Sheila

Our latest gallery was taken from a shoot done on our Mentor Series Speedlight Class in Tucson, Arizona.   The shoot, done at an old Wild West movie studio turned theme park, was of Sheila, who was costumed as a can-can girl.  This was a fun shoot as Sheila was, well, the best way to describe it, spunky.

Some of these pictures were taken with natural light, other with the use of speedlights, softboxes and other lighting equipment.  See if you can tell which are which.

Roses in HDR

HDR, or High Dynamic Range imaging  is a newish technique that allows for a greater range of color, shadows, highlights, etc in a photograph.  Basically, the size of the range is limited in a single photograph.  HDR takes several photographs, minimum of three (generally speaking) and combines them to increase the dynamic range of the picture, making colors bolder and more vivid.  This past Sunday I was having a lazy day in my backyard and decided to give it a try with the rose bushes blooming in my back yard.  The first four images were made with three distinct images, one at the “correct” exposure, then one stop over exposed and one stop underexposed using my camera’s bracketing function.  The final image is a combination of nine different images, or plus/minus 4 full camera stops.  All images were made using the HDR Pro function in Photoshop.  In the gallery, you can see the photograph at it’s “correct” exposure, followed by the HDR version.  These are our first attempts at HDR imaging.

Gotta Love the Light

I just returned from my latest Mentor Series trek, this time to Tucson, Arizona.  Unlike other treks, this was a first of it’s kind trek that focused only on lighting techniques taught by three world class professionals.  This was like spending time at Yankee Stadium and be taught hitting by Derek Jeter.  I would especially like to thank Dave Black, Lucas Gilman and David Tejada.  Please make sure to follow the links to their web site to see some truly spectacular photography.  Thanks to their teachings, I’m hoping that I can make pictures like there’s.  I would also like to thank the great staff at the Mentor Series.  If you like photography and travel, I would highly recommend taking one of their trips.  Click here to see a gallery of some of the shots I took while on the trek.

Kelly

The past few months have some rough ones here at MJF Photo.  Due to some health problems, our opportunities to go out and shoot have been really limited.  Happily, that is all behind us and we will be back out shooting and posting very soon.  In the mean time, here are some pictures we have taken in the last year that we haven’t gotten to share, including some from pictures from Impact/TNA Wrestlings 2011 Bound for Glory Pay Per View which emanated from Temple University’s Liacouras Center.  Thanks to a good friend I have the privilege to shot many of the matches and wrestlers, including the Immortal Hulk Hogan.    Click here to see the pictures!

As part of our trip we took a stroll through historical downtown Savannah, seeing it’s amazing architecture and beautiful squares.

These pictures represent a taste of downtown on pretty May evening.

Click here to see the gallery.

Gracie

One of the early shoots on our southern trek was famous Bonaventure Cemetery.

From the official Savannah Website:

Bonaventure Cemetery was developed on the historically-significant site of Bonaventure Plantation. The peaceful setting rests on a scenic bluff of the Wilmington River, east of Savannah. The site was purchased for a private cemetery in 1846 and became a public cemetery in 1907. Citizens and others can still purchase interment rights in Bonaventure. This charming site has been a world famous tourist destination for more than 150 years due to the old tree-lined roadways, the many notable persons interred, the unique cemetery sculpture and architecture, and the folklore associated with the site and the people.

Click here to see our pictures from the shoot.

Downtown Savannah as the sun is setting.

After spending much of the past several weeks sorting, viewing, editing, sorting again, viewing again, and whittling down, I’ve been able to find a nice collection of some of my favorite pictures from my recent trek with the Mentor Series to Savannah Georgia.  The problem with this trip is that I found I love so many of my pictures that I’ve decided to show just a small variety here now, but I will publishing complete galleries from the various shoots over the next weeks and months.  I hope you enjoy viewing the pictures as much as I did taking them.

A reenactment group firing the cannons at Fort Pulaski.

I just returned from the amazing city of Savannah Georgia after completing another fabulous trek with the Mentor Series.  The city is full of amazing people, food,  and history.  I would like to especially thank our two mentors, Dave Black, who shared us his experience in light painting, and Bill Durrence, a Savannah native who provided a great history lesson in addition to great photographic tips.  I can’t thank them, and the other incredible photographers I met and learned from during the trek.  To get a taste of some of the various locations we visited, please check out this early gallery of some of our pictures.  More comprehensive galleries will be coming in the next week as we review the close to two thousand pictures we took during our weekend workshop.

If you are a photographer and want to improve your skill, make sure you check out the Mentor Series.  I can’t recommend them more.  I hope to see you on one of their treks in the future.

2011 Cherry and White Day

Last week Temple Football held it’s annual Cherry and White Day Spring Football game, the first under new Head Coach Steve Addazio.  Despite having to move the game time because of bad weather, a great crowd watch as the Owls played each other in an event I’ve been attending since I was a young pup, or should I say young Owl.  Click Here to see the pictures from the day.

This Fall has been a very busy time for us at MJF Photo.  We’ve had a lot of photo projects including weddings, college football games, concerts and trips.  We look forward to sharing some of these with you as we go into the new year.

In the mean time, we all wish you a happy Thanksgiving as we here at MJF Photo stop to give thanks for all that we have.