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!
Thankfully due to some side gigs that brought in some pocket change, I was able to step up from the Twin-lens medium format cameras that I had been shooting with. Basically my choices came down to either Mamiya or Bronica, and either 6×6 or 6×7. I decided to branch out from my love for the square format, and step up to the “Big Negative” the 6×7. But I still hadn’t chosen between Mamiya or Bronica. I had been leaning toward Bronica for a while, I liked the styling and lines of the camera. I have a Mamiya C330, so I was familiar with the solid metal build of Mamiya cameras…and the weight. This ultimately led me to go with the Bronica GS-1. And of course I went to my first and sometimes my only place for used camera gear: KEH! I found this outfit, the body, eye level prism, standard 100mm lens, a 120 back, and the Speedgrip all for a nice price. You really have to love how digital basically bottomed out film camera prices (most film camera prices – you still have to shell out some cash for a Hassie…), I’m anxious to run some film through it!
With the addition of the Speedgrip, it almost handles like a huge 35mm. Even vertical handheld shots seem doable.
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….
