1st post of spring break! Whooo!

Stoked to be on break and stoked to go shoot Arizona for a week. But while I’m Still in North Idaho, I might as well shoot some stuff right?

Well this last week I have been looking through skate magazines and there are some really basic shots that get published. It’s really nothing super creative, artsy, super unique, its a lot about good composition, being able to get a good angle yet not fancy just simple and lighting. I didn’t really intend to go to the skate park, but I did because the sun wen’t behind the hills while shooting landscapes and I figured “hey why not got to the park” So I showed up to this guy freaking out on all the kids for seriously no reason. I stayed out of the way and let them work it out. AFter they were done bickering, I just let them all skate and I got a few cool shots. They are basic, they aren’t Transworld cover shots but they ARE different and unique. Thats What I like about them. Here they are:

Mick O’Neill Everyone.

So before shooting at the skate park, I was just driving around Coeur d’Alene Lake trying to find some good landscape shots. I didn’t end up getting anything super cool but that happens. There are really goods days shooting and there are alright days. It was an “alright day” but I found some sick spots to shoot when I need a great sun set photo (if we all haven’t seen enough of those already) The thing I really dislike about sunset/landscape photos is that I feel somebody had taken this exact shot and it is nothing new. So I really worked on finding a new place to document Coeur d’Alene. Here is my new documentation of CDA:

Here is one last shot of my baby, Estella:

She looks mean, but she is nice, she doesn’t bite.

Thanks for viewing,

-Steve

Ah, let the good weather be unleashed and the photos roll in.

Spring time: a time for beautiful photos and great sunsets. Great sunsets mean great photos so it all goes in a circle. Circle of Life for the camera? Possibly.

I have realized now that I have been blogging for over a year now and the photos I took then that I didn’t like, I love now. Maybe my eye is growing stronger or I have just started acknowledging the beauty of differences. I have seen lot’s of growth in my photography not just through the photos, but through shooting with a purpose. Sure I go out just to mess around with the camera (I guess that you could call that a purpose) but now I have really tried to start shooting with a drive and reason. This last week I have a little mix. I shot a little skating with Joey (http://josephrozol.blogspot.com/) and the photos were alright, no bangers just fun photos. Skateboarding is a fun sport to shoot. I have come to the conclusion that one there are thousands of styles for skate photography, and I have not fully developed a style for my skate photography. I have with my other work, but with skate photography I really would like to get a good style that people would recognize “ME” for. Now for the photos that I took with a so called “Drive”. I don’t know if I should exactly call them “drive” photos but they aren’t the typical, “let’s bring the camera downtown and see what I get” photos. These were more the photos I put emotion, thought and story behind. Something I try to include with all my photos is a story. Some might see a photo of mine and not see a single thing except colors (or the lack of color) but I encourage you to look deeper than the composition, lighting, tone, colors, ect… and really try to depict that story.

Please view these with more intention than just viewing for kicks, but rather view them to see a story and what’s going on.

Here they are:

With the photo of Scott on the merrygoround (took me for ever to find a place in CDA with a merrygoround) That is ƒ/36 and 10th of a second. In the camera RAW adjustments I stopped it down all the way and it is still a over exposed. This is a circumstance where I would really like a neutral density filter.

Thanks,

-Steve

This week I wasn’t completely sure on what I wanted to do. I wanted to do some Bokeh Photography and I tried some but nothing really turned out fantastic. I plan on doing that next week. But for this week I was bored at home and started playing with the lights. It brought me to ink photography again. If you haven’t seen my previous ink photos, I suggest that you scroll down and go back a page in my blog and check them out. I took these ink photos with a completely different approach. I originally wanted to get a photo of ink dropping into water that was in a cup, but that requires lot’s of patients and I just couldn’t quite get any. The first time I did ink photos I used a fish tank. This time I just used a wide cup and shot from above the cup instead of shooing into the fish tank. I got a completely different outcome with these photos and I’m quite happy with them. Here are some ink photos:

So with the remainder of the week, I just experimented with some different styles of lighting. I came to the conclusion that I really need transmitters. I really want to get some. But anyways I saw this commercial that had bubbles in it and I thought “gee, I could really do a lot with bubbles and lighting” so I bought this bubble gun at Target for $3 and made some bubbles. Joey was a fantastic model for this hah, but I was amazed on how they turned out. Also I did some Avedon photos again just for kicks and played around with lights. Here are the rest of the photos:

Thanks for viewing,

-steve

You are probably asking your self, “still tryin’ what?”

I don’t know the answer completely. Im still trying to get a banger fixie/life style shot of Tim, still not happing, Still trying to try new stuff, still not happening, still trying to find stuff to write? Almost happening.

This next week is going to be different. I’m brain storming on some new stuff. I have some ideas, I have some thoughts, but really nothing comes to mind. What I really need is a trip. Just for the weekend travel to a city and just shoot. That’s all. I need to leave Coeur d’Alene and get some different photos of different people in different places. I really love shooting in the city. For those of you who have seen my East Coast photos, I believe those were some of my stronger photos. I love shooting in the city, and when I was back east, the cities are large so it is perfect for what I love. I know people that live in the city say the exact opposite, they want to go shoot mountains and country side cabins, all that good stuff. So I think was every photographer needs is a time to shoot the opposite of what they normally shoot. Well if your a photographer and your reading this saying “whatt???” well I guess I could be completely hysterical right now and trippin’ out, but I just need to leave and shoot somewhere else. Do not get me wrong though, I love Coeur d’Alene, and I love shooting here, I just want to go somewhere, and soon.

In the mean time while I’m here, I might as well show you what I got. I have been so bored with my photography recently I’m growing to hate it. It’s becoming a depressing burden to try and find new things to shoot. Maybe I’m just freaking out about nothing and my photos are fine, but when I look at them, I just think “man, I have seen that already and its nothing new.” Thats how I feel. Through the new photos, I have slightly lifted. I like the style of a little over exposed black and whites, and I was messing around with that. Its fun to just bring my camera around and shoot, so thats what I have been doing. I was trying to get a rad shot of my friend Josh Monteith, but didn’t happen. But I did get a few good photos and I’m pleased with them.

I did some light box shooting too, I needed to sell some glasses on eBay so I thought “Gee, I’ll make these photos look legit and people might buy them!” Light box shooting is rad, and I really like it. I have done it before and it is always fun. I took some interesting photos but you’ll see and tell me what you think.

Here are the photos:

If you have any suggestions, please share them with me, it would really rock. Tell me what you loved, what you do love and tell me what you don’t love of mine. I would LOVE if I could get some valid feedback like that.

Thanks,

-Steve

Not literally a dry season, the weather here in Coeur d’ Alene, Idaho is quite bipolar meaning that it’ll be blue sky’s then it will be a rainy monday. But I can’t complain because 65 degrees out in beginning of March is quite divine.

What I mean by dry season is, I’m going through a phase in my photography where I’m not quite sure what to be shooting. I have shot a lot of stuff over 2009/2010, it makes me wonder, “do I start shooting stuff that I have already done and just perfect that? Or should I branch out and try something new?” those 2 questions stump me quite a bit. I love shooting new stuff, but I’m a little out of ideas. I think soon after Skillz U.S.S.R *cough* *cough* I mean Skills USA is over, I will try some more stuff with the fish tank.

Since I have been out of ideas, I resorted back to the “bring the camera down town and let’s see what happens” stage. And this weekend, that was a ton of fun. I saw this spot down town for skating and I just thought “dang, that is a sick spot to shoot” so I called up my friend Joey Ozol (http://josephrozol.blogspot.com/) and we decided to hit that spot up. The photos didn’t turn out the best, and Joey never ended up landing it, but I have some really good ideas now and I would really like to come back in the night, why? shooting in the night has now become one of my most favorite things with photography. The other photos I shot, I was please with. I didn’t know what to expect out of the days shooting, we (we meaning Matt G, Joey and I) just roamed around town and took photos for the remainder of the day. Once night struck is when I got some bangers. I didn’t have my flash or strobes so I shot with my on camera flash, and surprisingly, the shots came out rad. Here is the photos are, and here is what comes out of the dry seasons:

Joey and I were pretty stoked on the out come of the heart photo. We haven’t seen it done, but now it has been. I would really like to come back to this spot too and bring strobes and really make this shot good.

Also, this is a photo that I thought was crazy, skate boards can bend in crazy directions. This guy fell pretty hard, just saying.

Thanks, any recomendations on what I should do, Shoot stuff I have already done, or shoot new stuff?

comment and tell me.

-Steve