So this picture spans two days of my 365.

Here is why…

I finished the OneLight workshop at 3am on the 25th. Got to sleep by 4am.

Woke up at 6:30 am to get the boys off to school.

Booked it to the studio to take care of a lot of last minute details for a big job we have in house right now.

Finished packing my clothes at home.

Packed us in the van and high tailed it to the airport.

Plane takes off at 9:30pm on the 25th. I remember the take off and then we were somewhere over Spain. I missed the Atlantic ocean. Not complaining.

Landed in Dubai sometime on the 26th.

Just glad to be here. I have no idea what day or time it is. I just know that I lost a day somewhere so this blog did as well. :)

Cheers,
Zack

I had a really proud moment today being a father. It wasn’t the fact that my boy, Caleb (3rd from left), was being honored for being a Board Scholar.

I mean, it’s pretty awesome that only six kids in his school were able to win that award from the county school system. No, my proud moment was tying Caleb’s tie today. Looking at him as a boy becoming a young man knowing that he’d be tying that same knot in a tie one day to walk down an isle.

I’m trying the best I can to cherish these days while realizing how quickly the time goes by. I’m so proud of him. He’s worked really hard this year at school and he finishing elementary school at the top of the class. Tests, grades, conduct… the whole nine yards. Good going Caleb.

How it was shot :: 200mm at 2.8. Available light at the DeKalb County Board Scholar award ceremony. Held back tears when looking through the viewfinder.

Cheers,
Zack

While we are watching olympians having a hard time staying on their feet, we are seeing the same thing in our own living room. Hawke is finding self locomotion.

I shot about 10 photos today. I’m having one of those days where my brain is mush. Photo 101 starts at 9am. I’m getting some rest. G’night!

Cheers,

Zack

How it was shot :: Canon 580ex through a 60″ shoot thru umbrella to camera right. Pxl Peepers – Yeah. I know. This camera and this is what I’m shooting with it? What’s next? Pictures of effing squirrels??? :)

I will tell you, the learning curve is fairly substantial. Digital MF is not as straight forward as I thought it would be. Still getting used to this demo I have.

I know the color is whack. I’m so tired today that I’m just not really worried about it. :) According to the exif data I shot this at ISO 0 with a 0 f-stop back in 1969. That’s pretty amazing.

One of the best parts of being a parent is all of the awesome photos you can take of your kids before they understand what you are doing to them. Can’t wait to show this at his rehearsal dinner. All my kids are going to get roasted through photos at their rehearsal dinners. :)

How it was shot :: Good ol’ bathroom light at ISO 3200 or so.

Cheers,
Zack

The fire pop returns for another day in the 365. I was heading to work this morning and Hawke was just getting up. He’s at the point now where he can pull himself up on the rails of the crib. He looks like he’s doing time in there. With a middle name like Danger, I hope he only has this view as an infant.

Was this photo posted a day late to this blog? Yes. Reason being, I held it to be part of a screencast I was recording about my workflow. As soon as I have a link to that I will post it here. It will be up later tonight as will whatever image I can manage to shoot tonight.

In the workflow screencast I was debating between two photos. I spent more time than I should have on the following image.

I don’t like that dark area to the left. It’s too “heavy” in the composition and simply lightening it would not really help the image at all. I tried a few different crops but it just wasn’t working out for me so I went back to my images I shot of this scenario and found another image that I responded more to. Again, it will be in the screencast once it hits my main blog.

How it was shot :: Available light. That available light was a desk lamp.

Cheers,
Zack

Aside from B&W conversions and some cropping… one of these images is straight from camera and the other one required Photochop tomfoolery to create the multiple exposure look. I left a visual hint for you pxl peepers. :)

I am again stuck with two images that I like for different reasons but could not make a decision on one of them being the 365 offering of the day over the other so I have posted both of them. Clicking on them will bring up slightly larger images.

The Darker Side ::

The Lighter Side ::

How it was shot :: I had an AB800 on camera left with a 30º grid on it and an AB800 on camera right in a 28″ Westcott Apollo softbox. There were times I switched them around or turned one off or the other off during different exposures. I was just making sure that light was not spilling on the white wall behind her as I shot. I have found that the more successful multiple exposure images I create are those made on darker backgrounds.

Lighter backgrounds are difficult because each time you create an exposure, the exposure of the light background builds and builds and builds on top of each other making the overall image muddy or blown out depending on your exposure at capture and how many frames you are shooting for one image. Multiple exposure is equal parts maddening and inspiring.

For those of you lacking multiple exposure in camera you can easily start mucking about with it like this…

Shoot a bunch of images on a black or very, very dark background. Add one photo on top of another and change the top layer mode to “lighten”. You can keep adding layers of images like this. You then may want to layer mask certain parts of layers in and out.

Or shoot on a white background and change the top layers to “multiply”. It’s easier to create a multiple exposure look of images on white or light backgrounds in post since you can control the amount of exposures building on top of others with the multiply layer blending mode.

Cheers,
Zack

Did I have my camera with me? Of course not! Being that we are creatures of habit and routine I knew the shot would present itself to me again. Today though, a better opportunity presented itself because we are creatures of habit and routine. My photojournalism teacher, Mr. Shaefer, taught us that if we see someone do something or act in a certain way and we fail to capture that moment, then we should just be patient because they will most likely do it again. We are creatures of habit and routine and if we do something once, we will probably do it again.

So last week I missed the shot. Today I was ready but being creatures of habit and routine I have Caleb to thank for a better shot. You see, any time the windows are frosted, Caleb runs around the van making smiley faces on the windows…

Same intersection. Same morning light. Same spot on the back seat. Same disappointment for having to get up early and go to school. This time I had my camera ready to capture it and I have the great juxtaposition of the smiley face.

How it was shot :: Nikon D3 with 35mm f2 lens held backwards over my shoulder spraying and praying while trying to compose and focus as the light turned green.

Cheers,
Zack

30 days down. 335 to go. After my experience on day one I didn’t think I would make it this far.

This is Erin. She’s my sister-in-law. Meg’s Irish twin.

How it was shot :: Available light. Notice how the pages of the book acted as a nice little reflector.

Cheers,
Zack

From day one of Hawke’s birth, Joshua, our four year old, liked to refer to Hawke as “my baby”. Not “my baby brother”. Just “my baby.” He’s moved on to calling him “baby Hawke” now.

One day Joshua came into the living room and asked Meg if he could give “his baby” his fire pop.

“His what?”

“You know. His fire pop.”

“What are you talking about Joshua?”

Then Joshua picked up Hawke’s pacifier. Pass-i-FIRE. And you know, he sucks on it like a lollipop… So to a four year old, that is a fire pop… and that is what we all call it now as though that is what’s printed on the packaging.

How it was shot :: Available light at Jason’s Deli. See the set up here.

Cheers,
Zack

This is our eleven year old, Caleb.  I look at these photos and I see my boy who still loves Legos.  I also see the young man who’s going to be asking for the car keys sooner than I’m ready for.

Shot available light.

Cheers,
Zack

Post made on the 17th because Meg and I were out late last night to catch the RJD2 show.