Sunset on Little Harbor

Had a great Sunset Family Photo Shoot at Little Harbor in Ruskin. Kelly and I met with Simone, Anthony and 2 great kids, Zack & Reagan. (Hope I spelled Reagan correctly) These guys had great personalities and were just a blast to work with. We started shooting a little after 4:30 and had to work pretty fast as sunset was at 5:30.

Little Harbor is a cool little place in Ruskin on the water with a view of the St. Pete skyline in the distance. There is a little restaurant on the private beach called Sunset Grill and they ended up staying and having dinner there after the shoot. As the sun was setting we were able to capture some pretty dramatic sunset images with the help of Kelly holding the softbox with some fill flash.

Here are a few of our images.

One of the styles of Photography that I really seem to enjoy is Street Photography. Although I don't often have a chance to do it, I find it very interesting and exciting. Capturing unique looking individuals can be fun and also a bit intimidating. The question is always to ask permission to take the photo, or simply snap away paperazzi style. I've done it both ways and the more often you ask for permission, the easier it is to do. However, I do remember a specific time photographing homeless people in downtown Lakeland for a Project. I was accused of being a police officer undercover and taking pictures to turn the people in. In hindsight, I should not have done that project alone as I was quickly out numbered with my only weapon being my camera...and quick wit. :)

Longer Exposures

We had the good fortune to spend some time in upstate New York near the Catskill Mountains. Even though the I would have much preferred to see the fall colors, much rather have seen them, we settle for the greenery. As it turns out, the Catskill Mountains and the surrounding areas seem about 40 years or so past their prime.
I say this due to the many homes and businesses that were either closed up or in a condemned state.

That, however did not slow things up too much for taking photo's. Along one of the drives during a misty afternoon, Kelly and I came upon a Stony Creek. We pulled the car over as I wanted to grab some shots. I will admit that this was not the best time of day for this as I was hoping to get some shots of the river with longer exposures. 1:30 in the afternoon could not have been a worse time to shoot this scene. I had recently purchased a filter called the "Fader" which will help knock down some of the light getting into the scene, in order to gain a longer shutter speed. As it turned out, I was only able to bring a small and pretty unstable tripod with us on the trip. I had to keep jockeying for the right shutter speed for the scene and at the same time a short enough shutter speed to keep the tripod sturdy long enough to get a sharp image.

For the Color image above, the settings were; ISO 100 f/22 at 1/8 of a second.

For the Black & White image the camera settings were: ISO 100, f/29 at 1/10 of a second.

Click on the images for a larger viewing size.

Class of 2011

We had an amazing Senior Portrait Session with Amanda Curry this past weekend. We shot at my favorite location. It's a dump of an abandoned building, but makes for just the greatest backgrounds with amazing textures and light.

We used an off camera Canon Flash with a small softbox and my Rachel was the best assistant.

Rachel and the abandoned Building

I really love shooting at this abandoned Citrus Building. The contrast between the destruction, run down, dilapidated vs beauty has always appealed to me.

After purchasing my newest lens, the Canon 85mm f/1.2, this gave me the perfect combination to go along with the Canon 5D Mkii camera. The way the lens blurs the background is second to none. Shooting mostly at an aperture of 1.2 opens up the lens to its largest opening and offers the shallowest of depth of field. You have to be very careful keeping your main subject, or eyes in sharpest focus. Here are a few of the images shot with that aperture setting.