Chico State Girls Basketball Shoot: Guards

Working at the Orion, (Chico State's Newspaper) has been a learning experience. Most of the things I'd normally shoot involve some type of lighting and is very deliberate. Having to wait and watch for something that might never happen frustrates the hell out of me. At least with weddings you know there is going to BE a first kiss. With photojournalism, it could never happen. And when it does, it seldom matches the shot you had imagined in your head. 

The above is a shoot for the women's basketball team. It was a shot I was allowed to set up. I found this great lighting diagram online and it is really cool. You can find it here:http://www.lightingdiagram.com/

I put the sun behind the subjects just to add some more separation due to the darkened trees. I'm going to be shooting some more of these for the school. Only the ones I'll be shooting next will be action shots. For this effect, (i.e. to stop motion) you need a short flash duration. I'll be using Einstein's and a 5ft parabolic with some Einstein rim lights as well. As you can see, for this shot I used speed lights for rims and a beauty dish for my key (main).

Night Shot in Fall

             

             Back story: Jacqueline Klo and I met about seven years ago when she was helping her friend pick out a wedding photographer. Since that time, I have photographed many of her friends and she has even come to assist me on weddings. Her ceremony began at 4:00 p.m. and ended at 5:30 p.m. It was dark when we began pictures with the newly-married bride and groom. For this shot, in front of their reception site, we had about 10 minutes to get some shots before they were announced.

            Philosophy: Night shots are probably some of the most difficult to balance. The problem is that there is very little ambient light. How do you balance your light when the ambient light is almost non existent? I look for light spilling anywhere. Good sources to look for are floodlights, landscape lighting, street lamps, car headlights and sometimes spots from church ceilings work well.

            Vision: Once I saw the warm glow on the fall leaves I was hooked. I knew they were higher up than the couple so I’d have to pick a low camera angle. A low camera angle from afar has the added effect of elongating the couple. If I placed the couple so that the street light spilled on their backs it would provide a warm separation light.

            Technique: I purposefully brought the couple about five yards from the light so the light would spill down their back and not be on their face. Why not let some hit their face you might ask? Well, the color temperature worked fine for the leaves in the background but it would be too warm for skin tones. I didn’t want this light mixing with the daylight-balanced flash I introduce into the shot. The couple is lit from camera left by a 580ex speedlight modified by a 12x12 softbox. The main light is above the couple’s head and to a 45 degree angle. In order to bring out the groom, I used another 580ex ii inside another 12x12 softbox to provide a separation light on the back of his black tux jacket. Without this light, he would have blended into the background shadows.

            Numbers: Canon 5d mark ii, 135 mm. f2.0 at f2.8, 1/60 and ISO 800. All flashes set manually.

Vision

 Helen Keller

"The most pathetic person in the world is someone who has sight, but has no vision."

I had the honor of speaking to a group of fellow photographers last night in Chico, California. They had originally asked me to speak on weddings but as I prepared notes for what would be a two and a half lecture, I realized that my mind continued to return to a single concept - personal artistic vision. I decided to use an object lesson to illustrate how important vision is to our craft and how important it is to each of us individually to distinguish ourselves. I thought of a beautiful scene. There was a castle, a waterfall cascading onto rocks and there was a grassy hill. There was a bride and groom and a horse, of course. It was night and there was some fog coming in. That summed up the elements of the scene. I instructed each of the photographers to draw these elements as they see them in their mind's eye. After about 20 minutes I went around and checked on all the renditions. To the photographer, every one was succinctly different. We discussed their placement of the bride and groom in the shot and then I asked the question: "If you all have such distinct artistic visions, why is it that much of the work we see in photography these days looks exactly the same?" Silence.

Some of us lack the technique
to realize our vision.

If you browse the internet like I do, you might just come upon the same conclusion. A dash of similar posing, a pinch of available light coupled with  a pair of over processed eyes and a heaping of texture overlays. To me this is a recipe for disaster. Are we all envisioning the exact same thing? The object lesson the other night would be proof against that idea. Some of it is a heavy reliance on post processing. Some of it is photographers actually think this looks good. And some of it, and what I think is most at fault, is lack of technique to produce the image that the photographer has in their head. If everyone had the technique to produce the vision they see in their head portfolios would look as different as our dreams. And the net would be inundated with originality from one photographer to the next, each having a discernibly different look than the previous. Instead we have the opposite, a homogenized industry where software is sold to bandage the wound of inability.

The professional photographer associations are accountable for this failure to train new and emerging amateurs. The proportion of educational workshops to marketing workshops is staggeringly in favor of the latter. Indeed, this has produced thousands of mediocre photographers that are amazing at marketing. The gears of the organization's priorities began to shift about 5 years ago when membership started to swell and so did the revenues provided by hungry members. Instead of teaching them the fundamentals necessary to be photographers (i.e. lighting, good composition, color balance, posing, fstops/apertures/iso's) they provided lectures that all followed a standard formula: charismatic speaker shows epic images set to emotional music (but doesn't really teach the techniques for achieving such images) which would be followed by talking about work experience (usually exotic places and exotic people) and then would conclude with the charismatic speaker reminding the audience that they too could be photography rock stars. It all starts with purchasing the actions for sale now at the back of the room. Unfortunately, the only thing that would help the audience produce images akin to those of the speaker is technical knowledge. And at these types of "photography rock star" concerts, knowledge was in short supply.

These photography association retreats are designed to allow photographers to gain ideas and shop for items that will make them better photographers. Not surprisingly, sound photography fundamentals are not for sale anywhere. In fact, it is in the retailer and lecturer's best interest to keep photographers ignorant and reliant on software for their look. The less they ultimately know, the more they'll be convinced there's got to be some sort of product they can buy to fix their photography. And as long as they keep shooting poorly they'll continue to need software. Film photographers who could expose correctly didn't rely on a 1/100 of the software that's out there today and generated award-winning work long before digital came about.

I don't fault the speakers. After all, they are just making a living like the rest of us. But when I hear that there will be actions on sale at the back after the lecture, I head for the door.

A return to basics is in order. Many photographers haven't ever been exposed to the basics of photography. There are many amazing teachers out there who have done much to educate those striving to gain knowledge. Carl Caylor is an amazing photographer and even better educator. Recently Sandy Puc started a certification program to help members of the PPA become certified. This is a great step toward helping to educate those who are seeking knowledge. The only problem with certification (yes, I am certified) is that there are no benefits whatsoever through PPA. You receive a certificate. Your clients don't care about this certificate and it doesn't entitle you to any benefits through the PPA.


Without proper technique, our individual artistic visions will never be realized. And until technique is prized over marketing by professional organizations, we'll continue to see children with glowing eyes and seniors with plastic skin and subjects cropped at the wrist and ankle.

Obviously I'm no artist. Here's MY vision. Bride and groom,
with a horse, grass and a waterfall and castle in the back.
The dark splotches are mist.

Duh. LOSING!

Yep, that's me right now! I haven't updated my blog in months. There are a slew of excuses for this but I think I'll just use the main one: I had to close my studio in Modesto of 11 years due to health issues. This has been an enormous undertaking and still isn't finished. When you have employees and tax forms and city forms and county forms, credit card machines, bank accounts, s corps, utilities, leases,  etc... the paperwork begins to add up. And this doesn't even include the 500+ brides we tried to contact so that we could send them high resolution disks of everything we'd ever shot for them.

Enough about that.

I've gone back to school at Chico State and I'll have a 4.0 this semester. If you hadn't guessed, one of the classes I am taking IS Advanced Fine Art Photography taught by Professor Tom Patton. I really need to describe the difference between the academia world of photography and the private sector of photography. There's much to be learned from a balance of the two. In any case, I will be finishing my degree in English with a minor in art and linguistics shortly.

Many photographers who specialize in on location photography and available light use have often criticized the use of artificial light. The upshot of the discussion with some of my peers revealed that they believed it didn't have any place on wedding day. They asserted that available light is what you get on that day and you aren't making something appear as it is not. According to them, available light is more realistic. I agree with that as long as you can't see the sky.
If the sky is in your shot however, I don't think available light will adequately replicate what the eye sees. While outside with a friend, look at their face. It's crazy how your eyes can expose that face so quickly right? They eyes are the coolest lenses ever made. Now, look at the blue sky with beautiful dramatic clouds. Your eye can also discern all the detail in that as well, even though it must be several stops different in exposure. Finally, look at your friend's face with the blue sky background behind them.

Notice that both the subject's face is perfectly exposed AND the bright sky is perfectly exposed. THIS is what the human eye sees. It sees both the subject and the background. A camera can see either or. If it exposes for the face, the sky is blown (as are the skies in many of the photographs of weddings) and if it exposes for the sky, the subjects become silhouettes. I love available light photography BUT it isn't representative of what the eye sees, especially when shooting against the background of a beautifully dramatic sky. To most, the subject is more important and they rightly expose to capture it. When the photographer does this, and blows the sky out, it eliminates all depth from the image. A blown sky is just like a brick wall - the eye has NOWHERE left to travel. It's a photograph with one layer.

I advocate that adding a little light so that you can expose for both the subject and the sky. After all, isn't that what the subjects are seeing on that day? They are seeing people and a glorious sky on their wedding day. They will have noticed the beautiful sky but won't have any evidence that it looked like that if you blow it out. I understand that misuse of artificial light or using it in ways that seem unnatural is common. Don't let this misuse deter you. More and more I am trying to 1.) use the artificial light in harmony with available and ensure that both are coming from the same direction and 2.) use artificial light so that it creates a little more contrast and drama and 3.) to create a lighting pattern on the face that shapes the face and is flattering for the subjects.

Lighting: 580ex flash to camera right. Lighting pattern: Rembrandt. 

Lighting: 580ex ii from camera left through the windshield.

Lighting: 580ex flash from top.

I use a very small light source because I want to illuminate what is important and what will force the viewer to consider important. Lighting the faces but letting this light fall off to other non interesting things will force viewers to keep their eyes on the brightest part of the image. For those of you who are interested, the wedding dress isn't lit because the light on the face is sufficient enough to spill down this huge reflector. The dress needs much less light that the skin in order to show up. So illuminating the faces and letting the spill fall onto the dress seems to work. I usually light the bride's face and use her dress to reflect light back into the shadows of the groom's face. Sometimes this works and sometimes it doesn't. It all depends on the pose and how far away the bride's dress (reflector) is from the groom's face.

Casa Real Photography Critique

50mm f1.4, f5.6, 1/125, 800 ISO

This is an image that I captured at Casa Real in Livermore, California on Jan 29th, 2011. The background patterns on the wall were provided by a lighting company (I'll have to find their name because they did and exceptional job) in case you're wondering.

For starters, I'll begin with saying that this IS the image I had in mind when I set this shot up. I usually start with an image I think would be beautiful and then use my tools to duplicate the image I have already in my head. Sometimes beautiful accidents happen and I'm very grateful for those as well. Most times my shots are deliberate as I'm trying to use everything in my arsenal to ensure that the bride and surroundings look their best.

Before I go into improvements that I could have made in the execution of this shot, I'll remind you that many times we're working under many people telling us to hurry up on wedding day. :) Notice how I'm excusing myself before I even start? C'mon Draper, buck up, take your licking! Ok, here goes:

For starters, I should have had some kind of separation light on the groom. I would have liked a small light to rim his back, head and add some detail to the dark suit he was wearing. This would have required another light source or reflector and I was rushing to get this shot against this epic background. One light (Canon speedlight housed in a 12x12 softbox) was used to illuminate both subjects.

His face, especially chin and mouth (the connection between both subjects) should have been illuminated more. I should have told the groom to bring his face a little closer to me. The connection between the two IS a major part of the narrative and should be illuminated. I use light to tell WHAT the viewer is supposed to find important in an image. This is why I didn't gel the light on the flash. I wanted the light to be slightly cooler (toward blue) than the surroundings (which were super warm).

I would also like to see the bride's arm bent. Fashion photographer Patrick DeMarchelier once said, "Anything on a woman that can bend, should bend." I've always liked that philosophy. Distracting elements are the speaker behind the bride and the accompanying white outlet.  I would also like to see the other light up top. There are two on the left side of the mantel, I'd like to see two on the right side. I'm just saying, I shouldn't cut one in half. Either keep it, or lose it. I also think I could have had them turn the fire back on, that would have been super to give me some separation for the bride and groom, as well as provide a little more light in the dark areas of the photo. I think it might have lightened the floor a bit as well. The floor was beautiful but tough to illuminate with one light placed so high about the couple.

I'm sure I'll find more things that could have been improved upon as I continue to revisit this shot, but this will do for starters.

Draper.

Draper Photography 1999-2011

I never dreamt I’d be a photographer. Especially not in Modesto.

It was always artist, writer, or linguist. Yet, my entire existence here in the Central Valley has been defined by this profession.

I moved down to Modesto after I got married and was determined to leave after a couple of years. I was without friends. And without family. I began work in the valley as a writer for the Tracy Press and then decided that the commute and working conditions didn’t fit my personality. I would have died of road rage.

I worked at La Parrilla restaurant and began photography on the side. I had photographed my sister Mia’s wedding and was encouraged by the results. In retrospect, I realize that a waiter makes an excellent wedding photographer. They can balance well, have a polite tone, multi-task well, remember details, are service oriented, work quickly, try to anticipate the needs of the client, and do this with a smile.

Since my days at La Parrilla I’ve photographed approximately 450 couples here in the Central Valley. My philosophy on photography shifted from that of a wedding photographer to that of a photographer that photographs people. When people ask how I learned photography, my response has always been “trial and error.” My early clients might be interested to know that I would love to go back and photograph their weddings again now that I have more knowledge. I still feel guilty that I could have done a better job.

The couple of years I planned on spending in Modesto turned into eleven.

Friendly faces are now everywhere. I can’t go out to a local restaurant without seeing a bride or groom. In fact, several nights ago I went out to eat at Sushi Garden and counted 4 clients in the restaurant. I can’t go to the store without seeing a senior whose picture I’ve taken. On a daily basis, seeing the faces of my clients has made Modesto feel more like home. More like family.

I am the proud owner of a photography studio in Roseburg Square. I have two employees that are fun to be with and enjoy their jobs. I couldn’t ask for a better scenario. We are blessed with more work than we can handle, even in a down economy when you wouldn’t expect customers to be calling. And especially with the prevailing mentality that anyone can shoot good pictures as long as they have a good camera.

Four years ago, I contracted a respiratory problem. This mystery disease kept me coughing all through the night so that I rarely slept. For a solid year, my doctor gave me cough syrup with codeine so that I could sleep at night. When the cough didn’t go away I was referred to another doctor who gave me my first chest x-ray. I was diagnosed with bronchitis and then put on antibiotics. The next couple of years were progressively worse with numerous visits to local allergists, a visit with an ENT, a pulmonologist and acupuncturist. They all had differing diagnosis but the one constant was pharmaceuticals. The worst treatment was antibiotics and steroids. At one point I was taking six different medications. My medicine bill sometimes reached $600 a month. I know the employees at the Walgreens pharmacy on McHenry on a first name basis.

Last year I was hospitalized for eight days at Memorial Hospital because I couldn’t breathe. They didn’t know what was wrong with me and I ended up voluntarily discharging myself. Frustrated with the lack of progress here locally, I went to UCSF and met with an ENT there. He suggested sinus surgery and that was performed last year. A couple of months after the surgery, I went right back to the super congestion and difficulty breathing. It’s been four years now and my local pulmonologist (who was convinced I had asthma) referred me to Stanford. My experience with Stanford has been quite different. In fact, my ENT found mistakes made during my procedure at UCSF. My doctor thinks I have a fungal infection. He also believes that the air pollution here in the valley is one of the triggers for my respiratory problems. He doesn’t believe I’ll get better unless I leave the area. I have tried everything from natural herbs to acupuncture to prednisone. Nothing has worked.

In their 2010 annual report, The National Lung Association listed seven of the valley’s cities in the top 25 most ozone-polluted cities. Bakersfield, Fresno, Visalia, Sacramento, Merced, Modesto and Chico all made the list. I have worked in these cities religiously for the past eleven years. I have no allergies to anything organic. There are inorganic pollutants that form a powerful cocktail that affect my respiratory system. According to the lung association, respiratory problems will become a real threat for valley residents in the upcoming years.

It’s been four long years of struggling with respiratory problems and sleepless nights. I love my clients and have done everything to stay here in Modesto. But I can’t stay here any longer. My ENT at Stanford is sure that if I’m to breathe again and become healthy, I have to leave my studio and the area. I don’t want to leave my studio. And I don’t want to leave my clients. If there were any other way, I would stay here in the place I call home.

As of December 31, 2010 the studio will be closed. We will stop taking shoots as of December 1^st of this year. This will give us the next several weeks to handle existing orders and to finalize all projects we’ve been working on. All clients will be able to purchase their files and brides and grooms (who have not used their print/album credit) will receive their digital files at no cost. All files/negatives will be given with a signed copyright release that will enable clients to order their own prints, design their own online albums and print their images in any form they see fit.

I will still work as a photographer and continue to take jobs here in the valley including weddings and select other jobs depending on the assignment.

I appreciate all the support that my clients have given my employees and me the last eleven years. I believe our relationships have superseded that of professional and client. At weddings I always felt like an invited guest and would usually end up receiving a good-bye kiss from the mother of the bride. I can’t put into words the feelings I have for all of you, my subjects. I feel that I shared a piece of myself with each of you during our photo sessions. And I will be leaving behind tiny pieces of myself everywhere. It’s been breaking my heart the last couple of days to hear people say that they can’t wait for me to photograph them in the future, only to know that I won’t be.

A dream I never knew I wanted was fulfilled in a place I never wanted to be. That dream would have never been realized, and Modesto would have never been my home without all of you.

Martinelli Event Center, Pleasanton, CA: Justin and Tran

I recently shot a wedding at the Martinelli Event Center in Pleasanton. This venue is set back in vineyards and seriously looks like it should be in Europe somewhere. There is a little cobblestone "piazza" with a fountain in the center and the arched hallways offer some fun with light. Here are some shots from the wedding. :)