Volleyball: Sun Sand & Sweat

Posted on June 24, 2012 by Michael

It’s hot work photographing sports on the beach, but it is bright (especially compared to indoor volleyball) so you can shoot at high speed, and even use a polarizing filter to cut the glare and enhance the blue sky. The really nice part was being able to cool off afterwards with a refreshing dip in the warm Gulf of Mexico waters.

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A visit to the new FMOPA museum downtown Tampa (Ashley Street)

Posted on April 15, 2012 by Michael

View from the Gallery


Spent 2 hours visiting the Warhol exhibition and their standing collection, as well as sitting and browsing the Photography library in the comfort of this really cool building, with all its squares, crosses and circles in its design. The photo was taken across the vast 4th floor interior from the FMOPA Gallery. Note the scale of this interesting building from the size of the door, and handrail on bottom right, and also the UT minarets above the trees outside. Worth a visit and becoming a member! Grab a coffee downstairs. Enjoy!
— at Florida Museum of Photographic Arts.

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Megacon-Orlando

Posted on February 21, 2012 by Michael


Spent a couple of hours Sunday at this huge Comic Book Convention. Cosplay is where  thousands of folk wear costumes from science fiction characters. I had seen photographed it first at Harajuku in Tokyo in 2004, then in Orlando  in 2010. I knew from seeing the characters before that there were many great photo opportunities and many folk willing to pose for my camera. Those like me, who photograph players are called “Cameko” in Japan, meaning Camera boy.

Armed with my trusty 28-70mm 2.8 and 28 inch Lightbox with SB600 flash set on CLS, triggered remotely by my Nikon 200, I waded into the mass of costumed young folk waiting for suitable subjects to strike a pose. A very friendly crowd, most were more than happy to model their excellent costumes for the asking, some of whom had won prizes for their work at the Convention. I shot with my lightbox handheld high, with my left hand, mostly against a blank wall behind. Backgrounds were postprocessed in Lightroom and Onone PhotoSuite as necessary. Please feel free to comment.

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Hilton Head AstroPhotographer

Posted on December 29, 2011 by Michael

Lying on the wet sand, after dark on the deserted beach in SeaPines, I thought I was alone until I heard a quiet voice behind me. I was startled,to say the least. James introduced himself and we chatted in the dark about the beauty of the moment. He is an Art Historian at the Guggenheim. The moment he placed his camera to his eye and looked in his viewfinder screen, and I saw my moment, quickly ran behind behind him and from the wet sand, grabbed this image. I thanked him for modeling for me. It took me one hour of taking photos to set up, and after everyone had seemingly gone, the scene suddenly came together. Luckily I was prepared for it. You never know who will just walk into your image.

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Giovanna Del Franco

Posted on November 14, 2011 by Michael

Crystal Lockinour at The Color Suite helped set up a photoshoot last weekend in her studio with the beautiful young Italian model Giovanna del Franco.
Thanks to their patience and cooperation we got some nice images.

Do click for Fullsize uncropped images as these are just cropped thumbnail images and do not appear in their proper format.

Please provide constructive comment if you so choose.

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Simple Portrait

Posted on October 7, 2011 by Michael

Invited to shoot the beautiful JoAnne Jensen with MakeUp and Hair color by the very talented Crystal Lockinour. Large window left, 50mm, 1/100 at 2.8. D200.  JoAnne stepped out of the box for this one. I think it was worth it as she looks fabulous. I love the contrast in textures and color between her her  newly curled golden colored hair, gold necklace and the blue Lapis background on the left. JoAnne is so engaging!

The new Hair-do.

 

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Anna Maria dreams of Rome, Sogno di Roma

Posted on October 3, 2011 by Michael

Anna Maria sogna di Roma

The beautiful Anna Maria image was taken in an alley in Ybor. Her family is from Rome, where I had visited a couple of years ago. After shooting with Dennis Ramos, he  gave me some compositing tips as promised, (for my recent birthday). I thought I should see if I could get an appropriate image using my OnOne Perfect Layers and my old italian images. Let me know what you think.

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Tampa Kelby Photowalk Fall leaves

Posted on October 2, 2011 by Michael

What fun to wander around downtown Tampa on a fine and cooler October day in the company of good Photography friends with Scott Kelby and others from Tampa Bay Strobist meetup group. What better to signal the coming of Fall than a couple of random leaves exhibiting the change of seasons, just lying on the street. I was experimenting with my wide angle lens and captured this.

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Anna Maria at our Strobist Meetup

Posted on October 2, 2011 by Michael

Had the opportunity to shoot with the beautiful Anna Maria Feretti at our Tampa Strobist meetup group in Ybor city a couple of days ago. There are a number of alleys with interesting graffiti as backdrops where I got to shoot with RC (Concepcion) and Dennis Ramos. Finally got this toward the end of the evening, shooting in the dark with a flashlight on my head to aid focussing. D200, iso200, 1/125 f2.8 50mm softbox sb600 camera right front, rim right back, processed in lightroom and portrait professional studio. Thanks to AnnaMaria and Dennis for their patience and assistance.

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9/11 revisited

Posted on September 11, 2011 by Michael

Ground Zero revisited

On this day of Memorial to 9/11 tragedy, I am reminded of this image I made in 2003 on a visit to Ground Zero. I thought the silhouettes signaled the missing human element in the scene devoid of the Twin Towers below.

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