A busy weekend

Its been a pretty busy, but successful weekend. It started with the annual Fall Fest at Kids R Kids in O'Fallon, MO. Each year the owners of O'Fallon Kids R Kids host a Fall Fest for their students and their families. The fest is free to everyone and everyone always has a good time. This year was no exception. As usual, there were carnival games, food, the gym bus, a fire truck and bounce houses, but I think the biggest hit was the surprise guest...


Sunday was soccer day. I travelled out to Troy, MO to shoot a U10 soccer game for the Troy Soccer Club Tigers. It was my first soccer game that I shot for the Troy Soccer Club and hopefully not the last. I will be going back tomorrow to do team and individual portraits as well as shoot a little of their practice. I find practices to be the best time to really focus on individual players for action shots. That being said, there is still something cool about shootin the actual games. Isolation of individuals is easy in practice but you just do not get the same level of emotion.

Mahalo Tim!

Thursday night, we had a fairwell party to say Mahalo to Tim. Tim has been a valued member of the Y-kiki staff for several years and a friend. Next Tuesday, Tim will be leaving us for Kona, Hawaii. We gave him a send off Y-Kiki style.

We'll miss you buddy. Best of luck!

-T

Apple picking - kid style

So I decided to try something different. I spent some time with kids from Kids R Kids while they went apple picking at Koenig's. It never ceases to amaze me how fast little ones can move. I mean really, their legs are at most 1/2 the size of mine and they are twice as fast as I am. That means they their legs move four times faster than mine... I think. Regardless we had a good time.

Splash for Trash @ The Dive Stop

Today was Splash for Trash at The Dive Stop. Spash for Trash is a Project Aware event aimed at cleaning trash out of the quarry. Admission into the event was a $10.00 donation with proceeds going to the Project Aware Foundation. The images for this event are available on my PhotoStockPlus site, here. 50% of the proceeds from image and print purchases are also being donated the Project Aware Foundation in the name of The Dive Stop.

All and all I think the day was a success. I would estimate that approximately 30 divers participated.

Most of the divers were there independently, but there was a group from Cat Tale Diving. Collectively, I think they may have collected the most trash. This shot is the group after one dive. I think they did three.

Check out the rest of the pictures at terrycordes.photostockplus.com


Enjoy!

-T

Forest Park Balloon Glow

So we fought the hordes and masses to see the great Forest Park Balloon Glow. I'd never been before and was expecting something slightly different. From speaking with people who had gone previous years and reviewing pictures of other photographers, I was expecting a large spread of balloons. This is after all the second largest gathering of its type in the US. While it was pretty cool and the family had a good time, photographically I was a little disappointed.

The balloons were all gathered together in a tight rectangular area near the northeast corner of the park (close to Kingshighway and Forest Park Parkway for those familiar with the area). I had been told that previously this had pretty well consumed the park an there was often 150+ feet between balloons. I didn't measure, but there didn't appear to me more than 75+ between balloons this year. I was hoping for some awe inspiring landscapes/panoramics... this layout was not really conducive to that, in my opinion.

Second, the glow occurs at night. The attraction as a photographer (at least this one) is the potential for brilliantly color balloons to fill the frame. It was rare to see more than one or two balloons lit at the same time. When it did occur, the balloons were seldomly near each other. Going one step further, the entire area was lit by huge construction lights... really throwing off the vibrance. Again, this is only my opinion.

All that being said, I cannot say enough about the owners and pilots. Willing to work with photographers and talk with people. In my opinion they saved the event.

So with all of that, what does a photographer do? Get closer of course.

Here's a few of my shots. You can see them all and purchase prints or download the full size image from my PhotoStockPlus site.

Upcoming assignments... 9/19 - 9/21

Ok the first is less of an assignment and more of a chance for some stock image collection and experimentation. Tonight brings the 2008 Forest Park Balloon Glow as a precursor to the Balloon Race tomorrow. Its really a family outing, but I plan to try to get some interesting photos using a combination of light painting techniques and HDR.

Sunday takes me to The Dive Stop in New Melle, MO where I will be shooting their "Splash for Trash" day. A day of diving and cleaning litter out of a quarry. The Dive Stop is donating its proceeds to the Project Aware Foundation. I will also be donating 50% of my proceeds from the event to the Project Aware Foundation.

It promises to be a good time for a good cause, if you're a diver you should check it out. Buy a few pictures and help support Project Aware.

Supporting a good cause

Starting today, 10% of all proceeds from purchasing my images and assignments will be donated to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS).

As a Lymphoma survivor, I know the importance of organizations like LLS. The Stand Up to Cancer event a few weeks ago got me thinking. I needed to do something to give back to those who helped me in my battle.

From now on, when you purchase images from me or hire me, you will also be support Leukemia and Lymphoma research and treatment.

New website

Well, I've run out of time to maintain a full website. And I don't like having a web-site that gets stale. So in order to be more agile with the site, I'm in the process of moving my stuff here. As it evolves I hope to have more and more content about my photographic services.

In the mean time, please contact me by phone or email if you have any questions.

Thanks,

Terry


Phone: 314.537.4290
email: terry.cordes@gmail.com

Nikon CLS: Day Three

Well day three with the new Nikon CLS flashes brought about a few new ideas... commercial work. Such as PR and product images. Not wanting to work in a studio, and not having one, I was curios to know how well Nikon CLS flashes could be used to do such work. Here's a few examples.

The first is an image of my Sig Sauer layed out like a gun rag spread. Not really sure why I thought to do this... maybe because I've been going to the range a lot lately. Regardless, I liked it because of the texture. I also found it kind of challenging with lack of contrast. Overall, I was pretty impressed.





This next set of images is of a opaquely translucent mug from Barnes Jewish Hospitals, compliments of the Siteman Cancer Center and my time being treated for Lymphoma. Regardless of those fond memories, the subject made for an interesting play with light.




And finally just another portrait. I decided that I needed a way of setting of location portraits without having to torture my subject(s), especially if they are kids. So, I stole my son's stuffed Squirt (from Disney's "Finding Nemo"). He works well to setup the lighting that I want. In this shot I wanted to play with a twilight background and strong directional light. I was pretty happy when it took me only two test shots to get the effect that I wanted.


Hope you enjoy!

-T

Nikon CLS: Day Two

Well its day two with the new flashes. I think I am kind of getting the hang of it. Here's the best of today's playtime

Hope you enjoy!

-T

Nikon CLS: Day One

Okay. So for some time now, I've been asked if I would do portraits. I had always said no. My primary experience had been with photojournalism and I was not a fan of posed images. Even more I can't stand studio lighting, regardless of how its done it just seems unnatural to me. Call me a purist, its just my opinion.

While quite a bit of that sentiment remains, the desire to do portrait work has taken hold. One because there have been enough requests that I can see a potential revenue stream. That in truth is a minor part of it. Making money is nice, but not really why I take pictures. The primary reason is that I stumbled onto Dave Black. I've become a huge fan. I am unlike many photographers. I don't have a series of icons I admire or regularly look to mimic... excuse me... style myself after, so I'm a little behind the curve with Dave. He's been doing this a while, I just didn't know much about him until recently.

The thing that I admired about Dave Black's work is that he is a sports photojournalist. A photojournalist who designs and creates an image rather than just taking candid images. Reading through his Workshop at the Ranch series, I discovered that his method of shooting a sporting event was very similar to mine... "be more than a fan." Not that I have nearly the experience or talent that he does but he motivated me to do more portraiture work when he explained that its no different. Okay that was the short version, but you can read his site and get a better idea.

So what does any of this have to do with Nikon's Creative Lighting System (CLS)? Simple. Many of his workshops are about the CLS and using it to make dramatic images and really show the subject. After some time pondering what kind of portraiture work I wanted to do, I realized I didn't have any interest in studio work. The idea of making images of people in environments they are part of and enjoy really began to excite me. So I decided I needed good portable system. Enter Nikon's CLS.

I could spend countless words describing the CLS and its components, but probably wouldn't do it justice.... Google it. Better yet check out Dave's website.

I'm still missing a few components of my system (they're on back order) but I've been able to work with it... here are a few pictures from my first day...


Jake and Stacy at a park. Image was capture with three SB800s and one SB900 on a D300. Well balanced light, but would have been better if I had a light stand for the SB800 to the left of the subject.

Jake and my mom on a tire swing. Again pretty well balanced light, but would have been better if all my clamps and light stands were in. The fill light to the left of these two was up a little higher.

Hope you enjoyed.

-T