chris martin photography

Video - High School Team Poster Photo Shoot

2011-12-16T15:58:00.001-07:00

A few weeks ago my super eldest son was willing and able when I called needing help with a high school team poster photo shoot. It just so happens that he also is an accomplished HD DSLR shooter and video editor. Here is a great short video from the photo shoot.

High School Team Poster Photo Shoot - Video

The final poster hasn't been finished or released yet, but when it's done and out on the streets I will post it and more info about the session.

More High School Sports - 2011 – Coach Poster and Special Print

2011-12-07T09:40:00.001-07:00

Twofers are great, but three-fers areeven better.

As discussed here, this year we did alocal high school football poster. The setupwas complicated and the post-processing was intensive. Because of that work up front though inaddition to the team poster, we were able to also provide the print shown belowfor a small group of players. I returnedto the scene to get a shot with the field lined and some cool weather rollingin. The selected players were then takenfrom the poster and re-purposed here for an 8” x 10” print.

During the original session (abovelink), we were also scheduled to shoot the coaches for a poster as a gift fromthe team. I had the idea ready, but wasn’tsharing the final plan with anyone. Toavoid speculation about the final product AND having the coaches feeluncomfortable doing a little acting with all the players around and watching,this was the last part of the evening (nearly 11 pm). Small groups of coaches were directed andshot using the same lighting setup as was used player poster. After everyone but the guy in charge of the stadiumlights had left, a separate background panorama was taken for this finalproduct.

I wish I could be as cool as that headcoach when the world around me is so chaotic!

Flash Modifier Comparison

2011-12-05T22:04:00.001-07:00

I am still on my quest to simplify setups and photosessions. The one last week needed sevenlights. Sometimes there isn’t much youcan do about shoots like that, but overall I am really striving for moresimplicity.

With that, just a few years ago I quite easily fellinto the “if I only had that new or other modifier, all my photos would bebetter” trap. I now know that until youknow exactly what modifier you want and why, don’t do it. What I have to show for thinking like that isa shelf of modifiers, each one needing to be carefully considered before thenext assignment and that just complicates things even more. I also have some funky attachments thatrarely if ever come off that shelf.

If I were to start over (and still a Canon shooter)I would build my lighting kit like this instead of the haphazard way it hasgrown:

Start with a good flash first - one that will siton or talk to the camera,
“Speedliter’s Handbook” by Sly Arena,
OFC Gear extra long, straight E-TTL cord, and
a Stofen Omni-bounce.

I have made plenty of DIY light modifiers and stillcarry a couple with me every day. Thesewill show up again later down the page.

I am actually considering two morelight modifiers and to maybe see things a little more clearly, I decided to dragout a bunch of flash modifiers and compare them today. Below is a very non-scientific presentationof what happens to the light when a variety of modifiers are slapped on the frontof a Canon 430 EX flash. (I used the 430EX because more of the flash model specific modifiers are for that flash.) I kept the front of each modifier 3.5’ fromthe wall and tried to show at least part of the modifier in the images. All shots were using the Canon 40D, 24-105mmlens at ISO 200, f/8 and 1/100 sec. The430 EX was set to manual, ¼ power and zoomed to 35mm. All of the resulting images were converted toB&W because I didn’t feel like white-balancing everything and I didn’t wantthe color to confuse the comparison. Thebig beauty dish is for my studio strobes so I just held it up to the flash andtried to block the light escaping out the back with my hands.

Below is each shot, organized in a waythat made sense to me. Some might besurprised and others will say “knew that!”

No way am I going to suggest whatmodifier is best. They are all differentand needed in different situations. Iwill say that the Stofen, LumiQuest and white art foam live in my daily camerabag. Some of the others come out when itis time and some need to find a new place to live. Am I going to add those others two I wasthinking about? Probably not at thistime. When a session is booked where I couldreally use them, then I might reconsider.

DIY DSLR Follow Focus - Rack Focus

2011-11-03T10:22:00.000-06:00

I am alwaysat a complete loss when shooting DSLR video and needing to easily find thefocus, or zoom ring. I grab the wrongone or miss it completely and end up with noise and movement in the final shot. What I needed was a follow focus ring thatattaches to the lens. These things makeit as quick and simple as possible to rotate that focus ring while shooting.

A littleinternet research will provide a plethora of DIY solutions. The one I liked the best was an ideapresented by knoptop here. It usessilicon jar openers. The only problemwas that the recommended vendor no longer carried these things. I am not a patient person so upon learningthat I couldn’t run out a grab a few, I went to work thinking of what I coulduse that was laying around here.

Enter thefilter wrench (Adorama: small - big, B&H: small - big). I have a bunch of thesein different sizes. So I tried afew. They work great! If you have followed at least my recent postsyou will know that two criteria must be met for new gear and accessories andusing existing filter wrenches perfectly met all the criteria – no added bulkor weight and it didn’t cost me a thing.

I eventuallyfound the jar openers at Target and bought all they had left. In practice I use a variety of combinationsof both the jar opener and the filter wrench. Sometimes I need a rubber band around the top of the filter wrench, butthat doesn’t affect its function at all.

DIY DSLR Video Stabilizer – Mash Up

2011-11-03T10:03:00.003-06:00

Somewherepreviously I mentioned that I had made the jump into DSLR video, with my employer’spurchase of a beautiful Canon 7D. It wasonly a matter of minutes afterward that I was looking for accessories to helpme get the best material I could with this new body.

There aretwo important factors that are always considered and weigh heavily on all of mynew gear acquisitions:

When I shootfor work, I am traveling on planes to get to sites and once on location I am carryingeverything that I brought, day long. So,it has to be something I really need or can use in a variety of beneficial waysAND it can’t add very much to the existing travel kit.
Money is ashard for me to squeeze out for new gear as the next guy, so if I can makesomething from stuff I have on hand; it is a win-win!

I have beenshooting video with my old Canon Optura 20 for years and have used the great ideaI saw on a Scott Kelby blog post: “It’s Guest Blog Wednesday featuring AaronGreene”. In Aaron’s words, “I rigged a super clamp atthe bottom of my collapsed monopod as a sort of steady cam. I’d hold themonopod with my right hand and pull focus with the left letting the clamp actas a weight about 18 inches below the camera... If you have a monopod and asuper clamp, try it out! It should help you make smoother movements.”

This hasbeen a great suggestion that I have used for years. I always have a monopod and a Manfrottosuperclamp with me on location. While superclampsare heavy, they aren’t that big and I have needed one on almost everytrip. So, both of the above criteriawere met and it was a perfect solution.

Whilelooking around at other stabilizing rigs on the net that are out there for DSLRvideo, I ran into the “$14 Stabilizer”. I thought it was interesting and verymuch liked the horizontal handle, thus getting both hands off the camera body. Building one of these was breaking rule #1 abovethough as it was just more stuff and weight to be dragging along with me.

The solutionwas to peruse all of the Manfrotto accessories that are available for superclamps. Enter the Manfrotto 042 Extension Arm (Adorama, B&H). Add another superclamp (why wouldn’t anyonewant to do that) and you have what for me is the perfect stabilizer. Criteria #1 was met and well, half ofcriteria #2 was met as I did have to spend a little cash.

Sometimes Give it Away!

2011-10-21T10:33:00.002-06:00

It certainly feels good and I wish I could be there when the mail arrives in a few days.

A very wise mentor of mine has had an extremely rich and full photographic career for over 67 years. He has traveled the world shooting nearly everything imaginable, often people and events typically not open to the photographic community. Doors are opened as relationships are created. Part of culturing the relationships is offering and following through with sending some prints back after they are developed and processed. The offer to send photos is extended and they are actually sent. Days, months or even years later when access is then again requested, the doors are open and remain open as the process is repeated.

On a recent trip to visit and spend time with him, we were able to spend the day shooting a culture rarely open to photographers. We were granted such access because of the relationships he has formed over his long career.

I, and maybe even you, I’m sure have wanted a shot of a stranger and offered to send them a print if they will allow you to take their picture. I’ve said it and then later, for whatever reason, haven’t followed through. Maybe I wasn’t happy with the photo, I just got too busy or maybe I forgot. Whatever the reason, it really doesn’t matter. This lack of ethics simply doesn’t cut it with my mentor.

As we were driving back from our day of shooting and talking, he urged me to stop along the lake we were bordering to get a few shots of the fall colors. Twice, I pulled the car over, neither time liking the perspective. On the third try I saw a dock that would be perfect. I grabbed my gear and headed down to the water. Immediately upon my arrival at the dock the family that was there fishing erupted into a chorus of hooping , hollering and cheering. The youngest member of the group had just bagged her very first fish.

The spirit of my mentor, who was resting up in the car, flooded into me and my normally very shy self races up and says “let me grab a few shots and I WILL SEND YOU THE PICTURES.” Of course I looked around to see who was speaking and it was in fact me!

I grabbed a few photos, exchanged mailing information and then heard the whole story about this contemporary American family - turns out this was a pretty big deal for them.

It pleases me very much to say that yesterday I mailed some 5x7s and an 8x10 of her “first fish”.

Hang In There - Please

2011-10-06T23:37:00.004-06:00

It has been an insane couple of months. I have lots to share - especially about also now shooting video - thanks to the arrival of the neat new Canon 7D. I hit the road again tomorrow, on my way to hang out and visit with my amazing photog friend (the most celebrated, living American photographer - up to you to figure out). I promise lots of posts upon my return and maybe even a few Insta-grams along the way - thanks also to the arrival of the new iPhone today - goodbye BB - I will miss you!

Location Lighting Bag

2011-08-29T08:52:00.001-06:00

This was mylocation lighting bag and had been for a couple of years. It is actually in pretty good shape for allthat time. Sad as it was, yes both thebox and having to say goodbye to it, but I have finally moved on. I don’t live anywhere near any sort of photographysupply store. Looking for a new bag, justlike for every new item, is a painful process. There are hours and hours spentonline at B & H and Adorama, reading reviews, creating spreadsheets ofdimensions and a tape measure constantly in my hand. Nothing I found seemed right, and to getsomething that might or might not work was going cost me somewhere from atleast $80 (plus shipping) up to absolutely as much as you wanted to throw atit.

I’m not surewhy it didn’t occur to me sooner. My on-locationcarry-all is a Stanley 24 gallon, wheeled mobile tool chest. It carries softboxes, speed rings, sand bags,extension cords, collapsible reflectors, clamps, etc. During the shoot, the tethered computer sitson it and also inside is a neat little folding 3-leg stool for my spotter.

I also rely heavilyon a Husky 16” tool box with lid organizers as my speedlight kit. In the lid organizers are spigots, thumbscrews, etc. In the main compartmentare all of the speedlights, radio triggers, umbrella adapters, Stofen Omni-Bounces,Honl straps, flags and grids, super clamp, DIY clamps and brackets, and all theradio trigger cords (each type in a different colored $1.00 travel soapcontainer from Target).

Enter thenew bag – the Husky 18” Rolling Tool Tote!

This thingis built like a brick! I have some foam piecesleft over from the cardboard box separating the two moonlights. Inside are lots of places for power cords andsync cords. Outside are even more pockets. The two 150 w/s lights and their reflectorsfit great. I really wish the 300 w/slight would have fit as well and then it would have been absolutelyperfect. It doesn’t and so it isn’t, butit is perfect enough for me. At $59, itwould not break the bank to acquire a second one.

While pickingthis bag up, I stumbled upon the full selection of other Husky bags and foundwhat I call the “poor-person’s Think Tank cable management system collection”,shown below, all three for under $7.00. I am, or at least my credit card is a huge supporter of Think Tank and Ilove their gear, but for $7.00 I was all over these guys.

So the nexttime you need a new photo accessory bag or management system, I recommendtalking a stroll through Home Depot before you hit the internet. Now if somebody could come up with a cleaversuggestion for me for a tool bag to handle the 16” beauty dish, I would be inTool Time heaven!

Road Back To Simplicity

2011-08-23T16:15:00.000-06:00

This is my season – sports teams. I love to do them and I am always trying to come up with and do something new and better each time. I spend lots and lots of time looking at work by my favorite photographers, trying to dissect their pieces to figure out lighting and processing. Even more hours are spent testing new lighting setups, poses, scenes and the like.

For a shoot coming up later in the week, the plan started simple but ended up with my packing list larger than the previous project. I started out thinking two lights. The concept of far less gear on site was very exciting. Then the plan had to change slightly because of a location change and it grew to four lights. After several testing sessions, I wasn’t comfortable with the lighting and went to a setup that was sort of a combination between what I had recently done and liked and a new one I wanted to try. Now the plan is up to six light and several flags.

At this point if I throw in just a couple more lights I can use every flash, light stand, bracket and radio trigger I own. It will take me hours to mule the gear into and out of the location, set up, trouble shoot non-working items, adjust settings and be ready for the team to show up. Then during the shoot it will be a piece of cake to make modifications on the fly when the images I am shooting are not looking like I wanted or how they looked in my completely different testing environment.

This is just stupid. It’s just way too much. The above image was needed ASAP and was shot in less than five minutes and processing took about a minute. No over-thinking. One light stand, one flash, a long OFC cord, and hand-held camera. It was very refreshing and way more fun. All of this has initiated my new backwards move to simplicity once again. How does that go? “Make it simple…who?” I swear I’m packing a bunch of stuff into Pelican cases, locking them up and throwing away the key!

…right after the next two scheduled shots that is…

More High School Sports - 2011 - Team Poster

2011-08-23T08:17:00.001-06:00

Here is the latest team poster and the first for the 2011season. This year we got to do footballin addition to the upcoming soccer teams. Here is a little bit about how I went about arriving at the finalproduct shown above. [NOTE: Only showing the team shot. The final poster includes all that other goodstuff like names, schedules, sponsors, etc.]

I knew the photo would only include seniors, but still thatwas going to be 25 players. Add playersin pads and overall layout width was going to be a challenge, not to mention somepossible crazy shadows since I also needed to make use of depth to fit everyonein. Here is a little timeline on myprocess and how it all came together.

Task 1 - Scene: I needed to figure out what the shot was goingto be and then I would figure out how to actually do it. For me, a team poster should somehow relateto the sport. I really don’t getdressing players up like lumberjacks and shooting them in the woods just to fitsome silly slogan like “chopping down the competition”. If you can’t get them in a related scene, thenhow about just on white, but don’t put then in front of old cars. Seriously, why do people do that?

Along with figuring out the scene, scheduling is alwaystricky as well and is something I have to consider along with the look of theshot. You have to find a time when they aren’tat practice and have enough of a window that you can get the session completedbefore they have to race back to practice. Something too elaborate would take too much time. I decided their stadium, at night, with thelights on would be perfect.

Task 2 – Yikes – Part 1: How to shoot 25players and get enough resolution out of my Canon 40D so that you can actuallytell who each player is. In the past Ihave shot the players all at once, but in some situations I was unhappy withthe individual player detail. It’s okayif you have less than 20 players and cram them all together, but it wasn’tgoing to work with 25 padded football players.

Task 2 - Yikes – Part 2: How to light theseguys with some moody feel and not have half of them in somebody else’s shadow?

The answer to all of Task 2 was to shoot them in smallgroups and composite them back together. This was going to create lots of extra work, but I was really ready forsomething new. Below is how I decided toposition the players and what groups I would use. Only 20 players were included in my diagram becauseI wasn’t positive how many players I would have until we got to the shoot.

Task 3: Testing. I am a pre-shot test nut. I need to know, the best I can, if I can pulloff what I am thinking before I get out there for the final session. That isuntil you have to deal with all of the unaccounted for things that show upduring a session regardless of planning. Off to the garage, dragging every piece of equipment I have out there totake test shots. Begging friends and familymembers to be participants in the test shots is also key to success.

Test shots in hand, it was down to the computer to figureout how to mask, extract and composite. Consultation with other photogs friends, hours of reading and watchingother resources, and even an attempted querying of a very famous expert at thisstyle of shooting guided me into Task 4.

Task 4: Software. Lots of research led me to onOne Mask Pro andTopaz Remask. Both have 30-day trailsand I thank them both for that very, very much. Using my test shots I spent several nights with each title. As expected, I didn’t reach expert status inthose few nights, but I needed to keep moving forward and I selected Remask asmy software of choice. It was moreintuitive for me and I was getting better results. That is NOT to say anything negative aboutMask Pro. Both are awesome, they justwork differently.

After using Remask on my test shots and revisiting someother resources, I realized my lighting was wrong and was complicating themasking process. Back to draggingeverything out to the garage again, begging the family members to play alongfor more test shots and off to the computer and Remask again. This time it looked like there was a glimmer ofhope. Good thing as the photo session wasjust around the corner.

Task 5: The Shoot. After 3.2 million emails with the teamrepresentative, the session is scheduled to begin around 8:15 pm. I show up at 7:00 pm and haul stands, lights,generator, camera, and computer from my car to the middle of the field and beginsetting up. My plan is 6 lightsincluding key, fill, rim and hair lights. Between family and team parents I have a crew of 8 scheduled to helpwrangle players, hold flags behind players if needed, spot for me on thetethered computer, and adjust lights if necessary. 8:15 pm arrives and all that is on the fieldis lots of gear and 9 adults. 8:30, 8:45,9:00, 9:15 – cars begin to appear, but the guys had showered and no uniforms. We get that all worked out. The team thought it was one shot, in the bleachers,under the lights – be there, shoot it, be gone in 15 – silly people. After I finish shooting all the groups, thecoaches for a different product and get a pano of the field, it is midnight. Below is one of the individual group shots.

Task 6: Post-Processing. Agreed that it is always best to shot itright and not have to rely on post-processing. I am a firm believer in this mantra. I knew going in though that this was going to be intensivepost-processing. Briefly (unlike most ofthis post) here are the post-processing steps:

Create the pano of the field for thebackground and adjust to desired final look
White balance the individual group shotRAW files
Mask in Topaz Remask – with mask layer
Sharpen
Noise removal
Topaz Adjust – custom setting - for thefinal look I was going for
-repeat for all groups-
All but two players were shot so they weren’ttouching and I could do some adjustments to player positioning if needed.
Get all of the player positions workedout
Process the two players I had to shootin my garage because they couldn’t be at the main session
Drop all of the players onto thebackground pano
Clean up masks where some bad edgeswere apparent
Add some hair back in using Naglebrushes in a few instances
Then do the rest of the stuff on theposter – names, schedules, etc.

Many will call me “nuts”,some “crazy” and most “stupid” as I am guessing through it all I have over 100hours in this project. That is nearlyequivalent to pre-1970 nominal US minimum wage. Good thing for me there is a different job that pays the bills, where Iam far more efficient!
In the end, as the final posters are due back from theprinter in a few days, it was a really fun project, I have gained some greatnew tools, the players were totally great and it appears that the final productis something the team is very proud of. Perfect.

DIY – Ray Flash and PW miniTT1 Setup

2011-08-17T13:22:00.009-06:00

Finally hereis a shot of the setup for an upcoming shoot where I intend to use the ringflash and simultaneously need to trigger several other lights.

[Inspiration for my setup came from a Photozopost here.]

As isobvious to anyone that has tried it, you cannot use the Ray Flash as intendedwhen you also have a Pocket Wizard miniTT1 on the hotshoe. Although the miniTT1 would accept your flashwith Ray Flash attached, this combo adds about 1.5” to the height and the RayFlash no longer fits around your lens.

My situationis a little goofier as I will need a total of 5 lights for this shoot. I only have 3 PW IIs so I will need to usetwo different stacked triggers. I coulduse the sensors on the studio strobes, but I rarely rely on that method. So, I use a combination of PWs and Gadget Infinitytriggers. The GI triggers usually are onlyconnected to the speedlights. I onlyhave 3 studio strobes to so I almost always end up using a combination of monolightsand speedlights.

A side note related to the Gadget Infinity triggers. These little guys have beenpretty good to me and I like having them in addition to the PWs. I prefer to travel with them instead of thePWs because no additional items are required when I use the 430 EXs (which haveno PC sync port), they are very small and so take up less space, there are no antennasto break and they are so inexpensive they are almost disposable.

Back to theRay Flash setup. As can been seen in thephoto, here are the details:

Camera ontripod
PW miniTT1on the camera hotshoe
GI transmitteron the PW miniTT1 hotshoe – which now works thanks to the recent miniTT1firmware update
Sturdy lightstand with mini-boom (fully collapsed and parallel to the ground)
An old metalumbrella bracket attached to the mini-boom
A new,common umbrella bracket attached to the metal umbrella bracket (this gives melots of adjustment flexibility without relying on the mini-boom which wants torotate due to the weight)
GI triggerattached with a stud to the common umbrella bracket
580 EX II inthe GI trigger hotshoe
Ray Flashmounted upside down to the 580 EX II

It almostlooks like a real deal – a little troublesome to move around so I advise makingsure is camera is where you want it before bringing in the ring flash.

DIY – Tri Flash Bracket

2011-04-09T12:44:00.001-06:00

NOTE: Not claiming to be the inventor of this idea!

For a recent shoot I needed more light and absolutely, positively didn’t want to drag the AC lights along. The shoot was in a small shoe store, on a big event day, with their clients milling around. I needed a small, compact, easy to get it and out, and without taking up too much of their floor space kit. The double flash brackets I use are made from metal straps from the local hardware store. None of those straps were big enough for three flashes. So, the double umbrella bracket idea emerged.

First off, I do not recommend using this with an inexpensive, hollow tube umbrella. Although having a flash on each side does provide nice balance, you still have to tighten it down a little hard. Second, it is a little unwieldy to get set up, but I will admit that it never budged during the hour long session.

Details:

Umbrella bracket #1 – set up normally, with one flash on top.
Umbrella bracket #2 – a flash on each end.
The umbrella goes through its normal hole in the dual flash bracket, then continues on to through the hole in the bracket mounted on the light stand. Adjust the angle of the dual flash bracket as needed to get the best full coverage you can.

I will be investing in a real bracket, such as the Lastolite TriFlash bracket, but for this project when I needed something the next morning…it was perfect.

TOMS - One Day Without Shoes

2011-03-30T23:04:00.004-06:00

Please support your local event: ONE DAY WITHOUT SHOES

Tanzanian Animals

2011-03-19T01:07:00.003-06:00

Here are a couple of shoots of indigenous critters from the trip, found at the Tarangire National Park - complete with their Swahili names.

Processing: single image HDR, Gaussian blur + fade, mask critter, levels on background only, b&w, curves, hue/saturation

Tanzania: A World Apart From Here

2011-02-23T17:18:00.008-07:00

Tanzania, 2011. Sunset at Lake Babati

We are back…sort of. It is impossible to accurately describe this trip or how I feel now after returning home. It is very hard to re-acclimate back into this life after having an opportunity to be immersed within such an amazing culture as the Tanzanians. As David duChemin says, coming back to what folks call the “real world” only really means returning to some of the conveniences that we take for granted, such as clean water and no fear of malaria. This however, isn’t really the real world – it is over there.

Tanzania, 2011. Students at the Sinai Primary School welcoming us to their school.

The reason for our visit to Babati, Tanzania was work for my company’s non-profit foundation. In short, during our trip we installed a hand pump on a well that was drilled last year at the Sinai Primary School, repaired the submersible pump at the Waangwaray Primary School, worked with the students at Sinai on reading and speaking English (a requirement for advancement to secondary school), spent a morning taking portraits of every child at the Sinai school, handed out Friendship bracelets and hacky sacks provided by a local high school here, left behind 100 pounds of books and games, met with students at the Kwaangw’ and Singe Secondary Schools and developed goals to accomplish on our next visit – specifically getting water at the Kwaangw’ school.

Here are are some facts about life in Tanzania, Babati and the Sinai Community:

There are 29 community primary and 3 private schools in Babati.
Fifty percent of the population is age 15 and under.
The average number of children per household is 5 – 8.
Eighty-eight percent of the population lives on less than $2 per day and 50% on less than $1 per day.
The typical distance walked by students and teachers to get to and from school is 1-4 km for primary students and up to 12km or more for secondary students.

Tanzania, 2011. Local Sinai Community children.

Sinai Primary School: 660 students, 7 classrooms, adjacent water (now!), no electricity, no teach housing

Waangwaray Primary School: 400 students, 8 classrooms, library, kindergarten, two teacher houses, adjacent water (now!), electricity

Kwaangw’ Secondary School: 320 students, 11 teachers, 11 classrooms, 3 teacher houses, no water, no electricity, no library, no science laboratories

Tanzania, 2011. Local Sinai Community rope maker.

On this trip, our team of 6 shot over 7,000 frames, ate more than our share of rice, mangos, watermelon, cucumbers and tomatoes, developed quite a fondness for Kilimanjaro beer, were some of the last patrons of the now permanently closed “Half London Pub”, and found and purchased the ONLY pair on vice-grips (called grip-pliers) in Babati!

This was unquestionably the most amazing trip of my life and I eagerly look forward to our next visit, soon.

In my next post I will continue discussion of traveling with photo gear and to my gleeful surprise the realization that a Canon 40D with 24-105mm f/4 L lens and remote flash trigger will actually bounce, unscathed, off a concrete floor after falling from a height of 6 feet!

Tanzania, 2011.

Traveling With Photo Equipment – Part 2 – Bag in a Bag

2011-01-28T19:40:00.002-07:00

Eight days away and I have to work on editing down the proposed gear list plus figure out exactly how to get it all to the destination. Shown below is the pile of gear I think I am taking as of this second – it will change by tomorrow. I’m sure I will edit the list several more times, especially as I try to get it all the bag.

Photo bags are such personal beasts – I guess that is why there is an endless variety of bags available and new ones come out all of the time. The perfect bag not only has to hold the required gear for the photo session or journey, but it absolutely has to fit your individual workflow. Just like any other photo person, I have several different types of bags for different kinds of trips. When heading out on location in my vehicle, I take huge bags with all the gear I can shove in the car. When having to carry the gear exclusively, sometimes my preference is a Tenba or Crumpler shoulder bag. Other times, and more frequently these days, I love to use Think Tank modular gear and a Pro Speed Belt. These are the trips where I need quick access to gear and things are constantly changing. What is missing from my camera bag arsenal for the most part is a camera backpack. I still have, and probably will never say goodbye to , the trusty Lowepro Mini Trekker. It is a great bag, but anymore it just doesn’t work for me to put the bag down to get out gear, and it doesn’t hold enough of a variety of things for me to be able to travel with it.

For this trip to Tanzania I have many requirements for the perfect bag:

Can it haul camera gear and personal gear – the 1 carry-on bag allowance problem?
I don’t want it to scream out “camera bag, camera bag”.
Can it be used on-location to shoot out of?
Can it be worn all day long without too much discomfort? There is no place to leave gear back at the hotel or in a vehicle on this trip.

My solution is a two-part one. Shown is all of the gear, nicely packed into a combination of Think Tank and Lowepro modular bags. The body (no grip on this trip) and 24-105mm go into the Think Tank Digital Holster 20 (which can be used on-location to handle the body and any of the lenses I am taking because it zips out to a longer length). The 70-200mm f/2.8 goes into the Lowepro Zoom 2. The Thank Tank Chimp Cage (for now) is holding the 10-22mm, 1.4x Extender, 580 EX II, Omni-bounce, and filter pouches. The G12 goes into the Think Tank Modular Pouch. All the tiny stuff went into the Lowepro pouch. The travel tripod will go into checked baggage. [NOTE: Also shown is the Think Tank Lightning Fast, off to the side. I still haven’t decided if the 50mm is going. If it is, I will move the flash over to this and pack it in with the other lenses. If the 50mm isn’t going, I don’t need this bag. However, it is a great sized bag for holding all sorts of things once there and great to have along. This is obviously something that needs to be sorted out soon.]

Right about now is when you are going to call me either crazy or brilliant, and I figure it is the later. Shown below are several images illustrating where the modular bags are headed and why. Enter the Mammut Nirvana Pro (35L) technical pack. Where do I start on why this is the perfect one bag solution? This is a snow pack. These are a little different than other technical packs and this is why this works for me:

Camera gear is placed in the back, using the full zippered access and reachable from the top/front of the pack through a different zipper.
Personal gear like a change of clothes, toiletries, music, phone, glasses, passport, etc. goes in the middle/front section.
The pack is lightweight, but very durable.
The pack has a real waist belt and internal frame to help out with the load.
It has a removable hip belt which could be replaced by the Think Tank Pro Speed Belt. [The existing waist belt has room to accommodate one modular pouch on each side so I can leave the Speed Belt at home if I want and the shoulder straps will help distribute the load.]
It even has a hydration chamber.
This thing will even fit under the seat, fully packed, in small Regional Jets.

Do I have to keep going?

For me, this is about as perfect a solution as I can come up with. That however, is all just in theory. We will see as the adventure unfolds. This will be my last post here before the trip. If possible, I will post updates along the way on Twitter. When I return, I will follow up and post info on how it all worked out, exactly what gear I decided on, and what I wish I would have or wouldn’t have taken along!

Traveling With Photo Equipment – Part 1 – What to Take

2011-01-25T19:59:00.000-07:00

Let me preface this multi-part series about traveling with photo gear by saying that for the most part, when having to travel for work with photo gear, I typically have the luxury of driving to the site. That means I have no limits on what I can take with me. On a few occasions, I travel by air, but those situations are rare. So, for the most part, I am a nubile when it comes to major travel with photo gear. This fact, however, may be just the reason that you are reading this, as you too may someday be faced with exactly what I am.

Trip: 10 days in Tanzania.
How: 3-4 plane changes and 30 hours in transit
Why: I will need to hand carry all gear (plus personal items) in one carry-on and once on-site I will have to carry everything 24/7 – no opportunity to leave anything back at the hotel
What: I will be documenting work we will be doing for my company’s Foundation: Play For Power

“In February 2011 the well and water distribution system will be installed at the Sinai school in Babati, Tanzania. We will also spend time with students at the Sinai primary school and Kwaang secondary school in Babati Tanzania. We will be commencing the sister school story exchange (writing curriculum), and starting 14 level book circles (reading curriculum), as well as working on other exchanges with the students.”

This first part of the upcoming series is devoted to what to take on the trip. After an insane amount of reading blogs of other traveling photographers and consulting all of my photog friends, I have decided on what gear to take. The list of gear won’t be presented in this installment – sorry, you will have to stay tuned. Instead, I will be sharing how I go about getting ready for packing my equipment.

I guess I should say that during the days, some of work I do for my company is to write code. Lines and lines and more lines of code. It was only natural that I would make use of the required anal nature of code writing and extend it to my photography. I can’t remember why, but I needed to work on something for somebody dealing with MS Excel. When I write code, I always do the preliminary work on some sort of personal project. This provides a great test bed and gives me a real world test of the code. So in this instance I decided to write an Excel Photo Gear packing list. Turns out, it was a great project and I have been using the result for years.

I prefer to be prepared for travel. Okay, I will say it as I know you are thinking it – I prefer to OBSESS about travel. I am not one of those folks that pack at the last minute and in the hour before the flight. Rather, I agonize over what gear to take and how to pack it from the instant I know I am headed somewhere right up to the moment before I need to leave for the airport. I have been wrestling for this trip for over a year. – It sucks to be me! –

Back to the Excel spreadsheet. In the spreadsheet I have a line item for every item of gear in my arsenal. Included are the manufacturer, description, category, quantity, and serial number. Anal yes, but handy for many reasons. When a trip is scheduled, I go to this trusty spreadsheet and begin to select the items I am taking for the trip. When I am done, a handy packing list is ready to be printed out. I print two copies: 1) to go into a file for later reference and 2) one to take with me on the trip. This serves as a list to use to pack, a reference when leaving to make sure I return with all I took, and a list of the equipment and serial numbers of items I am traveling with for customs or in case of loss or theft. In addition, on the packing list I have columns for “Used” or “Not Used”. I typically take more gear than I probably need and by noting if I actually used something I can better refine future packing lists to just the items I know I will use.

Shown in the accompanying image are three pages from the spreadsheet: 1) the page in which I go through and select the items I want to take, 2) the automatic refinement of the list from all items to just what I have selected, and 3) the final packing list for printing.

Maybe a little obsessive, but it works for me.

Coming next: What I am taking and how to pack it!

Polaroids

2011-01-13T01:15:00.005-07:00

Anyone else get a Polaroid for Christmas this year?

Actually, me neither. Created using the free POLAROID Generator 2 Photoshop action. It's hard to stop playing with it.

Think Tank Photo – Modular Pouch Review

2011-01-06T16:49:00.001-07:00

As promised, this is the beginning of a series of reviews of the Think Tank Photo equipment that I have and use. I am not paid by or rewarded by Think Tank in any way, I just happen to be one of those guys that resisted the Think Tank gear for a while and then when I finally jumped in I have been completely changed. I can’t honestly say that I am gone over to the rectangular backpack world and I’m not a roller bag person, but the bags that I do have (all modular) are unequivocally PERFECT!

For this first review, I want to start small – the Modular Pouch. Future reviews will move on to other modular gear that I use with the big cameras and specifically how I intend to make use of the Think Tank modular products in a slightly different way on an upcoming photo job in Tanzania.

There will be no wasting your time here with mentioning what you can already find out on the Think Tank Modular Pouch product page.

When the bag first arrived I was a little baffled about all of the Velcro tabs on the outside. A little web investigation spelled this out for me and I must say it is brilliant! Not only can this pouch be attached along with other modular components on a modular gear Belt (and I promise it absolutely will be), but there are these bizarre little wings and such that are designed to facilitate attachment to backpack straps! All of these Velcro doo-hickies provide options for attaching this to just about anything, including a plain old belt that might be holding up your pants – which is exactly what I do on occasion with the use for this bag mentioned next.

The pouch is the perfect size for all kinds of the little stuff (3.5” L x 2” W x 6”), but… and here is the big one for me and in fact the whole reason I bought this bag…the Canon G12 is a perfect fit! In my remote and rural area here I do not have access to ANY camera gear stores. All my acquisitions have to be painfully researched on the web. When looking for appropriate and suggested bag/cases for the Canon G12, never once did I happen across mention of the Think Tank Modular Pouch. In fact finding this bag was a complete accident, but “boy oh boy” what a good one. For those of you that need bullet proof armor for your cases, this might not be for you as there isn’t really much padding. For me though, I am known to take pretty good care of my gear and it is just what I was looking for. The G12 is a little big anyway and the last thing I needed was a big bag to haul it around in.

My rating = 5 out of 5…whatever that means.

Eldest Son

2011-01-02T00:43:00.002-07:00

We love you and are proud of you

Lunar Eclipse - 2010

2010-12-21T02:02:00.002-07:00

Custom Artwork - By My Amazing Kid

2010-12-19T21:04:00.007-07:00

As promised, here is a small showcase of the beautiful custom artwork by my soon to be 20-year old son. At his young age he already has several years experience working for a house Stager, does commercial illustration work for broadcast TV and can be commissioned to do just about anything you need.

I have also been graced with a painting from one of my photos from several years ago -

I think I like the painting better!

Here is the most recent work, shown framed and non-framed. All of the presented work is available as 16" x 20" or 24" x 30" prints. Please contact me if you are interested in ordering any of the prints or would like to discuss a custom project.

Type rest of the post here

One shot 360 Re-Visited

2010-12-16T16:36:00.002-07:00

This isn't a new ~~toy~~ tool, but it has been ages since I used it. Fortunately I had left myself nice, detailed instructions on how to fire it up again. Will be using this for an upcoming shoot soon, but will NOT be using it as it was intended – stay tuned for that! For now, below are two shots of the good ol’ Command Center here: one spherical and one unwrapped (so I could also get reacquainted with the software as well).

For those wanting to tell me to work on my exposure, good point, but at my age my body just doesn't bend like that anymore for just test shots!

Holiday Horfrost

2010-12-06T09:29:00.002-07:00

An American Thanksgiving

2010-11-19T00:13:00.001-07:00

The fun one from a recent commercial photo shoot. Happy Thanksgiving to all.

More High School Sports – Team Photos and Posters

2010-10-09T01:28:00.004-06:00

I am a lucky guy to not only be able to do these soccer team posters but to have the opportunity to work with these amazing young men. These guys were so great to work with. The wind was absolutely howling. Before I could even get all of the gear set up, the wind blew the stand my tethered computer was going to sit on into the goal at the opposite end of the field! I had parents attached to each of the light stands to keep them grounded. Without the ability to use the computer, we had to take a shot, then everyone smashed together to review the 3” DSLR screen and see what we needed to adjust, rinse and repeat (about 20 times). It was a blast!

(Style: Dave Hill )

Mainstream - Not!

2010-09-09T09:44:00.003-06:00

Anyone looking for a glimpse into not your mainstream type media, this site is a must-see!

Brad Trent's Damn Ugly Photography

"Damn Ugly Photography…..a purveyor of visual flotsam and jetsam based in New York City. But Damn Ugly Photography?!! It all started as a joke…not the photography, but the name. Used to be, when you filled in your registration form for New York’s Photo Expo, right after your name, they asked for the name of your business…now every photographer I know just uses his name as the name of his business, but since they were asking, I figured I’d play along…"

This site offers a great mix of edgy photos and songs off the top 40 path. When I am looking for something new and different, this is where I always head.

I hope you enjoy.

Turtles of Zihuatanejo

2010-08-20T11:04:00.001-06:00

Recently a great photographer and friend of mine surprised me with some photos of the baby turtle rescue operation that goes on in Zihuatanejo. Back in 2007, we had the amazing opportunity to be involved in each step of the process, from catching and collecting eggs, to helping the hatchlings dig their way out of their nests, trhansferring them to holding tanks and finally making a run for the ocean at dusk. I had never done much with my photos until now. Here are a few of the entire process. First though, a little history about the program…

Each year, Olive Ridley, Leatherback and Hawksbill sea turtles make their way back to Ixtapa-Zihuatanejo where they come ashore and lay their eggs. The biggest number of arrivals occurs at night. The government, hotels, companies and individuals help in the task of collecting the eggs, building temporary pens in the sand until they hatch, moving them to small sea water pools for 14 to 21 days before they will be released back into the ocean. Each year thousands and thousands of young and healthy turtles are safely released. From 1997, during the first year of the program, more than 5000 were cared for and released. Since then, year after year, the average number of releases is 75,000.

Alcatraz

2010-08-05T14:41:00.002-06:00

As usual I had packed an excessive amount of camera gear and was sorting and arranging my toys tools when a companion says to me “You know you can’t take all that stuff don’t you?” And then the following is read to me from the official website. “No. Luggage, coolers, oversized backpacks or packages are not allowed on Alcatraz Island due to safety concerns.”

Imagine the joy I felt as I stood in line with my 2.44'' x 3.84'' x 1.31'', 0.31 lb alternative while at the same time watching a veritable large camera bag fashion show walk up to join me in line, without consequence. Oh well, as Chuck Darwin said, “It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change.” Today we post shots from the P&S collection.

Street Photography

2010-07-27T15:40:00.004-06:00

Long way away from home, but an amazing journey. Could do this all day long. Asking was easier than I thought - even for me!

Prom and Graduation Photos

2010-05-25T13:16:00.002-06:00

We are smack in the middle of Prom and Graduation season. Certainly you will be called upon to take some great shots. I say, have fun, go crazy, and let all those other folks with cameras get those typical squinty eye, tree out of the head, police line-up shots! You're the pro - do something whacky this time - and then defend you art later if everybody hates it! (They won’t hate it though - especially the gang actually in the photo.)

Art Show

2010-05-14T15:09:00.001-06:00

In March of 2010 I was very fortunate to have had the opportunity to be part of a six photographer show at the GE Proctor’s Theater in Schenectady, NY. The prints are now is on display at the Schenectady Museum, alongside master photographers Jay Stock of Martins Ferry, OH and Gail Nogle of Dallas, TX. Below are pieces from my collection titled "Stages of Life".

High School Sports – Team Photos and Posters

2010-05-12T16:50:00.012-06:00

My favorite things to do – high school sports team posters. I have had some great people to work with allowing me to take complete creative freedom. In addition to team posters, instead of putting several photos on one posters, a special smaller poster is made for and given to just the seniors as a parting gift. Below are some of the final posters and test shots from the photo sessions. Obvious to some is how they got better as more money was thrown at acquiring more lights. Two more teams have scheduled sessions for their poster and senior shots and I am excited to be working on the next set of ideas.

Twin Cities

2010-05-11T10:56:00.005-06:00

Sixteen hours of driving (one way, in one day), cleaning out and cleaning up a male college dorm room and finally some time to play - including visiting a couple "As seen on Food TV" places like Victor’s 1959 Café and Mickey’s Diner. Then throw in the sixteen hours to get back home, this time with an extra person and the car unequivocally packed beyond capacity and you got the makings of a great trip!

Elkhorn Alpacas

2010-05-03T14:29:00.006-06:00

We thought today was shearing day, so off we went in search of the Elkhorn Alpaca ranch, for which we didn’t even really have the exact address. After some driving around and posing a few questions to the locals, we found it. However, when we got there, it was obvious that today was NOT the right day. Oh well, grabbed some shots and took the back roads all the way home – with a brief stop at a dive bar for breakfast and the perfect accompanying beverage. Perfect Saturday morning!

The List - Photo Blog Finds

2010-01-09T10:39:00.002-07:00

How-To
High speed sync trick for Nikon and PWs from The Jerry Blog
(and the flickr dStrobist.com discussion of it)

Hmmm
Sustaining the practice of art from the pixelatedimage blog

Shooters
Guest Blog with Bill Frakes from Scott Kelby’s Photoshop Insider
(please scroll down and watch the video.)

-25-

Photograph a Day Project

2010-01-01T23:56:00.023-07:00

At the beginning of 2010 I decided to jump into a Photograph-A-Day project. Be it my real camera, the P&S, or even the BB, I will be doing my very best to collect one a day and add it to the table below. The photos may not actually be added each and every day, but they will be acquired…really, I swear. Don’t expect 365 great pieces or wild processing – that's just plain not the point of all of this.

[Update: this is too hard! I failed about 45 days in. I will try again next year!]

The List - Photo Blog Finds

2009-12-31T14:15:00.012-07:00

Shooters
Martin Schoeller
Dan Winters - here
Jensen Walker photo shoot
Here is the list of all of them
Anything about Chuck Close – especially the IFC documentary, Chuck Close: An Elegant Portrait of the Art World's Leading Portraitist, by Marion Cajori

How-To
Those 3 McNally spots for Nikon: 1 - 2 - 3
(If you only watch 1 of the 3, make it #3)
This guy is interesting and the video really drags on and on, but the idea is very intriguing and something I have enjoyed trying.

Tools
Very cool tool, especially for those of us using a wooden TV tray instead.
Categorized as pricy, but cool

DIY
Nice DIY project

Balancing Flash and Ambient Light

2009-12-03T15:56:00.017-07:00

[1/200 sec., f/11, ISO-200, (5) manual off-camera flashes]

So let it be stated here and now, I am only sharing how I did something – good or bad – and how it worked out – again good and bad. If you really want to know how to do something I have posted here, then read on (with a beverage in hand and chuckle at the ready) and then read somebody else’s blog!

This isn’t the timeliest post, relative to when I had the shoot, but I have a list to work through to catch up again and this is the first. A big deal right now is using flashes or monolights to not overpower the ambient light, but to light the subject and suck some drama out of the ambient conditions. Just look around, it’s everywhere. If you want to really see how it’s done, then leave here right this second and head over to Mr. Mc Nally’s blog.

This post is more about my giving it a go and in a much bigger way than I should have for my first actual required product. Those that have read here before know that for me it translates to testing, testing and more testing. First let me set the scene:

Season: graduation time for the high school seniors, one of which was mine
Needed For: graduation party for 10 seniors
Deliverable: a huge poster of the 10 kids to be displayed at the party and a photo to put on the party announcements that had to go out immediately
Location: NW USA
Weather: Rain, wind, cold, crappy, …

The weather and scheduling all 10 graduates to show up at the same time was the worst of it, other than me not having a clue what I was doing. I had a backup indoor location, but wasn’t thrilled about that idea. What I really wanted to do was one of these flash/ambient lighting things that I was seeing everywhere. So here was my process.

Step 1 – Find a Location and a Theme. First I had to think of an idea for the shot. Why not have all of the kids jumping in the air? That way I could do everything that has been really overdone these days – two birds with one stone. Perfect.

I needed a setting where the sun could be dropping behind the kids and I could get a good horizon in case I had some great sunset thing going on. The location needed to be close by so all the kids could get there quickly. Those of you that have done anything around sunset know that a mysterious astronomical event occurs when setting these shots up: it takes forever for sunset to approach and then when it does it is over in about 5 minutes. In addition to being close to town, I also didn’t want anything else other than the kids, the horizon and the sky so I had to go hunting. Below is the location I found that I liked.

Step 2 - Figure out how to light it. Enter my favorite test subjects – the wife and the dog. The wife hates doing this all of the time, but she can be bought and besides this whole photo thing was her idea! The dog will sit for hours and hours and allow me to photograph him. In fact if I have left the background up over night, he really digs sleeping on it.

So off we go to the backyard at dusk, with my hand written notes on how to pull this off. I have since done lots more reading and experimenting and can pull these off just about with my eyes closed, but on this night I was reading my notes about setting the f-stop to this, the shutter to that, and doing this and that to the ISO all the while trying to assess what was happening by looking at a 3” LCD and begging for just one more…one more… In the back of my head I also know that I only have speedlites (at that time) and am going to eventually have to try to evenly lighting 10 kids. Heck, I’ll worry about that part later. So after as many shots as I could beg, maybe 10, I know that maybe, just maybe we can do this.
Step 3 – More people and more light. One flash and a short distance, okay. However, there are lots of things to consider here in addition to the fact that I am going to have 10 kids, in the air, and will probably be at least 30 feet away to get them all in frame.

I will need a fast shutter for the jump and to control ambient, but I need to watch sync speed.
I will need a smaller aperture to get everybody in focus – yikes what is this going to do to my flash power?
I may have to push up the ISO.

Bottom line, I am going to need more light and more practice! Below was the next test where I added another flash and pushed the ISO.

[1/200 sec., f/16, ISO-1000, (2) manual off-camera flashes]

Well, that was kind of fun. Thanks family for allowing more practice. But, who’s up for one more test at the actual location with as many people as I can get?

[1/80 sec., f/10, ISO-400, (2) manual off-camera flashes]

Two problems:
1) nobody else would play along except for the usual suspects
2) as you can see from my settings, I don’t have a clue what I am doing as every setting is different in every test. That’s okay, seriously, no problem, it’ll all work out. I’ll just figure it out while we are there. The bigger problem is nobody is available and the weather sucks so we will probably end up going inside anyway.

The Shoot. The weather cleared, the kids could come and now – holy crap – we actually have to do this thing. It was somebody’s brilliant idea to put the kids in sweatshirts of the colleges they were headed to – I can’t take any credit for that. Oh wait, one more little problem – two of the kids are injured and can’t jump. Oh well, throw that in the “we’ll deal with that later too” pile.

I have a total of 4 flashes, of all different ages, types and power. No problem. I think just to be safe I am going to borrow one more. Hmmm, how am I going to trigger all of these? I have optical slaves for the Vivitars, but that sucks outside. So, after a trip to Radio Shack and Home Depot, here is what I ended up:

I made some DIY dual flash brackets and used some adapters from Radio shack to allow the Pocket Wizards (PW) to fire two flashes each. That got me to this:

Stand with DIY dual flash bracket, (2) Vivitar 285s, on an umbrella mount, both attached to a single PW.
Stand with DIY dual flash bracket, Canon 580EX II and Canon 430EX, on an umbrella mount, both attached to a single PW.
Flash bracket attached to camera with a 430EX and Omni-bounce on the bracket and triggered with an OC cord on the hotshoe.
PW at camera attached via the PC sync port to trigger the other 4 flashes.
Camera tethered to the laptop so the Moms could look and see if their kids looked okay and I could just worry about the actual shooting details.

If you look back at the setting for the final shot, you will see that through nothing more than some testing and some really great dumb luck, the camera magically put itself in just about the perfect settings [1/200 sec., f/11, ISO-200, (5) manual off-camera flashes] and this thing came out pretty okay. After some minor processing we put them into a traditional poster-like format, sent them off for printing and in addition to the one for the event, I sold one to each kid for $1,000,000 each and now I have lots more time to just sit and write these blog posts. Perfect – again!

Website has left the building...

2009-11-12T14:09:00.010-07:00

Well, the old website had a great ride and I very much appreciate that for all those years that it was alive and well, and looking different each time I had a new thought enter my head - which is quite rare - it never cost me a penny to post or host.

Now I guess it is time for me to either move hosts and actually pay for it to live or scrap the website entirely.

[UPDATE: As is apparent just under the goofy header, I have found some code and appropriately hacked it to get what I was looking for insofar as a slideshow on this blog. I wish the photos were a little bigger and I am still working on that. What I do like about it is that is loads quickly and there are no links. So, no more web site, but new, worthy images will be added to the slideshow.]

Maternity and Newborn

2009-08-11T10:32:00.030-06:00

Seamless black … of course

2009-05-15T11:16:00.012-06:00

First it was the white background and this time black.

These shots are from a session we did at the local unwed mother's home. These were done as Christmas presents for the girls.

Set Up - (These shots were done on location.)
• Background stand supporting some old black curtains about 8 feet behind the girls
• Black velvet placed on the floor, under the girls
• A little ambient fluorescent light – not by choice, but some things are out of your control
• Two speedlights back by the camera, placed at 30-45 degrees left and right with a 2:1 ratio
•(For the belly shots of the two pregnant girls I gridded the key light and used a 42” flag attached to my carbon-based light stand to block the fluorescent light)

Seamless white … sort of

2009-05-09T12:45:00.032-06:00

If you are going to do studio portraits and you want to be current, you best be shooting on seamless white, occassionally.

There are lots of good tutorials on the web for doing these and my favorite is by Zack Arias which can be found here. The only problem for me, or maybe better stated, there are many problems for me insofar as doing it this way as I have no studio, no space, and a very eclectic collection of gear. Here is my adaptation.

The background
No seamless paper for me. No room for a 12’ roll of paper, nor the desire to mess with one. My background is a big, sort of white, but not really, canvas drop cloth that I got at Home Depot for about $25. If you light it right, it works out okay plus it is easy to store, transport and set up.

The Lights
All of these shots shown here were done with four flashes (Canon 580EX II, Canon 430EX, Vivitar 285, and a Vivitar 285HV) just to show that you can still pull these shots off without monlights. The setup is provided below.

The key is getting the background 1 – 2 stops brighter than the models. For this I use the Sekonic Flashmate L-308S. The setup is shown at above. Try to get a good distance between your models and the background if you can – maybe 8 feet. That is a good number for both white and black backgrounds which just so happens to be the next topic.

Ballerinas I and II

2009-04-29T12:19:00.040-06:00

One of my mentors has always said "Shoot ballerinas!" I'm certain he meant photograph them, so I visited with the director of the studio, got my Ballerina Tag so to speak, and off I went. It was a blast!

what’s in a name?

2009-01-28T16:30:00.005-07:00

[This is a slight deviation in the story, but interesting enough, at least to me, to cause a short break in the story.]

Just the other day, or actually every day, I was “Googling” myself to see if my photography web site or this blog would appear. No neither of those showed up, but what did was list out were two main items:

1.) Chris Martin of Cold Play – no surprises there, and
2.) An amazingly long list of folks named Chris or Christopher Martin who are photographers.

I was truly amazed at how many there are and the apparent complete lack of uniqueness of our name in this field. Below is as much of the list as I could stand to generate. I wonder - if any one of them wants to bring suit against the rest of us for name infraction what would happen? Would it be a class action law suit?

SEARCH: Chris Martin Photography

Name: Chris Martin Photography
Link: http://www.chrismartinphotography.co.uk/
Location: Guildford, UK

Name: Chris Martin Photography
Link: http://www.chrismartinphoto.com/Chris_Martin_Photography/Home.html
Location: Colorado, USA

Name: Martin Christopher Photography
(I realize it is backwards, but it still comes up in the search)
Link: http://www.martinchristopher.com/
Location: Phoenix, Arizona, USA

Name: Christopher T Martin Photography
Link: http://altpick.com/cmartinphoto/, http://www.christophertmartin.com/
Location: Atlanta, Georgia, USA

Name: Chris Martin Photography
Link: http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=434493409
Location: Modesto, California, USA

Name: Chris Martin Studios
Link: http://www.chrismartin.com/, http://www.chrismartinstudios.com/
Location: Washington, USA

Name: Chris Martin Photographer
Link: https://www.usefilm.com/photographer.asp?P=1&C=12&ID=78391&PF=0
Location: New Hampshire, USA

Name: Chris Triance-Martin Photographer
Link: http://www.christriancemartin.com/
Location: London, Canada
Note: Nudes – not work safe

Name: Chris Martin – Photographer
Link: http://www.chrismartinphotographer.com/
Location: Africa

Name: Christopher Martin Photography
Link: http://www.chrismartin.co.uk/
Location: UK

Name: Chris Martin Photography
Link: http://www.photoboxgallery.com/chrismartinphotography/813685
Location: UK

welcome

2009-01-14T09:41:00.010-07:00

[Photo info: Period photo - June 2005, 20mm, f/4.5, 1/160 sec., ISO-200]

Hello and welcome. This blog spot was originally created back in 2005 as part of an on-line photography work group called Photo Impressionism. There wasn’t much activity as it was primarily used for those of us in the work group to share our work.

I then decided to convert this spot to something that chronicles my adventures in photography. That was lame!

Then I tried sharing technical info on shots - setups, pitfalls, successes, etc. A couple of those posts are still left, and maybe they will help some of you. For now, please just hang in there as I bounce around finding my blog voice.

chris martin photography

Video - High School Team Poster Photo Shoot

More High School Sports - 2011 – Coach Poster and Special Print

Flash Modifier Comparison

DIY DSLR Follow Focus - Rack Focus

DIY DSLR Video Stabilizer – Mash Up

Sometimes Give it Away!

Hang In There - Please

More High School Sports - Team Posters - 2011

Location Lighting Bag

Road Back To Simplicity

More High School Sports - 2011 - Team Poster

DIY – Ray Flash and PW miniTT1 Setup

DIY – Tri Flash Bracket

TOMS - One Day Without Shoes

Tanzanian Animals

Tanzania: A World Apart From Here

Traveling With Photo Equipment – Part 2 – Bag in a Bag

Traveling With Photo Equipment – Part 1 – What to Take

Polaroids

Think Tank Photo – Modular Pouch Review

Eldest Son

Lunar Eclipse - 2010

Custom Artwork - By My Amazing Kid

One shot 360 Re-Visited

Holiday Horfrost

An American Thanksgiving

More High School Sports – Team Photos and Posters

Mainstream - Not!

Turtles of Zihuatanejo

Alcatraz

Street Photography

Prom and Graduation Photos

Art Show

High School Sports – Team Photos and Posters

Twin Cities

Elkhorn Alpacas

The List - Photo Blog Finds

Photograph a Day Project

The List - Photo Blog Finds

Balancing Flash and Ambient Light

Website has left the building...

Maternity and Newborn

Seamless black … of course

Seamless white … sort of

Ballerinas I and II

what’s in a name?

welcome