7. February 2010 by Vin.

I was laying in bed with a cold that wouldn’t quit, and it hit me:  I’m fully nerded out!   I’m in bed, with my Macbook pro on one side remotely logged to my PC downstairs, my work PC laptop on the other side of me, logged in to SharePoint,  while watching a Roku box movie from Netflix on the bigscreen TV, talking on my cell phone, while the house phone begins ringing.   

 Folks, do not try this at home.

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6. February 2010 by Vin.

Actress Delaina Mitchell (Vanilla Sky, Waiting to Exhale) and Harley Coffey were married and later wanted beach photographs “post wedding”; they were a charming couple and a pleasure to photograph.

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6. February 2010 by Vin.

Photographer’s Night at the Long Beach Aquarium of the Pacific was a frenzy of photographic fun. Hardly a square inch of space was not filled with the rapid firing of flashy lights. I did manage to get some footage in HD that didn’t have flashes popping. The edit is very rough as I’m still learning how to use Final Cut Studio…

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25. October 2009 by Vin.

Gary and Suzette Amundson had a successful showing at the Tustin Art Walk, displaying their beautiful hand crafted dichroic glass pendants and other glass art. They had a pretty good turnout, with high interest from customers with the hand-cut pieces. Architectural glass was also of interest to many prospective customers.

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15. October 2009 by Vin.

Model/Actress Cecilia was the subject of HDPortrait.com’s “avant-garde portrait”. The photography was shot in my studio (which you know can be anywhere in Orange County, LA, etc.)

The entire process took several days, including shopping for design elements, fabric, ornamentation, meeting with the makeup artist Scarlette and her assistant to artistically paint Cecilia’s face, using airbrush, feather and lashes. The set consisted of the stretched fabric material on the floor. A scaffold is set atop the fabric. The photographer stands atop the scaffold and shoots straight down. Set styling by Gary Amundson (with thanks!)

More portraits from this sitting: http://www.photoshack.com/thumbnails.php?album=5302
Candids with scaffold: http://www.photoshack.com/displayimage.php?album=8799&pos=4

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19. September 2009 by Vin.

I was testing the cool Parabolic umbrella by Paul C. Buff, in my living room. I needed a real face to test lighting, so my daughter relented for a few brief minutes to sit while I moved the light around a bit. These are the test shots put together in a slide show movie. These aren’t retouched (as my daughter reminded me sternly)…

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19. September 2009 by Vin.

Want to know how to create images that show details in the shadows, and does not burn out your highlights? Try HDR, a technique for merging different exposures of the same image into a well toned image.

This article by Canon can be applied to any camera really, using the software Photomatrix and Photoshop CS3 or above.

http://www.usa.canon.com/dlc/controller?act=GetArticleAct&articleID=1646

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15. September 2009 by Vin.

http://www.exploremodeling.com/ContactDirectory/Default.aspx

This is a great searchable directory for models and actors looking for agencies.

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14. September 2009 by Vin.

You know, sometimes you just need a little help with your metrics; we were told that the US would be converted back when I was in the third grade but it never seemed to happen. I’m too old to convert in my head, so here’s a table to help out.