Blimp Over Akron City

An unfortunate family situation has had me at City Hospital all weekend so I haven't been able to shoot too much. This afternoon as I was walking into the hospital the Goodyear Blimp happened to be flying over - like always I had my camera on me - I pulled it out and snapped these.

Heavier posting on the blog should resume this week....

The Many Moods....

of Laura Loebick...

When I was messing around (taking photos from yesterday's post) Laura stopped by on her way home from work. I made her "pose" for some photos - its a lot easier to get good shots of someone other than myself.....no need to hold something out for focus, hit the self-timer, and then jump into the shot.

Learning to Fly

Just like yesterday I felt like experimenting with some different lighting set-ups - and again no one was around. So I decided to use the best looking model I know...myself! In the portrait I have two flashes coming in from the sides with no light modifiers and I have another one high and over the camera with a shoot-through umbrella. I also added some fake depth-of-field using Photoshop - I don't usually do stuff like that but I've been in an experimenting mood all week...

Unabomber

Today I was shooting some more of my camera collection when I decided to step in front of the camera for some self-portrait attempts. I was taking different shots messing around with the positioning of my Speedlites. I ended up liking this one with some "rim light" - I had one flash in front of me(the reflection in my glasses) and one behind me to the right.

Ohio City

On Saturday Laura and I went up to The West Side market and The Great Lakes Brewery in the Ohio City neighborhood of Cleveland. I've decided its time to start checking out some of the cool places right here in my backyard that I've never been to. The West Side Market was really neat - an amazing historic building with a great selection of food. At Great Lakes we enjoyed some of their beers they only sell on tap at the restaurant and had some of the best burgers of our lives. I can't wait to get out on some more of these short trips around Northeast Ohio.

Clovers

This is the band that has risen out of the ashes of Other Girls - called Clovers. I shot some promos for them yesterday at Tangerine Studio in North Hill. This shot being a little goofy I decided to mess around with post-processing a little bit. I put a black & white layer on and than turned it to 75% opacity - giving it this muted look. I also added a fair bit of sharpening and upped the contrast quite a bit too.

*Update* Here is another one I just edited(more in my "typical" style).

Matinee Redux

Well since Matinee is my favorite hang out don't be surprised that I take a lot of photos there. This is Laura relaxing during the happiest hour. I had my flash off-camera with my omni-bounce diffuser on it sitting on the bar. She told me I should title this shot "Laura's Floating Head". I didn't.

Fan Feeling

Some days you're just not feeling it...and you take a photo of your ceiling fan.

Studio Akron

Last night Andrew McAllister had The Chief Source crew over to his new photography studio - Studio Akron. Studio Akron is a rental studio for digital photography and media production. We hung out, had a few beers, talked lots of geeky photography talk and Andrew took some really cool portraits that will be on the Chief Source soon. Here are some photos I snapped while there.

City Building

Today was the second photographic day in a row that didn't go quite as planned. I headed back downtown around sunset to try and get some cool shots of Akron architecture in good lighting(like my Grant Street photo). I was too late - most of the building were already in the shade. I took this picture of the City Building on High Street. I'm going to try again, but a little earlier, the next nice day.

Snow Lion

I've been driving by this snow covered lion statue outside the Summit County Courthouse for a few weeks now. Every time I think of how it would make for a good photo. With a little weather warm-up coming I figured I better get my shot while I have the chance. When I walked up to the statue today I realized it was higher than I thought and I really had no good way to get on its level. This ended up being my best shot - the camera held over my head with my wide-angle lens. Next time I'll bring my ladder....

New Body Type

Even though I like to take photos of just about everything I especially enjoy shooting portraits(so thats the perspective I'm coming from with the following thoughts).

Lately as I read my daily dose of photography blogs and check out flickr streams I've been thinking about photography "style" ....meaning I've really started to notice the style of certain photographers I like - to the point where I can tell a photo by an individual before I see there name attached to it. It got my wondering about my personal style and if I have developed something kind of distinct. Soooo...I was checking Facebook yesterday and came across a photo I took of a band that one of the members posted on their profile - there was a comment on the shot by someone I didn't know, "looks like a TimFitz...I'm a fan of vivid, contrasty images". "Vivid contrasty images" - I'll take that.

I don't ever want to be completely pigeon-holed or stop experimenting and trying new things - but it is nice to have a photograph of mine recognized without my name on it. I think its part of my growth and development as a photographer.

Anyways - this is a photo of New Body Type that I took Saturday night in the basement of the Matinee. They are having a CD release party this coming Saturday there(and the CD will feature a photo from this shoot).

Back to Back

Yesterday my friends Kyle(who I do The Chief Source with) and Mike(my former college roommate) came over to hang out and discuss photography. I was showing them how I did my shots for my Camera Collection series when I had them step in front of the lights for this shot. We were joking about how it looked like a promo for a sitcom, "one is a neat-freak, the other a total slob - what hijinx will ensue when they're forced to live together...."

Man in the Mirror

My name is Tim and I'm a proud 7D owner! Proud enough to take a photo of myself in the mirror with my newish camera. I'll try to be more interesting than this in the future - this is a burned-out-from-the-weekend-lazy-post....not to mention I rarely pass up the chance to use a Micheal Jackson song for my title!

Goodnight!

Snowprovement

Jeez thats a cheesy title.

Anyways, today I went for a hike at one of my favorite parks - O'Neil Woods. I decided to get back out and attempt to take some more nature shots that I could be proud of. I really liked this one and I posted a few more at my flickr page that I thought were pretty decent too. All of yesterdays photos were shot with my 50mm lens and all of todays were shot with my wide angle(10-20mm). I have a lot more fun shooting with the wide angle lens - I also felt it was easier to get better shots with the sun near setting than in the hard snow(of yesterday).

I have a job shooting a snowy scene for a client this week - I'm glad I got out and shot these today - a real confidence builder.

Snowy Trees

As a photographer I'm extremely proud of my portraits and candid shots but I still feel like my nature photography is pretty average. I've been reading online blogs and tutorials about landscape and nature photos - I even started a book on the subject today. It is truly a shame I feel so inadequate at one of my favorite hobbies, I love the great outdoors. My New Year's resolution this year is the same as last - get better at nature photography!

At The Bath Nature Preserve today.

Camera Collection and Back-Up

Today I finished posting my entire camera collection to my Zipper City Camera page. I still plan to make adjustments and add info(and cameras as I come across them) to the site but all my current cameras are there.

Also today I was spending some time backing up my photos to DVD's, which I let myself get way to far behind on. I have 3 levels of back-up: a second hard drive, flickr, and my DVD back-up. It feels good to get the DVD's done - now I just need to get them over to my girlfriends house for safe-keeping.

Non-Stop Snow

Today I went for a walk around my neighborhood to try and get some snow shots.

I shot this with a shutter speed of 1/500 of a second to try and "freeze" the motion of the falling snow. I think it would have been better if I went even faster. As I type this I'm starting to wonder how firing my flash would have affected this photo - maybe reflecting off the flakes to make them stand out more....as a matter of fact I want to go try that, I'll report back later (hopefully with a cool image).

New Me

This is my first self-portrait of the decade! I wanted a new Facebook/MySpace photo so I took this is my living room this morning.

I lit this portrait with two flashes, one with a shoot-through umbrella up and slightly to the right and another with a reflective umbrella to the left.

A New Decade

I snapped this photo of Greg with Greg's Canon Rebel XT at a New Year's Eve Party. I plucked it from his flickr page. I used about a half second exposure and and zoomed the lens to get this effect.

Anyways - I'm excited for the New Year and have plans for lots of great photography which will be brought to you daily right here and over at The Chief Source.
Happy New Year!