I’m really slipping up on my post titles. I mean, come on, Group Portrait Timelapse? How boring is that?
Oh well. The semester is almost over and then I might regain a small portion of the meager brainpower that I possess and dedicate it toward more clever and engaging blog post titles.

Check out a few of the pictures below to see the results of the photoshoot in greater detail than they appear in the video.

Everyone has New Year’s resolutions. Updating my blog more often is one of my resolutions. So today I am updating my blog with a few photos that I came across as I was backing up the last years worth of pictures on my multiple hard drives. This isn’t really intended to be a “best of 2010″ collection of photos or anything close to it. Just a random smattering of some of the good stuff I’ve come across so far.
Hopefully this will be a resolution that I stick to beyond next week and if so, I will get a lot more pictures up and posted.

“How can I help”, you ask? Well, if you see something on the blog you like, don’t like, agree with, hate, etc. then be sure to leave a comment. I know people click on and visit the blog, my site statistics tell me that much. But if I see that people are engaged at all then I will be more motivated to keep it up.

Enjoy the pics, I sure enjoy making them!

A few months ago I posted a cool little video that showed some really cool timelapse photography by a really cool guy named Dan Eckert. I thought maybe people would thing I was really cool too if I could make a really cool video like Dan Eckert. It would make me even cooler if I talked a little bit about how I made this video rather that just show it. This way if anyone else wants to be cool like I have officially just become, feel free to shamelessly mimic me shamelessly mimicking someone else. Here is the video, be sure to make it full-screen.



You like that stuff right there? I hope so. Leave a comment if you did. If you didn’t like it, uhh, just quietly grumble and move along, thank you.

If you’d like to find out exactly how to make this kind of video there is a great tutorial over on AdoramaTV by my buddy Mark Wallace . If you are only mildly curious how this was made, it is pretty simple. You take a bunch of photos of the same thing over a long period of time, then you play them all back really fast.

Nisa & Qa’ed make a great couple. They have a history that goes all the way back to when they were kids and Qa’ed picked on her and pulled her hair (obviously he had a crush even back then). Another thing they have going for them is such a great support group. It was really cool to see what awesome families they have; each family welcoming and accepting their new family members as if they were there all along. Thanks you two for letting me tag along at your reception!

… just thought you’d like to know that. You know, in case you were wondering you could just look at these pictures and see how cool sleeping babies really are.             

Have you booked your high-school senior’s portraits yet? Come on now, they are going to graduate and move away, like, tomorrow. What are you waiting for?
Call or  hit me up on facebook, twitter, or email. =)

facebook.com/chad.westover
twitter: @chadwestover
chad [at] chadwestover [dot] com
602-456-CHAD (2423)

Leave me a comment or click one of those buttons right down there to share this, it makes me feel loved.
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Here’s a few cute pictures that I took a few weeks back in up in Snowflake. I love blue eyes.

Do you know an outstanding high school student that is graduating this year? If so, how would you like to give them (or their parents) the gift of senior portraits?

For the month of January you can nominate the high school senior of your choice for a free senior portrait package from Chad Westover Photography. Read below for all the details.

You can submit your nomination by doing one of two things. Go to the Chad Westover Photography Facebook Page ( <- click right here or on the link over on the right of the page) and post the name of your favorite senior or you can simply post their name in the comments at the end of this post.

Nominations can be submitted for the entire month of January and during the first week of February a winner will be announced. We will be choosing the winner based on two criteria.

1. Random selection – we will put all the names in a proverbial hat and choose on at random.
2. Best Reason for getting the free pics – if you can tell us why your favorite soon-to-be high school graduate deserves it more than anyone else it might give them a little better chance of getting picked.

Free Senior Portrait Package includes:

• 2-hour photo session
• 2 changes of clothes*
• You can choose the location**
• Free prints***
  - 25 wallets
  - 8 – 5×7
  - 4 – 8×10
• CD with internet-ready digital images for sharing in email, on facebook, personal blogs, etc. ****
• Password-protected online gallery to share with friends/family where they can view and order their own prints *****

Ye Olde Fine Print:

* Bring your own clothes, I don’t think mine will fit a high school senior and really will not look good on a girl.

** The location must be within one of the following AZ counties: Maricopa, Pinal, Gila, Yavapai, or Coconino. Travel charges of no less than one meeellion dollars will apply for other areas. Just kidding, if you live further away we might be able to figure something out.

*** Additional images are available for a reasonable charge. C’mon, I can’t give everything away for free!

**** These images will be tastefully branded with a small Chad Westover Photography logo just like the images above

***** This one is pretty self-explanatory. I just wanted to put another line with 5 asterisks

Here it comes. That’s right another blog with a series of those really cool but almost fake looking images that are so popular on Flickr these days. In the next few days and weeks I plan on devoting several posts to the topic of HDR images such as these so I thought it would only be fitting to inaugurate this blog with a batch of beautiful HDR imagery of the sort that motivated me to get into the genre myself.  So take a look at these photos. See for yourself if it is something you like, if it is something you would like to do. Going forward I will be showcasing fewer images and much, much more of the behind-the-scenes look at how this type of image is obtained.

If you are new to photography, new to digital imaging, or just never got into HDR photography before but want to now then stay tuned. I will be shedding some light on the various tools and techniques required. Check back often for updates and/or follow me on Twitter where I will be keeping all my Tweeps up to date on blog posts (among other things of course).

In the meantime, your first assignment:

1. Look at the images below and see if you can guess which one is mine. This part will be easy, just find the one that looks like a 3^rd grader made it when compared to the others.
2. Go forth and browse. Check out the HDR groups on Flickr and find images that you think deserve to be called stunning and post them here in the comments. You will see that there are many different “looks” that can be achieved with HDR imaging and some may appeal to you more than others. There are certainly some that I like more than others.

Image via Flickr User 'MorBCN'

Image via Trey Ratcliff

Image via Erik Vanhannen

Image via Flickr User 'fatboyke'

Image via Flickr User 'fatboyke'

Image via Flickr user Christolakis

Image via Matthew Stewart

Image via Flickr user c-dub-ya

Image via Trey Ratcliff

Image via Flickr user werkunz1

Image via Flickr user werkunz1

Image via Flickr user janmichael127

Image via Robert Scott

Image via Flickr user EugeniusD80

Image via Flickr user Lutz-R. Frank

Image via Rick Harris

Image via Daniel Raphael Cooper

Image via Daniel Raphael Cooper

Image via Andrew Stawarz

Image via Flickr user stevoarnold

Image via Flickr user ecstaticist

Image via Flickr user ecstaticist

Image via Flickr user ecstaticist

Image via Flickr user l'etrusco

Image via Flickr user l'etrusco

Image via Flickr user poonomo

I usually just post one or two photos from something like this but since this little girl was so happy and smiley the whole time I thought it would be fun to just show them all. Can you guess who didn’t want his picture taken?