I promised more pictures after my no picture Lightroom post, so why not go with a BIG image. I present to you, the Stinson Family Panorama – Funny Faced Edition.
(click for larger)
The full image comprises 5 exposures, developed in LR3, stitched in Microsoft ICE, and tweaked in Photoshop.
The youngest son, Parker, is a stud runner heading off to the University of Oregon to run for their famed program. I met him through my work with Team Rogue, and through some of his high school cross-country teammates.
We met at Riverplace Country Club in West Austin. Kathryn, who heads up the catering there, was kind enough to let us borrow a few golf carts to reach this location above the 9th hole. Not carrying my 20 pound battery pack up the hill made the rest of the shoot a snap! Thanks Kathryn! (if you need a catered event hosted, give her a call)
The first thing I wanted to do was this panorama, because, well, I am smitten by them right now.
(nerd lighting talk below)
My basic capture process is to put the camera on a tripod in between the middle subjects, and then get everyone roughly equidistant from the lens so that everyone appears properly sized. I put my big 4 foot octobox up high above me with the AlienBee cranking out some good wattage. I have tried this with portrait and landscape orientation, both work fine, just depends on your desired output and how many people are in each shot. I expose for the background/ambient light, and then bright out flesh tones with the light bank. Don’t move the Lightsource or the shadows won’t line up, found that out the first time the hard way.
(end the nerd talk.)
If you would like to get your family a cool panorama shot, contact Josh@azulox.com for more details.
–JB
Robin and Gary are some of our great friends. We have been in each others weddings. My wife and Gary’s wife were college room mates. It was therefore a great thrill to be able to take Gary’s family Portraits in New Braunfels, Texas this past weekend.
We did a combination of outdoor environmental portraits and indoor mobile studio setup. We knocked out the outside first and then as the temperature got to be a little too much we headed indoors for the white background and cool AC.
The Boys
The Girls
All Together Now
Down by the Water
Emilie High Key
Will the Circle...
Thank you Goodson Family! We had a wonderful time documenting your family.
I know Adam and Dacia through my work with Team Rogue Elite. Last week, I got to meet Adam’s parents and the newest addition to the family – Avaya. Thank you Adam and Dacia for sharing Avaya with us, she is a superstar!
The video that follows was shot on a Canon 1d IV and the stills come from the same camera and a Canon 50D.
Enjoy!
Avaya from Josh Baker on Vimeo.
Seniors and Brides, we can make something like this for you too, give us a call or email AzulOx at josh@azulox.com
–
JB
Well, not really the movies, but we turned a 30 person “theater” inside a church in Northwest Austin into a real enough cinema for the purposes of our shoot.
Boo this Man!
The purpose of our shoot? same as every photo shoot I am on – to get great pictures, to hit a couple of solid singles and doubles, and then go for the homeruns. Try and hit for the cycle. In non-baseball terms, get the solid out of the way, and then try something new and exciting.
Today, part of that excitement is my continued foray into the realm of HD(V)slr video. That is, capturing video with a Canon Mark IV that my good friend lets me borrow from time to time. I think that the blending of stills and motion, sound and post-production will be “The Next Big Thing”. I want to be part of that because video in short bursts can be fun and gets my mind thinking along different paths, paths that influence my still work as well.
After 4 sheets of paper, dried leaves and a bottle of lighter fluid, the charcoal is lit
The other part of my excitement from today is developing deeper relationships with a few models, and forging new models out of friends and acquaintances. Today on the set we a few models who have agents and a few who today was their first time in front of the camera. Everything ran smooth, outside of the fire lighting, and the veterans helped the rookies to have a great first experience.
Tomorrow, I will be attempting a more hybrid shoot of a newborn. Going to attempt a more even split of motion and stills and then craft them into something my clients will love.
Until then,
–JB
It wasn’t Mr. Toads, but the last few days have been a journey for me, including the 768 miles I drove between Thursday and Sunday. The week started off with some new gear. I stepped up from battery powered strobes to an Alien Bee 800 with a 47 inch Octabox. For those who read this who have no idea what that last sentence means, I now have the sun in my bag. And yes, I did have to get a bigger bag.
Thursday, Headed out to Houston. Scouted the location of my Friday Corporate shoot in downtown. 16th floor conference room that looks out to the former Enron building. Well, it is still a building, just used to house Enron. Wrapped up the scouting, and proceeded to a Mother-Daughter head shot shoot. Had a wonderful time with Natalie, the actress, and Beverly, the corporate speaker. Beverly is from Alice and her family and my family were in a similar line of business back in the day, mainly oil fields and construction.
Beverly and Natalie
After the requirements of the shoot were done, we headed outside for a few Mother-Daughter moments.
Thursday night, Bari (friend from wayback), her few month old Max and I went for tacos at 100% Taco. Great little restaurant setup like a street vendor in Mexico. Even had the green taxi in the center.
Friday Morning, Downtown Houston. Corporate shoot for Enite Consulting, Thanks to Neal Hamil Agency for providing our clients and the awesome front desk help of Ashley and Brandon who made our time a breeze. Ashely is in film school, and Brandon does graphic design. Further proof of the creative mind looking to break out from behind the front desk. Another former Seguinite, Andrew, helped me with setup, grunt work, and detail picture taking. Thanks Andrew!
The shoot went great, lots of fun headshots/team shots/stocky shots. Can’t post em yet until the client is happy with them, but they will probably be their own post later.
Lunch with Andrew followed at The Hobbit? down by Rice U. Good blue cheese burger, The raspberry tea? not so much. Best part of the lunch. Guy in table next to us talking to three medical clients, “Don’t ever go into trading lumber futures, you can lose a lot of money in it” ….. What?!, I don’t even know where to begin on that one.
Friday evening, headed back to Austin in the rain. Dropped off the borrowed Vagabond power pack back to Jake North Photography (mine is on backorder), thanks Jake! Friday night was filled with backing up files, spinning hard drives and charging batteries. The glamorous life we lead 
Muddy Buddy Mud Pit
Saturday morning up early to shoot the Muddy Buddy Austin race for brightroom in Johnson City. I was the photographer in the “pit”, 40 foot mud pit that the racing teams finished in. After 10 minutes of wearing sandals, it became a barefoot day in the mud. Great race, terrible parking, copious amounts of mud flying. (in my ear, on my beard, on top of hat, etc.) After I had cleaned up a little, enough to get into the wifey’s car, I helped a fellow photog get her car unstuck. Did I say cleaned up? I meant, splattered with mud from head to toe. Melissa, I am waiting for that six-pack….
Soon to be gone Sandals
Drove to Luling to grab some City Market hot links, then off to my mom’s in Seguin for a power nap. Saturday Night, my assistant Kaush and I tackled the wedding of Zac and Emily in downtown Seguin under the gazebo at Central Park. Following a horse drawn carriage ride to the reception area, Emily and Zac partied in the Coliseum of Seguin. All of their photos will be on my zenfolio site here
Emily and Zac
Drive back to Austin late, recharge batteries, dump files, backup files, catch a few hours sleep. Up again Sunday morning at 5am, picked up Tenille, my favorite Canadian Pro Triathlete, and headed out to Pace Bend Park for the last of the 2010 Rogue Trail Series, The BEND. Interesting course, in that the 10k and 30k racers finished in different directions. Gabe, the trail master, was trying to challenge me I know. Thanks to Minh for bringing me a breakfast beer up to my perch on the 30k course. The sprinkles came shortly after that, had to engineer cover for my flashes, and used a shoot thru umbrella as an actual, yknow, umbrella. Haha.
Umbrella'ed Flash
Finished up Sunday with another power nap, and then a Maternity shoot with my running buddy JP and his wife Vikki. Vikki’s daughter learned how to ride a bike that morning, so we got some snaps of that as well. Pretty powerful to be a part of both of those experiences, the expectation of a new child, and seeing another child hit a great milestone in their life. I have the best job.
To me, the journey of the last week encapsulated what I love so much about the photography business. Meeting new people, reconnecting with old friends for new purposes, challenging one self creatively, jumping into situations that make me feel a little uncomfortable – but surviving, and seeing joy in others as they pass into new life accomplishments.
Stay Thirsty My Friends, and enjoy the Wild Ride of your Lives!
The last thing I posted was all about my workflow, lots of words, no pictures. Let us change that up a bit for you and give you pictures with not a lot of words.
We have already covered some of Emily’s Bridal pictures, the 2 that I could show you. Now we get to meet Zac. Started out on the East Side of Austin, meeting at Progress Coffee on 5th and San Marcos. Then moseyed over to some cool loading docks.
On the Loading Dock
The running joke of the day was to “Act Natural”, as though those are magic words a photographer can say to elicit true emotion.
Walking by the Station
Hit up the Saltillo Plaza train station for some beautiful flowers, benches, a homeless guy sleeping, and stolen moments
In the Stairwell
The ran over to Town Lake/Lady Bird Lake. Of course it was Saturday, so a wedding was going on and about 3 other photography sessions at my spot, but luckily I bring my own lights.
Of course, I had to put Emily in front of some graffiti, she pulls this off so well. Emily probably will love it, her mother not so much.
Till Death due us part
And then right around the corner, I found my new favorite space in Downtown. This cool little alleyway across from a Bank of America (so Emily will know how to get back). I setup a flash as some backlight, and pulled out my low light special – 85mm f1.8. The lightstand almost got run over, but the pictures came out great. I think they are like something out of a forbidden romance movie set in New York.
Silhouette - Take 1
In the Movies
Take 3
In honor of Emily’s blue dress we tried to hit up the convention center parking garage, but some other photographers were there with on-camera flash ready to go. I stayed out of their way out of respect.
All in all, we had a wonderful time together. So glad I got to meet Zac, we connected on bad movie jokes and cultural references that made me feel old since Emily didn’t get them. Looking very much to their wedding in May.
For all the images in this set, head over here.
–JB
The day two blog certainly didn’t come as quickly as the day one blog. What I lack in timeliness I will make up for in pictures.
A quick recap of what I learned/discussed on day two of my first istockphoto.com Mini’Lypse.
- Makeup Artists are awesome. As a rule, they start drinking before anyone else.
- If you bring 10 photographers, 20 dancers, 3 makeup artists and many helpers into Small Town Texas, people will drive by real slow. Several Times.
- Aerialists tie good knots.
- Chimping is contagious
- Rat traps are sticky and gross
- Ballet is awesome to photograph, as is Irish Dance and Tap Dance
- The AlienBee Vagabond is both fitting for a Bohemia’lypse and life saving. (Thanks Mark!)
Onto the photos of the behind the scene action from both days.
John Mootz, Light Tester Extraordinaire
Josh Banks, Second Station Setup Shot.
John gets Dana and Becca in place for his shots on our third set, first day
Stefan, Testing the Lights for our first setup on Saturday Afternoon
Steve, Fun with the Ring Flash.
Patty, Ring Flashed
Lori, Ring Flashed tambien
Angela, Flashed and Sparkly
Pam, Light Testing on Day Two, set one
Lori, On the Afternoon Set, probably cursing a Skyport
Pam, Impossibly smiling, even though a skyport is attached to her camera
Steve, Chimping
Tavia, Flashed with an Orbis, Flower in her Hair
Geoff, Showing Off (his images I think)
Aimee, on the 25000 pound table
Fin
–JB
Greta
Coming soon to a stable near you!
This Spring I will be doing Horse Portrait Mini-Sessions at some local stables. Ramaker Stables for sure and Rolling Ridge because I have some fans out there too. Are there any blog readers that ride at a different barn/stable that would like AzulOx Mini-Sessions to appear?
Oh, time to answer what exactly a mini-session is.
* 75$ to book your 20 minute time slot (versus 250 for the hour)
* Online Gallery for viewing and print orders
* Facebook Favorites – facebook friendly sizes to share with your network.
Dates and Time slots will be announced soon. Sunday afternoon’s are the preferred time/date combo.
Ok, Mr AzulOx, words are nice, but lets see some pictures!
done and done.
Steph and Grace
Chelsey and Bentley
Emily at Woodlawn Park
Emily’s Bridal Portraits went awesome Sunday’s in San Antonio. I was assisted by my longest-time friend, Russ. Emily brought along Kate.
First off, the sky was beautiful, some wispy clouds, but otherwise blue. The wind continued my streak of Lubbock-like breeze patterns, hard and often. Undaunted, we set off on to the Deco District in San Antonio near Woodlawn Park. We roamed up and down the streets utilizing the funky architecture to fit Emily’s personality and wedding style.
Second, Emily is fantastic to work with. She claims to be shy, but I never saw that. Continuing another streak, she learned her model moves from America’s Next Top Model. That is a streak of 4 clients in a row for me, I had to confess again to watching it for the photography/modeling as well. Doesn’t help with the man card, but it helps with the photo card.
Em has a neo-funky dress which fit her awesomely, can’t show the dress yet, don’t want the groom peaking too much. Some traditions still hold and this is one I like.
Our favorite background is the one that Russ is modeling here.
Monroe Wall with Russ the Model
We went with an Orbis Ring Flash as the single light here. When Emily was in the frame, we used a white sheet as a scrim to block the sunlight and bring the ambient down some so that we could carry an aperture and get that ringflash look. If this makes no sense, head over to strobist.com .
Once the wedding happens in May, I will give it the full blog treatment with lots of pretty pictures!
– JB
Chelsey and I met up again at Ramaker Stables in Leader, Texas. We had about an hour to knock out some different looks and get a 17 hand horse named Bentley involved. No problem.
We started in the Small Barn, not as new as the Big Barn, but more colorful and possessing more character. I was thinking something along the lines of images out of Dover Saddlery, but prettier.
Tried working with some backlit/Ezybox combo’s, but they weren’t working for me. Ended up with an over/under lighting scheme to bring some beauty and contrast to Chelsey.
Over Under Contrast
This image has a Lastolie 24 inch Ezybox (my favorite) on top, with a big reversible umbrella on the bottom, both are off to one side slightly.
Remember in part one, when I said there were no clouds. That changed for the better.
The barn was fun, but then the sky did me a favor and went wild with clouds and color. Let’s ditch inside the barn and go crazy with the sky’s.
Fun with Skies
What is more fun that a senior and great skies? A senior, her horse and great skies!
Bentley and Chelsey
Thanks again to Chelsey for being a wonderful model.
–JB
Recent Comments