Yes, I am still alive… No, I didn’t forget about the blog. I have been very busy lately and I haven’t really had the time to add new posts here, or maybe I’ve just been lazy. Either way, I have finally decided to get off of my back side and do something about it.

 

I have decided to finally start doing some of the creative exercises that I talked about a long time ago. I wrote down a bunch of restraints for myself and put them in a hat. These are basically self assignments to help improve my photography, creatively. The idea is that I go out with a concept or restriction and try to work within the set boundaries. You may think that limits on yourself would hinder creativity to some degree, but as I found out today, it forces you to be creative while working withing a set parameter. With that being said, on to the meat of the topic.

 

The assignment I drew out of the hat today was “Fill The Frame”. It sounds pretty easy, but when you think about it, it makes you deliberately leave things out of the photo. It makes you focus on the topic and try to tell a story without including extra elements. Unfortunately, my walk was cut short because it started to rain while I was out. I would have liked to stay out longer and visit more places, but there is always another day.

 

I wasn’t sure where I wanted to go with this. The first image is of a light fixture. I like the designs on the light and the patina on the metal. I found that I had to get right up to close to this light to get the image and fill the frame. I also had to have my aperture as low as possible to get the depth of field I was looking for. I was trying to accent the design on the side of the fixture. I had some post processing on this to straighten it out a little and bring out some more color and contrast.

 

The second image is a door on a building that caught my eye. I like the warmer colors of the stone next to the blue/green color of the door itself. The difficulty I had with this one is with the reflection. The windows are tinted and the interior of the building was dark. This basically turned the glass into mirrors. I had to try and make myself very thin to hide myself between the glass so I wouldn’t show up in the image.

 

I then basically found myself shooting textures. These are easy to fill the frame with. The third image is of a rock face that was blasted away to make room for a parking lot. I was drawn to the layers in the rock and the lines created by the drills used. There were may colors in the rock face but it was hard to find a “clean” spot without a lot of vegetation growing out of it. I had a lot of images of walls and trees and other textures. I became very bored with textures and tried to find something better.

 

The next image is my favorite of the day. I guess the idea I was going for with this image sums up my idea for this exercise. Just focus on the first step. That’s my basic thought for this process. It’s all about steps, take them one at a time and focus on the one you are on now. That’s just my thought, maybe I didn’t capture that idea, you be the judge and let me know what you think.

 

The final image is another door I saw. I thought it was interesting to have a blue door on a red building that just happens to be a church. I like the hardware on the door and the layout of the stone. I’m not sure if the image really says anything, but it fills the frame.

 

As I do these exercises, I will post some of my results from each one. I can tell you that I had to make more conscience decisions about what I was pointing my camera at not just shooting everything that caught my eye. Some of these concepts are simple and some are more challenging, but I hope they all help me improve my craft.

 

I was looking around for a larger sized light modifier than I already had and decided to give the Cheetah 47″ Octabox a try. My decision was based on previous experience with the Cheetah Stand company. As always, shipping was fast and customer service was great. I knew that I would need something a little more hefty to hold this modifier up, so I also purchased a Century Stand from them as well.

 

This is the first Octa I have ever used. I can’t talk about how other manufactures models compare to this one or how assembly differs, but I can tell you about my experience with this particular modifier. Assembly was pretty easy. You just slip the support rods into the corners of the box and install them into a speed ring. The inner baffle snap into place easily and the outer diffusion material Velcro’s in place. If you don’t have a lot of space, this is not the ideal modifier. It’s an 47″ Octa, it takes up a bit of room.

 

I played around with the Octabox using both a Canon 580EXII mounted on a Cheetah Speed Pro Bracket and an Alien Bees 1600. Both light sources worked well and gave me a large soft light source. I haven’t taken any meter readings across the face of it to see how even it is, but it works well for my needs.

 
 

The above images was taken with the Octabox to the side of subject, about three feet away, and placed so the edge of it was in front of them. There was no light spilling onto the background so I could make it go completely black. The only post work done was to remove the logo from the laptop in front of them. If I had the light a little closer and turned slightly, it would have wrapped around the face a little more, but I like a little bit of shadow.

 

The Century Stand is great. That’s all that really needs to be said about it. It’s big enough to hold large modifiers and the boom lets you hold them over the subjects head. This stand is nice and solid. It’s well built, breaks down easily, and it’s good and heavy. Just throw a few sandbags at the base when you’re flying your light over a clients head, and there should be no problems. This is just a great C-Stand. I will be taking this out for more testing this weekend so if I find anything that the stand has a problem with, I’ll let you know. I just don’t see that happening though.

 

This morning, I went out to do some location scouting for next weeks Free Portriat Session. I’m pretty confident that I have found some good areas to photograph in. Both the Rose Garden and Mohegan Park should have more than a few great set-ups.

 

After scouting, there was time to try out some bird photography techniques that I’ve been wanting to try. It was more of a “proof of concept” type trial and, I think putting them into practice will work out great. There wasn’t enough time to stay and really get set up because I had to come home so I wouldn’t miss the Creative Live class with Zack Arias.

 

I am actually watching right now. Well, they are on a thirty minute lunch break. First, I would just like to say that Zack is one of those guys I want to be more like. He teaches in a way that is easy for me to understand. Yes, he usually starts off with all of the technical stuff and repeats it often to drill it into memory but it’s never boring. Last night’s class was basically all the technical stuff and today he’s working through different setups and going over his process.

 

If you don’t know what Creative live is, you need to check it out. They basically have live broadcasts covering a variety of topics from Photography to a bunch of Adobe Products, and other creative type classes. Oh yeah, it completely FREE! If you watch the online classes, you don’t have to pay one cent. If you want to download the classes, then you have to pay. It’s not like they get a bunch of unknown instructors and put on a second class production either. There is a ton of effort in the production of each class and they get some really big name in their respective industries. It’s a great resource and I recommend that you check them out.

 

I have recently purchased a new century stand and octa-bank, so look for reviews on them coming soon. I have also ordered some other new toys, which should be arriving on Monday, so I may do reviews on that as well.

 

Since the class will be back from lunch soon, I better grab a bite to eat before it starts.

 

I’m getting ready for the upcoming Free Portrait Session I will be doing on June 19th at The Norwich Rose Garden starting at 10:00 am. I have been posting the event on a few online community calendars and telling as many people as I can. I hope to have a good turn out at this one.

 

If you plan on coming, click here for some important information regarding the event. After thinking about the location for a while, I have decided to start at the Rose Garden, and if you want to stick around for a while, I will be moving to Mohegan Park after. This will allow me to add some different backgrounds that I think will work well. I plan on leaving the end time for the event open ended. If there is a very small turn out, I will end early, and if there is a large turn out, I will stay as long as people want their portraits taken. Come down early so that we don’t miss you!

 

If you know that you want to come but might be late, send me a message through my Contact page and I will try to make sure to stay long enough for you. As I said, the event may move during the day so if you miss me at one location, I may be at the other. I hope to see you there!

 

We had our first Free Portrait Session this weekend, and nobody showed up. If at first you don’t succeed…

 

There was a concern about the weather when the day began, but as we drove to our location, the sky began to clear. We were there early to set up and it was looking like it would be a nice day. After unloading the gear and setting up, we had a while to wait.

 

The only customers we had were my sister and her family. It was fun photographing my nieces and doing some family shots. I was able to try a few different set-ups and had fun with it. The only bad thing was the heat. It was very humid out and I was roasting. Other than that, I had fun.

 

We do have another Free Portrait Session scheduled for July 19 in Norwich. I’m hoping the turnout will be better. It’s pretty bad when you can’t even give away something for free! I have to go and come up with some ways to spread the word about our next event.