30 Days of Awesomeness! ...continued

Last week, I posted the first half of my 30 32 Days of Awesomeness adventures, and as promised, this week is the second half. Just to recap a bit, Chase Jarvis partnered with Borrowed Lenses to put together this really incredible giveaway AND, I WON!!! Pretty random because I never win ANYTHING, and really, really awesome! I was able to use a month's rental of top of the line equipment. I chose my month so that I could fully take advantage of all this gear. Weddings, families, professional soccer, environmental portraits for a few small businesses, senior sessions, a new project that I have a brewing (more info coming soon), and lots of random photos of my own life.

For those who just want me to stop blabbing and get to the goods, here is a list of the gear that I got to play with for a month:
5d Miii camera body
16-35 2.8 L II
24-70 2.8L II
85mm f1.2L II
70-200 2.8L II
200-400 f4L Extender1.4x

And, just a quick refresher, you will notice that for each photo, I also included all the info below the posted photo:

Day

description

camera body, camera lens

focal length, ISO, shutter speed, aperture 

flash (if used)

Day 17: Sunday, August 3rd, 2014

Craig Mitchelldyer let me tag along in the media section for a Portland Thorns game

5D Miii, 200-400 f4L Extender1.4x

560mm, 8000, 1/1250, f5.6

Day 18: Monday August 4th, 2014

The beginning of dahlia season

5D Miii, 70-200 2.8 L IS II

200mm, 640, 1/100, 4.5

Day 19: Tuesday August 5th, 2014

King of the Yard

5D Miii, 16-35 2.8 L II

16mm, 800, 1/250, 3.5

Day 20: Wednesday August 6th, 2014

Jehn Glynn // Visual Designer

5D Miii, 24-70 2.8L II

Left: 70mm, 100, 1/640, 3.2

Right: 42mm, 100, 1/640, 3.2

Day 21: Thursday August 7th, 2014

Skating #LikeAGirl

5D Miii, 70-200 2.8 L IS II

130mm, 200, 1/1000, 3.5

Day 22: Friday August 8th, 2014

A glimpse of the coming fall

5D Miii, 70-200 2.8 L IS II

200mm, 640, 1/200, 2.8

Day 23: Saturday August 9th, 2014

Nabil and I celebrated our 6 year anniversary

6D, 70-200 2.8 L IS II

200mm, 400, 1/100, 7.1

Day 24: Sunday August 10th, 2014

Meet PDX interview with Michael Cox of Wild Abandon (more info coming soon)

5D Miii, 24-70 2.8L II

24mm, 320, 1/30, 5.6

600 EX-RT on camera flash

Day 25: Monday August 11th, 2014

Z says it's bedtime

5D Miii, 24-70 2.8L II

42mm, 1250, 1/25, 2.8

600 EX-RT off camera bounce flash

Day 26: Tuesday August 12th, 2014

A photographer's "selfie"

6D, 24-70 2.8L II

70mm, 160, 1/180, 4

umbrella mount on 600 EX-RT off-camera flash

Day 27: Wednesday August 13th, 2014

Fresh crab and artichokes for dinner

5D Miii, 16-35 2.8 L II

16mm, 2000, 1/20, 2.8

600 EX-RT on camera flash

Day 28: Thursday August 14th, 2014

Not a little bud anymore

5D Miii, 70-200 2.8 L IS II

135mm, 800, 1/80, 2.8

Day 29: Friday August 15th, 2014

A little mood lighting for Friday dinner

5D Miii, 70-200 2.8 L IS II

200mm, 2500, 1/160, 2.8

Day 30: Saturday August 16th, 2014

Another fabulous view from another fabulous wedding

5D Miii, 24-70 2.8L II

24mm, 320, 1/80, 16

Day 31: Sunday August 17th, 2014

Senior portrait season in full swing

6D, 24-70 2.8L II

28mm, 400, 1/200, 4.5

Day 32: Monday August 18th, 2014

Up early to catch the sun rise over Mt. Hood

6D, 200-400 f4L Extender 1.4x

200mm, 100, 5, 22

I can't tell you how much fun I had playing around with all of this gear. It gave me an opportunity and a little push to learn more about lighting, choosing the right gear for the right situation, and really just play around and get to know what each lens can do. Needless to say, I've added a few more things to my ever growing "too expensive for Christmas" list.

Thanks again to both Chase Jarvis and Borrowed Lenses!! I'm forever grateful. :)

30 Days of Awesomeness!

Think way back, back to February. In February I won a giveaway. It was kinda funny because I enter a fair amount of giveaways. Not to the point where I seek these contests out or anything, but if I follow a person or a blog consistently, I enter many of their giveaways (if it's not spam). It's one click. Why not?! ...but I never win.

Well, guess what?! I won!!!

I'm a big fan of Chase Jarvis. I so admire his (perceived) fearlessness and tenacity. I mean, this guy knows how to dream big and get shit done. Anyway, one day, I saw that he tweeted me. It said that I won his giveaway for a "dream camera kit". Cue the skies parting and the hallelujah chorus. 

So what exactly did I win you are all asking? Chase Jarvis paired up with BorrowedLenses to put together a 30-day free rental of one amazing camera body and 5 equally amazing lenses. Seriously!! It really was 30 days of awesome! Buying gear is crazy expensive, but renting gear isn't cheap either, especially this kind of quality gear. A few of these lenses I rent regularly, so I was familiar with how to use them, but there were two that I hadn't even touched yet. It was an opportunity that I quickly decided to take FULL advantage of.

Incase all you gear heads are chomping at the bit, here is a list of the insanely awesome Canon gear that I was able to play with for a month:
5d Miii camera body
16-35 2.8 L II
24-70 2.8L II
85mm f1.2L II
70-200 2.8L II
200-400 f4L Extender1.4x

I wanted to use this as an opportunity for a short glimpse into my future life. I gave myself some time so that I could use all the gear during peek wedding season, but also to plan and set up some projects that have been bobbling around in my head for a while (more on MeetPDX another time). It really was just the kick in the pants that I needed.

Take this long story as an intro into 30 Days of Awesomeness (...it was actually 32 because I'm sneaky and chose to have my 30th day fall on a weekend so I couldn't possibly ship it all back until Monday). As part of this month long adventure, I wanted to make sure that I did something to use the gear everyday, so I decided to shoot, edit, and post at least one photo a day for the whole time I had the gear. Obviously most days I took many more than one photo, but for the purposes of not overloading my audience, I will just use one per day.

If you follow me on Facebook, you have already seen all of these photos, and if you don't, take a moment to click on that "f" in the upper right hand corner of the blog and go like my page so you don't miss out on more fun photo projects like this (shameless plug).

And now, without further ado, here are the first 16 days of my 3032 Days of Awesomeness. Since I was focusing a lot of my attention on exploring all of the gear, I also posted a brief description of the image and how the image was shot below each image.

Day

description

camera body, camera lens

focal length, ISO, shutter speed, aperture 

flash (if used)

Day 1: Friday, July 18th, 2014

Pre-birthday celebration with my BFF Brooke

6D, 24-70 2.8L II

35mm, 2500, 1/80, f2.8

Day 2: Saturday July 19th, 2014

Lindsey and Andrew's wedding day

6D, 70-200 2.8L IS II

100mm, 640, 1/320, f4

Day 3: Sunday, July 20th, 2014

Meet PDX interview with Leland Duck of Revive Upholstry and Design (more info coming soon)

6D, 24-70 2.8L II

70mm, 400, 1/200, f4.5

Day 4: Monday, July 21st, 2014

Dog sitting a very happy dog...

6D, 24-70 2.8L II

70mm, 1600, 1/80, f4

ceiling bounce flash on TTL

Day 5: Tuesday, July 22nd, 2014

Birthday dinner out on the town

6D, 24-70 2.8L II

24mm, 25600, 1/50, f4.5

Day 6: Wednesday, July 23rd, 2014

Hiking through the forest with Momsy

6D, 24-70 2.8L II

24mm, 1000, 1/80, f4.5

Day 7: Thursday July 24th, 2014

Kicking through the injury

6D, 70-200 2.8L IS II

200mm, 1000, 1/320, f3.5

Day 8: Friday, July 25th, 2014

Doggie Heaven on our trip to the Oregon coast

5D Miii, 85mm f1.2L II

85mm, 100, 1/1600, f3.5

Day 9: Saturday July 26th, 2014

Wine tasting! Nabil would like me to announce that this was done as a joke. ...he's normally much more serious when wine tasting ;)

5D Miii, 24-70 2.8L II

70mm, 800, 1/640, f5.6

Day 10: Sunday July 27th, 2014

A fun family shoot with the King family

5D Miii, 24-70 2.8L II

70mm, 800, 1/640, f5.6

Day 11: Monday July 28th, 2014

Summer sunset in Portland

5D Miii, 24-70 2.8L II

70mm, 100, 1/100, f7.1

Day 12: Tuesday July 29th, 2014

Bye Momsy. Thanks for a fun visit!

5D Miii, 24-70 2.8L II

28mm, 100, 1.400, f4

Day 13: Wednesday July 30th, 2014

Watering the garden

5D miii, 85mm f1.2L II

85mm, 800, 1/2500, f2.5

Day 14: Thursday July 31st, 2014

Last game of the season with Recesstime Kickball

5D Miii, 24-70 2.8L II

26mm, 800, 1/250, f6.3

Day 15: Friday August 1st, 2014

Prepping for tomorrow's wedding

5D Miii, 16-35 2.8 L II

35mm, 25600, 1/160, f2.8

off camera flash set to 1/8 power

Day 16: Saturday August 2nd, 2014

Not a bad view from the wedding ceremony

6D, 24-70 2.8L II

24mm, 500, 1/125, f5.6

Next week, I will post the second half of the month long photo set, so stay tuned!

10 on 10 - September 2014

It's the 10th, and that can only mean one thing: another 10 on 10! My favorite time of the month. Before we get started on some Portland fun, make sure you check out all of the other 10 on 10ers. As always, they are sure to have some great photos to share. I love that each of the 10 on 10ers all bring something different to the table and are always up to something new in their own neck of the woods. So check it:

Button Media 

CLB Creative 

Anya Elise Photography 

Brittany Conner Photography 

Shaw Photography 

Twinty Photography

And now back to the Swift Watch! (cue Brian Fantana)

Nabil and I have an ever growing bucket list of things that we want to do in Portland. We love this city and it really does have the coolest and most random things to do. For a few years, we have had it on our list to see the Vaux's Sifts at Chapman Elementary School in the late summer. We have heard about this, but this is the first time we have experienced it first hand.

Every September, Vaux's Swifts come to Portland on their migration further south. And every night at sunset they all flock to the NW Portland neighborhood and roost overnight in the chimney at Chapman Elementary School. Really random, and pretty cool to watch. Curses that I didn't have my really long lens, but you can get the idea.

Before the swarm (about 1900):

And then they came!

They all seemed to fly around the area for about 45 min and many flirted with going in the chimney, but didn't actually go in for a while (about 2000). Once they started, they each took turns and funneled into the chimney. Literally thousands and thousands of birds. Luckily, we escaped without any bird missiles land on our head.

If you look closely at the chimney on a few of the photos, you can see a hawk (I think) perched on the side. This smart little guy was just waiting for supper to come to him. Once they started to dive into the chimney, he picked one off and then flew to his own resting place for the night.

Per usual we drove around for a bit after the festivities taking in the views. Man I love this city! Hope you enjoyed another 10 on 10 as much as I did. If you haven't already check out our other fab photogs (links above).

Until next time...