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 -