Float & Shadows - D700, 24-70mm

Poolside Greeting - D700, 24-70mm

Ansie at Tybee - D700, 24-70mm

One morning during the workshop in Savannah we went to Tybee Island to shoot. It was pretty windy that day. Here are two shots from the morning. First one is of Ansie, a lovely lady from South Africa who was gracious enough to do some posing for me under the pier. Thanks again, Ansie… Second shot is a composite self portrait using a RF remote.

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Tybee Self Portrait - D700, 24-70mm

Guitar Bob - D700, 24-70mm

While wondering around the streets and squares with Wes in Savannah we ran into “Guitar Bob”. Bob is a street musician and friend of Craig’s and has modeled for him many times. Craig’s images of Bob are always strong, powerful portraits so I was a bit hesitant to take any photos of Bob. Somehow I overcame that fear and took some photos anyway. Bob is a very gentle guy and I saw that quickly when I was shooting him. This came out better that I thought and was glad I took some images…

For you photo geeks: ISO 1600, f/10 @ 1/100 with a Singh-Ray Soft Ray filter to spread the highlights and soften the shadows. Post production in CS5 with Nik Color Efex Pro 3 using Tonal Contrast, Paper Toner and Glamour Glow. Craig said he couldn’t wait to tell Bob I used Glamour Glow on him. Maybe it’s a good thing I am no longer in Savannah???

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Eric Sommer 1 - D700, Lensbaby Sweet 35

A couple more shots of Eric Sommer shot in Savannah…I told you Eric was a fun guy.

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Eric Sommer 2 - D700, Lensbaby Sweet 35

Eric Sommer 3 - D700, Lensbaby Sweet 35

Eric Sommer, Savannah - D700, Lensbaby Sweet 35

We were in Savannah, GA last week, I was in a photo workshop with Craig Tanner from TME (The Mindful Eye Photography School) and my wife was touring Savannah and eating well. If you are passionate about photography do yourself a favor and visit Craig’s site tmelive.com you will be glad you did. Probably the best photography instructor you will ever meet and a awesome person to boot. If you can afford to do one of his workshops and they are not booked up, DO IT!

While shooting on the streets of Savannah I had the pleasure of taking a coffee break with Wes Norman, Craig’s assistant for the week. We got our coffee and sat down across from this gentleman and struck up a conversation about cameras. The guy, Eric Sommer, was a singer/guitarist on the road playing 270 dates a year. We asked if we could shoot some photos of him and worked our way outside to Chippewa Square. Eric was a very friendly guy and we had a great time taking photos. This is one of my favorites.

Great town, friendly people, good food, awesome workshop…dosen’t get any better than that for me!

Rough Summer? - D700, 24-70mm

I was wondering in a friends garden yesterday and came upon this poor guy…looks like he had a “Rough Summer”. Even though things were a little rough he seems to still manage a pleasant expression.

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Floating in Pink - D700, 70-200mm

We took a trip last week to visit my niece and see their new home. I always look forward to taking some photos of my great niece and nephew. While we were there we took a trip one afternoon to the local town beach. Hard to loose my great niece in the water with that pink float, guess what color her new room is…PINK is the word for everything. We had a great visit and got some good family shots. Here’s my great niece mugging for the camera…notice the pink polish on the nails.

Lilly Giggles - D700, 70-200

Jingles Jerr Spurs - D700, 70-200

I know, it says “Cowboy Portraits – Part 2″ and the lead image is a boot…not just any boot. This is Jingles Jerr’s boot and spur, see the attachments on the spur, yes, they do jingle…you pretty much know where Jingle’s is most of the time. He was very gracious to take some time to let me get a boot and spur image.

More portraits in the complete post here…including Jingles.

Jingles Jerr - D700, 70-200

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Coroner - D700, 70-200

There wasn’t a lot of time to take these images, the guys were shooting different stages and getting lunch between stages. Not to mention it was 87 degrees and fairly humid…doesn’t sound all that warm but trust me it felt a lot warmer than that. I had to have the lights set up and ready to go whenever the guys had some time for me…

Letort Lawman - D700, 70-200

I’m pretty sure “Letort Lawman” could get a job as an extra in western films if they were making any in the area…can’t recall any western’s shot in central PA lately…

Letort Lawman 2 - D700, 70-200

I’m voting “Letort Lawman” best model of the day…great poses!!!

Letort Lawman & Sargent Hochbauer - D700, 70-200

Morgan James - D700, 70-200

Morgan James, could be mistaken for Tuscarora Slim’s brother…at least that’s how I see it…

Sargent Hochbauer - D700, 70-200

I’ve been wanting to work on my portrait skills more lately and I got an opportunity to go to a local Cowboy Action Shooting group’s shoot this Saturday. Well the light was not the greatest, a good time to refine some lighting techniques to say the least…I tried to keep it real simple, two off camera flashes, one through a Lastolite Ezbox and the other through a translucent umbrella. I used the Ezbox as the main light and the umbrella as a fill. Positioned my subjects in some shade, or as much shade as I could find, underexposed the background by 2 stops and lit my subjects to taste.

Here’s a few more from the day’s shoot…more to come as I decide on how to process each one…

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Letort Lawman - D700, 70-200

Tuscarora Slim - D700, 70-200

Dreaming in the Clouds - D700, Lensbaby Composer

Experimenting with the Totally Rad – Dirty Pictures plug-in using some of my own textures. This is a combination of a Lensbaby Composer image of my niece and a bunch of blended texture cloud layers using Dirty Pictures. Don’t ask for the exact formula, I was just going with what felt right and did NOT write it all down…radial blurs, flipped layers, soft light and screen blending modes and a few masks just to recant some of the process. Oh yeah, through in a little Nik Color Efex Pro too…

I think I’ll just float off to dreamland for a while…