Tag Archives: Portrait photography

Shots Not Fired

Posted by dkrashb on

There are so many things to do within an hour’s drive of Chattanooga.  It’s hard to imagine ever running out of new things to show people.  However, it’s a little different when you’re thinking of things to do with children.

On day 3 of our friends’ visit, I recommended we go where there were cannons.  After all, if there was one thing that fascinated the four-year-old, it was guns.  The bigger the better.

When we arrived at the Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park, we thought we’d hit the mother lode.  A group of people were out by a row of cannons loading them.  We were all sure we were about to witness the firing of several cannons.  I’m not sure which one of us was most excited.

Unfortunately, it was just a training session for volunteers who would be firing the cannons at a future event.  Today was not the day.

There’s nothing worse than disappointing a child.  I try so hard not to let a child hear me when I make suggestions so they don’t get their hopes up.  I don’t know why I think children shouldn’t have to deal with disappointment–maybe it’s good for them to start preparing young.  I just don’t want to be part of the preparation.

I’m sure I get this from my mother–she was always one to avoid getting our hopes up.  If she thought we might get to do something special, she kept it a secret until the last possible moment.

For example, the year they decided to take us to Disney World, they never mentioned that we might get to go because they didn’t know if there would be enough money to pay for the trip.  I don’t think my brother or I had even dared to dream about going to Disney World because it seemed so far out of reach.

Not until we opened our Christmas presents and found airplane tickets (which had to be explained to us since we’d never been on an airplane) did we have any idea our parents had even considered taking us to Disney World.  To this day, I still remember the excitement of that surprise.

I always appreciated that about them–we always knew we could trust them to deliver on their promises.  It’s something I try to emulate–especially with children.  I don’t want to be that person who gets a child all excited only to find out it’s not going to happen after all.

I felt like our visit was like that a lot for our four-year-old friend.  We didn’t go on a boat ride because the stroller wasn’t allowed on the boat.  We didn’t go on the merry-go-round because wet clothes weren’t allowed and he was wet from playing in the fountains.  And now, the cannons were not actually going to be fired.

I feel like I may be first on the list of people who will disappoint him in his life.

Food and Water

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After a few hours of wandering around Chattanooga and the Tennessee Aquarium, it was time to eat.  The six of us headed towards Big River Grille and Brewery.  Although Pat and I have been there a few times, it was the first time for dinner.

The 7-month old entertained us through the whole meal.  She is one of those babies that smiles and laughs and looks amused most of the time.

The 4-year old did some interesting things with his food.  He created a whole new presentation by rolling it into balls.  Since we had just come from the aquarium, perhaps he was thinking about fish bait–he is apparently quite the fisherman.  He already knows far more than I do about fish.

After filling our bellies, we took a brief break so we could play with the dogs and the four-year old could change.  Then, we headed over to Coolidge Park to check out the water fountain.

This is a fun feature in Coolidge Park.  Large animal sculptures surround the fountains, providing nice climbing structures.  I enjoyed shooting the 4 year old at play.

I recently had a conversation with a couple of photographers about using the “aperture priority” setting.  (Aperture priority allows you to set the aperture manually and then the camera automatically adjusts the shutter speed.)

Apparently, this was stressed as the setting to use all the time at a recent workshop.  I’m of the opinion that there is nothing that applies all the time, but aperture priority is nice when you’re shooting a subject that is moving quickly through different lighting situations.  However, I’ve found that shooting a subject where the background changes but the lighting on the subject doesn’t in aperture priority causes the subject to be incorrectly exposed depending on how light the scene is behind the subject.  For this reason, my default mode is manual.  If I change to aperture priority, I make a conscious decision to do so and I know why I’m doing it.

The irony of this is that I either had a mental malfunction that caused me to not check my exposure or my camera malfunctioned when it read the exposure.  Since I’ve not had this problem before or since, I’m guessing it was user error.  I ended up with about 300 shots that were either horribly over exposed or horribly under exposed.

If aperture priority were my default, I might not have gotten the depth of field I wanted, but I would have at least gotten properly exposed images.

The best default would probably be to always check my settings and my exposure before I fire off 300 shots.  🙂

I’m going to write to Canon and suggest an alarm that goes off if you start shooting without changing settings or viewing a shot.  It can be called the “Alzheimer’s Indicator.”  If it goes off more than 50% of the time, it’s time to get an evaluation.  Photography as diagnosis–who says it’s just a hobby?

Opportunistic Photography

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The other day, I listened to a photographer explain how he had a vision for an image of a knight in armor on a horse in fog.  He went to great lengths to find a renaissance festival where there would be jousting.  He flew to England and shot a knight in armor on a horse.  Back home, he bought a sword and shot that.  He found a dark, foggy setting, and shot that too.  Then, he Photoshopped it all together to get the image he originally imagined.

Frankly, I’ve never had a vision of anything that would motivate me to go to that much expense to create it.  I don’t know if the image was commissioned or if this was just for fun, but I cannot imagine deciding to go to England just to get an image of a knight on a horse.

Perhaps that is why my photography is not getting significantly better.  I go out with my camera in the hope of something happening that’s interesting.  I’m an opportunist.  As such, I find myself in situations where I can’t get a good angle, the light is horrible, or it’s just too intrusive or disruptive to arrange the subject or setting.

Take our recent visit with our friends who came to see us.  We spent the second day in downtown Chattanooga.  In the first image in the gallery, I told my subjects to stand still for a second and took a shot where you can barely see them.  Why did I do this?  Because they were all standing together and I knew they wouldn’t be by the time they caught up to me.

When I showed the image to my husband, I said, “You know what would make this picture better?”  He said, “If we weren’t in it?”   That’s sad–but he’s right.

Asking people to model when their intention is to have fun seems rude.  On the other hand, sometimes people really appreciate the pictures.

However, I imagine my subjects thinking things like, “How long is this going to take?  How much longer is she going to do this?”  I also find that many people think a shot I consider barely OK is wonderful.  It’s hard to imagine asking them to pose significantly longer so I can get a really great shot when they may like my hurried version just as well.

Take the shot in the gallery with the four-year-old inside a bubble in a tank at the aquarium.  He ran in there specifically so I could get a picture.  I told him he was going to need to hold really still (slow shutter speed).  That was more than I could expect from him at that time.  So, I inconvenienced him for a blurry shot of his head.  Not exactly worth the energy for either one of us.

Perhaps I just need to figure out how to be a more artistic opportunist.

Canon for Cannons

Posted by dkrashb on

After spending the better part of the afternoon walking around Rock City, we made a beeline for food.  We were all starving.  I got out my trusty Urbanspoon app and discovered a little place called “The Cafe on the Corner” nearby.  The food actually sounded good, too.

When we got there, it was right between the lunch and dinner crowd, which was perfect for our four year old friend–he had some space to run around.  This is the thing that amazes me about young children.  About the time I would just lay down on the floor and take a nap because I’m so tired, they are just getting started.

The Cafe on the Corner turned out to be one of those amazing finds you hope for when you pick a place to eat.  The staff was friendly and wonderfully accommodating.  They were prepared for children with a children’s menu, something to color on, and crayons.  While that can certainly improves a dining experience, I don’t really care how nice the wait staff is if the food is bad.  Fortunately for us, the food was fantastic.

The fried-green tomatoes were breaded in panko bread crumbs and served with hot and sweet jelly.  Just writing this is making my mouth water.  The grilled vegetable quesadilla I ordered was by far the best quesadilla I’ve ever had.  Oops, I drooled–let me grab a napkin.

And, truly amazing, even the kids’ food was so good that our little friend cleaned his plate without prompting!  This may be my new favorite restaurant.

After gorging on delicious food and relaxing in the cool dining room, we headed back out into the heat and made our way to Point Park.  I think Point Park is going to be on my list of places to make sure I take all visitor’s to.  Especially since it’s close to Cafe on the Corner.  🙂

The view from Point Park is pretty darn spectacular.  And, there are cannons there, which amuse most kids, but especially our little visitor.  As I watched the four year old jump up and down with excitement over the cannons in the park, I found myself wondering what the fascination with shooting people is that all children seem to have.

Is this unique to the US?  Do children in India, for example, pretend to shoot each other with their fingers?  Is this an expression of a universal need that all children experience to gain some sort of control on what seems like an uncontrollable world?

I recall playing many games involving shooting people as a child (even though my mother would not allow us to have toy guns), but I can’t remember why that seemed like so much fun.

As adults, we enjoyed the view more than the cannons, I think.  Although, I enjoyed my Canon very much–taking many pictures.  Unfortunately, the light was not so good as seems to be true most of the time when I shoot opportunistically.  It was still fun.

Fresh Eyes

Posted by dkrashb on

One of the things that my husband and I usually miss out on is experiencing life through a child’s eyes.  This is the consequence of not having children and not usually being around children.  While there are many great reasons not to have children and we have no regrets about that decision, there are times when it’s nice to borrow the perspective of someone else’s child.

Having been to Rock City only for the birds of prey show (which is FABULOUS), it was cool that a visit from some friends who have a 4 year old gave us the opportunity to revisit the place.

We discovered a lot of things we’d missed the first time.  Because that little guy had more energy than I’ve had in a long, long time, making sure we pointed out every possible source of amusement became our passion.  This forced us to notice everything.

For one thing, there is a “Fat Man’s Squeeze.”  Granted, there are many places in the world with a “Fat Man’s Squeeze,”  but watching a four year old creep his way through the tight quarters made this one extra special.

We also noticed the waterfall in a whole new way.  We’d never noticed you could see it from the road.  With a four year old in the back seat, we quickly discovered a whole new view.  He was so excited that we were going that waterfall!  I had to pause and take a new look at how spectacular it really is.

Then there was the rock climbing wall.  Our four year old friend wasn’t big enough to climb, but he sure was excited by his mom’s decision to climb!  We hung around cheering for the other climbers while we waited for his mom’s turn.  I like wall climbing, but I was feeling too hot and sticky to want to attempt it myself.  As a spectator,  I found myself watching novice wall climbers and not just clapping politely for them but really feeling the need for them to make it to the top.  It was pretty inspiring to watch.  Albeit, our four year old friend lost interest about the time his mom made it to the top, but we were fascinated to stay and watch a young girl climb.

Finally, of course, we went to the birds of prey show.  I shot with a wide angle lens trying to include the audience because I wanted to capture the four year old’s reactions.  I admit I was a little disappointed that he often seemed more interested in the gravel under his feet than the birds, but every once in a while he’d look up with curiosity and even a hint of amazement.  But maybe you have to be an adult to realize how special it is to be that close to a bird of prey?

All in all, going to Rock City with a kid made the place feel like a brand new adventure.  Now I can’t wait to go again!

 

Being There

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Finally, after much anticipation, the big event–my nephew’s graduation day.  Of course, it wouldn’t be my family if we didn’t have a debate as to the necessity of celebrating high school graduation by going to a ceremony.  My family doesn’t require a reason for a debate.  If there’s a question to be asked, someone asks it.  If Hamlet were my relative, he wouldn’t have asked “to be or not to be.” He would have asked, “I am.  But why?  And is it really all that important?”

In any case, we had a pleasant surprise when Sam and Ellie appeared at the house at about 2PM in the afternoon (they were supposed to be at school).  This afforded us the opportunity to take some more pictures!

We gathered in the front yard and I set up my umbrella stand.  This is when I learned about why photographers own sand bags.  Having been a huge fan of Mary Poppins, I was only disappointed that it wasn’t strong enough to carry me away.

Fortunately, with 8 people standing around, it was much easier to find an assistant than a sand bag.

I went through the standard combinations:  Grad with his girlfriend.  Grad with his grandparents.  Grad with his parents.  Grad with his brother.   I’ve really got to start paying attention to group photos to figure out some better poses–I really am horrible at directing people on where and how to stand.

After finishing up pictures, the grads went on their way and we started getting ready to meet them at graduation.  We had a grand plan with three of us going an hour earlier than the rest to get good seats.  However, I got confused on what time we were leaving and we were 15 minutes late.  Then, we stopped to grab food on the way.  When we got there, the best seats left were up behind the stage.  We had a good view of Sam’s seat, but not of the stage since we were behind it.

Having shot my older nephew at the same place 2 years ago, I decided to try to improve on my shots by adding a teleconverter to my 100-400mm lens to try to get tighter on Sam than I was able to on his brother.  This was a fatal mistake.

I have tried to remind myself when choosing lenses to ask whether light or length was more important.  In this case, both were.  However, the loss of light caused by adding the teleconverter was critical.  Few of the shots taken with it on worked–I had too much motion blur because of too slow a shutter speed.

I was very sad about my failure at getting tighter shots, but I did take the teleconverter off just in time for Ellie’s walk across the stage.

After the ceremony, as we searched for the parked car, the sky was so cool, I had to stop and take a shot while everyone else looked for the car.

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Love Looks

Posted by dkrashb on

While processing the photos of my nephew (alias Sam) and his girlfriend (alias Ellie), I sighed and thought “Aww.  Young love!”  But when I flipped through some recent photos of my brother and my sister-in-law a few minutes later, I realized this had nothing to do with age.  My nephew’s face is just a younger version of my brother’s when they are with their respective partners.

It’s an interesting phenomenon.  Sam looks very little like my brother except when he’s around Ellie.  Then, it’s like his dissimilar features mold themselves into a shape that exactly resembles my brother’s face.  Who knew that falling in love could be hereditary?

But shooting both Ellie and Sam with one small strobe on an umbrella stand and in the confines of the family room proved to be challenging.

First, there was the issue of light.  Lighting one person is much easier than lighting two when there’s only one light.  Getting light on Ellie, sitting furthest from the light, was quite difficult.

This led to the second challenge, depth of field.  Opening up the aperture to try to overcome the shortage of light led to a very shallow depth of field, which led to portraits of one subject with another person in the frame instead of portraits of two people.  However, I still like some of the resulting images.

The need to shut the aperture down a bit to increase the depth of field to get Ellie and Same both in focus increased the problem created by the third challenge.  Because we of where Sam and Ellie were, traffic kept moving in and out of the room behind them.  Of course, some of the best expressions on their faces were in the shots with people behind them.  This led to extensive use of the “blur” brush to reduce the distracting background.  I am not fond of doing that much editing, but it’s my nephew.

It occurs to me that perhaps it would be easier if I could shoot in the same environment more than one time.  It’s hard to master something when there are so many variables changing each time.  But then again, it’s the variables that make it fun.

I think about photographers who have marks on the floor and who have their subjects go through a formula of poses.  I suppose this would be extremely efficient and may even help guarantee that the subject gets a decent portrait, but I don’t know how the photographer keeps from getting so bored s/he stops paying attention.  And what happens if someone comes in who just looks horrible in that particular set of poses?  Do they have formulas for such variables?

If there’s one lesson I’m sure of, I have a hard time paying attention to all the details when I feel rushed.  I guess I need to find someone who really wants to model for me.  And then, I need to take my time.  What’s that old expression?  Haste makes waste?

Safety Portraits

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Graduations seem to be a bit more complex than they used to be.  My older nephew graduated on Memorial Day two years ago.  I can see why that might not have been so popular–especially in a suburb right outside of Indianapolis.  Improving upon that plan this year, graduation was on the Thursday before Memorial Day.

However, it was also the last day of the school year.  Graduates were supposed to go from school to graduation and be there at 4PM for rehearsal.  Then, they would be fed dinner while their families arrived and filled the stands.

Following graduation, the graduates return their caps and gowns before being released to join their families.  It wasn’t clear that there would be any opportunity to get a picture of my nephew (let’s call him Sam) in his cap and gown.

So, the night before graduation, we took a few shots in the back yard just in case.  While we were at it, I took a few of my brother and sister-in-law, too.  My sister-in-law is wonderfully easy to shoot–I caught an all-out crack-up with one eye closed in one shot (not shown) and she still looks great.  My brother and nephew are a bit more challenging.  I don’t know why.

As I worked with the strobe on a stand with an umbrella out in the yard, I was reminded of a recent class I attended back in Chattanooga.  The instructor expressed disgust at the cliche shot of a graduate in front of the school sign.  While we were lacking a school sign, I realized I was shooting extremely run-of-the-mill portraits.  But, honestly, I had no idea what else to shoot.

Later, I did some searching for cool shots of graduates.  What I discovered is that the interesting images were either interesting because they were shot in really cool locations or they were so abstract, you couldn’t see the person who graduated.

Given no control over time of day or the location of the shoot and assuming that we all wanted pictures where we could actually tell it was Sam in them, I need more experience to come up with a really creative approach.

As it is, we got some cute shots of Sam in his cap and gown along with some nice shots of my brother and sister-in-law.  And, Tisen had a great time playing ball with whoever wasn’t involved in a shot.

Although, Tisen did have a bit of a run-in with the screen door.  He didn’t realize I had to open two doors to let him out and did a complete face plant into the screen in his hurry to join the party.  Later, when only the screen was closed, I slid it open and he stopped dead in front of the open door, poking with his nose to make sure it was really open.  The dog is not only a fast learner, he can count!

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Portraits in Suburbia

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It’s that time of year again:  graduations.  I have begun to divide my life into stages by the kinds of events we celebrate.  Long ago, it was our own graduations and those of our friends.  Then it was weddings.  Next, it was baby showers, followed by divorces (well, that wasn’t usually a celebration).  Then there were second marriages (and occasionally third).

Now, I seem to be participating in the same cycle of events one generation removed.  Because I have friends in many age groups, these events continue in waves depending on how old my friends are.

The high school graduations of my friends’ children started ten years ago.  Those were followed by weddings, and a few baby showers (although babies seem to be coming later and later in people’s lives).

But, this time, it’s my nephew who completed high school.  This event led to us taking Tisen on his longest road trip ever.  Fortunately for us and for Tisen, my brother’s family is willing to accommodate Tisen so he didn’t have to stay in a kennel.  I’m not sure either one of us would have survived the separation anxiety.

The other unintended consequence is that I gained a couple of new models for portrait shooting.  It’s a good thing my nephews were unwarned of my intention to shoot some portraits or I might not have seen either one of them during our visit.  However, I managed to get a few minutes of their time before they got too impatient with me.  What is it about the men in my family that they can’t sit for more than 10 minutes to let me practice portraiture?

They might have been a little intimidated posing next to my strobe on an umbrella stand–I don’t think either one of them has ever posed in front of an umbrella before.

I had fun trying to create some more dramatic lighting by casting shadows with the light.  My youngest nephew seemed to think the lighting was a little too dramatic, but he played along patiently anyway.

Tisen, never one to pose in front of a flashing umbrella, spent his modeling time discovering the joys of the ‘burbs.  I believe the thick, green grass right outside the door was a first for him.  At home, he can cross an asphalt parking lot to find a small patch of grass or walk to the park to roll in a short, spongy variety of grass.  Before he came to us, I doubt there was much grass in his life.

Unleashed and let out the door in the heart of an Indiana suburb, Tisen seemed at first confused and then overjoyed by the large yard to play ball in.  Although there was no fence, Tisen stayed well within the invisible confines of the property lines as if he was  afraid he would get lost if he got too far from me in that endless expanse of grass.  I am now worried he will resent returning to his urban life.

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First Flash

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I finally got caught up on post processing photos from my whirlwind trip to Columbus.  These photos are from the baby shower I attended.  Rule one:  decide if I want to shoot or attend a party.  When I’m trying to do both, I don’t do either well.

There’s a certain geek factor about walking around a baby shower with a big lens and a flash on a stand with a funny looking box over it.  Now, imagine if I would have added my loupe hanging around my neck.  Would that really have pushed me over the line between overly enthusiastic and completely socially inept?

I’m thinking I crossed that line the moment I decided to put my flash on a stand.  And as one guest pointed out, people will put up with my flash because they want the pictures.  This only holds true if you do a really good job on the pictures.

In any case, I discovered several things my first time out with my new flash.

First, I understand why event photographers often put the flash on the camera even though the lighting options are limited.  Having the flash on a stand in a relatively small space with a lot of people was a bit awkward.  It was often difficult to find a position for the flash stand without asking someone to step out of the way.  There were many times I didn’t bother to use the flash at all because I didn’t want to disrupt the whole room by setting it up in the middle.

Another thing I learned was that since I was working without a tripod (not something I do too often these days), I needed to have a fast enough speed to not get blur from movement but also slow enough not to exceed sync speed with the flash.  I ended up with a shot where the shutter speed was too slow for my hand-holding ability when I was using flash. Seems like it defeats the purpose of using a flash.

I was pleased with the effect of using the flash to light the shot of the gifts.  Although there is a bright reflection in the piano, it’s not actually from the flash–it’s just brighter because of the flash.  There seems to be a pretty even light.  Of course, the ambient light from the windows helped with the fall off.

While an umbrella might have been even better light, we decided it was too crowded to have a big umbrella sticking out of the stand.  That was definitely a good decision!

Another thing I learned was the challenge of lighting multiple people.  Especially when the people don’t know each other that well enough to get into each other’s personal space.  Or, when there is a huge height difference between the subjects.  Shadows get exponentially harder to control.

All in all, given it was my first time using a flash, I’m trying not to be too hard on myself.

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