red sky snowy night

The other night, it finally started to snow like it was winter.  The great big, fat, wet flakes that just stick to everything and refreshes the grey landscape.  It really has been a dull winter (weather wise that is) for photography, so this was a welcome sight...so much so that I was shooting away out the window and on the balcony in my pajamas before I even noticed that my wife went to bed.

Yes, that red/orange sky is natural, it is all the artificial light bouncing around off the snow, kinda freaky and cool at the same time.

The next morning, I wanted to "call in sick" but I knew that the snow was only going to last a couple hours...and really it was a little flat for photography.  A little sunlight would have done a ton to shape the snow and add shadows so that it was more than just a blanket of white.  And while your at it, a great big blue sky (with dark clouds for good measure) would have created a background that is different from the snow so we wouldn't have white on white...but it was still magical.

Technical note: remember to play with Exposure Compensation (push to the + side for more light) to brighten the snow and really make it white like it should be.  To be honest, I was really disappointing when I got these images into the computer.  I was groaning because it didn't look like this to my eyes outside.  It had so much more depth and detail in the whites, I am guessing it is because my eyes can see so much better in the highlights than the camera.  Like I said already, shadows from direct sunlight and a sky with color and/or texture would have really made these images pop, and maybe look like how my eyes were seeing the scene.

greek conference 2012

Greek Conference in Indianapolis was the other weekend, and other than photographing the conference, I also helped with the promotional material, setup the sound system, shot video for the summary video edited by Eric Holmer...




...and created a video story that was integrated into the overall  program (one of 2)



Lets just say that I was glad to sleep for the following 3 days (almost) strait.

Greek Conference is always an amazing event to observe, both from a cultural perspective (I was not in a fraternity) as well as a spiritual one.  Thanks for letting me have such a part.

Thankfully I was not the only photographer there, so i was free to capture video.  And in the process I have to suffer seeing images of what I look like when I work.

greek conference 2012 setup - time lapse

Over the weekend I photographed InterVarsity's Greek Conference in Indianapolis.  After I helped setup the confrerence's main hall, my main role was to photograph the event.  Here are 4,700 of the 6,800 images I took.



more to come...

flying over snow

Over the weekend, I was given another opportunity to fly with Heath (first opportunity here.) This time it was over a snowy landscape that completely changed how the ground looked; the recent snowfall had covered everything with a fresh white blanket.

Normally, the lines created by farmland, and differences in soil, break up the landscape but with everything the same color and texture it was easier to notice the subtle rise and fall in topography.  Therefore, I found myself just as interested in the abstract patterns in shadows as I was with looking for recognizable landmarks and trying to capture the essence of the world from above.

In all it was another glorious day for flying.

And, yes Heath, you were right…the queasiness is easier to handle the second time around.

Thanks again!

snow landscapes

This past weekend finally brought snow to Wisconsin worth paying attention to.  Therefore, I ventured out for a drive to try and find some photos.  I was pretty disappointed with the lack of sunlight but there were some great landscape features that look very different in a light snowfall.  (It almost felt like fog.)

Photography like this can be quite fun (if you stay warm) when you look for interesting textures, lines and patterns. (Kirsten, this photo below is when you passed me on the road.)

For the above photos, I decided on just driving out of town, since the 5 degree weather (and -10 wind chill) was a little much.  The next day the weather was a balmy 15 degrees, so I ventured a hike to Parfey’s Glen; a recently re-opened "canyon" that was washed out a couple years ago.  I think I will defiantly need to head back there in the spring.

Technical thought process:

Photographically, snow can be hard to capture right.  The white of the snow and the dark of the rocks are at opposite ends of the dynamic range of the camera.  This is made harder in overcast conditions actually, because it takes away all shadows that can reveal the texture of the snow.  With no shadows it is just a mass of white.  I was very careful not to under expose the snow too, the camera may not like it but I wanted that to be almost pure white.

For the driving around shots up top, I had the opposite problem.  When shooting in the fog (or light falling snow in this case) with a long lens, I am looking through a lot of moisture in the air so everything actually becomes very flat.  Sure, I can expose the snow to be white, but the trees will look like they are light grey instead of dark.  To "fix" this, I needed to really play with the contrast by using the custom curves option in Light Room in order to see the difference.

Like everything, photography takes doing and experimenting.

uw hockey

Over the weekend, Sarah and I were invited to fill some empty box seats at a UW Men's Hockey Game.  Not only was the game fun and the seats great but the company was definitely worth the price of free.  UW winning was an added bonus for me, but the die-hard fans would probably only judge the evening by that single fact.  Thanks Britton (that's the back of his head there in the first pick.)

If I ever go to a hockey game to shoot the event, I think I want seats right behind whatever piece of glass gets pounded the most...but you can't beat the seats we had for overall enjoyment of the game.

water drops on window

First images of 2012 turned out better than I anticipated, things like this make me see the value of a macro lens even more.

Window condensation looking towards pre-sunrise blue sky: