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.