Busted Shutter Studios

Well folks, this concludes the broadcast of this blog. I'll be starting up another site shortly for my new business. I've finally decided on a name...Busted Shutter Studios. Sounds kinda cool? Maybe? Time will tell I guess. The new site will be a blog but will mostly relate to business news and basically be my initial web site for the business. Once my budget allows for a hosting company, I'll probably create an actual site, but for now, any excess cash goes to more photo gear.

So be on the lookout for a new site and some cool offers.

adios!

Where the F*%# Have I Been?!!?

Well...quite busy actually. Things are just starting to wind down now at work. THe last three weeks or so have been quite hectic and have seriously given me second thoughts on whether I'll want to be doing the whole office thing much longer. Just getting real sick of being stuck in front of a computer screen all day. All the more reason to keep the photography thing going full steam.

Some photo news in my world below, as well as some of the pics I've taken over the last few weeks. More to come...

- Have been asked to be the photographer for the breast cancer walk in Dover this October. Will be nice to volunteer my time as well was promote myself a little bit. Gotta get on some business cards.

- Was asked by an old co-worker if I would be up shooting her wedding next summer. Still have to get back to her on that actually. I'll end up saying yes and at the same time strongly recommending she hire a professional while I do it for free. Will be cool to see how it goes though. Will be a real test.

- Asked by a friend if I'd be willing to take some head-shots for her. She's an aspiring actress and I'm an aspiring photog so it's a good professional match I think. Can't wait to help her out while getting some good experience and hopefully, finger's crossed, some nice additions to my portfolio.

I'll be sure to keep all my readers (are there any of you??) updated in the coming months.

Time for a picture dump. These two shots were my submissions for the Portsmouth photowalk. Yucky day but got some good shots.

These next two shots were some test pics I took with my new 70-200 lens. Some sexy glass my friends.

Took this shot in Newburyport with Sara. Spent the day on Plum Island at the wildlife refuge. What a day.

These two shots are from Odiorne Point but on two separate occasions.

Well that's all for me. More to come soon comrades. Stay classy.

Michael's Graduation

Howdy do fellow comrades, patriots, and lovers of democracy! It's been a while since my last post. I always look forward to summer as a time for relaxing, kicking back, and just taking it easy. However, so far it has been anything but. Over the past couple weeks, I slowly moved from my condo into an apartment across the street. I had help from a lot of people, but it still was a time warp it seemed like. Didn't have time for much else other than packing and cleaning.

The following weekend I was finally able to take some time off from moving and visit some old friends from home. Our family friend had just graduated high school and his family threw a little party. I thought this would be a great opportunity to practice some people photography. Armed with just my D200 and 18-200 lens, I collected a handful of decent images. I wasn't too impressed with them to begin with, but for what they are, I think they came out pretty good. More time in better light would have been good....a better lens would have been nice....and the willingness of my subjects to have their pictures taken would have been even better, but I wont complain........

Here's a link to the gallery.

In other news, I picked up a copy of Tamron's 70-200 mm 2.8 lens over the weekend. What sharp one it is! I'll have some test pics up tomorrow. Until then...happy Monday.

Moving Sucks...

Greetings commerades! It's been about a week since I've made a post…and with good reason. I've been a pretty busy guy as of late. I'm about 99% moved out of my condo and into a new apartment after days of punishing my back. My old roomate recently purchased a house with his soon to be wife and has basically achieved the American dream. Hard to believe that sort of thing is still possible now-a-days, but kudos to him.

The picture above is the HDR shot of Thompson Hall I posted earlier, only I've converted it into a poster layout using photoshop. This is done pretty easily by selecting "Canvas Size" from the Image menu. I think it looks alright. Fun to try out different fonts.

MB-D200

I took these shots looking into a mirror so that's why things look flipped around. I wanted to do this so I could show the new battery grip I got for my D200 about a week ago. The grip itself is that extension along the bottom portion of the camera below my hand. If you looks carefully, you can almost see the seam between the camera body and the grip. It's screws right into the bottom of the camera via a plastic command dial just below the lens. The grip holds an additional battery so it gives you twice the shooting time. It also adds some additional weight to the camera which will be nice when I get a couple bigger lenses this summer. Soon as I can save up enough cash.

Another benefit of the grip is that it contains a second shutter release. This enables you to turn the camera sideways to take a vertical picture while still holding the camera in a comfortable manner. Very handy. If you have a DSLR, I would highly recommend picking up one of these grips. 9 times out of 10, there's a grip for your specific camera, you just gotta look online for it. Not to mention, they just look badass...and I'm all about the badassness.

Another Gallery Switch

Just can't seem to stick with one place evidently, but this will be the last move for a while. I've decided to go with Zenfolio for a hosting site for my pictures. They're cheaper than Smugmug and much easier to customize. They don't allow the same freedom with CSS like Smugmug does, but I like they're standard themes and layouts enough. Within a month or so, I'm hoping to have the online store available to purchase prints, but I'd still like to test that system out myself first. Anyways, here's the link for the new gallery. I like it much better.

Thompson Hall

Took a ride over to campus this evening and took a couple shots of Thompson Hall. Tried a little HDR out with a couple shots and I liked this one the best. Decided not to go with the "surreal" type of HDR shots I've done before. This time I used the powers of HDR to just give a broad tonal range and I think it works here. Always brings back great memories walking around that place.

Gotta get up early tomorrow morning. Gonna try and pick up some sunrise shots near the ocean so I'll most likely be out the door by 4 tomorrow morning. Oh boy.