On Geary street in San Francisco rises a huge and spectacular concrete structure that stands out from all the concrete structures around it in its bold architecture -  and its bolder purpose.  It’s full name is the Cathedral of Saint Mary of the Assumption. Unlike Alcatraz, every person who walks into St. Mary’s is not only considered worthy to be saved, but that exact purpose is the reason for the Cathedral’s existence.  While tons of concrete were poured to break the spirit of the men who occupied Alcatraz, each ton of concrete in St. Mary’s was poured to uplift the spirits of the people who enter and worship in this church.

The closest thing to bars you will see in St. Mary’s are the pipes of the organ.

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I admit that I am not much of a ‘flower’ guy.  I send flowers on anniversaries and special occasions but otherwise I really don’t know what I’m looking at.

Now that I’ve confessed my flower ignorance, you might think that its strange that I visited the Conservatory of Flowers in San Francisco.  On the contrary, I jumped at the opportunity to see one of the most important places in the country, according to people in the flower community. I wanted to see what the excitement was about and hopefully shoot it, but I have yet another confession. I have a Canon 100 mm f/ 2.8 macro lens that I wanted to put through its paces.  What I ended up with really (pleasantly) surprised me!

And some of the shots downright amazed me…

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First of all, Happy Holidays to you and your family.  I sincerely hope that 2010 brings you much prosperity and joy.

Speaking of joy, my wife and I have just arrived home after 4 days in San Francisco. The getaway was well deserved for both of us, but after 20+ shoots in December (plus a day job and an additional part-time job), I needed a creative re-charge.  San Francisco never fails to give me that.  It’s a world class city with an exceptional sense of its own identity. It combines history with future and makes it all seamless and somehow connected.  I don’t know if I could live in SF (there are LOTS of people) but I certainly visit there as often as the opportunity presents itself.

OK, you beat it out of me – my wife is a foodie.  We shopped for the perfect cheese, the perfect wine, the perfect entre and enjoyed it all. But in between the culinary adventures I did have time to shoot two SF landmarks that, at least to my very convoluted mind, are deeply connected.

First is the Cathedral of St. Mary on Geary street.  It’s a massive and inspiring structure. The outside is defined by courageous architecture just as its inside is defined by creative use of space, light and art.  Believe me, regardless of what you believe in,  your eyes will lift heavenward when you see the inside or outside of this building.

But first, I have to start with another famous SF landmark.  A landmark that exemplifies the complete opposite of St. Mary’s.  Whereas the Cathedral is all about hope and redemption, Alcatraz is all about suffocating hope for a population deemed un-savable.

Both are very large concrete structures built for opposite purposes but that brings me to another point.  Before I even left for this trip I promised myself I would not blow off frame after frame and hope to get some good shots.  Nope, this time I decided to slow down and ’see’ through the lens. Each frame (more or less) was taken with ‘concrete’ intent and I am happy to report that I like what I’ve seen.

Hopefully, you’ll agree.

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I know it’s been awhile.  Let’s just sum it up by saying that the economy has been unkind and that surgery is something we should all avoid when possible. ‘Nuff said.

Had a shoot with a new model Anila. Just starter portfolio stuff but its my first shoot in a while. It was also my first shoot with the new Pocket Wizards in combat conditions.

They did not perform up to snuff but I did a firmware update just before the shoot without doing a factory reset on each unit. Stupid Bob. I’ve heard that before but reinforcement is always good. PW support was excellent and very patient. I’m sure my superior intelligence was the topic of conversation after the tech hung up. If I can’t be known in the photo world for my shots I might as well be known for something…

So her are a few shots. I’d love your feedback except if you work at PW.  If you do, send me more gear and you can use me in your advertising, something about so easy even Bob can do it…

I’ll try to write more often. I’ll certainly write more about the small lighting set up I am adapting to now that the new PWs are dialed in.

Thank you Anila for your patience while I was outsmarted by a greater intelligence. Welcome to modeling!

Sometimes you bump into a model who has so many looks that you swear that you’re not shooting the same girl anymore. Meet Kaulin. From sweet to sexy to fine art, this girl can do it all.

Natural beauty, natural grace and a significant intelligence to make the whole package easy to work with and easier to shoot.

My buddy Rick was at the shoot, and his comment was shooting Kaulin was like ’shooting models in a barrel’.  I interpret that to mean Kaulin’s grace makes direction a second thought.

I confess that here in the Central part of California, I see a lot of wannabe models, lots of girls that buy the magazines but don’t know much beyond that.  Kaulin was natural, relaxed and graceful from the first frame to the very last (and there were LOTS of frames).

From cure to coquette, Kaulin impressed me.

We’ll be shooting again, if she’s not a Cover Girl by then! Thanks Miss K, let’s play in the studio real soon.

And tell Katie I said hi!

This shot was taken by Rick at SoShootMe.com. And don’t you know he wishes that we could have traded places! Sorry, buddy! Someone has to run the light meter! Hehehehe!

Update – I just added a video link to the end of this post! Enjoy!

I had the opportunity to spend a day in one of my favorite places on earth – Monterey, California. Not only is it scenic (as is the whole California coast) but it has a charm about it that is not pretentious. The people are warm, the food is great and the Aquarium is INCREDIBLE!

My buddy Rick and I took out the cameras (Canon 5D and 5D2) and just shot up the town over 24 hours.

There’s not really much of a story to tell except that I got to try out lots of the new features on the 5D2 and that I had a really crazy idea – what would a picture look like if you shot a fish using a fish eye lens?

You can see for yourself after the jump…

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I was pleasantly surprised this week by a phone call from the local paper. They wanted to give me not one but three assignments. And oh yeah, they’re all for the same night. Tomorrow night.

I thought it over for about a nanosecond and took the assignment. I really like this kind of work. I like the people, I like the places I get to go and most of all I like the lighting challenges because if there’s one thing consistent about location work, it’s the inconsistent lighting conditions.

This post is really aimed at those shooters who don’t get to do this kind of work very often.  Many times the ‘candid’ shot you see in publication was considered long and hard before the shutter was fired.

The shoots were last night and this morning I did my post processing. I’m happy to report that the processing didn’t take all that long because I got what I wanted in the camera most of the time. I’m not mentioning that to brag, its just sometime I intentionally take a shot that’s under exposed knowing that I can work with it later in RAW.  It allows me to get a little artsy while not spending a lot of time on location with the subject.

The first shoot was a Casino Night at a Sons of Italy hall a few towns away.  I’m not going to spend too much time showing you the results of this shoot because it was pretty easy. It was held in a big hall with typical florescent lighting. I also don’t want to show too many faces since many of the members are in Witness Protection. OK, I’m kidding! I love Italians, I was raised by Italians (honest) but I still ain’t showing no faces, if you gets my drift.

The next stop was a restaurant that featured live jazz and a bar that was jumping. The lighting and ambiance got more challenging very quickly.

More after the jump…

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