M&M Photography

The Dragstrip

2008-02-17T07:29:00.001-08:00

Yesterday was opening day for Greer Dragway here in Upstate, SC so i went out with some friends of mine and snapped off a few shots...

i was mainly interested in launching shots of the cars such as the Chevelle lifting the front left tire and my friends GTO with the tires wrinkled...

We've been slacking off...

2008-02-13T10:36:00.000-08:00

As you may have noticed, we have all been slacking off... We intend to fix that now, and just as something new here is a shot of my cat using my 50mm f/1.8

as you can probably tell, when wide open the 50mm has a bit of a soft focus look to it... i thought it gave this shot a nice touch.

Never Limit Yourself...

2008-01-11T22:36:00.000-08:00

Never limit yourself to only one form of photography.

Tonight i was wandering around the web and ran into some abstract photography and thought, "hey, thats kinda cool" so i just started messing around with stuff... next thing i know im laying on the ground looking like a contortionist with my two home made lighting rigs turned on. But, this time instead of lighting the subject, they WERE the subject. Here is the result of my evening.

Here is a side shot of the light/shroud ive been using just as a reference...

Old

2008-01-09T10:31:00.000-08:00

This is a post just to show how i tried to do some pics like kyle tried in the last post...Mikey, Jeremiah and myself decided to go out and play some pool at a local pool hall...so we all met up...and before we left I put all my lighting equipment up and snapped a couple pics...i was using 2 sb-600's...one white umbrella that i shot into to diffuse the light and then i used a ring light to cast an even amount of light over the face...
Mikey
Jeremiah
after we got to the pool hall...i realized there were to many people there to set up the lighting since we couldn't get in a back room...so i decided to bump the iso and turn the shutter down...there is no flash..the only light was the ones in the back ground and the one light over the table...
mikey took this one of me
i took these of mikey trying to get the whole effect of a story...to try and tell what he was going for...
low depth of field...focus on the stripe ball
higher iso...lower shutter higher depth of field...shows the combo

it was fun...but not an easy task...i took over 100 pictures and only liked a couple of them really lol...i am going to try to do another actual shoot really soon so i can put the pictures up here and maybe show some set up shots...i got some new stuff for christmas i have been wanting to try but haven't had the opportunity yet...hopefully soon

improvise!

2008-01-08T18:29:00.001-08:00

Since i no longer have any flash units and my D50 doesnt have Commander mode, i decided to get creative and start slapping some paper on the top of flashlights....

here is what i had setup:

Nikon D50
Nikon Nikkor 28mm f/2.8
2x Flashlights that have 11 LED's each with a "light cone"

i took these with my iPhone to show the setup in action

And the end result....

I know the composition isnt exactly perfect but considering i took some 8 1/2 x 11 paper and taped it into a cone and then jammed the flashlight into it... the lighting is pretty even.

Came to my senses....

2008-01-08T08:16:00.000-08:00

well...i haven't been doing to much shooting lately which led me to the decision to sell my D300 and all my other camera equipment...and after i put it up for sale i realized it wasn't worth selling...even thought its still brand new, no one would give me what everything i have is worth and i'm already to spoiled with the D300 to even consider a down grade...so i decided to ride it out...

shortly after deciding to sell the camera i was talking with kyle (before he ordered the 28mm) and we decided to start shooting more...even though we haven't done alot of shoots, the couple that we did do has helped me be happy with my decision to keep my stuff...hopefully kyle will post some pictures that he has taken with that 28mm or even let me use it on a shoot one day...if i like it i will probably buy one too...seeing that the 50mm is just to long of a lens, zoom wise...

so anyways...here we have kellen...

your modern day guy...drives a TA...and i know it weird seeing that he doesn't have a mullet...but you never know what his taint holds...lol jk...but kyle, mikey and myself met up with him and marcus (brother darkness productions) to take pictures of the TA and kind of just hang out...we started out using just the lights from the street lamps and that didn't work for to long before mikey broke out 2 sb-600's...now the car is red...i forgot to check my white balance like i normally do so thats why there is a hint of orange in the car lol...
using kyles 50mm
back to the 10-20 wide angle
only pic with flash lol
now i've gotten alot of complaints on forums about my extremely wide angles and the effect it puts on people when i do it and blah blah blah...i do that on purpose...it's funny...and they people i take the pics of/for seem to enjoy it...

a couple of nights before shooting Kellens TA...we meet up with marcus again...this time he was with out friend Matt...Matt is a dealer for Xenon Visions...so if anyone is interested in buying a set of HID's just email me and we'll work it all out...not only does he give great prices on his HID's...but hee drives an HID equipped SRT-4...thats pretty fast i might add...

so we all decided to meet up to take a couple pics and shoot some video footage for marcus's next mixtape...we didn't get to take alot before security came and kicked us out...it always seems to happen...i don't see why people have such a big problem with us taking pictures...we don't destroy anything or mess with anyone...makes no sense...but here are the shots i got...
i will add this...these pictures looked perfect when i had them opened in photoshop...then once i uploaded them...they turned out hazy...i don't get it...but it happens sometimes i guess...we had a great time that night...and almost every other time we go out and shoot...i am hoping to add a couple more people to the authors list on the blog so we get more updates for people to read...so look forward to that...also we are planing on going out for some more trigger happy games tonight...so i will take my camera this time and try to see if i can catch a bullet in my shutter...should be fun....till next time

New lens

2008-01-07T21:25:00.000-08:00

I havent been updating very much lately but i recently picked up a Nikon Nikkor 28mm f/2.8 off of ebay for fairly cheap, i find it to be an even MORE usefull lens than the 50mm as it gets you closer to the "35mm" range. with an effective focal length of 42mm on a Nikon DX format camera it really does great in taking indoor photos as well as macro shots. I started to experiment with it earlier and found out that it will focus down to 8 inches with about a 1 1/2 to 2" depth of field at f/2.8

Also, i am currently trying to decide on what to do for a camera body right now. The D80 is something i know i want and know i would use to death, but the D300, which Mario has, keeps calling my name and showing me new features every time i look at it. So if any of you out there have any suggestions for me, just comment my lame updates on here...

Look for more 28mm and 50mm shots to appear, i plan on using the 28mm for some rolling shots of cars soon so watch out!

Late response

2008-01-04T12:15:00.000-08:00

Sorry for the late response...the beginning of the year has been a little hectic for me...so a little late on my post...but here are a few from the saturday night when me, kyle, and mario went out...

Like mario said it was really dark and we left our tripods so not all of the pics that I took came out because it was about 30-40 degrees outside...but here are the ones that came out fairly visible...

Mario working his D300

Inside City Hall

so there are two for some reason my pc is not connecting to the site so I will get some more back to you later...Hope all of you have a great new year...

1-1-08 1st post for Robbie

2008-01-01T18:51:00.000-08:00

Happy New Years to everyone, hope everyone had a fun and safe new years, I sure did. One of my friends and I decided to go shoot his car today since it was really nice compared to the past couple of days of non stop raining. Here are some pictures I took today, I only used the 18-55mm cause I felt "In the Zone" haha I'm joking but just decided not to use it for this shoot so here they are, Enjoy.

Happy New Year...

2008-01-01T13:29:00.000-08:00

First off i would like to say happy new year to everyone.

Since I am the slacker that i am, i took longer than mario to post pictures from the exact same shoot date haha... so here are my shots which i took with my new Nikon D50 with my 50mm f/1.8

The New Year

2007-12-31T21:23:00.000-08:00

so 2007 is gone and 2008 is finally here...even though 2007 seemed to have went by so fast...we had some good times and memories...its been a while since i have updated so i'm not going to bore you with to many words and more pictures this time...so here we go...

we'll start it off by telling you..this past saturday mikey, kyle and myself went downtown greenville and took a couple quick pictures...its was really dark...we didn't really use any flash and we all left our tripods in the car lol...so that meant high iso settings, low shutters and it was cold...so shaking hands realy messed up most our pictures...anyways...here are some of mine...

Kyle and Mikey

Flag outside of a building
Sign near the waterfalls

the falls

in another note...i'm sure you've noticed...we added two new people to the blog...welcome Robbie and Kyle...we (mikey, jeremiah and myself) took a trip to NC to meet up with Robbie and Billy...we sold Robbie, Mikeys old D40 since he upgraded to my D80 when i got my D300...
Robbie
I haven't been to busy with pictures so i've just been snapping random things i see...so this section will have random pics along with candid shots from other shoots and just walking around...
Sky taken from my window of my car
me with my d300 and sigma 10-20mm lens in the bathroom of my office
my wife and her sisters posing funny in between pics at a christmas portrait shoot
my daughter next to her mommies car

other then that i just have christmas pictures and stupid randoms no worth showing haha....so back to that trip mikey, jeremiah and myself took to NC...like i said we met up with Robbie from the blog to sell him the D40 he is currently using...and of course i don't go anywhere without taking my camera...so i snapped a couple pics...we had so much fun...going through Bass Pro Shop where we ran around and we actually made jeremiah drink fish oil out of a bottle in the bait department haha...and of course we ran around and played with everything we could get out hands on...
jeremiah in stealth
Robbie taking down my Yuengling black and tan since he's to young to drink lol
jeremiah with a camo helmet on in bass pro shop
Mikey and Jeremiah sharing a tomato in the mall...you can see billy's face below the tomato lol
me TRUMPING billy in DDR
Mikey on the drive up to NC (we are from SC)
i took this hanging out the window...man did my eyes dry out
jeremiah pretending to cook up something lol
my 10-20 makes that barrel look LONG
billy aiming at robbie

basically as you can see...we had a lot of fun...we plan on taking the trip again to meet up with them...and of course i'll have more pics and i'll get to posting them alot faster then i did these...now that the new year is here i shouldn't be to busy so i'll update this alot more...

also guitar hero has been killing my time haha...mikey, jeremiah and myself have been playing like crazy...but i'll find time while mikey is beating jeremiah to edit pics and post them up...

everyone have a happy and save new year...2008 ftw!

My first post

2007-12-28T10:52:00.001-08:00

Hello everyone, my name is Kyle Barnett and I've beeninto this
photography thing for a few years now but got my d50 in jan 07. I got
a 50mm f/1.8 for Xmas... Here Is a shot of it on my d50 that I took
with my iPhone, which I am posting from... I'll post back later with
more info about myself and my gear when I get more time. Until next
time...

TEST

2007-12-27T06:17:00.000-08:00

Mikey

mikey and i (mario) got blackberry pearl phones...so now we will be able to update the blog from our phones...we don't have to be in front of a computer...so we shouldn't miss any days posting now...i know we've been slack lately...but the new update i make will be huge...and welcome to robbie...hopefully he will help contribute a bunch to the blog

Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device

New 50mm Lense

2007-12-26T18:04:00.000-08:00

Well like I said I was gonna do I went and did today, went to the camera shop and purchased the Nikkor 50mm f/1.8 lens. At first I was having a little trouble using it, but it's one of those lenses you really gotta get used to and use it alot before you can get good with it. Now that I gotta decent with it I love it, heres and example of the 50mm f/1.8

i had the exposure set at 1/100 and the aperture at 3.5, the ISO at 400 and it came out like this.

Enjoy!!

Robbie's First Post

2007-12-26T09:20:00.001-08:00

This is also my first post on this blog, I just recently got into photography from teh man (Mario) and Wondermike (Mikey), I Purchased a Nikon D40 from Mikey on this past Sunday where we all met up (Mikey,Mario and Myself). It took me a couple days to get used to using a DSLR just because I've never owned one. Mario and Mikey both have pretty much carried me step by step on how to make pictures look better and even some editing tips.

Here are just some of the pictures I've taken
over a three day period of having the camera. I will soon be buying some new lenses and stuff so I will keep everyone updated. Thanks again :)

2007-12-21T18:34:00.000-08:00

Ok my first post on here.....unfortunately Mario has already got a good jump on what we have done lately.....My name is Michael Godwin (Mikey as Mario calls me)....Like Mario said we pretty much do all of our shoots together....which will help you alot if you are starting out in photography. To me it helps you out knowing that you have somewhere there to back you up and give you a hand with equipment...also it gives you different ideas of what to take...such as angles and different way to move lighting so that your expsure turns out better....Mario has helped me out alot with all of this....when I first met Mario I was still using the Auto setting on my camera...LOL which after hanging out with Mario and learning more about how to set up the camera my photos took a huge leap at getting better images....here are a couple of my first images....

Ok while not too bad you can definately tell the difference.....

Although the last two images have flash use you can still tell the difference in the image....So like Mario said....if you just stick with it and be determined that you can have a great outcome in your images.....So stick with it and subscribe to our blog and you will definately learn along the way.....Well I guess that gets the intros out of the way maybe in the next few posts we can squeeze in some how-to's to help yall out.

Random Rants (Double R)

2007-12-21T07:14:00.001-08:00

So it's day three. We went out shooting last night...but there were no cameras involved...I recently got a new .22 so last night I got a group of friends together and we went out shooting. My brother, Manuel Maldonado, brought his Smith and Wesson 40 caliber, Justin Roberson brought his new Beretta 9mm. We fired regular target rounds and hollow points to see the difference in the kickback...hollow points definitely win that fight with no contest haha...so you know i'm not going to leave you with out a picture...

Walthers P.22
Yeah, thats my baby...it's calming to go shooting. if you even have a really bad day and just want to blow off some steam, go fire off about 100 rounds, clip after clip...it'll work lol...one of my other favorite things to do is just go walk around the town. Mikey and I recently did a little walk around...it was right after i purchased my D300 and let mikey take over the D80 (upgrading for the D40)...if u are on any of the forums we are on, Mikey posted a thread called "walk around town"...it showed off some of the pictures we took...which in my opinion were pretty good considering i didn't know how to use the D300 yet haha...here are a couple of his pictures:

The menu of the D300:Me with the D300Hampton Inn downtown Greenville
Here are a couple of mine...i didn't edit as many of mine as Mikey did...for some reason the camera raw plug -in for my Photoshop CS2 just stopped working. so i have to open the pictures one by one is Nikon NX (software that came with the camera) then convert them to Jpeg...which got old really quick...so once i finish fixing CS i'll have more pics:

All I can say is practice makes perfect...the more u just get out and shoot random stuff...the better you will get...you learn with your hands really...don't be afraid to get down and dirty...if you see potential for a good shot...do what ever you have to do to capture it on film (or sd/cf cards in our case)...so i will show you one of my randoms...i was driving down the road with my D300 and noticed the sun kind of coming down...in mid-drive i roll down the window adjust the shutter and aperture and snap this button...think of how scared i was that i would either drop my camera out the window or slam in to the back of the person in front of me...it wasn't the safest thing to do...but i love the outcome:

it's all about trying and pushing yourself...same thing applies to flash work...most people are scared with the concept of flash but it's really the same...i started using flash extremely early and i'm ready better then some people who have been using flash for a long time...it's how dedicated u are and how much time and effort you put in to it...which really is dedication haha...so dedicate to dedication and you will be good. Take Mikey and myself for example...in these pictures we look like we know what we are doing:

but we really don't...i kid i kid...haha...we some what do know what we are doing, but thats only because we got out there and tried even when other people told us it was stupid and we are trying to early...the outcome is great...we are pleased with it and most important...the customer loved the pictures...if someone puts you down and tells you that you can't do something...do whatever you can to prove them wrong...because most of the time they are only going off how they learned...just because someone else is a slow learner doesn't mean you won't pick it up fast...OH and i need to thank this guy:

Kyle BarnettHe supplied me with my last SB-600 i bought for a extremely great price...he is also a fellow Nikon user...shooting with a D50...He might not say it himself but i will...he takes some KILLER automotive shots using natural light...I always talk about how flash makes a picture look great...but if i could shoot with natural light as good as this guy...i'd put down a flash or two and just rely on the sun...big ups to Kyle...

Just for a little customer feed back........if you wanna know how I am getting some of my pictures to look a little weird and kind of "stretched"...it's the lens...when I upgraded from the D40 to the D80 I bought a Nikon 50mm f/1.8...it was my favorite lens...and i was happy i didn't have to use the AF-S lenses anymore that i could ONLY use on the D40...i loved that lens more then anything...but it was the smallest lens i had...i needed something smaller for some more up close and personal shots...so Mikey and I went to Wolf Camera on Haywood Road and i was looking at lenses when i came across a Sigma 10-20mm F/4-5.6It's a wide angle lens...so it gets a farther spread of whats around you...i can sit in the driver seat of my car...point the camera forward without putting the seat all the way back...and if i take a picture...it will get the whole dash and even some of the windows...and i drive an Expedition...i just get someone to lean towards me and I just above them and angle myself down and snap the picture...then do my love/hate editing to it...thats how i get all my goofy pictures...just so you know :)

till next time...and hopefully Mikey will stop being lazy and post something on here...

Tis The Season

2007-12-20T13:03:00.000-08:00

December is always great for portrait photographers. Mikey and I have had a lot of people ask us to do photos for Christmas and we never turn down a shoot. Like all our other shoots, we use a lot of flashes...i dunno why it's just something we've gotten use to doing...this will be one of those posts that I was talking about when I said my editing is sometimes not something everyone likes...

I've been looking at other photographers a lot and trying to catch a feel for other peoples editing...in this I found a photographer named Dave Hill...I was fascinated by his editing that I tried to learn how to do it myself...and that's what everyone hates...I either get "it's over-sharpened" or "too contrasty"...but if the client likes it...why stop? that's the way I look at it...so here are some spoofs from some recent shoots we've done...
Wondermike himself:Kristin Dalton (model from a shoot)

Now that I'm done showing the spoofs...I'll show some of the actual portraits I've (tehman) done this past month...not all of these are from Christmas shoots but it's also stuff I've messed with trying to get the editing more pleasing to the eye I should say...

Jeremiah Greer (side/film photographer)
Mario Maldonado (tehman/Me)Ozzy (friend):Hayleigh Maldonado (tehmans daughter):Tiffany Maldonado (tehmans wife):
The last few were actually from Christmas shoots...I just wanted to show you some of the other things we've been toying around with...Wondermike got a shots from out last shoot of me using the beastly D300 with the MB-D10 attached to it:
Best camera I've ever used. There will probably be a couple more blogs after this one of nothing to important...well at least until we get some better shoots or more time to actually edit and upload all the good shoots we've done. Till next time

first feature

2007-12-19T07:35:00.000-08:00

My name is Mario Maldonado. I am a photographer in Greenville, South Carolina. Welcome to my blog spot. I will use this blog to post photos from ever job i do along with how i set up my lighting equipment and maybe some photoshop tips from time to time. You can feel free to ask me any questions or tell me any comments. Now remember, not everyone likes the same kind of photography or the same style of editing...some of the things i do is a little different then most people. You will catch on to what i mean with the more pictures i post. i DO have a side kick named Mikey Godwin. He helps me out with every shoot just about and i help him out with his. We are mostly a portrait photographers. We mainly shoot people. Recently we started doing automotive photography for an online automotive magazine and we will hopefully be shooting with the carolina panthers next season. enough about me for one day. here is the list of our equipment.

Camera:
Nikon D300 with MB-D10 battery grip
Nikon D80
Nikon D40

Lenses:
Nikon 18-55mm
Nikon 18-80mm
Nikon 50mm f/1.8
Sigma 10-20mm wide angle
(2) Nikon 55-200mm

Flashes:
4 Nikon SB-600
1 Quanatary MS-1

Actual job for today
we did a shoot to showcase in an online car magazine...figured i'd add it to the blog as a start...these are only my shots...i don't have Mikey's pics so i can't add them this time.

This shoot was a basic 3 flash set up...i used medium shutter speeds and a little higher aperture to make the background darker...this was actually shot at around 4-5 in the evening...then the flashes were added to light to car up...the magazine editor was happy and most importantly, the owner of the car was happy. Oh, a tip for all you photographers...don't try to do a shoot in a hospital parking garage when it's raining outside. even if u know someone that works there (mikey) you can still get in trouble with the cops like we did. that all for the day. tune in tomorrow for more.