Truly Magical

Golden Hour

     This previous weekend I was able to experiment with taking pictures during "Magic Hour" or "Golden Hour", i.e. the time leading up to sunset.  I was pleasantly surprised by the results of a pre-wedding session with the bride and groom I did on Sunday.  The window of time is fairly small but the potential to take great photographs is huge, starting just more than an hour before the sun disappears below the horizon.

     As you may notice above, I took the opportunity to get a great lens flare and in this particular case, a good reflection of the Sun also.  I will admit I did have trouble at first because I tried to take pictures of the couple with the Sun behind them.  This method seems possible and creative but I think I will need more equipment set up for this, as the faces were dark and the proper off-camera flash setup would easily fix the problem.  However, once I realized I should use the Sun as the primary light source I was amazed.  The Sun was still high and bright so it illuminated the subjects very well and my on-camera strobe helped slightly also.

     I will most definitely keep Golden Hour in mind the next time I book a photography session.  Also, I look forward to trying a few other ideas, I noticed that during this time, the Sun casts interesting shadows through trees, and as it begins to move lower in the sky it could create dramatic shadows on faces.  Just before sunset it is said that the sky becomes a rich shade of blue and I have noticed the area surrounding the sun takes on a pink and orange hue.  While processing the photos I learned the rumors are true and I believe there does seem to be something truly magical happening at the end of every day.

Alyssa & Adrian

Scott Kelby Worldwide Photowalk 2009

Last Saturday I was fortunate enough to be a part of the Scott Kelby Worldwide Photowalk here in Oklahoma City.  It was held downtown by a local photographer named Robert Trawick. I attended a photography class he taught at a local camera store, Baker Photo Video and I enjoyed it alot.  Soon after I began following him on twitter @trawickimages and this is how I learned about the photowalk.  Many photographers showed up and there were models stationed around the route.  I was able to get some great shots of the models as well as the amazing skyscrapers downtown.  Overall I had a great time at the photowalk, I even enabled device updates and received tweets from Robert during the walk so I was able to see what was happening at the other locations.  I really enjoy what Robert has to offer, he seems to be diving in head first into this new media era.  I suggest photographers follow him on twitter and he just started posting mini podcasts about photography marketing.  Here are a few shots I got on Saturday.

Shots from Deadwing Concert

Pics with 14-54mm f2.8

New Lens!

I have spent the last few weeks trying to decide which lens I should buy first and finally I made a choice.  I stopped by my local camera shop to see what they had in stock.  Apparently Olympus fourthirds isn't a very popular format in my city.  After some haggling I was able to get them to let me have the only lens in stock for an awesome price.  The lens I bought was a Zuiko Digital 14-54mm f2.8-3.5 I.  So far I really like it, a very good replacement for the kit lens.  It is huge compared to the 14-42mm that came with my Olympus E-520.  The new lens feels very durable and well built.  I'll post some test shots as soon as I can, but for now here are a few pics of the lens I took with my Canon Powershot SD1000.  More pictures in Gallery.