ESPpc Photography

Avon High School Fall Fling 2009

2009-10-15T07:36:00.004-04:00

Avon High School just isn't all about their band. Several times per year, the Avon choirs perform for diverse audiences. The choirs consist of Chorale, Concert Choir, Allegros, Chamber Singers, and Attraction. Avon High School choirs will be performing in three more shows in 2009. Seven Brides for Seven Brothers will be held on 11/19-11/21. Sounds of the Season will be on 12/8, and the Madrigal Dinner on 12/16. Please come join the festivities! Click here to see the photo gallery!

Avon High School Spring Sing

2009-05-26T01:24:00.003-04:00

The Avon High School Spring concert was a huge hit! The Choir, Chorale, Allegros, Accents all participated in this wonderful show. Congrats to the departing Seniors and to Rick Gamble, Choir Director. Click on the link to see photos from this event!

Avon High School Fall Fling

2008-10-15T21:49:00.003-04:00

The Avon High School did it again with another outstanding performance by all their choir groups. Click on the link to see the photos!

NUMA Arts Festival

2008-09-17T23:01:00.003-04:00

Ahhh, the weather held up for the first annual NUMA Arts Festival in Westfield, IN. Many talented artists displayed their wares in medieval market fashion. Local eating establishments served up culinary delights, while attendees listened to live music in the shade. It was a bit warm, but luckily no rain came on Saturday. Sunday was a different story when the remnants of Hurricane Ike showed up. I'll be back next year to see what NUMA has to offer!

Check out our gallery of select shots from this event.

Four Freshmen Event Photos Online!

2008-09-13T11:54:00.003-04:00

If you are a fan of great Jazz music quartets, you should check out our Four Freshmen event galleries at our website. This group has been performing for 60 years, but the members have changed several times. You can also check out the Four Freshmen website to view the current artist bio's and maybe check out some of their music. I can't recommend them enough. Great people, too!

It's off the the NUMA Arts Festival in Westfield, Indiana this weekend. I'll post updates and pictures of that event soon!

Collage Madness!

2008-09-08T23:50:00.007-04:00

I've been asked by a few clients, "Can you make a collage of these pictures?" Until now, I've had to sheepishly (and politely) decline such requests. Why? Because it takes significant work to align a set of images "just right." The answer is now "Yes, we do collages!" I've practiced with images from some of my recent photo shoots. Check out these results!

The next question you may have is "Ok, that looks great! How do I order a collage from you?" Actually, it's easy but it may take a little time. I'll improve the image-selection process as time goes on. You need to choose at least 8 images, but no more than 24. Too many images can get messy. Browse through the galleries and make a note of the image ID numbers you want. Generally the image IDs are a string of characters like "2008_0718_XX_XX_XX" displayed at the bottom of each image. It might help if you already have an e-mail to us started and simply copy and paste the image IDs into the e-mail.

You need to include the whole ID number. Send that list of IDs to us. We will create a collage of the images for you in 2-5 days, and then send you an e-mail on where to find your collage on our website. Most collages will be in 8x10 format.

You learn MACRO fast, my young grasshopper!

2008-09-07T23:09:00.004-04:00

Macro photography is essentially the art of taking pictures of something very close-up or "in your face." If you are of the squeamish types, or you don't like bugs, you may want to avert your eyes from the photo. Rest assured, no insects were harmed in the taking of this photo. So, how do you take a Macro photo? If you have a digital point-n-shoot camera, you may have noticed a setting with the image of a flower on it. Sometimes it is shown in conjunction with a picture of a mountain. The flower represents a close-up picture. The mountain represents a landscape picture. Did you find that setting on your camera? Excellent! Now what? You could take a picture of a fern-eating grasshopper, like we have here. By the way, this photo was taken with a Canon SD850 point-n-shoot, just to prove you don't need a camera the size of shoulder-mounted artillery to do this. Click on the photo to see a much-larger stomach-wrenching view. Don't concentrate on the bug - look at the tiny details that you can now see! It's as almost as if your camera were a microscope!

Go out and start looking at life as if you were a mouse or a bug. What would things look like if you took a picture REALLY close? Most of the time, you can do these photos with a steady hand, but sometimes you may need a small tripod. Take pictures of flowers, coins, sugar packets, the bristles on your hair brush - anything. See what happens!

Glassic Creations by Kimmi

2008-08-30T19:04:00.002-04:00

I had the opportunity to shoot product photos for a very talented artist in the Carmel, Indiana area. Kimmi has been creating unique silver jewelry items for the last three years. See her website Glassic Creations for more information. The creativity and talent visible in these pieces is exceptional. If you live near Indianapolis area, you may see some of Kimmi's work at the Westfield NUMA Cultural Celebration to be held on Saturday, 9/13 and Sunday, 9/14, 2008. The location is Downtown Westfield, IN at the intersection of Union and Penn Streets.

The Four Freshmen

2008-08-28T16:57:00.005-04:00

Photographing the Four Freshmen event was a great experience. I had the privilege of getting to know many wonderful people - some more camera shy than others. The music! Oh, it was wonderful! The Jam Session, the Four Freshmen, the Jazz Quartet, Orchestra, and the talented Monika Herzig Trio. The venue was tight, but it was well laid out. The best part was having a good time with new and old friends - even capturing a little romance now and then. I hope to see this event again sometime!

I want to thank my kids and my crew who helped make it all happen, and the event planners for asking us to be there!

Capturing high-speed action

2008-08-14T15:06:00.003-04:00

Today I was thinking of the upcoming 4-day home stand of the Indianapolis Indians (8/15-8/18). It made me think about what it is I love about watching baseball (or any other sport). To enjoy a sport is much like enjoying anything else. In order to savor the moments of excitement, you have to know something about what you are watching. You can apply these basic ideas to sports, food, fine art, cars...whatever. Since I am the most comfortable with baseball, I'll use that sport as an example. What does this have to do with the title? Bear with me.

Let's say you are at a baseball game, and a batter just made it to first and stayed there. You know the next move is to steal second base, or stretch it to third. You now know where the potential action will be. Ok, you don't have a multi-thousand dollar camera setup, but you have a small PNS (thats "point-n-shoot" folks), so how do you do this?

It takes patience and a steady finger. Point and zoom your camera on the point where the action will take place. Remember to leave enough space in your frame to account for the action that could take place. Now, press the shutter button half-way down. On most cameras, this will tell the camera that you want to focus and meter the exposure (light or dark) for the photo you are about to take. Make sure the focus indicators have focused on something relevant (such as the baseman or the base) and not the outfield, the sky, or something else. If you need to re-focus, take your finger off the shutter button and press half-way again. Repeat until you think you got focus on the right thing. Now, just hold that finger there until the action happens! Remember what I said about the steady finger?

Ok, the runner stole the base, and you pressed the shutter button. You got the framing right, and got the right timing so it looks cool, but the runner is blurry.

Your shutter speed was too slow. Some PNS cameras let you set shutter speed priority (Tv or S on the dial). You many have to hunt through menus. Alternatively, some cameras also have "sports" scene modes. You know, that icon that looks like a person running?

Set your camera on "sports" scene or shutter priority with a shutter speed of at least 1/500 of a second (the larger the number on the bottom, the faster the shutter). Try it all again!

Remember, no matter what camera you have, night games with field lights are hard to shoot. Day games will always look the best.

School's back in sesson

2008-08-12T17:40:00.003-04:00

For many of us, this is the time of year where we get to see our young ones (or the young ones of neighbors) excitedly boarding the yellow bus to take them on a new year of adventure. How many of you end up standing outside taking pictures during this time? How many of you suffer through the same school photos that they take every Fall and Spring? If you would like something different, send us a note or give us a call. We'd be happy to discuss setting up a family portrait session. Frequently, we can come to you, and set up right at your location.

ESPpc soon to offer large-format services

2008-08-12T13:17:00.004-04:00

With the introduction of an Epson Stylus Pro 4800 17" wide printer, ESPpc can now offer on-site printing for larger portraits for events. Commercial image printing can be done without waiting on a larger lab to process.

Example of sizes:

8 x 12 (Lustre or Matte)
11 x 14 (Lustre or Matte)
12 X 18 (Lustre or Matte)
16 x 24 (Lustre or Matte)

Photo banners 17" wide up to 90' long if desired!

ESPpc adds on-site printing

2008-08-12T13:02:00.004-04:00

ESPpc recently added the capability to do on-site photo printing for typical photograph sizes (4x6, 5x7).

Camera Modes - April 8th, 2008, Avon Library

2008-04-01T03:27:00.003-04:00

I will be presenting a short course on camera modes at the Avon/Washington Township Public Library in Avon, IN. The class will be from 6pm to 7:45 pm. My plan is to have a group assignment, and have the students post their work here.