This morning we did the first photo-shoot with Jen.  It was chilly, but certainly did not feel like Winter.  Much, much nicer weather compared to a typical snowy day this time of the year, here in Lincoln.  The location was Haymarket area in Downtown.

I took most of the shots with a Nikkor AF 50mm 1.8D lens.  Many of the shots were perfect with morning sunlight.  Sometimes we used a Nikon SB-800 at 1/8 or 1/16, as fill light.

I also tried few shots with the Nikkor 105mm AF/DC.  Initial shots were O.K., but as my hands got cold (and numb), the images became out-of-focus, because I did not use a tripod or any other support.

Wish you all a Very Happy New Year of 2012!

With the busy schedule in the past year, my blog postings were far from up-to-date. This year's resolution is to pay more effort into my photography work.

I wish you success in accomplishing your new year resolutions and wish you a great, productive year!

After a few months break, we decided to do a shoot this  weekend. Hair, makeup, wardrobe, etc., etc., all went according to the plan, and we managed to make very good pictures. This one, “Holly in yellow” is one of the first to come out of post-processing. 

For this shoot, we had two separate setups, dark and light backgrounds, with two sets of lighting.  This is the first time I used the new Savage backdrop (white) and it is perfect! I'll post more pictures from this shoot in "Model-Portfolio" section, later.

Update: Pictures from this shoot are here.

Model: Holly Love
Hairstylist: Personal Appearances Salon (Rebecca)
Makeup: Estée Lauder

Last weekend, Sam and I went on a road trip to the North of Nebraska, where we have not traveled much. The destination was Monowi - probably the smallest town in Nebraska.

We started from home some time before noon on Saturday and drove north to South Yankton area.  The first stop was at the Corps of Discovery Welcome Center in South Yankton, from were we took few pictures of Missouri Valley. 

We also stopped at the Gavin's Point Dam on the Missouri river. Then we crossed the river (drove on the dam to South Dakota Side) and came back into Nebraska by crossing the river again on Chief Standing Bear Memorial bridge, Bon Homme, SD.

Around 5:40PM we reached the small town Verdel in Nebraska - population 58.  This is one of the "endangered" small towns in this area of the country due to people migrating to other cities seeking better lives, jobs, etc., etc. We did not see a single person in the town although it looked like there were inhabited homes (trailer-homes) there.  Most buildings were ruins, hammered by weather and invaded by vegetation.  After taking few pictures, we started to drive along.  Around 7PM we reached Monowi, the smallest town in Nebraska - population 1.