A couple days ago, before the storms came flooding our city away, Kittie and I headed out to the downtown area to shoot some portfolio stuff for her. The atmosphere was wet and rainy, even though it didn’t start raining until later in the evening. If you are a photographer or filmmaker then you already know that overcast days can be a godsend to shooting outdoors. Why? Overcast creates a natural, soft and even lighting that eliminates strong shadows. The downside is that you typically don’t want to shoot the sky because it will come out an ugly grey. Not all the time, but a lot of it.

This first shot is one of, if not the favorite of mine in the set. It was a photo taken on the fly while Kittie crossed the street from an alleyway we had be scoping out. I did a little photoshop on this image. I desaturated most of the colors and upped the saturation a little on the magentas. That way it popped the pink a little more in the skirt. I also added a lot of contrast to the image and burned the edges of the photo. In the end it turned out to be a great fly on the wall photo.

Camera: Nikon D200
Exposure: 0.002 sec (1/640)
Aperture: f/6.3
Focal Length: 24 mm
ISO Speed: 250

Our first photos were actually taken at this next location, an empty parking lot with a painted wall. We didn’t stay long at this location due to the fact that the homeless and local drug pushers kept crowding us. It was a fun location to shoot at but a bad part of town to be hanging out alone with what we were doing.

Camera: Nikon D200
Exposure: 0.006 sec (1/180)
Aperture: f/6.3
Focal Length: 72 mm
ISO Speed: 100

Once we left that area we wandered around looking for something to shoot with. We drove past a small, empty construction area off Main St. As we drove past she told me out of the blue, “I love tractors so much.” Once she said that we just had to shoot there now. So we scoped out the area quickly and began shooting away. I got a lot of great shots from here, so here are two of them.

Camera: Nikon D200
Exposure: 0.005 sec (1/200)
Aperture: f/6.3
Focal Length: 70 mm
ISO Speed: 100

Camera: Nikon D200
Exposure: 0.003 sec (1/400)
Aperture: f/6.3
Focal Length: 120 mm
ISO Speed: 100

Walking back from the tractors we came across this white wall that had a huge burn mark on it. When we took a closer look it looks as if a tree caught on fire which led to the look of the wall today. I’m not sure if the rusted out wall hydrant still works.

Camera: Nikon D200
Exposure: 0.008 sec (1/125)
Aperture: f/6.3
Focal Length: 24 mm
ISO Speed: 100

Camera: Nikon D200
Exposure: 0.013 sec (1/80)
Aperture: f/6.3
Focal Length: 24 mm
ISO Speed: 100

These next four photos were taken across the street. The first one was shot in a random square hole in the side of a building downtown. I’m not sure what it does but it was an interesting place to take a couple quick pictures. Directly next to the hole was the chain link gate that we shot the next two photos.  I really love the look of this alley and especially the fence. I wish I had put on the 200mm lens so I could get a better depth of field. They still came out great though. Se for yourself.

Camera: Nikon D200
Exposure: 0.025 sec (1/40)
Aperture: f/6.3
Focal Length: 12 mm
ISO Speed: 500

Camera: Nikon D200
Exposure: 0.011 sec (1/90)
Aperture: f/6.3
Focal Length: 24 mm
ISO Speed: 250

Camera: Nikon D200
Exposure: 0.005 sec (1/200)
Aperture: f/6.3
Focal Length: 24 mm
ISO Speed: 250

Camera: Nikon D200
Exposure: 0.008 sec (1/125)
Aperture: f/6.3
Focal Length: 200 mm
ISO Speed: 100

If you liked these photos pleases check out Part 2 of this series that will be posted tomorrow. I hope you enjoyed these as much as I liked taking them.

- Travis Sackett