WULF Photography

Gotta love dogs

2008-05-11T11:27:00.003-06:00

Only way you can stand to have them around! Sitting here on the computer eating breakfast (peanut butter toast, a favorite) when I turn around and see Chester, my Chocolate Lab, drooling up a storm. He's got tentacles of drool halfway to the floor. If that doesn't help breakfast I don't know what will. I look down and see my camera case below him, fortunately it was closed or everything would be bathed in dog drool. It's covered in spots of drool and the carpet is sprinkled with them also. Just awesome. Thought I'd share a few of the spots with you! Enjoy.

RadioPoppers

2008-04-26T09:52:00.004-06:00

I got my RadioPoppers in Monday and wanted to share with everyone. What are RadioPoppers you ask? Well, if you want all the info you can head over to the RadioPopper site and read up about them. In a nutshell though, RadioPoppers take the visual signals that flashes like a Canon 580EX or and ST-E2 send out to control off camera flashes and convert them to radio signals. A receiver on the off camera flash converts them back into light signals to trigger the remote flash. This lets you use the small dedicated flashes outdoors in bright sunlight without having to worry about line of sight anymore. Their range outdoors is something like 300 feet.

Getting RadioPoppers is almost anticlimactic in a sense. They don't make you a better photographer, they don't add new capabilities to your camera system. What they do is take a system that camera makers developed halfway and complete it and make it better. The sometimes frustrating line of sight and distance limitations of the old visual system are gone and now replaced with a dependable radio triggering capability. I know I've tried to use umbrellas outdoors and had no luck triggering my flashes using the standard Canon system. The sending unit on the camera and the flash couldn't see each other because the umbrella was blocking them. I've also been in a large room indoors before and stepped too far in front of my flashes and had them not trigger. All that's gone now. Anything you could do before with the old line of sight system now works by radio.

Getting these, I finally broke down and did something I swore I would never do. I put velcro on my 580EX flash. I always wanted to keep it pretty since it was so expensive but now I realize I was being silly and these are tools and should be treated as such. I even went so far as to put velcro on the sides of my flash to hold a modification I made to the Popper system. When you first get these you attach the little cable sending unit over the flash sensor using supplied gaffer tape. I didn't like that and after putting it on and taking it off a few times you needed a new piece of tape to hold it in place. I made a little strap to hold the sensor in place that I attach using the velcro on both sides of the flash. Didn't take long to make and works much better IMHO. I'll include pictures of it here if you are interested in making one yourself. It's just a piece of elastic, some industrial grade self sticking velcro and a little square of white foam. The white foam helps to ensure I get dependable pops outdoors in case there is any light leakage around the sensor and also gives thickness to the strap to ensure the little sending unit doesn't move off the sensor of the flash. It compresses around it nicely holding it securly in place.

I've only had the chance to use these once quickly so far so I haven't done any great works with them yet. I will post one picture up here just so you can get a glimpse of what these are capable of doing. This shot was a quick grab in a parking lot of my friend Moni. We were at a camera club meetup and I showed up with a camera and light stand, grabbed her out of the meeting real quick and took this snap out in the parking lot. The setup was simple. It was late in the afternoon and you can see the sunlight hitting her from behind and lighting up her hair. The flash is camera right with no diffusers on it. Just straight on flash. I didn't have time to set anything up and being Colorado the wind was kicking pretty good. You can see her hair blowing. I used my 85 1.8 lying about 20 feet away on the ground to get some sky in the picture and lower the horizon also. There was a hill behind us so I couldn't shoot straight on. I metered for the sky with my camera, took a shot, checked the histogram, dropped my flash exposure compensation to about minus 1/3 and got this shot. I wish I had more time to play but we had to get back to the meeting. The final settings here were 1/5000 of a second shutter speed and my aperture was set for f/2.2. You can see how blurred the branches are behind her. I'd liked to have bumped my shutter speed up more to darken the sky a little bit more and pull more color and saturation out of it. But I know I can now do that easily. Anyways, here's the shot, enjoy.

Here are my shots of the strap I made to hold the sensor in place.

Hangin in Manitou

2008-03-03T23:14:00.006-07:00

Went out this weekend with a group of photographers to do a little street photography while walking around Manitou and enjoying the beautiful weather we had that day. It's amazing how it was up in the sixties and snowed the next day. At least it isn't boring around here. Enjoy a few of the shots I took. I must admit though that I was feeling very uninspired this day simply because it was so nice and I'd been just as happy lying in a hammock under a tree somewhere. Must be my Southern showing!

Heading Over to Cripple Creek

2008-02-15T23:46:00.007-07:00

Went to Cripple Creek the other day to check out their first annual Ice Carving exhibit. Rhonda, Chuck, and myself made the road trip. First time in ages I got to go out that way and not be driving so really enjoyed myself. It looks like they might have a hit with this. There was a good turnout of people and I saw a few different television crews around filming everyone checking out the ice. The kids seemed to really get a kick out of it. Hopefully it will be even bigger next year.

After we saw the ice festival we went driving around for a little while to check out the sights and find an over look that Rhonda knew about. With all the mining going on in the area they are constantly changing the landscape and we had a little bit of trouble finding it. Check out the picture of the big truck that topped a hill we were headed up. It's an interesting feeling to be driving around in a small car and have basically a moving building come over a hill directly at you. We stopped in the median of the gravel road and the guy driving stopped and climbed down the steps to basically tell us to get out of there. Seems we weren't supposed to be on that particular road, we had missed the sign telling us the proper direction to take to get to the overlook. The funny part was when we turned around to go the other way another one topped the other hill coming at us from the opposite direction. I don't think Rhonda cared for that too much, to say the least! We did find the overlook eventually and spent a little time checking out the sites. You can see the picture of all the mining going on in the area. Kind of a shame what we do for gold, isn't it?

On the road.

Pikes Peak in the distance. You can also see
the old Manitou Incline. I actually rode that
years ago before it was taken out.

Overlooking Cripple Creek

I just thought this was funny.

It's amazing what you can do with a chain saw.

Some of the colors in the ice were fantastic.

This was really impressive in person.

This is the backside view of the train sculpture.

Those are steps going up the front of the truck
just so you can get a feel for how large this truck
actually was. This thing is at least 3 stories high.

Here's the view from the overlook we eventually
found.

Carnivale in Manitou Springs

2008-02-02T22:37:00.001-07:00

Went to Manitou Springs today to celebrate Mardi Gras Colorado style. Not quite the same as going to New Orleans but I still had a good time. Started out the day with the Mumbo Jumbo Gumbo Cook Off but I didn't get any pictures of that. I was way to busy eating gumbo, a weakness of mine. Frontrange Barbecue won first place and they deserved it. I had a least three servings of theirs! I'll probably be heading up there soon to have a proper sit down bowl of gumbo! Anyways on to the pictures. This is just a few shots of what all I saw today. Hope you enjoy them.

50th Wedding Anniversary of Sam and Tess

2008-01-23T22:34:00.001-07:00

I had the honor recently of covering the 50th wedding anniversary and the renewal of their wedding vows for Sam and Tess. It was a big family affair with plenty of friends and family in attendance. These are the parents of a friend of mine, Eric. You've probably seen his daughter a couple of times on my blog here. She's the one sitting in a teacup if you look at older posts. Here she is coming up the aisle with her youngest older brother having a ball following her. She's really getting big. Last time I saw here I don't think she was walking yet.

The ceremony was a nice affair with all the family participating.

Eric got a little choked up while doing his speech. I always enjoy these types of ceremonies where you can feel the love.

After the ceremony we all headed over to the reception for good food, cake, and dancing.

Fortunately the newly rewed couple were nice to each other for the cutting of the cake. No smashed faces here!

Just to close this out, here's a shot of the family all gathered around the head table. I just want to say thanks again to Eric for letting me be a part of his parents celebration.

Strobist fun!

2007-12-13T22:21:00.001-07:00

What's Strobist you ask? Check out this site for all the info on what a strobist actually is. I've learned a lot about lighting from there and have been applying it to my work. This past Sunday a group of us photographers from the Denver/Colorado Springs area got together and had a Strobist model shoot. We had a blast and I got some really nice shots to add to my portfolio.

If you read up on the site you will see that it focuses on using small camera flashes off camera for lighting. I cheated a little and brought a studio light with me. I can do the same thing with a small flash and I do use them at weddings, but for a situation like this with shot after shot it's hard to beat the recycling time of a studio light. You can also burn out a small flash if you over work it too hard. I can't afford to have a flash down right now so didn't use them. This was a play day for me. Here are a few shots that I took during the day and I have more on my Flickr page if you'd like to see them. I also have a profile over on ModelMayhem with these and other pictures I've done. My Mayhem number is #54609 if you want to check it out.

At the Broadmoor

2007-12-06T22:12:00.001-07:00

Had a fun time tonight doing a kind of combo Christmas/Engagement shoot with Liz and Justin. We went up to the Broadmoor Hotel on the West side of town. It's a really nice 5 star hotel. If you've never been there it's worth the drive just to walk around a little.

I got there a little early to scout the area looking for places to shoot. There was already another photographer ahead of me doing a shoot with some cute little kids for a Christmas card in front of this tree. Saw a couple of others doing shoots around the grounds also. Seems to be a popular place. Everybody was really nice to us also which made it even more enjoyable.

I have a slide show posted on my site with the rest of the photos from this shoot. If you want to take a peek check out this link. Justin and Liz I hope you enjoy the show!

LUMU

2007-12-01T22:13:00.000-07:00

Taking it to the next level.

One of the techniques I've been working on is off camera lighting. It really adds another dimension to my photography. One of the sites that I have learned a lot from is called Strobist. It's a site dedicated to small off camera flashes. If you want to learn off camera lighting it's an excellent place to start.

I think you get to a point though where it helps to have someone actually show you some of the techniques applied in the real world. Along this end I've just signed up for LUMU. LUMU is what's called a light it up meetup. We're going to meet up with other photographers and models and share lighting techniques. This is going to take place in Rifle, Colorado at Rifle Falls State Park. Hopefully the weather is going to cooperate with us. I'm sure it's still going to be chilly but I'm looking forward to learning and growing as a photographer. Check back mid March to see pictures from the Meetup.

Miracles Do Happen

2007-11-16T23:53:00.001-07:00

My brother finally came out to visit me here in Colorado Springs. This is my third time living out here. I do believe he had a good time though since he is planning on coming out here again next summer. We went and did a lot of the tourist sites around the area. Here's a visual guide to what all we hit.

This is in the middle of town at Palmer Park. We took my dog Chester to run around some and then stopped at the overlook to get a good view of the city.

The next place we hit was the Broadmoor. It's in the foothills on the West side of town. A really nice old hotel. Takes a few buck if you want a room.

This is one of the lights in the hallways. I'm glad no one came along while we were taking these. They would have thought we were crazy lying on the floor to get this shot.

Here's me working my camera.

And here's the shot I got.

Mark with his pony!

This is a series of sculptors sitting in someones front yard. I actually met him a while back before he passed away. These things are huge and made out of steel. They move and spin when the wind is blowing. If you want to see them they are near the entrance to Seven Falls.

After the sculptors we headed up to Helen Hunt Falls next which is located in North Cheyenne Canyon Park. You can see it was a little chilly up there.

This was on our way up Pikes Peak. We took the highway up. They had trucks hauling up gravel for road maintenance. You don't want to get in the way of one of these while they are coming down. You'd think they were in the road race they hold up there each year.

The roads near the top are steep and exposed. If you have a fear of heights you probably won't enjoy this section too much!

At the top.

It's almost like another world up here.

If you want to go up the mountain there are two other ways besides driving. One is the Cog Railway.

The other way is on foot. I've done this trail a few times and it isn't too bad. Took me about 8 hours to get to the top taking my time and stopping at the cabin at Barr Camp. Unless you want to spend all day hiking it's best to arrange for someone to pick you up at the top or arrange for passage down on the train, if they have room. I've hiked down the mountain also but that's hard on the knees!

Downtown Colorado Springs

2007-11-04T09:44:00.001-07:00

Here's a picture from the second hike I went on yesterday. Since Chester couldn't go on the first one, no dogs allowed, I went on two hikes yesterday. This second one was up on Section 16 off of Lower Gold Camp road. Took this with my 100mm macro lens and used Photoshop to blur the top and bottom of the picture to give it a toy model look. Fun stuff. You'll want to click on the picture to get a bigger view of it.

I Love Weekends

2007-11-03T14:26:00.001-06:00

The weather was beautiful today so I went for another walk in Fountain Creek Park. I'm sure you can guess by now that it isn't too far from my house. Maybe a ten minute drive tops. Didn't make it out there as early as I wanted to but the light was still nice. With the wedding season basically over it's nice to know I'll have my weekends free to goof off now! Time to do some photography just for me. Here's some sights along the way today. Hope you enjoy them.

Went for a walk with the 100mm Macro Today

2007-10-30T20:49:00.001-06:00

Took a walk today after work down at Fountain Creek Park in the Nature Conservancy area that they have. No dogs so Chester had to sit this one out. Just as well since he's a royal pain when I'm trying to shoot. He tends to trample anything I point the camera at. Here are a few along the way today. Still some color here but it won't last too much longer. While a 100mm macro isn't the lens of choice to do landscape shots it really is a sharp lens with nice color and contrast so I wanted to give it a try. If you click on a picture it opens up larger. Enjoy.

Carving the Crags

2007-10-28T22:11:00.001-06:00

Went for a hike today along with my dog Chester up on the Crags. This is a popular hiking spot along Hwy 67 headed out towards Cripple Creek. Last time I was up there was about 18 years ago I believe. My life sure has changed a lot since then, but who's hasn't? I remember from the last time I was up there all the carving on the Aspens. I didn't like it then and still don't now. I understand why people do it but I don't think they realize just what they are doing to the Aspens up there. Seems their undying love is killing the trees. Here are a few shots from the Aspens that you go through towards the beginning of the trail.

You can see from this last picture how the bark is splitting off the tree from where it's been carved. People really need to quit damaging these trees.

Here's a last look up at these beautiful trees. No leaves left this time of year but they still have a cool look to them.

Well, off my soap box and on with the hike. Heading on down the trail you get some nice views as you go. A good part of the trail follows along a meandering mountain stream which still has running water this time of the year. I'm not sure if it runs all year or not. Didn't actually get a picture of the stream this time but Chester had a good time running around in it. Here are some sights along the stream though.

As you go down the trail this is a large landmark that guides you along your way.

Once you get to the top of the Crags you get a nice 360 degree view around you. You are also looking down at some of the reservoirs. It was really hazy today though. I'm not sure if it was from the fires off in California or just normal haze. I did take a couple of shots from the top but it was hard to get anything decent. While we were up there we also took a lunch break. Chester really chowed down on his food. Here's a shot of his face buried in his hiking bowl.

And last but not least here are a few shots from the top of the Crags. Didn't take very many while I was up there since the haze was so bad but I did get a few. Enjoy, I did.

I think this last one is the Manitou Reservoir if I was reading my map correctly. I use the Pikes Peak Atlas from Ormes and Houdek if you're curious. Love that map. It's taken me on a lot of trails in this area. Well, that's if for now until next time.

Winter is Here in Colorado Springs

2007-10-21T20:43:00.002-06:00

Well, it seems winter is coming to Colorado Springs. It's been a cold and snowy day. Didn't have much to do and really didn't feel like being cold so I stuck close to the house most of the day. I did take a few shots though. It's a rare day I don't do something with my cameras. Mainly, I worked on lighting ratios with multiple flashes and my light meter. Got a pretty good handle on it.

The snow on my side of town didn't stick around very long since it wasn't cold enough. I did go out and get a few shots of it melting in the bushes around the house. Here's one that I especially like. The full size is pretty large. I made it 1280x1024 if you would like to use it as a wallpaper.

Towards the end of the day I could tell Chester was bored out of his head so I relented and got dressed and took him out to the 21st Street Dog Park. Did you know it's one of the top 10 dog parks in the country? Of course a camera came with! Here is a view from the back of the park looking towards the Front Range. This side of town is a little higher being more in the foothills so their snow was sticking around. Hope you enjoy this shot. It was a real pretty evening.

As you can see it was a little cool today. We should still have a little warm weather left but it's not long before Old Man Winter settles in for the duration here. Hope wherever you are it's warm.

Fall in Colorado

2007-09-24T19:07:00.001-06:00

It's hard to beat the weather we have in the Fall out here in Colorado. Went up in the mountains with a group of photographers the other day. Mike had a pass that got us up Pikes Peak for free! I figured we would be up there for a few hours taking pictures. 12 hours later I finally got home. It's hard to make progress on a trail when it's a bunch of photographers all taking pictures. We did get some nice pictures though. Thought I'd share a few with you.

Few more from my last wedding

2007-07-16T20:31:00.001-06:00

Saw a few more pictures that I wanted to post. The head shots are in what is known as the "One Light" style. It's a style that I really like for black and whites. I used a small softbox on a monopod which I carried around for a little while. I wanted to set up a Photo Booth outside but the wind came up and the rain started. Got busy after that and didn't have time to do it. The rest of the dance shots were done with bounce flash on camera. As you can see again, everyone had a blast.

Fun wedding up in Fort Collins

2007-07-13T20:27:00.001-06:00

And what a great little town it is too. This was the first time I've been up that way. I second shot on this one along with my friend Patricia. This was a long but fun wedding. Jamie and Taryn were full of love and life and you could just see it shining out of them. They were also full of fun. Enjoyed hamming it up for the camera and were game for just about anything.

My first job of the day was to go along with the groom and his groomsmen while they went to a "real" barbershop to get shaves with a straight blade. It's been a while since I've seen one of those used. Used to get them all the time but in this day and age it's become a rare art form. At first the groom seem really relaxed and was having a good time. Of course, being the good groom, he wasn't having as much fun as the other groomsmen were.

But I noticed as time went by he seemed kind of quiet and subdued, I wonder why.

Before we all headed off to the CottonWood Club, I swung by the hotel the girls were staying at and and grabbed this shot of Taryn's dress. She had a beautiful flowing dress that suited her to a T!

Once we got to the Cottonwood Club the guys did the "march" that all guys seem to do before a monumental occasion such as this.

The ceremony itself was fun and upbeat. After the more formal vows Jamie and Taryn went into a Dr. Seuss rhyming style of vows which everyone loved. We did formals after the ceremony and as you can see from this shot, they weren't your average formals.

The reception, like the rest of this wedding, was just a blast also. I didn't get to photograph the first dance because I was holding a flash for Patricia, and she got some great shots but Patricia took a turn at the flash for me and I got this Father Daughter shot that I just love.

The rest of the dancing was to say the least, energetic. The bride got airborne more then once and from what I hear basically lost her voice from all the karaoke they sang. Here's one of her in the air. Almost didn't get this shot because I didn't realize she was going to do this.

At times, I almost felt like I had wondered onto the set of a musical!

As you can tell from this sampling, it was a great time for all. Let me just leave you with a shot of their rings as a symbol of their lasting love.

Fourth of July

2007-07-13T20:22:00.001-06:00

Little behind on here and trying to catch up. I hope everyone had a good Fourth of July and stayed safe. I stood on a hill overlooking Colorado Springs and got to watch fireworks around the city. Here are a couple for you to enjoy.

Night of Fun

2007-06-25T22:48:00.001-06:00

So, what did you do for fun tonight? I went and stood on a cliff and watched the light show that Mother Nature provided. We had a storm pass to the north of town tonight along a small mountain range with multiple lightning strikes for a good while. It's funny all the people that were out there watching and enjoying the show. Sunsets are popular around here and throw in an early evening light show and they will come. Here's just a couple of what I caught tonight. Enjoy!

Self Portrait Gone Awry

2007-06-24T22:15:00.000-06:00

Playing around with my Canon G6 camera today. I like the flip out screen. Figured I'd do a quick self portrait with my dog Chester for the fun of it. Chester didn't quite get the concept of what a self portrait is as you can see here. I finally did get a half way decent picture but I don't think pet portraiture is my calling!

Lovell Gulch Wildflower Hike

2007-06-23T21:18:00.001-06:00

Went on a good hike this morning. I recently joined a hiking group on meetup.com called Awesome Hikes and Adventures in Colorado Springs. This was one of their many hikes they do. We went specifically to look at the wildflowers. The time of day probably wasn't the best since it was later in the morning to early afternoon that we were out there but I still got some good pictures out of it. I'll post one favorite on here but the rest of them will be on my website under the Personal tab.

I was really excited about this butterfly picture. I've tried to get pictures of them before and basically struck out. Unless you get them early in the morning they are very active. This guy landed right in front of me when I was getting ready to take a picture of the flower he landed on. I got this one with my trusty Canon G6 point and shoot. It does really nice macros.

Disaster at 7000 feet

2007-06-02T11:21:00.000-06:00

Went for a hike last night to view the full moon. This is a Blue Moon because we have two full ones this month. My dog Chester got to go along also since the trail we were on, Section 16, is an off leash trail. For the most part it was a nice uneventful night. The group I was in stopped for a little while on an overlook to admire the city lights. That's when it started to rain. Now this wasn't a really hard rain and it wasn't lightening but I had made the mistake of throwing a pair of jeans on instead of a good quick drying pair of hiking pants. That was my first mistake this tragic night.

A little cold and uncomfortable, I decided to call it a night along with about half of the group. The other half decided to push on since the rain had let up by this time. This became the second mistake I made on this fateful night. Heading down in the dark of night I made the third and final mistake that would prove my undoing. Chester was not on his leash. It was sitting comfortably in my backpack doing nothing to prevent the upcoming horror.

Going down was mostly uneventful with the occasional stumble on hidden rocks. The group was in good cheer and having fun calling out "rock" or "step" to each other to keep people from busting their butts! I could see we were getting close when disaster struck! I noticed a funny smell on the air and others started commenting on it also. It started to get worse and worse when I noticed it became exponentially worse every time Chester ran by me on the trail.

Chester had been sprayed by a skunk! If you have never smelled skunk before, consider yourself lucky. It's a horrible stench that lingers forever. Poor Chester had been hit in the face and had to be suffering for it. The worst part was we were on the opposite side of the town with a long car ride ahead for me and the now very stinky Chocolate Lab who had streams of drool dripping down the sides of his mouth. A long and miserable ride ensued with all the windows down and the heater blasting since it had turned into a chilly night. My eyes were watering and stinging by the time we arrived at the house.

Tossing Chester into the back yard I went inside, stripped and threw my clothes into the garage. I could smell skunk all around me. Searching online I found the ingredients for a concoction that was supposed to get rid of the stink now permeating from the back yard. Putting on clean clothes, I rushed to the store and bought, Peroxide, baking soda, and Dawn dish washing detergent. This mixture was poured all over Chester and worked in as best as possible. Someone had mentioned that Sprite helped so Chester got to stand on my back porch foaming and sizzling like a steak on the grill. Seems he doesn't like the tingle he gets between his toes from these concoctions and would stand there and try to lift his back feet out of the gooey bubbling mess now all over the back porch.

This wasn't enough so another trip to Wal Mart ensued, after I showered and washed my hair about six times with shampoo and hand soap. The lady I asked about Skunk Off in the pet aisle mentioned that she wondered what that bad smell was when I told her what had happened. I didn't smell so good apparently! This second trip to the store also included the rental of a steam cleaner, not for Chester, though that's tempting, but to try and get the smell of skunk out of my carpet and out of my car. Hopefully the smell will go away, sometime soon.

Stormy Days

2007-05-29T19:40:00.002-06:00

It's amazing how much rain we've had lately. My grass and weeds are actually green this year. It makes riding the motorcycle a little hard to do because the bad weather always rolls in late in the afternoon. Normally about the time I get off work. They predicted 1/2 to 3/4 hail today but I didn't see any. Probably hit on the north end of town. They usually seem to get it worse up there. I left work a little early though to be on the safe side and try to beat the weather home. Looked nasty but I made it in one piece. Here's a sample of what we had today.

Artist's Date today

2007-05-28T15:15:00.001-06:00

I'm still trying to work through the book The Artist's Way and do the exercises contained within it. One I mentioned earlier was the Artist's Date. This is a weekly exercise where you take yourself out somewhere by yourself and do something enjoyable that you might not normally do. Today I went to the La Creperie in Downtown Colorado Springs and ordered a salad. It's a little French Bistro right across from the swimming fountain named Uncle Wilbur.

How is this different you ask? Well, I don't normally eat $16.00 salads but this was very good. It had a large chicken breast covered in pecans. The dressing was a sweet honey mustard. As you can see the tomatoes were ripe and everything was fresh. I thought about having some wine with it but since I was on my motorcycle I decided to pass on that. All in all a very relaxing outing. I hope your day went as well.

Pocket Wizards

2007-05-20T23:11:00.002-06:00

Well, I finally picked up a set of Pocket Wizards. I've been using either my 580 or my ST-E2 to set off remote flashes. The ST-E2 let me down at the last wedding so I decided it was time to get a set of these. Now I have another style of shooting to learn. It looks like these will be a blast to use.

I spent today making a bracket to attach one of the PWs to the light stand and also made a bracket with a quick release mount that attaches to the bottom of my camera. This setup lets me shoot an on-camera flash using E-TTL II and an off-camera flash in manual mode. I'm just starting to work on the techniques needed for this shooting style but the early results are really promising. The mix of the two styles seem to really work well together. It's still not my dream system but I don't think anyone has created that yet. Canon would be really close if there remote flash system was controlled by radio instead of flashes of light. It's just not dependable enough. If Canon eventually sucks it up and comes through with an automated flash system that can completely control remote flashes using radios people will flock to it.

Of course my usual "victim" for flash work was overjoyed about the new system. He must really get sick of it but it's a challenge to light him properly so it's good practice. Here's Chester enjoying the new Pocket Wizards.

Fotofusion

2007-05-19T15:59:00.001-06:00

I bought this program a little while back and haven't done a lot with it. I bought it to design albums but haven't used it for that yet. I still have to set aside the time to work up a template for an album with it and go ahead and do it. If you are interested in looking at the program, their web site is Lumpix.

I was playing around with it a little bit today and they now have some free templates depending on which version you own of the software. The higher versions get more free stuff. It really is an easy to use program and once I force myself to learn the details of it I should start to get my moneys worth back out of it. Here's just a little sample. All I did is toss in a picture the rest was a template. Fun stuff to play around with. This is an 8x10 actually. Printed it out and stuck it on my fridge. The template has the whole year in it. Each month with a different look.

Holy Rock

2007-05-18T22:07:00.001-06:00

As part of my Artists Way workshop I'm going through I went on an "artists date" today. I had planned on going to the zoo but the weather was a little rough so I ended up going to Garden of the Gods instead. What's an artists date you ask? Basically it's taking yourself somewhere to let your mind wander and relax and take in its surroundings without anyone else along to interfere. Some "me" time if you will. I brought along my camera because I wanted to look at places to shoot while I was there. Kind of cheating but the weather this week has been problematical and I hadn't been able to get out there earlier. I'm doing a family portrait in the Garden tomorrow and needed to be prepared. Even though there was no real sun I could see hints of what I'm going to get tomorrow. Hopefully Mother Nature will pull through for me and we'll have a glorious sunset. I'm really counting on that light! Here's just one of the pictures I took while wandering around. I love how the Garden has a three dimensional look to it, don't you? Enjoy.

Buddy

2007-05-17T23:06:00.001-06:00

This is Buddy. He is currently a house guest. My friend, Sam, went on a vacation to Vegas for a few days and I am watching Buddy for her. The main reason I am watching him is because he is a handful. He was staying at another friends house while Sam was moving but started causing problems with their dogs. Since I have a knucklehead of my own I said I'd watch Buddy. So far they are getting along pretty well. My dog Chester was a little unsure about this arrangement at first but seems to have adjusted pretty well. Buster does play a little rough but so does my dog so it's working out okay so far. With two young Labs in the house it's like having two little kids running around constantly. They also take a lot of space on the bed. The first night they wanted space away from each other so I ended up waking in the morning as a Lab sandwich with one stuck to each side of me. Very constricting to say the least. Buddy stays until Saturday and then the level of mayhem in the house will settle back down to normal. He is a good dog though and very anxious to please.

"A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity"

2007-05-12T10:47:00.000-06:00

As my skills in photography have grown over time I look at my work with a more critical eye. I see the consistent lighting I want, good composure, rule of thirds and other photography "rules" being followed. I see that my colors have become better and my black and whites have more depth. The technical side of my work gets stronger and stronger. I am kind of a geek after all. Now I want more!

For me, the next step is the creative side of my photography. I know it can be stronger and I'm taking steps to bring it to the next level and higher. To do this, I'm starting a new book called the ARTIST'S WAY by Julia Cameron. It's a 12 week course to rediscover your creative side and bring it out. To go along with this I've also joined a group online, referred to as a cluster to work through the book. We will be learning and growing together while we work through the book and its exercises chapter by chapter. Right now I don't know where this will lead or what will come of it since I haven't even read the book yet, but I am anxious to find out. I'll post on here from time to time on my progress.

Does anybody really know what time it is?

2007-05-08T00:20:00.001-06:00

Computer is busy processing a batch of files right now so I thought I'd play around a little. Messing around with my large 60" umbrella and a 580 Canon flash bounced into it. Mixing this with the existing ambient light to get a nice pleasing picture. I then converted this to an old timey black and white using Lightroom from Adobe. Great software which is only going to get better.

Notice anything amiss about the clock? It used to belong to my Grandpa Stanley. My Mom passed it on to me. I don't know where he got it but knowing him it was from a flea market. He lived for those things! Clock still works and tells time when I remember to wind it up. Who remembers these kinds of things in todays electronic rush world though? It's nice to have things like this around to remember your past with. Too many only look forwards and forget what was behind them. Anyways, enjoy the clock, I do.

Hands and Feet

2007-05-01T23:12:00.001-06:00

Went back to Little Blake's house tonight to get some hands and feet pictures. Last time I tried he was not in the mood so I didn't get what I wanted of him. Also wanted to try out the new colorful throw I picked up at Pier 1 the other day. The colors in it really pack a punch. These are almost straight out of the camera with just a touch of curves and sharpening and reduction for web. Colors really knocked me out. Might be a tad too much but I still like them. It's amazing how hard it is to get pictures of a babies hands and feet when he's awake! All they do is kick and squirm. Still had a blast and even got a meal out of the deal. Sweet!

f-Stop Workshop

2007-04-29T23:44:00.000-06:00

Had a great time this weekend attending the f-Stop workshop up in Boulder. It was hosted by two great photographers, Jenna Walker and James Christianson. They really did a great job putting this course together. We covered a lot throughout the day and spent a good bit of the time actually shooting and not just listening to lectures. The had us shoot in a variety of lighting conditions, shade, direct sun, sunset and flash. I believe they are having another f-Stop Workshop later this year. Take it if you get the chance.

We shot in various situations and had great models to use throughout the day. One of the couples we photographed were actually photographers taking the workshop but volunteered to jump in front of the camera. What a fun couple they were.

Another couple that were models for us were were past customers of Jenna. You could see the love between them all day. They were very patient also which was necessary with all the cameras going off in their faces all day.

Another trooper did an wonderful job modeling. She could really play the camera and kept a smile going all day even in a heavy wedding dress. I got some wonderful shots of her.

Oh, I also want to give a shout out to Jessica for doing a great job on the makeup. You can check her out at The Face Lab. Here's she is doing the makeup for one of our great models.

If you're looking for a nice quiet place to stay at up in Boulder and don't need anything fancy check out this place. It's where I stayed while I was up there, Boulder Mountain Lodge. Here's just a few pictures of the place.

One last picture for fun. There is a trail within walking distance that runs up and down the canyon road. On my way out I pulled over and went down the trail a little ways. Found this little gem hiding in the trees and had to take a picture of it.

I hope you enjoy these as much as I enjoyed taking them. Again, thanks to Jenna and Jim for putting on a great workshop. Also, thanks to all the other great photographers and models that made this class a success.

R.A.P.S.

2007-04-21T10:57:00.000-06:00

Got this new toy in the mail yesterday! It's called R.A.P.S.. It is designed to carry electronics while protecting them from the elements. The inside lining is copper based. It's "sacrificial", meaning it will corrode instead of anything stored within it. It's the same process used on boat motors with sacrificial metal to keep other parts of the motor from corroding.

I've been looking for a while for something to carry a camera in a backpack without having to shove a camera case in there. I've done the wrap it up in a down vest or jacket but never felt secure with this system. I was always worried about it tumbling out when trying to retrieve it from the backpack. With this system I feel a lot safer.

This is the large size, it's 20 inches square. You can see I have a 30D with a Sigma 24-70 lens attached. It's folded up almost like putting on a diaper except you close the top. I don't think a child would care for that part! If you look at the picture of it folded you will see sewn in squares. This is the Velcro that keeps it closed. It will stick to the red material anywhere and seems to have a real strong grip. It also has some foam padding inside to help prevent bumps and scratches. It's not real thick but feels like it will be up to the job. If you are looking for a way to carry an expensive camera like I have been I'd recommend checking these out. I picked mine up on B&H Photo online. A great online camera store that I have done lots of business with. Happy hiking!

Snow

2007-04-12T01:51:00.001-06:00

We had a little bit of snow this last weekend and I went out and played a little. Drove up in the mountains a little ways and then back down into the city. Saw these trees just starting to bud outside the Penrose house and had to stop and get a few pictures. I then drove up to the Broadmoor Hotel to walk around a little. Really nice, relaxing place. It was all cold and misty. Had a nice serene feeling to it. I just threw together this slideshow to share the day with you. Enjoy.

Finally got to use my teacups

2007-04-08T12:03:00.000-06:00

Did a shoot last night with one of my favorite families. With three boys running around it can be a handful to get good shots but I did manage to get a few. Also got to take some of the little one in my new teacups. I think she really enjoyed sitting in them. We plopped here down in one and it looked like it was made for her to sit in. Here's a few for you to enjoy for now.

It's Cold Here

2007-04-07T11:42:00.000-06:00

They were saying snow but all I've seen so far is ice falling from the sky. Everything here is covered with it. I have to be careful just walking down the driveway because it's covered in ice and it slants. Here's a few shots of the ice around here.

Big Brother

2007-04-07T01:22:00.000-06:00

Can't resist, must post one more picture before I go to bed. It's only 1:30 in the morning. Besides, sleeps overrated. Just a cute picture of big brother here with his new little brothers sock covered feet next to him. He had a ball tonight. He was actually coming up with his own poses. May have a future model here!

World, Blake. Blake, the world.

2007-04-07T00:38:00.000-06:00

Just introducing an adorable little fellow to the world. He was born a few days ago and I had the privilege of taking a lot of pictures of the little tyke. I also got a home cooked meal out of the deal so it couldn't go wrong tonight!

He cooperated some of the time. We were going to try for an Easter theme in a basket but he was having no part of being surrounded by plastic grass. Guess I can't blame him. Blake really enjoyed being held by his Dad under the warmth of my studio light though. Here's one of them together. Enjoy!

Chocolate Black and White

2007-04-06T00:08:00.000-06:00

Here's a version that I'm going to call my chocolate B&W conversion in Lightroom. Started as one of the many beta testers for LR when it came out for Windows a while back. So far it's a really good program and I love some of the work I'm getting out of it. I still have a lot to learn about it but it has become my main post processing program. I started out with DPP that came with my first digital SLR and moved on to a program called RSP. This was then bought out by Adobe to bring their talent on board to help with converting Lightroom over to the Windows platform. Lucky for me, they grandfathered any one in that had bought RSP over to LR. So, I ended up getting a good deal by not having to buy another program to replace RSP. Wasn't happy at first because RSP still had an easier workflow but the colors coming out of it weren't as good as the ones LR is producing. Hope you enjoy.

Just one more

2007-04-03T20:25:00.000-06:00

It's kind of funny posting these that I took a couple of days ago. Seems the little tyke was born today. Looking forward to doing some shots of him with Mom and Dad and his new big brother soon! Here's one more I think I like. Wish a little more of the crib showed but I think you get a feel for what she is feeling here.

Maternity Shoot

2007-04-01T12:29:00.000-06:00

Had a fun and long maternity shoot last night. She was a real trooper. I think we shot for almost 4 hours. We took lots of breaks though. She's due in a few days. Here a just of few of the shots that I really like so far. Lot's of other good one's still to process.

Good Looking Couple!

2007-04-01T00:29:00.000-06:00

Just another picture of the bride and groom that I happen to like.

Fun little lady

2007-03-25T23:20:00.000-06:00

Got to meet this cute little lady recently. Eden likes to ham it up for the camera a little. Here she is getting her hair ready for the big day as flower girl at her Momma's wedding.

Chester

2007-03-24T19:32:00.000-06:00

Well, I thought I'd introduce you all to Chester. He is my Chocolate Labrador Retriever. He's like having a two year old living in the house. When my daughter stayed with me for a while along with my two year old grandson, they would gang up and get into trouble together. He's currently going to obedience classes since he doesn't have much right now.

Samuel

2007-03-24T18:11:00.000-06:00

Wanted to get a picture of my Grandson Sam up here also. He's three now. Hard to believe. He's also a handful, just ask his mother! We had a ball while I was visiting in Hawaii. Hope to see him again this summer.

My New Granddaughter

2007-03-24T16:47:00.000-06:00

I went out in January to meet this little angel. Isn't she beautiful? She's a couple of months here. Was my first time meeting her. I couldn't get out there earlier.

The Day Before

2007-03-24T15:50:00.000-06:00

We took a couple of pictures the day before the wedding. They needed a shot for the matte they had for guests to sign at the wedding. This first one they were kind of goofing around but I still like it for some reason. I think it's because Amy looks so nice in it! Now Mitch on the other hand!!! :-)

This is the one they ended up using in the matte.

Here's a guest signing the matte.

Perspective on size

2007-03-20T20:12:00.000-06:00

Another photographer wanted to see the actual size of my teacups so I took a shot tonight to get the real perspective of them. Hope to have a little fun with these. I'm planning out a shoot with them now. This is the same cup as the one below.

Tea Cups

2007-03-19T22:48:00.000-06:00

Picked up some "tea cups" at Wal-Mart tonight. Going to use these in an Easter shoot for a friend I know. Should be lots of fun. You can see my dogs head way off in the distance, or so it seems. Actually he's about a foot away. The table they are sitting on is made of 12"x12" ceramic floor tiles so you can see how big these actually are. There's a big ladle in one looking like a teaspoon.

Getting Ready

2007-03-18T00:44:00.000-06:00

Just wanted to toss one more out there before I hit the hay. It's late or early depending on how you look at it. Here's a shot of Amy and her daughter Eden getting all prettied up for the big day.

Shutter Dragging

2007-03-17T22:58:00.000-06:00

I've been trying to get this technique down and I think it's finally coming around. Seems my old marching skills from school have come in handy. Here's a shot of my brother and his fiancé dancing at my nephews wedding I shot recently.

Beautiful day today!

2007-03-17T20:47:00.000-06:00

Somewhere in the 70's today. Seems Spring is coming quick here in Colorado Springs. Spent part of the day working in my garage. It's a hopeless mess. I also cranked up the boat. Might even use it this year. It just sat last year.

Took my dog Chester out to the dog park this afternoon. Seems some kids threw a whole bunch of tennis balls into a hollow log out there. Talk about Lab heaven. It took Chester about 10 minutes to decide which tennis ball he wanted to play with. Had the camera with me and took a couple of shots. Here's one of him finding "just the right" ball.

Had a nice sunset today also. Felt good to be outside without a coat and not freezing! Here's a few for you to enjoy.

We're off to see the Wizard

2007-03-17T10:47:00.000-06:00

Just going through pictures of the recent wedding I shot and found this little gem. This is the bridal party having a good time at the rehearsal. All we need is a yellow brick road!

Mitch and Amy

2007-03-15T22:45:00.000-06:00

I had the joy and honor of recently shooting my nephews wedding. Everyone had a great time and the bride and groom looked awesome. Had a little bit of a gangster look going for the groom and his groomsmen. I still think my nephew was born in the wrong time. I could see him back in the roaring 20's having a ball. I'm still a little behind in getting their pictures up. Seems I came down with an awful bug right before the wedding and was not feeling too well and am just getting over it now. Kinda kicked my behind! Still had a great time though. Hope you enjoy a couple of teasers here while I finish up the rest of the pictures.

Ran out of room

2007-03-10T09:39:00.000-07:00

I had to install a new 250G hard drive in my main computer. Seems the 250G drive in it was filled to capacity. Couldn't do any work until I added more storage space. Right now I'm migrating my Lightroom database over to the new drive and then will be moving wedding and portrait files over next. I guess this means I'll also need another external hard drive to maintain my backups. Photographs sure take up a lot of space! I like to have mine backed up at least in two separate places for any client work. I'm working on an offsite location for storage now. If something happens to your pictures sometime down the road I should be able to recover them for you.

Welcome to WULF... Photography

2007-03-09T19:59:00.000-07:00

Hi and welcome to my new blog. My name is Jeff and I am WULF... Photography. I plan on posting goings on and projects as they happen here. This blog is an addition to my new web site at WULF... Photography. If you came here through a different avenue besides my site please feel free to peruse it. I love feedback so feel free to drop me a line while you are here.

Jeff