Archive for the ‘photography’ Category
Thursday, February 3rd, 2011
A couple of days ago, posted a fail from my recent project 52 assignment; shooting an editorial still life for a magazine cover. My first attempt just wasn’t there (even though at the time I felt that it was), when I got home and started working the post (glad I did it with enough time to re-shoot!), I knew that it just wasn’t working…at all. Not that it wasn’t visually interesting, it just didn’t say “magazine cover”.
So I came home and shot what was in my head to begin with:
This is the kind of imagery that I should be doing; clean, simple, effective. This image says Magazine Cover (note no air “quotation marks” needed). Especially when it was cropped and inserted into the cover template we were provided with:
So, what did I learn? 10 times out of 10, you should trust your first instincts, because they’re rarely wrong…
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Sunday, January 30th, 2011
Project #3 of the 52 has been tougher than I expected it to be. We were asked to shoot an editorial still life, as you would do for an magazine cover assignment. We were given some of the same parameters as if it was a paying assignment. We were asked to shoot an image that would fit within an 8×8 square layout. That seems easy right? Well in the real world, you would be given constraints outside of the size expectations. You would be given the layout, complete with type fonts and placement, and you have to shoot around and make the image relevant to the copy, luckily this was just an exercise. The only way to really learn, is to go out and shoot!
I approached this wanting to make an image on white seamless, pretty standard stuff. I went around and around on what objects that I would place in the final composition. I wanted to take a tech approach, I had some hard drives that had been taken out of my G5 and replaced. I wanted to use them along with some other elements of home computer DIY repair: zip ties and a soldering gun. I bought all that and took off toward the studio (first time using the studio for a still life), and guess what? I left the house in such a hurry I forgot some important things…Like the hard drives…and I was planing on using my tripod…never the less, one thing about being on the road to becoming a professional is that you have to come back with an image, a good image, even when things are going right, when you forgot some equipment, when your sick, etc, etc, etc.
I played around with some different compositions with the ties and the soldering gun, but something hit when I was trying to uncoil the electrical cord of the gun, it kind of wrapped itself in a star shape, which looked kind of cool. I then took some different colored zip ties and arranged them in a fan pattern, and along with the star shape of the electrical cord, it made this interesting combination:
Thinking that I had the shot in the bag (another lesson learned), I was ready to head home when looking through the props in the shared co-op studio I was shooting in, I found a gas mask…and it might have been that I was feeling some euphoria from the still life that I just shot, or the hour it took me to arrange those zip ties, but I wanted to do something fun, so I snapped a self portrait:
I have to remember while I’m on this journey, I have to remember to have fun, because if I’m not having fun with this, then I should just keep a day job and sell all my gear…
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Sunday, January 16th, 2011
A very popular lighting blog that I follow called Lighting Essentials has started an interactive learning project called Project 52. It’s designed do a few things: Give guidance to those beginning their careers, and show those of us who think that they want to do more than dabble in this profession, the tools and knowledge that they need to make that happen. And expose your weaknesses, so that you can build upon them. One of my weaknesses is procrastination, I plan to change that over the course of this year.
Our first assignment was to come up with a mission statement that says the type of images that we would like to be making (not necessarily what we are shooting now) and shoot an image around our home to illustrate that statement.
My statement:
I create bold but simple images for a modern world.
And due to my problem with procrastination…I missed the cutoff time by like 5 mins…
I’ll learn,
or else I won’t grow.
Oh, can’t be a post without an image. Here’s what I shot:
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Sunday, January 9th, 2011
Kodachrome. That name stirs up many emotions. Floods the mind with many images. Countless of them that you’ve probably seen at some time and point in your life. Time, Life, National Geographic, all had photographers who shot with the iconic (I don’t even think that that word does justice to the emulsion) Kodak slide film. Paul Simon sang “Please don’t take my Kodachrome away”…but Kodak did, no longer producing the film or the infamously toxic chemical process used to develop it K-14.
A little over 5 years ago, I found myself in a closing Ritz camera store in the Grapevine Mills mall. They were trying to unload everything that they could, including rolls of expired film of all kinds. Black and white, Fuji color, Kodak color print, different slide films, 110 (when’s the last time you’ve seen 110 film??). Digging through the bin, I didn’t see anything that caught my eye….until I saw a couple of boxes of K64, expiration 2003. I grabbed them (there were actually alot more than the two I picked up…why didn’t I buy more rolls is beyond me), and I was off. I knew that it was hard to get Kodachrome processed then (I believe that Dwayne’s and one other place still processed K-14 at that time), and I knew that I would have to make the images count, that I had to use them for something special (so I thought), so I brought them home and threw them in the freezer, to be thawed out for that imaginary occasion in the unknown future.
Those rolls sat unused for 5 years.
When the announcement came from Kodak that they were ending the 75 year production run of the film, and support of the K-14 process, I knew that I couldn’t wait forever, that I had to shoot something with the film. The imaginary special occasion was the experience of using this film, and being one of the last groups of people to have Dwayne’s process it (my film made it there around Dec 10th). I shot one roll of K64 (the other roll I gave to Grant Meeks for him to have fun shooting some Kodachrome) and a roll of K200 that I found laying around(I have no idea when or where I bought it!). I decided to shoot the K64 as an exercise in seeing and shooting with limitations; one body (My trusty and war torn Nikon F3), one lens (one of my favorite Nikkors, the 20 2.8 ais – really a limitation in seeing, shooting with only an ultrawide angle lens).
***The First and Last frame***
Tags: Film, Grant Meeks, Kodachrome, Kodak, Laidric Stevenson, Laidric Stevenson photography, personal, Slide film
Posted in Film's Still Good!, GOYA!, Kodachrome RIP!, personal, photography, Random Film Love! | Comments Off
Thursday, December 9th, 2010
I’m happy to say that I think that I’ve found my new lab where I will be sending all my film that I’ll be shooting; Richard Photo Lab, they’re a very film-centric set of people, film is their life! and if you have several of the top wedding, lifestyle and fashion shooters sending their film off to Hollywood to be processed by RPL, wouldn’t you want to have the best develop + scan your film as well? I’m very happy with the scans as well as the options that RPL offers (higher resolution scans, FTP delivery, custom customer scan profiles). Here’s a couple of shots that I liked from the Yashica on a recent photo drive that I did:
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Saturday, November 6th, 2010
As the end of 2010 grows nearer each day, I’m starting to reflect over this year’s accomplishments and failures (which there are plenty of both), and I feel that I’m a little bit closer to my goal, not as much as I would like to be, but more than I was in 2009. And a lot more than I was in 2008. Some of the things that I’ve learned this year have started to shape the path that I’ll forge ahead on next year, and each year after that.
For one, I’m not as sure that I want to continue doing weddings, the past couple of years, I thought that that would be an area that I really wanted to make a major focus in my business. This year I really experienced what I would like to refer to as “wedding photographer lite”, I second shot 5 weddings for a studio. And while they were fun, they were physically demanding on me, and this was just doing it part time, not as a full time gig. I couldn’t imagine doing 15, 20, or 25 weddings. And I’m glad I found out about it the right way, assisting someone else. Who knows, I might try and work my way back in it again, but as of right now, I’m shifting my focus to other areas.
I’m seeing a future with film slowly creeping its way back into my life! I’ve run across alot of film shooters who are 100% film and I’m loving their work. I want to get to a point where I’m 60-40 Film to digital. Digital has it’s place, but I don’t think that anyone can deny the beauty of film, and now is the time to stock up on film cameras. Almost all the cameras I dreamed of one day owning back when I was in high school and college are available for pennies on the dollar! Well….all except for Hasselblads. And it seems that Ebay is just full of people selling lots of film these days…not just like “3 rolls of Fuji 400H”, it’s more like 10 pro-packs of Fuji 400H. And I am looking forward to relearning, unlearning, and learning to be a film photographer again!
And I’ve found what I believe to be my light modifier company for life! Creative Light, which is a division of the MAC corporation (which has little known companies such as Mamiya, Profoto, Pocketwizard, Sekonic). Light modifiers for anyone living the Strobist hot shoe/white lighting / alien bee lighting lifestyle are pretty important. We’re all getting by on modest means so what we shoot with has to be dependable as well as affordable. Which Creative Light is both. I only have a few of their products (two white/silver reflectors, one small softbox and a 3ft Octobox), and then I have speedrings for my AB1600 and then a Speedlight adaptor, which I absolutely love shooting with. And Creative Light’s customer service is nothing short of awesome. Twice I’ve emailed them for replacement parts for this ring:
I lost the cold shoe that attaches to it. Emailed Creative Light. “What’s your address Mr. Stevenson?” and a couple of days later, brand new shoe.
I stripped the screw that attaches the ring to the lightstands. Emailed Creative Light. Couple of days later, I get this in the mail:
A little thing to some, but this type of service is the kind of thing that builds loyalty. Some companies would have charged a small amount for the replacement part, or if they didn’t charge for the part, they would have charged for the shipping.
Hmmm…I see a couple of more speedrings, and striplights, and grids in my not to distant future!
Tags: Alien Bees B1600, creative light, Film, Fuji NPH, Laidric Stevenson, Laidric Stevenson photography, Nikon D700
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