SparksArtsMedia

An experiment with using blogger

2010-01-03T18:45:00.000-08:00

I've been frustrated with my previous posts only having one photo show up so this post is an experiment with the formatting of this blog using blogger. I hope to have 3 photos posted taking about half the width of the blog.

An Apple In My Kitchen

2009-12-02T20:41:00.000-08:00

My wife asked me to bake her an apple pie, so... I got out my camera.

Unsung photo gear

2009-10-24T10:16:00.000-07:00

When I shoot outdoors I prefer to wear boots. I never know exactly where I'm going to want to be and boots give me more flexibility. With this set where Shealyn is in the creek, I had to get into the water to get the point of view I wanted. If you are going to do non-urban location shooting, I think a great pair of water proof boots are a must.

2009-10-22T19:00:00.000-07:00

Shealyn was just finishing a change in make-up as I took this photo. What will follow is her set in a creek of spring run off. Very cold. I must say that it was Shealyn that wanted to do the set in the creek, so I wasn't the mean taskmaster here!

Anatomy of a photoshoot

2009-09-08T21:37:00.000-07:00

I had this concept in my head for a while and found a model who's look I liked. I wanted to do some fashion/beauty/music. I've spent much of my life being a musician so this idea resonated with me. I still do not have the shot that I started out with in me head. But I knew we wouldn't get that one shot, because the location we used won't give the look I envisioned, but it offered a lot of other nice looks. The look I have in me head will have to wait for fall and another shoot.

Zoreh is a beautiful girl. She needed help with instrumental posture and if you play strings, you will see the deficiency. Tammy is a lady you will only see in the first picture here. But the photos would not have been as good without her. Tammy is my MUA (make-up artist)/photographer assistant. I've used Tammy a number of times. If I want a gal to look her best, Tammy is my go to guy, er.. gal.

The way I work is to meet the two at our location and let Tammy get to work while I set up and play with the light before shooting.

Here we started working about 6:30 am because I love the creamy golden light of early morning. Once make-up was done we got rolling.

This shot was early in the session. The sun is low and coming at her from camera right, leaving a very dark area in the bottom of the frame. I had Tammy climb over the edge of the bridge and hold my TTL flash at the edge of the bridge, just out of the frame on the left, pointed down towards Zoreh's legs and feet. To get the shot right (the way I wanted it) took several tries to get the light balanced. This is a shot I could not have gotten with out help. Getting help is my tip of the day.

Megan

2009-08-14T14:17:00.000-07:00

Megan recently graduated from the U of U in Dance. I borrowed the cars from my neighbor.

2009-08-12T15:32:00.000-07:00

Last night I did a shoot with a trio of models and 4 high end sports cars. Here is the slide show version of the shoot.

Dance Concert

2009-07-29T09:13:00.000-07:00

I do concert work. It is one form of photography that I just love. I was hired to shoot a dance concert in WVC and these are some of the photos from the concert.

Facebook liars

2009-06-29T08:57:00.000-07:00

Facebook made themselves into liars today as they had advertised customizable URL's for fan pages which were running prior to May 31st and which had a minimum of 25 fans. A few hours before the announced time to get a custom URL FB changed the requirements. This makes the first announcement a lie and makes Facebook a liar. We now know they cannot be trusted.

Mashable posted about the availablity and the change of rules. Mashable also posted a link on its FB page where FP page owners could find each other and become fans of each others pages to reach the magic 100 members.

As I went about joining fan pages and posting a hello, I received a message from Facebook that I had been temporarily (no set time was declared) be suspended from posting to the wall because of over use. The message stated that I had been warned, but in fact, I have still to receive any warning or email or facebook mail about this.

Today Facebook is a bunch of misleading lying jerks.

Welcome Sevies

2009-05-28T04:51:00.001-07:00

A day at OJH

2009-05-28T03:29:00.001-07:00

Fashion Shoot

2009-05-25T19:53:00.001-07:00

Fashion of Katie McMinn

2009-05-25T08:29:00.000-07:00

I met Katie McMinn at the Spring SLC Fashion Stroll and we collaborated on a shoot with a couple of models. I found this nice little pasture with a nice little red barn and we shot there. I'm not done editing the shoot yet, but here are some samples from the shoot.

SLC Spring Fashion Stroll

2009-04-19T13:27:00.000-07:00

I have my main post on this at my main website. But here are a couple of photos.

Collection of my theatre and stage work

2009-03-30T12:13:00.000-07:00

Yes, I spelled theatre that way because I like the British spelling best. So I have been on Flickr for almost a year. I just realized today, that you can take a photo set and view it as a slide show! So, here is a slide show of some of my theatre work. Here are a couple of recent photos from Mulan:

Photo Shoot Planning

2009-03-21T11:13:00.000-07:00

I have two ideas for photo shoots that I am getting ready to do. I don't plan so well, so I am going to think through the shoot here and post my progress on the shoots here.

The first shoot is with a dancer. I plan to do this on a stage. I am hoping for some dramatic silhouettes and some nice dancer in action shots as well. I have posted a casting call on Model Mayhem and have gotten several models responding back. I have picked one to work with first. The next step is to settle on a date and time, but I think we are close to setting that. The second step now is to find a venue. I have one in mind, but I need a back-up.

The second shoot is a fitness series for a stock agency. I have a couple of models expressing interest, and a fitness trainer that may help me put this together. I want to do two shoots. One featuring a solo model and I think I have found a girl for this. The other I see as a group with focus on one or two models with the others in the background to add depth and character to the photos.

One of the things that I struggle with is costuming. I am not in a position to go buy clothing for my models, so I have to rely on what they have. I'm also not so sure about what to ask them to wear.

What I want from each of these shoots are photos that would work well in a stock portfolio, as well as those that would help me land future fashion or beauty work for advertisers or magazines.

Mulan Jr. Stage Play

2009-03-08T12:23:00.000-07:00

Mulan Jr. the stage play of the Disney movie is coming to Olympus Jr. High School. I am the musical director and photographer. The show opens Wednesday March 11th 2009 and closes Friday March 13th. Call OJH for tickets (801) 646-5224

Check out my website:
http://www.tomsparksphotography.com

Valentines Dance Photo Session

2009-02-17T22:42:00.000-08:00

These kids had fun being with each other. One of the things I enjoy most teaching children is watching them learn to be people. Some kids struggle, but others find people to enjoy being with.

I did my first group/couple portrait session last week at a school Valentines Dance. I had an assistant and things went pretty smoothly.

New Facebook TOS hostile to photographers

2009-02-16T12:53:00.000-08:00

Facebook has changed their TOS (terms of service) to make everything you ever upload theirs to use however they wish FOREVER, even if you quit Facebook. There are a several articles on the internet about this. Many photographer friends are quiting Facebook because they cannot deal with the lack of control over the material of their livelyhood.

I urge everyone to demand that Facebook change this policy or quit Facebook. I would say give them one week to fix it, or exit Facebook.

Another article about Facebook TOS

Please share this article with your friends!

Jill Sparks Studio Recital

2009-02-01T15:10:00.001-08:00

Alex Clawson Eagle Court of Honor

2009-01-31T08:30:00.001-08:00

2009-01-30T20:55:00.000-08:00

I went out looking for something interesting or different and found this scene. As I started working on it in Lightroom by Adobe I was trying to get rid of some purple fringing along the strong contrast of the snow and the rails in the foreground. Then I started playing with it and came up with this. It is not supposed to be realistic, but tell me what you think of it.

Emina

2009-01-27T02:18:00.001-08:00

A former student of mine who is now a rocket scientist.

Cheer Leaders

2009-01-27T00:08:00.000-08:00

Sometimes Cheerleaders get a bad rap. Sometimes it seems that they are bubbly, highly social, airheads. I once had a student who had a t-shirt which read "Cheerleaders are dancers gone retarded". I have to admit that as a teacher I sometimes see cheerleaders that fit that description. This year at the school where I teach the cheer squad seems very disciplined, polite, and frankly, not spoiled.

Today while I was in a break from rehearsing my students in the musical I got a chance to watch the cheerleaders practice. They were disciplined, listening to their coach, working together. With the stunts they do they have to pay attention, work together, trust each other, and be there for each other. I gained a new respect for what they do. It is hard work with risk involved. Here are some photos from that practice. The light was coming in quite strongly and made for some difficult shooting. Not such a bright subject, but very bright background. Here they are:

Desiree and Junior

2009-01-24T22:39:00.001-08:00

This slide show is a work in progress.

Dave and Jess Wedding Slideshow

2009-01-17T23:22:00.001-08:00

Just discovered Animoto

2009-01-11T22:49:00.001-08:00

The King of Instruments

2008-12-24T13:26:00.000-08:00

I had a few down moments earlier this week whille I was waiting for a client to change outfits and I spent some time exploring this beautiful instrument. This is the organ at Libby Gardner Hall at the University of Utah

Dancers from backstage

2008-12-21T20:09:00.000-08:00

I shot these girls from the wings durring performance, and back stage. Sometimes I can arrange to shoot in a dress rehearsal and then I can have better angles to shoot from.

Team Photos

2008-12-06T09:51:00.000-08:00

Team and Group photography is something that I am trying to get into. Today I got to shoot a couple of this team when they decided to shun the photographer hired by the rec center.
I'm keeping the official team photo of the net for a while, but here are some other fun shots.

The top photo happened just two seconds after the coach suggested that the boys hold hands with the girls. Boy o boy if those girls didn't scatter fast!!

Childrens Portraits

2008-11-30T10:24:00.000-08:00

I had the lovely opportunity to photograph this family yesterday. Here are some of the photos of the children. They were very fun to photograph. Some of these are candid photos that were taken while getting other people ready to shoot.

Choir Photo Published on ChoralNet.org

2008-11-25T15:29:00.000-08:00

I just went to one of my favorite choral web sites and the first thing I noticed was one of my photos being featured. It will probably only run for a week there before they refresh, but it is cool to see it published. For choral directors and musicians, a favorite site is choralnet.org

Olivia

2008-11-15T19:53:00.000-08:00

Olivia is a vocal performance major at the U of U. She was very easy to work with. Her face is beautiful in motion. I tried to capture a sense of how animated her face is. So many of her photographs were so nice, that it was hard to whittle the pile down to just a handful. Here is that handful. I think it is so totaly awesome to spend an hour or two with someone and just focus on catching them at their best, and working to make them look good. Olivia made it easy.

University of Utah Singers

2008-11-02T12:28:00.000-08:00

I had the privelage of photographing the University of Utah Singers last Sunday. They are a superb choir. Many members are friends of mine. I would give my left .... uh, anyway, I'd love to be able to sing with them for a year. Under the direction of Dr. Brady Allred, the choir tours and wins acclaim (and contests) all over the world. They are a beautiful group, but the real beauty must be seen with the ears.

Jazz Concert at OJH

2008-10-21T22:11:00.000-07:00

So last night we sponsored a jazz concert at my school, in my classroom. We brought in the band Zone Azule. The place was lousy for taking great photos, but I have processed a couple of them that have turned out to look interesting, but sooc they suck.

Our Children

2008-10-12T09:52:00.000-07:00

I had an unusual experience yesterday, one that made me take stock of my life and what is important. I have 4 beautiful children ages 9 to 20. As an adult we can get busy and forget to take the time to cherish the few short years we get to mentor these beautiful souls.

Yesterday morning I took my 3rd child, my eleven year old David, to the state soccer tournament. It was cold and a few snowflakes were falling as the boys went through their 8 am warm-ups. I was getting my self ready with my chair, camera gear etc. when I heard people calling me from the team side of the field. Not sure what they wanted with me I began to saunter over to the team bench and was directed to the corner of the field where I saw one of the coaches on the ground motioning for me to come over. I realized that there was a boy on the ground at his feet.

In an instant I knew who the boy was. It was David. My heart leaped because I also knew what had happened. When I got to them, David was shaking and his lips were blue. His eyes were rolled back and he was unresponsive. I no longer felt the biting cold of the morning as I tried to comfort my boy. David has had seizures three times before but this was the first time I actually witnessed the seizure. I wasn't panicked, but worried. I knew that he would get through it. I just held him and someone brought a blanket to keep him warm. In a few minutes he quit shaking and a few minutes later his eyes opened in a way that I could tell he was again aware of his environment. He was weak and would only utter the most basic responses to questions.

A seizure takes all his energy, his game day was over before the game started. But the awesome thing was the people around who offered care, concern and help. One parent was a nurse and she stayed with David until we were ready to drive away.

While David was going through this my whole world was centered on him. Not on feeling cold, or getting pictures, or any other care. I have been thinking about how I need to give more of that care and more focus of my life onto the lives of my children. I'm grateful that David is here. I have more days to love him and photograph him and to enjoy his special and unique character. I hope we can all remember to focus our lives on the people we love first.

Family Portraits are great Christmas gifts

2008-09-30T00:08:00.000-07:00

Family Portraits are great gifts. Consider giving someone you love a portrait session for Christmas. My gift certificates are reasonable. The person or family you love will always keep and treasure the pictures from the portrait session you gave them.
tomsparks@sparksartsmedia.com

Rose Cornforth wedding

2008-09-28T18:53:00.000-07:00

Emily and Charlton share their cake.

Watching them, you could see how much they love each other.

A new color process.

2008-09-19T00:03:00.000-07:00

I am working with a few new color processes now and I think I like this one. Let me know what you think. One of the beauties of working with RAW files is that I can show several options to a bride and groom and let them pick which ones they like best.
My email address is: tomsparks@sparksartsmedia.com

Charlton and Emily Wedding Pictures

2008-09-17T13:54:00.000-07:00

Charlton and Emily had fun taking some of these pics. The picture of Charlton hugging Emily is just after a little fire happened as they were unwrapping a gift!

Cornforth/Rose wedding

2008-09-11T23:29:00.000-07:00

Emily and Charleton had a lovely wedding yesterday. The weather ruminated all day, but by evening when the wedding began, the skys were clear. Emily was such a pretty bride and both she and Charlton had great smiles, and were so obviously in love. The Rose Sachs Garden was a beautiful setting too. These are a few of the hundreds of photos I took.

Alicia Bridal Portrait Session

2008-09-09T22:12:00.000-07:00

Alicia's Bridal session in Memory Grove. There were so many brides there with their photographers. In one shot I could not get the photographer and bride to get out of our shot, so I had to photoshop them out.

More Pictures from Bridal shoot "Chelle"

2008-09-07T09:49:00.000-07:00

Here are more pictures of Chelle. She was a joy to work with and she had some fun ideas for poses. What a good sport, she let me take her out into a field. I don't think she liked the muddy field, but the photos turned out fun.

Bride and Bull (bison actually)

2008-09-05T14:42:00.000-07:00

I found this bull bison topiary at the South end of the garden for this whimsical photograph.

Beautiful Light

2008-09-05T05:53:00.000-07:00

Beautiful Evening light is a great ingrediant to photos. I love the "magic hour". These pictures of Chelle were taken at the Jordan Water Conservancy Demonstration Gardens. A beautiful garden, dedicated to showing how to design low water use landscapes. It is truly beautiful.

2008-09-04T22:38:00.000-07:00

Chelle is a modern bride who had a fun attitude about having pictures taken. Wait till you see the pic with the buffalo!

Emotional connections of the family

2008-08-31T14:06:00.001-07:00

When you choose a wedding photographer, you will want great pictures of yourselves, but you also want tender loving relationships preserved for your memories. Make sure your photographer understands how important the other people are in your life.

Above is a picture of a "wedding photographer" The bride loved this picture of her brother at the reception.

Jessica's grandmother was so sweet and you could feel the love and respect she had for this grand lady.

2008-08-30T20:58:00.000-07:00

This photo is a great contrast, in multiple ways. The solem temple and the irreverant girl, the light of the temple and the dark legs, also the straight up and down of lines of the building and the angled lines of her stockings. I hope this photo is not to irreverant. I just wanted to play with the extreem contrasts co-existing here in Utah.
Here are some other pics from the previously mentioned shoot:

Unconventional model

2008-08-30T20:53:00.001-07:00

I was fortunate enough to find a model with an unusual look and a sense of humor. While I was looking for someone to model in a wedding dress, Andrea offered to model for me. We went to Temple Square and to Memory Grove. Here are some of the pictures.

She's so confident!

2008-08-26T23:22:00.000-07:00

A good photo is always waiting to happen. You have to be ready and watching. I blurred out the background here by having a long focal length and a wide open lens. This girl was playing soccer with her dad as we waited for our boys soccer practice. The colors are warm and the whole photo has a feeling of ease and peace. The girl is beautiful and waiting for the sunlight to hit her just right makes this one a keeper. Magic photos happen when you are set-up and prepared.

Bones, an unexpected find

2008-08-24T22:29:00.000-07:00

I went for a bike ride yesterday morning and a little north of
4500 South I saw a path of into the woods and decided to take it. I only rode about 3 or 4 hundred feet when the path got to rough to ride and I got off my bike and started walking. I ran across a pile of bones. It looked to me like the bones of a mule deer, but I am no expert. The shade from the trees created a lot of contrast and I found this bone sitting in the sun. I thought it would be a nice subject for my new SMC Pentax FA 50mm F1.4 lens. I wanted to see what kind of bokeh it has. It is a nice one. I got a little color fringing so I will have to experiment with that and see what I have to do to reproduce that effect so I know how to control it. I have a couple of other nice shots demonstrating this lens' bokeh. You can find them on my flickr page: FLICKR

2008-08-20T15:08:00.000-07:00

This young lady was part of a photography class doing some shooting at Gardner Village. As a photographer, I love the whole recursive cycle. I think that much of good photography of people is much like nature photography. It is great if you can get your backgrounds or foregrounds to give you context, but not distract. Also, having some physical distance from people lets them function less subconsciously and be more natural. Controlling the depth of field also helps pull the focus to the subject. These kind of pictures are wonderful at weddings because the emotion is gentle and tender and the beauty of the subject is so natural.

2008-08-20T00:28:00.000-07:00

Hannah is the love of my life. Well, okay,
one of the loves of my life. She is fun to photograph because she likes the attention and smiles, frowns or whatever I ask. Deep down (and bubbling out all over the surface) she is a creative soul. I took this picture of her just before she went to swim lessons, so I got her with good hair. Could any father have a more beautiful daughter? I just love this meditative look that she got. The open lens gave a nice dof and created all the soft blurry back ground, making her the center of attention.

Carson scowls at a doggie

2008-08-17T17:08:00.001-07:00

Carson spots a medium sized dog. He had this great spontaneous scowl at the dog. A photographer always has to be ready. This kind of shot gets lost if you are fiddling with memory cards, or doing anything that distracts you from the subjects you are shooting.

Doing Child Portraits are the best fun you can have

2008-08-17T16:40:00.000-07:00

This is Carson. I photographed his family a little while ago. We did this location shoot at a park in Murray Utah. He climbed up on this playground equipment and peered over the edge at the big drop down and that was all the further he was gonna go. Shooting kids is a blast because they do so many cute things and they don't care about you or your camera, so after a minute of looking at your camera, they just go about their business. Parents aren't so natural. I'll post some others of these kids. His sister was so cute too!

Environmental pictures

2008-08-14T13:51:00.000-07:00

I received a request to allow the use of one of my photos in an environmental website. I think the purpose of the site is to make people aware of environmental issues. I am up for that, but I think that it is easy to use a picture to sell the wrong context. I believe that it is true that plant life in water can give us feedback about the environment. I am not so sure that this picture is an example of the problem that these people are trying to talk about. Here is the link to the site: http://www.nowpublic.com

Some more pics from Dave and Jessica's Wedding

2008-08-10T13:38:00.001-07:00

Here are some more pictures from Dave and Jessica's wedding. I will meet with her this week to show her her pics. I'm excited to see her reaction.

Talia head shots

2008-08-07T22:29:00.000-07:00

Talia is a voice student of my wife, Jill. Currently she is here at home in SLC for summer break from the Acting School at NYU. She was real easy to work with. I think this photo brings out her amazing eyes and makes the viewer feel connected. I will probably do my hair lighting differently next time.

2008-08-07T10:51:00.000-07:00

It is time to do a self-portrait. I've lost 35 lbs and it is time to celebrate the new me. I'll think about a good idea first.

A couple of weeks ago I took some pictures of my family. This is one of David who is a very quiet competitor. He is patient and persistent. He has the most amazing red hair, with brown eyes.

He is a violin player, and does a pretty good job at it. He is working in book 5 of the Suzuki books. Not bad for an eleven year old.

I love the colors here and muted background that bring out the colors in his hair and his face.

My daughter Hannah has been playing the cello now for 2 years and is getting pretty good. While she is not ready for concerts yet, she loves to entertain you if you let her. She is very creative and a giving soul. I think this photo captures her introspective self. She has the most amazing red hair. I know I said that about David too. But they are both different and wonderful. I believe that good photography captures the unique qualities of an individual and draws your attention the the person.

This is my first blog post

2008-08-06T21:26:00.000-07:00

So, I have a blog now. All I have to do is figure out how to use it, and find someone to edit my English. I am a photographer and musician. I recently photographed a wedding and I am looking for some more to build experience and my portfolio. The bride and the brides mom were very happy with their photos. That was gratifying. Here are a couple of the photos from Dave and Jessica's wedding.

I'm building a website and learning Dreamweaver. Right now I only have one page from this wedding, but by fall I hope to have a more interesting site.

My site address is: http://sparksartsmedia.com