Lights? Check.

Camera? Check.

Action? Check.

It is really nice having friends that can actually skateboard. It really makes photography a lot simpler. It helps so much when you are trying to get a shot and they are really cooperative and just down to shred. This last week I shot some skateboarding with the flashes and was pretty pumped. I have had the flashes for a while but just recently got the new Cyber Synchs and seriously my world of photography has been expanded drastically. I thank my two good friends Matt and Joey for providing the quality skateboarding.

Matt has a this old mini ramp he made about 6 years ago and still has it and it just sits out in his woods. The shots of the wooden mini ramp are really special to Joey, Matt and I mainly just because of how sketchy the mini ramp is. I tried to get a really simple shot to show the sketchy-ness of the ramp. The mini ramp is completely vert and almost over vert which just makes it so much harder to skate and Joey and Matt were shredding. This next weekend, we are going back with more lights and moving the RV so we can have a very cool photo shoot out in the woods with a random mini ramp.

The Coeur d’Alene skatepark photos I thought are pretty sweet, just good ol’ natural shreddin’. I didn’t get super tech with lights at the park, just one 430EX flash placed up on top of the deck and pointed at the coping. Something I have tried to express via my photography, in this instance, skateboarding, is showing strong emotion including facial expression, composition and in this instance the skateboarders style. Matt and Joey both really have great style skateboarding and sometimes while shooting skateboarding it is hard to express ones style on a skateboard.

Here are the shots:

Thanks,

-Steve

For the Love of what you are probably asking yourself if you haven’t heard of Boarders For Christ or don’t live in Coeur d’Alene area. But For the Love is a benefitting fundraiser that BFC (Boarders For Christ) puts on. This one was specifically for the Shadrick family who is adopting two Ethiopian orphans from the YWAM orphanage in Ethiopia. Many local artists (including myself) donated pieces of their artwork or photography and the art was auctioned off. All the Art was very beautiful and it was such a blessing that people had such a desire to give. After the auction was over, the Shadricks had raised over $1,600 and 10% or that is going to the YWAM Orphanage and another 10% is headed toward Anthem’s (a local church) adoption ministry. If you would like to check out how the adoption process is going, which I highly suggest that you do, please go to theshadrickslove.com.

On to the photos I took at For The Love. I shot it all with a 50mm 1.8. I wasn’t really planning on taking photos but I had my camera so I figured I might as well snap some photos. The lighting in at Java On Sherman (where For The Love was held) is quite sad so I shot at ƒ/1.8 pretty much the whole evening which has its pluses and minuses. I love shooting people candid so this was a great opportunity for that for sure. Here are the photos from May 1st, 2010 For The Love of the Shadricks:

Now here are some fun little photos I took earlier in the week:

So you might be wondering what that “purple creepy thing” is. Well it is a Bucephalus Psychic Rat that is a plush toy of a cthulhu (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cthulhu) that my photo teacher has to dissect for his own personal project. Haha.

Thanks a lot,

-Stephen

Yeah, that’s right focus on tha 2OH!8 Fool. Last week I shot my stuff for the focus 208 project for Idaho and had a little fun with it. I shot primarily on Sherman Avenue but a little bit on Lakeside and 4th street. The music is by Zack Harvest and I thank him for making some quality music I could use for the slideshow. Here it is:

Focus 208 from stephen Sturges on Vimeo.

Also here are a few shots that I really liked from the project:

Let’s get patriotic!

-Steve

Last week was SkillsUSA and some of the people from the Coeur d’Alene photo department went down to Boise, ID for the State SkillsUSA competition. Though no chapter members placed in the photo competition, my brother and I placed first in the promotional board contest and other chapter member Brittney Price placed third and got elected for state office! Even though none of us placed in photography we all had fun and really. We had to shoot a theme, urban decay and that was a little bit of a challenging topic to shoot but I had fun with it. After the competition my brother and I looked at the competition winners from DPChallenge’s challenge for Urban Decay and almost every single photo within the challenge was HDR. The winning photo (http://www.dpchallenge.com/image.php?IMAGE_ID=839628) really got me. I was really wowed by it for sure. That is what got me inspired to try some HDR myself. I have never done it but my brother Scott has done it quite a bit and gave me a little tutorial. I used Photomatix and that was really easy and I really liked it. We had to turn in 6 final images from the hour shooting and 25 raw images. Here are my 6 finals and some others from SkillsUSA:

Now here are my HDR images, the first one is my first trial and the second one is my second trial. I really do not like the second one as much, It didn’t turn out nearly as well, but I figured I would post it. My inspiration for this project was Enzo Maisano, he doesn’t have a website but he was the challenge winner for the Urban Decay challenge on DPChallenge. Here they are:

Also here are some fun shots I did of Josh Monteith biking down town:

I usually try not to do buttshots but I like the buttshot for this photo mainly composition wise

And Here are the rest of the weeks shots:

Thanks for viewing,

-Steve

Spring break 2010 was a good one. I got to spend relaxing time with the Mother in Arizona. I came to the conclusion that Arizona is one of the most photogenic states I have been too along with Massachusetts and New York. I have never done a whole lot of desert photos, so I was really looking forward to shooting cacti. Cacti are super cool to photography, I had a lot of fun with that. Sunsets were pretty fantastic in Phoenix/Scottsdale and at the Grand Canyon. I really enjoyed that.

But I didn’t just shoot landscapes, I shot a little bit at a rail jam put on by Summit Northwest Ministries and that was a very good turn out. Everybody was having fun and it was all around a good time. I rode the whole rail jam and only got a few great photos but I had fun with that. I really love shooting rail jams. I like it a lot more than mountain shooting, why? It is a lot more social and a lot easier to ride and shoot. I don’t do a whole lot of mountain shooting, but when I do, I like to just dedicate the whole day to the photography and not the riding. Here are the jam photos:

It was after the jam that I went to Arizona so I thought that posting the trip photos after was an appropriate way to post. Something that I never got out to do was shoot a great desert photo, a photo with just nothing for miles except a tumble weed and curve of the earth. I really wish I could have gotten out to do that because I was excited to shoot desert photography. I guess the Rattle Snake danger was high up in the danger ratings so I didn’t feel like getting hit by a snake over spring break and ruining my trip. I hope to go out to the desert again in the near future. The Grand Canyon was a place that I hit also on the trip and WOW, the Canyon that is Grand is really GRAND. Haha. But I was trying to get some shots of the canyon that weren’t just normal Canyon shots because every nature photographer has been there and has probably gotten the same shots that I was going to get. So I really tried to make all the photos really my own and shoot a little different than other photographers. I had a lot of fun at the GC, and the crazy thing is that there was snow there. Weird huh? I got up really early one morning to shoot the sunrise, but it turned out to have too many clouds so I never got a great photo. Wasn’t worth getting up at five in the morning. There are a lot of photos but just take the time and view them please. Here are the rest of the shots:

I started noticing that a lot of my horizon lines are off, but what ever, I’ll live right?

Thanks for viewing!

-Steve

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