Chadbee Photography V2.0
Over the past few months I have became very frustrated with my photography. I have progressed so fast over the last year or so and I felt like I had hit a brick wall….Im not sure if this is even a real term but it was like I had “photographers block”. I didnt feel creative and I had no desire to even shoot. I spoke with some local photographers and even made a thread about what I was going through on mycanikon.com and everybody told me the same thing. They said to just chill out, dont accept any shoots, paid or not, and let the camera gear sit for a few weeks then go out and shoot something different than static automotive shots. They said I needed a break and then I needed to do something different. It made sense, I did need a break…I was VERY VERY frustrated. One thing about me is I over do everything lol if you see or hear of me doing something you can believe Im doing it full speed and all out. To me, in my head the best way for me to “take a break from photography” was to sell all my gear and use the money to help me get back into a “fast” car by the summer, I havent owned a 12 second car for waaaaaay to long. In my head I said that I would buy more camera gear in a few months and start shooting again. So, I updated my facebook status that I was selling my gear and made for sale threads on local forums. Within 2 days everything was gone except for my tripod/ballhead and bag. I never listed my strobes, they are 1980’s Novatron strobes that my grandfather used so they have sentimental value. Everything else was gone though. So I sat here, with no camera, no lens, no rig, thinking….was this a good decision? I had mixed feelings on the situation. I looked at a few cars online, talked to the owners and realized I just wasnt going to be able to get what I wanted with the money I had. I was a few grand short. Not good at all. At this point I started to really regret selling my camera gear. No matter how frustrated I have got I still love photography so much, Im addicted to it. These past couple weeks I just keep seeing cool spots for car shoots and seeing things that made me go “that would be a cool shot”. After thinking it over a few days I decided that I should get a camera and a lens or two. This is where my habit of over doing things come in, instead of buying another D90 and a couple cheap lens then saving the rest of my money to help go toward a nice car I decided to say F it and get the photography gear that I want not worry about a car. I knew I couldnt NOT have camera gear…..it just wasnt going to work lol I never thought I would have gear like this…and Im very happy about it. I feel refreshed and defiantly have that strong urge to shoot again!!! I feel like Im taking on another version of my photography, Im changing things up and stepping things up so look out for big things this summer!!!!!
Here is a basic run down of what I have been using compared to what I just got.
OLD PHOTOGRAPHY GEAR
-Nikon D90
-Nikon 18-55(kit lens from my old D50)
-Nikon 50mm f1.8
-Nikon 35mm f1.8
-Sigma 10-20mm
-Rig…12 ft mild steel emt pole(one piece), Avenger cups and Manfrotto super clamps
NEW PHOTOGRAPHY GEAR
-Nikon D700
-Nikon 18-35mm f3.5-4.5(full frame ultra wide angle)
-Nikon 50mm f1.8
-Nikon 80-200 f2.8 AF-S
-Rig…14 ft aluminum pole(threaded to break down into three 4.5ft pieces), Avenger cups and Manfrotto super clamps
-Got my 3rd strobe fixed(has been broke for over a year do’h)
-New watermark too(lol)
In the next few days I will make another post with some high ISO tests of this beast known as the D700 and my over all opinion of the camera and if its worth its price tag or not….so make sure to check back for that!
More product photography hiting the streets
Awhile back I did a product job for a company that manufacturers some very tough floor mats for trucks and Jeeps called Rugged Ridge. We also shot some photos of their Jeep Wrangler show vehicle outside the warehouse and one of them ended up being used for the cover of their catalog. I think the shot came out great was glad to hear that picked that one for the cover, it was my personal favorite. All post processing and graphic design is the masterpiece of uprootphotodesign.com
Some of my product photography….
This just was released a few days ago…its a brochure for a car audio company named T3 Audio. They contacted me a few months back about shooting their new 2010 line up of subwoofers. These things are SICK. The TSNS 15″ woofer weighs 95lbs, take 5,000 RMS watts and 30,000 RMS watts in a peak burst for SPL competitions. Needless to say moving this thing around to shoot it was not easy lol but in the end I was pretty happy with the photos. I was able to get the lighting just right to show off that sexy carbon weave and the shots were pretty sharp thanks to the lil ol niffty fiffty!
Anyways check out the end result and www.t3audio.com
The 7th letter of the alphabet…
This past week I had a local G35S owner contact me about a shoot for his car. I had no clue it was a sedan….normally Im not a fan of the G sedans but when he rolled up to our meeting spot the stance of the car made me love it the second I saw it. It sits just right and the fitment of the wheels is great without being over kill. The shoot went pretty smooth and over all Im “ok” with the photos. The before VS after of the rig shot is pretty wild so I decided to post up with a couple of my other favorite images from this shoot. Enjoy!
Heres the rig shot…before…
And after…
My 10 favorite shots of 2009
Looking back at this past year I see that I have progressed a lot with my photography, I have entered into the land of composting multiple photos, slowly but surely getting my lighting down and have stepped it up just a notch on my post processing technique. I honestly think I finally got a “style” of my own and while Im far from a “good” photographer, Im getting there. Big things are coming in 2010 though, Im hoping to start getting full feature’s in a large automotive magazines and Im hoping to go full frame by the end of the year. But enough about what I PLAN to do in 2010, here is what i HAVE done in 2009…..
In no particular order, my personal favorite shots of mine from 2009….
S2KJay is back with a fresh coat of paint!
Everybody in ATL knows Jay’s turbo Honda S2000 for his wheel whore-ish tendencies and the ability to always be changing the look of his car, yet every time its sick sick sick! After having a feature in Honda Tuning a few months back Jay had to do something drastically different….and yet another wheel change wasnt going to cut it. The Spoon’d out hardtop S2K got a set of J’s racing front fenders, Mag blue TE37’s(like his 454543th set of TE’s by the way LULZ) and soaked in laguna seca blue paint off a BMW M3. In his build thread some people werent uncertain of the color choice, to be honest I was too. The photos in that thread were Iphone pictures so when the car rolled up to the spot we were shooting at I was pleasantly surprised and a tad horny all of sudden. Those crapy cell phone pictures did the car zero justice, in person its freaking amazing and hopefully my photos show the true color and attitude of this sexy S2000….
These are desktop wallpaper images of the last photo….
My Dad’s Christmas present
Yes I know, I just used this spot for the red GTR, but my dad doesnt know that lol I was short on time and the location was close. My dad loves his caddy so Im framing this 20×30 poster for him for Christmas cause Im a kickass son……or I just wanted to steal the caddy and go do some 2nd gear pulls, one or the other ; )
The poster looks a lil odd cause I used my POS on camera flash to snap a quick pic of it, in real life it looks just like the digital file.
New subwoofer and box for the gear hauler!
A few weeks back I did a product photography job for a local car audio company called T3 Audio. These guys make some car audio equipment that is not for the weak of ears! I shot their 2010 line up of woofers and we did a little bartering on something new for my blazer. I got a barely used T3 Audio TSS 12″ subwoofer and had my buddy Kevin(AV8ter on the forums) build me a PROPER enclosure for it. Its 2.5 cubic feet and tuned to 32HZ. If you ever looking to have a custom box built Kevin is the man for it in Ga! If you need his contact info shoot me an email…..chad@chadbeephotography.com. Even though I still have the sub on a weak amp this thing POUNDS and sounds really really good but then again alot of sound quality competitors use T3 so I didnt expect anything less.
CAN i BEAT? Photographer feature
Recently I was notified by David of CAN i BEAT? letting me know that they featured me as a photographer on his blog, I was surprised and excited. Im VERY VERY hard on myself when it comes to my photography work so I honestly dont think im that good. When stuff like this happens it kinda catches me off guard and confuses me but makes me smile at the same time. Its nice to know even though sometimes I think I suck others still give me some love! Check out my feature and the rest of the CAN i BEAT?
Some more GTR desktop wallpapers!
This past weekend I shot a super hot red R35 GTR on bronze Volk TE37 G2’s. It was the first time seeing this new generation of Volks classic wheel in person and in my opinion they look great. It was also my first time seeing a Red GTR in person, it seams like everytime I shoot one, see them at events or just cruising the skreetz of Atlanta they are silver, black or white. I like red cars, I like GTR’s and I like Volk wheels…..needless to say I really liked this car lol I was pretty happy with the shoot, I got alot of nice shots and it was hard to pick which ones to use as wallpaper images. After a re-look at the set I chose 2…….I hope you like them as much as I do. As always, if you need a different resolution shoot me an email at chad@chadbeephotography.com
