My photo in the Soft category ~

Ok, this is my thrown gauntlet to my studio partner

Whitney: my official submission in our current challenge, soft. You may recall how we have always given these obscure & abstract artistic challenges to each other as a way to stay fresh and try to see the world in unexpected ways. A couple months ago we opened up our friendly little competition to all of our friends and photographers who follow our respective blogs, and that particular topic was red.  This time around we want to see how we photographically interpret the concept of soft, and there are no limitations, constraints, or preconceptions to anyones individual interpretation. Other than it be a new image, made specifically for the challenge. And last night, after a meeting downtown, I was walking back to my car and was taken by this rainy, watery scene down in the inner SE of Portland. I call it "Waiting For Batman". Don't ask me why. Just somehow popped into my head when I was standing there in the rain. Taken with my iPhone 4S.

And speaking of meetings, here's a shot of my business partner Dave Carsten, caught in a somewhat pensive pose as we figure out details of the video we're working on. As some of you may know, my core business is a trainer & consultant in digital photography in the dental profession, and we're in the initial stages of our project. I'm thankful to be working with some top pro's in the field, up here in Portland and in California. But it should be fun!

Have a photo to share? (or video tips??)  dhuttphoto@comcast.net

later, amigos!

Get out there and shoot!

It's been a very eventful week, capped off by a surprise celebration of my 60th birthday! And ahead of that, I got to spend a couple days with one of my favorite photographers: my brother Jim. I just don't often take the time to get out of the studio and shoot outdoors, so when I do -- particularly in the company of a challenging photographer -- it's going to be a good time.

We didn't start out with any agenda other than to look at shapes and colors and textures, and make the best out of what we encountered. And to keep the cameras dry -- you gotta love shooting in Oregon in the winter!
The week prior to that I had the opportunity to try out something a little out of the ordinary: shoot with a Hasselblad V-series lens on my Canon 7D!

My friend Bryce Hoeper is an incredible photographer and a collector of all things film-based, so I borrowed his 80mm V lens and a Canon adapter. The focal length compared very closely to my Canon 85 f1.8, but of course required some old techniques -- remember stop-down metering?

But is was certainly fun to play with again and brought back a flood of wonderful old memories. It doesn't matter how much I shoot with my digital SLR, I will always have a soft spot for medium format. I probably should have cropped Tiana into a square just for old times sake! I want to do some more work with the Hassy lens, but even at a glance I was marveling at its clarity and tone. They were truly unique.

So go grab something old (like me?) and shoot something new!  And if you'd like to share it, you know where:   dhuttphoto@comcast.net

Later, amigos!