Happy Halloween

To everyone reading this, whether by design or fortunate mishap, 'thank you'. Have a great autumn season and let's not forget to celebrate life while we have it.


Strobist Info:
SB800 camera-right behind white bedsheet acting as diffuser fired full power.
SB800 cameral-left behind subject for slight rim light fired 1/32 power.
SB800 on ground between subjects facing upward with red gel fired at 1/4 power.
Vivitar 285 camera-right and high providing light on 'face' and shoulder of left subject.

To see more of my work visit my commercial photography website.

Zombies Eat Brains

October is an incredible month. On the one hand, it is the beginning of all the wonderful weather here in Phoenix. On the other, it is the beginning of the end of all the wonderful weather here in Phoenix.

You see, my son (pictured here trying out the zombie Halloween costume we bought today) has his birthday in October, then Halloween, then Thanksgiving, then Christmas, then New Years, then Valentines, then Easter, then 'poof!' summer's back!

It all goes too fast.

Strobist Info:
2 SB800's 50 degrees left and right behind subject 1/128 power.
1 SB800 slightly camera left 1/64 power

To see more of my work visit my commercial photography website.

Glad to Be a Dad . . .

. . . or more accurately, glad to be Shannon's Dad. It is important to express gratitude - today mine is for my son, he makes parenthood easy.


For this photo I used separate planes of light for each each element of the image. There are 5 strobes illuminating the scene - it is explained here.

Paradise Valley / Scottsdale Home Interiors

Just as I started getting geared up for some cool location-graphicy-poppy yoga stuff I get thrown a curve ball - interiors. Turns out shooting interiors is pretty dang fun and one heck of a lighting puzzle.

I have had lots of fun on these shoots; have learned a lot; and am I ever improving my Photoshop skills! ;-)

It seems the real challenge lies in getting the proper mix of ambient and artificial lighting - which turns out can be a rather complex series of options.

For the Powder Room, the light casting the textured shadow around the mirror is ambient. I added a bit of light up high to bound the top of the image with an SB800 CTO gelled. I also hit the pedestal of the sink with an SB800 set to 105mm and CTO gelled.


For the Dinette I used two SB800's behind umbrellas to minimize the hot spot reflections on the many shiny surfaces. I also used a snooted SB800 to shoot a bit of light against the tiled backsplash (a bit too hot I might add).



For the sitting area in the Master Bedroom I cross-lit the alcove using 2 SB800's fired at 45 degrees diagonally across the space - about 6' high. The highlights on the TV and to the right of the sofa are from the natural light coming in from the right.


To see more of my work visit my commercial photography website.

Afternoon Yoga in Tempe, Arizona

Second photo from shoot detailed below. This time processed more graphic-y and commercial.

Strobist Info:
2 SB800's left and right of subject fired at full power and gobo'd to prevent lens flare.
1 Vivitar 285 fired full power directly back at subject (in frame).
1 SB800 on camera fired at 1/2 power to provide fill and allow high speed synch hack.
Vivitar fired with PW's and SB800's fired optically (and at 1/1000th!).

To see more of my work visit my commercial photography website.

Twilight Yoga in Tempe, Arizona

I recently decided to create a targeted marketing campaign aimed at yoga studio owners, instructors, and enthusiasts. Only problem - I had zero yoga photography in my portfolio. Using my social media networks I was able to schedule 5 yoga models in just a few short hours. Kyna Rosen was my first victim . . . er, um . . . volunteer.

Let me just say, if you are local and have any interest at all in hiring a personal trainer, this gal is far and away your first call. She posed for me for over four hours - and that was after a full day's work training and instructing!

Strobist Info:
2 SB800's left and right of subject fired at full power and gobo'd to prevent lens flare.
1 Vivitar 285 camera left and 45 degrees to subject.
All fired with PW's.

To see more of my work visit my commercial photography website.

Kitchen Photography

Some recent client work has had me photographing kitchens. It turns out creating a balanced, evenly lit, and interesting photograph of a kitchen can be rather difficult. There are many reflective surfaces in which you don't want to see the reflections of strobes and umbrellas and the like. There are also lots of islands and cabinets to block light from evenly filling (and illuminating) the room.

The kitchen photography is definitely improving my skills as a photographer, but sadly, it is improving my Photoshop skills even more! ;-)

Strobist Info:
Both photos utilize strobes bouncing up into corners for a soft key light as well as a strobe below the camera to illuminate the foreground.

To see more of my work visit my commercial photography website.

Photographing a Motivational Speaker

I recently had the good fortune to create some corporate headshots and environmental portraits for a motivational speaker. It was very interesting to actually get to know someone (even if only a little) in this particular profession. Previously my only 'interactions' with motivational speakers have been seeing them on stage, in videos, or in books. Meeting 'the man behind the image' was interesting. Funny enough he and I are both from the East Coast and both Type A personalities. This can combination can go either way but in this instance I believe it worked to our mutual benefit - we both moved pretty quickly and neither stood still for more than very short periods of time.


Strobist Info:
Two Profotos left and right positioned slightly behind subject for rim lighting.
One SB800 shot into umbrella in front of and above the subject for key lighting.

To see more of my work visit my commercial photography website.

3 Nights Alone, 2 Striplights, 1 Headache

I am a fairly social creature - as such being alone for extended periods of time is not my favorite thing. So for me, what is worse than being alone for an extended period of time? Why, of course, having a raging headache while being alone.

I was sitting on the couch earlier coddling my headache, got bored of watching TV, and started setting up my camera equipment. I had no plan; hell, I didn't even know why I was setting up or what I was going to shoot. It had been a while since I played around with my striplights and thought perhaps pulling them out would be good fun.

This is what I ended up with - a photo of my headache. Enjoy what I didn't.

Strobist Info:
One Vivitar 285 in a DIY striplight camera left and 1/2 CTO'd.
One Vivitar 285 in a DIY striplight camera right and 1/2 CTB'd.
Both fired w/ PW's at 1/16th power.
The background although seemingly lit with a snooted strobe is illuminated by the incidental light from the striplights.

To see more of my work visit my commercial photography website.

End of Summer Break and All is Well

To say the least, this has been one very interesting summer so far. Shannon visited his Grandparents on the east coast for a month and a half. He was missed dearly but it also gave me time to dive head-long into my work; staying on point well into the evenings and weekends. It was a very productive time for me and I was able to learn an incredible amount.

Shannon returned 3 days ago; the rules have changed. I now have to ensure I am cutting off work at reasonable hours so as not to miss out on wonderful times with the boy that makes me proud every day to be a parent.

I was lucky to have Shannon run through my studio space just as I completed a few corporate headshots. The strobes were still in place so I asked if he would oblige and let me take a picture. I sure missed having him around.

Strobist Info:
1 SB800 behind a shoot-through umbrella camera left providing the key light.
1 Vivitar 285 shot into a refector umbrella behind subject and camera right.

To see more of my work visit my commercial photography website.