glp // ground level photography

the photography of michael tangen

Alright... taking no prisoners and hitting the PAD thing again. The end of July and much of August brought no mercy; and it's time to get back in the habit of taking a Photo A Day.

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glp > September 10 - "Nano nano"

<excuse>Another day without digging the camera out so I am going back into the vast array of photos that have not yet seen the light of day. This is from an evening of experimenting with product-related photography after building a "poor-man's lightbox" for taking product photos in a more controlled environment.</excuse>

I do have a keyed out version of this on a white, seamless background; but I thought this one was a bit more appealing for the texture in the granite tile base. I'm still looking for a solid, black granite tile (without the pattern) to do product photography on, but this one did okay for the time being.

I may post the other version of this photo (taken on the white seamless background) tomorrow if I don't have a photo for the anniversary of 9/11.

glp > September 09 - "Seth"

Given my really long night last night, I slept in late and the camera never made it out for any PAD moments. So I went through my volumes of photos that haven't been processed yet and found this one that I liked. I took this of my friend Seth at a camp outing he persuaded me to come to for students from Kenya. Well, if you have seen any of my SP's, you know I don't look Kenyan — at all. But it was still a good time.

I captured this photo as he was reviewing pictures on his laptop at the moment; makes him look deep in thought. But Seth's the kind of person you could trust and rely on — his word is gold.

glp > September 17 - "Line study"

I'm behind on my PAD's and didn't take anything today, so I'm grabbing a previously unreleased photo from the archives. This was just an abstract study on lines and shadow involving a bunch of chair legs. I kinda like it. About the only thing I'd change is scrub out the blue thingy in the top right corner with Photoshop. Other than that, it's an interesting study on lines in my opinion; specifically the perpendicular lines and intersections between the legs and the shadows.

glp > September 11 - "Contemplation"

True confessions; I didn't take this photo on September 11th. Rather, this is from one of my fashion shoots that I did towards the end of last month. Talaya was easy to work with and is pretty gifted with coming up with some fun poses. This shoot in particular was to give her some more photos to prepare for some TV work that she's going to be doing with some new extension of the BET network; or at least something of that flavor.

I thought this might be a good photo for the September 11th anniversary as each of us have our varying levels of contemplation that we might endure that day.

glp > September 01 - "Beauty in Form"

To resume my Photo-A-Day (PAD) series and start September out right, here's one of the photos from a portrait session that I gave to my wife for her birthday. I helped Natalie pick out a nice summery dress to wear, hired a makeup/hair artist to come out to our house, and then shot some photos in downtown Stillwater and at Afton State Park — like on of your models as she might joke.

In all the shoot went real well, Natalie looks beautiful in the photos, and they're photos that I'm pretty proud of.

August was extremely busy for me, hopefully things will settle down a bit and I can get more PAD's in.

glp > September 05 - Portrait session revisited

Last night was a night of getting photos processed from my wife's photo shoot and our trip to Duluth, so it was a bit impractical to get out there and take some photos. I should have some new ones up from a shoot I've got this evening (weather permitting).

Be sure to check out some of the fashion shoots that I had last month.

glp > September 02 - "Beer on the Beach" :)

Our first evening in Duluth, we went out to dinner with Natalie's brother and his wife and kicked back with a little Leinie's on the rocky shores of Lake Superior. It was an extraordinarily beautiful night to hang out on the shore.

Of course we responsibly dealt with our bottles and recycled them accordingly.

glp > September 03 - "Dawning of a New Day"

I got up at the crack of dawn — actually, before the crack was considering getting up for the day — and dragged my lazy butt down to the shoreline east of the aerial lift bridge and snapped off a bunch of photos that morning as the sun lazily made its way to the horizon. You can see more of those photos here.

glp > September 04 - "A Caribou Morning"

Last day up in Duluth before returning to the rat race in the Twin Cities. It was definitely a "Caribou" morning (Caribou Coffee).

glp > September 12 - "Shakira, part two"

Last night was a long night of processing photos. While I wasn't too far behind, I had two shoots to process before I'd have nothing left but minor retouching to do on the photos that the various models have chosen.

I liked this photo because it was kinda whimsical, the texture of her shirt, and the revealing light source on her sunglasses all made the shot enjoyable for me. I also love the shadows and the natural arc that's created with the path of her spine.

Today I get my new zoom lens to replace my old Tamron 70-300 that suffered a horrid fall shortly before this photo was taken. I've never shot with Sigma's before, so it'll be interesting to see how it fares.

glp > September 06 - "Shakira, session 2"

This evening I had my second photo shoot with Shakira, one of the models that I've started working with over the summer. She's got quite a vibrant personality and is easy to work with — she knows what she's doing, that's for sure.

This evening didn't go on without a hitch though. In addition to being eaten alive by mosquitos — sometimes being double, triple or even quadruple-teamed and swatting at every given opportunity — my light stand kept tipping over, my diffuser umbrella just a few falls away from "retirement", and the unthinkable... one of the tripod legs gave out and caused the whole thing to tip over. It seemed like slow-motion and a fury of fear all at once as I watched my tripod tip over, camera headed to the ground lens-first. My 75-300 zoom lens busted near the mount and a great explicative could have been heard for a mile or so, I'm sure.

But the show must go on. I dusted myself off, tested my camera and 580ex with my Tamron 28-75 2.8 to make sure the camera still worked, and proceeded to finish the evening off with a couple dozen more shots.

This was one of the final shots of the night and I just loved the lighting, the mood it casts, and the general vibe of it. We were both ready to call it an evening.

Strawberries-n-cream Frappucino here I come.

glp > September 07 - "Party Like a Rock Star"

...and that's just what these guys were doing. Tonight my photography assignment for Minnage Magazine turned into a double-duty shoot — both Drink Night Club and Spin Night Club. Essentially it's over-glorified candids of people having fun and consuming alcohol or dancing or whatever. Once in awhile I'm able to get a shot like this that feels genuinely fun and filled with a lot of emotion and energy. Nothing I'd write home about, but probably the best one worth putting up for today's PAD.

glp > September 08 - "Summer's Last Stand"

...well, at least that's what was going on at Lord Fletcher's near Lake Minnetonka. Covering this last big hurrah of summer for Minnage Magazine, I was there until about 2:30 or so, got lost trying to find my way out of the massive chain of lakes, and didn't get home until like 4 am. The magazine likes fast, same-day turnaround on the photos, but I liked my sleep a bit more last night. ;-)

No more "party" photos for awhile and can get back to better things.

glp > September 13 - "35W"

My new Sigma 70-300 f/4-5.6 was delivered today and my wife and I finally ventured down near the 35W bridge and took all these photos. Despite the fence that obstructed our view a bit, it was still moving to see the vast amount of wreckage that still lies at the sides of the river.

September 10 - "Nano nano"

<excuse>Another day without digging the camera out so I am going back into the vast array of photos that have not yet seen the light of day. This is from an evening of experimenting with product-related photography after building a "poor-man's lightbox" for taking product photos in a more controlled environment.</excuse>

I do have a keyed out version of this on a white, seamless background; but I thought this one was a bit more appealing for the texture in the granite tile base. I'm still looking for a solid, black granite tile (without the pattern) to do product photography on, but this one did okay for the time being.

I may post the other version of this photo (taken on the white seamless background) tomorrow if I don't have a photo for the anniversary of 9/11.

Camera: Canon (Canon Eos Digital Rebel Xt) |

more details: exif |

original size: 2304px x 3456px |

Current: 300px x 450px |

Other sizes: S • Medium • L |

filename: _MG_6668 |

Share photo: links, forums, blogs |

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