The Rookery

The Rookery #1
Originally uploaded by Jonathan Robson

With the seasonal portrait rush now over, I've been able to spend some more time on more personal work and fine art material. If you are native to or live in Chicago, you'll no doubt be aware of the Rookery building, it was once the tallest building in the world - 11 stories tall, it is steeped in history and shady Chicago dealings.

You can find this shot in the fine art gallery at jonathanrobsonphotography.com, please enquire via the contact for for available sizes, finishes an pricing.

Destination Hollywood?

Destination Hollywood 
Originally uploaded by Jonathan Robson

Now the winter has set in in Illinois, I've been doing a lot more indoor work and making use of the basement studio more. Today I had the pleasure of working with a potential TV star - amazing what I find in the basement! We had a lot of fun shooting a few shots for some upcoming auditions. If you're reading this, you can say you saw her here first!

I don't like to reveal names of clients in my blog for privacy reasons, but good luck with the auditions Miss... !

Amazed

Amazed
Originally uploaded by Jonathan Robson

Trying a few experiments in photoshop to get some new looks. My son is often the unwitting guinea pig for my photoshop adventures. But if you see any effects that you would like applying to photos from your session, let me know.

Chillin'

Chillin'
Originally uploaded by Jonathan Robson

During an informal shoot for the neighbor, Cole decided he'd demonstrate his posing skills. Funny thing is, whenever I want him to sit on the old school chair for photos - he won't! Typical hey.

Smokin' !

Smokin' !
Originally uploaded by Jonathan Robson

Off to a good start this year, I gave zooming while exposing a go yesterday, today we move onto all things smoke. I've never tried this before, so it was trial and error. I setup some incense sticks on a chair in the basement, propped a black cloth behind, and placed a 580exII below and at either side of the stick pointing up at it, and behind it. I then took 200 shots of the incense stick, occasionally utilizing a small reflector to waft the smoke a little.

I think you can only try something like this once you're older than 21 years old, any younger and you'd be taken away in a van with square wheels! I got some strange looks from my wife on this one.

I stopped when I could stand the smell no more. This is the first one I've processed. While waiting on the images to import into Lightroom, I came across a great blog on this subject, it looks like I did everything as described in the blog... without even reading it (remember the square wheels!). Some great tips on there though for post processing smoke, here is the link:

lightingmods.blogspot.com/2007/07/diy-smoke-made-easy.html