Breakfast

From the months of November through about March, our kitchen is filled beautiful warm sunlight each morning. Lucy's seat is positioned in such a way that the sunlit wall across from her serves as a great reflector.

Getting her to concentrate on eating... now that's another story.

New Gear

I stopped by Tempe Camera this past week to pick up some gear since we're shooting JJ's next music video tomorrow. While there, I purchased a bracket to mount my of camera flash (580EX Speedlight - mine's an older model) and an umbrella to a light stand (which I already own). 

Ever since I was in college I've wanted gear to help shoot with diffused light, but I have the savings to spend over $1,500 for the lights/stands/diffusers that I wanted. Since I already had the Speedlight and a way to trigger it, the total cost of this purchase came to about $50 ($25 for the umbrella and $25 for the mounting bracket). Needless to say, I'm kicking myself for not picking this gear up sooner.

Here are a few test photos that I shot last night. Nothing earth shattering, but an easy one-light setup in the living room. JJ was spending some quality time with her iPhone, and wasn't expecting a photo-shoot, but she was a good sport.

Welcome

I majored in photojournalism when I was in college from the fall of 1998 through the spring of 2003. We were still shooting film and using the dark-room when I started school, and discussions often would center on whether digital photography actually had the potential to ever achieve the quality of film. I can't remember the last time I shot with my film gear, but I still keep it in my closet just in case this "digital photography trend" ever goes away.

I spent some time last night I fondly reflecting on the moments of anticipation as I eagerly wished the second-hand to tick away a little faster while waiting for my film to process in the sometimes crowded (and sometimes desolate) photo lab in Dwight Bentel Hall at San Jose State University. In these days of instant gratification, it's funny to think that I used to work several assignments throughout the course of a day without the ability to admire (or delete) my images on the back of my camera. After a long day of shooting, there was some real magic in that first look at my negatives. I'm not too interested in going back to that kind of technology, but it's fun to remember. 

Here're a few images from the college (pre-internship) portfolio. These were shot on my Nikon F-3 and N90-S (film cameras) and scanned into the computer on the "high-tech" film scanners that the San Jose Mercury News donated to the photojournalism program just after the paper made the switch all-digital gear. 

As an undergrad I aspired to be a "sports shooter."

  

I gradually grew to appreciate life-style and portrait photography.

I've recently been inspired to revisit my passion for photography, and I figured in order to motivate myself to keep shooting, I needed a place to "publish" my more recent images. I'm sure most of them will be of my wife and daughter (like this of them playing hide and seek during a trip to New York this past Thanksgiving).

I'm looking forward to many more posts and many more images. Here we go!