Trust is a great thing.

This was one of my all time favorite sessions I’ve had because of that reason. These guys trusted everything I threw their way. They know it was my job to make them look good. I think trust goes both ways too. I trusted that they would work with what ever I threw their way and they’d just work it. Plus I trusted that they’d look as fantastic in the camera as they do outside of it.

On our way to the first location I told them that the pressure is on me when I have great looking clients, because if something goes wrong and the pictures don’t look fantastic, I don’t have any excuses. I didn’t have any excuses. Danielle mentioned that she didn’t feel terribly comfortable in front of the camera. Never has there been a person who had less reason to be uncomfortable getting photos taken. Danielle has a perfect face for photos. No offense to Cory—he can hold his own (he’s family, what am I supposed to say?), but Danielle is stunning. Fortunately, trust came in to play and 5 minutes in, they forgot about the camera and did what they do best—look good.

One of the reasons for the wedding dress shots was that they made the cardinal mistake of hiring somebody they weren’t in love with as their wedding photographer. To all of you future brides reading this, take heed. The pictures suffered because of it and they ended up with wedding photos that they don’t really enjoy. The only solution was to get the photos after the fact—I’m glad they entrusted me with that. Because of it, I took some of my favorite photos I’ve ever shot.

This also technically counts as a “Trash the Dress” session. Notice they didn’t really ruin the dress, they just made the photos the priority rather than keeping the dress immaculate.

After covering my camera—and feet in ocean water and sand (you can tell my camera is wet in the left side of photo #5. See the softness around her dress—wet lens. Also you can see the fog/rain in the atmosphere behind Cory’s head) we headed back so they could change and take some head shots before heading out to the bridge. We only got to shoot a few minutes since the rain started coming down and my lights kind of frown on that.

I hope you enjoy looking at these as much as I enjoyed making them. Cory & Danielle, You guys freaking rocked it. I’m glad I had the chance to work with you.

Thanks to Gina for her help carrying lights and holding them down so they didn’t blow away on this wet & windy day.

Last Saturday I was down at the Finch Arboretum for a family portrait session (I’m still working on those photos and they’ll be up as soon as I’m finished with them). Due to the beautiful Fall colors the Finch was packed with people. The title of this blog is more than just a title, it really is my philosophy. As much as I enjoy taking pictures, I really feel at my best when I can find people who are willing to step in front of the lens.

So for an hour or so after my portrait session I wandered around and asked to make portraits of people. The weather was just about perfect for photography—bright and overcast with some cloud definition. Here are a handful of the photos I took. Many, many thanks to my willing subjects who were all a lot of fun and allow me to do what I love.

The reason that this is part 1 is I have a couple more family shoots at the Finch this coming Saturday, and if time (and weather) allows, I hope to be able to run around like a crazy person, meet more people, and get some great portraits.

I’m adding an iPhone photo I took of my shoe. Sometimes when I’m shooting I completely forget where I am. You know, like standing precariously on the edge of a stream. Inevitably, all it takes to get the perfect shot is one more step, so I take it and end up with a shoe full of mud. It happens—frequently.

I’m also including a TTV (through the viewfinder) photo I took at the end of the portraits. To see more about TTV photos click here.

Click the thumbnails to see the full photos.

A few weeks back we traveled to Enterprise, a tiny town in the NE corner of Oregon for a family reunion. My sister in law, Jaqui (herself a great photographer) has been wanting to have her own ‘trash the dress’ (TTD) photoshoot and we figured we’d find some spots to take pictures while we were there.

A trash the dress shoot is a great concept that stems from monogamy and the idea that you’ll only need your dress once so you might as well get your full use out of it. Brides spend all this money on a beautiful gown only to wear it once then retire it to a closet never to be enjoyed again. The TTD idea lets the couple get a little more use out of the gown than the traditional idea of bagging it up and storing it in the closet. Of course, the dress doesn’t have to be ruined, but no worries if it gets a little dirty (dry cleaning will take out just about everything anyway).

Travis & Jaqui are the best people in the world. I always say that each of them are the only people good enough for each other. Our girls idolize each of them and love to see their aunt and uncle. Of course we had a blast taking the pictures and those two are naturals in front of the camera.  In my oh so humble opinion, I think the photos turned out to be quite special.

Have a look by clicking on the thumbnails below.

P.S. Do you have a wedding gown languishing in a closet? Do you want to get some more use out of it? If so, Let’s schedule a time for your own TTD photoshoot.

I’ve been a slacker about posting my iPhone photos. While I’ve been staying incredibly busy with my big cameras I still keep my iPhone at the ready for things that look interesting. Here are some that I’ve been holding on to.

Click to view larger and uncropped…

I was over in Seattle to photograph a wedding a few weeks ago and the day after the wedding was the Scott Kelby Worldwide Photowalk. It’s an annual event wherein photographers the world over (900 locations) meetup and take pictures. I, along with my brother and sister in law, signed up for the walk that took place along the waterfront in Seattle.

Secondary to the sense of community that comes from such an event (as well as an excuse to get out and take pictures with the sole purpose of making art) is the fact that it’s also a contest. One winner s selected from each walk by its leader and that photo is submitted to the international contest. There are ten prizes awarded as well as one ridiculous grand prize.

I was lucky enough to have my photo chosen as the winner of our walk. It’s an unexpected honor because there were so many great photos submitted. I’m really not expecting anything beyond this (overall winners are announced Aug. 17th) because of the sheer number of entries—fingers crossed, though.

In case anyone’s curious, here’s how this photo came about.

We (my wife, my brother, and his wife) were wrapping up shooting and walking down to where the rest of the group was eating and I was straggling behind looking for things that looked interesting and I saw this wall and called to them to come back. My main idea was to try backlighting the wall and see what I could get. So I laid the flash behind the wall and pointed it up at the wall to give a nice gradient (there were a couple of times where people asked if I forgot about the flash because it was just laying there). I took some pics of my wife shaking her hair but they were blurry because I only had the one flash and had to rely on the ambient light/slow shutter to light her. There were a few interesting silhouettes but nothing outstanding.

Then my brother and his wife were done shooting and I gave their flash to my wife to hold up (high, camera left against the wall for dramatic lighting) and had the 2 of them stand up there and pose. To minimize the perspective problems caused by the wide angle lens I held the camera as high as I could and used the live view tilt screen to compose the shot. Click. By this time, with both of the flashes going off, a small crowd gathered and was watching and discussing the “professional photo shoot,” so (like I usually do when shooting in public) I grabbed a family that was watching and had them stand up there and took their picture. I then handed them a business card and they emailed me so I sent them a copy of their portrait.

My favorite part of the photo is the fact that it looks like it has a border that was added in Photoshop. But if you look where the subjects legs leave the photo, you can see that the “frame” is actually on the wall behind them. Also, the graphical nature of the photo is pleasing to the graphic designer side of my brain.

It was a lot of fun & I’m already looking forward to next year’s photowalk.

Click to see the winning photo as well as some of the other shots I took…

Click here to read part 1 where I discuss why I take pictures with my iPhone.

I get a lot of questions from people about my iPhone photos. Specifically, how do I get a certain effect or what apps did I use.

Here are the apps that I use to create my art and I’ll go through each of them and explain how i use them and what they do.

Pre Step 1: Camera (free)

I use the built-in camera app to take all of the original shots. Most of the photo apps allow you to capture the image with their app, but because I use so many apps and I’m not really sure which ones I’ll use on a particular image, I use the original camera app. I also trust it a bit more because it’s developed by Apple and they’d be in the best position to utilize wach of the camera’s features.

Step 1: Photogene ($2.99)

This is the MVP app. It’s basically a stripped down photoshop on your iPhone. Nearly every iPhone photo I post sees this app. This is my go to app for exposure adjustments, rotation/alignment fixing, cropping, contrast, saturation/desaturation, color temp adjustments, and simple borders. It also  has a vignetting feature that I’ll use on some images but there’s another app that does a better job on images with a lot of white in it. This app also offers sharpening but I rarely use it because it will introduce noise in to the image.

This app’s job is to get the photo as close to perfect as it can, so I can take it to another app for adding effects. The exception here is the border. I like to have that be the last step if I decide to use one so any vignetting or blurring won’t creep into the border.

Step 2: iRetouch ($.99)

I rarely use this app. It has numerous features, but when I do use it, it’s for the clone tool. It’s similar to Photoshop’s clone tool except that it’s tough to be precise while using your finger on the tiny screen. It does come in handy for those rare times when there’s a power line ruining an otherwise great photo.

Step 3: TiltShift ($1.99)

This is the sexiest of all the apps. It’s job is add selective focus to images. This app had some problems when it was first released, but updates have turned it into a monster. The blur comes by way of gradient, either linear or radial, the size of which is completely adjustable. The amount of blur as well as the type (gaussian or lens—the answer is always lens) are adjustable. It also offers blooming for specular highlights but it’s not terribly realistic so I just turn it off. The only thing I’d add to this app is the ability to adjust the gradient’s strength or the rate at which the mask turns from solid to transparent. Other than that, it’s perfect.

It’s so perfect that I have to restrain myself from using it on every image. Like all effects, it works best in moderation.

Step 4: Cool FX (Currently on sale for $.99)

Cool FX is an app developed by Tiffen. They are a market leader in camera filters as well as photoshop plugins. Naturally their iPhone app is very nicely done. This app offers a number of adjustable color and Black & white filters as well as the ability to add textures & grain to a photo. Once in a while I’ll use the color filters but mostly I use the vignetting which is a little hidden in the app. To use it you need to first select the basic color filter then adjust the brightness and amount down to zero. Then touch the little vignette button on the bottom middle of the screen. From there you can adjust the amount & softness of the vignette. It’s a very natural vignette, especially when compared to the vignettes I’ve found in other apps.

I just downloaded Cool FX’s cousin, Photo FX ($2.99). The main reason I got this app was for the Infrared black & white. It also has a nice vignette even though it works a little different than Cool FX’s version. It remains to be seen whether this app will be used much.

Step 4: CameraBag ($1.99)

CameraBag is the one stop shopping version of the photo apps. Rather than picking and choosing which filters to apply, it creates a simulated camera or film version in one click. This seems to be a favorite app of the master, Chase Jarvis. It’s quick, easy, and very well done.

The effects it offers are toy camera, magazine style, cinema style, mono, 1974, 1962, infrared, the ever popular polaroid, and the black sheep of the family, the horrid fisheye.

I’d say the styles I use most frequently are the holga, magazine, & cinema. For a while I stopped using this one because, due to the threats of lawsuits, they put the thick border on the sides. The polaroid filter was just changed back to the original style where the white border is thicker at the bottom so I can see myself using it once again.

Final Step: Mobile Photos ($2.99)

I use this app to upload my photos to my Flickr account. It works well and does exactly what I need it to. I’m able to add tags and place it in specific sets. In addition to uploading with this app it does a nice job of allowing me to browse Flickr.

Its own step: Pano ($2.99)

This is the only app that forces you to capture the original image with itself. This app allows you to create panoramas in the iphone. It stitches the photo live by giving you guides when taking the next photo. It works both in landscape and portrait modes.

I haven’t been able to get this one to work with the 3Gs yet. The larger resolution of the new iPhone locks up the camera after creating the panorama. The developer says it’s Apple’s issue and they’re working on a solution together. I sure hope so because this is a really nice app that works well.

Addendum: Other Tips

Macro: Before getting the new iPhone 3Gs which allows me to focus closely, I had to use a photo loupe by holding it up to the iPhone’s lens and taking the picture. It takes some practice but was worth the effort. Now that the new iPhone’s camera has macro capabilities, I don’t really use this too much.

Sizing: I try to keep the photos at a small size even though many apps will increase the photo’s resolution.

Why no zoom app? Since it’s not an optical zoom, all it’s really doing is cropping the photo and I already have apps that will do that for me.

Let me know in the comments if you have any questions about my methods as well as adding any other tips you find useful. If you have any iPhone apps you find useful that I didn’t mention here, please share. I’m always on the lookout for something new that will better my ability to create great images (especially if it’s an app that allows me to sync up a couple of off camera flashes).

A few months back I was sent a link to the website of commercial photographer, Chase Jarvis. I looked at his gallery of photos and I was in awe. Beautiful image after beautiful image. It was so easy to attribute the quality of his photos to his immense collection of gear. In other words, “I could take that photo if I had 8 Profoto lights and a collection of Nikon D3xs and as many top pro lenses as I could fit in my car. Add to that a team of assistants and companies willing to basically write a blank check for a budget and I could turn out those shots as well” But that doesn’t work here.

I found his iPhone gallery.

Gone was the excuse of the best equipment makes the best images. He was creating inspiring art on a piece of equipment that we both shared, the iPhone. A low quality 2 megapixel camera with infinite focus and no flash—basically a kid’s toy camera. Not only that, but the photos never see photoshop. Any edits are done in camera using iPhone apps from the iTunes App Store (more on this later).

Seeing these photos taught me that it’s more about having the eye/mind of a photographer than it is about having the equipment of a photographer. Granted, the iPhone has it’s limitations—lots of limitations. There’s no way to print a decent sized print without seeing pixels and low light photography is nearly impossible.

Jarvis’ reason for using the iPhone as a medium of capturing art is, “The best camera is the one that’s with you.” This makes sense to me because there have been numerous times that I thought, “That would make a great photo. If only I had my camera.” All the while my iPhone was sitting in my pocket.

The most important thing that’s happened to me as a photographer while performing this iPhone experiment was that it has taught me to keep my eyes open. To always be looking for things that are visually interesting. To always be ready to be inspired. To always be an artist. I don’t know how many of the iPhone photos I’ve posted would be in existence without undertaking this challenge; oh yes I do—none.

Not even the photo of the car on fire would have been captured. Even though taking a picture is the obvious action, I wouldn’t have had my iPhone’s camera at the ready. There simply wouldn’t have been time to get it out and get the shot while driving on the Interstate.

Another thing it’s done is force me from time to time to create a photo. There have been several times when I hit the end of the day and didn’t have anything interesting so I had to force myself to make an interesting photo. The magnet photo is a good example of this.

Hopefully you enjoy my photos as much as I do. I must thank Chase Jarvis for inspiring me to take this on and I’d like to offer the challenge to those of you who have an iPhone, or whatever you might want to use, to force yourself to create art. Even if it’s not every day, always be on the lookout for inspiration—it’s everywhere. You will be the better for it. Because it’s not about the tool, it’s about the artist.

See my iPhone photo collection here.

Check out Part 2 tomorrow, where I’ll discuss my process for creating the photos.

Generally I’m a perfectionist when it comes to photography. I need to have low noise, a perfect exposure, precise depth of field, extra sharp focus, balanced composition, and true color.

Sometimes though, it’s nice to switch it up.

These were still taken with my Olympus DSLR and macro lens but the photo I took was looking down at the viewfinder of my 1950s Kodak Duaflex II camera (Through the Viewfinder or TTV photography) that I bought on eBay for $1. There’s something to be said for a photo that’s imperfect in the right ways. There is extreme blurring and imperfect vignetting around the edges. The color is a little off. There are specs of who knows what in the middle of the photo and lots around the corners. Sometimes it’s tough to get the horizon line straight. Yet, with all of those things, a beautiful picture is still possible.

Art isn’t necessarily about perfection . It’s about a feeling or moment. And that can be a lot easier to catch with TTV photos. Sure I can take any perfect photo and muck it up in Photoshop. Add a border, give it some dust and texture, desaturate the colors, blur the edges. And at times I’ll do any of those things to a picture. Still, there is a certain sterility to those images. But there is something to be said for the unpredictability that can come from changing things up.

It can be tricky to get things just right on these pictures because I’m holding and trying to line up 2 cameras with a cardboard tube between them and attempting to compose the shot backwards (the viewfinder shows the image in the lens backwards). But I really like these so I’m sure I’ll get better every time I drag out the Kodak.

Click the thumbnails to see larger.

Here are photos from a series of 6 HDRs (High Dynamic Range) photos taken over a span of 2 evenings. The river has been very active so I wanted to capture that as well as try out some long exposure techniques.

The mist-like water in some of these photos comes from the longer exposures (5-20 seconds) and is so extreme because the water is flowing so fast.

I’m not a huge fan of HDR in general mostly because of the halos and artifacting that show up when it’s used too strongly, but when it’s used subtly I think itcan be very nice to look at. When HDR photography is used correctly it more closely mimics our own eye because our eye has the ability to adjust very quickly to various amounts of light, but when taking a traditional photo there is no adjustment. When you click the shutter, that’s it. HDR images are done using various images of varying exposures allowing detail to be seen in the shadows as well as the highlights.

Photos 1–3 were done with Photomatix. 4–6 were done with LR/Enfuse.

Click the images to view them larger.