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.