Irish band plays to St. Patrick’s Day faithful in downtown Denver Sunday, March 17, 2013.
(© Mark T. Osler. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED).

As far as I’m concerned, St. Patrick’s Day is the next best thing to New Year’s Eve. Everyone’s in a good mood. There’s a great sense of community, and fun is the only thing that really matters. Just have fun. What a great holiday!

We spent a fun few hours out listening and dancing to Irish music in downtown Denver and capped the day off with an awesome corned beef & cabbage dinner. By the way, why is it we only eat corned beef & cabbage one day a year?Just not right!

Here a little slice of St. Patrick’s Day in a card I put together for friends & family. Hope you had a great one!

Taking on the role of street performer this evening, Gordon Von taking his piano talents to the street, sharing his musical gift with a dozen or so folks strolling downtown Denver’s 16th St. Mall Saturday night. (© Mark T. Osler. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

I took my daughter and her friend for a stroll up the 16th St. Mall here in Denver last night after watching the Rockies deal out a 9-1 thrashing of the SD Padres.

“What are we looking for, daddy?”

“I don’t know. Something interesting. They’ve got pianos all over the mall. Maybe we’ll find someone playing somewhere.”

…and so we did. Mr. Gordon Von had gathered a small crowd with a rendition of Billy Joel’s “Piano Man.”

I’ve always loved street performers – singers, jugglers, comedians, freak shows…whatever. It’s a special treat when they’re good, which Gordon was, but what I admire the most is the courage of the performers to lay their talent, and their egos, on the line for sometimes appreciative, sometimes critical audiences. This crowd was more the former, overlooking the horribly out of tune piano and offering a few minutes of attention and a few dollars of support.

“So, what did you think?”

Seeing that her dad was impressed by the event, Colleen choked back her urge to tell me she’d rather have spent the time window shopping, or playing in one of the fountains.

“It was cool.”

That’s my girl!

Photo of my nieces being launched skyward & seaward while tubing behind my brother’s boat. (copyrighted photo by Mark T. Osler. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

Yes. I know I’ve been a bit remiss in my blogging duties recently. Lots of stuff going on and I’ll get you all caught up in August…no, really!

Last week we were in NY for the shortest week’s vacation EVER. I swear we were headed back to LaGuardia six hours after we landed. In fact, it was six days later but, wow, did the time fly.

I’ll have some work-work and some fun-work to post in the next few weeks. For now, though, here’s a fun-work shot from our little family get together last week in Long Island.

Stay tuned!!

Transit of Venus as seen from the Denver Museum of Nature & Science Wed., June 5, 2012. Venus visible as a small dot on the right side of the sun as the sun drifts behind the Rocky Mountains. (© Mark T. Osler. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED)

I’m a photojournalist. So, wouldn’t you think I’d be out photographing an event that isn’t going to happen again for another 117 years?! OF COURSE. In fact, who wouldn’t want to see something like that?

The Transit of Venus was that event – literally, a once-in-a-lifetime event. Where was I? Working at my home office. Thankfully, my 12-year-old son, clearly more on the ball than I, called to remind me this was going on. Actually, what he really wanted was a photo, since he wasn’t going to be able to come to the Denver Museum of Nature & Science to check it out on their telescopes.

Anyhoo…so, with about 15 minutes till sundown, I scooped up my cameras and big-ass lens and got on over to the DMNS. It had been a cloudy day, but as I drove up, I could see the sun was shining…and disappearing fast. I scrambled out, but couldn’t find a spot to get a clear shot. The sun was really low and had dipped below the City Park Tree line. Starting to panic, I noticed the sun was shining brightly on the museum wall back in behind the bushes. So, I climbed in thru the bushes and fired off about 5 frames of the same photo. By the time I moved to another vantage point on the other side of the museum, the sun had dropped behind the mountains.

Even though I pulled out a decemt photo from the event – and I’m happy I did – I won’t soon let go of the feeling I really dropped the ball on this one. I know these kinds of events may sound nerdy, but they’re actually…well, fun! Hundreds of people come and you get to see something truly spectacular.

In any event, if you didn’t see the Transit of Venus yourself, enjoy this photo…and let’s BOTH make a point to get to the next cool event the heavens send us.

Here are a few selects from an executive portrait session I photographed last week. My assignment was to create a selection of portraits of a new attorney joining a prominent Denver law firm. The photos are for the firm’s website. The idea was to create professional portraits that will make a professional and welcoming statement to potential new clients.

These photos are, for all intents & purposes, headshots. As such, this offers good fodder for my position that executive headshots do NOT need to be taken in a studio. These classically-lit photos were made out on the balconies at the law firm’s offices.

Not only are on-location portraits convenient for the attorneys I’ve photographed here, but it shows that location portraits can be every bit as professional looking as portraits made in a studio. In fact, it’s my position that these unique portraits have an inherent advantage over every other headshot you’ve ever seen…by standing apart from the plethora of other executive headshot.

In today’s increasingly competitive business environment, who’s not looking for a way to separate themselves from the crowd?!

Yesterday, my family and I headed over to the Denver Museum of Nature & Science to gather with a few hundred of our closest friends. The occasion? An annular eclipse.

Now, I have to admit, I can’t ever remember hearing that term until a few weeks ago. No matter. It was a great experience. Oh, sure, the clouds did interfere with some of the fun. But, we didn’t get completely shut out and the sun was not obscured during the height of the eclipse. So, if we weren’t going to get the full show, at least Mother Nature allowed us to see the highlights.

I didn’t go with the intent of taking a collection of pictures. All I really wanted was a shot of my kids watching the event and a photo of the actual eclipse. But, something happened once the eclipse really got underway. This entertaining little show came to feel like a significant event…something worthy of more than a couple of snapshots. So, I wandered out of my collapsible lounge chair long enough to get a sense of the enjoyment it was bringing to the large group gathered on the west side of the DMNS, in City Park.

Turns out we have another significant celestial event in a few weeks – the June 5-6 transit of Venus in front of the sun. I’m planning to be back at the DMNS for that one, too. Even though photographing that event is likely going to require more specialized equipment than I have, how can you pass up on an event that only happens one or two centuries! Even if I don’t wind up with any great pictures from the Venus event, I’m happy with the photos I have to remember the annular eclipse by… and, I can live with being 1 for 2 for events this cool! (Does it make me a nerd to think these things are cool? Hell, who cares…they ARE cool!)

Cheers, all.

Bees bellying up to our backyard watering hole. (Photo © Mark T. Osler. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

Bees bellying up to our backyard watering hole. (Photo © Mark T. Osler. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

What an awesome day today! And, the weather is supposed to get even better tomorrow. That’s good news since I’ll be holding a hands-on workshop downtown tomorrow morning.

Anyhoo, I knew I wanted to shoot something for the blog today, but wasn’t quite sure what. I think it’s a good idea to regularly step outside of what we’re comfortable and familiar with. So, with that in mind, I thought about doing something with my 60mm macro. I hardly ever use it, so here was my opportunity. Best part is I didn’t need to stray beyond my own backyard. Stepping out the back door, I could see that our bird bath had become quite the gathering place for bees today. So, risking life limb and the chance of a bee sting (yeeowwee!), I snuggled up to some of the bees and came away with a few fun shots.

Have a great weekend, especially if you’re here in the Denver area. Cheers!

Hands-on photo Composition class taught by photojournalist Mark Osler at Red Rocks in Morrison, Colorado. Mark teaches other photography and visual storytelling classes in and around Denver on a regular basis.

I held a great hands-on photo workshop yesterday up at Red Rocks. It is a three-hour class on how to create better looking pictures. I teach workshops 2-3 times/month in various locations around the Denver and Boulder areas, covering photo composition (like this one), visual storytelling, and Photoshop & Lightroom. If you’d like to join one, let me know what topic area you’re interested in and I’ll let you know when the next class is coming up. You’ll learn a lot and, more importantly, have fun in the process!

Happy New Year everyone.

I’m trying to kill two birds with one stone here – share some photo thoughts with you all and share Christmas photos with my family. You’ll notice right away that, while there are some nice pictures in mix here, there are also plenty of pretty average pictures. One instructive thing you can take away from a presentation like this, where strong and not-so-strong pictures appear together, is that storytelling does not require that every photo be a contest winner. The idea is to present variety, minimize repetition and capture the spirit of the event you are presenting.

Now, for the post….

I do a lot of practicing and experimenting on my family. So, good thing I’m not a mad scientist…just a mad photographer (and clearly not a comedian).

Anyhoo…as with any family gathering, I did a lot of camera clicking over the holidays. My brother’s family spent their first Christmas with us here in Colorado and we had a blast. Sledding, ice skating, family gatherings and, of course, the requisite Tearing Open of the Christmas Presents.

In the past, I’ve photographed Christmas morning madness using just available light. That normally requires a pretty high ISO, so quality can get a bit rough. Also, if there’s any light streaming through the windows, that pretty much nukes anything it touches, turning it pure white.

This year, I got all fancy and set up a couple of Canon Speedlites on wireless remotes. I put the strobes up on a couple of cabinets on opposite sides of the room and bounced them into the ceiling. This was not about creating beautiful directional light, it was about giving me a flood of light that allowed me to move at will and not worry about high ISOs or nuclear light beams.

I’m happy to report it was a screaming success. And, no one complained about going blind from having a flash firing in their face for an hour.

The collage here is a collection of photos from the four days my brother Scott and his family were with us. I like presenting pictures in this format. It’s fun and a great way to tell a story in a limited space. Hope you enjoy it.

Well, that was our Christmas – come and gone too fast…again!