Apr 23, 2010
Bike Shot Lighting
I received a few questions about the lighting in my recent bike image photography. Hope this helps:
This is the lighting set up for the first two muddy bike images below:
Apr 19, 2010
Fantastic Mr. Fox
The other day I was able to photograph an entire fox family.... mom, pops, and three babies (about two weeks old). Thanks to the Brucher family! who gave me a call and let me know about this Discovery-Channel-like experience in their backyard. I hung out in their pool area and captured a little of the fox family action. It was quite a show until the dog came into the picture. Here is what I got.
Apr 13, 2010
Apr 12, 2010
My First Film
Coppolaphotography Root 66 XC Race Series: Hopbrook Dam from Adam Coppola on Vimeo.
Here is my first film using the canon 5D mkII. I'm actually a lot more excited about the photography in the film than the film itself. Check out the lighting in the pics.Apr 11, 2010
Root 66 Race Series: Hop Brook Dam
Apr 3, 2010
Photographing my Bro for Shore Publishing
Shore Publishing assigned me to shoot an author talk and book signing at RJ Julia's bookstore in madison. Who was the Author?.... My Bro!!!, Dr. Chris Coppola. He spoke about his book "Coppola: A Pediatric Surgeon in Iraq" The book is all about his experience being an Air Force pediatric surgeon in Iraq. He is an amazing person and an incredible role model for me. I strongly recommend his book; it will give you a new perspective to the experiences of a family man in Iraq. Check out the book website:
Chris reading a passage from the book
Signing many books
Meredith (Chris' wife), My Bro, and My Mom
Jan 18, 2010
Ice Climbers in NH
Happy New Year!... I know its been 2010 for almost a month now but I just wanted to tell you about my big new years resolution. I realize that following blogs of the photographers that I look up to is one of my favorite ways to learn and gain inspiration. My hope is that I too can provide that for a photographer or two. So one of my New Year's resolutions is to blog, blog, blog. Minimum one blog per month. I hope that I can help to teach and or inspire another photographer with my blog.
Christy and I spent this past weekend in New Hampshire with a bunch of my Providence College buddies... It was a blast. Before we began the trip home, Christy and I stopped at a park right down the street from my friends house. I've passed this park several times and frequently look up at the cliffs to spot the ice climbers. We decided to stop and watch. Here is what I captured.
A few tips for shooting ICE Climbing
-If you are shooting Aperture priority (Av) or Shutter Pritority (Tv), out-smart your camera!... Over expose about 1 stop. The camera wants to expose for middle gray on the ice. Over-expose the wall until the ice begins to blow-out and then back-off 1/3 stop. Once you've got the exposure set... I recommend switching to Manual dailing in and then firing away. This rule can work for shooting anything in snow/ice/or bright white. Do the opposite when photographing something black.
-Get Close to the wall but watch-out for falling ice chunks. Next time I'm bringing my snowboarding helmet.
-Play around with angles. if you tilt the camera certain ways the climb will look twice as intense. Don't get too carried away or else your viewers will wonder why the ice and trees are growing sideways and the climber is relaxed while cliffhanging.
A big thanks to the climbers I met that day... They were great people! Within a half hour they were sharing their gorpum, trying to get Christy and I on the ice with their gear, and inviting us to future trips. Thanks for being so friendly.
Here are some of the shots I got. I wish I took a few more shots of the details; close ups of the cramp-ons, axes, carribeaners, rope, ice... there was soo much to photograph.
Dec 20, 2009
Oct 12, 2009
Nancy and Bob
Aug 11, 2009
AFRICA
(To skip the writing and go straight to the pics: CLICK HERE FOR AFRICA SLIDESHOW)
Wow... almost two months since my last post. I am pretty horrible at this blog thing. Sorry about the blog delay but I think you are gonna like this one...
Christy and I had a pretty amazing time in Africa. We spent most of our time visiting and traveling with Christy's bro Dave (African name: Daudi Kimuli... pronounced Dow-Dee Chee-Moo-lee), and the rest of the time venturing out to Masai Mara, Northern Serengheti, in Kenya. I am so amazed by what I have experienced in Africa. Everything is so incredibly different... the people, the transportation, the food, culture, landscape, wildlife, daily routines, time, showering,... everything.
I really think we traveled in a way that allowed us to do as the African's do. "When in Rome"... right!... Well, while we were in Africa... we did as the Africans did. We ate "matoke" with our hands, we pooped in pits, stuffed 24 people into a 14 person "matatu" (taxi-bus), traveled by Boda-Boda (motorcycle), and best of all, spoke a little Lugandan and Swahili. Without Dave, I don't think we could have done this. He quickly showed us African culture, mannerisms, and many, many words of conversational Lugandan. With his daily lessons we were able to constantly greet, converse, and properly thank all of the people that we came into contact with. I quickly realized that speaking a native tribal language completely separated us from other "Mzungu"(white person). Whenever we tried speaking Luganda with a local, they were so blown away that they had to keep us in a conversation. Our Luganda quickly ran out, but that didn't matter- they were just happy that we took the time to try.
After a few days in Lukaya, we decided to bargain with the local "boda-boys" (motorcyle taxi drivers) to see if we could borrow two of their motorcyles for a week. We think they make around $5 a day driving around locals by Motorcylce, so for $10 a day for 7 days they were doing pretty well with our deal... Minus the risk of us crazy mzungu's wiping out or never bringing back their Boda Bodas. So without signing a single piece of paper, showing any license, or giving any credit card we took off on their bikes for an epic week of traveling Africa by Motorcycle. My guess is that we did about 300 - 400 miles on these bikes but there is really no way to tell, because we rode on unmapped dirt roads that would have challenged even the dirt bike I used to own. We arrived at national parks on the bikes at dusk (when hunting animals are their most active). We were charged by elephants, and almost blown off the dirt roads by trucks screaming by at insane speeds.
At the national parks we mostly camped out in our tent. It was like the guards of a zoo allowed us into the wildest cages of the biggest beasts and set up a tent... only we weren't at the zoo and the animals were all in the same cage... our camp site! Just to give an idea of the proximity of these animals... IN our tent, we had an elephant tusk. Reaching distance, we had baboons and other monkees. Within sight, we had warthogs. Within ear-shot, we had hippos. We even heard that their was a lion walking around our camp sight before we woke up. Our camp sight was only about ten tents big!
Well that is about all I have in me for writing... I put all of my story-telling effort into the pictures. Everyone always asks "how many did you take?"... I took about 2800 this trip and narrowed a slide show down to 200. My hope is to show you a little bit of African life, happy faces, wildlife, landscape, and our interaction. A majority of the wildlife pictures are taken in 1. Queen Elizabeth National Park, Uganda 2. Lake Mburo National Park, Uganda and 3. Masai Mara, Kenya. A majority of the people pictures are taken in Dave's town (Lukaya, Masaka) and at his children's center (Hope Destitute Children's Center). I'm sorry that the pictures are not in order... I'll get to that some day soon.
If you ever get a chance to travel to Africa... Go! The people are amazing!... It will change your life.
Enjoy the pictures!
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