The blog of photographer Justin Fritts originally from Denver, CO living in Richmond, VA
One evening on a drive back from Cardiff we stopped off at the Clifton Suspension Bridge because it was just about sunset on a clear night with a nice orange sunset. I snagged a couple good photos like the one below. Can’t wait to try to go back and get some late night ones as well once the temperatures start to increase.
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.
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.
So originally I was going to do a piece just on going out to the track and show photos and talk a little bit about it. But one thing I’ve learned on this fancy internet thing is that people looking at photography stuff seem to much prefer learning about technique and how they can do something themselves. So with that said I recalibrated my head and instead decided to talk about the actual doing of the photos and show off a little of what I did, although to be honest, I’m definitely no pro at this and really just did it for fun and had to learn as I went along. I’d assume a lot of what I learned would apply to racecar photography too.
o, first things first. My buddy and I went out to the High Plains Raceway and worked the the MRA here in Colorado and got some media passes. It wasn’t too hard to do, lots of paperwork, waivers, agreements, and all that jazz to go through (including who you’re insured by, ouch!). If you are interested I’d suggest starting there, contact your local raceways and clubs that race and see what ones will allow you to get a pass, without one getting the really fun photos will be a lot harder.
Second, be safe, seriously and follow all the rules of the track. You don’t want to end up getting hurt or getting someone else hurt or having your day cut short by getting kicked out.
Now, I’m going to break this blog post here, otherwise it may fill my whole homepage, click on through for more!
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.
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.
More from the event after the break!
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.
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.
Continue reading “Nathaniel Rateliff and some band that was not Paper Bird”
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.
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:
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.
The lake was beautiful and very still, practically mirror-like. As the sun started to set I got some very nice photos it.
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.
Continued… Continue reading “Photos for Me, Lost Lake”