I needed a backdrop for my Christmassy photo booth, so I headed to Photo Backdrop Supply Co. to see what could find. There were two red ones that caught my eye. The first had a nice, elegant pattern to it, and the second was a solid, classy red. I ended up getting both of them and decided to compare them side by side to see which one was more photogenic. The difference was night and day…
Photo Booth and Friends
December 11, 2011
Immediately after shooting a wedding in Baltimore I headed straight to the Best Christmas Party Ever. The hosts really go all out in planning it, and everyone is dressed to impress; so I offered to setup a photo booth and capture the fun. In addition to printing the photos on-site, I also uploaded them to Facebook in real time. It was a lot of work, but well worth the effort. See for yourself.
Make Photos, Don’t Take Them
December 7, 2011
So there was this cool circular bar, but from a photographic standpoint I was up against two challenges. 1.) The best way to capture something like this is from high above, otherwise you can’t tell it’s a giant doughnut. 2.) It wasn’t lit well. The outside of it was covered in tiny mirrors like a disco ball, so I knew if I threw a little light on it then it would really come alive. Sure enough I got myself a ladder, set up my lights, and fired away.
Christmas Capitol
December 6, 2011
Maybe this will be the year that I go out with my dad and shoot this photo with the moon in the frame. We tried doing it last year, but we were about two hours too early and we really didn’t feel like freezing our butts off any longer.
On another note, I went to a photography workshop today… Got all kinds of inspired, and now I’m left feeling like all of my photos are terrible. Hmmph…
Architecture at Night
December 4, 2011
One of the greatest things about my job is the wide variety of things I get to photograph. I was put in touch with a local residential architect (who is amazingly talented, btw!) to shoot photos for her portfolio and website. Another awesome friend of mine not only helped me out during the entire shoot, but she’s also designing the architect’s website. I love me some collaboration!
Georgetown Waterfront Park
December 4, 2011
I’m working on a series of photos for a DC client and I get to shoot all around town exploring different neighborhoods. It seems like this park in Georgetown was under construction forever, but it has turned out to be a very cool place now that it’s finished. Hopefully I’ll be able to write more about the project in the near future.
It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Awesome
December 1, 2011
This was the third year that I’ve had the privilege of shooting Gaylord National’s Christmas Grand Opening, but it was the first time I had my wife with me =) She got to watch the whole thing right next to me while I shot away.
Restless and Creative
October 20, 2011Every so often I get restless, and I know I need to make something. Of course this feeling only comes at the most inconvenient times, like today when I’ve got 3,000 photos to sort, a video series to edit, three estimates to send, and an album to design. …0h, and I’m getting married in 17 days. So yeah, it’s not like I didn’t have anything else to be doing. Nevertheless, I needed to clear my head and art has a way of doing that for me. I suppose it’s my brain’s way of keeping me from being a workaholic.
Anyway, here’s what I came up with. I don’t love it, but it served its purpose; so I’m happy. It’s a mixed media piece. The drawing was done in my sketchbook and then I added some color and toning in Lightroom.
Enough about me. What helps you clear your head and unwind? When was the last time you were compelled to create? Where has your latest source of inspiration come from?
When Stage Lighting Gives You Lemons
October 19, 2011
The way a stage looks in person and the way it looks in a photograph can be two very different things. My job in this case was to make the photos look as good (or better) as it looked to the audience. The client specifically wanted to make sure the background was colorful, not washed out. Unfortunately, however, the stage lighting was awful, so this was quite a challenge.
I ended up having to use two off-camera speedlights on either side of the stage to brighten up the speaker. Both flashes had a snoot on them to help aim the light and keep it from hitting the audience. I also had to make sure they wouldn’t spill light onto the background and wash out the green colored lights.
This second images shows how it looked before I added my lights. Notice how much less detail you can see in his suit coat as well as the brightness of his skin.
It would have been much easier to shoot with the available light and then pass the blame, but a photographer’s job is to produce good photos with no excuses attached.
Does Specialization Lead to Burnout?
October 14, 2011If there is one photographer I respect the most it’s gotta be Jeremy Cowart. The dude is crazy talented, always pursuing big ideas, and he puts his family first. When he talks I listen. However, yesterday he made a point that I would generally agree with but my experience tells a different story. Here’s what he said:
Photographers, remember: you need to make a decision. Shooting weddings, families, pets, bands, sports = jack of all trades, master of none.
I consider myself to be a jack of all trades. I certainly don’t feel like I’ve mastered anything, but I’m confident that I can shoot most things better than the average photographer –Hint: the trick is not to be better, but to try harder.
Lately I’ve been wrestling with the notion of finding my niche, but the more I press down into a certain field the more complacent I become. I recently shot photos with a dude who’s been shooting weddings for “unfortunately 17 years” in his words. He certainly made a decision about the work he does, but he also got comfortable and apathetic in the process.
I have a hunch that specialization leads to burnout or boredom.
Personally, I need variety in my work. I value creativity too much to be comfortable with a repetitive diet. Even people like Jeremy Cowart who are exceptionally specialized often pursue creative, personal projects that are extremely different from their normal gig.
The deeper you dig in a single direction, the more you need external stimuli. Creativity thrives on variety.
Then I see someone like Joe McNally, who is one of the best photographers in the world, describe himself as a generalist, and I can’t help but wonder if that’s part of the reason why his photos are so remarkable. Personally I know that I’ve learned things from shooting fashion that have caused me to shoot weddings differently, and I’ve learned things from street photography that has improved my headshots.
So what do you think? Do you consider yourself a specialist or a generalist? Does an artist ever feel like he’s mastered something, or is that word merely attributed to someone else who does something better than we do? Does Talent + Complacency = Mastery?
Promotional Poster for Crisis Chaplains
October 12, 2011
Crisis Chaplains is a new non-profit here in the DC area. When Chuck first told me about the idea for the poster I knew it was a project I would enjoy working on.
The shoot itself took me a while to find my groove and start making pictures that I was proud of, but sometimes you just have to keep throwing stuff at the wall before you find something that sticks. I shudder to think of what the poster would have looked like if we stopped early…
Unlike the other posters I’ve made this one was a collaboration between the client and myself, and we finalized the design in about a quarter of the time I normally spend working on these. Sometimes the best way to get things done is to involve other people.
Something Assisted, Something Different
October 6, 2011
Lori and Robert hired a photographer for their small, mid-week wedding, but for some reason the photog had to cancel a few weeks before the big day. Emily Chastain stepped in to cover it and she asked if I could help out too. Usually when we work together it’s at a large wedding that needs more than one shooter, so this was a welcomed change. You can find more photos here.
Wine After Dark
October 3, 2011
Crystal City just wrapped up a month of weekly events called Wine in the Waterpark. They asked me to shoot the event, and I knew it was gonna be a challenge given that it was outdoors after sunset. I rocked my 50mm f/1.8 lens the entire time, which is quite different for me, but the wide aperture proved helpful. For this particular shot, I wanted to capture the colorful laser light display thing. It took a lot of fiddling, but I finally came away with a shot I am proud of. You can see some of the other highlights here.
May I Suggest a Glass of Wine
October 1, 2011
For years I’ve said that restaurant menus should have pictures of everything instead of descriptions. It seems that some places are finally starting to get the idea. Today I shot an entire wine list for Old Hickory Steakhouse. Despite the repetitive nature of it, I actually found it to be a very creative challenge.
17 Reasons Why I Ditched the iPhone
September 24, 2011I’ve been a Droid user for the last two years, but when my account was due for an upgrade I decided to make the switch and try the iPhone 4. “Worst case scenario” I thought, “I can return it and pay the restocking fee. At least I’ll know which platform I like better.”
It turns out that I’m not a big fan of the iPhone. After two weeks of using it as my only phone, I was eager to return it and get a Droid again. During those two weeks I used Evernote to keep a running list of Pros and Cons. Any time I found something I liked or disliked I made a note of it, and now I’m turning it into a blog post.
The Good:
- I love being able to move the cursor accurately between letters. The little magnifying glass thing is fantastic.
- I love how responsive the screen is. Never experienced any scenarios where I had to keep clicking or swiping repeatedly.
- Really like the sharpness of the display and the home screen picture. The screen is a beauty!
- The copy and paste function is very well designed.
- The App Store has the original Final Fantasy games. Mind = blown.
- I really like the form factor and product design of the iPhone. This is one thing Apple does better than anyone.
- The photo viewer enlarges images so that they fill the screen to match the aspect ratio. This looks very sharp and takes advantage of the impressive screen.
- After discovering the voicemail feature on the iPhone I may take back everything negative I’ve ever said about the phone. You don’t have to dial a number and listen to pointless menus and instructions as if you’ve never used it before. The message is saved directly to your phone for easy playback and deletion. This is the way voicemail should be!
- I love the physical switch for putting the phone in silent mode.
- Battery life is significantly better on the iPhone than any other smart phone I’ve seen.
- I really like the option to resize images when sending them.
- I really like the screen shot feature. Simple and effective.
- I like the headphones’ built-in mic and volume control. Extra points for including them for free!
The Bad:
- Auto-complete is lousy, but at least it’s good for a laugh.
- Calendar does not show week view.
- I can’t stand the way text messages and notifications pop up on top of everything else. This is not helpful for someone who tries to minimize interruptions.
- Gmail is horrible on the iPhone. It makes Hotmail look efficient. The display and organization is nothing like gmail in a browser. You have to click through each message individually rather than scrolling through the entire conversation.
- It’s annoying that you have to enter your password every time you download an app.
- Everything seems to require a lot more “clicks.” Email is especially excessive; just try “starring” an email for example.
- Contacts don’t sync when you setup a Gmail account –only when you set it up as an Exchange account.
- After syncing the iPhone with my Macbook Pro I had to sign in to all my apps again. I’m guessing/hoping that’s not normal…
- The iTunes interface is horrible. Its a clumsy music player that was never intended to handle all the data of the iPhone. I want to be able to plug in my phone and use it like a USB drive.
- The fact that you can’t customize the notification sounds unless you jailbreak the phone is just inexcusable. This makes it confusing when you’re in the same room with a handful of other iPhone users, unless you’re that guy who actually likes anything but Tri Tone.
- The mail “Search” is a joke. It doesn’t use any of Gmail’s search operators. For example “is:unread” or “has:attachment” did not return any results. Even simple searches didn’t find what I was looking for most of the time.
- Overall integration with Google is just plain lousy. (More on that below)
- For no apparent reason it keeps saying that that my username or password for gmail is incorrect. Yet it occasionally gets a moment of clarity and imports my new mail. Had to remove and add my account twice to solve this issue.
- I can’t tell if Safari supports flash, or if it’s just crappy at displaying it.
- I wish you could adjust the volume of the alarm independently from the ringer volume.
- Calendar only synchronizes with the main calendar for each Google account. There is no way to view the sub calendars or shared calendars.
- Save Draft only works locally. You can’t start a draft on your phone and then finish it on a browser.
The Indifferent:
- The page scroll (in email) doesn’t keep sliding; you have to keep scrolling up or down.
- The horizontal keyboard is not available in all apps.
- I noticed a big hit in battery performance when using wifi for the day instead of 3G (which is normal for any phone)
- The iPhone is the iPhone. There’s only one manufacturer, and it works just like every other iPhone. This ensures consistency and quality control, but it also defines limits and inabilities.
- There’s probably an app for everything I don’t like about the iPhone, but I’m only looking at the built-in functionality here.
In the two weeks that I had the iPhone my attitude went from, “I really like this thing” to “I can’t wait to have my Droid back.” In the end the big deal breaker for me was the lack of integration with Google –especially Gmail and Calendar. I suppose if I switched to iCal, and iPhoto, and iTunes, and iHateEverythingButApple then everything would work flawlessly…
To be fair, there are some things I don’t like about my new Bionic (namely the pre-installed apps, screen, and battery life) but at the end of the day it’s the unparalleled integration with Google that has made me a fan of the Android platform.
Same Story, Different Place
September 20, 2011
I’ve had the pleasure of photographing various events in some of the coolest venues around DC, but until tonight I had never worked in the Air and Space Museum. Capitol Services, Inc. did a fantastic job setting the mood and making the guests feel special, and I’m glad to have been a part of it! Be sure to check out the other photos here and leave some comment love if you like ‘em.
Just Do It
September 18, 2011
I have a short list of places around DC that I’ve seen from the car and thought, “I want to photograph that someday.” I’ve been saying that for years, but last night I changed that.
The Rosslyn skyline is, in my opinion, the most picturesque urban cityscape in the DC area, but the problem is that the angle I wanted can only be seen from the highway. Suffice to say it was a challenge to get there on foot, but it feels good to finally check it off my list.
It turns out that my tweet inspired a couple friends to go shoot some photos on their list too. Awesome!
A Note About Your Time and Prices
September 15, 2011It’s straight up 11:00 o’clock and I just walked in the door from a shoot. Four and a half hours earlier I was sitting here half awake double checking directions and making sure everything was packed and ready to go. I finished getting ready, grabbed my gear, and then hopped on the metro. In the last four and a half hours I spent maybe 20 minutes taking pictures, maybe.
If you must know, I was shooting four corporate headshots, but that’s irrelevant. The fact of the matter is that you have to account for a lot more than the time spent shooting photos. Time is time. Whether you’re taking pictures, writing a contract, or doing the dishes, everything takes time. More often than not your time as a photographer is eaten up by what happens before and after you hold the camera in your hands.
So next time you are asked to price an assignment consider all that goes into it. Time spent packing your gear, picking up rental equipment, traveling, setting up for the shoot, editing (of course), managing the files, creating and sending invoices, depositing checks at the bank, blogging about the shoot and uploading pictures to Facebook, etc… Don’t forget to include the time you spent estimating the price and corresponding with the client in the first place.
Everything that requires your time means you can’t spend that time doing something else. Is it worth the trade?
Chesapeake Bay Wedding
August 20, 2011
The control freak in me loves to be in charge and take the lead, but I often find a lot of creative freedom when playing second fiddle. Such was the case last weekend when Emily Chastain asked me to be her second shooter. It was such a classy wedding, and I had a blast photographing it. You can find some of the highlights on Mud Productions’ Facebook page.
Camera Bags for Event Photographers
July 31, 2011When I show up to shoot an event with my 34 pound backpack plus light stands and belt pack I wonder whatever happened to the days when taking pictures meant heading out with nothing but my camera. Now it takes me 10-12 minutes just to get setup for most shoots. The problem is that the more I learn about photography the more gear I want to get, which means there is more stuff I’ve got to schlep around with me. Eventually I outgrew my Jansport backpack that I had been using for just about everything since third grade. I remedied this by getting the ThinkTank Airport Antidote backpack which I’ve blogged about before.
While the backpack is perfect for carrying everything from my studio to another location and back, it’s completely impractical to use during a shoot. Personally I group photo bags into one of two categories: transporting or shooting. The backpack clearly falls under the first category where durability, space, and weight are primary concerns. For shooting however, I need a bag that is accessible, comfortable, and snug. You’ll notice “stylish” isn’t exactly on that list… Personally, I prefer the ThinkTank Pro Speed Belt.
The belt itself is just that. A belt. But when you trick it out with some modular pouches it becomes a fanny pack on steroids that will have all the ladies wanting you.
The beauty of it is that all of the weight you are used to carrying around your neck and shoulders is now spread around your hips. Everything is close to your body, so you can run at full speed without worrying about your stuff banging around. Everything is easily accessible –no more digging around in the abyss of your messenger bag for that memory card– and often times that can mean the difference between getting the shot or missing the moment. I’ve been using my belt for over two and a half years now, and I’d be hard pressed to come up with a better solution for event photographers. If you find yourself looking for a better way to consolidate and access your gear while shooting, I suggest you give the belt a try.
Here’s a look at my setup. Clicking on the image will take you to Flickr where you can see the notes explaining what’s in each pouch.
P.S. The belt is also great for hiking. I usually strip it down until it’s just the belt and camera holster. It protects the camera and makes it easily accessible. I recently climbed Old Rag with it and I had zero complaints.
*I’m not affiliated with ThinkTank Photo in any way. They simply make good products that make my job easier, so I’m happy to talk about them.
