The Shoeless

So this is going to be a 2 part post but I figured I would at least break-up a little bit.

If anyone knows me they know that I take a lot of portraits. They are actually my main form of photography. Now the other day I was reading about how boring and popular portraiture. From doing different kinds of web surfing I noticed that he was completely right, everyone’s portraits look the exact same.  It made me kind of said but it got me thinking on ways that I can get better. If you would like to read the article please take the 5 mins out of your day to… The Portaitist

On that note though, I took some portraits recently that I feel the need to show. No they aren’t amazing but they are getting better… I have room to grow and I know this so I am excited.

So my middle sister recently got married, a week ago, and for her wedding she had me take bridal portraits of her in her wedding dress. I took her to N.C. State’s Arboretum and the rose garden at Raleigh Little Theater. I haven’t been able to show any of these portraits because of the possibility of the groom seeing them.  I printed a nice 16″x20″ for her/the wedding which is where it was shown for the first time.

My sister in her dress at the rose garden

Smelling roses before they died for the winter.

As I have talked about in previous post, I have started (not yet finished) a 7 deadly sins theme. To take a new picture for one of the sins, I did a shoot with one of my friends. Once we finished, we just kind of fooled around taking a variety of different shots. The followed shot is a product of us just messing around.

Kathleen being light by a stray incandescent light

The following meet I met up with a new friend to just kind of mess around and shoot. I was still getting use to my new 35mm f/1.8 lens so I used it to pull off different feels. While I was in Washington D.C. in the portrait gallery at the Smithsonian, I saw a variety of head shots with this low depth of field, grungy feel. I kind of liked it so this one of Christian kind of mimics that sort of photography.

Christian studio shot

With Christmas in between now and my post, I took some pictures of my family.  I took some fun ones of my sister on Christmas eve.

Cheryl having fun on Christmas eve

For Christmas I got a set of pocket wizards and my friend from Maine came down to NC and I got a chance to visit with her. We went over to Duke Gardens and I got a chance to try out my new toy. After some frustration (from wind and the pocket wizards) I got everything set up. While I on one of the bridges I got to take the following photo.

Nyssa at Duke Gardens

I feel like my portraits aren’t great but I’ll soon get to where I want to be. Look for my next post on sporting and other events I’ve shot in the past 2 months.

I bought a new lens last Friday.  I really wasn’t sure about. but I eventually gave in.

I got the Nikon 35mm f/1.8 DX lens.

Courtesy of Nikon USA

Beautiful lens, quiet, small.  The only thing that still bothers me is the fact that it’s a DX lens, I would of much rathered gotten a non-DX lens mainly because I know that I will get a Full Frame camera within the next 3 years, and I would prefer to have all my gear be compatible. However, in thinking this, I Love my 28mm f/2.8 but it just hasn’t been as sharp as I would of liked and the larger depth of field was bothering me.  You might think well it’s a f/2.8 that’s still pretty low. Well, my 2 other lenses are 1.8 and I shot with a 28mm f/1.8 (on my friend’s 5D) and I couldn’t get over how the depth of field works.

All this being said. I keep it on my camera now as my default lens. It does beautiful work and I’m glad that I spent $200. That is right it’s only $200 and it’s well worth it!

Just tonight I was walking to go do some work in the library, when I ran into this kid sitting on a stone playing a guitar under a light post.

Rudy playing guitar outside his building.

I want to first say, I officially have a new website! Kutsuphoto is up and working. It has my gallery of images and soon to be my design portfolio as well. My friend Ian decided to design/code it. Check it out, tell me what ya think.

So, I feel a little sad because I wish I was updating more regularly but I guess since it’s the summer, I get tied up doing other things – not photography. On a brighter side, I ended going on a MUCH needed photo adventure with 2 of my friends, we basically ended up just trying around Raleigh. We went over to the train tracks off Boylan, by where the infamous “youliveandyouburn” artist put an angry face on the water tower.Sadly enough Raleigh police arrested the NCSU student this past week and is charging him for Larceny. He wasn’t as secret as Banksy I guess. I Just don’t understand how people can be prosecuted sometimes for such fabulous. (*Thinks back to Medival times*)-Yeah..uh..nevermind, we haven’t changed.
Anyways, point of this post..
So we went to the train tracks,
Downtown Raleigh
And a lake over off of Penny Road.

Apart from that, I would also like to say that it really sucks to be a photographer really entering into the “world of photography” right now. I’m not exactly entering, but I’m still trying to make how versatile my gear collection grow. So I use a D300, and over course Nikon upped all of their price on lenses this year. DARN YOU RECESSION. I’m kind of hoping when I go to Japan, I might be able to find some cheaper gear *crosses fingers*. I know some people who are thinking about updating their camera bodies soon, i.e. my fellow photographer Jonathan; or people who are thinking about starting to buy a camera, i.e. my friend Sam. I just wish things would get better sooner than later.

Anyways, I’m going to try to be more regular, but until then enjoy the summer.