The Photog Formula

Well here we are, 2010!

I was thinking the other day of everything that’s happened in the past 10 years.  First of all, those 10 years went fast!

In 2000, I was going back to Europe for my second tour in Germany.  I spent New Year’s Day at a place called Scooter’s Bar & Grill here in town with friends.  I remember the last song they played before the clock struck 12 was “1999″ by Prince.  Then they threw the CD onto the dance floor and everyone danced and stomped on it.

In 2001, I was in Germany when the most tragic day in our modern history took place.  We were getting ready to get off work when we got the word that the World Trade Centers were hit by terrorists.  None of us could believe it.  My wife called me from home crying wanting to know what was going on,  and I told her to keep watching the TV because at that point she knew more than me.  I don’t think I saw any of the news footage until three weeks later.

I was still in Germany in 2002.  Life wasn’t the same after 9-11 and we were training harder than ever preparing to go to war.

In 2003, I left Germany to become a recruiter in Pennsylvania.  I didn’t get to go with my platoon to Iraq, something that I regret to this day.

2004 was a busy year.  My second son, Finn, was born on March 30 in Erie, Pennsylvania.  My wife and sons went back to Germany while I was being discharged from the Army.  I was diagnosed with Essential Tremor and told by the doctors that I would never get back into my combat job, which was the Cavalry.  I was crushed, but knew I didn’t want to sit behind a desk for 12 more years, so I decided to get out.  It took 11 months before I was discharged, on November 10.  (Leave it to the government to take as long as possible!)  But I thought it fitting that I was discharged one day before Veterans Day anyway.

Then, from 2005-2009, chaos.  We moved back to Wyoming, stayed with my parents for awhile, moved out, held numerous jobs, went back to school a few times, moved again, and got a degree.  I’m now pursuing a degree in Secondary Education.  I’d like to teach photography.  I also have plans to move again, but this time out of the state and to a warmer climate.  Although I used to love the snow, I was a ski instructor and was on the mountain 3-4 days per week, I’m now older and wiser!  If I don’t have to be out when it’s 20 below zero, why should I be?

So here we are, in 2010.

I was out driving around trying to find something worth taking a picture of.  I was actually on my way home, without ever taking my camera out of the bag, when I drove past the 34th road kill.  (Yes, I was counting!)  But this time, there was a massive bird making a meal of it.  As I drove by I noticed the iconic white head and immediately hit the breaks.  It’s not every day that you see a Bald Eagle, especially 3 feet off the road.  (Although while driving around today I saw two more!)

I turned the car around and pulled off the side of the road, getting as close as I could without scaring off the most beautiful bird in the world.  However, two cars passed me and off the eagle went.  I sat there waiting for it to fly back, but it didn’t.  I drove off thinking I’d missed a great shot, when I saw it again flying back and perching on the fence.  Again, I turned around and stopped right across from it.  I quickly aimed the camera and got 3 shots off before it flew off again.

After a little playing in Photoshop, I came up with my first photo of 2010.

I hope you enjoy!!

If you’d like to see a larger image, please visit my Flickr page or DeviantArt page.

I guess it pays off to write a wish-list for Christmas.  This is the first year in a long time that I wrote a list.  It’s actually an “all-year” list, and not just for Christmas.

And of course, everything on it was photography related!

A few of the things that were on the list, and that I was fortunate enough to get, were OHP Transparency Paper, The Darkroom Cookbook, Third Editionby Steve Anchell, Experimental Photography Workbook, 5th Edition by Christina Z. Anderson, an 8X Loupe, and a Diana F+camera.

The books are awesome.  If you haven’t read them, I would highly recommend you check them out.

Now, the Diana.

As you may know, I’ve been doing a lot of experimental photography in the darkroom.  I’ve made a pinhole camera out of a coffee can, done solargraphy, developed both film and prints using coffee, and even made some digital negatives.

With the addition of the Diana, I can now enjoy lomography!  And because I just couldn’t wait any longer, I put some Ilford Delta 100 film in her and started taking pictures.  The Diana F+ includes a flash, colored gels, 2 masks (for 16 shots and panoramic shots), and a pinhole setting.  Everything I need in one plastic camera!

Once I was done with the roll of film, I decided to develop it once again using coffee.  (If you haven’t done this before, check out my post on how to do it – Caffenol – Developing Film with Coffee).

The negative came out a little light without much contrast.  But I scanned them anyway and tweaked them a little in Photoshop.

And so here they are, in no particular order:

Thanks for visiting!!

With all the hoop-la about photo restoration, I thought I would go against the grain and do something different.

We’ve all seen the old photos of grandma and grandpa at their wedding, or uncle Ted at the birthday party.  These photos have probably been sitting in a box up in the attic without the proper protection, and have all but been destroyed.

Then we’ll see them restored back to their original state, or sometimes even better with added color and effects.

But what about those photos that haven’t yet made it to “vintage” status?  Well, I pulled up a few of my photos from the Army and decided to go try the process backwards – making newer photos look much older.

I chose the military photos because they just seem to fit the style I was after, but you could do this with any photo.

Here I am sitting in the back of my Bradley Fighting Vehicle after a
long day of training.

I used a combination of effects to achieve the look.  I first applied an old photo look to them using an Alien Skin Exposure 2 filter.

Here I am again with the ammo I was going to fire downrange.

I used the Black and White filter and chose an effect under the “Early Photography” folder.  If the effect wasn’t exactly what I wanted, I just played with it until I was happy.

This one is of a Bradley rolling down the trail.

After I got the look I wanted with the photo, I took it into PhotoFrame 4 to apply the frame.  This is one great plugin for Photoshop!

It was actually a little difficult deciding on which frame I wanted to use, but I finally settled on what you see here.

A couple of soldiers waiting on the Blackhawk.

So you see, you don’t always have to make photos look brand new and modern.  With just a little creativity and experimentation you can make a totally good photo into one that’s in need of some restoration!

If you’d like to know how I did this, I’d be willing to put together a tutorial.  Just let me know!

I had an engagement shoot last Saturday in Story, WY with a beautiful young couple, Tyler and Gillian.  They were great to work with and we all had a lot fun.

They wanted to do some outdoors shots, so we headed to Story, where they are getting married, to see what we could come up with.  I was a little worried because we were supposed to have some thunderstorms that day which could have been disasterous!  But as luck would have it, the weather was just wonderful.

It did rain the night before so everything was wet, but that didn’t slow them down!  They were willing to try everything I threw at them and never complained about sitting on a wet patch of moss.

Here are a few of the better shots of the day.  I hope you enjoy, and comments and critiques are always welcome!

After a nice talk with an outstanding photographer from NY I’ve decided to branch out a bit in my photography. If you’ve been following my work at all, you’ll realize that I do a lot of landscape and nature photography.

But that’s not necessarily all I want to do.

So, after gathering up the courage, I decided to ask random people on the street if I could take their photo.  I had a white sheet taped to the side of a wall in the shade in an ally.  I didn’t use any flash, strobe, or other lighting gear, just the available light.

My goal is to photograph as many people in Sheridan as I can.  As this project continues, I may end up just walking around getting people to pose for me.  I like the idea of a seamless background, but I may be able to get more people by just wandering around.  We’ll see what happens.

None of the prints are for sale and I hold the copyrights to them.  If you’d like to see the project so far, please visit www.NateLawson.com.

Thank you for stopping by!

I was browsing around the Net today and found a great post on Scott Kelby’s blog.  It’s a video from a guest blogger named Zack Arias and is truly amazing.  So before I ruin by too many words, I’ll just let you watch it.

I love a good storm, crackling thunder and exploding lightning. Although it’s not very fun playing with metal rods in the middle of a lightning storm, they sure make for some awesome photos!

The day started off perfect, with 80 degree weather and sunshine. I even took a hike in the mountains for some photos. But later, the sky grew dark and I could see lightning start to drop from the sky off in the distance. What a great chance to try some lightning photography!

I’ve tried photographing the electrically charged bolts before, but with little success. That was mainly due to the lack of proper equipment. But this time I was prepared.

There isn’t much you need in order to get some great lightning shots; tripod, shutter release, and a camera. That’s all I used. Oh, and it helps to have some patience as well!

I set my ISO to 200 to let a little more light in but not too much. The aperture was set to 22 to get as much in focus as possible, and I used manual focus at infinity. Your camera doesn’t like to auto focus in the dark!

I set up in the bathroom upstairs because the window in there has the best view. I double checked all my settings, set up the camera, and shut off the lights. Now it was just a waiting game.

Another setting I failed to mention earlier is the “Bulb” setting. This allows you to hold the shutter open as long as you need, thus the need for a shutter release. For these long exposures you don’t want to touch your camera to avoid any vibration or movement.

I then would press the shutter, wait a few seconds, and release. Sometimes I didn’t get anything, and other times I did. It’s really hit and miss with lightning. You can’t wait until you see the lightning before you hit the shutter. By the time you do, the lightning is long gone. So pressing the shutter until the lightning strikes and then releasing the shutter will guarantee you get something.

Another option would be to buy an adapter specifically for lightning photography. It mounts to the hot-shoe and is triggered when it senses light. I would like to get one some day, but they are quite expensive.

Here are the best shots, out of about 50. Please enjoy!

This is a compilation of some of the above images. Although it’s a “fake” it makes for one spectacular image!

Thanks for reading!

The weather here in Wyoming has been dreadful!  I don’t mind a little rain now and then to green things up, but this is ridiculous!!  Today was no different, with showers scheduled the sky was dark most of the day.

I was supposed to be downtown at 5pm to get some footage for a new commercial advertising the Sheridan Street Fair, which will be the third Thursday every month until September.  Then I had to be at the softball fields at 7:40 for the first of two games tonight.  Well, as luck would have it, the games were canceled and I was able to stay at the fair a lot longer than planned.

This allowed me to get the footage I needed, plus some extra photos for myself.  If you live in the Sheridan area, you need to try and get down to the next one, which I believe is going to be July 16.  There is live music, food and beverages, and plenty of booths to browse through.  (Don’t forget to get your own custom temporary tattoo!)  I’m actually thinking of setting up my own booth to do a little advertising as well.

So anyway, here are some of the best shots from tonight.  Please enjoy!

Nice little face painting!

This guy was pretty funny. I had no idea Sheridan had 82 religious groups!

These guys were pretty good, considering they are only young teenagers! (Like 14 or 15 young!)

They closed Main Street for about 5 blocks for the fair.

Even the Drum & Bugle Corps made an appearance. And almost made my ears bleed!

I really liked this band, and this image!

Here they are again, huddled around the mic like they’re trying to keep warm!

The violin player was pretty sweet, too!

Finger-plucking good!

And this is a Burmese Mountain Dog, which happens to be my wife’s favorite. Beautiful dogs.

(On a side note…is it “Burmese or Burnese? I found both spellings while searching the net. I think it’s Burmese, with an “m”.)

Living 15 minutes from the Big Horn Mountains is awesome. I can take a short drive and be surrounded by pine trees, breath fresh air, and have infinite possibilities for great photos.

A friend of mine called this morning wanting to know if I wanted to go up the canyon for some whitewater rafting.  Do I?  Of course!  I loaded my gear and in less than 30 minutes I was at the site ready to take some great photos.

I hope you enjoy the pictures as much as I did taking them!  They were all processed in Lightroom 2 with various presets.

Today, my photo class took a photowalk downtown.  It’s the first time I’ve ever gone out with other photographers to take pictures.  I usually enjoy going out by myself, for a little “me time”, but I can honestly say that it was great having other photogs there.

I’m usually a loner when it comes to photowalks, and enjoy the quiet to be able to focus and get lost in my thoughts.  However, going out on one’s own can have its drawbacks as well.  Having a group there allowed me to get their point of view on different shots.  We were all able to feed off each other and bounce ideas around.

And even though we were taking pictures of the same things, none of us ever had the same result.  Ah, the beauty of creative minds!

So if you ever find yourself short on ideas, just go out with a few other photographers and you’ll be able to spark your creativity once again.  I’ve chosen a few of my favorite images from the photowalk and would like to share them with you.

“Bank of Commerce – 1894

Conflicting Lines

Bleeding Windows

Josh

Pav

The Men’s Shop

Blue Gate

One Shot

Thanks for reading!!