Posted by Anthony on January 30, 2010 in photography.
Posted by Anthony on January 18, 2010 in photography.
It’s Sunday evening and I have just returned home from an amazing weekend spent with amazing people.
For the past three years in Dallas, WE ARE MICROSOFT has put together a weekend event that pairs local charities with software developers in a monumental effort to provide the charities access to the latest and greatest software technologies.
Thanks to the hard work of many dedicated developers, charities, an array of sponsors, vendors, Microsoft MVPs and an unlimited supply of caffeine, the event was an enormous success.
Photographing the event was also a challenge.
First and formemost I didn’t want to be a distraction to the developers. They were already working with a very difficult schedule (each team had only two days to design, build and deploy an application) and some of them were working with people and technologies that they were unfamiliar with prior to the event. Most importantly, when a developer was “in the zone” they certainly didn’t need me taking them out of it. Being a developer I know how frustrating that can be.
With this in mind I developed a strategy to sneak around and get some good candid shots.
A strobe would have drawn too much attention so I had to rely on available light. And when I found myself in a situation where I would normally rip ten or fifteen shots in order to get a variety of expressions, I had to be patient enough to capture a good image with a single, hopefully unnoticeable, click.
Most of my shots were taken with a Sigma 70mm-300mm lens. I used this lens to keep as much distance as possible between me and my subjects, reducing the chance that I might distract them. The lens doesn’t have any type of vibration reduction so some of the images are not as sharp as I’d like them to be, especially when the lens was racked out all the way.
Besides taking photos I had an opportunity to help with a wide variety of tasks ranging from Team Foundation Server support to taking the trash out to the dumpster. It felt good to help the volunteers that were helping the charities that are helping the community.
For the list of charities and sponsors that participated in this event please visit the WeAreMicrosoft.com website.
In closing I’m pleased to report that this project that started in Dallas has now grown into a national phenomenon, known as GiveCamp. For more information about GiveCamp please visit the GiveCamp.org website.
More photos of this event can be found on my WAM2010 Flickr page.
Posted by Anthony on November 18, 2009 in photography.
This is Debbie, a model that I had a great time photographing last weekend. We were shooting at the Fort Worth Stockyards in Fort Worth, Texas.
She was very easy to work with and I really appreciated her patience.
This was my first shoot with my new camera so I was previewing most of the photos on the back of the camera throughout the day, which slowed things down a bit.
Quite often I had to make adjustments and re-shoot a photo.
Debbie did not seem to mind at all.
Before the shoot I decided that I was going to stick with a 50mm lens for the entire day. I think 50mm is a good, honest lens, and I want to get better using it.
Eric is one of the other photographers on the shoot.
I took this photo of Eric shooting Debbie.
Eric’s suggestions help me get some great photos. I found his tips to be invaluable. I really learned a lot working with him.
I look forward to working with them again.
Posted by Anthony on November 15, 2009 in photography.
Today I went to my local Barnes and Noble bookstore to pick up “Visual Poetry” by Chris Orwig. The book contains a lot of tips to boost the creative process and I am always looking for new ideas.
I was sitting in the store’s Starbucks cafe enjoying a latte and flipping through my new book when I noticed the guy sitting at a nearby table was playing a midi keyboard attached to his computer.
He was wearing headphones so I couldn’t hear what he was playing. I could see that he was composing something, and I could tell that he was deep into the piece of music that he was working on.
I had my camera with me and I snapped this photo without anyone noticing.
I really enjoy taking candid shots of people. This isn’t a great photo but I’m glad that I got it.