Julia stopped by for another portrait session. I had a solid idea of what I wanted to do, but then realized I needed more lighting gear that I had. So we went another route and I think it still came together. A little food coloring, some shot glasses, a great yellow shirt. Check it out.

I’ve decided that it is what the Matrix would have been like if everyone had been on drugs… correction… if everyone had been on different drugs.

If you are a frequent reader of CityBeat, you’ll notice that we have a weekly “Diner” feature. This feature is basically an in-depth review of local restaurant. You’ll also notice that this feature is RARELY accompanied by a photograph of food. This seems counter-intuitive, but for the sake of “not doing what everyone else does,” we choose a different approach and focus on the enviroment. The argument about what is more important or even the validity of focusing on costemtics is a debate for another day. But it does force you to look beyond what you normally would. It can be especially hard if you’re visiting the restaurant when it’s not super busy. This shot is from Dee Felice in Mainstrasse, a neighborhood in Kentucky.

I shot some engagement pictures for a cousin of Jen’s and his fiancé last weekend. They were really laid back about everything and we had perfect weather. They basically live next door to a lake. These awesome yellow flowers were blooming, the sky was pretty good. I think the shots turned out nice. I hope they like them.

I used a strobe in an umbrella off to the left to get this shot. I’ve been reading up on the whole “one light” idea in photography, which says you don’t need a bunch of fancy studio strobes or three-light setups to get good light. I don’t know if I like this idea because it’s smart or because it’s easy and basically what I’ve been doing for the past five years. (I looked at my portrait portfolio and every shot was made using one light.)

Before we headed to the lake, they were playing with their dog who thinks bubbles are evil and must be destroyed. Frankly, the bubbles didn’t stand a chance.

So Jen actually got to walk in Great Strides this year. The fundraiser benefits the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation which is an awesome charity. If you feel compelled to donate, click here. The organizers of the event know of Jen’s story and chose her to cut the ribbon to start off the event. It was extra emotional since her lung transplant now allows her walk enough to participate in the fundraiser. Here are some shots.

And they’re off…

Jack was tired after the walk.

So my niece came up to my mother’s house for Mother’s Day and as usual they were unwittingly subjected to photographic experiments. This time I was testing Kodak UC100. UC stands for ULTRA color. Kodak classifies their color films as NC, VC and UC (neutral, vivid and ultra). I loaded it into my Rollei 35 and did some shooting. I wanted to utilize the latitude of the film because I figured at ISO 100 the latitude should rock. And because I was shooting with my scale focusing Rollei, I knew that I would be able to do test the resolution or clarity. (I’m lucky to get things in focus and I usually stop way down anyway. So to experiment with the latitude (or in techy, non-film speak “dynamic range”), I shot photos where the background was bright and the subject was a little dark. I have to say that this film does a STELLAR job and the fact the the color were actually ULTRA was an added bonus. There was a little magenta shift is some cases (typical Kodak), so this film would probably be unusable in pinhole camera unless the magenta is what you’re after.  Anyway, hope you enjoy the shots.

Julia stopped by for another shoot yesterday. She had a jilted bride idea that she wanted to try out. I used one light and placed it in a book shelf facing the wall. I further funneled it with some books. I was working with a really small pool of light, but I still had some spill when shooting through the fabric of the dress.

I also finally got around to getting some film from our first shoot developed. I shot 120 black and white with my Zeiss folder. I posted about the camera earlier, but it has a hazy lens that really screws some pictures up. In color the foggy look is really bad, but in a high contrast situation with black and white film, it did a pretty good job. We waited too long, so the sun was already down, but if it was up it might have made the hazy look worse. I don’t have anything firm scheduled in terms of an upcoming shoot, but I’ll be doing some more pinhole shoots this weekend I think.