Patuxent River Naval Air Station Triathlon–the Swim

Back in the day (I think it was a Wednesday), I used to go to triathlons to compete.  This weekend I went to the Patuxent River Naval Air Station Triathlon to support Chef Sue (my wife), Gunslinger Teji, and Triathlon Buddy Brian.  Back in the day, Brian and I trained and raced together with religious fervor.  Quite impressively, Brian is still racing – and racing well.  At a shade over 50, He won his age group and was not far off the leader’s time – quite impressive.  Chef Sue and Gunslinger Teji were there with the intent of finishing; both accomplished their goal.  Congratulations.

Triathlons are target rich environments for photographers, so I took advantage of the opportunity.  I do not claim to be a sports photographer and definitely tend toward a more artistic interpretation of anything I shoot.  This triathlon is no exception.

So what distinguishes my “artistic” interpretation of a triathlon from what one would normally expect from a sports photographer?  While taking the photography, I probably would not have been able to tell you.  But in retrospect, as I look through the entire group of photos, I see several trends including:

• lots of shallow depth of field
• composition that fills the frame rather than larger environmental compositions
• about half of the photographs were processed as black and white – an artistic choice
• detail shots

With so much activity and being surrounded by interesting subjects, I shot a lot.  My hit rate (shots I felt worthy of keeping) was also pretty high.  For this reason, I will cover the race in several posts.  Obviously, this post focuses on the swim.

From a photographers standpoint, triathlons are generally started in good light.  Triathlons normally start early in the day to avoid the heat of the day.  With a 8 am start, I was lucky to have some great light (relatively low on the horizon) for shooting.  It became progressively harsher toward the end of the run, but overall, light is an advantage for early morning race starts.

The choice to process photos as black and white is not always an easy one at events such as this. One of the cool things at triathlons is the rainbow of colors. Swim suits, swim caps, bright blue water, race shirts, bikes – all full of color. Still, I find that black and white works with many of the shots.

Stand by for more posts later this week covering the bike and run portions of the race.

Have fun, and go make some great photography.

Craig

Spring Flowers at the U.S. Capitol Building

The gardeners at the U.S. Capitol building always do a nice job with floral displays in the gardens surrounding the building and Spring is particularly nice.  After a long, cold, and stark winter which turns Washington DC nearly colorless, the flowers of spring are a welcome splash of color.

So the subject of the photographs in this post will be tied by the theme of spring flowers at the U.S. Capitol Building.  However, I will talk about my new Canon 24-70mm f/2.8L lens as promised in an earlier post.  First I will acknowledge that all of today’s photography was taken with this lens.

I have long had the Canon 24-70 f/2.8L on my wish list.  However, it is a costly lens and I resigned myself to the fact that it may be some time before I could add this lens to my collection.  In place of the 24-70, I instead opted for the 24-105 f/4.0L – another great general purpose zoom lens at a much lower price.  Just last week I decided to put my 100-400mm f/4.0-5.6L on Craig’s list because I just was not using it (bought it for the camel races and have barely used it since).  I was approached by a gentleman with the 24-70 and he proposed a trade.  I think it worked out well – we were both able to trade an infrequently used lens for one we wanted.

I am very pleased with the performance of this lens.  It is super sharp all the way down to f/2.8 and maintains that sharpness out to the edges with a barely noticeable fall off in sharpness as you head toward the longer focal lengths (above 50mm).  However, if you are not pixel peeping, you will never notice the minutely soft corners.  Color, contrast and saturation are terrific, and the 8 blade aperture produces a very pleasing bokeh.

My only surprise with this lens was the size and weight.  I really don’t mind lugging around large lenses, but I honestly thought this might be a bit smaller than it turned out when I snapped it onto my Canon 5D.  At nearly 34 ounces, this lens is much heavier than all others in this neighborhood of focal length.  Like I said, the size and weight are not big issues to me and only make note of it due to my surprise.

This lens is a favorite of wedding photographers.  It is a fine portrait lens and is also wide enough on a full frame body that group and environmental shots are within it’s repertoire.  It is also a fast piece of glass that can be helpful in lowlight or indoor situations when lighting your subject is impractical.  One final point that is often overlooked with this lens is it’s short minimum focus distance.  At one foot, it is not capable of the maximum magnification of a 1:1 macro lens, but it does a darn good job.  This capability makes the 24-70 good for applications such as food photography, flower shots, and product photography.  I have already played with some flower shots and food photography and will post these soon.

Have fun and go make some great photography.

Craig

Food Photography Tips (11-15)

This is the third and final installment of food photography tips resulting from what I have learned during my recent period of dedication to food photography.

In Food Photography Tips (1-5), I presented the first set of tips:

• Tip #1:  Shoot Low – Angle Matters
• Tip #2:  Composition Rules Work for Food Too
• Tip #3:  Fill the Frame
• Tip #4:  Find Some Action
• Tip #5:  Eat Well

In Food Photography Tips (6-10), I presented the second set of tips:

 

• Tip #6:  Shoot with a Shallow Depth of Field
• Tip #7:  Shoot with a Long Lens
• Tip #8:  DO NOT Use the Flash Installed on Your Camera
• Tip #9:  Add Color
• Tip #10:  Capture the Textures

And now for the final 5.

 

Tip #11:  Use Props Judiciously

 

Props are good if used with a bit of restraint.  All the normal things you might find on a table (silverware, glasses, linens, flowers, wine bottle/decanter, cooking utensils, kitchen gadgets, etc.) are all fair game.  The thing to remember is that the food is the star.  If you go to heavy on the props, the star will not shine so brightly.  Also be conscious of distracting colors, patterns, or shapes of props.  Props should provide context, set a mood, and support the star of the show.  They should not compete for top billing.

 

 

Tip #12:  Think About Plates and Plating

 

Bonus! Two (or maybe more) tips in one!  Selecting the right plate is an important decision that has a number of implications including how you “plate” the dish.  First, I recommend staying simple.  If your plate is too cool for school, you draw attention away from where you want the viewers attention.  Second, I recommend small rather than large.  Small plates make the food look bigger.  A lot of empty space on a big plate can be distracting.  This is where the plate affects the plating (how you setup the food on the plate).  If the plate is too small, you may be limited in staging the food attractively.  If you have too large a plate, the food can look lonely.  Somewhere there is the plate that is “just right.”  If you don’t have the “just right” plate, err on the side of small. 

 

 

Plates also very with respect to the lip height.  Higher plate lips can hide the food.  I recommend sticking with a simple plate with a low lip height as a general rule.

 

Finally, plating a dish is an art in itself.  Without getting into the realm of food styling where all the Hollywood tricks are used, there is a lot you can do to make the food look appealing.  Plate it fresh. In other words straight from the pan, onto the plate, and in front of the camera while everything is juicy, steaming, melting, bubbling, or whatever your food might be doing.  Garnishing in a restrained manner can also add a good bit of appeal (see tip #9:  Add Color).

 

Tip #13:  Don’t Forget Your Color Balance

 

When I am shooting any of the great food I write about at Craig’s Grape Adventure, I generally run up against the challenge of shooting with several different light sources.  The lighting in the kitchen is different from the lighting at the table.  And to make things worse, the light may be coming through a window, halogen lights, fluorescent lights, or incandescent lights…all at the same time.  With all these different light sources, the photograph can become cast with a blue or yellow hue.  Suddenly, your cheese cake looks more like key lime pie…not good.

 

The next photography is one that needed a good deal of color correction…still not confident I got it right.

 

 

There are plenty of options to deal with this.  On the high tech end, there are gizmos and gadgets that you can photograph and have some magical piece of software do the correction in post processing (a great example is the X-Rite Color Checker Passport).  You can rely on your camera’s auto white balance (not always reliable), you can manually adjust the white balance settings in your camera (a bit better than auto white balance), or you can just deal with it on the computer.  Personally, I take care of it on the computer.  Adobe Lightroom does a great job of handling white balance, and where it misses slightly, I can adjust it to match the tones and hues I want.  However, when I have a few spare coins, I will definitely be purchasing the  X-Rite Color Checker Passport.

 

Tip #14:  What to Shoot, and What NOT to Shoot

 

What luck!  Another two for one tip!  Here is the big secret – shoot the things you find appealing and attractive.  If it is not attractive and appealing, don’t shoot it.  It really is that simple, but let me elaborate a bit because there are a couple of important points in these simple statements.  Food photography is not photo journalism, and you shouldn’t feel compelled to shoot a disaster as it unfolds.  Just last night I photographed one of my wine pairings for  Craig’s Grape Adventure.  A wonderful 2006 Ledson Zinfandel paired with my interpretation of Shepherds Pie as an homage to Saint Patrick’s day.  I’m not saying it is impossible to make shepherds pie look good, but it is not easy.  Some food (like shepherds pie) takes a great deal of effort or creativity to make it look good.  And some dishes, while absolutely delicious, are better left to senses other than the visual.

 

 

The other category of things that fall into the “do not shoot” category are the details you may have overlooked like the spots on the wine glass, the little sticker on the decanter, the price tag on the bottle of wine, the drippings on the plate, and so on.  My point is to pay attention to the details and be conscious of not only the things you want IN the photograph, but those things you don’t want in the photograph.

 

The photograph above is a good example of not paying attention to the details.  The sticker on the flowers and the pepper grinder should not be there.  Pepper grinder!!!  Am I admitting that my food is not perfectly seasoned???

 

Tip #15:  Pay Attention to the Light

 

I saved the most important tip for last.  Unfortunately, this is the most complicated aspect of food photography (or any photography for that matter).  I intend on writing a separate post (or series) on lighting food, but for now I will talk about some generalities.  First and foremost, photography is all about light and shadows, and forming the right balance between the two.  While having sufficient light for a good exposure is important, that is only the first step.  Once you have enough light for a good exposure, you then need to think about where the light is coming from and what kind of light it is.  More so than other types of photography, lighting for food photography is more about defining shape and texture.  Proper lighting adds depth and makes an orange appear more as a sphere, a hotdog as a cylinder, and a steak as a cube with depth and dimension.  Improper lighting makes each of these shapes flat and therefore less interesting and less appealing.

 

 

I still have much to learn about lighting food.  But I promise you I am working hard at it and will pass along the benefit of my research and experimentation when I have something substantial to offer.

 

Have fun and go make some great photography.

 

Craig