These images were taken this summer, the first of which is a diptych of my brother on my old roof in Austin, Texas. The rest are from a road trip up to southern Utah and back through Arizona and New Mexico.
Corey, Austin, TX 2015
The Subway #1, Zion National Park, UT 2015
The Subway #2, Zional National Park, UT 2015
The Subway #3, Zion National Park, UT 2015
Horses near Monument Valley, AZ 2015.
Horses near Monument Valley, AZ 2015
Monument Valley, AZ 2015
Recently, going through my old negatives/slides, I found a few images that I never scanned or edited. The first is a diptych of my parents that I shot on slide film a few years ago.
Jim, Patches and Marilyn, Lakeway, TX 2011
This next image was shot around the same time.
Taylor, Austin, TX 2011
The next three shots are of my roommate, Shane, all taken throughout this past month.
Shane #1, Austin, TX 2014
Shane #2, Austin, TX 2014
Shane Working on his Motorcycle, Austin, TX 2014
Untitled Panorama, Marathon, TX 2014
Chevrolet, Marathon, TX 2014
Telephone Poles, Big Bend National Park, TX 2014
Vacant Billboard, Terlingua, TX 2014
Plymouth, Terlingua, TX 2014
Due to the lack of classes available for me to take this summer, I have had some time to develop and scan some old film and shoot some new ones. This little group of photos is what I have to show for the last several months. I look forward to shooting and posting more this summer.
Not Yet Titled, Austin, TX 2014
Untitled, Austin, TX, 2014
Untitled, Austin, TX 2014
Shane and Paige, Austin, TX 2014
Spartacus, Austin, TX 2014
After shooting a wedding this summer (see previous post) and using a lot of off-camera flash with my digital camera, I decided that it was time to begin using strobe with my medium-format film camera. I shot some portraits of my brother using an off-camera, hot-shoe flash with a homemade diffuser as my main light source, balanced with ambient light at dusk. The resulting image:
Corey, Austin, TX 2013
I also dug up a couple of old scans that I liked, and fixed them up. The first image plays on the idea of ownership/companionship between a man and his dog.
Shane and Boscoe, Austin, TX 2012
The final image is a portrait of cows. Because I feel like it.
Cows, Austin, TX 2011
I recently got to photograph a friend’s wedding. It was my first wedding as a photographer and the second wedding that I can recall attending. Thus being said, I was quite nervous about being the guy to capture the biggest moment of their lives. This led me to meticulously scour the web for what to expect in a wedding and as a photographer of one.
First lesson I learned: Be prepared and have a plan. Do your research.
Lesson number two: Be flexible and just go with it.
(The second one I learned on my own as I went)
The wedding went really well and I was pretty satisfied with the images. And after what felt like weeks of editing, I came out of it with just under 300 photos for the bride and groom. My favorites were the black-and-white images.
I have included the photos that, I think, came out well in regards to being successful photographs, out of context of the ceremony and reception.
I spent a little extra time shooting the cake photos for their website. Here are a few that I was happy with:
The room in which the girls got ready didn’t offer much in aesthetics, but I think a few images turned out alright:
The ceremony itself was tricky to photograph because the over-head trees provided shade, but also let bright, direct sunlight through as well, making it difficult to expose for the highlights and shadows. My old digital camera, with it’s relatively narrow dynamic range, didn’t do much to help either. That being said, I’ve included the images that I think turned out best in terms of composition, lighting and emotion:
The post-ceremony group portraits were captured using a single flash and diffuser set to balance with the ambient light.
I am admittedly inexperienced in shooting with on-camera flash, but I think some of these images were pretty successful. The reception was a lot of fun to shoot, with all the movement and excitement:
My flash died right at the start of the cutting of the cake, and my extra batteries were in my bag with the entire reception crowd between me and it. With no time to get to it, I cranked up my ISO, slowed down the shutter speed and later reduced the resulting noise in Photoshop. Like I said before, Lesson #2 – be flexible. Or, Lesson #3 – buy an ammo belt and load it up with batteries. Even so, I think the images were saved. This being my favorite:
I always wanted to try this semi-transparent look with the flash, and kind of figured it out as I went. It was a lot of fun, and I feel like it really captures the energy of the reception:
In conclusion, photographing a wedding was a lot of work, but a lot of fun. Not really my preferred style of shooting, but it was really eye-opening and a good experience. I also got to test out a few new light modifiers and learned some useful tools and editing methods on Photoshop.
While looking through some old 35mm negatives yesterday, I came across this portrait I shot of my good friend, Travis, for my Color Photography class at St. Edward’s. I believe it has sparked my interest in starting a new project consisting of monochromatic dead-pan portraits of my friends and family. The clothing of the subject in each image will, to some degree, match a prominent color throughout the setting/background, this image being an example of a monochromatic blue portrait.
Travis West, Lakeway, TX 2009
I was out rock climbing with a friend of mine a few weeks back and a wildfire happened to start up across the Pedernales River from where we were climbing. After a failed attempt at photographing the fire with my medium format camera, I pulled out my digital and was lucky enough to get the opportunity to snap a few shots of the Starflight that showed up to dump water on the patches of the still-burning fire. Here is a couple that I thought were acceptable:
Travis County Starflight, Pedernales River, TX 2013
Travis County Starflight, Pedernales River, TX 2013
In the summer of 2012, I made a little trip to Port Clyde, Maine with some awesome people. I, of course, lugged my giant camera bag and tripod along with me and was able to capture some images that I was very happy with. After having, finally, scanned the negatives a couple of weeks ago, the resulting images are posted below:
Entrance, Port Clyde, Maine 2012
House from Pier, Port Clyde, Maine 2012
Margaret, Port Clyde, Maine 2012
Nathan, Port Clyde, Maine 2012
Nathan, Port Clyde, Maine 2012
Boat in Fog, Port Clyde, Maine 2012
Decrepit Pier in Fog, Port Clyde, Maine 2012
Taylor, Port Clyde, Maine 2012
Harbor Rocks, Port Clyde, Maine 2012
It has been a long time. I recently purchased an Epson V750 Scanner and am now, finally, able to scan all my 4×6 negatives. It’s about time. They had been piling up for a couple of years.
There will be several posts to follow this one, all featuring images from recently scanned negatives. This first set consists of five portraits of a few friends of mine in various settings that, I believe, seem to suit their individual personalities well:
Nathan taking a break from chopping wood near Senecaville, Ohio.
Shane in Lockhart, Tx
Shane and Boscoe in Austin, Tx.
Taylor in Luckenbach, Tx.
Taylor outside of Dripping Springs, Tx.
As promised, there will be more soon.
Kelly Neilson Photography 