Rolling Thunder 2013


This year, on Memorial Day weekend, I traveled into Washington, DC to witness Rolling Thunder 2013. No words or pictures can begin to show how incredible it was. I’m a big supporter of veterans and I’m fortunate to know so many men and women who are serving or have served in my nations military. The 2013 Rolling Thunder was the 26th running of the event and if you talk with any of the veterans they’ll be quick to tell you: “This is a demonstration, NOT a parade.”

Each year hundreds of thousands of veterans and their motorcycles travel to Washington, DC to participate in this Memorial Day tradition. For this blog post I’ll be sharing my Rolling Thunder story along with some images I captured at this years event (and a few facts I learned along the way).

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Black Senior Portrait Background


For this blog post I’ll be sharing my technique for getting a busy background to look like a Black Portrait Background (similar to what you’d find in a photography studio). The final image was achieved with four flashes and camera settings that helped me to take the background right out of my final shot (without using Photoshop).

I was on a photography assignment in Michigan when I received a call to see if I was available for a senior portrait shoot in the area. It turns out Nichole already had a senior portrait session but she was really unhappy with the entire experience. It turns out Nichole was a beautiful girl and her bad experience was completely the fault of her previous photographer. I quickly said “yes” but because of the time of year we couldn’t go out to a nice location for her shoot. I love a challenge and this was sure to be fun. We created a bunch of images I really loved right in her living room. We started our shoot by simulating a black background.

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In the Portrait Studio with Syd


Recently I had a chance to photograph Syd in my portrait studio. With a majority of my portrait work happening away from my studio I thought this was a great opportunity to share some of my thoughts, some behind the scenes shots of my gear and how I like to set things up.

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Extending Focus Depth with Photoshop


Today I want to share a trick I use for Extending Focus Depth with Photoshop. It turns out there’s a feature in Photoshop that makes this super easy. I use this technique for lots of different situations but for this article I’ll talk about how it helps me when I’m shooting macro with a long lens. Continue reading