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Andrew Hughes

Spotting the Legendary Kawasaki H-2 750 from 1972

By 1972 Kawasaki H-2 750 Triple, motorcycle

Here’s something that you don’t see everyday… a motorcycle with a kickstart. I have owned  seven motorcycles in my life and only one had a kick start. Since my Kawasaki KZ650 also had an electric starter, I would only use it if I was trying to look cool. I needed all the help I could get in college. Sad but true.

I had heard stories of the 2-stroke monster from the early seventies often called the Kawasaki Triple. I had only seen a few in passing, but here was one sitting right in front of me. She looked pretty good for a 38 year old motorcycle with just a hint of corrosion on the tank.

I could just imagine the blue smoke wafting up from the triple exhaust pipes like some 2-wheel mosquito fogger. It was great to see something this cool still on the road and ridden. There was over 41,000 miles on the odometer…many miles of smiles.

It had a single disk brake in the front and a drum brake on the rear. This baby was not really made for the curves, but could go in a straight line pretty fast.

Moody Portrait of Collin

By Collin, portraits, strobist, Studio

This weeks light test took place at our friend Megan’s house. She has an upcoming client shoot and we were shooting light tests. With three photographers in working together, we all able to bounce ideas and knowledge off of each other.

The last 30 minutes of the day consisted of each of us taking turns running the shoot. We each had about 10 minutes to set up a lighting scenario and shoot a portrait. This artificial pressure helps prepare for similar real situations that happen on paying photoshoots. Nothing like pressure to hone your skills. My starting photo is shown to the right.

Here is my shot of Collin where I used a 24″ portable softbox. A small silver reflector helped to fill in some of the shadows. That’s it.

From there, a slaved flash was added to the backdrop. In this case I wanted to separate the back of the head which had gone to silhouette from the background.
The background light was moved to give different looks to the background.

The last version I tried was showed more of a spotlight effect on the background.

Rockabilly Rumble at Blind Willy’s in Atlanta, GA

By Rockabilly Rumble, The Stumblers
Last Sunday I went to Blind Willy’s in the Virginia Highland neighborhood in Atlanta to watch four rockabilly bands. It was more like a trip back to the days when rock was young and Greasers were too cool for school. Here is the bassist from Junior, Dolan and Cash… the best haircut of the night!!

I took my Canon 7D to try to capture some of the show not knowing what I would encounter. I figured this would be a good test for this new camera to see how it performs in extreme low-light situations. When I say low light, I mean a few strands of Christmas lights and some Home Depot sourced stage lights.

My friend Scott Dorman who invited me works with photographer named David Stuart who also happens to be a gifted guitarist in band, The Stumblers. Here they are jammin’.

David was playing in guitar in metal bands long before he ever picked up a camera.

Here are the Stumblers ripping through their set. They sounded fantastic!
The light came from gelled Home Depot style lights.

The results are admittedly gritty, but still worlds above other cameras that I have owned in this class. My Canon 5D Mark II may have handled the low light better, but it was fun to see what I could get by pushing the sensitivity of this camera to the max. For you tech heads that ISO6400 shot at f/4 for anywhere from 1/10th to 1/40th of a second. I kinda like the low-fi quality of these which reminds me of the high-speed film I used back in my college days. See the full gallery here…

Portrait of a Two-Legged Dog

By 2 legged dog, Dogs, handicap dogs, pet portraits, portraits

When my friend, Collin, asked me if I wanted to help him take photos of his mom, Ginger, and her Chiauau, Roo, little did I know that this dog would more resemble several other animals combined. Roo is unique because she was born without fully developed front legs. She has the stance of a kangaroo, the small wings of a chicken and the huge ears of a cave bat.

She has never known what it is like to walk on 4 legs and she considers hopping, sliding and dive bombing from the top of the couch totally natural for a dog. To get around she stands on her back legs and uses her tail to balance… just like a kangaroo.

When it was my turn to take photos, I used every stupid dog trick in the book from fake “barks” to cat “meows” to get her ears to stick straight up or her head cocked to one side. A little bribery with cheese did wonders too. See the full gallery here.

Here is Roo with his mom, Ginger. You will not find a bigger animal lover!

Roo is living proof that a strong spirit will find a way to adapt! 

Product Photography for the Extreme Gourmet

By hot sauce, product photography, The Extreme Gourmet

Talk about a hot job… My mouth was watering while I was clicking the shutter.

The Extreme Gourmet make some of the best hot sauce made with home grown peppers. Whenever the owner creates a new recipe in the kitchen, I get to photograph the product that results from his culinary creativity. This BBQ sauce has a little kick with fresh chipotle that you can see in the sauce. The small bottle contains jolokia peppers… the hottest peppers in the world. One drop will light you up!

Newborn Photos of Baby Alessandra

By babies, newborns, portraits

The name Alessandra could have at least 5 nicknames that can be derived from it: Alli, Sandra, Allison, Liz, Lisa… It is important to think of these things when naming your child. I am just glad that my parents did not name me Art, because nothing good would have come of that in elementary school.

Little Alessandra was just a few weeks old when she got her first studio portraits. She was fascinated by the large softbox and would not take her eyes off of it…  She never fell asleep either so I never was able to take any of the peaceful sleeping baby photos that I had planned. We’ll get those next time. See the full newborn baby gallery of Alessandra here.
Little Alessandra has red peachfuzz for hair. She will probably be blonde like her mom.
Hello world!

So tiny… just a handful.
Pretty in pink…
Hangin’ with mom!
Daddy’s girl…
Grandma and Alessandra.

Weekly Photography Tests With Collin

By portraits, strobist

The advantage to taking photos of the same person week after week is that one can see how their face reacts to the different light scenarios. Last week’s test consisted lighting inspired by faces that I have seen on television. You can see this sort of lighting on almost any tv show to establish mood or setting.

In this case I am using warm and cool hard flash lighting to create dimension.

The great thing about this setup is that you can leave the lighting the same and simply have the client change their body direction for different looks.

Sometimes I try to turn accidents into keepers with a little experimentation, like in the photo below where the side flash was too strong. Not every photo has to be success if you learn something from it.

The next test was to light an interior room subtly while maintaining detail in the sunny outdoor scene.

The final test was to use window light as the 2nd light in a 2 light set up. Daylight is free and it adds extra dimension on the shadow side of the subject.

Baby Tyler Newborn Photos

By babies, family, newborns, portraits
What can I say. Newborn babies are cute and little Tyler was as adorable as they come. I was actually one of the first people outside of the immediate family who got to meet him. We set up a makeshift studio in a very tiny playroom and started shooting in between feedings. Big sister, Lia, was a perfect little helper holding baby brother just right. It was not too long ago when she was just as tiny.
Big sister loves her brother.
The whole family.
So tiny…
Three generations…

Celebrating a Birthday in a Unique Way

By birthday, yard art

My next door neighbor was mowing letters into his front yard so I was compelled to ask him what was going on. He told me that he was not crazy, just happy that his second grandson, Pax, was just born. He was mowing the child’s name into the grass as to make a memento. The size of the letters could probably be seen from satellite. Of course, I had to run an get my camera to record a cool event like this.

Protective Glove Photography in a Factory

By Aegis, Factory, Gloves, Graphic Works, photography, product photography

Graphic Works was asked to photograph a set of industrial cut-resistant gloves for a catalog. This product is made with kevlar to resist cuts and has abrasion-resistant rubber palms to provide great dexterity. These gloves will take lots of abuse and protect the wearer’s hands. I made these photos on location at another client’s factory where there was a lot of sharp blades and oily equipment. The 2 photos below will be the ones to be used in company literature.