Its a Lens, Baby!

A newspaper stand near Grand Central Station, New York. Nikon D700, Lens Baby Edge 80 Optic

I have always loved the art of manipulating and deliberately employing depth of field. In my photography I find that I have two working modes in that regard - either lots of it, or almost none at all. You will rarely find me working with an aperture of f8 or 5.6, unless I am in the studio, or I have reason to ensure sharpness through layers of people in a group - that kind of thing. Because I shoot people mostly, I find myself more often than not in the wider aperture arena.

So, as you can imagine, the new LensBaby Edge 80 is a fascinating new way for me to further explore the possibilities with depth of field. Now, I can not only minimise or maximise it....I can bend it and warp it as I see fit. Oh yeah. I am going to love that. Hey, I already do!

Walking the streets of New York in May gave me an opportunity to try out the Lens Baby without worrying too much about the consequences of making a mistake. While I love street shooting and don't want to make mistakes, no one was paying for the images and Glynn and I were walking the lengths and breadths of New York for the fun of photography, nothing else. We walked about 100 blocks that day in search of images for ourselves. Sore legs? Check. Great photographs? Well, we thought so. Either way, it was a wonderful opportunity for me to try out the new LensBaby Edge 80 that had made its way into my LowePro Pro Roller.

9th Street Billy. Nikon D700 and LensBaby Edge 80

We met many wonderful people that day as we interacted with them and photographed them. Street shooting is about being candid, or being completely and confidently interactive. So, in that endeavour we encountered buskers, waiters, film makers and  conspiracy theorists. Yes, New York has its share of interesting characters. Among these is 9th Street Billy, who engaged us in conversations about life, art, music and....well, a myriad of other things. While he spoke I clicked away, bending and shaping the LensBaby Edge 80 as best I could while he moved through his life lessons. Working with the LensBaby is never easy, although Glynn and I discovered that it works more easily with a 35mm sensor than a crop sensor camera. (Note that I refuse to use the term "full frame' with regard to my D700's sensor. All cameras are essentially 'full frame'.) There is less room for error with cameras that have a larger sensor and if there is one thing about the LensBaby Edge 80, it can be a sensitive little beastie. This is especially the case when you open it right up. With its 2.8 aperture wide open you need only move a millimetre and your sharpness is off, especially at closer proximities. For this reason, I have experimented using f4 and even 5.6 for portraits, which is a strange thing for me to do. Whatever you do, make sure you know how to use it well before you commit to paid work with it. You may find yourself dismayed at first, but as with all things, practice makes perfect.

Times Square, New York. Nikon D700
with the LensBaby Edge 80

The other thing to remember is that the natural rules of depth of field also apply, so the further you are from your subjects the less likely you are to have them out of focus. I found portraits difficult, but street scenes easier, simply due to the distance involved. Anything I captured at a distance was pretty sharp, but those close, tight portraits were more difficult. The 80mm focal length can work well with both portraits and larger expanses within the frame. At close range, though, you need to take your time. No matter what you are shooting, before you leave the scene or change composition, ensure that the sharp bits in your pictures are actually sharp!

In the 15 or so years I have run workshops, photo tours and seminars, I have always endeavoured to teach methods and techniques of in-camera capture that highlight the subject. Essentially, successful photography is about this very pursuit, not leaving the viewer to question the reason or intent of the image. These techniques have naturally included tight composition, using depth of field, lens perspective, metering techniques and prioritising light over location. Now, with the LensBaby Edge 80, I have found another means  of highlighting the subject that I am looking very much forward to exploring and employing - Light Bending. I have much to learn about the LensBaby Edge 80 Optic, but its something I am really looking forward to doing. In fact, I would love to shoot an entire wedding with the thing, but would never do so on a commissioned wedding of my own. I would be too afraid of losing those essential images to my inexperience with this beautiful new toy. I would also imagine that any bride or groom in their right mind would find two or three hundred 'lightbent' images of their wedding a little tiresome, perhaps a tad overdone. A dozen would be more than enough. Darnitall.

So...if you have a place for a third wheel at a wedding you're shooting soon....can I come along and experiment with the LensBaby? Hmmmm?

The busy streets of New York have their tenants. Nikon D700, jpeg in monochrome setting, LensBaby Edge 80

Challenging Yourself...

Taken on film using a Petri rangefinder camera. Hanoi, Vietnam, 2002.

It was ten years ago, but I remember it well. I was at the annual Camberwell Photography Flea Market. It was a Sunday morning and I was there hunting for bargains like everyone else. What Nikon lenses could I get for my F90x and my F801 - the two main Nikon bodies I used at the time? Lovely cameras, both of them. I knew that I would soon be leading my second photo tour through Vietnam and maybe there was an extra lens or accessory I could take along with me to try out. I went from stall to stall and browsed eagerly for that illusive bargain. There were many to be had, but nothing that stood out for me.

Then, something caught my eye. It was a Petri Rangefinder, in mint condition, probably about 50 years old. It was in its original leather case. Curiously, I asked the fellow behind the stall "How much is the Petri?". "Thirty five", he said. Not really knowing why, but strangely drawn to this lovely little thing, I didn't even haggle. It was mine.

It had a fixed 45mm f 2.8 lens, rangefinder focussing and no meter at all. I knew that to take any photograph with it I would have to revert to skills I hadn't used since I first started learning photography in my elective photography class in high school. For instance, it had been a long time since I had 'gut metered', taking a look at a scene and applying the old 'sunny 16' method of metering. Rangefinder focussing was also something I had not had much experience with, but I had learned manual focussing on my Minoltas and Mamiyas long before I went Nikon. 

What drew me to this camera was precisely the things I was concerned about - metering, focussing, setting manual exposures for every image. I was confined to one focal length every time I raised the camera to my eye, and it was relatively wide-angle focal length at that. In other words, I fell in love with the idea of a challenge - again. I had become so used to the automations of my Nikons that I had lost touch with the intricacies and challenges of creating the image. It had all become so much easier. Now, I wanted to return to my younger years and the challenges that had once bamboozled me to see how far I may have come.

I took the camera to Vietnam for the tour, loaded only with black and white film. Every exposure was a guess, using only the 'sunny 16' rule as a guide as the selenium cell meter that came with it and sat perched in the camera's flash shoe was not only broken, it would not have been particularly accurate. I had to focus using the ghostly yellow rangefinder imaging through the viewfinder and remember that when I was close to a subject that I had to compensate for parallax error. Each image required a fair amount of thought - and I loved it. Upon returning from Vietnam I was not only pleased with the overall accuracy of my guesswork, I was very pleased with the quality that the camera itself had produced as light travelled through the lens and aperture/leaf shutter and on to the film. 

These days, I, like almost every other photographer, I shoot digitally. I check the screen with each image I take and use it as a starting reference point for my results. My metering is provided by the camera and I have several modes and settings, tweaks and options for every image produced therein. But there are times I am tempted to see if I still have 'it', that wonderful ability to produce images from the gut like the Petri forced me to do in Vietnam. Such abilities were present as everyday necessities in the working and creative lives of my photography legends from years past - W.Eugene Smith, Robert Capa, Margaret Bourke-White, Gordon Parks, Ansel Adams and Henri Cartier-Bresson - among many others. I could never claim to wear their mantles, but I can do my best to replicate their skill and experience. Perhaps one day I will have the courage to put a piece of gaffer tape over the screen of my D700 and go out shooting for fun without the benefits of that instant digital revelation of success or failure. In so doing I would at least be returning to my film shooting days. I don't think I have the courage to push it further back than that....

Here Comes the Judge

Sometimes we make things much more complex than is necessary. Portraits often fit into this category. There is a tendency on the part of photographers to tell too much of the story, including too many details, locations, backgrounds and other distractions. A portrait is usually the simple capture of a person, and usually the person is enough. Nothing more need be said. This is Judge Rapoport. While recently in Allentown running workshops, his son, Jed became model and awesome automobile supplier all in one. When his Dad came by to say "Hello" and check out the action, it was impossible to avoid taking a portrait of him. Moving him into some soft, even light and using a Tamron 70-200 at 200mm at f2.8, I composed tightly and quickly created this simple portrait. I chose to use the D700's inbuilt monochrome jpeg setting and highlight the one important element in the frame - Judge Rapoport. Minimum depth of field combined with lens compression come together to simplify everything within the frame. In all, the image took seconds to create. Sometimes that's all you have. Sometimes that's all you need.

Endings, Beginnings...

As many of you may know, I have decided to leave Creative Photo Workshops. Life is a series of beginnings and endings, and this is no different. I remember some excellent advice that my friend, John Swainston once imparted to me some years ago when I was leaving one publishing company and beginning one of my own. I was naturally concerned, but his advice rang true and granted me a courageous passage. He said "Shelton, just make sure you are walking toward something and not away from it." Taking that to heart, here I am again, on the cusp of a new part of my journey within my career. Along with my wife, I am going to be returning to the work of photography, and I am looking very much forward to it. 

Leaving Creative Photo Workshops does not mean an end to the business. Glynn has and will continue to run workshops in his own inimitable style, and the principles of teaching photography that made CPW so popular will no doubt remain. I wish him every success. The teacher in me will also continue in some way, shape or form, and what that will be remains to be seen. But I will always try to help other photographers in whatever way I can. For me, that is extremely rewarding. Apart from its personal rewards, I also find that teaching the various aspects of photography that I have over the years has improved my own abilities and vision and I encourage every photographer to share their knowledge for both  personal and creative rewards. Don't be afraid of it. Find out for yourself the gift of sharing your knowledge - to whatever degree you have attained it - with others. 

So, this last week has seen me do my last workshop with Glynn. It was a two-day wedding workshop, and I enjoyed it very much. Once again we battled weather and time to teach whatever is possible in those two days. It is impossible to teach each and every aspect or difficulty of wedding photography, but some of the techniques shared and imparted over the two days are the kinds of things that can truly make a difference between 'happy snaps at a wedding' and some truly creative and memorable images. Not wanting to take much time out from the customers to take pictures, I didn't take too many myself over the two days, but I have included some images from the workshop. 

Glynn, old buddy, I wish you every success with CPW and thank you from my heart for being my friend and partner these last three and a bit years. Mate, its been fun. Thanks for your friendship, your innovation and your many acts of kindness. 

All Revved Up

Hello Blog. Yeah, I know what you're thinkin'...its been a while. Honestly? I have just been a little unmotivated to blog. Can't explain why. I just have.

But here are a few images from our Creative Photo Workshops All Revved Up event that  we did on Sunday night. The recipe? Some very friendly bikers, some available light, a couple of Elinchrom Ranger Quadra kits, some customers and a serious desire to have a laugh and shoot. There is not much to explain in these shots....you know the drill. Back soon.

An Apostle at the Workshop

Our Creative Natural Light Portrait Workshop last Saturday had a slightly different but absolutely wonderful appeal to it. For the past years, Creative Photo Workshops has hired attractive young men and women to be our models at our workshops. There are plenty of young people around who enjoy earning a few extra dollars posing for the camera. But Saturday saw us enjoying the honour of photographing our oldest and perhaps most captivating model yet - Apostolos. Apostolos is 91, and is the father of Sophia, one of our customers and attendees at our workshops. While we also had one of our regulars, David Hirst, modeling for us. David is great to work with and handsome to a fault. But unfortunately he was overshadowed by the presence of our other model, Apostolos, who, despite being quite tired, sat patiently near the window, posed for the light. We are only glad that David wasn't too worried about playing second fiddle as our attendees clamoured to capture Apostolos' life-revealing face and features. 

Young and handsome, David didn't stand a chance....

It is an interesting and wonderful experience capturing the face of a man who has seen so much of life. It is the kind of portrait photography that adds so much more to the experience than just beautiful lighting. It is about honouring, seeing, respecting and capturing for posterity. It is, I suppose, one of the greatest gifts of photography. Young, attractive people have their own beauty - the beauty of youth and vigor. But the aged bring with them something more far reaching. They are vessels of experience and wisdom. 

Thank you Apostolos for being our willing model and thank you Sophie for bringing your Dad along. We were honoured to have you both there at our workshop.

Father and Daughter - Apostolos and Sophia

Getting The Mojo Back

I remember a conversation I had with a prominent Melbourne wedding and portrait photographer many years ago. I was just beginning on my journey as a working photographer and he was well on his way. He was also heading off on a well-deserved holiday to the Maldives. I was very excited for him, having never been to such a place and considering that on my income at the time it would only ever be a dream for me to go to such a place. Interestingly, since that time I have seen and captured my fair share of the world. Anyway...I digress...

In my excitement at the prospects of going to such an exclusive idyll, I mentioned that he will be able to take some beautiful photographs there. While never having been there, I had seen the photographs and that was enough to get my juices going. Naturally, I exclaimed something along the lines of "Wow! You'll get some great photographs there!" to which he responded "I'm not taking my camera! I work with the damn thing!"

Now, this threw me completely. It saddened me to think that this prominent and talented photographer was so disenchanted with his craft that now he sees his camera only as tool he uses to earn a living. Once upon a time it represented enjoyment, passion, fulfillment and creativity. The thought of earning a living with it would have filled his heart with excitement and ambition. Now...decades later that is all changed.

Now...for me...decades later, I can actually understand his feelings. I don't agree with them. Not at all. But I do understand them. Years of shooting can actually destroy your love for photography, even though the life of a working photographer is without doubt more interesting than most. It is human nature to take things for granted, to change our passions and endeavours and, as we age, look for simplicity. In this endeavour, I have also found myself wavering. Recently, for instance, while in Hobart, Tasmania running workshops, I found myself leaving my LowePro ProRoller in the car, filled with DSLRs and lenses, only to use my iPhone and a plethora of apps to create the images I was looking for while we strolled the streets. The images were very rewarding, but there would have been a time when limiting my options like that would have appalled me. 

If you have been following our Creative Photo Workshops events, you would know that Glynn and I recently returned from another tour of duty, running workshops for Dan's Camera City in Allentown, Pennsylvania. Dan's are without doubt the awesomest, bestest, most wonderfullest photo retailer in the United States. Yeah..we love 'em. Anyway...We were kept very busy, running about 16 events in 11 days...or something like that. It was exhausting, and after each workshop we would grab something to eat and then return to our room, often falling asleep on our beds while in mid conversation. Anyone would think that on our planned day off, TV would be the order of the day.

Nope. Not at all.

What does a photographer do on his day off? He gets out and takes photographs. Why? To get the photomojo back. 

After we'd given a brief presentation to the staff at Dan's, Glynn and I got into our rental vehicle and headed for a little town called Jim Thorpe. This lovely little place consumed our day as we strolled the length of it, stopping to converse with locals - so we could photograph them of course - and capturing the details that make this town so lovely in its late autumnal context. Driving back from there to Dan's, we followed Glynn's instinctive nose for great locations, finding barns and ruins and streams that we could photograph before the light failed us. As the shooting day ended, Glynn and I agreed that it had been one of the best days we had ever spent together. While we enjoy our work immensely, this was a day in which we could indulge ourselves in our own vision and simply enjoy photography for photography's sake. And in the end, that is why we took up photography in the first place.

Add caption

Glynn sports his
LowePro Street
and Field Gear
in Jim Thorpe

It goes without saying that I still find the viewpoint of the photographer I mentioned at the outset one that I cannot accept. But I can understand how it happens. Your camera once represented the very thing you longed to do - create images, and hopefully make some kind of living in the process. A photographer's life is probably more interesting than most but it is human nature to yearn for change, and take things for granted. After a while, the very thing you once loved becomes only a means to an end. That is a sad thing if you let it happen. 

If your photomojo is beginning to wane, do the one thing your instincts may disagree with. Grab your gear, get into your car and find something to point your camera at. Anything. You don't even have to go to Pennsylvania - unless you already live there of course. Wherever you go, whatever you capture, the process will do you good  - especially if you ever find yourself on the way to the Maldives with little interest in bringing your camera with you.

Rob Guest Endowment Concert

Sylvie Paladino performs
"Beauty and the Beast"in duet with a recording of Rob Guest

Hello Blog! You'd think that I would visit you more often, wouldn't you? I mean, you and I have been doing this for a long time now! Sorry Blog...I have been all over the place recently! Anyway...enough of the apologies. You get the point, I'm sure.

Last week, my wife, Tash, and I had the privilege to once again photograph the Rob Guest Endowment concert. This is a part of my regular work for ANZ Trustees, who, in this case, care for the Rob Guest Endowment, a trust that sees to the futures of Australia's best upcoming theatre performers. It was set up in honour of the late Rob Guest himself, one of this country's most respected performers and mentors within the industry. I had the joy of seeing him perform as Jean Valjean in Les Miserables here in Melbourne several years ago. His version of "Bring Him Home" brought me to tears. His sudden passing was felt with much sadness by those who knew him and worked with him. I never had that privilege as a photographer, but I am glad that I was able to see him perform.

Winner, Blake Bowden with music director,
Kellie Dickerson

This year's Endowment concert once again revealed the potential of young performers within this country. Each year I am astounded at their talent. Having been a singer on the odd occasion myself, I am awed by their abilities. Both musical and theatrical, these young people are offered some rather wonderful opportunities by the trust and their futures within the industry are given a serious boost. This year's winner was a young man named Blake Bowden. His performances were certainly memorable and his win well deserved. That said, I would not have wanted to be a judge on that night. Not from what I saw and heard. I am sure the margins were very fine indeed. 

At the helm of the musical performances on this evening was the lovely Kellie Dickerson. Kellie was Rob Guest's partner in life, and I was left in awe of her ability to conduct an orchestra while the voice of the man she still loves sings "Beauty and the Beast" along with Sylvie Paladino in a profoundly touching duet. Even I had to prevent a tear or two from inhibiting my work during that performance.

As photographers, our job is to capture the evening as it happens. In this regard, I have to admit to feeling proud about the things we teach in our workshops. Understanding metering, light, walking the arc and lens perspective all come into play if you are to produce jpegs within the camera that can be used immediately from that camera. These are the processes and techniques we teach at our Creative Photo Workshops and events. I am not interested in hours of Lightroom or PhotoShop, and frankly I am not paid enough to be bothered with it. I quote for my shooting time. Therefore, I don't want to work for more hours without pay. Do you? 

If I were shooting this event ten or fifteen years ago on film, I would have been compelled to employ my 'in camera' prowess. Why? Because I would have had to turn up with perfect transparencies the day after. I see no reason why I cannot now follow the same process and produce hundreds of jpegs in the camera that I can upload quickly and straight from the camera. My wife did the same thing, metering for the highlights, shooting to produce jpegs, not RAW files that are 'shot to the right' and need finishing. Yes, there are arguments for and against but I often feel that the humble jpeg is underestimated. Do I shoot RAW files? Absolutely. Do I use many of them for my customers? Rarely. After the concert, I resized them in Lightroom and uploaded them to Dropbox for my client. 

Job Done.

I believe that the time honoured process of producing in camera needs to be considered seriously, even by the neophyte photographer who has only ever known digital. In this regard, long time shooters like me have a distinct advantage. Conversely, my wife has only ever shot digitally as a professional, but she knows the processes behind the production of SOOC jpegs. 

Thank you ANZ Trustees and The Rob Guest Endowment for another fabulous night out and the honour of being part of this philanthropic event.

Working with Flash

Model, Brooke Sebek, is not faking being cold,
but using Tungsten White balance and Honl CTO gel confirms it in this image...

Model: Olga Ellie Zaramboukis

Creative Photo Workshops held two Creative Flash Photography workshops (Part One) over the weekend. While this can be a difficult workshop in some ways, it can also be very rewarding - both for us as teachers and for our customers. The images our customers create and take home are dynamic, interesting and often ethereal.  Moreover, they are created from very ordinary circumstances, which is actually the case with all of our workshops to be honest. But there is something about alerting photographers to the power of flash that is very rewarding in terms of their creative and photographic empowerment.

Usually the day begins with most of our customers telling us that either they have no understanding of a flash they have bought and don't know how to use, that they simply hate flash, or that they only use it when they absolutely have to but don't know how to be creative with it at all. Our workshop changes all of those attitudes and difficulties. It begins with some simple but eye-opening on-camera flash techniques and then progresses to the off-camer flash stuff we all love.

I am very proud of what we teach at our flash workshop because it deals with the principles and returns our photographers to a day when there was no Nikon CLS, infrared TTL exposure or easy way out. We do the math, and we teach it as the best way to take control. If you haven't attended one of our Creative Flash Photography workshops yet, I would highly recommend them...even if I say so myself...:-)

Mackay Workshops, Aaaaye....

Model, Jana Bailey, at our Creative Flash Workshop in Mackay

Model, Rae Johnston dons a wedding dress for our
Creative Wedding Photography Workshop

Creative Photo Workshops loves to travel. We love to take our love for photography and bring it with us everywhere we go. The great thing about being in our business is that we get to do it for a living! Recently, Glynn, Tash and I found in ourselves in Mackay. Tash and I travelled to Mackay with our new friend and locquacious laughmaker, Tearah, a photographer from Blackwater where she was going to join us for even more workshops there. Glynn was flying in from Melbourne and off we would go.

I have to tell you that I was surprised with how quickly our workshops were filled. The wonderful bunch of photographers in Mackay were so pleased to have us there, and I also have to admit to a feeling of vindication after what we had heard went on in Blackwater. I really appreciated the photographers there in that small mining town who came to our workshops. Again, thank you so very much. You more than compensated for the other silly so and so's....

We ran five separate events in Mackay. Our Natural Light Portrait Workshop, Creative Flash Part One and Part Two and our Creative Wedding Photography workshop. On the Friday evening we ran our Film Noir event at the Mackay Heritage Railway, for which we are very grateful. Gangsters, Fedoras and Fog Machines. It was a great night.

I have to admit to absolutely loving what we do. In a nutshell, we came into a group of photographers, taught them some things, made some friends and got asked to come back to do more. Now, that is a great gig. I feel sorry for photographers who don't understand the joy it brings to us to be able to share, to enable, to empower people in their passion and their craft, to make new friends and to be remembered with affection for having done so. For that, I get paid. And there are photographers who are afraid of doing that? Wow. Incomprehensible. Sure, I aint drivin' no Maserati, but I am loving what I am doing. And I would prefer a more practical vehicle anyway...

Thank you Mackay photographers for making us so welcome. We look forward to coming back soon.

Model: Raylene Smith

Local legend, Paddy, poses in a pub door as part of our Natural Light Portrait Workshop...

Rae poses in the Queensland 'cold' for an off camera flash photograph...

If the world needed an Enema

From our Natural Light Portrait Workshop, Blackwater QLD. Not bad for an Alpaca Shed as a location...

The lovely Megan Walker

A couple of weeks ago I recorded another episode of Shutters Inc with my good friend, fellow photographer and podcast host, Bruce Williams. In it I mentioned that I would be heading off to a place in Queensland called "Blackwater". When he asked "Where!!?" I told him to imagine a place where, if the world needed an enima, that is where they would put the tube. Blackwater, QLD. Hey, it was only a joke, ok?

Why was I going to Blackwater? Well, my wife and I had been invited to come to this mining town to represent Creative Photo Workshops and run workshops up there for the photographers who live in this 8000 strong town. While it is normally Glynn who accompanies me, my wife had been invited especially from the host of this invitation - our good friend Di Collins. Di and I met years ago when I first went to Rockhampton to run workshops there. But since then she has become good friends with Tash, and so the workshops were really only a front for her chance to catch up and giggle with my Mrs. But hey! What do I care? Any chance to roam the world and teach photography and I am there - especially when I can take my wife along and enjoy the crazy quietude of her lovely company.

What distressed me was that I had heard from people in the town that there had been some resistance to our workshops being held there. Apparently some fear arose among some photographers in town and I heard that some even went to the point of tearing down the posters that had been put up to advertise our events. If this is true - and I have no reason to believe that it isn't - then I am deeply saddened by that mentality. If there is one thing that we all need as photographers it is education. I have been shooting for over thirty years and I long to attend more seminars and workshops. My problem is that I am usually running them instead. But to so grossly object to an internationally welcomed team of photographers coming to your part of the world to run workshops because you are afraid that other photographers may learn something that you don't know is so small-minded it beggars belief.

The photographers who attended the workshops there were all lovely, and their spirit of sharing and gathering as fellow photographers was not one I would worry about at all! They were very interested in getting together, shooting and sharing ideas, catching up and having fun with their cameras. I can only say to those photographers whose reason for not attending was your small-minded objections to outsiders or your fear of others learning something you don't know, then you should have come to them yourselves. You would not only have learned a thing or two about photography, you would have been given a polite lecture about the greatness of sharing and the elevated level of thought that the more professional photographers have in this world - one of giving, sharing, teaching and encouraging.

I hope to return to Blackwater to run more workshops. The profit in it would be irrelevant. The message to those nay-sayers and persecutors would be everything. Thank you Di for being positive in the light of your opposition. Thank you for being strong. Thank you for making it possible for us to come and have some fun with you and your fellow photographers in Blackwater. I stayed there for days and didn't see any tube coming down from the sky. Hmmm, I must have been wrong.

From the second of our two Film Noir events in Blackwater. A local locomotive in a nearby park becomes an ideal location for this fabulous event

Working with Natural Light

As a photographer, it goes without saying that I love what light does. I love it. There. I said it. Even though it didn't need saying. Our Creative Natural Light Portrait workshop is a great lesson in finding light and working with it. We ran this workshop on Saturday with two young girls, who happened to be sisters, as our models. Courtney and Chelsea are only in the early mid teens, and they are beautiful young women with a lovely spirit. As pretty as they are, however, they, like every other person, still need to be properly lit if they are to be complimented in their photographs. 

Far too often I see photographers - especially those new to the craft - relying upon the beauty or interest of the subject itself and often ignoring the light in which they place them, or find them. Photographers do not photograph interesting things. We don't even photograph beautiful things. We photograph light on things. That's what we do. And when we finally wrap our little heads around that concept, it doesn't matter what we take pictures of. Anything can be interesting.

However, it just so happens that our models on Saturday were very pretty. What the heck...