Zipper City Photography Blog

Sunday, February 7, 2010

Snowed In?

For some reason my girlfriend's boss thought it was funny to plow her car in after the blizzard the other night. She found it humorous as well - I didn't. Above is her in the process of clearing it off - I also helped out with a shovel.

As you can see below we eventually did get it out.

posted by TimJayFitz at 2/07/2010 1 Comments Links to this post

Saturday, February 6, 2010

Square Records Party

Last night at Square Records 'New Body Type' had a CD Release Party for their record 'Pink Boys' and Ted Mallison released his comic book collection 'Modern Funnies'. New Body Type played the record live. A fun time was had by all....and I was there to capture it on a digital sensor.

posted by TimJayFitz at 2/06/2010 0 Comments Links to this post

Friday, February 5, 2010

Ruth Eva Sobel

1917 - 2010

What an era to live through - there must have been more change during that period than any other time in human history. This is my grandma at my sister's wedding last spring.

As my niece said, "at least Great Grandma won't need her walker anymore and she can do flips!"

posted by TimJayFitz at 2/05/2010 0 Comments Links to this post

Wednesday, February 3, 2010

The Waiting

It was another long day at City Hospital. Being the photo geek I am I have an urge to try and capture every moment and some of its emotion. There is no other way to put it - I feel like we are sitting around waiting for my Grandma to die. I don't just feel that way - this is in fact what we are doing. They moved her to palliative care today, which means treating the pain - no longer attempting to cure, (seems to me the same thing as hospice).

"more frailer than the flowers these precious hours that keep us so tightly bound.
you come to my eyes like a vision from the skies and i'll be with you when the deal goes down." - dylan

posted by TimJayFitz at 2/03/2010 1 Comments Links to this post

Tuesday, February 2, 2010

The Four Best Dudes I Know

Yes - the glass table two days in a row. This time I decided to get a few more dudes to join the photo session.

This was obviously a Photoshop job - its not perfect but I think its pretty good. It takes a pretty steady hand and some serious patients to put these together. I usually don't have those in too great a supply but I was really feeling it today.

I've been planning to do something like this for a while but I was inspired to do it today by the photography of Natalie Dybisz.

Check her stuff out - its pretty sweet.

posted by TimJayFitz at 2/02/2010 0 Comments Links to this post

Monday, February 1, 2010

Through the Table

I always thought it would be kind of cool to do a band promo shot up through my glass dinning room table. Today I decided to mess around taking some shots of myself through it. I framed myself with some of the iron work but if I get a few more people around this table I think it would be cool to put the camera on the ground pointing directly up. Hopefully I'll try this soon.

posted by TimJayFitz at 2/01/2010 1 Comments Links to this post

Sunday, January 31, 2010

Blimp Over Akron City

An unfortunate family situation has had me at City Hospital all weekend so I haven't been able to shoot too much. This afternoon as I was walking into the hospital the Goodyear Blimp happened to be flying over - like always I had my camera on me - I pulled it out and snapped these.

Heavier posting on the blog should resume this week....

posted by TimJayFitz at 1/31/2010 0 Comments Links to this post

Thursday, January 28, 2010

The Many Moods....

of Laura Loebick...

When I was messing around (taking photos from yesterday's post) Laura stopped by on her way home from work. I made her "pose" for some photos - its a lot easier to get good shots of someone other than myself.....no need to hold something out for focus, hit the self-timer, and then jump into the shot.

posted by TimJayFitz at 1/28/2010 1 Comments Links to this post

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Learning to Fly

Just like yesterday I felt like experimenting with some different lighting set-ups - and again no one was around. So I decided to use the best looking model I know...myself! In the portrait I have two flashes coming in from the sides with no light modifiers and I have another one high and over the camera with a shoot-through umbrella. I also added some fake depth-of-field using Photoshop - I don't usually do stuff like that but I've been in an experimenting mood all week...

posted by TimJayFitz at 1/27/2010 1 Comments Links to this post

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Unabomber

Today I was shooting some more of my camera collection when I decided to step in front of the camera for some self-portrait attempts. I was taking different shots messing around with the positioning of my Speedlites. I ended up liking this one with some "rim light" - I had one flash in front of me(the reflection in my glasses) and one behind me to the right.

posted by TimJayFitz at 1/26/2010 1 Comments Links to this post

Sunday, January 24, 2010

Ohio City

On Saturday Laura and I went up to The West Side market and The Great Lakes Brewery in the Ohio City neighborhood of Cleveland. I've decided its time to start checking out some of the cool places right here in my backyard that I've never been to. The West Side Market was really neat - an amazing historic building with a great selection of food. At Great Lakes we enjoyed some of their beers they only sell on tap at the restaurant and had some of the best burgers of our lives. I can't wait to get out on some more of these short trips around Northeast Ohio.

posted by TimJayFitz at 1/24/2010 2 Comments Links to this post

Friday, January 22, 2010

Clovers

This is the band that has risen out of the ashes of Other Girls - called Clovers. I shot some promos for them yesterday at Tangerine Studio in North Hill. This shot being a little goofy I decided to mess around with post-processing a little bit. I put a black & white layer on and than turned it to 75% opacity - giving it this muted look. I also added a fair bit of sharpening and upped the contrast quite a bit too.

*Update* Here is another one I just edited(more in my "typical" style).

posted by TimJayFitz at 1/22/2010 0 Comments Links to this post

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Matinee Redux

Well since Matinee is my favorite hang out don't be surprised that I take a lot of photos there. This is Laura relaxing during the happiest hour. I had my flash off-camera with my omni-bounce diffuser on it sitting on the bar. She told me I should title this shot "Laura's Floating Head". I didn't.

posted by TimJayFitz at 1/20/2010 0 Comments Links to this post

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Fan Feeling

Some days you're just not feeling it...and you take a photo of your ceiling fan.

posted by TimJayFitz at 1/19/2010 1 Comments Links to this post

Saturday, January 16, 2010

Studio Akron

Last night Andrew McAllister had The Chief Source crew over to his new photography studio - Studio Akron. Studio Akron is a rental studio for digital photography and media production. We hung out, had a few beers, talked lots of geeky photography talk and Andrew took some really cool portraits that will be on the Chief Source soon. Here are some photos I snapped while there.

posted by TimJayFitz at 1/16/2010 2 Comments Links to this post

Thursday, January 14, 2010

City Building

Today was the second photographic day in a row that didn't go quite as planned. I headed back downtown around sunset to try and get some cool shots of Akron architecture in good lighting(like my Grant Street photo). I was too late - most of the building were already in the shade. I took this picture of the City Building on High Street. I'm going to try again, but a little earlier, the next nice day.

posted by TimJayFitz at 1/14/2010 0 Comments Links to this post

Wednesday, January 13, 2010

Snow Lion

I've been driving by this snow covered lion statue outside the Summit County Courthouse for a few weeks now. Every time I think of how it would make for a good photo. With a little weather warm-up coming I figured I better get my shot while I have the chance. When I walked up to the statue today I realized it was higher than I thought and I really had no good way to get on its level. This ended up being my best shot - the camera held over my head with my wide-angle lens. Next time I'll bring my ladder....

posted by TimJayFitz at 1/13/2010 0 Comments Links to this post

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

New Body Type

Even though I like to take photos of just about everything I especially enjoy shooting portraits(so thats the perspective I'm coming from with the following thoughts).

Lately as I read my daily dose of photography blogs and check out flickr streams I've been thinking about photography "style" ....meaning I've really started to notice the style of certain photographers I like - to the point where I can tell a photo by an individual before I see there name attached to it. It got my wondering about my personal style and if I have developed something kind of distinct. Soooo...I was checking Facebook yesterday and came across a photo I took of a band that one of the members posted on their profile - there was a comment on the shot by someone I didn't know, "looks like a TimFitz...I'm a fan of vivid, contrasty images". "Vivid contrasty images" - I'll take that.

I don't ever want to be completely pigeon-holed or stop experimenting and trying new things - but it is nice to have a photograph of mine recognized without my name on it. I think its part of my growth and development as a photographer.

Anyways - this is a photo of New Body Type that I took Saturday night in the basement of the Matinee. They are having a CD release party this coming Saturday there(and the CD will feature a photo from this shoot).

posted by TimJayFitz at 1/12/2010 0 Comments Links to this post