The dress... and trashing it!

Just about every photog's dream. Beautiful special dress... let's do some crazy stuff with it! I met Amy at a promotional event for the spring edition of Fashion Fridays - Madison's biggest fashion event, which I have shot for 3 shows now. Anyways, we were talking and she mentioned she had done a trash the dress shoot and my eyes got big. She said the dress was still fine so we could use it to shoot another. Yay! But she lives 2 or so hours away. We'll have to plan for the next time she's in town after the fashion show. Our first attempt ended quickly as a massive storm was moving in. Just fired a couple and then watched the city start to flood. We debated but with her long car ride home didn't feel it was worth it as she said she'd be coming back down soon. The idea bombs started exploding but what would I actually be able to pull off without ruining the dress and not being able to shoot anymore knowing we'd end up at my favorite spot in the lake. Since it's such a special event, I decided to use the video function on my K-7 and whip up this little BTS video for ya. Enjoy!

The eye mind of a photographer

I was asked to make a piece or two for the Olbrich Gardens Art Invitational for early 2011. Quite an honor as it seems they don't ask many photogs. I was excited then it hit me. My work will be next to some of best artists in the area. Then the next blow. This place is one of the most photographed places in the city if not county (not talking about dad's point and shoot pics at graduation on campus). So I have to create, or "capture" since photographer's aren't "artists," something unique that people haven't seen before that will still represent the essence of being there. I have the rest of the year to figure it out so let's start shooting. First choice, this unique Thai Sala and garden. Boasted as the only one of its kind in N. America. Well, that's unique! There is another in Hawaii, which I have seen, and one in Germany which I have not. People come from all over the world to see it... and photograph it.
Step one: Perspective. There are reflecting ponds on both sides. So those kind of shots have been done. Nothing too original but they have been done with standard lenses and you really can't beat that aesthetic. So I slap my fisheye and bam, something new. The perspective is interesting and especially in vertical mode as the pool's corner is 90 degrees. The fisheye gives it a weird acute angle and some nice framing to lead the eye which you won't get with a standard lens.
Step two: Details. The Sala has a gorgeous ornate ceiling but is lost in shadow. Photographers need to be ready to add light since their job is to "capture light." When you can make, add, subtract, modify and shape your own light, you are really onto something. Otherwise, you have what everybody else has. So I decide to pop a light from the bottom of the center of the Sala up toward the ceiling. Of course I have to do this wirelessly because of the distance and it being out of site/line. I run back and forth a few times to get the right setting on my flash and kablam, I drop it. Don't know how many more tumbles this thing is going to take. Widest setting @ 28mm and full power will do. Now to get this shot before my batteries drain. Look at that gorgeous red and gold contrast. Oh, the Sala is gold plated so now it's glowing from inside and out making it even more magical.
Step three: No blown out skies. First shot exposed for bright spots in clouds fails. No reflection in the water, foreground goes dark. Now what? Could use a graduated ND filter but not on my fisheye. Would have to put it on my 18-55 losing the unique effect from my fisheye. I put a light on a stand and pop the front. I get the pool edges back but still not a good enough reflection but I like the detail I am getting in the cement so I leave it. OK, so I'm going to have to shoot multiple exposures and do an HDR or blending.. which is a slight problem as there is a slight breeze with moving clouds as a storm is coming in and some rippling in the water which may cause problems for my main attraction - the reflection. Luckily my Pentax K-7 has a burst rate of 5.2 FPS which is way better than what I am used to on my K200D which has 3 FPS. I begin to spot meter the bright spots in the clouds and the dark spots. Whoa! A typical 3 exposure deal won't cut it. I meter around and make sure I get one for the reflection as well as darks and brights. 20 minutes or so later since I got there, I push the camera and blast the 6 shots. Phew! That was a lot of work and the mosquitos are fat and happy. I'm just fat and sweaty :) and it's starting to rain so I'll also be wet in a few
Step 4: post/editing: I do my HDR merge and adjust for my liking. Not happy with the sky so I bring up blue saturation in Photoshop. And there you have it. Not sure if it'll make the final cut but it's a contender.

Point and Shoot like a pro

A photographer shares his pictures at a dinner party. The hostess says, "My, you must have a really expensive camera to get such great pictures." He smiles and replies, "you must have really expensive pots and pans to have made such a great dinner."
This is a continuation of my wireless point and shoot trigger and how to achieve dramatic photos using a cheap little camera. I get asked what kind of camera I use quite often and I'm here to show you that it's not so much the camera. Unedited photo taken with my little ole Canon A570 IS
Part I: Water & Sunset
Part II: Land
Part III: Set up and equipment video

Shadows and Surf and using one hard light

I've been doing a lot and I mean a lot of water shoots. It's risky taking your gear into the water. I've had two hot shoe adapters snap now, used to connect my Cybersyncs, and luckily both times I wasn't in the water so the flash unit has fallen on land and has not broken. Yes, it rattles a bit now but still works A-ok. Nice to trust $300 of equipment on a $5 attachment. Always have to consider the weakest link. I've made some mods and have tethered my flash to the stand and rigged a more stable connection between flash and umbrella holder. I use one light, hard, because I can't risk having anything that becomes a sail with the wind and have it die in the lake. I've recently thought about getting a water proof bag but worry about the heat from the flash and shooting in 80+ degree weather and high humidity. Hopefully soon I'll do some underwater shoots after I get my waterproof DSLR bag. So the natural light portion of the post. I've started a shadow project inspired by ANTM. Hold a drape, patterned fabric and let the sun cast shadows onto my subject. I made a behind the scenes video for one of my shoots. The second half of it is one of my water shoots. It doesn't show when we venture further out into the water but you get the gist as far as variable shooting conditions and shooting without an assistant. Enjoy!

Hot rods and muscles cars and trucks! Oh, my!

Headed up to the Automotion car show in the Wisconsin Dells. It's really too bad I can't put a polarizer on my fisheye to help out with the reflections. Tried some motion pan shots also but wished I had a monopod to steady it a bit. I didn't want to lug my tripod around my shoulder and have to deal with it when I crouch down or lie down for shots all afternoon around the expensive paint jobs. Enjoy! Full slideshow.

Wireless point and shoot trigger?

The most important thing to not getting those flat deer in headlights type of pics with your point and shoot (PS) is to use off-camera lighting. I will not go into all the details as this is not a lighting class, you can find those online anywhere just do a search. I am going to talk about the setup I will be using and explain other setups in other posts. They will all do the same thing, allow your PS to communicate with an off-camera (OCF) or external flash. The setup I will be using is just the most convenient, efficient and failsafe. Since there is no hotshoe on the PS here is my Mod.

A: My modification uses an optical slave and a wireless (radio) trigger. By attaching the two together, it allows my on-camera flash to trigger the optical slave which in turn triggers the radio unit that triggers my off-camera flash (OCF) to go off. The OCF is placed somewhere, usually 45 degrees from the subject, to produce some dimensionality and not flat lighting as seen in the test shot below.

B: By placing the optical trigger as close as possible to the oncamera flash, I increase the reliability of the light trigger signal, which will help out immensely in outdoor day shots.

Normally, the optical slave is attached or built in to the external flash and can just be triggered by the onboard camera flash. So why not just use that? I will explain that in my most basic of setups and it can work in most common situations. However, as I stated earlier, this setup is the most failsafe and also will allow for some shooting that you can't do with the easy set up. This also allows me to dial down the onboard flash to it's lowest setting which will save on batteries and not affect the main picture by adding extra direct light.

Test shot: The image below was shot using the above setup. Tripod mounted Canon A570IS PS, self-portrait, on 10 second timer. Flash on lightstand camera right.

Hey, what kind of camera do you use?

That is the most common question I get. My favorite story involves a photographer sharing some of his pictures at a dinner party. The host says, "you must have such a great camera to get such wonderful pictures." He thanks her, smiles and replies, "you must have such great pots and pans to have made such a lovely dinner." So I'm starting a "look what you can do with a point and shoot" and a mediocre one at that series. The following posts will explain how to achieve pictures like this with a simple point and shoot. The picture above was a test shot self-portrait using a ten second timer. Later I will be using a model to show various lighting techniques to use with your point and shoot camera to get better pictures.