Posts Tagged ‘strobist’
Blueberry, blueberry, where are you?
You ought to have seen what I saw on my wayTo the village, through Mortenson's pasture to-day:Blueberries as big as the end of your thumb,Real sky-blue, and heavy, and ready to drumIn the cavernous pail of the first one to come! And all ripe together, not some of them greenAnd some of them ripe! You ought to have seen!"Blueberries by Robert Frost
Have you ever pulled a well-ripened blueberry from it’s comforting container and just … admired it? Hold it between your fingers. No, don’t squeeze it; it’ll burst at the seams. But, just cradle it. They have a delicate skin, a deepest of blue. Some of mine were just past the age of ripeness. You could see it in the skin, wrinkled like the skin of a well-worn man aged in the sun and retired from the orchard.
When ripened, blueberry skin becomes waxy, almost white and milky. This aging of it’s coat protects it from spoiling too quickly. But, at the same time, reveals a mottled and textured appeal for the camera. It gives life and depth to this tiny blue planet.
On one end a crater has formed from the tips of the flower petal. It resembles a miniature (yet mighty) impact of rock and ice on a planet surface. Really, go look. Tell me you don’t see it.
Anyway, I took up the idea of blueberries one evening recently after having seen a photo of this delightful little fruit falling into a bowl and leaving a trail of light in it’s wake. I wanted to recreate that image to see if I could do it. Sadly, I came to the conclusion that it’s not as easy as it looked.
I’m still mulling over why I failed here. The scientist in me could give you a hundred different technical reasons on why I couldn’t capture it, starting at “not enough ambient light” and ending somewhere around “not enough hand-eye coordination to coordinate the falling berries and the shutter”. The storyteller in me just wants to say that the idea, however much I had chased it, just wasn’t in me. Frustration set in when I wasn’t getting what I wanted.
So, like every grand experimenter, I tried something different.
A little side journey here. One of the things I’d promised myself recently was to shoot every Strobist Bootcamp II subject presented to me. I did the first. Failed on the second (but made up for it with my coffee beans). When the results were announced, I went through the entire 700+ list of entries just to see what people were doing. I declare that I’m standing on the shoulders of giants here. The one that caught my eye (before it was announced as the winner) was this one. Peppers in a well-seasoned skillet. Now this … this has character. This pan has a story to tell, of all the wonderful and comforting dinners it’s sizzled away at. You can see the scratches and dings and pock marks. A hedonistic patina built up by years and years of use.
And this is how ideas start.
I wanted something like this, something showing off the well-used baking stone we have. Our second stone, in fact, lovingly built up through years of curing under the scorching oven heat, saturated with the oils leached out of the foods we’ve cooked on it. French fries, battered fish, bread, pizza … you name it, we’ve cooked it. This has taken years. I was crushed when, in a moment of idiocracy, I took our first stone and set it under a fountain of water coming from our kitchen sink. It was the CRACK! heard ’round the world. Yep. The sudden change of temperature from hellfire and brimstone to cold, cold river water did me in. And I remember that moment every time I’m cooking on our second stone because of the time and effort it takes to season one of these well. An unseasoned stone is no stone to cook on.
So, I had my stone. And I had my blueberries. Like chocolate and peanut butter: two great tastes tasting great together. I had the soul and depth of my background with the life and zest of my subject. So, what to do? Be like any great artist and just plop my load of tiny planets down on this dark brown thingy. Make it look not-so-arranged and neat. Order is the bane of inconsistency. I played with the light a bit combining a bit of flash with a bit of incandescent and didn’t like it all that much; the blue and the orange just didn’t work well with this. 
The orange just detracts from the color of the blueberries, warming them up too much. They’re blue. They needed to be stark and cold and inviting that way.
I labored on. I spent hours upon hours arranging each and every berry in the most articulate of ways. You know, pushing and prodding gently with a toothpick, picking them up one by one with tongs like a little berry crane, and gingerly dropping them down upon the other without a moments hesitation. Ok, not really. They were unceremoniously dumped from the bowl I was eating them out of and finger-kicked until it looked
right, I realized I was still missing something. Steel! Cold, hard steel. Everyone loves a good blade right?
I’m still debating which photo I like more: with the blade or without. I wanted to see some of the detail and striations in the knife’s makeup. It really is a pain in the ass to get that angled correctly so the detail is teased out without blowing out the stripes. I tried adding some drops of water blown on to the entire arrangement but it looked contrived. I also thought about crushing some berries but … by that point, I was just eating them before I could sufficiently place the crushed ones back on the board.
Oh well.
The lighting setup on this wasn’t too difficult. One 32″ white shoot-through umbrella on the far side of the baking stone to give me that broad northern-looking light. I had a second light on-camera but aimed directly up at the ceiling to create a large fill source. I wanted just enough light to bring up some of the shadow detail without killing it and without blowing out the detail in the knife. I think it worked well enough.
But again, I’m still not sure which picture I like more. One thing’s for sure: the berries were good. I’ll need to go and get some more before the season dies out.
Juan Valdez, eat your heart out!
I promised myself I would do every Strobist Bootcamp II assignment this go-around. I swear I did. When I failed at doing the second one (the food assignment), I went out and bought some random vittles at Whole Foods to make up for it. A good strobist I was. I chose a random smattering of things: serrano peppers, fresno peppers, coffee beans, spaghetti (spinach AND wheat), two-bite brownies, and pints of blueberries.
Sadly, the brownies didn’t make it out of the evening alive. But the coffee beans did! I’m not sure about the photos though. I need to take a step back and re-evaluate what I did and figure out how I could have made them better. I think the biggest problem is that they’re just too uniform in color. All brown, no biscuit.
Biscotti might have helped.
But that’s ok. I still managed to spend over an hour working the light and coming up with something that looked good. Compared to many of the 2nd assignment’s submissions, I think they suck a bit. For the reason mentioned above. I just didn’t think enough about what I wanted to do with what I had.
I have a few more ideas to work through for the berries and peppers, but that’s going to take a day or two before I’m ready to even work on that. The hard part is trying to re-create northern sunlight coming in through the window in the dining room. It’s just too hot during the day to try and shoot back there.
I’ve included a few lighting setup shots so you can see what I was doing. It’s not much, but it’s a start.
What I’m realizing now is that, while the umbrellas do really well at creating a large, soft light, they’re extremely challenging to control. I mean, it’s a big round light. At one point, I was getting hot spots coming through because of how close I had the umbrella to the kitchen table. Solved that by slipping a piece of paper inside the umbrella at the point where it came closest to the table top to help diffuse out more of the light. That definitely worked great.
But, I need a good softbox. I need more light control for something like this.
In time.
But yeah, take a look at my coffee. Juan Valdez ain’t got nothin’ on my coffee bean yumminess! I think I’ll have to play with this idea some more. Add some piles of white cane sugar, maybe some cinnamon sticks. And a different mug. The brown is definitely just too much.
Oh, and next time I’m buying cheaper coffee. Something I can throw away when I’m done; or at least keep away from my wife who kept trying to act as part of the coffee bean thievery guild of greater Austin. Maybe I’ll just buy her her own coffee and that’ll solve my problem.
More photos from the evening. Click through to see the explicit lighting details.
Joe McNally at Google
This is a great video! Joe is now one of my favorite photography authors thanks to The Moment it Clicks. He recently presented a talk at Google describing some of his work and some of the ideas discussed in the book. Definitely worth watching.
Sunday Rembrandt and the Strobist
Man, what a blistering day in Austin! The day was absolutely gorgeous despite it being so hot. Like most other Sundays, I met up with some of the folks from Strobist: Austin at Opal Divine’s on South Congress. Because it was Memorial Day weekend, the meet up was fairly low key: only 8 of us I believe. We BS’d for awhile, ate, and came up with a few ideas for the group going forward.
One of the things that came up was discussion about lighting in cinematography and how film makers use light to carve out depth and intensity to a scene. Christopher and I agreed that picking a few movies and watching them as a group might lead to an interesting discussion on how we can use similar lighting techniques in our photography. Near the end of the meetup, Ron piped up and asked if we wanted to shoot his daughter Megan. Being the eager Strobists that we are, we all hesitated about half a microsecond before saying yes!
After lunch, most of us ended up up at UT to do a bit of shooting. The campus was virtually empty. Hot, but empty. 
We scouted around some of the buildings around Littlefield fountain, looking for some interesting textures to shoot against with Megan. The sun and heat conspired against us, driving us inside to the comfort of sweet, sweet air conditioning in the McCombs School of Business.
Tangent: One thing about UT that I really like is the sheer number of interesting textures and alcoves to shoot within. We found a bit of trellis work that would have been great to shoot under had the sun been lower in the sky. It was just too harsh and hot to work with. Definitely something to keep in mind for when it’s darker and cooler, much like some of the other areas we found and passed by.
So, back to the climate-controlled haven. We all stashed our stuff while waiting for Megan to arrive. Peter and I walked around the 2nd and 3rd floors looking for backgrounds worth shooting against. In the depths of the building is an atrium that houses a small cafeteria. Surrounded by brick at every level, it is topped off by a large set of frosted skylights. It was just enough to let in some of the sun and provide a nice tweak to the ambient. The second spot we found that had lots of potential was a big open entry-way on the east side of the building. There were large concrete columns and some great ambient flooding in from the wall of windows leading to Speedway.
Peter and I wandered back and found Megan with the rest of the folks from the meetup (Bob, Ron, Christopher, and Mike). Picking up our things, we led them back and quickly set up. During this first set of photos, Peter kept talking about Rembrandt lighting. I’d heard the phrase before but wasn’t sure what it was. Christopher took a moment to explain it to me. In Rembrandt lighting, you arrange the light across the face of your model such that a small diamond or triangle appears under the eye farthest away from the light. 
You start out by setting up your main light so it’s 30 degrees off of center from the nose and then 30 degrees above. Learn something new everyday! This style of lighting is based on the lighting found in Rembrandt’s paintings.
I didn’t take many photos in this first area at the atrium. I’m finding that I’m still having problems visualizing just what I want in my photos, so I’m going to have to make it a point to review my lighting folder for ideas before I go off and shoot something. Plus, I’m realizing that I really want to get some better (and faster!) glass. Christopher let me use his 90mm Tamron. I got frustrated because, like most lenses, it’s manual-only on my d40. It’s a nice lens, don’t get me wrong. Just hard to deal with when you’re trying to get something tack sharp on a camera that has no way of controlling that itself.
After everyone had shot some, we meandered down to the floor below to the other big atrium-like area. Christopher found a chair, Megan changed into a black, strapless dress, and we parked near the windows for the rest of the afternoon. By this point, I had started to relax and get into a better mindset about photographing her. It’s strange, the first half-hour to an hour, I tend to psych myself out. I’m realizing that I’ve done this every time I shot with a group of people. 
Just something to work on I guess. Once I got into the right headspace, I was finding it much easier to work with Megan. Directing her certainly became less of forefront task and more of a thing that I just did while framing my photographs.
One thing I’m figuring out is that I like dark, moody photographs. I keep wanting to kill out most, if not all, the ambient in a photo. The d40 makes it “easy” because of the electronic shutter. I still need to pay attention to the exposure histograms; just because it looks good on the little LCD doesn’t mean it’s going to look good when I get it back on the Mac and in Lightroom. More practice with being consistent in my lighting will help with this, but that means I need to work more one-on-one with models. This would be easier with fewer people around. Or, I just need to learn to jump in and take some time with the model instead of being “nice” and letting others take as much time as they want.
Around 4:45, one of UT’s fine police officers walked up on us. I suspect someone reported us being in the building. He asked what our project was and who we were. I explained to him about Strobist and what our group was about. He seemed satisfied and left us to our own devices after a few minutes. Nice guy. Hopefully all my future encounters with police and security will go that way (ha! doubtful!).
I wrapped up around 5:30 or so. Home again, home again.
The model above is Megan, Ron‘s daughter. She’s graduating and going off to college soon. She’s also an artist and a photographer. Right now, she focuses on macro photography and doing selective colorizing in Photoshop. She was definitely great to work with. The first photo is one of my attempts at Rembrandt lighting. You can see the small triangle of light piercing the shadow under her right eye.
If you’d like to view more of this shoot, check out my Megan at McCombs set on Flickr.
The end and beginning of an era.
Friday was the last day of work for my friend Shiree. We’ve known each other for about ten years. In fact, she was the person who helped get me into the position that started me out at my current employer. I’ll definitely miss her quirky and eclectic shenanigans at the office.
When I found out that she was retiring, I immediately went over and congratulated her. This was one of the best things to happen to her. She’ll now have the free time to explore her art and metal craft (she welds!), as well as give her the freedome to find new and explosive things to do with fire, methanol, and tankards of propane. Hey, I did say she was eclectic!
Over the last year or so, I’ve shared my photography with Shiree whenever I could. Being an artist, she really appreciated the different things I came up with. She’s an inspiration, honestly. She has a unique way of viewing the world, finding new and original ways to piece together everyday objects.
When she asked me to photograph her going away party, I jumped at it. I have lots of fun doing this stuff, especially when I know it’s for someone who will cherish the photographs. I wanted a few portraits of her before she left so we could slap 8×10′s up all over the building. A bit of a Shiree memorial, if you will. She was happy to oblige me and take a few minutes out of her party so I could set up the brollies around her. I took half a dozen photos and each one turned out really good. A year ago, I wouldn’t have been so confident about dragging my stands, flashes, brollies, and camera into a crowd of people who’ve never seen me work. Today was different, though. I didn’t care. I got a few odd looks, but I just smiled and waved.
Working with the Strobist ideas over the last year have made me realize just how much I enjoy photography. Working with people and learning how to photograph them has always been a challenge for me, but I can see where it’s definitely becoming easier and easier each time I set up the gear. Shiree’s encouragement helps me realize that I should continue working on it to get better and better, because someday, I will be able to retire from my regular career and move into something I find extremely enjoyable.
Tomorrow the Austin Strobist group is meeting up at Dunvegan Keep for our monthly meetup. I’m really looking forward to it. If it wasn’t for the group of people in this group, I don’t think I’d be able to create photos like these. Certainly not after a year. The amount of unhindered learning and willingness to teach (for the sheer sake of teaching!) is simply astounding.
The first two photos are of Shiree. The second is of Shiree and Greg. This was a simple light setup. One 32″ white shoot through umbrella up high at camera left, SB-800 at 1/64 for the first two photos, 1/32 for the third. One 24″ white shoot through umbrella low at camera right, SB-800 at 1/128 for the first two photos, 1/64 for the third.
Livin’ La Vida Strobist
… or maybe we’ll call it “Strobist Pickups”.
On Wednesday, I went to a benefit show held by a local photographer, Jay B. Sauceda. He was doing an open house at his studios in honor of a deceased friend. Jay B. has several of the displayed photos up on his Flickr stream. The photos of Heather and Michelle were some of the most striking. The composition and color was just stunning.
I knew a few of the other Strobists in the area would be showing up so I knew it would be a good evening to hang out and get better acquainted with people I didn’t know. Chris (Definitive Images), Greg, Tom, Julian, Dom, both Peter’s, and a few others ended up gathering around and doing a bit of planning for the upcoming Dunvegan Keep meetup on April 27th. This is going to be a great chance for everyone to work with light. After awhile, some of us migrated outside and came upon Ben, Carol, and James. Food soon became the subject of interest and many of us trekked down to Nuevo Leon on 6th Street. (A word of warning: double check Chris’ directions. ;-) The food was good but the sopapillas were a bit over-seasoned with cinnamon.
After dinner, a few of us were kind of restless so we meandered back to Jay B’s to see if we could find a few other folks willing to do a bit of late-night shooting. I had my gear, Chris had his. All we needed was a model and a place to shoot. Walking back to the studio, I pointed out the outdoor stage (seen in the photo above) to Chris, so we went scout it out. Certainly worth using; the place was covered in graffiti and murals.
Inside, Chris found Michelle, one of the models that Jay B had photographed for the benefit. One simple question later and we had a willing subject, a place, the gear, and some photogs ready to have some late night fun. So, off we all hiked, just a random group of people walking around East Austin with no real plan other than to have fun and take some photos. The photog community in Austin is beginning to gel and become more cohesive, especially when you consider a bunch of us are just amateurs and people trying to break into the business. The pros seem willing to lend a hand, give some pointers, and make it feel open and welcoming.
About an hour later, Michelle and her boyfriend had to depart, so the rest of us decided to set up a group shot for the evening, located around one of the playscapes that was next to the stage. It took us about 30-45 minutes to get the idea down and lights set up. Chris had some good guidance there (as well as when we were shooting Michelle). Once we had everything set up, we got about a dozen timed photos with all of us in the picture (me, Carol, Chris, Ben, Peter, and Andrew). I’m looking forward to seeing the photos once Chris posts them.
The shot above is a three light setup. The main light is a Nikon SB-800 shot into a Westcott umbrella at camera right. There’s a Nikon SB-800 at camera left providing a bit of hair and rim light. Finally, there’s a Nikon SB-800 at camera right that’s up close to the wall providing some illumination to highlight the detail in the mural.
One of the things I learned Wednesday evening during all of this is that if you want to shoot, just shoot. I’m finding that the more I shoot, the more comfortable I become with the equipment. I still need work directing models. I froze up a bit working with Michelle because I didn’t have any idea what I really wanted to come up with. Some of the photos other folks took were pretty cool and it was interesting to watch a photo progress, one move at a time.
For now, more practice is needed and I’m looking forward to doing more Strobist Pickups.
If you’d like to see more photos from this, check out the set on my Flickr stream.
Scouting Dunvegan Keep
For the past few months, the Strobist Austin group has been meeting up to do some off-camera lighting work. In preparation for our April 27th meetup, some of us drove to Dunvegan Keep in South Austin. Dunvegan Keep is another “odd” Austin feature. It’s in a residential area, built upon the grounds of a home owned by Craig Turner. The site is rather large, including a chapel, several courtyards and archways, a Roman-style pool, and several other amenities built around the theme of medieval and ancient eras. The site is primarily used for family portraits and weddings. Today, we happened to walk in upon a workshop dealing with bridal photography.
I grabbed a few photos of the place to scout out some areas for my team. The place is simply stunning. It’s been completely designed and built by Craig over the last few years. He’s a wonderful artisan. I’m definitely considering the site for some of my other ideas once the meetup is over (especially when you take into account the very inexpensive $45 fee for personal /family stuff).
