The Waterfalls of Greenville

Greenville has some really amazing waterfalls downtown, some are man-made, and some are natural. Here are some pictures of the natural waterfalls in Reedy Park. All are hand held with my 11-16mm tokina f/2.8 lens and graduated ND filter.

Steak Break

Monday night I made one of the best steaks of my life. I just had to get some pictures of them!! Sorry for the copyright's over top of these, these are going to be submitted for sale to some restaurant businesses soon. I'm hungry now...

Downtown Greenville, SC 2.0

I liked my last pictures of greenville, but they weren't really my best work. They really didn't do the city justice.  It was during some really tough lighting and I was moderately rushed to meet my friends for some wings after.  You always take better pictures the second time you shoot a location as well.  This time, I went out a little earlier in the day this time. This really brought out the colors. It also helped that some of the trees are starting to finally change color. Here are some of my favorites... I'll be posting more very soon! Stay tuned!

Stay tuned for the waterfalls of Greenville... coming soon

The Product of Boredom

So a few days ago I decided to take a few shots from around the apartment. Here are the rest of them. I know its not the most interesting subject matter, but its fun to make it try to look interesting.

People's Choice Award

I got word that I won an award in the Capture Rochester contest that consumed my whole summer. If your not familiar with it, the Capture Rochester contest was a project put on by the local newspaper to attract Rochester area photographers to submit their work. The images would then be voted on and the winners would be placed in a photo book about Rochester. My image was one of the few images picked out of more than 25,000 images to win the People's Choice Award. Thanks a lot to everyone that voted for me and stuck by me throughout the entire contest! The winning image is below. It was taken during an ice storm outside my old dorm at Roberts Wesleyan College.

"I couldn't make it to class" - People's Choice Award Winner 2008

Photographic Eye

Yesterday, I decided to do what I used to do a lot when I first got my hands on a camera; take pictures around the house. You would be surprised if you knew the awesome pictures you can capture in your house. Most people think they need to travel to some exotic location to take great pictures, this is totally not true. By developing your photographic eye, great pictures can be made right in your living area!

The problem with being a photographer

Just a bit of a rant: I was thinking about this the other day. When your constantly the one taking the pictures, your never in any of them. I do lots of fun things that I would love to have pictures of. I wish I had beautifully exposed, professional pictures of me hiking, running, playing tennis, skiing, shopping at walmart, and driving BMW's at high speeds. 

Outside of setting the self timer or trying to do the cliche myspace-point-the-camera-in-the-mirror pose, your not going to be able to take many pictures of yourself. Sure other people can take pictures of you, but they never get the lighting right, they typically have a high powered wash-you-out flash, and catch you with your eyes closed.  I can hand them my camera, but they have no clue what an aperture or a ISO is! Maybe its just because I'm a photographer, but I find that its very difficult to like a picture that someone else takes of me. I've noticed that some other photographers have had the same problem! Some of them remedy this by doing the "I'll shoot you, if you shoot me" thing. Maybe I should do that. 

I just wish I was friends with a troop of skilled photographers that didn't mind bringing their cameras when I'm skiing down a hill at 40mph. 

Tonya's Senior Portraits

A few weeks ago I got the chance to shoot some senior portraits for Tonya. She has a great smile and was very easy to work with. I had to keep them fairly standard as yearbooks have very strict standards these days. Here are a few of my favorites from the shoot:

The Importance of Wide Angle Lenses

Sometimes it takes a lot of experimenting to get the shot you like just right. By using lenses of small focal lengths (under 15mm on a cropped sensor DSLR, or under 20mm on a full frame) you can create very interesting compositions by either compressing or distorting the subject of your photo (be careful with wide angle lenses and people... unless you don't like them). In this shot of the Blue Cross Arena in Rochester, NY, I used a Tokina 11-16mm lens mounted on a D300 to achieve a very eye popping composition. 

Blue Cross Arena - Downtown Rochester, NY

Notice how the symmetry also makes the image interesting. I was only a few feet away from the corner of the building when I took this a few months ago on a sunny (rare) day in Rochester. Wide angle lenses exaggerate the difference between things that are near and far. Use this tool to get those in-your-face compositions that really pop off the page.

Dori & Daniel's Wedding

I know a lot of you have been excited to see the wedding pictures I took from the last weekend. I have good news! I just completed them! 

Dori and Daniel's wedding started with a beautiful candle-lit ceremony in an old  single room church that was built in the 1700's. After this we took some family pictures and headed off to the reception dinner. The reception was at King's Tree Eatery in downtown Inman, SC. It was a small cozy place with plenty of sweet tea, coffee, and a warm fireplace. It was the perfect match for a smaller casual wedding. 

I have to admit, I was a bit nervous about shooting the ceremony, as it was my first candle-lit wedding. I wanted to use minimal flash to preserve the unique lighting from the glowing candles.  I surprised myself and the results came out fantastic! I hope you enjoy them as well! A big thanks goes out to Dori & Daniel for letting me cover their wedding day. A few of my favorites are below: