mmmm...pancakes

I recently just completed my first full fledged food photography shoot. I've been shooting a bed & breakfast here in Durango called the Leland House. One of their photos needs was the yummy breakfasts that they serve up everyday. We photographed most of the rooms and the food was their last need. They asked me if I could shoot food and of course I said, "Sure!"
Yep, it was time to figure out how to shoot food. Like I learn most of my photography skills, I opened magazines, looked at ads and started figuring out the attributes of good food photos.

The night before the shoot, I pulled out my lights and a leftover pork chop and started firing test shots. Doesn't that look tasty? You know you want to eat it.

I wasn't trying to nail a Food & Wine cover here just trying to get a basic idea of flash exposure, composition & depth of field. Once I had a rough idea of what needed to happen, I packed my gear and readied for the next morning.

At 8am, I picked up Talia and we went food shopping. The kitchen finished serving breakfast at 9 and then we could set up. We set up in the dining room next to the kitchen. We used one of the dining tables, shut the curtains, and turned out the lights. I used a two light set up, both at approx 45 degrees opposing each other. Medium soft box on one strobe and umbrella on the other. Insta-studio! I had my 1Ds with a 45 TS lens tethered to my laptop which made the process so much easier. To all the photographers that did this stuff before digital, you guys were tough! It was great to be able to shoot, immediately see the shot and make changes in seconds.

Mind you, I was nervous as hell here. I never had conducted a food shoot before. There was Kelly(cook), Talia(Leland manager), and Keith(stylist). I knew this shoot could be tedious and Kelly may have to make and remake dishes. There would be applications of various chemicals to make the food look fresh. Nerves could grow thin. I felt responsible for making everything go smooth and that everyone would stay happy through the day. I was really tense!


We ended up shooting 4 setups and it took several hours. No chemicals were necessary to make the food look fresh. In the end, Talia was ecstatic with the photos, Keith had a lot of fun, Kelly only had to make dishes once and she was happy with how we made her food look. I was pretty darn psyched with the results. Not bad for an amateur food photographer. And it was a of of fun!

Rally of the Dead - Technical

Whew! This was a whirlwind project. It was totally impulse and unexpected, but very fun. It was super fun to go out and shoot unrestricted and use gels to create color rather than color correction. I'll provide a little background about the Rally of the Dead and how this all came about.

In 2006, Jon Bailey approached me to photograph all the riders of his race on top of Hogsback ridge. But in true Bailey style, he took an idea and went one step further. He arranged for a pilot to fly me around the Hogsback to get a aerial shot of all the riders. It was super fun. I got sweet shots of everyone and a few riders descending the ridge. Yes, that ridge is as steep as it looks. And the guys riding it are BOMBING it!

A couple weeks ago Jon approached me to shoot aerials again for the race. It was my first weekend off from weddings and other work projects, so I agreed. As it got closer to the Rally weekend, I thought, why not document the whole Rally of the Dead and make something out of it. On Thursday, I told Jon that I would donate my time and efforts and document the weekend. A really big smile lit up his face.

My initial idea was to shoot portraits of all of the riders and participants of the fest. I knew that everyone dressed up for the race, so that would give a character to the portraits. Once Jon knew he had a photog for the weekend, the floodgates of ideas came spewing out. He excitedly started telling me about the gala, the awards ceremony, the awards themselves, and finally bike polo tourney. I think I just bit off more than I could chew. Oh well, If your gonna commit to something, might as well give it your best shot!

THE GALA

The Rally of the Dead kicked off with the zombie gala at the Powerhouse. The Powerhouse is an old powerplant that is going to be converted to a science museum, if they can ever get the funding. As for now, it is pretty much a big, open, empty building. Great place for a party. I showed up early to assess what I needed for lighting. There were two different rooms that I wanted to be able to shoot in, the big main room where all the dancing would be and a smaller boiler room where all the awards would be displayed and a band was play gothic lounge music for people as they entered the party. Mind you, there are really no lights in this building aside from some construction pigtails and some christmas strings along the trusses. It was going to require some enhancement for sure. Strobes were the only option for this scenario.

I started in the big room. One of the big issues here was that the only power source was an outlet coming of the main circuit box on a pole outside the building. I had to share this single power source with the DJ, Reverend Phil who was screening a movie that night. (More about that later), and all the existing lights in the room. One thing I've learned about shooting events is that we all have to work together. Nobody is more important than another and we are all there to do a job, so it is easist if we all discuss our needs and try to accomodate each other. After talking to the DJ and pulling out a lot of extension cords I was able to piggyback into some of their cords and then share another cord with the projector. I think my strobes might have blown the DJs lights later in the evening but he swore that it had to be something else.

At first, I started looking at the trusses and considering the options of clamping strobes so as they would be off the floor and couldn't be knocked over by drunk partiers. They would also give a better beam of light with the additional height. Problem with that is that I setting up in the daytime. Once it was dark and I could see the actual effects of my lights, I wouldn't be able to change power levels, gels or grids. Fortunately, there was all sorts stuff stacked around the sides of the room so it would provide a natural blockade. I could set my stands behind stuff and they would be out of the way of people dancing and stumbling around. I ended up setting three strobes in a big triangle in the room.

Next was gels and grids. I thought about the feel that Jon wanted to have for the building and gala. Deep red and blue seemed like the most obvious choices. I set up one strobe on a really tall stand with a red gel and a 30 degree spot aim at the middle of the room. Another strobe on a 8' stand with a blue gel and no grid (kind of a flood). The third strobe was set up behind one of the DJs light stands with a green gel and a 40 spot aimed right at the dancing area. Once it was dark, I shot a few test shots and felt that the blue flood didn't give the right mood and kind of washed out the ambiance that Jon was trying to create.

I switched the blue and red gels, so now the red was flooding the room and the blue was a little more directed at the main floor. Something about the red flood just made the photo better, can't put my finger on it.

Oh yeah, all strobes were controlled with Pocket Wizards. It's the only way to fly!

Next, I had to light up the small room. This was a little more complex as I only had one more PW for two 550 flashes. I set these flashes on channel 2 where the strobes in the main room were on channel 1. I did this because if I was shooting in one room I didn't need the strobes of the other room going off. I put a blue gel on one of the flashes and a CTO on the other. Since I only had one PW, I had to rely on the infrared slaves of the 550s. I will never rely on the infrared slaves of the 550s ever again.

1. The slave sensors have to look directly at each other. I had the strobes clamped on to pipes in the room and trying to get the flashes to look directly at each other was a pain in the ass.
2. There was a 1/2 sec second delay between the master and the slave. So if I shot at anything faster than 1/2 sec I would only get the master flash. If I shot over 1/2 sec the blurs from ambient were off the charts.
3. If the 550s are used in that configuration, they only work in ETTL mode. Call me a control freak, but I actually like to be able to control the power of my flashes. I tried to push the power up +3 but there was no change in the output. No bueno.

I ended up bailing on the slave flash and using only the master in the room. Not super desirable, but most of the action happened in the big room anyway. This is one major reason I decided to shoot this event, so I could learn these problems while not on the clients dime. This evening was an awesome learning experience for me.

PORTRAITS

Ok, fast forward 5 hours. It's 8 am and I am a bit foggy. I gotta get down to Bailey's house where he's going to register all the riders for the race. Race starts at 10 am and I have shoot a portrait of each and every one of the 70 riders. My sweet friend Cara volunteered to be an assistant for me this morning. She showed up in style with her Marge Simpson wig on. The rule of today is keep it simple stupid...and I am stupid this morning. There was a blank stucco wall on the side of the Cyclery with a little sidewalk that made a perfect little stage. An outlet right off the side made the power issue moot. I set up a large soft box camera right and an umbrella camera left for a bit of fill, shot some test shots of Cara and it was set. I also shot this way, because it focused everything on the cyclists, their costumes and their bikes.

BTW, if it sounds like I stumbled out of bed and decided to make a plan 20 minutes before I shot that would be a little misleading. 2 days before, I sat in the alley and worked out every little aspect of how I wanted the photos to look and what I would be dealing with that morning. I can't say as it was the most technical or advanced shoot, but shooting 70 people in under an hour with some bit of creativity requires preparation to some degree.

Let's go take a plane ride!

AERIAL
I'm no expert on aerials. I know they are a lot of fun though. Like most other aspects of photography, you think you got everything set and the rules change when you show up. This shoot was from a plane. If anybody wants to hire me for an aerial shoot in a helicopter, I am available! The pilot was Andy Gresh, really cool guy and I trust him as a pilot 100%.

I'll keep this brief. I used a Canon 20D with a 70-200(1.6 factor gave me a 300mm) Since I was shooting at relative infinity I shot wide open at f/4.5 and aperature priority. That resulted in a shutter speed of 1000-2000/sec. 1000/sec is too slow for a plane, big lens and low fly bys. 2000/sec is much better. Another thing, sit high on the seat and keep the lens inside the plane. I don't care how cool your IS lens is, it ain't gonna do squat with a 100mph crosswind hitting it. If I didn't mention it before, I am totally available to do aerial assignments especially in a helicopter.

OK, I'm tired of typing and you're probably tired of reading. I could go on about the next couple of days of Rally of the Dead but it was just plain silliness. Plus you can experience it next year when the Single Speed World Championships come to town in August. We welcome you. Trust me you will have a hell of a good time. These guys throw a awesome party that will keep you guessing the whole time.

Cheers
G

Calm before the storm

I haven't really written anything lately because, well, I don't really feel like I've been doing a lot lately. The last 3 weeks has been kind of slow. I planned it that way. Come September and October I will be shooting a bunch of homes, both for architects, builders and magazines. I've got 5 weddings and it will be fall, one of the most beautiful times in our little corner of the world. Which means I'll be squeezing out lots o little shoots in the Aspens as well.

So after a few weddings and some editorial assignments, I decided to dig in and do a lot of long needed maintenance on my office, computers, equipment, brain and so on. I hate it. Maintenance is the most boring tedious stuff in the world! But...it has to be done. Because if it isn't, I get shut down right in the middle of the most important jobs. I get stressed out, grumpy and nobody wins.

I also took an opportunity to enjoy a little of the place that I live in, Durango. The water on the river has been gin clear and the fishing has been selective but fun. The trails are dry and in great condition. The mornings have still been cool enough to get in a spin on the road bike. The work I've been doing over the last few weeks allows and demands that I get outside to work off some of that technological drudgery.

But now I feel good and prepared. Fortunately, I got my stuff together because one of my clients contacted me this morning and notified me that our shoot for next week just got rolled forward to this Thursday. Here it goes!

I hope to have some more photographic discussions in the next few weeks. It should be a delightful blend of "Check out this cool photo" and "now, why do people have to be like that?" Either way, I'm looking forward to the future and all it holds. Should be fun!

Cheers

Constant unemployment

For a guy who hates looking for a job, I sure did pick the wrong profession.

My friend Ryan can sit down at any moment and tell me how much money he will have at any point in his life. Part of me hates him and is very envious of his excruciatingly thorough planning of his life. Part of me couldn't stand to be in his shoes for 10 seconds. You see, Ryan is OCD and I am...well, ADD. We make quite a pair. Ryan picked a profession where he could work in a system that is very regulated and he knows what is expected of him, when he needs to go to work, when he gets a vacation. Ryan is a high school teacher. I wouldn't want his job if I was held at gunpoint. BUT...he has security. That is one thing that I dream of like eating a dark fudge sundae on a beach in Fiji.

Me?

One day, I'm looking to be wealthier than I ever imagined and the next I'm wondering how I will be able to pay any of my bills. I might wake at 4 am or 10 am. Next month I may be shooting in my hometown and riding my bike every evening or flying all over the country shooting jobs. Like most photographers, I live a life of uncertainty. Whether it be what I will be shooting, where I will be traveling, when I will get a day off, when I will get a day shooting...it's all fairly uncertain. Just when things are good and we think we can relax, just do our job for a while and not worry about hunting for the next client, another photographer is knocking on the door trying to get our jobs. Just like we did to get where we are. Pretty crazy business we are in.

But something about that uncertainty is the driving force behind many photographers. We thrive on that uncertainty. We take enormous risks, both emotional and financial, to fulfill ambitions and dreams that others can't quite understand. Is it part of the business plan? Not always. But we feed on instinct and intuition which can't be measured. It's a hunch. It's like when we make a mistake and get that result that we never expected. It puts a big grin on our face that has everyone questioning and all of the sudden we are thrust into a totally new direction of creativity. It's in our wiring to keep exploring an inner realm that is always scratching to get out. And when it happens, it's magical.

Granted, we have to market what we create and that is what puts food on the table. Even then, we are putting our souls on sale. We expose our vulnerability to the world and pray that it will be accepted. It may be accepted and it may be denied. But no matter what the outcome, the next morning we wake up and we have to figure out how to create something new, something better.

We get to look for another job.

OK, enough about you...let's talk about ME

Instead of diving into camera, photo industry shop talk, I thought I would talk a little about myself. Contrary to my post title, I have a very modest ego. I do what I do, because I love what I do. The dream of being a glamorous world famous photographer left me years ago. Hopefully this blog will allow me to share my ideas, techniques and problems with others. I learned photography by looking at what others produced and then analyzing how they did it. Simple problem solving. I guess that's what I love about photography is the opportunity to solve problems. So here we go!

I started my photographic journey when I was in college. I was going on all sorts of journeys around the American southwest. When I came home and tried to tell my friends and family of all the cool things that we did and saw, I never could really convey how cool it really was. That's because I'm pretty much a crappy storyteller. Half the time I can't remember half the details that make a story meaningful. Either way, being a visually stimulated person, I thought a camera would be a cool way to show our journeys. And a career was born.

I bought a Canon A2 with some sort of zoom lens and started shooting... a lot of bad photos. I actually picked up photo books and read all I could about the basics of photography. That was the technical side of my education. Each evening, I would go to the library and pour over National Geos and study photography. That was more the aesthetic side of my education. I dissected images to determine how the photo was made. I then would go out and try to replicate photos that I admired. That has been my method of education to this day.

If you've gotten this far, you've been to my site and see what kind of work I do. The outdoor stuff is what I've been doing from day one. I love it, but I will admit that I have stepped back from it a bit in the last few years. I found that work and play became one. Every time I went out for a bike ride or hike, I was toting cameras to get the shot and I never really took time off from my job. I pulled back from the outdoor photography and concentrated more on architecture and now environmental portraiture. Architecture is something I have always loved. I actually wanted to be an architect when I was in high school, but I never followed through with that dream. Now I am blessed to have the opportunity to visit and work in very cool homes and see all forms of architecture. The portraiture is exciting because I get to meet all sorts of people and visit new different locations. Then I get the opportunity to visually connect people with their surroundings or environments. I haven't let go of outdoor photography. I have a feeling that a new exciting project is not to far off. That's the beauty of photography. We get to shoot what we want to shoot when we want to shoot it. I'm really pretty lucky.

Yes, I love to ride bikes. I've been riding a bike since I was 2? All I know, is as long as I can remember, my butt's been one with a bike seat. My dad used to yell at me when I was young and my grades were bad. He would ask, "What are you gonna do? Ride your bike up and down the street all your life?" Yep. I'm still riding my bike up and down the street. Sorry dad, I love cycling. It's the one place in the world that nobody can tell me what to do and how to do it. It's the one place where I can really, truly be myself and I'm absolutely in my realm. I love it.

Well, that's about all for now. I guess I could go on, but readers would probably get bored. If you've made it this far, I thank you for taking an interest in me and what I do. I'm excited to post stories of my shoots, my trials, my business, my failures and successes. It is my turn to contribute my experience and hopefully others will benefit in some way.

Cheers

Yes...I now have a blog

Here is my introductory blog entry.