Random Beat #3

Find beauty in the mundane.

Man Date 2.0

For the first time in awhile, I took some photos.

Nick and I met up at my place to hang out and shoot photos. My neighborhood has a lot of industrial buildings, so we went in search of some gritty urban locales.

I took a toy along with me in case I found a fitting location for the film noir themed toy "Inspector Cumulus". Here is the final image.



Also, while we were out, I had to give the ol' bokeh panorama (aka Brenizer Effect) a go. This is when multiple shots taken on a telephoto lens are combined to create a wide shot, with flat, shallow DOF features. Pretty happy with how it came out.

It Happened.

After Jenny and I made an offer on the loft unit, we were waiting for months with no end in sight. Based on finances and other complications, things weren't looking so great.

As I was heading home from work one day, I got the call that our loan had been approved. It didn't feel real. After months of waiting, we finally had an answer. I couldn't wait to go home and tell Jenny the news. We were waiting for close to two and a half months for this call. Felt good to finally get an answer.



The next day we started moving in all of our stuff. Luckily we didn't have a whole lot of big things to move in. It still took the full day. After all of our things we moved in, it was time to show the pugs their new home. They love it!



Aged brick, sweeping windows, modern furniture, and an open floor plan. I am in heaven. I know eventually my tastes will change, but for now, I love this place. Jenny and I feel very safe and at home here. The complex is extremely dog friendly and rich with amenities. There's a gym, a bike kitchen, bbq pits, a park across the street, train station, and a ton of other things that make this place perfect. To say that I'm stoked is an understatement.

Things are still coming together, but here are a few pictures of the place in it's current condition.





That's it for now.

Bored.

I figured my facebook profile pic needed a change. Yeah... I'm one of those kind of guys. It was more that I was sick of having a picture of me where you couldn't see my face. It's like, "Oh hey, this voyeuristic creeper with a camera covering his face wants to be my friend... oh sure I'll add you." Hmmmm, no!

Change is good. Went way overboard with the editing on this one (I know). Here it is.

50mm @ f/1.4

Shallow depth of field during high noon is next to impossible, that is unless you have ND filters. I recently came across some ND filters in my camera bag I had bought a while back. Jenny and I were about to take the dogs for a walk so I figured I might as well bring the 5D along. Having the ND filters on my 50mm allowed me to stop my aperture all the way down to a ridiculous f/1.4. For those that don't know, shooting at f/1.4 on a lens means you are getting the most shallow focus (out of focus areas behind and in front of the subject). This is why only the heads of my dogs are in focus and their bodies are blurred. The trade off of shooting f/1.4 is it lets a lot of light in. This is where the ND filters come in handy. ND filters are like sunglasses for your lens. So by blocking some of the light from the lens, I am able to shoot at an f/stop lower than normal.

Also, my pugs are cute.

D+J Wedding.

My team and I [Bokeh Pictures] had the exciting opportunity of capturing Dominique and Joshua Hanson's wedding day. Jenny was on photo duty and Eric, Ben, and I were on video duty. Much planning went into this day, but in the end it was all worth it. We walked away with some truly memorable shots. We also learned a lot in the process.

Here are some photos from the event.

















And without further adieu, here is our highlights video from the day.



If you like what you see, or you know someone who needs their special day captured, my team and I would love to help! Contact us at hello@seebokeh.com

Let's Make a Splash.

I have wanted to do a photo like this forever. About time.



The story behind this photo is pretty simple. Get a mug filled with coffee, set up a flash, and have a friend drop in a piece of cookie. the hardest part is timing. To get that creamy foreground/background bokeh, I shot on a Nikon 200mm at f/2.8. This is as shallow as hey get. To sync with the flash remotely, the highest I could shoot at was 1/200th, which explains the slight blurring of the liquid. I wish the liquid was a tad sharper, but for a first try, I done good.

Here are some [better] coffee splash photos that inspired mine.







In the art of attempting new things, I decided to give another technique a try as well. I call this one the "hidden flash"



No, I did not hide a flash just outside of the frame. Rather I had the flash in plain sight. Then with another photo I shot a picture of the same location but without the flash and subject. I then merged the two in photoshop erasing the flash/stand and cleaned up the shadows. Once again the image is a bit soft (downside to shooting wide open), but this is definitely a technique that I want to have another go at.

Also because my ladies were being cute, I could not help but capture this moment.