Based on the SEO optimization project Rosh Sillars is doing for his Rosh.com website I am starting my own link exchange page. If you want to trade links email me at linkx@actionstills.com Please place a link to Cincinnati Photographer that links back to www.actionstills.com on your site and I will add your link the Link Exchanges page.
If you read the post Help me decide which one, the winner was “A” by a slim margin of just one vote. So here is the winning photo…
I caught up with Dan at the OTR Summer Celebration and made this portrait over on Jackson Street.
Dan Reid, lives in Over-the-Rhine, is a sys admin, designer, cyclist. Has been riding and wrenching on bikes since elementary school. Latest cycling obsession is building bikes from the ground up and someday would like to get into frame building.
The bike – a Surly Steamroller, built in my living room over the past fall/winter. Tried to keep it classic looking and a bike that would last forever. Wheel-set is a custom built set of Mavic Open Pro’s laced to Phil Wood hubs. Phil Wood BB, IRC cranks, Chris King headset, Brooks B17 saddle and various other bits in between.
Dan is also one of the founding members of #CycleCincy.
This post also appears on the #CyclceCincy website were you can find out more about the #CycleCincy project and Cycling in the Greater Cincinnati area.
I shot a portrait of Dan for the #CycleCincy project yesterday and have narrowed it down to 2 shots below, A and B. I can’t decide which one I like better, so I need your help deciding on which one to go with. Use the poll to vote and leave any comments about why you like the one you like in the comments section. I’ll leave the voting open until Friday and will announce the results by Monday.
Click each image to see a bigger version.
A
B
When you’re shooting the only thing you should be concerned with is getting the shot, safely of course. Nothing else matters,your comfort is pretty much irrelevant. It’s cold out, so what. It’s hot, raining, snowing, so what. You’ve been hired to get the shot the client needs, they don’t really care that you don’t like to sweat, or that your fingers are numb from the cold. They are paying you to do a job, not make excuses for why you can’t do on schedule.
If you’re not a professional and you weren’t hired to get the shoot that doesn’t let you off the hook either. You may not have a paying client to keep happy or a deadline to meet, but you should still be going out and shooting even if the current conditions are less than ideal. Like I’ve said before, even if the weather isn’t picture perfect there are still a lot of great opportunities to shoot and you can use adverse weather to your advantage in creating an image, it can add a feeling or mood that you wouldn’t get on a nice sunny day. And if your about to use the “it’s not good for my gear” excuse, stop reading this and go read this post first.
You may have to get down in the mud, or snow to get the angle and composition for the shot, you may have to stand on a ladder, or lay flat on your back and shot straight up. Things like this are no reason not to shoot. Kneeling, squatting, bending over, leaning, etc. are all things that can be uncomfortable, especially if you have to do them for extended periods of time. If that’s what it is going to take to get the shot, then do it.
If you know the shot you need to get is going to require doing things that are not physically comfortable, there are things you can do to make it easier on yourself. If the ground is muddy or wet put down a tarp or plastic from a roll like this. Don’t want to lay on hot asphalt or gravel, you can use Anti-fatigue mats, or just fold an old blanket and use it, or a yoga mat, there are tons of thing that would work for this. If it’s cold out you can get some hand warmers from almost any sporting goods store, or store with a sporting goods departments, they even make them to go in your feet. Gotta stand on a ladder, get a platform that fits your ladder, just make sure it’s rated to hold people and not tools. Working some where up high and your afraid of heights, get a safety harness and lanyard, you can probably find a local tool rental store and rent it by the day when you need it.
The only way the weather is a legitimate excuse is if you need a certain type of weather for the shot and what you have is the exact opposite of that. Safety should always be a top priority, so if there’s lightning, hail, or the wind is up-rooting trees or creating a hazardous condition that could get someone hurt or killed , then you simply don’t shoot. No shot, no schedule, or amount of money is worth getting yourself or someone else injured or worse.
The important thing to remember is that there is a big difference between uncomfortable and unsafe! It’s uncomfortable to lay in a mud puddle and shoot, but it’s unsafe to stand on the top of the railing on a bridge. Being uncomfortable is just that and doesn’t carry any long-term or permanent effects. Being unsafe can lead to a lot more than just being uncomfortable, and can have long-term and permanent effects. Always worry about being safe but don’t worry about being comfortable.
Sometimes a photo isn’t just worth 1000 words…
Posted: April 11, 2011 in General Info, Tips and TricksSometimes it’s worth thousands of dollars or more. When a photograph is of a cherished moment in your life it’s worth at least a thousand words, it tells the story of what was happening and how you felt at the time. When a photograph is used for marketing it’s not just worth a thousand words, its worth thousands or even ten of thousands of dollars. Scratching your head trying to figure out how and why photos are worth that much?
When a client has hired you to shoot something for them that is going to be used to sell their product or service what you deliver has value well beyond just what you charged for the shoot. If a client has developed an idea for an ad campaign for their product or service they are betting on that campaign to generate revenues that are several times what it cost them to put it together. The cost of an advertising campaign will vary depending on the size of the company and whether the campaign is local national or international. A small to medium-sized local business may only spend a few thousand dollars on a campaign will a large international company may spend millions of dollars on a campaign.
Even if you’re not shooting something for a major ad campaign the shots can still be worth thousands of dollars to the client. The shots may even be intended to sell just one item, one time. If you are shooting real estate for the listing agent , those shots are only ever going to be used to sell that one piece of property and most likely only one time. The same thing applies if you are shooting cars for a dealer to use on their website, they’re only going to sell that car once.
Whether you have been hired to shoot the whole campaign or just a small part of it your fees are only a small part of the cost of the project. The client hired you to shoot it instead of doing it themselves with a point and shoot because they know the need high quality professional photos. So remember even if you only charged a few hundred bucks to shoot it, it still needs to look like a million when the client sees it.
if you do your wasting it.
So you went out and spent a ton-O-money on photography gear and it never leaves the house. Why, because you’re afraid that it might get dust or dirt on it, or even worse yet it might get wet?
If you answered yes to that question you need to do one of two things;
- Get over it, and fast, or
- Put it all up for sale on eBay or Craigslist
What do I mean by that you ask? Even the least expensive DSLR with a standard kit lens probably cost you $500, plus what ever accessories and gadgets you bought with it. And what do you do with it treat it like a classic car, only taking it out on days with perfect weather? You bought a DSLR or high-end point and shoot because you wanted better pictures than what your cell phone would take right, so why aren’t you using it?
If you are coddling your gear and only taking it on those perfect days you are missing out on using it for exactly what you bought it for. Even if the weather isn’t picture perfect there are still a lot of great opportunities to shoot. Sometimes you can use adverse weather to your advantage in creating an image, it can add a feeling or mood that you wouldn’t get on a nice sunny day.
Unless you bought the prototype from the manufacturer, even the least expensive consume grade DSLR’s and lenses can handle some minimal exposure to the elements. I wouldn’t take an entry-level DSLR out in a hurricane or a sand storm unprotected, but going out in snow, light drizzle or a little wind isn’t going to hurt it. And if it’s a little worse than that or you just have to protect it, those plastic grocery bags you get at the store make great covers in a pinch, and they’re cheap.
So just because it’s not a perfect day out don’t sit there on the couch, go out and shoot, you’ll be surprised at the great shoots you’ll get. And remember your gear can handle more than you think it can.
Here is a list of the art shows I am applying to for 2011. Most are local, but this year I have decided to extend my range a little bit and apply to some in Dayton and Columbus Ohio and one in Columbus Indiana.
A Fair of the Arts —Saturday, September 24th, 2011
Art on the Commons —Sunday, August 14th, 2011
Columbus Artfest —Saturday, August 27th, 2011
Go OTR Summer Celebration —Saturday, May 21st, 2011
Hyde Park Art Show —Sunday, October 2nd, 2011
Lexington Art & Craft Show —November 19th – 20th 2011
Mariemont Art Fair —Sunday, September 11th, 2011
Mason Arts Festival —Sunday, September 18th, 2011
Upper Arlington Labor Day Arts Festival —Monday, September 5th, 2011
Village Green Fine Art Fair —Saturday, June 18th, 2011
Warren County Art Fair —Saturday, June 25th, 2011
Winter Fair —November 25th—27th 2011
Wyoming Art Show —Sunday, May 15th, 2011
Almost all of these shows are juried so I have to wait apply and be accepted. I will post updates once I find out which ones I get accepted to.
Anyone can take a good picture when the right circumstances happen. Or, if they push the shutter button a couple of dozen times in a row, at least one shot is bound to turn out good. This, however, does not make one a professional photographer. Having an expensive Digital SLR and expensive lenses does not make one a professional photographer. Having a lot of gear does not make one a professional photographer.
A professional photographer can make the right circumstances happen when they need them to. A professional photographer knows when to press the shutter button to get the great shots. A professional photographer will have the right gear for the job not just a bag full of cool gadgets.
When you are looking to hire a professional photographer, you should ask them about their experience, not their education. A degree in photography means about as much as a degree in basket weaving. There are many successful and talented photographers who never took a photography class in their life. Many photographers have degrees that have nothing to do with photography. Photography is as much about art as it is about science, a class can teach you about all of the science of photography, but it can’t teach you to be an artist, to be creative.
When you interview a photographer that you want to hire for a potential job, they should be asking you as many questions as you are asking them. You should be asking them about their experience and what they are going to do to produce the results you want. They should be asking you about what you want and for details about it. A professional photographer should be able to offer ideas and insights on how to achieve the results you are looking for. They should also be able to offer alternative methods to do things that are impractical or overly expensive.
The things you really should not ask the photographer you are interested in hiring, and why shouldn’t you ask about them? You shouldn’t ask, because you shouldn’t care, these are all thing that will be different from photographer to photographer. You shouldn’t ask about what kind of camera they have. You shouldn’t ask them what brand of lights they use. You shouldn’t ask them about their work flow, how they process their images or what software suite they are using. What you should care about are the results they can produce not the gear they use to do it.
When you are interviewing the photographer for a potential job these are the kinds of questions that you should be asking. Do you have general liability insurance, can you provide copies of the certificate of insurance? If a critical piece of equipment fails during the shoot do you have a backup equipment available? Do you have contingency plan if something happens to you and you can’t make it (i.e. get sick), what is it? These are the questions where you can separate the weekend warriors and hobbyist from the professionals. The answer to all of these questions should be yes, if they aren’t then you should consider moving on to the next photographer on the list.
General liability insurance is necessary in case there is an accident (i.e. someone trips on a power cord, falls and breaks an arm) or some kind of property damage (i.e. a light stand falls and breaks a glass coffee table, or dents a hardwood floor) during the shoot. Most likely your insurance is not going to cover it, and if the photographer doesn’t have liability insurance its unlikely that they have thousands of dollars lying around that will cover the cost or medical bills if someone was injured or the cost of repairs to property.
The contingency plan is designed to cover thing that come up several hours or days before the shoot not minutes or an hour before. The contingency plan is usually for situation where they get the flu, have a broken leg, or have some kind of family emergency and can’t make it to the shoot. Most photographers are not going to have a plan to cover being injured in a car accident on the way to the shoot, or to cover if they should suddenly die in a freak accident.
Back up equipment is also important, and professional photographers will have several different pieces of gear capable of doing the same or similar jobs. They should have at least two cameras and lenses, this way if one breaks or malfunctions they can switch to another with almost no time lost from shooting. Most professional photographers have will have at least two of every piece of gear that is critical to a shoot. They may own it, or they may rent it, but if the shoot can’t be completed, and completed properly without it they will have more than one of it.
There are many other things you should consider when you are looking for a photographer such as style, personality, and cost, but those are a matter of personal tastes that I can’t give you any advice on. This is meant to help guide you through the process after you have found a photographer who’s style personality and price you are happy with. Hiring a photographer is no different from hiring any other professional to provide service to you, you have to ask the right questions to be sure you’re going to get the service and product you are expecting and be sure you know what to expect from the photographer.
I have a new project in the works. Based on the #BikeNYC project of Dmity Gudkov in New York, a handful of local photog’s and cyclist are starting #CycleCincy. The idea behind the project is to promote urban living and transportation. You can find out more about it on cyclecincy.com as well as over at the Over the Rhine blog, and by searching the twitter hash tag #CycleCincy. As we get further along the project I’ll post more updates and request for cyclist looking for portraits. If your interested in getting involved drop a comment here or over at the OTR blog.
Creating depth in your photos
Posted: December 28, 2010 in General Info, Lighting, Tips and Tricks, Work FlowCreating the “you can walk into this picture” feel is mostly about technique, a nice DSLR and some nice lenses help but aren’t necessary. 95% of creating the look that you can walk into a photo is creating depth; you have to create layers in the shot. You have to have fore, middle, and background layers that are distinct. You create the layers with light and the elements in each layer.
This don’t mean you have to set up a bunch of lights, you can work with the available light. The easiest way to do it is to use light and shadow or sun and shade. Use the shadows and highlights to create texture in the scene, the texture gives the appearance of separation between objects. If there is no texture, no apparent separation of the objects in the scene it will look flat.
Another way to create depth is with perspective, think of rail road tracks that appear to converge or how a distant mountain only looks as tall as a tree. Compose you shots so that the elements within the frame create the same kind of effect. Also use your depth of field, the human eye can not focus over a great distance, it can however refocus much faster than any camera. As your eyes scan a scene in the real world they are constantly adjusting making every thing seem to be in focus. Pick an object in the middle of the room to look at, and without moving your eye notice that everything around that object starts to more o
ut of focus the farther from the center you get. Focus on your subject and let the focus in the rest of the scene trail off as you move farther away from your subject.
There are a lot of different ways to create depth in your photos and these are just a couple. The biggest thing is practice, practice and more practice.
Here are a couple of example of the techniques I mentioned above.
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- Depth of Field
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- Depth of Field
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- Light and Shadow
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- Light and Depth of Field
