Rain Rain Go Away, Come Again Some Other Day!

Photography is going great! I have had a lot of opportunities in the last few weeks to get photo shoots setup. I am also currently finishing up a design for a friend's CD. We have done a photo shoot for that, but I am not releasing any of the pictures until the CD is done, and is for sale. So, sorry, I can't share them on here YET.

Unfortunately, it is winter, and in Oregon, the winter brings rain. And lots of it! Why do you think everything here is so green? I have a few photo shoots coming, but my most recent one with a girl named Katie was fun, except, most of the time it was spent undercover and indoors. She already has a lot of studio photos, so I naturally wanted to be different. We were able to get out for a bit, before a huge down pour came out of no where and we had to retreat back to my car. It was fun, we got a few pictures. Well, six total that were anyway usable. I have never done such a short photo shoot in my life, but I think overall the pictures we got were better than expected for not having much to try.

I am learning a lot about my photo printing host. I am quite amazed every time I get feedback from my customers. SmugMug has changed a lot in the last few months that I have been involved with them. It is great, good opportunities with this company for printing. I printed some large prints for my family, and they turned out amazing. So if you have any thoughts of getting a SmugMug account, be sure to use referred by me and save $5, and I will get $10. This is a link will automatically add me as your referral. Not a whole lot of money, but it will help both of us, you'll get a great photo printing service, and I'll get some money off my next year's subscription.

This all I have for now, I will have another update on a few photo shoots in the next coming days. Thanks for all your support!

Merry Christmas

I just wanted to wish everyone a Merry Christmas, and for those who don't celebrate Christmas, happy holidays! I hung out with my family for the weekend, and took family portraits at my local church for 5 hours. It was a lot of work, but I think meeting new people will help me out eventually! :)

Flickr Groups

I just wanted to take this time to mention a couple Flickr groups that I am involved in that I feel would be important to helping a starving photographer.

First off, I wanted to plug the groups that I am a moderator, or admin for.

• The Training Grounds: Photographers Teaching Photographers
  
• Midnight Photography
  
• Willarg - Just a small group to go along with this blog.
  

And these groups, which most have a huge user base, and are also very active, are some of the real inspiration that I have come across.

• Strobist.com - One of the most active groups on Flickr for low budget photographers.
  
• Photographer’s tech Resources
  
• Pro corner
  

And some fun Flickr groups that I am not at all involved in, but I feel are really cool!

• Photoshop Tennis - A good place to practice bogus Photoshop skills that you will probably never use anywhere else.
  
• Polar Panoramas - A fun style of panoramas.
  

If you have any groups that you'd recommend, please leave the links in the comments!

Updated: I fixed my links, whoops. Thanks Philip!

Saturday Photo Shoots

Wow! 2 on location photo shoots, 6 hours. Wow, I couldn't have been more crazy. Tomorrow, I have the same thing. It might be a little bit more tricky. One is an actual set up and shoot photo shoot, and the other is just a "hey let's have a photo shoot" photo shoot.

I think it will all work out in the end, so I am excited about that.

My photo shoots from today were great, both of my subjects were a joy to be around, and were both excited for the photo shoot. Which makes my job easier! One of the photo shoots was a senior photo shoot, and I haven't edited those pictures yet, but the second was just a friend on a model web page and i uploaded two photos from that shoot of onto Flickr. These are the pictures that I added to this post.

More to come later!

FYI: You can click on the images, they are directly linked to the image on Flickr! You can get to the rest of my pictures there! Enjoy!

Upcoming Photography Weekend

I apologize for the lack of updates lately. I have had a very dormant week when it comes to photography. I really need to get up, and do some photography. I assure you this weekend will bring a change to that. I have scheduled four separate photo shoots. Each one will bring a unique flavor to my portfolio.

The picture on the left, is a picture of myself. I just really enjoyed my expression, and quality of this picture. I used a Wacom Bamboo tablet to edit this photo, and it turned out nicely.

I forgot to mention that last weekend I had a photo shoot with a friend. The photo shoot was for a Secret Santa gift exchange. Apparently she is good friends with this co-worker of hers, and has baby sat for her Secret Santa's family. The photo shoot was of the co-worker's children. The pictures turned out good.

The photo shoot was a fun experience, first time I have shot with another photographer as a team. Although, my friend may not consider herself a photographer, but with my Nikon SpeedLight SB-800 and PocketWizard strapped to that on her Nikon D40, she definitely played the part well! My pictures were taken with my flash on a stand powered by PocketWizards, I was hoping that by having a PocketWizard attached to her flash, I would be able to leech some light from it. I will have to play with this idea more at another time.

Here are a few photos from this last weekend:

Group Pictures

Group photos. A photographers worst nightmare. This last weekend, I got to do three extremely large group photos. One with up to 60 people and two others of 30. A little background, I was doing photography for The Onyx House, it is a CO-ED Christian house in Eugene, Oregon. I actually lived there for two years, but moved out last summer in 2007. It was a great place to live, and a great place to learn how to deal with large amounts of people! I actually setup my first photography studio on the basement of this house, and convinced housemates to let me take pictures of them.

My main task of the night was to take a group picture of all the residence.

Before the big group photo, I got the pleasure to take pictures of everyone individually. The whole night was a mystery going into it. I knew I needed to bring all of my lighting equipment. I setup two flashes in a wide clamshell format, one high the other low. Both at 45-degree angles from the subjects. The background, and surroundings was already setup for me. I shot one test picture, and I had it! I was completely pleased! Bring them on! You can see one of the earlier pictures to the left, and if you are interested in seeing the rest, go ahead and click the image!

I had my brand new Nikon D300 camera. It was definitely a great way to test out the capabilities of the camera. I was shooting JPEG images most of the night at 1000 ISO. The pictures turned out magnificent without any additional noise reduction there was hardly any to be seen! I also had not recharged my battery since putting it into my D300, and had already taken over 500 pictures. I had around 50% battery left, and an extra battery just in case. By the time the night was over, my camera had 6% battery, and I had taken nearly 300 pictures. That’s a total of 800 pictures before having to recharge my battery. Quite an improvement from my Nikon D200!

After the "Narnia" pictures. I got an opportunity to play a little. When everyone was asked to go over to the "dance floor" I quickly followed with my two flashes in hand (I ditched the umbrellas). I placed them on opposite sides of the dance floor, and since I had them triggered on wireless by my trusty Pocket Wizards, I was free to move around the room wherever I pleased! I got a few interesting pictures.

Lastly, after everything was winding down, I was pressed with a daunting task: a group photo of everyone in the house. My trusty D300, and 12 mega pixels to fit 60 people into. I had two strobe lights and with my stands on some dining tables was just enough to light the scene.

I added a black border to focus the attention toward the people in the picture. Here are the pictures from the shoot. I hope you enjoy them!







Lastly, I decided that I could throw in a picture I did a few months ago of the staff of my personal church, Eugene Faith Center. This one has a little more flavor because it actually had appealing surroundings.

Another Me

Earlier this week I was checking my web page on Google, and found another photography that goes by the name Will Foster at dubFoster.com. Very interesting. He seems to enjoy documenting his life in some sort of photo blog and has since included pictures of my sites explaining:

"... I got an email from another Will Foster, we seem to be interested in the same sort of thing."

It's good to see that I have an alternate life, and I am still interested in photography!

I have found many instances of my name, unfortunately most of these come up before me. This was the only me that was also interested in photography. Others include basketball, music, drugs, and just a bunch of random stuff that I don't want to be associated with.

Winter Wonderland

Last Saturday I had a little photo shoot at my old residence “The Onyx House.” They have an annual Christmas party for all the residence. The residence dress up and have a special night with out housites, and just have fun! For the photo shoot there was a nice winter, almost as if it was inspired by Narnia, scene setup for me to take pictures of the residence in. It was creative, and worked well with my lighting. I will post more about that later, since I don’t have any of the pictures online yet.

I have been really busy lately, but today’s looking nice and calm compared to my weekend of fun, and hanging out with friends! I apologize for my lack of updates lately. I will get the ball moving, and get more stuff up here. I actually just joined a model/photographer/makeup/wardrobe social community. When I checked, I found a lot of people in the Eugene, Oregon area! So we'll see what this brings to my photography! I will give you an update later on this as well.

Spending Money

Being a photographer is not a cheap profession. I can't even focus all of my time on photography, I have a “real” job to cover most my expenses. I just recently came to realize that having illegal software was not something that I wanted to be associated with anymore. So after a long time using the trial version of Adobe Photoshop CS3 and Adobe Photoshop Lightroom I could finally afford to make my first big software purchase. I would highly recommend giving both of these applications a try, they are very much a huge part of my photography. If you buy the two expensive applications together through Adobe.com you save exactly $125, which i definitely took advantage of.

My goal for the rest of the year is to be completely debt free (minus the student loan), and be able to afford to lease a brand new 2008 VW Jetta SE for 3 years. The main idea behind getting a car, would be the trunk, just so i can keep my gear safe, and out of sight. This is very important to me, especially since I currently have a 1990 Volvo 740 Turbo station wagon. Where you can see what I have from a mile away.

I plan on saving a lot of money by doing less of the things that I don't need to do. Unfortunately, I will occasionally do these things. No more expensive movie theaters, no more buying things that I will use just once. Selling expensive things/toys that I hardly use. This should be no problem, now that I have everything that I will need for my photography for the next few months (besides a really nice zoom lens, but that will come later in the year).

So, what's the plan now? You may ask, but this is about as good as I can answer.

I am planning on spending the next year working on my portrait and stock photography portfolio. I haven't really accomplished anything in the stock photography world. In fact, I have been denied many of times, and have unsuccessfully added no photographs to iStockPhoto to date, but at least this time i have made it past the qualification tests. I haven't gotten a chance to take too many stock photos, and have only submitted one. They are very picky, and the photograph i submitted had some visible sensor dust.

Which is mostly my fault, I should have cloned out the small yet faint black dot.

Stock photography is a trick. Especially when i have a hard time just being able to setup some sort of photo shoot with a friend! But hopefully this week will be a start with that. I am still enjoying my Nikon D300, and will hopefully continue to enjoy it as i get more used to the features that it offers.

I also convinced myself to get a Wacom Bamboo tablet. Wait, whoa! I know i was saying i was trying to save money, but it was only $67 through Amazon. It is a low end writing tablet used by a lot of photographers out there, and i have wanted one for as long as I have ever doodled on a pen and paper!

Thanksgiving Weekend

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend! And if you don’t know what Thanksgiving is, well, us Americans like to get together with the family once a year, and eat a mandatory huge meal, then sleep for a couple of days. We did not watch any football.

This thanksgiving weekend was fun for me. I got to spend some time with my parents! It was just my parents and I. Both of my sisters and their families could not make it. Fortunately, for my parents, they still have one child that is not occupied by a spouse, children, or live a long ways away. Such a wonderful Thanksgiving feast! I talked my mom into cooking chicken instead of turkey, just because chicken tastes better, and she agreed. It was great! Not to mention that afterward we watched together, the entertaining “Santa Claus 3: The Escape Clause,” and then shortly after the much more exciting, “Live Free or Die Hard.” I know, those movies don’t seem very exciting back to back, but they were a nice blend.

I brought all my camera equipment, and decided to snap some pictures of my pets, because, well, it was my last opportunity to get some decent pictures with my old Nikon D200. I also missed my animals, and wanted to catch them in their prime and hopefully print out some pictures for my parents. We have some really photogenic pets.

Then Friday rolled along, and I casually woke up around 11pm and strolled over to Shutterbug where I received a phone call earlier in the week that the D300 would be available for me to pick up. So, short story shorter, I have now upgraded my gear from a Nikon D200 to the brand spakin’ new Nikon D300. I was able to sell the D200 the next day for $1100 with the battery grip thanks to Craigslist! I was able to sell the camera to a local man who was delighted to venture into photography, and hopefully I will get to see some of the stuff he comes up with using the camera. I utilized the micro studio that I made a few weeks back for the pictures of the items I was selling. I am also trying to sell my GL2 and a MTX Amplifier, but neither has been showing much interest except for a few people in relations with people in Africa. Red flags anyone?

I haven’t gotten to do too many photo shoots with my new Nikon D300, just a few messing around pictures, and a shoot at my church of a couple dancing, and a ballerina. I had one senior photo shoot lined up for the weekend, but the father felt it was too expensive and cancelled the shoot. I am still baffled by this, because I feel like I am way too inexpensive. To each their own!

So far I am extremely satisfied with the Nikon D300, the image noise has been reduced a lot, and I can shoot in RAW with much higher ISO, and not worry about such nasty color noise and quality decrease. Of course, shooting with lower ISO will always increase the image quality! I try to shoot at ISO 200, but for the dance pictures, I shot at ISO 1000, and the pictures are definitely usable, and one of them will be in next weeks bulletin.

I am still looking forward to my first actual photo shoot with the camera. I will keep everyone posted when I have an opportunity and finish a photo shoot. Here is just a couple random pictures.

Blogs and Google Reader

Do you read a lot of blogs?

I do! It is what keeps me in shape with my photography, especially during down time here and there. I would like to spend more time reading, and finding blogs, but keeping track of them was so difficult.

Now that I have been using Google’s “Reader” web application, I am able to keep track of the blogs that I am interested in, and even include blogs that I feel would be important down the road! I can even share only specific feeds that you find interesting! This can be helpful for bloggers like me to share with you how I have been inspired to improve in different techniques. I am currently keeping track of 24 blogs, and the list is constantly growing! The majority of the blogs are related with photography. Others include technology, teaching, humor, Photoshop, friends, finances, and more!

So, what is the reason behind this post? You may be asking that since Google Reader isn’t about photography. Honestly it does! Blogs brings dynamic information straight from the source!

Have you ever went up to a local photographer that works in a certain demographic and asked for advice? I have, it was quite a humbling experience. The whole, “I don’t want to teach my competition,” is the only response that I received, and a link to a web page created by photographers that like doing things, “the old ways.” More power to them, they are great photographers! Which is why I contacted them. But in this day and age, if you just sit comfortably in your studio doing senior photos and family shots, you’ll still make money, but doing the same pictures day after day, years after years, will eventually leave you thinking what else you could be doing.

If you are interested in becoming a better photographer, even if you feel comfortable with your photography, if you haven’t jumped on the blogging bandwagon, you are definitely missing out! There are so many excellent and VERY successful photographers out there that are willing to teach their “competition” to help build them as better photographers always thinking one-step ahead. Many that keep my attention are those who produce professional results with minimal equipment and less production costs!

So, if you are interested in blogs, then their feeds should be your new best friend! I had not used them until recently when I began reading blogs on photography, and it just kind of spread from there. Now I use them every day! Any web site that has content that can be updated like a newspaper or blog should have an RSS or ATOM feed available to help capture, and manage the content of the blog. You can look for the little orange feed icon, and go from there!

So, if you are interested in blogging, let me know, and we’ll get you setup! Here is a link to Google Reader, and my feed for this blog, and my Google Reader shared items feed! You can right click my feed links, and go to "Copy Link Location" to add to your Google Reader account.

Side note: Yes, the picture is my roommate Shaphan wearing a tiny denim jacket for a video we were shooting that we still have not completed making fun of Enrique Iglesias. Someday, that video will be completed!

Dennis Dixon

Inspiration in photography is around every corner, knowing people who know people, little photo shoots turn into big opportunities.

I got the chance this weekend to have a photo shoot with my friends Haley and Jessica, and they just happened to get Dennis Dixon to come along. Dennis is not only of the greatest football players to come through University of Oregon, but he is one of the most down to earth, and kind people I have ever met. I was able to get in a few personal shots of just him at the end of the photo shoot and captured this moment, which really lets his personality shine. No athletic equipment besides a football, wearing his casual clothes, Dennis is just happy to be in the spotlight. I will look forward to seeing his career in either baseball or football, and seeing him shine continually as a star. Heisman Trophy? He deserves it!

Maybe there is a future out there for me in journalistic photography? Photo shoot like these are what keep me going! Feel free to take a look at some other shots from the photo shoot here, which include some of the group pictures of Dennis and the girls. Enjoy!

Senior Photos!

Senior Photos? The pinnacle of youth, the 12th grade, on the edge of becoming an adult, eight teen years in the making, you are just about to end your K-12 experience, and you need pictures to prove it!

This is quite possibly the silliest reason for anyone to have a professional photograph taken of him or her. Now don't get me wrong, I love photography, but most senior photos are a joke. Now, I have looked around at some senior photography here and there to kind of get a grasp what everyone out there is doing, maybe pick up an idea or two. But the more I look at it, the more I realize how boring these pictures are! People, you are so much more creative than this! Not all of these pictures are boring, but most! They don't usually impact me as an exciting photograph expressing the full potential of the model (the senior student). It bothers me more than anything.

I guess this is more directed toward the portrait studios that have the fancy signs out front, that hardly leave the comfort of their own studio.

Typical, standard, and boring are all terms I would use for the general senior photo category. Unfortunately, I don't think any yearbook team has really gotten the point. But then again, they are just looking for a way to streamline the process when they have 200-300 graduating seniors. What’s the deal with the requirements for senior photos? It has to be a certain height, with only a certain amount gap between the face and the edge of the photo, and such. Oh my goodness, this is ridiculous! Why even get a senior photo taken? Let the kids submit a picture into their yearbook that actually expresses their personality! Okay, so yeah, then again, if there were 200-300 students with senior pictures, it would be a little aggravating to have a bunch of “personality” pictures. If someone submits a bad picture, then nobody will never able to recognize him or her for the rest of their live. Wait, that doesn’t make sense.

Okay, I guess this is where we look back on my life, a little retrospect if you may. Maybe because of a little bit of a soar thumb from my senior year, let us look back to… the year 2000.

I suddenly feel like I am in a Conan O’Brien skit.

Okay, so here we are in the year 2000. Okay, so it is still now, but you can just pretend we are in the year 2000. Wow, almost years ago? You know you are getting old when you have to start thinking about your ten-year high school reunion. Should I start working out? Come up with a dramatic business plan to make millions so I can arrive in a Ferrari (maybe I could just rent one for a day?). I have two more years to lead myself to perfection! Actually, I will probably just show up with my brand new 1990 Volvo station wagon claiming I am a photographer, and people will look at me funny. Okay, so the car is not specifically new, but it saves me money because it is old, it runs, and it is 100% paid for!

Wow, I am easily distracted! Are you still there? Oh, hello!

Anyway, back to the point! Okay, so this was well before my photography years, in fact, I have not even discovered the ways of photography at this age. I was still trying to make web pages, and do computer programming as a hopeful living. I was the classic nerd, without the classic nerd glasses. I had 20/20 vision. I didn't really know much about anything besides computers. What does this have to do with anything? Well, I got my senior photos taken, they were not too fantastic, and my mother only bought one. It wasn’t even accepted by the yearbook team, and they instead, with out any warning, put up my student body picture. I wish I could find my yearbook, so I could share you the humility. It was horrific!

I decided to add my senior photo to the mix, just to show you how NOT to do a senior photo. I have nothing wrong with backdrops, but the one that was selected for me, was just terrible. I should have been in a wedding with the light haze and the faded edges.

Of course, I figured it was only appropriate to paste a hand on my face for cheap mild entertainment. I should have submitted the picture with the hand as my face to yearbook.

I wouldn't want this to happen to anyone! How humiliating? I get my yearbook, and it is the worst picture of the century! This is the picture that all my classmates will have to look back and reference me when my name comes up in the news, or something.

Anyway, point is, why does a senior photo shoot have to be so generalized, streamlined, and generic? My goal as a photographer is to keep away from the generic, and produce something fantastic. I want to treat each individual senior as a model, and make him or her feel special during the photo shoot, no matter how long the photo shoot. I understand this isn’t for everyone! Maybe someone might want to be generically placed in a picture, that’s fine, we can do that! Senior photography is a trick, and I feel I am already on the path of starting something interesting!

Here is a look at some examples from my recent senior photos from the last few months, please enjoy, and be sure to click on the ones you enjoy most and leave a comment on my Flickr gallery!

American Love

Last winter, a few friends and I discovered midnight photography. The hit and miss (mostly miss) photography at night using extremely long shutter speeds, and a lot of patience! We would setup our cameras on our tripods and wait for a result. For some reason, we have never done this during the summer, when the temperature would be more comfortable. Oh well, running around being completely cold is fun too!

Now, I call this form of photography Midnight Photography just because I felt that it needed some type of lingo to discuss the pictures between my friends. Night Time Photography just wasn’t quite as catchy to me, as Midnight Photography! I don’t know, you can be the judge on that one!

So, the other day, a post I read on Strobist about continuous lighting revolutionized my process on midnight photography, and gave me a real “duh” idea. Bring a really high-powered flashlight to add some light to the picture! Wow, why didn’t I think of that? I could even use it to shine light on what ever I am trying to focus the picture onto, and improve focus quality. Wow, I suddenly feel innovative through other people’s ideas.

So, later in the evening after getting some things done, my friend Scott and I went out on a quest to find the right equipment for the shoot. We first visited Home Depot, but to no luck, we ended up in a half hour conversation with one of the employees. I had explained to her that I never shop at Home Depot for building houses, but really only for my photography. She was so confused, and didn’t really know what to think about this. After much looking around, I found nothing useful, but the employee kept trying to get me to order a flashlight boasting 18 million power flashlight (no mention of candlelight or anything, 18 power of what? That was ridiculous!) from their web site. I agreed, but only if they could get it shipped to me in 15 minutes. Of course, they couldn’t, so I went to Wal-Mart, and bought a Black & Decker 2 million-candlelight flashlight for somewhere around $30. Which was perfect, I couldn’t imagine what I would do with 9 times the power! Well, then again, I am sure I could come up with something!

So after messing around with the flashlight, shining it on our bodies and in our eyes for a few minutes and getting some food in our systems we were eventually ready. Now, I don’t recommend shining something so bright into your eyes, we were just wondering because it was so incredibly bright that it would be interesting to see what it would feel like.

So we eventually got everything together and went out in search for the perfect location for the nights shoot. We eventually came up with the idea of an abandoned gas station in west Eugene. We arrived after 15-20 minutes of driving, and we were completely satisfied, we hung out for a while and took some fun pictures. But it wasn’t until I remembered that I had a smaller crank-rechargeable flashlight in my glove compartment in my car when I decided to start drawing words in front of a huge painted American flag mural.

This is when I came up with the idea of writing LOVE in front of the flag, something I have been feeling like our country has been missing out on. LOVE. I am always out to make pictures that mean something to people. And I feel this picture hit the spot. It may not be amazing, or breath taking, but at least I feel accomplished!

So behind the scenes on the picture, just a little background on how it was shot, and what process I went through to take it. It was actually a rather simple picture. I first shined the bright light onto the wall and focused the camera, and set all of the settings. I had it set to 30-second exposure, and at 100 ISO, and around f/4. I had Scott push the shutter button, and as soon as it opened, he swooshed the bright light across the flag. I quickly there after jumped into the frame and drew with the flashlight facing directly toward the camera the word LOVE. I felt really girly writing this, because you have to move your body in such weird ways to get such large, and cursive letters. But overall, since you can’t see me being girly in the picture, I think it worked out!

Light my World

I have been on a temporary slump with photography since I when whale watching a few weeks ago. I haven't really taken the time to really take pictures, and explore photography. Something about that trip, and how unsuccessful i was at getting a descent picture just really got to me. Looking back at it, I honestly wasn't really setup for success. The weather was not the greatest, the whales were always really far away, I was using a crappy lens, and it was just unfortunate that I could not get a good shot! And for some reason, I took it personally.

Yesterday, was something different!

I had been talking with a local group called "A Family for Every Child" and "Lane County Heart Gallery," and yesterday I finally got together with then and got to see first hand what they are going for. It is simply amazing. They find homes for children with out permanent homes. These children are without permanent homes, and are living with foster families around town and document the kids lives enough to provide pictures and video of the kids being them selves, and what they enjoy doing.

This experience has put a whole new light into my world, and I hope I can keep it up. I suggest you find something that makes your day light up, and fire up your passions.

My boss today brought me into his office for a talk, I was terrified at first, since this was a very unexpected and urgent meeting with him. I didn't know what to expect. Not everything he said was something to worry about, besides someone complaining that I don't work hard enough (which is bogus), he had something very comforting and uplifting to say about my photography! He realizes that this work place isn't a passion of mine, and that photography is, and that he recommended that I keep my head up, and continue to seek my passion in photography. He then went on to compliment me on some of my photography.

So, don't let yourself fall into a photographic slump. Even after bad shoots, stand up tall, and don't wait for your next opportunity to bring that passion back!

Broken Laptop Screen

Sorry I haven’t updated lately. I have recently encountered a problem with my laptop. I have to send it in to get it repaired. They explained that it would take 7-9 days until I get it back. Wow, what a bummer! Luckily, my screen wasn't cracked, it just randomly went to a white screen after i gave my sister a tour of my duplex with my laptop.

So while it is being sent in, I am going to buy some parts for a desktop computer. I already have a screen, mouse, and keyboard. It should come out to be somewhere between $600 and $700 for a pretty decent computer! Before I decided to get a decent desktop, I was looking at laptops and for a similar model with similar specs would have cost at least $3000.

I have some future purchases coming up in the next few months, such as a Nikon D300 ($1800), and Adobe Creative Suite 3 Productivity ($1600). I don’t think a $3000 purchase would be very “smart” right now. Although, once I get a Nikon D300, I would be selling my Nikon D200 for around $1300 with a battery grip, and extra battery. I could also sell my laptop and get a smaller more portable replacement laptop such as maybe a 15” but I think I might stick around with a 17” laptop just because it has a little more beef! But, if I can find a decent 15” laptop with similar specs to my 17” laptop, it doesn’t seem like a terrible idea.

Anyway, sorry about my little computer rant, I guess basically what I meant to say is that it is always good to have a good backup desktop computer, just in case the laptop needs to get sent in for repairs!

So, what I have done for you, is create two simple wish lists through Newegg.com if you are interested in buying computer parts to build a good desktop computer for around $700. I created two wish lists, one with the monitor, keyboard, and mouse (which is a little more expensive), and another with just the desktop computer. (Both of these computers have a total of $70 worth of mail-in rebates! Also priced after shipping!)

Desktop with recommended LCD screen, keyboard, and mouse ($1098 with Vista Home Premium)

Desktop only ($864 with Vista Home Premium)

You may add, and remove from these wish lists as you please! Let me know how you set up your computer, it would cool to hear!

UPDATED: Don't forget to purchase an operating system, since this is a 64bit processor, I chose Windows Vista Home Premium 64bit OEM. If you would rather go "old school" you can also purchase Windows XP 64bit OEM. OEM is just barebone, no fancy graphics. Just a disc and a key-code, which is all you need! It is also cheaper than retail!

DIY Micro Studio

Earlier today, I got bored, I was sitting around watching a Mariners Game, and got the excellent idea that I should get creative. After reading all of those Do It Yourself (DIY) blogs on creating one out of a cardboard box, I went ahead and made one of myself. I finally decided to put together a micro studio. It turned out great!

I live extremely close to Wal-Mart (like 5 minutes walking) so making the purchases was very simple! I drove anyway, because i didn't want to carry a bunch of odd things, even if it was a short distance to walk. Yeah, I know, I wasn't thinking much for the local economy or the environment, so don't rub that in!

So, here are the supplies that I collected:

(1) Used box from moving a month and a half ago, FREE (but about $1.50 at Wal-Mart).
(3) Large Poster Boards, $0.38 each (For the white background and the reflection from the top of the box).
(1) Parch Paper, $2.84 (it is supposed to keep your cookies and stuff from sticking to your pan. Instead, i used it to diffuse light).
(1) Clear boxing tape, $1.77



Here are some more pictures from the shoot.

So overall the project turned out great, now i just have to find some place to store this beast!

She Could Stop a Train

Senior Photos are in the air. This is my first school year that I am actually going to try to pursue senior photography. I don't mean old people, but young and ready to graduate high schoolers.

I am trying something unique for my senior photos, unlike any that I have seen for a long time. I am pushing the limits, I don't want to follow any kind of tradition with senior photos. I want to make each student feel special like a model, and spend as much time as needed to get plenty of excellent shots of each of them.

As you can see, the picture that I have here, this is Aubrey. My first senior photo "model" of the year. She did great, at first it was a little rocky, as we went to a very beautiful park, but all the flowers were dying, and there was a wedding going on near the more photogenic locations. We later decided to go downtown, and get some pictures around there, and we got a lot of fabulous pictures!

I will edit more later, but I just wanted to show how excited I was about the photo shoot, and I am looking forward to more!

So, stay tuned! More from the photo shoot coming later!

The Season for Senior Photos

I have some senior photo shoots in the works, I will get them online as soon as I am done processing and editing these pictures. They are turning out pretty good, I would say they are slightly unique, but then again my subjects so far have been extraordinary! I have finished one of two shoots so far. I should be able to get some of these done today, but probably not likely until Thursday.

So far I have two girls, both I knew before doing the shoot, so that makes it extremely easy! I am hoping that with both of them combined, that they would be able to bring me some more business! I am looking forward to seeing where this goes, especially since I am a lot cheaper, and offer a lot more than the competitors.

My only weakness, is the years of experience. Years don't really mean quality, it just means an they've got an old shutter and probably have some sort of strategy to get things out the door like a factory. I feel like i have a very special unique touch to each of the pictures I take that exceeds the expectations of my customers.

First Photography Studio Pictures

The other day, I had mentioned on Facebook that i was in the process of creating my own photography studio. It threw a little tiny bit of a buzz around. Except for one friend of mine. She wanted to be the absolute first person to be featured in my new photography studio. Allison and I have meet through unusual circumstances. I actually knew her mom, and her mom recommended that she would message me on Facebook . I knew her mom Tammy from work, she works downstairs near the exit and i walk by her desk every day to enter and exit the building. Occasionally saying hello, and having a long conversation other times especially when getting coffee!

So, yesterday, I had setup a time with Allison to do a photo shoot in my garage studio. I had been out taking senior photos for a friend of mine from Camp Harlow for most of the day, so I didn't really have time to prepare. Also, when importing the pictures from the senior photo shoot, i had a slight issue. My hard drive had overflowed. I can just imagine it as a garbage can, gross. So i went to best buy to purchase a new hard drive.

At this time, Allison was already at my house. Talk about professional photographer, I was tromping around at Best Buy like i always do. A Man's toy store!

So, I get back to my house, but i don't have the proper supplies for the photo shoot, so we all go to home depot, and I got to show off my amazing ability to not know where ANYTHING is in that store, and I prove both the girls wrong immediately by going and asking for help. That was easy, so much for male pride, everyone i asked was female, and they knew exactly where EVERYTHING was. Wow, a humbling experience.

So I left Home Depot with 10 small clamps (for $0.37 each), 4 large clamps (for $0.99 each), and a smallest and cheapest step ladder (for $11.99). I already had the rope.

So, as you can see here, my studio is very simple. It is basically a sheet that is clamped onto a rope, that is clamped onto my garage door railing. The sheet is free falling to the ground, creating a nice flat appearance. On the more technical side, I lit the scene with two flashes, and one reflector.

My equipment for the shoot include:

• Nikon SpeedLight SB-800 (on the right, behind the umbrella)
• Nikon SpeedLight SB-600 (on the left, lighting the background and hitting the reflector)
• (2) Monfrotto Bogen 3373 Light Stands
• (3) Pocket Wizard Plus II
• (1) White Shoot Through Umbrella
• (1) Foam Board (AKA: Reflector)
• (1) Allison M.

If you look on my Flickr set for Allison M. you can see more pictures from the shoot! The photo shoot went with no problems, was a lot of fun, and definitely a huge learning experience for me!

So far, this weekend has been keeping me very busy. It is quite exciting! And I hope i can keep the business going! I have been doing multiple shoots for different people.

Photography Studio

First off, I just wanted to personally congratulate you for finding my new Blog. I recently moved over to Blogger just so everything would be more streamlined, and controlled. I have a couple different services such as Flickr and YouTube attached to this Blog, and I hope to be able to integrate the content that I post on these with my Blog. I will also be importing all entries to my Facebook profile.

This is really exciting! My goal for this Blog is to just discuss different things that are going on with my photography, what I am learning, and just what ever comes to my mind that is related to my work! I will post links and examples of my latest projects as well! I have a lot of new projects coming up, and I just wanted to let everyone know just how excited I am for my work!

So, this is my first official post. So I should probably write about something!

In the next few days, I will be putting the final touches to my garage in hopes to create a small photography studio. This is really exciting for me! I am looking forward to having complete control of my light! So far, I have only dealt with really low-key studio type of locations. Such as my bedroom, living room, or other random places. As you can see in the picture for this Blog entry, I have a picture of myself! It is a very simple setup, just one umbrella shooting right at my face. I am sitting on my bed. How silly is that? Fortunately the ghetto ness of this picture does not show up, and it overall looks like a professional picture.

I am going to try to convince myself to take more self-portraits. Not because I want to be an emo kid, but because I want to practice my lighting techniques, and being in front of the camera. Being a photographer, I feel much more comfortable being behind the camera, and in control. This will be nice once I get my studio setup, so I don’t have to sit around on my bed!

So hopefully, my garage studio will be done in the next few days, and definitely before… tomorrow?

The Hair Cut Video

This is a little video I made at Camp Harlow of me getting my hair trimmed. I actually did not use my video camera to film this, instead it is a series of photographs taken with my Nikon D200 and a SpeedLight behind a white shoot through umbrella. It turned out really good, and I have gotten a lot of praise on it so far.

Family Pictures

I have two beautiful nieces, this picture is of Kesi. She is the youngest, and reminds me of an innocent Halli Berry! Be sure to go check out some of my pictures at my Flickr page!

About Me

I am Will Foster. An aspiring photographer. I would love to be known world wide for my work without being the stereotypical wedding or nature photographer. I am seeking to build my own style, and shine through my own work. I love working with people, and showing their true beauty with all the vibrant colors of a photograph. I love working in post production as much as the photo shoot. I use all Adobe applications, including Adobe Photoshop CS3 and Adobe Lightroom 2. I love to get down in the dirt to get the right angle, and risk my equipment to get the best shot.

I am interested in many forms of photography, but I focus mostly on promotional value. I have done many portraits, bands, artists, portfolios for models, small businesses, and more. I would love to be able to help promote your business with photography that helps you stand out, and make an impact and attract new customers and help display the purpose of your products.

I hope that someday I'll be able to help impact your customers for your business. If it is a band, corporation, modeling portfolio, or what ever, I would love to be able to help promote your product!