Photographic Impressions

My Other Hobby

2011-03-22T18:17:00.000-07:00

It has been a long time since I've posted to this blog but my camera has been stored away for a few months. Instead, I've been back in the workshop creating sawdust. I found a beautiful selection of tiger maple at my local hardwood supplier and decided to build this hall table with a maple top and walnut base. The design was inspired by a picture I saw in a magazine. The base was finished with amber shellac and top was dyed and sanded several times to get the tiger curls to "pop", then finished with several coats of lacquer and finally paste wax.

Creepy Guy on the Prairie

2010-07-25T07:42:00.001-07:00

Leesa and her husband Rick hammed it up beautifully to create a frightening prairie scene. Our plan was to create ominous shadows by placing a flash with a blue gel filter behind the villain. Leesa was lit with a second flash equipped with a 1/8th inch spot grid to focus the light just on the window. An orange filter on this light provided contrast and drama. Her $5 Walmart plastic pistol looked a lot more lethal with the long shadow it created! But Rick's machete was real. Click to enlarge.

Film Noir

2010-07-23T03:48:00.000-07:00

Film Noir was our objective when Stacey and I dragged a carload of equipment out to shoot pictures last Sunday. Sabrina was the perfect femme fatale, dripping with attitude, and Rick the confident private detective, unmoved by her charms and ready to get to the bottom of this.

No lungs were harmed in the making of these pictures. The cigs were only rolled up pieces of paper. Ash, ember and smoke were added later thanks to Stacey's Photoshop magic.

2010-07-10T13:17:00.000-07:00

Had a great time over the 4th of July weekend in D.C. Stacey hosted a workshop and she found some great models to work with while we shot pictures indoors and out. Emma and Flow were very patient as we practiced some lighting techniques with shoot-through umbrellas, softboxes, and spot grids, balancing daylight and strobes.

Just make it simple...

2009-09-24T18:35:00.000-07:00

Stacey and I got to shoot together again this weekend.

For me, photography pulls something out of me that often gets surpressed in the clutter of my life. From the first time I saw a photographic image slowly emerge in a bath of developer in the faint glow of a darkroom safelight, I was hooked. It was such an adrenalin rush to anticipate the result; a validation (or repudiation) of my skill with a camera and as a technician in the dark. More often than not, the results were awful - the exposure was off, the lighting sucked, the composition included a light post growing out of my subjects head, the image was out of focus. Basically, the image bore no resemblance to what I had in mind when I clicked the camera's shutter. The time between capture and finished print was days or even weeks so it was hard to remember what my f-stop or shutter speed was or even the time of day the picture was taken. Leap forward 30 years and it's a brave new world. With digital cameras you get instant gratification (or disappointment), virtually unlimited chances, auto focus, ISO options, white balance options, exposure sophistication, flash synch at unbelievable shutter speeds, and if you STILL screw up, the opportunity to "fix it in post", which basically means letting a $600 software package make you look like a hero rather than a goat. It aint fair. As Joe McNally (30 year National Geo shooter) often says, "Do you know how HARD this shit used to be???" But I digress.

Yes photography is easier to learn, and that's a good thing. But "easy" and "good" don't always equate. Even with all of the modern tools, photography forces me to really think, to "see" light, to try to tell a story. I've often told Stacey, the more you learn about photography, the lower your percentage of good shots. It's not that your pics aren't getting better, it's that your definition of "good" keeps changing.

So we took a couple of Stacey's very patient and photogenic friends up on a roof of an apartment building in D.C. along with about 50 pounds of gear....cameras, lenses, light stands, speedlights, soft boxes, clothing, hats, tripods...to create a few images as the sun set. Simple? Not by a long shot. But I'm just as hooked on the process as I was 30 years ago.

Surfing USA

2009-08-20T19:50:00.000-07:00

Getting up on a surfboard the first time can be tricky, especially when you have the paparazzi following your every move. Even so, Kevin, Chris, and Stacey did an awesome job riding the great Kahuna. Well, OK, maybe the waves weren't as big as the great Kahuna. They were closer to the ripples made when you throw a rock in the water. Nevertheless, spectacular spills and thrills were captured, including the classic "Endless Summer" sunset picture, while we visited Venice Beach a couple weeks ago.

Organ Hummers

2009-07-30T18:56:00.000-07:00

So after a couple glasses of wine with our sister and brother-in-law, Katie and Joe Organ, we decided upon the title of this blog entry. The hummingbirds hanging out in front of their beautiful Mendon, NY home were too pretty to resist. So I set up a tripod and waited until the sun went down so I could use a couple flashes to freeze their wings, which beat at 50 - 80 times per second. Click on the pics to see larger versions.

One light in the garden

2009-07-05T19:16:00.000-07:00

Nothing better than having family with us over a holiday weekend so we were pretty psyched when Stacey, Juan, and Chris surprised us with a visit from D.C. over the fourth. Stace and I have learned that dragging our cameras and lighting gear out for long periods of time is greatly frowned upon when "family" time is so rare, but we did get to sneak in a few pictures. We were up at 6:30am on Saturday to take some yoga pics (did I mention that Stacey is also a popular yoga teacher in D.C.?). Simple setup; just a softbox to the left of the camera and natural daylight. The other pics used a technique I've been anxious to try; one speedlight mounted high on a lightstand aimed at the windows/glass door on the back of the house. The light is outside, about 20 feet away in the garden behind our house. It strikes the window grilles and indoor plant, creating interesting shadow patterns on Stacey and the wall behind her. The intensity of the shadows is adjusted by changing the camera shutter speed.

Squirrels, kids, and brides

2009-06-28T11:19:00.000-07:00

Number one rule in photography is to "have your camera with you". When the bag weighs over 10 pounds, that's easier said than done. I had to run and get it to catch the squirrel eating bird seed that had dropped near a sprinkler. Same with the baby playing on the beach and our friend's granddaughter playing in magnificent window light. But it was definitely with me when our close friends', Colleen and Rick, daughter got married in Vermont a couple weeks ago. Cristin and Keith made a beautiful couple in a spectacular location.

A Day at Duke Gardens

2009-05-31T14:27:00.000-07:00

Claire has a friend visiting from Massachusetts and we enjoyed a beautiful afternoon in the Sarah P Duke gardens on the campus of Duke University in Durham. The water-lilies and pond life offered some great opportunities for pictures.

Breakdown

2009-04-26T10:03:00.000-07:00

Sabrina and Rick are recently engaged co-workers who joined me for a photo shoot yesterday. Not only are they both good looking and very photogenic, but were incredibly patient while we spent three hours setting up and shooting the "breakdown" story. Rick's beater F150 served as the perfect prop while lovely Sabrina grows increasingly impatient with his inability to fix the problem. This was a great opportunity to try multiple strobe units to light our subjects as the light slowly fades to darkness. For those with an interest, the setups are shown at the end of this post. Click on the pictures for larger versions.

What a beautiful day. Sure glad I have a handyman around!

What a bummer. I hope this won't take long.

I'm thirsty. Can we PLEASE get going?

He sure is cute when he fixes things.

Maybe I can help!

What if you turned this little thingy back here.

Will this take much longer?

I'm SOOO bored!

My whole night is ruined.

Forget it. I'm out of here!

Signs of Spring

2009-03-28T15:03:00.000-07:00

Our backyard has been filled with songbirds lately, all busy preparing their spring nests. With my camera on a tripod close to the feeder and a radio control, I have been having fun capturing some of their activity.

Glass blowing by Alice

2009-01-03T20:34:00.000-08:00

"Alice" is a pottery fountain that was a gift from my mother 30 years ago. After years of sitting dormant, I finally replaced the broken pump and she is pouring water from her vase once again. She was a patient subject while I lit her with a softbox about 110 degrees camera left and a blue gelled flash aimed through some wine glasses to cast shadows on the wall in the background.

I then placed the blue flash high and to the right, aimed at the water, and moved in close with a macro lens. The softbox was 90 degrees camera left. Each exposure was completely different and the amazing water droplets reminded me of blown glass. Click on the images to get the full effect.

Fun with Flash

2008-12-27T14:02:00.000-08:00

Stacey and I had fun at Christmas playing with remote flash, colored gels. soft boxes, and snoots. The "mad woodworker" would be me, illuminated by three snooted flashes with red and blue gels. Good to be using my safety goggles while cutting a 2x6 with my miter saw, but the picture clearly illustrates why I should also have been wearing a dust mask!! The neighbors must have been questioning our sanity as we composed the picture in the driveway in total darkness.

These pics of Chris and Claire were illuminated with a 2x3 foot soft box (at about 90 degrees camera left), complemented by remaining natural daylight on a very overcast day. The brick wall was lit with a second flash that was gelled with an orange filter.

Day 11

2008-11-30T17:40:00.000-08:00

My laptop died on the last day of our trip and I was very concerned that all my pictures were lost, but thanks to the Apple Geniuses, all is well. Here is a traditional pic of Seattle as well as some of my favs from the trip.

Day 10 Part 2

2008-11-19T11:40:00.000-08:00

A couple final pics from Oregon and then we crossed into Washington state. Stace struck a few yoga poses on the rocks while I balanced the remaining rays of twilight with an orange gelled flash.

Day 10

2008-11-19T11:20:00.000-08:00

We headed north today along the coast of Oregon and stopped in a small fishing / logging village to take a few pics. Met a nice mother / son couple who were spending their last weekend fishing for Dungeness crab together before he moved off to Wyoming to work in the oil fields. They were glad to explain the process, which we documented with pictures. She was thrilled to hear we'd send the pics to her as a keepsake.

Get some bait. In this case a big hunk of throw-away cod (cost $2.50).

Tie the bait into the net and toss the net into the water, letting it sink to the bottom.

Wait 15 or 20 minutes and pull up the net.
The crabs are feeding on the bait, but in this case, they are too small to keep.
Close but not quite big enough to be legal, so he goes back in the ocean.
Michael and his mom, Tinsia.

Day 9

2008-11-17T14:28:00.000-08:00

Our first morning on the coast. We're staying in Cape Kiwanda. We were up again before dawn and simply walked across the street to catch all of these pictures. The first one is the view from our room. The sandstone cliffs are beautiful in the morning light and at low tide the pools at the base of the cliffs display amazing shapes and colors.

Sandstone alligator?

Day 8

2008-11-16T22:08:00.000-08:00

We were up at 5:15am and hiked in the dark to get to the top of Eagle's Cave, a very slippery and steep climb that enables a full 360 degree view of the Columbia River Gorge. Then on to Multnomah Falls and finally the coast of Oregon at Whalen Island. Too many photo opportunities to mention. Here are a few.

See that rock in the background? That's what we climbed to get the views below.

Day 7

2008-11-15T11:50:00.000-08:00

Up early today to to shoot the sunrise over Coeur d'Alene lake. Wasn't as spectacular as we had hoped so we pulled out our flashes and started experimenting in the woods. The Nikon Creative Lighting System is way cool and provides lots of options. Here we used two SB800 flashes off camera set in the woods with orange filters on them. The power of the flashes can be dialed up and down from the camera to create different lighting ratios. Stacey's shot of me by the lake became much more dramatic by simply dialing up the flash that was down low and about 45 degrees to the right of the camera. Coffee pic was natural light.

Caught a nice sunset shot on the way to the Columbia River Gorge. Shot it at two different white balances, cloudy and incandescent for different color effects

Day 6

2008-11-14T19:36:00.000-08:00

We made it to Coeur d'Alene Lake in northern Idaho today. There were many beautiful scenes along the way but we made few stops due to the poor light quality. A few miles from the lake we decided to take a detour up the 4th of July Pass, a long dirt road with many switchbacks up the side of a mountain. We were rewarded with a spectacular sunset and beautiful vistas. Sunrise pics planned for tomorrow and then on to Spokane to visit a friend from Biogen.

Day 5

2008-11-13T19:21:00.000-08:00

The workshop is over and we finally got a chance to sleep in. We left Bozeman around noon and headed west but made little progress because we kept stopping to take pictures. Stacey and I agreed our spouses would have had little patience for our many diversions, like reversing direction on I90, driving 20 miles out of the way, and shooting pictures of horses grazing in spectacular light. Or pulling into a bowling alley parking lot in Butte and setting up this picture with off camera flash shot through a diffuser (practicing some of Joe McNally's techniques). Since it was only 30 degrees, wind blowing 30 mph, and the shot took an hour, we're still thawing out. If we can stay focused tomorrow, we're on to Coeur d'Alene Lake in North Idaho.

Day 4

2008-11-12T17:40:00.000-08:00

And now for something a little different. What do you get when to take a an abandoned cowboy town, a junkyard of historic automobiles, a couple models, some colored gels, dramatic skies, some off camera flashes, and a few assistants? Cool pics.

Day 3:

2008-11-11T22:50:00.000-08:00

Well it is after midnight and we've been going since 5am. We witnessed an amazing sunrise over the Bridger Mountains, went to a working cattle ranch and watched them "cutting" the herd, which means separating the calves from the cows. We had lectures on Powerpoint, flash photography, NIK filters, etc. and then travelled to a ghost town from the late 1800's. To finish the day we had critiques of our work. Here are some of my favorites from the day. (click the pics for larger versions)

Day 2

2008-11-10T18:02:00.000-08:00

Last night was the kickoff of the workshop, with lots of spectacular images from the pros. Joe McNally was the highlight for me, sharing 30 years worth of amazing pictures from his assignments with National Geographic, Life, Sports Illustrated, etc. Although the workshop lasted till 11pm and we were awakened by a false fire alarm at 4am, we were still up before dawn hoping to catch great morning light in the canyon. Unfortunately, we got overcast, cold and rain instead. Still had fun. Here are a few of my pics for the day. Click on them for a bigger view. More Photoshop lessons tonight and then off to a cowboy ranch at 6am tomorrow!

Photographic Expedition

2008-11-09T22:38:00.000-08:00

We've arrived in Bozeman, MT and are anxious to get shooting at 6am tomorrow morning. This photographic expedition is a dream come true for both Stacey and me. Here we are at the airport (including a sunrise shot at RDU).