I am in the process of working through a backlog of photos to process, including the many photos I took on my vacation back in February. Every so often when I see a scene that is just too much to take in one frame, I like to snap multiple frames with the intent of stitching them together later. As the boat was leaving Istanbul, we were treated to the beautiful and expansive shoreline. I snapped 20 overlapping frames at 135mm to get incredible 30,000 pixel wide panorama with detail throughout the scene. What you see above is a crop of a small portion of the scene shown in the file below.

UPDATE: I have added a “Zoomify” viewer that allows you to zoom and pan around the full resolution image. Hope you enjoy checking it out:

The full resolution file is available upon request.

Lately I have been focusing my photography efforts in areas that help me learn and expand my creativity. As part of this I have reenergized my activity in local meetup groups a bit. I’ve long been a fan and helped organized activities with Photowalking Utah, but due to the more social nature and size of the events, I’ve been getting together with smaller groups in a less official capacity. I still love the ‘walks, but I’ve been needing more direct focus on improving myself and creating images.

With that in mind I’ve been offering to host events at the studio co-op, especially while the weather has still been hanging on to winter chills and spring showers. It’s been great to shoot and learn with many local photography enthusiasts like myself. Every time I shoot I enjoy the process and realize I how much more I have to learn. I have to remind myself that it is the process of learning that I am enjoying and forget that my skill level and creativity is still well below where I’d like it to be. I look at the work of others I admire and always wish it came more naturally to me.

The most recent shooting event was with the Utah Strobists, a loose assortment of Utah photographers organized on Flickr working on their off camera flash skills. I’ve been to a couple events in the past, and after a little inactivity the group is working on getting events going again. I offered to host a non-themed event at the co-op with only the idea that we would work on various creative lighting. We had a great turn out with 5 models and 20+ photographers in attendance. It was a bit busy on the lights at times, but overall I think everyone had a good time and enjoyed the practice.

Here are a few shots from the evening, plus more in a gallery on my SmugMug site.

If you are in Utah (even if just visiting) and would like to arrange a shoot together, hit me up. My fees are always reasonable and if we are just being creative together I’m typically available for TF work.

It’s been some time since I have posted on this site. I have been putting my focus on my 365, but have had the intent to get my Great Projects blog up and running instead of this one. Well, you know about good intentions and all. I decided to come back and keep posting more summary and update style posts up here until I finally get around to consolidating some of my efforts on the business blog.

Last month I had the pleasure of attending another great Photowalking Utah event. Originally I was going to participate with a lighting set up, but had to bow out due to some conflicting obligations. Fortunately though I was able to catch the latter part of the event as an attendee and even make some photos – quite the unique thing for me! Though I didn’t make many photos, I enjoyed visiting with good friends and taking in the various lighting setups the generous volunteers had put together for our benefit.

The crop of models this year brought this 4th annual iteration of the event to an entirely new level. I was most impressed by the variety and professional manner they helped us all out with their efforts. Kudos to all. You can get a great overview of what the event looked like by viewing Cody Sims fisheye video view as he walked around the various setups.

Here are a few others from the day. Note that you won’t see these images in my portfolio as I do not take credit for the lighting, makeup, etc. Though I coached the models a little into the various looks I wanted to capture, these images are made mainly on the backs of others’ efforts.

More images from the day can be viewed (and downloaded) on my SmugMug site: http://www.gogetphotos.com/Photowalking/2011-03-Photowalking-Utah/

Ok, now I’ve gone and done it.

I’ve decided to make the year long commitment to a 365 daily photo challenge. Deciding to do this challenge is something I’ve considered in the past, but frankly I’ve never thought I could stick with it for an entire year. Finding something interesting in my fairly routine day that typically covers a span of only 3 miles of travel and most of it inside either my office or home has seemed rather daunting.

I’ve come to the realization of a few things though that I thought I tackle with the 365.

I need the creativity boost. My camera has sat in the closet far to much lately. I need a reason to have it always with me and to be continually on the look out for something interesting.

I know that not every day will be all that interesting. In the past when I’ve done some shorter daily challenges I spent far too much time & brainpower trying to create something unique or what I thought as a better-than-average photo for the day. Though I don’t want this challenge to be just about getting a photo of the day, I am going to be ok if the photo is simply something I observed. Some days will be more interesting than others.

Some days I will take a photo, others I will make one. What that means is some days will be about observation, others will be a window into a project I am working on. In 2011 I have a goal to do more personal work, including an effort to pre-visualize some photos, then go about making them however that may be.

Daily photos, not necessarily daily posting. Though there will be a photo posted for every day, some of those photos may come in batches when I get time to process & post. I hope to post nearly every day, but there will definitely be breaks where the photos will not be seen for a few days. Case in point, I am going to be on a vacation for a bit in February and plan to be fairly disconnected through the trip.

This is for me. Though I sincerely hope some of you follow the posts on the new blog, this effort will be for my benefit. I hope to push my creativity, get out more with my camera, and this will be one of the personal projects I do for the year.

With all this in mind, here is the link to the new blog: 365.greatproj.com

You can get the RSS feed in the top right of the page to follow. Click through and Feedburner offers some email subscription options if you’d prefer to get the posts in your inbox. Hope to see you on the other side.

Note: This blog isn’t going away (quite yet). I do plan to still post here on various projects until I finally get my photo biz blog online, but you will get the daily photo post over on the 365.

I haven’t been blogging or really even taking many photos lately due to some very busy projects in which I am involved. I will be opening up a studio co-op with some other talented photographers in January, plus launching a new product through an online store. Lots of fun, but just a few more things added to the already full plate!

Despite being busy, I find it refreshing to take a moment and enjoy the little things around me. Typically that is mentally putting things aside for some family time, but this morning I happen to notice the sunrise out the front window. Rather than just smile and move on, I grabbed my camera and enjoyed a few minutes watching the colors unfold while capturing the moment. My day already feels better.

This last weekend I had the opportunity to spend time with my friend Kenneth Linge at his last edition of his Photographing People series. Kenneth is switching his workshops to some new topics and format, so this was the last time he was offering the third session of this series.

Unlike earlier sessions in the series, Kenneth prodded us to get out and create some scenes on our own with the model we were provided. We were to create something that we could later receive critique and ideas for improvement. Needless to say there were plenty of mediocre to bad images created, but also a few I was happy to have created. See more after the jump.

A big snow storm was headed our way, so there was plenty of wind and cold flowing through the back of the studio were we working outside. As a result, we ended up spending very little time outside. Our model Amy was a trooper though, braving the cold, wind and dust as it billowed around us.

I appreciated the some of the detailed ideas I received for posing, lighting, and in general finding ways to try and make people look their best. I have so much to continue to learn and practice, but it is through these kind of experiences I find myself gaining some ground. I find it fascinating to take time to simply create images for myself rather than with a specific deliverable in mind. A much different experience than doing family portrait work.

Here are a few more images from the day.

You can see some additional images of Amy from this day as I add them in her gallery here.

Thanks so much to Kenneth and MaryLyn for spending so much quality time with me throughout the day!

This weekend I had the opportunity to attend a workshop put on my Master Photographer Kenneth Linge. This class was the second in his 3 part “Photographing People” series, held in his Orem, UT studio. It has been a long time since I attended his first part of the series, so I was eager to get back and see what new techniques and ideas I could pick up in this second session.

I am always a fan of great portrait photography, and lately I have been working on improving my use of controlled lighting to get better photos created “in camera” as people will so often say. I know I have a lot to learn, and I find getting into group situations and seeing what others do is often the best way for me to see ideas I can incorporate into my own practice. Who better to learn from than someone that has been doing such masterful work for so long.

Kenneth just returned from a long trip teaching in Europe; and when I mean just I really mean it. Due to a delayed flight he arrived at the studio direct from the airport 30 minutes before class was to begin. Always the trooper, Kenneth dove right in.

This class was definitely different than my previous session, and I confess to enjoying most the hands on time where we were challenged to light our scene, pose the model, and receive direct critique to improve what we have done. Though we unfortunately had rain throughout the workshop, so we remained indoors instead of mixing in/outdoors experience, we made the most of it. From what I understand about part 3 of the workshop series, there are more models and even more time spent in actual practice, which is what I relish. I have so much to learn, and I’m not afraid to be told what I am doing wrong in order to get better.

Though we spent plenty of time with “big” lights in the studio, which was excellent, I was intrigued by the power of the two LED panels Kenneth is showing us in the first photo above. Daylight balanced – and above to be gelled for color – these surprisingly powerful light sources were easy to coordinate with the main window light.

I thought I’d share a few other images from the day, only a few of many taken during the learning process. Keep in mind I can’t take credit for the lighting or setting, I will take credit for anything wrong! It was a learning process, but with a beautiful model and some great lighting available it was hard not to be happy with the results of what we captured and what was I was able to take away in my head.

More images can be viewed in my gallery from the event. I may add more images later, but my goal really isn’t to process everything from the day for publishing. These images were made for my learning process and I’m happy with what I was able to gain.

Thanks for offering your knowledge Kenneth!

Last night I still had my lights set up from some previous shooting and decided to take some self-portraits. I figure when I don’t have anything else to shoot, I might as well volunteer to be my own subject. I like trying to cement in my head some of the differences in ways I can light the same scene and see how it changes the mood.

As with many photographers, I’m never really a fan of seeing myself in front of the camera, but if I am going to ask others to do it, I gotta do it too!

Canon 5D Mark II. Lighting: AB1600 camera right shot into collapsed reflected umbrella; AB800 on axis high & behind camera for fill. Processed in Lightroom for increased contrast, color & saturation.

Madison Mecum 1997-2010

Madison Mecum was tragically killed in an auto accident while walking to the school bus on October 7, 2010. Even more unfortunate is this is another tragedy for a family that has been overcome with a series of hard hitting situations in recent years including losing their father to another car accident as well as losing all their insurance settlement to a Ponzi scammer. There are both immediate and long term financial needs. Your help is strongly needed.

See ksl.com, Deseret News and Daily Herald for more information.

The Mecums were neighbors in our previous neighborhood in Orem, and I am truly devastated at their loss. I have helped a group of close family friends create an online “Pledgie” account where you can donate easily online using your Paypal account, credit card or even eCheck. Every donation helps, so please consider visiting the the following link and helping however you can:

http://pledgie.com/campaigns/13712

If you can, please donate, and help spread the word by sharing this information with family, friends and social networks.

My lovely bride and I are going on an out-of-the-country cruise next year, and though I have a current passport Heather does not. Of course rather than get a photo taken at a local story with their lovely house fluorescent lighting, I did a quick set up to take our own.

When I sat down to the computer I realized I had made a Photoshop layout in the past for passport photos, but had found the results unsatisfying. Here’s a little background as to why:

• The US government has some pretty strict specifications you are to follow for a proper passport photo. You can read a bit more about it here.
• My previous layout had placed 6, 2″x2″ photos on a 4″x6″ file that I figured maximized the space and gave me some spare photos
• When I learned is that most print labs slightly enlarge your photo to fit their print process so they can provide a borderless photo
• This slight cropping both enlarged the actual print size of my 2″x2″ photos, plus it cropped them in undesirable ways causing the photos to be improperly centered and therefore not meeting the required specifications

Being that I use Lightroom for 95% of my digital photo workflow, and that I get asked fairly often by friends if I can help them make a quick ID or passport photo, I figured a print template was needed. I did quick search online, and though some templates seemed to exist, a quick search didn’t bring up any free ones. Definitely something needing to be fixed!

I created a quick layout for the Print Module that creates a 6″x4″ file at 300ppi, cut guidelines and a message asking the print lab to print at actual size. The photo you have chosen can be selected and will auto fill the two placements within the template.

Here are a few tips to help you get just the right placement of your photo:

• Be sure “zoom to fill” and “rotate to fit” are selected in the Image Settings of the Print Module
• If your photo is off center, you can Command-Click-n-Drag (Control on PC) to move the photo around within the box
• If you need to further adjust placement, you can go back to the Rotate tool within the Develop Module to adjust the sizing of the original image
• You may need to edit your “Identity Plate” text to have the correct message appear advising the print shop to print actual size.
• Under the “Print Job” pane of the Print Module, select Print to “JPEG file,” then when you are ready just click “Print to file” to then output your image

That’s it. You now have a perfectly sized set of two photos (what is usually required for most passport and ID needs) that you can upload to your favorite print shop!

If you’d like a copy of this template, you can download it here.

Of course you need to have Adobe Lightroom installed for this to be of any use to you. To install, simply go to the Print Module, then right click the “User Templates” or any other custom folder, then choose “import.” Enjoy!

Edit: Oh, why a 4×6 instead of a 3.5×5 you ask? Because Lightroom’s minimum document size for the Print Module is 4×6