Formula: Take two photographers, an empty studio due to a cancelled shoot, and a bunch of studio strobes and what do you get? Well it’s pretty simple; me and Grant just messing around with some lighting setups. He took some of me.And here’s mine of him, I also managed to sneak in some film shots as well with my Lubitel, sent those off to Dwyane’s today, soon as I get them back, I’ll post a couple of those for a compare/contrast.
Just got some images back from ScanCafe….shooting film these days takes some dedication; either you breakdown and get a scanner (and if you’re really serious, learn to hand process your own film, that way you don’t have to send it to a lab and wait almost 2 weeks to get it back…), or you subject yourself to the time it takes to get a couple of rolls developed and then paying the cost to have someone locally scan it (or send it off for scanning).
These are from the first time that me and Grant Meeks, met and we went for a small photowalk through the streets of downtown Dallas, he shot digital, so he had his post up on this within a week or so of us shooting it….me well it’s almost August and I’m just getting the images up, I got the disc from Scancafe back about a week ago. I still want to shoot more film, I just need to make the investment so that I don’t have to have such a long turnaround time on the images.
Due to a miscommunication, a shoot that I had scheduled for Sunday didn’t go through, so I decided to go shoot some random images, something that I don’t do often enough, and something that I’ve forgotten how fun it could be.
I didn’t want to wade through a full card of images, so I took very few, only about 8 or so, and I liked these five: Also, I tried slowing down: I walked up, framed the image in the viewfinder, metered, then shot ONE shot. Chimped a little, but honestly, if you’re only taking one shot, what’s the point of chimping? I plan to shoot like this more often!
With some dirty wrinkled seamless I had lying around…and an excuse to test out my new Creative Light softbox, I think I’ll be buying some more of their stuff, this is one Nikon SB-80 flash, very even coverage. From a 1 x 1 softbox.
Being an amateur photographer, I’ve experienced when I’m out somewhere taking pictures of something, anything and someone sees what I’m shooting with, I get asked if I shoot ____ (family portraits, weddings, etc). Last October I was at my niece’s birthday party, at Incredible Pizza, and one of the people working there was getting married and she asked me if I had a business card because she was looking for a wedding photographer. Business cards? They’re something that I know that I needed to get at some point in time, but also something that I stressed about quite a bit. I wanted them to be perfect. Did I need an image? or several images? Which ones? Did I have “those” images that I could put on a card to advertise what I do? What about text? What about color? Vertical or Horizontal? I was sent an invite to attend a Pictage group meeting (which people who weren’t members could come, I’m not rolling like that….yet!), where the topic of discussion was going to be second shooting/shooters for wedding photographers. Hmmm, I’m trying to be a wedding photographer (along with other subjects as well), and I’ve been looking for opportunities to second shoot for someone, and there’s going to be a discussion group on this topic, with plenty of networking opportunities. As I was getting more and more excited about attending, I noticed a sentence saying “Bring lots of business cards”….Again with the Business Cards! There’s nothing like short term necessity that motivates you to action doesn’t it? Thanks to the advice ofAshley Kinney (who also passed me along the invite to the Pictage meeting), she recommended VistaPrint, who just happened to be running a free business card promotion, free cards! so I created an account, and had them rushed to me 3 day FedEx, and I must say for free business cards, I’m pleasantly surprised and happy with the way they turned out!
I just opened an account with FullColor Lab out in Dallas. I know that it’s probably something little, but when you have to fill in a URL for your blog/website and then a day later you get a call to say that your account has been approved and that they’re ready to fill my first order, I was a bit excited! It’s just the little things that give you validation… I didn’t know what I wanted to print, but I know that I wanted to see how they did black and white so I picked a fairly recent image that I shot toward the end of last year:
The packaging was first rate, as well as the delivery time; I placed this order on Saturday, it was printed that day, and in my hands on Tuesday…very fast turnaround.
I’m very happy with the tones of the print; from the deep blacks of the shadows, to the greys, all the way to the whites of the highlights!Just have to size it next time so that I can have a border around the edges, I’ve never been too fond of borderless prints, it was extra to have them resize and add it, just need to take an extra couple of minutes in post next time….
Even the grain is showing through nice. I can’t wait to use FullColor again! Maybe a gallery wrap next time…
Oh yeah, KRS-1 will end this post (for those that might not know the reference of the title of this post, just give a click and listen)
By now everyone knows about Kodak putting the nail into a piece of photographic history by killing off their legendary emulsion Kodachrome earlier this year. And Dwayne’s in Kansas, the only lab in the world that still does the K-14 process (how Kodachrome is developed) announced that they are going to stop developing and processing Kodachrome. I bought two of these rolls of K64 about 5 years ago, (these rolls expired in October 2003) and stuck them in my freezer. Due to a recent move out of my old apartment, I took out all the film that I had frozen (most of it expired). I had forgotten about these rolls, I was saving them for some special occasion or something. And now, with the end of the year rapidly approaching us, I need to take to the streets and shoot something with it, just to say that I shot some Kodachrome. I don’t know exactly what though….
I’ve tried to be the type of photographer who doesn’t let wanting to buy more gear get in the way of taking photos, and I’ve never subscribed to the logic that if I just had X (lens, flashes, different camera body) I could make great photos, but I have neglected equipment from time to time. I was recently inspired by Bert Stephani, a fantastic fashion photographer, who was inspired by Jeff Ascough, one of the top wedding photographers in the world, to make more usage of one of the most basic lenses that every photographer has (or should have) in their bags – the 50mm. As Bert says, before the kit zoom lens of today, when you used to by a SLR in the film days, you more or less bought it with this lens, it’s usually the cheapest lens in a camera line (depending on speed, faster the lens, more money you pay), I have three fifties, one that I got when I bought my first 35mm camera, an Olympus OM-1. when I first got that camera, that was the only lens that I had, so I had to shoot everything with it, and you pretty much could /can shoot anything with a fifty, step back far enough, you can get a decent wide establishing shot, they focus close enough where you can capture details or close ups. Now that I have Nikons, I have two fifties, a 50 f2 AIS (which I bought when I bought my first Nikon 35 mm – the F3) and an autofocus 50 1.4. Bert is pusuing a personal project he calls 50/50. That is he’s shooting everyday details (and some assignment stuff) with a fifty mm lens over the course of 50 days. He’s an amazing photographer as it is, but what he is doing with just that lens is on another level, it forces you to make the shot without some of that other stuff creeping in. Instead of reaching for a wide angle or a zoom or a tele, you have to make it work with the angle of view that the 50mm provides. Hell, this got me up and off of my ass, shooting just for the fun of it with only one lens. Unfortunately I don’t have a D3 or a D700 so that I could use my either my 50 1.4 or the AIS. But I do have the 35 f2, which is a great little lens in of itself, that I bought about a year ago, and haven’t used much, so I’ve put all my other lenses away and just struck out with my D300 and the 35 F2. While my results aren’t any where near Bert’s, I am starting to see patterns in the way that I shoot, which is the first step to developing style as a photographer. It’s also helping me with editing, over the past week or so, I’ve shot 72 photos, took those 72 and narrowed them down to about 20, and here are some of those twenty:
The packaging was first rate, as well as the delivery time; I placed this order on Saturday, it was printed that day, and in my hands on Tuesday…very fast turnaround.
I’m very happy with the tones of the print; from the deep blacks of the shadows, to the greys, all the way to the whites of the highlights! Just have to size it next time so that I can have a border around the edges, I’ve never been too fond of borderless prints, it was extra to have them resize and add it, just need to take an extra couple of minutes in post next time….
Even the grain is showing through nice. I can’t wait to use FullColor again! Maybe a gallery wrap next time…
