Tag: utah

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Nexus Shift

I have recently had the opportunity to purchase and use the LitraTorch by Litra Gear. I love this light for toy photography. It’s such a great portable size and the perfect amount of light for fill even during direct sunlight.

Doctor Phlox sees a strange light near the surface. SOOC photo.

I was rummaging through my closet the other day and I randomly found this Doctor Phlox figure that I purchased as an impulse buy from a thrift store a few years back – not sure why I hadn’t used it in a shot yet. I think it’s because a few years ago I was on a Lego minifigure binge. I still am, but I’m now venturing into bigger toy territory too.

The shot above of Phlox was taken on my car dash in direct sunlight with my Voigtlander 25mm f0.95 wide open. I use a ND filter to make this possible. I used the LitraTorch on high as a fill light in the front. Sunlight is behind Phlox.

I have always loved space and consider myself a Trekkie. I grew up watching Star Trek: The Next Generation, almost every Saturday. I’m sorry, but William Shatner as Captain Kirk doesn’t hold a candle to Picard. That being said, I am an even bigger fan of the reboot with J.J. Abrams. I just love the lens flares and the light in his films.

The light in the distance… do you see it!?

After messing around with the LitraTorch as a fill light I have realized what I have been missing. I have never achieved shots like this in direct sunlight. I’ve always had way too much contrast with such a bright background that all the details are in the dark in front. I end up with a silhouette of sorts rather than what I was really going for and I guess I just accepted that as a fact of circumstance. I would just adjust the blacks in Lightroom or something; but that option has drawbacks producing some weird digital artifacts sometimes.

Well, I was wrong. There is a better way – a nice powerful mini light studio!

What is it’s power source…?

There are quite a few toy photographers that I always return to for inspiration and one of them is Janan Lee aka @spideygoeshygge on Instagram. He has these mesmerizing spaceman shoots that have such great lighting. When I found Phlox I threw him in my camera bag for a shot if the opportunity arose and I wanted to emulate the feels of Janans shots.

The op came while we were running some quick errands. I was staying with the kiddos in the car while my wife went into the store to find a Halloween costume. It was a bright sunny day today and surprisingly pleasant at 72 degrees. My dash became my studio. I kept the frame tight and angled up toward the sky so I would avoid all the reflections from cars and buildings and such and the dash was transformed into another world… a world that would eventually parallel the Star Trek: Generations film with entering into a version of the Nexus Ribbon.

A bit of Enlight app magic and I combined two shots into the main shot on this post.

After these shots I busted out some heavy artillery: The beauty of the orange plastic Halloween Pumpkin Pail. $1 @ Walmart. (Not sure why I included this link – I guess it’s a bit funny for me, and it’s late when I’m writing this…)

Turned out to be quite the epic light when paired with my dash sunlight, some fancy balancing acts, and the LitraTorch as a front fill.

Doctor Phlox was transported through the Nexus Ribbon into some sort of fiery orange dimension.

As you can see from these shots – a nice studio setup is really not needed for toy photography. I love the portability of it all. The LitraTorch fits easily in my small camera bag with a few toys and lenses. I love how I can incorporate so many plain ordinary everyday objects and generate a completely new world; that right there my friends is why I do toy photography.

~ Joecow

What kind of random things do you use in your shots? Have you ever considered portable lighting solutions? What has worked for you?

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Cold Snap

Winter is coming! I actually really love the changing seasons – we once lived down in Mesa, Arizona and I missed the fall and winter that we experience here in Cedar City, Utah each year. Each season brings new colors and challenges to my photography.

This past week we have experienced our first cold snap of the fall/winter season. It got far below freezing. I like this transitional time as many folks tend to leave sprinklers on overnight and the ice sculptures that are made are perfect winter scenes for my toy photography. It can get rather cold and uncomfortable while shooting toys outside durning these times; but the strange things is I don’t even realize that my knees are going numb. I just get so engrossed in the creative process that everything else is forgotten.

I work at an engineering firm which is located in the outskirts of Cedar. The office is surrounded by expansive fields of alfalfa (hay). Yesterday on my way to work I was passing through the fields and the farmers had left their sprinkler pivots on. It was a beautiful sight – the barbed wire fences and grass of the fields were iced over.

Naturally I had to stop and take some toy photos. Woody matched the scene perfectly and I attempted to recreate a shot I did a couple years ago of Woody tightroping on barbed-wire. Unfortunately, the sun had been up for some time and had already warmed the wire and ground enough that the ice was starting to fall off in chunks. It was a race against time! The ground was also thawing which meant messiness – plus I was in a hurry and late for work; so the shot ended up being woody just sitting on the wire. Maybe next time, if there is a next time – icy barbed-wire doesn’t happen too often.

I also had Miguel from Pixar’s Coco and a certain stormtrooper with me.

I used to stop and just take macro shots of a scene like this but now it looks rather boring without a toy in the shot. I still do non toy shots in circumstances like this but having a toy to experience it at their level just adds something to the shot.

I was late to work after these shots but luckily we are all pretty laid back there. The beauty of toy photography is the ability to transform the mundane into another world!

If you’ve made it this far reading my ramblings I’d love to hear some feedback here on my blog.

~ Joseph

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Desert east of Leeds, UT

Redrock hills near Leeds, UT.
Redrock hills near Leeds, UT.

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Desert east of Leeds, UT.  Looking toward Zion National Park.

This view of the desert is from an old mine dump that my boys and I hiked up to. I had stopped to take the previous picture of the caveman Batman figure, so we didn’t find the mine shaft right away.  My kiddos found the opening right before me.  It had been closed off with a wall of mortar and rocks from the dump.  I wonder what they were after?

Silver Reef is only about 5 miles to the north of me from this spot.  Silver Reef is the only place in the world that they have found rich silver deposits in sandstone.  That may be what they were after over this way as well.  Silver Reef was once a booming mining town because of the silver.  At one time they even had a china town area.  Now it is a rather artistic community where people go to retire.  The famous sculptor, Jerry Anderson resides up there.  I am sure this desert is an inspiration for his many creations.

Frank Lloyd Wright designed a house near here.  I know the couple that live there.  They gave me a tour once and it has high shelves all over inside with plants hanging down.  The high windows and walls were inspired by the desert cliffs surrounding the area.  It is a beautiful home that is much more interesting to look at than your standard run-of-the-mill suburban stucco house.

The desert never ceases to amaze me.  The colorful landscapes are even more colorful up close.  The reds turn into many shades of red, orange, and white streaks.  The sandstone in areas is what they call picture sandstone because of all the beautiful striations that make it look like a desert scene itself.  I am glad I have the opportunity to live in such a beautiful part of the world and that I get to experience it with my boys on at least a weekly basis.  When my other kiddos get a little older we will be able to get out and enjoy this expansive place together as a family!

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Lone Juniper near Lund, UT

Lone Juniper on the horizon
Lone Juniper on the horizon

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Lone juniper near Lund, UT.

As I drove out to Lund to get a couple road shots with my Lego I noticed several lone juniper trees on the horizon.  Luckily I had my old MF Minolta Rokkor 200mm lens.  It is the equivalent of around 400mm on my Olympus EM5.  The EM5 has a great artistic function that creates dramatic black and white shots.

I originally took this shot in black and white and I liked the look of it, but I felt I have been taking too many black and white shots as of late so I transferred the image over to my phone using my Eyefi wifi sd card.

Lone Juniper before color
Lone Juniper before adding color

I used the Mextures app to add color to the black and white shot. I’ve done this quite a few times in the past – I think it’s a great effect adding the color. I like how this shot turned out as well. Much better than the original.

What do you think about adding color to a black and white shot? 

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Lightrays break the dreariness


via Instagram http://ift.tt/2kFTWQ2 Rays of light pierce the winters clouds, Enterprise, UT

The morning had been cold and murky like the frothy, muckiness of a stagnant pond.  We drove out early in an old long bed Chevrolet, pulling our diamond plated two axle trailer.  We were finally picking up a load of our new premium Earthtone Brown Alabaster.  We would be loading the stone and sending my brother Nathan Cowlishaw on the road in the morning.  It was bitterly cold with a wind chill of about 10 degree F.  The wind was picking up and the forecast was snow.  As we neared our destination the sun cut through the dreariness and lit up the valley in patches of warm light.

We stopped, even in a hurry – and captured some of the beauty.  It really adds to my day when I get to not only experience and notice the beauty around me but also get to capture it to share with others.

I hope that this image finds you in a time when you may feel like life is a muddled pond;  just know that the light always breaks through and there is always beauty in our times of trial.

We got our truck loaded in the anticipated snowstorm.  The blizzard rushed in like someone had torn open a large beanbag chair.  The snow was little spherical icy balls that matched the Styrofoam innards perfectly.  It was a dry-cold snow that bounced off everything and everyone and quickly blanketed the ground.  We pulled out with our loaded and traversed the windy mountain pass on a meandering snow-packed highway.  The headlights almost made it more difficult to see and we had the opportunity to break the path as we had beat the snowplows to the area.

Our Chevy handled the load well and we arrived safely at a good steady pace.  New Mexico – here comes our new stone!  I hope you enjoy the work we put in to get this premium sculpting stone into your hands.

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A Break in the Blizzard


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A break in the blizzard, New Castle, Iron County, UT.

Nabbed this shot out the window of the passenger side while driving at around 55 mph.  It had a nice dreamy feel to it.  The morning was cloudy and a slight snow flurry had been upon us until we crested the valley and dropped out of the small mountain range.  When we approached New Castle, UT, the sun broke through and the clouds parted into deep blue sky above.  It was just a small opening, about the size of the town but much smaller than the surrounding valley.  The blizzard raged on all around us – but we were in a split second haven from the storm.

I snapped this shot with my olympus EM5 out the window.  I used one of the artistic built in filters for a high contrast black and white.  It just matched the scene perfectly – the contrast of billowing clouds and an opening in the storm while the ground was covered in a blur of flurries.

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Cow Abduction in Progress


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That cow is totally being abducted!????  Enterprise, UT
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Seriously though.  Folks out in Southern Utah have had cows show up with missing eyes and lips and utters.  These don’t seem to be attacks from standard predators because of the way they are found and the markings found.

Utah has some very bizarre occurrences that are mostly unknown and unheard of because of the taboo that surrounds the topic of aliens and UFOs.

As founders of the Utah UFO Fest, my brother Nathan and I have been on many trips to investigate the unknown.  from a supposed UFO crash site in Garrison, UT, to the Dugway Proving Grounds near Delta, UT, there are many reasons why a Utah UFO Festival is long overdue.  Make sure to take some time a checkout our website.

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Glowing Mossy Path


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The glowing moss lit the way; Jim wasn’t sure what adventures were ahead, but it was definitely the path for him, the path less traveled…

What is an adventure?

I’ve been thinking a bit on this today.  What really constitutes an adventure?  Is it danger? Is it a change of plans?  Is it just something unexpected?

Dictionary.com defines adventure as

1) An exciting or very unusual experience

2) A bold, usually risky undertaking

I agree with these definitions and I think they go hand in hand.  Unusual experiences usually come after taking some kind of risk.  The excitement of adventure leads Jim into an unknown area to explore the wilderness around him.  The moss is unusually soft on his feet as he hikes and he has come across this new experience through taking paths that are not worn.

I find that my own life has been somewhat like Jim’s adventures.  I don’t want to follow the predefined path that most people take.  I wasn’t always this way.  When I was growing up I attended public school like all my friends, I got a job in high school, like most my friends, and I had a truck, like most of my friends.  I followed a set answer to the question “What do you want to be when you grow up?”  I always answered “An Engineer”, although I never really knew what engineers did or why it would be so cool to be one.

After High School I served a full-time Mormon mission to New York City.  Coming from a small southern Utah town to the largest and most diverse city in the world was very eye opening.  But I still had this idea in my mind that I will go home after my mission, got to college, become an engineer, and live happily ever after with a family and lots of money.

I don’t know when I woke up.

I can’t really put a finger on it.  I think it was all the business books I read in my free time and all the self-help books about improving ones thoughts and actions.  It was a gradual understanding that I was following a direct path into the rat race.  The race to get lots of money.  The race to keep up or surpass the Jones’.  I went through college and got a degree before I woke up.  I followed the whole resume building plan to spruce up my hire-ability.   I worked hard to become this idea I had in my mind of an engineer designing things and having a blast.  But it was not a real thing.   Engineering turned out to be rather boring for me.  It was all about making my boss wealthy and the company wealthy.  It was all about money.  Engineering was all geared towards finding the cheapest option that would work and not fail and lead to other liabilities.  It was about following rules and set guidelines that were already established at the companies I worked for.  I found that as an engineer I was given all the projects and work that the owner himself did not want to do.

I guess it’s like that in most professions.  You have to follow this set standard.  I also found how our money system revolves around this system of the rat race.  Marketing and buying and selling and getting more and more stuff.  Get a promotion at work?  Get a new car!  Match and exceed your income! Get paid a lot?  Buy a house!

These things are not necessarily bad, but the why is missing.

I have since left the rat race and have focused on building my own character through taking on risk and adventure.  It is still hard work, do not get me wrong.  All those folks that paint getting out on your own and starting a business or entrepreneurship as easy are feeding a lie that is so easily accepted through the rose colored glasses of seeing the finished result without the effort.

I like Jim’s adventures because they are a true adventure away from all the troubles of society.  They are adventures in self reflection and pondering, where one can appreciate all the things God does without us.  The beauty of nature and light.  The beauty of colors and growth.  The beauty of the mountains and the valleys.  The beauty of forests and deserts.  I sometimes envy Jim as he can drop everything and go.  I also at times feel sad for Jim because he does not seem to have anywhere to be.

All in all, Jim has a great time out in the hills and I also get to get out in nature to recharge my batteries for the adventure that is life!