Perfect Practice Photography

I once heard someone say "Practice does not make perfect. Only perfect practice makes perfect." This saying has stuck in my head for years and has effected many aspects of my life, especially photography.

As photographers we are striving to make the best image for the purpose it's intended for. I keep this quote in mind when shooting. I strive to shoot everything I can as 'perfect' as I can. Whatever I miss only becomes more work in post production!

The lovely blond is Charlotte. This was our first time shooting together. We shot for exactly 10 minutes. I was pleased with the result.

• Canon 20D
• f/2.8
• 1/160
• 50mm

BLACK AND WHITE!!!!

Or, maybe it's sepia? Maybe it's more technical like duo tone?! We could also go with 'brown tone." Anyway it's looked at it's still about how the image feels in the end!

I started this image with out-of-camera color and I didn't really like the color all that much. (...even though I used custom K balance!) So, I went with the sepia look. I preferred it much more until I tried to add color last. Since I already worked on the sepia image I decided to overlay the original color back into the sepia version. The overlay of color came out to be just as nice as the sepia!

Check out the color version here.

The gorgeous eye candy above is Elizabeth. We have worked together three times and each shoot we walk away with better and better images!

• Canon 20D
• f/2.5
• 1/1250
• 50mm

One step at a time, but QUICKLY!

I had the chance to travel to Tampa Florida this past weekend for another Supershoots event. It was the best time to head to Florida since it snowed in Illinois right after the plane took off! The event went extremely well! Gorgeous girls, fantastic make up artists, and participants ready and willing to pick up new knowledge to improve their images.

It's still amazing to me what can happen with lighting in 1/125th of a second. This whole sundown situation really gets those synapses flying. Everything hits at once! It goes from simple things like "am I holding my camera for the horizon is flat?" to less obvious changes like "is the lighting ration between the strobe and sun correct or even close?!" And a million other things. Like, I CAN'T HEAR BECAUSE THE OCEAN IS LOUD! Who knew? I don't live near it! The loudest noise in the Mid West is corn blowing in the wind or maybe a tractor driving by once in awhile!

The fine lady above is Mandy. A big thanks to Kenn Ellis who provided some needed equipment and acted as a human light stand. I couldn't have made this shot without him. Also a big thanks to dK for allowing me to shoot with his 20d!

• Canon 20D
• f/8
• 1/125th
• Vivitar 285HV Flash