Harlem Ambassadors

The Harlem Ambassadors came to town last night and I was asked to go photograph the event. Check out their website for info on the organization and click on some of these pix for larger views!

one more from Sunday

interactive bokeh

Everybody knows (right?) that a wide aperture on some fast glass will throw your background into a lovely soft blur. But just look at what you can do with that blur!

OK, once again DWF is compelling and informative. Check out this terrific article about optimizing bokeh and even having it interact with your primary subject. Fantastic.

news about Gilbert classes

The good news -- we will still be offering the June 1-15 (Tuesday evenings) basic photography class for Gilbert Parks and Recreation. Yay!

The bad news -- the second session, scheduled to run June 22-July 6 is cancelled. Please contact Gilbert Parks and Recreation and switch to (or sign-up for) the class that begins earlier in June.

My apologies for any inconvenience.

yesterday's family shoot

(click thumbnails for larger images)

use auto to learn manual

DPS has another terrific idea.

I think this is a great idea for anyone intimidated by learning all the bells and whistles of manual shooting all at once. Try Auto or a specific basic mode, shoot, note the settings, plug the same settings into manual mode and tweek from there to start to explore the relationships between aperture, shutter speed and ISO.

I often do something similar in unusual light situations just to get a starting point and make adjustments based on my results.

Miss Arizona

Photographed Miss Arizona, Brittany Bell, at the ACS Relay for Life this past Saturday. Click here for more information about her and about the Miss Arizona and Miss USA organizations.

Tea Party

Went to a local Tea Party last night. Kind of felt like a sheep in wolf's clothing, 'cause you know I'm one of them thar liberal northerners at heart. I especially like the fellow with the actual teabag hanging off his hat.

(click pic for larger)

creativelive

Ok, this is very cool. Chase Jarvis and his pals have created creativelive.com which is a free series of educational videos covering several creative arts. Apparently they are free to view live, if I understand correctly, but to refer back to them or download, you have to purchase. Here's Chase with more:

It can be found at creativelive.com and there is other info at Chase's blog here. If you time things right, should be lots of great, free info. And if you don't time it right, well I haven't seen the pricing, but it's probably fair. Chase seems all about sharing and the photography community.

summer classes in Gilbert

The city of Gilbert has just put together their summer catalog of P&R classes. I'll be teaching 2 sessions of my Basics of Digital Photography class. 1 runs Tuesdays June 1-June 15 and the other one is Tuesdays June 22 - July 6. See pg. 29 of the pdf catalog for more info! All classes at the McQueen Rec. Center. Six hours of info on composition, camera functions, a little lighting and some photo critiques for only $89!

http://www.gilbertaz.gov/eservices/parks/pdf/lp/Summer10LP-Brochure.pdf

sexy cake killer

Once again, DWF has pointed us towards some interesting work. Check out this unusual photoshoot.

Behind the Scenes w Halifax Weddings Photographer, Liam Hennessey/Applehead Studio from Applehead Studio on Vimeo.

former trees

Yesterday I sold this photo to the local newspaper... (there is a local area of some 685 acres that had 57,000 dead trees on it -- they were all recently removed. Some of these lumpy piles of pulp are all that remain -- cost over a million bucks!)

local waterin' hole