Calanan Photography

Call for Colorado participants: Portraits of the Western Snap Shirt

2011-07-07T09:32:00.003-06:00

I've begun a new personal photography project that serves to document and share the stories of Colorado residents and their favorite snap shirts.

The Western snap shirt originated in Denver, Colorado by Jack Weil of Rockmount Ranch Wear, and quickly became a popular style that has been worn by everyone from cowboys to Hollywood actors, and politicians to urban hipsters.

If you want to share the story of your love affair with these iconic shirts, please contact me at info@calanan.com to participate in this project!

Copyright infringement by ad agency Vladimir Jones

2011-06-30T14:26:00.008-06:00

I just found out that one of my photos is being used without my permission in a promo video by Colorado Springs-based ad agency, Vladimir Jones. (Thanks to an anonymous tip!)

In this case, I decided to file DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act) takedown notices with YouTube and their ISP.

Prior to doing that though, the first thing I did was take screen shots of the usage (including URL) as proof:

Next, I used YouTube's Copyright Complaint Webform, found via their YouTube DMCA Policy page to report the violation.

I then needed to determine who hosted the infringer's web site, which I found out to be GoDaddy by searching their domain name at Whois Lookup | Whois.net. This led me to find GoDaddy's trademark and copyright infringement policy, which directed me to send a DMCA-complaint letter (or email facsimile) for their review.

If, like me, you find yourself in this kind of situation and need good sources for DMCA takedown examples, check out these versions that I used to form my own copy:

How to Send a DMCA Takedown Notice | Black Star Rising

Sample DMCA Take Down Letter | IPWatchdog.com | Patents & Patent Law

Related: Calanan Photography: Found my photo used without permission (by Toyota)

Denver Preschool Program Executive Portraits

2011-02-12T12:22:00.001-07:00

Here's a sampler of a recent executive portrait session with the great folks at the Denver Preschool Program in Denver, CO who wanted new photos for their web site and annual report.

Denver Preschool Program's Acting Chief Executive Officer, Eileen Piper wanted fresh, natural-looking portraits for her staff members, as well as the Chair of DPP's Board of Directors, John Plotkin. After scouting locations within DPP's offices to find environments that worked well as backgrounds for approachable and casual poses, I used a combination of existing light and portable Nikon Speedlights to shape the light such that it suited the natural-looking portraits Eileen envisioned.

Thanks to DPP for not only their business but also for the warm, welcoming reception they gave me!

Special: Holiday 2010 Portrait Mini-Session, $199

2010-11-22T13:10:00.006-07:00

Serving Denver, CO and the surrounding suburbs this offer includes:

- 30 minute mini-session, 1-2 poses
- 50 4x8 flat or 25 5x7 folded cards
- Low-resolution digital images

Call 303-335-0348 to make your appointment today!

Details:

- Package includes low-resolution copies of all final images,suitable for e-mailing, Facebook, etc. High resolution digital copies suitable for printing, and other printed options are also available.

Offer expires December 07, 2010

Happy Halloween!

2010-10-28T08:15:00.001-06:00

Here's this year's pumpkin, Jack Skellington:

And last year's carved by my friend and graphic designer, Drew Lager (who created my logo):

Post a link to yours!

Updates on my Facebook Fan Page

2010-09-22T10:08:00.007-06:00

Hello, dear readers! I apologise for not keeping up with the blog, while I'm not closing it down any time soon I do recommend also following my latest updates over on my Facebook Fan Page, which I update on a much more frequent basis. Here's how to follow Calanan Photography on Facebook:

>

Thanks for following this blog! If you don't use Facebook don't fret, I will continue to post updates here.

- mike

My first attempt at photographing lightning

2010-08-09T17:57:00.002-06:00

View larger...

Taken in Denver, CO.

Camera: Nikon D700
Exposure: 4 seconds
Aperture: f/11.0
Focal Length: 24 mm (Tokina 12-24mm f/4)
ISO Speed: 200

I don't know why I haven't tried this before, to start with it was actually pretty easy to dial in exposure settings. There was quite a bit of ambient city light (orange sodium vapor streetlights) so I ended up keeping the shutter/aperture low enough to knock down the ambient yet just long enough to catch some full bolts of lightning.

Once exposure was set, I locked in the view I wanted with my wide angle zoom, locked the tripod down and took sequences of 4-second-long shots and crossed my fingers that I caught lightning.

Have you captured lightning on film? Share your links (and tips) in the comments!

Pinhole view of The Tetons

2010-08-06T13:34:00.000-06:00

The Tetons, as seen through my homemade pinhole lens
Grand Teton National Park
Jackson Hole, WY

Nikon D700

Sean and his :P

2010-07-26T15:11:00.000-06:00

Denver, CO
Nikon D700
Nikkor 35mm f/2

Family photography: A day at the Denver Zoo

2010-07-08T09:55:00.008-06:00

I recently photographed the McDermott family at the Denver Zoo, where they spent a couple of hours viewing the animals while I tagged along and took candid "day in the life of" photos of their adventures. At the end of their visit took a series of formal portraits against a backdrop of greenery and flowers.

I love this combination of candid photojournalistic photography and posed, on-location portraiture as it takes advantage of my ability to capture those special moments while challenging me to think fast to compose photos in a way that tell a story. My work as an editorial assignment photographer in the magazine industry taught me how to find interesting portrait locations, and to make the best of natural lighting and portable artificial lighting (like small SLR flash units). Likewise, I also learned how to quickly build a rapport with strangers to try to make them feel comfortable so that their natural expressions show through in their photographs.

If you're in the Denver area and would like to book me for a "day in the life of" session please contact me for details and booking at info@calanan.com or 303 335 0348. Mention this blog post and I'll discount your session by 10%!

Wedding Teaser: Sarah Czajka and Eric Mitchell

2010-06-11T08:37:00.008-06:00

Last weekend I had the pleasure of photographing the marriage of a wonderful couple in a stunning location in the Colorado Rocky Mountains.

On June 5th, Sarah Czajka and Eric Mitchell wed at The Secret Garden Bed & Breakfast in Ouray, Colorado. Ouray is billed as "The Switzerland of America" and this bold claim is certainly not without merit. The town is located just shy of 8000' elevation and is situated in a bowl encircled with beautiful mountain peaks rising 2000'+ above it.

Here's a photo of Sarah, taken at an overlook just a few miles out of town while we were scouting for a location for her posed wedding photos:

Sarah's bouquet was one of the prettiest I'd ever seen:

Finally, here's a group photo taken at Sarah and Eric's rehearsal BBQ at Angel Ridge Ranch B&B and Equine Sanctuary near Ridgway, Colorado.

Congratulations, Sarah and Eric. More photos soon!

Recent portrait session with Dene

2010-06-09T13:11:00.004-06:00

I recently had a portrait session with an elderly client named Dene who wanted a set of wallet-sized photos to mail to his family and friends. I found this so endearing, that in an age of digital photography (be it digital SLRs or even cellphone cameras), e-mail, Facebook, etc., Dene wished to invest in an in-home portrait session so that he could have physical prints of himself to give to others.

Dene hadn't had a portrait taken in many years, in fact as he gave me a tour of the memorabilia in his gorgeous Craftsman-style home the most recent professional portrait he has was one taken of him in his 20's!

After spending some time talking with Dene to both get to know him and to determine the look he was after, I set up my equipment in his living room and posed him in front of his Grandmother's antique - and still working - Seth Thomas mantel clock.

Here's the portrait that Dene selected:

And here is one of his alternate takes...

...as well as a more relaxed portrait that we made before he donned his colorful, giraffe-print bow tie and suit coat:

Technical info:

Nikon D700
Nikkor 85mm f/1.8
Nikon SB-800 + 43" Westcott white umbrella, 1/2 power
Nikon SB-600 + grid spot, 1/16 power
(Speedlights triggered by Nikon CLS)

Great Balls of Fire

2010-06-08T15:51:00.006-06:00

Yesterday evening the Xcel Power Substation several doors down from our house exploded in a fireball that shot up 70-100 feet into the stifling Denver sky.

I was in my house when I heard the first of two booms, and ran to the window to see what happened as I saw my neighbors (who had been gardening) looking towards the explosion with horrified faces. As I could only see their reactions from my vantage point I had no idea what happened and wondered if a plane had crashed.

My neighbors then screamed and immediately started running down the block in the opposite direction so I ran out to my porch to look in the direction they'd been looking when I heard the second boom and saw a 70-80 foot mushrooming fireball looming over my house. Just moments later I was hit by a wave of heat.

I was frozen, for a moment wondering when the fireball would stop growing, wondering if it was going to consume me.

As the flames burned off the thick, black column of smoke continued to rise I ran back into the house, grabbed my camera and headed towards the burning substation.

Despite the raging fire, the growing heat and possibility of further explosions I moved closer to the substation and took photos from across the street until the heat became just too intense.

As I moved back, the smoke and particles triggered a localised rain of wet, black deposits (which I hope were carbon and not PCBs).

I ran back in to my house, washed off what I could and headed back out to continue photographing and to assess what might happen next.

Just then remembered that I had my cellphone and, after what felt like an eternity, forced my shaking hands to activate the video capture and shot this short video:

At first only a few people ventured outside...

...but eventually a flood of onlookers, fire trucks, and media filled our street as chaos reassembled into some sense of normalcy.

Neighbors were interviewed...

...and remnants of the substation rained down on lawns...

...and on cars.

Power was eventually restored by about 1 AM, which I thought was amazingly quick, I assumed we'd be without power for at least a day. My hat is off to those Xcel workers who made that happen. I couldn't fall asleep so I headed back out to take some last photos of the event. Here, the substation continued to smolder into the night...

...as workers continued the cleanup process.

Slideshow:

Story

9NEWS.com | Denver | Colorado's Online News Leader | Power outages possible as crews fix Xcel substation

A Salty Reunion

2010-06-02T17:19:00.003-06:00

From a recent visit to Salt Lake City, UT for work and to visit friends.

"The hills are alive and they are scared for their life"

"Hope the Tripod" - adopted by the maniac above from the SLC Pit Crew pit bull rescue center.

Dog and pony...I mean cat show

2010-03-29T11:06:00.002-06:00

Just a couple of snapshots of our pets with my favorite lens, the Sigma 30mm f/1.4. I'm using this lens (designed for crop-sensored cameras) on my backup Nikon D200 while I wait for my D700 to be repaired by Nikon.

Kerby

Jake

Announcing: Gallery Show, Los Angeles, CA - May 2010

2010-03-10T08:34:00.002-07:00

Photo above: "By then, penitence comes so easily" (2006) from my "Drive-By Shootings" taken-while-driving street photography series.

I'll be there for the opening, 1 May 2010. If you're in the area please stop by!

2020 N. Main St., Suite 222, Los Angeles, CA

More info

"The Del*te Me! Uncensored (DMU) photography collaboration is highly original. Its stylised sense of humour and biting bitchiness is forming its own movement, a performance art environment within the wider photography world that revolves around a central premise of a brutal game.

The DMU collaborators submit their best photographs to an online gauntlet of unbridled, at times personally insulting, critique. Ten saved votes gets you into the portfolio. Ten delete votes and the image is unceremoniously deleted."

See dmushow.awardspace.com

DEL*TE ME! Uncensored on Facebook

Promo videos:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=brLfhHbj27k
www.youtube.com/watch?v=ythUYXHQ5y4

Other Flickr photographs in the sh*w

Other promo posters

Snowshoeing in Rocky Mountain National Park, CO

2010-03-05T09:51:00.003-07:00

A good friend from back east visited us here in Denver last week, it was his first time out west and the first time he'd been above 5000' (without being in an airplane). In addition to showing him Denver we took him to beautiful Winter Park Ski Resort for some skiing and ended his vacation with a trip to glorious Rocky Mountain National Park (Estes Park, CO) for some phenomenal snowshoeing.

This Dulcolax ad left me unrelieved (a lesson in Photoshoppery)

2010-02-21T13:01:00.010-07:00

In the spirit of the hilarious blog, Photoshop Disasters ("Have you seen a truly awful piece of Photoshop work? Clumsy manipulation, senseless comping, lazy cloning and thoughtless retouching are our bread and butter..."), I spotted these disasters in a commercial for Dulcolax Balance during the Olympics.

(click for larger)

As you can see, rather than flipping the image the "artist" turned it 180 degrees before pasting it, also seen again in the screen capture below. And I'm no specialist in optics but the reflection of the bottle in the glass of water didn't look right to me so I tested the concept with a glass of water and a box of Triscuits. The only way I could come close to duplicating that image is by placing the glass quite a distance in front of and to the left of the box and even then the refracted image of the box in the left side of the glass is reversed.

(click for larger)

Check out some more reflection disasters at Photoshop Disasters and let me know if you find any!

Update: Admittedly, upon further - ahem, reflection - the image wasn't simply turned 180 degrees otherwise the little glass would be located more to the right on the Balance bottle (below).

Transferring editorial skills to advertising

2010-02-10T15:05:00.010-07:00

Sheridan and Suzette
Hip and Humble
9th & 9th Neighborhood
Salt Lake City, UT

I first met sisters Sheridan and Suzette at their Salt Lake City boutique, Hip and Humble, during an editorial assignment for Wasatch Woman Magazine about sisterhood (see "Sisters with Style"). Not only was the store an amazing setting with its collection of interesting items and bright colors but Sheridan and Suzette both bubbled with an infectious enthusiasm that made for a fun-filled shoot!

A month or so after that shoot I received a call from Suzette to hire me to return and take more photos for their own advertising. Suzette told me that Delta Sky Magazine wanted to profile their boutique and she thought it would be good to also have an archive of photos to use for future advertising. Seeing as we shot mainly editorial portraits for the Wasatch Woman article, we decided this time to take more photos of the store itself as well as some candids of Sheridan and Suzette at work.

An interesting part of that conversation was hearing that Suzette had a hard time finding photographers who specialised in advertising photography for small businesses. After exhausting the Salt Lake phone book/web searching she decided to ask me if I did that sort of work on the side. Until that time I had not but this really got me thinking about a niche that wasn't being filled. Unfortunately we relocated to Denver not long after and I wasn't able to capitalise on it there but now that we've settled in here in Colorado I'm going to give this another try, as I see an opportunity in this same niche market.

Shh, don't tell my competitors. ;)

Have any other photographers recently shifted their *ahem* focus? I'd love to hear about your experiences, especially any editorial photographs who may be looking to supplement their magazine work with private work as magazines either cut back or close down.

Anyway, here are some of my favorites from the series:

Technical info
Nikon D700 and various lenses

Natural light did most of the heavy lifting in these photos but I also shaped it using Nikon SB-800 and Nikon SB-600 Speedlights for fill and accenting. All Speedlights were triggered with the Nikon D700's pop-up flash using the Nikon Creative Lighting System (CLS).

Finally, the Wasatch Woman Magazine cover (May/June 2009)

And a slideshow of the whole series

My Top 10 Albums of 2009

2010-02-09T17:31:00.005-07:00

As some of you may know, in addition to having a passion for photography I also have a passion for music. As such, here are my top 10 list of albums released in 2009. Each album links to their Amazon.com MP3 counterparts where you can sample all the tracks.

1.
Elvis Perkins In Dearland - "Elvis Perkins In Dearland"

2.
Eilen Jewell - "Sea Of Tears"

3.
Soweto Gospel Choir - "The Sounds Of Soweto Gospel Choir"

4.
Ida Maria - "Fortress 'round My Heart"

5.
The Panderers - "Mucho Diggo"

6.
The Felice Brothers - "Yonder Is The Clock"

7.
Fanfarlo - "Reservoir"

8.
Slow Club - "Yeah So?"

9.
The Heartless Bastards - "The Mountain"

10.
Black Joe Lewis & The Honeybears - "Tell 'Em What Your Name Is!"

My runners-up, both released on the web:

Max Tannone's mashup of Radiohead and Jay-Z (a free download!)
Max Tannone - "Jaydiohead: Jay-Z vs Radiohead"

Kutiman's amazing mix of songs compiled of various YouTube clips

Kutiman - "Thru You"

In return I ask the same of you: What are your top albums of 2009? Either share a link to your own blog post or list them in the comments section, thanks!

So, what are yours?

p.s. My Top 10 Albums of 2008

Latest Denver Drive-By Shootings

2010-02-03T22:13:00.002-07:00

[man y pedi]

[photographer in action]

Denver, CO

Nikon D700
Nikkor 50mm f/1.8

[Part of my "Drive-By Shootings" taken-while-driving street photography series]

Slideshow:

Final update on the Toyota / Saatchi & Saatchi Infringement Case

2010-02-02T20:11:00.004-07:00

Blog readers and fans have been asking me for the latest news in my ongoing copyright infringement case with Toyota and their ad agency, Saatchi & Saatchi. To quote fellow infringee and phenomenal landscape photographer, Buck Forester:

Just got word from our copyright lawyer that the infringement case against Saatchi/Toyota by a group of us Flickrites has been settled. Our lawyer made it clear the settlement terms must remain confidential, but let's just say I'm rather elated! I still have to work for a living, ha!, but still, this is welcome news.

Like Brian, I am happy with the settlement and with Saatchi & Saatchi's response to this matter. Beyond that I can't say much more. I've learned a lot about copyright during the course of this issue and highly recommend that those of you who are interested in learning more about protecting your intellectual property take a look at the original post below to find great tips and links in the comments section.

More background on this case can be found in the blog post, Found my photo used without permission.

Thanks to jakerome, who saw this Tuesday night, I found one of my photos being used on Toyota's new 4Runner web site without my permission.

For the record, I was never contacted for permission or licensing, the image is (and has been for some time) licensed All Rights Reserved...

Thanks.

Portrait session of Denver Multimedia Artist, Peter Strange Yumi

2010-01-31T14:05:00.004-07:00

I recently shot a portrait session with Denver video artist, Peter Strange Yumi. Peter wanted both some formal and environmental, editorial portraits for his updated artist's bio.

We met at his home and shot a series of natural-light portraits, which I've converted to black and white using the Alien Skin Exposure Photoshop plugin. This plugin simulates various color and b&w film emulsions - in this case I used the Ilford Delta 100 filter.

Technical data:

Nikon D700
Tokina 12-24mm f/4
Nikkor 85mm f/1.8

Fan me on Facebook and Yelp!

2010-01-28T13:02:00.002-07:00

I've recently created a fan page on Facebook for Calanan Photography and I'd be mighty honored if you would become a fan.

On this page I'm posting updates, samples of my work, tips/tricks, industry news and holding Q&A sessions with my fans. Stop on by!

Also, Calanan Photography is on Yelp and I'd appreciate it if my clients and customers would post a review of your experiences with my services.

Thanks!

Playing in the snow, Breckenridge, CO

2010-01-26T18:10:00.002-07:00

Manray and I recently had the pleasure of joining a group of her friends in Breckenridge, CO for a weekend of snow, sun, food, drinks and fun. Most of the folks were from back East and hadn't been to the Rockies - in one case we had a Floridian who hadn't even skied/sledded before!

While the bulk of the folks took advantage of Colorado's excellent skiing, a small cadre of us spent the weekend snowshoeing and I've included some of my favorite shots below.

Side note: The effects of climate change are definitely apparent as Denver has absolutely no snow and relatively warm temperatures and we didn't run into any substantial snow until we reached the Eisenhower Tunnel on I-70 at about 11,000'. Fun fact:

The tunnel was built under the Continental Divide, and at a maximum elevation of 11,158 ft (3,401 m) above sea level, it is one of the highest vehicular tunnels in the world. It is also the longest mountain tunnel built under the Interstate highway program, the highest point on the Interstate Highway system, and one of the last major pieces of the system to be completed.

Hopefully new storms will completely wallop the Front Range with new snow as the state's snowpack is well under average and a severe drought is forecast.

Enough bad news, onto the fun!

More photos in this Flickr slideshow: