Gold Plated Aspen Leaf Earrings, originally uploaded by mark.mortensen.

Finished up a product photography job this evening. The job was for the Rocky Mountain Leaf Company. They offer various plant leafs plated in gold, silver and copper. This was the first major product photography job I’ve shot of jewelry. I’ve learned that shooting jewelry is really hard to keep the stinkin’ reflections under control.

Technical Ramblings: Single AlienBee B800 with 7 inch reflector covered with Glad Press n Seal up and behind earrings. The bee is about a foot away from the earrings. The earrings are surrounded by a light tent and any other type of diffusion material I could find. In the earring there are black reflections and that is the camera lens. Never could figure out how to get rid of that reflection. Post work in Lightroom to adjust white balance, contrast and vibrance. Then off to Photoshop to whiten the paper background to true white.

Uploaded by mark.mortensen on 30 Aug 09, 10.32PM MDT.

Katie, originally uploaded by mark.mortensen.

The other twin from a senior portrait shoot this past weekend. Shot at a local botanic gardens. I like my 85mm f/1.4 because it creates a really dreamy background.

Technical Ramblings: All natural light. Post in Photoshop CS4 and Totally Rad Actions: Oh Snap!, Prettyizer and Wish You Were Here (boosts the greens and blues). I had to mask out Katie’s blue dress because the actions pushed the blue to a neon blue. Neon blue not pretty on Katie.

Uploaded by mark.mortensen on 26 Aug 09, 10.25PM MDT.

Iowa Sunset, originally uploaded by mark.mortensen.

From a trip to North English, Iowa this past summer. I was tramping through a farmer’s soy bean field to get this shot of some corn against the sunset.

Technical Ramblings: I apparently got dust all over my D700 sensor during this trip because this image was a mess of sensor spots. Also apparently the sensor cleaner doesn’t really work in my D700 because of the amount of dust on the sensor. Only Lightroom processing on this image. Some saturation boost but the sunset pretty much looked this intense.

Uploaded 24 Aug 09, 9.57PM MDT by mark.mortensen.

Scream!, originally uploaded by mark.mortensen.

Finished up two senior portrait sessions this weekend. This one was at the Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs, CO and is not your typical senior portrait. Somehow I don’t think they’ll choose this image for the year book but you never know. The two sessions were of twins but each had very unique personalities. Jacquelyn was goofing off for this image as her twin sister Katie was behind me doing whatever twin sisters do. Tried to give it a scary horror movie look but it was hard because it was originally composed to have a soft pretty look.

Technical Ramblings: Back lit by the sun and a gold Lastolite Tri-Flip for some fill. Just picked up a Tri-Flip after reading Joe McNally’s book and absolutely love this fill device. Brilliant design! Photoshop CS3 and the Totally Rad Actions; Oh Snap!, Boring Old B/W and then some Prettyizer on top to bring back some color.

Dad, originally uploaded by mark.mortensen.

An image of my father from my parent’s 50th wedding anniversary party from a couple of weeks ago. I like this natural look I’m getting out of my father. Something that is hard to do at times.

Technical Ramblings: I’ve gone small strobes lately. This is shot with a single Nikon SB-900 with 1/2 CTO gel shooting through a 32 inch umbrella camera right at a 45 degree angle to my father. The SB-900 is wirelessly triggered with the Nikon D700 flash acting as commander. The built-in flash of the D700 was turned off in the exposure calculation and only the single SB-900 was lighting the subject. After switching from Canon, which by the way has nothing like this built into the camera bodies, I’m still amazed at how much functionality is built into the bodies.

Uploaded by mark.mortensen on 18 Aug 09, 8.11PM MDT.

Copper Plated Maple Leaf, originally uploaded by mark.mortensen.

A copper plated maple leaf for the Rocky Mountain Leaf Company.

Technical Ramblings: A single AlienBee B800 with some GLAD Press-n Seal over the 7 inch reflector for a mini softbox. I have the leaf in a large light tent with the Bee shooting through the open end. This helps keep the reflections down on the leaf.

Uploaded by mark.mortensen on 11 Aug 09, 11.50PM MDT.

Mom and Dad, originally uploaded by mark.mortensen.

A gift we (4 brothers and significant others) gave our parents for their 50th wedding anniversary this past weekend. 50 years is a long time.

Technical Ramblings: Frame is from American Frame and there is a double white mat which doesn’t show up on this image. However, in real life this looks really nice.

Uploaded by mark.mortensen on 11 Aug 09, 8.44AM MDT.

Aspen Leaf Pendant, originally uploaded by mark.mortensen.

Continuing to work on some product shots of gold plated leaves. This time I got the pendant sitting the correct way. My client likes this shadow effect so that’s how all the products will be shot.

Technical Ramblings: There is some museum putty under the leaf to keep it balance correctly. I’m basically shooting straight down on the leaf with 1 Alien Bee B800 with a 7 inch reflector to the upper left about 2 feet away. I’ve placed some GLAD Press’n Seal Wrap over the end of the reflector to create a mini softbox but create a hard shadow. I also have a 36 inch reflector to the right to throw some light back onto the leaf.

Uploaded by mark.mortensen on 10 Aug 09, 11.05PM MDT.

Golden Aspen Leaf, originally uploaded by mark.mortensen.

Working on some product shots for a client that sells gold, silver and copper’ish plated leaves. Funny thing is the leaf is meant to be worn the other way.

Technical Ramblings: Leaf is suspended by a thread from above inside a light tent. Plexi-glass on white foam core to create the reflection underneath. Lit up by 3 AlienBee B800s. Photoshop work to remove the string and gradient on the reflection. Plus some color and contrast tweaks to make things look all pretty.

Uploaded by mark.mortensen on 3 Aug 09, 5.45PM MDT.