New Website

That's right! Finally, after what seems likes years of thinking of an idea, creating a mockup, recreating a mockup, recreating a mockup, and repeating that about seven times... I have a portfolio website. It's built on a Concrete5 CMS and displays all of my creative work, including websites, photography, design, and more. Check it out if you have time and leave me some feedback... thanks!

Alex's Senior Photos

Well this is quite embarrassing. It has been quite a while since my last post. I would rant and rave about how busy I have been... but aren't we all? Regardless of the reason, I'm back and I am planning to make posting more of a habit. Starting with this one.

Recently I was asked to shoot some photos for my cousin Alex, a high school senior. The shots were taken at Elmwood Park and the Old Market in Omaha, Nebraska. Below are some of the best, along with some personal tips.

Most of these photos, including this one, are shot with a super-inexpensive Nikkor 50mm f/1.8 lens. They cost just over $100 (available here) and come in handy all the time. The lens is fixed, which requires you to be quick on your feet, but it performs wonderfully in low light and gives awesome control of depth of field (notice the blurred bricks/clear subject). I LOVE this lens.

This "yearbook" shot was actually taken outside in a park with a white bed sheet held up as a backdrop. Photoshop allowed me to add a simple texture and slight grey tint. Not too bad!

Downtown in most cities can make awesome and FREE backdrops for photoshoots. Even the sides of buildings serve as appropriate backdrops, especially with a high aperture (this shot at f/2.4) to blur the background a bit.

I like to look for natural "frames" in my photos. Here, the vines and brick ledge created that frame to draw the viewer to Alex.

Another example of a simple building and street becoming a nice setting for a photo. I liked the texture of the brick here.

'71 Cuda

I've never gotten so much attention in a car. After at least 30 waves, ten honks, and a few "sweet car!"s my boss from the internship David and I made it to the photo shoot location in downtown Omaha. These were taken at the old Union Pacific station, now converted to the Durham Western Heritage Museum. A prime spot for photos (minus the dust/gravel) if I do say so myself... check it! Big props to David for the restoration of this 1971 Cuda.

Website in the Works

As part of my internship at iGroup Studios, I'm learning the ropes to designing and developing simple websites. I went into the internship strong in Photoshop but knew nothing about Dreamweaver or any coding.

Two weeks ago I started learning HTML, CSS, Cold Fusion, and adding a little JavaScript. Since then, we've been working on some websites together for General Mills, Suze Orman of CNBC, a few Omaha businesses, and iGroup Studios itself. In the down time, I've been building my personal site. It's very basic and simple, but that's how I want it at this point. I'm still working on it and deciding how to lay things out, but check it out!

Tyra and Matt

Last Saturday topped out at 103 degrees. It also happened to be my second wedding photography job. An outdoor wedding, at that!

Luckily Tyra and Matt provided plenty of bottled waters and better cold beverages for the older crowd, and the night turned out to be a complete success! After a nice, small wedding on the dock at Walnut Creek lake, we returned to the family's backyard for dinner and dancing.

Here are my favorites!

Jetta Shoot

Had some time to kill during a nice evening so I decided to go get some new shots of the Jet (as if I need them...). Here are 3 of the best! Enjoy.

883 and a 50cc

Gas prices suck... Especially when your spoiled German car requires Premium. If there is one positive that comes from the high prices, it's getting to have some fun with the friends' gas-savers. One buddy went high class... a Harley 883. Another went more realistic with an old Puch moped. Equally cool in their own ways... you be the judge. Here's from a photoshoot just around the 4th of July.

The Stalker

I feel like this is worthy of its own post. My dog is the most photogenic thing I know...

College World Series

Holy cow. It's been over a month since I've thrown and thing up here. Needless to say, it has been an insane summer. Between working full time, taking an online class, filming two weddings, editing the video, and still trying to find some time for fun with friends... well... let's just say a few typos in this post are expected. Anyway. I finally have found some time to post up some of the latest creations.

Here are some from this year's College World Series at the new TD Ameritrade Park. I was lucky enough to go to 5 games (thanks to some generous friends) and finally took the camera to the championship series. Here's what I came up with!

Panoramics: 4 images stitched together.

I'll make big prints for a small fee!

The flyover

Necessary?

2 Days 'til Summer!

Ah! Only two days and one final left here at Northwest Missouri State! I apologize for the lack of posts. Haven't had the chance to do many new photoshoots but that should change this summer!

In May, I will start as an intern at iGroup Studios, a website design company near my home in Papillion, Nebraska. I'm extremely excited to get full-time experience with all things web-based. I'm sure this internship will open doors and I'll be sure to post updates here as I go.

I'm also scheduled to photograph at least one wedding and capture and create videos at two this summer. I promise to add that content/samples here once they happen!

For now, wish me luck on the last final and it's back to studying. Peace!

Sydney's 1-Year

Ah yes! My first return customer! My first real, non-family "client" came back for some more shots of the adorable Sydney as she turned 1 year old last month. This was an indoor shoot, and a major thanks goes out to the loaner of the beautiful and BRIGHT living room! I love the light, and it certainly made her eyes look awesome.

Definitely looking forward to taking more photos like this, so if you or someone you know need something similar, hit me up! Thanks, all!

Those eyes...

First Wedding Shoot

I apologize for the delay, but I'm going to go ahead and blame it on the abusers of the Northwest Missouri State network that make uploading pictures to Blogger painfully slow. Yes you, XBOX Live gamers and others bandwidth-stealers. Back home for the weekend = two new posts!

Anyway, here are the pictures from my first wedding shoot from about a month ago. The low light in the pub where the small wedding took place created a new challenge: get bright pictures without blinding the bride with flash. Between my f/1.8 and fairly new Nikon Speedlight I've come up with these and a ton more. Have a look and please tell me what you think! Thanks!

Flippin' Out Video Contest

Last week, a residence hall at Northwest Missouri State posted a video contest to promote using our library's Flip video cameras. We were a little upset that they weren't the HD Flip cameras, but we put together a 60 second video about trying to park on campus. And here's the winning video! Enjoy!

Car Shoot

I've always had a fascination with cars. Had a few hours today to go out and shoot some photos of my friend John's Mazda MX-5. The sky was overcast, but overall I'm happy with the results. Enjoy!

Tip: For smooth rolling shots, set the shutter to 1/(speed of car). In these we were going about 60 mph, so the shutter speed was 1/60th of a second.

Film Festival!

Over winter break, Northwest held it's annual "Frostbite Film Festival." This year's challenge was to take the audio from a Top 10 movie from 2010 and dub it over another movie of our choice! I chose to mix Sherlock Holmes audio with Despicable Me video. Here's the finished product. Enjoy!

Second Semester Update

Well, it's been a long time since I've posted anything so here's what's new. Started second semester studying Interactive Digital Media at Northwest Missouri State University. I'm trying to keep the photography business going in the middle of studying biology and history (bore me).

I'm working more with indoor shots now after recently adding a Nikon external flash to my camera gear! I'm excited to learn more about shooting indoors and am currently working on lining up some indoor shooting to add to my portfolio and experience. With the FREEZING weather outside, now is the time to get indoor portraits! I'm taking prices way down since this is still a learning stage for me, so jump on it to get some quality, inexpensive portraits. As always, I don't expect any pay for something that doesn't turn out how you want it! Enough advertising. Gotta throw that in there. ;)

I've also got a few wedding jobs lined up this summer! Two for videography and one photography. This, too, is something new for me, so I'm excited to learn more about that whole process. I'll post as soon as I have some examples to show!

Anyway, can't go out without at least posting a picture, so here is my recently edited Facebook layout. Figured I'd take advantage of the new layout!

Fall Freelance Photography

Fall means perfect light, colors, and weather for awesome portrait photography! Here are some of my favorites from the past few months! Please contact me if you are interested in some portraits of your own before the snow falls!

My cousin's son, Sawyer.

My girlfriend, Jill.

Classic climbing Sawyer.

Almost posing!

Nolan

Nolan ready to toss some leaves.

Nolan enjoying fall.

Sydnee enjoying the leaves.

Nolan

9-month old Sydnee