An Apple In My Kitchen

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

Unsung photo gear

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

A day at OJH

Fashion Shoot

Fashion of Katie McMinn

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Alex Clawson Eagle Court of Honor

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

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

Cheer Leaders

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

This slide show is a work in progress.

Dave and Jess Wedding Slideshow

Just discovered Animoto