Graffiti Weekend.,,,

The best summer weekend in Douglas County.  The events were many and the cars were every where. The classic cars are always a crowd pleaser.  I am so looking forward to next year and this years festivities aren't even finished yet.  Still another day of events planned for Seven Feathers.  Nice...

A couple youngsters enjoying the cars

Class of 2011 Senior Spokesmodel

Tim Barron Photograpy is now accepting applications for our Class of 2011 Senior SpokesModels!   We are looking for outgoing, motivated upcoming seniors who want to motivate and inspire their classmates and in the process earn FREE stuff! 

We will be selecting 1 or 2 reps per high school.   

WHAT YOU GET:

• A  free  Session (worth $150)
• Slick & stylish “rep cards” featuring 5 or 6 of your photos that offer your friends free wallets.
• A proof book with all your proofs to stash in your purse and share with friends.
• A “Featured Senior” Gallery of your session on www.timbarronphoto.com  for your entire senior year.
• Facebook images of your session for you to post.
• These incentives for every referral you send to Tim Barron Photography:
  
  
  
  
  • A free set of wallets for every referral.
  • 5 referrals also get you a $50 Visa Gift Card.
  • 10 referrals also earn you a $100 Visa Gift Card

WHAT YOU GIVE:

• Your honest effort to promote Tim Barron Photography by: www.timbarronphoto.com
  
  
  
  • Passing out your Rep Cards
  • Posting your images on Facebook
  • Telling your friends about your great experience with Tim Barron Photography
• Have your 2-3 hour photo shoot by August 31st 2011

HOW TO BECOME A SPOKESMODEL:

• Show this page to your parents and get their approval to proceed.
• Click on the link and apply today.  Application

Melissa photo session #1

I thought we would do some preliminary photos of Melissa before her solo shoot in the next couple weeks. I think the turned out great.  We were on location for about an hour and a half and it seemed like 15 minutes.  What a great time..  So, if you like how this session turned out and want to have your  own glamour session. Surf on over to my website and shcedule yours today.

Melissa and her family of 4 amazing pets.  Jackson, the chocolate lab,  is getting a little older but he is a beautiful boy and can still work over a toy duck.  The orange tabby, Mango, was a little scared at first but she warmed up to me near the end and then put on a posing clinic.  Riley, the little dachsund, was a ferocious beast.  He really wanted to eat the neighbors 80-90 lbs beast of a dog.  And I think Riley just might have the heart to take him down.  The Gray tabby ruled the house. And what a beauty...

I have totally neglected my blogging as of late.  I really need to work on it. I hope these images get me going again.  I had a great time with Mike and Jen and their adorable little boys.  I am glad to see Jen up and looking great after giving birth to little Bryson.

and this little guy was not real thrilled with the whole picture thing but man can he sling some dirt.  Quite the handy little boy...

HDR (High Dynamic Range) Photography

HDR or High Dynamic Range photography has been a concept that has been around since 1997.  Your camera sees a dynamic range of roughly 6 f-stops. Let me explain that a little further with the use of some images.  By merging the images together and performing some post processing techniques we can try to get that range up to 11 f-stops.  Still far below what our eyes can see but a huge improvement in tonal range.

This image is over exposed by 2 f-stops






This image is underexposed by 2 f-stops

This image is exposed correctly and is a pretty good image by itself.  Well what we are about to do is do some digital magic.  






We are going to merge these three photos together in photoshop with an automate function of "Merge to HDR".  This will automatically line up your images and put one on top of the other.  Photoshop does a great job of aligning images.  What it does not do so well is a process called "tone mapping".  Tone mapping is where your will bring out all the details and the range of the image.  I use a product called Photomatix.  This seems to be the industry standard.  There are several other programs that offer similar results such as FDRsoft, Qtpfsgui, and Picturenaut. Once Photoshop has merge your image you will need to save it as a 16 bit tiff file.  This file size and type provides you more flexibility in bringing out the details and highlights.  


Open up Photomatix and then open your tiff file.  Then play around with the sliders and see what kind of image you can produce.


If you don't have Photoshop, Photomatix does a very good job at merging an image to HDR. So, essentially,  Photomatix could be your one stop HDR software.


Here is our final image. It is a much deeper, more vibrant image.  

For more examples of HDR you can visit my website timbarronphoto.com or visit my fan page on facebook at Tim Barron Photography

Direction and Vision

As you all know, recently,  I launched my new website, timbarronphoto.com.  I appreciate everyone that has visited the site and shown an interest in my photography.

I have made some changes and I thought it was getting to where I liked it.  However, I am thinking of changing directions in my photography.  I love taking photos of everything.  I like the color and textures of flowers, the softness of snow on mountains.  I truly love the beauty of nature, but one thing keeps coming back to me.  The love of photographing my family.  As a parent there is not greater joy, to me, than capturing that moment in time that maybe gone tomorrow or in 5 minutes.  Believe me,  I have a 13 year old boy and because they have to be "cool" all the time, the smiles and the true emotions he had when he was 4 and 5 are masked a lot of the time.  However, when you do catch that moment of joy and fun spirit that he has, it brings me great happiness and the camera loves it.  That is why I love taking photos of him playing sports or just out doing things away from others his age, especially 13 year old girls.  As for the four year old, well they are easy.  They have so much energy and life that any photo you take of them has the potential to be a crowd pleaser.   My four year old loves to go out in the back yard and get his picture taken.  A real camera bug that one.

Well, back to my direction change.  Photos, to me, are all about emotion.  I want to be the best at capturing that emotion.  I thought that taking magnificent photos of flowers or landscapes would land me a million dollars because of the emotion that someone felt after seeing the image.  Well, you must admit, that is like winning the lottery.  Let's flip that emotion-less image of a flower to one of a child laughing and running on the soccer field or the frustration after that first strikeout in little league.  That is the true emotion I have been trying to capture.  Don't get me wrong, I still love taking photos of flowers, landscapes and still-life but I want to offer all of you my services as your family photographer.  In the upcoming baseball season and track season I will have camera in tow shooting away and of course I will be at tiny tots soccer with my little guy with my camera capturing those emotion filled days that we as parents know slip away to fast.

I find it interesting that for the most part senior pictures are the only professional pictures that parents have of their kids other than the family pictures at christmas.  I try to look back through my pictures from grade school, junior high and high school they are hard to find.  The one that I find that means the most to me is the senior picture.  Why? well perhaps it is because I had to pay for it.  But, what if it was because someone other than mom and dad were making me feel like a star.  There are other important milestones growing up in addition to being a senior in high school.  Take a look around at some photographers in your area, they may not be as expensive as you might think. Most of the photographers will put a premium on weddings but not on senior or family packages.  Like me for instance, my rate to cover a wedding is significantly higher than for a photo shoot with a family.

Over the next few days and weeks my website will be morphing again to reflect my vision of where I want to go in photography.  The first thing on the site I will be changing is the pricing, that section of the site is shut down until I can adjust my prices to reflect a more family oriented pricing. Then I will get with that 13 year old of mine and we will revamp the site to appeal to all ages... I hope...  Stay tuned and I will see you on the field and online.....