Just one....

During this time of the year when things start to wind down, while taxes are being evaluated, while Christmas gifts are bought, while trying to put things on the calendar for next year; you always need to take a moment to see the actual holiday around you. Take a minute to Breathe.

I did the final critique of the Advanced Lighting class at Ivy Tech earlier this week, and after talk about Strip lights, and Gobo's, beauty dishes, and softboxes; I always go back to a quote by the Great Frank Espich.  "God started out with one light, the Sun.  Why not try starting from there?".  Although I heard this quote only recently I know exactly what he means, and even though I am no longer in front of that Advanced Lighting class looking at their portfolios (which were excellent for the record); I would still like to pass on the point that Frank once again reiterated to me.  Don't make things more complicated than you have to.  Sometimes one light is more than enough.  Don't overthink it, you might get stressed out.  The holiday's have enough stress not photography related, so take it easy.  Take a break.  Try it with just one light.

(Canon 5D Mark II, 160ISO, Canon EF100F2.8Macro, 1/160th@F13.  Single 580EX Speedlight set to 1/8th power shot through a 32" translucent umbrella from almost directly above the flower.  Light triggered by Pocketwizard Plus II Transciever)

On a side note I'm very disappointed and borderline stressed out at how unsharp that image actually is on blogger.  It's only about 70% as sharp as on my computer.  Fixed this, apparently I was uploading a file that was too high res.... Either way I'm  very much looking forward to the New Blog, and Website within the week..... More Soon.

That time of year...

Year after year the people of our planet continue to celebrate the passage of time in several ways.  Thanksgiving is the start of this passage of time, as it's a holiday seemingly independent from religion.   Everyone gets together with families and talks about what they are thankful for, to which there should be a great list of such things if you're normal.  Some people are down on their luck, and really I start to wonder if the keeping of this tradition near the end of the year is on purpose, as it helps prepare you for what you want to do better the following year.  Keeping in with these traditions there are things like Black Friday and Christmas that get tossed into the mix as well.  Christmas isn't something as universally accepted as Thanksgiving, yet here in Indianapolis around a hundred thousand people pack the downtown for the festival of lighting the Monument in the center of downtown as a tree. 

 

(Canon EOS5D Mark II, 2500ISO, Canon EF16-35F2.8L@16mm, 1/15th@F6.3)

Personally one of the things I'm most thankful for is being able to continue to do what I love, which is taking pictures.  Definitely a dream job for myself, that I hope I'll be able to do for quite some time to come.  I've been honored over the last few years to be on staff at the Indianapolis star with the likes of Michelle Pemberton, Matt Detrich, Matt Kryger, Sam Riche, Bob Scheer and many more.  All are award winning photographers and rightfully so.  All friends of mine now, which I can only count my blessings as there are many days I wonder what sort of song and dance I had to do to actually get this job in the first place. 

 

(Canon EOS5D Mark II, 5000ISO, Canon EF300mmF2.8, 1/1600th@F2.8)

Those are the shoes of the tapdancers going on stage in the first photo.  I decided recently that one aspect of my photography that is lacking is some detail work at events, for which my thoughts were to go big or go home for this event.  With that thought I shot most of the event using a 300mmF2.8 lens, and rotated back and forth between using it with and without a 1.4x multiplier.  I probably should have thought about what I was doing as Matt Detrich shot this event as well for the news side of the paper.  I'm fully prepared to find his image on page A1 tomorrow, and he deserves it.  Outstandingly great shooter.  You can check out his coverage of the event here.  He beat me to santa on that first image.  I wasn't happy, but I guess that's the way things go, and I guess that's why he is who he is.  Always knows what he's looking for.  Photojournalism is something that I lack at as it's not something I have to do on a regular basis.  I'd love to do more of it, but in terms of what I do normally it's most likely not in the cards unless it comes from outside Indystar.  

 

(CanonEOS5d Mark II, 2500ISO, Canon EF300mmF2.8, 1/200th@F3.2)

Being this my 5th year covering this event, I wont even lie; I 'm running out of ways to shoot it.  I may have said something similar last year when I shot the event too, but I'm not going to go back and read about it. I suppose that another thing I'm thankful for is that my images don't get put side by side with Matt's, who I'm fairly confident only actually took 16 photos tonight; each of which were perfect and posted them up online. (Maybe not, but he is aweseome) I figure maybe they will discover the number of bad photos I take in a days time or something, cause me to need to clean the bathrooms, or something equally cruel and unusual.  I kid, I kid, they would just look at me funny; not make me clean the bathrooms....

 

(Canon EOS5D Mark II, 2500ISO, Canon EF300mmF2.8 with a 1.4x Teleconverter bringing my total to 420mm.  1/200th@F4)

One thing I am also thankful for this year is that I personally own Nikon Equipment.  I apologize for throwing this in here, but since I'm confident that nobody important reads this anyway I'll go ahead and say that I am absolutely disappointed with the 5D Mark II that is provided for me to use through the Indianapolis Star.  I have never used a camera with such abysmal autofocus whether in low light conditions or not.  I find myself firing three times as many frames as I do with my Nikon equipment because I need to make sure that I have a photo that is in focus to turn into our clients.  Not that I don't like the fact that I'm provided equipment, I just wish I could rely on it to produce sharp results, which I can't.  I'd prever my Nikon D700 or D3s ANY DAY, even at half the resolution.  

I feel like this blog post has been more of a rant than anything else, and that's not what I'm going for here I assure you.  I am very thankful for quite a few facets of my life.  Especially thankful that I've got Monday and Tuesday off this week.  Have a trip to St. Louis planned with the Girlfriend which should be nice.  The normal Photo of the day posting may take a hit unless I can figure out how to do it from the iPad, which I firmly believe is possible but potentially beyond the realm of my figuring out. 

 

(Canon EOS5D Mark II, 2500ISO, Canon EF300mmF2.8, 1/160th@F4)

I think everybody knows who that is.  If not than I cant help you.  He is a staple at this event and normally spends a lot of time with the coloring contest winner for the state (whose prize for winning the contest is turning the key to light the tree).  Really as a kid, that's a pretty solid prize.  Heck, if I won a contest and they told me I got to do that I'd be excited too.   

Really though I think I'm excited to have a few days off.  This weekend I need to finish the proof of Justin and Lori's wedding DVD and start going through the pictures again, as well as work on another few shoots I had last weekend.   But Monday and Tuesday are totally work free.  Unless I can do it on the iPad which I mostly can't.  (I can edit HD Video on the iPad?  Awww crap...).  Either way, I hope that everyone else can find things that they are thankful for.  Work related, family related, life related or just in luck.  I know I've found a few new ones lately, what about you?  More Soon. 

Monday Night Ride...

In the last blog I said I had some interesting stuff coming down the pipe, and I'm now here to prove that statement to be true. Despite the fact that I'm on vacation right now, as usual someone manages to find something to get me interested in bringing the camera with me. This trip was no different as apparently a good friend of mine bought brand new Ducati.

(Nikon D3s, 3200ISO, Nikon 28-70F2.8@28mm. 1/2500th@F9. 2 Nikon SB900's and a single Nikon SB800 superclamped toa light stand held by Andy, set to fire via SU-800 Commander unit attached to the camera via SC-28 off camera cable. All speedlights were set to fire at +1.7EV and were zoomed to 105mm)

Honestly that shot wasn't what I was intending to start out with, in fact it was a test shot for the action shot lower on this page. Simple lighting scheme, which was all hard light. 3 Nikon Speedlights all super-clamped to a light stand and held by my buddy Andy as illustrated here:


I set up the lights like that because Andy had a very very important job. Well a few important jobs maybe as his first job was to make sure the lights were pointed at Biker Mike, and to yank me out of the way if somehow I got in said way... Luckily, only once did the bike brush through my hair on the way past, which I suppose is par for the course that I play on when it comes to Photography. In case you're wondering, no that shot didn't make the cut. I'm sure Ducati would have loved that itw as almost just a frame of their logo and the riders left hand pumping the clutch, but this one seemed much cooler...

(Nikon D3s, 2500ISO, Nikon 28-70F2.8@28mm. 1/2000th@F9. 2 Nikon SB900's and a single Nikon SB800 superclamped to a light stand held by Andy, set to fire via SU-800 Commander unit attached to the camera via SC-28 off camera cable. All speedlights were set to fire at +1.7EV and were zoomed to 105mm)

That's one of the final shots there. Originally I wanted to have a much nicer bluer sky, with potentially a bit of a sun flair in the frame. This sky is what I got, and honestly I can't say I'm terribly upset about it. I feel as though it gives it a good bit of dramatic effect, especially since the sun was giving the clouds that orange burst while it started to set. Surprisingly we weren't out there for very long, I figured it would take quite a few more attempts at this, and really I'm very intrigued about doing it again having learned a few things on this attempt. Who knows, I may have to pull a Redo on this one. The action shots at least, the few portraits I shot I was relatively pleased with. More Soon.

(Nikon D3s, 200ISO, Nikon 85mmF1.4. 1/1250@F2. Single Nikon SB900 zoomed to 70mm attached to the end of a light stand held above Biker Mike by Andy, set to fire at iTTL +-0EV from a Nikon SU-800 Commander Unit from on camera.)

Have a Smashing Holiday...

Whether you are waiting as eagerly for 2009 to end as I am or not, I bid you a Happy Holidays. It's been quite a year, and over the next week I have a few neat ideas for the blog so stay tuned. Until then, enjoy time with your families, uncooked cookie dough, pets, snow, or whatever it is you may be doing during this time. Whatever it may be; I wish you well. Have a Smashing Holiday. More Soon.

Help-Portrait Success!!

On Saturday December 19th I was asked to be included in a very special group of individuals who would be shooting photos in the Help-Portrait project at the Salvation Army Battered Womens Shelter here in Indianapolis. Great Project, Great Idea, Great people! I made some wonderful new friends, valuable coleagues, and made a whole lot more people's Holiday's just that much brighter. Not like studio strobes brighter, or hot lights brighter; but awesomeness kind of brighter. The kind of brighter that is hard to find, and even harder to find people to give.

(Photo by Josh Hollandsworth)

Back row from left to right: Brian Logan, Jeremiah Laughner, Carl Frye, Joseph Lee, Alan Brockman, Josh Hollandsworth.

Middle(ish): Me, Katie Moon

Front Row: Mitzi Wilson, Stacy Able, Amy Brucker Castillo


I've done my best to hunt out websites here, but didn't get them all. If you know one that I missed leave it in the comments and I'll link it up. There were videos taken, photos taken, behind the scenes stuff, jokes, laughter, bagels and possibly the strict orders to stay in my corner of the photo room because the other photographers didn't want to have to chase me playing in traffic...again. I'll link up the behind the scenes stuff when it makes it to me.

Katie Moon was the one who put all this together, special thanks back to her for taking the time to make this all happen the way it did. It definitely wouldn't have happened without her. Katie really blew me away with how passionate she was for this project. She very obviously lived for what was happening on Saturday, and that's a rare thing to see in people. Also later that night she sat in bar and nerded out on photo stuff with me for some undetermined amount of really long time. That's a super rare thing too. Because of Katie and the work of the rest of the people she found to help her organize this event there are over 100 people that are having a much brighter Holiday this year. Thanks again to Katie and the team for inviting me to help out with this. It was a truely great event, and I can only hope that it is continued for years to come. More soon.

I'd Like to thank...

Milling around on the tubes of the internets earlier today I was looking at some photography blogs and I came across website that ranks photography blogs online. For kicks and giggles I searched the page for mine to see if I'd even made in into the plethora of other blogs they had listed, and to my amazement I not only did make it into one of a the many categories; but I beat out a website that I both read and recommend to people daily. Strobist.



The full list of blogs can be found here. The irony on this is that I can in no way compare myself to most of the websites on this list, and for all I know my blog might have more viewers than the list itself does; but either way it's pretty cool. The numbers that I mention as for readership on this blog may be slightly skewed, but I can tell you for sure that I am nowhere close to the 72,000+ RSS Subscribers that strobist has; much less the photographic content or Grammatical quality. If you look past all of those things though, than apparently I've got more Pages per visit.

I think that means how many pages someone looks at an average when they look at this blog. So really whomever does read this will tend to find something of interest; which is super flattering folks. I already know there are people out there that read this that I don't know, like the ladies up at the Carmel Portrait Innovations for example. I don't know you ladies, but I've been told my an ex employee/friend of yours that you read my blog; and I greatly appreciate it. Honestly I only hope that I can continue to find content of interest to write about in my quest to make something out of this somewhat lucrative profession that I have chosen.

Regardless I'd like to thank the people that do read this, and continue to read it. The readership slowly has been climbing which makes me not only feel good, but want to become a much much better photographer, and even writer. This is an incredibly minor thing to get excited about, and that's not even an insignificant enough way to put it. There are hundreds of blogs listed on the rating page, I was just blessed to be on one small part of it. I guess this just means that I definitely have to keep writing here, because it seems to be confirmed that people DO actually visit my corner of the interents. Thanks again everyone, Happy Holidays, and now more than ever: more soon.

Short Attention Spans......

One of the funny parts about photography is that you never know what you will end up having to work on next. Some projects come into play just like David Hasselhoff does; OUT OF FREAKIN NOWHERE!. I've posted here in the past about working with the Bob Rohrman Auto Group on the 'Rollin with Gunner' video series on Metromix.com. This weeks Rollin with Gunner deals with wanting to play golf during the winter, for which the only solution is obviously to hit glass Christmas ornaments with golf clubs....

(Canon 5D Mark II, 250ISO, Canon 100mmUSMF2.8Macro, 1/250th@F10. Single 580EX Speedlight set to 1/2 power fired by pocket wizard to camera left zoomed to 105mm. Club Swung by Gunner)

That was a still photo that I took while shooting the Rollin With Gunner for this week. The problem is that I didn't have an off camera Cable to use with my canon equipment to achieve faster than a 1/250th of a second sync speed with the flash. That's important because that golf club is moving hella fast, which is why even though I have a flash, and I nailed the club in a single shot; The club and shattering are blurry.

On any normal Wednesday night, I stop in to work at Ultrasun USA, for whom I shoot online, and print photos for outside of the newspaper. It's all non, newspaper glossy magazine, web, and brochure type stuff so there's no direct competition there. Anyway, my good friend Brad is the one who is in charge of the work that I do there and I was telling him about what I was doing at work with Gunner. I showed him the Gunner video that I had finished earlier that day and he was not only excited but he wanted to try it. I'm sure anyone who has read this blog before has heard me mention Brad, and how if there is trouble to be had; he's there with me. He's the friend where if I decided I was going to hell; he'd yell shotgun. (For the record I believe he has in fact already called that seat on the bus I'm taking). He wrote up a real nice piece on his blog about working on photoshoots with me not too long ago too, and I am still super flattered by it. Check it out here. Anyway, Brad decided that we didn't need to shoot what we were supposed to shoot tonight, and we went and bought around a hundred glass Christmas ornaments instead....

(photo by Brock Bruner)

I wasn't totally prepared to shoot high speed action like this tonight, and I'll probably be pulling glass out of my hair, arms and jacket for the next week or so; but really it was all worth it as some of the shots are completely priceless. Brad's the kind of guy that can never have enough gadgets either, so we definitely had an HD video camera inside of a plastic box right in the line of fire to make sure that nothing was missed.

(HD Video Grab from a Sanyo VPCHD-1010)

In the end the intention was to get the club smashing the glass ornament all to snot in frame, which is not as easy as you would imagine. If I could redo it I'd have bought about 20 feet worth of USB cables to tether my camera to my notebook to be out of the line of shrapnel, but in the end we both ended up un-injured; save a few minor eye, and artery injuries.... This was also a great opportunity to play with the Nikon High Speed TTL Sync on the Speedlights too.

(Nikon D3, 2500ISO, Nikon 60mmF2.8Nano Macro, 1/8000th@F11. SB-900 Speedlight to camera right behind the ball set to 200mm +1EV iTTL, SB-900 Speedlight set to +1 EV iTTL to camera left with the Green Gel supplied with the unit, SB-800 zoomed to 105mm, on a stand above the camera shot through a 42" Translucent Disk for Fill set to +1 iTTL. All Speedlights fired by a SU-800 Unit attached to the camera by an SC-80 Off camera Sync Cord and posted on top of a stand about 5 feet above, and behind the camera. Club Swung by Brad Clampitt)

I have a feeling that'll end up being my Christmas card this year, but we'll see what happens over the next week. You just never know. Speaking of never knowing, I think the best shot of the shoot was the shot that was only taken 1 time. This shot was taken on a whim, as I adjusted 1 speedlight to to punch Brad's face. I told him to swing only fired this one frame. Sometimes the more you do something; the luckier you get. More Soon.

(Nikon D3, 2500ISO, Nikon 18-35mm F3.5-F4.5@18mm, 1/8000th@F11. SB-900 Speedlight to camera right behind the ball set to 200mm +1EV iTTL, SB-900 Speedlight set to +1 EV iTTL to camera left with the Green Gel supplied with the unit, SB-800 zoomed to 105mm, on a stand above the camera shot through a 42" Translucent Disk for Fill set to +1 iTTL. All Speedlights fired by a SU-800 Unit attached to the camera by an SC-28 Off camera Sync Cord and posted on top of a stand about 5 feet above, and behind the camera.)

Everyone Gives Thanks.....

This time of year people like to talk about what and who they are thankful for, and I suppose I am no different; despite the fact that 2009 has been an exceedingly tough year for me. I've been very lucky thus far in my career as a photographer and I can only pray and hope to God that my luck will continue with the opportunities, and friends that I have had along the way. The Roller Derby has advanced me significantly in my skills, as well as the contacts that I have made along the way. The fact that I work with people at the newspaper who are of an unmatched photographic caliber and am completely honored to be even considered to work in the same building as them has also been very lucky. I am thankful for family and friends who have supported me with my wild ideas as well as being there for a lot of the successes, and numerous failures. Most of all I'm thankful for just being as busy as I have been in the job that I love as it has allowed me opportunity to photograph things I'd never otherwise have opportunity for.

(Canon EOS5D Mark II, 1600ISO, Canon 300mmF2.8IS, 1/200th@F2.8)

That's Tony Hoard and his dog Rory from the 2009 Indianapolis Circle of Lights Festival. I shoot that event every year on the date ominously known as "Black Friday". For those of you that don't watch much TV, like myself, that's the guy and dog from "America's Got Talent" last year. The guy from Indiana who lost his job because he was pursuing his dream of being a touring frisbee dog show. I give the guy a lot of credit; he went for his dreams.


(Canon EOS5D Mark II, 1600ISO, Canon 300mmF2.8IS, 1/160th@F4)

That's Paige Brown and for a little kid she's a heck of a singer. Supposedly she's also sang in front of other various large crowds as well, but either way here she was in Indy singing in front of the somewheres of 100,000 people like a champ. She too was going after her dreams, and I know she wouldn't have made it there without the help from her friends and family either.


(Canon EOS5D Mark II, 1600ISO, Canon 16-36mmF2.8L@16mm, 1/50th@F2.8)

Those two kids have hopes and dreams of a different kind, but they are hopes and dreams that I'm sure their families (or Santa) this season. You can see more shots of the festival from the Editorial side of the newspaper here. Matt Detrich and Alan Petersime were the editorial photographers who shot the event that night. They are both outstanding shooters who I look to for inspiration every day. Them and their small army of D3's went to town on the event that I shoot every year, and as usual came back with some amazing stuff. Highly suggested to take a look at their work.

I shot some promo shots for the band, "An American Shootout" last night at a few Indy Locations. The shots turned out very nice, to the point that I can and will even say I am very happy with them. They aren't ready to be posted yet, but as soon as they are I'll be sure to tell that story. It's a good story too, but what isn't a good story when you mix things together like iTTL and Cops? Seriously? PARTY! I'm also going to leave you with a 3 minute shot from last week that I was pleased with also. It's a shot of the prettiest funeral director I've ever seen, with her father. Got there and had 5 minutes or less to shoot the portrait of the two of them for their Ad. This is what I got. The more I do this, the luckier I get. Thank you everyone who has been there for me this year, and helping me to be where I am today. As well as everyone who continues to offer to be there for me no matter what. I appreciate you all more than you think. More soon.


(Canon EOS 5D Mark II, 400ISO, Canon 16-25mmF2.8L@21mm. 1/30th@F3.5. Single 580EX Speedlight set to 1/8th power zoomed to 70mm fired into the Taupe colored wall behind camera left fired by pocket wizard.)