Motocross photography light test

While I was out in Cali I shot a bunch of motocross shots one night. They have a HUGE outdoor motocross park with I believe 8 tracks all lit up with stadium lighting. It's absolutely awesome. I would love to ride there but every time I go I have my camera and no bike.






Having my bike with me when I go out is usually my problem. I want to ride until they come around telling us their closed we need to pack up. Then I usually go "Damn, I didn't take any photos"!!!






Well, a couple weekends ago, I finally got out the camera and lights and tried a single light set up. Of course it was off camera as I'm a lighting nut like that. (No jail house photos from me). I had to try out my modified light stand leg...






Light stands have three legs, these provide stability which is good.... most of the time. But what do you do when it's not most of the time?








I read on Strobist quite sometime ago about a guy doing this and after my frustrations in Cali at the track with trying to get my light where I wanted it I decided it was time to MOD-out my light stand.





It's a pretty simple idea you drill out the rivet on one leg and then drill holes every two inches up and down that leg. Then if you are on uneven ground you can still have a light stand pointing straight up.




It worked great and allowed me to get the above shots. You can just nearly see it above the "n" on the watermark. Next time I'll take a better picture of the light stand.

Oh yeah and what do you do when your dirt bike doesn't have a kick stand?





That's right, use the monopod! And here's a reference shot for all you photo nerds.






All these were taken with a single SB-26 on a stand to the right of the jump.(left side of this image) Shot on my Nikon D3 with a PocketWizard radio trigger. Watkins motocross track in Watkins, CO.

The fastest place in the USA

Driving back from California we decided to take the long route. I promised Athena I would take her to go see her all-time hero Snoopy at the Charles M. Shultz museum in Santa Rosa.



So we left SoCal and headed up past San Francisco to the museum. We had a great time there reading all the comic strips and learning the history of the Peanuts creator. He even lived in Colorado Springs once.

This brings me back to the long drive home. I-80 out of California takes you through Nevada and into Utah. Right past this little known place with no buildings or structures only a sign marking the spot where humans attempt to make history.



It's the Bonneville Salt Flats, a huge desert like climate that is purely salt for miles and miles. Do to the nature of the salt being so level people from all over the world come to set the Land Speed Record.




In The Worlds Fastest Indian, Anthony Hopkins plays an character who travels from Australia with his motorcycle to see how fast he can go. It's a very well done movie.



The place is unlike any desert vie ever been before. Nothing grows there, it's completely baron and yet somehow quite peaceful. Athena went on a long walk exploring while I set up a couple small flashes to get the shot with us and Mudflap (the Element).

I truly want to go back.

Family Portrait out in the desert

While out in SoCal I got to meet up with my friend Shaun. We used to ride dirt bikes when he lived here in Colorado. Recently he lost his job with Wagner, his house and got a divorce all in about four months. Hard times for sure.

Shaun moved back to California to help out his dad and while he was out there ran into Kim and her kids. They new each other from way back and have been catching up and spending a lot of time together. It's good seeing Shaun happy again.

They invited me to go dirt bike / ATV riding out in the desert since I was out in Cali and I gladly accepted. I wish Athena could have come but it was to close after surgery and the doctor wouldn't allow it.

We rode all day out in the middle of no where and had a total blast. I got that blue 450cc ATV up to 93 mph top gear wide open at one time. It was so fast!!! Afterwards I asked everyone to get together for a quick photo.

I set up two speed lights about 45 degrees from each other pointing towards the group. Turned them on and BAM BAM BAM off they went right into my face. While I waited for my vision to return I started singing "blinded by the light...."

It seams high powered overhead power lines emit a strong enough signal that they set off my radio triggers. So the flashes kept popping.

What to do? I couldn't move everyone we were on a time limit so I moved the light stands about five feet and they popped off only every once in a while. I could work with that. I just needed one good shot.

All in all I took three shots that day. Two of them were usable. Above is the best one.

Quick night shoot in SoCal

Wow! it's been awhile since I posted anything. Being away from home for a month seriously takes its toll. My lovely wife had her surgery and we were out in California for a month.

I may not of been posting much however I did shoot every chance I got while I was out there. I'll be posting those photos shortly.



Here is our friends Chad and Kym. We hung out with them on afternoon and they told us about this place they go and sit and watch the sun set.



I quickly grabbed my camera bag and away we went. I set up the flash in a softbox on a light stand. The wind was blowing pretty good on top of the hill so I had to have Athena hold it while I shot them. Then Chad or Kym swapped as Athena got a pic with each of them.

Fishing around with B.D. Morrow

I'm not a good fisherman at all. Let me get that out in the open. The last time I went fishing was over twenty years ago and it turned into a really bad experience.



My dad was taking us twin boys up to the lake to spend the day together. I don't remember all the details but I do know that my twin brother Mike & I managed to turn the fishing pole we were sharing into a giant birds nest. Really just the line the rod was fine but we had twenty feet of line in a huge mess. Don't ask!

Needless to say dad wasn't to happy with us and we ended up calling it a day and going home. It's still is sore spot for dad that we never went back out.



Well, I may not be able to throw a rod & reel but I can definitely hook some light. My friend Brian builds his own bamboo fly fishing rods. He actually has quite the setup in his basement. He trained under one of the best in America & has some amazing bamboo rods with all this intricate detail.



Brian needed some product shots for his website so I went over and fished around some lights. We shot some product shoots and then I wanted some action shots of him actually making these works of art.



If you are into fly fishing or not, check out Brian's website for his story and see how much of and artist and a craftsman this guy really is.

New website finally arrives and it's a..... flash!

That's right folks it's been several months in the making with morning, evening, and late night sickness. It out was a bit overwhelming and quite the learning experience but I managed to pull it off.

Those of you following my blog... this blog, you might have to update your rss to http://freemanfotos.blogspot.com/

The flash website will be at http://www.freemanfotos.com/. I'll get the link on the blog to it tonight... quickly.

Thank you to everyone for your help and feedback and a special thank you to that famous Denver hotel for providing that awesome backdrop.

Denver model photography

A couple saturdays ago, I got to do some model photography in Denver. Jay Kilgore over at Club Supershoot was going over the business side of shooting models.

We discussed all the aspect of running a photography business from incorporating to marketing. Jay brought us all up to speed on some of the new laws covering model photography and what we should do to cover our asses. The main goal was to have great shots to build a model portfolio. This included a head shot, full body and a product shot.



The class also got to see the downside of models as only one out of the three models showed up. Joelle arrived on time & was a bubbly fun girl to shoot all day.

One of the pluses of the day was seeing first hand the contributions the MUA can bring to a shoot. Julie Gallahue of Goldie Mae Productions was a crack up and did an amazing job on the hair & make up. I'll definitely be using a MUA on shoots when I can.

Night shooting Denver Skyline

A couple weeks ago, I went out on the monthly night shoot with Illuminate Workshops Efrain Cruz. About twenty of us met at Paris on the Platte then moved on the shooting the Denver skyline.



We eventually ended up at confluence park shooting the Platte river in the cold night air. The long exposure & moving water makes for some good shots.



My friend Kris even did some light painting to pass the time.



I usually go out every month doing the night shoot. If you want to come & meet some cool people & get some amazing shots check out Illuminate workshops & sign up for free.

New gear hard case for under $100

One of the big stinks of being a photographer is carrying around a bunch of bags of stuff. Camera bodies, lenses, flashes, tripods, light stands, umbrellas, softboxes, studio strobes, etc... All this gear to create a amazing photograph.

I really think this is why most pro's get assistants. Right? or they just use available light only. One time while second shooting a wedding with Diana she pulled out her Kata bag. I was like "ooooh I need a big bag for all my light gear".

I started looking at camera shops, then online, then eBay, even craigslist. The few places that had them I got sticker shock. This is insane! If people want to know why photography is so damn "expensive" it's because all the gear we buy to make that incredible photo cost so damn much.

That's when I decided to get creative. One day while at a sports store I came across a hard case for a golf bag to protect it when golfers travel on airlines. It had plenty of space, locks, handles & best of all wheels. Plus it was a quarter of the price as some photo lighting bags.



Now it was time to see if I could find a deal. I found this one on craigslist in northern Colorado and drove up to get it. Once home I could get all my stands and light modifiers in it and it closed. A couple weeks later I installed the bungees to hold the umbrellas and softboxes in on the otherside.



This thing is perfect, it can carry my stuff, fits into my Element & was priced right. As a photographer you have to be creative not only in you pictures but also in your business.

Big family Christmas

This year my family got together for a big family hoo-haa. Since my little brother Jeremy is shipping off in February, dad wanted everyone to come down & spend Christmas day at there place.



I told dad I wanted to get a picture of everyone outside all together around sunset. I planned out how I was gonna pose them. Where the lights were going to be.



The Colorado winter storm moved out and the southern skies opened up and turned blue. I was getting all excited the image in my head was gonna come true. Unfortunately, dinner was going to be ready and I didn't have enough time to get everything set up. Plus by the time I explained what I wanted to do, everyone was saying that it was to cold to go outside.

I got all bummed out. This vision wasn't gonna happen. I decided that later I could shoot everyone downstairs in the basement so I better go shoot the sunset. I raced to my car unloaded my camera bag and click click click.

After dinner and some gift exchange before everyone decided to leave. I drug all my gear into the basement to set up the shot. Athena and my nephew Dakota helped me set up the lights. I had one Octabox as my main light high camera right, then two stripbox set behind on either sides. It was all powered by my DIY battery pack.

I then spent a good part of a day photoshoping heads, people and the background into the shot. I think the final images turned out really good. Thanks everyone for sticking with me on this.