Tracing Light Photography

TSC President’s Forum - Boca Raton

Administrator — Mon, 26 May 2008 03:43:42 +0000

I was the photographer at The Seed Company President’s Forum in Boca Raton, FL last weekend. Here are some highlights from the event.

See the photos.

Nick Family Portraits

Administrator — Wed, 26 Dec 2007 19:18:17 +0000

After many attempts at working out a time to take a Christmas portrait for the Nicks, we managed to quickly take some photos after church last week. I am pleased with how they came out. Thanks to my brother Andy for holding the reflector, and Katie for helping pose them.

See the photos.

Hilltop Renewal Center

Administrator — Sat, 22 Dec 2007 21:42:24 +0000

I took photos of the Hilltop Renewal Center in Idyllwild.

See the photos.

Torrey Alumni Theatre: Pride and Prejudice

Administrator — Tue, 11 Sep 2007 05:33:45 +0000

Photos from Torrey Alumni Theatre’s performance of Pride and Prejudice.

See the photos.

TSC Portraits

Administrator — Mon, 06 Aug 2007 15:09:19 +0000

Last week The Seed Company hired me to do some portraits to go along with the theme of their next newsletter: Using Investment in Scripture to Disciple Children. Tanya had some specific ideas of the kinds of portraits she wanted, but the logistics of getting some appropriate models proved to be difficult. Fortunately it all worked out Saturday afternoon for a small window of time.

The house where we did the photo shoot had soft window light, and white ceilings — which meant that a bit of bounce flash off the ceiling was all I needed for soft light. If I had more time, I could have gotten a bit more fancy with the lighting to give more contrast, or some back lighting, but time was very limited. I didn’t use most of the extra lighting gear that I brought (thanks anyway, Jeff). This shoot reminded me (or, rather, forced me) to try the simplest setup first: look first for natural light, and beyond that try the simplest strobe setup first (in this case bouncing with flash on-camera using ETTL). I metered for ambient light, and did a bit of flash exposure compensation when needed. It would have been interesting to see what I could have done with multiple strobes; I think I could have achieved some more dynamic lighting, which may have been more interesting, but at the same time more distracting? Not sure.

See the photos. Perhaps one of my many avid readers has a comment.

Brendon & Lisa’s Wedding

Administrator — Sun, 25 Mar 2007 22:22:11 +0000

The Jones wedding was my first time shooting as the primary photographer for a wedding. It was also my first time shooting formal portraits of larger groups. There were plenty of challenges, and a lot that I could have done better, but overall I feel good about the photos.

The biggest challenge was the harsh sunlight which I had to deal with for the portraits, and also during the ceremony and reception (the wedding was outdoors and started at 1pm). For the portraits we didn’t have enough time to go elsewhere, and there wasn’t much shade in the yard. This meant that I had to create shade, either with my diffuser, or (in the case of the larger group shots) two large patio umbrellas. I ended up using reflectors instead of flash for most of the portraits, which I think worked out well. I had one 40″ reflector/diffuser, and one 22″ (thanks, Josh!). I could have used a bigger diffuser. Fortunately, I had some helpful people who were willing to hold the diffusers and reflectors (thanks, Mike). I’m eager to try this out more in the future for portraits.

The distracting background was another issue that I couldn’t do much about, since there wasn’t much room to back up and get less depth of field behind the subjects.

I have included here some of my favorite shots from the wedding: See the photos.

Clint & Ingrid Engagement Photos

Administrator — Mon, 23 Oct 2006 16:23:50 +0000

Yesterday I took some portraits of Clint & Ingrid after church. We didn’t have much time, so we just took them outside on the church grounds. See the photos.

Rainforest Trek

Administrator — Fri, 08 Sep 2006 16:40:45 +0000

My wife and I just got back from a two-week trek through the rainforest in a very remote part of Southeast Asia. I have collected a few photos that show a bit about what life is like for these inland Sera people. See the photos.

FOCUS: My Photoblog

Administrator — Mon, 03 Jul 2006 18:03:01 +0000

I recently started a “photoblog” as part of Tracing Light. It’s a place for me to share a single photo at a time, in some sort of regular fashion. In addition, it’s a place for you to interact with me and others on the site by leaving comments related to any photo. I welcome any feedback you have, whether it’s a technical critique, a simple reaction to the photo, or anything else. So head on over there and check it out:

FOCUS Photoblog

Another Set of Wheatstone Photos

Administrator — Mon, 03 Jul 2006 17:46:06 +0000

I have uploaded another small set of photos from Epic Monday:

Epic Monday Second Set