HO-LY COW.

September 2nd. That is the date of (until now) the most recent entry in my blog. Heck even Tom has me beat by 4 posts!

So much has been going on, I don't even know where to begin.

I started shooting video for BridgeWay Community Church in early September



I also helped Olivia Kay with her kickstarter project.



Of course I've still been shooting for 12 Stars



And I Shot my first wedding (Jacklyn and Jarad McLeland)

And that was all in September.

I rang in October with my second wedding - Chris and Nicole Shotwell (you know, the weekend after the McLeland wedding)

My schedule with 12 stars picked up even more - Now I'm working "most" time - about 60% of what a full-timer would do. We're still a ROWE so, no hour counting here and that has helped a lot - allowing me to move my schedule around at will.



I've been working a lot with Emmanuel. Mostly just messing around, but he has gotten me leads on further paid work with some local DJ's and Dancers.




I've also done a few other odd-jobs here and there, finished the last few days with Syncope and signed on to Gaff another project coming up in about 10 days. These last two weeks Rocky and Zach have been on vacation, so I've been manning the office myself while still shooting and editing (and boy is that a rough job on your own).

Well, that about catches me up with what's been going on since September. I'll try not to take so long before the next post!

Quick Trip to Lafayette

I went up to Lafayette last week to meet with Jacklyn and Jarad about their wedding photos and while I was there I got to stay with some friends I haven't seen in a while.

This, this is Kevin and his "Hey guys
I might switch to Canon" face.

Firstly, my good friend Kevin is moving to Los Angeles in about 2 days from now to start his career path towards becoming a world-renowned Director of Photography.

So if any viewers out there in the LA region have a job that needs to be filled - hit him up.

Best of Luck Kevin, and remember, Orange on Teal = Summer Blockbuster!

Triathalete? Check. Photographer?
Check. Ph.D.? Sooo close...

Next up, I hung out with Andy quite a bit. I do have to say one of the best things about Andy (aside from his personality, open couch, and a bunch of other stuff) is that he's got a bunch of fun toys and is willing to let me mess with them. So this weekend I took a 1d mk3, 100mm IS macro, and 24mm f/1.4 out for a spin in the woods. Here are the results:

[Click images to view larger]

Self Portrait. Hand held, f/1.4, 4lbs of camera - not easy or
comfortable for that matter.

Seriously, the 24/1.4 was made to be shot wide open,
its not worth the price tag for anyother use.

I think I have fallen in love with the 100mm IS macro.

No, seriously, its sharp, its a great focal length for
macro as well as portraits (Kevin's pic - look at his eye!)

It's ridiculously sharp.

Did I mention IS, because it has 4 stops of it...

Oh and it's price tag won't break the bank
clocking in at just under a grand before tax/shipping.

Because who doesn't want to get closer to this guy...?

One more thing about the 100mm IS Macro - the IS is killer when shooting video. Don't believe me? The video below was shot with the 100mm hand held (with a viewfinder). The only issue I have is when you start to pan it lags, but just once, before it recognizes you aren't just shaking.

Canon 100mm L IS Macro Handheld Test from Michael Carney Media on Vimeo.

a quick 2 shot test of handholding (with viewfinder) the Canon 100mm L IS Macro lens on my 60D. I think I've found a new object to drool over....

Sometimes the Cheap Seats are the Best in the House

Cheap Seats

During a break while on assignment for 12stars I thought to myself "You know self, you've never shot baseball before," so I gave it a crack from where I was at the moment. I think I captured the essence of going to a local baseball game. What do you think?

Evelyn (imagine that)

So cute, its hard to take a bad picture. Evelyn, Kelly and I went out to enjoy the weather and take some pictures since E is rapidly approaching her 18 month mark. I think we're going to have a second session since it was so hot, no one was really comfortable. 

Midwest Foresters' Conclave

Brad, a member of the
Purdue Society of American Foresters,
takes a break during practice
for the yearly SAF regional conclave

Remember Brad from way back when?

I grabbed this picture of him while taking a break from practicing for the Underhand Chop competition at the 2010 Midwest Foresters' Conclave.

This year the conclave was held at Purdue and, while I wasn't able to grab any sweet stills like you see here, I did get the opportunity to shoot some video during the actual competitions.

I wasn't able to stay all day, however I did make it in time to film the Underhand Chop - one of my favorite events of the day.


So here it is - The Underhand Chop

Underhand Chop | 2011 Midwest Foresters' Conclave from Michael Carney Media on Vimeo.

150 Competitors from nine schools gather each year to challenge each other in traditional lumberjack games at the Midwest Foresters' Conclave. This year was the first year the event was held in the spring and was hosted by Purdue University during their annual Spring Fest and Bug Bowl.

The Children's Museum

Kelly, Evelyn and I went to the Indianapolis Children's Museum on Friday. While Evelyn's attention span and activity level only lets us stay at the TCM for about an hour and a half, we still got to see Dino-sphere (during the thunderstorm), go under the Chihuly, splash in the Play Zone, see movie magic in the new Incredible Costumes exhibit and romp all over the seven wonders of the world.

I've also been helping out 12 Stars Media with the Indy TCM's This Week's Wow bi-weekly web series. Check out the most recent video below and then the rest of the series.

First shots with the 60D

Here are the first shots with my new 60D. I used the canon EF 50mm f/1.4 lens. I was still using my video picture control, so I converted them to black and white so the colors wouldn't be too off. I did find out, however, that once again my camera is newer than my software so I'll need to load up Canon's software in order to process my RAW files.

It is done.

Well, it's done. I've sold nearly all of my lenses, my D300s is almost sold, and I've already got my 60D, 50/1.4 and the 24/2.8 and 135/2 are on their way.

Here's the first thing I've shot with the 60D. Enjoy

Dare to Bare / 60D test from Michael Carney Media on Vimeo.

Gwyneth's 1 year photos

Well, here they are - Gwyneth's 1 year photos. Since Gwyn is only a few weeks younger than Evelyn, We've been doing their photos at about the same time. This time, we were a bit late, but not too far off.

This also marks the (probably) last photoshoot with my Nikon. I should have my new Canon within about a week now.

Finally got around to it

Now that she is closer to 14 months, I finally got around to putting in the several (read: 4) hours necessary to fix all of my in-camera mistakes on one of Evelyn's 9 month pictures.

Mossy Moran

Mossy is a regular Irish folk singer at O'Bryan's Nine Irish Brothers Pub in West Lafayette. Last time he was in town, I was able to shoot some photos during his performance. His website is mossymoran.com.






I had one speedlight (SB26) on a magic arm super-clamped to a wooden divider (about 9 feet up, 12 feet away). Triggered with Pocket Wizards (Thanks Kevin!). The more I shoot with telephoto lenses, the more I dislike the "normal" focal lengths...

Wait, Today's Saturday?

I was, like, 9000% more productive today than any other Saturday in recent history. Winter self portrait with Abby, building a Snowoman with Abby, Cooking a nice dinner and photographing it with Abby. Maybe there's a pattern here ;)

[Mmmmm... Carbonara tortellini with Italian seasoned chicken

Nikon D300s, Nikkor 17-55 f/2.8;

1/160, f/8, iso 200;

SB600 1/4 power fired into a 32" reflector]

Post Process Practice

I shot a portrait of a Purdue prof and his grad students today. The image straight from the camera wasn't so hot, but I knew that. What I was hoping to be a large, windowless classroom turned into a small office with no shades for the only window! The only option I really had was to throw around as many photons as I could muster in hopes to get a long enough shutter speed to show some movement. 1/1.3s f/22 ISO 200 later...



So I took it into photoshop knowing I was going to have to do more than the usual to make this image worth something (or at least close to being worth something). About 20 adjustment layers and much dodging, burning, smearing and blurring later...



So my question to you, dear readers, is was it worth the 90 minutes of photoshop work, did I take it too far, or was it doomed from the start?

Womball v SD State

Blow-out 76-40, still fun to shoot (good fundamentals ;) )