Faces

People vs Things

I've found that I'm naturally better at taking pictures of "things" rather than people. On Saturday I was asked to take pictures of kids with Santa for a church near where I live. I don't think I picked the best setup and the lighting was difficult, but oh well. Gotta roll with the challenges you're given. Here are some of my favorites, good and bad. Raw, unedited, red eye, as they were in camera.

Back it up!

I have a digital arts class that I'm currently enrolled in with my final picture due tomorrow, Thursday the 5th. I spent two hours in Photoshop working on it. I saved it to my flash drive and deleted the raw data. Aaaaaand then proceeded to wash and dry my flash drive in the laundry. Destroying my final project, a 64gb flash drive and everything else I had saved on there.............. The Cloud, an external hard drive, a back up flash drive, anything but just back your stuff up if it really matters to you. Learn from my mistake! All I have left are the jpegs you see below and they aren't high res enough to be used for my final. So guess who is scrambling today? And I call myself a photographer....................

Fish-like, Filters and Fun

One 11mgp GoPro, a swimming pool and a willing model gets you some interesting, ethereal photos. But I'm kinda in a going crazy mode with the filters in Photoshop, so this is what you get. Ready. Aim.

Technical Difficulties

I took on a free assignment for a charter school a few days ago. Night time, children, flame, movement and all candids. Well it turned out horribly on my end. I was over my head completely and actually had to leave the "job" early as it just wasn't working. Good thing it was for free and they were good natured about it all. So the event taught me I have soooo much to work on in my photography. Admittedly the set up was very hard, but it was still disheartening. Historically all my focus and talent development has been with just natural light. Whatever the sun and clouds gave me. But there is a whole other world out there of flash photography that I really need to devote some time to learning. Even if just to the point of using a speed light. I don't think my personality will ever take me to lighting set up off the camera or slaved to my shutter, but I can see I do need to do more with flash than I have previously. Maybe I'll get a speed light for xmas then? And to prove a point here is a picture taken with outside lighting. Check out this blog to see similar things and be amazed at what's possible. *I'm happy with my landscapes, fine art, motorsports and posed modeling pictures. But night time, candids, street scenes and such really need some work on my part.

Beauty can be....

Beauty, or let's just even say interest, can be found in even the most mundane things. I recently had to do a photo shoot at school with the theme being "Close Up or Detail". As you guessed, 90% of the class presented photos of flowers or grass or things of that nature. Pun most definitely intended. I instead chose to focus on the more mundane. Things we would just normally walk by, the common place. But when looked at from a different perspective, I hope their beauty is made apparent. Or at least how I choose to define beauty, beauty being something that captures the eye and incites further interest.

The next few days, look around and see the beauty in the world you might normally pass by.

X Marks The Spot

For too long I've ignored watermarking my photos. I always figured that announcing they were copyright protected and having my metadata in originals on my external hard drive would be enough. Enough to win a court case if for some reason one of my photos made another party money they weren't sharing with me. It's not easy to make money off your photographic work, so why make it easier for someone else? Here we have some photos of recent day trips with my watermark on them, from fall themes to vertigo inducing perspectives. Really the stairwell one made my legs quiver so much I had to sit down, still got my shot.

B&B

Beauty and Beast. Each of these images has been in some way enhanced in photoshop, CS6, from mild to no-so-mild.

Zombie School

What better place to do a Zombie themed shoot than a school? I mean, they eat brains right? Oh, it's an old abandoned school? Even better!! Model before:

Model after:

Make up by ariana.fabulous.hair@gmail.com Photos by yours truly.

Before and After

And this is why you should move out of the Auto mode on your DSLR. With it on Auto: And with it in just Aperature mode: See the difference in warmth? Tone? Take a risk, turn some knobs. You can always take extra and hope for a happy accident.... Or even just watch some youtube videos even!

It's all in the timing!

This is why I try to keep my camera within the same room as me at all times. This is last night's sunset from the back of my house.

Animal Style.

While trekking in South America I saw tons of animal bones. This one was laid out perfect and was right next to the trail. Of doom. No, it was a great trail.

Wally.

The San Diego Zoo is such a tricky place to shoot. So many people, glass, bars, uncooperative animals. I'm really happy to find a shot that I like after a trip there.

Air. Sky.

Set your GoPro to video mode, put it under a jump and hope you can pull a decent still frame out of it at 48fps. The final version was cropped and rotated slightly.

Self Portrait

Timer. Tripod. Action. A self portrait of me bouldering at the beach north of Children's Pool in La Jolla.

Classic

I think every photographer in San Diego has taken a variation of this picture. Scripps Pier.

Creature

This was shot mid morning off La Jolla Shores. I'm the subject and I captured the photo with a GoPro Hero3 camera with it set at 5mp per photo. I had to swim down about 20' but it was worth it.

San Diego

I'm currently taking a photoshop class at a local community college, Mesa, and as part of that we shoot our own photos for use in the program. I like to do as much as I can "in camera" as I just find that more enjoyable and a better use of my current skill. The latest project was dealing with urban scenes and city scapes. I had an impossible time photoing people surreptitiously so I changed my focus on finding normally busy spots in the city when they are empty. The opposite of how you imagine public places in a city of millions to be.

Buda Hungary

From the castle on Buda Hill, in Hungary. I love how this perspective captures the fairy tale feeling expected of an Eastern European castle. The day was very overcast so I messed with my white balance to get the warm effect.

Wien (Vienna) Austria

On the grounds early in the morning one winter day. Schonbrunn Palace, Wien Austria. That morning there was ice all over the pathways and I feel this photo accurately captures this frigid essence.

Austin MotoGP race 2013

I was able to attend the inaugural COTA MotoGP race in Austin Texas this year. Despite not securing a photo/press pass I still was able to get some action with just a 200mm zoom and hand held shooting.

Yellowstone Morning

I really really wanted a picture of a bear or wolf during this year's visit to Yellowstone. While I was never able to accomplish this I was able to capture some ephemeral mist around the various pools and springs. I love the color, texture and light in this photo.

An Introduction

Hello, my name is Rowdy and I am a photographer based in San Diego specializing in portraiture, sports, fashion and landscapes. Currently I am open for projects in the local area and am happy to exchange my time for prints with you. In this space you'll see examples of my work and the stories behind each image. Please feel free to contact me or leave a comment and I will reach you as soon as I'm able. Thank you and enjoy my vision!