Adventures in photography

Always bring your camera : A truck fire in Bellefonte, PA

Brad — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 17:01:44 +0000

On Friday morning I had just dropped off my kids at school. As I was pulling up to the school i noticed some smoke coming from over the hill, I thought someone must be burning trash/brush/something. After Leaving the school I decided to drive toward the smoke, and what do I come upon, but a 3/4 ton Dodge with the hood popped and burning. No one else was around, I pulled to the side of the road to call 911 when a local Fire Police zoomed up and blocked traffic from the other side. A quick glance in the back of the Jeep to check and see, what I already knew was there, my camera bag. I got out, slapped on the 70-200 and started shooting.

The truck was parked just off the road, on a long private road/driveway for one of our local dairy farms. As I walked toward the fire, taking photos as i went, I noticed a couple of trucks coming up from the farm house. Big billowing black smoke poured off of the engulfed truck at this point with small little pops. The bright flames standing out against the dark black smoke just really stands out and it just demands your attention. One of the people from the farm house, came and asked if I was with the newspaper. Now i have sold images to the local paper, the Centre Daily Times, as well as the AP and hopefully I will continue to be able to do so. My camera is a pro-level body with a bulky battery grip, put on the 70-200 2.8 VR Lens from Nikon with the Lens Hood and it is an intimidating thing. I shouldn’t of been surprised when I got the feeling that they did not believe me when I told her I was not with the paper. I let them know that I was a local photographer who lives down the road and had come upon the burning truck by chance. They said good because they did not want this in the news paper, actually I think they said it another time, that they didn’t want this in the news paper. Selling the photos for a news story was pretty high on my priority list when I first got out of my Jeep. But its also not every day you get to take photos like these even if they aren’t destined to end up on the front page. But I wouldn’t of been able to take any photos If I hadn’t done like I always do take your camera with you everywhere you go.

The local fire department was on scene now and were quick to douse the flames and turn the black smoke into white steam. I stuck around a little bit longer taking shots at the fireman at work. They did an awesome job and brought everything under control a lot faster than I thought it would of taken. A couple more snaps as everyone stands around looking in awe at smoldering remains of the truck and then I was off, to take on the rest of my day.

Even though the people who came up from the farm house did not want the photos in the news paper and didn’t appear to be all that enthused that i was there taking pictures. I do plan on dropping off a disk to them in the next day or so, in hopes that the stress of the situation has calmed so that they can look back on the pictures in the future when they think back on this day.

I would also like to drop off copies of the photos to the local fire department(s) that responded. I’m not exactly sure which stations were involved (maybe this lack of investigative reporting is why I’m NOT with the newspaper) so if you do know please leave a comment below with which station(s) were there.

And one last thing, dont forget to take your camera with you! Its not everyday that you come upon an impressive scene like this, I’m thankful that I do have my camera with me, and that I do take it along.

Joe Paterno

Brad — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 18:44:51 +0000

It is difficult to live in Central Pennsylvania, and to not have Joe Paterno in your life. The work he did for Penn State and for the area is incredible his leadership, values, and guidance will have lasting effects for generations to come.

Engagement Session : Melody and Justin Photos at Talleyrand

Brad — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 02:58:09 +0000

The Match Factory sets an amazing background for Engagement photos. The match factory sits just off of Talleyrand park in Bellefonte, which is less than 10 Miles from State College and Penn State.

As I was editing the images from Melody and Justin’s engagement photos I thought it was a great opportunity to showcase just a few of their photos, and give them an idea of how the images had came out. They will be getting all of their edited pictures later in the week.

The colors looked great and everything just seems to pop.

A little vintage post production work compliments this photos mood nicely.

Nice selective focus on Melody here.

Beautiful warm smile.

Holding hands while trying to warm up a little in the sun, with a contrasty black and white treatment.

These were taken about a week and half ago, right after our warm winter turned into the true Central PA winter that we all know and love. Gone were the 50 degree highs from a couple days before, this Sunday we were back to our normal high of 22. Melody and Justin drove up from Lewistown and braved the sub freezing temperatures for their engagement photos. You guys are amazing! as you can’t tell how bitter cold it was outside. My fingers were freezing, my joints were aching, and my equipment wasn’t handling the cold all that well either. But these two were fantastic with great smiles, loving glances, and a great connection that really brought out a warmth and happiness in their photos.

Winter Sleeding in State College: Photograps in the snow

Brad — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 02:02:29 +0000

If you know me, you know I love the snow. My theory on winter has always been if it going to be cold it might as well snow. We got 6″ of fresh snow in Central PA over the weekend. Just like any good snow lover would do when it snows that much we had to go sledding. Saturday afternoon we hit up Slab Cabin for some of the areas best sledding around. The whole family had a great time, and even though friends of ours said it was packed I didn’t think it was too bad.
When we hit the park a little before 1:00, we had a very bright overcast sky, which really set things up for being great for taking
photos.

I started the day off shooting in Aperture Priority mode as my first shots were a couple of portraits and the shallow depth of field was important. Because everything is so white and bright out you need to dial in some Exposure Compensation, in my case +0.7EV, the camera’s built in reflective meter is going to read all that great white expanse as middle grey, If I had not dialed in the compensation my photos would of come out dull and grey, but that isn’t always such a bad thing.

With the bright but overcast skies bouncing off of the white snow below makes amazing light for portraits.

Also being so bright, it meant it was easy to freeze the action

This kind of weather and atmosphere is part of why I love living in Central PA. State College, Bellefonte, and Boalsburg offer such beautiful parks and public areas. These places provide amazing backdrops for photographing people as well as stand true and strong for landscape and fine art photography. If the weather keeps cool enough to have the snow around for a few more days and time allows I’m going to try and get back out to slab cabin during the day, while all the kids in school so I can get the park to myself.

2012 New Year : New Offerings and more photos

Brad — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 14:16:12 +0000

Hello everyone and welcome to 2012.
For 2012 I plan on expanding my photography business so keep an eye out for several changes and opportunities for clients, local businesses, as well as other photographers from pros to new camera owners.

Like I said, I will be expanding my offerings this year diving further into portraits including children and seniors as well as some unique offerings that will apply to a broader audience. I will be bringing back the monthly photo walks with Photo-walks as well as studio nights, and I am going to becoming more active on social networks, Facebook and twitter primarily. I’ll be sharing more of my work and encouraging you to do the same. We all have beautiful and amazing images that we capture and keep to ourselves, so few find their way to actually being printed any more instead we choose to harbor them on our computers where no one else gets to enjoy them just seems so sad.

I’m excited for the New Year and the increase in energy that comes with it. So regardless if you are looking to become a client of mine, looking to get out and improve your own photography, or just wanting to see some pretty photos, I say welcome, come all, enjoy, and lets start doing and sharing together.