Greg Keysar Photography

Dave Jackson’s Breaking the Rules Workshop

gdogg16 — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 03:27:48 +0000

I’ve come to rescue my blog! In the whirlwind that was 2009, I’ve neglected this poor blog. However, exciting things are happening and they must be shared with the internet! First off, my wife and I are expecting our first child, we had our first sonogram this morning, 6 weeks and 5 days and we were able to see the heart beating AND hear it! AMAZING! It was just unbelievable. We’re just beside ourselves and can’t wait to meet our child. Everyone keeps asking what we’d prefer, my wife wants a girl, and I’ll take whatever I can get so long as it’s a boy. If it’s a girl, I guess I’ll take it. Seriously though, we’ll take whatever can get and love it to death!

On another note that isn’t quite as exciting as having a baby, but is still full of all types of awesomeness, is Dave Jackson’s Breaking the Rules Workshop. Last month I had the opportunity to attend his second workshop at his studio in Appleton, Wisconsin. Spend a few minutes with Dave and you quickly realize that he’s an amazing person with a tremendous willingness to divulge every kernel of knowledge that he posses on the subject. Spend even less time looking at his work, and you quickly realize that he’s also an amazing photographer. Ask him a question, and you’re not leaving until it’s answered. In addition to Dave’s brain at our disposal, Dave and his side kick Trevor had amazing models and his studio and equipment available for us to work with for the day. If you’re able to attend one of Dave’s workshops, whether it be the Breaking the Rules Workshop, the Get Real Workshop, or another workshop Dave happens to be teaching at, please do. You’ll be glad you did.

Easter Sunday

gdogg16 — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 20:05:26 +0000

My wife and I traveled to my sisters home for Easter. After dinner and a few hours of playing with the kids, we headed outside for some family photos. The scenery was less than ideal with a huge white fence on one side of the house, another house to the other side, and great big trees in the rear. I decided to use the rapidly falling sun to the rear of the house to my advantage and tried to keep the angles low. However, I had a really hard time keeping the boys interested as they were hopped up on candy.. This made it even harder to keep the bodies framed in some clean space. In the end, I’m very happy with the results of the photos, even if my nephews have some trees growing out of their heads.

Little Mikey’s first birthday

gdogg16 — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 18:36:43 +0000

The son of dear friends of my wife and I recently celebrated his first birthday. There is something about a child’s first birthday that is so enjoyable; I’m not sure it’s the perplexed look when they see the wrapped gifts, or when they discover the birthday cake and the fact they stick their hands in it and rub the cake all over the face. I think it may be the later. At any rate, my wife and I had a wonderful time celebrating the monumental day with our friends and their family. Happy belated birthday Mikey.

Brian, the funny magic dude; revisited

gdogg16 — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 18:16:55 +0000

My good friend Brian the funny magic dude contacted me again and needed some additional shots for his website, in addition to his shots, I wanted to try some new ideas and techniques out. He was in need of some full body shots for animated gif they were going to use on the main page, so we decided to use the seamless white background to make post production easier. I took a few tips from Zach Arias’ on the seamless white, and I found I really need another studio strobe to more easily pull “the look” off. There is nothing more frustrating than flash miss fires due to the recycle times of over taxed AA battery powered flashes. The shoot ended on a high note though, because I made Brian do the “puttin’ on the ritz” dance, it makes me laugh.

Shubrooks Wedding

gdogg16 — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 03:12:54 +0000

So I’m at work, and at my desk chatting with my “office mate” when he pops the question, “hey man, want to shoot my wedding for me?” I replied with sure, and the deal was sealed. He and his wife have actually been married for about 6 years and have two awesome boys, but they never had a real wedding so now was their time. I had a great time shooting this important time in their lives, and was thrilled to hear he and his wife loved the photos.

Brian, the funny magic dude

gdogg16 — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 00:28:20 +0000

A while back, I was able to shoot my good friend Brian, whom is an amazing magician. Brian was looking for some photos for his website he is currently developing, and I was looking for someone that would let me shoot them… I used a single SB600 on a stand to light all of these shots, some where shot through an umbrella, others where shot with a 20 degree grid spot.

New Blog…!

gdogg16 — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 03:49:03 +0000

I’ve often been sarcastically described as a man of many words. I’m a straight shooting, to the point kind of guy, and if I can convey my message in one word, then that’s the route I’ll take. So in the blog, I’ll make an earnest effort to use more than a few words in each post.

In the past few years, I’ve put the drum sticks down and substituted my creativity with photography. This hobby has turned into an obsession and I’ve been honored by the fact that people both like my work and desire my work. This blog will serve as a place for me to showcase my latest work, projects, thoughts, etc. I’ll do my best to keep it up dated.

Thanks for checking my work out!

Greg

The Boys

gdogg16 — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 04:32:22 +0000

A few months ago, my sister called me and asked if I’d be up for shooting her boys, she had just had her third boy and wanted to get some photos of him while he was still in his infancy. Luke and Jack were more excited about playing our Wii than having their photos taken, but I ended up spending more time with Peter, so it worked out well for them. Peter has the most amazing eyes, they kind that can pierce a soul. It’s impossible to take a bad photo of child with eyes like his, seriously. He’s going to be a lady killer when he gets older. Later, I was able to get to Luke and Jack, and although it was cold in the garage, they trooper’d (did I just invent a word?) through it and we had a good time.

Relationships

gdogg16 — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 04:12:06 +0000

A couple months ago, I took part in a photo assignment with the subject “relationships”. The interpretation was open ended and I really wanted to do something non-typical. I decided to do a postmortem/religious play on the subject and headed for a great cemetery just south of Port Tobacco, Maryland. I found two fantastic headstones and with the sun dropping at an alarming rate, I set up shop quickly and grabbed the shots I needed. I used an SB600 on a light stand to light subjects triggered by some cyber sync radio triggers. Luckily, I had a beautiful sunset in the background, and had it not been 20 degrees, I would have stayed longer to enjoy it.