Strobists meet at the Ballyhoo studio in Portland

The PDX Strobist group in Portland, Oregon had their meetup at my Portland Studio for November. What was intended to be a small and intimate meetup became a crowded and overflowing studio packed with photo geeks and models. The chaos was awesome. My studio is just under 800 square feet, with two main shooting areas. Add food, cameras, bags, makeup, props, lightstands, and a dozen models and I think we ended up with about 15 photographers. It was intimate, but not quite what I had in mind. It was more like shoulder to shoulder shooting with people spilling into the halls for setting up lights and models.

One of the photographers, Scooter, is a student, aspiring photographer, and quite a sport. Another photographer and I dragged Scooter and two of the models into the non-functioning elevator in my building for a shoot. It was a struggle to get started, as the space was so tight and the widest lens I had was my 24-70 canon lens. Nice and wide, huh? Well, I shoot a 40D, so you can multiply that lens size by 1.6, making the widest setting a relative 39mm lens. Not that wide. I had about 5 feet to move in front of the elevator shaft, so that was about 15 feet deep. My three victims, er models were good sports and put up with me. These images are from the series. This one is my favorite from the day

Colors in portraits

kim stress
Originally uploaded by ballyhoo photography

The impact of color in a portrait. I needed a few more pictures for a school assignment. Kim had a full day of work, then taught an evening class in Tigard. She got home about 10 to have a camera shoved in her face and a fill card pushed into her lap and was told to act "natural". I love when people put a camera in my face and tell me to act natural.
Fortunately, over the years, Kim has become tolerant of my obsession and has been my willing test subject.
I wanted to illustrate her stress, without adding to it by making her act stressed. I could see that she was already stressed enough. She ran her hands through her hair as she decompressed and I caught this shot on one of the sweeps and loved the angles of it. I cross processed the image in Photoshop to add the contrast and add the color dynamic to the image and am happy with the outcome.
The blue image was the same night. I wanted a different emotion out of the same light. She leaned back, I changed the fill card a bit and shot this. I think it shows quite a different person. What do you think?

Scream at the Beach

Scream at the Beach
Originally uploaded by ballyhoo photography

I belong to a strobist group here in Portland, and we were allowed access (during the day) to all the haunts.
For you non PDX types, the Scream at the beach is a huge haunted house set that takes up 5 retail locations in a mall in North Portland. Some examples are a mansion, complete with crypt, a mine, an urban zombie-scape, and others. This shot was made in the funhouse (from hell) and this attraction was right after you walk through a 24 foot "squeeze wall" and is in a black room. Nice, huh?
It was so dark in many of the areas, that some of us used flashlights to help our auto focus assist. It was too dark to manually focus. You'd think that cameras were made for use in the light or something.
So, we spent about 6 hours in the haunts, checking out the different scenes and figuring out how to make pretty girls with horrifying makeup look like they fit into the place. Can you say head lamp for finding gear? the best part was - what color is most photo equipment? - finding all of our equipment as we moved from one location to the next. A good number of people were at the mall as we went from haunt to haunt. Girls in make up, guys with bags and stands and cameras. Makeup was done by Matt Huntley.

So, this is what happens when you retire

My parents retired a few years ago, had a house sale -opened the doors and put a price tag on everything in the house, including the house, bought a big truck and a fifth wheel trailer. They have been criss-crossing the country ever since with their 6 cats. I call them the crazy cat people, but that's beside the point.
They stopped by the Portland area to visit, so I took some time off to hang out with them. Here they are in their full glory as we sat on their "patio" and had some apple-tinis. During their cruise around the country, they have taken a truck load of pictures - friends, wildlife, road hazards, sites, etc. etc.

Now, my dad has picked up a Nikon D80 and shoots like there is no tomorrow. I think my explanation of apertures and shutter speeds deepened the fog of confusion as he is trying to learn to actually USE his camera and have some control of the quality of his photos.
Guess what we did for the couple of days they were here. That's right, drink beer and discuss how an aperture and shutter speed combination can be made to control the artistic side of photos, like depth of field and motion blur.
Some people say that parents are like tornados, the come around for a short time, mess things up, and leave after all the pieces have been scattered. Mine come around, we have some good food, good drink, good conversations and then they run off to continue their trip. This time, it's from Denali National Park, Alaska to somewhere in the deserts of Nevada. They were going to Texas, but decided that it wasn't such a good idea. Here's a couple of shots from while we were out on their first night at the Wall Street Pizza in Gresham, OR.

Welcome to the Fall

Autumn used to be my favorite part of the year: colors of leaves, warm days with cool evenings, soup. MMMMMmmm, soup. Although it's not number one in my book of favorite seasons, it is in the top four - "participant" prize goes to Fall. Thanks for coming. Actually, it's not a bad season, but it means that the daylight hours get shorter and all that.


These are pictures from this week about the Fall evenings and the wonderful (relative term) things they bring. Notice that I put the rain first, then the clouds?

Both shots were done during the same night, actually within about 10 minutes of each other. Full Sail Pale Ale was the inspiration for both of these shots. mmmmm beer. Actually, my creative juices have been flowing again for personal projects and I am trying to expand my range and shoot with different styles.

Events in Stumptown

I have only been in downtown Portland after dark a few times, so had to squeeze this photo of the SAM station at the Pioneer Courthouse Square.
I had the opportunity to shoot some events for the Pioneer Courthouse Square. I shot the Italian Festival, Root Beer Floats, the Senior Prom, Flicks on Bricks, and a few other jobs for the group that runs the park.
Each job presented its own challenges, which was one of the reasons that I took these jobs on. Between the white umbrellas in the sun, uncooperative weather, large crowds of people, and the night shots, the events were a blast. Not just standard "walk around and shoot" type of work.

Here is one of the shots from the Ghostbusters night of Flicks on the Bricks. That job was awesome because I was able to watch a great movie while I did some of the work. I realized that seeing the movie in this venue was kind of like a hotdog at a Mariners game. The movie is great on its own, but it was that much better when watching it in downtown Portland with hundreds and hundreds of people. The party environment really made it a great experience. The park was packed with people by the time the movie started at dusk. It makes me wonder where all of these people parked.

Busy Times....

I have an appointment set in my calendar every Thursday for updating my blog, and you can only hit the snooze in Outlook so many times.
I have been a little busy lately, so I'm not beating myself up over not posting for almost a month....again. I haven't had a day off in a couple of weeks now, except for the night that my wife decided that we should go camping in our Element. It would have been fine, if it weren't for the dog and over 100 degrees temperature. I ended up sleeping (yeah, right) on the ground outside so Neo could hang with me. Between sleeping limbs (forgot my pillow and slept on my arm), rain, and falling supplies (see note about rain), I didn't sleep more than about 2-3 hours that night and had a job in town on Sunday afternoon. I'm almost done whining.... I was SO glad to be home the next night. No sleep, pack up, go home, unpack, shower, shoot a job. Okay, I'm done.
I had the opportunity to shoot the India Festival in the Pioneer Courthouse Square, and it was WAY more popular than I expected. I didn't know there was that much Indian culture in the area. The park was overflowing with people for a while. I love events there. Seems like every time I work in the square, the day is overcast, which is great for photos. The bright colors and beautiful outfits made for some easy great photos. The spirit and energy of the event was great, and it was easy to wander around and take pictures of people. What a great park. The bricks are close to a middle grey, and good for metering off of when the events have bright white tents. For the schedule of remaining events at the square, you can check out http://PCSPDX.ORG

I am not posting any pictures tonight, as Yellow Tail and the Olympics are calling. I am not usually into sports, but I do love watching the olympics. I was up really late last night, and got to catch one of my favorites in the olympics - Bicycle Supercross. Those riders just amaze me.

New Website Started

Hooray! I worked out some issues I was having with my DreamWeaver, and finally got most of my website updated. I am never happy with the site, so it's never finished. I like the new look and hope you will too. Here's a screenshot of the new home page. In case you haven't checked it out, it's at http://ballyhoophotography.com and you should go there. Drop me a line if you have any thoughts on the new look. I want a clean, simple, yet elegant look to the site. I don't like when people have music start automatically, so don't expect that.

Finally, pictures posted

Okay, so about 3 weeks ago, I mentioned the shoot downtown. I had the opportunity to shoot the Pioneer Courthouse Square Festival of Flowers and had a blast despite the overcast day.

I did take advantage of the dry day, and rode my motorcycle into town. I found parking on the street on the second block on which I looked, which was sweet! This was during June, which is one of the more unpredictable weather months here in the great Northwest. If you are going to be outside for a spell in June, bring your umbrella, and sunglasses. I didn't take photos of the tomatoes that were on sale that day, as the plants themselves aren't that pretty until they start producing fruit. I'm not a hater, but when a tomato plant is surrounded by sunflowers and wildflowers, they just don't grab me by the lens.

So, on to the pictures. Enjoy.

Holy Smoke!

I was flipping through my calendar today and realized that I haven't posted to this blog in over a month. It's been a good month - very busy - so I'm not that sad that I've been slow to post. I am trying to get better about doing a weekly blog with some interesting topics.
Last week, there were some events downtown that I was able to take some publicity shots for. I put all of them on my external drive, so I will have to get them and will post a couple of images... The Pioneer Courthouse Square had their "Urban Meadow" themed display in the park, which was what I photographed. It was a lovely layout of wildflowers and other plants (including tomatoes YUM!). The whole thing was laid out in paths and rows with a tunnel of sticks down the middle. I busted out my lensbaby 3g for some shots from the 11th floor of one of the close-by buildings. I've never used the Lensbaby for distant shots. I was thrilled by the results.

Coming soon - Pictures from the Pioneer Courthouse Square Urban Meadow.

Back to Work

All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.

No, I didn't turn into Jack Nicholson channeling Stephen King in The Shining. Just whining a little.

Earlier this week, I had the opportunity to take some portraits for a law firm downtown. What a great bunch of people! I'm not just saying that to suck up or to pad my chances of going back if one of them happens to read it. They were just a great group. From the time I said hi to the office manager, to the time that I packed up and got out of their hair I was treated very kindly. Here is one of my favorite shots from the day.

It won't make it to their website, but I love the shot. This is just one of those shots that I got for me on the day. Most of the other shots are pretty standard with a bit of personality.

Funny, I haven't posted to my blog in about 3 weeks, then I post twice today. My website has been updated a bit, and I finished doing most of the research that I needed to do. Only a 15 hour day today, but I got tons done, new business card, updated site, two blogs, plans and purchases for tomorrow's shoot, picked up some bike parts for my mountain bike. I think I have earned a nice long sleep tonight.

Working from home

Here is a little glimpse into my life. I have a job this weekend for an event at the Clackamas Town Center Macy's for Mother's Day Portraits. While I am really excited about this, I am FREAKING OUT about getting all my ducks lined up. I think I have everything ready to go, but there is always that little thing that refreshes the challenge.
I didn't feel like working in my office today, so I am editing photos and typing correspondence from my couch (recliner) and listening to music.
I was doing some research on the net, and looked over to see my dog, Neo, in his favorite position - spread eagled on the couch with his head on a pillow. I figured that I needed a picture of that. I have lots of pictures of the mutt doing his thing, but I just watched a show about some photographers, and was reminded of the Marilyn Monroe photos when I saw Neo. Obviously, Norma Jean was more beautiful and more elegant, but what can you do?
One of my favorite things about working from home (I don't drive to my Portland studio unless I need to) is that I get to hang with my pets and give Neo more attention. He's finally coming out of his slump after losing his sister, Daisy. I like to think that I am also doing my part for the environment by not driving the 20 some odd miles to the studio in my truck.
This isn't the most elegant lighting. I didn't want him to move while I set up my stands and strobes to light him with some pizazz. He's one of those dogs that if I'm up and moving around, he has to follow to see what I'm doing. Maybe I'm getting food or going outside for something. I had to sneak to my camera bag to get my camera and strobe, and was lucky that he only woke up and didn't move.

Guess what's coming back into season!!!

Here in Sandy, turn your clocks back 20 years to find it just a little outside Portland,we have still been getting snow for the last few weeks as we are at 1,000 feet. We had a beautiful weekend a few weeks ago, but I don't remember when that was. Anyway, here we are past the middle of February April and it doesn't seem like Summer will ever arrive.
(Keep in mind that during the summer, my whining post will be about how it's too hot - you know the drill.)
So, I needed a few things and decided to drive through the 40 degree rain to get to my big box favorite place to wander around on a fine cold, rainy spring day. It's a good way to get in trouble see what's new. I walked back into one of the refrigerator caves to pick up my 50 lb bag of salad, and smelled something yummy. It took me a minute to think about the clear box of red orbs sitting in front of me. Then I was struck by a need for strawberries. I am a somewhat conscientious shopper, and like to buy products that are at least relatively local. While I cringed, expecting to see "Chile" as the country of origin, I found that the strawberries were grown and processed in Califor nie aye. Hooray! I can buy the strawberries because like 90% of Portland area citizens these are from California. American strawberries!! Woo Hoo!
What else could I do beside eat some of these "noms"... and take some pictures. Instead of editing work photos, or maybe marketing my services, or cleaning, or hanging out with my dog, I took a gigabyte few photos. I have peppered them throughout this post. I hope you enjoy the shots as much as I enjoyed taking them. There WERE strawberries injured during the production of these photos.

Photography as a career?

Andy Warhol once said that "Art is a boy's name".


Brilliant.


So now, I ask the question with a qualifier -"what is art, and who decides that something is art?"


I spend hours scouring the net for inspiration. It's amazing what you can find out there and is generally uninspiring. I thought one day about American art and the major museums. MoMA came to mind. Some items are wonderful and others make me reconsider calling myself an artist. I visited the Seattle Art Museum for their Roman exhibit and scratched my head at some of the "art" they had on display. Their normal displays were awesome, and the ancient Roman stuff was worth the money, but some of the displays in the main museum wonder why ANYONE would be interested. I guess everyone has their opinions, but really????


Like most photographers, I catch myself saying "Anyone could shoot that. It's only art because Richard Avedon shot it." To be fair, I sometimes see shots that are so simple that anyone could have shot them, but the photographer did something to put their spin on it, making the simple shot absolutely beautiful. This is where I find that I am truly inspired by other photographers.
If you are looking for inspiration in life, look around you and see what you had overlooked before. Why do you get out of bed? I get out of bed because I can learn something new every day by looking around. Mind you, I have those days where I ask my self what the hell I was thinking quitting the 9 to 5 gig that I had to pursue professional photography as my bread and butter!?!?!
That's when my lovely significant other bonks me on the head and reminds me that my boss rocks and I get to deal with new people and new challenges all the time. No other job has made me so mad in the past, but none has been so rewarding either. My boss can be a jerk, but he is usually pretty laid back and has great taste in music and beer. What more can you ask?

New model shoot from the studio

Yesterday, I had the privilege of working with Kesha at the studio. We had so much fun shooting that we lost track of the time - till the ringflash started becoming too heavy for my arm. We went through quite a few set changes and a few outfit changes and ended up with a nice set of images. Some of them will be flipping through the slideshow on the right hand side of the screen.
Here are a couple of my favorites that I did a little processing on. Enjoy!

Cheers,
-ken

Picture of the day

Mmmmmm. Coffee.
I like my coffee without cream or suguar. Just noir. Later, I dropped the mug and it was Baroque.

Not only a random subject for the day, but bad puns to boot. I'm going to go drink this coffee now and try to stop making bad jokes.

Enjoy.

Still breathing

Wow, I can't believe that almost a month snuck past since my last post. During that time, I started shooting personal projects when I had the time. Here is a bit of a self portrait - myspace style. I was playing with my camera, cleaning the sensor, and decided to shoot a picture of myself in my natural habitat - working on my laptop. The only light on my face is the light of the monitor. I will be posting more often to share some pictures that I've been shooting.
Time is an interesting thing, isn't it? Hemingway said it best when he said that things in life go gradually then suddenly. It can be used for most things in life - time, money, sanity, you name it.

Enjoy the day.

Sandy Chamber of Commerce celebration

Last night was the Sandy, Oregon Chamber of Commerce 60th anniversary bash at the Resort at the Mountain in Welches, Oregon. The theme was "Casino Royale" and there was gambling (everyone was given funny money to cash in for chips), drinks, dinner, raffles, and dancing.
I volunteered my time for this event for taking prom-style portraits. I need to be more careful volunteering for stuff. My studio mates and I signed lease at a new studio on Broadway (Portland, Oregon) and started the moving process on Friday. We spent two days prepping the new studio for paint and moving things around, so I was already exhausted. Then, I had to run home for a quick shower and change of clothes, collect my gear, and boogey on down to Welches to set up. I only had about 45 minutes for everything, including finding the room, dragging all of my bags, saying hi to everyone, then setting up and fine tuning lights. I completed the setup just in time for the first victims- er, clients.
This was a quick, down and dirty setup, and the final product for everyone was an inkjet 4x6 print in a display folder. The proceeds went to the Chamber of Commerce. I met a lot of interesting people throughout the night, including the winner of the "Youth Citizen of the Year" award. The photo included in this blog is her and her mother.

Mourning for a lost friend

I wrote a little while ago about my 11 year old lab mix, Daisy, having cancer. Well, sadly, she lost the fight and has left us. She was the first dog that my wife and I had as a family and we are all very sad. After about 6-700 bucks worth of shoes and other things around the house (including a leather couch cushion) when she was young, she was a great dog.

So here's to a great 90 lb lap dog and loved friend. This is one of the pictures I took of her about a week before she died. She loved to play with spray bottle mist. I would spray just a little water on her nose and she would rub all over the ground and rub her nose. I didn't actually have to spray it. I could hold a spray bottle and make a spray sound and she would do the same thing. Silly pup.

I know, some people say she was just a dog, but she was a big part of our family and will always be remembered as such. You are entitled to your opinion, as long as you know that it is wrong.

Daisy Lou Gill
10.31.96 - 2.4.08

I got a new Lensbaby 3

So, I got a Lensbaby and finally had a little time to play with it. First, I wanted something fun to shoot, so I thought "My motorbike could be fun." Then I realized that I hadn't run the engine for a little while, so I should run the motor for a while. Then I realized that I hadn't been riding in a while, and I was outside without a jacket and wasn't shivering. I took a few shots of the bike, then packed my camera and headed out for a ride, stopping when I saw interesting stuff. 60 miles and 5 stops later, I got home and checked my stuff out. I got a few shots that were fun (included).
The little road trip satisfied my motorcycle craving, but didn't satisfy my Lensbaby need. My wife was taking a little catnap on the couch (it was about 6), so I decided to torture her a bit by setting up on the floor right in front of her and got focused, put in the aperture disk, then started painting her with an flashlight. Here is one of the resulting images. She will probably forgive me for posting candid photos of her sleeping, right? <----concerned husband, heheh.

Day in the snow

So, my oldest dog, Daisy, was given 1-3 months to live after cancer was found throughout her body. What do you do when life gives your dog cancer? You go play in the snow!!!!! We didn't want to sit around all weekend moping, so we took the two mutts up to the mountain to play. Daisy has always been a huge fan of snow and water. She and the other dog found a creek next to the meadow that we were playing in, and went for a swim. I was freezing bundled up on land and they were playing polar bear before we even knew there was liquid water in the area.
For those of you who are wondering, Yes- I am one of those guys who treats their dog like a child. Daisy is 11 and we've had her since my son was 5. Most of his memories involve her eating shoes or barfing on his rug and lots of playing in water.
So, here are a couple of pictures from the day. One is of Daisy chilling in the snow. I ended up blowing out the snow so there would be detail in her black fur. I know a lot of people like to see texture in snow, but when I set my exposure, I got what I wanted.
The other picture is Daisy sitting and watching her idiot brother catching snowballs in the air.

NEW SITE!!

BALLYHOOphotography.com has been rebuilt. I am pretty excited about the new look of the site. I figure -new year, new site design. I posted it about 8:45 pm on Jan 17, and I'm sure there are bugs, but i clicked around it, and am very happy with it. If you read this, email me and let me know what you think. I'm still learning this crazy html thing.

Back in my day, it was all film and paper and chemicals. You could destroy your liver with the fixer. Those were the days. Now I have to destroy my liver by other means. Man..... I guess it's going to have to be Jameson or Bushmills. Decisions, decisions. HA!

Oh ya, the Hawaii pictures will be coming soon. I had to put them on the backburner. I had planned on taking a ton of pics, and writing off part of the trip as a business expense, but I only took a couple hundred pictures, and will only keep a few dozen of those. I will be good and call it a vacation.

Keep an eye out, I will actually be updating this periodically. I got a new Lensbaby, so expect some postings of that. I’m having fun dinking around with this. THANKS LENSBABIES!!!!

Christmas gift to me!

So, Kauai.....
This is what I got for Christmas this year. A 4 mile hike that ended up being 2-6 inches of mud. What a blast. The only problem was getting back down. These simple sandals are kind of a bummer when your feet are slick with mud. I spent as much time adjusting my feet in the shoes as they kept slipping and rotating. The temperature was right around 80 degrees and the views were spectacular.
We planned to go snorkeling for the morning, but the waves were up and the beach we planned to go to had a really wide riptide. No thanks. I do love that island, though. We stayed in an elcheapo hotel, so internet service was only available further into Kapaa at the coffee shop. Nothing like sitting at a coffee shop petting the cat while my son got his fix of WOW and we got our caffeine buzz.
Every day was low 70's for the low and 80 for the high. Makes you kind of forget why you enjoy living in the Great Northwest. These muddy feet would not quite feel as good in the low 40s...... yikes!

More pictures will be coming as I edit them.