This second of the four part blog series focuses on images taken with my Canon 5D mark II digital SLR camera. This is one of my main cameras I shoot assignments with on a daily basis. Its accurate, does it’s job and is my workhorse. Anytime I travel, regardless if the trip is business or personal the 5D II is always with me. And almost all of the time I am packing a pretty sizable digital kit as you never know when the opportunity will present itself for a serious shoot even if the trip doesn’t seem so.

However, on several of my last few personal trips, I have found myself using my 5D less and less and instead opting to use the camera that is always by my side, my cellphone, but since that post is coming, we will talk about the 5D here. It’s actually pretty interesting to be able to lay all of my images from my trip out and be able to identify which device was used in each situation. For example since the 5D kit is heavy and oftentimes cumbersome to manage, most of images taken with it were from my aunt’s house where we stayed or nearby. Most of the images taken on different day trips here or there were with other, smaller, devices. This doesn’t mean I love my 5D any less, it just means that since I am on vacation and my other, smaller, devices produce their own interesting images, I opted to save my shoulders and leave the heavier kit in its case. I thoroughly enjoy producing interesting images, but given this was a personal trip, I was not in a pressure situation to produce a certain image for a client, thus I could take advantage of using my toy/smaller cameras and experimenting to my heart’s content.

I did however use the 5D to capture a lot of video clips and time lapse sequences of our family gathering as well, so even though it may seem as if I didn’t utilize it as much as I could have, I really did put it through the usual paces.

21 of my favorite images are in a slideshow below. We have 2 more posts in the 4-part series coming in the next few days so be sure to check those out as I think they are going to be the most interesting of the bunch.

JULY 2010: DIGITAL OHIO – Images by Todd Spoth

Last Saturday I had a rather unusual assignment to cover the 2010 Conference USA Swimming and Diving Championships hosted by my Alma-mater, the University of Houston. As I prepared for the event I realized that out of all the things I have shot in the past and out of all the sports I have shot in the past, I had never shot a swim meet or competition diving. For years I had seen great swim meet photos from local newspaper photographers all the way up to the Olympics, but never had I shot it myself.

So I called some friends for some inspiration.

A few told me that it would be dark and damp (it was) and that I should bring in some lights to light the place up. I would have, but there was little time and the Campus Recreation Center where the meet was being held was a little hard to navigate. Since the competition pool is sandwiched between the dive pool and a training pool, angles for shooting are pretty slim. Even though the conditions were not ideal for photographs I enjoyed myself. I must say, I have complete respect for someone who can swim 66 non-stop laps in an Olympic-sized pool, not to mention one who wins that heat.

After I had made plenty of proper (and identifiable) images of swimmers leaving the block, celebrating, etc, I decided to play around a bit and shoot some more abstract stuff from the venue. With the obligation of identifying the schools and individual swimmers behind me, I felt inspired to follow my instincts and shoot a series of images that played with the color of the water and the natural motion of the event.

PUBLICATION OR LOCATION: Highways Magazine
PUBLICATION DATE: January 2010
LINK: http://www.goodsamclub.com
NOTES: I was assigned to photograph Susan and Monty Scales back in October. The assignment was to get some images of them next to their RV which was in San Leon, a town near the coast of Southeast Texas. When I first arrived I was a bit disappointed given the rather drab environment. The day was rather hot and working without an assistant made things pretty challenging. After a few frames with their RV (per direction from the Magazine) I followed the Scales to the site of their home that was currently in construction. My eyes widened when we drove up as the bold yellow paint of the facade really popped against the beautiful blue sky. I knew I couldn’t pass this opportunity up so I worked a few scenarios here and even had the couple sit inside the house and lit them with a strobe from the inside. During the few frames of the couple in front of the house, Monty leaned over and kissed Susan without any direction at all. The photo of their kiss is definitely my favorite of the take. The cover of the issue is above and a few of the selects are below. I will try and add more images of the actual layout as I receive them.

*updated on January 21, 2010: added photo of actual layout