San Diego Mud Run

My wife and some of her friends took part in the San Diego Mud Run in Ranch San Diego over the weekend. Being able to sit back and watch the run from the sidelines, I learned three things:

Superman - Don't dress like Superman unless you can assure yourself you wont vomit infront of children on lap 2.
Kids - Awesome to have your kids cheer you on, but remember you lose all credibility to ever tell them to not play in the mud again.
Fire hose - note to self. Quit job, buy water truck and spend one Sunday a year blasting strangers with a fire hose.

Before & After - How I Edit in Photoshop

I talk editing with other photographers all the time. I love it. I actually think of what I am going to do to photos in post production as I am shooting. But without actually showing any results it can be hard to comprehend. I am a total visual learner myself and with Photoshop you kind of have to be as well. With my clients, they rarely see their images before they are edited and I thought it would be cool to show a couple before and after photos and a little bit about how I did them. I hope it can maybe eradicate the "you must have a nice camera" comments. (photographers...you know what I am talking about)

Untitled from ryan daley on Vimeo.




Click Read More to umm read more....

Shooting Outdoors Can Be A Nightmare....

A common mistake I see a lot of people make that are new to photography is their technique when photographing people outside during the day...or lack of. If you do not thinking understanding and controlling light is essential to photography...stop, put your DSLR on craigslist and go find a nice point and shoot.

Photography is light.

When you look at a photo all you are seeing is how light is reacting to the subject you are shooting. This biggest improvement you can make to your photography is understanding it. If you do not understand anything else about photography except controlling the light source then you are already a head of the game. When you are using studio lighting or off camera flashes you can understand the source of light and evenmore so have all of the control of the source.


READ MORE AFTER THE JUMP!

Setting Up Your Newborn Photos

I have had some people as me (and I asked a million people before me) how certain shots are set up. The lighting, the lenses, the editing, etc. So I thought I would start to share these set ups on my blog. If anyone knows me they can tell you I love three things; talking, photography, and tech-nerd stuff (my wife will vouch for this...)

So in one of my first of many installments on how-to's I wanted to share how I set up a certain newborn session I did for my friends Kristin and Matt with their newborn twins Gia and Luca.

I usually prefer to shoot newborn photos with available natural light. But....what a photographer wants and what they have to work with always doesn't work out. This tutorial displays how to shoot without available natural lights and a one off camera light set up. I am using an off camera strobe below, but an off camera flash will work as well. 

Below is a comparison shot of how I set my Alienbee's AB800 light shot through a large softbox and the resulting shot that the lighting provided.  (click image to view larger size)

Do you need a studio light, a softbox and triggers to take newborn photos? of course not and I actually recommend using natural light as much as possible. But you don't always get a choice and this tutorial will show you some examples of how I did this shoot in particular on a cloudy day in a house without a large source of light from beginning to end.

READ MORE AFTER THE JUMP!

Hangin' with Baby Drew

Baby Drew is my new nephew courtesy of my sister in law Jaymie. (Well and her husband David too who as well had a part in his creation.) A couple days after he was born I had to leave the state on business for a week and by the time I got back he was already out of his super brand new baby phase. (did I mention his dad is 6'6"? Diaz boys dont stay small for very long)

Like most people I stick my camera in front of, Drew really wasn't all that stoked to meet Uncle Ryan and his 24-70mm face. I tried to explain to him that he will get use to it and his face will automatically smile some day anytime someone brings out a camera. But like most baby's he wanted to be held and cuddled and feed and his butt patted to sleep. Which I don't blame him for. I have been trying to get my wife to rock me to sleep at nights with no success to date.

Sweet Baby Jordan

First and foremost a HUGE congratulations to my friends Jen and Chris on their new baby girl. She is just as precious in real life as she is in the photos. Since I am a father of two amazingly wonderful handfuls I always get asked by new parents if "we are done." Instantly I always answer with a "God Yes." That is until you are around something so new and so innocent. Until you hear the little cry and you put you hand on their back and shush them back to sleep.

Then hmm maybe I would want another little one in the house! Come on Amanda we can do this right? oh wait what? Mason pooped his pants and Preslie is eating an ink pad?
" We are done."