New Blog!!!

Hey everybody out there, I have now transferred by blog to my actual website. You can find it at www.greggriffithdesigns.com/blog! Now go read it because I will not be updating this one anymore!

7/52 - Troy

Another week and another lesson learned. It is amazing how each and every week I see something different come out of nowhere and throw me for a loop, this week it was his aviators. I was shooting with my 60" reflected umbrella and because of how big it was it could be seen reflecting on his glasses in just about every photo. Luckily it was something that I caught while we were still shooting and since moving the large umbrella was not really an option, I opted to just move his face instead.

This shoot was also one of the hardest for me to pick a favorite, do not be surprised if I post many "alternate" shots from today. This one was picked because I really like the expression I was able to capture as well as the lack of a reflection in his shades.

The only issue throughout all of the photographs is that I was getting a little flash shadow on the right hand side. This was most likely caused from my triggers not being able to shoot at 1/250th of a second. Next time I will have to make sure to try shooting slower and see if it is still happening, or just invest in some better triggers!

7/52 - Troy, originally uploaded by griffithgreg.

Looking Back At What I've Learned

I don't know if I ever shared this photo back when it was taken, but I was doing some flickr house cleaning when I came across this photo. It made me think just how much I have changed as a photographer in just over a year.

When this was taken, August of 2012, I am not even sure if I owned an off camera flash yet [*Edit* - Yes I did, but I got it in June and it definitely did not start leaving my cameras hot shoe until at least late August], but I do know that if I retook this shot today it would be there.

Now, I am not saying this is a bad shot by any means. Well that's if you don't count his right arm getting cut off and the harsh shadows from the sun to his back. I still think it shows off just what kind of style I have and what I like to do, just fundamentally it could have been better.

Just a few thoughts I had when starting my day today.

Old Dusty Road Alternate, originally uploaded by griffithgreg.

6/52 - Catherine

Six weeks in and not only have I taken a different person's portrait each week, but I have only used myself once! Seems like a pretty good thing to celebrate. I know it will get harder as time goes on, but that's still pretty good.

Well here she is, my bride to be (83 days), Catherine. She is so gorgeous :-). I was able to get her to pose for a quick portrait today during the Super Bowls half time show. So, when you eventually read this, thank you very much!

For this shoot, I created a home made snoot with drawing paper and foil. I knew I wanted to have a solid black background and since I do not have any backgrounds at all, it had to be done with very directional light.

6/52 - Catherine, originally uploaded by griffithgreg.

5/52 - Grandpa Griffith

As many might know, I went to Houston this weekend to take care of a few things for my upcoming wedding. While in town, I met up with my grandparents and asked my Grandpa if I could take his portrait for my project this week.

I really was not quite sure where I wanted to take the picture, but decided to just let him sit in his chair on their porch to keep him as comfortable and natural as possible. He is quite the character and the little smirk he has in this picture I feel represents his personality really well.

What was nice about this set up is the sun provided an awesome back light while I brought my 60in umbrella about 3 feet from him and set it at 1/16th power to allow just enough light to get him off the background.

I am really happy with how this one turned out and even though I tried to put more negative space in the other shots, I felt this helped keep the background as blown out as possible.

5/52 - Grandpa Griffith, originally uploaded by griffithgreg.

4/52 - Adam

Meet Adam, he just married one of my oldest friends Emily. I had the opportunity to shoot their wedding this last weekend and it was a blast. This portrait was more of a happy accident than actually doing it on purpose. He was just getting ready to walk down the aisle, when I got him to give me a quick glance to snap this shot. What I really like about it, is the hint of the groomsmen just in the background. They are just subtle enough to show what is going on, but do not overtake the photograph.

One thing I did learn while shooting this wedding as a newly found strobist style portrait shooter is you do not have time to be a strobist style shooter, haha. I tried setting up an umbrella for a couple of shots, but soon broke it down and stuck with my flash bouncing through the ceiling and my newly acquired Gary Fong lightsphere.

Just in case you are wondering, I did not post one of Emily (the bride), because I wanted her to see the photos of her self first.

4/52 - Adam, originally uploaded by griffithgreg.

3/52 - Carolyn

First off, I would like to thank my soon to be sister-in-law, (still sounds weird to say that) for stepping in front of my camera and letting me take her picture.

I knew going into this photo that I wanted it to be black & white, and minimal, but other than that it was a toss up. I started out trying to get a solid white background, but with a single flash and my Cactus triggers failing on me every other shot, it made it quite difficult. I made a few adjustments to my flashes location and took a test shot. Something close to the 50% grey you see above is what I got. I really liked it so decided to keep going with it.

I still seem to have trouble communicating with my models during a shoot. Hopefully that is something that I am able to work on throughout this year and eventually get super comfortable with.

3/52 - Carolyn, originally uploaded by griffithgreg.