Welcome to the VELFILM blog!
My name is Vadim Elkind and I am a freelance filmmaker and photographer living in Denver. This blog contains the latest news and information about my media projects, photography, travel stories and other creative pursuits.
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Tag Archives: Photography
Nightlife Photography: Lipgloss at La Rumba 10.14.11 (Mark Ronson Meet-n-Greet, Run For Cover Tour feat. The Chaotic Good and Skyler Mendoza)
This Friday, Lipgloss is throwing Halloween-themed Zombie Disco party. Don’t miss it! You can check out some photos from last year’s Lipgloss Halloween bash here.
Meanwhile, below are the pics from Run For Cover Tour with The Chaotic Good ad Skyler Mendoza at Lipgloss a couple of weeks ago. For more photos from the party, check out the slideshow at the end of this post, or visit the Lipgloss Flickr Gallery.
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Posted in Nightlife, Photography
Also tagged DJ, La Rumba, Lipgloss, nightclub, Nightlife, Skyler Mendoza, The Chaotic Good
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Nightlife Photography Mega-Update: Lipgloss at La Rumba (September 2011)
The powers that be at Lipgloss finally got around to posting these last week. For many more photos from each event, click on the links or check out the embedded slideshows at the end of this post. Enjoy!
9.2.11: Lipgloss vs. Double // Shadow (DJs boyhollow and option4 with James Holden and James Yardley):
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Posted in Nightlife, Photography
Also tagged boyhollow, Danger Granger, DJ, Double Shadow, I Am Music, James Holden, James Yardley, La Rumba, Lipgloss, nightclub, Nightlife, Option4, Sammy Bananas, Tokina 11-16mm
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Nightlife Photography with Tokina ATX-116 Pro DX: Lipgloss at La Rumba (8.19.11 and 9.2.11)
During the last couple of photo shoots at Lipgloss, I finally got a chance to play with my new Tokina 11-16mm lens in a nightclub environment. I love the ultra-wide angle and fast F2.8 aperture it provides (although, I almost never go down to F2.8 and usually hover around F3.5-F4 to keep things a little bit more in focus).
As most people know, nightclub photography is especially challenging due to a variety of factors that range from technical issues such as extreme low-light and constantly-changing ambiance to logistical annoyances (impenetrable crowds of drunk people, noise, spilled drinks and etc). There is no time to mess with focus or other settings – a nightclub photographer needs to be able to grab shots on the fly. It’s a battlefield out there! One advantage of the Tokina is that it’s built like a tank. And, even though it doesn’t have a silent motor and focusing is therefore not as fast or smooth as with my Canon EF-S 17-55mm lens, because of Tokina’s narrow ultra-wide range, it’s usually not a problem. The glass is pretty sharp, even if that is not always evident from my quarter-second exposures :) I do wish it had IS, but even without stabilization the lens performs quite well.
I really like the extreme wide angles you can get with ATX-116, such as this shot of former Lipgloss resident DJ Chase Dobson, who came back to play a set on August 19th:
And, even though it’s a wide lens, you can still a little bit of bokeh effect when you get really close to your subject, zoomed in to 16mm at F2.8:
Of course, vertical people shots at 11mm can look pretty distorted, in a fun way :)
At 16mm (below-right), distortion isn’t too bad:
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Posted in Nightlife, Photography
Also tagged boyhollow, Chase Dobson, dance club, DJ, Double Shadow, James Holden, James Yardley, lipgloss at la rumba, Michael Trundle, nightclub, Nightlife, Option4, party, Tokina ATX 116
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2011 Summer Camping Trip (Part 2): Collegiate Peaks
On the second leg of my camping trip last week, I stayed at the Collegiate Peaks campground outside Buena Vista, Colorado. Once again, after the evening thunderstorms, the skies cleared enough to provide some spectacular views of the stars. I even got lucky and captured several meteors streaking across the sky in some of the long-exposure shots below. It’s fascinating to me that our planet is under constant bombardment by space rocks (essentially every few seconds), but we often don’t realize or forget about that because something like 99.9% of meteors are tiny (sometimes as small as a grain of sand) and burn up in the atmosphere before they ever have a chance of reaching the ground.
Enlarged crop of the photo above that shows the meteor more clearly:
Some meteors that I captured were so faint that they weren’t visible to the naked eye and were only discovered later when I looked at the photos more closely:
I used my small LED flashlight to illuminate the tree during this 30-second exposure:
A little bit of fun with light painting:
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Posted in Photography, Travel
Also tagged camping trip, Collegiate Peaks, Colorado, landscape, long exposure, meteor, meteors, nature, night sky, starscape, Travel
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2011 Summer Camping Trip (Part 1): Hartsel, CO
I finally had a chance to sort through some of the photos I took during last week’s camping trip to Central Colorado. As I’ve always said – I’m not a very good landscape photographer (which, I think, still holds true), but I feel that it was almost impossible to take a bad photo when I was surrounded by such incredible beauty. Vast open landscape with hills and towering Collegiate Peaks in the west and mostly flat expanse of farm land in the east, big skies with clouds that often produce an amazing and electrifying display of evening thunderstorms, followed by rainbows and the magical golden light of the setting sun; and last, but not least – night starscapes that inspire wonder and ignite the imagination. While the tiny town of Hartsel, CO doesn’t have much to offer in itself, traveling just a dozen miles outside of it opens up vistas that create a stark contrast to the city life that I’m used to.
The first photo below is a panorama comprised of 11 images (you can see the large-resolution photo on Flickr; warning – it’s pretty huge!)
Look at that giant sky! My car on the country road and the cows grazing in the field behind it look tiny and insignificant under it:
The fire pit:
No processing was done to the image below. This is how the light, colors and the sky really looked after a thunderstorm! Incredible. I also love my long shadow.
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Posted in Photography, Travel
Also tagged camping, Colorado, Hartsel, landscape, nature, starscapes, Travel
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Nightlife Photography: Lipgloss at La Rumba
My photos from several recent Lipgloss dance parties at La Rumba have been posted. Check out the slideshows below or click on the links to view full sets on Flickr.
Posted in Nightlife, Photography
Also tagged dance party, DJ, La Rumba, Lipgloss, nightclub, Nightlife
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Designs Abloom Floral Arrangement
My friend Holly, who owns Designs Abloom (a small floral design business in Denver), asked me to take some photos of her arrangements for the Summer Toast 2011 networking event last week. Here are a few of the shots:
Back to civilization
I just got back from a 3-day camping trip in the beautiful Collegiate Peaks area of Colorado. While I’m definitely feeling refreshed, there is a lot of work to catch up on over the next several days.
It was surprising to learn about the flurry of earthquakes in Maryland and Colorado when I got back, in addition to the resignation of Apple CEO Steve Jobs. Really, it’s amazing how much can happen in the news over just a couple of days, but when you’re away from civilization for any period of time – disconnected from radio, television, internet and pretty much everything else, world events tend to seem very distant and unimportant. It’s just you, your tent, your thoughts and the vast expanse of the sky and natural landscape. In my mind, there is nothing better to clear your head and come back to the understanding of what’s really important in life.
After an evening thunderstorm, as the skies were starting to clear, I witnessed one of the most gorgeous sunsets I've ever seen.
I will post more photos from the trip in the near future, but right now – it’s back to the grind of editing shoots from last week and catching up on e-mails. Living in the city certainly has its perks (such as hot showers, flush toilets and gourmet food), but I would be lying if I said that I haven’t fantasized about living off the grid at some place similar to this for a while.
New lens and hiking in Nederland
After waiting for it to appear back in stock at B&H for seemingly forever, last week I finally received the Tokina ATX 116 Pro DX 11-16mm F2.8 lens (and guess what – it’s already out of stock again). I wanted to get an ultra-wide zoom for my Canon 7D for a long time now, but this Tokina seems to be so popular that it’s constantly out of stock at all the major online retailers. For crop-sensor cameras like the 7D, the ATX 116 wide angle zoom has probably the best value-to-quality ratio. I considered getting the Canon EF-S 10-22mm, but you just can’t beat Tokina’s build quality, sharpness and the constant aperture of F2.8.
I haven’t had much time to play with it yet, but I did take it on a short hiking trip up in Nederland last week and took some snapshots. It’s definitely a beautiful and well-built piece of glass. I’m also excited to test it for nightclub crowd and DJ shots, where an ultra-wide field of view coupled with wide aperture will surely come in handy, given the low-light environment.
Posted in Daily Creative, Gear, Photography
Also tagged gear, nature, Tokina ATX 116 Pro DX, Travel
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Sunset at Cheeseman Park
The sky looked like it was on fire last night! I don’t think I’ll ever stop loving Colorado, with all of its quirks and occasional crazy weather mood swings. Magical moments like this make it all worth it:
Posted in Daily Creative, Photography
Also tagged Cheeseman Park, Retro Camera, sunset
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