good photograph vs good photographer (rob)

In light of Mac's previous post, and my post before it, I thought this might be an interesting topic.

It seems pretty obvious (maybe),

however, sometimes writing it down shows patterns that were not noticed before.

Mac's comment before alluded to his concern over a standard that he had learned (harsh shadows being evil), and held close to his heart, and how he chose to break free of that.

I think it all bottles down to this...

The photograph you took... did you accidentally take it, or were you in control.

The scientific process (arguably the greatest philosophical standard yet) states that a sound theory, study, whatever is only reputable if it is duplicatable.

That is;

can you replicate what you did before, and show that the theory (etc) exists in more than one context (it's much more complicated, and much simpler at the same time, but it's a bit tricky to map the concept here, so hopefully this makes sense).

I think this same standard can be applied here.

A 'good' photograph can be a million different things.

I think one primary prejudice for a good photograph is that it must be challenging...

ie elitist.

If Joe or Jane Blow can take it accidentally, it might not be considered a 'good' photograph.

This standard is typically propagated by photographers...

especially the photographers who have spent a million dollars, and a million hours developing their technique. They couldn't possibly accept your technique if it didn't cost you millions in equipment, or take you hundreds of hours to develop your technique also.

The public could give a shit. They just like something that captivates them. They enjoy art without concern for how much you slaved over it. They only want to be moved.

I dare you to attempt to define the art factor. It's different depending on so many factors, including era's, culture etc.

As for technical prowess, I think that you can have a million different standards...

but I think we can narrow it down to this question.

As a photographer, did you do it on purpose?

Can you replicate it.

Did the creation of the image have at least some kind of moderate technical maturity?

I think beyond this, we are arguing for no reason at all.

Find your voice in your art. What is captivating to you. If you have that, then you have at least a small chance of sharing a unique and sincere view with the world.

Then take a bit of time, and use some technical knowledge of your craft to translate that image for an audience.

Good for you if you stumbled upon it. You may have great artistic vision, however you will always struggle to translate that into an image, because you only accidentally capture it with your lack of technical knowledge.

Or you may be a technical master, but no idea what is a captivating image.

I write about this topic often...

I guess it's something I am still working out.

That's all.

Rob

Harsh? (Mac)

When I first started in photography I learned or perceived that shadows were bad. People always talked about "filling in shadows" and "watch the harsh shadows". Shadows are bad they'd say. So I spent several months avoiding shadows like the plague. That was a mistake--shadows are great. You need to learn to understand and control your shadows to create the specific looks you want. One of the biggest misconceptions I was lead to believe is this term "harsh" to describe shadows that are "hard". The term "harsh" has a negative slant to it and I believe is the wrong word to use when describing a shadow quality that is indeed hard. The term "harsh" most certainly dissuaded me from using hard shadows and I consequently spent much time agonizing over whether my shadows were soft enough.

Just what is a hard shadow? Well, if you are accustomed to using a point & shoot camera with an dinky little on-camera flash you will have no doubt seen hard shadows. These are shadows which have a clear and defined edge i.e. the transition between the diffused highlight (the properly exposed portion) and the shadow is abrupt and well defined. The light that creates this type of shadow is often called "harsh" and more often than not negatively describes the light quality. Too many photographers are afraid of hard light and generally hard light is unflattering, but when you use it effectively the images can be fantastic. Many of the speedlight gurus out there these days use unmodified speedlights which due to their small size create hard shadows and nobody seems to be knocking their work.

The image above is an example of hard light or hard shadow - which ever term you prefer. I purposely chose this style of lighting to create a matching contrast between the shadows and her black shirt with the lightness of her skin. The two work to help bring attention to her skin and hair. I have attached the lighting setup for this particular shot below. Learn to use your shadows for effect and if you intentionally use a hard light source and some one tells you to "fill in your shadows" or "you should have used a more diffuse light source" you can now stand proud knowing that you chose to use a hard shadow on purpose an it isn't necessarily a bad thing. And it certainly isn't "harsh" as the word would imply.

Radiopopper (Mac)

So, continuing on with my speedlight kick my Radiopopper TTL radio trigger system arrived yesterday. I am not going to go too deep into a review here as I plan on doing that a bit later after testing a mounting modification that I did and a more thorough review of these babies. I'll just give my first impressions as they came out of the box.

The first thing I noticed about them was the battery door is VERY easy to open - to the point I am worried it is going to fall off and be lost. I'll have to figure out something for that. The other thing I think that could be better is the control panel. The buttons are awfully small and too close together. Other than those two gripe these things are pretty slick upon first examination.

I tested them out briefly with the new plastic mounting device they have and the units worked great - high speed sync and all. Woo! No more worrying about where to orient my lights so they can 'see' the master unit on the camera. I quickly decided, however, that I don't like the mounts because of the bulk and the issue of mounting them to everything that I already have that accepts the foot of the flash. The mount is similar to the one that comes with the speedlights but with the addition of being able to hold the receiver in the proper position. It is quite a bulky arrangement and one more thing between the flash and the stand that I'd rather not worry about. However, I am not afraid of Velcro :-)

All of my speedlights have Velcro on all four sides of the heads so I can attach gels and flags so a little more Velcro isn't going to hurt. I will show what I did in a future post. As I was seating one of the receivers onto the flash I inadvertently pressed too hard on the control panel and the unit would no longer turn on. Bummer. I sent an email to Radiopopper yesterday explaining my story and if I they had enough in stock that I could order another one and have it shipped ASAP. They have been out of stock on these things for months now so I was hoping to be able to buy another one quick.

A support guy called me this morning and I explained the situation and they emailed me instructions on how to send it back. Radiopopper even offered to pay for shipping. Of course I wouldn't hear of it since I am the goof that damaged the unit, but I am impressed they even offered. Great customer service is a rare thing these days and Radiopopper has just earned a life long customer because of how they are handling this for me. I need to know I am in good hands with the gear that I am using and I am very loyal to companies with exemplary customer service. Kudos to you, Radiopopper!

I am trying to find some time (i.e. get off my ass) and finish revamping my studio for the looooong winter shooting season and then I will test these babies out for real and do a review of them and my mounting method - including photos.

salt and vinegar (rob)

a couple topics to cover today.

first, i was talking with Mac about some of the photographers we admire (so many of which are from eastern Europe) who seem to have a mastery of light and skin tones that we just can't seem to replicate.

so, i thought it would be a worthy thing to focus on.

some of the things i have learnt up to now in regards to that are;

-soften your light.

you can do this a number of ways, including;

move the light source further away.

use a large diffuser (like a soft box, umbrella, etc)

-use a great fixed focus lens (less glass to mess with the light) and a tripod & trigger to get tack sharp images.

-use a model with good skin.

-moisturize the skin (but not too much... this can lead to shiny skin which causes blown highlights).

-use (but don't abuse) a softening plug in (like portraiture in photoshop).

-practice photoshop... then pull back.

a lot of Mac and my conversations revert back to people who 'misuse' or 'abuse' photoshop. i am sure we also misuse it (or abuse it) in the eyes of master photographers. the point is, photoshop is most powerful and effective when is used subtly to enhance a photo. this is an important piece of information that i can't stress enough. think about how the photography masters in the past used a dark room. if you are using photoshop past what they could do in a darkroom (ie dodge, burn, touchups) there is a good chance you are abusing it....

*unless you are truly great at photoshop, and trying to create digital art.

but DO NOT mistake an obnoxious photoshop job with digital art!!

-unfortunately, i also found that the larger sensor size also helps to render skin tones, and reduce blown out highlights. stupid expensive photography crap!!!

i took a stab last night at focusing my full effort on getting a classic image (in my style of course) that focused on skin tones. i am very happy with the results. i will certainly be doing a lot more of this.

what i did in these photo's here is... exactly what i said above.

in addition;

for lighting, i used a boom to place a light directly above and a tiny bit to her front, and my right.

i also placed a light to my left of her, and slightly behind her.

post processing was pretty simple... a bit of healing brush, a bit of dodging and burning, and the black & white function in Capture NX which i love.

in the image where the model is looking directly at the camera, i copied her left eye with the clone tool, then flipped and pasted it on the right side of her face, because there was no catch light in her right eye. at first i tried to just place a catchlight in her right eye, but it wasn't working.

i also ALWAYS make sure that one major line in EVERY photograph is compositionally/symmetrically sound.

this can mean a lot of things. the main line is obvious in these pictures... but it drives me crazy in sooo many peoples pictures. some kind of symmetrical/compositional meaning is vital to me.

it isn't always obvious (because the major line isn't always straight vertical or horizontal... but i always try to base it on phi (or the rule of thirds as it's dumbed down to).

if you didn't know that the rule of thirds is based on a very old greek ratio called phi, and how that ratio works in an image (and in almost all great art, including music and architecture, and random objects in nature that we as people gravitate towards as beautiful)... do yourself a favour, and look it up.

it is the most important compositional theory in (art) photography, and the rule of thirds is the kindergarten, dumbed down version of it.

on another note,

the raw files model portion of the year is mostly complete. my friend, and model Jess was very upfront with me about halfway through the season that she was not feeling up to modeling. Her reasons are her own, and i would have loved for her to share them, however, personal reasons are called personal for a reason.

the point is, it happens.

i am completely fine with it happening... it is inevitable in a project like this, and actually an interesting point to explore, which is what this project is about. a model has to bare a lot of herself, both physically and emotionally. i think that is a beautiful, and very draining thing.

Jess made absolutely the right choice to take care of herself first.

as a photographer, i believe i need to try to be in touch with the people i work with, and i can certainly say i felt Jess pulling away even before she told me... all i can hope is that i made it easy for her to make the choice to stop.

so,

thanks Jess for being a part of the project this year!

thanks for bringing your diversity, and talent to share with me for as long as you did.

snoot-y (rob)

I have been happily inspired by an old trick lately.

I've been playing with body-scapes, and loving it.

Basically, I have always loved one light systems.

I think they create beautiful dramatic lighting.

I've had a snoot for some time, but recently decided to get a second to see what I could do with that.

I started out with putting both snoots on either side of the model, and snooting from different angles, but I had a revelation the other day, and decided to use two snoots side by side. This allows me to keep the light nice and focused on one side of the body, however, get even light across the body.

In other words, the point of light is the same, but it is spread out better.

I had wished for some time that someone would invent a snoot that was more linear, instead of a spot light, so I created one.

I also began turning the power on my lights way down, in order to play with depth of field. Depth of field is not something that I typically play with in studio, but why not? When you decrease the power to your lights, you can increase your aperture without blowing the entire image out.

The last thing I did was shoot the body with a wide angle.

I struggle with my wide angle in studio, because my studio is small.

When I open up too wide, I lose my backdrop, which is difficult to manage.

However, with a snoot, it doesn't matter.

There could be a circus going on behind the model, and you wouldn't know it.

The wide angle, shallow depth of field, and spread out snoot lighting allowed me to begin seeing body scapes in a whole new light... so to speak.

I am super-D-duper excited by this, and will continue playing with it more.

One last thing I have done a few times, is to shoot symmetrically.

However, a body is never truly symmetrical, so I have used photoshop to select one side, and flip it to the other to create perfect symmetry.

Try playing around..

All you need is a snoot to start, and a model, and a sense of adventure.

What Does ISO Mean to You? (Mac)

For me the awesome capabilities of the D3's ISO not only allows for shooting in lower light, but the main benefit for me is being able to shoot with a higher shutter speed if I am hand holding the camera. I was emailed a question regarding obtaining sharp images and my number one recommendation is without a doubt shutter speed assuming of course the camera/lens are in good working order and the camera is focused properly.

I rarely ever get soft photos when using a shutter speed of 1/250th which is where my camera lives most of the time. I will go down to 1/125th here and there and only lower if I absolutely have to. I will gladly bump my ISO up to 800 to keep a shutter speed of at least 1/125th and 1600 if I need to. The photograph accompanying my last post was shot at 1/100th, f2.8 at ISO 800 hand held. I reserve 3200+ for emergencies :-)

My D2x was terrible by comparison at ISO 800 so the D3 is a blessing. I can keep hand holding long after the D2x bottomed out on me and forced the use of a tripod. I do use a tripod for much of my work, however. Especially for group formals, and nude work that is very static in nature i.e. we are working on several shots centered around one theme where we are exploring poses and such. A tripod here allows me to step out from behind the camera to give instruction or make adjustments and not lose my compositions and gives me sharp focus.

I can only imagine what successive cameras are going to be like in the ISO department. Being able to shoot at 1/250th most for the time would be great since I can't seem to be able to hold my camera very still and I like to shoot wide open :-)

Photography is Art (Mac)

Photography as an art form has been a contentious issue for me. For the most part I view myself as an artist especially as it relates to my personal work. I use the camera and digital editing tools along with nude bodies as my form of expression. I strive to create unique pieces - individual moments in time capturing the beauty of the subject I am working with in that particular moment.

Jenn and I were texting today trying to come up with a time to shoot and she mentioned she liked some of my recent studio work and wanted to do the same. I have had this happen to me on a number of occasions which is what lead me to post about the subject today i.e. some one contacting me to have photos made of themselves like ones I have already made.

My general response to such requests is no, I am not interested in repeating an image, but you are more than welcome to pose for new work perhaps even exploring along a similar idea if I feel it is worth pursuing further. Most people are happy to do that, however, I have had subjects stop communicating with me after I decline their requests to reproduce my work with them in it. This is really where my beef lies.

I am an artist. I am not a Walmart, cookie cutter, portrait studio - I shoot for myself first, my subject second, and the world third. I am not sure people necessarily view photography as art or the process as an artistic endeavor. Why would I want to reproduce a perfectly fine piece I have already made? What purpose does that serve other than getting the new person a cool photo of themselves. I wind up with nothing. I don't need two versions of the same photograph thank you very much. Are they going to pay me for my time and effort to reproduce an image? Not likely. Would a painter put forth the great deal of effort to reproduce a painting for someone without compensation? Not likely. My compensation for the first image is that very image - it has value to me and hopefully to the model, but on the second go around what am I getting for my efforts?

My work is just as involved as a painter's or a sculptor's - in fact much of my work is inspired by classical nude paintings and sculpture. It takes time, energy, skill, materials and vision to create my photographs. I believe people have a misconception about artistic photography as though I just press a button like they would on their own little cameras and because I have a big, expensive camera my images magically happen. It is this lack of understanding of the process involved in creating that I believe prompts people to ask "Ooh, can you make one with me, too?". If all I had to do was push a shutter button like a Walmart photo center employee and had no passion for the work nor the desire to create anew then I probably would.

I wish people could understand that it isn't that camera that makes the work any more than the chef's pots being responsible for his cuisine. I suppose one of the purposes of this blog is to educate people on the process - it is misfortunate that the majority of our readers are photographers who I hope for the most part know what I am saying here. As a photographic artist, I am interested in moving forward and creating and exploring new ideas not rehashing old ones - not even for money.

I am glad Jenn texted that today as I have had this post simmering in the back of my head for a while and now it finally came out. My brain is like an old attic - there is a lot of stuff in there and it is difficult to find sometimes. We are looking at getting together next Wednesday for a kick at light painting and what will be our last shoot together on the Raw Files. I am then model-less as far as the Raw Files goes until next April when the next phase of model shooting begins from April to September 2010.

The photo accompanying today's post is my model for next year, Karolina. This photograph was made yesterday in the foothills southwest of Calgary. Karolina is lit with a single SB800 in manual mode bounced into in a 60" silver umbrella just out of frame to camera right triggered with an on camera SU800.

Expose Yourself (Mac)

Not like that...I am talking about using manual exposure mode. You know the little "M" beside your "A", "S", and "P" or the Canon equivalent. I am almost always on "M" because I like to think I am smarter than my camera and I like to be in control of my exposures. Even when I shoot weddings I keep my camera on manual exposure. I also use a manual a white balance setting. I don't like auto anything except for auto focus :-)

One of my two main reasons for using manual exposure mode is for the consistency of exposure between a series of images. If you let the camera ride on one of the auto exposure modes like "A", "S", or "P" the camera is going to make some decisions for you based on the scene it is "seeing" and the metering method you have chosen. I am not going to rehash how a camera determines exposure because the topic is all over the internet and I am assuming that you know how a camera determines "correct" exposure. If you don't, simply do some reading on exposure via Google.

So what is the point of this post you are wondering? Well, I am hoping to persuade you to step into the scary realm of manual exposure. Where you decide the aperture and shutter speed based on what you want the exposure to be. For the photos attached I wanted the background ambient light to look a certain way and I wanted to keep it consistent as I was running around after kids all afternoon. The background consisted of dark bushes and bright sky (I was actually shooting into the sun hence the flare) so setting the camera in manual mode was the only way to keep the background consistent. The subject illumination was handled by an off camera SB900 speedlight in a softbox, running on TTL and triggered by an SU-800.

These photos were made at 1/2500th at f2.8 with a 70-200mm lens and are straight out of Lightroom with not much done to them at all. The shallow depth of field was made possible with the aid of high speed sync. By using a shutter speed of 1/2500 I could open my lens up to f2.8 and being on manual I could adjust my shutter speed to change the ambient light without the camera adjusting the aperture on me as would be the case if I was using an auto exposure mode.

Stepping away from the comfort of the auto exposure modes takes some getting used to, but manual is where the control is and creativity lives in terms of exposure. I encourage you to put your camera on "M" and start shooting. You may find your photography takes off on a whole new direction.

Mac attack. (rob)

I shot what is likely my last wedding of the year yesterday.

It was just a quicky, but the couple was great.

I was planning on bringing my alien bees to the shoot,

however, it looked like rain, so I opted instead to use my speedlights.

I have used them in the past, however, I have been re-inspired by portable lighting by Mac,

so I brought them with a different intent this time.

The wedding went well, and we wandered off to find some unique shots, when I noticed this log off in the distance.

It was near sunset, and the sun was under the clouds, however, it was also glaringly harsh, and unpleasant.

In this shot, I have a random wedding guest holding my SB-900 just off, to the left of the frame, directed straight at the brides dress, which acts as a fantastic reflector.

My SB-600 is on a stand, also to the left of the shot, pointed at their faces for some fill.

For post processing, all I did was pump up the colours a bit in nikon capture, and used the point control to darken the grass a bit in the foreground... It was very bright from the flash, and a bit distracting.

I think that Mac is onto something with the speedlights.

If I don't have too far to go, and/or am shooting a very patient model, I think that the power of the Alien Bees is fantastic, and I am happy I bought them. They are the equivalent of 'car camping.'

However, I will likely invest in one more speedlight, and a remote system for next wedding season.... one of the reasons I had to set up both lights to the left, is that is what side the sensor is one. It worked fine here, but was annoying plenty of other times.

I really enjoyed the absolute portability of them; while using them in a creative lighting situation. They are also very quickly moved about, which is very important during weddings.

My next post will be about my new vision regarding "body scapes"... you can see the beginnings of my vision on twistedfigure.com under 'scapegoat' category.

rob

Wet Bride (Mac)

I finally found a bride that wasn't completely attached to her dress - emotionally speaking. Jodie whole heartedly agreed to a "trash the dress" photo session which we did this past Sunday and a month or so after the wedding. Normally I would have brought out my trusty studio gear and lugged the lights, stands and batteries to the location, proceeded to set it all up, and then spend way too much time running around adjusting the lights to suit. Instead, I used my speedlights and Nikon's CLS for this photo session.

I have to say, being able to carry five lights in my camera bag is a lovely treat. Had I used studio lights I would have only brought two. In this photo I used three speedlights - SB900, SB800, and an SB600. I set my camera to 1/250th which is where I usually always start and then selected an aperture off the top of my head which happened to be f5 and took a photo with no flash. The ambient looked about right and then I took another with the flashes firing. All the lights were set to TTL with the SB600 in the rocks to camera left set to -3 EV, the SB900 to my right and in front of Jodie, and the SB800 camera right and behind her as you can see in the BTS image below I remembered to grab. Yay me. I triggered the lights with my new SU800 commander which is a lovely little unit for two reasons 1) it is lighter than a speedlight and 2) it frees up a light to use off camera.

I am really looking forward to getting my hands on some RadioPopper PX's so I can have unlimited control over these lights. I am patiently waiting for them to be in stock as they have been out for quite some time now. A recent email assured me they should be shipping by the end of September.

As usual for this type of image there is very minimal post processing done on it in terms of Photoshop actions or pluggins that seem to be so popular with wedding photographers today. I am a photographer and I like my images to look like a photograph not some over-saturated, unworldly cartoon, but my rant on that is a topic for another post :-)

burningman (rob)

hello all.

i recently applied for a media pass for the burning man festival.

for those of you who don't know what it is,

i am going to do a piss poor job explaining it.

imagine you go to a place that at first glance makes you think you've stepped into a post-apocalyptic desert landscape.

imagine that at second glance, you think you are at disneyland on acid.

the most important part however, is,

imagine that you are at a place packed full of amazing world class art,

and surrounded by 50,000 people trying for one week to be more conscious than they are every other day of their lives.

that's the best i got.

other than that, you can look at my pictures,

but i just recommend you go.

http://www.burningman.com

so,

i got to go down with my gear, and take pictures that i can post in galleries and here (that's what the media pass gets you).

it was a photographers dream,

and i was worried that i would struggle to put down my camera long enough to experience it.

funny enough, i found the opposite to be true.

by day 3, i had yet to pick up my camera at all.

i ended up dedicating myself to one sunset, and one sunrise.

i brought tons of gear, including my new alien bee's, however, i barely used them.

all the images posted here, and on my website were shot with my d-700, and my 17-35ml. all shots were hand-held.

from a photographic perspective, the most interesting part of this experience was the extreme weather.

for a number of hours every day, this desert landscape has windstorms.

imagine being exposed to a jet engine in a baby-powder warehouse.

most photographers plastic wrap and gaffer tape the shit out of their gear.

i brought plenty, however, i never took it out.

i was lazy. so i refused to change my lens in order to reduce exposure, and the d-700 has pretty good weather seals.

you can see evidence of the dust storms in a few of these shots, but really, you have to experience it to truly understand.

also, i didn't shoot much during the dust storms, as there isn't much to shoot. i just hunkered down and waited them out.

during post processing, i had to touch up about 6 spots on the photos taken near the end of the week.

not bad at all! i was very impressed with how the seals held up.

finding some kind of balance between experiencing life, and photographing it has been an ongoing conversation for me.

photographers are by nature voyeurs, however, i really enjoy living my life too.

when i travel, i often sit down quietly for about 15 minutes in an environment i plan to shoot.

i enjoy this for a number of reasons, first of which is that i get to enjoy the place and have an actual memory of it.

i also like to do that, because it lets me look around, and truly 'see' the space.

lastly, i like to do it, because inevitably there are other photographers around.

some of them are shooting the same things, so i look for something new to shoot, or a new perspective. some of them are being assholes, and so i try not to be that either.

at this event, i think i would have shot more had i travelled lighter.

i had my battery pack on my camera, and during my first sunset i had all my gear in a trailer i rigged to my bike.

it was a pain in the ass, and i got tired of it quickly.

the sunrise day, i threw my camera in a backpack, and away i went.

much easier, and enjoyable.

shooting events like this is certainly a joy.

it is 'easy' to shoot such interesting things.

however, there are 50,000 people, and a ton with media passes, so how to you find something interesting.

it certainly helps knowing what you like to shoot, and knowing how you 'see' the world.

i didn't do much stopping and looking during these shoots, as the weather changed so quickly. also, i was primarily shooting sunset and sunrise which only last a few minutes.

i had to cover about 50+ acres worth of land, and hundreds of art pieces in that short amount of time.

so the days leading up to shooting, i was doing my looking, and seeing.

while i was shooting, i was racing around on a bicycle, trying to put together the ideas in my head, with the reality of the lighting, and the weather.

it was bliss.

a few years back, i hosted a photography challenge, all based around unpredictable circumstances.

it's one thing to be a good photographer in a predictable situation,

however, can you 'get the shot' when the world is a bit chaotic.

i truly enjoy shit like that. but the more prepared you are, the better you will fare.

anyways, this is getting long.

i don't often talk as much technical stuff as mac...

something i will try to do more of,

however, i realized that i am not a technical photographer.

that is mac's strength.

i will try to share mine, which is discussing where my head is at as i try to get a shot.

later.

rob

Some Cheese With That Glamour? (Mac)

Ok, so after reading Jenn's recent post I realized I am probably a little snobbish in attitude towards glamour photography and I shouldn't be - necessarily. Being an art nude photographer is no better than a glamour photographer - just different. There are some glamour photographers out there that like to think they are artists, but I am going to have to disagree with that notion. A disagreement that is utterly pointless. Why? Because art is in the eye of the beholder. While I view glamour's primary purpose to be for the titillation of the viewer and art's purpose to stimulate many senses including titillation in some cases, there are those that would claim that the glamour genre is indeed art.

Arguably the best glamour in the world is or at least was, Playboy. Top notch photography, beautiful women, elaborate sets and locations all conspire to produce some beautiful and technically amazing photographs. I admire those that shoot glamour with the skill and proficiency of the Playboy photographers. I guess I turn my nose at glamour photography in general because there is so much of it and most of it is junk made by perverts who have no interest whatsoever in the fine craft of good glamour photography and the models that think they are all that and a bag of chips and have no business being in front of a camera - they are made for each other.

As I have often said, I am a fan of all photography as long as it is good and of course good is in the eye of the beholder - it is a no win situation. What is good photography to one person is junk to another and so on. I know what good photography is to me as soon as I see it. Being slanted heavily towards the technical more often than not the first thing that catches my eye are the technical aspects of the image such as the focus, the light, the tones, the colors, the exposure, etc. with composition and subject matter usually rounding up whether I think the image is a success or not. I am not really anti-glamour as much as I am anti-perverts making horrible photographs for their own personal jollies which constitutes the majority of glamour that is out there on the Net today. That being said, we live in a free society and these twits can do what they want and I can continue to have my opinion of it - pointless though it may be.

Yes, I will shoot Jenn with a "sled" (snow mobile or "Skidoo" for those of you not familiar with the jargon) and a fuzzy bikini simply for the challenge of it and to produce some photos that make Jenn happy or not in the case that I fall flat :-) We won't get to those photos before the end of September when our time with Jenn is up, but I will post the work here when it is done and Jenn can certainly add her thoughts on the shoot at that time. Rob and I have always encouraged our past models to continue to follow the blog and post comments as the project goes forward.

It looks as though Jess is done with the project and Jenn is trying to get a shoot in with Rob before the end of September when the model portion wraps up. Rob is on his way back from Burning Man so I am sure he will have boat loads to share whence he regains a sense of normalcy and his butt heals from a very public spanking he received LOL. I think I have my model chosen for the next session which begins in April 2010 - I just have to ask her :-)

Oh Yes (Jenn)

Yet again, I'm sucking hind tit (pardon the expression) with this whole blogging thing. Sigh. Our last shoot was over 3 weeks ago now I think......dang it!Anyhoo, Mac blogged on the last shoot first.....and as "cheesy" and cliche as it was....was my fav! Not even sure why...its not like i can even "act" yet for those kind of shoots. I actually still feel a bit ridiculous putting on "those" faces...ie) "OK, now make your sexy pouty face" ...are you effing kidding me. Guess WE should do MORE cheesy shoots so I can make all those faces and expressions with out feeling like a complete Jack-Ass.

Kinda funny..one of these images ended up in my boss' hands (he let me borrow the GSXR from our show-room floor) and he forwarded it to a neighbour who sent it to his boss, who sent it to his boss who has indirectly approached us to do a promo/ad shoot for Nortrux Volvo! HA! As well as numerous others who have approached me for garage posters.

My last post with the photos from the dirt bike "shoot" (if you can even call it that), for that magazine, I THOUGHT (hoped I guess) would've looked something like these ones. This is what I wanted, this is what I would be proud to distribute in a magazine or as a poster.

I think that this shoot shows Mac's versatility as a photographer and his talent as well. Not only do these pics look calendar quality (positioning of myself, the lighting, the background), but he was able to make ME (little ol' never modeled before, never done glamour sexy pouty face before) actually look like maybe I'm a seasoned professional.

So, Mac, as much as you don't love the cliche-glamour-sexy-pouty-face shoots, I think you're too talented to not do them! and I CANNOT wait to do another...... hummm, I think snow, with my sled, maybe a fur lined hoody, white bikini....whaddya think? Cliche enough yet!?

~J

Dirty!! (Mac)

I bet my sensor is filthier than yours! I think that is a twig in the upper part of the frame. Time for a cleaning I am guessing :-) Click on it to see the debris in all its glory.

Motorcycle Glamour (Mac)

Alright...nobody laugh at me or I am taking my ball home. A little while ago Jenn posted some photos here taken for a bike magazine. I was a little surprised by the snapshot quality of the images and Jenn was none to impressed with them either. So being the experimental dood I am I said we'd attempt re-make them and re-make them we did.

I was going to use my studio lights but I lent one of my batteries to Mr. Rob so I was forced (in a good way!) to use my speedlights. Here is the only photo showing most of the setup - I forgot yet again to snap the whole scene. I cranked up the shadow recovery so the softbox would be more visible in the upper left of the frame. You can also see the gelled SB-600 off to the right and there is a silver reflector just out of the right frame.

Pretty simple set up. I had the camera in manual mode like always, set my shutter speed to 1/250th since I wanted to kill the ambient light and darken the sunset and it is the max sync speed with which I can do this (come on Nikon...give us 1/500th you did it with the D70!). I then noodled the aperture to f5.6 and took a shoot of just the ambient. A little too dark so I bumped the shutter speed up to 1/125th and we were ready to add the flash.

The softbox had an SB-900 with an external battery pack for faster recycling and set to TTL and the gelled SB-600 was also set to TTL and triggered with an on-camera SB-800. Once I got the little buggers talking to eachother away we went. The only thing I did to the lights was put in -0.7EV on the SB-900 from the SB-800 because it was a little hot which I am presuming was because of all the black in the scene.

There ya go...quick-no light meter-Nikon CLS-motorcycle glamour photography by an art nude photographer. I said don't laugh.

The Hot Shoe Diaries - A Sort of Review (Mac)

Since I am on this speedlight kick I have been scouring the internet for tips and tricks and generally searching images made with the system. One of the reigning gurus of the Nikon CLS is without a doubt Joe Mcnally. Joe produces top notch, studio quality images with these little packages of light. He is so involved with these things he will, on occasion, put three or more (seven in one photo!) speedlights on a subject to get the necessary power when a monolight would be the much simpler choice in terms of setup.

Anyway, I purchased his book The Hot Shoe Diaries to gain some insight on how these little flashes are used to create some of the amazing images Joe manages to manufacture. This book reads very casually - almost too casually sometimes and is rife with colorful metaphors that eventually get a little too much. I suppose if you read a chapter, put the book down for a few days and read the next it isn't so bad, but the metaphors get a little nauseating if reading the book in one or two sittings.

Cheesy metaphors and the talking-to-your-buddy-in-a-pub style of writing aside, I thought the book was a decent insight into the thought process of a guy that is a master with the Nikon CLS. Joe goes through various images that depict a good variety of settings (some seemingly impossible to light with shoe mounted flashes) and explains his setup, why he did what he did, and often includes little sketches of the lighting sets. He covers the use of modifiers, gels, grip gear, how to set the flashes up in their commander or remote modes, the use of the SU-800 controller and many other useful bits of info pertaining to using speedlights.

Joe prefers to use the Nikon CLS system in TTL mode allowing the gear to do the lion's share of the work while he oversees the whole 'picture' making sure the system is ultimately doing his bidding which was what attracted me to his book. I am not really interested in using the Nikon CLS in manual mode since my monolights are infinitely better if that is what I am looking for. I am looking to use the power of the TTL capabilities and I'll use manual when the situation calls for it which, according to what Joe does, seems very rare :-)

A guy like Joe makes this all seem so simple - this getting of great images with minimal gear. Indeed, it does seem simple until one goes out and attempts to makes similar images. As Joe eludes to several times, speedlights spray light everywhere and they need to be controlled and well. I am very curious to see Joe's work straight out of the camera to see exactly what the light was doing and what was modified in post. I am a big believer that of some one is going to talk and teach about light that they show the images before any post production dogging, burning, and other manipulations to what the light gave. Good light is an essential starting point, but it is rarely perfect. A book about lighting techniques is all fine and dandy, but alongside the final images should be an uncooked version to show the raw light and what it contributed to the scene before it was enhanced in post. And, yes, most of the great images you see have some level of post production work - don't be fooled that it is all light.

Post production often makes the images punchier, increasing contrast, dodging and burning, adjusting colors, etc. I think it is disservice to show someone who is interested in making those very same punchy images a lighting setup, they go out and do the exact same thing and the resulting images don't look like what said guru is producing. Why can that be? They used the very same gear, the exact setup, the exact exposure settings, and they fell flat. It is because these authors neglect to tell/show that what they got out of the camera is remarkably similar to what the rest of us get and the difference is largely what they or their retoucher did after the fact and that is a whole new set of skills and several books. I am talking about image quality here not composition, story telling, or other artistic elements that make or break a photograph. I am almost always on about image quality that being the technical aspects of tonality, contrast, sharpness, color, light, shadow, transitions, etc that are all partly responsible for the 'look' of these great photographs.

I think the great many of us who buy these lighting books are looking how to create those very same images full of pop and punch and these books give us the framework to make better images, but without informing and showing us that the lighting is only partly responsible for achieving the final image we are still left struggling. How do I know this? I know this because there are a handful of great photographers out there that do show their work straight out of the camera it it looks a hell of a lot like what comes out of mine and yours. The magic is what these guys do in the post production side of things. If you are armed with that comforting knowledge you won't feel so bad when you attempt some of these lighting techniques and don't end up with the same results. Subject matter, composition, a crew, good light, and post production are all responsible for creating many of the amazing photos you see out there. When will we see one of these uber photographers show us the whole kit and kaboodle? I'd buy that book.

In summary, Joe does a decent job of explaining Nikon's CLS and how he uses it to light and create some incredible photographs - photographs that look like they were made with expensive studio gear. Some people may not appreciate his very casual writing style, but putting that aside there is some great information on how to use speedlights to tackle just about any photograph you want to make. Joe also opens your eyes to thinking outside the box and thinking creatively. I would recommend this book to anyone looking to get more out of Nikon's CLS, but some decent knowledge of exposure and lighting is necessary to really appreciate what Joe is putting down - this isn't a book for someone who just got back from the Best Buy with their D90 kit.

Jenn at Night (Mac)

Jenn posted all the keepers from our shoot the other night so I will show some behind the scenes stuff and talk about my first time using Nikon's CLS for my nude work. As Jenn mentioned the original plan was to shoot at a playground but it was a little too light out still - wouldn't want to offend any passersby. We jumped into the bushes behind the playground to kill some time. Here is a shot of the setup as Jenn was gracefully disrobing. There is an SB-800 to the left and an SB-600 on the right in the background. The idea with this shoot was to simply drop the lights, set them in TTL and see how they perform. I didn't give much thought to placement or any fine tuning as I was more interested in the rough and dirty abilities of the system. It wasn't too dark at this time - it just looks that way because of the 1/250th shutter speed.

We then moved down to the river and my this time it was pretty dark and as a result most of these photos were out of focus - I could barely see Jenn. In this shot there is an SB-600 on the other side of the river - man, these little speedlights can pump out some light especially when it is dark :-)

We then packed up which is super easy with speedlights as opposed to my usual White Lightning strobes and Vagabond battery packs. As Rob is discovering, I have used studio lights outdoors almost since I picked up a camera. I generally do not like the sun as a light source because you can't move it, vary its power or modify it easily. If a photographer can't control his light then what is he doing? By dragging studio lights out with me I am in full control of my light instead of being at the mercy of the sun and compromising my work due to less than ideal light. The vast majority of my outdoor work is shot with studio strobes, but let me tell you, hiking that gear 3 hours up to a mountain waterfall is NOT an easy task hence my desire to see if speedlights may be the answer here.

Here is a shot of Jenn showing the placement of the lights. There is one more speedlight just out of the frame on the left. I added the one underneath her to light the underside of her and I had that one set to manual which is why the over exposure. I changed the master setting to TTL and away we went. Jenn posted the finished shot in her post below...a little different than the original, eh? New photographers can get very frustrated trying to figure out how another photographer made a particular image - I still do. You would never have guessed the final image was actually shot at night, in a colorful playground with speedlights.

Another photo here showing the speedlights directly off to the sides of Jenn set to TTL. While I didn't do a lot of "thinking" on this shoot or attempt to modify the lights, I was pretty happy with how well the system performed in TTL mode. It sure made my life simpler by not having to use a light meter or the LCD and going back and forth to each light a few times to dial in the exposure like I would do with manual lights.

I shot a wedding yesterday and brought along the speedlights to see what I could do with them in the cloudless, 28 degree day we had. I will post about that experience and review the softbox setup I used for some of the shots down the road here.

alien bees (rob)

I've been abducted!

Thanks to the conversations I have been having with Mac about creative portable lighting outdoors, and my upcoming journey to the desert in Nevada next week,

I went out and bought myself a set of portable Alien Bees.

Mac has been lugging studio equipment around outdoors for some time now, however, it never appealed to me due to the size of my studio lights, and the expense of elinchrome batteries (about $1500 I think for the battery).

Mac decided to use his growing speedlight collection to try to battle the dominance of the sun, and has been doing some really nice stuff with it,

however, I did not want to spend the money on more speedlights, when for a similar price tag, I could get a really nice, highly recommended portable studio.

I can't wait to get it out to the desert, but in the meantime, I decided to test it in a wedding.

I am super-D-duper pleased with the results.

Here is my one quick sample I wanted to fire off, before I am away from my computer for 3 days.

This is taken with two Alein B800's to either side of the couple, slightly facing the back wall to create the spotlight effect. I shot it with my 17-35mm lens. I cannot remember the settings I used, and unfortunately am running out the door.

That's it for now...

looking forward to creating more images like this!

Rob

So Pleased (Jenn)

OMG.... after much ado, we were finally able to get together for some camera action!!!

Was a fun shoot and I'm very happy with what came out of it...(hope Mac's as stoked as I am).

Met Mac at his place, hopped in the Ford and headed for our destination. All I knew was we were going to shoot in a "park" after dark. (ha that rhymes)......well it was still VERY light at 8:30, so I was a little nervous about it. Apparently "park" to Mac is a "playground;" so immediately what I though the shoot was going to be - it wasn't.

Being that is was still incredibly day-light out, we headed through the PLAYGROUND (its not a park!) down to the river.

The river session was great, a little cold mind you, but good. The first picture, the darkest of the 3, I am goning to have blown up and framed for my new house. Love the femininity of the shilouette - can't believe its mine. The colours of the last two absolutely blow my mind. So vivid!! The pink and purple of the sky in the 2nd one ...I don't even know what to say, it almost looks false it's so perfect - let me asure you - it was not, neither was the water temperature! Oh, and I'm sure the 2 people that watched the entire river portion of this shoot have given that little town something to talk about! ;-P

Totally kicked myself in the ass with the playground ...."oh yay! Monkey bars, can we please do something with them!? I love the monkey bars....." idiot. Well, I'm apparently not 10 anymore and I never remember the damn monkey bars being so much work!!!

Yes. The answer is yes, I had my naked ass all over a little kid's slide! Haha. It was pretty funny trying to get these shots, as it was so dark, Mac was literally shooting into the dark. The lights he/we brought work off the main flash on his camera. So we took a few shots to see where we were and the rest were a surprise.

Had a great shoot and a fun evening, hope it's now easier for us to get together, as summer is nearly over :-( I guess we all just got too busy for our own damn good.

We have another shoot scheduled for Sunday evening, a different kind of shoot and I really hope we can come away from that one as successful as we were here!

Until Sunday!

~J

Playing Around (Mac)

I think Jenn and I are shooting tomorrow night! Yay. So my last post had me show a few photographs shot with Nikon's CLS, set up and shot in minutes. No real time to play with things because of the slight rain and crabby kids. When given a little more time to be creative I think these little speedlights are going to be a hoot.

Here is a photo taken the other day with two speedlights in TTL mode one off to camera right providing the rim light and one in a tiny softbox beside me camera right as the main and the sun high and behind them. A little tweaking in lightroom and voila - snazzy shot of the kids at a local park. The beauty of this set up is that like shooting grandma it was quick and automatic. I simply dropped the lights where I thought they needed to be, making sure they were in sightlines of my on-camera master, set my camera on manual f14, 1/250 @ ISO 200 to get the background the way I wanted it and the camera took care of the rest.

I would never venture to take my studio lights out when doing shots of the kids simply because they move around way too much and have very little patience for dad to muck with lights. Nikon's CLS allows me to work quickly in situations like these to get much more interesting light than I would normally do which would simply be an on-camera flash acting as fill.

Here is a photo with the sun behind and camera left, an SB-600 camera right and behind Marek and an SB-800 in a small softbox at my position. Again this was all handled automatically by TTL - I simply placed the lights and started shooting as my wife spun the tire around.

I plan on using speedlights with Jenn tomorrow for the first time shooting nudes and I will remember to take some shots of the setups. I will also do a review in the next little bit of a great portable softbox/speedlight setup involving a Photoflex softbox and a contraption called the Magic Slipper. Very cool.

Visit to Grandma's House (Mac)

Took the family up to see grandma in Red Deer this afternoon and I thought I'd pack my little Nikon CLS package with me for some photos of grandma and her great grandkids.. We we found a little park where we let the kids run around for a bit while I quickly set up an SB-800 in a 60" reflective umbrella just out of frame to camera left and an SB-600 in a Photoflex small Q39 softbox right beside the camera for a fill (you can see the catchlights in the eyes). I set the camera in manual mode with a setting of f10 @ 1/250 to drop the background down and I had the SB-800 set to TTL and the SB-600 to TTL with -1EV compensation and fired a test shot - bang on. Could not be simpler for a three minute set up - the TTL system handled the exposure on us automatically. Here is a photo of the ambient with no flash.

We had some wind and it was raining a bit (you can the see drops on grandma's clothes) so I didn't want to play around too much with anything - no time. I had the lights set up and ready to shoot in a matter of minutes with the TTL it was a piece of cake. The only thing that bummed me a bit was having to position both flashes to be able to "see" the signals from my on camera SB-900. Not a big deal but I am sure I am going to run into situations where this isn't possible and radio is the way to go. I think I might try this super quick set up again but the the on-camera flash providing the fill and see how that works. Here is the only shot of both kids and grandma. I so love photographing with kids - not!

Nikon CLS (Mac)

I am trying hard to set up something with Jenn. The idea is there. The location is there. We just need to get together. We still have 'till the end of September for the "model portion" of the blog, but as Rob mentioned below we are now going to open the blog up to post about all of our photography related things even during the 6 months were are working with a specific model. We are still going to have the model portion because it is cool to get their perspective on things, but with everyone being so busy all the time it is sometimes difficult to get together and then the blog sits here with nothing going on kinda like June.

I am beginning to explore Nikon's CLS flash idea. I am searching for a faster way to work at weddings with light other than lugging a White Lightning X1600 around. I don't mind that for family formals where the situation is static and I have to light large groups and compete with the sun - a powerful strobe is the trick. However, trying to lug that gear around to shoot the bridal party and the bride and groom sucks. Big time.

Enter Nikon CLS. I have had several SB-600/800's but I have never really used them off camera simply because they lack the power, recycle time, and wind resistance that a large studio strobe has. I have done a lot of reading lately about speedlights and how I may use them to work quickly and more creatively and I have found a few ways to put my fears to rest whilst using speedlights. External battery packs recycle the flashes quickly and doubling up the lights will add more power should it be necessary.

The one thing that I am really intrigued by, however, is the TTL capabilities. The ability for the camera and flashes to communicate exposure information is what is getting me excited. No more manual farting around with lights. I can set lights up, pop a few test shots, adjust the remote flashes from where I am standing, and start firing away. I only ever use one light when I am out and about because I don't have the time or patience to adjust two or three lights so having them remotely controlled automatically and the ability to adjust them from my current location is very cool.

So far I am pretty happy with how the system works and my only gripe is that the system works via infra red which means the remote flashes must be in line of sight of my camera. I am a big fan of versatility in my gear and this sucks. The system works in a lot of situations and for weddings I think it will be great, but for my personal work I have already run into limitations. I was trying a super wide shot of my kids and I got in close to them to exaggerate the effect which put me in front of my main remote flash...it couldn't fire because it couldn't receive the info from my commander. I couldn't turn my commander flash to face it because then the remote flash I was using as a kicker would then be out of the line of sight and it wouldn't fire. Bummer. Why doesn't Nikon make a radio system? Pocket Wizard and Radiopoppers are struggling along with radio TTL systems so I am sure Nikon could do it and do it well.


Anyhoo. I am eager to explore Nikon's CLS as it relates to my nude work. To be able to carry three or four small flashes out on location in the mountains is going to be so nice. Let me tell you that hauling studio lights, stands, modifiers, and a big ol' battery 10K up a mountain is not an easy nor a fun task. I am sure there will be limitations especially when competing with the sun, but I am sure the system is going to be good for a great many situations. If I can ever get together with Jenn we will do my first CLS shoot with the nude. I am looking forward to it.

ch-ch-ch-ch-changes (rob)

hello all,

well, after a disappointingly season due to that all demanding bitch called life, Mac and I sat down on his deck yesterday, and had a chat.

We discussed crime and politics... kids and family.

But we also discussed the ongoing challenge that this project has been.

Luckily, Mac and I aren't fundamentally tied to any one concept for this project.

We talked about the fact that we think this project has some fantastic merit,

and how best to keep it successful.

Sooo,

we decided to scrap the 'one model' part.

Really, the project is about Mac and I anyway. Lol.

We have so much respect for Jen and Jess, and completely empathize life getting busy.

It is tough enough for Mac and I to get our shit together for this project,

but trying to organize us and two other people is just too much.

Mac and I both agreed that we had a lot of shoots this summer, and a lot we would have loved to blog about,

however the old rules said we could only share if it involved the seasons model.

So I would often try to duplicate a concept that was fully successful on a model onto my raw files model... which is redundant to me... because I couldn't post it.

So,

without further ado,

I present the new Raw Files concept!!!!!!

"TWO PHOTOGRAPHERS."

It's not as flashy, I know,

but it's simpler.

And a very very smart mathematician I once met said that good equations are always the simplest ones.

Thanks very very very much to Jess and Jen for your efforts this summer.

We appreciate you and hope you understand, and still value you very muchly.

We would love to hear your feedback about the changes.

Rob

Jenn's Post Below (Mac)

Just to be abundantly clear...I DID NOT make those photos Jenn posted below ;-)

However, her post brings up an interesting topic. We don't know what the photographer's intentions where for those images. If he was going for a quick snapshot then he certainly succeeded in my opinion. It is always difficult to critique another person's work because the intent is usually never known. Did the photographer succeed at his or her goals? If so, then all is well. I almost never offer a critique unless it is to help a photographer with a short coming when they didn't succeed in the established goals for an image. I see no point in critiquing an image because the critique is based on my taste which may or may not resonate with the person asking.

I can give an opinion, but what good is that? If these photos are representing professional quality glamour work in the photographer's view then we are going to have serious divergence of opinion. This sort of thing happens all the time (I am not saying this is one of those cases) where the photographer believes his work to be something, that by most people's standards, isn't. The internet is full of photographers that believe they are producing top notch work and are in fact producing junk. But then again junk is in the eye of the beholder.

Jenn clearly expected a different outcome from this session. Perhaps there wasn't a meeting of the minds. Perhaps the photographer was not skilled/equipped enough to produce the work Jenn was imagining. Jenn mentioned below that this guy was not the "regular" so maybe things would have been different. We might attempt to re-do this to give Jenn what she was after, not that I am a glamour photographer or that Jenn has the skills needed to pull off a convincing glamour photo, but I am up for a challenge and attempting to make good photos regardless of the genre.

....Sigh (Jenn)

EeeeeGad!!! How time flies!

Wow. I feel like such a douche-bag - havn't shot or blogged in so long..... there needs to me WAY more hours in a day.

I do apologize for not blogging or being a "model" for so long, I feel like I've let Mac & Rob down, as I know how important this project is to both of them.

From the contagious lesion on my face (yes my face!) called Impetigo [(sometimes impetaigo) is a superficial bacterial skin infection most common among children 2 to 6 years old. People who play close contact sports such as rugby, American football and wrestling are also susceptible, regardless of age. Impetigo is not as common in a

dults. The name derives from the Latin impetere ("assail"). It is also known as school sores.] ...From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, to juggling 1 full time job & 1.5 part time jobs this summer has been less than accomodating for my own "exta cirricular" activities.

So we've tenatively set up a shoot for next Wednesday at an undisclosed location....(will be amazing!), and I want to knock it outta the park. And then I'll just hafta clear 1 evening a week and set it aside for shooting.

I've also recently (like Monday) decided to take up running to get myself in better shape....gyms and trainers charge waaaaaay to much! ...so I hope that the running and getting in better shape will contribute in a positive way to our future shoots.

In June I was asked to be a "model" for Mxp Magazine's MXP Maiden photo shoot. It was different, I just recieved the pics yesterday and I must say that I'm not 110% stoked with the end result - not to mention being insulted by the guy who set it all up - after I worked a full day (my only day off) for him as a favour. Guess I shouldn'tve strayed from Mac...and now I know not to. The photographer was nice, the shoot was a pleasant experience, just the shit after has left a sour taste - not to mention the pics. ..... See for yourself......

Maybe I'm just being too critical of myself..... dunno, guess I was just expecting more.

Anyhoo, I better get back to work now, keep your fingers crossed for me for Wednesday; we'll se if I remember how to do this all!

hahaha

~J

This and That (Mac)

Well, no shooting with Jenn as of late. I think she works two jobs and I am busy myself. It seems trying to get together with a model or anyone for that matter these days is sometimes a difficult task. I thought we developed all this technology to afford us more free time. Sometimes I think a regression back to community dances and horse drawn carriages might not be such an unhealthy thing to do. Anyhoo, I figure I would blab about a few new photographically oriented things in my life, one of which being the Nikon D3 and the other being Adobe Lightroom.

Firstly, the D3. Wow. This thing is incredible. It has the big and tough build of the D2x and that's about where the similarities end, although the D3 feels even better in the hand than the D2x. The files that come out of the D3 (or D700 as they share the same sensor) are amazing. They are creamy smooth, full of detail and glory. Look at this photo shot from up high on a cliff with the 24-70mm f2.8 lens - which is incredible by the way. Here is the full shot and then a crop of the model's foot. You can count the wrinkles! The 24-70 is the full frame equivalent of the 17-55mm f2.8 I used on my D2x. In my pinion the 24-70 blows the 17-55 out of the water especially for distant shots like the one I posted here.

I am most impressed by the bright and beautiful viewfinder, which makes looking through the D2x akin to looking through a toilet paper tube, and the incredible lack of noise. Composing photos is so much more pleasant with the D3's huge viewfinder as I always felt "cramped" when composing with the D2x. The lack of noise in the shadows and in the transitions from diffused highlights to shadows is fantastic and the besides the great high ISO capabilities is the reason I wanted this camera. A lot of my work involves deep shadows and having them clean along with the transitions is a nice change. The colors hold up well and aren't muddy and garbled up like the D2x would produce.

Nikon hit a home run with the D3/D700. These are world class tools and we are so fortunate to live in a time with such fantastic imaging technology. The D3 has opened up a few doors for me that were previously very sticky or completely shut. I am curious to see if Nikon can make such impressive gains with their next generation of camera.

Nikon may have done wonders on the camera and lens front, but let me tell you...Capture NX sucks! Bad. I am not going to get into a review here as there are plenty of people ranting and raving about what a piece of junk it is especially if you need to go through volumes of images - which is the case when I shoot weddings. I have three more weddings to shoot this year and I am not spending countless hours waiting for NX to chug through them so I set out to find a better solution. I thought I'd give Lightroom a try since I have read so many great things about it.

In the past I have been leery because Lightroom uses Adobe Camera Raw and I could never get my NEF's to look anywhere remotely good as NX renders them. The images would come into Camera Raw and look like shit compared to NX, but I have since found out it is because Camera Raw can't read the camera settings and is just displaying the unprocessed, raw image data. The trick to getting the NEF's to look good is to open up an image in NX and along side it in Camera raw, make adjustments in Camera Raw until you get close to what NX is displaying and then you save those settings as default in Camera Raw. Then when your images come into Camera Raw they will look a hell of a lot better. You can load up a few images side by side to make sure that your settings are close to what NX is giving you.

I managed to get my Lightroom defaults pretty darn close and I am happy even though NX has a slight edge. However, that slight edge in image quality is blown away by Lightroom's blazing speed, simple interface, and image management capabilities. NX will now be removed from my machine never to be looked at again. Nikon, please, stick to cameras, release your NEF data to Adobe, and stay the hell out of the software business! Now that I have no problems using Lightroom for my raw conversions I just need to figure out if and how I am going to let Lightroom manage my images. I am a little queazy about locking my work up in a proprietary database like Lightroom or Aperture which is the other main reason I have shied away from these programs. (Apple, in case you are reading, I chose Lightroom over Aperture because of the piss poor service you gave me after dropping $3,000 on your 30" Cinema Paper Weight. I have since replaced that display with a lovely 24" Viewsonic at a quarter of the price of your 30"...including a three year warranty! You have missed out on a lot of money from me over the coming years, Apple.)

Anyway, back to Lightroom. I processed a recent wedding with Lightroom and I am hooked. I easily choose and corrected that wedding in half the time, if not sooner, than I would have using NX. Lightroom also integrates with Photoshop very well for those extra heavy retouches. I can imagine Lightroom will have more retouching features added in future releases like the liquify tool (brides hate chubby arms!) and layers would be a nice thing to have. I suppose Adobe has to be careful what they add to Lightroom or they may make Photoshop obsolete for photographers thereby shooting themselves in the foot for future sales of Photoshop. Mind you, many photographers don't use Photoshop any longer since Lightroom can do most of what they need and Adobe could always charge more for Lightroom with the added capabilities. For now I will continue to use Photoshop for my personal work because of its powerful image manipulating capabilities, but I will certainly do all my raw conversions and my weddings in Lightroom. I still need to work out the file management side of things though.

Hopefully Jenn and I can get together soon here for a shoot. Until then...

hi and hello (rob)

greetings and salutations.

so, I've been lost in my own head for the last while.

Well, actually, I've been lost in reno's, a move, more reno's, a photography trip to Cuba (yaaa!!!),more reno's, and over and around all that;

lost in my head.

I love many things about photography. One thing I love is the ability to refresh myself.

Lately I've been thinking a lot about what makes an interesting photograph.

I've always said that there are two parts to an interesting photography;

the technical ability of the photographer,

and his/her artistic vision.

I still feel that is true,

however some of the most captivating images are shot by both amateur photographers accidentally stumbling upon a technically sound shot,

as well as shots that are technically terrible, and somehow completely perfect.

That's still the easy stuff though..

It's fascinating, and can create hours of great conversation,

but not what I want to chat about here.

I have been lost in my head about the artistic side.

What is it? Why do sometimes I feel I have it.

And other times I feel like a whiny kid,

and I want to stomp my feet and tantrum because I don't.

Sometimes I feel drunk and awed with inspiration.

Sometimes I feel like a waste of my own time.

Art is like being bi-polar.

I think some of the greatest artists were/are.

Anyway,

photography is really about seeing,

and then showing.

"Show and Tell." Without the telling.

The problem, however, is a camera can capture exactly what we see.

So who cares?

Really. Why take a picture of something we see every day.

And I think that's really the question.

How do you capture/create something un-boring with a tool that at it's simplest and best only captures the mundane-ness of our everyday lives.

I have been drowning in this question ever since my first photography assignment in school, where I took a picture of my motorcycle in the mountains...

presented it to class,

and I looked at the picture, and couldn't give a shit.

It was technically sound though.

Yaaa me.

Nudes are fascinating because people are stupid, and afraid of skin.

I am getting to the point where I am becoming bored with peoples stupidity and fascination with it.

I'm not sure how interesting it is beyond that.

I still feel figure study is possibly the best way to learn camera technique and a fundamental understanding of light.

And it shows better than most things a great understanding of fundamental rules of lighting/exposure, lines, composition, and all that jazz.

A great nude is pretty fantastic.

But...

I want more.

I want more than to see the body that everyone is fascinated and afraid of.

I want to see more than photoshop making someone look perfect.

I want to see cracks. Flaws. I want people to be stopped for a second in their busy day by how I saw your errors.

Travel has taught me that the greatest memories I have are when I was disgustingly uncomfortable, or profoundly lonely, or morbidly afraid.

It's because it forces me out of my comfort zone, and breaks me from my mundane life for a second.

That's likely why we love to be drunk.

Because there is a small chance that we will do something stupid enough to remember for the first time that week.

I want my pictures to be like that.

I believe that I have blogged in a similar manner before,

but that's the great thing about blogs...

You don't have to listen to me banter over and over again while I work this out.

You can simply skip it.

Anyway.

I have a trip coming up to "The Burning Man Festival," www.burningman.com

I plan to focus on some landscape work, and strange architecture/art that will be there.

I want to find some odd people who will let me attempt to 'see' them, and show other people.

I am very excited.

Sleepy now.

Rob

Just a note (Jess)

First off, sorry if you guys got an e-mail from here, it's been so long that I forgot my password and gave up trying to figure out what it was.

Anyways, I do not have any photo's to post at the moment but there will be some shortly because Rob and I finally got together. It took us so long to get together because I was sick (That's what you get for taking care of a very ill boyfriend) and then I just really wasn't in the mood to be shooting, or be around people or do anything at all.
And of course, now I am sick again...BUT...recovering. Long story there I guess I can post about it so this isn't a short post.

Though my main reason for this post is discussing not being in the mood to shoot. As I told Rob, I have decided that after The Raw Files, is over for this year, I am going to be taking a break from modelling, I haven't decided if it's for good, or if it's just going to be a few months etc.
I think the way my life is going, just doesn't make modelling my #1 passion anymore. And I can't remember who I had this talk with but we were talking about models who go to shoots and just fake everything, they don't bring their own attitude they don't put any of their own feeling into it, and you can tell that it's not them, it's just a shell. I don't want to be one of those models who has to fake being happy in a picture, I want to be the happy model, and right now I don't think that's where I am headed.
I think I am just heading into a different direction that I thought I would be a year ago, or however long it's been since I met Rob, and that happens. I still enjoy hanging out and shooting now and I am still finishing the project, but I think I need to figure things out more for myself. I'm almost finished getting my diploma and FINALLY after that I'll be going to college (Just a few years late graduating but that's what you get for dropping out.) So we'll see where things go.


Anyways, My AWESOME sickness.

(And Rob I was only joking how this was your fault LOL)

On Saturday I got home from hanging out with my better hald for his birthday, and decided to have a bath to relax before I headed down to the good old stampede for some fun. After my bath it was like 1:15 or something I dunno I was making some phone calls etc, and i started to feel ill, kinda' nauseous, sore etc. I ignored it and thought nothing about it until it started to ache everywhere. I got a headache, my bosy was throbbing sore from head to toe, laying down hurt, sitting hurt. I couldn't find a position that didn't cause me pain. So making the right chocie I headed to a walk in clinic in this pain and wainted to see a doctor. Of course everyone was like 'H1N1!!!!!!!!" asking me all these questions etc. I saw the doctor he of course was like well "H1N1 lets do a swab" (I find it really annoying that whatever the "Major" flu/sickness is around that all doctors/nurses assume you have it.) So after he did a swab he listend to my lungs said that my left lung sounded rough, sent me home with some T3's and said to go to the hospital if I didn't get better or it got worse.
I went home, took the T3's which took the edge off my pain, but my head was still exploding. Laid on my couch tried eating, watched some very stupid movie because I was too high too care and tried to relax. About an hour an half after the T3's were in my system they started to fade, and fade fast. All the pain came back I started to get the chills and I couldn't breath right again. So, off to the hospital I went. To only be overdosed on medication and to be sent home with nothing. I'm pretty sure whatever I had was a 24hour mega flu, with some left overs because writing this I still have a major headache and some chest pains. But I can walk again! wooo.

Bad Apple! (Mac)

So...Long time no post - as per usual :-) Jenn is out of commission with some nasty cooties on her face (I'll let her explain) and I have been MIA in my daily life. I figured I would post about an experience I had with Apple this last few weeks.

About a year and a half ago I plunked down $3000 on Apple's 30" Cinema display. Gorgeous monitor - albeit a tad on the pricey side compared to competitors. I enjoyed my display for about a year when it developed am intermittent stripe of red pixels down the far left side of the screen. I was mildly annoyed but too busy to get it looked at - the 30" screen has a ton of real estate so I just dealt with it. The intermittentness (yes, I made that up) gave way to a permanent red stripe for the last 8 months or so and a month ago, random green pixels showed up all over the display.

Ok. Time to get to looked at. I call the Apple store and they tell me to bring it in, so I make an appointment and drag the beast an hour and a half to the store only to be told that they can't help me. Uh...Ok. I drive all the way back home and call Apple Canada and tell them my story. If the Apple Store can't help me with my $3000 Apple product - who can? I was a little miffed. The guy on the phone instructs me to take it to a London Drugs. Ok. That makes lots of good sense.

I take my Apple paper weight into the London Drugs and tell them my woes. The say they will look after it for me and call me in the next day or so with a diagnoses. Well, I call them two and a half weeks later and they inform me that Apple can't repair the display, but they are generously offering me a $150 towards the purchase of a new one. Excuse me?

I invested $3000 in a display that I expected, for that price, to get at least four or five years of use before needing a repair or perhaps a replacement. Samsung, NEC, and HP all offer 30" displays with three to four year warranties at much lower prices sometimes half as much as the Apple with a one year warranty, but I wanted the quality and reliability a $3000 display should have provided. Boy, was I wrong.

I got a year and change out of a $3000 monitor before it died, it is out of warranty, unrepairable, and I get offered a $150 coupon to purchase another display. Apple, you should be ashamed. I would gladly pay $600 for a repair on my $3000 investment or take a new one at cost, but to offer me a pathetic coupon after I plunked down what some people make in a month on one of your displays makes me sick. For $3000 consumers should be given more than an eighteen month, disposable piece of junk.

Why pay more for an Apple product people ask me and I always said it was because of quality and reliability. Can you tell me, Apple, why I pay more for your products? Apparently the 30" display has had similar issues with other customers - do not purchase this product!! You may well just have lost yourself a customer, Apple, and I will tell anyone that will listen that with Apple you don't necessarily get what you pay for.

Mirror, Mirror on the wall....

So after much ado, we were finally (once again) able to set up a shoot. With Mac and I both being very busy we had to re-schedule the shoot several times before we were able to meet.

Mac had an idea at our last shoot to use a room full of mirrors...we found one of those at a local yoga studio.

I didn't really know the plan for the mirrors. Figured it'd be pretty cool....and that's when Mac handed me his camera!

Ended up with a few cool shots with the mirrors, but me being A) a very green model and B) an even greener photographer, we moved on from this and took advantage of the huge floor space.

Used a single light on the floor to create the image seen....reminiscent to that of an open door casting an illluminance. Played with different ways to position myself with the back lighting in mind. This was one of the poses that was both unique and somewhat abstract too. I love how it turned out.

After we got this last shot, called her a night.

Until Mac came up with a brilliant idea *ahem* apparently he's always wanted to shoot outdoors downtown!!! Totally thought he was kidding. So Mac went to count cars in at the chosen intersection and try to ballpark timing, all the while I'm still thinking he's full of shit! OK, so no biggie...downtown outside, darkish....with stiletto boots and a whit button up shirt? Right? Well apparently if I were wearing that stuff it wouldn't be a nude!

Rob

A quick comment on originality from Jess's last post;

I am not sure if anyone is original anymore. Case in point... I have seen other shots with mannequins... a photographer in Calgary did some great shots. Of course, these are wig heads... but the idea is similar. I don't think my shots look anything like those, and when I was inspired to grab the heads, I wasn't thinking of the other shots, however, I am reasonable certain I will do little in my life that is truly unique. All I can do is try to be real to myself, and put my perspective on it... which is completely unique I feel.

I love my new camera. The FX sensor at 12 megapixels handles low light in extraordinary ways. I could have taken these pictures with my old camera, but they would not have been as clean, and I wasn't motivated to put the effort in. With this new camera, I have endless ideas of how to access natural light and locations.

One last thing.

I am not a fantastic photographer. I like the work that I do, and I think I am decent enough, however, I have a lot of room for growth...

the point I am getting at though, is I am wondering about 'award winning photographers.'

some of these people's work is sheer garbage. Who judges these things? It is unreal to me. I see images getting first place, and I know I took better pictures years before I ever thought of myself as a photographer with my $70 film point and shoot.

It is frustrating, because I want to know what sexual favours these people provide for that kind of recognition, when there are so many amazing photographers (better than me) who get no recognition at all.

Lately, I have been thinking that anonymity is the best way to go. If these are the standards, I'd rather not win. It's kind of like American Idol. Seriously.

Anyway,

Here's to low expectations!!

Rob

Finally! It's been forever (Jess)

A month is really too long to spend apart from each other when working on this project, let alone in general. So finally after a long waited period, Rob, Asha and I got together to create these wonderful photos.
Asha had brought along a dress she designed and a well planned out make-up plan and off we went with Rob's amazing new camera.
As you can see the make-up was smokey and beautiful!! And we used natural lighting for the photo's, looking at these I really wonder how I can have those down days, and I am amazed at what different camera's can do to a photo. We had a couple of different feels to things, or at least that was what I felt. I felt like the couch pictures were totally to capture the beauty of the lines and softness and all that great stuff, as to when we moved into the bathroom with these photo's it was like I was almost caught in the act. I am having a hard time choosing a favorite so that must say something, but the studio photo's really made me think. We used wig mannequins and they are identical and blank. A lot of the time I feel that I'm just like everyone else, a copy of another person, (even though I have been told otherwise). It shows that with me looking away in these photos and then it shows that I am completely different as well. It's funny really, I was talking to a friend of mine telling me it must be hard for photographers in this city to come up with new ideas with all the models being shared and everything, but yet here we are all of a sudden Rob gets an awesome idea, and we're proving we can still be original and unique and creative. Rather than a copy of another artist.




P.s this picture adding is really annoying!

Just a Post, Too (Mac)

I have been up my ying-yang right now. I have no time for anything other than work and looking after my kids. We lost our full time child care in March and we (my wife and I) have been scrambling from week to week to find some form of childcare. I do structural engineering for residential houses and we are in a bit of a boom right now, despite what the media goes on about the world coming to an end. When we can't find some one to watch the kids I do it and then work at night and on the weekends and it looks like I am going to be pretty much out of comission until the end of June.

I have hardly shot any personal work at all this year and I am very frutstrated by this and it doesn't look like the situation is going to change any time soon. I will attempt to squeeze this project in when I can though. Jenn and I were going to shoot this Wednesday, but my wife will be at work late all week so between watching the kids and doing my 'day job' in what wever time is left I will have no time at all for hobbies and I don't think the following week will be any better as I will be attempting to catch up from not being able to work at night this week. Oh well...such is life.

Just a post (rob)

Jess and I have a shoot booked for next week, so images will have to wait till then.

A few updates...

I am hoping to pick up a new camera this week.

I have a Nikon with an DX sensor;

sensors basically come in 5 main sizes... tiny ones for point and shoot, medium-small for DX DSLR's, medium ones for FX DSLR's, (this is Nikon language... I'm not certain what they call them in Canons) medium-large (only in one new Leica camera) and large sensors for medium-format cameras. The larger the sensor, the better it is at capturing and rendering light effectively.

I tried finding a chart that shows this... I have seen a really good one, but I couldn't find it. Sorry. If I do, I will post it.

If you have a link, please post it. Grasping sensor size, pixels, and these digital basics took me a while, so I am certain it would be helpful to someone.

I am upgrading to an FX camera, however, I really want to start playing with short video (basically moving pictures) so I am really disappointed that Nikon hasn't come out with an FX camera with HD video yet like Canon did.

I need this new camera for myself, and also for my clients (I banged my old camera up pretty bad last fall) but I just know that Nikon will release the camera of my dreams in a couple of months.

Anyway. I also want this camera so I can start using natural light a lot more effectively. Because the sensor is larger, I can use less light, and still get a great shot without tons of 'noise.'

I am really looking forward to getting out of studio for the summer, and this new low light capability will help ensure that I am able to get the shot.

I also bought a new (old) house, so now I get to balance full time work, full time dad, wedding season, THERAWFILES season, as well as making sure the reno's are complete on our old house, and doing the reno's to our new house and it's suite.

Awesome. Apparently I enjoy having no down time.

I just remind myself that I may be swamped busy, but every one of those things is something that I enjoy doing, so that's not so bad.

That's it for now.

Rob

It's about time! (Jess)

Yes yes I know, it has been some time since a post! But hey, it took awhile to get a shoot set up with Rob, our MUA's and my schedule's it was a little hard.
Anyways, so finally last friday we set up a shoot and had a fantastic but short time. After sitting and getting my face painted for 2 hours or so we finally hit the studio to have some fun.
The whole make-up idea I will leave to Rob to explain when he posts next, but the basics was a mask, just from the nose line up (to the hair line) and very petty yet dramatic eye make-up. We added a piece of black fabric around the head to the make-up would I suppose look like it was fading through into the fabric.

These shots here are awesome. but were kind of straining to do. Rob had mentioned the bridge (yoga move) and I could only really support myself with my head, which as I believe it's supposed to be your ams and legs. It was tiring but what i love from the product in is, is that you can see all the right lines in the body. The curve in the leg, and the foot how it's supporting me. As well a the chest and how it is sloping with the way I am positioned.
I do have a lot more to say so I will have to make another post, but it's late and I am tired. So i will only post this one for now, and tomorrow I will put in more detail etc

>ps...........It took me about 25 minutes to remember my password so it clearly has been far too long since I posted.