Martin Paris Band

Over the weekend I shot the Martin Paris Band. They are a great local band that does lots of gigs at weddings and winery events. I recently saw them play at Summerwood Winery just down the street and they were a ton of fun. I just put up one of their songs on my website, go check it out at ColinMichaelphoto.com
We got together down at the Paso Robles train station for a shoot on a breezy and cold November afternoon. As soon as I got setup one of my strobes (a strobe is a big studio flash) started acting up so we shot without it for awhile. After the light warmed up it started working again and we were able to get these couple of really cool images.
In case anyone is wondering, these images were taken around 4pm on a cloudy day. All I do to create this effect is to turn up the power on my strobe so the exposure is around +1 1/2 stops over the ambient light. This makes the background darker than the areas affected by my strobe and I really like the effect.

Flowers in Fall

This has been such a beautiful and warm fall that the flowers have decided to return! This was taken on the road up to my home, quite an interesting plant to be flowering in November. If someone knows what it is please email me.

Something a bit different

I wanted to really challenge myself photographically so I decided to try an underwater photoshoot. No, I have never done underwater photography before. No, I don't own any special underwater equipment. No, I haven't ever tried anything even remotely close to this before but I am really happy with the images. So much so that I might just get myself some underwater equipment so I can get some even better images.
The model is my friend Jessica whose wedding I will be shooting in Mexico next year. Look for more pics of her soon; we are doing an engagement shoot, bridal's and a trash-the-dress session. She is very photogenic and works hard to get the best images; she must have dove under me about 50 times to get these shots!

Sam and John

My good friends Jon and Sam never had any engagement shots done (I didn't shoot their wedding) so I took them up to Sonoma State University so they could have something to make up for it.
We ran around campus and had a great time. Sam thought it was so funny how the camera seems to give me the power to get just about anything to happen. I ask Jon to carry Sam, he carries her. I ask Sam to do the same, she gives it a shot! I thought about asking them to jump into this fountain but thought better of it ;)