California Superbike School is Rad

I am lucky enough to work in the motosports industry and get to do cool projects like this. One of the brands my company represents, AGV SPORT,  has been sponsoring the world famous Keith Code California Superbike School for 30 years. To put that in perspective, Nike hasn't sponsored Michael Jordan for that long.  After driving through the middle of no where and finding my way to Willow Springs Raceway I took a few of the shots below.

San Bernardino National Forest

Beki Dawn Photography - Photographing a Photographer....

Beki is not only a photographer, but one of my favorite photographers. Being a self taught photographer without any real photographer friends, Beki's friendship has meant a lot to me. While up until this session we were just facebook friends, it goes without saying how awesome it is to be able to be connected to someone whose work you admire so much. Throughout my "journey" into photography so far those people are very far and few between.

With that being said, I cannot tell you how nervous I was to shoot with someone I admire so much. Not nervous in my abilities or whatnot, but more in that again I have never really be around anyone else that does what I do. Everything I have learned to this point has been just out of experience or google. And as awesome as google is....it never tells you if you are being an idiot or not. Thankfully not only is Beki as nice as you could ever expect someone to be, but her husband and daughter are as well. Nothing beats great down to earth kind people and Beki and her fam are by far no exception.

Below are some shots from our session. Click on the her logo and you will see why I appreciate her work so much.

iheartfaces.com - my new crack - Fix it Fridays #93

My friend Isabel (http://www.ifurie.com/), is always passing along other photographer's blogs and sites that she likes and they usually end up being some of my favorite as well. Last week she showed me this awesome photography community site called I Heart Faces.  Most of the time I pass on action heavy momtographer blogs (stole that from Isabel too..) They seem to always have the exact same layout, content, tone, subjects, etc but this site is a really cool community of photographers of all levels sharing photography advice, gear selection, tutorials, etc. Since I am totally into that stuff I am totally into I Heart Faces. 


Besides their forums and whatnot, they also host weekly post production contest and monthly photo challenges. Not that I am crossing my fingers to win photography contest, but I learn to be a better photographer by doing tutorials or seeing how other people do things as well. It kind of reminds me of when I use to be in a band. There are a lot of things that go into being a good band, but one of them is more important than any others....practice. And not just a practice once a week, but solid repetition of your work over and over and over until you do it so well that is it second nature. When you dissect yourself and your work to that extent it allows you to examine every step you take. It doesn't matter if its how you are ending a song, why you are using the burn tool so much in PS, the strokes you take in a painting, or even writing a sales report from work. Learning from yourself will take you farther than learning from anyone else. ever. (note: stop drinking wine when writing blog post) 


Fix It Fridays #93

                                                                                                    

You can view my editing steps below with the screenshot of my RAW editor as well as the photoshop layers that were applied to both images.

My usual steps to any image I edit in the RAW editor is:

1. Adjust temperature if needed.

2. Adjust exposure if needed. I usually slightly raise the exposure level on images because I know I will use the burn tool in PS to bring the level down again.

3. Adjust Blacks. Not needed all the time and only done in very tiny adjustments.

4. Adjust contrast, I usually adjust this slider to the right (adding more contrast) on just about every image I edit. I like the way that it naturally adds more vibrance to the color in the images. But you have to be careful to not adjust it too far and lose quality of the image.

For the color edit in photoshop, I used Totally Rad Actions and the burn tool.

1. Duplicated the image. (right click on original layer, select "duplicate layer") On the duplicated layer I burned around the edges of the photo with a large soft brush set to midtones and 20%.

2. Added a "Lux Soft" action from Totally Rad Actions set to 10%. This gives an even tone to the image that I personally like.

3. Added a "Get Faded autumn" action Totally Rad action layer set to 30%. This gives a faded purplish/grey tone to the image that I like. Set the blending mode to "Screen"

1. Duplicated original layer. Then adjusted the levels (image > adjustment > levels) to make the shadows darker and the highlights lighter.

2. The applied a pleothora of layers that I use when processing black and white images to my taste. Each layer is as described in the image above.

3. Top three layers are all a split tone type layer adjustment in giving the image a little more tone than just the black vs white.

The Lovci Family

My first session for the Breast Cancer 3 Day walk donation was with Melissa and her awesome family. Her little guys have so much energy! I have a two year old and a four year old so I am a little seasoned in keeping up with them. I was lucky enough to do the shoot at their new home in Ramona that was more beautiful to shoot at than most of the parks I usually shoot at in San Diego. It is amazing to drive 30 minutes outside of the city and find a town like Ramona. I grew up in the midwest and visiting those towns outside of the city is like taking a quick trip home except its beautiful. (sorry central Illinois...ya just aint that pretty) Here are a few shots from our session.

And I had to add one of the cutest things that has ever happened to me during a shoot. As I was running around the front yard with the boys the littlest one came up and decided it was hug time.