Ah thats just kid stuff

How can you guarantee a good picture, that's easy, just put a soft cute and cuddly kid in front of your lens!

It is my future nephews' first birthday here soon and his mom asked me if I could try taking some photos of him for his invitations. My first response to this question was probably the same as anyone else, "why do you need invitations for a one year old's birthday, and who comes to those?" All this aside, I told her Id give it a shot.

So its a baby shoot!!! that never sounds well whenever I say that in public...I suggest that you never put that way if you are taking pictures of an infant... doesn't seem to fly well, wonder why. Anyway back to the point, first birthday baby shoot, got it. This was actually a fun shoot for me for two reasons first of all this kid has a personality like none other, he is going to make alot of friends and probably break alot of hearts when he gets older, just a happy kid in general. Second, he was the first baby I had ever shot before, I took pictures of him a few months after he was born and even then he had a loveable personality.



The picture above is one of the shots from our first photo session. Setup: a white satin bedsheet from my own laudry baskit for a backdrop, a canon 430exII triggered by an ebay trigger, a white satin pillow case yet another piece of technical equipment absconded from my hamper, and various stuffed animals used as not only props but...props to support the baby from underneath the bedsheet backdrop (if you just read that last sentence and said "wow, runon", congrats surelock Im not an english major and this is a blog yay :). Either way, cute kid makes some nice photos on his own.

This first shoot was done mainly on my request for practice, and I think it helped...if anything it was fun and I didnt get peed on in the process. This second shoot was as previously stated for his birthday invitations. Same process this time, we put the cute kiddo infront of my lens and just let him be, like I said this kid makes pretty good photos on his own. The following are a few shots taken for the invitations.We got a set of wooden prop numbers from a fellow photographer here in the springs (colorado springs) which I found on craigslist.com. Thought the balloons added a nice touch to kinda give a birthday sorta feel. anyway this shot was done by putting baby in front of camera and WHOOOLAA, also had a backdrop stand with a 10x13 white seemless background, a 2x3ft softbox with a canon 430exII for main and a 530ex bounced off the ceiling to fill the background, and an open window camera right for some fill.
The above photo was done with the same setup, except this time we gave him a cheereo ... cereal to cheer him up abit. The concept on this one was obiously that the baby is one since he is replacing the ones place in line... I thought it was cute at least. If anyone is confused about it, baby is also wearing a shirt proclaiming " I'M 1" on it which was wonderfully made by none other than his mother.

This kiddo is the funnest thing to shoot...and Im not much for a child photog, but with his huge smile and fun personality this kid is hard to not love, not to mention he is the biggest ham, he actually knows what the camera is and will definately play to it.

After we were done I threw on my 50mm lens and took a few snapshots of my own bundle of perfection. Not designed for a setup or pro shoot look, just wanted to take pictures of my wonderful little girl.
I have the strange feeling that she will be equally attracted to the camera...or at least I hope so. She is SOOOO ADORABLE!!!! Lighting for this one was simply the window that was used as fill in the previous shots, and whatever ambiant light my 1.8 AV could muster. Granted these shots arent perfectly lit or even in the best of focus, but the previously mention rule comes into play...childs play. Put a soft cute cuddly kiddo infront of your lens and WHOOOLAA!

Spin IT!

DEEEE JAY!!! in da house.... or closet studio as the case may be...is...

I haven't posted in awhile but that's ok I guess till people start reading this haha.
few weeks ago a few good friends of mine where DJing a party down at the loft in old colorado city. I had a blast doing their promo shoots and covering the party in person at the loft.

Here is the Promo Shot of DJ's David and Charlie!!!!!

Chalrie and Dave @ The Loft

This was a fun shoot and we got a plenty of cool stuff, unfortunately I cannot say this idea was fully mine. Charlie grabbed one of my spare bulbs that was in my studio and just held it over David's head at first, than in true Charlie and David form they worked out the pose naturally. There is some post work done to make the bulb lit and blue other than that this is mostly raw. Got one background strobe gelled red with a 2x3ft soft box camera left and two bad ass mixers in front of the lens doing there thing = SaWeeT shot!

These guys are alot of fun to work with and are extremely talented mixing in all sorts of styles and blending them effortlessly together to create some sick jams that just make ya move like non other.

Here we got Charlie or "DJ Flacko" in one of his solo shots

DJ "Flacko" Charlie B.

Gota admit CMOS (flacko) is a natural both in front of the camera as well as behind it, this guy has so much talented crammed into his body its no wonder he has to be about 6'6". One of the best mixers ive heard and a great guy to boot. Keep an eye out for this one he is gonna do some big things!
This was shot with one strobe gelled red on the background, one strobe gelled blue as a slight rim camera right, and a 2x3ft softbox camera left for the main.

Here's one of DJ David's solo shots from our shoot

DJ David S.

And to keep all of flacko's electro in check we got DJ David!!!! along with charlie this guy is one of the coolest around and has a ton to offer.
This was shot with one strobe shot through some bar glasses onto the background and the spill created a nice accent light on the lower left side, one strobe directly behind David's head for a small rim affect, and of course a 2x3ft softbox camera left for main -or- as you can see it acts as a catch in the glasses. I would have like to shoot it without the reflection of the box in the glasses however we were limited with equipment and space as always. Still we liked the shot.

The following are some random shots from the actual party at The Loft in old colorado city.



All of these shots where done by dragging shutter and popping a strobe on our dj's, as you can see the strobe laying on the table in the first shot. While the sutter was open the camera was panned in some shots to create more energy in the image to help simulate the energy of the party. This is a fun technique that helps a photographer convery the sensation of motion in a still shot.