Molten 24kt

Weather Day Storms of January 08

Palm Before The Storm

Glisten To The Morning

"Glisten" required some fill flash, "palm" is an example of using the subject as a light filter or effect. Unless yiu consider the sun to be the subject here. Both of these were shot on a Sunday morning.

The FreezeFlame Concept

The 40D lets me use an exposure fast enough to capture far more detail in a billowing flame. These are shots taken at the shop for my employer. You will see a natural gas flame from a very large blast furnace. The kind used to melt fifty pounds of copper and silver at a time for use in gold jewelry manufacturing. The "griffin" was shot at 1/500th F5.6 ISO 400.

Is it Real or is it Photoshop?

It seems my friends are more likely to ask offline-How much of Kevin or my work is "Photoshop"? Okay-For this site these are the rules- Unless clearly stated otherwise! We do not add or remove elements for modification. We do use the modern equivalent of film lab work in the ordinary sense-Cropping, contrast, color adjustments, scratch/dust removal. We do use filters on our lenses or lights as desired. Thats it. Our work is real. All elements seen were really there. Like this ring made of metals from my work (the day job!) in sophisticated jewelry alloys.

While I enjoy photo art in all its forms-I have a personal disdain for deceiving folks in news reports with "Fauxtography" as seen in certain negligent yet internationally respected (go figure) news sources. I think my most extreme edits so far are picture #1 in my first post here, and the bee wings. One was a fountain tilted 90 degrees, the other a rather extreme crop to show what mega pixels really do for us.

Studio 11: Lonely Patrol at Sunset

Studio 11: Lonely Patrol at Sunset

Lonely Patrol at Sunset

L.A.P.D. flies the sunset. Thank you gentlemen.

Marina Del Rey

Griffith Park

Griffith is just gorgeous! Rather than image the buildings, I took advantage of a clear day and good vantage points.

In from the Cold

With help from my friend...

Kevin (who contributes here occasionally) came over to the studio to collaborate on my Ice-Fire series. The big help was metering this difficult subject. Fire makes light, Ice absorbs it, and the cubic Zirconium stones can be tricky. Plus, I have lit the stage from the bottom up. Evaluative Metering is what he knew how to apply that I did not. We used a pyrex pie dish, cz's and my special fire source.

Hot Diamonds

Fire And Ice Continued

Over time I have come to photograph fire, and jewelry, fire making the jewelry etc. For this image we have an art shot, combining elements always found separately, except perhaps in a jewelry shop. The above was shot using a 950 palladium ring, cubic zirconia, ice and of course fire.

Have A Seat

I really like taking pictures of lively bright things. Nothing beats flame for that. Managing light as a semi pro photographer is a big challenge. All that gear, all those methods, light meters, color temperature, blah, blah blah. The fun (for me) is things that make their own light. Flame, sunrise, neon, reflections...
By the way, the only photoshop changes were contrast related. No layers, no special tricks. This is an original.
What I did was set the camera for ISO 400-Exposure 1/320, F5. 46mm (corrected for DSLR sensor factor 1.6) Next we'll really get into the ice thing.

Fired Ice

Flamenco Dancer

Fire Dance

Fire and Ice

I suspected the 40D would do a great job in taking flame shots... This one is literally Fire and Ice.