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Hasselblad at the Denver Auto Show

Justin Fritts — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 04:17:48 +0000

So it was the Denver Auto Show a few weeks back and while I really wanted to check out the latest from GM, Ford and Mercury (/sarcasm) I kept getting pulled toward the old cars and the super cars. I carried with me my Canon 5D2 but also on this wonderful day I decided to try to kill a role of Kodak 400TX that I had shot up 6 shots on already but had just been sitting around for weeks. Let me just say, I was thrilled with the results and the fun of it, I think I got more looks with the Hassy than some of the cars did, I must have looked like some sort of alien out there. Enjoy.

An Old Impala

A Truck that I Should Probably Know the Name of

That's Right, Lamborghini, Meet Hasselblad

And what would an auto show be without a Ferrari?

Initial “Impressions” with the 5D Mark III – Dog Edition

Justin Fritts — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 03:20:56 +0000

I say “impressions” because color me impressed. So I’ve only had a few days to play and it’s been all play, no work. Haven’t really sat down to do side by side with the 5D2 but let me tell you, using this thing is a pleasure. It fits better in my hand than the 5D2 (deeper grip, grippier), the AF is amazing, the ISO is amazing. Unfortunately it’s time to learn a whole new button setup, not a huge fan of that but I’m already adapting and can see some of the advantages. Soon I’ll be posting some side by side 5D2 and 5D3 but for now, here’s some of my favorite snaps from this weekend (I’ve spent a lot of time around dogs this weekend as it turns out).

First and Foremost, the ISO. Gotta guess what ISO this is before I tell you.

It's 25,600. Unreal. A little sharpening and noise reduction in Lightroom, nothing special. Click for 100%, slightly reduced for the blog.

A few more samples after the break…

AF Performance of the dog running toward me. 1/500, f/5.0, ISO 100

100% Crop, again shrunken slightly for the blog, click for the true 100%. Try to get that with the 5D2.

And another running one.

This one is a big surprise for two reasons. AF and check out the 100% and EXIF data (it's written below the 100% crop below.

100%-ish (again) crop. Here's the shocker, 1/1600, f/13 and ISO 2000. I was doing this to really push the shutter speed and the aperture to give the AF a little more depth of field. ISO 2000!

And the last, another ISO test with a fun extra.

Not my dog, but again, a dog none the less, like I said, dog weekend.

It's me! (for real this time). 1/125, f/2.8 and ISO 3200. AF right on spot.

As an extra little note I had gone through and done MFA adjustments on all my lenses for about half of these, my 24-70 really needed it and took advantage of the new wide adjustment and telephoto adjustment. Fantastic! I believe I’m a -14 on the wide side and a -7 on the tele side. I can’t believe I can make that adjustment still.

This week I’m going to take an evening and do side by side 5D2 and 5D3 photos using my 70-200. I’ll take requests from people if they want any, if not I’ll just pick them all myself. Mostly ISO related I’m sure, hard to repeat AF tests.

Another Product Photo – Bulleit Bourbon

Justin Fritts — Thu, 22 Mar 2012 02:13:22 +0000

So I got to spend a little time with Tom Bulleit of Bulleit Bourbon a few weeks back and we got to talking about photos, banners, printing, large format printing, advertising and all that. Well I showed him a few of the product photos I’d done in the past and he was interested. So I took it upon myself to throw one together for Bulleit Bourbon. Always fun to do stuff like this.

As always I love to also share the how to. This is actually a composite shot with the bottle of Bulleit on some black-backed glass giving it a nice reflection. I then did some exposures moving the lights around to get rim lighting, lighting on the letters, the label, the reflection, the cap, etc. Then I brought them all together to give me a nice clean image mostly clear of reflections. I can go into more detail if people want me to but that’s the main idea.

Taken with my 5D Mark II (maybe my last product photo with it before the Mark III), my 100mm 2.8 macro, a tripod, a flashlight and a speedlight.

The final results

Fritts Photo and Fitz and the Tantrums in Spin

Justin Fritts — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 02:51:45 +0000

So I got to work with popchips again, always fun, and this time to go get some photos of Fitz and the Tantrums just enjoying some popchips at the Fox Theatre in Boulder, CO. Well, the photos made it into Spin Magazine, or at least on to their website, no word on whether they’ll go into a print issue or not yet. See it here!

http://www.spin.com/gallery/outside-lands-gets-crunched-popchips?page=1#main

And a couple more bonus shots. Fitz and the Tantrums were great, nice and relaxed, very cool to meet them.

Playing a little chip toss.

Mmmm, try this flavor!

Crown Royal Bottle Photo

Justin Fritts — Fri, 27 May 2011 02:50:13 +0000

So this is a quick post mostly in response to a call from the Crown Royal Facebook page. They’re asking for some of people’s most recent pics. This is one that I took back in March that I’m especially proud of. I think I like this style and am going to do a few more like it and will post a how to and my completed photos.

Crown XR Bottle

Spring Back to Vail / Captain Morgan

Justin Fritts — Fri, 29 Apr 2011 03:19:07 +0000

So sadly the majority of the snow season is over, probably no more snowboarding for me even though A-Basin is probably still in decent shape. I did get to close the season out in style though at Vail for the Spring Back to Vail Festival which was great! Captain Morgan was on the mountain to help keep spirits high in the dark times of the countdown to closure and to help promote and get the word out about the pond skimming competition on Sunday.

I got to follow the Captain around and get some photos, including one in which he actually got the Captain Pose while in the air, it was great!

Then on Sunday I got to go to the Pond Skimming Competition which was amazing. I’ve never been to one but it’s quite shocking how much skill it must take to do. You hit a jump which launches you up in the air and then you land on the water. Gotta have enough speed to make it the rest of the way and hopefully have some experience with water skiing.

The Captain held a competition to see who wanted to dress up as a Captain and take on the mountain. About ten people wanted to take part and take the Captain’s place. The Captain held a vuvuzela blowing competition, a pose off competition and then a quiz about what you think “your best night out” is. Of course the Captain is all about drinking responsibly and dropped a few hints about it, two people picked up on the hints but Jimmy took home the prize. Jimmy got dressed up quickly by the Captain and the Morganettes in the Captain suit and climbed the hill. If that wasn’t enough he totally succeeded at crossing the pond having never done it before and then pulled the Captain pose when back on dry land! Youtube video here (sorry about the shakiness, it’s my video but no tripod).

Photos of the fun event below.

Captain Pose in the Air

Ciroc New Years Party

Justin Fritts — Sat, 12 Feb 2011 23:56:14 +0000

So I was lucky enough to attend the Ciroc New Years Eve Party in Vail, CO. I wasn’t the photographer, just a guy who got to hang out and drink but of course, I took my camera anyway. The party was hosted a Bol in Vail, a fancy bolling alley with really great drinks and small plates. We had quite a good time just hanging out and having fun. I was glad to not be working on NYE.

Ciroc on the Bar

The Ciroc Promo Girls

Christina and a few of her girls

This hat was a small casualty of the night

Nathaniel Rateliff and some band that was not Paper Bird

Justin Fritts — Wed, 26 Jan 2011 05:36:57 +0000

So these are some “old” photos, from all the way back in December. I know, I’ve been slacking, truth be told I have plenty more history to blog but this one seemed like a fun break from all the corporate posts. This was a gig for Nathaniel Rateliff’s Christmas (Holiday?) show in Boulder, CO. It was a great show and I got some really fun photos from the gig. Chuck Roy MC’d he event and Josh Blue did some hilarious standup.

Overall a great night, except what I found out was that Boulder really shuts down over Christmas break. I met up with some friends and had great plans of delicious food and drink before the show began only to find out that half of the restaurants in Boulder are closed when the students are gone. Oh well, Mountain Sun Brewery came through for us even when other places failed.

Beautiful music was made

Everyone was having fun

Chuck doing his MC'ing

Josh Blue coming on stage, don't know whether or not he was making a face.

That band that was not Paper Bird

Lunar Eclipse Time and Happy Solstice!

Justin Fritts — Tue, 21 Dec 2010 17:43:26 +0000

Here’s a couple quick photos from the eclipse last night, more in the Flash slideshow link. The photos were taken with my Canon 5D Mk II, Canon 70-200mm 2.8 IS L, a Canon 1.4x TC and a tripod. I did some tethered shooting to try to get the focus sharp but even with that it was hard with the bright Denver lights. Enjoy.

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edit: So I’d like to put a little more work in here because I know a lot of people love to seek out advice on photography instead of just look at pretty photos. If you’d like to read more about these photos click through to here.

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Flash Gallery Link for a Slideshow
(edit: I’m having a few issues with Chrome loading the page but IE and Firefox are doing just fine)

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More after the fold.

Photos for Me, Lost Lake

Justin Fritts — Fri, 15 Oct 2010 04:23:21 +0000

So I’ve realized since I started taking more photos for money and for other people I’ve been taking less photos for me. There is something about it deep in my brain that stops me from taking photos except when I’m working. I’ve even gone out with friends or hiking or whatever, taken my camera and then not taken any photos. Carrying heavy gear for no reason really. I think this summer has done well to give me a little space and time.

I’ve thought about it more and realized that I think in reality photos taken of people and things in a forced situation (aka work) are more challenging. The challenge drives you to be better, to make it interesting, to find that angle or get that lighting even in the most challenging of situations. Suddenly stumbling upon shots seems easy, so many shots that I used to really enjoy just feel cliché (they always were, I just didn’t care) and without a goal to the day when I go out it just gets so hard to make the photos feel like an accomplishment. I don’t know if any of this makes sense, feel free to respond in the comments if you’d like, but to me it all makes sense, I just can’t quite express it, need to think on it more.

So all of this means that the last time I went out hiking and camping I knew I wanted to take some photos, I needed to force myself to take some photos. When I finally did the juices started to flow again, it started to feel good. I explored angles, exposures, time of day all over again. Since then I’ve had the camera out a lot and am taking photos for me again and it feels good. I’m doing this in conjunction with a lot of work and photos for other people but right now I have no conflict about it.

Lots of words, but its a photo blog, so on with the photos. A few friends of mine, TJ and Kathy wanted to go get in one last camping trip for the year and invited Christina and me along. They brought their two dogs and their little girl and we brought our two dogs, it was a bit of a madhouse, luckily the wild was large enough to handle it. It ended up that TJ got a job offer in L.A. a few days after our little hiking trip so it will likely be their last Colorado hiking adventure for more than just the year. We drove up west of Boulder, past Eldora to a little area of trails, one leading to Lost Lake. We really got to test out the Outback, drove it along a fairly shallow length of river for about 1/4 mile and up some crazy dirt roads, felt like a Subaru commercial. I have an awful photo of the river drive but I gotta share it just cause:

Driving the Outback down the river

We then hiked with our packs about 1.5 miles up to the lake. I brought a good amount of gear with me, wish I would have brought a little less cause damn it made my pack heavy. Although had I brought less I probably would have brought a tripod and offset any savings, stupid having no tripod.

We set up camp and started to get some food prepared. About this time the dogs were let off leash, Ruby and Lucy had quite a good time without their leashes on. We went down to the lake and they even decided to go hopping log to log.

Dogs on a log

The lake was beautiful and very still, practically mirror-like. As the sun started to set I got some very nice photos it.

Lost Lake Sunset

We went to bed and had a terrible night’s sleep. The dogs didn’t like the tent and the moon was too bright. I don’t think any of us got much sleep all night. In the morning we broke down camp, spent some time hanging out and then hiked our way out. The hike on the way out had some nice early morning beauty.

Glass Lake

Continued…

Aspen Changing, too bad the sky was so bright

Changing Aspen

More Changing Aspen