This was the weekend of photo shoots. Perhaps the people that know me will think the following line is such the broken record, but I learned a lot this weekend. I like learning, I think if I stop learning I will lose my passion for photography and so I am glad I learned a lot, got humbled, realized I have a long way to go and finally I have good people behind me to help out and hopefully I will be able to do the same someday.
A mental note for myself: hopefully a year from now I am still doing this, having fun, but remember what you learned this weekend. Its worth some money, thats all ill say and the people that know what i am talking about......will...know what i am talking about...wow quite the word-smith i am.
Firday night was a great time. It started out as me dropping off a check for the studio, to helping out Angela with an idea, to us both getting shots for the theme of the month. I realize, through actually going through the shoots, that i have nail down the workflow of a photoshoot. Still life and nature shots have a lot of forgiveness in that area, but when you have people waiting for you ( models, assistants, rental limits ) things have to have a more fluid and have a faster pace. I come from a history of traditional art where I would stare at a subject, replicate it on paper, stare some more, and repeat. I found myself doing the same thing during the shoot. I would stare at the shot through the lens and take a couple of shots. I could go on and on and if you are reading this far, wow, thanks, i feel....something. Good it is.
What did I come away with from that shoot? Realize I am probably writing this more for myself to get the ideas out of my head so i never forget them.
Lesson #1 - 700 shots available on my card - use it...shoot...and keep shooting like some overly hormoned kid in a strip club.
Lesson #2 - Studio work...ummm yeah there are other people there. Models work better when they feel they are being used. Going back to #1 ( huh uh huh huh he said #1 ) if you keep shooting, the model feels like something is going on. if he/she doesn't feel like anything is going on ( a.k.a. don't stare through the lens and marvel in the composition, lighting, did i leave the iron on )...fire! make sure everyone around you knows things are going on. Angela, as awesome as she is as a model, didn't know what the hell i was doing. Keep people in the loop, yo. They tend to work better that way.
Lesson #3 - who the fuck do you think you are typing this long ass blog? You think people are that into you? (editors note: yes he does )
Yesterday I was part of a team (3 photographers, 1 MUA, 3 models, and the captain ) getting shots in for a new modeling agency called Shade. The director/founder, Drea wanted some shots of her models in the Fall scenery so we drove up 285 to one of the photographer's homes. He does mainly senior portraits and stuff like that, but he had a nice setting for what Drea wanted. Now, outside, late models, sun going down, overcast ( yay for that )....yeah...I did my research. I went to the strobist site ( no power outlets and no portable power packs ) to learn what i could about using my trusty SB-800. I got some great shots and not so great shots. Once the light was gone, all my shots had the look of people being shot at night with a flash at them ( even holding it up and off camera ). I would love to practice this some more because Dan was taking shots with his canon flash ( not sure the model numbers for canons ) and he got shots that looked really great and looked like it was in daylight. Problem was all his shots came out blurry. I blame the autofocus not having any light to focus with. The nikon cameras have a autofocus light, and I thought a canon would and maybe they do, but i never saw one come on for him. Anyway he basically held his flash at waist level tilted down a bit with the bounce card out to get some upward bounce....I really need to practice this technique...
So they all laughed at me. I had my SB-800 on a stand with an umbrella. I placed it and it worked great. Troubles I had were the leader, Drea would move to different areas so I had to carry the stand, it was windy so my stand fell ( umbrella broke at the end, argh! ) and the terrain was, shockingly not flat...imagine that, in the mountains and its not flat...fuck...anyway I eventually took off my cool setup and just fired off camera using the commander mode.
Thats all im going to say about that...perhaps if i read back on this in the future i will laugh at my "noob"ness. I hope so. Keep on shootin, tex.
A mental note for myself: hopefully a year from now I am still doing this, having fun, but remember what you learned this weekend. Its worth some money, thats all ill say and the people that know what i am talking about......will...know what i am talking about...wow quite the word-smith i am.
Firday night was a great time. It started out as me dropping off a check for the studio, to helping out Angela with an idea, to us both getting shots for the theme of the month. I realize, through actually going through the shoots, that i have nail down the workflow of a photoshoot. Still life and nature shots have a lot of forgiveness in that area, but when you have people waiting for you ( models, assistants, rental limits ) things have to have a more fluid and have a faster pace. I come from a history of traditional art where I would stare at a subject, replicate it on paper, stare some more, and repeat. I found myself doing the same thing during the shoot. I would stare at the shot through the lens and take a couple of shots. I could go on and on and if you are reading this far, wow, thanks, i feel....something. Good it is.
What did I come away with from that shoot? Realize I am probably writing this more for myself to get the ideas out of my head so i never forget them.
Lesson #1 - 700 shots available on my card - use it...shoot...and keep shooting like some overly hormoned kid in a strip club.
Lesson #2 - Studio work...ummm yeah there are other people there. Models work better when they feel they are being used. Going back to #1 ( huh uh huh huh he said #1 ) if you keep shooting, the model feels like something is going on. if he/she doesn't feel like anything is going on ( a.k.a. don't stare through the lens and marvel in the composition, lighting, did i leave the iron on )...fire! make sure everyone around you knows things are going on. Angela, as awesome as she is as a model, didn't know what the hell i was doing. Keep people in the loop, yo. They tend to work better that way.
Lesson #3 - who the fuck do you think you are typing this long ass blog? You think people are that into you? (editors note: yes he does )
Yesterday I was part of a team (3 photographers, 1 MUA, 3 models, and the captain ) getting shots in for a new modeling agency called Shade. The director/founder, Drea wanted some shots of her models in the Fall scenery so we drove up 285 to one of the photographer's homes. He does mainly senior portraits and stuff like that, but he had a nice setting for what Drea wanted. Now, outside, late models, sun going down, overcast ( yay for that )....yeah...I did my research. I went to the strobist site ( no power outlets and no portable power packs ) to learn what i could about using my trusty SB-800. I got some great shots and not so great shots. Once the light was gone, all my shots had the look of people being shot at night with a flash at them ( even holding it up and off camera ). I would love to practice this some more because Dan was taking shots with his canon flash ( not sure the model numbers for canons ) and he got shots that looked really great and looked like it was in daylight. Problem was all his shots came out blurry. I blame the autofocus not having any light to focus with. The nikon cameras have a autofocus light, and I thought a canon would and maybe they do, but i never saw one come on for him. Anyway he basically held his flash at waist level tilted down a bit with the bounce card out to get some upward bounce....I really need to practice this technique...
So they all laughed at me. I had my SB-800 on a stand with an umbrella. I placed it and it worked great. Troubles I had were the leader, Drea would move to different areas so I had to carry the stand, it was windy so my stand fell ( umbrella broke at the end, argh! ) and the terrain was, shockingly not flat...imagine that, in the mountains and its not flat...fuck...anyway I eventually took off my cool setup and just fired off camera using the commander mode.
Thats all im going to say about that...perhaps if i read back on this in the future i will laugh at my "noob"ness. I hope so. Keep on shootin, tex.