Long time no write..

Hey there! I know I havent written in a while, so I will just write about some past shoots.

The Bar Mitzvah Shoot
Family E. came over to take some shots before the Bar Mitzvah of their eldest son.. This shoot was a great experience due to the nature of the event. It was in studio - so the hardships of an on-location shoot were not there. Composition is key at an event like this. It is very important to show the components of becoming Bar Mitzvah. I got some great shots, however the family does not allow me to post it on the internet.. so I have to respect their wishes. MMmm... without pictures, the entire paragraph seems pointless, but its not. I now have Bar Mitzvah experience!

The Bro

I had my bro and his fam come over for some pics. Y. is such a fun personality, and loved to pose people (How's this for a photography business: Pose yourself - light yourself - bring your own props - :) ) C. is ridiculously photogenic. She can stand there and stick her tongue out and she'll still look good. M&S - the twins in the fam- I got some great shots of M. but I dont see much of S. at all.. Oh, well - they are identical (ok ok.. not a good excuse..) Well, they have free membership for life, so they can come back any time.. Yeah, the family picture is off the wall.. but its fun! This was mostly Y.'s doing - after 2 hours, I lost control. She started distributing props and it just came out very Osbourne Family-like.. I love it!

Da Gees

Great bunch o' kids. We got some fun shots, some serious shots... I hope to work with them again soon when the big boy S. becomes Bar Mitzvah at the end of May.

Coming up Next: More shoots - My own little Chickadees, RF's little 'nickel, 3 Adorable Lil boys I shot on Sunday, and last but not least - shots from the B&H Event at Central Park with Rick Sammon and James Williamson.

On-location shoot: A self assessment

I know I have not blogged in a while.. but I'm about to renew my blogging efforts, starting 1-2-3- NOW!

Now that my first on-location shoot is in the past, I can sit back and evaluate all the things that were fine, and the things that went wrong.. It was a great learning experience.

1. You may surprise yourself! The thing I was most nervous about was the social aspect. I am not a social person at all. I couldnt imagine standing there telling a group of people where to stand, and telling them to move back or forth, switch places. etc. That was the least of my problems, which is a good thing and a bad thing.. The good thing about it is that I learned when you're put in a social situation where you think you might want to run away and get under your covers, if you know that youre here to do a job, and push yourself, you can do it! The bad part is, that there were mistakes made at all. One thing that I wasnt focusing on, was who was who.. I shot pictures of the people that came.. and its really weird... when going through and editing these pictures.. I'm thinking "OMG... this is the grandmother" and I didn't give the moment the attention it deserved.. I can't really stress about that, since I didnt really get the time in advance to make a list of people I need to shoot etc.

2. Use the Equipment you know: So, I thought I was a big hotshot with access to an upgraded camera that just got out in the market and lenses I didnt own, and I took advantage of that. Big mistake. Despite of the fact that the Nikon D300s is an upgraded version of the Nikon D200, which i use.. there were still changes that I need to know about before using the camera. Besides. even if the features are exactly the same as the one you use, the smallest change can throw you off. Another 1/4 pound of weight, an 1/8th of an inch bigger on the camera body, can throw you off.. It just is not comfortable to you YET. Going into my first on-location job with a camera that wasn't yet "a part of me" was the biggest blunder yet. More about that on #3

3. Never use/buy a DSLR camera that just got out on the market. If you are like me, you'll always want the new stuff. This is a big mistake. First of all, despite great expectations the D300s was a big disappointment. Raising the ISO brought in noise, which i thought it was going to improve on. Reviews havent been made. Not enough, anyway. Second of all, and this I did not expect, and did not even think of.. It takes time for Adobe to come out with the updated camera profiles. That really threw me for a loop and created a whole lot of aggravation. I couldn't open the files. Even the nikon software I had a problem with upgrading for the D300s. This added another 2 weeks to my processing workflow which is not good.

So, Now that I've learned these lessons who wants to hire me for shoot #2, so I can learn some more.. :)?

Got a cute prop today..

I guess it'll be seen on the next baby or little girl picture.. :).

Beauty and the Beast Tour: My thoughts

Thursday I spend all day at the "Beauty and the Beast Tour". Now one can speculate why is it called Beauty and the Beast, and I think I know.. I hope that isn't the reason. Ok, I'll explain it a bit.

So, not to take away from the fact that I really did enjoy it and learned alot, it was kind of "interesting" to say the list. Two photographers were giving the classes, Hanson Fong and John Woodward. While I am a member of NAPP, read ton of blogs, books, magazines etc. it was actually the first time I heard of those two. I had looked them up when I heard about this event, though. Hanson Fong, an asian guy who is a master at posing large groups tends to speak about himself in third person. That was easy to get used to. I realize thats a cultural thing. So, he was talking about posing - about "labeling" the people A and B. (obviously as a photographer, you do this in your heard, and don't verbalize it). A is the slim one, and B is the heavier one. An A can be a B next to a skinnier person, and a B can be an A, next to a heavier person. Get my drift? While I'm not so oversensitive to think it was rude to say out loud, ok, you're a B.. these "models" are adults, but he kept on picking on the other guy, John Woodward.. "hey, we need someone with a huge belly in here" or the like (can't remember the exact words).. While this may be the banter they're used to, I think it was a bit overdone. Once, twice, fine. But every single time.. and of course the opposite.. to crack a little joke, he asked "now, whats wrong with this picture?" The audience is quiet, and the picture seems fine to everyone. He says "John, get out, and insert a good-looking Asian guy".. Ok thats funny, but again at the the other guys expense.. lots of those jokes. oh, well. I guess it works for them.

So I'm thinking that he named it Beauty and the Beast - Beauty for himself and John Woodward is the beast - not nice, not nice...

The big difference I found between this event and events from NAPP is also there is clearly stuff being sold. I learned to keep my radar on, and not bite at every "recommendation" that is made. They definitely make a commission and they are definitely there to sell their stuff. It is up to me, the participant to weed out the stuff that I don't need and do my own research to what stuff I do need. You can take the lessons, and ignore the sale pitches. Works for me.

John Woodward had a lesson about Self assessment, which was interesting, and I'm not sure who spoke about the curves of the mouth, and what side to light the face. Mmm.. Is that true, that everybody's mouth has a bigger down curve on one side? Oh, well.. I will definitely be more conscious of that if a person has a mouth thats slanty.. (yeah, and they openly look for someone with a distorted mouth, how nice...)

Overall, the event was great. Hanson's personality gave the audience a laugh, and poor poor John.. he's the underdog.. :). The top picture was a quote he put on the screen. I guess its something like "If you don't take Nissen, you don't know what you're missin''" haha..

P.S. I played around with blue gel today, and this is what I got.. What I did was, I put these glasses on a black poser thingy, in front of my reflector, put the speedlight with blue gel facing the reflector and tada! This is what you do when the kids don't want to cooperate.

Heshy is 8 months old today

And I just reminded myself of that now, about 11 minutes to August 13..  and at the same exact point that he woke up from his sleep.. I took a picture of him today.. Will add it to the post manyana. Gotta run  make a bottle for the kid. Good night.

Finally, pictures of someone other than my kids...

and here they are.. My sister, and her two youngest. Baily sees a camera and yells noo... oh boy.. but we got some good shots anyway especially after she settled down with an ices. Come again with the full brood, sis! (and my other sibs as well.. I'm waiting for you). Of course, paying clients are EVEN MORE welcome.. ha :). Hopefully I'll have some practice shoots for the rest of the month and then start charging a small fee..

Today was a great day, and I didn't even leave my house!

Y'all know how I've been kvetching about my space, or lack thereof, for the studio. You've heard my complainin' about all this stuff that I don't know what to do with, or where to move them. Thing is this. While I'm a technical person, when it comes to light stands, and those little "hardware" pieces, clamps, etc. I'm lost. Its like taking me down the plumbing aisle at Home Depot. I have no idea what to do with that stuff.

So, today I had my photo lesson in my studio and we solved a lot of that. J.C. (his name is Joseph Carey, by the way) showed me how to maneuver some of these equipment and hopefully it'll make me less frustrated with my studio.

One advantage of doing it at my house was the cutest subject in the world, of course. I got some great shots. I gotta admit that using the light stand for him to hold on to was JC's idea, but when it (and Hershy) fell down, I decided it looked so cute and we left it that way for a bit. I think part of my problem with composition is that I over think it. I stress out about it and the simple things right in front of you work out so well.

I also learned a bit about Adobe Lightroom, (yeah, I got lightroom finally.. Woohoohoo!!) so I'll play around with that. Going to the Lightroom event seems to have been a waste of time mostly, since I didnt have the program yet, a lot of the information went right over my head. Oh, well, I'll use a book or something.