Brads Photo Blog

2009 Year End Review

2010-01-01T08:50:00.001-08:00

An adventure into the world of video

2009-09-11T20:50:00.000-07:00

I've been doing quite a bit of filming for Transition Bike Company in the past couple months and learning the ins and outs of cinematography. Today I completed my favorite movie thus far after a fantastic day of shooting with my buddy Cam Burnes. This was my first opportunity to really have a chance to scope some nice angles while filming like I would when shooting photographs. Cam rode really well and had a relaxed attitude which made the whole adventure really fun.

Cam checks out the first couple of shots

beautiful singletrack

For the gear-heads out there, I carried an ArcTeryx backpack that held my Nikon d-SLR bundle with a D300 and 3 lenses and 2 flashes, my Panasonic HPX-170 camcorder with a large matte box and 4x4" polarizer, a Bogen/Manfrotto tripod with a fluid pan head, and food and water, etc, all totalling about 90 lbs. The film shoot took 12 hours from the time we left the truck till the time we returned to it, and I've been editing for the past 4 days. So, in total, it took about a solid week.

This movie means alot to me as a photographer, an explorer, and as a visual communicator. This is the very essence of mountain biking. I hope you enjoy viewing it as much as I did making it. Special thanks to RJD2 for the soundtrack! The vid is best played with the volume up quite a bit, and for full screen please click the box on the upper right portion of the video once it starts to play.

Tis the Season for Senior Portraits!

2009-09-07T23:29:00.000-07:00

Now offering senior portrait packages at most any location in Whatcom County starting at $250. Inquire by email bw@bradwaltonphoto.com to setup yours today!

2009-09-06T11:47:00.000-07:00

A week ago I shot a photo that I've been wanting for over a year. Something was always just 'not right' about the scene so we never really scoped it that hard, but I knew there was something there that would be good. I woke up feeling good about it but as I approached the mountain I noticed a haze in the sky.

"Today's not the day," I thought, and I immediately reconsidered lugging the 20+ lbs of photo gear on top of my riding gear. I've been riding with the big pack quite a bit recently so it doesn't seem that bad anymore. I figured might as well just in case so I just threw on the pack and up we went.

After about 2 hours of riding up the mountain, I noticed that I could see the San Juan islands and a bit of fog lingering over the bay. I figured I'd go ahead and give it a shot just to see what we had to work with. I helped some friends to clear the line and here's the shot I got of Joel. I'm excited to know that the photo will work and anxious to see what it looks like when shot against a nice sunset later this fall. --brad

Hello World

2009-08-28T01:46:00.001-07:00

If you're reading this, you're either subscribed to this blog and just got an update after half a year of no blogging, or you just stumbled in on the right day. It seems as though life for a photographer is either studying photo technique while scraping together belongings to sell on ebay to pay rent, or working overtime on a daily basis on someone else's dime with no time for life outside of said "work". Well the double-edged sword in my case is more of a "have cake and eat too", since I have been working full time for Transition Bike Company for the past 5 months, where I get to ride bikes and take pictures of my friends riding bikes.

It started off pretty straightforward and I jumped into the deep end, photographing the full quiver of bikes for the company in a studio and outdoor setting. Sounds easy enough, but try juggling that with (surprise!) a bunch of other 'media' tasks like learning the ends and outs of HD filming for videos for each of these bikes coupled with days of intense video editing, event coverage for our sponsored athletes, writing press releases and company blog entries, updating the company website with new content and products, and I think there's even more. What? Don't feel sorry for me? Well it is work, I think, I mean it really is work. I spend alot of time there and I get money in return, so yeah, it's work.

The new job has kept me so busy in fact that I have lost time for personal website maintenence and updates. Now that the gig at Transition is finally getting settled and I have some 'free' time courtesy of a broken wrist, I present to you an update to bradwaltonphoto.com. When I started this website, I had no idea what my 'specialty' was in photography. "Umm, I can do it all". Well, no one can 'do it all' very well. I have recently deleted the galleries of things that I don't have time for/ interest in/ suck at, and put up some new content. If you have any 'free' time yourself, you should check out a couple new galleries, such as Landscape 2 and Mountain Bike 3. I also want to spend more time with photographing people and products, so if you're a person with a product, or one or the other, drop me a line at bw@bradwaltonphoto.com. The season is in for senior portraits right now and I've been doing a few already in some interesting locations.
Okay, well, get back to work or get on the site. My time is up for today. I'll leave you with a little nugget from yesterday's film session. Enjoy life! --brad

my co-worker- Transition US Dealer Sales Manager, Cam Burnes

The Time Machine

2009-03-26T10:52:00.000-07:00

Looking over my short-lived blog history, I noticed a blog that for some reason was saved but never published, so here ya go.

I have been looking for a product for several years that would allow me to do timer-free, hands-free self-portrait work for product and personal use. Basically this entails some type of hands-free shutter trigger actuated by motion within a given path. Wildlife photographers have used such gizmos for years to capture rare animals/birds or difficult to capture scenes from a distance, using anything from microphone/vibration actuation to complex cross-patterned laser interruption. The first product that I was able to find in a Google search was the Shutterbeam. I emailed them twice and they never replied. Next I found the PhotoTrap, but it's size and weight prevented any type of remote access for me while on my bike. I kept researching, and waiting, until finally I found it.

Enter the Time Machine. Bryan Mumford of Mumford Micro Systems is one smart cookie. This guy invented the exact device I have always wanted, about the same year I was born. Hailing straight outta the 80's is a device that I can only describe the looks of as being like a first-generation Nintendo Gameboy only made by Atari 10 years prior. Looks can be deceiving, and that is a serious understatement with the Time Machine.

You could write a book about this device, and Bryan did. I will never use the endless feature set of this device, but the one thing I wanted, it does, and it does it so well in fact that every time I use it I can't even believe it. I inquired to Bryan about his Time Machine and he was quick to reply to my emails (within minutes) and was even able to make me custom cords to adapt to my Pocket Wizard remotes.

I could go on and on, but here's what I'm doing with the Time Machine:

I ordered my Time Machine with the Infrared Beam attachment. A small box contains an electronic eye that detects light from an infrared beam. The beam originates from a small diode that either A) attaches to a cord and points directly into the eye of the box, or B) plugs directly into the box and uses a reflector to direct the beam back into the eye. I opt for option B, and this allows up to an (untested) range of...get this...60 feet! I have tested it up to 20 feet and it works flawlessly. The infrared beam attachment plugs into the Time Machine.

The Time Machine weighs half a pound, is powered by one 9-volt battery, and is smaller than my D700 camera body. With the infrared beam plugged into the accessory inlet in the Time Machine, I plug a transmitting Pocket Wizard into the shutter jack outlet. I put a receiving Pocket Wizard on my camera using a pre-trigger cable and bam, anything that breaks the infrared beam triggers the shutter of the camera. By doing this, I can completely isolate the Time Machine and infrared beam from my camera, only dependent on the range of a Pocket Wizard (1600 feet I think). This is insane! I can now hide the Time Machine within my scene undetectable by the end photograph.

Taking it one step further the Time Machine is programmable for 10 different modes of operation. I only use the Shoot mode, and within this mode there are several settings to set triggering options. There is a delay I can set up to 1/1000 of a second. I can set it to trigger continuously up to 8 frames per second (depending on the camera specification) the entire time the beam is broken. I can set the shutter to BULB mode and use the beam to trigger a flash, or multiple flashes, or intermitent flashes when used in conjunction with Pocket Wizard Multimax's set in Speedcycler mode. The list goes on and on, and every option is compatible with nearly every other option, creating near-infinite possibilities.

On the camera end of things, I have another Pocket Wizard remote on top of the camera to activate my flashes. It sounds complex, but is amazingly simple on the user end of things. I have my pack setup to carry everything in a manner that allows for near instant setup on location. I spend about as much time setting up the Time Machine and infrared beam as I spend setting up my flashes. Tear-down back into the bag is super fast. Generally I spend about an hour per shot, although I already have plans for some more complex setups soon to come. The Time Machine, heck, I even love the name.

My bag of tricks, with the Time Machine in the middle of the mix

delay on the beam trigger allows for shots to be taken a specified time after the beam is crossed, 0.625 seconds in this case

the main reason I wanted this device was for hands-free triggering

I've got alot of ideas utilizing the Time Machine, so look for upcoming blog posts that may just be something out of the ordinary.

Alleycat Race

2009-03-26T10:29:00.000-07:00

I'm not much for racing, but let me tell ya about something fun: the alleycat. Grab a bike, some beers, and meet up with good friends for a point-to-point ride around town stopping for various missions en-route. Choose whatever path you wish, the alleycat is all about spontaneous planning as to the most efficient path connecting the points together. I tagged along journalist-style with the winning team. We didn't really win, but we're all winners.

the ride begins and ends at the Hub bike shop

Sam on the Hula stop at Glass Beach, shortly after this it started hailing, then raining

Kevin M at the sack race stop

Cam and Sam bum wrestling a balloon until it pops. Erin in the background (plugging her ears) is with Red Boots Design and it was her birthday, hence the party hats

Cam with a sweet jump shot at the Happy Valley school stop

Our crew somewhere along the route

Kevin H in the jungle gym

punch-your-own-ticket stop

Some girlies having a good time

CUPCAKES!!!

Feel the love!

Giving away free stuff afterwards

no caption needed

more free stuff, can't get enough!

mmmmm, bikes, beer, sun

reflection in a window at the giving away of a Traitor bike frame!

Looking forward to the next one! Maybe see ya there! --Brad

Mambo Italiano Cafe

2009-03-09T15:11:00.000-07:00

Here's a few images from the Mambo Italiano Cafe photo shoot last week in Fairhaven, Bellingham, WA. Product photography is much better when you can eat it when you're done! Mambo has a new website going up soon so be on the lookout. If you haven't eaten there yet, go check it out! The food is fantastic. Special thanks to Jon Cooley for acting as art director on this project.

Calendar Image

2009-03-03T16:18:00.000-08:00

Premier Graphics added one of my images to their Spring 2009 Calendar. This is a photo of the sunrise over a clearing storm at Mt. Baker, taken from Stewart Mtn in Bellingham.

Party Studio Shots

2009-02-24T16:39:00.000-08:00

Here's a few homies from a recent 90's Rap Party that made it into the studio:

my fellow photographer John Meloy assisted with the setup

when Coors Light meets Target

gangsta

EBX getting extreme

white guys dancing

Product photos

2009-02-18T19:55:00.001-08:00

New product photography in the studio. Here's the approach:

Helmet is hung from the ceiling with rope and black thread.
Swivel chair-mounted coffee table for reflection.
2 softboxes on the helmet to show off the contour.
One light on a black paper background.
One flash directly into helmet to light up the inner liner.

And the final result with two images combined:

This one is similar but the shoes are lightly fastened to a rock.

WWU Cycling shoot

2009-02-09T08:03:00.001-08:00

Friday afternoon I did my first large group shot with Western Washington University's 2009 Cycling Team. My friend Aaron Warder assisted with the shoot and I was very happy with the result.

Western Washington University Cycling

After the shoot we hung out for the sunset and shot a few more since the lights were already setup.

Great shoot overall! --Brad

Products-in-action

2009-02-05T13:16:00.000-08:00

Yesterday's plan of attack was to get some product-in-action photos of one of the bikes I am reviewing. The idea is to show off the capabilities or purpose of the design of the bike. I was hoping to get two shots, but once I arrived at the top of the mountain and predicted the sky to change within the hour, I rode around awhile before setting up for a nice sunset photo. About 20 minutes after the sun went down, the sky really lit up with vibrant reds.

The point of this photo is to show off the purpose of a single-speed hardtail mountain bike, which is that it's simplicity and minimalistic approach makes it the perfect choice on days when the trails are really gritty. This bike can be rinsed off with a hose and the only maintenence due is a little chain lube. Pretty nice on days like this.

Photos like this sometimes require alot of waiting around time for the light to get just right. I spent an hour. Since not many people feel like waiting around for an hour, I also managed a nice self-portrait of myself riding in this same scene which can be seen on the opening page of the Mountain Bike 2 gallery on the site. --Brad

Studio work

2009-02-02T16:45:00.000-08:00

I am reviewing two mountain bikes this spring for Pinkbike.com and put together some studio images of the bikes. The Transition TransAm and Norco Shore 2 are both awesome bikes that serve two very different purposes, and I'm looking forward to riding these all over our awesome northwest terrain as more of the snow melts in the coming weeks.

Transition TransAm

Norco Shore 2

I've been saving up for a big purchase lately and finally bought a Tilt/Shift lens. The Nikkor 24mm PC-E Tilt/Shift is one incredible piece of glass. Product shots with a selective focal plane offer some very interesting perspectives and ways to communicate the subject to the viewer.

Tilt/shift enables the focal plane to run across the front axle in the above image

In this example, the focal plane runs diagonally across the rear suspension linkage (the purple part)

Neat stuff! --Brad

Long exposure with flash

2009-02-02T16:31:00.000-08:00

Good ol' Cam Burnes, US dealer sales manager of Transition Bikes, is a good buddy of mine and called me up for a night ride at Blanchard Mountain. We hit the trails aboard Transition's newest bike, the TransAm hardtail, which we both have setup as singlespeed mountain bikes. I've been wanting to photograph a particularly neat rock for a few years. It just sits in the woods by itself, surrounded by trees, and hangs over the Pacific Northwest Trail.

I found a nice angle that captured the scene pretty well and Cam patiently waited while I setup the shot. As I took a few test frames, I noticed that the camera was picking up a bit of the light pollution in the sky from Bellingham, which looked orangy-red and had a nice contrast with the other colors in the scene. We couldn't even see this with our eyes, the sky just looked black.

I set up 3 flashes, one for the rock, and one on each side of where Cam would be in the shot to freeze him in the scene. I had him start about 200 feet away and opened the shutter. I yelled for him to look around slowly up at the trees with his helmet light so we could pick up some detail in the trees there, then had him ride down the trail. I closed the shutter right when he was at the ideal spot, and as I did, the rear-curtain flashes froze him as a bit of a ghost.

This shot was a 69-second exposure, which offered a nice amount of that orange sky for ambience. Pretty cool! I packed up my gear and we proceeded to have an awesome ride for 2 more hours. I never thought I would be the type to consider it normal to carry 30 lbs of photo gear on a 3 hour night ride just to setup for an additional hour to get a single photograph, but it was defnitely worth it. --Brad

A little pro shoot

2009-02-02T16:22:00.000-08:00

My buddy Mike Metzger has recently recovered from a serious injury nearly one year ago that left him with a broken clavicle and skapula. With no bones holding his shoulder together, he was wired and screwed together like barb-wire fence. Well, he's back, and his intro back into the scene did not disappoint:

Keep your eyes on the site as Mike and I will be working together some this season to bring you some quality freeride images. --Brad

I'm back!

2009-02-02T16:17:00.000-08:00

Commence project blog-catch-up! It's been a busy couple of weeks as I am transitioning into full-time photography, which hasn't left much time for blogging. The weather has gone from frozen with feet of snow to nearly spring conditions on the bike trails. Here's Eric Brown on one of the local Bellingham trails as the sun shows itself for the first time in 2009.

Raining Cats and Dogs, Snowing Small Children

2009-01-12T14:27:00.000-08:00

It's been raining for a couple months now. Non-stop. Except for when it snows. We're at the record for snow accumulation for Bellingham, or atleast for how long it's stuck around. Warmer temps and some rain has melted all the snow in town, so I headed out for a local Chuckanut Mtn ride with some broski's from Transition Bikes.

The gate on Cleator Road was locked, so we went for a steep lil pedal up. Off the bat, we were greeted with road damage from all the flooding, which we found out was why the gate was closed. Oh, and there was still snow. Lots of it.

Kevin and Cam examine the road damage

Did I mention it was still snowing at the top? Hard. Since it was about 34 degrees, it was real wet. And real cold. Ugghh.

Kevin's sweet new Transition TransAm frame. I gotta get one of these.

Since I couldn't feel my fingers after about 5 minutes after that last photo was taken, there are no photos of the descent. It was snowing, raining, slick, wet, muddy, snowy, etc. A total slopfest. Felt good to get out though. Or atleast get home afterwards. --Brad

Finally, a break from the snow

2009-01-07T14:56:00.000-08:00

It's been snowing for a month now, which is largely unusual for Bellingham. I've had to cancel several outdoor photoshoots because I prefer to not get electricuted with my studio lights in the wet outdoors. Not only that, but the mountain biking has been non-existent with the nearly 2 feet of snow we've had.

This past weekend I got up with some buddies, Sam from Transition Bikes, Chris from Kona, and Jason from, well, not sure right now. Word on the street was there was cross-country riding to be had down south in Anacortes (not pronounced anna cortez, but anacortus). Anywho, the riding was really good and we got in 3 hours of hiking & riding with some snowy sections but generally it was pretty clear. I gotta get a lighter bike to hang with these dudes.

You can't really tell by the pics, but the wind was racing at near 50 mph, and it was well below freezing. I was lucky to have some buddies that were willing to take the time to let me setup my lights for the photos, but my hands were frozen- coldest they've ever been. When we were done and I was packing up gear, my fingers wouldn't even work to operate the zippers on my bag. Fun times! --brad

P.O.D.

2009-01-06T11:42:00.000-08:00

For those of you who don't keep up with mountain biking, Pinkbike.com is the industry's leading news, photo, and video online source. I upload photos to Pinkbike occasionally just to keep in the scene and see which of my photos people like the most. Pinkbike awards P.O.D., or Picture of the Day, to photographers and riders who put together a good picture. I'm still not sure how it's picked, but alot of it has to do with viewer comments. I've had POD a few times now, but today was a bit different, since today's photo is the first one I've uploaded that has not received any negative comments (as of this morning). Although it's an online award with no prize or money, it's still pretty cool to me since there are alot of great photographers contributing, and it helps to get my name out there. To give you an idea of the popularity of the website, the photo was posted as POD at midnight, and at noon today, a 12-hour span, it has been viewed 16,000 times, each time from a different computer. That's a serious website.

The photo is my buddy Joel in Squamish, BC, Canada. It's in my portfolio because it's one of my favorite shots from last year. I got really lucky with the sun in this pic. It was planned, but the timing was totally luck for the position of the sun. I mean, no one, no one, can shoot a single frame and nail that down without luck. Joel is travelling at supersonic speed if you can't tell by the dust cloud. I only had a single frame to shoot since it was shot with a flash. Perhaps with 'spray and pray' technique where the photographer just holds down the shutter and hopes for the best at 10 frames per second it would be a more likely capture, but I only had one click. Luck.

The Eagle Has Landed...

2009-01-05T16:08:00.000-08:00

Happy 2009! The last real job I had the employees had a code for when the boss-man showed up at work. "The eagle has landed" they would say, and quickly everyone would look busy.

It's been snowing alot lately and without much opportunity to ride bikes I went to shoot some bald eagles. Well, take their photograph I guess would be more fitting.

Okay, those are alright huh? Are you ready for the cheesiest picture I've ever taken?

BAM:

Proud to be an American dammit.

Glorified vultures as my buddy Jason says. They're still pretty awesome looking, just sitting there and all. --Brad

It's Alive!!!

2008-12-22T21:04:00.001-08:00

Site went live 3 hours ago. I'll try to keep fresh content on here. Do your part and find me some work!

More great news:

My email bw@bradwaltonphoto.com is not functional yet.
6 hours sleep in 3 days. I'm going on vacation. See ya next year! --b

First Post

2008-12-06T08:07:00.001-08:00

Here we go, the first blog entry for the shiny new photo site, although the site isn't live yet so if you're reading this you're living in the past. I've been putting off the first blog entry for a long, long time. Alot has happened recently that's worth blogging about. I spent Thanksgiving with my in-laws in Yosemite. Myself and a friend finished a bike trail we've been building for nearly 3 years. I finally got a color meter for my indoor lighting. All of these things individually are worth an entry to the online diary, but things have been hectic and blogging hasn't been very high on the priority list since, well, at the time I am typing this no one knows that this blog even exists. But I gotta start somewhere and what good is a new website with no blog entries? It's now Saturday morning just before I'm off for a biking photo shoot. The suspense builds now that I tell you that I felt inspired this morning to blog because of a random event last night.

I joined some friends for a 'happy hour' event at their house. It was a great end to the week for everyone to just unwind and hang out. Someone pulled out an iPhone and showed off a photo I had put together from a Christmas card shoot last week. Hillarity ensued. I had about 25 winning shots from our frantic sunset shoot, and I pulled everyone's individual 'worst of' photos and put them into one really gay photo. For the record, I have nothing against gaydom and I, along with pretty much everyone I know, thinks this is funny. If you are offended this blog ain't for you! I guess I spent an hour on it, which is never too much time for a laugh. Reaction, or impact, of any type, is a personal goal with my photography.

This photo however, isn't what this blog entry is about, but I refuse to post an entry to my photography blog without a photo, so there it is. 'Happy hour' came to an end and eventually our hosts kicked us out because, like normal people, they wanted to enjoy their Saturday. 5 of us went to grab some dinner and then we proceeded to someone's birthday party.

I ended up in a conversation with two guys debating politics. I hate politics, but ever since the recent 'most important election of all time', I do find some aspects fascinating. What was quite un-fascinating was that one guy, who just so happened to have really long dreadlocks, dropped a couple verbal bombs on McCain, praised Obama, and then proceeded to tell me that he did not vote. I asked him, "why did you not vote"? He replied that he was too lazy and just didn't. I promptly gazed into his eyes searching for something, but got nothing. He was serious. I told him, "I'm done here, I'm going home. You are not allowed to talk about politics if you didn't vote."