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RECENT TRAVEL PHOTOS 2 OF 4: 5D

Todd Spoth — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 20:02:52 +0000

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

SOLDIERS AND SUSHI

Todd Spoth — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 02:37:26 +0000

Yesterday was a whirlwind day in my life as a photojournalist. I was originally slated to start my Veterans’ Day late shift off with a few photos to accompany a restaurant review at 3pm, until I got a call from our DOP (director of photography) asking me to be at Fort Carson, the nearby Army base, at noon. When I arrived I met up with our military reporter and a handful of other media personnel. We were escorted onto the base and led to the Welcome Center where there was to be a group of soldiers arriving for a homecoming. This was one of those experience events. Ones you may see on TV or read about, but that you never quite understand the scope of until you are there. The Welcome Center was a small gym type facility that was packed to capacity with friends and family of the 759th Military Police Battalion. Apparently this particular group of men had not been home in over a year and had a pretty rough time in Iraq, completing dangerous missions and losing a number of their own in the process. The soldiers arrived from the airport on two chartered buses complete with a police escort. They marched into the center in formation and saluted the gathered crowd with restraint as their friends and family went nuts. After a small word and the singing of the national anthem it was complete chaos. An indescribable flood of emotion that almost had me in tears at one point. Regardless of my thoughts about our current government and war, I could not deny the fact that these men, some younger than I, have seen so much in the past year and they were getting to see their wives, husbands, children, mothers, fathers, etc for the first time in a long time and it was amazing to say the least. At one point a father, also a veteran, placed his hand on one of the older commander’s shoulders and said, “Thanks for bringing my son home.” Both of the grown men completely broke down into tears at that point. The first image is one of Staff Sgt. Matthew Frye kissing his wife Farrah during the ceremony. It ran as the main art, A1, today. The lighting inside the center was horrid, but its OK…the moment is telling in and of itself. After that event, I headed to my restaurant review which surprisingly was at a smaller Japanese grill. I had a great time talking to the owners and chef about my being Japanese and we made some neat images of their food and restaurant. Their famed stuffed mushrooms, which I tried and loved, against my better journalistic judgement were awesome. Hey, they review was already written and we couldn’t let the food go to waste, right? I obliged and instead let the food go to waist.

IN PRINT: print mailers for The Lodge

Todd Spoth — Thu, 01 Mar 2007 08:00:19 +0000

PUBLICATION OR LOCATION: print mailers/flyers for The Lodge at Bayou Bend restaurant in Houston, Texas.
PUBLICATION DATE: Spring 2007
LINK: N/A
NOTES: Some of my food photography for the upscale restaurant, The Lodge at Bayou Bend (formerly the Rainbow Lodge, now Landry’s owned Brenner’s on the Bayou) was featured on these print mailers to promote the restaurant.