St. Louis Arch

I was in St. Louis two weeks ago visiting my son and speaking to a class at Washington University on entrepreneurship. We did a bit of sightseeing and went to the Arch. It's a challenge to photograph an iconic monument in a unique way - a quick search on Flickr will reveal over 83,000 photos of the arch that people have bothered to tag.

I'm happy with what I was able to get. These are four of the ~140 shots I took - including views from the top that never seem to work as well as really being there.

These first two are abstacts based on the curve of the arch. Most people who shoot similar angles tend not to turn them 'sideways.'

This third photo is a typical angle, but I like the contrast between the sides of the arch, the sky and clouds. Thank you polarizing filter.

In this final image I teased the arch, hiding behind the trees rather than laying it out there.

NAMM 2011 Photos

The annual pilgrimage to NAMM has passed on by, my favorite pix have been up on Flickr for a couple weeks, and now finally the website gets them.

It was especially fun noticing Alan Parsons on the exhibit floor selling his new "Art & Science of Sound Recording" DVD set. If you want to meet real Guitar Gods and other Rock Heroes, NAMM is a great place to do it, but it usually involves standing in long autograph lines in one of their sponsors' booths. If you wanted to meet Alan, a simple "hi" worked well; he was selling his own product and was happy to talk about it without the long line.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="500" caption="This photographer looked like a pro, so I paid attention to what he was doing. After he was done I took a quick shot from the same position - Yikes! Alan Parsons staring right over Alan Parsons' head. I hope that isn't what he was really planning."][/caption]

There isn't too much that's more fun than Barenaked Ladies in concert, and they did a long set in the Taylor Guitars suite. Taylor consistently provides a great show with a mix of established and new talent in their suite. The room only holds a few hundred people standing so it feels intimate even if you're in the back of the room. And where else can you noodle around on some of the world's best guitars in between sets?

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="500" caption="A couple of Ladies having a great time on stage."][/caption]

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="500" caption="Kevin Hearn of Barenaked Ladies"][/caption]

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="333" caption="Ed Robertson of Barenaked Ladies"][/caption]

I blogged about Night Ranger last year, and they delivered again in 2011. I'll admit that I didn't miss the Nuge sitting in with them for a Damn Yankees set.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="500" caption="Jack and Joel of Night Ranger"][/caption]

This is a band that still rocks hard. They are all lead singers and incredible musicians. But nothing says Rock 'n' Roll like knowing how to fling your hair, and Joel Hoekstra is a master.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="500" caption="If you're going to shred, use your head."][/caption]

New Softbox

Kevin posed for me on Christmas as I was trying out my new 28" Westcott Apollo softbox. There are four pictures from the series up on Flickr, I included two here.

In the first one, above, I tried something new with the cropping. I used a square aspect ratio, and put Kevin's right eye in the center of the screen. The rule of thirds came into play, though, as the bright portion of his face fills the center third of the image, with darkness in the outside thirds. This combination puts his face off center but the balance feels right.

Black and white conversion was done in Lightroom 3.

Shane

Shane

I tried out a Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L USM lens from borrowlenses.com. It's a beautiful lens, but a bit big and heavy for what I need.

This was shot at f/2.8 zoomed to 70mm. My Speedlight is low on a light stand to the right with a warming gel on it.

Shane, now 12 1/2, isn't as good a model as he used to be. He's incredibly patient in his advanced years, but doesn't take direction quite so well - I really don't think he cares any more.

Happy Holidays - From My Droid to Yours

My Android snowman, from Dead Zebra. Yea!

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