Details |
ISO 200 … 24mm … f/2.8 … 1/400

Intent |
Engagement shoot

Comments |
Depending on where you live, this is the time of year when the cherry blossoms are in full bloom and with the warm afternoon sun, they can be quite a spectacle. Yesterday I met with Kit and Monique for their engagement session. We will be on Kauai in June for their destination wedding, followed by a week of celebratory fun. She plans to hang prints of the shoot on the clothes line at the house for the wedding. I can’t wait! They live in the Sunset and wanted to shoot in Golden Gate park. She knew right where to go. We found a gorgeous cherry blossom tree that was backlit perfectly. It was about 5pm. I put her under the tree by herself first and just let her play for a while. There was some tall grass in the foreground, so I got down in the dirt and shot up. I used a reflector for fill and metered off her face. She struck a handful of poses and I maneuvered myself to position the sun just over her shoulder. The light was truly amazing.

Details |
ISO 800 … 24mm … f/2.8 … 1/60 sec

Intent |
Intimate portraiture

Comments |
Growing up in Berkeley in the 70’s, I was always very used to nudity. Porn fascinated me for a short time when I was younger. But now, I find more satisfaction in creating artistic nude images myself. If you read that fast, you might have stopped right here, thinking you just read that I was creating artistic nudes of myself. But don’t worry, that’s not happening. Haha. Okay, seriously, this is a capture of a girlfriend from the past while on vacation in Zihuatanejo. When we arrived late in the afternoon, it was overcast and muggy. So, we took showers and relaxed on the bed. The window to camera right was providing perfect portrait lighting on the scene. I had never created any nude images of her and the time was right.

Details |
ISO 800 … 42mm … f/2.8 … 1.6 sec

Intent |
Wedding scenery work

Comments |
This image was shot during the reception for Dan and Samara’s wedding held at the Cree Estate in Palm Springs. The place is wonderful and I was lucky enough to stay in one of the guest cottages on the property. I *highly* recommend it as a wedding venue.

Details |
ISO 650 … 144mm … f/5.6 … 1/160 sec

Intent |
Engagement portrait

Comments |
This was taken just past Sea Cliff, under the Legion of Honor for my clients and long time friends, Eric and Victoria, who are planning for their destination wedding in Mexico later this year. She really wanted something that said “San Francisco” and we found just the spot. This was one of the very last shots and also one of my favorites. We shot a few locations and have a lot of great images, but this one is classic.

P.S. At the Legion of Honor, there is currently an exhibition from Annie Leibovitz and her life’s work. I highly recommend that you go if you have a chance. But not on Mondays. It’s closed.

In this month’s American Photo Magazine, there is an article that talks about Chase Jarvis, a Seattle-based photographer who’s rockin’ it. I really admire this guy. He’s a great behind the camera, shares his knowledge with the world and runs a successful commercial photography business that just opened a big new studio. Go Chase!

Link to article here.

My incessant use of the iPhone to share and market my photography with people was mentioned today in the Viaspire business blog post about the revelation the blog’s author, Heather Dority, had when we ran into each other at a party recently.

See what she has to say about the iPhone impacting human experience.

Colin Vincent Photography is now a reseller of Lensbaby products. I bought a Lensbaby a little over a year ago and absolutely love it. In fact, last summer, for kicks, I chose to shoot an entire weeks family vacation with nothing but that lens. The results were awesome and I plan to build a series of pages around that collection. Additionally, I will be putting together a Lensbaby workshop which includes a Lensbaby 3G! Products will be for sale here once the store opens in the next few months.

— More Info —
The Lensbaby 3G SLR lens allows photographers to lock the Lensbaby in a desired bent position simply by pressing a button. Then, using a traditional barrel focus mechanism, photographers can do fine focusing and precisely place the sweet spot of sharp focus before pressing the shutter release. The Original Lensbaby lens and the Lensbaby 2.0 lens require the photographer to manually hold the Lensbaby in a bent position while pressing the shutter release.

Lensbaby selective focus SLR camera lenses take photos with one area in sharp focus, with that ‘sweet spot’ surrounded by graduated blur. Photographers can move the sweet spot of sharp focus anywhere in the photo by bending the flexible lens tubing.

“Response to the Original Lensbaby and Lensbaby 2.0 has been great,” said Craig Strong, the inventor of the Lensbaby and Co-Founder of Lensbabies, LLC. “But we asked our customers what new features they wanted. Studio photographers told us they want to repeat Lensbaby photos exactly the same each time, whether they are shooting food, fine art nudes, or Chanel shoes. Studio portrait photographers told us they want greater confidence in the sweet spot’s sharpness and placement. Outdoor and location photographers said they are interested in shooting longer exposures than are possible with the Original Lensbaby and Lensbaby 2.0.”

Lensbaby 3G features the same low dispersion, high refractive index, multi-coated optical glass doublet and the same flexible tubing as Lensbaby 2.0, but adds three focusing rails that emerge from the camera mount and pass through the focusing collar. A trigger button on the focusing collar releases three pins that engage the focusing rails and lock Lensbaby 3G in a bent position.

“The process of shooting with Lensbaby 3G is quite different than with Lensbaby 2.0, and the two lenses are optimized for different types of photography. While Lensbaby 2.0 is great for intuitive, fluid, photojournalistic shots, Lensbaby 3G is a workhorse for pros that require precise focusing, complete control, and repeatability,” said Strong.

Once Lensbaby 3G is locked into place, additional fine focus can be achieved by turning the barrel focusing ring, which moves the optic in and out like a normal manual focus lens. Also, in the locked position, a photographer can make small adjustments to the placement of the sweet spot of focus by turning any combination of the three focusing rails.

“We think Lensbaby 3G is the logical next step in the evolution of selective focus photography, allowing complete control and repeatability,” said Strong. “We hope Lensbaby 3G will meet photographers’ needs for precision while stimulating their creative vision.”

Details |
ISO 200 … Lensbaby … N/A … 1/2500 sec

Intent |
Part of a three part series of a man and his Rolls.

Comments |
This image was made as part of a story about Don Wehr (of Music City) and his vintage Rolls Royce. I used a Lensbaby to achieve extremely tight focus and let everything else really blur out. I processed it B/W because the car was black, the hood ornament was silver and any other color would just be a distraction.

Details |
ISO 400 … 200mm .. f/4 … 1/160 sec

Intent |
Fun, freestyle.

Comments |
This was in the afternoon during a break in our shoot when Klara was standing in the staircase. The way the light softly fell across her face was just perfect. “Don’t move.” I said. Once I got the camera and started shooting, it took a few frames to get her to fully relax and get this one.

When my gallery opens and I begin selling prints, they will be in very limited editions of 25. I have joined forces with Mac Holbert of Nash Editions to oversee my printing. We will be printing, mounting and framing images in different ways. Many will be printed on Epson Velvet Fine Art. Others will be on Fuji Crystal Archive Glossy Paper, Canvas and a host of other substrates. If there is an image, or images, that you are going to want to purchase, you can make a deposit now in order to be assured a copy when they become available. Please send an email to reg@cvdigital.com to inquire.

Details |
ISO 400 … 16mm … f/5.6 … 1/320 sec

Intent |
Fun, freestyle.

Comments |
Clearly, I explored this subject matter. You may even be tired of it by now. But I’m making a point. When you find something that works, work it. Go at it a hundred different ways. You will be amazed at what happens. I was at a Joe Buissink workshop late last year and he said people tell him he’s lucky, to which he replied, “No, I just throw myself on luck’s path as often as I can.” This has resonated with me since. This evening in particular is an example of just that. I didn’t set out to get a shot of the dog doing anything at all. I just took my camera on a walk so I was ready if and when luck can running by.

iso 800 :: 16mm :: f/8.0 :: 1/200 sec

intent |
personal work

comments |
it’s so interesting to me, when i am in the process of creating an image like this, what goes through my mind. for the last 8 years i have been fortunate enough to spend time with some top photographers. galen rowell taught me to find a foreground anchor. tony o’brien taught me how to really see light. this is an example of using what i learned from both of them.

By pulling the most of the color out of this image, I effectively change the mood. I like the tension created by the look in Adam’s face coupled with Squiggy’s protective surveillance.

ISO 100 … 1/200 sec … f/5.6 … 17mm

Here is an example of making good use of a puddle on the shores of Lake Tahoe. What lots of people often miss is the power of tools available to us all in the natural photo studio that mother nature provides. In the last few posts, my camera was aimed in the direction of the sun, forcing me to tweak the raw file pretty hard to open up the shadows while holding down the highlights. It also requires that I go black and white. I can’t push a color image that far. It’s just not what I want. In cases of extreme contrast, my vision is better communicated with a split-toned black and white. But, as the sun got low, it was so gorgeous and I was so excited that I had to remind myself to also shoot in the other direction. Soft sunlight coming in sideways lights everything equally. It’s like having a massive soft box with a warming gel. Expose for the highlight and let the rest go to shadow. It’s much easier than shooting into the sun.

1/640
f/5.6

As the sun dropped, I really wanted to make good use of the larger puddles of water that formed on the beach. I held my camera just off the surface of the water, aiming up slightly with my wide angle lens. After a handful of frames, Adam said “Get him!” and Squiggy ran right at me. In the past, I might have stood up to avoid getting bulldozed and stopped shooting. But after years of photographing, it’s finally instinctual to keep on shooting when something unexpected happens. Because you never know what you’re gonna get and you sure as hell can’t recreate it.

1/6400
f/4.5

In order to get this shot, I had to position the camera about an inch off the ground in the shadow of Adam’s head, while not looking through the view finder (as I wasn’t into getting cold muddy sandy sludge all over me by lying down). Squiggy stayed still for a little bit, but kept moving her head around. This was shot 13 of 24, each one a little different. Dogs are tough to photograph. They require more patience and more frames.

1/1000
f/5.6

I went to Tahoe over the weekend with my friend Adam and his dog, Squiggy. We had an unbelievably gorgeous friday at Squaw Valley, where the Space Cowboys showed up with the UNIMOG and rocked the apres ski patio. Saturday was the Snow Fest parade, which closed through traffic in Tahoe City. So we headed for Northstar, where unbeknown to us, they were having a big contest. The place was a nightmare till we got further up the mountain. We skied uncrowded Rendezvous most of the day, going as fast as we could, every run. So much fun… On our way home, we stopped at King’s Beach to take the dog for a walk. But once we got to the water’s edge, I looked through my wide-angle lens and saw the makings for some great imagery. We shot for an hour plus and did a lot of good work. The dog had no idea I was trying to make a classic portrait, so I had to be rather patient and hope that she would give me something that complimented where I’d positioned Adam. While he stayed still, she walked all over the place and I got this. I will release more images from this shoot as the week progresses.