Coffee Monster - Photo Contest

Earlier this month my sister Sarah approached me with an idea she had for a photo contest the The Barista Guild of America is holding. This guild is holding a barista camp in Wisconsin to teach up-and-coming baristas some of the finer points of coffee (including latte art!) as well as offer differing levels of certification for baristas. Whoever wins the contest gets a free ride to barista camp, which is something Sarah has wanted to do for quite some time now.  

We missed the deadline for the contest that is running right now, but she plans on entering the next contest they will be holding in October for the same camp in California.

To enter, you simply submit a photo with a caption that explains why you love the craft of being a barista. To win, you get the most votes for your photo.

This is the final image Sarah will be submitting later this year:

 Sarah, crafting the coffee monster

Lighting the coffee monster on his own backdrop we made with construction paper 

Trying to match the lighting scenarios, we put the green blanket behind the subjects so that
they would blend into the darker background a little easier in the final composite.

The editing process... lots of masking! 

And once again, the final image

I'll write another update when voting time comes around in October, with links and all so we can all help Sarah get to barista camp!

Indy - The Creepy Man

Some of you may remember a series of some of the architecture in Indianapolis I did last year. Well, the same company has asked for more this year! I really enjoy this project and have liked working with this client.

Today I'm finishing most of the images I shot a few weeks ago. As usual, I'm checking my pre-sharpen at 100% (wouldn't my teachers be proud?). It's not very often that I'm creeped out by a photo a few weeks after I took it. This is one of those times.

I'll probably post the rest of the series sometime this week.

Assisting the Master

Today I got the chance to assist my good friend and teacher, Rob Curfman. For as long as I can remember, Mr. Curfman has taken the Harbour Shores cast photo for Behold the Lamb. I can remember him shooting all the way in the back row of the auditorium when I was 12 years old. Now, 10 years later, I was in that back row with him myself, learning the ropes from the master. 

All he needed was a White Lighting and a 50mm on his Canon 5D. The goal was to use the tungsten overheads as key and the White Lighting as fill for the shadows, which ended up being just about a two and a half stops above what we metered for the overheads. Any white balance issues would be corrected in post, since the overheads were about 5500 K and the White Lighting is 3200 K. I'll get the chance to edit one of the images for practice next week, so I might post an update about the particulars then. For now, I'm still running off of the energy Curfman generally lives life with and inspired by his perspective.

Tamron 10-24mm - New Lens!

So my new lens came in the mail today! I got it because the widest lens I had was an 18mm and was not wide enough for the interiors I have needed to shoot lately. These are just a few test shots I took this evening just after I got it out of the box. I used the previous widest angle I had, a 18-55mm Canon kit lens to the new 10-24mm Tamron. Both are set to the widest angle for all the comparisons (18mm and 10mm respectively).

The last three shots all show the difference of how much landscape is captured by the lens

 This begins to show us what the lens distortion does to the proportions of an otherwise straight-barrel of the lens. 
The 18mm already has quite a bit of lens distortion to it, but the 10mm definitely exaggerates things.

Nothing shows just how much lens distortion warps proportion like the human face does.

That's it for now. I know I'll learn it's strengths and get to know it much better in the future. Maybe I'll even give you an update about it later when I have a little more experience with it under my belt. We shall see.

Ned & Sarah - Wedding Shower

The Flecks threw a shower for the happy couple! This was actually my first time setting up a photo booth for an event like this. As they say, there's a first time for everything and this was pretty fun.

Filmonaut XII - Atomic Bowling

Megan with Shari, owner at Midwest Coffee Company

a photo from Lou Gerig of Bacca and I at the inauguration

Mr. Millikan can never seem to keep his eyes open long enough for a photo...

a little wilderness hike that took me to a few fun places

my first film panorama!

awesome old letters at the restraunt above atomic bowling

an even older duckpin bowling alley on the 3rd floor

atomic bowling in the basement

a dapper young man named Ryan