Saturday, February 28, 2015

The Project Next

If you have not checked out my 90 day photographic project by now please do so, but until then I am planning a new project. This project is one that will take a longer set time and will incorporate the use of my bike, specifically the mountain bike.  It is one that I had been contemplating for a while but felt that I could not accomplish it but after completing the ninety day project I think I can pull this one off. My project is to take photographs of Iowa off the back of my bike, sorta.

Right now I need to fix the bike up, to do what is an equivalent transmission change for it. Then when spring, summer and fall are in swing I will take short rides around the county scouting and shooting the landscape. I plan to use my Nikon, iPhone, and a panoramic style Vivatar 35mm film camera. I believe that 2 or 3 years will be long enough to shoot enough photographs for a show or a book or maybe both.

My goal is to capture Iowa and why I love to live in this state. I know that it doesn't have mountains or great canyons but the landscape and all that it is in it are worthy of capturing and preserving it. I plan to do it in black and white but I maybe open to either throw a few color ones in the mix or have them with a side project. As I am photographing the landscape, towns and people I plan to write about on the blog and eventually incorporate them in a show and or book.

So for now I will start off with this photograph I did this morning. Because the temps were as low as -13 degrees the steam off the river created a fog in and around Mays Island in downtown Cedar Rapids. These were taken with my iPhone and processed in Lightroom and PhotoShop.




My next step is fixing the bike which I will document in this blog. It is all part of the story so why not include it.


Wednesday, February 25, 2015

My Food Adventure

So I have been thinking about what I could do with my photography that would replace my current job. I could do just my "Art" and try to scrape by but we all know the saying; "A Starving Artist." I like the thought of architecture but right now it is a little cold and snowy so maybe not a good time to start. So what about food, food photography? That could be good.

Earlier this year I looked at the local  restaurant's website and for the most part the food looks poor. It looks like food but it doesn't appetizing. I think I could do better but until I try I will not be sure. After six or seven websites I thought I would see if there were any food photographers in the area. Too my surprise I did not find any that specialize or dabbled in food photography.  I find that a plus.

This past week I set up a spot in the basement and began to shoot. Now my goal right now is to come up with lighting setups that look good so food stylizing is not impotent. I have shot two subjects and I feel that both came out very well. A little still life like but again I am interested in lighting and creating common looks for food. I figure as I get more comfortable with the process then I can invent more with lighting. So here are the three photos so far.




I am planing to post a lot about my food photos and my other project that incorporates my bike. My goal is to tell stories and show photos and keep the technical stuff down. It isn't that I don't want to share information, I would be happy to answer questions, but I really want to talk more to the stories.

So after a long absents from this blog I am back and looking to show off some new stuff.