Gifted spatial photographer - Brian Ulrich

Stumbled across a really cool art photographer while listening to The Story on American Public Radio.

Brial Ulrich. He does a lot of great work with space - interesting spaces like darkened malls and thrift shops across the United States. His work really captures the true personality behind the veneers we live in. Also, you'll really see the stark simplicity and often beauty of the spaces people create. He recently received the Guggenheim fellowship for his work.

Baby, Snap Me One More Time

A couple shots of a very cute baby friend I shot! I think you'll like his little smile! In one of the pics, he has the look of a little Buddha!

Flames and Fire

Been a while since I have posted and I have a ton of new pics, but was reminded last night of some that a I took a while back that I love.

I did several photo shoots with the now defunct "Phoenix Projekt" a few years back and came back with some amazing photos. All of them are still out spinning, eating, or dancing with fire - it really was amazing to see this group perform.

Taking fire pics has grown very popular over the last few years - perhaps because fire spinning has grown more popular. And there are usually two types of fire-spinning pics - the "blurred circle" and the "captured flame."



With the blurred circle, the shutter remains open, allowing the light to blur together. Often times, this is the only pic you can capture since the photos are taken in low light and most lenses aren't fast enough to freeze the fire in movement. Especially with a point and shoots. And then the captured flame usually depends on a high ISO and fast lens - especially if the flame is in motion.

A couple of Anne + Chris!

Fun, fun, fun! Anne and Chris had an amazing artistic flair! More pics from this wedding to come!

Great spur of the moment portraits can come anytime and any place. When shooting as a photojournalist at a wedding, event or location, I am constantly in the search for moments that tell a story about a person. Sometimes I catch them in the moment, and sometimes I actually create the moment.



In both cases, the images can be beautiful, but create a space for the person's personality to shine through. Getting great separation from background really helps focus in on the person... I often love to try and find relevance through backgrounds, but sometimes the simplicity of focus on the person has an even greater impact.

More Randsburg pics

Thought I'd throw up a couple more from Randsburg, while I was at it...

Putting the DR in HDR

Two posts... can you believe it?? Two in one day!

I had a chance to finally play around with HDR (High Density Resolution) photography. It's a great processing technique that allows photographers to display scenes like people really see them - with multiple areas of light. Basically - your eyes don't simply lock into a single focal point, rather they run across the various lit areas - much like you might look at a scene.

The first pic I chose to work in was taken in Randsburg, CA - an old ghost town near a goldmine, that still has folks living there. It's a cool place - when you live in LA, it's easy to forget weird little gems like this exist in CA.

The HDR was relatively simple to pick up, thanks to a great tutorial by Trey Ratcliff. It's on the intermediate-to-advanced Photoshop scale and requires some extra plug-ins - but the results from his tips are excellent... and quick. Hope you enjoy - I will be playing around with this quite a bit in the coming months!

Eyes of Men

The eyes of man.

Details, Details

The details... yes, the details. People put so much work into creating an event that captures their spirit. This artistry is what makes weddings so special and so great to photograph! Check out Rachel and Craig's ocean theme -

Wedding of the Week!

Okay, so it's been a LONG time since I've posted to the blog - I promise to start doing more. But wedding season kept me incredibly busy this year... so I will have lots and lots of pics to share over the coming months!

That said - I'm excited to announce that one of my weddings was named Wedding of the Week from Project Wedding - a site from the folks at eHarmony.

Ted and Christina's event was a blast to shoot. She's a great interior designer up in Moorpark - check out her site when you have chance. Their family was great and the event was stunning... and done on an incredible budget!

One of my favorite aspects of their wedding was the unified design elements - I will show some more pictures of them soon. Her use of black and white, combined with flashes of red really made the event stunning!

Check out the Wedding of the Week profile here!