Exp: 1/160s @ f/4.0, ISO 100
Gear: Olympus E-P1, Leica 50mm Summicron

This was taken at North Chagrin Reservation. There was an area right in the parking lot full of bluets so I spent about an hour shooting different angles.  This is my favorite.  Proof you don’t have to go far to find a photograph.

Exp: 1/250s, f/4.0, ISO 200
Gear: Canon 40D, 70-200F4L IS,  25mm ext tube

I got up very early two Sunday mornings ago and headed down to Furnace Run Metro Park in Richfield to shoot some daffodils.  The park’s website says that the land the daffodil trail is on was owned by the first metro parks director and he planted the first bulbs along the trail.  There are now more than 30 thousand daffodils every April along the 0.6 mile trail.  I shot this one with a very thin depth of field to showcase the great detail in the flower’s center while producing a background that looks very much like a painting.

Exp: 1/60s, F/2, ISO 400
Gear: Leica M6, 35mm Summicron, Ilford XP2 Super 400

You read the title right this shot was taken at the 2010 Cleveland Autoshow on B&W film.  The digital image was scanned by Dodd Camera here in Cleveland.  I’m starting to experiment with some film since I’ve never owned a film camera other than some disposable ones.  So far I’ve been happy with what I’m getting.  I good tip for getting clean shots at a busy auto show is use a wider angle lens.  Here I used a 35mm.  It forces you to get closer to the subject to fill the frame so people will be less likely to walk through your shot.  It’s also easier to hand hold wider angle lenses in low light.

Exp: 1/20 sec @ f/4.0, ISO 100
Gear: Olympus E-P1, Leica 90mm Tele-Elmarit-M, Tripod

Spring is slowly coming to NE Ohio so I’ve been refreshing the look of the website.  I’m replacing the galleries with iPhone friendly controls.   Keep an eye on the blog.  I have something pretty cool coming up soon.

Exp: 1/320s @ f/10, ISO 200
Gear: Canon 40D, 400F4L DO, handheld

Well 2009 was pretty eventful I visited 2 more national parks, Grand Canyon and Yosemite.  Three of my images were published in David Busch’s Digital Photography Bucket List: 100 Great Digital Photos You Must Take Before You Die.  You should check it out.

Along those sames lines I was able to go out and shoot the Reno Air Races.  This was a trip on my own bucket list.  The image above was taken out on the pylons.  Shooting the racers is very challenging. The planes are moving fast but a slow shutter speed is required to not have stopped props.  So good panning technique is necessary for sharp images.  For this image I dusted off Silver Efex Pro applying a red filter to give drama to the sky.  Click the image above for a desktop size image.

Exp: 1/2s @ f/8, ISO 200
Gear: Canon 40D, 17-55F2.8 EF-S @38mm, tripod, remote release

I took a day and stopped in Yosemite National Park on a recent business trip.  Only having a day decided I’d make the most of my time. I started along the upper part of the park making my way down to the valley for lunch. After a short hike I drove up to glacier point for sunset. This shot is the last one I made long after the sun had set. Everyone was heading back to their car but I was still shooting. A couple stopped me and ask what I was doing and after showing them the back of the camera they said. We didn’t even notice the beautiful colors. One thing photography has taught me is to slow down and notice things that are happening.  Especially to be sensitive to the light.

Exp: 1/250s @ f/2.8, ISO 160
Gear: Olympus E-P1, Leica 50mm f2

I was showing some friends shots from a recent CPS model shoot I was at.  I was explaining to them that I was just dropping off a CD but decided to stay so the only camera I had with me was my E-P1 and one lens, the Leica 50mm. So I continued explaining about all the manual focusing and  their only comment after looking at the pretty models was “must have been rough.”

Meet Henry and his little brother Winston.  These two made for some fun photography on a recent puppy portrait shoot.  Some how we were able to get through our hour shoot without getting arrested by a ranger at Squires Castle for not being on a leash.  All is well since if Henry had been on a leash I would have never have captured this shot.  Have you ever seen a happier dog!

If you are interested in a pet photo session for you favorite furry friend don’t hesitate to contact me through the form on the Portraits Page.

Exp: 1/200s @ f/4.0, ISO 200 off-camera flash E-TTL
Gear: Canon 40D, 70-200mm F4L IS @111mm, 580EXII, ST-E2

Here’s a shot of my friend Amie (check out her blog here).  I got her to pose for me to do some portraits.  I set the shot up to get this interesting bridge and fall color behind her but the shot just wasn’t working.  Luckily her boyfriend Todd came along.  So I got him doing something useful, he’s holding my reflector and 580EXII camera left.  The flash is bouncing into the white side of the reflector making for a nice soft light source on Amie.  The exposure was setup for the background and then I let the E-TTL properly expose Amie.  You’ll notice there is a lot of gear listed for this shot.  For most of my shots I try to keep gear to a minimum but without a flash this shot just doesn’t work.

Exp: 1/50s @ f/5.6, ISO250
Gear: Olympus E-P1, Leica 50mm f/2.0

A lot of people write about “zooming with your feet” and tell you to go out an buy prime lenses.  Instead of doing this I thought I’d explain my experience using prime lenses.  The major advantage I get with using prime lenses is visualization.  I know that at a certain distance from a subject it is a certain size.  From experience I know how the frame will drop around that subject when I bring the viewfinder up to my eye.  This makes for a much more fluid process of making images.  There isn’t any fiddling around with the zoom ring to try to include or exclude portions of the image to frame it like you saw it.  So when I see the image its very easy to adjust the exposure and capture the frame.  I didn’t have to look around the viewfinder to look for things sneaking in on an edge or for some funny merger ruining the image.  I’ve captured what I saw and can bring that back the viewer.

My other thought is that it feels much more natural to shoot with a prime lens.  Which makes sense because our eyes are fixed focal length.  As we move around the world we change our perspective on an object.  Shouldn’t we do the same when we are photographing?

Here’s a little activity just to see how you’re really using your zoom lenses.  Go through your images and see what focal lengths you are actually using.  This may surpise you, it was a surpise to me.  Even though I have an infinite number of choices along the zoom range of a lens most of my shots were taken at either the widest setting or the most telephoto setting.  How is this for you?