Buttermilk Falls with Amanda and Bridgid

Amanda was my model for the afternoon and her friend Bridgid was my 1st assistant. We shot at Buttermilk Falls just north of Beaver Falls PA.

Another look

I was sifting through some pictures of my Basement Fashion shoot with Tiffany and Amanda and I came across this image that happened to escape my original editing. Both girls were actually sitting waiting for me to adjust lights so they were just sitting there pondering life. Which is probably why it of slipped through. But when I looked at it again, I saw something more....two images in this one.


Tiffany Stare (B&W & cropped)


Amanda/Ball (B&W & cropped)


Original (color, cropped w/light editing)

ABE Soccer v Slippery Rock

This was another really good game. Somewhat physical, but fair. ABE scored first and we ended up wining this game too. Of course, I was talking and didn't get a picture of my son scoring his goal, but at least I saw it.

Only two more games this season. I really wish we had 12 games, but I would settle for 10 per season.

ABE Soccer v LC United

Wow, was this a physical game. LC United had some really good players. We won this one, but it was hard fought.

ABE Soccer v Prospect

This was the soccer game played May 3rd. I have the prior three games set to update every other day from today. Yeah, I kind of fell off the current events train.

Girls in dresses

My daughter wanted me to take some pictures of her and her friend in their dresses.

I set up out back with a Vivitar 285 behind and to their right. I think it was set at 1/16 or 1/2 power with the wide angle head. Another Vivitar was set up below and to camera left at 1/16 power but zoomed a little bit.

I set my shutter speed at 1/250th and used the aperture to adjust for exposure and the look I wanted.

One thing to note....always check your camera setting before any shoot. This was the first time I used this particular camera after a cheer/dance competition so it was set for jpg (I always hoot RAW), custom white balance, high ISO and appropriate shutter speed. Ooops!

ABE Soccer v New Brighton

This was a weird game. When the season was about to begin, we received word that my son's team didn't have a coach. Well, I wasn't about to coach again (long story, not good experiences) so I scrambled to find another team for him to play on. ABE stepped up and had a roster spot open for their travel team. We did all the paperwork and he had a team to play on. Well....New Brightoon did get a coach, which I was actually happy about. I was a bit bummed to think that all those boys might not get to play....anyway, we played my son's former team...and his current school classmates. He actually played his position against one of his best friends.

Mars Drums/Monaca PA

Took some shots of a guitar lesson, the teacher and a couple of drummers.

JamFest Pittsburgh

Here are a few pics form the JamFest Cheer/Dance competition last April. Our work flow for the events was:

Custom white balance.
Set ISO for about 1600 or 3200
Shutter was at 1/400th of a second, depending on where you were on the performance floor. Really bad light falloff along the edges, so we would sometimes drop the shutter speed to lower, but that would then produce blur...so it's a lose lose situation.
Everything was shot in JPG, medium or small....less than 2MB files was the goal.

After the 3 minute competition, we would pull the cards and put them into a card reader connected to a laptop. We would select the team name in the software then that program would download the images from the cards and put them up on an on-site server. I think the software also created low resolution images for display on the web pages that the parents/competitors would use to buy products.

Once the images were available (probably 3-10 minutes) they could be purchased in 8"x10" collages printed on Dye Sublimation printers at the event.

Viewing stations (35 laptops with the sales software and images/products to purchase)

Printer stations with technicians to create the products for sale.

From the crowds viewpoint. I was located on the floor, directly in front of the performance mat.

Award time and all the dancer and cheerleader from a particular session attending.

More from the awards session.

Ground level and up close with one of the cheer teams.

Tiffany and Amanda Basement Fashion

I had the pleasure of working with Tiffany and Amanda this week. We did a short 1 hour concept development session. I had an idea of tutu's a long time ago...as time goes on, I added to it and made a few changes in my mind. This is just a small iteration of what's in my brain.

Phase 1 of a concept is usually brainstorming and the idea.
Phase 2 is the gathering and maybe execution of that idea and critique.
Phase 3 comes changes.
Phase 4 maybe the everything coming together and the final shot.

I would say that in nearly all cases, this is all done in a one day photo session. Because of my limited time during this shoot, we are breaking it down to several shooting sessions. Next will come the critique of these images. Adding and taking away elements, modifying poses and expressions. Figuring out the necessary makeup and lighting style. Then we will add props and then do the final shoot.

For this shoot....I forgot to get a set up picture...AGAIN...UGH! I used two Vivitar 285 manual flashes on light stands (left light is about 45 degrees to camera left and 6-7 feet up, right light is mostly frontal but slightly off to the right of the camera, 6 feet up). Both are bare at 1/16th power. The space is pretty small and eliminating shadows was near impossible. I might add my diffusion wall the next time and possibly use an umbrella to help soften those shadows. I do like the hard light look, but not too sure on the shadows in this series.

ABE Soccer wk1

Soccer is back in season. Here are a few shots form the game against Mars (score was tied 3-3).

Tiffany C ptII

I will be shooting with Tiff quite a bit so the post titles might get a bit redundant, hopefully the pictures will not.

Yesterday we just did a really fast session of head shots. But I got her walking down the street and can't pass up an opportunity to take pictures.

(Forgive me for not having setup photos, I keep forgetting to do that stuff).

For the head shots, I had Tiff sit in a wing back chair. I put a bare flash over her left shoulder and a bare flash front/right about 4 feet above her sitting height. Both flashes are Vivitar 285 with poverty wizards (16 channel wireless from eBay). The output was 1/16 on both and looking back, I should have used an umbrella to soften them a bit. Next time I will play with that AND take set up pictures.

The "Main Street" pic was cloudy/available light shot w/ my 300 @ f/2.8.
Headshot was probably my 85mm or 50mm both shot with my original 1D.

We are planning an Alice in Wonderland type shoot soon....not sure where that one will go...LOL

All photos edited in Adobe Lightroom 2.2, sharpness, clarity and black levels adjusted.

Strolling down Main Street


Headshot

Tiffany C

I finally got to shoot with Tiffany today. We did about an hour of "lesson" type pictures, where I applied camera settings to what we talked about on Tuesday. I would set the camera, make some changes, adjust lighting etc and we would review the images. It's one thing to say and show someone, but it's all together another to have them do it. Today I did the settings. Hopefully we can round up a model and Tiffany can take all the pictures next time....I just haven't told her that yet...LOL

Here are just three from our session today. She is only the second person I have ever met that has what I call a "light switch smile". When you turn it on, it lights up a room.

Cheer Ltd. at Robert Morris University

UPDATE: Pictures have been uploaded to the sales web site. DO NOT BUY FROM THE SALES WEB SITE. EMAIL me with the photo ID located under each image. In this period of change, I am selling the edited .jpg file, NOT PRINTS and this is an interim band-aid. Thank you.
brent (at) thenextlevelphoto (dot) com


Here are a few pictures from the competition last Sunday. I took over 2,200 pictures, narrowed them to less than half, maybe more like a third. Then I had to cull them down to about 60 then again down to these six. They are not my best work. But I will try to justify it by saying this was my first time taking pictures of an indoor cheer and dance competition. I hope I get much better the next time I get the chance.

The sales site will have the UNEDITED images up later today.
DO NOT PURCHASE THEM DIRECTLY FROM THE SALES SITE.
DO NOT PURCHASE THEM DIRECTLY FROM THE SALES SITE.
DO NOT PURCHASE THEM DIRECTLY FROM THE SALES SITE.

DIRECTIONS TO PURCHASE:
1) Browse the pictures.
2) Make note of the image number BELOW the picture.
3) Put the picture #'s in an EMAIL message to me.
brent ( at ) thenextlevelphoto ( dot ) com
4) I will reply with a few more directions.
5) You will be purchasing the actual file, NOT PRINTS.

DO NOT PURCHASE THEM DIRECTLY FROM THE SALES SITE.
DO NOT PURCHASE THEM DIRECTLY FROM THE SALES SITE.
DO NOT PURCHASE THEM DIRECTLY FROM THE SALES SITE.