dustin schmidt

(Chris Jericho walks out in a sequined, self-lit jacket.)

• Last night I went to see the WWE in Oklahoma City at the Chesapeake arena. The WWE understands how to entertain like you wouldn't believe. I'm convinced that no one puts on a better show than these guys. Seriously.

Before you dismiss all this as some kind of WWE fanboy talk, let me just say that I don't watch it on TV and I've never been to a WWE live event. But I got the opportunity to check one out and I was incredibly impressed.

A few things I took away from the show.

Some of you may have noticed a missed blog on Tuesday. My apologies for that. I spent Tuesday morning preparing for an afternoon shoot with Oklahoma City's Russell Westbrook for an upcoming website and media campaign launching soon.

I can't share too many details right now but as soon as it launches I'll be sure to post some behind-the-scenes and give the scoop on how it all went down. And for anyone who might be wondering, Honey Badger DO care. Russell was a pleasure to work with.

Hey everyone! I got a couple of questions regarding the last couple of Behind the Shot posts (here and here). Today I want to address some of the things that were going on in Photoshop, specifically one of the plug-ins I use when editing photos.

One of the things I try to do with most of my pics is to remove the "look" of a digital capture through a variety of techniques and tricks in Photoshop and Lightroom. However, even though I love the look of film I have no desire to go back to mixing developer, stringing up negatives and waiting hours for things to dry or even working in the darkroom to make each individual print.

Thanks very much to everyone that commented on the Behind the Shot with Kevin Durant post last week. I've been really impressed and flattered with the response it's been getting. I had no idea that Kevin Durant guy was such a big deal. ;)

I had a couple of other photos this past year that I was pretty happy with, so today I'd like to focus on a job that was shot for The University of Michigan and their football campaign.

Michigan came to us early in the summer to start discussing their direction for the 2011 football season. It was decided that the tagline for the year was going to be "This Is Michigan" after the instant classic Brady Hoke quote.

Ok, I admit it. I'm a failure as a blogger.

Last week I promised you a Photo Top Ten from 2011 and not only did I fail to deliver but I didn't even blog on Thursday. Honestly I totally forgot I was going to be out of the office for a couple of days and I just didn't get it put together. Fast forward to Tuesday and I still don't have it for you.

The fact is that I was out of town this past weekend to photograph a good friend's wedding and between all of the general craziness that acommpanies that, and traveling back and forth, it didn't get done. So my only promise is to try very hard to get some more photo stuff up in the next couple of days.

In my defense the pictures from the wedding turned out very well.

(The author, checking out his fabulous pictures in the background.)

Hey Old Hat blog readers, I'm back today following a busy Tuesday shooting once again for Thunder Media Day in OKC.

As usual it was fast-paced and high-energy but lots of fun as well. Pictured above is myself and Old Hat's own Brian Hostetler hanging out while Kevin Durant answers some questions for the Thunder's Ron Matthews.

You can check out the Thunder's Behind the Scenes video at this link. Keep an eye out for yours truly starting at the 23 second mark...and ending at the 24 second mark. Yeah that's what I call press coverage baby.

This morning I'll be spending the day in OKC shooting photos for Thunder Media Day.

Thunder Media Day is always a hectic affair where you literally have a time limit with each player. (Try taking photos while a guy with a stopwatch hangs out in the back. Kind of weird.)

Players have 10-15 areas they have to report to for interviews, video shoots, photos, etc. and just a couple of hours to do it in, thus the stopwatch, so you have to work fast.

Despite the furious nature of the whole thing it's fun to see what you can get under pressure. Last year I did 3 setups and managed to shoot some of my favorite pics so far.

• The NBA lockout is still on. Say goodbye to the first couple of weeks of the regular season. Now the pressure is really mounting to get something done. I hope for everyone's sake that the owners and players can get a deal worked out and save some of the season. We'd love to see some basketball this year.

In the NBA's absence I'll be gearing up for my K-State Wildcats and the angriest coach in America to tear it up later this winter.

Today we're talking photography stuff. You may be wondering, what does "building your light" mean? In simple terms "building light" is how you turn on multiple lights and at what strength they contribute to your final photograph.

The light we're talking about today is from our recent Thunder Girls photoshoot.

I had plenty of time to setup for this recent shoot. Which is always a huge plus and not always possible. The other thing I had going for me was a huge space with plenty of room to setup and lots of power outlets, also not always possible but greatly appreciated when it is.

A lot of space allows you plenty of room to separate your subject from the background. It means we can light the background independently of the subject, which is what we want for maximum control of the scene.

Aloha from beautiful Illinois!

I am getting settled in back in the Land of Lincoln. It is great to be closer to some of my clients in the area and I am looking forward to adding some more to the already awesome list of Old Hat clients.

Last week, I had the opportunity to attend one of Bradley University’s Community Nights in central Illinois. We put together a website to promote the coaches tour (check it out here: bravescommunitynights.com/). The website was a big success, increasing fan interaction and providing some valuable fan information for the athletic department.