

Plurk This Post Digg This Post Ping This Post

Online Photo Class by Zack Arias and Creative Live

deweese — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 03:08:03 +0000

This weekend I didn’t actually get out to do any shooting. I spent most of Friday through Sunday watching the online photo seminar put on by Creative Live with the presenting done by Atlanta based photographer Zack Arias.

I have followed Zack for some time via his blog and through Twitter after I found his tutorials on shooting on a white seamless background. Zack is known for this background and has made it into one of the shooting characteristics that helps to define his style. Zack is a big proponent of using what you have and making the best of it. After hearing some of what he said in his presentation, he is kind of like the Dave Ramsey of photographers saying that you should only buy gear if you have the cash to pay for it instead of running up credit card debt.

Zack covered the use of various types of light modifiers and he was using Alien Bee lights which happen to be the brand that I own, so the seminar was extra beneficial. Another aspect of the class that was very helpful was seeing how Zack interacts with his clients and how he puts them at ease which is really one of the most important aspects of the job. Zack kept reiterating how he is in the service industry and his job is to serve his client.

Zack is posting some of the pictures that he took throughout the weekend up at http://www.zarias.com/live-blog-post-creativelive-class/ and he will be adding more to this post as he is able to finish some post work on it etc. Zack was a great teacher and you can tell that he is not only passionate about photography being his job, but he is passionate about sharing his knowledge with other people so that too can enjoy photography as much as he does.

A normal class that Zack conducts cost around $1600 dollars and this was presented for free with the option to download the HD videos of the class for $79 if you bought them in advance, or $129 after the course concluded. This class was definitely worth every penny and would have been a bargain at twice the price. If you are a photographer or someone who wants to get into photography, I highly recommend reading the training category of blog posts on Zack’s site, as I guarantee that you will find it useful.

Plurk This Post Digg This Post Ping This Post

Tennessee Ren Faire Memorial Day Weekend

deweese — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 00:24:50 +0000

Well the final weekend of the Tennessee Renaissance Faire was held over Memorial day weekend. There was a little bit of rain each day, but overall, the weekend was very enjoyable. The International Gath of Baal jousting tournament was great to watch as always, and it is now time to look forward to the 2011 ren faire season.

Here are a couple of pictures.

The rest of the images can be seen at
http://www.dwrd.net/photography/galleries/tnrf-memorial-day-weekend/

Plurk This Post Digg This Post Ping This Post

TNRF May 22, 23 2010

deweese — Mon, 24 May 2010 14:00:12 +0000

I made it out to most of both days of the faire this weekend, and I have to say that it was definitely the hottest weekend to date. The temperature topped 91 on Sunday, and there was little breeze to speak of either day. I only stayed half of the day on Sunday as I didn’t feel like dealing with the heat anymore, and I wanted to make it home to catch the series finale of LOST.

I combined both days into one gallery, as I didn’t shoot much on Sunday.

The rest of the pictures can be seen at
http://www.dwrd.net/photography/galleries/tnrf-5-2223-2010/

Plurk This Post Digg This Post Ping This Post

Outside with Studio Strobes

deweese — Fri, 21 May 2010 19:29:54 +0000

Back in April, I was able to try shooting outside in bright sun and try controlling the light by using one of my AlienBees 800 studio strobes. This is something that I see all of the time on photography websites etc. but had never really been able to try.

This was definitely a learning process in regards to where to setup the lights, what power it needed to be on, dealing with wind that wanted to constantly blow over my light stand and more. It was good practice and there were some decent pictures that resulted.

This was also one of the first days that I had my Canon 16-35 2.8L II lens which I got to try out as well. The wide angle lens is definitely a great tool to have in the arsenal.

Here is a shot of Jess from that trial.

This was shot at 16mm, F8 at 1/200 sec on my 7D.

Plurk This Post Digg This Post Ping This Post

TNRF 5-15-2010

deweese — Mon, 17 May 2010 02:04:13 +0000

Well I headed out to TNRF again on Saturday, and had a great day. We went there for Steve’s birthday, and as soon as he arrived, he brought the rain with him. Luckily I had my Think Tank Photo Hydrophobia with me and I was able to put it to the test. It worked great. I am still waiting for my eyepiece to arrive, but I was able to make it work for the day without the eyepiece attached. My camera stayed completely dry and I was able to easily use all of the controls.

Here are some selected pictures.

The rest of the pictures can be seen at
http://www.dwrd.net/photography/galleries/tnrf-5-15-2010/

Plurk This Post Digg This Post Ping This Post

TNRF 5-9-2010

deweese — Wed, 12 May 2010 12:37:40 +0000

This past Sunday I made it out to the Tennessee Renaissance Festival for the first time this year. After a long week of doing demolition due to flooding, I opted to go with camera in hand instead of dressing in garb. The weather was perfect, and I had a great day. Here are some selected shots.

The rest of the images can be seen at
http://www.dwrd.net/photography/galleries/tnrf-5-9-2010/

Plurk This Post Digg This Post Ping This Post

Tennessee Floods and MTAC Pictures

deweese — Tue, 11 May 2010 22:03:20 +0000

Well as I am sure that most people are aware there was terrible flooding in Nashville. I have spent the entire last week helping friends who lost their house and haven’t really had a chance to even look at the pictures that i took over the weekend at MTAC. The panels that i was a part of at the con went great and they were full and the attendees seemed to be learning something which made me happy. We hope to do similar panels at GMX and possible some other cons.

I hope to start going through my con pictures and get them posted soon.

Plurk This Post Digg This Post Ping This Post