June 2019 Photography

June 2019 saw me photograph the Orme School of Mayer Arizona where we did some animal and owner portraits along with some cowboy images. 

Then I went to San Diego where the West Coast School of Professional Photography holds a week long session.  This time, I was in premier portrait photographer Tony Corbell's class.  

The week concluded with two days in and around Shelter Island and La Jolla.  I took images of the Shelter Island Marina, La Jolla's Scripps Aquarium, and the coast around La Jolla.  

Until My Next Adventure,

See You On Down the Road!

Jim Patterson

West Coast School and San Diego June 2018

This was my fourth West Coast School from the Professional Photographers of California, headquartered at the University of San Diego.  This time I spent five days with architectural photographer Randy Van Duinen. 

We started off doing table top light painting and that requires a pretty dark room to pull off.  These are long exposures on tripods using small lights to paint across the objects.    


The University of San Diego has many interesting places to photograph.  Since the focus this week was on architecture, we had to photograph the inside of the USD churches.  All were taken using a tripod and a shutter release.  

 
On one of the evenings we went across the way from Maher Hall where we were staying to light paint the USD School of Law.  One of the interesting challenges I had was the lamp on the right side of the building was burned out.  So I cloned the left lamp on the right side in Photoshop!

On another day we ventured to the University of California San Diego to photograph the "Dr. Seuss" (Geisel) Library.

Then I went underneath the library building to get a shot through the structure.  Note the house on top of the other building in the bottom right corner of the photo (below).  

Another evening we drove down to Ocean Beach.  After finally finding a parking space, I was able to capture a couple of surfers as the sun was going down.  

On Thursday evening of the week, we went to Borrego Springs, about two hours east of San Diego, to photograph the unusual animal sculptures in the desert.  The evening concluded with some light painting.  And oh was it dark!

After the class concluded on Friday, it was time to relax and take in San Diego for a few days before returning to Phoenix.  

Until My Next Adventure,

See You On Down the Road!

Jim Patterson

Macros in San Diego and More

My trip to the West Coast School in San Diego made it my third straight trip.  Held at the lovely University of San Diego campus, I took the week-long macro course from the great Frank Peele... and it was well worth it.  Nine months of the year I'm the teacher; the summer is for me to be the student.  

Macro is close up photography and I used my Canon 5d Mark III and my Canon 100mm macro lens.  Lighting consisted at times of natural light, strobe lights provided by the instructor, and my own Canon MR-14-ex II ring light.  With few exceptions, most of the work was done on a tripod.  

For extreme close up photography, I used a bellows attached between my camera and a lens. Guess what this object is???

It is Benjamin Franklin's eye on the $50 bill!   

Then I used a white box to photograph my watch.  You could do the same for any product, food, object.  One of the difficulties I had in the past was eliminating the glare off the watch face.  Here, I used a small Canon 270ex flash, pointed outside the white box through the cloth and got a real even light.  

How about the fun of photographing water droplets coming from above?  Now, this took timing.  Drip drip drip FIRE THE TRIGGER!  And hopefully I'd get a good shot.  

Here's some examples of using red dye in water for interesting drips and crashing glasses.  

And, here's what photographing smoke in the dark looks like.  Two strobes from each side, triggered by my remote control.  

We had a flower pot in the classroom and I decided to do some macro work with these.  The next example is a shot used with a Canon Ring Light.


And here's a few more shots of flowers with water droplets and lady bugs.

And the class ends.  Here's a photo of the sunset looking west from Shade's Restaurant in San Diego.  

The weekend we spent going to Balboa Park and La Jolla and the beach.  I used a Canon 24-105mm lens during the weekend.

Until My Next Adventure, 

(Iceland!)

See You On Down The Road!

Jim Patterson

...and, here are all the keeper photos!



.....And, on my Flickr site!  

San Diego and the West Coast School

San Diego at Night from Seaport Village

I spent a glorious week in June 2014 with the West Coast School of Professional Photography on the campus of the University of San Diego.  The West Coast School is affiliated with the Professional Photographers of California. 

Marcus

I worked with instructor/photographer and pretty darn good quad-copter pilot Eddie Tapp.  I want to be Eddie when I grow up.  Go ahead and click his link and look at his work.  Eddie’s assignment for me during the week was to concentrate on my backgrounds.  So I shot a few goofy pictures of palm trees sticking out of models heads, haha.  It actually helped me. 

We worked with a great group of volunteers that quickly made me, an outsider from Arizona, feel very welcome.  Lorenzo, Art, Adale, and everybody with the school made me feel a part of their group. 

The Amazing Clare posing as Betty Grable

The models were terrific and very easy to work with.  Clare was a natural model, 16 and going to be a high school junior, which is hard to believe because she acted like a professional and was a very nice young lady.  I had a running chat with her during the shoot about life and college.  I guess I must have used my teacher voice, ha!  She didn’t need much direction, but one I did ask her to pose was what I called a “Betty Grable” which is what I call a pinup pose made famous in World War II.  She said, “who’s that?”  Yup, she is 16.  Anyway, I showed her… then she did this ===à  NOT BAD!!!

Zoe Marie

After the school ended on Friday, Marni came out and we spent the next few days as photographing tourists.  We hit Seaport Village, SeaWorld, Old Town, and Little Italy before returning to Phoenix. 

Sea Lions in the harbor

As typical desert rats, any chance on the water is welcome and the sea lions didn’t mind.

Until My Next Adventure, 

See You On Down The Road!

Jim Patterson

Dolphins and friends at Sea World


See all of my photos from this adventure on Flickr!