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Blake’s Web site

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Working with Kids

Working with kids can present some tough challenges. I hasten to add that working with these two boys, Ricky and Ryan, was easy and great fun.

Children can be, well, children. They may not want to have their picture taken. (Many adults don’t either, but they can fake it.)  Kids may get bored easily. It’s hard to smile when you may not want to.  Why did Mom and Dad make me do this?

When working with kids, I spend a fair amount of time trying to get to know them and hopefully make them feel comfortable. It can be a bit intimidating to be bombarded with directions from a stranger (and sometimes conflicting directions from the parents).  I try to make the process fun. I show the kids the images along the way, so they get a feel for what’s happening. And when the kids need a break, we take a break.

It’s helpful to have the kids bring toys they like or clothes (like baseball uniforms) that make them happy.  It’s about recreating an environment that is a comfortable part of their lives.

Also, it’s often about waiting. If  I can set up some kids with props, often, I’ll just sit and wait and let them come up with natural poses that are not poses at all. If I can shoot them when they’re not thinking about me, that leads to a natural, relaxed  look that reflects the child’s personality.

Ricky and Ryan were a dream team for me. They are polite, cooperative, and, most of all, just happy kids that seem to enjoy all their experiences – even getting photographed.  It was a joy to watch them snuggle with their mom and review the images on my studio computer at the end of the shoot, and listen to their gentle kidding of one another as they went over the pictures.

School Fair

What would you guess for the shutter speed of this image?

The picture was taken at the Tokeneke School Fair here in Darien this past weekend. The cars on the merry-go-round were not going very fast. I did intentionally use a slow shutter speed to show some motion in the cars. If you could see the image in a larger size than the blog allows, you’d have a sense of even more motion blur on the two cars in front.  Notice that, while the nearby cars are blurred, the cars on the side and back are reasonably sharp. How did this happen? I used a fairly wide-angle lens and was much closer to cars in the foreground than it appears. So, their motion was much greater than the side and rear cars, on a relative basis. It’s sort of an optical illusion or perhaps a trick of physics.

I like the gaudy colors. I like the implied oval framing the image, with the track of the cars on the bottom and the edge of the umbrella on top. Even though you can’t see the kids’ faces, it’s easy to imagine they’re having fun on this ride, and indeed they were.

And the shutter speed. Would you guess a second? A half second?  The actual shutter speed was 1/15th of a second. But because I was so close in on the foreground cars, the blur results.

Photo Tip: Try different shutter speeds on action shots and see what the result is. The closer you are to a moving subject, the more blur you will see for a given shutter speed.

Spring Photography Exhibit!

I’ve just learned that I’ve been accepted to hold a solo photography exhibit at the Darien Library. The exhibit will be May 15th to June 13th, 2010. I’m thrilled! The new Darien Library is a beautiful, modern state-of-the-art building, with a wonderful exhibition space.

Now, I have to create some new work.  As faithful readers know, most of my recent focus has been on portraits. While I’ll have some portraits in the show, I want to come up with a varied collection of work that will hang together in some way- literally and figuratively.  Just beginning to mull over some ideas.

This is a great opportunity for me – not just to have the show but the gift of knowing I have to work consistently over the coming months to build some new images – try new techniques, new subjects to shoot as well as develop new ways of looking at and seeing things. There is always a risk that a photographer – or any artist – can get stuck doing the same kind of work over and over.  I trust this show will be an incentive for me to break out of any ruts I have fallen into. A time for creative new beginnings!

We’ll have an opening reception – details to be announced – and you will be invited!

Beauty Lighting

One of the most flattering portrait lighting setups, called beauty lighting, was used in this image of Holly, a model I photographed recently.  With beauty lighting, the light is placed above the camera and aimed down at the face at about a 45 degree angle. 

One trick to figure out a lighting setup is to look at the catch lights in the eyes. You can see in this shot the catch lights just above the center of the eyes.  if you get in the habit of looking for the catch light, you can tell a lot about how an image was lit.

I tend to look for the catch light in every portrait – in magazines, on the web, even in the movies - to try to determine how the lighting was done. A large catch light means a large light. In the first image I used a big softbox light, 48 inches across.  A smaller light source might appear in the eye as a pinpoint of light.

But for a flattering look, a big light source is better. The light wraps around the face and provides a soft, smooth texture to the skin.  Holly has lovely skin to begin with, but the big light always helps the skin to look beautiful.

In the image to the left, I used a very different lighting setup.  Two lights were set, one on each side of Holly, coming in almost 90 degrees to the camera sightline.  The idea is a more high contrast, dramatic look. This approach can have a feeling of theatrical lighting.  In this image, there really aren’t any catch lights, but the whites of Holly’s eyes on the sides are highlighted.  The outside edges of her arms and hair are bright, which gives some depth to the image, especially with a dark background.

 To see more images from my shoot with Holly, click here.

 

Food Shoot

Like many professions, photography is becoming increasingly specialized.  One of the specialties is food photography, and the people who specialize in food typically don’t shoot anything else. So, it was with some trepidation that this mostly portrait shooter accepted the invitation of a top-notch cookbook writer, cook and all around food expert to do a food shoot. I read up on it and thought – I could do this!

 Pam Anderson, author of “The Perfect Recipe for Losing Weight and Eating Great” and other best-selling cookbooks, is starting a new food blog, along with her daughters Maggy and Sharon. 

I spent a wonderful afternoon with Sharon and Pam, shooting about 10 dishes for their blog.  We had great fun “styling” the food, moving around props to get just the right look, figuring out lighting, and doing a bit of tasting along the way.

 In photographing food, making to food look delicious is, of course, the overriding goal. Everything Pam and Sharon made that day not only looked good but tasted fabulous. As you can see in these pictures, we just used a few props – placemats, napkins, a fork, a bottle of olivc oil, etc.

For lighting, I mostly used one side light coming in from the right side, up high, to mimic a nice soft window light coming into a kitchen. The actual day was overcast and dull, so we needed to create our own atmosphere. In some pictures, I put an orange gel on the flash to warm up the light. To reflect a bit of light onto the left side of the food, we held up white posterboard on the left, so one flash unit could do the work of two.

Although portraits of people is still my first love, I look forward to more food shoots. 

Check out the new blog, entitled “Three Many Cooks in Pam Anderson’s Kitchen”  by clicking here. There are wonderful stories about cooking and great recipes by these three very dynamic and talented women.

Beach at Dusk

Early Fall is a hard time for me. it’s difficult to accept that summer is really over. But the quality of light can be wonderful – low humidity, super clear, clean and crisp.  This photo for me captures a bit of this bittersweet time of the year.  The beach umbrella is down, the Adirondack chairs are empty, but the sky is beautiful and the sand is warmed up by the late afternoon sun.

 I used a very wide angle lens here, to get close and low on the chairs, but still be able to bring them all into the frame. The wide angle lens also has the advantage of a wide depth of field – the chairs are in sharp focus and so are the distant trees. It’s hard to see on the screen, but just to the right of the chairs are a couple of boats, and in the far distance, our local lighthouse, Green’s Ledge Light. 

How many times have I passed that light on a boat – it’s alway there, steady as the rock it sits on, an aide to navigation that gives one a sense of stability and connection to time and place.  And Green’s Ledge Light will surely be there when next summer rolls around.

More on New Identity

We’re continuing tro implement the new “identity” for my photography practice. Here’s the back and front of my new business card:

View this document on Scribd

View this document on Scribd

Spontanaity!

In my portrait work, I always try to capture the spontaneous moment.  In many studio pictures, there is a posed, stiff feeling.  We don’t want that!  First, I’m going for a relaxed, natural and comfortable pose – really a non-pose. Then, if possible, I look for ways to add some spark – perhaps saying something  goofy to get a laugh – and then capture that fleeting moment.

Jolita (pronounced “Yolita”) is a professional model and an aspiring pop singer.  She’s very comfortable in front of the camera, which is tremendously helpful. To some degree, this image was planned – a very careful makeup job, soft “beauty” lighting, the position of her arms and the bending in of her shoulders, her dress and earrings, the dark background. So we had a general concept for the shot.  At first, Jolita was looking straight at the camera, but the idea came to me to suggest she look away and then laugh out loud – really loud.  To me, this brought real sparkle to her eyes and some good energy to the image. I shot her right in the middle of her laugh.

There’s a small detail about this picture I really like.  While Jolita’s hair is lovely, it’s not perfectly coiffed. There are a few stray stands, especially on the left side as you look at the picture. In Photoshop, I could have cleaned up the hair – made it look like the old Breck magazine ads.  But I close not to – I think the not-quite-perfect hair adds to the spontaneity of the image. In some sense, we’re seeing Jolita at an unguarded moment, that works with the turn of her face and the smile.  So many pictures we see in fashion magazines are too perfect – lovely images but no personality.  With my work with models, I’m trying for a sensibility that is a bit more natural – an image that looks like a real person. Real people often have a few stands of hair out-of-place!

Look closely at the picture.  How does it work for you?

New Identity!

I’m thrilled to introduce my new “identity” – in marketing-speak – for my business. I’ll use the new logo on my website, this blog, business cards and anywhere I need to show the name.

Lisa Berko, of Starlight Design, created the logo for me. Lisa is wonderful to work with and is a terrific graphic designer. Check out her work by clicking on Starlight Design.

With the design, we were going for a clean, classic modern look, but with a bit a personality and flair too. I wanted the logo to reflect my photographic style, which emphasizes bold colors. The face suggests most of my work is portraits of people.

Everyone will look at a logo and get a different reaction or feeling about it. (Just like looking at  a photograph or painting.)  For me, sometimes a new logo won’t click at first, but then does over time.  With this design, I liked it immediately and have grown to like it even more as I have lived with it.

I’d love to hear what you think of my new identity.  Many thanks, faithful readers.

Window Light

I love working with studio lights. The amount of control that can be exercised is amazing. I use up four lights on a portrait and the possible different effects are endless.

But – it’s hard to recreate sunlight with studio lights. Natural light can be beautiful – soft, warm and flattering.  Window light especially has a wonderful quality. Think of Vermeer’s paintings.

Amy is a model, a personal trainer, a yoga instructor, and a hula hoop dance enthusiast (very big in California and coming to Connecticut if Amy has her way).  I took this portrait of Amy in mid-afternoon, right next to one of the windows in my studio. There were no artificial lights, just the indirect sunlight streaming in.

Generally, I like to have a portrait subject looking right into the lens. This creates a connection with the viewer.  But sometimes having the person look away can still leading to a visually appealing image.  To help make a connection with the viewer, I shot in fairly close to Amy – about four feet away.  For me, this picture has a hopeful and optimistic feeling about it, because:

• the sunlight is so warm
• Amy is looking into the light
• She has a natural and open smile
• She’s looking up
• the colors are positive – warm skin tones, the pink straps, and the blue background

Take a close look at the picture. What do you imagine Amy is thinking about? Does the image “work” for you? What feeling does it evoke? I’d love to hear from you – by comment on the blog or by email .