I work for a great running company, Rogue Running, and they like to put on crazy events to break up the summer doldrums. Last week they put on the Rogue Double Dare Challenge. A timed obstacle course ending in a murky inflatable slip n slide.

First up, Bobbing for Apples

The Second Event is High Knees

Third, Shaving Water Balloons, aka Steve’s Revenge

Fourth, Medicine Ball Reverse Shot Put

The Fifth event is interesting. Whip Cream Pie Pushup to find the Gummi Bear. One pushup per bite.

Sixth up is the Hula Hoop. Guys had way more issues than the Gals on this event.

The seventh obstacle is over and under hurdles.

The World Cup-inspired eighth event had runners weave through soccer cones with a super light kids ball.

Ugh, Dizzy Bat for number nine.

Immediately following Dizzy Bat, the Egg Carry required the exact fine motor skills that Dizzy Bat depleted.

Remember the murky slip n slide? Yep, that is the finish.

And your reward for completing these 11 events? Beer, from North by Northwest!

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

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

Started working with Chelsey after I talked to her from the Sunsets and Horses photos from last week. Said she might be interested in some Senior Portraits. I said, “Let’s do it!”

We started at Cianfrani’s in the square at Georgetown, my favorite coffee shop. Met up with Chelsey and her mother and went over the plan I had set out for us. Our plan was to use the niche’s and vignettes that make the Georgetown square one of my favorite shooting area’s. Thanks to my buddy Geoff Hammond to turning me onto a couple of them.

First, we hit up a doorway on the backside of the square to show off the angles and lines of Chelsey’s 6’2” frame. I used my orbis ringflash on these to give it a high fashion look. Had to make sure the the first location was in the shade because the sun was out with no clouds, although that would change later, because the Orbis eats up a lot of power from my 430′s.

Our second location was at the Rough and Ready Antique Store, a great location for vignettes. The sunlight was hard still with no clouds and about 12:45 in the day. I found a non-wet chair with good color and told Chelsey to “get slinky”. this location produced 2 of my favorites from the day.

The 2 images above seem like they could be from a 1970′s movie set, one starring Farrah Fawcett, or maybe Barbarella.

Then off to the classic alley way in between Rough and Ready Antiques and The Framer’s Gallery. I have used the back drop before. Still love it.

From there, we moved around the corner to a little white table and chair, with the Antique Sign in the background. The last 3 locations are within 30 feet of each other, but each gives such a different vibe. Thanks again to the local merchants of Georgetown fro keeping your stores awesome. Almost Mediterranean in feel, Chelsey is rocking the casual look in these.

And it wouldn’t be a good blog post with out some bodily injury to me, the photographer. We were setting up right on the corner of 7th and Main, watching the cops roll by, when my forehead fell in love with a dowel rod on a lamp post. 3 days later, and I still have a bump, bruise and scab…. Love hurts.

I knew this would be a good location because it really says Georgetown to me, well, not just me, the sign in the back actually reads, “Discover Georgetown”. Figured it would be a good graphic element to work with, and I ran with it as my adrenaline was coursing due to head trauma.

The last location at Georgetown is my wife’s favorite, I like it too. My buddy David helped us out here, the wind blew him to our corner of the street and I used the gift.
He is holding the 24 inch Ezybox while Chelsey get her posin’ on.

We finished up at the Square in a robust 90 minutes of shooting, full of antiques, vignettes, green tea, and battle wounds.

The gallery of Georgetown images is here.

In Part Two we travel to Ramaker Stables

– JB

We live in Austin,Texas. We get to see snow on the Olympics and when we go Skiing in New Mexico or Colorado. But Snow in Austin? Not so much.

Yesterday was a glorious day. Austin received several inches of snow. Two days prior the temperature was in the 70′s. I blame Al Gore.

As a photographer and a Texan, we have to seize rare opportunities. Tuesday was one such opportunity, I posted on Facebook, “Who wants Snow Pictures?”. I got a reply within 10 minutes. Gump and Olivia, some horse friends of my wife, were game so we trekked over to Brushy Creek Park in Cedar Park Texas, an in between meeting spot for us.

My goal was travel light in gear because the snow was occasionally light rain and I didn’t want my gear getting too soaked, so I headed out with my trusty Lastolite Ezybox 24″ and my Orbis Ring Flash. Camera strapped around my neck, I had a hand for each light modifier. Gump and Olivia were willing models, staging a quick snowball fight, and mucking through the mud to get to the prime locations. After my Ezybox toppled twice, Gump and Olivia alternated as VAL’s (voice activated lightstands).

My photography goal at first was Snowing Senior Photos (yes, all caps, it was a main thought). We meandered around the park, using the running trail as a pathway. I was getting some good, some bad, but nothing that I absolutely loved. That is, until we found a sweet spot in the trees with a pathway running away from us. My photography imagery turned to the wood nymphs I have been reading about in the Percy Jackson series (movie? eh, not good). Maybe for its rareness to me, but a good flaky snow just transforms ugly cedar trees into a sweet winter vignette. We finished up the shoot with these fun Girl in the Woods photos.

On the way home, I had to stop off of the toll road onto a sidestreet that dead ended. I had driven past a group of small barn houses in failing condition a 100 times, and decided that because of the snow, today was the day to stop and shoot. I was thinking of my buddy Andy, who jumps fences to get the shot he wants, but I was feeling un-nimble in my snow clothes. The hog wire bottom, barb wire top were daunting to me on this day as the steady flow of cars just feet away were witness to my weakness. Instead, I just used the fence as a compositional element in my frames. I processed the HDR’s by going through Lightroom > Photomatix > Photoshop>Imagenomic>Photoshop.

The sense of urgency and immediacy of yesterday is hard to replicate. The snow that fell was the best snow in this area in 20 years, maybe since 1985. And today? Should be in the 60′s. Grab your camera. Get out the door!

–JB

Some friends of mine got married this weekend.
These are the photos.

The event was held at Shoreline Grill in Austin, Texas on Saturday, Feb 13th.

Small Wedding, Big Emotions. More than one tear of happiness was shed.

The full gallery is here

Enjoy.

(From left to right: Adam Perkins, Joe Thorne, Darren Brown, Kyle Miller)

First up, I remembered to take some setup shots so that I don’t have to draw cheesy diagrams in photoshop.

Second, these Team Rogue guys are F-A-S-T. I asked Coach Sisson if they would be moving quickly through my lighting zone. He said, “well, you won’t be able to tell the difference between their hard and easy, from 4:10 to 4:30 pace.” That, my friends, is hurtling through the bi-pedal atmosphere.

This weeks workout was at Zilker Park in downtown Austin, Texas. I wanted to get more essence of place than last weeks non-descript track. The skyline of downtown Austin would be awesome. The fog and haze prevented a clear view, but at least my strobes weren’t working overtime like last week.

The runners were coming by from both sides of the road, running an out and back course. So I setup a modified triangle lighting. The flash to left had a 1/4 cto on it, and the middle side light had a blue gel. I should have put a warming gel on the far right side. The middle light was for rim lighting, and at some point I moved it across the street into the same position.

Not having an extra person around this week, I had to self test the light to make sure I had a decent exposure.

I know that David Hobby uses his hand for this type of thing, and I usually do too, but I want to see how the gels would play on my noggin first.

When the guys and gals started their workout, I wanted to go low with a wide-ish angle and get close to get the feel of speed and still get some of the Austin Skyline. It worked okay for a single runner, but for the guys in the groups, the person closest to me would look good and the others would become obscured. The point of these photos is the team, so I switched to my trusty 70-200 and captured the Rogue’s as they came around turn 1.

Lots more from this group to come, including my favorite composite.

EDIT: HERE is the video link from the workout

JB