First "Strobist" style outing

Many of you know that I'm a fan of Strobist, David Hobby's website dedicated to off-camera lighting techniques. In the past year, I have pulled together a modest collection of off-camera lighting equipment. I added two more flashes to the SB-600 I already had, I got two Cybersync receivers and a trigger. I got an umbrella and stand. I got some Justin clamps (love love love them) A couple of weeks ago, I ordered some gels, and they showed up Friday, just in time for Hadley's dance recital last Saturday at Arend Arts Center.

AAC is probably just like other fine arts venues of its caliber in terms of available light. It's dark. Even when the lights are up, it's dark. From last year's experience, I knew that I would be shooting at ISO 800 or above (yuck). I also knew that I'd be very limited with lens choices (I actually used every lens in the bag at some point, but the only fast lens I have is my 50mm 1.8). I knew that I was going to be catching action shots at about f5.6, and so I'd need either a high ISO or some light. A few days before the event, I got permission to hang some flashes in the little alcoves off the staircases leading up to the catwalk. I forget what these alcoves are called, but they are basically little closets where lights are hung. I was able to Justin clamp a flash to the rail in each alcove. I just wanted to color the light a little bit and use it as fill. I gelled each flash with a half-cut of CTO, and set the zoom for 50mm. Each flash was set on 1/2 power. (I later changed that and used full power, and next time I'll probably do that in conjunction with full cut CTO and a further zoom. Hell, might as well use all the light, huh?)

I learned a few lessons, some of which are worth thinking about even if you're not doing off-camera flash:

1. Use Exposure Compensation. The use of exposure compensation should not be overlooked. It's quick, it doesn't change your aperture or shutter speed, and you probably don't have to take you eye away from the viewfinder to do it. I knew this. Lots of stuff in McNally's new book about it. I forgot about it anyway until I was processing the images in Lightroom later that day. Idiot.

2. Bring a Flashlight. The lights in the stairwell up to the catwalk that were on when I was hanging my lights? Those went off during the rehearsal. I didn't think about that. If you're going to have to access stuff in dark places, bring a little flashlight or pen light or something, JICYFU (golfers who are familiar with the George Lucas (not the Star Wars George Lucas) tour yardage books will recognize the acronym for Just In Case You [Mess] Up). Or just in case you change your mind and want to change your flash settings. Sure makes the whole wireless i-TTL stuff seem very attractive.

3. Batteries Will Go Dead. When I couldn't figure out why my lights wouldn't trigger, I got worried. Turns out I had a dead transmitter battery. The receivers take AA. The transmitter takes a battery about the size of a quarter, so it's not like I could run to the corner C-Store. Nope. Had to go to Radio Shack.

Back to #2. A flashlight is also helpful JICYRFU (where the R stands for "Really"). Seriously, how hard can it be to check batteries in radio triggers? I mean, hell, you charge or change your flash batteries, right? One thing I hate about the first generation of Cybersync triggers is the test button sticks out too far and has a tendency to get pressed and then the thing stays on for an hour at a time, and if the triggers are in a case or bag or whatever, they have a tendency to get pushed more than you think, which drains the batteries. I had to replace batteries in one of the receivers in mid-rehearsal. And the stairwell was pitch black and I had a hard time finding the stairs, scraped my leg coming down, etc. So, take the batteries out of things you're not using all the time, check them before any extended use, and make sure you have spares of everything in your bag. Simple, right? Idiot.

4. Find a Different Place to Shoot. In The Moment it Clicks, McNally says to put your camera in a unique place, or words to that effect.  The point is to get your camera in a place that will enable you to take a unique shot. Unique from what? I suppose one answer is unique from other shots of the same subject. In McNally's case, that was up on the radio towers at the Empire State Building. In The Hot Shoe Diaries, it's dangling down in front of a fire truck. I think it also means putting your camera where everybody else's isn't. At the dress rehearsal, folks were just wondering around the auditorium taking pictures. When their kids were on stage, folks were crowding the stage. With my 70-300 I had a little more reach than most people (except for the guy with the Nikkor 400mm 2.8 in the back). I wanted to get closer. I wanted to get right in the middle of it. So, I hit the side curtains at stage right and got some closer pics. It's a shame that I didn't figure this out until the finale when everyone was on stage, because then I figured out that you could get behind the dancers and get cool shots pointing out into the audience with the flood lights shining down (but then I also caught my flashes triggering in the image--which was easy to fix by turning off the transmitter, and highlights from the stage floor reflections). Sometimes you can get away with this, sometimes you can't. Ultimately, the studio director came up to me to make sure that I was a dance dad and not some stalker. So, you can clear this sort of stuff before hand, or you can take a chance by not asking, just don't be really obvious about it.

5. Noise Reduction Software is Your Friend. Fast glass is very important to shooting in this type of venue, unless you have a new D300, D700 or D3 that has phenomenal high ISO performance. Older cameras will give you some noise. I start getting some noise at ISO 800, particularly against a dark background like I had for many of my shots. I downloaded a trial of Neat Image and I really like it. Other good choices are Noise Ninja and Noiseware. I'll check the others, but I was impressed by what I saw from Neat Image. I think NR software can really make a difference. Here's an example of a shot that would really benefit from some noise reduction. The demo of Neat Image will only treat an image 1024 pixels x 1024 pixels or smaller, so I resized this picture and ran it through the Neat Image processor with good results. This shot has a little noise reduction applied in Lightroom, but it really had little effect.

So there. It's been a month since my last confession post. I'm done for a while. But here's what's coming. In a few weeks, the girls are going to California and I'm going hiking. I'm going to hit up some of the waterfalls near the Buffalo River, and then probably some hiking near White Rock. Also, if things go according to plan, I may get to spend a few hours at Yosemite in July. So I'm hoping that the next few posts will have tons of photographs. Stay tuned.

Art Experience: Epilogue

Last Saturday night was the Art Experience gig. The whole day was a blur, and between that and a crazy day Sunday, I’ve managed to pelt myself with a bunch of random thoughts about my “coming out party” (as Judi Harrison called it). Time to clear my head and make some sense of it.

Picking the pieces for the show was easy. I knew that there would be at least one other photog at the show, and that she did mostly portraiture. I am more in to what I call “situational portraiture”–capturing the world around us and the people in it. I guess you could call it street photography or photojournalism or whatever, but that doesn’t really capture the nature photography part of what I like to do. Picking the sizes and framing options was excruciating. I wanted to be sure to have a lot of options. I settled on 4 nature pieces that were 10x15, linen textured, mounted on 2mm styrene, but not matted or framed; 2 pieces at 11x14 that were linen textured and mounted on 3/4" foam standout (similar to gatorfoam) ready for hanging; a 16x14 on 3/4" standout; the Zoom Zoom picture on a 20x30 gallery wrap canvas; the Warhol’s Chevy prints mounted on double-weight matboard, matted with white acid-free mats, and framed in flat black frames (I forget the dimensions); the three Faces of Hollywood prints 8x8 in large, brushed nickel frames with ivory matboards (again, I forget the dimensions); and 2 5x7's matted and framed. I ordered about half the photographs from Mpix and half from White House Custom Color (which I love for their standouts and textures). I ordered the two 5x7's from Mpix and tried their custom framing. I was pleased. Their frame selection is not too shabby and their turn around time is pretty quick, too. I had the rest of the framing done at Hobby Lobby. I picked the pre-fab frames (not the open-back ones) and the mats (they have surprisingly few acid-free boards on hand), they did the assembly. They messed up one of the Warhols, but they fixed it and they turned out quite nice. This being my first show, and with the economy being iffy, I didn’t want to invest a lot of money in framing.

Set up was Saturday from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. I got there about 10:00, thinking I’d be finished in about an hour. Ha. I walked out about 1:15 after two trips to Wal-Mart to get more table top easels. (A hint–those cheap little plate easels? They suck. Get the easels that have the flat horizontal cross-bar to put a picture on. Trust me.) One thing I was worried about was lighting. Once I got set up I knew I needed more light than what was going to be in the room. Fortunately, I was lined up on a wall with a 4-way outlet, so I brought a couple of lamps from the house and put them on either end of the front table. There was also a pillar out in front of the table with a 4-way outlet at the end of a conduit from the ceiling. I took a work light with a clamp and aluminum reflector and plugged it in and clamped it up about 7 feet up, pointed down onto the display. Rock and roll.

Showtime was 6:00 p.m. I had a ton of traffic, and met lots of fun people. It was really gratifying to share the stories behind the photographs with people who seemed genuinely interested to hear them. Being situated about 25 feet from the main bar didn’t hurt, either. At the end of the evening, I sold 4 pieces, gave out a lot of cards, answered a bunch of questions, gave out blog and flickr page addresses, was asked questions about what I had in my collection dealing with sustainability (I have obviously ignored my prior interest in stock photography–gotta fix that). I had no expectations, and came away with a wealth of information on the process of showing art. It was a great party.

I have a lot of people to thank. I’ll just go in order. First, I have to thank Judi Harrison for believing in me and my work. Were it not for her, I never would have known about this event. More than that, Judi is the person who pitched me to Jennifer Koon, the artist coordinator for Art Experience. Judi is a dear, dear friend and a wonderful artist in her own right, and she gently nudged (ok, shoved) me out of my comfort zone and into the semi-public eye. Next, I owe a big thanks to Jennifer Koon and the Art Experience committee people for taking a chance on me. I was up front in telling Jennifer that I had never done a show before and that I had no clue what to do. Undaunted, Jennifer invited me to be a presenting “artist with collection.” Jennifer and the Art Experience volunteers were at the artists’ disposal during setup. Really, a first-rate group of people to work with. Rex and Dalas Warr loaned me the easels I needed, without which I would have really been in a panic. Beth Cook at B La Rue loaned me some glass blocks and shelves to elevate things on the table and added a little personality to my tables. Many of you have offered your congratulations, encouragement and suggestions about what to show, and I greatly appreciate the input, support and encouragement you have given me; I have the greatest friends! Finally, and most importantly, my wife Julie has really been amazing about this whole project. In the early weeks, I had a lot of late nights trying to figure things out, and that meant many mornings of not getting up and hanging out with her (or just plain not getting up). She’s been very supportive and encouraging, which for me is very fulfilling. Despite having every right in the world, she has not complained at all about all the time and wheel-spinning I’ve spent on this endeavor. What else can I say? Thanks, babe.

After I hang up some of the remaining pieces on the walls around the house, I need to find a couple of galleries to hang some stuff in. Beth Cook has offered to let me hang some things in B La Rue, which I should have up in time for Art Walk. One of the artists suggested I look into Poor Richard's in Rogers, so the next time I’m down that way I’ll go look. Of course, now I need new material. Time to get out and shoot.

Two Chairs on Dock

We went to my cousin's cabin to celebrate my aunt's 70th birthday. In front of the cabin is a large pond with a dock. When the kids finished fishing, these chairs were left.

Warhol's Chevy

Here's a triptych I'm doing for Art Experience.

My First Show!

I am pleased to announce that I have been asked to be one of 15 artists presenting work for sale at the Walnut Farm Montessori's "Art Experience" fund raiser at Bentonville Plaza on April 18th. I'm so stoked it's not even funny. Many thanks to Judi Harrison for getting me in the door (Judi will also be a presenting artist and whose work I adore). I get to keep 75% of anything I sell. I haven't ever thought about really selling anything. I don't really even know what to do.

A big thanks to all of you who have encouraged me, complimented me, and taught me (whether or not you knew it), because you have played a part in this as well.

Since this show is supposed to be for artists with collection, I guess I need to put together a collection. Suggestions would be deeply appreciated.

Great Guest Blog over at Kelby Training

As I have mentioned previously, I am a fan of Zack Arias, an Atlanta-based photographer. Scott Kelby invited him to be a guest blogger over at his website. Instead of a boring routine ol' blog post (ahem!), he made a video. Those of you who know me will recognize the common thread of fathers with bad medical conditions (you know it had to be something other than the photography, because I'm not even in Zack's universe when it comes to photography). The timing of my seeing this is somewhat ironic, given that Dad's birthday would have been tomorrow.

Things You Can Do in Your Living Room

Who needs a studio?















For this shot, I hung a fluffy, deep-red blanket from the top of our TV armoir in the living room (anchored it with Julie's dumbbells, actually), stuck a small stool a few feet in front of it, and my daughter, ham that she is, took center stage while I set up the lights. At camera right is a speedlight about 7-feet high into a reflective umbrella (probably about 1/2 power), and at camera left is another speedlight through a Stofen Omnibounce at about 1/8th or 1/4. I don't remember the exact settings and didn't write them down. Flashes were triggered by Cybersync triggers.