Mom wanted new shots of the grandkids.

Last Sunday morning I was getting ready to head back to my secret life in Lake Charles, LA, when my Mom asked me to make some new photos of the grandkids.  These are SOME of my neices and nephews; if you're a long-term reader of my blog you may recognize them.  We shot for about 20 minutes, unfortunately the sky was typical Houston "smog white", otherwise I was happy with the results.  24" shoot-thru umbrella with GN58 flash at half power to camera right.  Sony 70-200 2.8 and A900 at f13, 1/60, facing mostly northwest.

It helps tremendously as a photographer to have a final product in mind when making images.  My Mom likes physical prints that she can display in her home, generally 11x14 for the walls, and really prefers having images she can group together.  This was what I shot for on Sunday, the first and third images are on the way.

There is a small group of muscovy ducks that lives in the neighborhood lake, and they generally approach anyone who stops.  There was one duck who was mostly underwater with another on top of her.  "They're fighting! It's gonna drown!"  The ducks were not fighting.  Ah, memories.

Gone for far too long...

It's been a long time since I posted here, largely because I haven't been out photographing as much as I would like.  (I had to take on a day job back in June.)  I do get out every now and then just to play, however.  One Saturday afternoon back in August, my friend Jenn and I decided to go on a photo adventure just north of Baton Rouge, mostly to East Feliciana Parish, to see what we could find.  I tried the "one lens" approach, and only brought with me my Sony A900 and Minolta 35 1.4/

On the way back I got my best stuff of the day, some long exposure dashboard shots.   

We wound up back in downtown Baton Rouge, and stopped for a few minutes at Happy's on 3rd Street.  Caught this one looking out the window from our booth.

Katie's Steamy Portrait Session

I recently was given the opportunity to make portraits for the gorgeous Katie.  She gave me complete artistic license, so I took this session a little darker and a little more sultry than usual.  My friend Carrie came out to help with clothing and makeup and brought a very nice black corset for Katie to wear.  I did the entire session with a 17-35 and 70-200 2.8  along with two 300w/s studio heads in 2'x3' softboxes.  Also, special thanks to my friends over at Big Head's, one of the coolest new neighborhood bars in Baton Rouge, for letting us shoot there.  Here's a few of my favorites from that afternoon.

 

William David. Nine days old, and already an LSU Tiger

Last Saturday it was my honor to meet Baby Will.  At nine days old, some of the newborn-ness has gone, and he's sleeping, well, like a baby.  Here's some of my favorite photographs of him.  The whole portrait session lasted about an hour.

Baton Rouge's First Ever Beard and Moustache Contest! 4-14-2011

How cool is that?  On April 14, it was my distinct honor to photograph the Bayou Beard Association's first ever Beard and Moustache Contest at the Bulldog in Baton Rouge.  The Bulldog is an English style pub which happens to be dog friendly, so along with the BBA's siter organization, the Whiskerina's Bayou Whisker Sisters collected donations for Yelp, a no-kill dog rescue/shelter in town.  The contest was emceed by Mike of MonkeyBR.com fame.

The event was also held in honor of James deBrueys, a facial hair enthusiast and all arounnd great guy from New Orleans who went missing while at sea a few months ago.  His family was in attendance wearing t-shirts emblazoned with a graphical representation of his moustache and beard.  That logo made it's appearance on the Best in Show trophy.

Now that the links are out of the way...

Participants competed in five categories: Full Beard, Moustache, Freestyle, Fake Beard (the girls), and Sh*ttiest Beard.  The winner of that last category was awarded with a new razor.  And now, on with the photos!  I also have a Facebook Gallery posted, and the full gallery with over 600 images HERE.

The judges confer.

The four category winners line up to compete for Best in Show.

Woodlawn High School, Class of 91 Reunion, 4-2-2011

Saturday night was my 20 year high school reunion.  Woodlawn High School, Baton Rouge.  That didn't make me feel old at all...  Several of us are small business owners now, and were able to keep the cost down to a minimum by providing some of our own services.  Kriste has a flowershop in town, so she handled most of the decorations.  Joan distributes seafood to the restaurants in town, so she got us the HOOKUP on some catfish and on the location, the Capital City Grill on S. Sherwood.  I provided the photography in the form of a party photobooth, then also had an aspiring photographer-friend shoot the party with my gear (Marja totally rocked it, and that freed me up to socalize).  It was great seeing some of my old friends, and connecting to classmates who I admittedly didn't know very well when I was in school.  It was also very nice to see people all grown up, especially to see friendships form between some of the people who had never been fond of one another back in the day.  The whole night was great all around. 

Facebook Galleries: Walkaround Party Pics and PHOTOBOOTH!

If you've never had a photo booth at a party, and your friends like being silly, I highly recommend it.  It's pretty much just a camera with a flash or two and a cable release so photo subjects can click their own.

Some of my favorite shots...

Up 'Til Dawn, LSU, Benefit Concert for St. Jude Children's Hospital

Last night it was my honor to photograph a charity event held to raise money for the St. Jude Children's Hospital.  St. Jude's is a research hospital in Memphis dedicated to the fight against cancer in young people, Louisiana sends more patients to St.Jude's than any other state.  It is supported almost entirely by donations.

The concert was put on by student group Up Til Dawn LSU partly as a celebration of the letter writing campaign, and partly to raise money on it's own.  Serrano's Salsa Company hosted the event on their parking lot, and generously pledged 50% of sales for the evening to St. Jude's.  Music was by local bands The Botanist and The AutoPilots.  Several patient families were on hand, including a few kids who had been successfully treated for leukemia at St. Jude's.  By the end of the night, these college students had raised over $3000 not including any direct donations as a result of the letter writing campaign.

I wanted my photos to have a different look from anyone else's who might have been there, so I set up several small flashes around the parking lot and used my Pixel Soldier radio triggers to make them fire.  Shot the entire event with a 35mm lens on a full-frame camera, and a 50mm lens on a cropped sensor body (wide and telephoto).  With this setup, both cameras were able to utilize all 4 of my flashes in the area.  Yep, I lit it like a wedding reception.  Wireless range was not an issue at all, but I did get quite a lot of phantom triggering.  Maybe the band or PA company's equipment was operating on the same frequency?  I'd never seen it before, but firing the flashes at 1/4 power or lower,  it wasn't really a problem.

Anyhow, here's some of my favorites from the night.  More can be seen in my Facebook gallery HERE.

Wait, there's only one dude involved in this charity group?  That guy is a genius, kudos Sir.