We took advantage of a particularly sunny Monday afternoon by visiting the Old Market area to take photos and test out some new camera equipment.

Here is CharDale’s recap of the afternoon shoot, featuring some of the tricks he used to get these awesome shots of downtown Omaha.

The only strategy with this picture was to get a wide shot to show the new developments in the area, the interesting architecture of the buildings, pareidolia of the light posts, and time all of it when the pedestrian light hit 3 seconds. Why three? It should be obvious.

When I walked by the Jackson Street Tavern and saw that Porsche and bike sitting there, I immediately thought to myself “that looks like a scene from the Fast and Furious!”. I tried to crop it in a cinematic style to give it that big box office look and feel. This scene tested an ND filter and a yellow filter as it seemed most appropriate.

I always get a tickle out of harmless irony: an amateur photographer taking a photo of a professional news station videographer waiting on the anchor to get questioned by a random pedestrian. This whole scene was flipped upside down.

I suppose the red G filter exaggerates the blue sky. This was by chance. The separation from the background was intentional.

The ND filters allow you to open the aperture wider, which allows you to shoot with a shallower depth of field. Thus, the camera man almost looks like he’s popping off of the screen. If you’ll notice, the man in the white to his right is out of focus, and he’s only about 2-3 feet further in the background.

I took this one because there was a lot of interesting detail in the shot. The van had a lot of character to it (if you will!). I used the red G filter and an ND filter for this one too. I was really impressed that the ND filter allowed me to keep my aperture wide open without blowing out the background.

Skeptical?

Look for the bird along the top edge of the photo. That bird is quite a ways off in the distance and should be blown out at this aperture, but it simply was not so!

Ok, no filters here. I walked into the amazing Tea Smith shop in downtown to snap this photo. The atmosphere just felt worth capturing in a quick photo, so I did.

Most people typically shoot with the object in the foreground in focus, and the object in the background out of focus. Being the rebel I am, I took theses photos doing the opposite.

Are you an Omaha business owner with a story to tell? Reinforce your content marketing strategy with custom photography or video production.