Tammi in the Snow

Inspired by a recent blog post by Chase Jarvis , I decided to get out and do a little creating this week.  I've been wanting to get started on a new personal project to create some art for my house.  After some sketching, I decided that a grid of photos of Tammi, in a bunch of different poses and settings would be perfect.  So I'm setting out to shoot 25 different photos of her for this project.  See the first round of candidates for this project on Flickr.

Mankey Family Christmas Portraits Dec 2009

A few weeks ago I spent an evening shooting portraits w/ the Mankey's.  Their new daughter was a delightful addition to this quarterly event.  As usual all were shot w/ a Nikon D80 and 1 or 2 SB-600 Strobes.  We used a black background (because it's all i had) and introduced some christmas props for the kids.  See the rest in this Flickr Set

iPhone vs Droid vs PalmPre vs MyTouch

With all the new phones hitting the market it can be hard to determine which one is right for you.  Well my friends, I'm here to help.  Being the die hard Apple guy that I am, it's tough for me not to just say "well look, buy an iPhone and be done with it."  However, given the recent addition of the Android phones, so dubbed "Droid," to Verizon's line up, it seems that my trusty iPhone could be getting some pretty serious competition.  I've now used the Droid Eris and Motorola extensively and can honestly say that I'm very impressed, Google has delivered an operating system that is as easy to use and as intuitive as apples iPhone OS.  The Motorola with it's flip out keyboard is positioned as the "flag ship" phone from Verizon, however I would encourage anyone looking into a "Droid" to consider the Eris instead.  It is smaller, and has an on-screen keyboard, which anyone with an iPhone will tell you, "You will get used to."  The graphic below should help answer some of the questions about features and pricing.


Find the best cell phone plans and more graphics at BillShrink.com

SWPA Help-Portrait Group is Live

A few months ago I posted about Help-Portrait , a project from Jeremy Cowart that is going to give back to the community this December.  If you're unaware of this project, watch this video:


As of today, we've started a group for Southwestern PA .  Anyone interested should join the group and get involved.  We need people, locations, and ideas!  Photographers, Designers, Video guys, editors, printers, photoshop enthusiasts, pros, hobbyists, students, and beginners are all welcome and needed!
Ideally, we'll have multiple sub-groups in different areas around SWPA working to take as many portraits as we can.  Again, sign up for Help-Portrait here, and join the group here.

Fall Photos

Did some shooting last weekend...

Self Portrait of Tammi and I. It seemed appropriate to shoot some kind of engagement picture.

Shot the rest of these during a drive through the country near East Finley, PA.

Video in Print

I've read a lot about this lately, but for those of you that haven't: It's closer than you think. There have been multiple magazines that have expiremented with video inserts and advertising. They have all been special edition releases to a select set of readers. However, if when this takes off and becomes affordable, it's going to give a new delivery medium to videographers...

It doesn't stop there though:

As this technology evolves, it can be joined with touch technology which would allow for interactive video + user response enabled media. For those of you that are developing true multimedia content like this, just imagine the possibilities...

Final thought...

Imagine you're walking into a church for a wedding, you are handed a program, in that program is a video page w/ a video of the bride and groom thanking you for attending. -just one of a million uses...

Chase Jarvis: BestCamera

Ever wish you could Shoot, Edit, and Share all in one app on your iPhone? I have. And now, thanks to Chase Jarvis and Ubermind, it's here. BestCamera not only enables the iPhone to shoot and apply various filters to images, but also to share the images directly to facebook, twitter, and the new Best Camera Website, BestC.am. Watch chase explain the app and then buy it! It's well worth 3 duckets. See my BestCamera Pics here.

Jeremy Cowart: Help-Portrait

On December 12, 2009 photograhers, content producers, and other media folks will be participating in Help-Portrait. I plan on participating, and you should too.

A brief note on this project:

Those of you that do "service" as required by a certain "university," should really consider participating. The majority of you participate in "service" as part of mission trips vacations. This is a great way to help those in your own backyard rather than cleaning up trash on a hillside in Kentucky as an excuse to explore caves. If you want to participate and don't know how, feel free to contact me, as I am working with others in the area and we are still determining how best to approach this project.

Live from Utah

Sitting here in Salt Lake City Airport, I figured I'd share photos from the trip. All these are from the iPhone. More to come from the Nikon Point and shoot. No DSLR on this trip. I had enough to carry with all the video equipment.


Got some great shots of the Great Salt Lake too, they'll have to come later after I get home... Pittsburgh in a few hours...

Strobist Boot Camp Assignment 1

Strobist Assign 1 Comp
Originally uploaded by chris.clutter

My headshot assignment for the Strobist Boot Camp. Matt was kind enough to cooperate w/ me one evening to achieve the head shot. To read about the assignment, look here.

Strobist is the premier off camera lighting blog. It doesn't get much better than that. Any one interested in taking better flash photos. I strongly recommend checking it out. Watch for the next assignment in the next few weeks.

Social Network Photo Licensing

With the social networking boom all around us, I've decided that rather than combat those clients who wish to repost my photos on their blogs, profiles, and websites, I'll provide them an avenue to do so (legally) and get some advertising out of it.
I am going to begin bundling "Social Networking" licensing with my photography. This way clients (mainly high school seniors) will be able to include their images on their facebook & myspace pages, as well as many other sites. All the while, linking back to my site. Have a look below, and as always, contact me at cclutter@gmail.com for information on senior portraits, maternity & newborn shoots, or live event coverage.

Glory Days! -New Edit Suite

Got my new edit suite at the office yesterday...

MacPro w/Dual Quad-Core 2.6's - 12G/ram - &2 Tb

AJA IO

FCS 2

Apple Cinema Display

& Some extra storage...

Hopefully things will speed up now! Old set up is a G4 733 w/ 512 mb/ram. Edited on this thing everyday for 3 years, now it's time to see how the rest of the world lives....

Some portraits from this weekend

Did some shooting this weekend...  

Ashlynn played outside w/ her Dad and Mom, while I snapped away.  Lighting was an issue, we were shooting around 8:00p. White Balance was all over the place, every one of these had to be corrected.

Ashlynn tends to be very pleasant, which makes for a fairly easy shoot on my end.  Really, all I have to do is keep up w/ her.  

See the whole set here.

Some time this week we'll be shooting studio portraits of Ashlynn, so be sure and check back!  For information on booking portrait shoots in the Washington, PA area click here.

So much for a motivated day...

Well I was motivated by Chase's blog post two days ago, but due to the constant influx of new projects, I was stuck in my office until late... Subsequently, I snapped this with my iPhone:

Not exactly what I had in mind when I said "going to do something."  Luckily, I am going to have a pretty free weekend so I'll be super creative to make up for it!  Look for Pic updates as the weekend goes...  I've set up a flickr set here

Also, I'm shooting family portraits tonight w/ Julie, Kris, and Ashlynn.  Look for those updates in the next few days. 

Do something for you

One of my favorite blogs is that of Chase Jarvis. Today, chase blogged about getting out and doing something either for yourself or something that you rarely do. Just do something creative! See Chase's post here.
As a result, I am going to do something. Not quite sure what yet, maybe 100 iphone pics by the end of the day, maybe write the script I've been thinking about writing, maybe go to the local nature trail and take pics, or maybe I'll organize some prints to have made into a book. Regardless, I would encourage you to do the same. Check Chase's Post, there are some great ideas on there! What ever I do, I'll share it tomorrow. Any ideas, please feel free to leave comments!

Tammi's Turtle Tank - update 4

Drilled the hole...

From T's Turtle Tank Journal Pics

I didn't actually "drill" this hole, instead I used a dremel w/ a grinding wheel and a steady flow of water to keep it from shattering. It took a while...

Ordered the turtles today! I should have 'em by noon tomorrow. Watch for pics!

Tammi's Turtle Tank update 3 - The Background

I'm trying to make this environment as realistic looking as possible. Great Stuff expanding insulation foam is great for carving out features and shapes. Once you get the desired shape, you can cover it in Silicone and put sand / rocks / coco fiber, or anything else you wish to, on it. I will be using a combination of rocks and coco fiber.
I started with a piece of fluorescent light diffusion. This is available at any Home Depot or Lowes.

From T's Turtle Tank Journal Pics

Next, I added the Great Stuff

From T's Turtle Tank Journal Pics

From T's Turtle Tank Journal Pics

After Letting it cure, I test fitted it.



In front of the background there will have to be a land area w/ a beach or bog so that the turtles can get out to bask. For this I'll be using Pine Boards covered in Silicone and Coco Fiber. I got the Pine Boards idea from Nat Tarbox.

Here is what I came up with...

From T's Turtle Tank Journal Pics

The perpendicular pieces of wood will ensure that the substrate doesn't get washed away in the bog area.

From T's Turtle Tank Journal Pics

Here's the background sanded away to fit the land mass.

From T's Turtle Tank Journal Pics

I should make a quick note: It is becoming increasingly difficult to keep all of this hidden from T. She is really wondering why I am spending so much time in the basement making crazy grinding noises...
Anyway, next post will be the hole in the tank for the bulkhead.

Tammi's Turtle Tank update 2

Stand update:

The stand has been sanded and primed.
After discussing it with the guys over at Senetsen Products, I am probably going to finish the stand with High-Gloss White Spray Paint that has the "Hammered" texture. Hopefully this will hide any imperfections in my rather-poor sanding job.

Equipment Update:
I picked up a "Statuary Pump" at Lowes last weekend, I'll use this for the wet/dry filter return line. The plan all along has been to use the wet/dry to ensure maximum filtration. The Red Eared Sliders that will be in this tank can be VERY messy! I've also ordered a piece of VooDoo Wood from Herp Supplies, and cork bark background for the land area.

Tank:
I had an old 20 gallon tank that I got from my buddy, Matt. He had started to removed the old silicone seals.

After removing the rest of the silicone, I began replacing it w/ GE Silicone I. From what I've read, this is perfectly safe for fish / turtles / other living things. It is a lot cheaper than buying "Aquarium Silicone"


Silicone takes AT LEAST 24 hours to cure. After waiting 36 hours, I began to fill it:

So far so good...


I left this water in there for about 12 hours. No drips at all. I was pretty impressed w/ myself.

To get water from the tank to the wet/dry filter I'm going to use an overflow pipe. Instead of going the safe way and getting (building) a hang on back overflow, I've decided just to drill the tank. There seem to be a few different ways to do this. In my next post, I'll describe how I did it.

Tammi's Turtle Tank

A few years ago, Tammi had a red eared slider turtle. Due to it's and her living conditions, it had to go. She's wanted another one for a while now, and couldn't find a baby. So I've decided that for her birthday, I'm going to order her a pair of hatchling baby red eared sliders, one male and one female. They are going to be kept in a 20 gallon tank for the time being, once they're ready we'll move them to a 40 gallon breeder tank in order to maximize their swimming space.

I'll be posting updates on this project here, so keep an eye out for them. For now, here is the stand...

I've made the stand w/ a 2x4 frame and 1/2" Birch Plywood.

The tank will be slightly recessed in behind this lip.

Here you can see the 2x4 interior framing.

Idealy, I'll use a sump wet/dry system or a canister filter for the tank, it will be housed inside this stand. For this reason, I'll be leaving the back of the stand exposed.

Be a model...Get a free picture

My company, Grön Concepts, is looking for models. This would be a great opportunity for anyone interested in getting some pics taken for free. The offer is as follows:
Free Photo Session
Free 8x10 of 1 image of your choosing.
(additional prints from the shoot may be purchased, if you choose)
All you (the model) have to do is sign a release stating that we may use your images in advertising and/or other promotional pieces.

The types of photography we are looking to do in this session include: Maternity, Senior Portraits, Engagement, and possibly even some newborn/child sessions. Anyone interested should visit the link here, to learn more.

The Ides of March

Beware of the ides of march.

Last night while trying to have a meeting w/ Kevin for Grön Concepts, I dropped my iPhone. It was about a 3 foot drop from my hands to the blacktop and when it landed (directly on the screen), it sounded bad....





Sure enough it shattered.


























For those of you wondering about iPhone abuse and the replacement there-of, Apple has a flat fee for fixing these phones. I have an 8Gb 3G model and it will be $199 to fix (no matter what's wrong w/ it). On the other hand, replacing a phone will cost you double what you paid for it. The price on Apples website is just for new contracts! Having sold phones for several years, I understand this policy and expected as much... I am actually pretty happy about only having to pay $199 to get it fixed.

Weekend in the Mountains

This past weekend we went with my sister and brother-in-law to the Mountains in northern-PA. We stayed in a one room cabin in Clinton County. Despite the temps (18° at night) it was fairly warm in the cabin and got pretty nice on Sunday. We spent most of the time outside.









My Niece - Ashlynn




Some wood that was set up as a make-shift bench just outside of the cabin.

Many more pics to follow!