Sunday, January 24, 2010

But but... nothing!


Orosi California has little to no praise as far visual interest goes. People complain, some can't wait to get out of there. The town has been s-l-o-w-l-y working on upgrading its visual appeal by adding a mural here and there. Most of the locals however don't pay much attention to the views that the town has had since before they were even around. It could be that they are jaded or submerge in the irony that you have to travel to see something breath-taking. The town does not have a rd called "Mt. View" for nothing. For those of you who have never been, here is a sample. And for those of you who have, take time to look pass your nose once in a while.

Saturday, January 16, 2010

Semi-Menacing please!



Frankie is a good friend and fellow music producer/engineer. He owns his own studio and keeps pretty busy with it now a days. He called me up wanting a new portrait. A semi-menacing look with out being too over the top. I saw a sample of the general idea and we were off. I often take an assistant to a photo-shoot and this case was no exemption. Instead of just a helper I was lucky enough to have the company of a good friend and photographer Jerry Gomez. I knew that in order to achieve the larger than live semi-menacing look, I had to use a wide angle lens and shoot from a low vantage point. That is exactly what we did. We found a few spots with in walking distance from Frankie's recording studio. I avoided the typical railroad track photo, but was not against using parts of the actual train that sat behind the studio. We also used two small metal pillars from what looked to be the remains of a building. The sky was overcast, which helped us in avoiding harsh sun shadows. We filled in with a hand held flash (sb800) thru a diffuser and violÄ! Jerry and I took a few turns shooting some images and we were happy with the results. I think we were able to not only capture what Frankie wanted, but go beyond that and make it better by adding our own twist.