Sunset Ablaze

This photograph comes from a vacation we took in 2006. The location is Sagle, Idaho, which is right across the Pend Orielle Lake from Sand Point. Just across the boarder, in Washington, smoke from a forest fire tints the sunset this gorgeous gold color.

Serenity in Saluda

Last weekend, Anna and I got away to the hills of North Carolina. The major reason was a book signing in Asheville for Anna's favorit author, Diana Gabaldon. But we also wanted some time out of the city and away from the Florida flatlands.

On the way, there's an exit sign for the town of Saluda. Well, for most people, that's pretty uninteresting, but for someone who knows about railroads, Saluda and the stories of the railroad going through there are legendary. The trains don't go through Saluda anymore, but along the way we passed this interesting little ranch. I had to take some photographs.

Not your typical sunny day - it was raining off and on all day. The tail end of the storms that have caused so much flooding in Georgia were petering out up here in the mountain village. I love how the clouds are scraping the tops of this mountain pasture.

This horse got to be a real ham. Curiosity at who this guy with the camera was and what he was doing or eager to have his portrait taken, it really didn't matter.

Asley and Spence's Wedding Album

Here's a quick video I did of Ashley and Spence's wedding album. The album is planned to be a traditional 10" square design, resulting in 20x10 2-page spreads. This is a flush-mount design, meaning that the pages are printed as composite images, rather than printed individually and matted into an album. The look is more contemporary - like a magazine spread. This is the first draft of the Album. Ashley and Spence were given a high resolution electronic version of the album in Adobe Acrobat for review, but the resulting file, at 15 MB, is too large to share with family and friends, so I created this video here, and a higher resolution HD version published on YouTube that you can also view by clicking here.

The ceremony was held at The Church of the Immaculate Conception in downtown Jacksonville, with the reception held at the Flemming Island Country Club. Both were simply wonderful venues, and I can't wait to photograph at either venue again. I just love the German stained glass at this church.

Music is "The Wedding March" performed by guitarist Michael Lancaster.

Kelley Edmiston

Here's a quick little video I made from the images I took at our Alternative Lighting Seminar. Kelley Edmiston, our model, is really excited about the video and the photos that were taken.

You might also want to look at the video through YouTube and view it in HD.

Alternative Lighting

Our guild had a mini-seminar on alternative lighting last night. We got to take some great photographs using some unusual (by today's standards) lighting. This photograph was taken using tungsten spot lights - the kind that were used in older black and white movies. Considered too harsh for color work, they've lost popularity. However, I really like this look!

Basic three light studio lighting setup. Main light to camera left, fill from camera right, and another light on the backdrop, grazing the surface to give the shadows and highlight with all those nice leading lines.

I'll have to try some black and white conversions later, but even in color, I'm really impressed.

By the way, the model is the lovely Ms. Kelley Edmisten.

Rick Ferro

I took this photo of Rick Ferro at the last Professional Photographers Society of North Florida meeting. I've been fortunate enough to work with Rick on a few projects, documenting his lighting setups for F. J. Westcott and StudioStyles.

Rick was one of many who studied under the late Monte Zucker, and this is most evident in how Rick poses and lights his portraits. Particularly the hands. I have learned so much from Rick - he's been an incredible instructor. We're incredibly fortunate to have Rick among our guild's members.

Church of the Immaculate Conception

This stunning panorama was taken during Ashley and Spence's wedding, and highlights the dramatic interior of this landmark church. I'm hoping this photo will be a 2-page spread in the couple's album. I'm seriously considering a canvas for myself to hang for my clients to see when they visit my residential studio.

The stained glass is German. During some recent renovations, the glass was cleaned and restored to it's original beauty. I fell in love with stained glass while on temporary assignment in Portugal and Spain, which gave me ample time to visit many churchs. Unlike here in the United States, churches in much of Europe stay open and are busy with tourist traffic all year round. This gave me a lot of opportunity to see a lot of very old churches.

This photo was taken from the balcony of the church. Father Murphy was very forgiving in allowing me nearly full access to the church during the ceremony.