Blythewood Golf Team

Bryce Howell

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We shot individual and team photos for the Blythewood High School Varsity and JV Boys Golf Teams yesterday at Columbia Country Club. This is a great group of young men, and it was a pleasure to make their team photos.

Proofing gallery is available here

More experimenting with the big light

Using the same lighting set up as the 'Martini anyone' shots. A shoe mount Nikon SB800 flash on a stand with a shoot though umbrella adds interest to the lens element.



Same setup. Here the shoot though provides a little highlight to the front of the subject. These were really quite easy to pull off, I made 3 or 4 of each one and processed in Photoshop CS2.

For photo geeks, here's a set up shot on Flickr. The brolly is not in the shot, but you get the idea.

Thanks for looking,
Steve

Martini Anyone?

Okay, maybe I have a little too much time on my hands today. This was a fun little project. The light is from behind with a piece of black foam paper between the subject and the light source. I think it's pretty cool looking.

Steve

Prom Night

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Prom Night! We shot formal prom photos at the home of Tim and Kathy Pifer yesterday. We had 8 couples and had to move the shoot in-doors because of the weather. It was a toad strangler.

Two words for anybody interested in trying this, radio triggers. Optical slaves are great until you have a house full of teenagers and their parents armed with point and shoots popping flash all over the place thus triggering your slaved flashes.

This one was lots of fun. I hope the prom goers recover from their reverie. I heard that most didn't go to bed until well after 4:00am.

The rest of the photos can be viewed here
Blythewood H.S. Prom

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I really like the look of these squre cropped group shots. Hopfully other will like this look as well.

For photographers: These were shot using the Nikon D200. For the group shots the lense was a medium wide to tele zoom at the wide end (28mm i think) at f/5 - 5.6. The first shot above was done with an SB-800 mounted on the camera hot shoe. For the formal shots the 50mm f/1.4 @ f5 - 5.6 was used. Light was provided by an AB800 with the large octa-box and an SB-800 speedlight with a white reflector umbrella. The Lights were up high and feathered just slightly.

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The square print looks really smart with a custom matte and frame. We can offer this as an option at very reasonable rates. Contact us for details.

Steve

Run, baby, run

We had the honor of photographing a 50th wedding anniversary in Springdale, SC this past Sunday. It was a lovely afternoon, and the children took advantage of the yawning spring to play a game of tag on the lawn. I was amazed at how fast these kids could run dressed in their Sunday best.

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This one was taken with the D200, and the 80-200 f/2.8, wide open.

Steve

Wesley

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My friend Wes has been after me to shoot this photo of him for quite some time. We have talked about it often so we had the concept pretty well defined before hand. We used the Alien Bees AB-800 with a shoot through umbrella attached as the main light, and two Nikon SB-800 strobes with snoots right and left behind for rim light. A photoflex multi-disk was used as a clam shell for some additional fill.

We shot several of these to get the smoke curls just right. There was a lot of post processing in Photoshop to get the final look.

BTW, Wes is a real pro to work with ;o) Thanks man!

Steve

--Update--



Here's another take from the Wesley session. This shot mimics the Platon Stallone shot pretty well. Only one light here, the AB-800 w\ the brolly

Realtor John Brooks' new web site

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Several of our photos are featured on Columbia Realtor John Brooks' new web site, including the two pictured above. John is a seasoned real estate professional with 24 years of experience and is a good friend or ours. We wish him well with his new web site.

Steve

We've been stung by the bees!

We are pleased to anounce some new members to our family (of lighting equipment that is) A new Alien Bees B800 and large octagon shaped softbox have recently made their home with Steven W. Seal Photography.



These will be great additions to our arsenal of lighting gear and will make for soft even light on our subjects.

Merry Christmas

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Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all of you who made this a great year for SWS photography. We captured many special memories for family and friends both new and old. We look forward to seeing you all in the new year.

Keep an eye on you mail box as we are planning a special promotion for 2009!

Thanks again,
Steve

Winter Woods

Fortunately the weather was nice enough on Saturday for us to shoot with the Alexander family in the afternoon. The sun was setting behind the trees to camera right providing fill light. One SB-800 camera with the shoot through umbrella camera left for key. One SB-800 with a snoot attached camera left behind the subjects for just a little rim light.

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Here's one of the kids with the same set up. Just a hint of rim light separates Zachary's black fleece pullover from the background.

man:series1

This is a series that I started last summer while on vacation at the beach with my family. I set up a make shift studio of sorts in an unused corner of the beach house and had the male members of my family sit for me. This first one is my nephew Evan, the youngest of the 'men'.


evan

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The set up was about as simple as it gets. One light, an SB-800 strobe with a shoot through umbrella on axis with the camera very close to the subject. This creates a very soft quality of light and allows it to fall off smoothly into very deep shadows.

The noted portrait photographer Platon often uses a very similar set up. His portrait of Vladimir Putin which was used on the cover of Time for the Man of the Year issues was shot in much the same style. But enough of the technical photo lighting geek stuff, here is the rest of the series.

BTW, I'm looking to continue this series. If you are interested in sitting for a portrait please feel free to contact us. As this is a personal project, I am not charging session fee.

flickr slideshow

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hunter iii

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john

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ken

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hunter sr.

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carol

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steve

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Thanks for taking the time to look. I hope to have more of these to show soon.

Rainy Day Studio

It was raining today, so golf was out of the equation. I spent most of my afternoon playing in my 'studio'. I had set it up on Friday for a shoot that we had yesterday. This one of me used 4 lights. Two behind left and right with DIY snoots. One shooting through a potted plant on the background and one on me also with a DIY snoot. Should'a dressed nicer.

Camera was the D50, I have a remote for that one. Lens = 50mm f/1.4.

Windermere Afternoon

Took a walk across the street to the golf course this afternoon. This is no. 14 at the Windermere club, a reachable 310 yard par 4. There is still just a little fall color left here in SC and the late afternoon sun really highlights that.

This was taken with my D200 with the trusty 18-55 cheapy lens + polerizer filter. Pretty much straight out of the camera, just a little color tweaking with CS2. I like it.

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Here's an other taken with my 80-200 f 2.8. Love love love this lens.



A little burning and dodging in CS3 on this one.

Thanks for looking,
Steve

Little Cowgirl

I had a family portrait shoot this weekend. This is the youngest of the two children. We were mimicking the look of a portrait of her older brother.

This was shot with my D50 + 50mm f 1.4. The D50 allows me to shoot at high shutter speeds and still sync with the strobe. For this shot I used the sun as a back light, and set up one of my SB 800s on a stand camera right and another camera left with a shoot through umbrella.

Gretchen

She's not nearly as sweet as she looks!



I was playing around with some modifiers for my SB 800 strobe. This one was done using a piece of black foam paper that I go from Hobby Lobby rolled into a snoot. The snoot restricts the light so it just hits Gretchen around her face and doesn't expose the background.

Lake Murray Sunset

We had a family portrait shoot at the lake yesterday. Afterwards I walked around and took a few snaps of the lake. This one was take with my D200 + the 18-55 'kit' lens with a polarizer filter. It was a beautiful afternoon.




Here's the family. The fall colors, blue sky and water make a really nice backdrop for this family portrait. This was taken with my D50 and 2 SB-800 strobes, one on the right, one on the left with shoot through umbrellas. The D50 has the capability to sync with the strobes at high shutter speeds allowing the strobes to over power the ambient light.

Photography for Real Estate

We're always looking for new and interesting challenges. Last weekend we photographed some interior scenes for a web site that is being designed for a local realtor (more to come on that).

These were done using a balance of ambient and off-camera strobe lighting.



We were really pleased with the results and are very interested in pursuing more of this kind of work.



To request more information, click on one the images to navigate to our contact page.

Carolina Gas Transmission

Two of our photos were used in the Carolina Gas Transmission (CGT) customer brochure.

This one was featured on the cover.

CGT is a subsidary of SCANA corporation, a $10 billion, Fortune 500, energy-based holding company headquarted in Columbia, SC.

-Update-

The brochure can be viewed on-line at the CGTC web site.
Carolina Gas Transmission -- Delivering Value

Parties and special events.

Having a holiday party, or family gathering? I can help take some of the stress of you by capturing these special memories so you can concentrate on enjoying your self. Birthdays, Halloween, Christmas, reunions, you name it. Prices start at $100.00.

Time for Christmas photos!

It’s hard to believe that summer is over and Christmas is just around the corner. Now is the time to start thinking about family photos for your Christmas cards. Fall colors make this the perfect time for outdoor portraits!

This year I am offering a family Christmas package that includes my session fee plus fifty 4x8 cards, or 100 4x6 prints for $100. If you are interested please consider scheduling your session soon as we will surely get busy as the holidays approach.

If you are not interested in Christmas cards I am also available for regular portraits. Please take a moment to visit our updated web site for pricing. http://www.stevenwsealphotography.com/