Website photography

Website Photography:
One of my most recent projects is to assist a surgical clinic with photos for its new website. In the first phase we photographed the doctors in action, as well as staff and patients. For the second phase we had to photograph around 30 doctors.  I found the best way quickly photograph that many people and be able to put them on different backgrounds was to use a green screen.  By using the green screen it gave me full control over the background behind each subject.

We photographed all of the doctors in a controlled setting against a green screen.  The next step was to find backgrounds in and around their building that were fairly neutral and non-distracting. The third and hardest step was getting all of the images to match backgrounds while keeping all of the head and body sizes the same.  The final step was just applying the text.

The image below shows the steps in photos:

www.captivatingphotos.net

Foxy's Fall Century

Foxy's Fall Century:

One of the many events we photographed this month was the Foxy's Fall Century Ride put on by the Davis Bike Club  This ride starts and finishes in Davis, Ca. then takes the riders through the Wooden Valley wine Country, past Lake Barryessa, and all over Solano County.  This year there were around 1800 riders riding every type of Bicycle imaginable.  Our team of 3 photographers did our best to capture the flavor and essence of the event.

See all of the images at: www.captivatingsportsphotos.net

Here's something you don't see everyday

Here's something you don't see everyday, a Pumpkin Regatta.
Every year at The Great Pumpkin Festival in Elk Grove, California the weekend is topped off with a pumpkin regatta.  Extremely large pumpkins weighing around 1200 pounds are hollowed out then used as boats, then raced across a pond in Elk Grove Regional Park. One pumpkin was big enough to carry two adult passengers comfortably.  The largest pumpkin seen at the festival weighed in at 1,630.5 lbs.

www.captivatingphotos.net

Off the hook EXTREME!

Last weekend we had the pleasure to photograph the events of Tahoe Marathon week.

OMG!  These people are serious!

We had many people doing:

•  3 Marathons in 3 days, some doing it Barefoot
• Cycling around the lake 72 miles in under 3 hours
• Back to back marathons followed by running 72 miles all night around the lake
• An elderly woman doing a 10k using a walker
• One legged marathon runners
• One guy ran around the lake 3 times non-stop in little over 62 hours

I am in Awe!

See more at : www.captivatingsportsphotos.net

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California Scenes

California Scenes:  We are truly blessed to live in such a diverse area.  Brigitte and I recently set out to photograph some vineyards in Sonoma County,  but before long we found ourselves on the coast at Bodega Bay.  Sonoma County is a rich and diverse area with: cool weather, great landscapes, great seascapes, rich history, cool old towns, awesome wineries, rolling hills, winding roads, and interesting people.

This is just one county in our region

You could spend a lifetime trying to capture the essence of just one county in photographs.

Just think of the diversity of our own county, San Joaquin with: The Delta, all of the individual cities, agriculture,arts, hills, lakes....................

It is staggering to think of all of the things to photograph.

I love it so!

Anyway, here is a snapshot of just one scene at Bodega Bay.

www.captivatingphotos.net

Stockton Record

Thanks to the Stockton Art League, and the Elsie May Goodwin Gallery for the acknowledgement in Saturday's edition of the Stockton Record.  It was a pleasure putting on the workshop for them.
Hopefully we can do some joint projects in the future.

Here is a link to the Article:
 http://www.recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20120818/A_INTERACT/208180309

www.captivatingphotos.net

Cover Shot

Cover Shot:  A few years ago as part of a large project, we sold the County several Agricultural images.  Today, we received the 2011 San Joaquin County Agricultural report in  the mail, and were pleasantly surprised to see that they used many of our images in the publication.  The cover shot is an aerial shot that I did over the Delta in 2008.  They also used several of our images on the inside pages.

Would like to thank the County for liking our work enough to use them in their publications

www.captivatingphotos.net

Just Playin' around

Just Playin' around:  I recently needed to provide a Artist profile, and a photo of myself for a press release.  Since I really don't like photos of myself I decided to do something a little different, I did a composite showing my face in an abstract form.  The idea is not an original one, I have seen this done once before.
I like it, I hope you do.

www.captivatingphotos.net

Cute Critters

Cute Critters:  Today Brigitte and I had a very cool assignment.  We were asked to photograph some of the animals at the Mickey Grove Zoo for their upcoming 55th anniversary.  Specifically, we were asked to shoot newborn Golden lion Tamarins,  and  a two-month-old Chilean Pudu. We got to get into the exhibits with the animals, and spend quite a bit of time with each animal.  I had Tamarin monkeys on my shoulders, in my hair, nibbling on my ears, and inspecting every aspect of my camera.  I enjoyed every minute of it.

Below are a few of the pictures from today.

www.captivatingphotos.net

Burrowing Bees, Who knew?

Burrowing Bees,  Who knew?
Brigitte and I were doing some photography near Bodega Bay this weekend.  As usual Brigitte found a bird to photograph, and I split off to do some seascapes.  I headed down the hill from the parking lot toward the beach when I immediately noticed several Bumble Bees flying around a very large outcropping of packed dry sand.
I took a closer look to find that the bees were actually burrowing into the hillside, and making elaborate dens to nest in.  I sat there just observing for about 30 minutes....no photos, just observing.  Passers-by were oblivious to the bees, and in fact they climbed right over the hillside destroying several nests.  I went back to the car to get my macro lens, then returned to document the scene.

Image 1st image shows the finished nests, and images 2 & 3  show the bees with their nests.

www.captivatingphotos.net

Happy 4th of July

Happy 4th of July from Bill and Brigitte of Captivatingphotos.

Please be safe, have a great time, and take some great pictures!

www.captivatingphotos.net

SLO Publication

SLO Publication:

I while back I blogged about one of my photos being published as the cover shot for the San Luis Obispo travel & tourism guide,  well here it is......

It's always a thrill when one of your images gets published.

Here's a link to the final publication: http://www.slocity.org/events

P.S. The treatment used on the final image was their choice

See more cool sports shots at www.captivatingsportsphotos.net

Golden Gate Triathlon

Golden Gate Triathlon:  This Sunday we had the pleasure of photographing the Golden Gate Triathlon in San Francisco. We have been covering sporting events for three years now, and I have to say that this is been the most picturesque course yet.  So many great angles filled with iconic backdrops that it was hard to get a bad photo. I selected just a few for images from the event to share with you so you can see the views that we were blessed with.

All of the photos can be seen at: http://www.captivatingsportsphotos.net/GoldenGateTriathlon

www.captivatingsportsphotos.net

The Run

The Finish

The Bike

The Swim

Beautiful art

Beautiful art:   Last week I had the pleasure of judging the Tracy Camera club's monthly print competition.  While judging the beginner category I was thrilled to come across one image that truly stood out.  A new member to the Tracy camera club in the beginner category entered an image called, "The King".  The image was taken at the San Diego zoo by photographer Pat Ching.  Pat explained that she saw the lion enter the den and just knew that it wouldn't be long before it reemerged.  Pat got set up, and waited a few moments for the lion to reemerge.  Her ability to foresee an opportunity,  being patient and prepared , having a cooperative lion , and a bit of good luck, the planets aligned giving her an award-winning image.   While judging, I awarded Pat's image the overall image of the month for the Tracy camera club then encouraged her to enter it into the Delicato Wineries annual photo contest.  Pat entered the Delicato Contest and came away with Best of Show.  Congratulations Pat on a great image. I'm sure it will win many more awards.

Bill

www.captivatingphotos.net

Balancing Act

Balancing Act:  Those of you who recently took my lighting class will understand when I talk about balancing light.  In the scene below I under compensated the exposure by 1 2/3 stops to clearly show the beautiful golf course outside the window. The interior exposure was a bit tricky because I was shooting flash into the windows and glass bottles, so I had to be careful not to get flashback.   I used diffused flash with the flash pointed straight up minimizing the amount of flash falling on the subject.

ISO 800 , F/10, 1/250 sec -1.67  Flash on ETTL diffused and pointing straight up.

www.captivatingphotos.net

I'm sexy and I know it!

I'm sexy and I know it!  For all of you who thought Brigitte never shoots anything but birds here's a treat.
This past weekend we went on a short trip to the high Sierras to photograph nesting birds. While waiting for a birding opportunity Brigitte spotted this frog.  She shot about 10 frames making minor adjustments for each exposure.  She was about 12 feet from the subject using a 500 mm F4 lens.  F8, 1/1250 sec at 400 ISO

www.captivatingphotos.net

SLO approach

SLO approach:  More great news!  The image below is going to be used as the cover photo on the City of San Luis Obispo's fall tourism brochure.   This picture was taken on May 19th while covering an event called Mud Mash X.  I stationed myself at the backside of a mud hole knowing that it would yield a lot of fun photos. I was not disappointed, but I was covered in mud by the end of the event.  Photographing mud runs are almost as much fun as participating in them.  I did notice one strange thing though; women love to get muddy!


All of the images from the mud mash can be seen at: http://www.captivatingsportsphotos.net/MudMashMay2012


www.captivatingphotos.net
www.captivatingsportsphotos.net

Memorial Day message

To all that have served in the Armed Forces. To all that have supported those who served.

We thank you!

www.captivatingphotos.net

Runners World

Runners World:  Great news! we were just told that Runners World magazine will be showcasing the Santa Rosa marathon in their August 2012 edition. Since we are the event photographers they requested to use some of our photos from last year's event.

The images below will be published in that magazine.

www.captivatingsportsphotos.net

The Dragon

The Dragon: it's not often that I advertise for any software. However, I just purchased Dragon software which is a speech recognition software, and I love it. In today's business world we have so many things that draw from our time, and being a slow typist has been a major drain on my time.  With the Dragon software I can write this blog, dictate e-mails, write letters, and even keyword images in light room much quicker and more accurately.  Anything that can save time so I can go out and photograph the things that I love is a blessing. I strongly recommend it for anyone who is a slow typist or has problems with accuracy. I'm the kind of person who is so good at typing that I only need one finger, LOL.

Dragon software also has free apps for smartphones that allow you to search the web, and dictate messages that can be e-mailed, texted, tweeted...... all hands-free. It's awesome!

Bill

www.captivatingphotos.net

What a weekend!!!

What a weekend!!!  This Friday, Saturday, & Sunday we will be covering 4 events, photographing 4600 people, and driving a combined 15 hours.  We have a total of 9 photographers and 4 helpers.
This is out single biggest weekend of the year!  Whoa!


Www.captivatingphotos.net
www.captivatingsportsphotos.net

A Thankful Moment!

A Thankful Moment!  This evening we attended the Reception for the Haggin Museum's Fine Feathered Friends show featuring many of Brigitte's Photographs.  We are very blessed for all of the opportunities that we have enjoyed over the years, but this show was very special.  To date the Haggin had never enlarged any images for a temporary show beyond  16" X 20",  but for this show they requested much larger images of Brigitte's.  The centerpiece for the show was shown at 48"x 72", and another was shown at 18"x 54".

A special Thanks to Tod Ruhstaller of the Haggin Museum.

www.captivatingphotos.net

One of my favorite sites

One of my favorite sites:

For years I have been following Darren Rouse's Digital Photography school.

http://digital-photography-school.com/

I like this site because it has interesting and useful tips that are easy to understand.
They have a member forum, photo sharing, and fun videos

Their information is always timely & fresh, and best of all it's free!

Check it out!

Here's a cute photo taken by Brigitte up near Kirkwood ski resort.  This littte chipmunk was very friendly, and even climbed up into Brigitte's lap for a nut.    The photo is of the Chipmunk on top of a rock shot with a canon  500mm  f4 lens on a tripod.  Natural lighting, 200 ISO, F4 at 1/1250 sec

www.captivatingphotos,net

Tour De Cure Roseville

Tour De Cure Roseville:  Brigitte and I stay very busy this time of year photographing sporting events.  Yesterday we covered the 2012 Tour De Cure in Roseville which is a fundraiser to fight Diabetes.  Covering these event is a lot more work than you might realize.  We're up at 4am, and on site at 6am.  We take thousands of photos in all types of lighting, and weather conditions.  We finished up at 5pm, sun burnt and wind blown. All of the photos are available at: http://www.captivatingsportsphotos.net/TourDeCureRoseville

www.captivatingsportsphotos.net

Practicing what I preach

Practicing what I preach:

Last Saturday I taught a class on Lighting and Flash photography.  In the class I showed samples of how the camera's metering was effected by light and dark colors within the scene.  On Sunday we did a photo shoot that was very challenging:  It was heavily backlit , and many people we wearing all white

If there are a lot of highlights in the scene the image becomes under exposed

If there are a lot of darks in the scene it most likely becomes overexposed.

To keep my camera from reacting or over reacting to every different scene, we took an incident light reading for the ambient light, and factored the percentage of flash contribution at 50% flash to ambient contribution.

This makes for a perfect exposure every shot.

www,captivatingphotos.net

Opening day on the Bay

Opening day on the Bay:  One of our favorite events of the year is the Opening day on the Bay parade which signals the official start of yachting season for the year.  We get to ride on the judging boat which is aboard the Hornblower California.  We photograph several hundred people as they board, and throughout the day.  We photograph the boat parade and associated events.  It is a grand affair, and a truly fun event to cover.

www.captivatingphotos.net