alt-road

Photo-A-Week: Tree

2011-05-02T14:10:00.000-05:00

So I decided to be a bit humorous with this weeks theme. I am not an avid landscape photographer, don't get me wrong I like it there's just not much time in my life to go for a LONG walk anymore. I would love for there to be, but alas... My point is when given the topic of Tree for photo of the week my mind goes crazy trying to think of what to capture. I don't really know a lot of locations for cool tree shots, (that's a subtle way of me saying I don't get out much) at least not ones that you can find 1000 pictures on Flickr of the same shot (Arch grounds).

I do have one tree I am focusing a seasonal series on in my town but, it's not quite at the spring shot that I want yet, the grass has a bit more to grow before it's the shot I want. So remove that one from the list of possible subjects. I looked all week while commuting around St Louis but nothing really jumped out at me as the shot I wanted to use for the theme. Then... inspiration.

The church I run sound for is at the corner of Tower Grove and Shaw Avenue in St Louis, so it's right across the corner from the Missouri Botanical Gardens. The Shaw neighborhood is full of artwork and unique displays, some even hard to see if you're not looking. Like this week's photo.

The Treehugger project installed a display at the corner of Shaw and Vandeventer in 2010, many of you have probably seen these unique sculptures. Agnieszka Gradzik and Wiktor Szostalo are the artists behind the Treehugger Project.

I thought while driving by that a tree hugger was just as good as a tree shot. I mean it does have a tree in it... right?

New Lens: Sigma 50mm 1.4

2011-04-23T21:34:00.001-05:00

It has been a crazy few weeks for me. Between IT work, planning and setting up sound for Easter at TWAS and closing up our Ultimate Graduate Giveaway at Open Sky Studios I feel like I haven't touched my camera at all. So when my new Sigma 50mm 1.4 showed up Thursday of this week I knew I was going to make time for it this weekend.

I was really excited to get this lens it's the smallest aperture prime I have ever owned. Olympus doesn't make a prime below 2.0 so I had to go with Sigma to get the little bit wider aperture, and I am very happy I did.

Heres a couple shots of the lens and one of our new hen and chicks plants to show you how narrow narrow the depth of field is at 1.4 from about 6 feet away.

One of the main reasons I wanted a very wide aperture prime is to be able to have a narrow depth of field when shooting portraits, especially when you do location shoots. It's always a pain when you get back to the computer and see those pesky power lines in the background. Narrow depth of field is a very effective way to force focus on the subject of your picture without having the viewer start looking around at all the other elements in the picture that are sharp as well. Another great thing about narrow depth of field is bokeh. Bokeh is a Japanese word and basically means the aesthetic quality of blur. You can use blur as a very creative element in your photography. Which is what me and my children set out to do in the basement this evening.

I have always been attracted to blurred lights in the background. Duh, look at the background to my blog right? So the background on the blog was created in Photoshop from a tutorial I learned over at Abduzeedo, but I am very excited to be able to create these types of images now with a fast prime lens. We put up a small fast setup with a quick background, some Christmas globes from the holidays, a single flash, a reflector, a lovely model and a nice wide open prime lens. All in all we had about 45 minutes with set up, shots, then tear down.

I'm pleased, how about you?

And for you photographers who read here's a pull back view of the whole shebang.

Photo-A-Week: Mess

2011-03-20T21:01:00.002-05:00

This week's theme was supposed to be Spring / Autumn, but for any of my readers in St. Louis you know we are about a week early for that theme. So we'll postpone it till the dogwoods bloom. So instead we will have an appearance by one of Open Sky Studios favorite toddlers. This past week on St. Patrick's Day marked Cayden's 1st birthday. And everyone knows the only way to celebrate a birthday is with cake.

Without giving away too much about our fun session with Cayden, you'll have to keep an eye on the Open Sky Studios blog to see the full post on our fun cake session, we had a lot of fun. Of course there was mess.

P.S. here's a sneak peek at our Russell's Bakery custom My Baby Steps birthday cakes. Also, keep an eye on the Open Sky blog for a feature on Russell's and their amazing butter cream icing.

I love the look on Cayden's face here. It's as if to say, "But you told me to make a mess!"

Photo-A-Week: Underneath

2011-03-13T20:52:00.000-05:00

Every time you go to the Arch in St. Louis you can find people taking pictures of the massive monument. I recently saw a shot of the Arch on a friend of mine's portfolio that had a perspective I had never seen before. So right up front, sorry Lee for stealing your idea :) Well at least at the time I thought it was unique to my friend. Little did I know it looks like I may be the last one in on this little trick.

This weekend the family and I went downtown for the St. Patty's Day parade. My son gets to walk in the parade with the rest of the St. Baldrick's participants, and family gets to come too. It's a great experience and a post about that will be coming soon. Any whoosie. After the parade we planned a picnic by the Arch where I was going to get my weekly theme shot. As I watched all the people around the Arch I saw several people with cameras walk out to the middle of the field directly under the Arch and point their cameras up at the sky. I sort of felt like a silly goose thinking that I had stumbled upon something only a few had thought about, but as I said earlier it looks like I am the odd man out.

Not anymore! I am part of the crowd that has snapped this cool photo. What really strikes me about it is at first I thought it was a body of water with the reflection in the water. Then upon seeing the windows in the top of the Arch I realized it wasn't. Just for a moment though it can play a trick on the eyes. I like that.

Photo-A-Week: Bald

2011-03-07T17:30:00.000-06:00

Last week's theme got hijacked for a very special event in our lives at the Eaton house. Last week's theme was Vegetables but we changed it to Bald. Every year for the last four years my son has participated in a shave-a-thon with an organization called the St. Baldrick's Foundation. St. Baldrick's is an amazing organization that focuses on helping find a cure for children's cancer. Matthew has lost two grandmas and a friend at school to cancer and his heart knows that he can make a difference just by collecting money to shave his head and he does it every year; him and 400 other individuals just in the St. Louis area alone. Last year St. Baldrick's was the largest grant provider for children's cancer research second to the U.S. Government.

St. Baldrick's has lots of reasons to be proud of the participants that sign up every year. But I want to focus on just one participant for a bit and how proud I am of him. The Bible says that God loves a cheerful giver, "Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver." (2 Cor 9:7) That scripture has always raised the question in me, what is a cheerful giver? I mean who really is cheerful about giving things away. It's always a bit of an internal struggle when we think about what we could do with our time and money to benefit ourselves and then whether we should give that to someone or something else. I personally am prone to use two lines when I am asked for money or time. Let me check my budget or let me check my schedule. Then I am prone to look hard at each of them and think what I could do with that time or money that would benefit me first. I could go to the store then or use that money to get that new DVD player for the house... the list literally goes on and on.

Over the last few years my heart has been changed by Christ and I have been given more opportunity in my life now to contemplate that scripture than ever before. Being a father means having the responsibility to make the name Dad look good. Too many children today don't have good daddy's. Which means you have to example for your children what love looks like. Meaning if God loves a cheerful giver then you purpose in your heart to show your children what that looks like. So, you begin to change yourself hoping that your children see it and are motivated to follow.

My view of that scripture changed four years ago when my son came home and put a piece of paper down on the kitchen table and said "Dad I'm going to do this". It wasn't a request he didn't say 'can I' or 'will you let me', it was, I have purposed in my heart that I am going to do this. The piece of paper was a flier about the second annual St. Baldrick's event at his elementary school. I asked him why he wanted to participate, mostly because I wanted to see if he had a reason beyond it seems like fun or some other child like answer. He said, with empathy and compassion with a real sense or purpose in his voice, "Because cancer sucks Dad and I can do something about it."

A father loves a cheerful giver. I now understand.

Since that day my son has taken me on a journey that has let us meet new people and experience a blessing of joy that can not be found anywhere else than in the service of others. To see so many selflessly give is an encouragement to the heart, especially in these times. And the women who come out and shave full head fulls of hair is amazing. There were 40 kids from my son's school this year, 40 KIDS!!!

Our pastor said it best when talking about my son's compassion. "Empathetic people are people who look at your problem and say 'I feel your pain'. Compassionate people look at your problem and say 'I feel your pain, and I'm going to do something about it." That encompasses not only my son but every participant, volunteer, barber and financial contributor to St. Baldrick's.

So the photo a week this week is bald because that's what my son is... BALD!

Photo-A-Week: Dinner

2011-02-21T19:09:00.000-06:00

So I'm a little late this week, but well worth it. At least for my stomach anyway. Last week's theme was dinner and tonight was time for me to make dinner, since I had President's Day off work and my wife did not. We decided to dig into our new Trader Joe's Dinner's Done cookbook and see what we found. Usually it's just trying to find a recipe that we already have everything in the house. Tonight we hit the jackpot for flavor.

Both of these dishes were packed full of yummy goodness, as my family so affectionately terms delicious food. First is the Kinda-Greek Salad this dish has grilled chicken in it but could easily be a vegetarian dish by removing the chicken or substituting it with some grilled tofu.

Second is the Roasted Asparagus with Tomatoes and Feta. Asparagus being one of our favorite vegetables, needless to say this one went over smashingly. My youngest daughter who doesn't even like tomatoes couldn't resist one covered in feta, salt, pepper, garlic and tasting faintly of asparagus.

These recipes and bunches more in the book are really simple to make. The Trader Joe's Cookbook is becoming one of our favorites.

Now for some mouth watering photography.

Photo-A-Week: Body Parts

2011-02-13T19:59:00.000-06:00

This week's theme is really a broad topic. I struggled with this one because I wasn't sure what to write about, more less what picture to take. It seemed weird to write about the body part I was taking pictures of, that seemed a bit too intimate. I mean who wants to read me go on and on about someone's fingers? After some thinking I decided it would might be helpful for me to talk about how important body parts can be in photography, especially in photojournalism.

Photojournalism attempts to tell a story in pictures. Pictures of details tell a lot about a story and when wanting to tell a story about people, body parts add detail that brings that story to life. I greatly enjoy detail photography. You'll usually find me at a wedding hovering over hands taking pictures of jewelery or subtle touches between the bride and groom. At the baby portrait session I'm the one taking pictures of feet and little hands. I am often drawn to the detail shots of most of my favorite photographers, especially when they are creative.

Mostly what I wanted to do this week is challenge any photographers that read this blog is to take some detail pictures, especially body parts. Get some shots of your children's hands playing with Play-doh, or take some shots of the years of experience that are written in your grandmother's hands. Look for the details and you just might find there's more to the story.

And to prove I took a body parts picture this week here's lookin at you.

Photo-A-Week: New

2011-02-05T17:18:00.000-06:00

This week I decided to do some what of an instructional post. Not really a step by step tutorial but just show how you can create a professional marketing type product just by taking a picture in your basement. With a few photography tools and some Photoshop skills I created an ad out of something new to my life. I received some Sears gift cards for my birthday recently and just this past weekend went and procured my first cordless drill. So I'm a little behind on some things, so what.

I thought instead of just taking a picture of my drill I would try and make it a more appealing shot. The first thing that came to mind was a print ad for a cordless drill. Mind you, I am not a marketing expert so I didn't try anything fancy with the words used.

The idea I had was to have a sort of "out of bounds" shot of the drill. I wanted to make it look like a three dimensional shot. I knew I wanted a shot from below to make the drill look superior and commanding, as if I was looking up at a monument of it's greatness. Okay, so I'm a little excited to have a cordless drill in my life, gees it's 2011 and I just got one, cut me some slack. Anyway back to the drill monument.

I already had in mind to use a white background and then add other elements to the photo later in Photoshop. I sort of have a set up for doing small product like photography but it's not exactly what I want as an end result. I used to own a lightbox that I built a few years back from poster board, but I gave that to a friend when I wasn't using it anymore. DOH! Here are a couple shots of the setup for any of you looking to take on a project.

Ideally when shooting a product shot you want the light to be even, big and surrounding. Often times photographers surround elements with white boards and use big soft boxes for the light source. In most cases you want the light to be diffused, not specular. Lightboxes work very well because the light comes into the box and then bounces from everywhere. The lightbox above works great for small items like knives, or jewelery. Actually the friend I gave it to uses it to take pictures of his wife's ceramics.

But, alas, I did not have the lightbox anymore so I had to go a different route. I decided to go with a single light source very close with a big shoot through umbrella and hope it was large enough and soft enough. I was hoping that I could do this on what would be a shoe string budget for a photographer that doesn't have a Profoto set with big soft boxes. Everything that I used included three pieces of poster board from Wal-mart, a light stand, a 400ws strobe (this easily could be a hot shoe flash unit like a Nikon SB800) and a 48inch shoot through umbrella. I put everything on a table so I could get that "look from below" angle with the camera.

I used my wide angle lens open as wide as it would go then got really close to the subject. I wanted the wide angle distortion to this shot so that the tip of the drill looked closer than the rear. That would help me achieve to out of bounds look I wanted later in post. Fortunately for me I had enough spill from the light that it lit the background as well and I didn't have to put an additional light on the background to blow it out. Here is the shot of the setup.

The umbrella was a large enough light source, the reflections on the drill are nice and soft and the light is very even across the whole subject. In Photoshop I made some contrast and sharpening adjustments. I also went around and cleaned up any color distortions in the white on the background. There are lots of different ways to do this, for this one I used the dodge tool set to highlights at 100%. Once I had the drill the way I wanted it I was ready to bring it into a larger image for additional elements.

I wasn't looking for anything fancy from an ad design perspective but I wanted to show that with some quick elements added in Photoshop we could show how a photo like this would be used in an ad campaign say for print or for a website.

Like I said I wanted the photo to have a sort of "out of bounds" feel to it. This type of editing gives the photo a three dimensional feel. You can accomplish this by making the subject larger than its frame or in this case the banner behind it. Additionally I added a gradient inside the banner (from white to blue) to accentuate where my light source was coming from and I added a small gradient on the bottom of the banner to give the feel of a floor, adding even more to the three dimensional feel.

So all put together this is how it looks. Introducing My new Craftsman cordless drill!!! Yay!!

Photo-A-Week: Sleep

2011-01-29T13:28:00.001-06:00

Sleep is this week's theme. Something that, for me, has been very elusive this week. There has been a sickness running around the Eaton house this week and I am glad it has decided to leave and take residence elsewhere. Waking up in the middle of the night coughing is never fun, especially when you wake up the rest of the house doing it at 4am. Alright, on to the reason you came here.

I chose to do a photo a week challenge for a few reasons, one being to force myself to picture an image in my mind and execute it during a weeks time frame. One of the most difficult hurdles I have found to get over in photography is creating a product that is what I had in mind. Many times I struggle with aspects that I can't control or determine in order to get the picture to look how I want it. The specific one for this week was opportunity. Do I fake a sleep shot or try to stumble upon one? Do I stay up late and sneak into my daughter's room a start popping the flash, or better yet do that to my wife? I pictured that moment in my head for a little bit, but it didn't look like sleep.

What was re-enforced for me this week is I have to be ready when the opportunity presents itself. I am getting in a mode now where I am constantly looking for that week's theme. So that way I am ready when the opportunity presents itself, whether candid or planned we, as photographers, have to be ready when the shutter needs to be pressed. Joe McNally wrote on the subject in a book called The Moment it Clicks. Probably one of the most influential / inspirational books on me as a photographer.

So this weeks theme, Sleep, fell into my lap during a photoshoot with one of our (Open Sky Studios) families. They have signed up for a product we offer called My Baby Steps. This session was three months. We decided to use some props from the family that detail some very special moments currently going on in their life. Daddy is studying and volunteering to be a fireman. We struggled and struggled with getting the little guy in place among the props and he just wasn't having it, then opportunity knocked. A bottle, a little time in Mommy's arms and viola lights out. The first thought that came to my mind was "SLEEP SHOT". Of course there is also needing to get that prop shot for the family, so two birds with one stone.

So without further adue, our sleeping hero.

P.S. Good luck Dan on the firefighting career, you are a hero of mine already and I can't wait for the rest of our community to get to feel the same.

Photo-A-Week: Macro

2011-01-22T09:57:00.002-06:00

I thought that this week's theme would present a challenge to me considering I sold my macro lens a few months back to upgrade one of my camera bodies, but lucky for me my 14-54mm has a minimum focusing distance of 22cm. Which for all intents and purposes achieved macro by most definitions.

There are a lot of definitions of macro photography and depending on who you ask or what Google result you click on you're either achieving it or you have to go buy more gear. For me I just like to think that macro means really close. I lean towards a definition that appeals to me. Probably the thing I like most about macro photography is when it allows me to see something I can't with my naked eye.

One definition I read said that if in a 4x6 printed frame the picture is life size then that is macro photography. I can think of a lot of instances where I would just see it as a great picture of a frog. It wouldn't register with me as macro photography. Now show me a picture of a frogs foot up close and personal, then we're talking.

Keep in mind these are my opinions not the law on macro photography. Honestly if you read my introduction statement you could deduce that I am so enthralled by macro photography that I sold my only macro lens {sarcasm}

Since you probably clicked the post to see a picture and not here me ramble on about my knowledge, or lack there of, on macro photography. Here you go. Also, since I got some great responses back on the two photos from the last post, there's a bonus one here too.

Snow from the most recent weather that came through St Louis.

Photo-A-Week: Breakfast

2011-01-15T18:41:00.001-06:00

Breakfast is not my favorite meal of the day, it means getting out of bed even earlier. Breakfast almost always for me has been cup of freshly ground coffee, two teaspoons of sugar and some milk. My wife on the other hand is a big fan of breakfast, so much so that she gets up early sometimes and makes breakfast for us all. Yummy!

This week, with the theme being breakfast and all, I joined my wife on a breakfast adventure. YAWN... Recently I bought some new knives and a new cutting board so I have been on a chopping frenzy, yes even my finger already. We decided on the three egg omelet with fixin's included. I chopped and she flipped.

Breakfast turns out is a pretty good meal, I just wish it didn't come so early for our household. There are two photos this week for the theme, considering it was a joint effort in accomplishing the finished product. That and I wanted to show off my mad chopping skills.

Review - Hear Back personal mixing system

2011-01-11T17:14:00.007-06:00

So the church I am running sound for installed Hear Technologies' Hear Back personal monitor mixing system. We are using them for an in ear monitor system instead of having noisy speaker wedges on the stage messing with the front of house mix. I am new to the Hear Back system, I come from a church that had an Aviom system installed. There are similarities and differences between the systems. Without going into the pros and cons of in ear monitor systems vs stage wedges, and not wanting to turn this into an Aviom vs Hear Back list I am just going to cover some of the specific likes and dislikes I have found so far in using the Hear Back system.

Likes:
CAT5e: I like that Hear takes advantage of networking cable same as Aviom does, well they don't use A-net but you get the point. This can make installation simpler and sometimes cheaper depending on your setup. If your sound booth is a fair distance from your stage then setting a rack unit in the sound booth to grab your Aux channels then sending that over 1 CAT5e cable to another rack unit by the stage vs 8 XLR is cheaper. In most cases even running 8 CAT5e cables all the way to the stage is cheaper. In any case being able to link everything together with CAT5 is great.

Direct mounts to mic stands: Something Aviom likes to charge $30 per head unit for, after you have already paid close to $400 for the receiver. Hear Backs have a screw mount in the bottom of the unit so you just screw it to any standard mic stand and your done. The cheaper solution just got $30 cheaper.

Simple: I know that doesn't sound like something to rave about, but I have bought some "cheap" solutions in the past and they were anything but as simple as the quality model I should have bought. That's not true with the Hear Back system. It really is easy to install. We bought two of the 4 pack packages that have the rack unit included. You just take the provided 8-way cable and plug it into all your Direct Out / Aux channels on your sound board, plug that cable into the back of the rack unit, then plug in the provided 50ft Cat5e cables to the front of the rack unit, plug those Cat5e cables into the Hear Back receivers and your done. Plug in some head phones and turn up what you want.

Aux input on the receiver: The idea of being able to plug in an audio feed directly at your receiver is attractive. Especially if I am a drummer and want a click track. Sure there are other ways to implement click track so that everyone can hear if they want, but being limited on channels (we'll get to that in a minute) an Aux input on the unit is helpful. Also just a tip, the Aux input is what Hear Technologies advertises makes it a 10 channel system. The Aux is a Tip Ring Sleeve 1/8 adapter so you can run a stereo input into it, but you will only be able to hear that when plugged into that receiver only. It's not 10 channel distributed to all receivers.

Dis-Likes
8 channel (no 6) max inputs: First the advertised limitation of 8 channels is a bummer but to find out that really it's only 6 center panned channels is down right false advertising. Channels 1 and 2 on the Hear Back system are hard panned left and right. I am not exactly sure why, maybe the people at Hear Technologies haven't heard of the panning nob on a sound board. If I want something to be left or right ear only I can do that on the sound board, but forcing me to put a snare in the left ear only is not a feature I am excited about. For us fortunately I am able to group our worship team down to 6 channels then put my talk back mic in one of the hard panned channels. But Hear Backs advertised 8 channels needs an * to caveat their little secret.

Numbering System: 3,4,5,6,7,8,1,2 (take a look) Yes sir that's how I learned it in school. I don't know how many times I have heard from the stage "1 is on the bottom" when they are trying to adjust audio in their ears. Maybe my heightened aggravation to that is due to my OCD when it comes to labeling things.

Summary
I have to say for the budget minded installation this system is great. For a 1/3 of the cost of Aviom it stands up pretty well for a personal mixing system. And if you only need 6 center panned mixes and numbering patterns don't bother you then you shouldn't have any complaints.

Photo-A-Week: Cold

2011-01-08T13:48:00.003-06:00

This week was the first week I took on my photo a week project. Something I am going to do each week for the rest of the year. I have teased myself with the idea of a photo a day project several times, but I don't think I have the dedication to do a 365 project. Now 52 that's a more palatable number for me.

Each week will have a theme, this week's is Cold. Which presented a problem for me all week. Even though it's plenty cold here in St. Louis there is not much on my daily commute that looked cold. I kept trying to think of ideas, maybe take a picture of a thermometer or something, but then I got lucky. Friday night, a day before the deadline, it snowed.

It actually got pretty scary driving later that night. We decided to head out to take some Christmas presents back to the store and on the way home the roads started icing over. I was very happy we had bought an all wheel drive vehicle this year. We saw 5 cars off the road in a 10 mile stretch, most of them already had emergency responders there and the one that didn't told us he was ok and was getting ready to pull out of the snow. It's a Jeep thing, I don't understand.

Anyway working on the house Saturday morning I decided to get a cold picture of my daughter's new sticky snowflakes they have on their windows. Thankfully for the snow it actually looks cold.

Wow 4 months

2011-01-03T14:20:00.000-06:00

I can't believe it's been 4 months since I have posted anything here. That's just poor form. Well it's a new year and a new season for me, so that is going to bring new content.
I am starting a new position at a new church in January. Running sound for The Word at Shaw and supporting my good friend Harry Walls IV over at Worship180. I intend on using this blog to post what all I will be learning about sound engineering.
I also am taking on a year long weekly photography project. It will be a new theme each week, that should make for some posts there too, both here and on my flickr page.
Also, there will be posts about all other things going on in my life. A new church brings new discoveries about all kinds of things. I am very much so looking forward to that.
So, here's to new years resolutions.

Life Changing Moments

2010-08-26T11:51:00.002-05:00

Every now and then there are moments in our lives that if we are paying attention they will change us forever. Some of them are great joyous moments others are wrapped in a great tragedy. For me I had one of those moments a year ago today. I unexpectedly found myself in one of the largest most profound support groups I had ever been a part of. As a photographer there was great opportunity for me to capture these moments, but little did I know that they would have the impact on me that they have.

SFC Brian Woods was killed in the line of duty in Afghanistan in August of 2009. They brought him home to Cedar Hill MO on August 26th 2009. There had been announcements of his arrival on the radio and television stations requesting people come out to the sides of the highways and show their support. Brian's body was being escorted by local law enforcement and the Patriot Guard from the airport to Cedar Hill.

I had the honor of personally knowing Brian from high school, even though I had not seen him in over a decade the memory he left was still firm in my mind. Brian left behind a wife and two very young daughters. Brian's wife had stayed home in North Carolina where they had conducted a small private ceremony for Brian earlier that week. She decided not to come to St Louis for his burial here. Being Brian's friend and a photographer I felt obligated to capture these events for them so they could remember forever the welcoming he received as a hero in our community. And what a welcoming it was.

At 6pm August 26th 2009 a valley over a mile long was full of people lining the highway as far as the eye could see. We all patiently waited with flags, signs and hearts full of support. One lone police cruiser crested the hill and blared a siren alert, the valley went silent. An eery silent that only those there could explain the misery it stirred in their soul. Well over 500 people watched silently as Brian's hearse passed them by on it's way to the funeral home. The rumble of all the motorcycles from the patriot guard shook my inner core in a way I can still feel it's effects a year later.

I had the privilege of standing next to a young man Marine Sergeant Ross Kaeding during the procession. Sergeant Kaeding firm in his respect for Brian, and his service, stood strong as Brian passed by us. Snapping the below picture changed my life. I had never taken a photo that I now know has had such impact on others. As a photographer it is a sour triumph to successfully capture a tragic moment. I can't imagine the emotion that war photographers go through that spend time in the line of duty with these brave men and women.

The emotion from that day and the following days as Brian's memorial service was conducted are too great to capture in a blog post. They are enough to fill books if everyone accounted the impact these moments had on our lives. The one impact that should be accounted on this day however is that of profound respect. For the thousands that were a part of Brian's memorial and the thousands more that were impacted by his life August of every year has a different feel to it that it did before 2009. Brian's memory lives on in all of our lives and the change his life and sacrifice made on the world will be continually felt.

We miss you Brian!

(the full gallery can be found here In Memory of SFC Brian Woods )

Beware of the Dip

2010-08-09T12:47:00.001-05:00

So I read a lot of RSS feeds on various topics. One of them being audio. Every once in a while you read something online that is worth sharing because it applies to a larger audience. Chris Huff the creator of Behind the Mixer posted a blog recently about what he warns as the audio dip link here . His post is a take on the book "The Dip" written by Seth Godin. Chris' article got me thinking about how the dip applies to photography.

The concept applies to anyone who has started a new project, hobby, job... In the beginning everything is exciting. You are seeing lots of results for your effort. You're learning new things, seeing mountains of results and getting positive feedback from everywhere. Everyday seems to be another day for a Photoshop epiphany. (oh wow that's what clipping masks are used for) But eventually you stop learning new things everyday and your effort seems to produce less results, or the results aren't the leaps and bounds you have grown so accustomed to. That's the beginning of the dip. The dip for photographers can be a make or break moment. It is inevitable that you will face the dip whether photography for you is just a hobby or more. What is encouraging is that according to Seth Godin if you can continue to work on your effort through the dip you will eventually see a rapid increase in results.

What I like about Chris' article is he takes three quick approaches to dealing with the dip. Which I am going to touch on in a second.
1. Quit
2. Information overload
3. Focus

Seth Godin talks a lot about people knowing when to quit. When to realize they've walked down a dead end and to turn around and walk the other way. 10 Questions with Seth is a good read if you are interested in reading more about Seth's approach.

OK, back to photography. So how to deal with the dip as a photographer.
1. Quit - Sometimes what ever it is your getting stuck on you should walk away. That doesn't mean photography entirely but maybe take a break from Photoshop filters or trying to master focus stacking for macro photography. Maybe you take really good pictures of flowers but not so much with people. That doesn't mean you shouldn't work harder at taking pictures of people but you have to answer that question. Maybe, just maybe, if it is a dead end street you should turn around and stop trying to be a photographer your not. The flower world is missing you.

2. Information Overload - From personal experience I can say this is a daunting task, often riddled with turmoil. Being a married father of three spending hours at the computer or behind my camera doesn't have positive effects on my family life. I remember when took the plunge to digital from film. I read book after book, blog after blog and became a member of like 6 photo forums. I was facebooking, myspacing, forum adding and more. I would go through two or three tutorials a day. After a while I was just burnt and realized I didn't like digital at all. Too much work. Till I stumbled upon approach #3.

3. Focus - My mother always used to tell me "One thing at a time son". Her words were wiser than I cared to mention then. Pick one thing to focus on when you are in the dip. Don't think that because you are seeing little results it means you have to learn everything there is to know about Photoshop or that you have to take 10 photography courses by the top photographers in your area. Slow down and take on a small but focused project. Like photographing skin. If you are wanting to become a better people photographer then learn how to photograph people's skin. How is skin prepared for a photo? How do you light and expose skin for digital? How does skin behave with different types of light? Once you learn that then move to expression. What is expression? What expressions make a photo interesting? How do you time capturing expression? Patiently walk through the dip but don't stop giving effort. Who knows, on the other side you may just be the next photojournalist for your town's newspaper or one day find yourself working for National Geographic.

Talking to Strangers

2010-07-17T10:39:00.005-05:00

I quite often have taken pictures of people I don't know from far off. You see a mother and a child playing with one another, or a couple being endearing. Sometimes getting an image from an outside perspective is very poignant. But, sometimes people are worth interacting with and getting up close and personal.

Do you have the courage to approach a complete stranger and ask if you can take their picture? What would you say? Often I have found people afraid to approach a stranger, I am sure for many reasons, some I would guess probably warranted. But if you did have the courage and you did approach them how would you do it?

Here's a few tips.
1. Don't be a soul stealer. People are afraid of cameras generally, especially strangers with cameras. I think even more so they are afraid of what you will do with the image of them once you have it. Will you paint them in a pleasant light? Or worse, will you make money off of it that they will never see (we'll address this in a bit). Make sure you genuinely care about the person. Your motivation should be to capture who this person is. You are intrigued by them for some reason let them know that. And above all give them the assurance that you are trustworthy with their image and will be delicate with how you represent them. Introduce yourself, tell them something about you, give them a card if you have one and above all be polite and respectful. Even if they say no, and if they do say no thank them and walk away.

2. Get the scoop. Again you found this person intriguing enough to approach. Find something out about them while you are there. Talk with them. If you act like a real person to them they won't think you're a soul stealer. Ask them about what ever it is you find intriguing about them, ask them to tell you a story about it.

3. Don't take all day. More than likely this person or persons didn't wake up this morning and think, "I think I will go to the park and wait for a photographer to ask to take my picture." Remember that even though they may be polite and even interactive with letting you take their picture, you are interrupting their day. Don't take forever. Plan what kind of pictures you want on your way over to introduce yourself. You probably had an image in your mind when you first laid eyes on them. This is where knowing your gear comes in real handy.

4. Not without my permission you don't - Remember there are laws that protect these people's images from being published without their permission. Know them! There are lots of places you can find out about model releases and when you need them and when you don't. But don't make the mistake of publishing an image of someone in a setting where you need a release and you don't have one. They may just have recourse against you if they find out.

Photography can allow you to meet people and go places you never dreamed, if you let it.

First Post

2010-07-13T14:31:00.001-05:00

Well I suppose first posts are supposed to be an introduction. So, here we go. This blog is pretty much a place for me to share what I can't share anywhere else. There really isn't much format or theme here, it's going to be a reflection of what goes on in my head. Which is pretty broad.

I have a pretty over excited brain and am constantly thinking about several things at once. My attention is attracted to many different things everyday, which fits rather appropriately with me having a camera in my hand.

The title of the blog has some back story. I drove past Alt Road everyday on my way to work for 5 years. I used to think a lot about the name of that road. How quite often I wanted to turn down an Alt Road of life. Furthermore the idea of a metaphorical Alt Road intrigued me. We all have Alt Roads in our life, we all are traveling on one now, and we will be distracted by thousands of them throughout life. Sharing my Alt Road experiences is the purpose of this blog.