Shooting. I think most everyone may have figured out how to achieve good results taking smoke photos before I did, but just in case here’s my setup. The most obvious observation is that you want to maximize contrast — I used a matte black background to aid definition. Next, you have to light your smoke, and this was really the only tricky part. I remotely triggered a flash at left, and had a reflector (tin foil) at right. There are many more complex ways to do this (light boxes, multiple strobes, etc), but this was quick and easy and it let me experiment within about 2 minutes. The thing you want to note is that you need to control flash coverage; I would recommend either a snoot, or to zoom your flash. Here’s another perspective to see the simplicity (*another note, also I think incense might be a bit easier than matches.. but I didn’t have any around the house).

More creative things to do. After you have your shot, you can invert the colors (i.e. black to white, etc), add color, clone, twirl, or do a number of things to make your art. More examples here.

Well, there’s more to be done. Next I think is dry ice, more smoke, some props, and maybe to gel the flash. I had fun, though. =]

My first wedding in Hawaii!! My first wedding in Maui!! Two amazing and beautiful people; about the most caring people you could ever know. Jen and Justin were married in Maui (Maui’ed) in the presence of family and friends on 28-Jun-2008. As usual, I shot many thousands of photos that will take me a little longer to get entirely through. In the meantime… check out the set and watch it develop on my Flickr (more pictures being added daily)!

Congrats you two. Thank you for letting me be a part of your day. A few of the favorites.

I am pretty excited about this; there’s a fantastic feature article on my long-time friend and astounding musician, Marcus Eaton, in this month’s [July 2008] edition of Premier Guitar. And… they’ve run nine photos of mine for the article! Here’s a version of the lead image, as well as a screen capture of the article itself. Be sure to check out the article entitled Northwestern Exposure on pgs 56-67. Congrats Marcus, nicely done!

Southern Utah is a strange and beautiful place. Mike and I took a trip down at the end of May (21-28) to the Moab-Arches-Canyonlands area; it was simply fantastic! We hiked, biked, rafted, burned [me, more than him], ate, watched a marathon of Big Bang Theory, enjoyed our luxurious FX35, in general had an amazing time, and of course took [countless] photos along the way. I couldn’t have asked for a cooler travel buddy. There is a plethora of photos on my Flickr (link here), but here are a few teasers.

If you ever have the opportunity, it certainly is worth the visit and is an exceptionally unique area of the country. P.s. rent the high end bikes — they’re worth it!

There’s a story here. My friend Geoff has absolutely fantastic best-you-can-get seats for the Seattle Mariner’s game. He invited me to a game last night and it took me a whole 11 seconds to reply — of course! It was an awesome game, a little slow up front, but the end was exciting and the M’s pulled out for a win. I rarely shoot sports, so it was quite the experience. Also, I’ve moving to the DC/Baltimore area, and I almost had a bit of trouble figuring out who to cheer for (not really). =]

More on my Flickr.

Marcus and I had been planning a shoot for quite a while, and things finally came together (he was in town, I was in town, and we both had some time) where we could get out and work on promo photos for their album. The trio had a show at Nectar the other night, and yesterday we took advantage of the absolutely fantastic weather. Here’s a few photos of Marcus, James, and Kevin. Location was in/around Seattle, mostly by REI and then in Georgetown. Thanks go out to assistant / second photographer Shelby White… couldn’t have done the shots without him.

Exif: 1Ds Mark II, EF 24-70, f/6.3-8.0, 1/50-1/100, ISO 400-640, two 580 EXs triggered by PWs, & shot through umbrellas.

Happy Holidays from Seattle!! I hope your time is spent relaxing and enjoying the time with family and loved ones. See you in 2008! Here’s a sunrise photo from the 24th at the Space Needle. Enjoy!

What a perfect weekend. Erin and I took a day trip to Paradise at Mount Rainier and the weather couldn’t have been better. It was absolutely clear up on top, albeit cold and snowy. The snowshoeing and scenery was awesome and beautiful, respectively. A few photos below, or see more on my Flickr.

Dena, Gayle, and I met downtown for some mother-daughter Seattle-Christmas portraits… and fortunately the amazing weather we’ve been having in Seattle held out!! It was very fun time, good conversation, and a beautiful walk outside. =] More photos on my Flickr!

What a wonderfully fun family. Joan & Tyson hired me to take some family photos and photos of Bryn (7 mo old)… Bryn was adorable and the camera loved her. Joan and Tyson were awesome to work for and we had a great time. Here are a few picks! More on my Flickr.