It was surprisingly hard to pick a firstholiday photo for the blog. I finally decided yesterday. Here it is, the simple star atop our tree. It's just a clean, elegant symbol. The photo isn't that great, but I like it anyway. It just makes me feel good... Hopeful.

It's also my new computer desktop wallpaper.

As a test, I ordered a portfolio album from an online printer Viovio. The site was a little convoluted to navigate, but I made my way without too much trouble. It took a little more than an hour to put the photos in the order, including the time to prep the images. Then I waited three weeks for it to arrive in the mail.

The final album is reasonable for the price, however a couple of the photos weren't quite right. They aren't terrible, but I could never sell them to clients. It's too bad it's not nice enough to be a product I can offer. I will still be showing it to couples as a portfolio, so it's not a complete waste.

I did this about 6 months ago, but since I just started the blog, it would still be interesting to write about.

I have made a prototype Ring Light. A ring light is intended to eliminate or minimize all the shadows on a persons face. Ideally that would best be served by an even light coming from a circle around the
lens of the camera. That is quite difficult and extremely expensive to do. Real ring flashes generally start at around $600. One fall back that people have built, is a ring shaped light mount. That is exactly what I have done. It is still
a rough prototype of sorts but it is fully functional.

It is about 2.5 feet in diameter, has ten standard light sockets, each one with it's own switch. It makes a very unique catch light in the subjects eyes. They look like 10 little points in a circle. It actually highlights and draws attention to a person's eye's, as well as creating a very flattering, even, shadowless light.

Unfortunately for the moment, it only works with black and white photos. The lights I bought for it (GE Reveal) have a very strange tint, and it is very difficult to get the right color balance. I'm will have to try some other bulbs in the future.

Thursday I had a portrait session with a new young model Daneila Velez. She is beautiful, the sunset at Waryas Park was magical, the heavens were in alignment, and everything went perfectly. In total the session took about 45 minutes to shoot and 3 hours of post production. It surprised me how smooth and easy things go when everything works the way it's supposed to.

I will absolutely be working with her again. She is also into Parkour (foot chase at the start of 007: Casino Royale). So we both want to try and get some cool shots of that. Will have to wait until the spring for those.

Hey everybody! This is the first post of my new Photo Blog!

This weekend was busy. I had 2 weddings, Friday and Saturday. Weddings are rough. They require a lot of energy. Two in a row double the challenge. I am getting used to more busy weekends. I was a bit sluggish on Sunday, but my energy is back to normal today. I Did a first pass processing all the images, and will try to finish them tomorrow.

Once again, I have two more weddings this weekend. It's either feast or famine I'm told.