Damsels Wanted! Have Hero, Will Travel

I gotta admit, this song has been running through my mind while I've been finishing this image; it's good to be finished...so I can get a different song in there. Making pictures with these kids was so much fun, and then drawing my monster in was a whole other fun thing to do. I can't wait to do it some more!

Tryon Creek State Park in Southwest Portland/Lake Oswego is a wonderful place to make pictures.

*Sigh*

It's just what I needed. A relief. A pleasure, really. I got to photograph F. and her new little L., today. She's just a month old, but look at all that hair. Thanks a bunch for a fun time making pictures, F.

Nikon D800, 105mm f/2.8 VR Macro lens, f/8, 1/200s, ISO 100.

Technical stuff. We made this picture on the side while making portraits for the Portland Urgent Care clinic where F. works. Effectively, that means I had the lights setup in a specific manner that helps ensure the portraits are all similar, which means I couldn't easily move it to make a piece of art for mother and daughter. 

I had a black backdrop, a small octabox up front, and a barebulb strobe with a reflector in the back. Without changing my light settings, I brought F. a little closer to the octa to wrap her and baby in a softer light (the closer, the softer). We made several frames here, but this was my favorite, shot with me on a chair so I could see from a little above.

Doodling

Do you ever wake up at night with a dream of something you can do, something you can make? I do pretty frequently, especially when I'm getting ready for something or studying a new technique. Well this picture is part of a study to create the drawing I made below. If things go well, I may be able to make this one happen this week...

Nikon D800, 50mm f/1.4 lens, f/4, 1/30s, ISO 500.

I know you're going to ask (everyone does): Yes, I drew it. I did it on my iPad with Wacom's Paper App and Wacom's incredible stylus. It's a free app, it's incredibly good, and you can get it by clicking on this link. Hey, it helps keep me awake in Church; there are studies, you know, that doodlers pay better attention than apparently attentive individuals. I'm just sayin'. I used another page to do several sketches of the dancer to get the perspective just so. It's really a cool tool. 

Going on 5...

Paul deKruif wrote, "Creators need audiences."

I've been sharing pictures with you here for four years. I just want to thank you for visiting and supporting me and my family in this photographic venture. We rely on our clients and students for a living, and we can't thank you enough. I really appreciate everyone who visits and gives me kudos now and again--it keeps me going, and keeps me encouraged. When you view my page it's like giving a kid a gold star on his doodle. I'm on cloud nine when you stop by, so thank you. Thank you for being my audience.

A few days ago I shared a picture from K.'s senior shoot; here're the rest in a video.

All grown up...

K. is graduating in a minute, and she's really grown up since I met her four years ago. That's normal, I suppose, but it makes one feel that one is getting older oneself. When I was her age, four years was an eternity. These days, I can blow four years in a weekend.

Also, I've been posting lots of landscapes, and I just want you to know that that's because I've been shooting so many people I'm backed up a bit. The landscapes finish quickly, and they never need more consideration. My people pictures, however, get stressed about and revisited until I think they're perfect...or until they're needed for graduation announcements.

Nikon D800, 105mm f/2.8 Micro VR lens, f/3.5, 1/80s, ISO 100, Nik Silver Efex Pro 2.

One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish...

People kept asking, and Laura just kept answering, "Because we can!"

I've said it before: it's just plain fun when creatives get together. There'll be more of these to come, but here's something to tide all those involved over.

Nikon D800, 105mm f/2.8 VR Micro lens, f/10, 1/160s, ISO 100.

Definitely Dancer

I'm not a huge music lover, but I love music. I know what I like, and I listen to it. I don't explore new stuff, I don't listen to the radio. I like U2. I like John Denver. I like the Beatles, but I don't have their albums. I like BNL. I like They Might Be Giants. I like Natalie Merchant. I like Adele (and for the longest time she was the farthest thing from a white British gal in my mind).

Nikon D800, 105mm f/2.8 VR Micro Lens, f/3, 1/125s, ISO 200.

I was introduced to The Killers a few years ago, and I think they are the best in a long time. I like this song, Human.

This is K., again, and she's definitely a Dancer. Even when she's standing still, she's performing. She's thoughtful and wants to know what to do. She gets frustrated when my students don't tell her what to do, don't give her direction. I guess she doesn't realize that she's doing it already.

Nikon D800, 70-200mm f/2.7 VR II lens @98mm, f/4, 1/160s, ISO 800, Nik Color Efex Pro4.

Setup for these was simple and fun. Let's start with the second one first. It's just a 40x40" continuous light softbox on the right. Black paper background. The light is sitting a little higher than K. pointed slightly downward. I think we had the white reflector on the right side, too. She's spinning and moving so I turned up the ISO to allow me to have a faster shutter speed to freeze her motion a little. This isn't the most perfect or graceful image I made of K. that night, but I think's the most fun; she's laughing and real and imperfect. It's perfect. Made this one at the Mansion during our beginning digital photography class.

The first image above is made during our portrait class. We're in a stairwell at USU's library. There's a small speedlight behind K. set at almost it's lowest setting, and that's for two reasons. First, when you put a colored gel on a light and you want lots of color, you use a low setting, otherwise the color is washed out. The second reason is that light coming from behind aimed toward the camera is more efficient than a light aimed at someone's face and bouncing back toward the camera. From behind it's skimming into the lens, from the front it's a full 180 degree turn to get back. Think about it, and you'll get it.

The light on the front of her face is a speedlight set into a small 24" softbox and set at it's lowest setting, and positioned about 9 inches from her face. Being close to her makes it very soft and also makes it disappear quickly so that it doesn't affect the background and barely even lights her shirt. I like this one. It's a very Noir image to me.

Thanks, K.

One Light, One Lens, Two High Schools

Nikon D800, 105mm f/2.8 VR Micro lens, f/5.6, 1/160s, ISO 800, red filter in monochrome mode in the camera

Ah, high school. Remember how great it was? How free you were? How your only worries were about friends and home work that wasn't really that hard? How you went to an after school job to earn spending money instead of mortgage money? How you got to go to art classes and have a good time? Those were the good ol' days, eh?

Well, I went back yesterday. Twice. I spent the morning with Photography students at Fast Forward Charter High School were we set up a simple studio and made some simple portraits (still hoping to see their pictures of me on Facebook!). We did the same thing at Logan High in the afternoon. I talked about light and working with people and not sitting back in your chair so your legs don't look fat. Then--finally--I shut up and made pictures.

Nikon D800, 105mm f/2.8 VR Micro lens, f/4, 1/25s, ISO 400, red filter in monochrome mode in the camera

And I have to admit, this post is not normal for me: I haven't finished any of the images, they are straight form the camera. I normally adjust the exposure and do some touchups and add a vignette and maybe use the Nik software tools to really make them pop. But I wanted the students to see here that the photo as I shot it wasn't bad, and that I'm not using photoshop to completely change the picture. Most of the students have shot film and may be inclined to think that photoshop is a little bit of cheating: but I heartily disagree. I use photoshop (Actually, I use Lightroom4) to finish the image off, just as I would in the darkroom, brightening here and darkening there, and increasing contrast, and cropping. It's not rocket science, but it does finish my image to look the way I envisioned when I pressed the shutter button. That's the way photography has been for nearly 200 years!

Nikon D800, 105mm f/2.8 VR Micro lens, f/4, 1/100s, ISO 400, red filter in monochrome mode in the camera

Besides that, digital camera all have significant photoshopping skills built right in. This black and white setting I use isn't one of them, however.

When we shoot black and white film, a red filter (red glass) placed in front of the lens makes pictures more contrasty and has an especially nice effect on skin tones. See, it evens the tones and makes blotchy skin more clear, and makes pimples virtually disappear. Now my digital camera does the same effect without the glass--it interprets the light coming into the camera as if there was a filter on the lens. This is great! Just go the monochrome settings in the Menu on your camera (not the shortcut to button on the outside of the camera) and go in and choose to use a red filter (ROYG are usually the options--red, orange, yellow, green). I love it, and I think you'll enjoy better black and whites from it, too.

Nikon D800, 105mm f/2.8 VR Micro lens, f/4, 1/100s, ISO 400, red filter in monochrome mode in the camera

Also, the students at LHS will remember that the above picture of J. (long haired male) was made when he was sitting farther from the light--that's why the background is more visible. When the students sat closer to the light the difference between the amount of light on the face and on the background was too much for the camera to distinguish and so the background is completely black. The the model farther away from the light, the difference in the light on the face and the background is similar and so the background is visible. Note also that image was shot at 1/25 of a sec--much slower, and much too slow for me to handhold, so I'm using the tripod. 

Also, these pictures are simply made. There's just one light to the side (at Fastforward we put four lights right next to each other to make a single source, and at LHS we shone two lights through a white sheet to make a single source), one lens, and the subject is turned so there is light on both sides of the face. We're lighting the short view of the face, remember?

In the end, I think everyone had a good time.

Classes

Nikon D800, 105mm f/2.8 VR Micro lens, f/3.2, 1/400s, ISO 800.

K. is a joy to work with. She came to a Lightroom class a few times with her mom and then left for her dance class part way through. She was always smiling and had a light in her eyes. Not like other people's light, though, not like when a mom says she has a light in her eyes. Nope, K. has some like a two million candle power halogen shining out of her skull--it's like a blinding kind of light that is infectious, and she seems to make others more cheerful just being nearby.

Well, now she's come to model for our photography class a couple of times and it's really fun having her. Sure, she's got that great smile, but she can also put it away and appear somber beyond her years.

Nikon D800, 105mm f/2.8 VR Micro lens, f/3, 1/125s, ISO 800, Nik Color Efex 4, CS6.

The first image above was made in the Mansion using a 40x40 softbox on a set of fluorescent light bulbs; there's also a large white fill card on the right sode of the picture. I just kept sidling closer until she was laughing at me. That happens a lot--people laughing at me. I had my camera set to Monochrome with a red filter applied in camera to give me those luminous skin tones, and I added some contrast, and my favorite gentle tint with a little vignette to finish the image off. I keep smiling just looking at it.

The second is even more fun. The whole class is crammed into a stairwell at the Library at Utah State University (that's what I call my tax dollars at work!). There's a single florescent tube position vertically in the corner, and she is sitting on a window sill facing into that light. That's it, no fancy tools, and no fancy lights. Anyone with a camera can make this picture. I used a contrast filter, glamor glow, and darken/lighten center in Nik's wonderful COlor efex 4 to finish off the finishing I started in Lightroom 4. Plus a bit of an oil paint filter on the scarf from CS6. I rather like it. Can't wait to have both K. and C. back next week.

Back Again

M. came to model for my class again last night, and, as expected, we had a great time making pictures with her.

This was my portraiture class that's happening this term. We are only making people pictures, and we're having a great time of it.

Nikon D800, 105mm f/2.8 Micro lens, f/4, 1/400s, ISO 400.

During classes we shoot with continuous lights that allow us all to shoot at the same time without worrying about recycle times on flashes or triggers. This has a big 40x40 softbox on the left, and another high and behind on the right, and an 8x8 v-flat made of home insulation panels on the right bringing a little light to the dark side of M.'s face. We've got a bit of a loop lighting pattern on her face, and a great expression. Can't wait to have M. back again.

Twinkle Toes

This is A., and she was a riot to make pictures with. She's one of those kids who you can tell is really smart...and you kinda feel like she's pulling one over on you. She's got expressions and quirky ideas. 

And of course, she dances. I love when kids dance. Invariably they will smile a lot, and they will definitely spin around and get dizzy then fall over in a heap of laughs. I usually do these things with them. Mom's think I do it to make kids smile; little do they know I do it to make me smile!

Nikon D800, 105mm f/2.8 VR lens, f/8, 1/200s, ISO 100.

Digging Out and Posting Up

I bought a new computer last week. Between that and the end of the year, I'm cleaning things up--you know, out with the old, in with the new. Not that I'm getting rid of your images (that'll never happen!), but I'm getting rid of a lot of my images that I'm finished using and likely won't be looking at again. For instance, when I teach I end up making a lot of images that are just junk. What can I say? I like the continuous shooting mode on my camera.

For all the junk pictures I make when I teach, I love teaching. Often, my favorite images are made when I teach. Maybe it's having high expectations from my students and no expectations from my models. Whatever the reason, I always end up with a few keepers each time I teach. Like these from earlier this Fall we made while I was teaching the Vernal, Utah, SMUG. They're a terrific bunch, and I always enjoy getting together with them. If you've got a photo club, let me know where and we'll schedule a workshop!

Nikon D800, 105mm f/2.8 VR Micro lens, f/3, 1/1600s, ISO 200.

Nikon D800, 105mm f/2.8 VR Micro lens, f/3, 1/1600s, ISO 200.

Nikon D800, 105mm f/2.8 VR Micro lens, f/3, 1/2500s, ISO 200.

Cuteness

There's not much to say, really. She's cute. Adorable, even.

Nikon D800, 28-300mm f/3.5-5.6 VR lens @ 62mm, f/8, 1/250s, ISO 160.

This one is made with an SB-800 and an SB-900 fired through a five-in-one reflector with the cover removed, revealing the diffusion panel. The diffusion fabric enlarges the tiny speedlights and makes a very soft light. The fabric is just out of the frame on the right, and the two flashes are shining through on both ends. Also, this is black and white made in the camera using the red filter in the monochrome settings. Try it on your camera--I think you'll like it.

Calculated Magic

The talented M. came for my class the other day to be our model so my students could practice their skills. Well, after class we retired to the studio for our weekly Open Lab (when club members can come and use the studio or make prints or get tips on anything photography) and at the studio M. unleashed her skills. She's a dancer and a teacher and we really enjoyed working together to make some pictures in motion. I always love working with dancers, and I hope we'll have M. back soon.

Nikon D800, 105mm f/2.8 VR lens, f/4, 1/250s, ISO 640, Nik Silver Efex Pro 2.

Setup for this image is very simple, but required some math. In the studio I usually strobes--flashes--that give a very bright, very short burst of light. Working with more than one photographer doesn't work with strobes, though, because the flash is synchronized with the camera that triggers it and the others can't capture it at the same time. So this is captured using fluorescent lights that are very bright and stay on all the time. There are eight bulbs shining into two big white styrofoam reflectors. The light then reflects back onto M. very evenly. Still, those bulbs are nothing compared to the strobes, so in order to fairly freeze the action I turned up my ISO, brightening the picture and yielding a faster shutter speed--fast enough to freeze M.'s body, but still let her hair blur a little. If I wanted to freeze the motion more I might use 1/500 of a second for a shutter speed; twice as fast. But in order to keep the same brightness in the picture I would need to either open the aperture twice as large (one stop to f/2.8) or increase the ISO one stop, doubling it to 1250. In camera speak, 'one stop' is simply a doubling or halving of the light.

There's always an element of Mathematics in every picture, and when the moment and the equation meet...magic happens.

Headless Chickens

Ever feel like one of those? It's been the busiest summer of my life. I returned the other day from a wonderful conference in Chicago where i got to teach alongside one of the greatest photographers in the world, I just photographed the birth of a brand new baby girl (all natural for mom--wow!), and I finally moved past my stigma of winning third place in the Logan Summerfest Plein Aire Photography Competition.

I initiated the competition three years ago, and for the last two years I've earned third place. Heck, I picked the judges and couldn't win! Well, this year, I didn't pick the judges, and not only did I not get third, but I did get First and Second places. I was floored and honored. 

And someone just reminded me that didn't even post those images here! So, first and second respectively. 

I love Seniors!

Take these two sisters, for instance. Somehow, being a senior in high school is a license to look great in pictures. See, most of us usually feel like we are going to look silly in a picture--that's really the great fear, that we won't look good. 

But whenever I get together with people we always lighten up and make pictures that not only look good, but we also have a good time making them! With S. and K. my cheeks were sore from smiling and laughing so much. 

Twins

I seriously love working with teenagers. They have so much flare, and can really ham it up. This shoot was no different. S. and K. are twin sisters, though not identical and it's been so fun getting to know them and their relationship. I think you can get a feel for them here...

So Dawn goes down to Day

Whew! It's hopping around here. We've got High School Seniors coming out of the woodwork, and it's terrific. These kids are all stoked about leaving high school, and moving on/out, and they've really become adults (-ish). I love photographing students at the beginning of their senior year, but so much happens between then and now; I feel that the pictures we make at the end of the term are a better representation of the person their parents are sending out into the world. 

Until they hit college as Freshmen and they look fresh and green again, and it's a wonderful time to be new at stuff. I feel the same way when I hang out with veteran photographers. I feel like I'm an 8th grader touring the high school before the term begins in a few months, and I'm just looking at these people hoping to be as cool and mature as them some day. I look at college freshmen and think how easy and fun and laid back it all was. Finals was really the most stressful thing in my experience? Such is life, new beginnings now and again, and reminiscing about the last new beginning. And sometimes you kinda miss the old days of being so green and naive and free. What did Frost say? Nothing gold can stay.

Nikon D7000, 70-200mm f/2.8 VRII lens @ 135mm, f/4, 1/400s, ISO 640.

Nikon D800, 70-200mm f/2.8 VRII lens @ 130mm, f/4, 1/400s, ISO 800.

Nikon D800, 70-200mm f/2.8 VRII lens @ 130mm, f/4, 1/400s, ISO 800.

 

Nikon D800, 85mm f/1.8 lens, f/5.6, 1/200s, ISO 500. Honestly, K. isn't a senior; but she was helping me photograph them...

It's Time

K. is a senior this year, and I'm awfully proud of her. See, she's been interning here at SDesigns this semester, and has really shown herself to be a great asset. She's one of the sharpest people I know, and I know she'll go far with whatever she chooses to do. She's one of those rare people who is able to get things done.

Plus, she's fun to work with. We had a great time making her senior pictures, and there will be more to come here on the Blog. In the meantime, give me a call (or text) and we'll get your senior pictures scheduled. Talk to you soon! 435-535-1501

Nikon D3, 70-200mm f/2.8 lens @ 200mm, f/4, 1/2000s, ISO 400.

A New One...

This is little A.; she's just a couple of months old, and makes a room light up with her little smile.

Nikon D7000, 70-200mm f/2.8 VR II lens @70mm, f/4, 1/500s, ISO 640.