I was doing senior portraits for my neighbor’s daughter a couple of weeks ago and my other neighbor Lloyd was sitting in for her while I adjusted lights. I thought this turned out pretty good (although the spot behind his head was too low–placed for the girl’s head not Lloyd’s) and since Lloyd’s wife posted it on Facebook yesterday I thought it was safe to put it up here without offending anyone.

This was shot with two Nikon SB-24s. The key had a small soft box on it, while the spot in the back was just with an omni diffuser pointing straight up and placed between Lloyd and the black backdrop to add a little separation. If I realized this was going to be a keeper I would have placed that spot a little better, but like I said, it was placed for the shorter 18 year old girl, not Lloyd.

A coastal manroot (aka wild cucumber) vine attaching itself to a blackberry leaf in order to climb up my friend Julie’s back deck at Cannon Beach, Oregon. I used my new Tokina 100mm f2.8 macro lens for this shot. I also got the tripod out; macro is almost impossible without a tripod.

Gorilla skull, Oregon Zoo static display of a zoology field station.

For dailyshoot.com assignment #563: make a photograph of a symbol today.

Wheeler Peak in Great Basin National Park. I thought I’d continue my black and white experiments by giving this one a contrasty “Ansel Adams” treatment.

A shriner on parade in Okotoks, Alberta (south of Calgary).

The new San Francisco Bay Bridge under construction in 2005. Taken from Treasure Island near the base of one of the concrete footings that this bridge would eventually connect to. I was visiting my friend Rick who works in concrete construction in San Francisco and he brought me to this great photo op that I don’t think may people were ever able to get to.

I went to the Chinese Garden in downtown Portland with my buddy Steve yesterday. I thought I got some good shots, but when I started reviewing them on my Macbook today I wasn’t really happy with any of them. It just goes to show you that it’s hard to tell the quality of a photo on a small camera LCD screen. Steve, I hope you got better shots than I did!

I ended up taking a couple of the photos and turned them into high contrast black and white. This one is all about the texture and patterns on the tree trunks. Color just distracted from that.

Another photo that was just “so so” in color, but I like the high contrast black and white version. Taken at Lan Su Chinese Garden in Portland, Oregon.

Part of the reason I didn’t get any really great photos this outing was because it was totally overcast. I’ve always struggled with making good photos in the flat lighting of an overcast day.