When shooting a subject in a studio or studio-like setting, ensure that there is always music playing in the background. It sets the mood and avoids awkward silences as you grapple with your equipment and test settings and light.You will get a much more relaxed shoot.
…are going up in half an hour. Just editing!
Word has reached me that Ian Fuller, a.k.a. frequent contributor “bkkphotographer” from Bangkok, has unexpectedly died. His wife confirms this from his email address, as do several friends.
This leaves me profoundly sad, and I wish his family and his other friends strength, and extend my condolences. Ian was a good man, and was just 53. As so often, it is entirely the wrong people who die too young.
I had wondered why he had gone radio silent: I had thought perhaps he was taking a vacation. Alas, the news was much, much sadder than that.
A tip for pro and emerging pro photographers, today.
Your web site is your store front. It is your chance to confirm that the good impression people have of you is justified. It is also the chance to lose that first good impression.
So for would-be pros here, today I have a few web site tips.
And with that, I leave you to go redesign your site – or hopefully, I leave you nodding “yes, I know all that”.
It is easy enough to think “there is no interest here”, “I need to be in Tahiti to take nice pictures”.
Not so. You can take nice pictures everywhere, even of boring things around the house.
Think long lens, or think Macro (in Nikon terms, “Micro”) lens, perhaps. But open your eyes, get close and fill the frame, and have fun.
Home is where you live and what you do. Twenty years from now you will look at the pictures and remember with a smile.
As a photographer you should always remember that today is tomorrow’s “those were the days”.
As a news shooter, I get into my car whenever there is a possibly significant accident or fire in the vicinity. But it is good when you fail to get a picture because the fire fails to spread, like just now.
And if the fire brigade manages to put out the chimney fire before it spreads significantly, you can afford to think “hey, that looks kind of festive, the red lights mixed with the Christmas lighting”.
So although that family needs to spend the night elsewhere because of smoke- and water-damage, the home can be fixed.
And since this is a photography blog: 3200 and 1600 ISO at f/2.8 with a 70-200 f/2.8L IS lens. That gave me shutter speeds of around 1/30th second. Which with IS is doable.
A customer (an international teaching hospital in Toronto) called me just now for a last-minute shoot (an award ceremony by the Board of Directors). Unfortunately, with a client on his way, I could not take the job.
So I called every photographer I knew in and around Toronto. Amazingly, none but two answered: most were still asleep. Few of the others called back.
The fact that no photographer was able to take a last-minute job did not surprise me. The fact most were unable to be reached, did. For those of you who want to be photographers, great news: you can get up after 9AM!
Oh and if you were not on my call list it is because I do not have your number.
The shot? It fell through, they decided without a photographer, no ceremony.
As of today, you can see and buy some of my prints (some of the nudes) at the Kodiak Gallery, in Toronto’s historic (and artistic) Distillery district. Ask Gregory Talas, the gallery’s owner, to show you my work.
I must say I highly recommend Gregory as the consummate pro. He is not just a gallery owner: he is a very experienced award-winning photographer and artist himself. And a nice guy.
So a trip to this gallery is worth it not just for my prints, but for three other reasons. One is to chat with Gregory. One is to see the distillery district – you’ll see a lot of artistic things and people, and many photographers. And the final reason is to see Gregory’s own work. For instance, his series of the Jewish ghetto in Vilnius, some of which is now being restored (post Nazi- and post Soviet-era), is outstanding.
Today is my friend Andrew “Wedge” James’s funeral. He died the other day, at the age of just 51, of cancer. Poor Wedge. At the bottom here (the long-haired guy in the background is me):
Since I cannot be in the UK for the funeral, I video’d a short (2 minute) tribute to him, to be played there today. You can see it here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XKFTNtrkwn8
Since most new cameras now do video, I thought you might want to see how I did this. I am not by inclination a video guy, but can put together a video, of course. And here’s how:
I think that while this is not as good as being there, it is a fitting way to share my recollection of Wedge. Video has its uses.
As a teacher of photography, I am struck time and time again by how difficult it is to explain camera menus to people. Canon is better than most, but all are difficult. All sorts of buttons, and different ones all the time:
To experienced users and pros, these are simple. But to novice camera users, navigating through these menus is a real challenge. Do makers of cameras not do focus groups?
Evidently not. Just look at the “wake-up” button that you need to keep pressing every few seconds when setting anything on your DSLR. Again – obvious to us, but tough for novices. Nothing tells you this!
Did you know that on a 7D, you can get the camera to default to always going to your custom menu when you press the “menu” button? Look for it under “My Menu Settings”. The function has an unintuitive name, but it’s there…
I think we need Apple to design the next DSLR User Interface.