Well, I ordered a "toy lens" the other day, or rather a couple of weeks ago, just to play around with.  It seemed to be on the slow boat from Hong Kong even though it was shipped via air mail.  The lens I ordered is a Holga 60mm.  Holga is best know for its "lomography" cameras.   For those not familiar with lomography it is simply just a low image quality style of photography, popularized by the filters and such that people are applying to their cell phone images used on social media sites, such as Instagram.  In you phone apps or computer software the filters take these super high resolution photos that our cameras produce today and apply effects that replicate the old school look of the photos from our past.

The Holga cameras are made from a very cheap, plastic body, and lens.  They are film cameras and not digital.  The imperfections in the cameras and lens are what give the images they produce a lot of individual character.  

Holga lensThe simple Holga pinhole lens

The Holga company also has a line of lenses that are still very inexpensively made, from cheap plastic, that can mount on your DLSR.  These lenses are kind of like snowflakes, no two are the exactly the same, so you get vastly different results depending on the lens you have.

If your like me you are asking "why would you want to put a low quality lens on a hight quality camera?"  Indeed.  I have asked the same question about some of the filters that we are using on our phones as well.  We pay top dollar to get hight quality only to make the image look like it came from the 60's or 70's.  Well the reason I wanted to try a lens is that I like to get it right in camera as much as I can.  I have photoshop and lots of software that I can use to make an image look old fashion, but like I said above, the lenses have a quality or character that you just can reproduce well with software.  So I guess it is more about the art of photography and less about the post processing.  These low quality lens make you focus more on the composition and lighting of your images.

Well I mentioned that I had ordered a 60mm lens.  What Holga shipped is something entirely different.  They shipped me a pinhole lens.  The term pinhole goes back to the very beginnings of photography.  If you have ever taken a photography class you more than likely made or at least used a pinhole camera, just to teach you how photographs were made in the past.  The first cameras had no lens just a "pin hole" for the light to travel through the box and onto the film.  So there is no focusing, no aperture to adjust, just a hole that you covered until you were ready to shoot.  Then you would remove the cover from the hole for a given amount of time, and then recover the hole.  

Holga Pinhole for Pentax DSLRHere you can see no lens and plastic body

See the pin holeAll the light from your image has to pass through that small opening

 

Above up can see the tiny opening that the light must pass through to the sensor on the camera.  

Since they shipped it, I thought it might be fun to play with as I have not shot a pin hole camera in probably 30+ years. 

 

Here is the fist image I took.  You can see the lens is very soft.  

Softness of the pinholeYou can see just how low the image quality is with this style of photography

There is no focusing and no aperture adjustment.  You can only adjust your exposure by changing the ISO (sensors sensitivity to the light) and or the shutter speed (length of time of the exposure).  I read somewhere that the aperture is somewhere around f.152 which means you have to have a LOT of light or a tripod for a very long exposure.   This image is shot at ISO 3200 and at 1/20th of a second.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then I turned the camera towards the sun, and turned the ISO down to 200 because I knew that I was going to be letting a lot more light in so it did not need to be so sensitive to the light.  This first one is also shot at 1/20th of a second to expose for the sky.  It has an interesting flare going on around the tallest stack and then in the lower part of the image as well. ISO 200 1/20th secExposed for the sky

 

Then I decided to crank up the shutter speed to 1/1000 to expose more for the sun and go for a much darker effect. 

Sun shot through a pin holeIso 200 1/1000th sec

I have emailed Holga about the error, and they came up with a resolution that made it so that I will be keeping this lens, and the other will be here in week or so.  I must say the customer service with Holga was top notch.  Very responsive and took care of the situation in a way that was great for both parties.  Errors are made, but what makes for great customer service is how you handle those errors.

I would not have kept the lens, but I don't want to deal with sending it back, & it just did not cost much to begin with.  It will be fun to play around with, but there are not many things that I can think of that would fit my style of photography.  However having said that, that is exactly the point of playing around with a lens like this.  It will slow you down, and really make you think about your composition and the way the light is falling on your subject to hone your photographic eye. 

So now you might know a little more about lomography and pin hole cameras & I got to mess around with some old school photography techniques.  Still looking forward to getting the correct lens, and will post some samples here once it arrives.  

 

 

 

 

 

Now is the time if you are wanting to get your family photos taken in time for Christmas / Holiday cards, or just need to update your family portraits.

This is one of my favorite from the day.

Antonelli Nov 2015 -22

Antonelli Nov 2015 -29

Here are the boys having some fun with the leaves.  

Antonelli Nov 2015 -19

Thank you to the Antonelli family for having me photograph their family.  It was a beautiful morning, and a great location.

You can view the full gallery here.

This is just a peak at the photos that I shot.  I should have the full gallery up later this week.

The Antonelli's

Antonelli's Lisa & Andy Oh Yeah! The boys The Amazing Caidy

Thank you again to the Antonelli family for choosing me to take their family photos.  It was a fun morning, and was great spending time with your family, as always. 

Pennington Family

Pennington Family

Pennington Family

The leaves are changing and being to fall from the trees, so this is a great time for your family portraits. 

Thanks again to the Pennington's for having me photograph their family.  I had a great time with you all. 

Here are a few more just incase you don't have time to look at them all now.

Very interesting cake.

A cake dividedVery interesting, beautiful, and delicious cake.

Amazing location.

IMGP7107Amazing location!

A generational dress, and custom flowers.

Great dress and flowersGenerational dress, and custom flowers

Trying to sneak a peek.

IMGP7130Trying to sneak a peek.

Perfect day for an outdoor wedding

IMGP7196-EditPerfect day for an outdoor wedding

Here comes the bride

IMGP7281-EditHere comes the bride

Done deal

IMGP7351Done deal!

Incredible Bouquet by Nicole Moan

IMGP7334Bouquet by Nicole Moan

Getting pelted by the bird seed.

IMGP7481Bird seed time.

The happy couple.

IMGP7315The happy couple

These are just a small sample of the full gallery.   So please check out the rest of the images here. 

I want to thank Heidi and Darren again for including me in their wonderful day.  It was one of those rare weddings that absolutely very thing went to plan.  The weather looked questionable a couple of days ahead of time, but ended up being a perfect day, at an amazing location.  

Here are a couple of images as a sneak peek at our session today.   

Penningtons Sneak Peek (1 of 2) Penningtons Sneak Peek (2 of 2)

Just want to say thank you to Mark and his family for picking this beautiful setting.  We could not have had a more perfect morning to shoot fall photos. Full gallery will follow in a couple of days.  

Also the full gallery for the Heidi and Darren wedding will also be available in the next couple of days.

The Rings - I had never seen rings like these.  They are the fingerprints of the Bride and Groom.  They were very well done, and extremely interesting.

The RingsVery interesting and original wedding rings

The Dress - First worn by the Mother of the Bride, then by the Aunt of the bride.  The bride was the flower girl in the aunts wedding when this dress was last worn.  The flowers are made of porcelain, by an amazing artist Nicole Moan.   The DressThe Dress, Shoes, and Bouquet

With this ring - Here is tight shot of the exchanging of the rings.  

With this Ring-With this Ring

Tying the knot -  The couple did a knot tying ceremony.  From my understanding, this is a Celtic ritual, and is the source of the phrase "Tying the Knot"

Tie the KnotTie the Knot

Presenting Mr & Mrs -  The expression on their faces, sums up the entire wedding day.  Extreme happiness. 

YES

The First Dance - This one speaks for itself. 

First danceThe couples first dance

The Dip - I am not sure she knew this was coming.  If she did, I am not sure she was ready for it.  This is probably one of my favorites images from the day.  

The Dip

I cannot thank Heidi and Darren enough for including me in their incredible wedding day.  I enjoyed being around their friends and family, and the opportunity to photography such a fun wedding in a beautiful setting.  Join me wishing Heidi & Darren a happy life together. 

Book arrivedHere is the 1st copy of my new book

Thank you to those of you who have already ordered your copy.  I look forward to your feedback when yours arrive.  If you have not yet ordered one, please see my blog entry below that announced  its release.  Or here is a link to the bookstore where it can be purchased.  If you are local and want to see it in person before you order, just contact me and we can get together somewhere.

You can now go to the link below to preview and order the book, which will ship directly to you.  

The book details:

• Hard cover, ImageWrap with no flaps, in 8x10 Landscape format
• The paper used is a semi-matte 80#
• 48 pages with approximately 100 images from the final days of the original John Marshall High School in Oklahoma City

I have used this company to print a book before and the quality is second to none in the industry.  The ImageWrap covers look amazing.  

As you will see in the photographs from the wedding, it has a clear theme, John Marshall High School.  Many of the decorations were items that came from within and around the now demolished school.  The colors, red & blue, are the schools colors.  The "card" that is on the fence as you arrived, was in fact a portion of a chalk board from one of the classrooms.  The sign on the fence behind them, was the sign that stood in the front of the school.  The star pattern the they stood on to exchange the vows & rings, was one of only twelve of these "stars" that were around the top of the auditorium at the old school.  The center pieces at each table was one of the glass blocks from the main building.

I am happy to have gotten the opportunity to become friends with them both.  I wish them many happy years together.  Please enjoy the images of this special night.  Just click the "Visit Gallery" in the upper right corner of the slide show to enter the gallery.

Thanks for taking a look.

I did a blog entry earlier this year when Curtis invited me to photograph his proposal to Dana.  It is a great story that you can read about here.

Like I said, I had the privilege of shooting the wedding as well this past weekend.  Here is a sneak peek at a few of the images.  A posting will follow in the next couple of days with many more images, along with an announcement and link to the full gallery.  

Keep an eye out for the update.

Kuehne Hadley Sneak Peak Sneak Peek - Congratulations to the Happy Couple

The image that I get the "How did you do that" or "Is that Photoshopped" question the most about is this one.  

IMGP3769JHMS in Lights

The answer to the Photoshop part of that question is no, it was all done in camera.  (Some minor exposure adjustments were made, but no effects were added.)

The process is called "painting with light."  This photo was taken at night with no light coming into the hallway. The camera was placed on a tripod and set for a 30 second exposure. The aperture was closed down to F 7.1 to limit any extra light from coming into the camera during the long exposure.  So all of the light that you see in the image is provided by a hand held flash light. Another benefit of shutting down the aperture is the star burst it creates on the starting and stopping points of each letter.

I used a remote control to start the exposure, then began "painting" the bike with the flashlight.  Then moved the light up to the lockers and down the hallway.  Never leaving the flashlight pointed at any one spot for very long.  You also do not want the front of your flashlight to be "seen" by the camera lens during the paint process, so light from next to, or from behind the camera. 

Then I actually moved in to the frame standing next to the toy, turned on the flashlight, and pointed it towards the camera to write the J M H S, turning off the light between letters.  The difficult part of this was getting the letters just right.  The writing has to be done backwards since I am facing the camera.  The letters need to be in the frame, not stacked on top of one another, be the right size, and spacing.  It took me about 8 or 9 attempts to get all the lighting and lettering just right.  

I could have done most of this in Photoshop, but it looks more realistic and is a lot less work to get it right in camera.

And then there is this one. 

Library GhostLight Painting a Ghost

This one is done with the same process.  Total darkness, long exposure, and painting with the flashlight.  This time when I stepped into the frame I held the light against my chest and aimed the light up into my face and quickly turned it on and then back off very quickly.  This left a ghostly image of myself in the image.   To give you an idea of how dark it was, I had no idea that coast was hanging right next to me on the locker door until I looked at the image at home.  I am glad it was there, because it adds a little creepy factor to the image.  

I created the last image because of the stories of the school being haunted, and wanted to create my own ghost image.  It was a little creepy being this far into the building by myself, after dark, and I must say I was getting a little spooked by the time I was done.  

This was my first attempt at painting with light.  It was a lot of fun, and I plan on playing around with this technique more in the future.  So grab your camera, tripod, flashlight and go give it a shot.  You will have fun creating your own light painting.

My hope was to be able to allow those that could not come to see the school themselves experience it in some small way, and to document the final days of our school building.  It was through the demolition of the building that this site was born, and why so many of the images in it are of the building.  That will change over time.  But I needed a way to allow others to see, or purchase the images, so this site was created.  And through that my photography business was born.  So from the destruction, something good was born.  I was planning on launching the business later this year, but this gave me reason to do so quickly, and sooner than planned.

Most all of the photos used in the slideshow can be found on my website in the "My Fav JMHS Pics" section under the JMHS photos tab HERE.  This gallery is the images that I personally liked the best.

Or if you don't see an image the you might have seen elsewhere that you know that I took, it can be found in the main JMHS gallery  HERE.  This gallery holds nearly 500 images from the 2 plus month of the demolition process.

I  have something in the works that I hope to roll out in the next week or two.  Many of you have requested this and some may even know what is coming.  I can not wait so get to share it with all of the JMHS alumni very soon.

Here is the Youtube video for those of you who have not yet seen it. 

Unknown plantHelp me identify this plant.

If you have any idea what this is please let me know. 

We had a particular bar, the Wormy Dog Saloon, that we were going to do some shooting at, but we had to wait a while for someone to let us in.  So we decided to walk around in Bricktown to find some interesting places to take some portraits and just have a little fun while we were at it. 

Heidi & Darren Bricktown 041915-5116In front of the Wormy Dog Heidi & Darren Bricktown 041915-5138 Heidi & Darren Bricktown 041915-5145 Heidi & Darren Bricktown 041915-5151

Heidi & Darren Bricktown 041915-5177

Then we got to go take a few inside the bar.  

Heidi & Darren Bricktown 041915-5252

I will share couple of more in a couple of weeks, once the mailing has been done.

We had a great time walking around, finding some great locations, and taking photos together in downtown Oklahoma City.  I am looking forward to taking photos at the wedding for this couple in a few months. 

So Mark took those two, and did some reworking, addressing my concerns about each. And it was not an easy decision at all.  I then picked the one I liked, and had him do a couple of final changes to end up with exactly what I wanted.  So here is the final logo. DB-in-Focus-on-White-Final-400New Logo from Blue Plate

Thank you Mark, I look forward to working with you on future projects. 

Sample of photosHere is the first batch I ordered. The metallic papers look great on the JMHS images.

So again Free Standard Shipping on paper prints with a minimum order of $25.00.   Discount Code Freeship0415.   The code is only good April 13th - 15th and will expire at 4/15 at midnight (Pacific Time Zone) PST. 

  Clocktower breaking up JHMS in lightsLight painting in hallway

Front of the Old John Marshall looking NorthThe last night the main structure was whole. Downstairs North Hall looking north from offices Sun setting on the Old John MarshallJan 17th - Sun is Setting on the Old John Marshall High School

Cactus V6 boxCool Cactus packaging

These  triggers are far more than just standard triggers, they have set a new bar in flash triggers.  With these transceivers you can put one in transmit mode and the other in receiver mode and control your flash remotely.  A standard trigger will fire at the flash at whatever settings you have set it to on the flash itself, but with these I can actually adjust the power of the flash remotely, down to 1/10th of a stop variation, without the need to go to the flash and make the adjustment.   They claim to work up to 100 meters, but some online reviews that I have seen have shown much greater distances. 

Another major advantage of these and what sets them apart from the field is the ability to use different brands of flashes.  They only need to be a TTL flash.  Not only do they have over 30 types and brands of flashes programed, but they will learn the power out put of just about any TTL flash, and be able to control the output.  I shoot a Pentax camera, but I can use Nikon, Canon, Sony, Olympus, or basically any brand of flash, as long as it has a TTL setting.  Simply amazing!!!   I can not wait to get my flash and try these things out.  I will post a real world review with photos in the next day or two. 

Cactus V6 TransceiverTrigger right out of the box, includes foot stand too.

Red Leaf 16x2416x24 red leaf canvas print

This was a test shot of a "new to me" lens.  It was taken with a Tamron 90mm 2.8 macro lens.  The lens is well known for it's Bokeh, or how it renders the out of focus parts of the image and its sharpness in general.  The Bokeh is extremely smooth, while the leaf itself is very sharp.  The above image of the print on the wall was taken with an iPhone, which lost a lot of the detail, so here is the same image from my website. Autumn Colors

I was given the opportunity to take some photographs of a marriage proposal a couple of weeks ago.   The couple had grown up in school together and had know each other as kids, but just in the last few months have been reunited, and are now just crazy about each other. What a honor it was to be a part of this special moment.

If you have been following my blog and the start up of my new photography business, you are familiar with the demolition of the original John Marshall High School in Oklahoma City.  If not then please take a look at my homepage, and click on the JMHS pull down menu and take a look.   It was during this demolition process that so many of the alumni from all generations came together.  As you can see in the photos there were a lot of good items, that if left in the building would have been demolished.  So the alumni would gather on a nightly basis to go into the building and salvage all they could carry, or roll out of the building.  Everything from lockers, to doors, desk, chairs, chalkboards, glass blocks.... tons of glass blocks.....  wood wall panels, flagstones, everything that could be removed was removed.  

I made a lot of new friends through this time.  And this is when couple that is the subject of this post became reunited.  The only part of the building that still remains (at least as of noon of the day I typed this) was the front steps to the school.  So Curtis said, "What better place to propose to her than the last remaining part of the school that brought them together?"  So he set out to make that happen.  

Photographically speaking, I faced some real challenges.  The property is now surrounded by chain link fences, which I have dealt with before, so I just shoot a long lens and keep the depth of field short, and just like that, no more fence.  The lighting was also a bit tricky as well. Then there was the fact that she did not know what was happening. So I needed to just try to blend in, which was not too hard, as she was used to seeing me with a camera in hand running around the school.  However there is not much left to shoot.  I don't think my being there raised any attention or questions for her.   All of these things mainly limited where I was going to have to be to get the shots.  Fortunately had arrived several minutes ahead of them, so I was able to figure out how best deal with all these issues. 

So on to a few of the images. 

These are the front steps to the old school, and all that remain.

Final look - only steps remain

Setting up for the big question

Wonder what they are talking about?

Down on one knee, can only be one thing.

On one knee can only mean one thing

Looks like we know the answer

She said YES!!!

Then a walk around the piles of debris

Happy JM

I could not be happier for my two new friends.  It has been a privilege to get to know them both as their relationship grew.  I wish them the best as they continue on their journey.  It was great to see a happy end to the history of the old school. 

The following day I received the one Metal print that I ordered.  This is a 12x12 of the glass blocks that I had made.  If you have not seen an image printed on metal, they are very cool.  The print is actually printed on a piece of aluminum.  It gives a depth and richness to the photo that is just not achieved on paper.  Here is photo of the back and the metal print, the unboxing and then hanging on the wall.  Another nice thing about these is they do not need a frame to hang on the wall.  They look like a gallery piece right out of the box. 

Back of metal print Metal print unboxing metal print on wall

The rest of what I ordered came in today, which was two days after the order was placed.  All of these are printed on the metallic paper.  I had never printed on that media before.  I was blown away by the sharpness and color reproduction.  It really makes the colors pop, and brings the details out on the bricks and textures in these images.  

1st batch of photos

The above are the photos taken with my cell phone.  You just have to see these to appreciate the quality of these prints. Below are the photos which are linked to the pages you can find them on. 

I ordered a batch of panos that I had promised someone.  Class tag pano

I ordered a group of 6x9's of the front of the building for someone else.  This one is absolutely incredible on the metallic paper.... I would highly recommend at least the 6x9 if not the 8x12 on this one.

Sun setting on the Old John MarshallJan 17th - Sun is Setting on the Old John Marshall High School

I ordered this 8x12 Black and White for another person.   This one is printed on a special black and white specific paper.  Very nice and sharp with great contrast.

Lamp that once hung on the outside of the building

The for myself and 8x12 of "the bear" and a 4x6 of the "wrecking crew" on the roof, and the JMHS in lights.  All also printed on the metallic paper.

IMGP3769 Anissa's Bear - Three image HDR artistic edit

The Bear Wrecking Crew

Like I said I ordered this batch to test the system out since this is a new website and fulfillment service for me.  The labs I am using are among the best available.  The lab is located in Kansas.  The Metal print arrived overnight via Fedex and the prints arrived in two days via USPS priority mail.  The packaging was excellent, as well as the email communication.  I have no hesitation in telling you that you will be pleased with any prints you are wanting to purchase.

Also wanted to make sure you guys understand that the watermark is not on your final print, as I have had that question a couple of times. 

I have taken nearly 2000 images in and around the buildings over the last month and a half.  On my homepage there are just over 500 images in the JMHS gallery, and around 100 of those same images in the "My favorite" in the JMHS gallery.  These 100+ are just the images that I think are the best of the series.  If you have a certain room, or section of the building you are looking for it is most likely in the larger gallery.  There is also a Panorama only gallery for that style of image.  

Please note that any images you purchase off my website, will of course not have my watermark on the image.

Here is the final sunset of the smoke stack, just hours before it was to meet its end. 

The Stacks Last Sunset Now just as it is about to impact the ground.

Stack shot before is hits the ground B&W And as it hits the ground. Stack down

And just for fun, an animated Gif of the fall of the tower

http://www.dbinfocus.com/img/s7/v159/p1047480542.gif

My hope in all of this has been that those that could not go and see the building themselves could, through my lens, feel like they were a part of this process of saying good bye to our old high school.  It has been an interesting process, but difficult to watch as a place you know so well is taken down brick by brick, room by room.  

He had me look around at some logos and send him a few that I liked.  So thats exactly what I did.  I also let him know what I liked about each one that I sent, and why I had picked them.  Then last night he sends me an email with 8 options to pick from.  He had told me a couple of days before that I might have a hard time picking, and he is correct.   I have in mind my top three, or maybe four lol, picked out.  

I posted these options on my personal & business Facebook pages, to see which one everyone likes.  Here are the choices.... what do you think?  (if you see one of the logos on my page, well then that is what I picked.)
 

If you need any design work be sure to give Mark at Blue Plate Creative an opportunity to earn your business.   
 

Logo OptionsPlease help me in picking my next logo

First up we have JMHenge , or Stone JM or Bearhenge ​(thank you Mark for the 2nd name and Darren for the 3rd name)  It looks to me like someone was having a good time at work today.

JMHenge

Then I decided to go take a look at the tree again, and then noticed the clouds.  They were just incredible all afternoon, but I doubt many take the time to look up and notice any more.   

Great sky kind of day

 But my mission for going today was to get a better shot of this name while it was still on the wall, or at least while there is a wall. 

Mark Mahaffey Close up

Be sure to hop over to my galleries to see what else was new on Tuesday 02-24-15.

View from NE corner in snow BW

View from the NE corner of lot In the dust

Sun setting over JMHS With beautiful sunsets

Thank you Christopher, for pointing out this tree and asking me to shoot it for you. 

I moved my site due to the large number of request to make my photos from the demolition of my old high school available to the alumni for  purchase.   My old site did not have a good way for my photos to be purchased and shipped, so with much research not only as to who host the site, but finding a professional photo lab that I could trust, I have landed here.  

Now that the new site is up, or nearly so, I will also be stating up a photo business, in order to offer my photography service for hire.  I have dreamed of starting a photography business for a number of years.  Now that I have a good delivery method in place for the images, I am finally realizing that dream.  Just this week I registered the name "DB in Focus Photography" with the state of Oklahoma, and will be getting everything ready for that adventure in the next couple of weeks.  So stay tuned...

North side of building from floor of CafeteriaThe old John Marshall nearly 1/2 way through the demolition process.

So now on to the Gifs.  These are both from the demolition of my high school, John Marshall High School, in Oklahoma City.  The first is of the clock tower which as at the front of the building.  The clock had been removed some time ago, but one of the Alumni painted it back onto the bricks just a few days prior to its demise.  The second is the last section of the education part off the building to fall.  All that remains of the school is some boiler rooms next to a large smoke stack, and the auditorium.  

http://www.dbinfocus.com/img/s12/v179/p191340348.gif

http://www.dbinfocus.com/img/s6/v135/p263232231.gif

This is the part of the building that is being knocked down in the 2nd Gif.

Southeast entrance wall is getting crowded

I am in the process of setting up a new website, and along with that a new blog.  I wanted to copy my old blog post over from by previous server, but for some reason the RSS feed import is not working on one end or the other.  So it looks like I will be starting over from scratch.  

I will use this blog to share photos that I will be taking, along with any editing that is done to them.   I am also looking into offering my photographic services for hire. 

Chances are right now if you have found your way to this new site you are looking for the photos I have been taking over the last month, of the demolition of the original John Marshall high school in Oklahoma City, OK.  

Sun setting on the Old John Marshall-