Really Right Stuff BH-55

Tweet I just ordered a new ball head. The Really Right Stuff BH-55. This is an industry leading ball head. It is noted for its exceptional build quality. I will be posting a full review as soon as it arrives.

Here is a link to the specs on the BH-55 Really Right Stuff BH-55

Razzle 900

Tweet Just a few days back I had my 25th birthday. It was an amazing day thanks to my friends and family. My wife had a little something extra to surpass me with. That little something extra arrived today in the shape of a Razzle 900 camera. I have not had time to do a shoot with the camera, but I will be doing one soon. I will update this blog with pictures of the camera asap.

The Razzle 900 is a Polaroid 900 body that has been converted to shoot with a 4x5 back, and has a nicer lens this particular one has a Fujinon 150mm f5.6 W lens. The beauty of shooting 4x5 is that you have a large negative which is just stunningly beautiful. The images quality form this camera will be amazing. Especially considering that it is a small folding camera that can be hand held.

The front page of the Razzle website has a picture of my camera. Here is the link.

Milk Tooth

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Last month the amazing Make Up Artist Amy Lynn Larwig http://www.amylynnlarwig.com/ set up a test shoot with the band Milk Tooth http://www.myspace.com/milktoothmusic. Here are a couple of the photos!

Amy Lynn was awesome for setting this shoot up.  This was a test shoot done for both of our portfolios. A lot of work went into getting this shoot together and Amy and her husband Mark were responsible for the majority of that work.  A big thank you to both of you!

Mark took video of the shoot for a promo for Amy I have embedded it below.


Amy Lynn Larwig, Makeup Artist. from Mark Brown on Vimeo.

2010

Tweet I have beens struggling to come up with a new blog post about the new year. What do you talk about? Resolutions? Success? Failures? I'm not really sure. I will say this 2009 was an amazing year. In 2009, I started this blog, my photography business greatly expanded, and I married the woman of my dreams.

May 2010 be as great as 2009.

Paul Buff PLM

Tweet A few months back I purchased a 64in Silver Paul C. Buff PLM. The PLM is my new favorite lighting modifier. I bought the PLM for a shoot for a community college. I bought it because I needed a big light source that was also light weight and portable, and had a small footprint. The PLM fit the bill perfectly. I also purchased the white front diffusion panel for it. It produces a great softlight when the front diffusion is on. It is also parabolic and allows you to use less power to get a good amount of flash output. With the front diffusion panel off it produces a nice contrasty light. Also the PLM is very afforadable at under $100 for the 64in. You can buy the PLM at http://www.alienbees.com/plm.html. I am in no way related to or funded by Paul C. Buff this is my unbiased review. I will post a few pictures that were made using the PLM later.

Whiskerino Week 1

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So in week one of Whiskerino I skipped a few days of pictures but beard growth is coming along.

Chris and Telisha

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Awhile back Wes Aldridge (www.mindofthephotographer.blogspot.com) asked me to help him shoot a wedding. Generally I do not shoot weddings, but Wes told me that these are not your typical bride and groom that they were rock n' roll. So I decided to help out. Christ and Telisha had their wedding at the Cannery Ballroom, a rock club in Nashville, Tn. The resulting pictures above are pretty rockin.

Since shooting this wedding I have booked two more for this fall. I have decided that shooting a wedding can actually be cool.

Introducing the new Mrs. Bumgardner!

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After dating for three years Kati and I finally tied the knot on September 5th. It was truly one of the best days of my life.We had a small ceremony with our families and a few friends in Paxton, Il (near Kati's home town). The ceremony and reception were beautiful. The reception was very elegant. We had an amazing caterer LA Gourmet, who provided some of the best food that I have ever eaten at a wedding. Kati's mother surprised me with a red velvet armadillo cake with grey icing (right out of Steel Magnolias).

I got asked by many of the guest what it is like to pick a photographer when you are a photographer. The answer is simple you look for the same things in a photographer as anyone else. For a wedding you want a photographer that you get along well with and who has a photographic style that you love. You have to trust the photographer to take amazing pictures.

It is still kind of strange having your picture taken as a photographer. All sorts of things are running though your head. What aperture, shutter speed, ISO, flash power are they using? Is that softbox placed to high? Does that pose look natural? You just have to let go and let the photographer taking the pictures take the wheel.

A Tribute to Les Paul

Tweet On August 12th the band Halo Stereo invited Wes Aldridge and myself down to Muscle Shoals Sound Studios to photograph them recording. When we arrived at Muscle Shoals Sound we were all struck by the historic nature of the studio. In the studio you can sit where Duane Allman, Cher, Aretha Franklin, Wilson Pickett, Joe Cockker, The Rolling Stones, JJ Cale, Lynyrd Skynard, and many more have recorded. Not only that you can see pictures of these amazing artist from their time in the studio.

Well just after you think you have had a massive history lesson on recording at Muscle Shoals Sound Noel Webster offers to take you out back to their wear house which is acting as a museum. In this museum you are bombarded with analogue recording history. Some of the worlds finest gear lives at Muscle Shoals Sound. When Noel gives you the tour you will be awestruck by the awesomeness of recording history. You can touch some of the gear and feel that it was built to last. The gear used in the hay day of recording featured military spec knobs and switches, point to point class A wiring, and heavy duty housings. When you look at the circuit boards you see a work of art that people poured their hearts and souls into. After our tour of the wear house Noel takes us back up front to show us one last goodie. He says this one is going to knock your socks off.

We get up to the entrance to the studio and Noel shows us the very first Ampex 8 track recorder. This is the very first ever 8 track recorder! The machine was designed by the very famous Les Paul. The recorder is a work of art. Not only is it a work of art it helped to make modern day multi track recording possible.

The next morning I wake up with a text from my fiance. The text reads that "Les Paul is dead". I mull those words over in my head for a few minutes before I say anything. Les Paul the man that invited the solid body electric guitar, multi track recording, tape delay, the phaser, and much more is dead at the age of 94. It was a sad day. It had even more impact because we were at Muscle Shoals Sound a bastion of analogue recording in todays digital world.

Noel Webster who runs the studio and is the engineer says to me at breakfast that we should take some pictures of the Ampex 8 Track Recorder on the day of Les Paul's death as a tribute. I think that is an amazing idea and get pretty stoked about it. Well the day runs on and it is a busy day of recording. At about 11:30pm Wes and I still have not taken any pictures of the 8 track recorder. Noel comes us to us to remind us. So we hurriedly pull some amazing photos off to honor Les Paul on the day of his death.

Kanye Dog

Tweet The above picture is of my retired racing greyhound Dory. Dory is now 6 years old and has been off the track for a little over a year. She is an amazing dog. She is quite the couch potato. To find out more about greyhound adoption in the Nashville, TN area check out GPA Nashville.

This picture was taken a little over a year ago. This was my very first picture taken with studio strobes.

Hair

Tweet Last week I had the distinct honor to work with hair stylist Kenya Smith www.kenyashairstylist.com and make up artist Marie Ali Sweeny www.wix.com/marieali/marieali. The above is one of the many images that were made that day. Kenya and Marie come together to create some crazy styling.

My New Headshot!

Tweet I was assisting Michael Gomez awhile back in the studio and we took a test shot. As it turns out the test shot was pretty amazing. It is my new headshot. So this is a big shout out to my buddy Michael Gomez. Michael is an amazing photographer and a mentor to me. Check out Michael's work at www.gomezphotography.com. Michael is a master of putting photos into new backgrounds.

Halo Stereo Retouch

Tweet I finished up retouching one of my pictures from my session with Halo Stereo. Tonight Wes Aldridge and myself will be meeting with the band again to show them the pictures. I went ahead and printed this one off to the band to give them as a gift. If you have not already you should check out their website http://www.myspace.com/halostereo. The band makes some great music.

Whit Aldridge

Tweet The other day Whit Aldridge came into the studio to hang out. Whit is Wes Aldrige's brother. I had him stand in for a test shot before I shot Kristen Kukta. This is a natural light portrait. At Studio Daylight natural light pours through the windows all day. This portrait is a great example of how simple a good portrait can be.

Kristen Kukta

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Kristen Kukta is a great country singer based out of Nashville, Tn. I had the pleasure of shooting her the other day during a test session with fellow photographer Wes Aldridge. A big thanks to Wes for allowing me to shoot Kristen. To find out more about Kristen you can visit her myspace at http://www.myspace.com/kristenkukta.

Test Day: Halo Stereo

Tweet Thanks to my friend Wes Aldridge I had the pleasure of shooting Jody Hicks of Halo Stereo. Also a big thanks goes out to Brian Carter at Red Light Management for making this testing session possible.

You can find out more about Halo Stereo at www.myspace.com/halostereo.

Testing

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Yesterday Wes Aldridge and myself held a test day at the studio. A big thanks goes out to David Bean and Michael Gomez. David allowed us to do the test at his studio, Studio Daylight in the heart of down town Nashville. Michael allowed us to borrow some of his gear.

This is the first shot that I will be posting up from our testing session. We had a country music artist, a model, and a band show up for our test day. More pictures and information to come.

Danielle Dobbs' is the model in this picture. She is an amazing model to work with. You can find Danielle on Model Mayhem

It still works

Tweet The other day some one at the studio I work at had a slight mishap with an Alien Bee 400. The strobe fell to the ground. The case to the strobe cracked and also the mount. Amazingly enough the strobe still functions perfectly.


--Post From My iPhone