I needed to warm myself up again today. It’s been too cold and a morning temperature of three degrees was too much t handle. I did make it outside for several hours when it warmed up to double digits for a few minutes of photo fun. None of the fun as as much as watching a youngster enjoy a field of blooming dandelions.

Going to be a little odd EXIF info for this frame.

Canon G9, ISO400, 1/80, 7.4mm -44mm f2.8 @ 7mm f8, RAW.

From this summers Wednesday’s at the farmer’s market in Uptown.

Photographers Sue Getty Images Over Subscription Pricing

PhotoShelter, recovering from the failure of its Collection last month, apparently has used some of their programming talent to update the Archive with new templates including a Flash slide show that resembles the look of Livebooks although it isn’t as sophisticated. That doesn’t mean it won’t be. Livebooks has just introduced monthly billing and Rob Haggart’s APhotoFolio has more attractive pricing as the market for Flash driven photographer Web sites has increased.

It will be interesting to see if PhotoShelter expands its Flash interface to include the choice of more than one gallery with a pull-down menu for the splash page. This would make it of a portfolio page than a set of links to galleries.

Guess we’ll have to wait for version 2.0.1

Congratulate me. I won second place in the family category of the Photoshelter Shoot! the Day stock photo contest with this photo. The story about the photo is here. Link to photo is here.

Don’t feel bad about getting only second place. First place in my category went to the Grand Prize winner.

I always walk down the street for the annual hot rod festival in the parking lot of the senior center for the nearby township. My enthusiasm for automobiles is limited to the 1,600 cc Volkswagen engine in pieces in my basement and my son’s 2003 Ford Lightning. My fascination is the people who bring their cars and the fans who come to see them. A few samplings for your viewing pleasure. Both from a kneeling position.

This is not the photo I intended for the afternoon. It’s better.

The plan was a quick stock shoot of a young model dressed as a cowboy in a field of fresh cut and rolled hay and straw. We had four shirt changes, some gloves and a few other accouterments to make some style changes.

We began at a different setting with a grain elevator for the backdrop, light colored clothing and strong light. We moved to the straw field just as the sun was moving into that strong hour of light before sunset.

The specific spot for the shoot was on a slight rise on high ground to eliminate background influence and to give me a lower angle perspective when I knelt in the field.

We began the scene using the rolled bales of straw as the background. Multiple angles for me to shoot from and multiple angles for the young model to stand and look. We moved rapidly through a series of shots as the sun moved closer to the horizon. Even the farmer whose field we used provided background assistance with a tractor and trailer picking up hay for the barn.

I shot front-lit, back-lit, side-lit, short glass, long glass, tight, loose, kneeling, standing. Quick and simple movement of foot placement, head angle and elevation for the model.

Then the light began to disappear about 30 minutes before sunset. The sun was obscured by a ledge of dark clouds moving above the horizon. The strong sidelight turned to an orange soft light glow.

I immediately moved the model to a spot with no background, knelt and framed him against the mottled sky.

Upped the ISO a little to keep the depth of field very narrow and use a faster shutter speed. The model was perfect  obeying my direction with little difficulty.

What began as a strong, single direction light source became a much softer, flatter low-key light that changed the shoots look.

The toning is very close to the original image. After all, I had a giant softbox for a light source, It was already warmed to match the tone of the hat and shirt.