May 21st, 2009
Well, I know I’m supposed to update SCG on Fridays, but I’ve been so slack about updating recently that I decided putting out an update one day early is probably a good thing, especially when it’s already about 6 or 7 weeks late…
This shoot was done in early March, with Mianna Nicole (aka Mia). She was a lot of fun to work with, very easygoing girl. I think it was a pretty good shoot, although I wasn’t as happy with it as with some of my others. I think I was a bit off my feed for some reason - not enough to really notice and be able to compensate, but enough to skew the results ever so slightly.
Here’s a 3/4 shot that isn’t in this album:
Mia
And a headshot, likewise not in the SCG post:
Mia
The full SCG album, is available at http://www.sweet-carolina-girls.com/mia.php.
Posted in Model shoots | No Comments »
May 20th, 2009
So it’s been almost a month since I last posted… I’ve been rather busy in that month, and not always in a good way. Not necessarily bad, just too much of the work-a-day world and not enough time for my personal interests. Hopefully that will change soon and I’ll be back to a saner work/life balance.
I meant to bring the Pentax to campus today to wander around at lunch, but I was still feeling groggy when I left for the bus and forgot to take it along. I did manage to get the film developed and scanned from the last time it came to campus, though, and some of the images look really nice.
I started my walkabout as I usually do, by coming up through the Hospitals employee parking deck and then through the med school to Columbia. Here’s a shot of the old trailer that was torn down to make room for the new Imaging Research building that they’re getting ready to start on:
Trailer A goes away
This was taken from the glass-enclosed pedestrian bridge, so you can see a bit of reflection from the glass.
This shot was taken from the corner of Columbia and South. The sign says it’s the ROTC Armory, but the building is the Fred Brroks addition to Sitterson, the computer science building. The armory is the building peeking out of the right edge of the image.
Fred P Brooks Building
I’ve got more available, but I’ll post them later. For now, I need to get back to the day job.
Posted in Day job, college campuses, film | No Comments »
April 18th, 2009
Had a shoot with Rebecca Lawrence today - I’ve worked with her before, and she’s got to be one of the most experienced models I’ve ever been able to work with. Both times I shot with her, I felt like my game suddenly got elevated to the next level, which given the way I usually improve slowly and incrementally is highly unusual. We did a little bit of standing portraiture and some lingerie, then we went out to Jordan Lake for some outdoor shots. What we ended up with are some of the best images I’ve taken to date, even before the cropping and color correcting that will undoubtedly be needed. I was shooting both digital and film outdoors - 50mm f/1.4 Nikkor on the D70 digital, and a 75mm f/2.8 on the Pentax medium format. The film was 400 speed Tri-X Pan from Kodak, most of my outdoor frames are f/16 at a shutter speed of 1/500 or 1/250 sec. The digitals are mostly wider aperture, roughly the same shutter speed, but at a 200 speed setting.
I have a shoot tomorrow with Angelique Kithos, and I’m going to try to take her to the same spot - the water was about 75 degrees and there was barely a cloud in the sky all day. Gorgeous weather for sightseeing, but tomorrow should have scattered clouds, which is even more ideal for photography than clear skies. Next weekend I’m going to relax and not do any shooting, since I’m kind of swamped between work, class and shoots right now; I need the downtime. I also need to get off my tookus and prep the next SCG update - I’m about a week and a half behind already, but in all honesty, shooting and getting classwork (and homework) done is a higher priority.
In other news, next week (starting Monday, two days from now), I start trying to bike in to work as often as possible - I’ve been meaning to do that for two weeks now and either my schedule or the weather ha gotten in my way, but it looks like Monday will be perfect to start that habit.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have some film that’s begging me to put it on a spool and soak it in some chemicals. 
Posted in Model shoots, film | No Comments »
April 5th, 2009
Shot with Leigh Skye today - great model, fun to work with. We did some “standard” poses in front of a background, some lingerie work, then went out to get some outdoor shots at Andersen Park in Carrboro and out at the Haw River along 54 in the Burlington / Mebane area. My “ghetto” lighting is having issues - mostly with batter life in the strobes, I think - I’m giving serious thought to when I’ll be able to replace the ghetto strobes with real strobes, which I wasn’t initially planning on doing for another two to three years. Mostly because the strobes I want are going to be ${TEXAS}… but, with luck, I’ll be able to afford them sooner.
Fortunately, outdoor lighting is still just as good, and we got some really ncie (IMHO) shots, especially since today was so awesomely gorgeous. Clear blue sky, wispy clouds softening the shadows just enough… I couldn’t have asked for better conditions.
I’ll be adding her gallery to SCG in a few weeks, but in the meantime here’s a sneak preview.
Bridge Over Untroubled Water
Looking through my current portfolio, it seems to be very slanted towards blondes… I’m supposed to be shooting with a brunette the 18th of this month, and again with a different brunette that same weekend, so that will give me some variety, but I definitely need more variety in my portfolio.
I’ve now got two C-41 rolls to scan (just developed them earlier this evening), and then fice 320TXP and one 400TX roll to develop. The first three 320TXP rolls are from my lunch walkabout on campus, the remaining three rolls are from today’s shoot. Fortunately, the kitchen is relatively clear so developing shouldn’t take too long. I don’t have to cook the B&W chems the way I do the C-41, so there’s not nearly as much prep time, which is the main thing that was making me procrastinate on the C-41.
Posted in Model shoots, weather | No Comments »
April 5th, 2009
I’ve got a shoot at 1pm today, so in the meantime I figured I’d try to get Daisy’s film scanned, since it’s been hanging up “drying” for three days now. I think it’s dry by now… As I suspected, the first 12 exposures or so were completely unrecoverable - *severely* underexposed when shot, mostly because I hadn’t been paying as close attention to the camera settings as I should have. Fortunately, I realized this halfway through the roll and was able to make adjustments. This was the first shoot I did with my “new” lighting setup, and I was (and still am) thoroughly impressed with how much better the images look versus my old way. Honestly, I still prefer daylight, but for some images, shooting outdoors is just no kosher (IMHO). Here’s a sample from the recent scans, untouched by Photoshop:
Southern Comfort Times Two
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April 4th, 2009
Finally got the last of Kristen’s film scanned. The indoor images are way off-balance, so I only scanned four or five of them total - matter of fact, I left an entire roll unscanned because of it. I just didn’t have my shit together on lighting when I did that shoot, and it showed. The outdoor shots were great - natural lighting is awesome - the indoor shots on film ended up the next best thing to complete crap. I’m so glad I’ve gotten my shit together since then… also, the fact that I’m only using B&W film anymore really helps. I’ve got a roll of Daisy’s to scan, and then two rolls of Stephanie’s to develop and scan - all C-41 - then three rolls of 320TXP from my lunch walkabout on campus a week or two ago. Feel free to take a look at the new images at the end of Kristen’s full album (all images in that album untouched by Photoshop so don’t whine about the temperature or color distribution wonkiness).
Posted in Model shoots, film | No Comments »
April 4th, 2009
The good: the car is now ready for the shoot tomorrow - just washed it inside and out, vacuumed, even wiped down the console. It’s what I call “date-ready”. The bad is that I don’t have a date - just the shoot tomorrow, which is most definitely not the same thing. Overall, it just balances out, ’cause it’s nice that the car looks good. The pollen was starting to build up a bit and the windshield needed a good going-over, on both sides.
I do have to apologize to the world for driving with the top up on day like this, though - unfortunately, I had to leave the top up to dry. 
Posted in thoughts, weather | No Comments »
April 4th, 2009
Just got the first film shipment I bought on eBay - 21 rolls of 400 ISO Tri-X B&W 120 film. Can’t wait to start putting it through the camera!
Posted in film | 2 Comments »
April 3rd, 2009
Yes, it’s another night that I’m not sleeping - I woke up early this morning, didn’t nap when I got home, put in a full day at work, and yet I’m wide awake at 1:15 am. Well, at this point I suppose I should say yesterday morning, since today is tomorrow already.
I’ve got a lot going through my mind right now, which is probably a large part of why I’m imitating an insomniac - most of it things that can’t easily be broadcast. Heck, can’t easily be put into words - just random thoughts, walks down random future history paths… following the lines between the worlds of if.
I’ve always been introspective - it comes with my introverted nature, I think - and sometimes it comes out with a vengeance. This has been one of the weeks it’s come out to play. I can never figure out why it triggers, or what makes it go away, except in very rare very specialized situations. Maybe this is part of the reason I do photography - it’s a release of tension that I may not be aware of, or maybe a way of working out tension. Maybe it’s just a way of distracting my conscious mind while my unconscious works on a thorny issue. It seems to be, because I’ve always had the urge to drag the camera out and burn through film when I drop into these moods.
With luck, my new film should get here soon - I ordered two sets of film from eBay (won at auction, actually) - all B&W film. 320TXP, I think, though I’ll get reminded when I get the film, of course. I’ve also got two more rolls hanging up to dry, and have finished scanning one of the rolls I developed last night.
I think I need to try to get to sleep now, so I’ll leave you with a sample scan from the film I developed last night. This is from my shoot with Kristen Fesnak about a year ago (yes, it took my sad, sorry lazy butt that long to get around to developing the film).
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April 1st, 2009
Well, this is an absolutely ridiculous time for me to be posting. I should be asleep. I tried to go to sleep about 2 hours ago and couldn’t. I thought I was tired… I felt tired… now I just feel kind of blah.
Unfortunately, I haven’t had any time to develop and scan in my film backlog, so it’s still sitting there, looking at me, making me feel guilty for procrastinating. I really want to get those recent UNC images scanned, too! Gah… I’ll have to try and do this tomorrow - or at least start on it - I think once I manage to get myself started, I’ll be able to finish it up fairly rapidly. 6 rolls of C41 to process, three rolls of 320TXP.
In the meantime, I thought I’d pull out an old black and white scan of campus - this taken on Kodak Tmax 400 film in a Nikon N80QD with a 50mm f/1.2 lens set at about f/2, if I recall correctly.
The Pit
This is a view of the Pit and Student Stores circa 2004 as seen from an area between Lenior Dining Hall and Greenlaw Hall.
Posted in college campuses, film | No Comments »