AWS Services

I spent some time with my old friend Summers Duffie today. Summers recently partnered with with Dan Walker to form AWS Services, Inc. providing site maintenance, silt fencing and hydro seeding services for the construction industry. I met Summers and Dan at the site of the new State Farmers Market outside Cayce and we shot a few environmentals for their web site.

All of these were done with a single SB-800 plus a shoot through umbrella. Camera was the D200 with several different lenses.

Oh, and should you require any construction site prep or maintenance, you can catch up with Summers and Dan here.


Summers


Dan


Summers


Dan


Dan and Summers


Dan and Summers

http://www.awsservicesinc.com/

Thanks for looking,
--Steve

Trey Webb

My good friend Trey Webb just opened his State Farm Insurance Agency. Very excited for Trey, and honored that he asked me to shoot photos of him and his team. I spent a little time with Trey in his office, and we shot a few photos just to get a feel for the space. This one was my favorite. I'm really looking forward to working with Trey and his team.

Here's Trey's website. Check back often, as he will be updating it with some new photography in the next few weeks.

--Steve

Senior portraits

Spring is here, and now is the time to start thinking about senior portraits for the teens and Easter photos for the younger ones.

This year I am introducing some new packages for seniors. All of these packages include our basic print package which includes 1 5x7, 6 4x6, and 8 die-cut wallets from each session, or a credit for prints. Other print sizes are available a la cart from our web site.

Senior Package 1 - $150*
• One studio session (one outfit)
• One location session
• Basic Print Package from all sessions or $50 voucher for prints

Senior Package 2 - $225*
• One studio sessions (two outfits)
• Two location sessions
• Basic Print Package from all sessions or $75 voucher for prints

Senior Package 3 - $350*
• One studio sessions (two outfits)
• Three location sessions
• Basic Print Package from all sessions or $100 voucher for prints

Senior portraits are a great way to commemorate this special season in the life of your teen. You can mix and match these sessions to include a formal look, a casual look or a glamour shot. Capture your senior in a team uniform, with a musical instrument, engaging in a favorite activity, or with a favorite pet. The possibilities are endless.

I am also available for standard sessions at our regular rates of $50 in studio and $75 on location. Please visit our web site for more pricing details.
Http://www.stevewsealphotography.com

*Payment is required when the sessions are booked.
Satisfaction guaranteed.

Gear Bag

I often get asked about the equipment and software that I use and this got me to thinking about the importance of using professional grade equipment and knowing how to use it. I also read a thought provoking post over at Digital Pro Talk on the subject of photographic professionalism and its relationship to the gear we use.

The post included a youtube video from an episode of Judge Joe Brown where a really lousy wedding photographer gets sued by a disappointed bride. It’s pretty funny to see the unprofessional professional get her comeuppance, but also very sad to see how upsetting this was to the bride. The photographer in this case was shooting the wedding with a Canon Rebel and a consumer grade lens. Questioning by the judge, who was very knowledgeable by the way, revealed that she was not very competent regarding the proper use of her gear. Furthermore, She delivered the prints to the bride in the Wal-Mart parking lot where she had them processed. Sheese.

The tools that we use as photographers are very important. We must be able to rely on our equipment to perform, and we must have backups in the event something fails. Many photographers out there who are advertising themselves as pros are working with an amateur camera like a Canon Rebel or Nikon D3000 and with no backup. They often don’t fully understand the capabilities and limitations of their gear, and often shoot in P-for-Professional mode.

Don’t get me wrong, these entry level amateur cameras are capable of producing stunning images. I myself have a Nikon D50 which I use as a second body, and as a go to in some situations. But relying on this equipment as your primary is risky and therefore unprofessional.
After thinking about this for a while I decided to post a Gear Bag section on my web site, not to be a show-off or to brag, but to demonstrate that the equipment that I use is up to the job. Is my gear the best available? Certainly not, but it is high quality, dependable, and capable of producing excellent results in the right hands.

Finally, I am always looking to improve the quality of my cameras, lenses, and lighting equipment, in fact, most of the profits that I am making go right into purchasing more and better equipment. I will keep my site up to date as I make major additions to my bag.

--Steve

Pirates of the Gulf of Mexico

I had a great weekend in Venice Florida with my old school mate Keith. He celebrated his 50th birthday with a pirate theme party. It was great fun, and I met a bunch of cool people. Before making the trip I asked Keith what he thought about setting up a photo booth and taking shots of the party guest in their costumes. Needless to say, he was all in.

Keith and I set up a back drop on the back porch away from the high traffic areas. We used a bed sheet, an old hammock, and some party decorations. We also placed a couple of potted plants on either side to frame the scene. Once most of the guests had arrived, we started sending them to the booth.

For the set up I used the Alien Bees B800 with the large octo-box as the main, and an SB800 with a shoot through umbrella as fill. The AB was fired via cyber sync radio trigger and the SB800 via SU-4 slave mode.

This was a really fun little project, and a great way to save memories from a special event. I'd love to try this for Halloween!

--Steve

Plantation Partners

Sharon and Patti are teaming up to focus their real estate efforts on Longcreek Plantation, our neighborhood in Blythewood, SC.

We shot this for them yesterday afternoon as the sun was getting low in the sky. I used the D50 with a high shutter speed (Something over 500, but I don’t remember exactly) and fired an SB-800 through a white umbrella with a sync cord at camera right. The high shutter speed clamps down on the ambient light allowing the strobe light to separate the subjects from the background. A little post processing with Lightroom and Photoshop, and I was done in plenty of time for dinner!

--Steve

Image retouching

OK, so I am huge fan of Adobe Lightroom 2 and Photoshop CS4. I can't function without them. Many photographers will tell you that they hate working with either of these programs. I can understand that, these are very complicated applications, but the creative control that they offer cannot be ignored. The key is to not over do the process so as to give yourself away.

This video is an example of how I took an already good image and polished into what I think is a real jewel.

--Steve

Evan 2010

Evan is one of our favorite subjects, and it has become an annual tradition to make a series of portraits of him. I hope this continues for may years. Evan's mom always wants something a little different every year. This time we went with a combination of hard key and soft fill with a kicker on the hair. The black background and black turtle neck renders the classic floating head composition. I think it really a accentuates his strong facial features.

-- Steve

High Dynamic Range

High Dynamic Range (HDR) is a techique that involves making multiple exposures of a scene while varying the exposure values, then combining the resulting images using tone mapping software. You can get some pretty interesting results like this one that I shot from the watch tower over our family beach house at Edisto on new years eve.

Merry Christmas

SWS Photography world headquarters.

Merry Christmas from Steven W. Seal Photography. It has been another great year for us. Many unique opportunities have presented themselves this year as well a a few surprises and we are looking forward to 2010 with anticipation.

-- Steve

Christmas card photos, there's still time!

Christmas is just a few weeks away, but there is still time to shoot photos of the little ones (or big ones) for Christmas cards. We can create a custom 4x8 card for you, and have them shipped directly to you. We even include the envelopes, so all you have to do is address them and drop then in the mail (sorry, we can't help you with that part).

Our basic package is $100 which includes 50 4x8 cards. Other options are available, so contact us if you have any questions, or would like to schedule a session.

-- Steve

Executive decisions

Chuck Howell, CEO of AQA International contacted us recently to shoot a photo of him for an upcoming book. The shot called for a full length portrait and we wanted something that would stand out.

We originally tried this in our study at the house, but the setting just wasn't quite right. After talking it over with Chuck, we agreed to reshoot at his office. This turned out to be a much better location. There is a large conference room at the office with the AQA logo on one wall.

Once I saw the logo, I knew we needed to incorporate it into the shot. I did this by lighting it separately with a single speed light with a snoot to restrict the light. I also added an orange gel to warm the light a bit.

Once that was sorted I made a few test shots with just the light on the logo to get the exposure that I wanted. Then I used a second speed light shooting into a white umbrella as the main light on the subject. A little post processing in Light Room and Photoshop and Bob’s yer uncle.

-- Steve

SC Watermelon Queen

Summers Slaton is the reigning SC Watermelon Queen. Summers and her family are old friends and it was a real pleasure to make these photos for her in preparation for the national Watermelon Pageant. These were done with a glamour style of lighting which really works well for this sort of thing. The main light is on axis with the subject and slightly above. Various reflectors and fill lights were used to minimise shadows rendering a flat yet flattering light quality.

With such good material to work with, minimal retouching is required ;O) This one was a lot of fun.

Steve

Here are a few more...

---

---

More from Banff

I have posted a few more photos from Banff on the Smugmug site. Click on the image above for more.

SC State Fair

Well, it's late October in South Carolina which means that the State Fair has come and gone. This year we entered 2 photos in the professional fine arts division. Both photos were processed with Photomatix High Dynamic Range (HDR) software. This process involves taking multiple images captured at different exposure values, then using the HDR software to process the images using tone mapping. The results can be very interesting.

---

Olympia Grocery.

---

Funky Little Shack

We didn't receive any awards, but still, this is a great way to have your work viewed by lots of people.

Lake Minnewanka

I spent 4 days in the Canadian rockies this week attending a conference. It was a busy week, but I managed to get out on my own for a few hours on the last day and photograph some of the scenery. It was, in a word, breathtaking.

The photo above is a composite panorama of nine images taken at Lake Minnewanka just outside of Banff. A little snow on the peaks would have made this perfect. Maybe I'll get have better luck next time.

I will have more from the trip on smugmug soon, so check back often.

-- Steve

SCANA Insights

---

Three of our photos were published in the latest issue of SCANA's Insights magazine. The photos are part of an article about Carolina Gas Transmission on page 25. A PDF version is available on line here. The photos were made several months ago at the request of the CGT Customer Services group. They were originally to be used for the company's web site, however, they were not well suited for that. A few others were eventually used in the company's customer brochure. Today's publication came as a bit of a suprise. A welcome suprise to be sure.

In the Garden

I photographed these two young ladies this past Saturday in their back yard. Simple setup, just one SB-800 strobe with the shoot through umbrella camera left. There was plenty of ambient light for fill, so one key light was all that was needed.

I am evaluating Adobe Lightroom 2 and used it for these shots. I am quickly becoming a true believer!

Grid Posters

We set up a make shift photo booth at the beach house this summer and did head shots for the yearly art project. Once the shots were complete my Mom, Mimi as she is known to the grandkids, projected them and traced them on canvas board. The kids then each used pastels to create a unique portrait of themselves.

This was all pretty cool, but the original photographs ended up being really good as well. I took 9 of my favorites of Jessica and Taylor and made these photo grid posters. These are being printed up on 16’x20’ and will be framed for display.

This was a neat project. Now that I have gotten the set up in Photoshop, duplicating this will be a snap. This could be great idea for a senior portrait project, or for a Christmas present.

Here's Taylor

The art projects can be veiwed here.

Just another day at the office

I have the good fortune to work for a company that occasionally does some really interesting things. They also ask me to photograph them from time to time. Yesterday I spent a good part of the day shooting welders plying their trade on some 16 inch pipe for a natural gas transmission facility. I don't care where you're from, that's some pretty big pipe.

This was a difficult environment to work in, but I managed to get a few keepers, including this one.

Steve