A performer in the making

Just a quick grab that was happening in the moment. This group was playing an impromptu concert outside a market/eatery in Baños, Ecuador and a small girl approached to drop some centavos in a guitar case at camera left.

No mater the culture, the similarities in young children are astounding. Here you can see a small amount of  the embarrassment felt by the young girl as she approached the group, but still her joy out of being a little in the spotlight just like the musicians.

Shot on aperture priority mode -1/3 EV with a 24-70mm

Working at the market in Otavalo, Ecuador

A very busy end of the summer causing a small hiatus from my posts...probably to your benefit! But alas, I've returned with much catching up to do.

I spent much of August (and a little more than anticipated on account of my wife's stolen passport) in Ecuador. It's always a pain lugging a camera around with me for my trips, but I wouldn't be happy with myself if I didn't, and I think it's well worth it. I made a few sacrifices in flexibility here and there to gain the benefit of weight, portability, and security, but I'll save that for the posts about the jungle involving water. For now, I just wanted to share one of my favorite images from the trip. It's in the top 5, but don't make choose between those.


Several reasons this image almost didn't happen, but the main one is because a Gringo from the US taking pictures of locales is cliche. Sure, the photos we see of locals in Nat Geo along with other travel magazines are amazing, they give us a glimpse into worlds we can only dream of. But usually those photographers get a chance to live and exist with the people, and most importantly gain some of their respect in the process.

My wife and I had been exploring the Otavalo market for a bit and because my wife is so fascinated by all things South American she stopped to not only shop and our subject's booth, but also to strike up a conversation with her about the materials and methods used to make her fabrics and jewelry (in Spanish of course because she's that good). My wife even received an explanation about the traditional clothing and necklaces she wore. I'd share that with you now, but once our merchant saw how genuinely interested my wife was in her art, my eyes honed in on the spark in our merchant's eyes and my ears shut off to start seeing photos available (I'm not sure if both eyes and ears not working at the same time is a condition of a photographer or just of my sex).

Regardless, I could tell at this point it wouldn't be inappropriate to ask if I could take her photograph. I asked graciously though my wife, and she accepted. One frame, aperture priority exposed at -2/3. It's a difficult balance between taking photos and experiencing your trip, but sometimes they can be one in the same. Luckily my wife probably listens better, so I can share the photo with her, and she can share the story with me.

The people of Otavalo were gracious and willing to share their story, so if you ever go, I encourage you to ask.

Exonerated Death Row Inmate

The gentleman pictured, Joseph Green Brown, was released from a death sentence after being exonerated through DNA evidence after serving 13 years on death row. Quite often when I'm photographing events I watch people interact, see photos in my head, and sometimes don't recall hearing anything. But listening to his story, I almost forgot to take the photo.

In this photo Joseph is speaking to law students about his experiences with the judicial system.

Stage Performance

This series is from a theatrical production from last spring. There was some miscommunication about what time the rehearsal was beginning so I took the opportunity to grab a few frames of the directors.

Many despise the distortion you can get from angling your camera with a wide angle lens, but as may have realized by many of my photos I choose to embrace it, using it to change the focus of an image or exaggerate certain features.......just don't stick any significant others on the edges.

So many people say to buy an apple...

Debbie and I went down to Charlottesville, VA for our Anniversary last month and it was apple picking season. It was great being able to just use my camera without the over lurking fear of giving a client a screwed up product...of course I'm not sure if that's worse then giving my wife a screwed up product. More in another post about the place we stayed, this one is all about the apples.


I knew I wanted to grab a picture of Debbie, and although it wasn't completely planned to do a multi-framed image, I new that her nack for goofy expressions would come in handy. She has since given up on not getting her picture taken and has learned to just live with it as she knows I'm never going to make her look bad (not that I could if I tried).

I had a manfrotto 682B mono-pod with me that afternoon that I got used off of ebay. It's a little large for my taste, but it has little legs that come out the bottom if unscrewed so it can double as portable light stand when needed, although I wouldn't trust my kit on it without me very close. To this I screwed a justin clamp (the if I can only take one thing with me doo-dad) and put a lumiquest SBIII on the flash head and gelled it with a small amount of CTO, you can see this WB effect based on the blue shadow on her shadow side cheek.

I brought the whole thing in real close just out of the frame to the left. The lighting wasn't incredibly consistent with a few hot spots here and there. My excuses include: the wind blowing, the people we were holding up, and a lot of apples to hold, so I had to work quick. But in reality, I probably only notice them in comparison to each other. You can tell the effect of the flash based on the one in the middle which was shot sans flash continuous shooting to ensure I caught the right amount of apples in the air....again...there's only so many times you can get Debbie to pick up that many apples.

A couple ambient only shots:

The Pieces Come Together

It's a rare moment when the pieces come together. I photograph a lot of people talking in drab classrooms, and I try very hard to make some of them interesting. This one involved a rare opportunity combining the speaking sitting on the desk, something written on the blackboard, a relevant poster hanging, and students sitting along the aisle to give a line leading to the speaker. I would have liked to have captured the speaker looking up at the students, but he jumped up right after this...

No flash. Shot at ISO 800, f/2.8, 1/200, at 120mm.

Use of Natural and Continuous Light Sources Back in Prison

Another set from the trip to ESP I spoke of before.  This set features Danielle Guldin who did a great job it putting herself into whatever zone happened to be there.  both of these scenes were taken in the same room which just goes to show what the color and shaping of lights can do.

This first one was all natural light.  Manual exposure; 42mm; ISO 640; f/2.8; 1/250th;
The only trick here is that I had someone hand hold a LumiQuest SoftBox III, not as a softbox, but as a reflector card just bringing the left side of her face out of the darkness.


These next two were done at approx. the same settings. Only here I added a continuous video light light source that was being held off to camera right. Photographing into a mirror is always difficult, but it made it worth having the reflection of the crusty light fixture from the ceiling. Two photos two completely different feels based on the model.

Help the Homeless Walk

Just got back from the Fannie Mae Help the Homeless Walk. The hardest part after photographing an event is trying to pick out 3 or 4 pictures to share and try tell the story. But luckily as I have some editorial control over this, I can share 6 if I want and share some lighting and composition tidbits.





I couldn't believe how long it took me to find a man-hole cover next to the line!



I decided to try and shoot some stuff not on manual, when you're running with your subjects the lighting is constantly changing. So I shot the photo below in aperture priority and shut-down my aperture ) to f/18 until I could get my shutter speed within my sync speed (not messing with high speed sync today). I dialed in -2 stops of exposure compensation on the camera to get the sunny sky somewhat manageable and held the flash with my left hand on TTL connected with a TTL cord and dialed in +3 flash compensation to try and register something over the sun. I kind of wish there was a +5 on the flash for this shot! But I got pretty close.


I could treat this a little differently as the street performers cheering people on weren't exactly moving. Didn't have quite so much sun to deal with as I positioned myself so the sun was coming in from the right (look at the shadows) so I could also get a little more blue out of the sky. Back to manual exposure, and TTL flash (+something). Flash held down towards the ground and fired up.

CUA - Race Judicata

In September, I photographed the Catholic University of America Columbus School of Law's "Race Judicata," a 5K benefiting St. Ann's Infant Maternity Home.  It was fun getting to ride in the back of the lead truck, but just a word of advice:  make sure the driver knows to start VERY slowly when someone is sitting in the back of the SUV.  I'm sure this is something the secret service knows when they are flying around town with assault rifles hanging out of the back of black Chevy SUV's, but something random security guy doesn't know.  Needless to say, I was startled, but didn't fall out.    Seemed like a nice course around the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception.

Played a little bit with hard light on a stand in the last photo (you can see the shadow of the legs) to try and brighten up what turned into a dismal grey mid-day, and try to get something better than standard posed group shots.

Going to Prison

Back in May I was at Eastern State Penitentiary, where Al Capone was once held, for a shoot. We were able to gain access to a few off-limit areas to get some really interested shots. These two are of Peter in the morning. I'll share a few more on another post.

Both of the images had a gridded speedlight on Peter's face coming from camera left. Gel'd with a full CTO (plus an extra 1/4 I think) and then then programmed for tungsten white balance. The window is acting as a natural rim light.

Student Organization Fair

My task: Capture the rush of student organizations vying for the influx of new blood into their programs.






And this one, was just for me, as I'm a big fan of the grill, especially ones that can feed several hundred people.

Hard at Work

I like the contrast of the book clad office with the cars on the street below. Sometimes you forget when your in your office about the world around you, but when you're on another building looking at 10 or 15 people in their offices, it's an interesting sight.

Impromptu Seminar

I meet up with a random group of photographers every once in a while, and you never really know who's going to show up, how much experience you have etc.  Although someone else was putting together a demonstration on studio shooting, there were a few too many people there for just one set-up.  I grabbed a few people and ran a demonstration of some off-camera lighting techniques.  No "models" here, just normal photographers who don't usually get in front of the lens.  This is Andre, who had a great smile and a good look.

All of these were shot with shutter speed pulling ambient about 1.5 to 2 stops below ambient. A gridded CTO gelled flash camera right on Andre's face, and an un-gelled snooted flash as rim light coming from over Andre's back right shoulder about 8-12 feet back.

This also was my first opportunity to try out my new radiopopper JRX. They allow me to manually control and adjust the my flash powers directly from my camera. They're terrific.

It was great fun getting to teach and talk about taking pictures with people who are actually interested and willing to learn, and as always, I learn from everyone else just as much.

Summer Fun

Maybe it's the fact that I'm catching up on old posts from the summer and it's still 70 degrees outsides (in November...yes I'm backdating the post) brings me to a shot of four ice cream cones from a famous Annapolis ice cream establishment down by the docks.

Too Cool for Comfort

Pat, an old ship-mate of mine, got a chance to get away from his "demanding" job at the Naval Academy to enjoy some relaxing time on the Chesapeake.  I took this rare opportunity to catch him with a nice two day shadow to help instill fear in some of his students.

 

Student Fair Brings Fun Around

There's nothing like the juxtaposition of a giant climbing wall with a giant clock tower.  Add to the mix cotton candy, grilled meat, and log roll, and all of a sudden law school looks fun!

San Diego Scenery

We went for a walk down along Pacific Beach just to enjoy the great weather and great company.  If  anyone walks Pacific Beach much the'd recognize the last guy as an icon always doing crazy moves and dancing to his tunes on roller blades.

Innauguration

I almost didn't bring a camera today as I thought it would be sufficiently documented, but I luckily brought it could and capture some of the smaller moments surrounding Debbie and Me on the way to and at the Washington Monument.

Innauguration Concert

I really thought these two images captured some of the moments from the day.