What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas

So before I get started, I would like to take this opportunity for the lack of posts I have been doing. I am trying to slowly get back into blog writing. I figured I would start with a trip I took back in March and then work into my photography postings from there.

So on March 23rd-27^th 2013 my sister and I travelled to Las Vegas. Why Las Vegas? Not only does TV shows and movies make it appear to look amazing but also because Las Vegas was one of the 5 travel destinations on my photography list. We flew out around 8:00 on the 23^rd. Now because I had never been on a plane before, I was quite nervous about the flight. It was a 5 hour flight before we had landed in the city that never sleeps and by this time we were quite exhausted from the flight, so we decided to go straight to bed.

Time for day 2. We woke up nice and early and decided to head for breakfast in one of our hotel's restaurants, Kahuna Ville. The food was so good and the service was so amazing that we actually went back there a few more times on our trip. Now it was time to explore. We decided we wanted to walk the entire strip on our first day of adventures. Little did we know how far it actually was. Through out our travels of that day, we visited places such as Cesars Palace, the dancing fountains at the Bellagio, the malls, The Monte Carlo, New York New York, and the Luxor. We made good timing in our travels because when we were at the Luxor, the throne on the show “The Game of Thrones” happened to be travelling in Las Vegas and was set up at the Luxor. Since they were offering free photos with the throne, both my sister and I took advantage of that and had our photos taken sitting on the throne. After seeing the throne, we continued on to one of the last hotels on the strip, Mandalay Bay. At Mandalay Bay, we paid money to see the shark reef. This was probably one of my favourite experiences in Vegas. I got some really neat pictures of all the different kinds of fish they had at this aquarium.

On our way back to our hotel, we stopped at such places like M&M and Coke world. Once we made it back to our hotel, we ate dinner and decided to check out the sights of Las Vegas at night. They had a pirate show right outside our hotel at Treasure Island and a really neat fire and volcano show outside the Mirage. Vegas at night and Vegas during the day are two completely different scenes, both of which I grew to love.

Once day 3 rolled around, we decided you cant go to Vegas and not see the Grand Canyon. So the previous day we had booked a day at the Grand Canyon. Starting first thing in the morning we took a shuttle bus to a small airport where we got on a small plane and flew to the Grand Canyon. During this flight, we flew over the Hoover Damn, and beautiful sights worth taking pictures of. When we arrived at the Grand Canyon we took a short bus ride to the West Rim where we walked on the Skywalk which was done by walking on a glass floor over the canyon.

Once we headed back to our hotel, we bussed it out to Fremont Street to make sure we got the Fremont experience. This was by far my favourite part of the trip. If you have ever been to New York City at night with all the lights, it was like that but 10x better. When at Fremont Street, you see a long street full of tourists and street acts. We saw such things as performers on stage, street artists, street musicians, little shops, old casinos, and much more. What was so amazing at Fremont Street was that at night time they had a tribute to an artist and on the ceilings they would play the artists music while playing a show of objects. While we were there, they gave the tribute to the band “Heart” and on the screens they had butterflies, flowers and other little objects moving to the music. It was a really neat experience because when the music starts, everyone on the street just stops and looks at the ceiling because they make it different every time.

On day 4 we wanted to explore the few hotels we had yet to explore near ours. First up, was the Mirage Hotel. At the mirage hotel we saw many things including; the Beatles phone booth, the Beatles lounge and Siegfried and Roy's secret garden. If you ever go to Vegas, I recommend you pay the money to go into the garden. Included in the $20.00 we paid, we had access to see the dolphins swimming around in big tanks and a variety of cats in their cages. Then because we loved Fremont Street so much from the previous night, we headed back down there to experience it all over again during the day. The experience during the day was so much different from what we had previously been a part of. There was still street performers but it still did not compare to the night experience.

After exploring the rest of the strip we headed to see a Cirque Du Soleil show at night. Although it was a pricy event to see, it was well worth the money. The only thing I did not like was that we were not allowed to have cameras inside the theatre. The pictures I could have got of all the gymnasts and acrobats would have been the perfect memory.

As our last day in Vegas came upon us, we thought it was time to do a little shopping, gambling, and last minute exploring. We started with visiting the Flmingo Hotel. At this hotel they had a flamingo habitat that was free and accessible to all tourists for pictures and to walk around in. After the habitat we thought it was time to shop and experience what Las Vegas was all about, gambling. Although I did not win anything big, it was still nice to say I played some blackjack in Vegas.

After 5 days of living the Vegas life, I would definitely recommend going there. The photo opportunity there is amazing. There is a variety of photos you can take ranging from street photography, landscapes, architecture, animals and much more. I loved Las Vegas and I can not wait to go back and experience it all over again.

Photo & Makeup

I have been wanting to do a photoshoot with different kinds of makeup techniques for quite a while now. I was on Facebook the one day, and noticed a girl, Bernelle, had been recently starting to do makeup and posting the photos to her page. I took this opportunity to contact Bernelle and see if she wanted to collaborate with me on this photography project. When the decision was final, I right away went out and started to get some things I wanted to use for this shoot. My plan was to focus on the main colours of red, green, pink, yellow, blue, black, and purple. These colours soon turned into bigger ideas where they then reflected other things such as emotion.

The colour red

The colour yellow

Nature

Love

Feathers & Colour

Peacock

Robot/Tin Person

Side Profile

All this would not have been possible though without the amazing work of Bernelle on makeup, and Sharla and Michelle as the two models.  

5 Day Photo Challenge

So after the past 5 days that I have been off, I thought it would be the perfect opportunity to get back in to some photography. Last year, I attended college and I was shooting something different every single day. Since then, I had been taking less photographs and had been really missing it. So this long weekend, I thought I would challenge myself to spend every single day shooting something different. Due to having views from different countries on my blog, instead of just sharing my photos with my Facebook photography page, I thought I would share it with the rest of the world as well.

Day 1: My first day off was Good Friday. During the day my nephew Porter was over and I thought I would take the time to do some candid photography of him playing outside. In this photo I simply positioned him where I wanted him in the viewfinder and tilted my camera. I tilted my camera to give the photo a different effect rather then taking the regular vertical image. In Photoshop, I then turned the image to black and white and added a black vignette to complete the image. My goal for this photograph was to capture the childhood memories we all have in just one single image.

Day 2: My sister Dayna and her boyfriend Miles wanted to get some new pictures done together. I had an idea in my head that I wanted to create. I had both Dayna and Miles lean up against a wood siding, holding hands and while looking at each other because I wanted to show the feelings they have towards one another as a couple. In Photoshop, I then turned the image to black and white to give it a completely different feeling from when it was in colour.

Day 3: I had been meaning to start a project I had took on of photographing sea shells so I figured this would be the perfect time to do it. I originally planned to photograph the shells in the studio with a blue background, proper lighting and some dollar store sand. I then suddenly got the idea to make it more realistic and to take the shells down to the beach and carefully place them in the sand as if they were found there. There was no Photoshop done to this image.

Later that night, I was given the opportunity to photograph a cat I had been wanting to. When I saw the cat, I right away knew what the picture was going to look like in my head. I slightly angled my camera and switched it to black and white to get an end result of this image below.

Day 4: This was a day of photographing birds for the first time. Bird photography had never interested me much but I had wanted to expand my portfolio and do something I had never done before. In order to capture these images I turned my camera settings to continuous-high mode so I could freeze the motion of the fast wing movements. The only Photoshop I did to this image was crop it to a square format and turn it to black and white.

Day 5: My last day I wanted to create an image of something I had not photographed in a while. After finally deciding to photograph food I decided to go grocery shopping. While shopping, I came across the idea to photograph strawberry's. The reasoning behind the spoon was because I had planned to use it for scooping out the whip cream for the rest of my photoshoot. I then got the idea to put the strawberry on the spoon and have my sister hold it steady for me while I photographed it. The only Photoshop done to this image was a slight crop.

All in all, it was a nice 5 days off. These days photographing have made me realize many things such as how I've missed shooting everyday and how great it feels to be creating and searching for images everywhere you go. It has also made me reconsider opening up my own studio/gallery in hopes to keep my love for photography growing.  

NightLife

Photograph 1-Taken on a 

Nikon D7000 with an 18-200 lens

   Photograph 2-Taken on a 

Nikon D7000 with an 18-200 lens

Photograph 3-Taken on a 

Nikon D7000 with an 18-200 lens

There are many different types of photography. In this blog I am going to mainly focus on the one I have been putting a lot of my time towards lately, club photography. What is club photography? Club photography for me is capturing the dedication, hardwork, and enjoyment that goes into the DJ's work. When people think of club photography they right away think of individuals who go to their local bars to get intoxicated and have their photo taken. Yes, this is one aspect of club photography but I prefer to capture the behind the scenes that not many people get to see or hear about. Recently, I have been given the opportunity to meet some really great DJ's and have gotten to learn about all the hard work they put into their music.

The most recent event I have been given the oppurtunity to photograph was the Niagaras Favorite DJ. This event consisted of 10 DJ's who were given 20 minute intervals to play their sets where at the end of the night 2 judges eliminated 7 of them. A couple weeks later the final 3 Djs were to play an hour set each where the Favorite DJ would then be determined.

Now I want to tell you how I produced the final images in the 3 examples I have provided for you.

Photograph 1- In this photo, my main focus was to capture the DJ, Jordan and his equipment. I angled my self so I was lower then where he was standing on the stage to make the perspective more interesting. When taking this photograph it was originally in colour. The reason I switched the image to black and white was to help create the “nightlife” image and to give it a more artistic look to it. After the colour had been adjusted, I added a vingette to the borders to help circle in on the main focus of the image, the DJ himself.

Photograph 2- In this image of this DJ, Jenn, my main focus was to capture the fun that these DJ's experience every night when they are on stage. I took this image at a slightly higher angle then Jenn ensuring I captured her hands in the air as well as her equipment. When I brought this image into Photoshop, I as well turned it to black and white because I felt it had more of an emotional and journalistic impact on the overall image compared to in colour.

Photograph 3- When I am at a club, I love to take creative shots as well. I took this particular image because when the DJs are creating music, the lights on these boards are really neat in the dark. This image was also originally in colour but was edited by a desaturated blue tone from the original image.

I have developed a huge liking towards club photography. Although sometimes challenging, you really get to learn how well you actually know your camera. Club photography looks very simple but there is actually a lot more to it. The main things you have to pay the closest attention to are ISO, Shutter and Aperture. If any of these settings are off, it can affect the entire image. The higher the ISO, the more grain. The slower the Shutter, the more blur. The shallower the depth of field, the less sharp. I have played around with my settings on multiple occasions at the club specifically to achieve a very grainy look or a very blurred motion. In order to achieve the look successfully, you have to know your camera extremly well and you have to be able to compose your own photograph.

I do

When I first started taking pictures my main focus was on landscapes. I found that capturing the natural scenery of the things surrounding us to be so captivating that taking photos were my way of showing the beauty of it. A few years ago, I decided I wanted to expand my photography and take it to the next level. At this time, I started taking photos of people. It was great because I got to create an image rather then find the image.


Not to long ago, I was given the opportunity to photograph my first wedding. At first I was extremely nervous, as any photographer would be. The expectations of wedding photography are so high that if you make one small mistake, it can cost you everything. The idea of making sure you capture every single shot on that day is key. Unlike studio portraits, you can not redo a wedding day.

The difference between landscape, portrait and wedding photography for me is that I get to incorporate finding an image, and creating an image in to one job; wedding photography. 

I know I have not posted many blogs lately, so what I thought I would do was show you some of my pictures I've been working on instead. These are photos from a wedding I shot at the beginning of November. As always, your feedback is always appreciated.

                                       

The Moon

Taken on a Nikon D7000 with an 18-200mm lens

So I decided to take this picture because the moon looked really neat last night. When I stepped outside the moon was surrounded with clouds that appeared to have a smokey look to it. When I grabbed my camera, I wanted to capture something different from how any other person would take a picture of the moon.

In this photo, I had my camera settings as followed:

Aperture: f/5.6

Shutter: 1/10

ISO: 2000

White Balance: Incandescent

Focal Length: 200mm

I chose to have an aperture of f/5.6 and an ISO of 2000 to allow for my camera to let in more light. The reason I chose 1/10^th of a second was because I did not want an exposure that was so long that it would make the moon look completely blown out. In the other sense, I did not want an exposure so short that the rest of the photo went completely black. I wanted to capture the brightness of the moon as well as the light coming off the moon in the sky. I left my white balance on Incandescent simply to get a different outcome in colour temperature then if I were to have had my settings on Cloudy or Auto white balance. The grain that has been added to the photo as due to my high levels of ISO helping to add the final touches to the photograph.

In the foreground you see tree branches. I chose to put the tree branches in the photograph because it made the photo more interesting to look at then just a shot of the moon. Due to having the tree branches in the foreground, I did not mind putting the moon in the centre of the photograph. Normally, I would not centre and object because it is to plain and boring in my opinion, but the branches changed the outcome of the photograph.

The only Photoshop that was done to this photograph was cropping it to a square sized image.

Nikon D7000

This past night I was given the opportunity to try out the Nikon D7000. The D7000 is an all around fantastic camera. The reason I wanted to test this model of Nikon out was because I have been looking around to get a new camera. So without further adieu, here is my review on the Nikon D7000.

ISO: the ISO capability on this particular model of Nikon series is absolutely amazing. Weather you are at 100 ISO or 1000 ISO, you will be very satisfied with the end results. Although it still does not have the capability of a full frame formatted camera, the quality of an image on ISO 4000 is unbelievable.

Taken By Joseph Brunner on the Nikon D90

ISO: 3200

Taken on the Nikon D5000

ISO: 3200

Taken by Joseph Brunner on the Nikon D700

ISO: 3200

Taken on the Nikon D7000

ISO: 3200

All images were taken by Joseph Brunner and Diana Chmay

Images were captured with no post production editing

In this examples above, you can see the effects of ISO ranges on different models of cameras. The noise level on the D7000 is fairly minimal considering the drastic change in light sensitivity. In the picture of the toy boat, you can still see the noise itself, but considering it is set to 3200, it did a very good job on capturing the image.

High speed: This camera is capable of taking 6 frames per second for up to 100 shots. This is more then your average popular camera such as the D90 at 4.5 frames per second, or even the full framed D700 at 5 frames per second. With its continuous high speed mode, I guarantee you will capture the image you are looking for.

SD slots: I found this option to be an extreme bonus to the camera. Not only does this camera have two slots for two SD cards, but you are able to set each slot to record the type of format you want. Example: In memory slot one, you can set the memory card to capture RAW files. In memory slot two, you can set the memory card to record JPEG files. For someone who loves to shoot in RAW/JPEG mode, this is the perfect solution for you. If you just prefer to shoot in one format, it allows you to store more memory without having to worry about running out of room during a shoot and having to switch cards.

Some other interesting features about this camera include:

-39 AF points

-3” LCD screen

-weather and dust sealed

-1080p HD video

-16.2 MP

and many more.

All in all this is a fantastic camera that I am very happy to write about. There is not a single thing about the Nikon D7000 I can complain about. The dual screen on the camera makes adjusting camera settings very simple. It allows you to have complete control of all your settings you need from the comfort of one screen and a couple dials. I would definitely recommend this camera to those who are looking to buy themselves a great quality camera and for those who are not looking to take that step yet to full frame.