white shades - mike

My white shades project is growing and headed in a pretty fun direction. People seem to be digging the results of my little photo exercise and wanting to get involved. I'm pretty stoked on what has come together so far and I hope to reach my goal of 35-40 different people sporting these shades in the not so distant future.


Mike chill'n chill'n in the white shades...

If anyone is interested in being a subject in my white shades project hit me up.
I've got a lot of ideas, but I'm open to others as well.

More images can be seen at kinetic-images.com

Kennedy

A few images from a recent shoot with little Kennedy.

More can be seen at kinetic-images.com

merritt and jayme

Here are a few shots from an engagement shoot with a couple of good friends that ride bikes and just pretty much have a good time where ever they go.

More images can be seen at kinetic-images.com

more white shades

A couple more images with the white shades theme.

my brother

his wife

I'm planing on doing about 35-40 portraits with these white shades so stay tuned.

ella

I recently had the pleasure of photographing little Ella.

I really like this next series of three

she's just so dang cute

So far she has been easy one too shoot. Here is the latest gallery of little Ella --> kinetic images

white shades

I picked up these cheap, terribly silly looking, white shades from a gas station somewhere near Smith Mtn Lake VA. I've taken a few photos of different people sporting them (Including myself) and achieved some pretty fun results. Expect to see more shots with the white shades.

so i made a movie

I put together a quick video for the purpose of trying to figure out a work flow to creating video. I had never tried shooting video for the purpose of creating one... I set out wanting to capture some footage, edit it down to usable clips, piece them together, add some tunes and export it to a format for the web... sounds simple. Right?

head shots

So for what ever reason 6 months ago or so, I started taking head shots of my friends and family whenever I got the chance. It has worked out to be a good photo exercise, because it’s been all about being loose, quick and creative. Some have been pretty standard stuff, but others have been a little less, um well… standard. A few examples of what I'm getting at.

I'll probably do anther post similar to this in the near future. I've had a lot of fun doing these and they are starting to head in an interesting direction.

The High Country

A few weekends ago I went to the high country to check out a down hill race at Beech Mountain. It was the first DH race held at Beech in 10 years, from what I understand. This was the first in a three race series the resort is hosting this summer. More info can be found at the series web site. I went up for the weekend to check out the new track and more or less just hang out. I took some photos but I did more talking and dorking around than anything else. So here are a few shots I was stoked on from my weekend.

race day

Austin Perkins

Andrew Mueller

Geritt Begtah

chill'n chill'n

motomike

sort of close to the couch i crashed on

A few more images can be seen at kinetic-images.com

America

This past Friday I attended a benefit concert for the Children’s Home Society of North Carolina. It was a good time, fer sure. I made it there just in time for the band America to take the stage. I snapped a few pics, they played a few tunes and then a rather significant thunderstorm rolled through. The music stopped, the umbrellas came out and we stood around and watched the heavy rain and the wicked lightning strikes for the next little bit. Eventually the clouds broke and the clean up began. There was standing water on the stage and tarps over most of the gear, but a crew armed with brooms cleaned things up quickly. Most of the crowd stuck it out through the storm. So when the band returned to the stage there was a wet, but stoked, crowed waiting to listen to the rest of their set. Here are a few images I came up with.

(click image to view larger version)

It was cool listening to these guys. I have childhood memories of my parents putting their albums on the turntable from time to time. So yeah, I enjoyed my self. More images of the show can be seen here --> kinetic-images.com

Self portraits

Self portraits: the only willing model I could find.

So there was this contest on strobist.com and... well I missed out. So in the spirit of the contest theme (headshots) I put together a couple of self portraits tonight. (i was bored, more or less)

(click to view larger image)

my son

Simple post… Here are a couple of recent images of my son. I may have a bit of a biased opinion due to the subject matter being something I’m so fond of, but I really like theses images.

(click image for larger view)

Focus

Throughout my adventures of trying to understand my vision of photography, I’ve always been very caught up in the technical side of making images. You know, the things that make an image “correct”. Well, I decided I needed to forget about making images with this… this need for them to be technically “correct”. At least that’s the best way I can describe it.

So over the last couple/few weeks, I started looking for different elements in my images. I started looking more for colors, shapes or what ever and not being so worried about sharpness or the ideal exposure, etc. I’ve played with inducing lens flare, which I always tried to avoid in the past. Also, recently I’ve taken very wide open (f1.8-2.8) and out of focus shots, just looking for some rough abstract vibe. You know real loose and wacky, but still sort of calculated stuff.

Well I feel like I’ve had success with looking at things a little differently and I plan on continuing to see where this idea leads... Anyway, here are some examples of what I’m getting at.

(click on images for larger version)

flared flowers

cool studio

flared hammock

boat rope

late night lake bokeh

Cullen

So, my friends Erin and Sharon added a new member to the family this morning. At 2:45 am the hefty little Cullen, weighing in at 9 lbs 8oz, was born. My family went to pay them a visit this evening and I grabbed a couple photos while we were hanging out.

(click images for larger version)

Little Cullen @ about 15 hours old

Big thanks to my son! He acted as my lighting assistant by holding the fill card (a pillow with a very white pillow case). The very nice window light was coming from camera left and the fill card is about a foot to the right of the little bugger.

Congrats to the happy family!

First Post!

Well I guess it’s about time I post something on this here blog. I mean, I signed up for it like 11 months ago or something... Anyway, I plan on updating this thing as often as I get time to do so. I might be a little too optimistic by saying this, but i would like to update it several times a week. But who knows? I’ve been pretty inspired here lately and I hope to make this blog one of my outlets for my creative fix, photography.

I’ll start with the subject “bikes”. I like to ride them and I have many, many… many photos of people riding them. So here are some of my fav's from the last couple of years.

(click images for a larger version)

my first published image

Mountain Bike Action Magazine - March 2008

Showdown at Sugar 2007 - Banner Elk, NC

US Open of Mountain Biking 2008 - Vernon, NJ

US Open of Mountain Biking 2008 - Vernon, NJ

Merritt White, somewhere in western NC

Power Aid series 2008 - Snow Shoe, WV

6 Hours of Warrior Creek 2009- Wilkesboro, NC

Red Bull Rampage The Evolution 2008 - Virgin, UT

Thomas Vanderham - suicide no hander over a 59' canyon gap (siiiiiiiiiiick!)

well this is a start anyway...