Piaggio Aero Avanti II

She's a beauty, even on a cloudy day.  But in a hammerhead shark kind of way.

How to become a better photographer in one day!

I take it as a compliment that people ask me how to become better photographers.  The question assumes that I know how to get a picture, which is nice.  I'm not always so confident myself.

My answer, and I see this a lot from other photogs much better than myself, is to shoot a lot of pictures and change the way you look at light and composition.

Want to get better fast?

Find a day-long event with a lot of people in a lot of situations and make pictures.  Go indoors, outdoors, bright sun, shade... all over the place.  Then think about each place you are shooting and how to make something good there.  It won't always happen, but it makes you think differently.

I shoot a lot of photos for my church.  I see my abilities and equipment as a gift from God, and something to share, so it affords me the opportunity to give back while also honing skills.  And that is good.

One caveat... If you do this with the purpose of thinking photographically, you will also not be participating as much in the event you are photographing.  Rather, you are participating, but not directly.  Two years from now, much of what people will remember from the event will be the photos that remain.

Here is a quick set of my favorites from an event we held last weekend, as an example.

The setup is an outdoor church service, a giant meal, followed by indoor and outdoor activities for all ages including sports, games, music, etc. etc.

For me.. one camera (6D) two lenses (24-70 and 70-200) and several bottles of water.

Early morning, partly cloudy, cold, set-up and practice by the band.  Layers.  Trees.  Sun. Expression... Push the button.

Good shady light?  Isolate the subject on a darker background.  Push button.


Now get closer.  Invade people's space a little bit.  Follow the advice of Robert Capa.  "If your photos aren't good enough, you aren't close enough."


And what's going on indoors?  Introduction of a new youth pastor and his family?  OK, change all of the camera settings, wait for an expression.  Push button.


Think documentary purposes... and unique angles.  Climb stairs.  Shoot wide...


Did I mention puffy clouds on blue sky?  Push button.


Lunch is served.  Giant window light, Yay!  Change camera settings.  Try to get some unique angle and an expression.  Push button.


Back outside.  Occasional bright sun followed by cloud cover.  Ride the shutter speed.  Basketball, volleyball.  Don't forget to change to continuous autofocus.  Timing.  Push the button.


Move around a lot but on purpose.  Stop dead in your tracks because one of the most wonderful old guys you know has paused for a reflective moment on the sidewalk.  Push the button.  I wish for all the world Mr. Lyons was standing out on the grass with trees in the background.


Think up a challenge like: Can I take a picture of a person flying a kite that includes the kite and the persons face?  Then wait for it...  push the button.


Back inside.  Change settings.  Dominoes going on.  Expression.  Push the button.  Don't give in to the players who want to see pictures of the other players' dominoes.


Back outside.. it's basketball.  Harsh shadows making silhouettes on the ground?  Cool.  Put them in the picture.  Or just take pictures of the silhouettes.. whatever.  Push the button.




Those shadows are good elsewhere too...


Busy backgrounds all around..  oh wait, we still have nifty clouds.  Throw horseshoe.  Push button.


Now keep doing that for a while and just wear yourself out.  That should do it.
Get permission from your significant other first.  Especially if taking all of these pictures means you won't be helping out much with a toddler or, say, eating together.

Seriously, it changes the way you look at situations and forces you to pay attention to camera settings, people's faces and everything that is going into your pictures.

All told, with a few breaks worked in throughout the day, I shot for about 10 hours in just about every situation imaginable (except studio lighting etc).  That is good practice!

Pick an event.  Let people know you will be there with a camera.  And shoot away.

To the moon ...

Cold clear nights make rather detailed moon shots possible, even without a telescope.  A long telephoto and decent resolution camera can show you the craters and such.  Definitely use a tripod, manual exposure (or spot metering on the moon would work) and have fun.  It won't look like a telescope view, but fun anyway.

The moon is a lot brighter than you would think, so it is hard to find something to put in the frame unless you are in a city or etc. etc...   here are some great tips...

Valentine's Day photobooth Setup

It really is true that after an event, wedding or otherwise, the only thing you really keep are the memories.  And the memories you keep best are the ones you have pictures of.  If it is done right, a fun photo booth can make an event memorable and add to the enjoyment of attendees.


While this photo booth setup is fairly simple, you do need a lot of lights for the look.  I used four strobes, all in various forms of softboxes with a Thunder Grey Seamless background.

Space was a bit limited, with an 8' ceiling and only about 12' wide area.  With that, I was still creating a bottleneck for traffic through an entrance.


At the back, I used Elinchrom 500ws Strobes in 2x2' softboxes at minimum power to create the rim and hair light that separates the subjects from the background paper.  Adjusting the angle of the softboxes also changed how much light was hitting the backdrop, giving it a nice gradient without a separate light.

In front, an Alien Bees ABR800 with the 56" "Moon Unit" octabox was the key light high and camera left. It was at 1/2 power.  On the right, as a strong fill light is an Alien Bees Einstein strobe in a3'x4' softbox.

Simple setup, but it is a lot of softboxes in a small space.


When shooting more than two people in the booth, getting a strobe in the shot was inevitable...


But with one or two, I like the results.


Remember, it isn't about perfection for each image.  There isn't time to customize the lighting for each subject.  Instead, a good general setup that will give good results and keep people moving through is the objective.

A couple of notes... Props make a photo booth more fun.  Giving people something to interact and be creative with helps them be more comfortable than just standing in front of a camera.  And if you make the props, make them matte finish or watch the reflections.

Another  consideration is how you trigger the flashes.  Most monolights have built-in slave triggers so that you would only need a radio trigger on one of them (or even us an on-camera flash as a trigger).  However, at some photo booths, people will use their own cameras to get a shot at the same time.  I have found it beneficial to go ahead and put radio triggers on all of the flashes to avoid having someone with a point-and-shoot popping the flashes.

I took the photos here, but another option is to set up a photo area and allow guests to take their own photos...


Be forewarned.  If there is a photobooth, someone will want to do a jumping photo :)

Monday Photo Roundup - Jan. 14

Happy New Year everybody.  I hope that you have had a great Christmas holiday season and that your 2013 is off to a great start.

Around the Johnson household we had guests for good portions of the last month.  That means test models for new lights and such, including my niece, above.  New additions include a ring flash, mobile battery power for strobes and a few other goodies.  Wherever you need studio-lit photos, we can do that.

I like Norman Rockwell's art, so I liked this collection of photos he used in the creation of his work.

Old meets new ... the marriage of an old Speed Graphic 4x5 camera and a Fuji digital mirrorless camera.

Interesting post by photographer Chris Crisman about failure. (via @davehillphoto)

Being a second-shooter includes the fun part of actual photography without the post-processing and marketing (or credit :).  Here is some help in being good at it so that you will get called again.

And, while  on that subject, there is a whole website dedicated to second-shooters.  I added myself to their list but without any results so far.

Ahh, the value of photographs as propaganda.  It happens everywhere, but North Korean dictators have it down to an art form :)

Actually, Russia's Vladimir Putin is probably tops in the political photo-op management business.

Meanwhile in the US, political photos get scrutinized and critiqued from every angle,  especially if it looks like image manipulation.


Finally, cooperative photo subjects are great, and when they let you experiment a bit, even better.  After getting some sunset photos with this cool character, he let me try something a little different...


Have a great week,

Don J.