David B Photography

Calendar shoot

I was asked a couple of weeks ago by a motorcycle club if I could shoot a calendar for them, there are some challenges to say the least to starting a calendar this late in the season but I agreed. I decided to do just a handful of images with models, because lets be honest twelve bike with models to match in a couple of weeks....yeah that's not going to work.

This was shot on the bricks in downtown Flint the other night, aside from the homeless guy who wanted his picture taken with the model it went really well, the model was great a real trooper having to sit on the bike with the temps in the 30's. There is minimal photoshop on this image aside from some burning and dodging and some minor color adjustments that's about it.

The calendar should be wrapped up by the end of the month and the club Michigan X riders is selling the calendars with proceeds going to charity.

Time spent with friends

I went to Detroit this past weekend with some friends from Grand Rapids, it was great to spend time with old friends doing something we truly love. As we were walking through the buildings I kept hearing people saying....I'm really having a great time, "I miss shooting."

I honestly believe that a lot can be said for doing something that you enjoy, your passionate about and doing an activity that actually moves you, makes a person physically feel better. I know a lot of people who work in construction or they are accountants, good professions, making a good living providing for their families, however if I were to ask them do you enjoy what you do? I know that most would say....well it pays the bills. We spend, what is it a third of our life time working why do something you don't enjoy?

Okay enough of the soapbox. The photo trip this past week an amazing look back in time to where I grew up. I remember these places much differently as a kid, the years of decay and mistreatment by the unsavory element of Detroit has taken its toll on what used to be these majestic buildings that accentuated what was once good about Michigan and the city. If you were to hit the fast forward button twenty five years the same buildings are what make the city and eye sore.

The photo above is a power gage shot at the Boblo island boat dock, if your familiar with Detroit then its likely you remember Boblo Island, which has been turned into a private island filled with exclusive homes in the middle of the Detroit river and its Canadian. I don't know why but I never knew that, I always thought it was a Michigan thing. The gage is shot with my D300 however the problem I had was light, it was so dark in there a comment was made while walking to this area someone should light a match to see if my flashlight was working. This is actually lit with my flashlight, turned black and white and added some sepia tone to it, not a bad image overall.

The second image is the old Packard auto plant which has been vacant for years. The element of the neighborhood often uses sections of the plant as their home so we were careful not to be disrespectful of that. It is really sad to see this once amazing plant in such ruin, scavengers have taken anything that may have had value to it and the only thing that is left is decay.

Student visit

I had a great time talking with students at Grand Blanc High yesterday. They always seem to be full of wonderment about things, you've got to love the sponge of youth.

This is a quick impromptu shot of one of the groups. The second group was all girls with the exception of one guy named Paul, he is on the swim team and we traded stories about how the last time I was in that school I was getting my butt kicked in their pool by their swim team. The girls however were transfixed on the guy running laps around the gym without his shirt on.

It really was a lot of fun. I can't wait to go back.

Football/Fashion police

In my life one of the true pleasures is watching my kids play sports, I think it goes back to when I was growing up and how important it was to have someone there to watch me as I swam, it really was great.

So I'm at Christopher's game and I'm loving the fact that I'm simply on the field watching him do what he loves. I'd been watching it for I don't know about a half hour and suddenly I noticed this guy who was on the chain gang on the other side of the field through my lens as I was shooting. There were a couple of things that caught my eye, the colors were the first, I'll let you decide what the second was.

When you see something like this the question I would say is.....um......well.......I've got nothing; you decide.

Senior Shoot

I just finished editing a senior shoot that I did in downtown Grand Rapids, what a great time. This is the first time I've ever had the entire family show up for a shoot just to watch, but it was great. I really had an awesome time and the older sister really helped out.

This is one of the photos from the shoot.

I can't believe I forgot

I woke up early this morning stumbled out kicked on the TV, the news is going as I start the coffee, and I hear the newscaster talk about September 11th and today's anniversary. I stopped what I was doing and thought....wow; how is it I completely forgot about today. I know I will never forget where I was, what I was doing, who I was with when I found out. I was at work, it was a Tuesday morning when I made my way down to the cafeteria for a cup of coffee and a break with my coworkers. As we walked toward the seating area I quickly noticed a large group of people huddled around the television which typically had some sort of talk show on. I could see the faces of the people who were staring at the screen in shock, disbelief and simply aw. The typical idle chatter amongst co workers were replaced by the announcer talking about how a plane had just hit one of the towers. I stopped and stared at the screen like everyone else when I suddenly caught a glimpse of the second plane hitting the tower. The people around me began to openly cry at what they had just witnessed. I quickly made a phone call to my best friend who was a radio show host and I asked him what he knew, and he said, I know what you know, I can't believe this.

I picked up my kids that day, brought them back to this tiny little apartment that I had, I wanted to talk to the kids about this but wasn't sure how to start. I remember my oldest Elizabeth who would have been about eight asked why does everyone hate us? This was not a question I was expecting and I tried to explain to her the best I could about how there are people that are simply pure evil in this world. I think all of our kids crew up on that day a little sooner than we wanted them to. I dropped the kids off, not knowing what to do or where to go after that, I didn't want to go home I wanted to be with people. I drove to downtown Grand Rapids, I rolled down the car windows and listened, I didn't hear anything. I pulled into a parking spot and got out of my car, The cool night air brushed against my skin and I got a chill. I strained to hear even to hear anything but there was not a sound. It was strange not to cars traveling down the freeway, there were no people on the streets, it was if time was standing still.

This photo was taken on September 11, 2002 at a memorial in the town of Wyoming, Michigan which is just outside of Grand Rapids. This shot was a one in a million shot it lasted about three seconds and then it was gone, each time I look at this it brings me back to that day and time and how I felt......I think how we all felt.

The best photo I have ever seen, I never took. I was in the Ford Museum and they had several displays on that first anniversary parts of the towers, letters from all over the world photographs lined the walls. I walked through the exhibit with tears pouring down my face and came upon a construction worker standing there looking at a photograph. He was a hulk of a man standing at least 6' 4" 250 lbs about two days worth of beard on his face, he had his hard hat under one arm, jeans on, work boots covered in dust and mud, and tears pouring down his face. I brought my camera to face looked through the view finder and thought, this is to personal, then simply turned and walked away.

Model Shoot

I had a great opportunity the other day to do a shoot with a couple of amazing models. I traditionally do families and seniors which is something I truly love. The families are always unique in their own way, its really cool to see how families interact with each other. I think every family thinks there's is the strangest one on the planet....and in some cases they may be right.

The seniors are just plain fun! They each simply want to just have a good time with their photos, they want to fit in with everyone else at school, while at the same time they want to be unique in their own right. They want that one thing that no one else has and once their friends see their photos they want the entire school to talk about it. I've

only done a handful of model shoots, this is where a model will come to me and ask me to do some portfolio work for him or her we come up with concepts together and we shoot it. Its just not something I do a lot of. In some cases like this one, the shoots just kind of evolved and we ended up shooting a lot of images with a couple of different concepts. This is the last image of the night, I think I shot about six or eight frames with this concept but after the first frame I knew I had the shot.

I believe that as a photographer its good to keep trying new and different things.....what's the old saying if you do what you've always done you'll get what you've always gotten.

Fallen Heros

I was asked a couple of weeks ago to photograph the funeral service of the father of a friend and a World War II veteran. It was stated during his service that he was in Patton's army, that would be General Patton for those of you seem to remember something about that guy from your history books.

It was an unusual request for me, I had photographed the service of one of the first soldiers killed in Iraq some eight or nine years ago from the Grand Rapids area. As a photographer I think when you photograph things like this you want to show the utmost humility and respect while at the same time communicating the magnitude of what is happening before you.

If you have never attended a

military funeral it really is something that is not only a somber occasion but it is also filled with pageantry and tradition, culminating with the presentation of the flag which once draped over the coffin to the family. On this day the service was held within a chapel, it was hot as all chapels are when you put over 50 people into a small space. This day was truly a majestic August day, as the temperatures climbed into mid 80's under the mid-day sun. The piercing sound of the first rounds of the 21 gun salute makes everyone jump in their seats, the bag piper plays amazing grace and in the distance taps can be heard. The flag is folded the same way it has been folded since it was adopted back in the 1920's and given to the family members of the thousands of military servicemen and women who have gone before us. As I am standing there against the wall trying to blend in like that's even possible, camera at the ready, I'm waiting for that moment in which the ranking military person presents the flag to the family. The sound in the chapel has simply evaporated, the silence is almost deafening, the chirping birds have stopped almost as if on cue as to not to disturb what is about to happen, the rustling sounds of the wind blowing the leaves on the trees has disappeared and the occasional sniffle and sob can no longer be heard as everyone's ears strain to hear the words that will come next; on behalf of a grateful nation it is my honor to present to you this flag.......

I was on the phone the other day with a friend and they said they would be afraid if one of their kids came to them and said they wanted to join the military. I find that to be odd, as a former veteran I would consider it to be one of the great days of my life if my sons or daughter came to me and said they wanted to serve. I truly believe there is no greater honor than to serve ones country, the military instills a great deal of pride in anyone who serves. Its hard for someone who has never served or is not the family member of a serviceman or woman to understand what it takes to be part of the military family.

I'm feeling like a slug!

I decided last night at 12:30a that I was going to get up early go to downtown Flint and watch the start of the Crim....and since I couldn't fall asleep until 1'ish well I think you know how the day started.

With coffee in hand made extra strong, just so I could function properly I made my way out the door into the predawn sky at about 6:30 dodged the ever persistent barricades letting me know that just about every street in and near downtown Flint was closed due to the race. I steal.....I mean find a parking space several blocks away and hike to the starting line.

As I'm make my way through the crowd of runners and spectators it dawns on me, this is the first race I have ever watched....I'm usually running in them, this was so weird for me. The sea of humanity is impressive to say the least along with the volume of true athletes, people who have spent months training for this day, and for some they are in the best shape of their lives; and of course when ever you get a large group of guys who are athletes, or even the guys who think they are there is the inevitable male nod; guys you know what I'm talking about; instead of saying hi or do what women do, run up to each other screaming and hug; we just nod and say "sup" ladies you just wouldn't understand its a guy thing.

I walk through the crowd dodging runners warming up and begin to lament about the fact that I should be running more and that I am really out of shape and wish I could doing the race, it was perfect weather, a slight breaze, cool temps in the upper 50's. Then suddenly making his way through the crowd is a guy dressed like Mr Incredible before he got into shape. (If you don't have kids you probably don't know who I'm talking about) He was walking with Wonder Woman who was equally in shape and I think quickly what were you thinking, and I suddenly notice he has a running number on and I think wow if he can do it so can I. I was half tempted to run over to registration and sign up; jeans, sweatshirt camera gear and all and I'm sure I would have done better than that guy.

Time with the kids

The kids came to spend the last two weeks of the summer with me the other day, and I've been racking my brain with trying to come up with stuff for them to do, that would actually interest them, while at the same time not bustin the bank. We ended up in the skate park in Clio;

I was able to grab an image of Chris trying his best to be a pro skater.....I'm just happy I didn't have to spend any time in the ER. One trip to the Docs this week for David's broken foot is enough.

Elizabeth and I are heading to the pool today, the first one of my kids who showed interest in the water....its about time. I'm stunned at how its even possible that a child of mine was not born with gills, I would have thought I would have had at least one fish in the bunch. With some practice and serious dedication I'll have her turning state times soon.

Hot-lanta

I just spent the last three weeks in Atlanta....wow what a great city there is truly something for everyone, if you can't find something to do in that town someone needs to check you for a pulse.

It reminded me of Chicago, awesome city, tons to do and traffic that really SUCKS! I have a question did the people from Chicago transplant themselves to the city of Atlanta? I was driving down I-75/85 in the heart of downtown, its near dark and the lights are just coming on, its truly a majestic sight, its hard not to be in aw of what you see. The traffic is moving along at a brisk 80 to 90 mph, my passengers are telling me I drive like a wimp and that the women's department at Macy's is two exits up. Then suddenly everyone is standing on their breaks, and when I say standing on them, that's really what I mean. Its hard to get a car with anit-lock breaks to actually lock up and skid, but apparently it can be done.

I come to a screeching halt, I scrape my face and that of of my passengers from the nearest window and quickly curse Chicago drivers.

I had a lot of fun, I enjoyed the night life and shooting the city, I only have a handful of images but that will change because I see another trip, maybe for good to the south.

Time on the lake

I had the opportunity to go to my sisters place near Traverse City during the past couple of days....what an amazing time. It's so hard to leave, Its nice to see family and friends and the cousins have a great time whenever we get together.

Its so strange; I don't think I've ever gone without the kids so when I need to get ready, its packing this, packing that, making sure everyone has their pillow, do we have enough clothes, did you pack your swim suit? Don't forget your toothbrush. I finally get everyone into the car and then there is the inevitable; I wanted to sit there, you got to sit there the last time. That always amazes me, they remember or at least lead you to believe they remember where they sat last year when we made the trip but they can't remember to pick up their clothes; hell I can't remember what I had for breakfast, maybe that's what I'm really amazed with.

I make the nearly three hour drive dodge the ever persistent construction zones, it is Michigan after all. We finally arrive and I get everyone situated, they are in their suits before I get them settled I finally get the chance to walk out to the deck take a deep breath; suddenly every trial and tribulation seems to slip away or it at least appears to be trivial, clarity takes over and the choices I have to make become a little less daunting. I can honestly say that I would move up there tomorrow if I could only make a living in that area. It would be a tough go on a good day.

The first night I was there, we made a fire and sat out by the lake, which is about 20 feet from their front door, and simply watched the sun go down. I put away the Ipod touch, turned off the phone, the soft waives of jazz music make their way down toward the waters edge. I couldn't resist taking a picture, this is the way I will always remember my time on the lake.

just for kicks, a little painting with light

I was at my sisters place in the Flint area about a week ago, they have about 30 acres of land behind their house that used to be farm land. The previous owner left all of the farm equipment which appears it dates back to around the 50's but that's just a guess. There is also a couple of old cars out in a wooded area, I think that will be my next project. but I digress;

I saw this old wagon buried in the grass and the sun was setting, by the time I came up with the idea I had lost a really cool sunset, I tried shooting at twilight but it just didn't work out....besides the bugs were terrible, they're immune to bug spray. I wish I had put more light up front but overall I think it was a good attempt. I know there are a couple of you who are saying, shut up and give me the technical stuff.

It was shot at ISO 100 f22 with a 30 second exposure shot in raw with a Nikon D300, I used two different light sources, the wagon primarily I used a flashlight to give it just a bit of a yellow cast, the grass I used an SB 800 flash popped two times, which added a little light on the left side of the wagon. I put it into photoshop and tweaked the levels a little, I took out a flash light streak in the upper left corner and that's it.

Wedding

I did a wedding in my home town of Clio.....yes that's in Michigan for those of you following out of state. A couple of people I remember some I didn't. It was a great ceremony and more fun that a person should be allowed to have.

The bride was stunning, I'm in the process of working on their photos now. The groomsmen were great as all should be making sure they've got the grooms back and that he is shows up on time. The bridesmaids were a ton of fun, we did some shots in the Clio park.....its been at least 15 years since I had been there. All of the photos were great and showed just how much fun everyone was having.....a side note to the maid of honor, don't worry about that one picture, I took care of everything.

I tried something new this time out, I created a photo booth for guests to come by and get a photo taken so the bride and groom would have something to remember everyone by. This is one of those photos, the idea is simple really. Its a photo booth just like in the mall, have you ever gotten into one of those things and not done something crazy, wild or stupid......I didn't think so. The concept is the same, mug for the camera, the more outrageous the better, and above all have fun......its a party after all.

Recovery

Its been way to long says my last post.....my apologies for that. I think I might still be on Mississippi time.

I spent a week in the south; 100 degree heat and humidity so high no hair product could stand up to it, as soon as you walk out of the house, friz!! But I'll be honest it really was great, I never realized how much I missed the south; for those of you who don't know I lived down there for about four years. The weather is something you have to get used to but other than that its great.

I had a chance to drive to Mississippi State University, its also called MSU (that's just wrong by the way, there is only one MSU) They really have a great looking campus. I got out on the field and took some photos during one of their ball games.....115 on the field by the way. I had a lot of fun and had only one close call with a foul ball.