Pasadena Bridge

This is the second in a series of photos I did while playing with the Nikon tilt/shift lens. The bridge is Pasadena's famous Colorado Street Bridge.

When built, the bridge was the longest span bridge in the world. I've blocked the majority of it with the trees and this is just the last section as it crossed the Arroyo. Unfortunately such a beautiful bridge was found to have some other uses other than cars and has taken on another name, the "suicide bridge". Such a shame for such a lovely bridge.

What makes this photo a little different than the other pano stiches I did with the lens, was that I realized this pano just didn't quite work. But the middle photo all by itself did.

I recently printed this photo up on 16x20 Metallic Paper through Mpix. Never having used it before, I didn't know what to expect. Holy Crap. Freakin awesome! Give it a try with one of you photos if you can.

What I've Been Reading: Strobist

It only seems fair if I'm gonna talk about the blogs that I read, that I start with the one that really turned me on to the whole blog thing. And that in a nutshell would be have to be Strobist.

Before I came upon this little jewel, all blogs seemed to just kind of be random rants about someone's overly self important life or hobby. While many were well written and amusing (and occasionally useful), they really where of little interest to me. But then there was Strobist.

With the self proclaimed purpose of only one thing, to help you take better pictures with off camera flash, Dave Hobby has achieved the well deserved praise he's received for not only following through with this simple task, but also by exploring this subject as wide and deep as it warrants. He know boasts, and we are all the beneficiary, of over 1000 articles on the site. What this means is this is not some site you bookmark and start following along as he goes from assignment to assignment. Instead, there's a vast treasure of info, all categorized and ordered for you to basically read like a course. And along with all the outside references he recommends along the way, I don't know how you won't become a better photographer if you give it the time it deserves. I know I did.

Thanks Dave!

A Little Less Wise

If there's one really important piece of equipment in the photographer's kit, it's the one standing behind the camera. And in this case, that would be me. So this quick post is all about yours truly and a lovely little modification I had done to my hardware this morning when all 4 of my wisdom teeth were removed. Yep, all four. All at once. Good times!

Thanks to the help of my beautiful wife, the wonderful world Jell-O, a velcro strap-on ice pack & a full prescription of vicoden, it's all been pretty tolerable.

But then again, ask me how I'm feeling tomorrow....

Pasadena City Hall

Since I showed you one of my "first" photos last time, I figured we could just jump all the way ahead and go to one of my latest.

The building is Pasadena's terrific City Hall. Completed in 1927 with this amazing terra cotta dome and open courtyard.

The final shot is a 3 frame HDR panorama, going from top to bottom. I was trying out Nikon's 24mm tilt/shift lens, and used the top, middle & bottom shift positions to take the 5 bracketed frames. Brought the bracketed frames together in Photomatix and then stitched the HDR frames in Photoshop. Lots and tweaking and cleanup in both Lightroom and Photoshop, and viola!

But for all the gizmo steps, it's the moon in the upper left hand corner that makes it one of my favorites.

Please check out www.kevinedgephotography.com for more.

What I've Been Reading

So, since I'm still not really sure what I have to say here, I though it might make more sense to start out with what some other people have.

My goal is to become a professional photographer. Seems simple, but sometimes not. So I've sought out anything that might show me just how to get there. Mostly through magazines and workshops, books and blogs. But it seems most of what’s out there is about gear and techniques. And while this has all been incredibly helpful, it still left a massive hole on how I was to make any money out of this.

Then, as luck would have it, late last year David duChemin came out with his latest book VisionMongers. All the reviews and comments online had gone on and on about what a brilliant book it this was to inspire and remind aspiring and professional photographers that it wasn’t about your gear but about your vision. A vision with a sense of purpose. A vision with a style. A vision.... to have a vision.

And while David does a great job inspiring us all with this, it was the other half of the title (the word I don’t think a lot of us want to concentrate on) that really makes this book so good: Monger

I’ll leave it to him to best describe this word and all it’s meanings, but when you get down to the heart of it, he reminds the reader that this is a job. You’ve got a craft to learn, a business to run and a product to sell.

Through his own personal story of success and failure, and making money in an corner of the business with very little to go around, he shows just how important it is (if not more important) to run a tight ship and keeping your clients happy.

It’s always been a dream that if I took good enough pictures, work would come my way. Without crushing that dream, David shows how this kind of wishful thinking is no substitute for an honest plan.

Of course there’s still plenty in the book to inspire you to follow your creative passion and the need for you to have that vision, but it’s his practical advise on how to market and sell that vision that sets this book apart.

And after you read the book, David also has a great blog to keep up with him as he travels the world.

First Photo

While certainly not the "very first" photo I ever took, I still like to think of this one as the one.

Why? Because for the very first time, I went out with camera in hand and a photo in mind. Everything before were just random snapshots, made in the moment and the hope that something good enough to use would come out. But for this one, my good friend Rich asked me to make a Hanukkah card for him. You could say he was my first client. And this, my first assignment.

The concept for was brief, basically "let's make it funny", and most of the ideas involving various members of an unwitting general public. Long story short, it didn't quite go to plan. But we did end up in this restaurant down on 3rd Street and made the scene up as we went along. 3 or 4 rolls of film and a few curious stares later and wouldn't you know it, the first photo I ever took is still probably my favorite.

Day 1

Lately everyone's been saying you've got to get a blog. OK, they've been saying it for years. But not until recently, with a little extra time on my hands and some solid encouragement, have I decided to finally get started.

So, like many blogs out there, this one will begin in much the same way - with no idea where it's headed. But if a title can be a guide, I've called this blog what I plan on being: a professional photographer. For now I'm a stay-at home dad to my beautiful daughter Gracie and with a long way to go before I'm making a living. But a story has to start somewhere, and here we are.

Thanks

Kevin