DONE!

I'm officially finished with Let Me Shoot You! Hooray!

*dances*

This week I finished Brian, Cliff and Tali, and Justin and Rita. That set me free to finish the family portraits for Lisa and Gord:



and Willa:


Now I can go back to Bea and Brad and all the rest of the pictures I promised people.

I haven't been submitting much on DPChallenge, but now that the Austin Strobist group is going to hold monthly competitions I will probably get back into the swing of things.

My newest gear goal is to buy a strobe kit. Most likely the Alien Bee Digi-Bee startup kit. Bumping the lights to 800s instead of 400s.

Then I'll get my 60" softlighter!

On the DIY end of things, I'm interested in making myself a snoot or a gobo from straws. I have tons of them in different colors and I'm dying to see how they look.

More Learny Goodness from Sunday's Workshop.

What have we learned today, kids?

We have learned that caveat emptor can apply to so much more than a can of soda at a questionable bodega.

I went with Tali and Francis to a wedding photography workshop on Sunday. I knew what to expect. I went to the instructors' professional website. I looked at photos of the location. I knew what I was in for as far as style and content.

Wedding stuff is big business and it pays to know a few good tricks here and there. And, I did learn a few tidbits of business-related info.

Photography-wise, however, I didn't learn anything that I didn't already know. It was a very frustrating Sunday. There were simply too many people and no real structure. I would have expected, for my money, an actual lesson plan. Some guidance on technique. And a restriction on how many photographers could shoot at one time.

Instead it was a mad crush of people, flashes popping from all directions, crammed together searching for just the right shot. All the while the model had no idea whom to look at or whom to take direction from.

I learned more from the Vicci Strobist shoot than at this one.

And, Strobist cost me less than half as much.

Never again. Not without some research.

That said, I got a few decent shots.

Here they are:

Moving on!

I'm done with Tristan and Sharmane and I'm moving on to Justin and Rita.

Going back over my former list of "best of" pictures from each session has really opened my eyes. These pictures were shot back in February. Enough time has passed now that I can look back and my initial selections and realize that many more cuts can be made.

I needn't see each shot as so precious. I can trust that my subjects/clients are getting the best possible pictures from my time.

Tristan and Sharmane

These two have been very patiently waiting for their portraits since February. I'm blasting through the bulk of them now and I expect to be finished within the next few days.

I loved that they chose to wear such vibrant colors.



Tristan is very tall. Posing them together was a creative challenge. And, when it came time to edit I realized that it posed a second challenge. Many of their two-shots have only Tristan or only Sharmane in focus.

My fix?

Separate them.

I had enough shots of this particular pose that I ended up with two very naturalistic portraits that still retain that sense of intimacy from the two of them being so close in the original shot.



I've still got the rest of Brian's shots to edit as well as Justin and Rita's, and Cliff and Tali's.

Whew!

Then I can move back to Lisa+Gord=Willa, as well as Bea and Brad's session.

Candid-ate

Candid portraits are some of my favorite pictures in the world. I'm new to portraiture altogether, but once my fascination with landscapes and nature waned I found myself wholly in love with street photography as well as candid or spontaneous portraits.

Not surprisingly my interest turned to Henri Cartier-Bresson, whose uncompromising view of photography is hard to resist. His photographs are engaging, surprising, and so down to earth they are almost shocking.

However, it is believed that his style was not as spontaneous as people first thought. Some of his pictures were planned, posed, or otherwise controlled before being captured forever on 35mm film.

I'm not offended by this. He was a stickler, the very definition of the word, for getting the composition right before going into the darkroom. He never cropped, always printed full-frame and never dodged, burned, or employed other darkroom trickery.

His work speaks for itself. I am not bothered to learn that he would ask a subject, even a stranger, to perform an action so that he might catch it just so. We do this every day as photographers. We are liars and cheats in so many minuscule ways.

The true test is what we choose to turn our lens toward. How we choose to interpret the scene.

If we can capture that perfect moment, the portrait's perfect essence, its soul, then the means to that end are trivial.

Late to Bed, Early to Rise

Played Phase 10 until 12:30 with friends at Dolce last night. Getting up for work was tough, to say the least. I haven't got much new to report. My picture of Jessa seems to be doing very well on Flickr.



I'm pretty proud of it.

I'm so tired that I haven't done any editing yet today. I should be doing any number of things on my list:

Go back and tag all my photos (something I should have been doing all along)

Fill in the Strobist info for all the model shots.

Make a notebook for keeping track of such things.

Finish editing shots from the following sessions. . .Fredericksburg (from 2007), Dante and Delilah (from 2007), Matt's girls (also 2007), Rex and Johanna part 2, Brian, Cliff and Tali, Ellen and John, Sharmane and Tristan, Justin and Rita, Solomon Conference, Lisa + Gord = Willa, Bea and Brad, B&B Baby Shower, and lastly the Strobist shoot.

That list represents the greatest source of anxiety and frustration in my life right now. If I can finally crawl out from underneath all of those pictures I will be able to breathe again.

This brings me to the point of workflow. . .I have a loose idea of what I think it means, but I need more input from other photographers. How do they slog through their hundreds of shots?

So, a possible goal this week might be to come up with some kind of plan for myself and actually stick to it.

So Exhausted

A good portion of my Sunday was spent at the Strobist meet-up at Vicci in downtown Austin. From 1pm until about 6:30pm I took pictures (along with 40 other photographers) of models in different lighting set-ups around the club.

Things I should have done differently:

A) BE BRAVE. I'm a novice at best when it comes to flash photography. Continuous lighting is no problem for me, but when it comes to tons of equipment with transmitters, soft boxes, optical sensors, etc. . .it makes me want to flee in terror. I should have asked more questions. What does this do? What is this called? How does this work? It was a crowded and hectic shoot, but there WAS down time during which I could have learned a little more. But, I am too afraid of looking like an amateur.

B) BE HELPFUL. Instead of standing around simply waiting for my turn I should have tried more vocally to give assistance wherever possible. Not knowing enough about the equipment made me worry that I might abuse it in some way. Helping another photographer achieve a certain look would definitely have helped me retain that knowledge and I shouldn't have been so timid.

C) THINK DIFFERENTLY. Many times after I shot in a particular set up the next person decided to totally change scenery, mix it up, and use the space more creatively. Yes, there wasn't much time overall. But, it was my shoot, too, and I should have opened my mind to the possibilities around me.

Things I learned:

A) Models like to put their arms up over their heads. Unless you tell them differently, they seem to gravitate to this.

B) There aren't enough female photographers interested in this kind of thing. What's up with that? Me, Tali, Julia, and one other girl out of 40+ people.

C) Natural light still kicks strobe's butt.

D) There are a lot of cool, talented photographers and hobbyists in Austin.

E) Bring water. Bring water. Bring water.

At the end of the day I have some cool shots. I spent a lot of time yesterday kicking myself for things I did wrong and things I didn't do. However, it was my very first shoot of this kind, surrounded by tons of guys and their gear, I should have had more realistic expectations.

Nadia. . .this is you speaking. . .you are allowed to make mistakes.

My feet hurt, my knees, my back, even my elbows hurt.

I think I would definitely do it again.

Next time with a D3! *crossing fingers*



ZION


MICHELLE


JESSA