A Preview

Vowing to post every month and coming in just under the deadline, this post is about  one of the many things that takes away from shooting regularly. 

Being part of a small cult of finer food lovers, I will be involved in an endeavor to have a say in the whole modern day food movement- blogging about it, making films... and hopefully spreading news, selling products, and making a little cash, along with getting people to prepare and eat better food.

The "other" food network, that is blogging about it, photographing and posting on Flickr, underground restaurants, food parties, etc. is something that is growing every day. 

Once the specifics have been created, I will post the information here, and use this site to point to all the activities I'm involved in. This is not to say that other types of photography will be neglected-indeed, I need to get it together so that I can make a living/build a rep in this art form. Stay tuned...

What's Going On...

Your author has been hard at work behind the scenes and hasn't been able to shoot any new photos. When he's not hard at work working, he's hard at work socializing, which is a form of work in that socializing gets you in front of new people who may have a need for what you do. Sometimes, when socializing, you get to demonstrate your craft, which is what the accompanying photo is about. Other times, you have to use lots of sentences and hand gestures, even hand puppets to get your message across. Transitioning to freelance is something I couldn't have done years ago, but since large companies have no idea what to do with oddly talented people, there is no choice but to bring it to those who need it yourself.

A second 580EX II is in my possession. The EF-S wide angle is in my sites, as is one of the Macro lenses. Of course  a telephoto zoom is needed as well, but it can (or rather will have to) wait. I'm going to make it a point to post at least once a week, and with a new photo as well. Stay tuned...

Back To The Garden(s)

Yeah, I know I said no more Iris Gardens, but I was invited and thought it would make for a nice break, a good day out. And it did turn out that way. I didn't want to shoot the same flowers in the same way as I did before, so I said, you know what? I'll just bring one lens-the 50mm ƒ/1.8, shoot everything blurry, and see what happens...

So I did lots of that, used lots of blue in the white balance, and used the fastest shutter speeds to mute the effect of shooting in broad daylight in direct sunshine.

The effects were interesting, and immediately lent themselves to some collage work using two images-the results of which you see here. It's very probable that you will see more of this in the future.

Accompanying me on this trip was my friend Rita, who suggested the trip in the first place. She owns a Pentax K1000 film camera, and completely manual film camera at that. On top of that, the lens was a 50mm ƒ/2, making for as "pure" of a shooting situation as imaginable. Sha was also limited to a maximum shutter speed of 1/1000, and only 200 or 400 speed film. I still haven't seen how her pictures came out, but we did use my camera's auto metering to try some other options for her to set manually.

I still have a few rolls of film left, one of which is Fuji's Velvia 50 ISO slide film (Ken's favorite), that I want to give her to shoot (ideally really colorful stuff in broad daylight), then scan and post.

Finally, I also realized that there was more to do, more to learn about this flower thing before I abandon flowers for good (if I ever really do). One is that I should shoot them with one of the Canon 70-200mm  L zoom telephoto lenses (ideally the top one), which would give me way more flexibility with getting close ups of flowers from a distance that are hard to reach at the Gardens. And I also want to shoot with a macro lens, ideally this one right here! Will I get them in time for next spring? The following? Let's see what happens...

Business, pt. II

In a previous life that ended just a few months ago, I spent many years in the advertising department of a major Northeastern U.S. supermarket chain. while my last position was that of a web/electronic media specialist, I also (ahem...) did time as a layout artist and creative man, amongst other positions. After my stint doing production photography for the print ads, I was often called upon to shoot store interiors and exteriors around the region, especially when there was a grand opening or reopening.

In the first panel above there is a shot of a video monitor that ran content when the on-staff chef was not in front of the cameras cooking. Some of that content included video billboards that acted as promos for each of the store's departments. These were created by yours truly using Final Cut Express and Live Type. Nice resume builder, but nothing else much came of it because of the company's rather conservative business outlook. Nothing spectacular here photo wise, but just a look into what kind of corporate experiences can be had if you can pull off the work...

Business...

As I said, I shoot more because my clients need it than I would if they didn't. Above is one example of where my photos wind up, which is on a CD jacket designed for a duplication run by Discmakers. I've been doing work that goes to them for more than 10 years. Their friendly service combined with my prepress experience has made for some great work and a trouble free production run each and every time. They're not the only game in town, but I think their help to the independent film and music community has been invaluable.  You can't buy this CD because it's just a demo, but you can go to his website (which I built) and listen to clips from the tracks. Oh, and guess what? I'm playing drums on the recording, but more about that later... 

Honey, I Blurred The Background (and the foreground, too...)

I think there's no question that one of the funnest things about photography along with lighting and stuff is working with depth of field. It truly separates an SLR boy or girl from the point and shooters.

And I think most devotees of photography will admit to being lured by the beauty of seeing a subject pop from the background in such a dramatic way that they will probably at first go nuts and shoot everything at ƒ/2.8 and wider, even when it can be too much of a good thing. The photo of this lovely young subject was one of my earliest semi successes with a portrait featuring depth of field, but at ƒ/1.8, it made for such a narrow plane of focus that the hair closest to the camera was also a bit out of focus. I chose this one because it was the most attractive pose, and she would be most unhappy if I had posted one of the others instead, some of which have more colorful blurred backgrounds. But I think this illustrated the point just fine. Sure, shoot some at ƒ/2.8 and wider, but also do a few with a narrower aperture as well. Regardless, I'd still blow a couple grand on a nice ƒ/1.2 if I had the cash...

The Prerequisite Flower Shot

Okay, let's get this over with. Are photography students required to shoot flowers at some point in their studies? It seems every amateur that posts online sure has. Well, here's my contribution to that venerable institution. Ken says to stop shooting flowers-go find more interesting things to shoot. So you won't be seeing any more flowers in my photos, unless I shoot a wedding or one just happens to be in a picture about some other subject. FYI-Irises shot at the Presby Memorial Iris Gardens in Montclair, NJ. Everybody brings their cameras there when these things bloom. They're out now, but this shot was from 2007.