Aaron DuRall's photostream  

February 22, 2012

Yum! We went to Sho Gun for lunch today at work. It was YUMMY! Seriously, my job rules. I work with totally awesome people and we get to take really awesome lunches.

I was really hoping to get a shot of some fire on the hibachi, but all of shots came out too hot on the flames, so I settled with these two. I also figured I hadn't done a collage type photo yet for this project, so today seemed like a great opportunity!

Hope everyone had an awesome day! Now it's time for some dinner and American Idol! Yes, I said American Idol. People always think I am crazy for liking that show given my involvement with hardcore and punk, but I just love it! I DO!

Shooting:
Canon 7D
Canon 50mm 1.8

Editing:
Adjustment Layers

February 21, 2012

What an awesome night! Even though I have been sick, tonight ruled! This evening was the Hargroder Family's 3rd Annual Missouri Mardi Gras party for Fat Tuesday!

The Hargroders are VERY dear friends of mine. David, the eldest son, is one of my absolute best friends in the world - to the point that I'd take a bullet for the guy without hesitation. We've been super close friends for over 13 years. Even better, his family is incredible. I love them all and consider them my own family. I actually worked for his dad, Dr. Hargroder, for about two years while I was finishing up at Missouri Southern State University. They really are some of the best people you could ever imagine knowing. I am BLESSED to have them in my life - even with all of our political disagreements! Hahaha!

Anyways, tonight marked their 3rd Annual Mardi Gras bash that they throw here in Joplin. These people are born and bread southerners from Louisiana. They are true Lousianians in the sense that they love the culture, are very much part of the culture, and proud of it!

What's awesome is that they bring their natural sense of southern hospitality to this fine town by giving the residents up here a real Mardi Gras experience. They boil copious amounts of cajun style crawfish (the live ones! yeah, they are legit like that), make a TON of gumbo, provide FREE beer (lots of it), and always bring the sweet sounds of Baton Rouge's very own SugaFUNK! It's always an amazing party and one of the best nights of the year. These people are really great about giving back to the community. It's always incredible when those who are successful never forget their roots.

About this shot: This is Dave as he threw in a fresh load of crawfish. I had to grab a shot of him for today's project because I wanted something that related to Fat Tuesday.

I love that family so much and I cannot thank them enough for all they've done for me, which is a LOT. To the Hargroders, thank you all for everything. I love you guys and appreciate you so much for allowing me to be a part of your family for all of these years!

I hope everyone had a great day!

Shooting:
Canon 7D
Canon 50mm 1.8
Canon 430 EXII bounced from left at 1/4 power

Editing:
Stuff

February 20, 2012

My, my, my... Looking outside right now, you'd never have known it was beautiful this morning. Man, severe storm warnings and watches for the evening means never a dull moment in good ol' SouthWest Missouri. Shit's been weird here since the tornado in May. Strangest weather always. Who knows, maybe what they say about 2012 is true. Hahaha.

Thanks to my wife for snapping this first thing this morning before we headed out to our respective places of work.

I also tried some new stuff with curves in this photo to achieve a somewhat foggy look. I am not totally sold on the processing for this shot, but I believe future photos and practice at this method will help me get it tighter. Huge thanks to the lovely Amanda Climer from Climer Photography for helping out!

Shooting:
Canon 7D
Canon 50mm 1.8
Natural Lights

Editing:
Stuff

February 19, 2012

Tried something a little different for today's shot. I am pretty happy with the results. I just used my 430 EX on camera and bounced it off the wall to my left. Honestly, that looks better to me than when I try to use multiple light sources. That could also be due in large part to the fact that I don't know a whole lot about strobing. I also did a pretty heavy edit for the practice. The main thing that REALLY bothers me is that her hair fell out of the frame. I went through like 15 different shots and just couldn't find one that I liked as much as this one as far as the positioning of her body is concerned.

Today was a great day. I wrapped the vocals for the final two songs for my band's EP. Now it's off to post-production. I cannot wait until this thing is totally wrapped up and ready to go!

I hope you all had a good day!

Shooting:
Canon 7D
Canon 50mm 1.8
Canon 430 EX II on camera bounced wall left at 1/4 power

Editing:
A bunch of different things

February 18, 2012

Dang! First "late" upload. Just didn't get things wrapped in time, but I am ok with that because today was awesome and tonight was even better. I managed to knock out five of the seven songs that my band is recording on vocals today. It felt awesome! I am doing the final two tomorrow. I am really stoked for us to get this thing finished and up for download. Then tonight was awesome because my wife and I had a stellar date night. We went to a great restaurant here in Joplin called Crabby's and finished the night off with Chronicle, which was a really rad movie. Definitely inspired some shot ideas that I want to try and execute.

I originally wanted to do a Brenizer, but I couldn't get the photos to stitch. I am assuming this is due in large part to the fact that I was sitting so close to my wife. CS5 just couldn't stitch it. It's cool though because i kinda like this!

Goodnight!

Shooting:
Canon 7D
Canon 50mm 1.8

Editing:
Adjustment layers