Denver Real Estate/ Product Photography – Best Western Denver SW

On 03.11.10, In Photos, Products, Real Estate, By Chester

Best Western Denver SW (by Chester Bullock)

I do product photography, and I do real estate photography. But when it comes to shooting hotels and resorts, it’s a mix of both.

The manager of the Best Western Denver SW (located in Lakewood, Colorado despite the name), saw my photos recently and liked my work. They are in the middle of a website redesign and needed new photos of the property since they have completed renovations recently. I went down one recent afternoon and took care of the shoot. By the end of the weekend I had presented him with the images I thought were keepers. He was extremely pleased and they should be showing up on the website after the new one is launched. And I’ll be going back for exterior shots once things green up here in Colorado.

Contact me today if you have photographic needs in real estate, products or portraits.

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Introducing Team Sports Services

On 03.04.10, In Commentary, Photos, Sports, By Chester

Lakewood Tigers baseball pitcher

I am very excited to announce that 2010 will be the year I begin offering team photography services for local youth sports organizations and teams. Just in time for the 2010 Jefferson County Junior Baseball League season, I have developed special package pricing that is more focused on value to the family, while providing great products that the athletes and families alike will cherish.

I am a local photographer who spent five years coaching in the Lakewood Junior Baseball organization, with my 5th year as head coach. It was always a challenge for me to coach while wanting to get great pictures of the kids. Now I am able to focus completely on getting great pictures of the kids, be it at practice, in a league game, or in a tournament.

For more information or to contact me with specific questions, please see the Team Sports Photography page. Every player deserves a great photo, and I will deliver that.

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Colorado Product Photography – Arjuni

On 03.01.10, In Commentary, Photos, Products, By Chester

Arjuni Photo Shoot

I love shooting hard-to-photograph items. I am getting pretty good at it. But this time, I really had my work cut out for me. Arjuni is a Denver purveyor of hair weaves. The owner came to me with what seemed like a simple request – take photos of roughly 27 samples for use on the new website. It was something of a rush job, because the grand opening of the site was two weeks out. On top of that, two other photographers had been tried beforehand, but could not deliver images to her satisfaction. Great, no pressure there.

I experiemented a bit with some different positioning and lighting, and then settled on something that seemed to work really well. The owner was pleased. I started getting comments like “Phenomenal work!” and “Thanks for all of your hard work. You’ve definitely captured some gems that I’m excited about!” Really, this is what it is all about. Sure, I get to make images that make me happy, on my own time, but when I am on the clients’ clock, I need to deliver.

That said, I really like doing product photography here in the Denver area. So far I have done some neat things and met very interesting people. I have started to see repeat business, which is a good measure of success I think. If you need a product shot, even if it is not a hard to photograph surface, contact me for a quote. I have no doubt I will deliver images you can be proud of, and ones that will help sell your product.

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Congrats to the January Winner

On 02.10.10, In Commentary, By Chester

Congrats to Kathleen D., the January winner of a $50 gift certificate to my online art gallery. She was selected at random from all of the fans of my Facebook page. More contests are coming, so become a fan today and you will automatically be entered to win.

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Outdoor sports season is coming

On 01.22.10, In Commentary, By Chester

Texas Hawks 14U Pitcher (by Chester Bullock)

Believe it or not, the spring/ summer sports season is right around the corner here in Colorado. If you have a child on a team that is looking to have pictures done, contact me and I’ll add you to my calendar. For a small retainer, I will dedicate an entire game to your team, and get pictures that will make all of the parents beam with pride.

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WM Devices – A local Colorado product

On 01.20.10, In Photos, Products, By Chester

WMD Geiger Counter

Twice now in the last 7 days I have been asked to do product shoots. I do these in my home studio here in Lakewood. One company who has become a repeat customer is WM Devices, a local producer of electronic effect devices for musicians. William hand builds all of the equipment he sells, and doesn’t sacrifice a sharp look on the exterior. Baked enamel finishes with screened lettering, these look right at home in any musicians kit. If you are a musician, check out his stuff at wmdevices.com.

I like shooting products. I can take as long as I need to in order to get the lighting just right, and can take multiple images if I need to. I normally use my DIY Light Tent, but for larger objects, might revert to the DIY Backdrop holder. Lighting is the really fun part, making sure to get the colors just right (especially for something like the WMD Geiger Counter above). I can take all day if I need to, and the client gets charged a flat rate, so it isn’t eating into their budget.

If you have a product you need photos of, drop me a note or give me a call and we can discuss your needs, timing and budget.

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Shooting Family Portraits

On 01.04.10, In Commentary, By Chester

Kaul Family Portrait, Lakewood, Colorado

Family portraits are a fairly new thing for me. So over the weekend I attended a seminar by Sandy Puc. Sandy is a very talented, very creative Denver photographer who has established a highly successful business doing portrait work. So successful in fact, that she now goes out on tour every year teaching other photographers how to be successful in the portrait space. If you have received one of her flyers in the mail and thought about going, REGISTER NOW! This seminar was great, and it covered things as basic as posing to the complexities of marketing your studio for maximum effectiveness. I feel 10 times more confident doing family portraits now, and I cannot recommend this class enough. Check out the info for yourself. If you are interested, register soon, her seminars sell out in nearly every city she goes to.

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HDR – I Still Love It

On 12.30.09, In Commentary, Industrial, Photos, Software, By Chester

HDR image of a gondola car taken near South Fork, Colorado with an Olympus E-510

I started shooting High Dynamic Range (commonly known as HDR) images roughly 2 years ago. I don’t shoot many (26 in my flickr gallery), but I enjoy shooting them. The gondola rail car in the photo above is the best one I have shot I think. Shooting HDR takes patience, at least with older dSLR’s like my Olympus E-510. Newer camera models, mainly ones that have arrived in the last 6-12 months, might have enough exposure bracketing built in to them to accomplish HDR captures with one click of the shutter release. Still others might have had a firmware update to accomplish this. It is my biggest hope that whatever Olympus brings out to replace the E-3 will have this feature.

I could write a tutorial on taking HDR images, but really, it would pale in comparison to the master, so I’ll let you have a look at Trey Ratcliff’s HDR Tutorial instead. I would also encourage you to check out his new book – “A World in HDR“.

After the captures, you need software. I have been using Photomatix HDR since I started doing HDR images, and highly recommend it. Trey does too, and he has even worked out a 15% discount with Photomatix (follow the link to see how to get it). Once again, Trey tells us the best way to use the software. For me personally, I usually play with a couple different settings in Photomatix to get the photo looking just the way I want to. For the gondola above, I think there were 4 versions, this one being the best (in my eyes). I would encourage you to experiment as well, and get the look that pleases you the most.

If you are looking for inspiration in other people’s HDR work, or if you have your own portfolio of images to show people, you need to take a look at hdrspotting.com. This collection of images is extraordinary, and I hope I produce something worthy of inclusion. To become a contributor, you need to obtain an invitation code. While it is not clear to me how people get codes to give away, if you watch #hdrspotting on Twitter or ask around in the HDR group on Facebook, you should see a code pop up. I will post them to my Twitter feed if they ever come my way.

If you are a flickr user, you should look into the HDR and Photomatix groups. Great pictures and discussions happen in both.

Get out and try your hand at HDR, and put links to your pictures in the comments below. I love seeing what other people do with this new type of imagery.

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Another picture of our lights

On 12.28.09, In Commentary, Photos, By Chester

HDR Lights
After I took a picture of our holiday lights a couple of weeks ago, the snow melted, and we added a few more lights. Tuesday night it started to snow, so Wednesday morning I went out and took some pics, then combined them into an HDR. Didn’t come out to bad at all.

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Review: Helicon Focus vs CombineZP

On 12.23.09, In Commentary, Do It Yourself, Macro, Photos, Software, By Chester

Helicon Focus Flower Macro Composite
I have been using Helicon Focus off and on for a little over a year now. I love the program. I haven’t really tried depth of field stacking in Photoshop, mainly because the results of Helicon Focus are so good. If it is good enough for scientific work, it’s good enough for me. However, I recently became aware of a free tool similar to Helicon, called CombineZP, so I had to give it a try.

Call me crazy, but even though Helicon Focus has a retail price of more than $0, I find it to be a superior program. The interface is easier to use, there are export plugins from Adobe Lightroom, and the resulting product, in my mind, is superior. I created the images below using the 2 programs, each using a stack of 4 shots from my Olympus E-510 to create the resultant image. You be the judge, but I know I will continue to use Helicon Focus.

CombineZP
CombineZP Comparison Shot (by Chester Bullock)

Helicon Focus
Helicon Focus Comparison Shot (by Chester Bullock)

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