Amber

Amber, originally uploaded by austinspace.

Amber suggested this shoot. Originally we were going to do it in the summer (and I hope we will this next summer) but never got around to it. It was about 28° and windy when we arrived here, behind the football stadium at school.

All the images in this set (starts here) are 'Shopped to a degree. I opened the images up twice, and put the darker exposure on top of the lighter exposure, then erased Amber's figure to expose the lighter version underneath. In this photo I also erased the dark foreground to expose the lighter version beneath. A little darkening of the top, and I was done. I also cleaned up a couple of water spots on my lens...I really need to clean that thing up!

We have more snow falling right now, and so more snow pix are on the way at my Flickr stream.

Kim and Nick

Kim and Nick, originally uploaded by austinspace.

I took pix of Kim and Nick on Wednesday, November 21. This is in Senior Hall on campus, where I've shot Kim and others before. It affords great cushy chairs and couches, light streaming in from the west and plenty of room and relative privacy in which to shoot.

On several of the shots in the set I used my 580ex flash for fill and highlighting. The sun only came out only briefly while we shot, something I'm getting used to as we entrench in the ugly winter months. Generally I hate using artificial light but I've gotten used to using the 580, and sometimes get pretty excited with the results. Here I was up in the 800 or 1600 ISO range, mostly, but the 20d performs admirably even under those high speed conditions.

Kim suggested photos of the two of them via email a few days prior. People have been encouraging me to take more photographs of men, and Nick was an ideal candidate. Generally I just don't find guys as interesting to photograph--but obviously I have to be comfortable doing it too, and Kim was sweet enough to offer up her guy.

It's always fun to photograph Kim--and Nick was great fun too. We're already talking about our next shoot.

Palouse sunset

110807, originally uploaded by austinspace.

South of Rosalia, Washington.

I took this looking southeast as the sun was setting to the right. I did lighten the foreground grass slightly to contrast it better against the sky. I was down in this area with Christina, whose friend Gordon took us to this location. It's a stunning place with run-down sheds, this old windmill, and an amazing abandoned homestead where I shot several pix of Chris. I'm grateful that I live so close to great locales like these, that feel like they're right out of a Malick film.