120 Casual Portraits in 74 Minutes

I recently coordinated and participated in the Hood College "Six Words, Six Photographers" project.  Toward the end of this five week largely photojournalistic endeavor, I became aware that Hood tends to need a lot of tight, energetic, images of students for current and future marketing purposes.

On my last two visits to the campus as the project wound down, I photographed 120 students in a total of 74 minutes of shooting time;  all with a D300 and an 85mm lens, and largely at f2.

They're not all great photographs, but they're all representative of the typical Hood College student in 2010.

You can see them here, here, here, and here...

All. By. Myself.

Yet Another Cell Phone Photo

Shot with the Android Retro Camera app.

Six Words, Six Photographers

I am coordinating Hood College's Six Words, Six Photographers project in conjunction with the office of Marketing and Communication.  A half dozen of us have been turned loose with the objective of providing a visual glance into the Hood experience over the first four and a half weeks of the fall semester.  While the primary goal is to built up the college's library of current images for use online and in print publications, we've been documenting our results as the project moves forward in a blog.

It's been a great challenge as well as the most fun and freedom I've had as a photographer in a long time!

A Recent Book Cover Photo

One of my photographs, cropped and 'shopped, adorns the front cover of author Tim Kent's Yell Like Furies.

You can see the book here, and  the original photograph here.

Back In The Day

I bought my first digital camera back in 1997.  It was a Kodak DC120.  It had a whopping one megapixel imaging chip, a 3X zoom lens, and took forever and a day to power up, shut down, and wait between shots.  I bought a 15 megabyte CF card to go with it.  I paid $999.00 for the camera and something over $200.00 for the CF card.  I actually sold a Leica M6 with a 50mm Summilux lens to bankroll this purchase.

It was essentially a point and shoot camera;  albeit with manual override.  Despite the fact that I was shooting my real world jobs with a Cambo 4x5, and a bunch of Hasselblads and Nikons, I thought it was as cool as anything I'd ever held in my hands.

I stumbled across what were some of the first pictures I ever shot with it recently in the course of reorganizing my archives.  Here are four of them.

10 Years Ago

In January 1999, I had the Digital Picture of the Day at Steve's Digicam's.  I think I shot it with a Nikon CoolPix 950, which was a whopping 2.1 megapixel camera.

Time does fly when you're having fun.

West Third & Market St.

I went to Frederick's "In the Street' Festival for about an hour today.  Charles "Big Daddy Stallings" and his band were making a lot of people very happy.

 

Helicopter Boyz

One of Nikon's new point and shoot cameras, the Coolpix S1000pj, has a built in projector.  This struck me as nothing but a gimmick until I saw The Helicopter Boyz.

Making Waves in Photography

This is one of the more unusual photographic specialties I've ever known of, and the work is spectacular.

New, Expanded, and Improved

My Web Site

Autumn is Coming...

...and if you have any doubt, check the Weis Market entrance area....

Another FCC Ad Campaign Shot

...with thanks to Pierre Bowins for giving it the star treatment.

Something Different

Some early color photographs you probably have not seen before.

FCC Ad Campaign Begins

The first ad I shot for Frederick Community College's latest campaign ran in print and online recently. I really like the design of these.

Lorenzo Moscia

Really strong photojournalism.

I can't believe I've never heard of him until today.

Spring...

...has officially replaced Autumn as my favorite season. They're both beautiful times of the year here, but Autumn isn't tainted with the large scale leaf management operation that I have to anticipate as winter approaches...

Sweet(s)

I don't do a ton of food shoots, but for whatever the reason most tend to be of sweets; candy, cookies, etc.

This is great, because we always have to have more product on hand than needed for the photos.

I'm not talking about morsels that we've had our hands all over and arranged in the studio, but the extra pieces which are left in the packages after the ones for the beauty shots have been selected.

I'm the lucky guy who gets to keep most of the leftovers.

Yesterday I shot a number of products for Catoctin Popcorn. If you visit their web site you'll see that this is not your everyday popcorn.

Tuxedo is one of their newest specialties, and it tastes as good as it looks in the photo below.

Here's a quick G9 snapshot of some of the other leftovers which currently reside in both my kitchen and my stomach:

While popcorn is this company's specialty, they also have numerous other treats available, including gormet nuts, brittles, and more. Good stuff!

I Made The Cut

I made a submission to former Men's Journal and Outside magazine Photo Editor Rob Haggart's call for photographs to be included in a slide show. He's circulating it among other photo editors of national magazines and assorted big shots.

Hopefully all 297 of us who made it will now become rich and famous.

I understand that there were over 3300 photos submitted, all told.

I'm very pleased to have a shot in the show. Thank you, Rob Haggart!

Call Me Old Fashioned

This post has been deleted due to a blown link (not my fault)!

You Too Can Be a Photographer

If you'd like to try your hand at a Sports Illustrated swimsuit edition photo shoot while saving tens of thousand of dollars in photographic equipment, logistical nightmares, trip planning, and ego massaging, you now have your opportunity right here.

What, pray tell, will they think of next?