Michael Herb's photostream  

Joyce got her punk on in preparation for Saturdays event. Tomorrow we'll do a dry run and snap the shots of Shawn and I. Should be a great time!

LIghting: AB800 Beauty Dish Overhead 1/2 power

Background is photoshop. Foreground is Masked out.

A day of preparation is what would best describe today. I had to pack, organize, take inventory, make spread sheets, listing what I am bringing. I had to to wash clothes, then decide what I'm not bringing. "Do I have enough underwear?" I found myself asking, aloud… "ah well, if I run out I'll just buy more"

Since Shawn is not here I had been put on official playstation game switcher. Rylan really made my first day difficult as every two minutes he wanted a new game in. Then when I switched the game, it would take me 10 minutes to get it setup for him, only for him to lose interest quicker than the setup took. After a few times, I just told him to deal with it and play one game for a while. I would walk into the room and he's look up at me and say… "uncle mikey… I love you!… can you put on my 4 wheeler game?" He's puppy dog cute! its sickening!

I quickly realized after only a few minutes of organizing my camera bag, that if I buy any more gear, I'll have to get a bigger or second camera bag. This one is back breaking heavy! I'm thinking about a rolling one!

Funny thing is, by now, with all the traveling I've done. You'd think I would have upgraded my travel storage gear. Maybe a few pelican cases? I just have a hard time swallowing the cost of hard cases. to store all my gear would be almost 1000.00!! Then again, I guess I should do something to protect my gear better!

So, why super mike? simple, I'm once again flying and not just on an airplane. This year, flew by, my career is taking off. I just can't help but to feel that I'm flying! I admit, its a bit obnoxious, but we all know… I am an obnoxious kind of guy!

So, now that I'm just about done with Day 361, I'll be heading to the living room to break down all my gear for its the last time, Project365 will see Florida. I'm excited to say… only 4 more days! Tomorrow at this time I'll be looking at the mountains of North Nevada and thinking about the most deserved vacation ever!

Lighting:

AB800 Med Gridded Softbox at both 10:00 and 2:00. full power
AB800 Beauty Dish Boomed overhead at 6:00 3/4 power

Triggered Via Cyber Syncs and Commander.

When Steven Atkins Contacted me a few weeks ago to do a unique portrait of his son, daughter and two nieces I immediately was excited by the wording of his message alone. "interested in doing a 'beyond photography' portrait for my kids." You all know I LOVE photography but when I get to take it beyond the traditional, thats when I really get into it. Steven's basic concept was right up my alley. He sent me an image of a painting by Michael Parkes portraying a young girl blowing a bubble on the top of a building. I wanted to use the photo as inspiration but add my own twist to it. In addition, Steven wanted to include his two nieces into the photo. I immediately wrote back to him with an idea for my own variation. Peter pan, flying kids, magic and an endless sky. From there we were both hooked and scheduling quickly followed.

This morning I once again awoke at an ungodly 7am. Shawn and I headed to Palm Beach Gardens to meet up with Steven, Faith (blowing the bubbles). Simone (holding the ankle). Sayla (getting her ankle held). Chase ( he's in full flight). My first thought was "wow, this should be interesting and potentially difficult". I immediately was reminded of the countless times I've shot with Rylan and how much work it can be working with one kid. Today I'd be stepping it up to four!!

I had two choices for shooting, the garage with its open air and copious space, but low ceilings. My second choice was the living room which had less space but way more vertical room. I opted for the living room for the vertical space, generous power supply and since it was cooler. I shot against a white backdrop for the sole purpose of making masking easier. I was impressed at the behavior of all the kids. Not one outburst, tantrum or complaint. Thats probably because they had 4 adults and 50lbs of candy making sure they didn't act up. I love how kids will get a restricted candy allowance until parents want them to do something. Brings me right back to yesterdays shoot with the dogs. Same request (cooperation) same incentive (food) entirely different species yet with the same outcome (good photos) - no complaints there!

Chase was up first, this little man was trooper. He not only showed me he could fly, he also showed me that a 2 year old can like pizza - so unlike Rylan! Just as the problems with hiding hands has come up in the past, today was no different. We spent the most time trying to hide the hands of whomever was attempting to hold him up. Eventually I settled on two shots, one that showed the top half of him in the correct pose and the other that hid the hands from his pants. One thing I've learned from uncle-hood is that kids may look light from a distance. However, they're not so light when trying to hold them 2 feet out for 2 minutes.

Next up was Sayla (getting her ankle held). She was also very well behaved and cooperative. We had shot her originally standing up but later decided to change it up and have her mid flight also. Same as with Chase, she was held up while I snapped the shots. I wanted Simone to be holding on and to appear as if she was trying to hitch a ride. This wouldn't be easy since we didn't have enough people for support. Instead of doing it as one shot I spit it up into 3 shots. Simone and Sayla was one full shot each, Simone' arm holding Sayla's ankle was the third. I simply masked out everything but the arm and the legs. This may sound confusing but I'm sure I can explain it better with images.

Last was the bubble blower. Faith, 10 years old was obviously the easiest to work with. She could invasion the concept in her mind and was old enough to need no assistance. 4 shots with her and we were done. To finish up I shot some reference photos of bubbles. I knew that I wouldn't be able to use them as they wouldn't show up enough. Instead, I would recreate them in photoshop. This would enable to make them stand out a bit more. I wanted them to look a little more fantasy like and cartoony since the whole image has got the fantasy feel.

Funny, yet odd… about half way through the shoot I was told that the family had another photo shoot at 2pm. Steven wanted to make the photo shoot with me a surprise and wouldn't give to many details. If they all would have known I was shooting this shot, they would have had me do the cards too. Thats ok, I hope they hang the 2 shots from both shoots today side by side and each time they pass, they think to themselves… damn, if only Michael did the christmas cards! It's ok Steven… there's always next year!

So, for those of you wondering about Joyce (all 2 of you) She just got back to Nevada from an RV trip to Cali. She will be boarding a plane to Alaska in the morning. Yes, Alaska. She's already rubbing it in! You know… I can just return your Christmas gift and get you a big lump of dog poo!! Hows that sound? I told her to be safe and to make sure she defrosts before I come to see her.

Now that I'm done for the weekend, I can kick back, relax and most likely fall fast asleep as I've not gotten much sleep this weekend.

Lighting:

AB800 Med Gridded Softbox at 10:00 (5 feet high) and 3:00 (9 feet high emulating sun). 3/4 power
AB800 Beauty Dish Boomed overhead at 6:00 providing fill. 3/4 power

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Shot for Patty Madden Software for advertisement in Interior Design Magazines January edition

Model: Leah Jung
Hair & Makeup: Danielle Helms

Foreground shot in Palm Beach, FL
Background shot in Nevada

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Its been a while since I've busted out strobes. Tonight I just felt like creating something funny and having fun. I love simple one light portraits combined with carefree, goofy and fun expressions. I think they really bring out the best in people, even when the photo is less then flattering. People tend to look and laugh at the face before they look at how bad the person may look. Can you imagine this photo blown up to 3 feet tall? how could you not laugh?

Since I was at home I called upon the usual suspects… Shawn with his creeper beard and Joyce with her ever growing bag of strange. The beauty Dish didn't really live up to its name tonight… No, tonight it was called the goofy dish. A light modifier that most defiantly brought out the best in all three of us.

After all was set up Joyce took over the camera to capture a few shots of myself. Once I reminded her that my nose was WAY too big to focus on and still get sharp eyes, she did great. I swear, you can set the camera at f22 at 10mm and still not get eyes in focus with the nose as the focal point. I blame my father!

Its been a few weeks since I've done any extensive processing. Tonight was a welcome challenge to bring out everything most people beg me to get rid of.

So for the first time back in a while, I think the images turned out good. I'm still a few weeks away from getting my own 5d so this is actually the re emergence of the almost trusty 40d. This thing is so beat up internally that I'm surprised it turns on… oh ya… It nearly doesn't! I just hope it can hold on until its successor arrives.

Lighting:

AB800 Beauty Dish boomed overhead at 6:00. It was just above the camera. set at 1/2 power