Cover Art for “Feel” by The J.O.B. (Jim O’Ferrell Band)

Over the last couple of months I have been working with The J.O.B. to produce artwork for soon to be released songs “Guardian” and “Feel.”  With a new set of flashes and a model (my son and soon to be USAF Officer), I was presented with some new opportunities for inspiration and creativity.

The lyrics to Feel talk about light, possibilities, and the feelings and understanding between people.  The ideas of “Feel” and “light” inspired a photo shoot focused on feeling the light.

From a photographic perspective, this was a bare bones shoot.  The shots were made in my garage with a single light.  The garage was completely darkened and I used the base piece of a yard shed as a back drop because it was black and non reflective.

After a few test shots, I found that I had to close the garage doors, turn out the lights and shoot in the dark to get the effect I was looking for.  The main challenge of shooting in the dark was focus.  If you have not noticed, cameras do a really poor job of focusing in complete darkness.

To overcome the focus problem, I turned the lights on, dialed in the focus, and marked a spot on the floor for the camera distance.  I then set the focus to manual (so it would not change), and began to shoot.

The shots shown here represent half of the keepers.  Come back soon to see the rest…as well as the J.O.B.’s final selection for “Feel”

Have fun and go make some great photography.

Craig

A Few Thoughts on Family Portraits–it’s all about Emotion

Back around the first of the year, one of the regular readers of this blog, Natalie, sent me a note and asked if I would photograph her family.  Fortunately I didn’t have to explain to Natalie that “sure, I can do it, but the style you see on my blog is what you should expect.”  Natalie had been following my photography and asked me to photograph her family based on my approach.

Everyone was onboard with my approach, we quickly worked out the pesky little details, and we met in mid-May for the shoot.  We ended up shooting on a rainy, overcast and otherwise nasty day.  Perfect!  The passing rain gave us time to sit around and chat, and when the rain cleared, the clouds remained – a wonderful big soft box providing some great lighting.

Natalie and here family were great subjects.  Not only is this a remarkably attractive family, pulled from the pages of L.L. Bean, they made shooting easy.  In other words, they are a family that obviously liked each other and interacted in ways that allowed me to just click the shutter at the right moment.

So here is my advice for family portrait photography:

1. Find a family like Tony and Natalie’s.
2. If you are not fortunate enough to get a close relative of Tony or Natalie, proceed with the rest of the list.
3. Place the family members in close proximity – gotta get them all in the frame.
4. Wait for them to interact.
5. Click the shutter.
6. Congratulate yourself on a successful shoot.

Okay, not exactly what you expected.  The point I want to make is that you can find and follow all the rules or guidelines for posing, composition, lighting, blah, blah, blah, but if subjects are posing rather than naturally interacting, laughing, joking, and otherwise just having fun, you will be missing the best shots.

Sure, as the photographer you can tell a joke and get a reaction, but it is so much better when Tony tells a joke, and his son reacts to him.  If you, as the photographer, can move toward invisibility, and the family is having fun, you have a winning equation.  To get to some level of invisibility, you need to spend some time with the folks you are shooting.  Spending some sincere time getting to know each other makes the experience easier and more enjoyable for everyone.  Making new friends is definite plus.

Thanks so much to Natalie, Tony and your two wonderful children for letting me share this little slice of your life.

Have fun and go make some great photography.

Craig

Self Portrait

Recently I have been asked on several occasions to submit a bio and self portrait for several photography related events, galleries, and online exhibits.  Bio…no problem.  Self-portrait??? More difficult - I am always on the wrong side of the lens.
As a holding place in the realm of self portraiture, I created this photograph.  I am not happy with it.  But first, let’s talk about how I produced it.  I have not yet invested in strobes or any other types of lighting systems for photography.  I do not have a studio, soft boxes, radio controlled strobes, light stands, and so on.  So for this photograph I went to my garage, took two nightstand lights, placed one below and in front of me, and the second above and to my right.
I used my 70-200 f/2.8L at 200mm and a wide open 2.8 aperture (1/4 second)  after setting the focus on a cabinet to the right of where I was standing, I used the shutter delay to start the process as I jogged across the garage to get in position.
So what is it that I do not like about the photo?  Technically, I am not unhappy given that I was working with a pair of $10 nightstand lights.  It is the subject.  Aside from the posed, thoughtful and troubled artist look, I must have self-image problems.  As I look out into the world, I feel like the 22 year old rugby player I am convinced I have always been.  When I look back I see the crowding 50, international environmental and maritime security consultant that I am today.  I have several years between the two to reconcile. 
The next portrait is of my son Ryan.  This is what I expect to see when I look in the mirror or make a self portrait.  Oddly, the guy in the first photograph keeps appearing whenever I do so.

I am thankful I am the crowding 50 consultant – that means this evening as we celebrate the conclusion of 2009 and the anticipation of great things to come in 2010, I will be able to afford a nice cigar and a fine, aged, single malt scotch to help contemplate what happened in those lost years.
Have fun, and go make a self portrait.
Craig

Hugo Chavez

This posting is dedicated to Hugo Chavez, President of Venezuela.  Why President Chavez?  Well, I have two reasons.  First, because of the work I was doing at the time, I had great access to take some photography normally reserved for the press corps.  Second, these shots represent a specific form of photography that is intended to tell a story; photo journalism.
I am not a photo journalist, and have an immense level of respect for the work done by this group of highly talented professional photographers.  Of all the manners by which photographers are able to earn a living, I often wish I could join this esteemed group.

There is no doubt that President Chavez is a controversial figure.  There is also no doubt that he has a loyal following in Venezuela as we see in the second photo as he waves to a crowd from Estado Bolivar.  This photo highlights a common scene in Venezuela; Chavez supporters, commonly known as Chavistas, dressed in their hallmark red t-shirts.

The next two shots, both head shots of President Chavez, tell another part of the story.  Apart from his support that comes principally from the large population of low income families in Venezuela, these shots leave one with the impression that behind the public face of a skilled politician waving to adoring crowds is a man under great pressure to live up to grand promises of 21st “century socialism” (his words).

As I look at the last two photos, three years after they were taken at the 2006 inaugural proceedings, I see him as both contemplative, and concerned about his position of meeting the expectations of a large populace left out of the benefits from a large petro-economy.

The shot above was taken at the 2004 Naval Day Parade in Maracaibo.  While both of these shots are typical of President Chavez’ public persona, the real story behind these shots is the improbability of me holding the camera sufficiently still to take the shots.  I was sick as a Caracas street dog.

Maracaibo is located in the far western region of Venezuela.  A friend of mine and I decided to do a “road trip” from Caracas to the Navy Day celebration in Maracaibo.  On the way, we stopped at a small roadside restaurant (ok, maybe I am being generous in calling it a restaurant) to eat lunch.  I decided on the goat stew, while my more seasoned companions had the grilled fish.  To say the least, I reacted violently to the goat stew and was teetering on the edge of consciousness for the remainder of the weekend – in spite of a host of home grown Amazonian remedies.

I leave you with the final shot of President Chavez, who, regardless of what you may think of his policies and politics, is a skilled politician.  He is probably one of the most hard working politicians I have ever observed.  Of course this hard work is necessary; he has a strong and vocal opposition in Venezuela as well as a healthy group of critics throughout the world.  While I certainly hold a distinct view based on my experience, I will leave it to the political blogs to resolve the vices and virtues of President Chavez.
I hope you enjoyed these photos, and for the real photo journalists, please accept my apologies for for inadequately representing your profession.
Craig

Urban Portraits

This entry is inspired by my son Ryan.  After reading the first couple of entries, Ryan requested that I feature some photography from the “Urban Portraits” theme I have been developing.  In requesting this, Ryan motivated me to talk about two things.  First is the idea of selecting a photographic theme, then pursuing it.  Second, I have employed some specific composition and editing techniques to get the results I envisioned for the theme of Urban Portraits.

All of the shots in this entry are building on the theme of “Urban

 Portraits” I began pursuing in 2005 – roughly four years ago.  Clearly, I am in no rush.  The relevant aspect of talking about urban portraits is that I have selected a theme that interests me, and I am pursuing it – and, as we say in Spanish – poco a poco.

  

Little by little I am adding to this collection.  I find that selecting a theme for a project, whether short term or long term, helps focus attention, energize creative processes, and always provides an answer when you find yourself asking “what should I shoot today?” Selecting a theme also highlights the value of planning your shooting.  There is a significant difference between planning a shoot and simply waiting for lighting to strike.  Don’t misunderstand me; I have plenty of spectacular shots that resulted from nothing more than the luck of being in the right place at the right time.  However, planning to get the shots you want can be an invigorating challenge.

The first two shots in this entry feature my son Ryan.  He gets top billing in this entry as a nod to his request for the urban portraits.  We had a great time setting up these challenging shots, and I had an even bigger challenge in post processing.  Both of these compositions involve multiple shots.  To get these shots, I set the camera on a tripod, set the ISO to the lowest setting, and used a very aperture.  The result was exposures of up to 2 seconds, and the “ghost” images of passersby as Ryan held his breath and kept completely still.  To get the right mix of “ghosts” I took several shots and then combined them in Photoshop to get a good balance of people in motion.

The second shot involved additional post-processing to keep Ryan in color and add even more of a ghostly effect by converting the rest of the photo to black and white. Which brings me to a second theme among my urban photography shots; by keeping the subject in color and converting the balance of the composition to black and white, you bring clear focus to essence of the shot while introducing a bit of impersonal grittiness often associated with the urban environment.  The Chicago sax player and the Quito street juggler are good examples.  

When I say “street juggler” I mean it literally.  

It is common for street performers to practice their talents in the middle of the street while lights are red in hopes of getting a donation for their public service.  When you look at the picture, where does your eye go tend to settle?

The next two examples take this a step further.  By de-saturating the color, increasing noise, increasing sharpness, accenting highlights, softening the area away from the subject, and deepening shadows, you can add another level of urban grittiness.  “Orange Beard” and “Jose Tucson” are two examples…which is which should be clear.

The next two shots of a man and a woman on the streets of Quito, Ecuador, are similar in the approach taken, but without the color de-saturation.  One of the common photography practices used in both these pictures is limiting what the viewer can see and allowing the mind to complete the image.  In the case of the man, you can see a very shallow depth of field that includes little more than his face.  Much of his hat is out of focus and out of frame, and his shirt and jacket are not in the focal plane.  In each case, this leaves a number of holes for your mind’s eye to complete.  Although you are not “seeing” a full image, your mind is completing it and therefore not confused or unsettled about the missing pieces.

Man in Quito:

The Woman in Quito shot takes a similar approach with a shallow depth of field, parts of the hat and shoulders out of frame, and her head is tilted down so the eyes are not visible.  Like the “Man in Quito” shot, your mind automatically fills in the holes.  The point I am trying to make is that it is not necessary, and frequently undesirable to have the entire subject of your photograph well within the bounds of your shot.  Engage the interest of your viewer by letting them do some of the work!

Woman in Quito:

The final two shots, as most good shots, have a great story behind them.  We will call the subject of the shots Pedro.  Pedro is a very interesting man that tells a great story.  Pedro is in his 90s and is a neighbor of mine.  I first met Pedro as I sat one night on my front porch having a cigar and a scotch…I heard love ballads sung in Spanish drifting through the night air of my neighborhood.  As time went on, I spent time chatting with Pedro…fortunately I speak Spanish, because Pedro does not speak English.  Pedro is Cuban-American and came to the U.S. some 40 years ago.  Pedro is still on his game and willing to tell stories of Cuba and his experiences over his last 40 years in the U.S.

From a photographic perspective, these shots are all about the years of experience revealed in Pedro’s eyes and even more so in his work worn hands.  Like the Quito shots, both of these shots employ a very shallow depth of field limited to little more than Pedro’s face.  Looking at the second shot, you see how the background is completely blurred, while the foreground, as close as his hands, is also blurred.

As always, I hope you enjoyed these photographs and in the process learned something.  If you have any requests, or questions about photography, please send me a note.  I will be happy to share my opinion and the benefit of my experience.

Craig