I’m in the process of updating ScottoSmith.com to version 2.0 this week and should have it up and running next week. I will be sharing the URL next week so be sure to check back soon.

Is it vain to add self portraits on your own blog?  I’m adding them regardless.

With this week’s third Project [52] post I”m finally caught up.  With our wet cool spring/summer we have enjoyed bleeding hearts in our back yard through June, It normally gets too hot for them to survice this long.  I was able to spend some time in my backyard with my macro lens.  The image below is of a weed I picked earlier in the day and thought the patterns would pick up nicely with a macro lens.  After reviewing them on my computer I liked how they resemble a spiderweb.

Today’s image was taken while waiting for our bus to pick us up and drive us to the Barcelona airport.  We were lucky enough to have scheduled our transportation to the airport before we even left.  The lucky ones who procrastinated or decided to leave the ship late were fortunate enough to wait in a taxi line with at least an hour wait.   Nothing technically obvious about this image.  I like how the taxi’s and palm trees lead the eye to the left of the image.

I took my Holga camera with my on my trip to Europe and was able to get a few good images.  Today’s image was taken at The Vatican in Rome Italy.  We opted not to tour the inside of the Vatican which gave us more time to see more of Rome.  The Holga image doesn’t really reflect the size of the square so I included panoramic taken with my DSLR.  To see the full high-res (10184×3617 22MB) version at 100% click here.

It’s been a couple of weeks since I’ve done an update.  I’ve been on vacation for two weeks then playing catchup for the last week.  Today’s post is just one of many I’m planning on posting of my trip to the Mediterranean.

The image above is from Monaco.  Monaco is the second smallest country by size with the Vatican City (future post) being the smallest.  With a brief tour of the city we were able to drive along the route of the Grand Prix.  It was cool to see the route of the race and to see just how tight the turns are.  The race was a week before we arrived and most of the barriers were still up.  We also were able to walk through the church were Grace Kelly (Princess Kelly) is buried.  The image below is the local prison that sits next to the Palace for the Prince.  There is currently one man serving a life sentence for murder.  Not a bad view but would be a bit torturous to never be able to swim in the water.

The next stop was Nice.  Nice is a short drive from Monaco and is a place that I would return to in a heart beat.  The following images are from different vantage points around the city.  The small tip of the island in the image below(center) is owned by Bill Gates, the locals can tell when he’s home because his yacht is pretty easy to spot when it’s parked at the dock.

]]> http://scottosmith.wordpress.com/2011/06/21/project-52-twenty/feed/ 1 Scott Project [52] - twenty Project [52] - twenty Project [52] - twenty Project [52] - twenty Project [52] - twenty http://scottosmith.wordpress.com/2011/06/01/image-in-use-about-com/ http://scottosmith.wordpress.com/2011/06/01/image-in-use-about-com/#comments Wed, 01 Jun 2011 13:18:51 +0000 Scott O. Smith http://scottosmith.com/?p=2348 ]]>

This past weekend I had the opportunity to photograph actors for marketing material for an upcoming performance of William Shakespeare’s “The Tempest“.  The producer and I had scouted out the location a few days prior.  He had specific scenes he needed to photograph and the location we scouted worked out perfectly.     I’m so accustomed to setting up my own shots and directing people that it felt a bit awkward to have someone else be in control but I felt comfortable with it after a few minutes of shooting.  He had prepared a punch list of specific shots that he wanted taken with each actor.  Having the producer and director organized made this a very enjoyable experience for me. I was able to focus more on the technical aspect to make sure the lighting and composition were spot on.  I included one of my favorite images from the day.  I like the fact that it doesn’t look like the typical images that are taken at the Great Salt Lake.  It could easily pass as an image from a coastal beach.  Utah has such a great diversity of scenery that it makes it enjoyable to be a photographer and live here.

Found on a recent trip through Montpelier Idaho.

I was able to test out some new gear and work on some off camera flash over the weekend.  I had a hard time choosing just one so I included a few of my favorites.

Our bathroom has been torn apart due to a water leak which caused black mold.  The tub, drywall and insulation had to come out in order to get rid of all the mold.  In the cleanup process the recovery company installed a visqueen barrier on the doorway to isolate the room from the rest of the house.  After the mold was gone we left the visqueen on the doorway and I immediately wanted to create a scene out of Alford Hitchcock movie.  Instead of a person holding a butcher knife I wanted to simulate a predator trying to enter into a room.  With the help of my daughters I was able to create the scene.  I used a Lensbaby with the Double Glass optic and adjusted the manual focus ring to get a blurred ghostly effect.

This past weekend I spent some time with a couple of talented soccer players to capture images to add to my iStock portfolio.  I’m not sure if I will use this image in my potfolio but thought it would be fitting to post for my Project[52].  The image was taken with a Lensbaby Composer using the Double Glass optic.

]]> http://scottosmith.wordpress.com/2011/05/03/project52-sixteen/feed/ 0 Scott Project[52] - sixteen http://scottosmith.wordpress.com/2011/04/28/left-behind/ http://scottosmith.wordpress.com/2011/04/28/left-behind/#comments Thu, 28 Apr 2011 15:00:40 +0000 Scott O. Smith http://scottosmith.com/?p=2280 ]]>