North Texas Travel Photos

We've been doing a lot of commercial work in and around Amarillo TX and other parts of North Texas the last couple of months. Not wanting to waste any opportunities, we scoured the area online and on the road for interesting photographic subjects. 

Any place can have lots of interesting photographs just waiting to found by the right artists. Enjoy our views of the Texas Panhandle and North Texas, and look around where ever you are for those great photographs waiting to be made.

Most of these photos are available for sale at my Foto Time gallery. If you want a print or legal download of any of my photographs on this blog, check in my gallery. If it's not there, message me and I'll add it to the gallery of available art.

 

Enjoy!

Portrait or Small Product Portable Studio on the Cheap

It's actually easy (and often relatively cheap) to make some of your own items for a portable studio.

I've made a PVC backdrop stand that easily disassembles for transport. I use dyed canvas drop cloths and other large runs of cheap materials from my wife's fabric store clearance shopping runs.

A portable strobe with umbrellas, soft boxes, and other light modifiers is essential. Getting the exposure as good as possible in camera will help the final image to be easier to manipulate.

I used a large format camera trick I learned years ago to make the product stand out. Tilt. As in Tilt/Shift/Swing. On a large format camera, you can tilt or swing the lens board or the  film back to change focus areas (focal plane) without affecting depth of field. 

Since I'm not using a large format  camera (any more) with all the movements, I used an image manipulation software program, in this case ACDSee Ultimate 8, to mimic the effect.

Here is the final image from one of this week's product shoots:

Explore your own options and ideas!

 

New Photos For Sale

New Photos added to my FotoTime gallery.

Check them out!

You choose your size, material, cropping... 

Sent direct to you from a professional lab.

 

What does a $50K camera look like?

Now you know!

It is one of a very small number of a special production run. Recently came up for sale and fetched $50,000.00

An extreme example, to be sure. But, quality products aren't cheap. A dud of a photograph can be made by someone shooting with this, tho. And an award winner can still taken with a 50 year old Yashicamat. It's not all about the equipment. But sometimes, a photographer needs a little more than the basics or consumer models.

Know your craft! Know your tools!

 

Best of 2015 and 2016!

Meeting all your photographic needs.

Portrait, real estate, product, fine art.

Voted Best of 2015 and 2016 by users of Thumbtack.com!

Accessories Part 1 - Tripods and Flashes

Accessories:

Two of the most useful accessories for DSLRs are the same two accessories we recommended when we all shot consumer grade 35mm film SLRs. A tripod and a flash.

First, the tripod. There are certain types of photo situations where a tripod is a virtual necessity. Long exposures, multiple exposures, extreme close up, and extreme telephoto (or telescope). Situations where it is handy but not vital are portraits (esp groups), architectural, panoramas, and HDR.

Any time the camera needs to be in the same exact place for a series of exposures, a tripod helps ensure that. Any time camera shake can affect the photo's sharpness, such as any high magnification work or very long telephoto, a tripod  is vital.

Certain types of HDR photography benefit from keeping the camera in a repeatable position, too. If you are trying to photograph a public place without people everywhere in the frame, an HDR program that lets you stack exposures and "ghost" any moving objects relies on tripod use. Panoramic stitching is also much easier if your camera pivots around the same, repeated, spot. 

Second: flash / strobes. A flash or strobe adds a power punch that built in flashes aren't able to deliver. Also, the lens being further away from the flash helps make a more natural look and can prevent "red eye" in portraits. Some higher end flashes allow for off camera use, further enhancing our ability to model our subject with the light.

That's my two first choices.

Source:Free Silhouettes Photographer I from ClipartLogo.com

Selective Focus Post Process

Want a blurred background in your portrait but don't have a fast lens? Many post processing programs have a sharp/blur tool. Play around with the settings to get the most natural looking effect.

BEFORE

AFTER