Food Photography Rocks!

Posted on November 9, 2009 by Teddy
Deconstructed Guacamole

Nikon D40 w/ 18-55mm at 66mm, f/5.6 @ 1/60, ISO 200

Yes, believe it or not. That is my passion. I want to shoot food for a living. I have always salivated (pun intended) over beautiful food photography. In my previous career as a filmmaker, I shot a lot of TV commercials. My favorites were always the ones with food. I shot bread, pizza, cookies, cereal, hot dogs, and plenty of restaurant food. Now that I’m back at photography, I want to continue working with food and making beautiful photographs of it.

“Why?,” you ask.

Simple. I love food. Of course I do; we all do. We’d die without it. No. You don’t understand. I LOVE FOOD! I love everything about it. I love to make it. I love to eat it. I love to talk about it. I love exploring new places to find it. Of all the reasons though, I think the cooking drives me to photograph it more than anything else.

While preparing a wonderful meal or even a simple snack, all cooks and chefs are consumed with the thought of sharing what they are creating. Will their guests enjoy the food? Will it look appetising? Will it be what they envision in their heads?

Of course, there are some chefs-like some artists-who don’t care if anyone eats their work. But for the most part, cooking is about sharing. And that is where the enjoyment is for me. I get no greater thrill than when I make a meal that my guests or family love. It’s a regular Sally Field moment. “You like me. You REALLY like me!” It’s a vindication of the hard work and passion that I have when preparing a meal. I think food photography takes those ideas and the concept of sharing to the next level and makes them available to a bigger audience.

My thought is that if I can’t cook for the whole world, I can take pictures of food for the whole world.

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Location Portraits

Posted on November 8, 2009 by Teddy
Maeve at Purple Park

Nikon D300 w/ 18-200mm at 200mm, f/5.6 @ 1/800, ISO 200

I enjoy shooting in the studio, but I really enjoy shooting on location. Sure the studio is great for product shots and a controlled environment, but, for me, there is nothing like shooting portraits on location. Unless you’re working with professional talent, it’s very difficult to get the best out of your models/clients in a studio environment. That controlled environment that makes things so easy for us as photographers is the very thing that kills it for them. Let’s face it. That family of four who wants to do their annual family portrait is going to respond a whole better to a leafy green tree or babbling brook as a back drop than that beautiful new cyc you just installed at the studio.

Obviously, it’s a different matter if you’re shooting professional models or actors looking for headshots, but even they will give you a little bit more if you take them to a location rather than staying at the studio. It’ll be a great break from the normal for both of you. And for your non-professional clients, it’ll give them a greater level of comfort while you point that big noisy camera at them for hour or so.

And don’t be nervous about leaving behind all of that great equipment you’ve worked so hard to get either. You can do incredible things with a single off-camera flash and a reflector. This shot of my 7-year old was captured with the sun as a back light and a gold reflector off to camera right.

So when you’re planning that next portrait session, think about breaking free from your studio and head out to the great outdoors. You’ll love it.

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Holiday Greeting Cards

Posted on October 27, 2009 by Teddy

Holiday Greeting CardsIt’s time to start thinking about those annual holiday cards. With only a few more days until Halloween, November is just around the corner. And that means its time to start planning for the holidays.

For many of you, that means deciding what cards to  send to family, friends, and business associates. Let Teddy Carroll Photography help you by creating a unique portrait of you, your business, your family, or even your family pet.

A professionally done portrait is not only a perfect way to show people you are thinking of them this holiday season, but it’s also a keepsake that you can frame and display for years to come.

Holiday Greeting Card Packages

Our special, customized holiday greeting card packages includes an hour-long portrait session and a professionally processed and printed 8×10 portrait and hi-res digital file. With over 90 designs to choose from, we can also create the cards for you and have them shipped to you in plenty of time to avoid those last minute mailings.

Call today to discuss package options and pricing.

Teddy Carroll Photography
303-587-5252

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Big Eyes!

Posted on September 10, 2009 by Teddy

Nikon D300 w/ 18-200mm at 65mm, f/5 @ 1/500, ISO 200

I shot this incredible portrait while shooting an 80th birthday party. This young man is the grandson of the birthday boy. After getting all of the formal poses with family, I walked around the house looking for candids. I got lucky on this one: the perfect moment, the perfect pause, and the perfect pose. He really loved my camera and stopped whatever he was doing to look at it whenever I was near. Good thing, too. He was a little grumpy that day and my camera was the only thing kept him from tears.

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Looking Backwards

Posted on August 23, 2009 by Teddy
Nikon D300 w/ 18-200mm at 18mm, f/11 @ .3, ISO 400

Nikon D300 w/ 18-200mm at 18mm, f/11 @ .3, ISO 400

I recently traveled to San Diego to visit an old friend. Although short, it was great fun. We hadn’t seen each other for nearly 15 years and a lot of laughs were shared. This picture was taken on a quick trip to some of the scenery in and around the city. I’m sure Gary would’ve rather gone golfing or played Texas Hold ‘Em at the casino, but I asked for the site seeing. Thanks for indulging me, Gary. With more time, I definitely would’ve hit the links; but, as long as I tote my cameras, I want to point it stuff.

I love lighthouses and there is a historic one at Point Loma in San Diego. I made a couple exposures on the grounds of the lighthouse and the nearby Cabrillo National Monument, but nothing had yet to stand out. After ascending the tower of the lighthouse, I looked down and got this shot. The spiral staircase made an excellent nautilus-like pattern down the height of the tower. Even my non-photographer tour guide (Gary) looked down and said, “Oh, you’ve got to shoot this.” So I did.

Patterns exist everywhere. They’re all around. We just need to take the time to find them. A trick I use to look for them and other interesting shots is to look backwards. Where you came from always looks more interesting as you are walking away. And the grass is always greener, too!

In this case, just looking back down the steps I just walked up gave me this great angle and capture. Try it on your next outing or even on your next lunch hour. Walk a few paces from your starting point and look back. Something just might catch your eye. If not, walk some more and look some more. You will definitely find something.

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Shooting Nature

Posted on June 24, 2009 by Teddy
Wild Mountain Flowers

Nikon D300 w/ 18-200mm at 200mm, f/5.6 @ 1/640, ISO 800

I like to shoot nature as much as the next guy, but it ain’t easy. This shot was easy pickings but most aren’t. Sure there are a lot of good shots out there waiting for a photog to walk by and snap, but most are more cunning. They tease you and let you think that all you have to do is point and shoot. But if you do, you see the truth: most nature photographer requires the patience of granite and the temperment of a running stream. You must lie in wait – for the sun, for the wind to die down, for the right creature to happen by – for just about everything.

My biggest challenge, and maybe your’s too, in nature photography is developing that paitence. I’m too addicted to street and event shooting where I can move about casually, snapping the pictures I want, and being satisfied with the happy little accidents. With nature shoots, most happy little accidents are not Bob Ross moments. There are to be avoided and bring painful consequences if not.

So I’ll keep heading out to the mountains to see what I can see. I’ll also keep working on creating images that I am really seeing in my mind’s eye.

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Poster Art

Posted on May 18, 2009 by Teddy

Boy, would I like to see a couple million of these printed. :-)

Posted in Abstract, Black and White, Fine Art, Nature | Tagged | Leave a comment

Drawing a Viewer into the Frame

Posted on May 15, 2009 by Teddy
Nikon D40 w/ 55-200mm at 55mm, f/8 @ 1/640, ISO 200

Nikon D40 w/ 55-200mm at 55mm, f/8 @ 1/640, ISO 200

There is no doubt that a good amount of photography depends on luck. As the old saying goes, however, luck favors the prepared. Good photos come from the intersection of luck and preparation. Luck for being in the right place at the right time and preparation for the planning that puts you there in the first place.

This photo is like that for me. I was shooting a local vintage baseball game last weekend, hoping to land a pic or two in the local weekly newspaper. After capturing nearly 250 images of action and closeups, I came across this opportunity. I was searching for a few more photojourno style images to go along with all of the action shots of the game. And voila!

“Irish Tom” was just sitting on a hay bale watching the action. I set up behind him and captured four or five frames from different angles and with different focal lengths. I was pleasantly surprised by this one while making selects for the newspaper.

Even though we don’t see Tom’s face, we can clearly see his eyeline through the pitcher and on to the firstbaseman. The eyeline literally pulls your eyes into the frame and presents the game from Tom’s viewpoint. I really like this photo – probably my favorite of the day. The newspaper, however, went with an action shot of a batter standing at homeplate.

You can see more of the selects in my Flickr set of Vintage Baseball Game 5/9/09.

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Missing Film

Posted on May 3, 2009 by Teddy
Boulder Theater. Boulder, CO

Nikon D40 w/ 18-55mm at 20mm, f/5.6 @ 1/500, ISO 200, +1/3 ev

Don’t get me wrong; I love shooting digital.

I love it!

But there are times that I really miss working with film. There is such a thrill of anticipation when you finally get your hands on prints or slides after processing. Even in college when the campus lab often gave same day service for color-corrected slides, it felt like forever until they were ready. And then … the moment of truth, when you’d know if your shots turned out. That thrill just isn’t there with digital.You know right away. If it didn’t, hit delete and try again.

Of course the advantages of digital are too many to list, but the nostalgia of shooting with film just doesn’t go away. I still shoot B&W with my old Minolta, but I do it less and less. The hassle and expense of lab processing makes it a drag compared to digital.

That’s why I like to make some of my digital prints look like film prints. This image of The Boulder Theater in Boulder, CO was processed in Adobe Camera Raw to look like it was shot on Fuji Velvia film. It’s full of contrast and heavy color saturation, something that is very difficult to get right of the camera with digital. I really like the look. What do you think?

I think I need to shoot with film more. :-)

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Wildlife and Animals

Posted on April 30, 2009 by Teddy

Nikon D40 w/ 55-200mm at 200mm, f/5.6 @ 1/125, ISO 200

I titled this post “Wildlife and Animals” because, even though your looking at a DeBrazza’s monkey, it’s not necessarily wildlife. Definitely an animal though. You see, I made this shot at the Denver Zoo. So while the monkey is not tame, I hesitate to call him wildlife because he lives in an enclosure behind an inch of glass. And while not a fan of animals living in captivity, I would not have been able to make this photo if not for the Denver Zoo. I am not heading to the tropics any time soon.

I wasn’t the only one interested in getting a few pics of this sage, old fellow. I waited for another shooter to get her fill so that I could manuever into her spot.  We seemed to be of similar viewpoints and timetables as we kept bumping into each other at subsequent exhibits. I hope her shots turned out as well as this one. It’s probably my favorite of the more than 220 shots that day.

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