Scott O. Smith Photoblog

Wailua River Hawaii – Panorama

Scott Smith — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 17:25:02 +0000

Dimensions 13747 x 2472

Now that winter is approaching I have more time to process through photos from our vacation to Kauai Hawaii that my family took this year. I’ve got multiple gigs of photos to process still. I thought I would share this panoramic view of the Wailua River valley taken on the island of Kauai (my favorite).

For today’s image, I captured three RAW files of the valley on my Canon 40D set to manual mode, the manual setting allowed me to get a consistent exposure across all three photos. After processing them in Adobe Lightroom using Adobe Camera Raw (ACR) I selected all three images in Lightroom and selected “Merge to Panorama in Photoshop CS3″. I then cropped the final photo and saved it as a jpeg file. CS3 did a great job stitching the photos together.

To view the full-resolution version of the image, click here. (warning the original is very large but worth it)

Utah State Capitol

Scott Smith — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 16:42:20 +0000

Canon 5D Mark II * EF-24-105mm f/4.0L * ISO 100 * 1/400 seconds * f/7.1

I upgraded my camera this week to a Canon 5d Mark II. I haven’t had much time to take some serious photos yet so yesterday I headed up to the state capitol building. I am thrilled for the full frame sensor and the low light capabilities and of course the 21 megapixel goodness.

Maddi – High School Senior

Scott Smith — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 19:24:36 +0000

Canon 40D * EF-24-105mm f/4.0L * ISO 200 * 1/125 seconds * f/4.0

Last month was busy for me with high school senior photoshoots and families wanting fall photos. I will be sharing those images but thought I would share a few of my favorites of Maddi. I had an absolute blast with her and her mom. She is a talented ballet dancer and loves to hang out with my daughter. Full Gallery Here

Canon 40D * EF-24-105mm f/4.0L * ISO 250 * 1/125 seconds * f/4.0

Canon 40D * EF-24-105mm f/4.0L * ISO 100 * 1/125 seconds * f/4.0

Canon 40D * EF-24-105mm f/4.0L * ISO 320 * 1/100 seconds * f/4.0

Canon 40D * EF-24-105mm f/4.0L * ISO 400 * 1/30 seconds * f/4.0

The Dancer

Scott Smith — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 08:00:40 +0000

Canon 40D * EF-24-105mm f/4.0L * ISO 250 * 1/125 seconds * f/4.0

Bree

Scott Smith — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 15:12:18 +0000

Canon 40D * EF-24-105mm f/4.0L * ISO 100 * 1/60 seconds * f/4.0

Smith Family

Scott Smith — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 17:33:25 +0000

Canon 40D * EF-24-105mm f/4.0L * ISO 100 * 1/50 seconds * f/6.3

Rockin @ the Great Salt Lake

Scott Smith — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 08:00:09 +0000

Canon 40D * EF-24-105mm f/4.0L * ISO 100 * 1/60 seconds * f/5.0

A few of us got together Friday at Black Rock by the Great Salt Lake and did a little Rock Band photoshoot. Nathan Marx organized the event and with the help of Rob Snow, Shane & Bekah we had our models. Kudos to Rob for hauling his expensive drums out there, I have to say they look pretty awesome next to the lake.

I’m not sure what I will do with these images yet but I had a blast with Nathan, Ziggy & Rob. You can see the rest of the photos here

Dylan

Scott Smith — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 17:23:29 +0000

Canon 40D * EF-24-105mm f/4.0L * ISO 200 * 1/50 seconds * f/4.0

Commuter Sunrise

Scott Smith — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 14:56:38 +0000

Canon 40D * EF-24-105mm f/4.0L * ISO 250 * 1/125 seconds * f/4.0

I often ask myself if hauling around my camera, extra lens, flash, macbook pro, two external hard drives, power supply and a bunch of little odds and ends in my backpack to work each day is really worth it. Well, on a recent drive to work it paid off. While driving to work this particular day the sun rays were so bright peaking over Francis Peak that I couldn’t resist making this photo.

I normally put my camera on the seat next to me when I drive so I’m not fumbling for it on the freeway. For today’s shot I set the camera to manual focus at infinity, held the camera up to the window and snapped away going 70 miles per hour. I was lucky enough to get a few good shots.

Once Upon a Time

Scott Smith — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 15:11:37 +0000

Canon 40D * EF-24-105mm f/4.0L * ISO 250 * 1/20 seconds * f/4.0

I’ve driven by this old church many times in Ovid Idaho on my way to Wyoming. I’ve wanted to stop but the lighting conditions haven’t been all that great. Once I saw the color in the sky with the clouds I quickly pulled over and took this photo before it got to dark.

I went a little crazy in my post-processing in Photoshop Lightroom but I really like how this image has an HDR effect to it. To my surprise my wife has decided that she want’s a print of this to hang on our wall.

A Sign of Fall

Scott Smith — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 20:43:22 +0000

Canon 40D * EF-24-105mm f/4.0L * ISO 100 * 1/200 seconds * f/4.0

Ashlyn

Scott Smith — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 14:45:56 +0000

Canon 40D * EF-24-105mm f/4.0L * ISO 100 * 1/60 seconds * f/4.0

Weekend in Wyoming

Scott Smith — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 17:34:58 +0000

Canon 40D * EF-24-105mm f/4.0L * ISO 100 * 1/200 seconds * f/8.0

We had a little R&R in Wyoming this weekend with a little sun and lots of snow. Saturday morning as I was heading to the store to grab some items for breakfast I came across this barn. I’ve shot it many times but when I saw this I couldn’t resist. I’ve posted other images here from the weekend, enjoy!

My Move into Microstock

Scott Smith — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 22:40:51 +0000

Canon 40D * EF-24-105mm f/4.0L * ISO 100 * 1/200 seconds * f/4.5

For the past couple of months I’ve been focusing my attention into Microstock Photography. While I enjoy doing high school senior, baby and family photo shoots I really like the process of shooting for microstock agencies. It pushes me into situations I haven’t been in before with my photography. Without getting into great detail why, the whole process works well with my day job and my family life.

My first month was a bit rough getting my photos approved but with the help of Nathan Marx giving me a few pointers I was able to get my photos past the inspection process. I’m happy to report that with my latest Ballerina shoot twenty nine of thirty photos that I submitted have been approved. The one rejection was because the photo was too similar to a previous approved photo. While my Chocolate shoot may not be a big money maker it was a good learning process for me. Stay tuned for more, Nate and I have some fun things planned that we are excited about.

You can see my iStock portfolio here and my Shutterstock portfolio here.

Canon 40D * EF-24-105mm f/4.0L * ISO 100 * 1/125 seconds * f/4.5

Canon 40D*EF-24-105mm f/4.0L*ISO 100*1/200 seconds*f/5.0

Photography Merit Badge

Scott Smith — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 21:22:18 +0000

Canon 40D * EF-24-105mm f/4.0L * ISO 100 * 1/320 seconds * f/4.0

I was asked recently to work with 10 boys to help them earn their photography merit badge. I’ve always looked up to the boy scout program, I received my Eagle on my 13th birthday and am grateful for that opportunity. After spending about 40 minutes with the scouts about the techniques of photography they chose a project and off they went. About a week later I caught up with two of the boys and found they hadn’t worked on their project. I invited them to go on a photowalk with me to the Ogden Utah Union Station.

They had such a great time they are wanting to do another photowalk. My first photowalk was with Thomas Hawk in San Francisco. I really like getting out for photowalks, it’s a great way to improve your skills and just have fun. I’ve included a few of my favorites from the walk, check out the full gallery here

Canon 40D * EF-24-105mm f/4.0L * ISO 100 * 1/60 seconds * f/4.0

Canon 40D * EF-24-105mm f/4.0L * ISO 100 * 1/640 seconds * f/8.0

Pedestrian Crossing

Scott Smith — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 23:19:11 +0000

Canon 40D * EF-24-105mm f/4.0L * ISO 100 * 1/400 seconds * f/8.0

Little Angel

Scott Smith — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 08:00:33 +0000

Canon 40D * EF-24-105mm f/4.0L * ISO 100 * 30 seconds * f/4.0

My wife decided to pull out our Halloween/fall decorations this past Sunday. Now that fall is here she wanted to have a fall theme for some frames that are hanging on our wall. After looking through my photo library I couldn’t find anything that would work so I asked if she wanted a Halloween themed portrait. After telling her about my idea for a ghostly image next to a head stone she had us all in the car and heading to the cemetery.

Today’s photos was one of my favorites from the night. It’s a 30 second exposure, I had Macey stand next to the headstone for the first 5 seconds while my daughter and I manually triggered two speedlights, one camera right and the other camera left set at 1/16th power. For the remaining 25 seconds the sensor was able to pick the available ambient light. All was done in camera.

Canon 40D * EF-24-105mm f/4.0L * ISO 100 * 30 seconds * f/4.0

Pointe Shoes

Scott Smith — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 08:00:21 +0000

Canon 40D * EF-24-105mm f/4.0L * ISO 100 * 1/125 second * f/5.6

Antelope Island

Scott Smith — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 08:00:35 +0000

A few weeks ago I joined Nathan Marx and Rob Snow for an early morning hot air balloon launch at Antelope Island. I live just a few miles from the island and enjoy getting out there. The balloon launch was canceled due to wind (after they had inflated several balloons) so we left the launch site and drove around the island. Below are a few of my favorite shots from the day, full gallery here.

Canon 40D * EF-70-200mm f/4.0L * ISO 100 * 1/200 second * f/4.0

Canon 40D * EF-24-105mm f/4.0L * ISO 100 * 1/125 second * f/4.0

Canon 40D * EF-24-105mm f/4.0L * ISO 100 * 1/200 second * f/8.0

Canon 40D * EF-24-105mm f/4.0L * ISO 100 * 1/200 second * f/4.0

The Ballerina

Scott Smith — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 17:54:21 +0000

Canon 40D * EF-24-105mm f/4.0L * ISO 100 * 1/200 second * f/4.0