Exuberant Bastard

Sunday, May 20, 2007

My buddy's birthday bash



This Saturday we celebrated Shaun's birthday at Fogo de Chao. I thought he's been before, but among the four of us that went, only I was the meat graduate. Shaun, Maura, and Sara ended up loving it, even in the wake of the silliness induced by the apparent meat-drunkeness induced by...meat.

Shaun was gifted with things of great weight this year. From Maura, the complete Calvin and Hobbes, and from me, a huge freaking cutting board that graduates from the board classification into, the "compressed tree block" phase. We should all bow our heads in respect to the trees that died to make this one ... chunk. Maura actually linkified the board on her blog several months ago and I kept it on the back burner of my mind. I think I'm going to buy one for myself, it's that nice.

We were probably the rowdiest people there, because we had great laughs about the ludicrous size of the chopping board. It seemed just shy of the same size of our 4 seat table! Afterwards we picked up some SoCo and Coke, and played Wii bowling. The hilarity and debauchery that ensued was enough to rattle my innocent mind. Happy Birthday Bro.

Internet Famous Maura

With some creative marker help Diego looks just like Me! Or is it vice versa?




Selections from Shaun's Birthday 2007

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Tuesday, May 15, 2007

Financially Mutilating but Photographically Liberating

Michelle's daughter @ Heather's graduation pool party



Wow. I mean WOW. It's here. My 70-200mm f2.8L IS USM lens. I've had it for about 2 weeks now, and I've given it some work, with some graduation related casual photography. I bought it knowing it would complete most of my range needs, but I didn't know that it also completed "me". Alright I kid, but ISabeLla (yeah I just named her right now in fact, shhh, she can hear you...) gives me surgical precision when it comes to my favored style of photography. We all know I love portraits, and the more candid, the more laughter, or other emotions conveyed the better. Given it's reach is nearly the equivalent of a 320mm lens (when mounted on any 1.6x crop factor Canon SLR) I can frame a head and shoulders shot when I'm 20 feet away. This serves a few purposes, first my subject is less likely to notice me, and secondly combined with the wide apertures it's capable of and the longer focal distances, the background is tossed into a buttery smooth blur (bokeh). Combined with my previous baby(I can love both the most right?) the 24-70mm f2.8L, I've got the focal lengths between 24mm-200mm(unadjusted for crop factor) covered, while still being able to shoot in low light (i.e. dim churches).

Isabella is a tad on the heavy side. She's 3.5 pounds with her tripod collar, and combined with my 20D, vertical grip, 420ex flash and light diffuser, I'm probably carrying a 7 pound rig. She didn't arrive cheap either, pushing my price envelope outside the cost of even my Canon 20D! I have no regrets, and I'm so glad I've got some weddings booked this year. It's always a great feeling to give somebody pictures of themselves that they actually want to show other people.

The graduate herself!



I also attended my sister's boyfriend Chris' graduation commencement. This is where the f2.8 aperture and Image Stabilization are completely necessary. There's no way I would have been able to pull off this shot with any detail whatsoever with my old gear.

Chris applauding the crowd.

Shot was taken from the bleachers in the nosebleed section. Handheld in terrible civic center lighting! Thanks Isabella!

Emily's daughter is doing all she can to stay behaved while Michelle's daughter helps button up her outfit. When I started taking pictures like this without interrupting the subjects, I started to realized how this can change the way I shoot.


The following photo was taken with the 24-70mm f2.8L. Neither lens is perfect entirely, they're entirely complementary to each other. I think the only terrible outcome of this entire situation is that I may have to invest in another body so that I don't have to take the time to swap lenses during a paid event. Which was entirely planned anyhow. I'm just trying to put off my next purchase until Canon announces it's replacement for the 30D, whenever that may be. It's pure speculation, but I'll wait.


Chris' four year old cousin.

Well, I had an amazing eye-opening weekend shooting events for friends, and I'm even MORE stoked to shoot the weddings I have lined up. I enjoy the atmosphere, and great things always happen when I shoot a wedding.



Heather's Graduation Party Selections



Chris' Graduation Selections

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