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My first shots were with a nice family, Brandy, Tye, and Tripp. It was windy and the light was pretty bad, but I found a nice place for them to stand, and things worked out OK.
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I kind of liked the wider view just as a little distraction.
As with all kids this age, the challenge was to get him to look at the camera. I really liked this one because he is actually looking at me (in spite of the hair problem).
Last night, I had the pleasure of being a guest at the Heart of Texas Professional Photographers Guild open shoot out. The event was held at Airport Park. The HOTPPG is a group of professionals in the area. In this meeting, they allowed local photographers who were not so professional to tag along. I had a great time.
They had a variety of models representing different types of photography, and, there were so many I did not get to photograph them all. They had a family, a bride, a teen age girl, a ballerina, a “tween” girl, an infant and a bride and groom. We each took 10 minute turns with the models.
I had a great time, but it was hectic. Ten minutes does not give you much time to find a location, build a report with the model, and get some shots. Additionally, the circumstances made it difficult, if not impossible to use any kind of lighting. The even was in the evening. So, there was a pretty good sunset, but it didn’t really play into the even that well.
Anyway, it was a great experience. I will be posting images as I get them processed. This is a group I would like to continue to be associated with. However, I may not quite be in the same league, professionally, as they.
Saturday, I watched a video of Peter Hurley doing head shots of various people. He took some amazing shots, but the video was really about his “process.” Debbie was doing a bunch of things and heard it more than watched it. She hated Hurley. He was loud and abrasive and even somewhat abusive with these people. He would say things like “You’re eyes aren’t the same size. Turn your head so the beady one is closer to the camera.” but, he did do something quite interesting.
He had a chart called “How Does Your Inner Child Feel Today?”. It is a bunch of faces that correspond to emotions. He would look at it and randomly choose one of the emotions. He would say, “Show me innocent.” He explained that the expression he got might or might not be something interesting that he could photograph, but he said that the person would always realize they made a silly face and break out with a huge smile.
OK so, today I decided to try some beauty lighting. I powered my beauty dish with the Polaroid PL135 as the key light with a reflector underneath in a clam shell orientation. I added a Qflash T4d as a hair light. I had to power both down as low as they would go to shoot at iso 100 and 1/100, f/2.8 with my 85mm lens.
So, I told Helen to give me Joy.
Then I told her to show me pain.
Then, I asked for wistful
OK. Rather plastic. So, I sat down.
Serious.
Apprehensive
Anticipation
Relief that this is over.
I just came back upon Don Giannatti’s “Project 52” web site. I had seen the site several months ago, but it slipped from my memory. I have been a member of the flickr group for a long time, but, I can’t remember the last time I actually visited the group page. On this site, there is a weekly photography assignment. The assignments for this year start on February 1. So, I looked at the 2012 assignments.
The first assignment is to create a Vision Statement. This is basically a statement describing why it is that I take pictures. As described on the web site, “Tell us with a single paragraph what you want to be able to do with your images. Tell us what you do without telling us you are a photographer. Accompany that message with a single image taken around your home.”
To me, the reason I enjoy photography is it differs from other modes of expression, and there is something that is transcendently stimulating when I see a really great image I have taken. In 2012, my Aperture Library has over 7700 images. Every once in a while, as the image would come up on the screen, there was a moment of awe. Kind of, “Oh boy. That is good!”
It is becoming easier to take technically perfect images – those with proper exposure, composition, lighting, whatever. I can look at those and think, “That’s a good image.” But there is the added, intangible element that is included in an image that is really great. I take photographs because I enjoy that feeling of producing a picture that is really great.
Now, what kind of image around the house can I make that illustrates that?
I have gone through the over 7000 images from this year and chosen five that I think are the best. I am not going to rank them. Rather, I will present them chronologically.
The first one is from Galveston. Earlier this Spring, Debbie was walking on the beach and saw that someone had started to pile rocks on each other. As other people came along, they created their own piles of rocks to the point where eventually, there were hundreds of piles of rocks. I took this picture of one of the piles. I used a strobe and softbox to help me make the sky a little darker and to help define the surfaces of the rocks.
Earlier this Summer, Pat Jones asked me to serve as a second shooter at a wedding. I enjoyed the process. The wedding was at an interesting outdoor area in Roundrock. As the sun was going down, we got the couple to walk with us. There was a place in the woods where the setting sun was coming through a break in the leaves of a tree. I positioned them in the spot where the sun hit their faces and got this picture.
For the Waco Wild West 100 Bike Ride, last year, I stood at the end of the Washington St, Bridge and tried to get pictures of the cyclists with the suspension bridge and the Hilton in the background. I got some similar shots this year, but noticed that the river was absolutely still. So, I went down along the river and shot up at the cyclists on the bridge, with the reflection in the still water.
Ashley Henager wanted to get some pics at an old house in Speegleville. A couple days before, she contacted me and asked it we could change and shoot with her husband and son. I loved the idea. We shot at Midway Park. Noah was as cute as could be, but he really wanted to get in the water. He kept trying to get away and get in the water, and at one point, the tug between them resulted in this picture.
Finally, the last shoot with a model I did was with Heather Lynn Johnson. I have already discussed the lighting issues, but this shot was really great.
I had a session with Heather Lynn Johnson in Harker Heights. We went to a local park for the shoot. The problem was the sun was absolutely terrible. It was mid day, and bright. Since there were no leaves left on most of the trees, there was little actual shade. It was almost like a fight. I kept trying to get her to turn her head for decent light, but every time I did, she couldn’t open her eyes because the sun was so bright. It turned out that I was able to get some good pictures. So, it wasn’t a total loss. The one above was somewhat of an accident. Out of the camera, it was way overexposed. But, in Aperture, I reduced the exposure, and the result was this picture.
I got some pretty even lighting on this one, and I really like the way it turned out. There was a tree that forked at the ground, and she could lean into it and lay her head on it.
She brought several changes of clothes, and from the beginning, she said she had a black dress that she thought would be really good to twirl around in. The problem was the terrain didn’t suite wearing heels. She did several twirls, and some of the shots came out great. Then I had her walk towards me, and this was one of the best of the day.
A model posted on FB that she wanted to shoot Friday afternoon. I was free, and agreed to do the shoot. Another model wanted to join us. The chatted back and forth about what they wanted to do, and since I don’t have a studio, decided on just a general fashion type shoot. The other model was relying upon a ride from someone who was not able to get away. So, it ended up it was just the one model. She asked it it was OK if she brought her daughter, and I agreed.
We met at a park-like area next to the Hippodrome Theater. It has some sculptures and some covers overhead. Plus, the side of the Hippodrome had some nice fire escapes. So, I spent an hour or so shooting the two of them.
This turned out to be a really good photograph. It started out terrible. When I snapped it, the exposure was way off. It was really overexposed. But, in Aperture, I was able to bring it back to the point where, I think it is an effective image.
She wanted a picture in her hoodie. So, I basically did a head shot, and that came out really nice as well.
I liked the fire escape. So, we got a couple of her on it. Several of them weren’t too good, as she had her face behind the bars. But this one turned out nicely.
I also got several nice photos of her daughter. So, it turned out to be a really great experience.
I agreed to do a photoshoot with a model. She knew of a dilapidated house that she wanted to shoot at. That sounded like fun, so I agreed. The day before, she asked it it was OK if her husband and son tagged along. I had not problem with that. When we met, it was overcast with spotty showers. She suggested we go to a local park on the lake. We went there. I spent about an hour photographing them. The child is almost two and acted it, but it was still a great experience. Here are a couple pics from the shoot. I really like the first one as it displays the dynamics of a family with a two year old.
The next one is just a nice pic of the child.
My new 85mm f/1.4 lens came earlier this week. It is manual focus and manual aperture. Kind of like going back in time. After focusing on the subject, the viewfinder meter has an exposure indicator, and exposure is controlled by either changing the shutter speed or the aperture. However, this is not even a lens that stops down to the chosen aperture when the picture is taken. When you change aperture, you see the results immediately. So, stopping down makes the image in the viewfinder darker.
This is a “portrait” lens because the wide aperture gives a shallow depth of field. The whole idea of this lens is to focus on one spot and almost everything goes out of focus but that spot.
I went to Indian Spring Park yesterday and took some pictures with it. I was not all that thrilled by them. The truth is, most were not properly focused. Although, the couple that were, had a very sharp focus. So, I went back today. I did a little better. I took about a dozen pictures, and all but two were in really good focus.
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