Critical Exposure

2012-01-04T23:50:00.002-05:00

Avalyn Stephanie Lanham

DOB: 10-29-10

Nikon D5000

2010-05-04T14:29:00.000-05:00

2010-05-04T14:27:00.000-05:00

2010-05-04T14:20:00.000-05:00

2010-05-04T13:33:00.003-05:00

How's everybody doing? Well, don't know if anyone will actually see this update since it's been so long since the last one, but here you go. The last couple of months I've finally started the editing process of hundreds of slides, and have made it through the first stage of choosing 'selects' for scanning and more editing. I will begin the same process with negatives this week. My goal is to get the best working portfolio I can have and to have a website up and running by August monetary funds permitting. On top of that, I'm saving to purchase my first digital slr which I am very excited about for very obvious reasons. Also, I have had to put a third hard drive in my mac book in less than two years which has reinforced to me the importance of backing up my work. I lost some work, but luckily had the bulk of it backed up. Having the hard drive fail actually was a blessing in disguise because it forced me to go through the editing process with all my digital files. During that process I felt the excitement of editing my photos again and couldn't wait to continue. Overall, with my photography, it feels good to have some sort of road laid out for myself. Now, I just need to stay focused and determined and see where it leads me. Here are some shots from my digital editing process with more to come. Hope everyone is doing well, Nate

2008-04-17T20:18:00.000-05:00

Tentative Portfolio, any criticisms would be much appreciated.

2008-03-12T15:40:00.002-05:00

Three generations.

2008-03-12T15:38:00.002-05:00

2008-03-12T15:35:00.002-05:00

2008-03-12T15:31:00.002-05:00

Photos of my family in Ohio.

2008-02-27T19:35:00.002-05:00

Multimedia assignment where we had to interview someone interesting and tell their story. I decided to go to Greensboro and interview someone who is homeless and luckily I came across Robert Matthews. Robert asked me for a quarter and I asked for some of his time and his story. We went to a local coffee shop and had a 25 minute conversation where I was able to get some nice window light portraits as he spoke. He definitely had a story to tell, but was hard to follow as he jumped from thought to thought quite often, but I tried to capture the essence of our conversation and his story. This is sort of a rough draft because I feel it could be improved, so hopefully I'll post an updated version soon.

2008-02-25T00:32:00.003-05:00

Stills from Senior Rollers soundslides.

2008-02-25T00:29:00.003-05:00

A shot from the Senior Rollers soundslides. Had a little fun on CS3

2008-02-15T13:09:00.003-05:00

A few selections from a bowling soundslides Lauren Welch and I are putting together. The bottom image is Lauren's. The soundslides will be up next week.

2008-02-14T14:57:00.002-05:00

One day soundslide assignment. Local eatery who was kind enough to let us bother their customers. A big thanks to the staff at the Golden Waffle.

2008-02-08T14:59:00.001-05:00

2008-02-08T14:46:00.000-05:00

A little nature macro. These were shot over the weekend while walking around my sister's yard. Both were shot using ambient light with a D200, 55mm 2.8 Micro, PK-13 extension ring which makes them 1:1. The spider was shot using ISO 100, F16@1/30, and a tripod. He was completely scared and just froze making for a great subject. The slug was shot using ISO 100, F11@1/60, and handheld.

2008-01-31T12:43:00.001-05:00

This is the filament of a Speedotron strobe which was on modeling light setting. Shot with D200, 60mm Macro Nikkor 2.8 at 1:1. I used another modeling light to find a composition and focus that I liked, cut it off, turned on the other, and shot it at F32@1/8000. Then took it into Photoshop and tweaked the color for a little fun.

2008-01-31T12:29:00.001-05:00

This image is of the letter 'e' on the side of a bottle of Newcastle. This was shot with a D200, Nikon PB-6 bellows, PK-13 extension, and 6omm Nikkor Macro 2.8 extended fully to put me around a 4-3:1. Shot with two Speedotron strobes with one directed towards mat board directly behind the bottle which gives the image the almost clay look. The other strobe was directed towards the ground coming from the bottom and slight left. Shot at F16@1/250.

2008-01-31T12:05:00.000-05:00

Here is some more macro. The images are of a serenity prayer charm which was handed down from my grandfather to my father and then to me. The front is the praying hands and the back is the prayer. I'm not a religious man, but I love the prayer, and the charm is of great importance to me. I actually remembered to shoot my setup this time which has a stunt camera and lens which haphazardly has my strap in front of one of the bounce boards. The setup is the one used for the image with words. In the setup there are two Speedotron strobes with snoots directed at bounce cards on either side of the charm metered at F11.5. I then placed fill cards on the top and bottom to highlight all edges of the lettering. Both images were shot with D200, 60 mm Macro at 1:1, Iso 100 with Speedotron strobes. The image with words was shot at F11@1/250. The praying hands was shot at F16.5@1/250 with left bounce board metering F22 and fill on bottom right to accentuate the hands.

2008-01-23T15:09:00.001-05:00

This is my new wallet I got for Christmas; thanks Ma or Kindra or both of you. Yes, I'm pretty spoiled. I was actually shooting the sunset at Badin Lake and was just sittin' and waitin' for the sun to keep sinkin' when I pulled out my wallet to write some notes. The sun hit the leather just right and had a nice rock background to rest the wallet on. Shot with Nikon D200, 55mm Nikkor Micro with extension ring, ISO200, F11@1/60 at 1:1

2008-01-23T14:50:00.001-05:00

Some nature macro shots from this past week. The top image is a mum which was shot 1:1 with a Nikon D100, ISO 200, F16@1/125, 55mm Nikkor Micro with extension ring, and an SB 800 speedlight on TTL. The second image is of mum pedals shot with the same camera, lens, and ISo, but lit with window light and shot at F2.8@1/60 for aesthetic purposes. The bottom image is a mushroom (sorry don't know what type) shot while I was on a hike. The mushroom was hiding under a fallen tree and lit by the late evening sun. I laid on my belly with my Nikon 65, 55mm Nikkor with extension ring, Fuji Provia 100 and shot this at F8@1/30 handheld.

2008-01-16T17:31:00.001-05:00

Shot this a couple of springs ago, but came across the negative recently so I thought I'd share it. Shot with Nikon N65, 24-85 Nikkor 2.8, F11@1/125, Fuji 200

2008-01-16T17:03:00.001-05:00

A small series of macro shots of a burnt cigarette and its labeled ash. Just doin' a little messin' around to get used to equipment and playing with the depth of field. Shot with window light and fill card. D200 55mm Nikkor Micro 3.5 with extension. They range from 1:2 to 1:1 with 1:1 being life-size. Much more macro to come.

2008-01-11T15:05:00.001-05:00

Shot of a small hallway in my old house at the top of the steps. I was wanting to play on the shapes, spaces, and tones. Shot with a Mamiya 645 ProTL, Kodak 125 Plus X to soften tones and contrast, F11@1/15 on tripod.

2008-01-11T14:43:00.000-05:00

This is my portrait choice from bio-portrait class last semester. Brought my sister into the studio and she was feeling horrible that day and this is a shot in between actual poses where she was just trying to rest. I really liked the mood of sadness, reflection, or what have you in this shot. A big thanks to her for being such a trooper and helping her little brother out. Shot in studio with Photogenics and soft boxes. Main light at 5.6 and background light 4.0 with no fill. Shot with D200 at f5.6@1/125 ISO 200 85mm Nikkor.

2007-12-13T11:59:00.001-05:00

Beach shots from this past spring.

2007-12-13T11:50:00.001-05:00

Some first year stuff. All shot on TMax 100 with Mamiya 645 Pro TL and 80mm Mamiya lens.

2007-12-06T12:41:00.001-05:00

This is a shot from object lighting. Batteries are sitting on a black cloth about 3 feet from background which has overlapped gels for gradient effect. The gels are a little off center which is a bit annoying, but other than that I like the image. D1H 24-85 Nikor F11@1/60 ISO 200 Two speedotron strobes: one for main and other for BG.

2007-12-06T12:26:00.000-05:00

This is a portrait for my long term assignment in Bio where we have to show our model's profession through a portrait. I chose my sister who is a nurse and decided to go with a traditional nursing outfit emphasized with traditional lighting. D200 85 mm Nikor f5.6@1/250 ISO200 One Broncolor Minipulse with snoot.

2007-11-28T20:39:00.001-05:00

My nephew, Skyler over Thanksgiving.

2007-11-28T20:27:00.001-05:00

Here are a few shots from my quick hit photo story for our photojournalism class. I covered Piedmont Biofuels in Pittsboro, NC. I'll post the whole story soon.

2007-11-20T20:27:00.001-05:00

These two shots are from our outdoor portrait assignment in our Bio-Comm Portrait class. I used a very familiar model who was easy to work with in a variety of locations with different backgrounds. The top image was shot with a decent amount of sunlight (4:45) behind her and I used a SB800 with softbox for fill. The image is a little flat, but still nice and soft with that northernly type light. The second image was taken somewhat later (5:20) and the day was turning rather dark. Had some light falling on the background, although not as much as I would have liked, and used the SB800 with a soft box for the main on this image. Both images were shot with a D200 24-85 Nikon set at 85mm ISO200. Yes, I did. My first true attempt at editing portraits with photoshop. So, please let me know in your comments if anything looks overdone and if anyone has any suggestions I am all open. Thanks to J. Rash for the 'skin so soft' action test it looks to work pretty well. Also, a big thanks to Emily for helping me out and being such a 'serious' model, great job.

2007-11-20T19:47:00.000-05:00

A few shots from Asheboro's Veteran's Day parade. D1H 24-85 Nikon SB800 for fill on two frames with faces.

2007-11-14T12:43:00.001-05:00

Here's a classic male pose with an 'I' shaped line. Simply, follow the line from his head to his waist, another line from shoulder to shoulder, and one more line from hip to hip. Also, strong lines and angles help to add to the masculine feel of this image. Thanks to Daniel for taking time out of his busy schedule to help me out.

2007-11-14T12:19:00.000-05:00

The setup for the silhouette was rather simple. On either side of the model there is a roll board used to block light from hitting the subject while at the same time bouncing light back onto the wall behind him. Behind each board there are 2 750 watt hot lights setup in 45 degree copy light fashion against the back wall. Also, the subject is on a raised platform covered in black to bring him further up into the light. Then, simply expose for white value of the wall and it's silhouette time. D1H 28-85 nikon f5.6@1/60 ISO400

2007-11-14T12:04:00.001-05:00

This shot is from a long line assignment in my portrait class. The purpose of the assignment is to study the lines and shape of the body and view their impact upon an image. The shape is a backwards 's' which is a classic feminine shape. You can follow the line from her head, to the top of her chest, to her waist, and then down her weight bearing leg.

2007-11-06T20:49:00.001-05:00

This is another shot from my object lighting class. The assignment was 'water' so I got out on a rainy day and here's one of my shots. I like the focus here, but could use a little more pop in the drops. D1H 55mm Nikkor macro ISO200 F4@1/60

2007-10-29T13:47:00.001-05:00

Corey Masterson, head coach of South Asheboro Middle School, celebrates with his team after defeating in town rivals, North Asheboro, 16-6 to capture the City Championship last Wednesday. D200 F2.8@1/250 ISO800 SB-800

2007-10-29T13:44:00.001-05:00

Here's a shot of my nephew at my sister's house this past weekend. Just messing around with my SB-800. D1H F8@1/60 ISO200

2007-10-25T12:43:00.001-05:00

This is a shot from my object lighting class. It's a bulb sitting on a plexi-glass sweep backlit with two 750 hot lights. I place a black card on either side to separate and outline. D1H F11@1/30 ISO 200