A Blue Ford Reverie

I just like the color, chrome and smooth lines in this image.

Christmas Spinner part 2

I've called this post "part 2" because it's actually the second time I've posted this image. Except this time, I put a little twist on it with the selective color effect, which as you know, I love doing.

Click here to view the original image and read more about how I captured it way back in 2006!

It's funny what I say at the end of that post about wanting a real tree again someday. My own tree looks more like this now (click here), which is exactly what Sandy and I wanted.

Holding Time

Taken in Chicago in 2004 outside of Tiffany & Co. I'm not sure who the statue is supposed to be, but it looks like Christ holding time to me. Time is in His hands.

Agua

As I got up from the sofa, I noticed light glowing through my wife's water bottle as it sat in front of the television. It was enough to get my attention, so I grabbed an image of it. I love the touches of reflected color and the contrast in the image.

There's beauty in the most simplest objects and scenes if we take time to look.

Lights Overhead

While I was posing for some group shots at a wedding reception I attended recently, I noticed this row of lights hanging in the hotel lobby that we were in. They caught my imagination, so I walked to the opposite end of the room and took this photo.

There wasn't much color in this image to begin with, but some of what did exist was that beautiful green and blue at the bottom of the frame. So, I did a selective color (which I love doing) to reward your eyes after following the lights down to the bottom.

2011 Tool Dealer Expo

This past weekend, I photographed the trade show that my company puts on each year. A lot of the images I got were photojournalistic / record shots of the crowds and booths that were involved in the event. The above image is one of my personal favorites, though. The clean lines of this Nissan 350z, which was one of six prize vehicles being given away, inspired me to make this image.

You can view the whole gallery of images I captured of the 2011 Tool Dealer Expo by clicking here.

Big Thunder Mountain Railroad

Monday was my wife Sandy’s birthday. This year, Disney is running a promotion where you can get admission to one of their parks for FREE on your birthday. So, since we were both taking her birthday off work, we decided to take advantage of the offer and enjoy our first trip to the Magic Kingdom as a married couple. When we obtained our tickets, they gave Sandy a birthday pin with her name on it. Each cast member of the park that saw Sandy’s pin, wished her a “Happy Birthday.”

As we waited in line for one of my favorite rides at the Magic Kingdom, “Big Thunder Mountain Railroad”, I captured this image. This was the first “roller coaster type” ride that I rode as a kid.

$10

As I was listening to some tunes at the music store in Downtown Disney a few months ago, I looked up and saw these red signs hanging in a row. I had to photograph them.

It took a few tries to get them in this orientation though, as I had to wait for them to slowly rotate into the position I desired.

I made this image selective color to add to the effect.

Pop Gallery

I took this photo almost exactly a year ago. “Pop Gallery” is a store in Downtown Disney that features unique paintings, sculptures and the like as well as some artsy trinkets. The store is jammed packed with color and peculiar things to grab your attention as you navigate your way through the narrow isles as to not break anything. Most items inside feature a hefty price tag.

As you can probably tell, I did a little selective color here to add some intrigue to an image that didn‘t really have much to it. The two bulbs illuminated were the only ones on at the time I captured this image.

I was out with some really cool people on Saturday night and we spent a good amount of time in this store. As we all took our time exploring the establishment, I was surprised at the things I never even noticed before. There really is a lot to take in.

Shadow Play part 2

Another image from my archives. This is the first image to be posted twice on this Blog…but with a little twist…a little twist of lime.

I’ve talked about how shadows catch my “photographer’s eye” before, you can read more about that by clicking here, if you missed it. I got this image back out recently and did a selective color treatment to it. This photo was originally captured over a year ago at the Boca Raton Resort and Club in Boca Raton Florida.

What things catch your “photographer’s eye”?

Bel Air

Another image from my “Old Town” archives. A 1957 Chevy Bel Air this time, taken at the beginning of my “Auto Art” craze in 2004.

Growing up, I remember my Grandfather mentioning “’57 Chevys” on numerous occasions, I think he owned one “back in the day”, before this car was a “legend”. I think it’s safe to say that it’s one of his favorite cars of all time. I’ll have to ask him if that’s a true statement.

I remember a time a couple years back, probably seven years or more, before I began photographing these cars. Me and my Grandfather were checking out all these classics one Saturday night at Old Town. Pap knew a lot about these automobiles and was sharing all sorts of tidbits about them with me. It’s amazing how he could tell what year many of them were built in.

I love the tail fins. Just thought I’d “pop” the red tail light on this one.

Bublé

This is an image I took during a visit to Down Town Disney, at a giant media store there. Because of the unique atmosphere of specialty shops, restaurants and a very big AMC theater, DTD is one of my favorite places to go with friends and has been a date destination on a few occasions. If you’re a girl who has been significantly in my life or at least somewhat significantly, chances are, you’ve been to Down Town Disney with me.

I saw this CD of Michael Bublé and thought it would be cool to incorporate it into a photograph. I don’t have any Bublé stuff yet, but I do think he sings romantic tunes. I like the simple yet truthful lyrics in many of those big band style songs that he covers. Songs like “Fly Me to the Moon”. “Fly me to the moon, let me play among the stars, let me see what spring is like on Jupiter and Mars…In other words…hold my hand…In other words…darling kiss me!”

Good stuff.

Urban Cowgirl

As the wind began blowing my subjects hair early in the shoot, I asked the family if they had brought any hats. One of the girls spoke up about a cowboy hat they had in their van, it would do. So, each of the two girls took turns wearing it, keeping the disheveled hair issue down to a minimum.

This image was taken towards the end of the shoot as the 11:00am sun began to shine brightly. I used fill flash to lighten up where the hat shaded her eyes. We had overcast skies for half of the shoot that morning, which I liked because of not having to deal with harsh shadows. I always prefer shooting in early morning or early evening for this reason.

Hot Rod Dreams

Like a Pied Piper, a Hot Rod seems to lure people unto it. Isn’t it really the child inside of us that loves a cool looking ride? As I observed this young boy walking up to this beautiful machine, I wanted to capture the relationship between a cool car and a child. For it’s as a child that the love and appreciation for a great looking automobile begins. This rod seems to have it’s own unique personality as it sits there under the close observation and admiration of all who pass by it. “Come look at me” it beckons, and the boy responds.

I took this image almost two years ago during one of my Saturday night ventures into “Old Town” in Kissimmee Florida. I usually shoot a lot of up close “personality” shots of the classic cars, images that exclude the many people who view these vehicles every Saturday night. I had to capture this moment in more of an “environment” shot.

You can view more of my photos from Old Town in my June Archives under the “Auto Art” post. www.chadoneil.blogspot.com/2006/06/auto-art.html

What Will I Be Given Today?

You never know what each day holds. I read a quote recently by a famous photographer named Minor White who said “What will I be given today?” I think that’s a pretty universal statement about life. I remember stopping in a store at the Mall during one of my frequent trips to the food court for lunch. Me and my coworkers jokingly refer to it as our company’s cafeteria because it’s only two miles from our business and many of us go there a lot for lunch. Anyway, I had stopped in a store on impulse before we headed back to the office and found a cool clock that I had no idea that I would be buying that day. You can see a photo of this clock on my first post in the archives. Even though it was just a simple purchase of a small clock, I remember thinking how you never know what each day will bring.

The same can be said for photo shoots, you never know what image will come to you. Sometimes I find myself thinking “what can I photograph, I need to get a cool new image for my Blog” or whatever. I then think of how if I want to get some cool new images, I need to go on a shoot somewhere and let the images “come to me”. Another pic on my first post (check it out if you haven’t!), the one of the construction wheel, was another image that “came to me”, I wasn’t expecting to create “that image” that day, I couldn’t have predicted it. The same goes for the little guy on the flower above. I was photographing some flowers in a local public garden when this little bee happened to be on some flowers.

You never know what image your going to capture nor what each day holds for you.

“What will I be given today?”

Pondering

This is another one of my favorite images from a shoot that I did with my friends David and Michele in 2002. Listing their names together like that reminds me of a thought I’ve been having recently of how married couples are usually referred to together. You know, like “Bob and Mary are such cool people” or “wouldn’t Joe and Kendra like that movie too?” It’s just something that I’ve thought about recently, how united a married couple really is that each person is forever referred to with the other. I guess it’s yet another way that the two really do become one.

The image above was taken with a 35mm Yashica camera from the early 1980’s. The camera belongs to my grandfather, but has served as a learning tool for me in the past before I went digital. Around the time of this shoot the old camera was beginning to show signs of needing repair. One of those signs was a black streak that would show up on random prints. I had it repaired and found that the steaks were coming from rubber seals inside the camera that were deteriorating from age and turning to goop.

One of the those annoying streaks originally showed up on this picture. I was able to remove it though in Photoshop and restore the image! Among other edits, I added color to Michele’s sweater.

The idea behind the shot was to show two different moods. David is blurred in the background with a crazy expression on his face, while Michele is in deep thought in the foreground with her cup of coffee.