Makeshift Studio Session

I've clearly stated on more than one occasion than I am not a professional photographer, but my goal is to get better and better in hopes that one day my wife will allow me to quit my day job and just take pictures all day. Until then, I'll keep practicing and try to get better at my craft.

To that end, I used some of my birthday / Christmas gifts on some equipment to use in an at home studio. I purchased some background equipment, and a black muslin background and added that to my two speedlights, light stands and umbrella's and I set up a decent little makeshift studio in my garage. I enlisted my twelve year old son Logan to sit (or stand really) for me, and I was pleased with the results. I also began shooting while tethered to my Macbook so that I could really see how the photos looked on a big screen instead of the little LCD screen on my D300S. I have to backgrounds to use, one black and one off-white, but I was much happier with the results when using the black background.

I've posted a few shots here for you to see, but there are also a few things I've learned in the process:
 - Although the garage will work for a mostly suitable studio location, since it is not climate controlled it will be difficult if not impossible to use in the heat of the Summer and to dead cold of the Winter.
 - My two speedlights are great for working with a single subject, but will most likely not be sufficient for two or more subjects.
 - I really need a good solid table to sit my 17" Macbook on while I shoot. Don't want to take chances with dropping it on the hard garage floor.

Equipment used:
 - Nikon D300S Camera body
 - Nikkor AF-S DX 18-200mm VR Lens
 - Nikon SB600 flash
 - Nissin Di866 flash
 - Cheaplights NPT-04 4 Channel Wireless Hot Shoe Flash Trigger

Here are few images from the first shoot in the garage with the new set up. I hope you like them.

Senior Portrait: Justin

I am not a professional photographer. One look at the majority of my work would tell you that. However, being able to make a living by taking photographs would be a dream come true for me. I love taking photographs, and creating interesting images.
My nephew Justin is a high school senior this year, and I approached my brother and his wife and asked them if I could have a shot at taking his senior portraits. I thought it would be a win-win for both of us. It would save them some money, it would give me some valuable experience, and if it turned out to be a miserable failure, they could then find a pro to take the photos. Well, they agreed and we put a date on the calendar, and then agreed on a location. Forest Park in St. Louis is a popular spot with lots of scenic locations and interesting backdrops. The day finally rolled around and we ran into a couple of snags. First of all it was 97 degrees that day, and the humidity was extremely high. Just standing in place, even in the shade, was miserable. Secondly, little did we know that the location that we had selected inside the park was also the destination for no less than four different wedding parties! Several buses and limos filled with women in colorful dresses and men in full tuxedo regalia waited on the street in front of the fountains we were going to use. With little other choice we began scouting new locations for our session. We walked for a little while and found a couple of suitable locations for the shoot, and got down to business. Justin was a real trooped considering that we started the shoot with him wearing a suit and tie, and the temperature was positively steaming. He was a lot of fun to work with, and he loved to pose. He relished the chance to practice different looks, from funny to serious. At one point during the shoot, we shot near the St. Louis City Art Museum. They have a large pool surrounded by concrete steps on three sides, and I wanted to get some shots of Justin sitting and leaning on those concrete steps. It turned out to be a great location, but unfortunately for Justin, those steps had been baking in the hot summer sun all day and were incredibly hot to the touch. We didn't try it, but the old expression ""you could fry an egg on the sidewalk certainly came to mind. Overall the shoot lasted about 2 hours, and it was a great experience for me. I took, what I think were some terrific photos. Based on the results, my brother has already asked me to take Justin's brother Ryan's senior portraits in 2012. This still doesn't make me a pro, but it did give me a little taste of what the business must be like.

  

Cruisin'

It's early 2011, and we've already taken our major vacation for the year. My wife, son and I, recently took a seven day Disney cruise to the Caribbean on the Disney Magic. On the first day of the cruise, we walked around the ship, and found ourselves in the fitness center. We both packed some workout attire, and had planned to use the facility during the week (which we did). The fitness center director addressed those in attendance for a raffle, and said that, on average, a passenger on a seven day cruise will gain between 7 & 14 pounds! I scoffed at the notion that anyone could gain 14 pounds in only a week. Well, after the first three days, I was no longer a scoffer. I spent a considerable amount of time lounging as pictured here. The food was amazing and abundant, and the locales we visited were quite conducive to chillaxin' (I know I'm not hip enough to use that word, but there it is). Our ports of call were Key West, Grand Cayman, Cozumel, and Disney's island Castaway Cay, where this photo was taken. Although we had taken a Disney cruise before, the kids were much younger then, and required more attention. This time our oldest daughter was unable to go, and our son (who's now 11) was able to be on his own for much of the trip. So that left a lot of free time for the wife and I to simply sit back and relax, which we took full advantage of. I snapped this photo while we were reclining on the beach in the "Serenity Bay" section (18 or older only) of Castaway Cay. Truth be told, this subject and composition is not original. I took a very similar photo last year when my wife and I traveled to Cancun last March. I think this will become on on going series of photos. Each time we visit a beach, I'll try to take a similar picture, and hopefully get a little more creative as I go. Anyway, we had a fantastic trip, made all the better when we learned that on the day of our departure from Port Canaveral, FL 5 inches of snow fell back home.

Dave Barnes "Very Merry Neighborly Christmas Tour"

My wife is a great gift giver. In fact, she is so good at giving gifts, that quite often she chooses gifts so perfect that she gets to enjoy them too. I've been given several birthday or anniversary gifts that were trips that she got to take too. I'm not complaining. I enjoy the trips (Vegas baby!) and we always have fun, but it's become kind of running joke that she gives gifts that she also gets to enjoy.

So this year for my birthday she got me tickets to see one of my favorite singers, Dave Barnes. The catch was, that the concert was in Memphis, TN, and she got four tickets. One for she and I, and also the kids. So off we went. This was my first trip ever to Memphis, even though Memphis was a big part of my childhood growing up. This is really off topic, but when I was a kid my dad would always use Memphis as an answer to a lot of questions. "Hey dad, where's Mom?" "Memphis.""Hey dad, where are we going?" "Memphis." You may ask yourself why he would do that, and to be honest, even to this day, I don't know. I really don't think he does either.

So anyway, we arrived at the venue, and prior to the concert we had an opportunity to meet Dave Barnes, which my wife and daughter loved because they think he is so cute. Notice how she worked her way right next to him?

From left: Michelle, Logan, Dave, Rhonda, Me

We had a great time. The music was great, and even though I was clearly the only guy over 30 (let alone over 40) within three hundred feet of the stage, I really didn't mind standing through the whole thing. I got a lot of odd looks from the young people around me. They all had that look, like "What's the old guy doing here?" So, even though I stuck out like a sore thumb with my balding head, advanced age, and DSLR, I had a great time. I took a lot of photos from my spot in front of the stage, which was my first attempt at concert photography. I fought with the exposure a lot due the low lights, and I also struggled getting the correct white balance. Since this was a Christmas concert, there was a lot of green and red lighting and that caused some ugly tones in my early shots. But once I dialed in the exposure, white balance and fill flash, I managed to get a few good shots. Nothing that "Rolling Stone" would be interested in, but good enough that we'll have some good memories of our trip. Prior to the show, we didn't know anything about Drew & Ellie Holcomb who were part of the tour, but we all became fans of their music during the show. We were also pleasantly surprised to find out the Gabe Dixon was going to be playing keyboards and singing during this show. (As a side note, if you've never heard any songs by Dave Barnes, Drew Holcomb, or Gabe Dixon, I would highly recommend you check them out on iTunes.) So, all in all, it was a great birthday present, given by one of  our generations greatest gift givers.

As always, thanks for taking time to visit my blog, and thanks for reading!

Dave Barnes

Drew & Ellie Holcomb

Gabe Dixon (of The Gabe Dixon Band)

2nd Annual Christmas Card

Last year we decided to take a family photo to use as a Christmas card. And though it was a good idea, by the time we all found the time to actually take the photo, it was too late to get the cards in the mail. We ended up sending out a semi-lame “E” Christmas card to our friends and family, and although we got a lot of positive comments on it, I felt it was kind of a lazy way to send out Christmas greetings. So this year we started early, and took the photo much earlier, and we were actually able to get actual cards in the mail. The only issue (or so I thought) we had this year, was which picture we were going to use in our card. We took several shots, and had two that we couldn’t quite decided between. So, at the last minute we decided to combine the two poses we liked the most. However that required taking an additional photo. So we once again found ourselves scrambling to take a picture. Last year we had help, but this year it was all done via a remote shutter release. It’s the first time I’d done this, and found it much more difficult than I had originally thought. After much trial and error we finally got the picture we wanted. The whole family was very patient, which is really saying something, because the kids often lose focus (see previous post). So now that I had the two pictures I wanted, I only needed to Photoshop them together to get the final product we were looking for. We really wanted something other than the standard “family by the fireplace” card that everybody sends, so we ended up with the image below.

We were going for a kind of photo you see in the opening credits of the “Modern Family” television show. It’s not perfect by any stretch, but we like it, and think its at the very least unique. I hope this is something we can continue to do on a yearly basis, because I think we are doing more than making a Christmas card, as corny as it sounds, we’re also making memories. In case you wanted to see them, I’ve included some of the other pictures we took before the were Photoshopped. 

As always, thanks for reading, and have Merry Christmas!

It's Christmas Time Again

It's December, and that means that it's time for us to put together our family Christmas card. Last year we took our first family Christmas photo, but it was too late to get them in the mail, so we sent out an Ecard to all of our friends and family. It was kind of lame, and certainly not traditional, but at least we did it. This year we started a little earlier, so we would have enough time to put together a more traditional card and get them in mail in time for Christmas. I had several "creative" poses I wanted us to try, but for some reason, all of the Christmas lights I was going to use for props stopped working. That's right I said all of them. I had four strands, and they all just quit. I have no idea what happened, but I had to scrap at least two of my ideas. We did take one kind of "fun" pose, but we're not sure if we'll use it or not. So we took a more standard approach and posed all together in front of the fireplace. The two captures below are pics of the kids by themselves. As you can see, it's often difficult to keep them focused and on task, but despite their age difference they always seem to have fun when they are together. Over all it was a fun night with all of us together, and I'm glad I got these pictures to look back in the years to come.

As always, thank you for reading... and feel free to comment if you like.

Fun with Flash

I've been thinking recently about taking some creative photos using an off camera flash. So many times, the only time I use a flash, is with the tiny pop-up flash on top of the camera. I also have a Nikon flash (heretofore referred to as a speedlight), but I usually just stick it on top of the camera hot shoe as well. But a few months ago I learned that my Nikon camera, and the Nikon SB-800 speedlight have a built in functionality that allows a user to trigger the speedlight remotely without buying any special equipment. With just a few tweaks to the camera's shooting menu, I was able to configure the camera so that I don't need to have the flash mounted to the top of the camera to trigger it. Now I'm sure that there a lot of photographers out there who are much smarter than me (but then again, who isn't) that had figured this out in much less time than it took me. But now that I've figured it out, there a lot more things I can do with the flash. I can mount it to a stand to create different lighting angles, or like the image above, I can set it on the laptop keyboard to illuminate the boy's face. 

In this mostly dark room, I sat the boy down with my Macbook, and placed the speedlight on the keyboard. Even thought the glow from the screen did light up his face some, it wouldn't be enough. So I dialed the power of the speedlight down to 2/3 power and snapped the frame. The end result, including a blinded 11 year old, is supposed to look like the laptop is glowing with such power that it illuminated the boy's face, but leaves the rest of the room still dark. I'm not completely happy with the end result. I think I should have played with the exposure a little more, but I do like the glow of the Apple logo. 

I've researched dozens of photos in Flickr, and found some great ideas I want to try (rip off) using some of these same techniques. Once I've found someone to pose for them, and played a little, I'll post some of them here.

As always, thanks for reading.