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Just an FYI to everyone. The Eric B Photography blog has moved to SquareSpace. The link is still EricBPhotography.com If you are subscribing to this post please unfollow and head over to the new blog and resubscribe there. Thank you all very much and sorry for any inconvinience. Peace

Model Shoot with Leigha

Hey all. These next few shots are of a friend of mine named Leigha. I swear the camera just loves her. She is a joy to work with. Takes direction well and knows how to improvise to get the best shot. All these shots were taken around town in Raleigh. The weather and lighting was perfect. All these shots were taken with available light.

When taking photos of people the one thing you need to remember is, Make sure the eyes are in focus. If the eyes are out of focus the shot is a bust. Everything hinges on the eyes. Everything. Luckily Leigha knows exactly where to look every time. It’s nice having a model not shy about staring straight into the lens.

Most of the shots taken this day where taken with the Canon 50mm 1.8 prime lens. When shooting models I almost always shoot wide open. I feel this adds a nice feel to the photo by creating a little drama an atmosphere with all the focus on the models eyes. Again it’s all in the eyes.

This shot was one of the few taken with the Canon 17-40mm L series lens. I love this lens for the full body shots. This lens lets you get really creative in the angles you can get. This is not the lens you would want to use for up close portrait shots… most of the time. If you need to use a wide lens like this for close up work be sure you have the lens extended to the longest focal length or you’ll just end up distorting the models features. Now don’t get me wrong, sometimes that can create a very surreal and interesting shot, but not very flattering.

This shot is another case of being in the right place at the right time and having the perfect model. While walking around town there was an empty lot with this killer brick wall. Yeah I know it’s a bit cliché but, the lighting was perfect. The sun was actually behind the brick wall. But it was reflecting off the building behind me creating these great spotlights on the wall. Leigha just jumped right in and started to shine. This pose was all her. I absolutely love it.

Now this is the last shot and is the one that really made the day. There was this dirty, ragged orange cone laying nearby so Leigha grabbed it and struck this amazing pose with it. This was the last shot of the day and was a “One Off” shot. For some reason I only snapped the shutter once. I really love the attitude she is giving the camera. Sometimes it’s those spontaneous shots that can really make a day of walking around town totally worth the effort.

Well all I really hope you like these shots. I would like to thank Leigha for her patience and professionalism during this shoot. Pure magic.

Peace.

Three Buds

Hey all. Here’s a little quickie. While trekking thru the bush…wait that can’t be right. No not much bush in Raleigh. Well, anyway, while trekking down one of the finely tailored trails here in Raleigh with the 100mm macro lens on the Canon 40d, I see these little buds just chilling on a leaf. I just had to shoot them.

The thing to remember when shooting shallow DOF shots like this is the same as always. Be sure you have a solid platform, keep the camera on “servo” focusing and be sure you use the focus selection points so you are in control of the shot and not the camera.

Hope you all like the “Buds” and have a good day.

Peace

del.icio.us Tags: Tree,nature,canon 40d,100mm,park,flower bud,flower,bud,pod,photography

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Darkness

This shot is of one of the nice big trees at Pullen Park here in Raleigh. I love the texture and feel of these trees. Most people at the park never give them a second look.

I shot this with the Canon 17-40mm L lens at 17mm. I then edited the picture in Camera Raw applying some extreme adjustments to get the dark gritty look I felt when I took the shot. This involved moving the Fill Light slider all the way to the maximum setting then increasing the Black slider till the shadows where just right. Moving down I then added the maximum amount of Clarity to really bring out the texture of the bark.  I opted not to use the BW conversion but instead just desaturated the image. For some reason with this picture it seemed to do a better job. I then added a little Duo Tone to the image and added some Vingetting to the edges. Yeah I know this seems to be a trend now and is used ALOT but I have to admit it really does ad a lot mood and drama to a picture. But it is now something that needs to be added to every picture.

Hope you all feel this picture the same as I did.

Peace

del.icio.us Tags: tree,Pullen Park,Canon40d,Raleigh

Night Blue

This is a nice example of being out at exactly the right time. This shot was taken on the trail behind the house. Started the walk with very little hope of getting anything. The sun was just setting but stuck behind some dark clouds. So much for the magic hour. So I just shot a couple quick shots so I wouldn’t feel like it was a  wasted  walk. Nothing worth anything. Well, it started to get really cold so I started heading back to the house when a little sun broke out behind me and created these beautiful colors in the sky and clouds. Just lovely.

Imported the photo into Camera Raw and did some minor adjustments to the clarity and vibrance sliders. Then added just a touch of a vignette.

Peace

del.icio.us Tags: Raleigh,Hedingham,night sky,twighlight,Canon40d,100mm

Snow in Raleigh

Hey all here’s a couple pictures I made from the snow “storm” in Raleigh Monday night. I must say when I woke up on Tuesday it was like a wonderful Winter Wonderland. This shot was taken from the front porch of the house.

Still afraid to take the 40d out into the snow so didn’t get a lot of shots out in the falling snow. Yeah I know the 40d should have no problem handling that snow but, well you know how it is.

This shot was taken later in the day after the snow had stopped falling so I braved the cold and ventured out into the wild. Well, not really this is the cart path that runs along the golf course behind the house. For some reason they plowed the path but not the road. Priorities I guess.

Can’t really say there is a lot of technical stuff in these shots but I thought they gave a real sense of what the snow was like.  It’s such a rare occasion in Raleigh I just had to take some pictures of it. Hope ya all like them

Peace

del.icio.us Tags: Raleigh,snow,weather,winter,canon 40d

MMM Good Pizza

No real insight here. I just really thought this was funny. Not too sure if I want to eat at a pizza place where they have a dumpster especially for the pizza. Pizza so good it deserves it’s own dumpster. Yummy.

Just another case of people not thinking before they do. Anyway I just thought funny.

Peace

del.icio.us Tags: pizza,photography,dumpster,yummy,comic,advertising,Raleigh,Canon 40d