Canon 7D, Lensbaby Composer lens, Double-Glass optic, 1/160 sec at ƒ/5.6, ISO 100

This photo was taken at the iStock event a few weeks ago here in Salt Lake City. It has very little editing done to it, although I do admit to a little bit of tooth lengthening to make it look like she has fangs. :) We had an amazing makeup artist that day, Chris Hanson, who also did the makeup for the models in a few of last week’s blog posts (Monkey and Mime).

I used a Lensbaby for this shot, along with many other images throughout the day, and was able to get really amazing focus on a lot of them. Anyone who says that you can’t get a sharp image with a Lensbaby hasn’t used one long enough to get it right. I’ve been trying to use my Lensbaby Composer as much as possible and I’m learning it’s one of those pieces of equipment that really takes practice to get the hang of it.

So if you have a Lensbaby and are frustrated—don’t give up! It is possible to get great focus with it. My one tip would be to compose, focus, take the shot … then re-focus and do it again and again with the same setup. Even if I think I nailed focus I usually refocus and take the same shot a few more times just to make sure (especially if I like the composition). I still miss focus, but the more I use the lens the fewer “bad” shots I end up taking. I really enjoy using my Lensbaby and find that it changes the way I see my images and compose the shots … doing it in the editing process just wouldn’t create the same experience for me.

Canon 7D, Lensbaby Composer, Double-Glass Optic, 1/125 sec at f/8, ISO 100

I spent some time yesterday editing a few of the photos from a recent iStock mini’lypse event here in Salt Lake City. This one was from the “Carnival” themed location where I used my Lensbaby for all but one of the sets. I though the background needed a little bit more so I added some textured and a bit of blur (to keep it consistent with the Lensbaby effect) and am pretty happy with how it turned out.

I still have a LOT of images in my back-log to edit, and keep planning more shoots and taking more photos. Plus I still have a bunch of writing I’m trying to keep up with. It’s such a good feeling to stay busy … normally I would cringe at having some much photo back-log to get to but for some reason it’s making me smile. :)

Canon 7D, Canon 70-200 ƒ/4L IS lens, 1/125 sec at ƒ/4, ISO 100

Canon 7D, Lensbaby Composer, Double-Glass Optic, 1/125 sec at ƒ/5.6, ISO 100

This is a photo from this weekend’s iStock photo event organized by Todd and Renee Keith (http://www.bellaora.com). I had a fantastic time and got some really amazing images from the event and will be posting more images from it throughout the week.

One thing I did during the event was I challeneged myself as much as possible. On the first day of the event (Friday) at the SLC Library I only shot with my 50mm ƒ/1.4 lens. The next day I did all but one set with my Lensbaby Composer, and yesterday I used my 70-200mm ƒ/4L IS lens for all but one location (one room was just too small to use that focal length).

Of all of the lenses I used the Lensbaby-day was the most challenging, since it’s tough to get perfect focus on every shot but one thing about that lens is that when it is focused it’s CRAZY sharp. It was also dark in the room and we were using studio lights for nearly every shot, so that of course made it even more difficult, but I really like the results I got and can’t wait to get them all edited. :)

Canon 7D, Canon 70-200 ƒ/4L IS lens, 1/50 sec at ƒ/4, ISO 100

Here’s a nice, clean stock image from my trip to the iStock event in St. George earlier this month. There are a few other images in this series and I have to say that this set was my favorite from the event … really shallow DOF, sharp focus, nice lighting, clean colors and great models/expressions.

One thing that helped with the lighting in this image is that I was fortunate to be able to shoot this in the early morning before the harsh sun started shining down on us. The models in the background are in the shade and I used an off-camera speed-light to fill in the model’s face.

Canon 7D, Canon 24-105 ƒ/4L IS lens, 1/125 sec at ƒ/4, ISO 100

This is Lissa, photographed in St. George at an iStockphoto event … the same dancer I posted in an earlier blog post. She was doing some stretching before we started and I was standing nearby, so I got this quick shot of her before she changed positions. :)

Canon 7D, Lensbaby Composer, Double-Glass Optic, 1/400 sec at ƒ/4, ISO 100

Yesterday I hit another personal milestone on iStock—this photo was my 40,000th download! I was excited that it was this image … the little girl in this image is one of my earlier models and is also one of my very best sellers.

It still amazes me that in less than four years I went from making a few bucks a month on iStock to fully supporting myself with my photography. Who knew! When I was a kid I never thought it would be possible to actually make a living doing photography … times have definitely changed and I’m so happy to be doing what I love.

Canon 7D, Canon 70-200 ƒ/4L IS lens, 1/100 sec at ƒ/4, ISO 100

This is another image taken at the recent iStock event in St. George. We had a pretty good-sized group of people in this room, about 8 or 9 models altogether, and my philosophy with setting up images when we have that many people is to use them all. So for this shot I positioned them all in the frame and used a long focal length to compress it to make it look like the entire room was filled with people. It’s one of my favorite shots from the event … really simple, yet has a lot of potential uses for designers.

Canon 7D, Canon 70-200 ƒ/4L IS lens, 1/20th sec at ƒ/4, ISO 100

This past weekend I was in St. George for the iStockphoto event “Red Rockalypse 5″. The event was organized by a contributor, A.J. Rich, and he hired models and found locations for me and the other 28 photographers to use to create stock images for our portfolios on iStock. RR5 was my 6th iStock event and I honestly have to say that it was one of the best. It was a blast to spend time with so many awesome iStock photographers … plus I got some great images and that’s always a good thing.

The two models in this image are Rich Legg’s daughters, Sarah and Lissa. They’re both wonderful models and I had a lot of fun photographing them at this location … Lissa decided to make a face and I, of course, took a picture. This one’s a keeper, for sure. :)