Just get out and shoot

So I have decided that Thursdays will be my posting days. Not going to happen every week but I shall do my best. Hopefully people begin to follow the blog, and they can expect a regular stream of articles.

With that piece of administrative business out of the way, my advice for this installment kind of echoes the theme of the previous post, and that is just get out and shoot. I know I feel like there are so many barriers to getting out and making neat images but the truth is, the biggest barrier might just be behind the camera.

We all have friends that have interesting hobbies or jobs. Ask them to do a shoot and plan something. Sometimes if you are really lucky, you have friends that have really cool jobs. I am one of those people. I went to high school with a member of the band Ludo. If you haven't listened to them, I strongly urge you to check them out on Spotify or visit the Ludo website.

Anyway, a few years back I kept asking him when he would be back in town from touring and if they had anything going on. Finally it paid off, he said he was heading into a local studio to help another artist Hector Anchondo start recording his album. He asked if I would be interested in coming down to the studio for a couple hours and hanging out and getting some pictures. I jumped at the chance without even knowing anything else. So I spent several hours in the studio with the guys just soaking it all in.

Musicians are like photographers, they sat around and talked about their craft using lingo that only they understood and they could pick out chords and riffs after hearing a piece of music one time. The lighting in the studio and the control room were less than ideal and when I looked at the back of my camera, instead of lamenting the fact, it got the creative juices flowing. In the studio atmosphere and with the camera in my hand I suddenly felt like I was shooting for Rolling Stone or Billboard and was in the studio with U2 or The Rolling Stones. So I switched to black and white and just had fun with it. Is the lighting perfect? Not by a long shot, but to me I think the shots give kind of a cool glimpse into the afternoon.

We started shooting as guys were recording their own individual pieces for the track. As they got deeper and deeper into the track I had to leave the studio so that my shutter clicks wouldn't be picked up on the mics.

Musicians huh. Playing drums barefoot with a stuffed cow on his kit. Had to get a shot of this.

Once I moved into the control room, there were just too many knobs and buttons to comprehend what they did, but they looked cool. Don't know why this one reminds me of the opening of Star Wars. A long time ago in a studio far far away...

Once the guys all came into the control room to listen to the tracks, Hector sat down in this chair and just kept stroking his goatee and nodding in time to the music. I thought it just looked cool. In my mind I have a similar idea for the cover of an album. Who knows maybe they will call me!

Anyway, the moral or the story/post is that there are opportunities to shoot, you just have to take advantage of them and be creative. I struggle with this myself as I progress through my evolution as a photographer. But until you "make it" people aren't going to come knocking with photo jobs, so you have to make your own luck and give them reason to come knocking.

Enjoy and keep shooting!

Car Photos

So for me, one of the biggest obstacles with photography is myself. I have neat ideas for shots, things I really want to photograph but always come up with an excuse for why they don't come to pass. The reason can be anything as complex as I don't have a large studio, I don't have strobes or I don't have models. The truth is, that if it is important enough to you, you will make it happen. No one is going to just call out of the blue and ask you if you like photography and want to shoot for them. So recently I tackled this obstacle and did a car shoot.

A friend I work with owns a 2012 Camaro ZL1. Now I don't know a ton about cars but I know what looks cool and what sounds impressive and this thing looks cool and has over 600 hp. So we agreed to do a shoot and we met up in downtown St. Louis near the Riverfront. There were a couple of challenges for this shoot. 1) We started shooting around 10:30 in the morning which made for almost overhead sunshine. 2) Shooting a car meant a lot of reflective surfaces and also meant I would be getting a portrait of myself in the car's paint. In the end, I opted for a lot of multiple exposures and HDR type shots.

We started under an overpass where a friend of the car owner had previously taken some shots and he liked the background. We tried a couple of different looks and angles but the wide range of light made it tough. Even this was HDR.

In post I decided to get kind of creative and make a hyper-real image.

 After the overpass we moved on to an empty lot near some old abandoned warehouses and a powerplant I started to also look at taking some detail shots as well. This guy has put a lot of time an money into upgrading and modifying his car so I figured why not showcase it.

The same pic just some more touches added in photoshop.

I also climbed onto the roof of my SUV to get this one, it helped take care of the glare.

We then moved to another abandoned area that had some cargo bays and some good shade. This was near a casino downtown and several times the security guard drove by. We were by no means on their property but apparently they saw us on their security cameras. Finally he got out of the car to check out what we were doing. Once he saw the engine on the car he had to go and get some of the other guys from the security office and bring them by for a look.

To wrap up, we went back to the overpass and wanted to get a shot of the custom designed trunk. The limited edition badge was pretty cool. This is a compilation image and you can see where I will need to make sure the specular highlights continuous and clean.

All in all, I am pretty happy with my first car shoot, especially considering it was outdoors at mid-day. I am hoping to get some more shots of the car on an infinity wall but we will have to see how that pans outs. The important thing is that I made the connection and got the motivation to make it happen. Here's hoping that this leads to more motivation and adding more to the portfolio.

Photo Journalism and Voyeurism

After the horrible events in Boston yesterday, images began flooding the television and internet. I quickly found myself feeling so conflicted. Here I was looking online for any information about the attacks, wanting to know what was going while at the same time, as details emerged I felt as though I was violating the privacy of those most directly affected.

In particular there was one very graphic photo of an individual that had lost a limb being rushed to an ambulance. It was a horrific image that caused me to cringe at the site and the imagined pain that the victim was enduring at that moment. Their face had been blurred out, and it occurred to me that it is only a matter of time before the blurring is removed and the victims identity will be known. Not only will he have to live with the physical scars from this day, but this horrific image of his injuries will forever be out in cyberspace. Millions of people around the world will now be privy to one of the most vulnerable and raw moments of his existence, and as he struggles to comes to grips with what happened to him, this photo will serve as a constant grizzly reminder of exactly what happened.

Then I saw video of photographers snapping photos of the injured almost immediately after the explosions. One moment they were there to photograph something great about the human body and human spirit, people pushing themselves to run 26.2 miles and the next moment they were thrust into a role of reporting the news and a key event in our nations history. But then I saw as they lifted their cameras over barriers and started photographing the injured and I started to wondering how much is too much.

I will add this disclaimer: Since I do not derive my entire income from photography, I do not consider myself a professional photographer. That being said, I have covered professional sports and other important events and injuries are always something I struggle with. Yes capturing those images is important as it pertains to the storyline of the game but at a certain point I feel as though I am prying into these players lives. I liken it to standing on the field or ice right next to them, staring at them yet providing no assistance or comfort and so I feel uncomfortable in that space. I refuse to pontificate about what those photographers should have done, or what I would have done in their place, because any attempt to do so would be complete and utter BS. From 1,000 miles away I have no idea what I would have done when the bomb went off or when I saw the extent of the injuries. This is merely a hypothetical question that I will throw out to readers and friends.

How much information is too much information. At what point do we cross the line from covering the event and enter into the sensationalism of it all. I think we all know when we see something that crosses the line, but would we know in the heat of the moment? Please chime in...all thoughts are welcome as long as they are respectful.

Finally, to all those affected in Boston and around the world, my heart goes out to you and your loved ones. Certainly there are those killed and physically injured by the events of 4-15-2013 but watching news reports and hearing tales of those that were there, this is something that is going to affect a huge number of people for a very long time.

Hi Everyone,

Brand new to blogging but wanted to get out there in the blogosphere as it were and talk about one of the things that I am most passionate about and that is photography. I love photography of all varieties...sports, fashion, products you name it. I love the challenges that photography presents in trying to take a picture or scene I have in my head and then producing that same image through the camera.

I am still relatively new to photography when I consider how long some of my mentors and favorite shooters have been at this profession but that being said, I am always trying to learn new things, hone my skills and improve as a photographer. So that is what I plan for my blog...news, notes and advice that I have learned through my travels and career to this point and hopefully it will help other people just getting into photography.

Hope you all enjoy.