Merry Christmas

It's been awhile. Have a lot of neat stuff to add - a bit later.

More Movies

I just finished watching the movie "The Fountain" by Darren Aronofsky - a beautiful spiritual fantasy movie with fantastic images and lighting. The leading actress was Rachel Weisz, who just happens to be the girl on the photograph on my last blog from my PDN Expo trip. Something about the photograph radiated life. Watch the movie. Some might consider it a bit strange.

Another Bruce Dorn recommended movie I watched last week - Pride & Predjudice - more great cinematography and lighting. The story was good.

It's Been Awhile

A little bit too long again. My excuse for not keeping up my blog - I've been too busy of course. Well, what's been happening since my last blog. As usual a few family events, parties, dining out with friends, a few photographty events, working on photos, slide shows, a wedding DVD, and business plans and goals. Today, the minister at church asked about my progress with the photography business and we spoke a bit about his interests in photography. I'll get back with him about some courses, workshops, and photography clubs. Another soul to be saved - mine.

Week before last, I attended an all day seminar with Eddie Tapp on Photoshop sponsored by the Maryland Professional Photographers Association. He was extremely informative and presents well. I recommend listening to Eddie if ever you get a chance. I learned a lot about some neat Photoshop Actions for enhacing images. The same evening, listened to Andy Stanicek, a local PPA photographer, speak more about Photoshop and photography. The next day, I woke up early and took a bus trip to the Jacob Javitts Convention Center in New York City with fStop International for the Annual PDN (Photography District News) Photoplus International Conference and Expo. It was fantastic - all the latest photo equipment from the major vendors, demos, talks, album displays, and fantastic photo print galleries. Another don't miss event.

Gallery wall from PDN Expo

Interior shot of the Jacob Javitts Center

Last week, fStop International had an evening with Pete Wright (2007 PPA Photographer of the Year) and his wife Liliana, speak about a few of their techniques for marketing their wedding photography and supplying the wedding couple and party with better services, better photography and better products. Another great presentation not to miss if you get a chance to see them.

I'm a Grandad

I have a grand daughter - Elspeth Ryan Skepton - 7 lbs, 6oz born Oct 09, 2007 at Greater Baltimore Center. She's beautiful.

Right now, I'm in a Photoshop class to pick up some additional techniques for photo enhancing. Last night I watched "The Girl with the Pearl Earring" a movie about Vermeer's famous picture. The movie was recommended by Bruce Dorn as a good example of great cinematographic and photographic lighting. The story was a bit slow, but the lighting was fantastic. A few days ago, I went to the Digital Photography Edge seminar in Washington DC with Bruce Dorn and Maura Dutra. Learned a little, but the seminar was mostly a marketing tool for Bruce & Maura's photography, art and their products.

Still Busy and Parties

The Moose Peterson seminar was great last week. Learned a bit about Moose and wildlife photography and grizzly bears. Went to 2 private parties this past weekend and the Renaissance Festival. Hot, sunny - too contrasty and too crowded for good pictures. Working on a DVD of the last wedding - using Photodex ProShow Producer. Today I purchased two 500GB drives for additional backup, 2 more Gigs of RAM for the desktop PC, and a LightScribe DVD writer.

Tomorow is the Digital Photography Edge seminar with Bruce Dorn and Maura Dutra. Hope to learn a bit more about off-camera flash for cinematographic effects and digital painting from the pros.

Alo, tomorrow I should be a grandfather - I'm getting excited - can't wait - a new addition to my great family.

Another Photo Shoot

Friday, I went over to Gil Jackson's to drop off a check for the Moose Peterson seminar. Gil was working with Corel Painter X on a tropical scene from Hawaii. I was impressed - I'll have to make time to try it out.

The family party went well Saturday and I didn't even get my camera out. A little rest from the camera and just enjoying family. But; I got up early Sunday morning for a photojournal shoot with the Baltimore Camera Club at the Baltimore Book Festival - see events.

I am also generating a group on Flickr for camera club members to post their photos for critique by other members. This is just about ready for testing & review. Today I'll work on my nephews wedding pictures and tonight I go to a Moose Peterson wildlife photography seminar at the BWI Airport Marriot.

Image from Baltimore Book Festival

Been Really Busy

Well it's been over two weeks since my last blog submittal. I've been busy with a few photo shoots, attending a few parties and a wedding, getting ready for a big family party, completetly redoing a powder room, going to different photo group meetings, and regular life stuff.

Here's a few shots from my nephew Christian & his wife Shannon's wedding last week. I'll be adding more in the following weeks.

Good Fashion Show

Well the Baltimore Fashion Week 2007 Boutique show last night went great. It started a little late; but so what - got a few extra pictures of the audience. Great models and a great venue at the Red Maple Lounge. The new camera seems to be working great - haven't had a chance to check it outside yet or for fast action shots or for night exposures. When I find the time.

A slide show from last night is on the events page. Here are a few pictures. Note - there is no Photoshop editing of any of the images - only a bit of exposure & color correction and increased vibrancy using Lightroom. Lighting was with a hand held off-camera Sigma 500DG flash with a lightsphere clone - lens was a Canon EFS 10-22 mm.

Show organized by Pam Haner and April Camlin, fashion from local Baltimore boutiques Shine, BU, Form and Jean Pool, and Models from ... For further info about the show see City Paper article

Another Busy Week

This weekend, went to my son and daughter-in-laws baby shower - getting ready for number one. Had a great time and took a lot of pictures. That filled Sat and Sun.

Yesterday, prepared and sent a few older prints to a local Color Lab for evaluation for competition submittals. I also received an anticipated new Canon 40D camera . Have to take a lot of pictures to make sure it's as great as it's touted to be - better than a few high-end really expensive cameras. Shot with it last night at day 3 of The Baltimore Fashion Week - Screen Prints at the Metro Gallery. This is a series of fashion shows for local designers - slide show in the Events section of my site. This evening, I'll shoot day 4 at The Red Maple - Boutigue Fashion. More real time testing of the camera.

From Baltimore Fashion Week - Metro Gallery

Upcoming Events

Added a set of links for local upcoming photo events in the Greater Baltimore - Washington Metro area. This section will eventually be enhanced to make it more informational and timely.

If you know of any upcoming photography events, please send me a link and I'll try to get it added. gskepton@georgeskepton.com

Just installed a Pantone Huey monitor calibration stick to my monitor. Easy to install and use. It's suppose to color calibrate the monitor so that prints from labs are more color correct with what you see on the monitor. My monitor was pretty well calibrated anyway, but the Pantone calibration should help all my client's lab prints look better yet. I notice that the calibrator blinks once in awhile checking and readjusting the monitor for ambient light in the room. Cool

St. Armands Circle in Lido Key, Sarasota

Swimwear Images Updates

Today, I added some black and white images to the swimsuit workshop/photoshoot slideshow using the new black & white adjustment in photoshop CS3 with a bit of further customization. I'm pretty impressed. I also added some new links to the blog - some tutorials on Lightroom, Photoshop CS3, and the blog software itself. Here are a few of the richer looking B&W images using CS3.

Carly

Carly

Deanna

Here's a little video I just ran into and decided to share.
Iz - Israel Kamakawiwo'ole 1959 - 1997

Swimsuit Edition

Well, I went through the images from Thursday's swimsuit workshop shoot and put together a short slideshow . Some of the images have obvious extensive Photoshop work that changes the overall environmental look of the photo. The photoshoot was outdoors on the dock at the Tidewater Marina in Havre de Grace, MD

I thank Leo Heppner, Terri Shepke, Brendan Cavanaugh, and the rest of Leo's staff, the other photographers for assisting with lighting and posing, and Ira Black from Nor'Easter magazine for letting us use his bike as a prop. I thank the models Carly, Tiffany, Deanna, and Elise for just being themselves and affording me this great opportunity for creativity and just having fun. Lastly, I thank Kristie for her understanding and support.

Workshop and Print Review

Hi again,

Well, I did the swimwear workshop yesterday. It was great. Beautiful models, beautiful weather, good instructors and good food. Here's my favorite image so far out of a few hundred shots. It's Carly with off-camera on-location pocket flash and tightly cropped. Had a great lighting guy, Brendan. We'll be seeing more of Carly and the others later.

Carly Jane

Later today and tomorrow, I'll be working more on the swimwear pictures, make a slide show and get the pictures off to the models.

And here's a few of the pictures I submitted last night for review. They were reviewed by a team of 3 master photographer judges from fStop International (Jackie Hicks, Gil Jackson, & Tony Marill). The prints did ok with a few constructive critiques.

I See You

Stacey

Maid with a Strap

Another Busy Day

Today, I prepared all the photos from the swimwear photo shoot and downloaded them for the models and enhanced and printed a few pictures for an upcoming preview for a Professional Print competition. I also started modifying my blog layout by removing the blog navigation bar from the top and adding my website menu at the bottom of the blog page. I have a lot more to do with layout so the blog look is more like my main website.

Here are a few of the titles of the images I will be submitting for review on Thursday. I decided not to show the images until after the review.

"Maid with a Camera Case Strap", "I See You" and "Summer Cool"

Tomorrow, I have a swim suit modeling workshop class on the docks in Havre de Gras with Nor' Easter Boating magazine photographer Leo Heppner. Looking forward to learning another way to photograph swimsuit models.

Pictures from Saturday's photo shoot

Hi Everybody,

Well, yesterday's swimwear and glamour photo shoot was a success. Three models (Melanie, Rachael, and Ray) and about 10 other photographers showed up in the sweltering heat. We all sweated, but it was worth it. The river was cool and I walked around in the water up to my ankles to get better pictures. We were grateful that Racheal, one of the models got her feet, legs, and behind wet so she could be in the water for pictures - she's a doll. Melanie was a little uncomfortable getting directly in the water; but so what - she looked fantastic anyway. Yesterday evening and this morning I worked on a few of the pictures for posting. I still have a lot of images to prepare for the models since it was a TFCD (Time For CD images) shoot.

I experimented with a hand-held off camera flash fired by wireless remote for doing the shots. Tarik, one of the other photographers assisted me by holding the flash so I could better manipulate my camera. The flash was a Sigma 580Super and the wireless remote was from Hong Kong from eBay. The Sigma had to be put into slave mode which caused a slight problem - other people's flashes would set it off, making it less stable for me. I'm going to try to cover up the slave sensor and see if that works better. I also have a Viitar 583HV i'm going to try. I still have a lot of experimenting to do with off-camera flash and with setting the right camera exposures. I love the way the off-camera light models the subjects.

Later this afternoon, Kristie (my better half) and I going to my son and daughter-in-law's for dinner.

Here are a few more pictures from yesterday's photo shoot.

First Blog

Earlier this morning I was looking at Dan Heller's website who is a photographer that writes a lot about the business end of photography - in his opinion the larger part of the "photography business". I connected to his blog website and was impressed with the look. In fact, so impressed, I used the same template for this blog. The template was designed by Todd Dominey, an author, programmer and designer whose work I also respect.

I always thought blogs were neat but too time consuming to maintain. I am a writer, web designer, and photographer and have a few websites that are for self promotion; but this blog is my first one. I'll try to keep it current and share a small part of my photography life with you.

Later this afternoon, I have a swimwear and glamour photo shoot in Patapsco river under a bridge in Patapsco State Park with the local Meetup group. Have to go now and start getting my equipment ready. Just for reference, the temperature is suppose to be 101 today with a heat index of 110. I'm sure we'll all be sweating. I'll have pictures up in a few days.