Are you feelin' it...

Well hey there everyone and welcome to another thrilling blog post. Tonights installment comes to you via my iPad and a really big cup of coffee. Who said this little device was only good for watching movies? Shame on you!

Ok, to tonights topic. I have been thinking about a bunch of topics to share with you all; I even went as far as to make out a list so I wouldn't forget them (yeah, I made the list on my iPad also lol) but this topic wasn't one of them.

You see, as some of you may know we recently ran an online promotion that ended up getting a pretty good response. We were targeting Mr & Mrs Joe Public and their family to come on down to our little studio and have some portraits taken. Now, this usually creates all sorts of reactions from those participating in the shoot, from feeling a little nervous to being downright terrified. We've all seen it from our side of the lens or experienced it first hand as the subject of said portraits.

Now, as a quick questionnaire, who here has heard the saying "the camera doesn't lie"? One of my favorite quotes comes from the uber successful commercial photographer Chase Jarvis who says (and I'll paraphrase a little bit here for the sake of time) that as photographers, all we are - when it's all said and done - are button pushing monkeys. Sure, we can be lighting geniuses', creative guru's and technical experts, but it all comes back to that one thing - we push that little shutter button and we make a picture. But a picture of what? Just think about that for minute...

This applies whether it was a day like mine today which was full of portraits with people that (some of them) would rather be sitting in a dentists chair or if you are photographing some famous model to go into [insert glamorous label here] magazine spread. If your subject isn't "feeling it", it is never going to happen. You can take a picture, sure, but is it one that is representing your subject in the best possible manner?

So, how can we make our subjects relax, or make them get into a frame of mind that will produce a great looking image? For me, I have found that communication is the key. And by that I mean communication on all levels. If someone is feeling really nervous, it's pretty easy to tell huh, in fact most people will just come right out and say it to your face. Let me tell you, thats not really a great way to start a shoot!

It's right about then that I go into my talking mode. I'll spend the first half an hour of the shoot just chatting with them. Asking where there from, what they do, how their day has been and so on. Then we go through, in detail, exactly what I'm going to be doing, showing them how the lights are going to flash and so on. And I'll be really enthusiastic about it. Remember, we are selling the sizzle, not the sausage here. If you are really psyched to be doing the shoot for them and excited about getting some nice shots, 99.99% of the time your subjects will get in on the act. Be enthusiastic, even over the top (without being obnoxious about it) and you will be amazed with the results.

I'll finish with this little story of what happened to me. About 15 years ago I won a photoshoot at a studio in Brisbane where I was living at the time. I was nervous as all hell I can tell you. Anyway, I took my girlfriend along and off we went. I was actually hoping that most of the photos would be of her so I didn't have to participate. So we get into the guys studio. There were lights and soft boxes everywhere. It's all second nature to me now, but back then, not so much. He sat us down in the middle of the studio and turned the lights on and we sat there with the preverbal "deer in the headlights" blank looks on our faces. Then the lights went off, he took a photo and we survived it. Wow, who would have thought! And then he took another, and another. We started to really get into it and have some fun. After about 15 minutes of this he stopped and said "ok, I'm just gonna put some film in the camera now, and we'll get started..." That guy knew what he was doing.

Wow, that was quite a ramble. I'm done for now. Take care, keep shooting what you love and I'll talk to you soon.

A little "heads up"...

Hey everyone

Remember how I said that I had finally reached a gap in my schedule that would allow me a little time off and give me the opportunity to blog a bit more, make some more videos and share a bunch of stuff? Well, um… d’oh…

Don’t get me wrong. I’m really loving the fact that my photography business has blossomed so much. I’m even more loving that fact that we have morphed our business from one very specific genre to become the one-stop-shop for photography. Call us “generalists” if you will. I love the diversity, the challenge and the rewards when I produce some really nice images for my clients.

The downside is that my spare time at the end of the wedding season has gone by the wayside. I find myself looking for alternative means to catch up on stuff, to keep up with the game. Which is a lame kind of segway into this blog post…

I just wanted to let you all know about a really cool weekly webcast by Scott Kelby and crew at Kelby Media called The Grid. It’s a live weekly webcast as I mentioned, so it actually airs at midnight here in Australia. Don’t fret however, you can download it free on iTunes and watch it later, which is what I do. It’s a really cool show, with lots of interesting topics and some great giveaways. Have a look.

Ok, that’s it for now. Keep shooting what you love and I’ll talk to you soon.

How well can you drive?

Well well well – just when you thought it was safe – I’m baaaack! So how have you all been? Man it’s been a while huh?

I’m finally getting the chance to come up for air for the first time in almost four months; and what a four months it’s been. A dozen weddings, a couple of dozen commercial shoots (where we were hired to photograph anything and everything from multi-million dollar properties to swimwear models on the beach to wood panel flooring) all topped off with a liberal serving of portrait and portfolio shoots. Never a dull moment.

In fact if I had to sum up this last four months with a single word, it would be “diversity”. This word is one that a lot of photographers are trying to avoid recently, and some at great length. There is good theory behind this aversion. That being, your clients need to know that you specialise in a particular genre of photography. This is all well and good, but it can be limiting at the same time.

Yeah sure, let your clients know that you will only pick up your camera if there is a newborn baby involved, or you will only make yourself available to shoot weddings. But is this really the kind of message you want to be pushing – to everyone? I mean at the end of the day, it’s all just photography right? Yes, there are different nuances that only work in one situation or another, but as best as I can figure these nuances come down to the way you interact with the client or subject. But as for the photography; the exact rules apply from one situation to another. Unless you are a superhero the laws of light and physics do not really differentiate between a plank of wood or a blushing bride.

“So what’s the key then huh?” I can hear you asking. Again, as best as I can figure it – the key to the whole shebang is knowing how to get the end result before you take the first shot. Otherwise known as know your gear inside-out, especially your camera. And know your technique even better.

I’ve had the benefit of seeing this first hand recently by way of the fact that I have had more new assistants working with me, all with varying degrees of confidence and ability. The most important thing I tell them is that when they are thinking about the shot they are trying to get, you need to know, well, how to get there. This directly translates to knowing how to drive your camera to steer the image in the direction that you want it to go.

Take a look at your camera. Do you know what all, I mean all the buttons, dials, knobs and control wheels do? And even if you do, how often do you use them? Know how to drive your camera and you will be ok. But if you don’t know how to, how will you be able to respond to a clients wishes or artistic direction?

Ok, that’s enough of a rant for me for now. Gotta ease back into these things you know... The more open minded of you out there will realise that I am being slightly facetious and maybe just a little bit general here but in essence I stand by my thoughts.

Keep shooting what you love and keep your eye out for more blog posts coming to a computer monitor near you.

A quick video...

Hiya everyone. I hope you are all off to a flying 2011 and having lots of fun along the way. This is just a quick little blog post tonight for the purposes of sharing a video I created the other week about how to use the new PocketWizard Mini TT1 and Flex TT5 ControlTL (i-TTL) triggers with your Nikon cameras and flashes. Without further ado, have a look at the video...

So there you go. It's all pretty straight forward in principle, and the triggers are accompanied by the most concise, straight forward and logical instruction manuals that I have had the pleasure of reading. Nice one PocketWizard.

All in all, there's some pretty cool technology here. In fact, it is a little easy to use the triggers in i-TTL mode all of the time, albeit at the expense of potentially frying your flashes if they are working hard to overcome bright sunlight for long periods of time. It is for this reason that I am hanging out for the AC3 Zone controller to be released.

I probably should preface that a little bit first. You see, what I meant to say is that instead of leaving the flashes in i-TTL mode all the time on a bright sunny day, the more efficient and friendly thing to do would be to set the flashes to manual mode, meaning that they do not have to work nearly as hard during the shoot due to the fact they no longer have to emit all those power sapping, flash-tube heating pre-flashes all the time.

This would usually entail walking over to the flashes, setting them to Manual output and then play a little dance up and down the power scale of the flash until you get the output correct for your camera's exposure settings, all the while walking backward and forwards from flash to camera position to keep re-checking the images before you are satisfied. The AC3 allows you to do all that right from your camera position. Cool.

But this is supposed to be a quick blog post so I think I'll leave it there for now. We got a few interesting projects coming down the pipeline so I'll keep you all posted about them as they occur - I don't wanna jinx myself!

Take care for now, keep shooting what you love and I'll talk to you soon.

Images revisited... and forgetting stuff...

Well hello boys and girls and welcome to another quick little blog post. I have to be honest and say that this blog would have been up several hours ago if it weren’t for a little mishap on my behalf…

You see, I have been posting these blogs from my favourite café for a little while now. I usually prep all the image files on my workstation PC at home; upload all the images to Blogger and copy all of the HTML code to a notepad file for re-arranging later. I then dump the lot onto a thumb drive and head to aforementioned café to relax, drink some coffee and arrange all the stuff into a (hopefully) meaningful format for this blog.

So there I was, sitting in my comfy seat at the café, laptop booting up ready for action, I reached into my laptop bag to retrieve the thumb drive only to realise it was still in my PC at home. Bugger. Oh well, at least I got to sit in the cool air-conditioning and watch the world go by for half an hour or so and just chill. So, not a total waste of time after all.

Anyway, to the images accompanying this post. I have been meaning to get around to posting some of the images I took at the various shows for this year’s Perth Fashion Festival, but time and clients always managed to get in the way of my good intentions. Well, seeing as I have had literally a couple of days off I took the initiative and prepped some images from the Re-Style show. I thought a lot of them looked a little familiar so I had a look on my Facebook Page and I realised that I had actually posted a few already from this show over there.

Not to worry – the images on FB were quickly thrown on to the net not long after the show, so you can think of these as a bit of a remaster of sorts. I guess I just like the portraiture aspect of these images, rather than them being just the standard full length head-to-toe fashion cliché shot of a model on a runway. Oh, the reason the show was called "Re-Style" is because all of the clothing was purchased at recycled clothing stores; you know, Vinnes, the Salvo's and so on. That’s it.

I’ll be posting a few more shows online soon, as well as sharing a few images from some great weddings we have done recently, and finally I am being hounded to put some new videos onto our YouTube channel; so keep an eye out for them. Of course I’ll post the videos on here too.

Which brings up a good point actually. If you want to see anything, have a technique explained or you have any questions at all, please keep sending us email to timography@iinet.net.au. Until I see you next time, keep shooting what you love and I’ll talk to you soon. Oh, and happy new year!

Oh, and just to check to see if you made it all the way to the end of this blog post... I tried something a little different with the color toning of these images. I'm interest to know what you think... or if you even noticed... Please let me know!

Merry Christmas... and a few bikini's to boot...

Well hey there everyone, and Merry Christmas!

There’s no surer way to know the festive season is upon us – the weather is steamy and hot, the shops are sold out and the roads are full of people trying to get somewhere in a hurry. I can honestly say that tonight I have never been more grateful for refrigerated air-conditioning. Its 9.30pm, outside its still 30.2 degrees and 65% humidity. Here in my office, it’s a super comfy 23.6 and 30% humidity. Oooh yeah.

Anyway, to tonight’s quick pre-Christmas blog. I thought I’d quickly share a few forgotten images from the STM Swimwear Parade from this year’s Perth Fashion Festival. I had been given media accreditation for a few events at this year’s Festival but this wasn’t one of them. So a good mate and I were forced to buy tickets to the show and we just turned up with our cameras.

Now I have to admit that I may have stuffed up the seating allocation when I bought the tickets, and instead of being right at the end of the runway, we were in fact right at the beginning of it. This means that we were looking down the runway toward the photographers pit, with all the spotlights aimed to light the models perfectly as they walked… away from where we were sitting. D’oh. So those of you with an agile mind will then summarise that as the models were walking back toward where we were sitting, they were backlit and didn’t have any real usable light on their faces. Well that sucked.

So, I went in thinking that although we weren’t in the photographer’s pit, at least I might get some decent shots like the previous year at the Morrision Show. But instead we were faced with what looked to be totally unusable.

So call me a slow learner, overzealous or just plain keen to get some shots but I got my camera out regardless and set up ready to shoot. The house lights dimmed, the music started to crank and the catwalk was lit up like runway 27 at Perth International Airport. I ended up with my Nikon D700 at ISO-3200, f/2.8 @ 1/100^th second shutter speed, using my Sigma 70-200mm f/2.8 EX DG HSM Macro II lens. As that lens doesn’t have any form of Image Stabilisation and I hadn’t yet purchased my Nikon AF-S 70-200mm f/2.8G ED VR II I was wary of dropping the shutter too much slower, for a couple of reasons.

Of course number one was that I was conscious of the focal length -v- shutter speed rule of thumb. That being, if you are using a 200mm lens, if you want to get sharp images, don’t let your shutter speed drop below the longest local length; which is 200mm which translates to 1/200^th of a second. The second reason is that the models were charging up and down the runway at a fairly decent rate of knots, so if I had gone any slower the images would be blurred regardless of how steady I was holding the camera. As you can see, a couple of the images are a little blurry around the models feet and hands anyway, any slower than 1/100^th on the shutter speed and this would have only gotten worse.

So there you go. The images, while not perfect, are still a fairly good representation of the outfits that the models were wearing. And while it is still really hot weather I thought these images seemed to fit rather well. That’s it.

I hope you all have a blessed and happy Christmas, get spoiled rotten and take some time to think of those around you that have made your year so special. Take care, keep shooting what you love and I’ll talk to you soon.

Still hanging in there... and a bunch of paper...

Hey there everyone.

Wow, two months since my last blog post huh. Seems like that long too actually, been so much happening. So much so that I almost forget all that has been happening. The highlights?

Well, we now have hired two new assistants, so welcome to Beck and Alanna. It was a much bigger process than I imagined trying to hire an assistant. We were literally inundated with applicants to our little advertisement. I interviewed over 20 applicants in the end. There was such a wealth of talented photographers applying to work with us, it was all a little humbling. But the tough decision had to be made and these guys kinda shone over the rest. Awesome to have you guys!

We also have a brand new website - finally. Check it out at www.timography.com.au. My wife, Dee who runs the office and does all the accounting, liasing, back-office stuff that I really can't stand to do organised it through Oliver and the guys and gals at Perth Web Design, and I think they have done a great job. It took us a little longer than expected to get it online as we were so busy with clients that it sort of took a back seat for a while but we finally managed to get all of the content uploaded and ready to go. I hope you like it.

Um, what else? There’s been lots of new gear that I will probably get around to talking about at some point in the near future. There’s been a few mishaps mid-shoot that really put me on the spot, but we came out on top in the end. Speaking of new gear, the topic of tonight’s blog post has come about by some of that new gear, or moreso the need to get rid of some old gear...

Last week saw the arrival of the long awaited PocketWizard Flex and Mini TTL radio triggers for Nikon products. These puppies are amazing! I got the opportunity to use them on a wedding shoot just yesterday and oh my God – they are brilliant. It is so nice to be able to get consistent flash exposure, wireless, in TTL. Have I said how fantastic it is? Turn up on a location, turn on the flashes and triggers, take a bunch of shots and move on. No more having to set everything on manual anymore (although it still definitely has its merits, more on that later too!).

Anyways, the new triggers meant that it was time to finally offload my old Pixel TTL radio triggers. These things never really worked that well anyways so they have been collecting dust in my office. I needed to get some images in a hurry for eBay but I couldn’t be bothered setting up my light tent and portable tabletop lighting rig. It was late in the evening and the wedding shoot earlier that day really took it out of me!

So I thought... I have a bunch of flashes that will work on wireless CLS mode. I thought some more. I remember reading on the Strobist blog where David had found himself in a similar situation and managed to fashion himself a temporary light box out of a bunch of A4 sheets of plain old white office paper. So I gave it a go.

As you can tell from the image above, there isn’t a lot to it – other than a bunch of flashes sitting on the floor! They were all set to the same channel and group so they would all put out equal power and distribute their light fairly evenly. So that’s three Nikon SB-900’s and one SB-600, all in remote mode. The whole lot was being triggered by using a SB-800 in commander mode sitting on top of my D700. I ended up dialling in -0.7EV for group A (the flashes on the floor) and I had the SB-800 set so that it was turned on to TTL and contributing to the exposure. It took a little bit of playing around but I ended up setting the SB-800 so that the flash head itself was upside down but parallel to the floor, with the flash head turned around so that I could use the built-in bounce card to push the light up to the roof and bounce back down on the subject. Oh, and I dialled in the SB-800 to be +0.3EV.

So yeah, as you can see, the end result turned out pretty well. I was really happy with how the images of the Pixel triggers and the PocketWizard triggers turned out. Look for yourself. If I hadn’t spend the last 5 minutes explaining the whole process you would be hard pressed to tell that the images had been taken on the floor with a bunch of A4 paper and 5 flashes.

So why did I do it this way? Because I could. Do I need another reason? Take care, keep shooting what you love and I’ll talk to you soon.

Honey, I shrunk the images...

Well hey there everyone. What I wanted to share today are just a few of my favourite images from the "A Touch of Wool III" catwalk show from this year’s Perth Fashion festival. Yeah I know I am a little late getting these online but I have managed to finally catch up with all my backlog of post-processing work and I found myself with a little, yes that’s right, just a little bit of time to spare before things start to get crazy again... man, I love my job. Really, I do!

Ok, so to the images. On this particular shoot, I learned a very important lesson. You see, nine times out of ten I will shoot full resolution, fine detail JPEG’s. On rare occasions when the client specifically requests or I am in the mood then I will shoot in RAW. Why? Because I can. Because I can get four times as many images on a memory card. Because I, and I am being truthful here, have never really found a need to rescue an image that was "that" bad out of camera that it needed to be a RAW file in order to fix it. But mostly, because it saves me a bit of time in post production as even though I now have a brand new super dooper kick-butt light speed PC, working with JPEG’s is just, well... quicker compared to RAW files. Ok enough of that.

Anyway, for this particular catwalk show I decided that I would turn the resolution of my Nikon D700 right down, for a couple of reasons. Firstly, these shows are usually over before you know it and the action is non-stop so I didn’t want to be wasting time changing memory cards and potentially missing some of the show. But the main reason is that I knew I would not be printing any of these images larger than postcard size, and the majority would only be used for putting on the internet for promotional purposes. So I set my D700 to shoot 2120 x 3184px images, which is just over 6 megapixels, ISO2000, f/2.8 and a shutter speed that varied from 1/320th to 1/500th second depending on the amount of light falling on the catwalk at the time. But the kicker was that I turned the compression up so that the camera was spitting out "Basic" JPEG's. Oh dear.

Here’s the kicker though. Compressing the image size compresses the dynamic range of the image too. You know, in all my time doing photography I had never known this because until now, every image I took was at full resolution and fine detail. The end result I found is that my exposure had to be spot on for the entire show (with its changing lighting scenarios and all) otherwise I was getting blown out highlights all over the place. It took me a few minutes to figure it out but I decided to stick with it for the remainder of the show; what better way to test ones skill while shooting a fast moving show, with the camera in manual mode and keeping the exposure within 1/3 of a stop the whole time. It was interesting.

That’s all for now. Take care and keep shooting what you love.