leclair photography

LeClair Photography blog has moved! Fargo, ND Photographer

2010-09-10T16:24:00.002-05:00

Please see http://www.leclairphotoblog.com for my brand new blog - this blog will no longer be updated...

Cheers!

Josh

Daniel and Danielle - married!!

2010-09-09T13:59:00.001-05:00

Fiddlin' Friendzy - band photography Fargo, ND

2010-09-09T11:17:00.002-05:00

Some friends of mine have a band called Fiddlin' Friendzy and they play in the Fargo area - here are some of the photos!

minnesota carnival and farm

2010-08-31T12:45:00.000-05:00

last weekend I went and hung out with some friends and got to go to their farm and 4H fair and carnival - here's the pictures!

Libby 2010 Senior Pictures Fargo ND!

2010-08-30T15:33:00.001-05:00

Had a great session last week with Libby - shot mostly downtown Fargo at some sweet locations!

ivar the terrible

2010-08-28T19:25:00.001-05:00

he wanted a new shot for FIFA on Xbox - asked for a snapshot, and I told him I don't do snapshots - then we did this :)

this past weekend...

2010-08-23T20:34:00.000-05:00

I took a trip home! first photos up are that of grateful bread in river falls, wisconsin - I lived in RF for a summer and if you get the chance you must try their awesome sandwiches and deserts!

next is some photos I took for my friend Jana - she's an awesome interior designer!

and last is my awesome parents :)

flower still life photos - fargo, ND photography

2010-08-23T18:42:00.000-05:00

did this shoot for a friend who wanted to have something for her wall - there will be 3 photos which I have mocked up here - should look awesome!

and when I started the shoot I originally had this photo in mind

these photos were shot with one alienbee 800 through a softbox for my key light, and then a bare head behind the flowers for rim

slow and low

2010-08-16T11:13:00.001-05:00

saw this car sitting for sale outside a car audio place in Fargo called Site On Sound and met the owner JoJo inside the shop - asked to do a shoot and here's just one photo from this amazing session! I'm now doing car photography for $250 for one location - prices can be negotiated if you want more locations or setups. we did the shoot right next to the Plains Art Museum where they had a commissioned wall for a bunch of graffiti artists to work on and it turned out amazing. what a perfect backdrop!

and here's the rest!

some new pictures!

2010-08-14T00:51:00.000-05:00

this first set is from exploring fargo a bit today - and I busted out my home-made tiltshift lens! (it's really only a tilt lens, but whatever)

and this next set is photos from the Western 4H Camp that I took pictures for NDSU.

today was a great day because I started cold calling people for photography work. it's a bit of a struggle to get started doing that, especially in the morning, but once I get into my groove it goes well. I was happy to have a few good results, new business cards to add to my contacts, and a shoot that I'll be doing of a lowrider Buick Regal this coming Sunday. Awesome! :)

new business cards and thank you cards!

2010-08-11T15:30:00.000-05:00

well I've been quite busy here in fargo with Operation : Military Kids camps - aside from feeling super tired at the end of the day they have been a great time!

I now have business cards and what I'd like to call thank you postcards which has my business name LeClair Photography on the front and website and number on the back - I'll be distributing these around now :)

these are happy feet :)

2010-07-13T10:28:00.000-05:00

if you want to read more about my life at the moment, check out my blog modern sunshine

rockin' the bikes

2010-07-07T12:52:00.000-05:00

a photographer doing graphic design

2010-07-02T14:41:00.000-05:00

I used this tutorial as my basis and then went wild supernatural text effect link

these two were also made based off of psdtuts

trouble! :)

I also gave my buddy Ben Johnson at Elegant Seagulls a call today about making my next website - Livebooks is awesome, but I hope to have something that's more personal and my style at some point down the road. check out his stuff!

just a lil sky replacement

2010-06-30T12:56:00.003-05:00

and of course, the super fast making of video!

2nd Nerf gun - before and after

2010-06-28T14:38:00.002-05:00

before

after

2nd part in the retouching videos!

2010-06-25T16:17:00.001-05:00

this one went a little better now that it shows the mouse location and where it clicks - I also for fun and to save viewer's time sped up the parts where I don't talk. check it out!

replacing the bumper with photoshop CS5 from Josh LeClair on Vimeo.

screen and multiply actions

2010-06-25T09:53:00.003-05:00

rather than take some time and make a video on how to make these actions, I'll just provide you with them!

http://www.gigasize.com/get.php?d=lt0lmsbw3df

you should be able to install this simply by double clicking the file, and it will show up in your photoshop actions box under 'screen and multiply'

first retouching video!

2010-06-24T10:11:00.000-05:00

did my first retouching video. I hope to be doing more of these and possibly make some form of revenue at some point, but right now this first one which is 22 minutes shows you how I get from beginning to end with this image in Adobe Photoshop CS5.

click HERE to see the video!

Washington panorama retouch

2010-06-22T23:54:00.004-05:00

Shot this last summer while on my epic roadtrip from MN to CA and back - I had edited it once but decided it'd be a good test to do it again. Here are the before and after shots!

also worked on building my portfolio for a new website that is in progress! good things are coming!

a productive weekend with cars!

2010-06-13T21:16:00.001-05:00

now, here's the final that I did just for myself for fun - see below for before and after! I sure love using photoshop :)

meet eric

2010-05-15T23:51:00.003-05:00

we work together at adventure. we went to college together. he's a cool guy.

subaru wrx sti

2010-03-29T17:11:00.002-05:00

met a guy here in the brainerd area who has this sweet ride - got to photograph it and then do some editing to the pics of course and I'm really happy with the result!

nerf guns for adults

2010-03-21T00:05:00.001-05:00

this is not passion

2010-03-20T01:00:00.001-05:00

it's been awhile.... again

2010-03-15T21:54:00.002-05:00

this is a shot that I took on my first trip to CA this past summer - near san fran - beautiful! the sky shot was taken on the salt lake flats and I did a lil magic and put the two together. enjoy!

we went up to the UP

2010-01-29T21:06:00.001-06:00

this is how we got there

and this was the result

it was a sunny day

2010-01-18T20:43:00.000-06:00

ADVENTURE - THE MOVE

2009-12-14T19:29:00.001-06:00

the company I work for as a photo technician (assistant) recently moved offices - here are some images of the move!

see www.adventurecreative.com for more information.

just a lil video for ya

2009-11-27T00:33:00.002-06:00

first one up - some nature shots from river falls, wi - like always, if you'd like to see these in HD (which I recommend), click on the vimeo button in the bottom left hand corner to take you to the original video. thanks!

took a small nature hike and shot some video. the music is by coldplay, and fits the peaceful mood I was in while shooting.

and the second one is of a birthday party we had for my friend jana that includes stills and video - we made homemade pizzas and they were fannnntastic!

happy b-day jana!

recent explorations with the camera

2009-11-21T16:14:00.002-06:00

it was foggy one day.

then it cleared up.

this is where I work. soon we'll be in a new location.

a friend's kitchen.

eggs.

coffee.

then I went on a nature walk that was peaceful indeed.

rick and his bike

2009-11-18T14:02:00.003-06:00

finally got around to editing a shot - we've been having beautiful weather here in brainerd which gave rick and I another chance to shoot his bike.

and here's another with a high-pass style

new commercials are up!!

2009-11-11T11:29:00.003-06:00

casualties baby! to watch in full HD click play on the video, then click on the vimeo link in the bottom right corner to go to the original page. it's worth it!!

Filmed by Josh Leclair
Edited by Eric Schleicher
Motion Graphics by Mike Forester

Shot on a Canon 5D markII
lenses: 85mm 1.2, 50mm 1.4

Filmed by Josh Leclair and Eric Schleicher
Edited by Eric Schleicher

Shot on a Canon 5D markII
lenses: 85mm 1.2, 50mm 1.4

what a photographer does on a saturday

2009-11-07T13:03:00.004-06:00

messes around in photoshop - took this shot on halloween with a ringflash, and after seeing some post processing of another photographer I was inspired to make my friend jana a bit more grungy. here's before and after!

and then since I felt like my creativity wasn't satisfied for the day, I took my inherited nerf gun that had been recently stolen and repainted by my boss for his halloween costume and shot it outside - then more of the same post processing, a dirty sort of look.

victory motorcyle

2009-11-03T23:43:00.004-06:00

originally going to be shot during the beautiful day - but brainerd's bi-polar weather changed that to shooting in snow. work with what you got, right? :)

vimeo!

2009-11-01T22:44:00.002-06:00

some fun updates - first the b-roll footage from casualties newest commercial that should be out soon - I'll post that when it's finished.

just having some fun during the awesome commercial we made for casualties skate and snow of marquette

and then! halloween 2009 photobooth :)

great times! :)

it's been awhile!

2009-10-18T01:17:00.002-05:00

so here's some document photos of my life the past month or so.

most of these photos were taken with my iphone with 2 amazing apps - one is a tilt-shift generator and the other replicates polariods and it's called camerabag.

this is my new boss from adventure creative, john linn. he's a cool cat. yes, he's shooting with a 5d mark ii with a 70-200 and a EOS with a 300 at the same time.

tweaker house

so kind of freaky at first - this dog randomly showed up as we were getting ready in the morning of our shoot. but it was super nice and just wanted to hang out - i captured these two shots, and i love the first one. i've not taken many pictures of dogs, but this really really makes me want one.

something random from my first CA trip

2009-09-23T16:44:00.000-05:00

vegas baby

2009-09-21T13:45:00.004-05:00

yup - slow to update, but it's worth the wait. here's pictures from my brother's wedding - congratulations to ben and diana, I wish you the best of days! :)

and I consider this to be the best picture I've taken of my dad yet :D

cool new pictures and life developments!!

2009-08-26T13:02:00.002-05:00

first, the biggest news of all.

yup - I got myself a full time photo assistant job at adventure creative starting in october. since upon returning from my awesome trip from CA I was considering getting a 'real' job at either apple or the airport, this came at a perfect time. major thanks to my amigo tyler who hooked me up with this job!! I'll be moving my bum to brainerd, MN at some point this month and that's where my home will be for quite awhile. I dig it :)

and other cool pictures!

if you haven't had liberty custard on nicollet yet, you must. it's amazing. here's brad and his 'death by chocolate'

saw this and couldn't believe it - I found out later that it was free coffee, but still. McD's, you don't need any more advertising for your poop food.

yes, I do realize this is advertising for two different things, but what if there really was propane filled bait? :D

dyson, you officially rock - best hand dryer yet

and finally - assisted with gallop studios this morning (early) to shoot something awesome - this was part of it. and I got to sit in it!!

another film i must see

2009-08-24T18:42:00.000-05:00

art and copy

ART & COPY is a powerful new film about advertising and inspiration, directed by Doug Pray.

In theaters Summer 2009.

Check our website for upcoming screenings:

http://artandcopyfilm.org/screenings

more iphone polaroids from cali

2009-08-24T13:51:00.002-05:00

and this is a trailer for a film I'm definitely going to see!

cali baby

2009-08-17T00:11:00.001-05:00

iphone 'instant' pics - I made a group on flickr to see if more people enjoy this style as much as me - check it out :)

the abandoned mine building

2009-08-11T21:15:00.003-05:00

last tuesday some friends and I went to negaunee, mi to a building that used to be connected to a now filled in mine. it's not often I get to go into a building in which everything is left to the elements, so it was a photographic treat. while editing, I wanted to go for a nostalgic film look and found that making the highlights yellowish and the shadows a blue tone it was exactly what I looked for. enjoy! :)

and here are a few of my friends in a band called 'the robert e lee high school band' - there's more people to the band, but they weren't there to rock out.

shazam!

2009-08-11T12:47:00.002-05:00

one of the coolest apps for the iphone ever. since I do enjoy quite a variety of music, it comes in handy so many times - and it's free! what does it do you ask? you let it listen to a song for about 20 seconds, then it connects to the wonderful interwebs and tells you the name of the song, artist, album and even lets you go to youtube to watch the music video, you can tweet about it, view biography, discography, and lyrics. wow.

so, here are songs that I've enjoyed the past two weeks or so and used shazam to learn more about them! :)

Why Don't You and I - Santana / Alex Band
Collect Call - Metric
Je Suis Le Vent - Working for a Nuclear Free City
Cliffs of Dover - Eric Johnson
Casa Bey - Me A.D. & Mos Def
Ain't No Rest For The Wicked - Cage The Elephant
In The Summertime - Mungo Jerry
Sweet Thing - Keith Urban
Superstition - Stevie Wonder
Jump Jive An' Wail - Brain Setzer Orchestra
Takin' Care of Business - Bachman-Turner Overdrive
Force Ten - Rush
Subterranean Homesick Alien - Radiohead
Game People Play - The Alan Parsons Project
Dancin' In The Moonlight - King Harvest
Just Don't Want To Be Lonely - The Main Ingredient
Going On - Gnarls Barkley

the cove

2009-08-10T10:38:00.001-05:00

I have to see this!

camerabag app

2009-08-08T12:08:00.002-05:00

there's a setting on this app for 'instant' which looks like a polaroid, and the color is just awesome - my new favorite :)

iphone pics

2009-08-04T23:32:00.002-05:00

so before I thought that it was kind of over-rated. now I love having that camera for whenever I want and the amazing fact that flickr will let me upload them from my phone. <3

this might be a weekly thing to add to the blog, pics of the week :)

my picture is on schmap!

2009-07-31T17:04:00.001-05:00

Hi Josh,

I am delighted to let you know that your submitted photo has been selected for inclusion in the newly released eighth edition of our Schmap Minneapolis Guide:

Lake Calhoun
www.schmap.com/minneapolis/activities_uptown/p=255630/i=255630_67.jpg

If you use an iPhone or iPod touch, then this same link will take you directly to your photo in the iPhone version of our guide. On a desktop computer, you can still see exactly how your photo is displayed and credited in the iPhone version of our guide at:

Lake Calhoun
www.schmap.com/?m=iphone#uid=minneapolis&sid=activities_uptown&p=255630&i=255630_67

Thanks so much for letting us include your photo - please enjoy the guide!

Best regards,

Emma Williams,
Managing Editor, Schmap Guides
www.schmap.me/ewilliams

it was a great tuesday!

2009-07-29T15:47:00.004-05:00

breakfast, river falls, glen park, my first ever motorcycle ride (awesome!) :D

and, my new toy/phone :) it's amazing.

teton national park

2009-07-29T14:43:00.002-05:00

it was a great morning to take photos :) when I went up to the guard shack the night before, I asked if I could sleep in my car. they said no, unless I had camping gear. my entire trip a sleeping bag and two pillows had treated me amazing, so I turned around and went back to their visitor center and slept in the parking lot. awesome!

lots of photos appearing!

2009-07-29T13:30:00.002-05:00

first, two delishious things I had the other day - raspberries and limonata san pelligrino

the second bit is from karissa's birthday - we went to stella's in uptown which was quite tasty, and on the street right next to it scion was putting on an event that included graffiti that night and setup for a wake-boarding competition for the following day.

and last, these are photos from lake calhoun, just a few minutes from our house

muellers gtg 09!

2009-07-23T15:33:00.004-05:00

one of the great things about summer is a weekend in eagle river at our friends place - here are some pictures from the nice weekend away from mpls :)

and here's a entertaining video of wakeboarding successes and attempts ;)

fun at mueller's place in northern WI!

more from my west coast trip

2009-07-21T18:45:00.002-05:00

got some free time after work today - this is astoria, wa and nearby :)

kristina

2009-07-15T15:41:00.002-05:00

got together with ali hohn and shot kristina on monday - here are the results! it felt really good to get out and shoot with the alienbees again :)

more pictures from the west coast

2009-07-12T22:17:00.001-05:00

here's another day!

we shot my bike

2009-07-09T10:43:00.001-05:00

makeshift studio in our basement - eric and i attempted shooting my bike and found out it's pretty difficult with only two lights. lesson learned :)

random shots from july 4th weekend

2009-07-08T10:24:00.001-05:00

fun :)

and now for something completely different

2009-07-07T13:13:00.001-05:00

since i have plenty of free time due to no work this week (the joys of freelancing!) i've been catching up on editing my photographs that have been piling up! here is some food that i shot cooked up by my friend brad nelson - we're hoping to do more of this in the future. try not to drool on your keyboard ;)

the pacific + more

2009-07-06T15:15:00.003-05:00

this is what I got to see before snuggling deep into my sleeping bag and falling asleep to the sound of the waves. :)

and here's a view of the columbia river

and here is another day of photos from my trip!

100th post!

2009-06-26T00:04:00.002-05:00

and a new look for my website! check it out here :)

here are the photos that make up my main page

Ron Tonkin Gran Turismo - Portland, OR

2009-06-11T20:16:00.004-05:00

Stopped by Ron Tonkin Gran Turismo to check out some amazing cars and of course, take some pictures! You can see a Noble, a few Ferraris, and a Lotus Elise. Enjoy :)

and then this lotus exige was at a honda dealer, and the porsche we saw downtown portland

2009-06-10T12:35:00.005-05:00

my amiga jana reminded me that I need to get the pictures from an awesome memorial day weekend up online - so here they are!

more pictures from my crazy trip will come soon! for now, here's a snap from google maps showing you where I have been since I started from Minneapolis :) basically I've been driving so through some of the most beautiful country I've ever seen in my life.

go west young man

2009-06-02T19:22:00.001-05:00

there's more to come, but here's a small taste :)

getting back into the swing of things!

2009-05-20T23:08:00.003-05:00

since school ended up until a few days ago, I was pretty set on just leaving my camera alone. it was time for a break. however, yesterday when we had 90 degree weather here in minneapolis I decided it was high time that I get out and shoot. my first venture was down to beautiful lake calhoun, and then my camera came with me when I went to meet a fellow photo assistant at the loop bar and restaurant downtown mpls. there's a few more scattered pictures from the past couple of days - it's good to be back into my photo mood :)

one of the first things I bought when I got here - GPS - it's nextar, one of the cheaper brands, but other than sometimes not waking up right away in the morning when I want it to, it's been fantastic!

this is very tasty.

my office! desk from ikea, and I'm a big fan of it :)

road along lake calhoun - beautiful

this picture is for my dear mother :)

trying some experimental shooting 1.4 during bright sunlight is awesome!

mpls has a lot of these little alleyways - and they have a really neat personality about them

these are pictures of my living abode as well as our new grass for our backyard!

the loop - bar and restaurant - I recommend it!

the sunset had this amazing light quality - I had to take advantage of it

and finally, the blue hue of dusk came out - wow....

and this picture I'm going to have a little larger because it's my favorite picture of mine at the moment - I think minneapolis is going to treat me well :)

my new place!

2009-05-18T16:33:00.002-05:00

here's some shots from my living abode in minneapolis!

oh, and if you haven't heard..... coldplay released a live album from a concert, and it's bloody brilliant. best part? IT'S FREE!!! this poor excuse for an economy doesn't offer much these days, but at least you can still get some quality things for your enjoyment! :) click here for the album download.

and I present to you a commercial

2009-05-08T19:47:00.003-05:00

for casualties skate and snow of marquette, mi - I did this basically right before I left marquette, shot all the pictures and then it was edited and put together by mike forester who did an amazing job!! the thing most enjoyable about doing this commercial is that I was able to do things the way I believe my photography direction is going.

Casualties Spring - PreUp from Mike Forester on Vimeo.

and photos from the shoots!

and the man who put it all together - mike

it's been awhile!

2009-05-06T23:31:00.003-05:00

and lots of stuff has been going on since my last post! this past saturday was my graduation from NMU with a BFA concentration in photography. the feeling of accomplishment and freedom and new beginnings of my life is just fantastic. I find myself grinning stupidly and laughing every time I think of being done with school for now. I also had my interview with Terry Anderson Photography Studios for a 3 month internship and got it! not only that, but I found a awesome house that's only about 10 min away where I'll be staying. amazing how things fall into place.

here are some photos from my last days in the beautiful marquette.

senior art show 2009 at NMU!

nick's graduation party!

canon 5D mark II petition!!

2009-04-16T23:30:00.004-05:00

so, the 5Dm2 is a fantastic camera no questions asked. however, when canon made this camera with beautiful HD video they decided to give a little and take a little at the same time by not letting you change the ISO, shutter speed, or aperture during video mode. so, this is a petition to get canon to release new firmware that lets you have manual control of video because if you can do manual with photography with the same camera, there's no reason why you couldn't do it with video! please be a friend and sign this petition :)

Sign the Petition!

taking advantage of the nice(r) weather

2009-04-11T15:06:00.002-05:00

these are from a shoot with amber done on little presque isle just outside of marquette, mi. turned out pretty sweet!

and of course since jason was part of my entourage helping and/or watching me do the shoot, I had to get his picture :D

fly fishing!

2009-04-09T21:54:00.004-05:00

I'm not sure if it's the weather, but lately my shoots have been going awesome - whatever it is, I sure hope it keeps up! :) these are shots taken with my buddy Derek fly fishing in Harvey, MI.

notice the difference between the top photo which is all natural light, and the some of the following which I used one Alienbee 800 strobe.

setup shot!

self portrait!

2009-04-09T12:08:00.000-05:00

this is for my statement of my senior show :)

getting back into the swing of things!

2009-04-08T23:21:00.001-05:00

tonight I did a shoot for my friend ashlee - we're in AD403 which is our senior show and we need a picture to put on our statements - here's the result of her photoshoot! I'm really super excited about how they all turned out :D

this is steve

2009-04-06T23:17:00.001-05:00

we might have different photographic directions, but we're still good friends. it's fun. :)

leah anton

2009-04-06T18:13:00.001-05:00

live in the lighting studio!

Click here! to see this in HD.

leah anton - live in the lighting studio from Josh LeClair on Vimeo.

i want...

2009-04-06T11:02:00.001-05:00

to remember the satisfaction I knew before with my photography. to have sunny days with warmth. to be done with school and be relaxed. to enjoy learning again. to finish the books I've started. to travel.

*currently listening to oceanlab to hopefully elevate my mood*

shoot at presque isle

2009-04-03T16:02:00.001-05:00

a few more pictures from minnapolis

2009-03-29T19:12:00.000-05:00

from on the way home!

minneapolis video

2009-03-29T17:12:00.001-05:00

click on the link to see it in HD or click play for standard definition!

Click here for HD!

Minneapolis trip from Josh LeClair on Vimeo.

hanging out in minneapolis

2009-03-29T00:29:00.004-05:00

since I know some fantastic people in the great city of minneapolis, I got to hang out with them friday night! here are some pictures of the shindig and the people who I might be living very close to in a few months!

so we were watching tv in the lobby and it was late night something with oprah - the tv screens did an excellent job of distorting her face :)

day 3!

2009-03-28T23:47:00.002-05:00

I thought I would add a little bit of actual thoughts from the trip too! MCAD was amazing in the fact that it made me rethink just going into commercial photography to maybe doing that for a bit and working on getting into a grad school. Two years to be able to do what I want with photography and discover more about art theory and history? After reading through my Japanese graffiti book that I got at the Walker it occured to me that maybe a dream of doing a photographic study at Japan could be fulfilled with grad school. Who knows what the future will bring?

The commercial studios which were my favorite thing to see of course and helped me to realize that there is so much work that goes on behind the scenes. It was great to hear about photographer’s experiences and their advice on what to do to get our foot in the door. I felt slightly bad for those in the group not really interested in commercial photography, but not while we were at the studios! :) See pictures for a very large grin that wouldn’t leave my face. It felt awesome to be able to give people my resume and business card and hear from people in our group tell me that I’m well on my way to working commercially and I’m going to make it. I have confidence, but it’s even better to hear encouragement like that from my peers; so thank you very much!

Aloft Hotel! Our hotel was amazing; one of the best ones I’ve ever been in. Not just because of the super comfy bed or shower, but since I enjoy modern/minimalist design the hotel was enjoyable every bit we stayed there. I get Dwell magazine and see that type of design quite a bit, and it was great to be able to see something similar not just in a magazine. That brings another option for me; architectural photography!

Overall - the trip was a huge success! Thanks to everyone! :D

LeClair Photography

454 Minneapolis Trip Day 2!

2009-03-27T18:05:00.002-05:00

keep up with AD454 and their Minneapolis trip!

2009-03-26T01:37:00.001-05:00

just go here!

here's some pictures from our first day!

more activity!

2009-03-24T07:26:00.002-05:00

so, the daily picture idea has been scrapped for now - things are to busy to keep up! however, I still have some pictures I would like to show when I get the chance :)

so this is only temporary, tomorrow we my 454 class embarks on a journey to Minneapolis and I was told that I shouldn't look like the wolfman so the beard and the hair had to go. woo!

and my mom and dad being willing test subjects for my new camera and light kit :)

first uploaded video from 5DM2

2009-03-22T20:01:00.002-05:00

Here's my pop playing some guitar - straight from the camera HD video :)

my pop playing the guitar - Canon 5D Mark II from Josh LeClair on Vimeo.

early graduation present pictures..... :)

2009-03-21T00:53:00.003-05:00

so, this morning at about 8am I got a call from an automated voice telling me that I would receive a package today from B&H. of course after that I couldn't go back to sleep since that's all I could think about, and at about 8:45 I saw the UPS truck pull up. after opening the package with shaking hands, to my disbelief and great happiness...

it's kind of a bad picture, but I was so excited I couldn't care less! this morning I spent playing around with the Canon 5D Mark II and the quality of the photos is phenomenal and so is the HD video. here's some of the results - most of these are straight from the camera besides some sharpening :)

so, many many many thanks to my brother who gifted me this :) I'm overjoyed!!

**update**
to show the beauty of the 5D Mark II in low light this was shot at f/1.4 at 800 ISO

after an absolutely amazing break.....

2009-03-09T23:16:00.003-05:00

so, technically I skipped a week with updating on here but I was taking pictures the whole time down in mostly florida. it's going to take a bit to go through and edit the very large amount of photos I took, but it will be wonderful as well :)
so, to start things offffff.......
march 9
ashlee's car parked down by the beach - I took quite a few HDR shots and used photomatix at first but the fantasy sort of look just doesn't agree with me to much with my photography - so I went into photoshop and played around and got a much more realistic version I'm much happier with :) some of my reference for the photoshop HDR comes from this tutorial abduzeedo.com/hdr-not-only-the-magic-effect yup, hand held HDR :)

week 7!

2009-02-24T23:28:00.008-06:00

february 25
yup, still slacking in the daily photo dept. but still doing a ton of other projects that keep me much more busy. soooo.... here's the first for the week - went into the basement where I work with my friend Marissa and shot some snowboarding commercial work which I'm extremely satisfied with! it's a good feeling :)

february 26
our 403 class which puts on the senior art show in May decided that for a our poster design we should have some party pictures like a prom with balloons and streamers and noisemakers - and I shot it :) I'll make sure to get what is actually used for the poster design up when it's finished! check out www.leclair-photography.com for a complete slideshow of the images!

february 27
my amigo Eric got some pictures of mine published on Ambitions Snowskates website - click the link at the bottom of the page to see more pictures. nice!

Casualties Bootcamp 2009 Pictures!

2009-02-22T18:35:00.004-06:00

*****Pictures are up******

get individual pictures by going to my flickr at http://www.flickr.com/photos/jleclair clicking on the "all sizes" button, and then whatever size they want and then saving the image. have fun!

make sure to check out Casualties at Casualties
and DC at DC Shoes

Casualties Bootcamp 2009 pictures

Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.
DC hosted after-party at The Upfront in Marquette

Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

week 6!

2009-02-15T14:53:00.009-06:00

february 15
so this isn't my picture of the day, but I thought I'd put this up because it's pretty sweet!

also, I'd like to promote this awesome band - if you haven't heard of them be sure to check them out!!

here's my picture of the day to start off week 6!
the other day I was drinking some blue gatorade in my mason jar, and noticed it really had this otherworldly look to it like something from the distant future. so, of course I had to take a picture!
strobist: I put this on white foamcore with plex on top of it for the reflection, and had my sunpak 383 behind it for the lighting.

oh, and if you didn't know.....
I have a website! :) LeClair Photography

february 16-18
huh. yup. I've been pretty busy with other things and didn't do my pictures. whoops! :)
february 19
Seth Meyers showed up at NMU, and it was a great show! :) I have to put up a few pictures because my buddy and fellow worker on campus decided that he was going to be part of Seth's show - it led to talking about buying weird stuff off of ebay (deer hair for fly fishing), to using that hair to fly fish for a mounted swordfish, to Derek getting a pitcher of water from Seth and getting to toast him with it. nice :)

february 20
so we didn't see much of the race beginning, but I liked this shot of the snow they put on the road - once again, I certainly dig my 50mm 1.4

week 5!

2009-02-08T22:20:00.008-06:00

february 8
how quick time goes by! today I went to hang out with Jill and take pictures of her horse, and the other horses that live at the same place. it went pretty well, but the darker it got my camera had a really hard time focusing so no really cool action shots yet.

february 9
a friend needed some pictures taken for a class, so he asked his buddy to pose and me to take pictures. this is a little bit out of my realm, I've never shot anyone minus clothing, but it went pretty well. one of the lights was not firing right so the rim light on the right hand side is missing. maybe it worked out for the better. I also added some blur and desaturated for some effect.

strobist: one strip light above and behind subject (behind meaning towards me) and one softbox to the left and slightly in front of subject.

february 10
what, no picture!?!! yup, that's right. I sort of forgot about taking one today, however.... I have my first photoshoot video!

Jess Skateboard Commercial Photoshoot - Time lapse from Josh LeClair on Vimeo.
february 11
my very old pair of koss headphones finally bit the dust... so I replaced them with these red panasonics that are pretty awesome looking and sounding - the only thing that is kind of lame is that when I turn them up, everyone will know what I'm listening to for sure

february 13
well, friday the 13th wasn't to bad off! :) shot a rail jam session outside the art and design building and I'm going to post 3 pictures because I missed the 12th and I'm to lazy to take a picture today :P

week 4!

2009-02-01T22:44:00.008-06:00

how fast time passes!
february 1
today I got to visit two frozen water structures, the ice caves and a frozen waterfall. this is my favorite picture, using my sunpak 323 flash I lit up behind the waterfall and left the ambient light the cold blue color.

february 4
well, why have a skipped a few days? simply uninspired, tired, and plain worn out by school. this picture is basically a snapshot; one of my two favorite sunglasses were in my room tonight, and these are my 'fakebans' I picked up on a great roadtrip out to Colorado this past summer. even though this past week has not been bad, the mix of never ending snow, always having something to do with out hardly any relaxing time, a longing for escape to a trip of any sort to warmer weather, figuring out what I'm going to do post-graduation... it's been quite stressful. que sera sera - what happens happens. it'll be alright. the picture under the sunglasses is from the newest dwell magazine - the kid looks like he's having fun playing - I miss those days of being carefree.

february 5
in SPS we made pinhole cameras with altoid tins! the exposures were about 6 minutes with ambient light, and the wideangle was unbelievable!

february 6
did a bit of commercial photography with jess - stylin'

and here's another!

february 7
this is a little late, but I haven't had time to put up the pictures! here's one picture of the gang hanging out at jeremy's awesome new place for a housewarming and his birthday!

week 3!

2009-01-25T20:39:00.007-06:00

january 25
set up this portrait of my room mate in our apartment in just a few minutes

this doe let me get pretty close to her and snap some photos right on presque isle. I knew they were pretty tame around people, but it was surprising how she just stared at me as I walked closer with shutter clicking away. sweet :)

january 27
whatever

january 28
so I didn't technically take a picture today, but I found a program that does a pretty sweet photoshop action... it creates bokeh! check out alien skin if you're interested, it's pretty expensive so I'm just trying the 30 day free trial. I also threw on a lil cross processed look via a photoshop action found on deviantart - I didn't realize there were so many actions for PS on there! fun :)

january 29
I've always had a great interest in photos of people with gas masks on and wanted to get one of my own, but put it off forever until recently.... had some fun in the studio, and the the post process includes using my trial from alien skin as well as a free action for photoshop that does a cross processed look. awesome :)

and one more shot for the 29th...
this is my good buddy steve, who is a film junkie. I have great respect for him not conforming over to the dark digital side as I have, and when he showed me this camera he shoots with I had to get a picture of him with it... it's as big as his HEAD! it's a pentax 6x7 and does beautiful work.

january 30th
happy birthday jill! hope it was a good one and many more to come! :)

january 31
revisited an old picture that I took while at the badlands with a tiltshift style

daily photo week 2

2009-01-18T13:12:00.015-06:00

so, the first week went by pretty well! I will put up pictures one by one until the week is over, and then on Sundays put the past week in slide show format. if you want to see more information about the pictures or how they were done, click on the picture and it'll take you to my flickr page.

I've also added a few links that I check on a pretty regular basis, and if you are a photographer or not you should still check them out!

happy week 2! :)

january 18th
got to play with five yellow lab puppies, and they were very cute :)

january 19th
we got a new ringflash for the studio, so I had some fun being cheesy!

this is an extension of my photo from january 19th... here's a few more from my self portrait session :)

january 20
found this on the cover of sour cream, and it's going on my door of fun things - after all, jumping for joy is great exercise isn't it? :)

january 21
so last night some friends and I went to hang out, and my buddy Ethan is sporting a gnarly fu-man-chu. of course the first thing that pops into my mind is, that would be a sweet portrait! word. (on a minor note, the color seems to be off a bit...)

january 22
having some fun playing around with new equipment... man is it slick!!

january 23
the start of my 454 and 403 project, which is my senior show fun :) oh, and I'm not just putting one picture because I worked on this quite a bit

and here's my set up shot

january 24
spent a very cold day shooting the Noquemanon cross-country ski race at the finish line; congrats to all who passed that line!! here's a shot of the first one over the finish

thank you dreamstime.com :)

2009-01-15T15:57:00.001-06:00

so I signed up for this stock photography website, submitted about 20 or so images and only 3 were accepted. however, out of the 3, one of them was the 4,600,000 image downloaded so they sent me a brand new ipod nano, a t-shirt, and some stickers :) I should probably submit more images....

*for those who might misread this post*
I have not sold 4,600,000 images - that was the number that came up as a total for the entire stock photography website dreamstime.com, my image was downloaded once and I have made $3.87 so far. thanks! :)

a post for every day....

2009-01-14T17:22:00.010-06:00

a new semester has begun, and it's something special because it is after all, my last semester of college!! all my classes seem like they will treat me very well in both preparing me for life after college and keeping me busy with projects that I enjoy. on that note, my AD454 class which is photography:seminar with an emphasis on theory requires me to take a picture every single day of this semester. I've thought about doing something like this before since there are people who do the 365 photo project, but I was never interested enough to take the project upon myself. anyhow, since I'm taking a picture every single day, I thought it would be a good idea to upload them every day - I'm going to keep just one post per week and upload the pictures as a smaller format (not a slide show until the end of the week) so anyone can keep track of my progress. this project is one of the best ones I've had yet! :)

Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

new years festivities

2009-01-02T22:10:00.002-06:00

here are some pictures of my new years eve and day! here's to 2009 being everything we hope it will be and more :)

Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

houghten skate shoot updated!

2008-12-28T21:19:00.001-06:00

so here are some more photographs - I went through them and picked out my favorites, there might be more added later but this is pretty good for now :)

Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

day at work

2008-12-27T23:15:00.001-06:00

so when you have some large windows in an undisclosed location that every afternoon lets beautiful sunlight pour in, you take advantage of it. i did :)

Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

montgomery alabama zoo

2008-12-27T00:24:00.003-06:00

my mom & dad and I went down to montgomery alabama to visit my brother, and there wasn't much to do in the surrounding area but the zoo was quite nice! there was basically nobody there, so I was able to take lots of pictures which kept me entertained :)

Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.