Halloween Costume photo shoot

update: mass email has been sent to utd students. Expect large turn out.

Friday the 30th, starting at 7:30PM at the Art Barn. Hosted by one of UTD's photography professors. It happens to coincide with a new gallery opening.
There will also be a costume contest with prizes.

Peace of Mind

I've always worried about leaving my photography equipment in the car or unattended just for a brief moment (example: during wedding jobs). It's a rough world we live in today and it never hurts to be safe, especially when you have thousands of dollars worth of equipment laying around. I've read countless stories about photographers getting their camera stolen. There was even a guy who left their camera in their trunk for a few minutes while he went to the restroom at a gas station, and his car got broken into in broad daylight. Apparently this happens a lot. So i searched the internet and found this:



It is a stainless steel mesh that gives you the ability to lock and leave your belongings. It is designed to cover and protect a variety of bags and packs from tampering, pilfering and theft. I actually bought one myself, because it's better safe than sorry. Pacsafe also has camera shoulder bags and camera straps that can be locked as well. The default strap that comes with cameras usually has the camera brand and type in big bold letters on the strap. You don't want to advertise your camera to potential theives! Sorry to sound like an infomercial, but I think this is useful equipment. You can find this at http://www.pacsafe.com/

Off campus photo shoot planning

update 10/22: based on the interest I am seeing, the Dallas Arboretum will be our upcoming photo shoot this November. Let me hear a pricing for tickets and I'll let everyone know. We'll plan to do this on one of the weekends of November if possible.


Leave a comment if you are interested in having an off campus photo shoot during the month of November. Additional suggestions welcome.
Choices:
1) Dallas Arboretum
2) Fort Worth Botanical Garden, and/or Japanese Garden
3) Mandalay Canal Area at Las Colinas, TX (property use license and map)

The Photographer's Game

In concept development. A fast action game that is built on the mechanics of photography, can be educational too.
Critique and ask questions.

Next meet on Thursday the 22nd

update 10/27: some shots from Ryan.

Thursday 1:30PM to 2:30PM, Meet up at the art barn.
Talk, discuss, meet other members for the first five to ten minutes, then
move onto campus and scout out location. Call 214 718 2387 if you can't find us during this time.

Photo Shoot This Wednesday 10/14/09!

You know the drill. We're meeting and leaving at 1PM in the Art Barn (Visual Arts Building) and headed to the campus for a shoot. It should be a nice warm sunny day.

See you there!
Ryan

No lighting equipment this week

I probably won't be able to attend this week's meetup and provide the usual lighting equipment. I am trying to push my animation piece into its final stages. That's not to say there won't be a meeting. Perhaps one of our members can schedule a day, time and location.

Product Review:

Ryan's review on his Canon 7D here.

Tennis shoot from tuesday

1/250th @ f11 ISO 100
4 Flashes at 1/2 power all around
Jpeged from camera/ no post

Will have another shoot of this when some clouds roll in. More here.

Jerry Uelsmann and Maggie Taylor speaking at Richland

Über famous photographers, Jerry Uelsmann and Maggie Taylor, will be speaking at Richland College on Oct. 1 at 7 pm (Fannin Hall). Free to attend.

http://www.pegasusnews.com/news/2009/sep/09/richland-college-welcome-photographers-jerry-uelsm/

small shoot Tuesday afternoon and Wednesday meetup

A gathering Tuesday from 2pm to 3pm for a particular project to help Nguyen, one of our photographers, with his concept. Here are the images to go off as preliminary ideas: one and two
Meetup at the UTD Tennis Court. I will be spending that hour to make Nguyen's concept sucessful.
I'm thinking fast-action for this project, and I hope some clouds will cut the ambient lighting.

There will be another meetup Wednesday too. 1 to 2:30PM. Meet up at the art barn/visual arts building first, then we will disperse. Get in our network through facebook, add me if you haven't. 214 718 2387 if can't find us on-location.

Also, if you want lighting demonstrations or want to spend more time familiarizing yourself with flash equipment, let me know. We can meet sometime within 1PM till 4PM Tuesdays and Thursdays. I teach faster with individuals or small groups.

Sept 23 '09

I figured I would put up some of the shots I did of Alex to demonstrate unconventional use of light. Most of it was just Alex grabbing the light and putting it right next to his face. The light had a softbox so Alex didnt burn his face

Two different photos of Alex but same basic light set up. One has less post work done than the other. top photo is f 8.0 and bottom is f 13.0 both are 1/125th second at 200 ISO

Photos of Sirak one of our models for the day. Both are F 9.0, 1/125th second and ISO 200

Wednesday Shoot

First off thank you to all the photographers and models that came out today! I think we had something like 20+ people which was great. Look for more posts to follow in the coming days of from other photographers and their shots. Here are my shots.

Here we all are setting up for our first outdoor location.

First up we have Kelly (top picture) who was gracious enough to model for us. I'm really glad I lugged my 70-200mm F/2.8 around all day, it was well worth it! As you can see with a longer lens and wider aperture, you can achieve some real separation of your subject from the background, especially outdoors. Most of the following were shot with 3 flashes. Two in front and one behind the tree for rim lighting. The flashes varied in power from 1/4 - 1/16 power.

200mm - F/4 - 1/160


130mm - f/5.6 - 1/160


200mm - f/4 - 1/160


Black and white of the top picture.
110mm - f/3.5 - 1/160

Next, we moved out to the large area in between Johnson and Green for our next location, a concrete jungle. Thanks to Hubert, we realized that at this point, we had more than 6 flashes and enough trigger/receivers that we could run two setups at the same time. So Mark, Hubert, Alex, Dan, and I split up for same crazy poverty wizard (ebay triggers) triggering with three flashes. Results are below. Also below are some off the wall, jump shots and some kicks. (I'd love to see what other people got too).

Let's see how close we can get the flash to Alex's face without burning him. Mark has the pictures!

Where's Jessica off to in such a hurry?


Sirak

They look weightless.


Mark, you're in the way! (Happy Birthday Cuong!)


Also look for us on an upcoming UTD TV episode.

I must say, you two (Alex and Jessica) have some crazy moves!

Alex


Jessica, that doesn't even look physically possible.

Please C&C (comment and critique) in the comments below! I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Happy shooting, see you all next week, same time same place! Don't forget to bring your friends)!
Ryan

Used photo equipment this weekend

A large supply of used camera equipment for sale here. September 26 and 27.
http://www.donsphotoequipment.com/
Alex and I went to the previous one. I don't have any plans to buy camera gear right now so I probably won't be going this weekend.

Subjects Needed for Our Next Shoot!

Our next shoot will be Wednesday, September 23 at 1:00 PM till about 2:30PM . We will meet in the Visual Arts Building (Art Barn) and will head out to a location from there. After the torrential rains last week, the weather is looking nice!

We are looking for other students of UTD to be the subjects of our shoot. No experience is needed. Whether you have 15 minutes or 60 minutes, we'd love to photograph you for some outdoor portraits or on-location portraits of you in your element. It would be greatly appreciated if you could post in the comments or email Long (lpn071000@utdallas.edu) if you are coming. This service will also be ongoing, contact us if you need to schedule a particular date.

This would be a perfect chance for you to get some free professional pictures for your personal websites.

Here are some examples of what we do. Check out the rest of the blog for more examples.

Hope to see you there!
We will also have flyers around to promote our service.

edit to add:
Students preparing for their industries will figure out ways to promote themselves and their services to a client/employer. Everyone, particularly ATEC students, will want a photo of themselves for their "about me" or "bio" pages of their personal websites - this gives employers a better understanding of who you are. Utdphoto wants to show the best of you by giving you the look you need to impress those employers and recruiters. ~Long Nguyen

Playing with strobes (Wed 9/16/2009)

Thanks Long, for a great introduction to lighting. Waiting anxiously for our next shoot. Some shots - Cut and paste ?? .....Not really ;)





- Ady

Fun Gear

So rainy season is here and you don't want your camera wet, right? Behold! The Popabrella! It's an umbrella for your camera, haha. You can find the product here at X-tremeGeek.com. Another alternative is to buy a rain jacket.


Have you always wanted to take a candid shot of someone or something without them noticing? Make your candid shots so much more so with the right-angle mirror scope. It mounts to the filter ring of your camera lens using a thread adapter (sold separately) and realigns the view path 90 degrees to the side. Aim your camera innocently in one direction and you'll capture images from your immediate right or left. You can find the product here at X-tremeGeek.com.

There is a problem with opening pictures from blogspot - it will not allow users to go "back", return to the previous page.
I'll look into this. Linking images externally do not have this problem, however.

Group Shot

I thought this was the best shot I took of the day. I learned a lot about lighting. Thanks Long. This is without any work done in PhotoShop.
Some adjustments to the levels and curves in the picture all done in PhotoShop.

-Jessica

New members!

My assignment for after the rain. Close up shot on the flower 1/60s f8






Jessica posing on spirit rock.



extra lighting on her.

so far things turn out well for today, new members came and we learned new things. nothing exciting yet, I'm going to start posting videos of what we do next time. if longs allows it.