Pedernales Falls State Park

This last weekend, Carolyn, Catherine and myself went for a hike at Pedernales Falls State Park. It is only about a 30-45 minute drive from downtown Austin and despite the lack of rain in central Texas, it was quite a site to see. Without the usual water rapidly coming down the river, it exposes these massive rocks that would normally just be peaking out of the surface of the water. I managed to get a few good shots while out at Pedernales Falls and hopefully I am able to go on more hikes in the coming weeks, especially since Texas has decided to finally have temperature below 85 degrees for once.

Pedernales Falls Again, originally uploaded by griffithgreg.

Pedernales Falls Panoramic, originally uploaded by griffithgreg.

Time Lapse Camera

Not quite sure if you remember my Time Lapse project from way back when, but I ran into quite a few problems with my equipment. Firstly, putting the strain of taking thousands of photos with my DSLR with the only purpose to be importing it into a video was starting to get costly. It actually cause my 40D to Error 99 on me a few times. Today, however, I stumbled upon a camera that would help get rid of all of those problems!

It is a Digital Time Lapse Camera, from PhotoJojo. Go check it out:
http://photojojo.com/store/awesomeness/time-lapse-camera/

For $150 and being water proof it is quite nice! It even gives you a few different choices on how often to take the pictures and then saves it all in a video for you!

It is a nice alternative to taking quick and easy time lapse movies, but I think I would miss the creative control when it comes down to editing the final JPEGs to get my own personal look and feel into the project. Since I am not that much of a After Effects guru, I think I will just settle for the rare occasions that I use my DSLR for this.

The Ordinance of James

Well, as some may know, this weekend I went to Austin to attend the wedding of my life-long cousin Brandon and his new wife Lindsay. The wedding took place just outside of Austin, at a little western styled town, specifically for events such as this. Anyway, back to the reason you peek at my blog in the first place, the photos of the weekend! Well, I am sad to say this shot is the only one I took all weekend, at least with my DSLR. Granted I had my camera at my side for a majority of the weekend, the desire to shoot was rarely there. I think I just wanted to enjoy the wedding and just take it all in, except for when I first arrived for the rehearsal.

When I first arrive to the wedding site, I was greeted by this old pickup truck. I think old rusty beat up cars are some of the most fun objects to photograph and I had been wanting to do an HDR of one for a while. Alas, as I was setting up this shot, I was shocked to find that I had forgotten my tripod mounting plate. If you have ever shot HDR photos, then you know that a tripod is a must. I gave it my best hand-held shot, but in the end it just wasn't sharp enough with all three shots. So i went ahead and used the middle ground shot to create my HDR. I think it turned out quite nicely, but now I wish I would have taken more while I was there.

P.S. I would like to thank my friend Matt for helping me name this photograph as well. THANKS MATT!

The Ordinance of James, originally uploaded by griffithgreg.

Louisiana Visit

Very recently I traveled to Homer, Louisiana with Catherine and her sister to visit their grandparents. Having never been to the state for any reason besides a weekend trip to a casino or just passing through on the way to Florida, I was not really sure what to expect. Well, except for the many stories I have heard from Catherine.

I of course ventured with my camera at my side, safely packed away in my new ThinkTank side bag. I will have to go into more detail of that new purchase at a later date. I thought I would share with you, a few of my favorite photographs of the few days I spent there and try to tell you an experience I had surrounding that particular one.

The first picture is something I have been wanting to try ever since I received the Canon 2x Extender for Christmas, but have yet to have a chance around my house. At Catherine's grandparents they have a small bird feeder, just outside the back door. This made for a great spot to catch birds without scaring them away. I never considered myself much of a birdwatcher, but with a 400mm lens at the end of my 40D it is hard not to be.

Louisiana Visit, originally uploaded by griffithgreg.

Catherine's grandma love's cats, I can not even tell you how many different cats I saw this weekend. This one in particular is named Bootsie and is one of the few that I could actually remember the name of, well other than Big Guy. They really enjoy getting to walk around the back yard and chase the birds away when I find a Blue Jay or Cardinal within my sites. Other than that, they seemed very shy and avoided me for the most part of the trip.

Bootsie, originally uploaded by griffithgreg.

Catherine's cousin is a flower farmer. She has a Masters degree in Horticulture and one of the most amazing flower gardens I have ever seen, even though she claims it wasn't at its best. This is one of two photographs from this garden I decided to share, mostly because I love the lines and the bokeh that are shown. The only thing this garden seemed to be missing is a patch of Blue Bonnets. When you don't see just a few of those in a flower garden in the spring, you know your not in Texas anymore.

A Bokeh of Flowers, originally uploaded by griffithgreg.

This one feature of Catherine's grandmas backyard was one I have seen in many yards, but this time it was different. Since I don't have a fancy fish eye lens, I didn't have a fun way to capture just how big and wonderful her yard was. Putting the 70-200mm lens with the 2x Extender on my camera, I stood as far back as I could and snapped a few photos. Can you find me in there?

The Backyard, originally uploaded by griffithgreg.

During our trip, the girls gave me the grand tour of downtown Homer. They enjoyed joking about how it only took 20 minutes to see the whole town, including a stop at the Sonic for drinks. They told me that a bypass was just built before downtown and that has caused many of the shops here to close down due to lack of traffic. I didn't take to many photos downtown, but this is one I found to be entertaining.

1920 Waffle House, originally uploaded by griffithgreg.

The second of two photographs from Catherine's cousins flower garden. I enjoy taking these kind of photographs the most because it's different. It shows you a vantage point of something that you normally don't get to see. Overall it is probably my favorite photograph of the trip.

Bug Eyes View, originally uploaded by griffithgreg.

Only two more photographs, are you tired yet? I will go ahead and wrap this up for you since they are both flower shots. Really not a whole lot to say about these other than these are just a couple of the many wonderful flowers Catherine's grandma has planted in her yard. I was very impressed with how much work she must put it to keep them all so neat and beautiful.

A Flower, pink this time, originally uploaded by griffithgreg.

Flowers are hard to name, originally uploaded by griffithgreg.

Well, thats the end. Quite a few pictures in one post, by far the most I have ever done. I have a couple of big projects that I am working on, each involve quite a bit of web coding and I hope that I will be able to share the results with you soon!

Coconut Cream Pie

During my most recent trip to Austin, which happened to fall just after my brothers birthday, Catherine baked him a pie to celebrate it. It just so happened to be his favorite pie in the whole world, a coconut cream pie. This was interesting to him for the main reason that he had never had a cream topping on it before, just a meringue topping. I think it came off as a huge success, especially since we decided to double the ingredients for the whipped topping!

I have been trying to convince Catherine that she should start her own food/cooking blog, I think it would be a fun way to share all of the great treats that she makes for me! But until that happens, I just wanted to share with you the results with a couple of my favorite photos that I took of the finished pie.

Coconut Cream Pie #1, originally uploaded by griffithgreg.

Coconut Cream Pie #2, originally uploaded by griffithgreg.

Just in case you are curious, the recipe is based on one that can be found here:
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Coconut-Cream-Pie-107115 Enjoy!

CO 2011

Just recently had a photo shoot with Jake. We wanted to get a few shots on the football field, but it was taken by...well European football. So we went after a few photos in the hall of the school and got some pretty good shots. Not a whole lot to this shot, just an off camera Canon 430EX with a shoot through umbrella just about 3 feet in front of him to his right.

CO 2011, originally uploaded by griffithgreg.

Under the Capital

On my most recent trip to Austin, my sisters Challenger baseball team was recognized at the Texas House of Representatives. While there we got a tour, which I am sure for the kids, was quite fun. For me, it was really just trying to find a chance to lay down my tripod and snap a few photos before we had to move on to a new location.

I managed to get a few good photos and this one was on my "must take" list that I had in my head. In all the visits to the capital I have had, I have never been in the expansions underground. I thought it was an awesome chance to try for an HDR Panoramic and I think it came out pretty nice. A little bit of color fringing, but thats what happens with a stock lens when you push the f-stop up.

Under the Capital, originally uploaded by griffithgreg.

The Moon

I just recently acquired a 2x magnifier for my camera and of course one of the first things I wanted to take shots of was the moon. Well it seemed like it took forever to find a decent night with little to no cloud cover and a just about full moon. I snapped a few shots just to see what I could come up with and this was one of my favorites. Not quites as close of a shot I thought I would get, but still amazing all the same.

What I found even more amazing was being able to see the moon move. When I would switch my camera to view on the LCD screen, for focusing, I noticed that the moon was actually rolling across the screen. Zooming into the LCD you can see it even more clearly, it doesn't seem like much but at the time it felt really cool.

Next on the list for the 2x extender is to take it out for some action shots, preferably surfing. I will be sure to post those when they happen!

Canon 70-200mm + 2x Extender = 400mm at f/ 5.6 | ISO 500

The Moon, originally uploaded by griffithgreg.

Let there be Light!

I really am trying to get back on the blog more, while I can. So for Christmas I received a new umbrella lighting setup! It is always entertaining when people who are not into photography ask me what I get and I reply with an umbrella. The look of confusion on their face is always very humorous to me, especially when they look at me and say"...an umbrella?"

Of course I explain to them that it is a flash umbrella that is used to diffuse the light spill onto a subject, thus creating a softer feel. What I enjoy about this Westcott umbrella is that it is not just a shoot through softbox, but it also has a reflective black cover you can ad to make it a bounce (as seen in the photo below).

I hope everybody had a great Christmas and I will try to keep you up to date to the new year!

Day 313 - Let there be Light!, originally uploaded by griffithgreg.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to all three of my readers! I hope you have a very safe and happy holidays. I know I keep saying it over and over, but soon I will update more often. Just as soon as my life decides to settle down!

Merry Christmas!, originally uploaded by griffithgreg.

Day 307 - Homage to Mad Men

I got a suit! You can not really see exactly how awesome it is in this photo, but as soon as I got it I knew exactly what I had to do. This image here is a homage to the opening credits to a TV series known as Mad Men. If you have no idea what I am talking about go here -> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WcRr-Fb5xQo

Now of course this is not a graphical representation of myself in my suit, but if I were to do it exactly how they did it wouldn't be mine now would it? Let me know what you think and if your a fan of the show let me know that too!

Day 307 - Homage to Mad Men, originally uploaded by griffithgreg.

Ideas for the Summer - A Reminder to Myself

I have been looking at many different styles of photography lately and I am getting more into portraits that I have been in the past. I think it was sparked by the series of self-portraits that I did over the summer, but now I really want to get more involved with others as well. One specific style of portrait photography I would love to get into is Underwater Portraits." It is very unique and there is almost no way to get the same shot more than once. Now the title of this post might make sense, I will have to wait for the summer time in order to try this out.

The biggest problem in doing this is the cost of one of a water housing. They start at $1,200 and that might not even be one you can trust! I guess it is something to think about over the next six months as I enjoy the lack of colors that is a winter in Houston, Texas.

Day 236 - Lit Bed

So day two of trying out my off camera flash. I wanted to try this out last night after I took my other photo, but it was to late and I would have had to find a dark enough location to do so. While driving around tonight I found a fairly dark spot, that I knew would not show background lights at a high enough shutter speed. So I set up my flash in the back right of my truck bed and set the camera to a 10 second delay. I think it came out pretty well, especially for a bare flash aiming straight at me.

I also want to apologize for the lack of real emotion in yesterdays shot. I look like I should be telling a scary story, rather than showing off my flash. Well on to think of newer and better ideas for tomorrow!

Camera: Canon 40D | 17-85mm f/4 | 24mm @ f/4 | ISO 100 | 1/25 sec

Strobist Info: Canon 430EX II @ 1/4 - 24mm | 5ft from subject in opposite corner of truck bed | Triggered via Cactus V4

Day 236 - Lit Bed, originally uploaded by griffithgreg.

Day 235 - Off Camera Flash

So, this is my first photo with an off camera flash. I know it is kinda gloomy, but I really did not have much energy to come up with a good idea for my first go around. I was also trying to tinker with all the settings since I am not able to use ETTL with my flash when it is off the hotshoe. Not to bad for my first go I guess...

Day 235 - Off Camera Flash, originally uploaded by griffithgreg.

Day 234 - Todd Ingram

My oh my, I have not done this much photo-manipulation in a long while. As you might have guessed my 40D is now back in my hands, oh and I am going to see the Scott Pilgrim vs The World premiere at midnight tonight! What a day, I did, however, not use my off camera flash for this one. It just was not needed for this photo.

So, just in case you have not guessed it yet, Todd Ingram is the third evil ex-boyfriend in the Scott Pilgrim series. He is a vegan, which gives him super telepathic powers and his eyes glow white with rage with smoke raging out of them when his powers are activated. Oh he is also dating one of Scott's ex-girlfriends...which makes his character even more unique. I hope you enjoy this heavily photoshopped day 234. Until tomorrow!


Camera: Canon 40D | 17-85mm f/4 | 17mm @ f/4 | ISO 100 | 1/60 sec

Strobist Info: Canon 430EX II @ ETTL | mounted on camera | 3ft from subject

Day 234 - Todd Ingram, originally uploaded by griffithgreg.

I also thought it would be fun to show you one of my "working layers." This is what I call the photo map, so I am able to get all of the curves and bumps just right when I am editing in photoshop.

Day 207 - Shoot from the Hip

You remember how I said my 40D was broken? Well, to help me ease the pain I rented a Canon 7D and an 18-35mm f/2.8 L from rentglass.com. The 7D is by far the best camera I have ever used and really have not been able to put it down since I received it earlier today. I will be sure to post some of the shots I have taken with it so far.

The 7D is so far superior to my 40D it is not even funny. Not only does it have an ISO that goes up to 6400, shoots up to 8 frames per second, 18 mega pixels, and it even has a level built into the camera! Oh, did I mention it shoots HD VIDEO!?!?! I know I have always said that video on a DSLR was something that never matters to me, but to be honest, it is pretty sweet to have on this camera. I might just have to get one for real...

I have also started to get really good with my 430EX II flash. It has really made me want to go out and start taking more and more portraits of anybody that will let me. So if your in the mood for a cheap photo shoot let me know and I will be more than happy to come shoot it.

Camera: Canon 30D | 17-85mm f/4 | 53mm @ f/5.6 | ISO 100 | 1/60 sec

Strobist Info: Canon 430EX II @ full power | mounted on camera | 3ft from subject

Day 207 - Shoot from the Hip, originally uploaded by griffithgreg.

Day 205 - Texas Weddings

Well, here it is. My very first public published magazine as a graphic artist. I was given a copy of it today while at work and thought I would let you know to keep a lookout for it if your planning on getting married. It should be hitting news stands soon! Other than that, I am planning on attempting a week long series either tomorrow or within the next month that is dedicated to replicating stills from the Scott Pilgrim graphic novel series. I already have one shot planned out and if I can get six more very quickly it will be done.

Day 205 - Texas Weddings, originally uploaded by griffithgreg.

Day 203 - Going Up?

Final day of the Bridal Extravaganza and I can definitely say it is a very unique experience. Overall, it was a good one that I will walk away having learned more about anything and everything that is related to this show. A good portion of my time, when I wasn't out photographing the event, was in the entrance to Hall B. They have four escalators there that will take you to the 2nd floor and I probably went up and down them to many times to count, in order to get to my 2nd floor room where I took photos for a time lapse.

Even though I got a few laughs from my fellow co-workers and a few of the vendors at the event, I think this photo came out really well. I especially like how it captures my reflections on the side as I sit in between. It was a fun, yet busy, weekend and it's funny to say that my work week has just begun.

Day 203 - Going Up?, originally uploaded by griffithgreg.

Day 202 - Warped Reflection

At the end of the day at the Bridal Extravaganza I was heading to the second floor to grab my bag, and I noticed that the glass bends the reflection of the downtown skyline. I thought it was pretty awesome so I went back down the escalator in order to grab a shot of it as I passed by. Today went by really well, got to shoot the fashion shows and that was a learning experience for sure. Well, off to bed for the final day of the Bridal Extravaganza!

Day 202 - Warped Reflection, originally uploaded by griffithgreg.

Day 201 - The Orb of Knowledge

Walking around the GRB (the George R. Brown) Convention Center today, I noticed just how crazy some of their decor and architecture is. It really is a great place to be a photographer, everywhere you look there is something amazing to take a shot of. Sadly, this is one of the the last photographs that was taken with my Canon 40D. While trying to set up for a Time Lapse of the event, I received a Error 99 on my main screen, which in Canon talk means out of commission. I am hoping it is easily fixable and will not take to long, until then I will be shooting with my mothers Canon 30D. Not to much of a difference, but it still feels strange not having my 40D with me when I am shooting. Hopefully, it is just a minor fix.

Day 201 - The Orb of Knowledge, originally uploaded by griffithgreg.