Monthly Archives: June 2012

First Ilford Shots

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“Tired Mayonaise”

I cant tell you how much Ive anticipated these shots while waiting for this roll of film to get developed this month!! Earlier this month, wanting to experiment with some other films, I picked up a few rolls of the highly praised ilford black and white film.

Its an incredibly different experience shooting completely black and white, as Im sure a good few of you know from shooting film back in the day. All of a sudden this vibrantly colorful world is broken down to simple shape, gesture’s and light. Before, I could pick and choose which would be which, I could even experiment in Lightroom and try both if I wanted, but not this time. Scenes that were full of life due to their bold energetic hues, were reduced to boring story-less ruble that no longer carried a tune worth playing. Continue reading →

Roadside Chevy

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ISO200 50mm f/1.8 1/800sec

Seen this old beaut, on the side of the road downtown and of course being the motor head I am I had to go to town with shooting it. However, in this particular case All my shots were from various parts of my photo walk. I would grab a shot or two on this passing and then another couple from the next walk by. In fact all 3 of these shots were taken at separate passings.

Im pretty comfortable with my editing process and typically know which steps Ill be taking as I capture the scene, but in some occasions, when I get the pics up on screen I realize the shots call for a different direction. This was one of those times. The front end pic below was one of the first captures for the day, and is nearly unedited straight from camera (just a subtle vignette to keep attention where I want it). I loved the 50′s sunburnt, crazy flare, look that was going on, which was starkly different from the well contrasting top and bottom images. In looking the images over I decided the sun glare and low contrast really helped in telling the story of the car and its story, so I went to town editing the other two shots to bring in the same feeling. (Before and after pics may get posted in the behind the scenes album on the Nick Exposed Facebook page.. wink wink)

I love shots like the one above! First of all whats this kid doing downtown, in only socks?! Second his shirt goes great with the car, and third he has no clue Im shooting him so everything is completely natural. Everybody was walking by taking shots of the car, and Im sure it appeared like I was doing the exact same thing, giving me perfect cover to bring him into the unscripted story of timelessness. He has no shoes, so you know he is in no hurry to go anywhere. Sitting on the side of the road with the same colors as the car… He and the car are practically one in the same. hahaha

Well if anything, it made for a sweet street shot :D

ISO200 50mm f/2.8 1/400 sec

ISO200 50mm f/2.8 1/250sec

The Hopeless Romantic

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ISO200 50mm f/2.8 1/160sec

Today was an EXTREMELY EXCITING day for me as I received my long awaited Canon 7D in the mail!! Perfect timing with the “Blues on the Mall” celebration downtown and this month Collab project coming to a close this weekend!

One thing I absolutely love about downtown Grand Rapids, is the street performers that scatter the streets and alley ways as you make your way around the corridors of brick paved roads. Everything from break dancing competitions, classic sax players, to the everyday musician out in search for a buck or a lovely lady to woo.

This guy definitely fits into the later of the bunch, out trying to show his charm with a rose in mouth, as he serenades the beautiful women who pass by… in hopes a connection may be made.

Either that or the act may just bring in extra cash hahaha. Either way I love the live performances around every street corner!

The Hot Seat

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Heres another shot that was posted to instagram (@nickexposed) before up on the blog… hint hint.. follow us on instagram!! ;)

One of my good friends Kelly is getting into photography more and more lately, and he and I will often venture out for an afternoons worth of shooting with specific objectives in mind. Somedays it may be we both shoot film, other days like in this case we have a sort of iphone showdown!

For our photo walk he suggested we go to a local amphitheater that used to be all abandoned and covered with vines and woodland creatures, in order to get some cool shots for this months collab scavenger hunt project. So were all amped up (pun intended) to see how abandoned this theatre is looking these days, when we realize they had just cleaned up and redone the whole thing within the last year or so. Red stadium seating all around, vines and woodland creatures cleared out… the thing definitely didn’t fit into the whole abandoned theme any more. But it couldnt have worked out any better, because as I reach the lower level and look back up I see this awesome beam of light breaking through the trees, and highlighting just this single chair! I immediately got into my, overly excited, photography character, and started shooting away working on getting the iphone to properly expose this incredible scene while the clouds were still working with us.

All editing was done in my fav iphone app Snapseed.

Rising Star

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If you follow the Nick Exposed instagram channel at all (@nickexposed), you probably seen a few of these pics of my adorable niece pop up in the feed this last week.

One of my absolute favorite things about my move back home to Michigan within the last year, is I get to see my niece Ellie every single day! Shes to coolest little girl on the face of the planet (FACT), and I love her to pieces.

The other day while sitting around outside after I had just gotten back from an afternoon of shooting, she picked up my AE-1 and started parading around the yard with camera to eye (notice the finger on trigger… I didnt teach her that!), while making shutter noises with her mouth. CUTEST THING EVER!!! She seen me hold the camera to my eye once and after that she took off and just ran with it. A natural I tell you!

Not only does she love being behind the camera, but also loves being in front of it! As soon as she sees a camera pop out or a phone raised to take a quick snap shot, she starts striking poses and really works it. haha. She yells CHEEZE and trys to get everyone else in on the shot as well. Not bad for a 2 year old lol.

If anyone is a rising star, it would have to be her! Not sure what she will be (lets hope its a photographer ;) ), but whatever it is, I know she will Kick Ass at it!!

Orange Wheel

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An interesting crop into a awesome crotch rocket. Taken with my iphone 4s.

Love the colors and geometry in here!

Up Up and Away

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Today my buddy Joey and I decided to attack one of the concepts I had in mind for the Anti-Gravity subject in this months Collab Project.

Unfortunately due to my tired state at the moment, any type of story or explanation I would try to write up would do todays shooting fun no justice haha. So… for now I will leave it at, we had a great deal of fun putting this together!

Shot and initially edited on the iphone 4S

 

Old Indian

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Im a car guy all the way, but I definitely love my share of sweet bikes at the same time. As I mentioned in my post yesterday, downtown hosts a great event on wednesday nights called “Blues on the Mall” that rocks some great live blues music and a dynamic range of bikes from fully custom cruisers, mph devouring crotch rockets and kickass vintage bikes like this old skool Indian. This bike, however, stood apart from the some 500 other bikes at this particular event. Continue reading →

F/Stop & Focus

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Another design for you guys!! Ill probably make a few more tweaks but am thinking this will end up in the t-shirt line. What do you think?

Feel free to Save, Print and Share!!

Beach Beers

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ASA200 50mm 1/1000sec

Nothing reminds me of my days back in VA Beach like PBR and sand between the toes!

I feel at home on the beach, and even more so when the camera is between my paws! Now that summer is really setting in (high 90′s this week) I’ve been getting the urge to just chillax on the beach and get my tan on. I miss the days when I could just walk out the back door hit sand and peer out over the ocean! Don’t get me wrong, Michigan definitely has its perks (like the live blues concert put on mid city every Wednesday night. The band killed it tonight!), but I would still say Im a beach boy at heart. Continue reading →

Community Collab Project :: June!!

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HEY CREATIVES!!  IT IS THAT TIME!!!!

We are excited to bring you this months Community Collaboration Project (CCP? That could catch on ;)  )!!

But first, before we get into the AWESOME project theme, Shannon and I wanted to send out a HUGE thank you to all who have participated in our last couple projects!! With out all of your continued support, these projects would be uber lame. We look forward to continuing to make these projects bigger and better in order to consistently stretch your creative imagination and skill sets. :)

So with that being said… if you’ve been following along on our Facebook pages (you doooo follow the Nick Exposed and Seeing Spots pages, right??) then you know we’ve been leaving you clues about this month’s theme.  The trick was…the fact that we were leaving clues was the clue!  So, without further ado… We bring you this month’s CCP theme…

THE SCAVENGER HUNT!!

Are you excited? Because we sure as hell are!!

Not sure how much explanation this project needs, but heres the Nitty Gritty:

15 days and more than 15 scavenger ideas to shoot. We are urging you to do as many possible – one per day would be great – but we are including a few extras for those over-achievers out there.  Now we know, this is an ambitious project, but we’re confident that will all give it as much as you can.
You can do all 15 as a once a day kind of thing, or you can pick and choose from the list and shoot just a small handful of ideas. We chose a wide range of somewhat off the wall, creative ideas for you guys to pick through, each with endless possibilities on how you can approach it.

The project will go from today June 15th to Sunday June 30th at midnight EST.

Anyone and everyone is welcome to join in on the photography fun.  *hint hint hint* Share with your friends! Spread the word! Post on your Facebook/Twitters/G+/local grocery store community board. Reblog! Scream it from the rooftops! (But make sure it’s before 10pm….otherwise the neighbors get grumpy. :-) *end hint*  Ahem…now where were we?

Oh yes!  This project is for you, Aunt Betty and your smelly brother Sam.  It’s for your neighbor, your neighbor’s neightbor and their Uncle Bob.  Anyone with a way to capture images is welcome to join us.  Shoot with your slr, dslr, point n shoot or camera phone. Hell we don’t care if you shoot with your little sisters Barbie camera. Just get creative with it.

As always please send an email to submit@nickexposed.com with “Count me in for the Scavenger Hunt” in the subject line. Also include the blog/web address you will want your pictures linked to when we put together the gallery at the end of the month.

Below is the list of scavenger ideas to choose from. We cant wait to see your creative interpretation of the different items.

  • “Chuck Norris Was Here”
  • “Big Foot Footprint”
  • Reflected Love
  • Abstract Self Portrait
  • Framed Moon
  • “Whats your sign”
  • Anti-gravity
  • Unusual Perspective
  • Abandoned
  • Silence
  • Pride and Joy
  • Emerging Star
  • Buried Treasure
  • Sparkler fun
  • Clownin Around Upside-down
  • Lyric Quotograph
  • Summer
  • Patriotism
  • Night

We are truly excited to see what you can do with this collaborative project.  We know what creative people you are – and it’s a real treat to see how you interpret these challanges.  It’s a great source of inspiration for us, and for the other participants!

Keep checking our pages, FB’s and twitters (SSP & NE) for updates and shout outs!

 

Shoot On My Friends

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Just threw this together real quick for all to enjoy :)

SAVE, SHARE, & PRINT!! Do whatever you would like with it!