Land Rover

Looks like an ad for Land Rover, but I shot this in a matter of a minute last night while camping up in the hills with friends. They have this sweet Land Rover Discovery with lights galore on it! Chad was kicking up dust for me in the background while the wind ripped up a hill behind us. Worked out perfectly! :)

A "Pet Peeve" from Blaine Franger

I just posted this note to my Facebook account, thought I would post it on my blog too.

I've been thinking lately about a new pet peeve of mine. When folks say "Wow the photos turned out great!" or even worse "Wow your camera takes great photos!"
I always wanna respond the following (but usually just grin and say thanks)
"Actually, it's the photographer who takes the photo, and not the camera.... and the photos didn't just happen to "turn out" great, but rather, they are great because of dozens (maybe even hundreds) of small and large decisions I made before, during, and after the shutter was clicked."

A few examples- moving the subjects in shade rather than sun, or the opposite, moving them into the sun rather than shade - adjusting the angle of the face for the lighting - choosing the ideal combo of shutter speed, aperture, and ISO for every single image - choosing whether to shoot in Manual, Aperture priority, Shutter Priority - white balance - selecting interesting & non distracting backgrounds - choosing auto focus or manual focus mode, and if autofocus, what mode depending on movement of subjects, and what focus point in the frame to use - lens choice, wide angle? normal? telephoto? - zoom lens with 2.8 aperture or prime lens with 1.2 aperture? - over expose? normal expose? under expose? bracket expose? - low angle? normal angle? high angle? - interacting with and engaging the subjects for genuine and fun expressions - lens cap on or off? (that was a joke, haha, ha...... ha... ok lame joke).....

Those are just a few of the things that run through a photographers mind before & during the image making process, and don't even get me started on POST PRODUCTION!!!! So, next time you see wonderful images and want to compliment the photographer, remember they don't just go POOF and turn out well.... and the camera did not take the photos, the photographer did, so say something like "Wow, I can't imagine all the things going through your mind while making those images, you really know how to do it well, I applaud your image making abilities! Now that would be music to every photographers ears.... haha!! Anyone who said that to me I think I'd give them a 75% discount on the fee! Not really, but it would make my day. :)

Another pet peeve of mine- is the term Pet Peeve. How stupid is that term! It sounds so lame. We need to invent another name for it.

Ok enough said.... comments welcome from all, especially from the fellow photographers. :)

Blaine Franger
http://www.blainefranger.com/blog/
http://www.blaineandbethany.com/

California Street and Bay Bridge - San Francisco, California

Serious talent!

I snapped this in Maryland a few weeks ago... thats what I call some serious talent!!!

Another week in the Hood

Wow, what a week! Bethany and I photographed 3 amazing weddings in 3 days (July 3,4,5) and another super fun engagement session today for a couple that's getting married on Saturday at Gorge Crest. I'm really in for it this month with editing... we still have 3 more weddings to shoot this month, one being in San Francisco, all while still trying to paint and move into our new house which we haven't even slept in yet. Ahhh good times.

Sometimes I have to take a little break (at 4AM) from the craziness and work on a few fine art photos for a change. That is exactly what I'm doing now....

Anyway the pic below I shot on Sunday July 5th as the sun was setting, just a couple minutes before the bride and groom left their beautiful wedding at Mt. Hood Organic Farms.

We were blessed with absolutely incredible weather all weekend with Sunday being the best! Anyway right after I shot the photo above I ran up a little hillside with my tripod because I could see the weather changing so fast and new Mt. Hood would be all lit up! I'm glad I did.... I stayed in that spot for about 45 minutes and shot till it was dark. Here are just a few of the shots I picked out. As you can see the light and clouds were changing rapidly!

This is a panorama consisting of 12 different shots stitched together. Printed out fullsize it would be many hundreds of inches wide.... so being 750 pixels wide on my blog doesn't quite do it justice, but whatever. :)

Ok 4:21AM and the sky is getting light.... time to brush my teeth and go to bed. Goodnightmorning.