Focus on someone unique

Nikon D300 Nikkor AF ED 80-200mm f/2.8D @ f/4 ISO 200 1/800th strobist: SB-600 off camera to left on light stand 1/2 powerWhen I photograph a wedding, an event or sometimes even a multi-person candid portrait session, someone in particular usually catches my eye.  This person often times is just a guest or not the focus of the event.  However, I make them a focus because I like their look or personality, or both.  Why do I do this?  Because I am always looking for a shoot within a shoot.  Just because I was hired to deliver a certain type of photograph(s), does not mean the client may not also be pleased with something else. 

I read about a photographer earlier today on the Nikon Learn & Explore app for iPhone (cannot name him because lost his page due to poor app build, iPhone flaw, or who knows, it's a frustrating device to me) who quit commercial photography because for that type of job a great client is required to make a great photograph.  He would be given an assignment, but in the field realize that it would not work and then would come up with something on his own.  

He also never planned what he was going out to shoot for his own personal shooting, the opposite of what you usually here photography instructors say to do.  I have even advised my own students to go out with a focus for each shoot, although I, myself, do not always follow my own advice.

Back to why I focus on a particular person over the course of an event or wedding . . . it also adds an extra element of fun for me, almost kind of a game.  For a New Year's Eve shoot I photographed the same woman four times, to her surprise, over the course of two hours.  She could not believe I was able to sneak in and get a shot of her again without her noticing.  Made her and I smile each time.  This broke up the routine of trying to photograph each and every guest in attendance.  It added a bit of a game for me to play, a shoot within a shoot.

The woman in the above photograph was the sister of the groom.  I was immediately drawn to her because of her cool hairstyle.  She was also a little shy which only encourages me to try and photograph a person more!  She got extra volume in her curls for this shot because the wind was blowing behind her.  

The bride was still not ready, so there was extra time for this type of fun shot that put me in an even better mood and no doubt helped me be a better photographer for the actual photographs I was hired to take.

Florida Beach Sunset & Twilight Wedding Children

Making time for the flower girls - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm f/2.8 @ f/8 ISO 640 1/320th strobist: SB-600 off camera to left 1/2 power

I had the chance to be a second shooter for a wedding recently, which to me is one of the most fun gigs in photography.  Minimal pressure & responsibility, but maximum opportunity to get creative or at least unusual shots.  While the main photographer worked with the bride and groom, I was able to focus on the children in the wedding party during sunset and twilight.  I corralled the two flowers girls, who were frolicking on the shoreline, just long enough to make this sunset portrait.  The older flower girl just instinctively held the younger flower girl like that.  All I had to do was make sure my strobist setup was aligned correctly and try to get the horizon straight (whoops).  That is always a challenge as people standing up straight are almost never perpendicular to the horizon.  This time I chose a slightly crooked horizon in exchange for flower girls with perfect posture.

Representing multiple generations - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm f/2.8 @ f/5.6 ISO 400 1/320th strobist: SB-600 off camera to left full power

The woman above is holding her granddaughter.  I purposefully wanted to try my best to make as good a portrait of her as I could . . . because she told me earlier either another photographer or just someone told her that she did not look good in photographs.  That made me feel ill that someone would do that, especially if it was a photographer!  I made a point to prove that person wrong, which I think I was successful at with the above portrait.  I showed it to the woman right after saying, "see, you look great in this photo."  She thanked me and I could see in her eyes she was surprised herself.  It was a very satisfying feeling for me.  

I helped the woman get over her self doubt by having her hold her granddaughter for a portrait, much better than trying to make a good portrait of her on her own.  I am sure just holding her granddaughter puts her in a more relaxed, loving mood.  Add to that a beautiful Florida twilight sky, and boom, a photograph that will be valued by both photographer and subject.  

standing perilously on a jetty! Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm f/2.8 @ f/5.6 ISO 400 1/100th strobist: SB-600 off camera to left full powerThe above flower girl was obviously a very easy subject to make a great portrait from.  She was standing, rather balancing, on some jetties when I brought my light stand over to use the now inky twilight sky as a background against her white dress.  It was a rare opportunity for me to photograph a child so far after sunset.  Flower girls are usually drenched in sunlight in photographs, or under the lights of a church.  I wanted to add a sense of mystery to a flower girl portrait.  This shot and all the others would not be possible for me to take being the primary or lone wedding photographer for a sunset wedding.  I was glad to have the opportunity this time.

Psychedelic Medical Mannequins

Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm f/2.8 @ f/5.6 ISO 400 1/60th strobist: SB-600 off camera on counter to the right

I do not often play around with editing software filters much, but last week I found myself inside a Red Cross office building with my camera in hand and no supervision.  The mannequins pictured above were visible from the far end of a dark hallway and startled me at first.  My next thought was I want to photograph these things!  

I touched nothing.  There were in the exact positions you see above.  I looked around for a good place to put my SB-600 Speedlight on because I knew right away I wanted to bounce the light off one of the walls in this room to try and get an unusual lighting outcome.

Since this was just a photograph I took for fun, I then went through some of the filters I rarely ever use in Color Efex Pro 3, and settled on this one to portray a kind of psychedelic horror nightmare look.  I feel it kind of makes it look like a composite shot, like all three mannequins were photographed separately then combined into this one image.  

I think it is important to still have fun with one's photography from time to time as it is easy to get caught up in the business end of shooting.  Who knows, maybe some day a potential client will see this image and want their own portrait made like this!  

Here is the original image straight out of the camera:

original, no processing done

Grandmother's Kiss in Sepia

I would never have made this shot if not for attending a photography meeting

You never know where you will find photographic inspiration, but then sometimes, you do.  I attended a TAPPA (Tampa Area Professional Photographers) meeting late last year and the guest speaker for that night almost exclusively made square-shaped, burnt sepia portraits, on 3 foot x 3 foot canvas . . . for $3,000.  Though my skill level is not great enough to charge that much for a portrait session, I did learn a lot from that photographer that I can and have applied to my own photography business.  I am not ashamed to say that I have fallen in love with the burnt sepia look for portraits, and I do also crop in a more square-ish style now for some shots as well.  

Photographers inspire other photographers.

To make the portrait above it took my entire current skill set from shooting to processing.  Everything I have learned through intense self-study, through attending lectures by other photographers and even a free lighting workshop, I applied to this shot.  In light of all this, do I think it is perfect?  Not even close.  However, I am pleased from a personal level to know that I could not have made this shot this time last year.  As a photographer I first aim to please myself because I know know one has higher standards for my work than I do myself.  So if I am pleased with an image, I am pretty darn sure the client will be too. 

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Sunny Florida at f/11 project #03 - Royal Palms

Nikon D300 Tamron XR Di II 17-50mm f/2.8 @ f/11 ISO 200 3-bracket HDRIt has been over a month since I last did anything with my own personal photography project -- Sunny Florida at f/11.  So today I made sure to bring my Nikon D300 with me as I knew I would be in an area I had not been in before with an hour to spare.  The weather cooperated, as it does most days, and provided me with the sunny-ness this project requires.  

Now I always tell people you need to use a tripod to make HDR shots, and well, I broke my own rule as I did not have my tripod with me, and really it is busted beyond use as well, so instead of my usual 7 or 9 bracket HDR technique, I just did this handheld 3-bracket shot.  I even had to hold my D300 over my head.  I only tried it twice (this is the second attempt above).  The first attempt was ok, but the for the second one I really focused on my breathing and held my breath as I held the shutter down.  The exhaling technique does not work as well as just holding my breath for me.  

The three, tall, royal palm trees all grew out of the same cluster base.  If a botanist can tell us if they are all sisters or all one tree that would be cool.

Nobody told me there'd be days like these

Nikon D300 Nikkor 80-200mm f/2.8D @ f/2.8 ISO 1000 1/250th Nikon SB-800 Speedlight on hotshoe, manual mode

Some of the best days of my life, on days I was actually alive, were when I had everything that mattered to me on a backpack on my back and an unknown destination on the horizon.  I can recall one such day vividly.  I had just come ashore on Koh Lanta, a small, cigar-shaped Thai island in the Andaman Sea.  I secured the rental of a sleek red scooter for a week.  I stopped in an open air cafe for a quick fresh mango juice.  As I sipped it, out of nowhere played John Lennon's "Instant Karma!" over the cafe's speakers.  As I left the cafe, got on the scooter, tightened my faithful Cerro Torre 55-liter pack to my back, and took off down the island through jungle roads, by hamlets on the corner with children playing, all with Lennon's words still resonating in my head, I cannot describe the level of Freedom I felt then.  Absolute, pure Freedom.  I was completely untethered.  It is a memory strong enough that if I knew I were to die in the next three seconds, I would recall this memory and die with that feeling as my last fleshly experience.

Of course I was dressed in my classic world traveler clothes, faithful green Cerro Torre Coolmax button up shirt, and outdoor cargo shorts, and at the time an infallible pair of Addidas all condition open trail running water shoe.  Hell, I dress not much different to this day, nor in any city I went to.  Clothes that maximized my Freedom.  I could go anywhere, do anything.  

I can never wear a suit.  Though I was being paid to be in the room with the man pictured above, I was Free, I was being paid to do the only work I currently can find tolerable, and that is photography.  I empathized with the man though, wondering if he was recalling a memory of pure Freedom, if he knew not how he got to where he was in suit in tie, in Florida of all places.  If before he got married he was in the jungles of southeast Asia knowing not where he would sleep that night, but being damn thankful to have found an amazing hillside bungalow with monkeys waiting on the porch and a nearby cliff that stretched out past the jungle's reach to give a clear, vast view of the Andaman Sea, at sunset.  "And we all shine on, like the moon, and the stars, and the sun."  Instant karma's going to get you.....not me though.  I would die first.

Sepia Senior Portrait in St. Petersburg

High School Senior Maria posing with a jacaranda flower in downtown St. PetersburgA large jacaranda tree resides in downtown St. Petersburg next to the Museum of Fine Arts.  Its bright red blossoms fall to the ground still in full possession of their dignity, making for prize souvenirs for passersby, or the random senior portrait shot.  As you can see the tree has been defiled with carvings.  Someone declared their love in a large heart upon the poor trees vast trunk.  Perhaps now in hindsight I did a dishonor to the tree for using the carving in my portrait.  I will make it up to the jacaranda tree the next time I see it.  

How I made this shot:

• Nikon D300 with Tamron 17-50mm f/2.8
• f/11 ISO 200 1/30th
• strobist:  Nikon SB-600 Speedlight on light stand to the above left of frame
• processing: Aperture 3, Color Efex Pro 3, Photoshop CS4, sepia in Silver Efex Pro 3