Shooting With My New “Non-Pro” Camera

“Glassware”

I went out and bought a new camera…a Sony a6000.  It’s the 1st time in over 30 years that I used anything but Nikon as far as “small” cameras are concerned.  I’ve shot pictures with my Samsung Galaxy 5, but I still consider that a phone with the ability to shoot pictures.  I know that sounds confusing, but that’s how I feel.  I also shot with a Hassleblad and a Toyo 4×5 and a Toyo 8×10 back in “the old days”, but small always meant Nikon.  I bought the Sony as a small “run around” camera, but after seeing it had 24mp, 11 frames/second, and supposedly the fastest auto-focus of any camera, I decided to try it out in the studio.  I don’t want to turn this into a camera review…there’s a ton of those on the web, but I was very highly impressed!  I decided to shoot some still life images, and here’s how I did it.  No studio lights and no tripod.  I set the camera to manual, and hand held it at 800 iso.  For the glassware shots, I leaned on a ladder and shot the glassware as they were, on a shelf.  I’m including a shot I took of my sound system so you can see the glassware on the shelf in the upper left.  I did move the glassware forward into the shaft of sunlight coming in the window.  For the wooden kitchen utensils, I shot them as they were on my storage shelf.  I did place a cutting board behind as a background.  The peaches and toy blocks were shot on a piece of black formica on my floor in front of my large north facing window.  I put the camera on auto bracket and burst mode.  This camera fires so fast that I was sure to get something usable from each set-up.  If I was fortunate to get a couple of brackets that aligned perfectly…and I did, I could use exposure blending in PS.  The only image where I used HDR, was the 2nd glassware image, and I purposely used a “painterly” effect…not sure I like it, but thought it was worth a try.  My title refers to “Non-Pro”.  That’s really a “tongue in cheek” comment as I believe someone could shoot with the most expensive equipment available and still be a hack, while others can use anything and turn out beautiful high quality “professional” if you will, images.  I once saw Terry Richardson shoot a spread for Vogue or Harper’s using a point and shoot…so I guess there’s hope for me and my little toy camera!

“HDR Glassware”

“Bottles”

“Glassware BTS”

“Peaches BTS”

“Peaches”

“Peaches 2”

“Wooden Kitchen Utensils”

“Toy Blocks”

Thanks for looking!

 

 

Shooting With My Phone…On My One Day Vacation

“Kelley’s Island Ferry at Sunset”

It’s been one of those summers where it’s been difficult to get away on a vacation.  My wife and son suggested we go to Kelley’s Island for the day.  For those of you that aren’t familiar with the Cleveland area, there are a group of islands in Lake Erie west of Cleveland.  It’s a great place to boat, swim, fish, drink beer, hike, drink wine, site see and did I mention drink?  I wasn’t going to go, but then I thought, “what am I going to do, spend another day in front of the computer?”.  So I figured I’d go, but I wasn’t taking my camera bag with me.  If I saw anything worth shooting, I’d use my Galaxy 5 Phone camera.  I wound up shooting hundreds of shots of people, buildings, the water…practically everything I saw!  The real treat was the return trip on the ferry at sunset.  Before boarding, I got a few shots of the ferry where I shot into the setting sun.  I had to block part of the sun with my hand, and use my loupe to actually see what I had captured on my LCD screen.  Once we boarded, the sun was just above the horizon so it was easier to just sit and shoot.  The seagulls accompanied us all the way back to shore, and I was able to get them in some shots.  In the image with the 2 seagulls, the main gull in the foreground was shot by himself and later stripped into the image you see here.  Just before you get to the dock, there’s all of the rigging equipment that made for some nice silhouettes.  I did include one image of my main activity while on the island…I think you’ll be able to figure that one out!

“The Ride Back To The Mainland”

“Ferry At Sunset 2”

“Island Activities”

“Johnny Keeping Watch”

“Lake Erie Sunset”

“Lake Erie Sunset 2”

Thanks again for viewing!

 

Making The Mundane Beautiful

“Car Parts”

Earlier this summer I was contracted to shoot the website of the largest distributer of transmission parts in the world.  Most people don’t look at their car parts and marvel at how beautiful they are, but the job of a commercial photographer is to make everything they shoot as beautiful as possible.  Bob O’Neill of Stern Advertising contacted me to shoot the website of Transmaxx LLC.  We’ve done various projects together in the past and have a great working relationship!  He’s a true “artist” and his vision always seems to dovetail with mine…he’s a pleasure to work with!  We shot all of the location/people shots on day one, and on day two, we shot the still life/parts shots in my studio.  For the client, there is no boring, mundane product…this is what they do, this is how they earn a living, and that’s what I always keep in mind whenever I take on a job.  O.K., when it comes to cars, I know how to start it up, drive it, turn the wheel, put gas in it and park it when I’m done…that’s why every one of the captions will read “Car Parts”.  So now onto what I do know…shooting pictures!

“Car Parts”

“Car Parts”

“Car Parts”

“Car Parts”

“Car Parts”

“Car Parts”

Thanks for looking!  If you want to see the location shots, google Transmaxx LLC!

Lost Treasures…Found!

“Grandpa”

I was remodeling my studio last week when I came across a box of old negatives.  There were some that I have no idea why I saved them, but I did find some real treasures.  I found a couple of envelopes containing some old black & white negatives of my grandfather.  One of the images was something I had an old scan of and I did reproduce it before, but the rest were lost and all but forgotten until this past week.  My grandfather died at 97, and I believe these were taken during the last one or two years of his life…I think.  I probably shot these around 35-40 years ago.  My scanner broke, so I laid these down on a light table, shot them with my macro lens, uploaded them into Photoshop, clicked on Image>Adjustments>Invert, and had my image…sort of.  It took a lot of work using curves, levels, Topaz, and OnOne’s Perfect Photosuite 9 to get these to look like they do here, but I now have them digitally reproduced.  They were shot in his old kitchen with not very good lighting, so I brought out the drama in post processing.  The picture of me with my grandfather was shot by my mother…that is when she wasn’t explaining to him in Hungarian, what the hell I was doing there!  Somehow, my mom couldn’t get a picture of both of us in focus at the same time…if grandpa was in focus, I wasn’t and vice versa.  I took one shot of him in focus and one with me in focus and blended them together.  Thanks for taking this trip with me down memory lane!

“Weary”

“Grandpa, smoking’s not good for you!”

“I always wondered what he was thinking”

“Grandpa and his hippy grandson”

“A hard but good life”

Thanks again!

Phone Photography Phun…eh Fun

“My Wife’s Plants”

Last Winter, we upgraded our phones to the latest Samsung Galaxy smart phones.  Since then, Samsung’s come out with a newer one…so much for having the top of the line in this day and age.  My phone has 16 mega pixels whereas my old Nikon D200 has 10.  I started shooting images of the plants my wife planted around our porch.  I shot the cats, and our dog.  I shot trees and clouds, in other words, I did a lot of “snap shots”.  I did nothing with these images…they stayed right where “snap shots” belong…on my phone!  Anyhow, last week, my son and I decided to go to Edgewater Beach to see the renovation.  For all of you non-Clevelanders, Edgewater is a little to the west of Cleveland along Lake Erie.  So Johnny and I are walking around and I see a bunch of interesting shots…shots that would be great if I had only thought of bringing my camera along!  I wanted to kick myself for being so dumb, but I figured I’d shoot things with my phone…what else could I do?  It was so bright, that I couldn’t see. “Were they in focus”, “is the composition exactly what I want”…questions that don’t come up with my Nikon and my Hoodman loupe!  Anyhow, I did the best I could.  When I got to my car and could see the images, I was surprised to see that everything looked pretty good.  I went home and wound up emailing selected images to myself and then dragged them into either Lightroom or Photoshop.  I started to play and before long, I was making composite shots.  I went up to my studio and shot a picture of my own hand holding my phone.  I did that shot with my Nikon and my strobes.  I composited some of the Edgewater images with my hand holding my phone.  I also saw a young man reading at a picnic table…oblivious to all that was going on around him.  I decided to remove everything around him to convey the feeling I had when I saw him.  I also adjusted the color to give that shot a slightly more surreal feel.  I really started to have phun…I mean fun with my phone images.  I even made a cove at Edgewater into an island…I’ve included a couple of before shots so you can see the before and after.  After Edgewater, we went to a local diner for lunch.  While waiting for our food, I did what I do best…annoy my son by shooting pictures of him!  Hope you enjoy looking at all of them as much as I did in making them.

“Solitary Man”

“Solitary Man” Original

“The Island”

“The Island” Version 2

“The Island” Original

“Edgewater Girls Composite”

“Johnny At The Diner Composite”

“Cosmo On The Porch”

“Ann’s Flowers”

“One Last Plant”

Thanks for looking!

More “Barn Junk”

“The Gas Can”

I did this before…walking around in my barn and finding junk that I think would make for an interesting subject.  My wife and son went through the barn last Fall, loaded up the truck a few times and took a bunch of stuff to the junk yard, and yet there’s still more!  The idea is to take stuff, older, uglier stuff and try and create an interesting composition.  I found old paint cans, gas cans, aluminum cans to be re-cycled, wire, and some old weight-lifting equipment, although those kettlebells are more antiques than junk.  I arranged things, added some lighting, replaced the backgrounds, and touched things up in Photoshop in an effort to create “pretty, more interesting junk”.  I’m including a behind the scenes view of the lighting I used on all of these…an overhead soft light, a side light with a grid, and various reflectors for fill.  There’s even a little mirror there to add a bit of a kicker light.  Hope you like it!

“Coke Can”

“Wired”

“Lighting Behind The Scenes”

“Kettlebells”

Thanks again for looking!

 

Snapping Out Of The Winter Doldrums With A Self-Assignment

“Cosmo Chillin'”

Every time I hit a creative roadblock, which could come due to boredom, depression, or just plain creative laziness, I give myself a self-assignment.  Usually it’s going out with one lens and trying to capture something without the advantage of changing lenses to fit the situation.  This is somewhat easier nowadays with a zoom lens, but I used to do it with fixed focal length lenses years ago.  My favorite self assignment, one which I’ve done many times, is to go out in my backyard and find something interesting to shoot.  This is getting harder since I’ve been doing this for many years now…but that’s the challenge!  Since I’ve been shooting nothing but still life images the past few months, I decided to use natural light only.  One advantage is we have cats and a dog, and you can never tell when one of these guys or gals will do something interesting…you have to stay on your toes or you’ll miss something for sure.  I went outside yesterday (all of these images were captured yesterday) and decided to shoot our old stone ramp that leads up to our barn.  Sure enough, Rusty followed me up there and decided to do some “cat acrobatics”.  I shot the ramp with him and without him.  On the way back to the house, I saw my dog Cosmo just “chillin’ in the grass”.  I shot a ton of images of Cosmo and a bunch of cats, but edited them down to a couple for this blog.  When I was done, I went inside and sat down at the dinning room table to look at my results.  I looked up and noticed how the light was coming in through the door and creating some beautiful highlights and shadows.  While shooting the door, I noticed the basket of pinecones my wife put next to the door for decoration.  After a very tough winter due to illness, deaths in the family, and just a plain old nasty winter, grabbing my camera and wandering around shooting stuff like this gets me wanting to see what else is out there waiting to be captured!

“The Ramp”

“Rusty Standing On His Head”

“Basket and Pinecones”

“Old Kitchen Door”

Thanks for looking…any question, feel free to ask!

Old And “Textury”…No, It’s Not A Selfie!

“Antique Camera and Pictures”

My last blog was about using a bright color to draw the eye to an area of a photograph.  This time I’m focusing (no pun intended) on another one of my favorite elements of composition…texture.  I love lighting something in such a way as to accent any texture a subject may have.  If I’m doing a portrait of a woman, I’ll minimize the texture on the skin, while increasing it in the hair and clothing.  My favorite things to shoot are still life subjects, and my favorite still life subjects are old things.  The images I’m showing today, are a series of set-ups I did this past week.  Since I was going to use my Streamlight flashlight, I was able to set everything up in a spare bedroom.  I didn’t need a lot of space for lights etc., so all of these shots were done in a space about 5′ wide and from camera to subject it was about 8′.  Great since my studio is like an icebox right now!  I set an old piece of wood across the arms of a loveseat in the room and draped a black cloth over the back of the loveseat and tucked it behind the board.  All I needed was a tripod, camera, lens, and the flashlight.  Using the flashlight, I’m able to cross-light a subject to bring out the texture and then pull back and use a broader sweeping motion for a general fill.  You can see in the broom and dustpan shot how I was able to create a small shaft of light on the broom, something I’d have to use a snoot for if I was using strobes.  Also, let me point out that the Cleveland Browns images may not be “historically” correct.  I don’t know if they were still using leather helmets when the Cleveland Browns came into existence…this is my pre-emptive move since I’m sure someone will point out any inaccuracies in my images!  :D.  One last thing, if I look at one of my images and feel I’d like to add more texture, I use Topaz Adjust or Topaz Detail to bring out more of the texture.  Hope you enjoy this, and as always, feel free to contact me if you have any questions.

“Clean-up on Aisle 5”

“Plumbing Parts”

“More Old Baseball Stuff”

“Cleveland Browns 1”

“Cleveland Browns 2”

Thanks for checking me out!

One Main Color

“Lemon and Ice”

I love color…earthy, loud, subtle, bright, whatever!  There’s a lot of cool photography out there where the photographer uses a more “washed out” gritty look.  I love it, actually have a few shots like that on my own website, not to mention my “Monotone” gallery.  Certain styles of photography, such as photojournalism, lend themselves to black and white images…there’s a real power that comes through with the use of black and white.  I mentioned before that I learned photography by studying the great photographers that shot black and white such as Cartier-Bresson, Karsh, Newman and Eisenstaedt.  Those were my heroes!  Then I happened to see some Nikon ads featuring the work of Pete Turner, Eric Meola and Jay Maisel…color, and lot’s of it…what a life changing experience…at least when it came to my photography!  When I went to school, I learned still life shooting, and the style that I fell in love with was that of Phil Marco’s and Michael O’Neill’s…moody lighting, lots of shadows, and a splash of color!  The images I’m showing today, are still life images with just one main color.  Most of the image is pretty much monotone, but there’s that main splash of color to draw the eye to the subject.  Pretty much self-explanatory, hope you enjoy.  Oh yeah, blue is my favorite color, and the bottles also lent themselves to various compositions, so I’m including a couple of extras.

“Blue Bottles 1”

“Tomato Soup”

“Green Candies”

“Blue Bottles 2 “

“Blue Bottles 3 “

As always, thanks for looking!

 

“Happy Holidays”…Mixing My Lights

“Peace”

I’d like to start out by thanking everyone who follows what I do here.  Thanks to all of my family, friends and clients who have supported me throughout these many years, and I wish you all peace, health and happiness throughout the coming year.  Now a little explanation of how I did these images.  The “Peace Wreath” consists of four parts.  The background was shot with a blue gel on a strobe through two layers of plexi…one white, and one a dark smoked color.  Next the wreath consisted of two parts.  First, I shot just the wreath’s own lights lit for about a second.  I then used my Streamlight to light paint a version of the wreath and blended them together.  Lastly I added the word “PEACE” in Photoshop.  I also used the the clone stamp tool to add some lights and berries to even out the wreath.  The Santa is interesting.  My wife got this from our attic.  I didn’t even know we had it.  She said it was from an old department store display, probably from the 40’s or 50’s.  I used the same background technique with the blue gel, and shot the wreath and background in the same shot.  This created the silhouette with a minimal amount of light from the bulbs on the wreath.  Santa was lit using my light painting technique…around 30 seconds.  I did clone in some extra lights on the wreath since it looked pretty sparse.  I’m including all of the component images so you can see the various steps.

“Background for Wreath”

“Wreath Light Painted”

“Wreath’s Bulbs Lighted”

“Merry Christmas”

“Santa’s Background”

Once again, thanks for looking and “Happy Holidays”!