In a world of so many great photographers and writers, I am venturing into some unknown territories, leaving comfort zones, finally very willing to practice the art of seeing. By maintaining the practice of posting daily photos, I hope to continue learning about the possibilities that I trust are out there for the taking.
Sometime a little over a year ago I wanted to learn more about my camera. I’d been reading that in order to really be present and creative one needs to know and drive their camera like they’d drive a stick shift car (without thought of each and every action). I didn’t know who could teach me. After searching online for a somewhat local teacher I found Kevin’s website.
I drove the hour and a half to somewhere in Riverside and met with Kevin for over 4 hours. I enjoyed what I learned so much I went back again for some more instruction, but this time with my intimidating lighting equipment.
Kevin’s words to me where, “Learn to shoot in manual.” I was intimidated by his suggestion as that meant I had to think, I was going to be in control of what the camera did.
A year and much practice later, yesterday I was so relaxed and very excited realizing that I understood and knew much of what Kevin was going over in his class. I drove home feeling much more confident in my ability and comprehension of the hows and whys related to my camera and photographing.
I spent a lot of time shooting Caitlin, one of the 6 other students. I was fascinated with Caitlin. She didn’t seem to mind me shooting her. So I kept shooting her as she was listening to Kevin teach. Caitlin is young and seems to know who she is and what she likes. How does that happen at such a young age? Somethings Caitlin doesn’t like are rules (in photography:-) She doesn’t seem to have a bit of fear of trying this and that. She’s obviously quite creative and curious and, unlike me, doesn’t have a fear of making a mistake and worrying what others will think. She impressed the hell out of me. I just kept shooting her and loved every minute of it.
Seventeen year old Caitlin was one of my classmates during the Learn Your Camera Canon Camera Class I attended in Anaheim for 4 hours yesterday.
Here is a link to more photos I shot before and during the class. There was so much going on at the park yesterday. Two baseball fields had tournament games going on and the park was alive with parents and kids.
Bearbait. Was obsessed with photographing my friends' son this past weekend.
Classic pose.
Get crazy pose.
Only Stacy would give her dog a lion cut for the Jacob gathering!
Jim and Stacy - kids at heart.
Showing me what the Rock Show the family would be having tonight.
Ray is away in Santa Barbara. Melissa and I made a date to go to Salvation Mountain to shoot after she got off work. I had a blast. Melissa loves shooting as much as I do. I never had to worry that she’d get bored/impatient and want to leave early.
Need more than 4 hours shooting here!
Best place ever for great backgrounds in your photos. Melissa giving me her naughty look.
Melissa has a great eye for photography. Now we need to find her a good camera.
The sun setting, way too fast.
I’m getting ready to leave early Thursday morning for the 7 – 8 hour drive to Concord. Part of getting ready is making sure all my lighting equipment is working and I have all the parts for the many different groupings of photos I’ll be shooting at the 3 day Quinquinennial Legacy Weekend I’ll be attending with approximately 250 other women. I’m headed off to bed with all the lighting equipment still set up in the living room. One of the 580 EX II Speedlites, triggered by Pocket Wizards, doesn’t fire every time. The flash settings, on manual, are set exactly the same as the other Speedlite/Pocket Wizard setup which fires every time.
I was my own subject while practicing with the two off camera flash units shooting through 60\
I had so much fun learning to shoot at night. I went back to my room long after all the other workshop participants went back to their rooms.
The night we shot it was a full moon. The moon light on the falls was brilliant. Moose gave up some settings for the night shoot.
The first thing he told us was to turn our cameras to manual focus and then set our lenses to infinity….. before we went out at night, as it’s difficult to see to set the lens at infinity in the dark. (Other photographers don’t take to using a flashlight to check camera settings as it ruins their timed exposures:-) We used gaffer tape to secure the lens setting at infinity for this evening shoot.
We used a tripod and shutter release cable.
Dialed down the temperature (using custom) to 10,000 K in the white balance menu.
Settings:
1600 ISO to start (increasing it if necessary)
2.8 aperture
6 second exposure
I haven’t spent any time on the workshop photos since I’ve been preoccupied with changing web hosts and switching from PC to Mac. Learning curves galore.
Upper and lower Yosemite Falls.
I found an X while enjoying the peace and night quiet of this incredible moonlit night.
My stepson Josh and his bride of one year, Amanda, being willing and patient models in WhiteStone, VA where we celebrated Thanksgiving.
Haven’t even uploaded most of the other photos I took while with my family over the holidays. I did get much needed/wanted photos of Lane and Nicole too.
I spent last night on the workflow of photos I took (Stacy let me be the still photographer and will list me as such in the credits!) over a four hour period during filming of Mimimize Me.
I loved being a still photographer and feel very grateful for the opportunity to learn so much in a very friendly environment. Stacy was born to be a videographer. And now I’m thinking I was born to be a photographer. Maybe someday soon I can make some money shooting for money to support my expensive hobby. I’m looking at a lens (only looking LR) at a lens that costs $11,000!
Here is the link on my Smugmug Portfolio if your interested in viewing the photos.
On the heels of the recent blog entry on Life is Short, I find this on a wall in Stacy's home while shooting.
By the way, December 4th, I will be celebrating 2 years having had no sugar and no white flour products! So no eating cookies for me over Thanksgiving.
I’ve decided to shake things up a bit. I always complain about not having enough time to do what I want to do. I don’t work and I still can’t find time. So……….
I’ve claimed Tuesdays as NO Calls Day. Tuesdays I’m not scheduling anything other than what I want to do. It was scary to claim this day but I did it.
Yesterday I did something for myself. I didn’t go to my regular Monday night meeting. Instead I drove to the Corona Library two hours away and attended a SmugMug Meetup lecture by Scott Robert Lim on Fashion Photography with Portable Lighting. So glad I didn’t miss it. He is one hell of an educator and photographer.
He gave a large discount to us and I purchased some of his lighting gear and spent much of today becoming familiar with it.
Determined to learn lighting, I'm practicing on myself. I'm holding the strobe stick/umbrella set up with my left hand. Camera, set to 2 second self timing, is on a tripod in front of me.
Testing SRs scottrobertstudio.com Deluxe Radio Trigger Package and a 33 inch umbrella on a Strobe Stick.
More testing. Ray smiling for the camera even after I made him stand in this pose too long.
After shooting the previous shots, while walking back to our condo (400 yards away) I got Ray to pose for 3 shots before he resumed putting.
Here is the stick/umbrella combo.
