I have been playing with hdr since i read an article about it 4 years ago in a photo magazine, who’s title slips my mind right now.  Regardless, in terms of number if you were to photograph a scene in bright daylight the scene from dark to light would have a dynamic range of about 100,000:1 or about ~17EV stops. Using hdr and tonemapping enables to “imitate” what our eye sees… these photos are samples of hdr.  enjoy… please see my hdr page for more samples…

I read a quote somewhere that because of the advent of digital photography everyone and their brother and sister, were now becoming “photographers” so that the mantra for anyone wanting to be a photographer is “you’ve got to be different.”  To those without experience however different is a loaded word.  How different can you be? How different should you be?  How different do you want to be?  Obviously all this is determined by the assignment at hand and if its for a client are they willing to work with you and allow you creative freedom etc.

That being said different is all good and well but nothing beats the simplicity of creating just an image of someone.  Several weeks ago we had a flickr meet on guam and it was great a bunch of photogs with one idea in mind get together, shoot a model, and have fun doing it!  This photo of Jasmin is the 3rd frame I took of her… no planning, no idea who she was – we had just met, but i think at that point we had already connected, a trust and also because I was helping pose her for the other guys, some of whom had never shot a model before.  It goes the point that I always make, rapport is everything when working with a model.

Camera: Canon EOS 5D Mark II [i'm not a canon shooter i just borrowed a friends for that particular shot well there were 3 shots in all]

F-stop: 5.6

Exposure time: 1/60

ISO speed: 400

Exposure bias: 0

Focal length: 350mm

I have made a case over and over again that there are several things that make a wonderful photo but the one thing that i truly enjoying toying with is exposure and light.  The other day I had a chance to experiment with light and my friend a wonderful model Katherine…

this was shot with 2 – ab800’s and 1 – ab1600 using the ff:

Camera: Nikon d90

F-stop: F/9

Exposure time: 1/160sec

ISO Speed: 100

Exposure bias: 0

Focal length: 18mm

Here’s an example, please go to iPhone page for more iPhone pix…

jasmin fiddling with her phone while we have coffee...

i will forever enjoy photographing headshots…  faces have so much character… the upturn of the end of lip the right or left eye slightly smaller than the other, the blemishes, the scars from an adventurous youth…

this was shot with nikon d90 and a 50mm f/1.8 @ iso100 and 1/320th of sec @ f/1.8.

my book project Tattoo You: BodyArt onthe women of Guam, is ongoing and I have a large number of  images.  i anticipate publishing at the end of 2010 just in time for the next Christmas season.

if you know women that have body art and are interested in being photographed, please contact us.

this was shot with nikon d90 @ iso100 and 1/200thsec f/10.

i met danielle over a year ago.  she was a contestant for the miss guam universe pageant.  since that time we have grown to be great friends and i have been fortunate to have had several photo sessions for my projects as well as other commercial work.  i am working on a multi-media project and we stopped to take a break, this photo is during the break.

shot with a nikon d90 and a nikkor 50mm lens @ f/1.8 @ 1/15 sec @ ISO 1000 existing light.

Nothing says home like the food you used to have as a kid or that you you remember from home.  There is a wonderful restaurant here on island two locations and usually packed they serve jerk chicken and ribs apparently a Jamaican style of cooking.  I had the opportunity to visit last night and as always it was delicious.

Nikon D90 f/2.8 @ 1/15 sec @ ISO 400 existing light.

For the past several weeks.  I have had the opportunity to “test drive” several lenses.  My favorite of these is a manual focus Nikkor 105mm f/1.8.  The minimal dof is incredible!!!

So whenever I go out to dinner whether its on a date or a friend or a my kids.  I bring my camera and photograph my meal breakfast, lunch, or dinner.

The above photo was photographed with my Nikon D90 using a 50mm manual focus nikkor lens; exposure is ISO 800 @ 1/30th of a sec at f/1.8.

I have on several occasions had the fortune to “run into” if you will visiting models.  I have memberships from modelmayhem.com, onemodelplace.com, modelcoast.com etc.  all networking places where models, photographers, mua, clothing designers, et al can meet up and do an exchange.

Tiana is a model that was visiting Guam; she is originally is from Guam and now resides elsewhere.