What is it about portraits?

I don't take many portraits but I got a chance a while back to go with a friend of mine, Chad Nance, while he interviewed the Mayor of Richmond Doug Wilder. No fancy lighting just natural light.



I don't know if I don't take portraits a lot because it is too much pressure to get someone to sit for you and then if the photos don't come out then I have to share my failure with someone else. Or maybe I just don't like people that much or maybe all my friends are boring looking. I would like to start taking more though, its good to have goals.



These shots I just took while Chad was talking to the Mayor, I think they came out good.

On the road again

I actually took these photos before I took the on from the previous post, I just revisited them today. I took these off of Hwy 60. When I originally took these the sun was coming up over the dark building, it is red, and I wanted sun flares. editing them today I came to the conclusion that it didn't work, it was a waste of time; thank goodness for digital. No wasted film. Who knows I might come back to these photos in a month or two and want sun flares again.


I shot these in color and did the post in photoshop. This building (above) is bright red so one day I might want a bright red building and I have the RAW file to go back to and get the red back. I used to love to shot black & white film. Back in the "old days" of film you had to be able to see the image in black & white before you took it. Know you can either not worry about it or try to see in color and in black & white to figure out how to compose it and get the lighting right.

Route 5

Route 5 is an alternative route to HWY 64. I drive it a lot to get off the highway and to see some country. I am always looking for something to take pictures of while driving down Rt. 5 this is an example of one of those times. This sign was out side an abandoned store. I like rural and dilapidated subjects to take pictures of, the suburbs are to boring. And unfortunately I live in one of those areas so I have to find these areas while I am on the road.
I took this image in to Photoshop and tried to give it a "grungy" look to go with the look of the sign it self.

COGfoto coming soon...

COGfoto will be a photo blog with, hopefully weekly if not by-weekly, posts of photos and the story behind them. I am hoping this will encourage me to take more photos and better ones. Please comment, curtique, and/pr give any other insight on the photos posted here. I hope to get some photos posted this week.