Chris Taylor's TD&P Blog

The family and I took a trip to the Wild Animal Park. The initial intent was to go see the butterfly jungle but the line was about 2 hours long. Looks like we’ll be heading out there again during the week to avoid the long wait.

The weather was so freakin’ nice today. One of the nicest days of the year so far. The animals seemed to be enjoying the sun as well. We hung out with some friends and had a nice time.

I’ve posted a slideshow on my site. Just click the link and the slideshow will open in a new window. I don’t normally add sound to my slideshows but I did on this one to add some ambience. There is volume control or the choice to turn music on/off on the lower left of the slidwshow if you need to adjust the settings.

In the meantime, enjoy a few photos from the day. You can click on the images and they will open up bigger in a shadowbox.

Until next time…

My cousin Roxanne needed some photos of her daughter this last weekend. Roxanne’s agent is putting some stuff together to try and get Gabby into some ads for Forever 21.

Roxanne needed the session done fairly quick & processed even quicker so they could head up to L.A. this week. So I packed up the strobes and headed out for the session. Luckily, their living room is quite spacious so we were able to shoot in the house. I haven’t done many “clamshell” lighting setups so I figured this would be a good time to try it out set it up. Setup was fairly quick and I like the lighting. Processing included mainly taking care of the stray hairs that were made even more prevalent from the hair light. I also lightened up the eyes a bit to bring them out a little more.

Thanks to Rob for showing up to help out and provide the backgrounds. He was looking pretty haggard from Vegas and I’m surprised glad he showed up.

Get it right in camera

These 3/4 shots were the toughest part of the session. Why??? ‘Cause I am not comfortable posing hands. It’s another thing I plan on studying more and working with ’cause it is such a pain in the ass for me. The background was also creased and that took the longest time to edit in post. I ended up blurring the image and then created a layer mask to smooth out the creases. I didn’t realize how time consuming it was until I looked at the clock and realized it was 3a.m. Whew! Lesson learned in why getting it right at the camera is a time saver. I could’ve moved her farther away from the background but that would have made sense. I’m not too bright sometimes. Oh well. Lesson learned.

Things learned from this session:

Learn to pose hands
Creases are not fun to fix in PS
Our kids are growing up faster than we think

Thanks, Gabby & Roxanne for a fun session. Thanks also for your patience. I hope you enjoy the images and good luck in L.A. this week.

Until next time…

I’m not going to be doing too much reflecting on 2009. I will start the new year with a post though since I haven’t posted in a while.

I have been working with Rob a lot. He has been getting us a bump in portrait sessions. During these shoots, we bounce ideas off each other but I am mainly his lighting assistant. I’m contemplating offering some of my services to some other local photogs as well if they need it. It takes a lot of strain off the photog when he/she can tell their Voice Activated Light (VAL) to “do this” and “do that” instead of having to leave their position to do what I am capable of doing. The other cool thing with being a VAL for Rob is that he can have the model/subject move and I can keep up with their movements so the lighting stays “close to the same.” I have been reading a lot from Joe McNally’s book, “The Hot Shoe Diaries.” That book has so much info in it and has bitten a new bug in my arse.

I plan on gaining about 50 pounds this year since everyone else wants to get thinner.

I plan on starting to advertise around San Diego to drum up more business. Financials weren’t in order last year so advertising was out of the question. That will change this year.

I also plan on taking more pix of Jake. I had to give him a break since he was my model for about two years. I think he got burned out on that but I think I can get him back in the groove.

I also plan on doing more product shoots for work so I can build up that portfolio.

Starting off the new year will be a post of my boy. He was chillin’ out in the chair tonight playing with his new iPod Touch so I grabbed the flash and started playin’. This is what I got.

Until next time…

All Images Copyright 2009 Taylor Design & Photography

I wanted to post some more pix from Del Mar. This post will have more photos of people we hung with this weekend. Starting off the photos is my beautiful wife. Her eyes just light up when we are outside and I love the way they look.

Next up is Jared. This dude is a crack up. He was on the initial team my brother and I played against (the opposing team was Jared & Danny). It was a good thing we teamed up against them on the front nine because the beer intake consumed them on the back nine. I think they stopped playing around hole 15.

All Images Copyright 2009 Taylor Design & Photography

Scott is a freakin’ pro on the golf course and a dude who has some serious dance moves. While playing the front nine, one of the holes kicked our ass. As we finished up and headed to the next hole, Scott was teeing off and planted the ball about 5 feet from the cup. He did this hole after hole (maybe not within 5 feet but on the green within regulation on most). My brother and I teamed up against him and Darren on the back nine and it was great competition. They ended up winning even with my 20 foot birdie putt.

All Images Copyright 2009 Taylor Design & Photography

Darren is a cool and mellow dude and was the officiant at the wedding. Darren’s got a mean golf game as well and I look forward to playing with him again next time he’s in San Diego.

All Images Copyright 2009 Taylor Design & Photography

Here’s Darren chillin’ with Scott’s chicka, Morgan.

All Images Copyright 2009 Taylor Design & Photography

And then there’s Nick. This guy was a riot after the reception. I won’t go into details but it was a helluva good time.

All Images Copyright 2009 Taylor Design & Photography

Meet Jake. This is Nicole’s dude and I got a chance to talk to him after the wedding reception. We talked about the economy and some other interesting stuff that night. He’s another mellow dude and I dug his look on race day.

All Images Copyright 2009 Taylor Design & Photography

Finishing off the post tonight is Nicole, the Maid of Honor for the wedding. She was having a blast on race day. I got some other pix of her cheering on her horse but she didn’t like the pix when I showed her the previews so I won’t post those.

All Images Copyright 2009 Taylor Design & Photography

It was a great weekend and a lot of fun. Everyone was a blast to hang out with. I haven’t been around a group like that in a while and it kinda took me back to my Marine Corps days. Definitely a weekend to remember.

Until next time…

This weekend was a busy one. My sister and Danny got married this weekend and it was a weekend to remember. We started off with us guys playing golf at Lomas Santa Fe executive course. I had the chance to meet most of Danny’s friends who I had only heard about. Let’s just say it was a complete blast. My brother and I teamed up and played pretty damn well. We had to step up our game on the back nine to compete with Scott and Darren. We ended up shooting a 34 on the front and a 31 on the back. From there, we went to Fidel’s in Del Mar. After that, I headed home and ran out of gas about 1/4 mile from my exit. I knew I was cutting it close but figured I would give it a shot. Thanks to my neighbor Joey for picking me up and taking me to get some motion potion for the Yota.

Saturday was rehearsal day and then off to the races. I was able to verify that one of my CF cards was crapping out on me when about 20 of my shots didn’t register. This is the same card that started this wonderful feature during a wedding a few weeks ago. I had just finished up with the getting ready shots and was getting ready to go down to the ceremony when the camera basically said, “No Image.” It ended up taking Rob and I about 2 hours to recover the images from this card that night. Anway, I had it in the back of my mind that this card had been acting up. It only seems to act up when cranking shots out but it will soon find its way into the trash can as I don’t want to lose any more images and can’t afford to have it act up during a wedding.

Some friends of ours knew the vet, Barry, that drives a van on the track during the races. I had the chance to ride in the van and get some really cool shots. I have always been fascinated with horses. They are just beautiful creatures. Riding alongside horses at 45 mph and getting passed is insane. Jockey’s might be small, but they have the balls to ride these horses the way they do and that is impressive. Thanks to Craig and Jan for hooking up the ride.

After the races, we headed back to the Inn at Rancho Santa Fe and hung out for a bit with Teri and Danny and their friends. We finished the night off with everyone throwing out words of love to the couple before their big day.

The wedding was Sunday and the wedding went great. It was followed up with a helluva party. Jess and Jayden went home while Jake and I hung out to party. A big thanks goes out to Darren (the officiant) and Jared (the best man) for housing Jake and I up in their room so we could enjoy the festivities.

I actually didn’t take any photos during the whole day. I wanted to relax and enjoy the atmosphere. The staff at studiocastillero did an outstanding job with the photography.

The weekend was great and I wish Teri and Danny nothing but the best. Their friends are great people and the love they have for each other is great. They are currently on their way to Europe for their honeymoon and I hope they enjoy it.

I’ll finish off with a few more photos from Del Mar and Rico from Studio Castillero.

All Images Copyright 2009 Taylor Design & Photography

For this year’s festivities, we joined up with my buddy Greg and his wife Karla for a celebration at Oceanside Harbor. We usually go to Bradley Park but wanted to change it up a bit this year. I thought it was going to be crazy busy at the harbor but it was really nice as the Harbor Police had blocked off incoming traffic to control the masses.

For dinner, we had a BBQ with ribs, corn, hot dogs, and a bunch of other items that made us more than full. After we ate, Jess joined us as she had to work that day. She got there in time to enjoy the food and hang out for a bit before the fireworks started launching from Camp Pendleton. Below are a few of the pix from that night with camera settings for those that want to try photographing fireworks. The finals are edited a bit (selective cropping due to parking lot lights, color brought out in some of the shots, etc…)

All Images Copyright 2009 Taylor Design & Photography

70-200mm f/2.8 L IS mounted on 20D

130mm  ISO 100   f/11   1.6 sec

All Images Copyright 2009 Taylor Design & Photography

70-200mm f/2.8 L IS mounted on 20D

130mm  ISO 100   f/11   1.6 sec

All Images Copyright 2009 Taylor Design & Photography

70-200mm f/2.8 L IS mounted on 20D

130mm  ISO 100   f/11   1/4 sec

I ended up changing the shutter speed for the last image because it gets a lot brighter once multiple shots are exploding at once.

I had my camera/lens mounted on my tripod but didn’t use the shutter release cable this time. I was a little late getting set up so I didn’t take the time to get the cable release out of my bag. In this instance, you can use the timer but you are more than likely to get untimed shots. I actually was standing there pressing the shutter release.

Once you get an idea of where the main pops are and your exposure settings, you can pretty much leave the camera alone and continue releasing the shutter. (I employed this same technique while photographing lightning in Oklahoma while I was parked in a Wal-Mart parking lot waiting for Jess) The first shot above missed a little bit of the pop but I still like the shot. You also gain an understanding of when to release the shutter after a few mishaps. The cool thing about being set up after the first few pops is that you can still enjoy the show without looking through the viewfinder with each release. Right before the grand finale starts, they’ll do a pre big bang where you can decide what shutter speed works best so you are ready for the night’s conclusion.

Enjoy the photos. Until next time…

All Images Copyright 2009 Taylor Design & Photography

Jess talked me into taking her and the ninos to the fair on Friday. Considering most people had the day off, I figured it would be busy and busy ain’t the word. It took us almost an hour and a half to park from Via De La Valle. Thank God for the iPod and endless music. Jess wanted to see the SolidWorks final I entered into the fair and I wanted to look at the photography entries. There were a lot of cool photos this year. There are a lot of great photographers in San Diego. Jake and I ended up cruisin’ around looking at photos for about an hour before we made our way to the SolidWorks entries. I’m still confused on how I did. I had 2nd Place written on my piece but I had a 3rd Place ribbon on the entry. Who knows? Jess wants me to enter some photos next year. All I can say is the competition is stiff.

We ended the day with taking the kids to the ride area so they could have some fun. Jess rode with Jake on his rides and I rode with Jayden on the “choo choo” as she calls it and the carousel. I wanted to get some pix of Jayden riding the carousel so Jess took over for the shot below. I must have taken about 40 panning shots to get some decent ones. I also took some pix of the family to give you an idea of how big Jake is getting. The kid is growing fast, as can be seen below.

Overall it was fun day. We walked a lot and Jess said I did extremely well considering the amount of people that were there. The line getting in as we left was as packed as it was when we arrived. The kids had fun and Jayden did extremely well even though she didn’t take a normal nap before going (she slept on the way down and got her power nap in).

Enjoy the few photos for tonight’s post. More to come tomorrow after I process the 4th of July pix and some other photos for another blog post this week.

All Images Copyright 2009 Taylor Design & Photography

All Images Copyright 2009 Taylor Design & Photography