Time for an Update

So, I found out in September that I was offered a position that I applied for with the Hawaii Department of Transportation.  Over the last couple of months I have had to arrange shipping of vehicles while we were packing up our house to fit into a POD so that everything could be shipped to the islands.  The vehicles are now on their way along with the POD and I will soon be joining them.  We are looking forward to getting our new lives started in Hawaii.  If you will be making a trip to Hawaii in the future, look us up for your location photo shoot.

What happened to free time?!?!?!?

Looks like the next couple of months will be some of the craziest I have ever seen.  Check back in December for updates and a recap of all the crazy stuff that I will be experiencing over the next couple of months.

Here we go again!

Just when I think that things might begin to settle down and let me start catching up with this blog again it looks like I am in for a few more weeks of crazy.  If I have time in between life's crazy moments to catch up here I will gladly post some information.  Until I can write again, enjoy the wonderful fall weather that is coming and get out there and shoot something.

Mark

It's been a while!!

I have to admit that life got waaayyyy too crazy this summer and that this blog has suffered because of it.  Here's a great reason to try to get back on track.  We had a great evening with friends last night and 2 of them are fellow bloggers.  Kim over @Eating in Vegas and John @Foodtographerlv.  I was asked for the recipe for the wonderful Mai Tais that we blew through last night so here it is.
1 part light rum
1/2 part triple sec
1/4 part Rose's lime juice
3 parts pineapple juice
1/4 part grenadine
1/2 part dark rum
That's it!!  Just mix it all together in a pitcher and add ice.  Pour, drink, repeat until it is gone.  Check out Kim's blog for the incriminating evidence.

Learn to make photographs not just take pictures.

Starting May 1st @ Casey's Camera, Introduction to Digital Photography. Understanding F-Stops, Shutter Speeds, ISOs & In Camera Meter to create the correct exposure. Study of Histograms, White Balance & File Sizes will be applied. This is not just Theory & Lecture Class, bring your DSLR as this is a series... of "hands on shooting Classes. Learn how to make photographs not just take pictures.

Contact Mark Swink for more information or to sign up.

Photo classes coming soon

Details are being finalized with experienced photography instructors for the kickoff of basic photography classes beginning May 1, 2010 at Casey's Camera in Las Vegas. The beginning class will be comprised of four 3 hour seminars. Each seminar will be from 10 am to 1 pm. Part of each seminar will be an active discussion followed by hands on practice with 2 professional photographers working with the students as the students learn how to use THEIR cameras to make photographs instead of just taking pictures. Each seminar will have an assignment to complete for review at the next seminar to help the student practice what they have learned. For more details check back often or send an email to mark@msplv.com.

The Rogues

The processing is done and the photos are uploaded.  Now everyone can check out the shots from St. Pat's Day with The Rogues performing at Diablo's Cantina in the Monte Carlo Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas.  The images are in our photo gallery so feel free to browse at your leisure.
http://gallery.msplv.com/rogues

Las Vegas Marching Arts on St. Pat's Day

Although there is a link included to where the full portfolio of images are located for LVMA from St. Pat's Day shoot, here a just a couple of them.

To see many more photos of this fantastic day of celtic music to benefit our wounded heros check out the LVMA photo gallery.  http://gallery.msplv.com/lvma-2010-03-17

HDR Play at St. Patty's Shoot

There is still a lot of work to do to get the real images ready from all  of the shooting on St. Patrick's Day but here is a shot I took to play with in Photomatix and Topaz.  Some interesting results and a little distraction from the serious post processing.  Enjoy and feel free to leave a comment about what you like and don't like.

And yet a different effect.

Just a little more play before getting back to work.

Ok, everyone.  Which one do you like the best?  Why?

Busy Day

I started the day shooting for the Las Vegas Marching Arts for an event using their fire engine on Fremont Street.  I met some interesting people while there including the manager of Diablo's Cantina in the Monte Carlo Casino and a very nice lady from National Geographic.  The manager of Diablo's asked us to come to their live band area and shoot the band as they got started on their St. Patrick's Day party.  After downloading files from the earlier shoot it was back out to Diablo's for both of us to shoot the band, The Rogues.  The Rogues were doing a benefit for Ward 57 which is an organization that benefits veterans that have lost a limb in the service of their country.  Look for a few shots to come in the near future.

I WON!

It was great to see everyone at the Zenfolio booth at WPPI today.  While there I won a shootsac which was something that I have been wanting for some time now.  ShootSac  Now, who needs or wants a location shoot?  It's time to get out and use the new Shootsac.

Some shots from Choo Choo Shoot

It was an interesting day at the train yard.  Middle of the day, wind blowing, and bright sun.  It was nice to be there with nobody in the way and lots of subjects to shoot.  Here are 3 of the shots from the fun at Nevada Southern Railway in Boulder City.

Shooting Trains

It's off to Boulder City this morning to shoot some trains.  Just a group of photographers heading out to share some good times and good friends.  The train museum information can be found here.  Beautiful weather and great friends, who could ask for more?

New Photography Workshops Coming Soon!!

I am currently working with 2 other photographers to establish a new series of photography workshops from beginner’s workshops for those that have just gotten their first DSLR to advanced workshops for those that want to take their photography to new levels. Follow my blog to keep from missing out on the forthcoming details. The workshops will be in blocks of 4 seminars over a 4 week period. There will be 3 professional photographers teaching the workshops and providing hands-on instruction. These 3 professionals all work in different types of the photography world so the students will get a wide range of experience as well as exposure to the various ways that photography is used. Stay tuned for more details as they develop.

View all types of photo files

Are you having trouble viewing you picture files?  Try using Fast Picture Viewer available here.  This is a free program and will allow you to view not only jpg files but also raw files from almost any camera system whether you are using windows or mac.

Don't forget to enter our wedding contest!

We love doing things for people in love!! Check out our new wedding contest. http://www.msplv.com/weddingcontest2010-Q1.htm Now let's see who has the best story about why they deserve to win. Who knows, you or your friend could win as much as 50% off your wedding photography. What's better than getting a great deal on your Las Vegas Wedding Photography? Getting a great deal on your Las Vegas Wedding Photography from a great Las Vegas Wedding Photographer!

1 GB Internet in Las Vegas?

Wouldn't it be great to have an internet connection that could instantly deliver the content you seek?  How about uploading the entire photoshoot to your website in a couple of minutes instead of a couple of hours?  This new connection from Google would be a wonderful thing to have.  Just imagine that the bottleneck to upload speeds would become the speed at which the server on the other end could write the data to disk!!  All I can say it WOW!!  I hope Las Vegas becomes a test market for this.

That's a wrap!!

That's a wrap! Finally finished with the corporate headshot session today. A total of 22 executives and employees got shot in Las Vegas!!  Look for samples to follow later.

13 Las Vegas Executives in 1 day

Prepping gear for tomorrow's corporate headshot gig. 13 executives for a Las Vegas engineering firm to shoot in 1 day.  Then on to the Photographic Society Meeting.

No Snow! :-(

They changed the weather forecast for tonight. NO SNOW!! I was looking forward to some fluffy white photography.

Snow in Las Vegas again?

Watching the local weather forecasters this evening it appears there may be a chance of light snow in the Las Vegas valley on Wednesday morning.  This might be a great chance to capture some good shots if it really happens.

New Las Vegas Wedding Photography Contest

We love doing things for people in love!!  Check out our new wedding contest. http://www.msplv.com/weddingcontest2010-Q1.htm Now let's see who has the best story about why they deserve to win.  Who knows, you or your friend could win as much as 50% off your wedding photography.  What's better than getting a great deal on your Las Vegas Wedding Photography?  Getting a great deal on your Las Vegas Wedding Photography from a great Las Vegas Wedding Photographer!

Rainy Day in Las Vegas

What's better than an indoor impromptu portrait session on a rainy day in Las Vegas.  While we watched the live Mark Wallace lighting seminar, we broke out our mobile studio and setup a couple of lights to test PocketWizard settings.  Luckily we were babysitting our grandson so he got to be our model.  I can now say that the PocketWizard Flex TT5s and Mini TT1s are now tweaked and ready to work in any kind of setting that we get into.  Here is a shot from some of the testing today.  Larry the Cat had to make sure that the kid had everything he needed.  Larry is such a worry wart.

Jeremiah decided it was time for a nap just before he finished having his lunch.

Our Grandson

Spent the day with the daughter and grandson while the guy accross the street worked on her car.  Thought I'd get a couple of new shots of him and his cute outfit.  Here he is, a whole 4 months old.

Wow, What a Day!!

Started the day in the southwest part of the Las Vegas valley and worked my way around the west side all the way up to the turn off to go to Mount Charleston from the 95.  Then accross the northern part of the valley only to work back down the middle.  Shot a few locations on and around the strip before moving on to the south central part of the valley.  I started my eastward trek in the area of the new M Resort and Casino and shot my way up St. Rose Pkwy until it turned into Pecos.  Finally I found myself on the east side of the Las Vegas valley still shooting Real Estate.  As I finished up the shooting portion of the day in the late afternoon I discovered that I had shot almost 200 Real Estate Photos.  Upon returning to the office I spent the next few hours doing the post production work and emailing low resolution proof files to the client.  After a 12 hour day I can honestly say that I am tired.  It doesn't help that I did this while battling a terrible head cold that seems to be going around Las Vegas.  Almost everyone I know has already had this bug or has it now and it is no fun at all.  Best wishes to everyone.  Hopefully tomorrow I can get some needed rest and try to beat this silly cold.

All Over Las Vegas

Prepping gear for another Real Estate shoot tomorrow. We will be all over the Las Vegas area. If you see us, stop and say Hi!  Once these images get used on the clients website we will be posting links to them on their site.  Don't forget to come back and look for the links to check out the photos.

Updates to main website

Acting on comments from trusted friends, we have made some minor tweaks to our main website @ Mark Swink Photography.  We hope this makes it a little easier to read with the added separation between the columns.

Photography Seminars - Coming Soon??!!

Had a meeting today with another photographer here in Las Vegas regarding photography seminars.  The details are being worked out so stay tuned for further news regarding photography seminars in the coming days and weeks.  This looks to be a great deal for anyone who wants to learn more about photography.  That's about all I can say for now, but check back for updates as they become available.  You could just go ahead and follow us so that you won't miss out.

Off to the Las Vegas Meetup

It's finally here.  Today is the big Mark Wallace meetup here in Las Vegas.  Sponsored by PocketWizard.  Looking forward to seeing old friends and making new ones.

PocketWizard in Las Vegas

Getting ready for tomorrow's PocketWizard meetup with Mark Wallace.  There are still 7 FREE tickets left.  Get yours here.

Mark Wallace Tour

This Saturday is the Mark Wallace meetup tour sponsored by PocketWizard.  Get your tickets here.  As of noon on January 28th there were 18 tickets left.

Here's another shot from last Saturday out at Red Rock Canyon, Las Vegas, NV.  Taken from an overlook just off Charleston.

Las Vegas Real Estate Photography

Shot some unusual Real Estate Photography around Las Vegas yesterday.  Picked up shots at various locations for a Civil Engineering firm to use in their marketing material.  I like the panorama of one of the parking lots at a Las Vegas school.

Year of the Tiger @ Bellagio

Spent a little time last Sunday at Bellagio to take in the display for the Year of the Tiger.  The conservatory does some amazing displays.  You can check out the Conservatory and Botanical Gardens of Bellagio Las Vegas here.  Below is an HDR image I did of the display with a couple of different adjustments.  Feel free to leave me a comment and let me know which image you prefer.

Red Rocks with Snow

With the snow that fell on the mountains around Las Vegas over the past week we could not help but go shoot at Red Rock Park on Saturday. Below is an HDR image from that shoot followed by a couple of artistic tweaks to the same image.

Coming to Las Vegas in the future.  Contact us and let's go shoot some while you are here.

Operation: Love Reunited

We offer free photographic services to deploying and returning members of our armed forces through Operation: Love Reunited. We are very proud of the men and women serving our country and enjoy the opportunity to capture these moments for them. You can check out Operation: Love Reunited here.

Clark County Wetlands

On January 15, 2010 a group of us got together to shoot at Clark County Wetlands. View the Wetlands Website for more information about the Wetlands.  Here is one of my shots from that day.

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Welcome to the world of blogging. Mark Swink Photography in Las Vegas, NV.