New in The Preserve at Haile

This house has just been listed. It was built in 2000 by Tommy Waters and is located on a gorgoius 2+ acree lot in The Preserve, Haile Plantation. You can find the tour I did here. The shoot was in the afternoon - the sun was overhead and the lighting was harsh producing lots of contrast, more dynamic range than my camera could handle and I hate loosing detail in the shadows and high lights - there is where HDR and contrast blending, when done right, can save the day and produce really wonderful, nature looking image.

Jacksonville street mural

I shot this last week in downtown Jacksonville while combing the streets with the School of Rad. Since we had a model cancel last minute, one of our fellow photographers agreed to dress as a bride. So we had a bride, the Gothic model from the preview post, and a string of photographers in tow, walkin’ the streets of Jacksonville at night. It was an interesting scene.

This pic was shot with 2 SB800’s, one with a grid pointed at the mural and the other camera left with a lightsphere - both triggered by an SU-800 on top of my D3. With Nikons awesome speed light system, I was able to set this up fast, on the fly, and adjust my flash outputs from my camera until I got the exposure perfect - I believe I made some Canon users very envious. ISO was at 500, 50mm prime lens at f1.8 and a 50 sec. shutter.

School of Rad day two

School or Rad day two.

What fun….! Krystal went through raw processing, retouching, sharpening techniques and how to make your images pop. Matt gave a great presentation on Designing albums. These guys have the most amazing wedding albums I’ve ever seen. Simply stunning!

That night we went down town Jacksonville to meet our model from Model Mayhem. As you can tell from my pictures, I really enjoyed photographing him and trying out different lighting setups and techniques. My creative energy was on fire despite our unusual frigid weather!

Day three we discussed marketing and had a special guest, Melissa DiStefano from MasterPiece Weddings. Her presentation was incredibly insightful AND she gave us the most amazing treat, cakecup on a stick. I had three We also had another special guest, Caroline Johnson. She give a very energetic and wonderful presentation on goal setting, branding and developing your style.  …gave me a lot to think about - good stuff!!

Thumbs up to Matt and Krystal Radlinski for a great workshop. If you are interested in photographing weddings, are a wedding photographer looking to evolve to the next level or are interested in developing lighting, posing and post processing techniques - this is a fabulous workshop!

And Happy Halloween to everyone!

School of Rad day one

Day one of The School of Rad has been a blast. The first half of the day was spent on the Fundamentals of Lighting, from reflectors to strobes. We then discussed posing strategies before having lunch and hitting the field with models in tow for some quick and dirty lighting techniques. I was really great to watch Krystal and Matt work the models - they really know their stuff.

NorthSouth Studios

I just finished this shoot for North South Studios. Elyse Osltand is an a wonderful designer with an amazing range of talent. I really like this kitchen, if feels so creamy and warm. She just called me the other day to  let me know she won 1st place in a competition with one of the homes I photographer for her - I am anxious to find out with one and will post it when I find out.

On another note, I am heading out for a workshop that I am very excited about. Although I launched my professional photography career doing Architecture and Real Estate, I have broaden my expertise and have really enjoyed learning from various sources and teachers on how to photograph people.  Although it is an art form requiring a different set of skills, when done well, it is not unlike shooting archecture in the sense that it takes vision, technical skill, and the right equipment.  With that said, I can’t emphasize enough the importance of getting educated by those that are experts in their field. Matt & Krystal Radlinski are two of those experts and they are putting on a really exciting workshop at their School of Rad

Soccer practice

There was a school soccer team looking for a photographer that can could give them something unique for their individual and team portraits. So my good friend and fellow photographer Laurel Housden and I took her son, Aide, to Hampstead Park in Hail Plantation for some practice shots. We had a great time shooting these. The sun went down fast so we had limited time but I think we got enough to show what we can do. Below is a picture of our setup - I alternated between using a softbox and homemade beauty dish for the fill light. We used 3 sb800’s - I used my su-800 on my D3 to trigger the flash units and Laurel used her pop-up flash on her D300. I’ve been using Nikons for years and am continually amazed at their Speed Light system - it ROCKS!

Gift ideas for clothing and accessories

Just finished doing knockouts for an advertising section in Home, Living in the Heart of Florida magazine’s December edition. I am looking forward to seeing how the add comes out.

WyndSong

Virtual Tour Scene (click on image below):

This is recent real estate shoot I did last week - I had to blog it because it is a very unusual home for Florida. The owner hired a master wood worker from up north to do the finish carpentry work. An amateur woodworker myself, I really appreciated the craftsmanship in this house.

Gainesville’s Big Dig

Shands offered a tour to the media of the new University of Florida Cancer Hospital that is under construction. I was there covering the event for Advantage Publishing. The hospital will have a 440 foot underground tunnel that runs under Archer road and connects the new facility to the existing Shands at UF hospital. Construction on the $388-million, 500,000 square-foot cancer hospital began in January 2007