Wedding Photography: Anju & Dewey
Jenn and I had the pleasure of attending the wedding of Anju and Dewey in sunny Sarasota, Florida over the weekend. While they had two great photographers, I tried to capture some things from a different perspective. I hope you enjoy. Follow the link to all the photos and check the teasers below!
Engagement Photos: Lindsay & Kyle
I had the pleasure of working with Lindsay and Kyle last week as we went around the city shooting for their upcoming wedding. They were great to work with and I hope you enjoy the pictures! Click here for the full gallery! 
Chicago Photography: Tile Store
I recently visited a specialty tile store here in Chicago. They had some really cool installations and amazing patterns and colors. I wish I had taken more, but I don’t think all the sales people appreciated a loud “CLICK” while trying to outfit a multimillion dollar bathroom…
Most of these were taken at 100 ISO, 18mm, and f/3.5-4.5. There was a lot of natural light coming through into the show room, but there were a bunch of lamps wit all sorts of different color light coming in, so on the camera I used auto white balance. Once I got them into Lightroom I realized how off some of the colors were, so I adjusted as needed (particularly the one with the stool). I also realized that no matter how still you stand and line up, straight lines on a wall are hard to keep straight.
Thanks for looking! Leave comments below! RB
Some updates: ryanbing.co.cc
Hi everyone,
Check out www.ryanbing.co.cc for my new splash screen and small portfolio page. My hope is that I can keep the blog separate from a “portfolio” view. Let me know what you think!
Chicago Photography: My Birthday Boating
ISO 3200, 18mm, f/3.5, 1/6sec, UV filter
I’m on a boat! Thank you to the love of my life Jenn for a great opportunity to get on Lake Michigan and watch the Navy Pier fireworks on a sailboat. And what a surprise it was! She wouldn’t tell me what we were doing – only that I needed to bring my camera and some bubbly. This picture turned out great. It was a pretty calm night (great for pictures, not so much for sailing) but I’m real proud of this one.
For post, I slightly adjusted the angle, used the grayscale LR filter which bumped up the exposure +1.15 and turned up the blacks. I smoothed it out in Photoshop and did some minor touch-ups on the sky because of some flare from all the lights. I kind of like that it’s barreled so I left that 🙂
Thanks honey!
365 Project nearing end
Hi All,
So I got into this whole taking pictures thing about a year ago. At the time, I was just surfing flickr and other picture sites, seeing all the cool images people created and posted. Many of them did “365 Project”, or one picture a day for a year. I thought this was pretty cool. Many of them stated what a great thing it was for their photography. I didn’t even know if I wanted to take pictures yet, so I figured it was would a good way for me to feel it out. I mean, I didn’t have to finish it. So I jumped on Facebook, created an album, and wrote:
“I think I like photography. To find out for sure, I’m going to try to take a photo a day for the next year. Hopefully this will help me learn more about photography – and to document my life. Comments are welcome – thanks.”
And thus began my journey. All I had was a nice Canon point and shoot, but the idea of a.) carrying it around with me all the time seemed difficult, and b.) I would have to take a lot of time out to download and post the picture. Enter the Blackberry (and subsequent iPhone 4). I loved taking pictures with my Blackberry. I mean, the images weren’t great, I think it was only a 3.2 MP camera on the thing, but it was so easy to compose, take, edit, and upload while walking to work, or the train, or even at home. I think that’s what really enabled me to be successful in my challenge. I could use different filters on Blackberry OS 5 – sepia, b&w, selective color, etc. When I upgraded my Bold to OS 6, I lost the native filters, so I had to find an app for that…just another step, but worth it. Then after my wonderful marriage and honeymoon, we jumped on the iPhone 4 wagon and haven’t looked back. The iPhone 4 camera is really a great camera. I’m sure you’ve seen weddings shot only with an iPhone, so obviously there is some value to it. I love the iPhone because it it is so wide (about a 3.8mm, f/2.8 lens) and takes pretty accurate color shots. And it’s focusing is great with good bokeh. Overall, I’ve enjoyed shooting with it.
And so, I am nearing the end of my challenge. In less than a month I will have completed a whole year of pictures.
Check out my progress here and here.
What should I do with them all?
Ashlee & Chris – Snapshots
Jenn and I had the pleasure of attending a beautiful wedding here in Chicago over the summer. The shot below were taken with my Canon Point and Shoot, so I like to truly call them…snapshots. I have full-sized images available sans the watermark, just let me know which ones! Enjoy, and congrats again to Ashlee and Chris!
Chicago Photography: Time-lapse Tilt-Shift
This is awesome! Check out this video from WGN utilizing Tilt-shift video with time-lapse of Chicago’s sites!
Engagement Photography: Meghan & Scott
Just a teaser of many of the pictures I took of Meghan and Scott. Enjoy!
Chicago Photography: Taxicab
 |
| ISO400, 18mm, f/3.5, 1/15sec, UV filter |
This shot was taken under Michigan Avenue yesterday afternoon.
The lighting is pretty different underground and there was a ton of sunlight on either side of this shot – but you can’t really tell. The lights diffuse this orangey red hue. On the left middle of the picture you can see some florescent lights and you can really see a difference. The blur of the taxi was meant to capture rush hour in Chicago – I don’t know where else in the world you could get such an open shot with cars flying by.
I didn’t do too much in post. I cropped it a little to eliminate a manhole cover and lane line in the very foreground. I liked the rafters at the top. I warmed it up a little more at first, but then I feel I lost the grey of the asphalt and it looked too red with the maroon cab. I wish it was a yellow cab!
Chicago Photography: Bridge
 |
| ISO100, 24mm, f/7.1, 1/200sec, UV filter |
I really enjoy this bridge and this view – I’ve taken a ton of pictures here. I thought this was an interesting angle because it follows the lines of the bridge, not the horizon. I think the Sears Tower is framed well by the bridge and the building on the right. I also think the boat gives a good size comparison to give it some perspective on how large these buildings are. I wish I had the boat in some sunlight…I think it gets lost in the shadow.
There are some blacks on the bridge that I left because the details weren’t there. I looked at this as a monochrome but I think it lost a lot – I like all the blue in the picture. It was a pretty clear day and about 5:15 pm when I took this. The golden hour for this time of year is more like 30 minutes and it starts at 6:30pm-ish. I was hoping to get more red hues, but at least there wasn’t a ton of harsh light coming through, but there is a ton of light shining through the buildings lighting up part of the shot too.
Chicago Photography: Sidewalk Sale
Hi everybody! Long time no post! I’ve been very busy at work and have been neglecting my shooting. I’m also preparing myself for a engagement session sometime this week or next, so I’ve been reading up and looking at examples of engagement styles. I’m excited because I’ve never done a session before, and I don’t shoot candids or people that often, so it should be interesting!
For today’s pictures, I decided to show them in the form of a gallery. These were mostly all taken at or near Daley Plaza today for the City of Chicago Sidewalk Sale. Interesting things! A lot of cool items and clothing stalls set up with nice people – even on this crazy hot day. I didn’t take a lot of pictures of the stalls, as you know how people don’t appreciate a random guy shooting you, but I thought I got some interesting shots of the surroundings.
I read a post recently that basically explained that while digital storage is very easy to come by these days, it’s important to delete! I tried this methodology of making ‘passes’ over all of the pictures I took today. Out of ~45 images, only 9 or 10 made it to the gallery. That’s a 20% retention rate – not great! I hope to increase that number by taking less but better pictures.
I’ll dive into each of these separately, but check them out!
Chicago Photography: Lightning and hail
ISO 200, 18mm, f/6.3, 3.0 sec, UV filter
ISO 200, 18mm, f/7.1, 3.0 sec, UV filter
Check out the lightning from tonight! Click on each picture for a full sized one!
I took these tonight with the big storm that produced hail in downtown Chicago. I thought that our windows might crack! These pictures were taken with a D3100 at 3.0 seconds on a small tripod. I was on manual focus just under infinity to capture the distance. I took over 60 shots to grab these two. What do you think?
Pet Photography: Sibling Rivalry
ISO 100, 55mm, f/5.6, 1/320 sec, UV filter
These two guys are adorable. What is it about dogs and cameras? They perk up when they see a big black thing pointed at them? Maybe I just find the friendly ones. These pups are bother and sister. Their expressions are classic. I was in line getting my favorite ever freaky-fast sub when I was approached by the owner, who also appreciates a tasty sub sandwich. I was reviewing the pictures on my camera and I showed her what I shot. I asked her if they were bother and sister, not even noticing the different color leashes. I think their expressions told me exactly who was who. They were outside and together turned at each passing car or when someone walked by. Like I said, adorable.
Summertime Flower
ISO 400, 18mm, f/7.1, 1/1000 UV filter
I had the day off and decided for lunch to visit my favorite super-freaky-fast sub place around the corner from our apartment. On the way this little flower caught my eye. The flower was on a concrete wall and had great contrast in color. I took a bunch of pictures of this guy and I like this one because of the dead vines on the wall with the growing and flowering plant. What do you think? Click on the photo to see it with a small black frame, which I think helps (hard to see on the post background).
Storms Rolling In Chicago
ISO 3200, 24mm, f/25, 1/0sec, UV filter
Massive storm rolled into Chicago tonight. This picture was taken at 7:43 P.M. Take a look at the original and a creative look after the break. (more…)
Inanimate Street Photography: Hydrant
ISO 100, 18 mm, f3.5, 1/200 sec, UV filter, Lightroom Adjustments
I wanted to find texture. I wanted to see if I could express it in a different way, see if I could find a few different types in one shot. I was walking around my neighborhood and came across this hydrant and took one shot. This is the result. Want to see the original? (more…)
Pet Photography: Tiger
ISO 3200, 18mm, f5.6, 1/5sec, UV filter
I love our cat. His name is Tiger and I like taking pictures of him. Why? I think he’s constantly judging me. (more…)
Leo Burnett Building
This is a picture of the Leo Burnett Building in the Loop, home of United Airlines. I was meeting Jenn for lunch last week and captured this. I changed it pretty heavily in Lightroom but I’m happy with the black and white version of this photo. The sun was bright and the reflection was great to help make this photo more dramatic. (more…)
Funky Budda
I took a long photo-walk today and came up with quite a bit of good stuff. But this guy was my favorite!
ISO 100, 29mm, f6.3, 1/160sec, UV filter
Wells Street Art Fair
This past weekend my wonderful wife and I made it up early to the Wells Street Art Fair. It was a dreary start to the day with low clouds and a chilly breeze. But after an hour of walking through stalls the sun finally came out and the people showed up. I decided that there were a lot of people around to take pictures of, but more interesting were their dogs. This pooch perked up when I pointed my camera at him. He even smiled. More info after the break… (more…)
This yellow flower is part of a large bouquet that Jenn brought home last week. I took quite a few pictures of the bouquet but these yellow flowers (does anyone know what they are??) stood out. This is about as micro as I can get with my camera with a distance of out 6″ with a full 55mm on my kit lens.
In lightroom I simply upped the temperature about +30 to warm it up. When I took the picture it was a bright sunny day with no clouds and pretty direct light, so I liked warming up the yellows a little bit. After that I added a brightness/contrast layer in Photoshop and added +5 brightness with +10 contrast. ISO100, 55mm, f5.6, 1/160 sec.
rbing.wordpress.com 