Derby Heavy Summer......at least for a few of us.

(Nikon D3, 200ISO 28-70 F2.8@F11 1/80th. Two Dynalight 400JR's behind the truck straight reflectors. Lighting for Michelle is coming from the open Firehouse bay doors.)

The Summer is known as Derby Off Season for most, but not for me. The summer inches on, and shoots are planned and exectued so that we can launch the Roller Derby calendar to the public on time at the end of the year. There is a giant list of girls, and a Giant list of concepts to be planned out. Several Photographers, Stylists, set coordinators, assistants, and fast food restaurants get together and are potentially injured in the making of this product. The shot above is a test shot from the first shoot of the 2010 Calendar. The woman in the shoot is Michelle.... AKA:Red Rocket. The test shot isnt the final light setup for this position, but I liked the shot so that's what ya'll get.

Michelle is a fellow photographer that offered to help out with the shoot. She's an awesome shooter that is responsible for most of the InTake, Indy.com, and Metromix print covers here in Indianapolis. Also I couldn't have picked a better model to be in the test shot. Waaay better than this dude.....

(Nikon D3 800ISO 28-70F2.8@F5 1/640sec. 1x SB-900 and 2x Sb-800 flash units set to high Speed Sync. One set to fill front, one side, and other back.)


This wasn't the only derby event over the weekend though. Amber, AKA Strawberry Jam got married on Saturday. I was honored to be asked to join in the festivities as well. Originally I was just going to take some shots at the reception, but Red Rocket asked me to lend a helping light hand with holding lights n'such for the posed wedding photos. I was more than happy to help; after all my ADD wouldn't have let me say no to helping out either Red Rocket, or Strawberry. Not that I didn't shoot some of my own either though.....

(Nikon D700 200ISO, 50mm F1.4 @F2)


Amber made a beautiful bride. She was sort of self conscious, and kept saying "It's my day to be a girl, remember I'm a girl today". I expect nothing less from a Derby wedding. Scott, the groom, cleaned up nicely too. The wedding was beautiful being on the canal here in Indianapolis; and the reception was a hella good time for sure.

(Nikon D700 400ISO, 18-35mm@F5 1/3 a second.)


That's SJ and her Hubby. I just kind of liked this shot, even though most of the frame is dark. it seems very intimate in the middle of the party. A least to me anyway, my camera takes better pictures than I ever could. Sometimes I feel like I'm just pushing the button. I'll tell you what though, there are definitely reasons to love being a photographer. We got some great stuff at the firehouse, and I really look forward to the next calendar shoot I'm planning out. I believe it's going to be a Film Noir detective theme. Freakin Sweet.

Otherwise this week is filled with another reason to love being a photographer. This week is the beginning of the Indy's Hot shots Hottest Bartenders. Thankfully that's my territory, which has me leaving you with an image and a word of advice: Always tip your bartender........More soon.

(Canon 1D Mark II, ISO 200, 70-200 @150mm F4. Single 580EX speedlight set to 1/4 power through a 42" umbrella to the left)

Dark week....

Anyone who has ever worked in corporate America knows there is a risk of losing their job for any reason at all. To combat this risk, people formed Unions, which then protected employees as a group. In today's day in age, unions are becoming a thing of the past though, and unfortunately they can not protect people the way that they used to. Thursday July 9th 2009 was a dark day for Gannett, and the Indianapolis Star. The Indianapolis Star had to let go of 37 people who had done nothing wrong, except been deemed to hold a position that was no longer necessary by "higher powers". All of those employees will be dearly missed. One of the hardest parts is continueing to do your job as it happens; continually wondering if that dreaded call will come to your desk. To my friends who are no longer with the Star, or Gannett. The best of luck, my heart goes to you. The sun has set on your time with the Star, but not on your time over all. We're all here for you.

(Canon 1D Mark II Canon EF 16-35mmF2.8@16mm F6.3 320ISO)

Reading what was posted above, you can imagine it's been a very tense week. The shot above was shot on the "Black Thursday" mentioned above. It is for an Ad for Z's Oyster Bar near 82nd Street in Indianapolis. They wanted to illustrate the water, and the porch in one shot. This was my solution. I have a feeling they will be happy with the set of shots I provided considering the shots they had already were shot at noon on a Sunday....For the non photographer readers; yes lots of light is good, but the brightest light possible coming from directly overhead? bad...

The rest of the week I had some Nursing shoots to keep my mind off of the Thursday that all of us at the Star knew was coming. I went into St. Vincent's hospital on Tuesday to shoot inside of the Surgery Ward. It was one of those moments where you wonder how you got to where you are at, because I had to go through preventative measures in order to be back there. They must have seen me eat or something because I had to wear this white body suit, blue booties and a hairnet. If I'd have had a box of Junior mints with me, the scene would have been complete.

(Above Photo by Joe Soria)

(Canon 1D Mark II Canon EF 16-35mmF2.8@16mm F5 1/80th 200ISO)

It just so happened that Joe was wearing a white suit just like mine while he was in the Surgery Ward assisting me. Had him hold an 580EX pointed directly at himself. Instant bounce card. Best Voice Activated Light Stand ever....

Really in the end I guess it has been a productive week. Many know that I'm a gearhead and I've got a great new gadget that I'm hoping to play more with by my next post. It's made by Delkin and it's the Fat Gecko camera mount. Basically it's two large suction cups that attaches a camera to any smooth surface. Does it work? Hells yea it works! Attempt 1 proved to be effective enough, but I'm still looking at other applications for the device. I'm really looking forward to mounting lights to it, in awkward spaces. Whoa baby.

(Above Photo by Brad Clampitt)
That setup stuck to Brad's trunk helped me to grab this:

(Nikon D700 Nikkor 18-35mm@F8 ISO 1600 1/3sec)

The guy on the Bike is my buddy Tom. He's a good shooter here in town, and he's another one of the Staff shooters for the Roller Derby. He also happens to be about as off his rocker as I am; always willing to try something a little new and different. One time he and I convinced two ladies working in a Subway that we were fraternal twins despite the 13 year age difference....

Whew, so yea I've been busy this week and it's not over yet. Tomorrow I'm helping out a friend who is shooting a wedding I was attending already. How many times in your life can you say you went to and helped shoot a wedding for someone named Strawberry Jam? Seriously. Awesome. Then on Sunday is the first month out of the 2010 Roller Derby Calendar, and the launch of Episode 2 of the "One Woman One Million" webseries I've been working on which is why I'm up right now at 5am. Sometimes video just takes that little bit of extra time. That and I went out and shot a little bit on the canal. Brad's been hankerin to do that for his girlfriend Melanie in Canada, and tonight seemed like nice enough night. SO yea, busy week, I'm exhausted. More Soon.

(Sony A700 ISO 200 F9 20sec, Sigma 16mm Fisheye)

Blog: Vacation Edition

Everybody likes to have some time off, and I got to experience that Rarity last weekend. I got to spend some time with some of the best friends anybody could ask for, that I never get to see. I studied Photography at Purdue, and I'll tell you what. There weren't many of us that did. Not that I'm saying I'm special, it's just that there were 3,000 engineers for every 1 photo student. Needless to say, all of my friends are engineers that live across the country doing various things to keep us safe, or make sure our ketchup stays red. We are able to get together maybe once a year if we're lucky. They know I'm a photographer for a living, so when I pull out the camera they all attempt to act normal, but are all interested in learning about things like depth of field, and things that I don't really think about anymore. It's really great to be accepted into such a smart group of friends, and be able to contribute to some sort of technical mumbo jumbo conversation that comes up.


That's Doug. Doug is easily one of the smartest people I know, and is definitely an asset to Boeing and the proejcts he works on. Doug is also very easily excited, and yes his wetsuit is on backwards in this photo. This oversight was quickly corrected, but Doug and I had several conversations about depth of Field over the course of the weekend. (intermixed among other conversations regarding how many beers were in a keg, and how much each person in a 12 person group would have to drink in terms of cases to comlete the keg, if it was in case form). Doug is the kind of guy that if asked, and gave a number to a decimal I'd believe pretty instantly. Anyway, Doug was intrigued by being able to isolate an object through a camera optically.

D700, AF-S50mm F1.4 @F1.4, Ambient light.

Even though it was vacation I am more than willing to talk photography, and I only hope that I was able to answer Doug's questions regarding Depth of Field. Unfortunately I didn't have any long glass with me to demonstrate lens compression as well, but if I'd have done that I'd have also tried to set up a speedlight, and then probably take the entire shoot out of control over a simple explanation. I'm sort of a Nut like that. My buddy Brad knows this; He has a brand new Sony A700 and will call and email me at all times of the day with questions. Brad is the kind of guy whose imagination was last seen dry humping a bug zapper. This is more than likely why he and I get along. Brad has been known to assist me from time to time because he's interested in learning anything he can get his hands on; and I greatly appreciate his help. Last week he helped me film some video for Express Effects Cosmetics; the company that makes THINgloss. The owner has launched a new campaign to be a ray of hope in our current economic situation. You can learn more about it here. She is going to put a webisode up every week charting her progress, in a very similar fashion to Reality TV.

I've got some more video to shoot later this week, and this next weekend will start the shooting for the 2010 Roller Derby Calendar. If I can find time and I end up doing something worth writing about I'll be sure to do so. Until then, find something you want and be diligent about it; work for it. If it's really as great as you think it is, the prize will be worth the fight. More soon.


Tony eagerly awaits the time to bulid a campfire.
D700 AF-S 50mm F1.4@F1.4.

Aunt Martha.....

Last weekend my Great Aunt Martha passed away. I received the call on the bus to Louisville with the Naptown Warning Belle's roller derby team. My grandfather found her in her apartment Saturday when he went to check on her.

She had the thickest Croatian accent you'd ever find. I think most people will remember that she always had a smile on her face, even though nobody could understand a word she said. She referred to everybody as 'young X'. Replace the X with whatever you may be. Young man, young woman, young dog, young car, ect ect. She was also especially known for her Christmas Cactus. (which I now own the offspring of). If I had a photo I could post of this, I'd do it; but unfortunately I can't even find a photo of her currently. But anyway, she used to put Christmas lights on a cactus every year, because she was getting too old to carry or assemble the Christmas tree. Honestly the idea is brilliant, keeps us kids away from the presents before the big day for sure.

Despite all these things, she was layed to rest today. Our family, will miss her. My grandfather especially, who I believe is her only living relative here in the US. They were cousins. Since I can't find a photo of her (and she didn't like to have her picture taken anyway), I think I'll end with a photo that she would have smiled at. A photo of my grandfather from last christmas, sharing a bite to eat with my sisters dog. More soon.