Dr. Sketchy's...

A few weeks ago my girlfriend Shannon asked me if I would go with her to Dr. Sketchy's anti-Art School at Birdy's Bar here in Indianapolis. If you aren't familiar with Dr. Sketchy's, it's a Burlesque show where the models take poses and everyone takes a few minutes to try to sketch them out. In my case, and in the case of a select few others they allowed us to photograph the event.

Nikon D3s, 2500ISO, Nikon 50mmF1.4G, 1/60th@F1.8

Not to say that I didn't sketch a few things out with Shannon as well as photograph the event, after all we went to spend some time together on top of doing an art related activity; but my sketches were so EPIC that I was asked not to post them here for fear that I would give the troop a bad image devalue the sketches.

There were a few other shooters there, Ryan Baxter whom I met at the Warehouse Photo workshop last year, as well as a guy named Don, whose business card I can't find at the moment but will try to remember to update with a last name later. It was a neat experience as I'd never actually seen a Burlesque show before, but the thing that really excited me was the fact that I was there under no deadlines, instructions, limitations (other than no flash) or any pressure to post the images anywhere. Very un-normal for me.

Nikon D3s, 2000ISO, Nikon 70-200F2.8VR2@185mm, 1/60th@F2.8

As it also turns out Shannon and my friend Nikki is joining the troop as well, so it looks like we'll be going back to see her perform. That night she was doing the job known as being the 'Stage Kitten', meaning she got to collect the things that the Burlesque Dancers dropped while they were on stage. Unfortunately due to different distractions, as well as a lack of spotlights while she was doing this I was unable to get a photo of her doing her job. Next time Nikki, Next time.

Nikon D3s, 4500ISO(EEK!), Nikon 70-200F2.8VR2@200mm, 1/60th@F2.8

That's Violet Phoenix from the Bloomington Burlesque Brigade. She was the special guest/model for the evening and she really genuinely seemed to enjoy what she did. Holding poses for anywhere between 1 and 15 minutes at a time is tough! If you don't believe me, you should try it out and see for yourself. I digress, though. It was quite the event, and it definitely helped me out with working on shooting things just for myself as I wanted to do in 2011. It's not something I concepted out, or had any control of; but whether I took the photos or not didn't matter. I was doing it because I wanted to just like this guy here using crayola crayons to sketch miss Violet.

Nikon D3s, 12,800ISO (hOly cOw!) Nikon 70-200F2.8VR@180mm, 1/60th@F2.8

Last night I gave the opening class lecture for the Advanced Portrait class at the Art Institute of Indianapolis. One of the things that I pushed to them was that their personal work would get them more gigs shooting than anything they shoot with a big name attached. I'm not sure that my night shooting at Dr. Sketchy's really qualifies as 'personal' work for me as it was just kind of an event coverage, but the fact that I was there shooting just to shoot under no real pressure from anyone or anything is a good start. I even broke the ISO barrier in as I very rarely take my camera above 800 normally... Welcome to 2011. More Soon.

From Start to Finish...

A few posts ago I mentioned that I had done the final Critique of the Advanced Lighting Class at Ivy Tech here in Indianapolis.  Great group, but one thing that I found myself saying again and again is that sometimes the shot doesn't come easy.  I was reminded of that recently when I did a shoot at Ichiban Sushi restaurant on the South Side of Indianapolis about two weeks ago, where I just couldn't get the shots that I wanted.  It was taking work.

Canon 5D Mark II, 250ISO, Canon EF100mmF2.8Macro, 1/50th@F9.  Single 580EX Set to 1/8th power through a 16" Fotorosa Softbox from above right the plate, with a single 580EX Speedlight set to 1/64th zoomed to 105mm hard light from the left side of the frame.  Both lights fired by Pocket Wizard Plus II's. 

Speaking of taking work, a lot of talk has been going on about New Years Resolutions lately.  Definitely something worth working on, but only if they are in the right mindset.  By that I mean, the resolution shouldn't be to buy a new car, or to improve yourself with purchases.  I take new years resolutions as a statement to truly improve yourself with actions.  With that being said, I'm planning on improving myself a few different ways this upcoming year.  Last year, my goal was to work on my photography business outside of the Indianapolis Star Newspaper group.  While that is a continuing goal, I was pleased with my progress.  This year, my goal is to A, become a weekly blogger again, and B, to work on more personal work.

Personal Work? Fwaa?!?!?!?  Yup, personal work.  Photos that I go to take or make just for myself.  Without someone telling me or paying me to do it their way.  That may not seem important, but it's much more important than photographers may realize.  I have gotten more clients based on personal work that I have done, than any commercial job that I've worked.  People want to see what you do for youself, and what you put the most passion into, and that's what I want to focus on.  Putting the passion back into making the pictures that I want to make.

It's not to say that I am not passionate about what I do, as the video I'm posting on this blog will show.  As I said in the beginning, sometimes you have to work at getting the shots you want.  Very rarely do the shots come immediately, or easily.  The video below is every single shot from the shoot that I did with Ichiban.  Nothing has been edited, or left out.  You'll see me play with white balance, lights, composition....all of it.  Just goes to show, that sometimes you've got to mess things up, just to get them right. More Soon.



(Don't mind the crappy music, Royalty Free is what it is...)

Just shoot...

In this profession sometimes you've just got to shoot. Shoot anything, shoot everything, shoot it again and again and again. It helps you learn your camera, it helps you land jobs, and honestly it can be just darn fun.


(Canon 5D Mark II, 1000ISO, Canon 16-35mmF2.8L@16mm. 1/30th@f2.8 Canon 580EX Speedlight set to 1/16th power shot into a silver reflector to camera left leaning against an unsuspecting Saturn Vue. Photo Location is Fountain Square.)

That's Heather. You've seen Heather before if you've read the blog before. She was the Mad Wo-Man out of this post. During the day she works for the University of Indianapolis as some super computer genius nerd, or something along those lines. At night she has a 5D Mark II in hand, and shoots anything she can gets her hands on. It's Heather's Birthday this week (11/17, Happy Birthday Heather!) and she wanted to go out and do some fun stuff over the weekend. So last Friday night she called me up. Her Husband Andy went to bed early because he had to get up at the crack of dawn for something, and she was itching to go out and do something/anything. Somehow we decided to go and shoot some night time portrait style photos as a little practice. She shoots Canon so I Packed up my canon gear, and off we went. Practice makes you luckier right?


(Canon 5D Mark II, 1250ISO, Canon 100mmF2.8 Macro, 1/40th@F2.8. Single 580EX Speedlight attached to the camera via Off Camera cable to camera left set to 1/32nd power Direct flash zoomed to 105mm Photo Location is facing north on Meridian and New oOrk Streets.)

This was a big thing for me and Heather didn't even know it. It was just as much practice for me as it was for her. I rarely shoot at night outside with very little extra light. Being limited to a single speedlight that had to be connected with a cable to the camera was very limiting, but definitely not impossible by any stretch. It's always good to get outside of your comfort zone while shooting as practice. It's like taking a fish-eye lens to a sporting event instead of your Long distance glass. It's tough!

(Canon 5D Mark II, 1600ISO, Canon 16-25mmF2.8L, 1/40th,@F2.8. 580EX Speedlight set to 1/64th attached to the camera using an off camera cable at arms length to above camera left.Location is on Pennsylvania side of the Circle, downtown.)

We had fun; she and I tried a few things, learned a few things, and shot a few photos. Time well spent. I don't often shoot for the sake of shooting, but when I do I usually do enjoy it. There is a little video of me dancing around like a fool waiting for my photo to be taken. If you're really nuts you can see it here. I had no idea she was taking video, we had just gotten done trying to set up the speedlights with pocket wizards on a two light setup to light up the tree behind me an even crazier firey orange than in the video. Not sure if it worked or not, didn't look, but the video is funny. Either way, it was a fun night, and I'm looking at getting a group together to go out and do something similar again soon I think. Will keep anyone interested in the loop. More Soon.

Practice Makes Perfect.....ish

So I must be doing something right with the blog as someone reminded me today that it had been about a week since my last updated. In the last week I have been absolutely insanely busy so I guess I'm not surprised that I hadn't noticed, but I am here now with all sorts of factoids, and marginally interesting anecdotes from the last couple of days to spread onto the internets like a thin layer of peanut butter. Last week when I posted the blog about weddings I was waiting for the one and only Heather (as seen in this blog post). I was waiting for her to pick me up to go to the airport as I was traveling to Sioux Falls South Dakota with the Naptown Roller girls for their first WFTDA sanctioned bout of Season 4.

(Nikon D700, 6400ISO, Nikon 18-35mmF3.5-F4.5@18mm. 1/80th@F3.5)


As I've said in the past Sports in general are tough to shoot and this derby bout was no slouch in itself. The venue was an expo hall that had literally just gotten done being the fair. It was 50 degrees in the venue, super wicked dark, and it smelled like Manure. How's that for motivation? Motivation to not sit on the floor that is (which of course I did, because well..........I'm that guy.) Anyway, the girls played hard and suffered a tough loss. As usual I was extremely glad to be allowed to go. Southwest Airlines had other plans for my return home, but that's another story; possibly a story involving my hatred for the severely antiquated, "paper plane ticket". The halftime show was remote control cars, which if I do say so myself were freakin sweet. The only problem is that at 1/400th a second at 8,000ISO i couldn't stop them mid air off the jumps. They might be the grainiest blurriest photos of something moving in the dark that I've ever shot. (Other than when I print things on sandpaper eat oreo cookies over my opened camera that is...) If there was a dial on my camera that read studio photos on one side, and super insanely dark you'll never get the shot otherwise on the other; my camera was just below the insane side. I'm glad I got to practice shooting before the home season starts though; it's always good to get a bit of a warm up. You can look at the rest of the pictures from the trip here.

(Nikon D3, 1600ISO, Nikon 70-200mmF2.8VR@125mm. Nikon SB900 behind camera left zoomed to 200mm Fired by pocket wizard about 30 feet off the track taped to the outer railing of a set of bleachers set to 1/16th power. Nikon SB900 behind camera right zoomed to 200mm Fired by pocket wizard about 40 feet off the track taped to the outer railing of a set of bleachers set to 1/16th power. Both Speedlights were aimed at Turn 1.)


I did get a new camera at work this week though, and I've been using it non stop to run it through the rigors. I am no longer allowed to say that I am not allowed to have nice things as they purchased me a brand spankin new Canon 5D Mark II. I dig the resolution but the autofocus is a little slow and from what I can tell not quite as accurate as I like. Great camera though, and the video is what it was primarily purchased for anyway. Speaking of video, I produced another Gunner video this week at the Butler Homecoming. It was with the other HD camera at the office, but it is hot through the internet tubes as of this morning. The Chariot Race was neat for sure, and Gunner seemed to really be a hit with the students. You can check that video out here.

I'll post more of what I've done this week as it goes live, but as I've said I've been working a lot of video this week. In fact I even spent some time practicing with the 5D Mark II's video as it is Manual Focus Only when it comes to video. Some would say that is a downfall, I'd prefer to think it'll just take a little longer to adapt to. Practice makes perfect is what I'm told, but I'd prefer to think that the more I practice the luckier I get. It always seemed that way with golf anyway. I really look forward to the possibilities that this camera has. My 8 extreme long term readers will remember when I shot the Music video for KJ Testin earlier this year with a 5D mark II. If you don't remember, you can check it out here. To get a little practice in the hopes that I might get lucky with it I shot some video at Roller Derby practice tonight. I'm working on throwing something together with it, but I'm not going to lie iMovie is the only thing I have on this computer and I hate it, so you'll have to wait. I think maybe now I've got a few ideas for at the newspaper as well as for the Roller Derby rolling around inside my noodle. You'll just have to wait and see. More soon.