Day 333/365

Snowman! That’s my little Mason, grinning next to our accomplishment! (iPhone photo)

Today will be my last blog post until the 6th of the new year. Why? Because I’m going on a 3-week vacation, that’s why! Where to?

Well… I’m going to leave you all guessing on this one, although I may drop a clue somewhere in this post. I should mention that I’m not very subtle in my clue-dropping skillz, but whatever.

Once I come home, I’ll post the daily pictures from my trip.

Day 325/365

One of my absolute favorite things to do whenever the snow really starts coming down out here; I go out to an empty parking lot, pick up as much speed as I can, then hit the handbrake and turn hard. Weeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!! Ohhhhh so much fun!!! It’s without a doubt my little slice of heaven every winter. And I’ve gotten pretty good at it too. I can maintain speed through a tight turn while going sideways and getting dangerously close to the curb on the apex. I feel like a slow-motion rally driver without the spectators. Oh and see all those tire marks on the snow? That’s all me. That was fresh snow before I got my tires on it! (iPhone photo)

Day 326/365

My first ever memory card back when I started professionally (ie. I had smaller cards earlier in my digital shooting) as a digital photographer… Funny how 1GB is so insignificant now. I can’t wait to see what cameras can do when the G in GB (GigaByte) turns into a T (for TB – TerraByte). Then we can look back at our “huge” 16GB and 32GB cards and laugh our butts off. (iPhone photo)

Day 327/365

I shot the CEO of Wells Fargo for Utah Business Magazine last week! I was nervous, but managed to keep my cool and get some great shots. I figured, this is a prominent business figure, in charge of a company mired in an unpopular bailout, at a critical time in our economic history; I HAVE to nail this one!

I think I did alright

Day 328/365

Aaaaand here comes another lazy shot. I call this one “Snow on Stuff” (iPhone photo)

Day 329/365

I’ve been recording some music and getting to know Cubase in the process (iPhone photo)

Day 330/365

Perhaps not a surprise to some of you, but I am an avid gamer (PC gamer – I will not touch console games with a ten foot pole). Have been since I was a kid (much to my poor mom’s dismay – I spent many hours racing cars, shooting bad guys, commanding troops, etc., in my teen years).

Crysis is a first-person shooter (which means you play through the eyes of the character in the game) which, along with just one other game right now, is a game that has really gripped me. The game is starting to show its age, at an enormous 2 years old (this is old by gaming standards) and yet continues to be tons of fun, terrifically difficult and more tense than an unscheduled meeting with a rabid pack of wolves. (iPhone photo)

Day 331/365

An interesting abstract. It’s a stack of envelopes. I love how grainy iPhone photos can be (iPhone photo)

Day 332/365

Ahhh, New York… (iPhone photo)

Wellp… See ya next year! ]]> http://rajibarbir.com/blog/2009/12/12/up-up-and-away/feed/ 0 http://rajibarbir.com/blog/2009/04/02/lady-in-the-fake-lake/ http://rajibarbir.com/blog/2009/04/02/lady-in-the-fake-lake/#comments Thu, 02 Apr 2009 17:19:11 +0000 Raji Barbir http://rajibarbir.com/blog/?p=548 [...]]]> Day 71/365

Meichelle is an awesome model. Her online portfolio shows a variety of work, the majority of which leans towards really high-fashion stuff. She does have the figure and a fantastic look to do just that, but I felt that she had a really great “girl-nextdoor” look too, so I went with a more casual approach.

So we went to a little park close to my house. Nothing fancy, but I’d never shot a model there with snow on the ground, and I figured her blue eyes would really pop there.

This is exactly the shot I was after:

Then she put some glasses on. I’ve never done this with glasses before, but I figured “Hey, why not include myself in this shot?”

And then… we decided to do something stupid.

There was a relatively large basin-like area next to where we’d been shooting, normally just a giant patch of grass, but at that particular time of the year, it was half-covered in snow.

And that’s an important distinction; half-covered. Because the part that wasn’t covered in snow was covered in knee-deep water.

That’s where we wanted to go.

What?! It looked cool!!

So we started heading down. Not thinking much about how we’d get there, we went through the grassy area to get to the mini-lake. It looked dry enough when we started down that path, but before we knew it, we were navigating through ankle-deep water, little streams of water running through here and there, trying to step on the tiny little patches of grass that were poking out of the water. It wasn’t any use, our feet were soaked. And the cold… Oh man, it was cold.

And the whole time, I’m thinking “Is this really going to be worth it?” Because honestly, I wasn’t even sure when we first looked out to the water. I mean the water looked cool, but would it work with a model in it? Not to mention that since we came so unprepared, I wasn’t expecting to have much time to find my groove and get what I wanted before we both froze to death. Meichelle especially.

We stopped in a little patch of snow just off the side of the mini-lake, I made sure I was fully ready to shoot as soon as she was out in the water, and off she went. She didn’t go too far, but who could blame her?

This isn’t a particularly strong picture, but I just had to show the bravery.

And this is my favorite of the ones we shot. I’m still not sure that it was worth it to be honest. It sure was fun, but I’m not too crazy about the shot itself.

And then we went back to finish the shoot:

Day 72/365

My son doesn’t clean up his Lego blocks too well…

Day 73/365

The stack of padded enveloppes that are ready to go out to my models:

I can’t remember the last time I got this adventurous on an engagement shoot. And I don’t remember EVER shooting engagements with the bride-to-be riding in a speeding shopping cart!

This was just a lot of fun.

I’m shooting more of NURF Wars tonight, so not much time to talk.

Here’s me forcing myself to experience natural light (ie. I went outside):

It’s easy to forget how nice your surroundings are when you see them day in and day out for years on end.

This is the view from my house:

Three shots this time. I was just getting done sending out some mail at my local post office and everything just kind of fell into place. Just for me!

And here’s one I shot on New Year’s Eve. This was shot at a great lookout point in Salt Lake called Ensign Peak. Little piece of advice though, if you ever plan on going up there… You won’t see much of any fireworks and you’ll get a parking fine between the hours of 10pm and 6am. Happy New Year!

And here’s a few I took after purposefully walking outside in a snow storm. I believe the word you’re looking for is “insane”. The first couple of shots have a painterly feel to them for me. The way the snow blurs.

This is the closest shot I have to showing you just how hard that snow was blowing. I couldn’t see a thing.