I recently had the opportunity to shoot one of the cutest newborns yet with my good friend and excellent photographer Melissa Papaj. Best of all the shoot was for another good friend and her daughter.

Enjoy the photos!  To see the rest of the photos from the shoot you can view them in the gallery here.

Lovin the Pink!

We had a lot of fun with the flowers and headbands!

For some reason this one reminds me of a story about an Asian Princess /Goddess.

More flowered headbands.

Peacefully asleep.

A 1920′s diva ready to party!

And finally a couple of favorites from Melissa.

Often I have turned to the opportunities available to those who live near to so many places of natural beauty and solitude.    The desire to be away from the mass hysteria of life amongst so many people is something I sometimes need.  Some days, howeve,r those opportunities fade from our grasp as quickly as early morning dew burning off in the warm glow of an early sun.  On those days when solitude is unavailable but needed I feel as though I am in a tailspin.  A spiral of confusion, frustration and despair.

Last week I hit such a tailspin.   How to reconcile the desire to be strong for my family, against a raging need to lash out against the news once again.  Cancer! My father!

Ziggy P Sr (my father) as a wee lad!

I needed solitude.  I needed composure.   I needed some time.   But there was none.

Then came my saving grace, a comment from a dear friend.     “You need to blog,” she said.  But about what?  I don’t feel inspired!  My photography feels stale right now …  And so the search of the past images began and an image gave me that composure I needed.   I slipped away to a high mountain meadow in late spring.   Thank you!

As many of you know I struggle with my photography due to huge commitments to both my children and the soccer community.   I coach multiple teams and I am in essence the Director of Coaching for an organization of over 1,000 kids and 140 teams.  This means that most of 16 Saturdays plus various days during the week are full of nothing but soccer.  (Even more if teams decide to go to the indoor, or summer tournament seasons)  It puts a serious cramp in shooting time.

But on a good note it has also given me an appreciation for the difficult task faced by sports photographers. Sports photographers capture that perfect moment that tells a story like other photographers. But they do it in a situation where there is no control of the situation besides your shooting location.  They have little to no control over posing, no ideal lighting, and the action can be fast and furious.  The only factors that are fully controllable is the location from where you shoot.

With that in mind it is a glorious moment when a shot turns out. Sometimes it just feels right and the stars align..  Such was the situation with this photo. While maybe not technically brilliant, timing and providence helped me capture this image.

Superstition and happenstance.

For those unfamiliar with the cycling world it is “tradition” or “superstition” to wear the number 13 pinned upside down on your jersey.   With an earlier shot I captured the Wrong Way sign by accident as they passed over the sidewalk.   I thought it had “some” humor to it, so I set up to capture the next rider right as they passed under the sign.   Little did I realize the next rider was number 13!

It seems the great photojournalists and sports photographers always seem to capture these moments.   Whether through instinct, experience, or luck,  some of these individuals continually amaze and inspire me.    One such would be Trent Nelsen of the Salt Lake Tribune.   Who has given great presentations at the last two Photo Camp Utah events.  Checking out his work makes me desire to strive and turn my obstacles into opportunities.

The Twins

Snack Time!

This year we had aroudn 200 photographers show up to shoot several models in 9 different planned lighting setups, and on impromptu setup (The Jarvie Window).

Below are two sample images I took while at the event. You can find many more on the Photowalking UT Flickr site here. If you are in Utah around the time of the Studio Photowalk and want to learn more about lighting use and setup you MUST get to the photowalk!

Kati Henshall rocking the dress at the Studio Lighting Photowalk

Model headshot taken at the studiolighting photowalk.

On the 29th she got married to Joe Jones. I had the great opportunity to repay her, by assisting in the wedding day photography. Here are a few of my shots from that day, make sure you see the last one if you skip through the details. The entire set I have posted can be found here. Or for everything visit Dave Terry’s site.

The happy couple:

Details:

A parting Shot:

This leads me to two “goals”. The first of these is to shoot more often and share that experience on my blog. I have already set a goal of at least one full shooting expedition a week. While this may be a stretch when combined with running a company and being in charge of 140 Soccer Team coaches, I am hoping to make a good run at this goal. I believe in setting stretch goals as I think you can accomplish more my stretching yourself than by setting goals that are easily attainable. The start of this goal occurred tonight. A few fellow photogs and I had set a date to go on a Photowalk to Antelope Island. Life got in the way and between illnesses, other commitments, etc we had to reschedule. Usually I would have stayed home nice and warm. However, in order to meet my goal I packed up the gear and headed out to the island. The photo below is a result of that trip.

Winter tundra at Antelope Island on the Great Salt Lake.

The second is to take action on a book I have been reading lately. I received for Christmas the Digital Photography Masterclass by Tom Ang. I had started reading this book from the Library and had been impressed with the way the book is organized, the basis of information provided, and particularly the actionable assignments provided in each chapter. After receiving my own personal copy of the book I have set another goal of completing each of the twenty assignments over the course of the next year. This means I will need to accomplish at least almost two assignments a month.

May your New Year be filled with joy, success, and an emphasis on the things that mean the most to you. And may you meet your New Year resolutions with success.

Below are a few of the photo’s from this shoot.

We kicked things off at one of the two grand staircases.

While occupying the two boys with “finding locations” I saw Susana’s daughter playing at the landing. Quickly taking my assistant and lights up to her level we managed to capture this shot.

Sometimes light can create wonder.

Her oldest really wanted this shot, luckily we had a few minutes to capture it before we finished.

Finally her middle boy was a great helper the whole time, he even wanted to help carry the light-stands as we moved locations. But having just lost one to a far more experienced assistant I was a little hesitant. Needless he helped with those things I asked him to do. He is a great young man!

And this is Susana. I met her when my company recently dropped our paid company phones. I went into the local AT&T store to purchase an iPhone. Susana was my sales rep. While it wasn’t the easiest of switches due to a number port from the company plan to my personal plan we managed to get it accomplished and Susana put up with the difficulty I had deciding on a stupid cover.

The best AT&T rep locally.

I love getting candid photos, it seems with candids you can see true emotion and stories more often than with the posed shots. Her daughter had just lost both shoes and wanted them back on, a great mother – daughter moment.

Getting the boots back on.

Finally we had one last parting shot.

In an effort to expand my repertoire of skills I used two speedlights to light this family. Both were set on manual, with one acting as a key light and the other as a fill light. I wouldn’t have been able to do this shoot, or do it with the lights if it hadn’t been for some fantastic photographer friends. Big thanks go to David Terry who let me tag along on a bridal shoot at this location with the same sort of lighting. I pestered him with questions both before, during, and after the shoot. A great friend Nathan Marx supplied me with the radio triggers used to trigger the speedlights. And another photographer Rob Snow helped me with the lightstands and umbrellas. ONe of the speedlights used to belong to a fellow photographer Scott O. Smith, not sure why the Canonite had a Nikon speedlight. I am blessed to have so many good friends and photographers to be around. It is great to know that you can lean on so many people to help.

The second was one of my favorite models to work with, Bekah Ostler. She is one of my favorite because she very easy to work with, open to try new ideas, and a genuine person. And I would consider her a good friend.

The last person was the reason for the shoot. Joe Jones is Bekah’s fiance’, the shoot was the engagement photo’s for Bekah and Joe. It was great to meet Joe and get to know him a little better. He did great while we dragged him all over the place. While I was primarily along to assist on the shoot I did get the opportunity to take a few shots while we had available light. Once it got dark however I became solely a V.A.L.S (Voice Activated Light Stand) – read that as Daves lighting grunt. Overall it was a fun experience and I really enjoyed working with Dave. Next time I’ll just ask a few more questions. Thanks go out to Dave, Bekah and Joe.

Below are a few of the pictures I captured while the light was still somewhat good.

Hanging out on the park bench

Lovin Life!

Her hair must smell good!

A quick shot taken while we walked to the next location

http://www.flickr.com/photos/20915755@N04/sets/72157622646300081/

Probably the only time these two didn't have major grins on their faces.

I couldn't resist capturing this shot, we were setting up for the next series of photo's when I saw Bekah standing against the column like this and I just had to have the shot!

Things I learned:
– I love the 50mm 1.8 but need to use it more!
– It has been way to long since I shot this type of a shoot – I need to do more, more often.
– If you have an idea run with it, see this shot that Dave took here.

Last Friday a few of us got together out at Black Rock out on the south shore of the Great Salt Lake to do a Rock Band photoshoot.   The event was spearheaded by Nathan Marx and included Scott O. Smith, Rob Snow (and wife Julie) as well as models Bekah and Shane.     Kudo’s go to everyone but especially Rob and Julie who had to drive separate cars because of all the drum, and photography equipment.    Julie has written a great behind the scenes post over on their blog.   Scott has a post here, and more pictures here.

A guitar and . . .

. . . a dream!

Bekah (pictured above) is a great model to work with.   She is always willing to put up with our photographer quirks.

One thing I learned …  I need a LOT more practice with strobist style photography.   While the other photographers where getting out and setting up their light stands, strobes, umbrellas, radio triggers, etc.   I just stood there and watched with a “deer in the strobelight” look on my face.

Rob was a trooper hauling all this gear out to the lake!

The man who organized it all

It was getting pretty cold by this point