Highly Subjective

Location: San Francisco, CA
Model: Elena

As I mentioned last night, I had an opportunity to participate in a nude photography workshop on Sunday, at an historic Victorian house here in San Francisco. When I first heard about it I jumped at the chance to participate, and I was pretty excited about doing it. Unfortunately, it didn’t really work out as well as I had hoped. I think I only have a few usable images after a day of shooting.

Part of the problem is it ended up being not so great timing. I wasn’t quite prepared and I was feeling a bit under the weather. It was also an extremely challenging location in terms of lighting. Anything near a window was extremely bright, and anything away from a window was extremely dark.

The other challenge was the models themselves. While they were all very nice, I personally didn’t think they were quite appropriate for the location. Or, at least, they weren’t quite what I was hoping for.

This workshop consisted of 12 photographers, broken into 4 teams of 3, and 4 models. Each team had 45 minutes shooting each model, giving each photographer 15 minutes of dedicated time with each model. During your 15 minutes you directed the model and you could shoot anywhere that was open. Even though the house was pretty big, there were definitely the popular spots, and I think we did get in each others way a fair amount of the time.

Even though this workshop wasn’t all I had hoped for, I’m still glad I did it. Every time I do something like this I learn a little more about what works, what doesn’t, and what direction I want to go in with my photography. In this particular case I also learned a fair amount about using a strobe (flash) as an off-camera light source. I know almost nothing about flash photography, and I’m very interested in learning more.

This image is of Elena. It’s kind of hard to tell, but she’s laying on her back on a red leather sofa, which is on a red floor rug. I’m standing above her.

Tagged: Color, Elena, Mask, Nudes, People, Women

Location: San Francisco, CA
Model: Luana

In late March I mentioned that I probably wouldn’t be doing any nudes until at least June, but I was wrong. Today, I had the opportunity to participate in a special nude photography workshop at an historic Victorian house here in San Francisco.

It’s been a very long day, and I’m tired, so I’ll save the rest of the story until later.

Tagged: Color, Luana, Nudes, People, Window, Women

Location: San Francisco, CA

As you can see by the last few photos I’ve posted, I’ve been playing around with some of the sliders in Adobe Lighroom. The technique is based on this video tip from Lightroom Killer Tips. I recommend checking out the site if you’re a Lightroom user, it has a lot of great information and downloadable presets.

I’m sure this look doesn’t appeal to everyone, but I personally really like how these images came out. I had actually done this particular image as black and white first, and I’ve been going back and forth on which one I like better. You can see the two versions side-by-side here. Feel free to chime in with your opinion in the comments.

Tagged: Adobe Lightroom, Brides, Brides of March, California, Color, kids, People, San Francisco, Street, Tips

Location: San Francisco, CA

Tagged: Brides, Brides of March, California, Color, People, San Francisco, Street

Location: San Francisco, CA

Tagged: Brides, Brides of March, California, Color, People, San Francisco, Street

Location: San Francisco, CA

Tagged: Brides, Brides of March, California, Color, People, San Francisco, Street

Location: Alameda, CA

This weekend Anne Marie and I participated in a “Industrial Shootout” through the San Francisco Photography Meetup Group. We went to a semi-abandoned Navy base / industrial complex over in Alameda. This is the interior of an abandoned travel trailer. It’s shot through a broken window. I couldn’t actually get inside.

I enjoyed walking around the area, but in general this isn’t the type of photography I like to do. Partially because I prefer to shoot people, but also because I’m more of a solo photographer. I don’t mind walking around with a few people, but once the group gets to be 20-30, things get a bit too crowded.

I ended up a couple of OK images, but unfortunately all of the buildings were locked, so we were limited to exteriors.

Tagged: Abandoned Places, Alameda, California, Color

Location: San Francisco, CA - Edge Studios
Model: Erica Jeanne

This was taken back in January at one of those nude model workshops I participated in. It was actually just a quick test shot to gauge exposure, but I kind of like it.

I still have a few of these images to go through, so I may be posting more. I was actually hoping to do another one of these workshops in the near future, but there won’t be one in April, and I’ll be out of town when the next one happens in May. Oh well, maybe June.

Tagged: Color, Erica Jeanne, Nudes, People, Studio, Women

Location: San Francisco, CA - Vermont Street

I was totally swamped with work this weekend, but we did manage to get out for a bit on Sunday, and go over to BYOBW. It stands for Bring Your Own Big Wheel. It’s an annual race event here in San Francisco. Like all things San Francisco, it involves getting dressed up in a costume and doing something wacky.

Basically, people get together and ride down Vermont Street on Big Wheels, tricycles, toy cars, trash cans, or anything else with wheels. It’s a lot of fun.

In past years, BYOBW went down Lombard Street, but after some complaints (and damage) last year, it moved to Vermont. The two streets are in competition for the title of, The Curviest Street in America.

It’s actually hard to tell from my picture, but these guys really pick up some speed on the way down, especially towards the end. At this point they were flying by me. Don’t believe me? Check out this video shot by Laughing Squid’s, Scott Beale, at about the mid-way point down the street…

Tagged: Big Wheels, BYOBW, California, Color, People, San Francisco, Street, Vermont Street

Location: San Francisco, CA

I think the title of this one speaks for itself.

Tagged: Brides, Brides of March, California, Color, People, Priest, San Francisco, Street