Randy Braley Photography

Adventure Photography | Bone Bender 3/6 Hour Mountain Bike Race

randy — Tue, 16 Apr 2013 19:10:18 +0000

One of the things you will hear many photographers discuss are personal projects. These projects allow us to photograph subjects that we are passionate about or in many cases play a very important part of our personal life – they provide a chance to explore new ideas, techniques and hone our skills outside of client assignments.

One of the on-going personal projects for me is photographing Ethos Racing – a collection of super psyched individuals who play as hard as they race, and let me tell you these cats can race! Professionally this opportunity allows me to further develop my adventure photography portfolio – but more importantly inspires me to get out from behind the camera from time to time and pursue my own adventures.

This is the third year I have joined the team at Bone Bender 3/6 Hour Mountain Bike Race. It is a first class race with a solid reputation of delivering a punishing course and this year was no different.

A BIG thanks to my buddy Corbin Brady for coming out and hauling gear for me and for getting behind the camera and taking some pics.

A few of my favorites from the day.

[Show as slideshow]

Additional Racer Images

And for those of you that raced, I did pop a few pics of other racers while I was out there, visit this gallery to take a look and see if I have an image of you. Feel free to download the image for your personal use. And if you feel motivated and want to donate $5.00, it would be much appreciated but certainly not required. Just click the PayPal button below. The money will be put to good use to buy beer or bike parts.

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Patagonia Catalog | Adventure Photography

randy — Thu, 28 Mar 2013 19:40:00 +0000

Super psyched to finally appear on the pages of a Patagonia Catalog | Spring 2013 – Japan Edition. This image was captured on the same trip as my other image that appeared on the Patagonia website about a year back. The back story on this image is that I pulled my son away from playing with his friends to do a little bouldering and shooting. He politely indulged my request and as it turned out had a great time.

Needless to say he didn’t forget how much cash I promised him if Patagonia decided to use the image. He is already browsing the web searching for his next technology purchase.

Here is the original image.

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Excelsior Springs | Travel Editorial Photography Assignment

randy — Sun, 10 Feb 2013 23:30:45 +0000

Excelsior Springs, Missouri

Last September I had the opportunity to travel to Excelsior Springs, Missouri for a travel editorial assignment for KC Magazine. Travel assignments are some of the best – you have to put yourself in the mindset of being on a vacation, taking in the sights, sounds and flavors of the location. My day started with a visit to Fence Stile Vineyards & Winery and ended at the Inn on Crescent Lake, which included a rare peek at a cozy little wine cellar.

Excelsior Springs is located north of Kansas City, Missouri and has a deep history within the Region due to the natural springs and of course the historic Elms Hotel & Spa.

To read the full article and learn more about this historic town click the follwoing link to see the KC Magazine Article

Excelsior Springs | Editorial Travel Photography

Some images from the day…

Lunchtime at Wabash BBQ, Excelsior Springs, Missouri.

Colorful burger joint in Excelsior Springs, Missouri

Travel Editorial assignment in Excelsior Springs, Missouri

The Elms Hotel and Spa Dining Room.

Quiet seating area in the main house of Inn on Crescent Lake

Seating area in The Cottage.

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5 tips for passing the time while you eagerly await your Nikon D4, D800 or Canon 5DMIII

randy — Thu, 22 Mar 2012 15:50:14 +0000

The camera world is in a frenzy over the release of several new cameras to the market. As with most new technology, the demand appears to exceed supply and those that placed a pre-order are driving themselves crazy on all the social media outlets by constantly checking to see the status of who got what and when, present company included. So here are few quick tips on how to pass the time while you wait.

Read the already released manuals so you are ready to rock when your camera arrives.
If you’re getting the D800 or are going to be shooting/editing video for the first time, determine if your computer will be able to handle the new demand for disk space and processing speed.
If you’re new to DSLR video, go watch all the videos over at www.learning DSLRvideo.com and www.dslrvideoshooter.com. This will provide hours and hours of distraction and good information.
Give your other camera body some love, by giving it a good cleaning to reassure it you still love it, and that nothing will change with the new addition to the family. Then go clean all your lenses.
Perform a random act of kindness, like paying for the coffee for the person behind you in the drive-up – this will no doubt increase your karma factor and bump you up on the waiting list for your camera

That’s all for now.

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Patagonia is a client!

randy — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 19:58:56 +0000

Coming up on my 1-year anniversary and things have been going great. So much so that I haven’t had time to update my blog. Hopefully over the next several weeks I can post up on some of the great projects I have been involved with.

As you probably already know from the subtle title above, I am stoked to say one of my images is on the Patagonia website. Patagonia is a brand that I love and respect and it is an honor to be a part of their story. The image was taken while on a family trip to Horseshoe Canyon Ranch in Jasper, Arkansas. After a day of climbing we stopped off at the kids favorite tree swing to finish off the day. The great thing about the swing is that ground falls away below your feet giving you a sense that you are WAY off the ground. As you can tell the kids LOVE it.

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Family Portrait

randy — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 20:07:14 +0000

I just recently delivered this portrait session to our our neighbors. This bunch was so great to work with. You never know how siblings are going to work together in a session…but in this case these two ROCKED IT! I honestly can’t say how the session could have gone any better. They were up for just about anything and even entertained a few new ideas I had in my head – which in the end proved to be one of their favorites.

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Spring Break 2011

randy — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 19:19:16 +0000

While on the family walk last night we were talking to the boys about the upcoming fall season and all the camping we plan on doing and made me think back to our Spring trip to Horseshoe Canyon Ranch - then I realized I never put up my spring bring video on the blog. This was my first atttempt and “film making” and was shot for the most part with just the iphone. The still images included in the video were shot with the Nikon D700.

Vimeo Video

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Logo Design Kickoff

randy — Fri, 10 Jun 2011 02:42:39 +0000

Well the time has finally come to address the whole issue of a “real” logo for my business. With 20-years experience in marketing I knew enough not to tackle this on my own, but to instead work with those that are even more right-brained than I – Thankfully I’m friends with the two cats up above. Clifton Alexander on the left and Chase Wilson on the right of Reactor Studio. Clifton and I met several years back in the Shawnee Chamber Leadership program and have been friends ever since. The crew at Reactor understand branding and definitely understand the vibe of what I’m trying to achieve. But more importantly they LOVE tacos and I LOVE tacos! This fact drove the crucial decision of meeting at El Camino Real to lay the groundwork for the design.

Our discussions centered on who I ultimatley want to appeal to, whether the logo needs to be more polished and clean or rough around the edges. I shared with them that I am always drawn to logos that have a strong mark. At the end of the meeting it boiled down to a logo that will appeal to those that appreciate good design, art and photography as well as provide a sense of my style that is both polished yet rought around the edges.

Stay tuned! These guys will no doubt come up with an EPICICALLY AWESOME design.

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Bone Bender 2011 Mountain Bike Race

randy — Wed, 20 Apr 2011 17:35:16 +0000

My friends over at Ethos Racing asked me to come out and shoot the team for the day. It was an early morning drive to Clinton Lake and the weather was PERFECT. The plan for the day was to photograph pre-race set-up, then head to an interesting location to get the riders in action and finish up back at the team tent for all the post race activities (a.k.a beer drinking). As for my kit I was shooting my Nikon D700 and utilized my 14-24mm 2.8, 24-70mm 2.8 and my 70-200mm 2.8. I’d say the bulk of what I shot was with the 70-200mm.

For the creek crossing shots I did use as Nikon SB-800 speed light to rider right on top of the embankment. I was shooting in Aperture Priority and underexposed by about 2 full stops to bring down the ambient quite a bit. This required me to bump up the the flash output 2 stops to get the punch I wanted.

It turned out to be a very successful day for Team Ethos as they were on the podium something like five seperate times with four of those being 1st place finishes.

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Reactor featured on CBS Sunday Morning

randy — Thu, 10 Mar 2011 04:00:47 +0000

I was really excited when one of my clients shared with me that they were going to be a part of CBS Sunday Morning when then do a story on business card design. I met the Owner of Reactor when going through the Shawnee Chamber of Commerce Leadership program. Clifton definitely has a passion for EPIC design and the art of designing great business cards. You can can check out the CBS segment at The Business of Designing Business Cards.

I’m also very pround to have my images featured on their website.

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