UCSB Shoot with Scott Sneddon, Victoria Hansen and Michael McCann

I've worked at UCSB for over 30 years in IT. It was only a few months ago that I realized what a great location it is for photography, particularly fashion/glamor. So, I've been sneaking up on it since then and finally got the chance to try out some of the great backgrounds and areas. Victoria Hansen (http://www.modelmayhem.com/830819) contacted me and wanted to shoot and my friend Scott Sneddon (http://www.modelmayhem.com/364472) wanted to shoot with me while he is on leave from Korea where he is currently stationed. And my son, Michael, needed some experience shooting glamor. So, we packed up and went down to UCSB for an afternoon of exploring and shooting.

This is the first post i have done where I have tried to use URL's on other websites rather than uploading to Blogspot ... it didn't work as I expected so you will only see part of an image, but you can click on the images to see the whole image. Uploaded images resize. There is no mention that this won't be the case with links. I'll be more careful in the future.

UCSB has a lot of rules. They even have a few about using UCSB as a setting. They don't want people attributing things to UCSB that are not in keeping with the University's mission or using the University's image for commercial purposes. But they do allow Brooks students to shoot assignments. Since we were not commercial and aren't using UCSB for inappropriate purposes I figured we'd be OK ... plus I know a few people!

Scott has a fair amount of experience shooting models with "Strobist" Style equipment which is all he's had in Korea. Since I had no experience but plenty of equipment we decided it would be a good opportunity.

Scott had worked with Victoria before and had a good idea of what she could do. We took my truck and were soon walking around checking for locations. The courtyard of my building is a very concrete/industrial area so that's where we started. We set up two 580EX II's on stands with umbrellas and set them to slave units on channel one, one of each bank, A & B. I put my ST-E2 on a 1DMIII with a 70-200mm f/2.8L IS lens. We backed Victoria into a small architectural detail and played with the lights. Not the best but we were warming up.

I love to see behind the scenes shots so I know what was going on with lighting and surroundings so I'm borrowing one that Scott took of me shooting Victoria.

Next we wanted to try to shoot high f-stop to darken the sky but we just didn't have enough power to overwhelm the sky so we moved around and went with the building as background, still using the two lights held by Scott and Michael.

We had Victoria climbing around on everything. And since she climbs well, we next sent her up a tree, which was our most successful spot I think. We did have a bit of trouble getting the lights up high enough ... Michael, who is about 6' had his light on a fully extended lightstand and was on tippy toes.

From there we went to Kerr Hall which has some very unusual concrete texture on its exterior. Scott showed me how he set the lights for his "signature" shot and then put a gel on a 580EX that he held in his hand to give the concrete some color as well as texture. Very nice images.

Here's one with the gel on the wall.

I realize it would be nice to have more behind the scenes shots and I'm waiting for the price of Canon's G10 to come down to a reasonable price point, about $350, but I know everyone is trying their best to hold prices up even though there's no money around to buy stuff at the inflated prices they have gotten used to getting.

Travel Safe!

Dwight

Merry Christmas: Some Notes on Backups

Merry Christmas! I hope Santa has been good to everyone. I don't know who delivers presents for the Hanukkah kids or Kwanzaa folks but I hope they also were well blessed or gifted or whatever. I'm actually a Humanist myself so I just think of it all as the Winter Solstice, but it's a great time of year.

A few months ago I thought I'd look into putting my images onto BluRay disks. The burners are pretty reasonable so it seemed like a grand plan since they can hold 50GB per disk. So I started shopping at Newegg. Fortunately, before I bought anything I checked the price for blank disks. $50 EACH! Did you get that? Blank 50GB BluRay disks are FIFTY DOLLARS EACH! I found that quite unbelievable so I went to one of my Gurus at UCSB, Hank Rayner, and asked about it.

Yup, $50 per platter and not worth it. BluRay isn't yet about backup. It is about selling movies/videos for outrageous amounts so as to recover the research costs immediately! Same mentality of greed that wall street has. And it will end the same way, by lots of folks losing everything because they felt that they were entitled to suck huge amounts of money out of the economy for doing next to nothing. These disks couldn't cost more than a nickle to make! But it makes no difference to me since I won't be using them any time soon.

Turns out my DVD burner is double layer. That means I can burn about 8GB to a $2 dual layer DVD and then print it. The cost is about 1/6th of BluRay and DVDs stack up very compactly with numerous options for storage containers. I'm currently backing up 180,000 images, about 700GB, onto DVDs. It's slow. There are going to be quite a few of them. But if I lose one, I won't be losing 50GB of data to a coaster, it will only be 8GB. And I am making two of each, which should way improve my odds.

I am using Verbatim DataLifePlus Inkjet Printable DVD+R DL White, 2.4x P/N: 95123 disks. They got great ratings on Newegg. They work fine. They are slow. My computer doesn't mind slow. I don't mind slow as I can do other stuff while they burn. Where is the advantage to BluRay? As you can see, I'm not one to buy something solely because someone makes it and says it's the latest greatest. I don't have an iPhone either! I don't have a game console. But don't get me wrong, I have been in IT, mostly as a computer programmer, for over 30 years and I love technology. I just don't love it willy nilly and for no purpose. My computers are dual core, not quad core. But I do run RAID0, RAID1 and RAID5 disk arrays.

So, other things about backups: My friend Scott told me this week that he lost 20,000 images because he didn't have backups. He is all about backups now. But those 20,000 are lost forever. I am a bit compulsive about backups. I have not lost any images even though I have had numerous computer failures of different sorts. But backups are kinda like virginity, once you lose it there's no going back. As long as you got it you never really know what it's worth.

So, for Christmas I am giving you all the gift of knowledge. DO BACKUPS! You can do them to DVDs. You can do them to internal disks. You can do them to disks on other computers. You can do them to external USB drives. I am currently using two 1TB SeaGate FreeAgent Pro drives that support USB, SATA and eSATA and firewire. Software to manage the backups in many flavors are very inexpensive. I currently use SyncBackSE by www.2brightsparks.com which has most every option I could ever want for backups and they do continuous process improvement with a new update about every couple of months that covers all the new stuff that is available.

I have some more material in the pipeline and will likely be doing several posts over the holidays.

In the meantime, BE SAFE!

Dwight

"The Art of Photographing Women" with Kevin Ames at Lepp Institute

There seems to be a fair amount of interest in my workshop experience from two weeks ago, so although I barely have one nostril above the waterline I've decided to review it now. This was "The Art of Photographing Women" with instructor Kevin Ames at the Lepp Institute of Digital Imaging in Los Osos, California. I've taken several Lepp classes and gotten a huge amount out of each one, certainly my money's worth if not more.

Kevin Ames, instructor, author and world class photographer of the feminine (and some other things, too) is easily likable and very amiable, perhaps too much so, but that's what we're paying him for. :-) During the first day, spent almost exclusively in the Lepp Digital Darkroom, we reviewed Kevin's work and then images each of the eight of us old men had brought with us as one prerequisite. This turned out to be very valuable as we began shooting later on as we could understand where he was going.

Kevin has, and shares, a very disciplined shooting to print workflow. To the suprise of many of us he virtually required us to shoot tethered to our laptops, from a tripod, using a grayscale card, and downloading & checking our images, particularly for exposure, before shooting for effect. While light metering was carefully covered, it is clear that Kevin doesn't rely 100% on metering ... each setup is examined in Bridge for exposure accuracy and studio lights are adjusted to bring the image within one third stop of desired. You can't get under/overexposed images if you follow this process. While I shoot tethered in the studio I have never used my laptop in a disciplined manner to control exposure, I just relied on my meter. But as you hear on TV ads, "Wait, there's more!" Using Kevin's workflow also allows you to adjust all the images from a setup in one Bridge operation by applying the white balance and tweaked exposure to the whole series ... very clever and efficient.

So, I said Kevin was amiable ... well, not so much when various guys wanted to take shortcuts during their shooting. More than once someone wanted to just forge ahead because they didn't really understand what Kevin wanted them to get. We stopped several shoots, boring the models to tears, so Kevin could do "right here, right now" chalk talks about exposure, balancing ambient, foreground, background and understanding when the ambient light would have no effect at all. It was certainly rewarding to learn that you can do the math to figure all this out.

So, with two models in two locations, we lined up with our cameras on tripods tethered to our laptops. Now, I am sure everyone reading this doesn't know how to shoot tethered even if they have equipment ... but Kevin, Hal and Victoria managed to get everyone willing running in this configuration, either helping install and configure the software or using a Lepp machine. In this process I managed to find the "solution" for a long irritating anomaly I've had with rotation ... seems that I had checked "rotate" on some configuration which prevented rotation for some reason I don't understand ... that alone being much worthwhile.

Kevin started us out with a very simple portrait setup using one 5' Profoto Octodome above to our left and a silver reflector covering a posing stand on which the model leaned. I would never had thought to use a reflector in such a simple but amazingly effective way. With the lights setup and metered, we each had to calibrate our images via the grayscale card and Bridge on our laptops. You couldn't fake it with Kevin standing there or insisting someone else do so. He did lighten up a bit once he felt we understood and let us 'man the computer' for each other for later sessions. With two or three guys standing around your laptop you very quickly learn what's going on ... everyone loves to help.

At the end of each shooting session, Kevin assigned homework of selecting the heroines from the shoot and loading onto jump drives that he then presented to the class with his analysis, and ours. He does do an interesting and effective thing in this process: no one is allowed to make comments the first pass through. The author is not allowed to "explain" his thoughts or mistakes and others are not allowed to critique ... we just look and feel. Amazing what you can see when you aren't trying to make excuses, for yourself or others.

In addition to the portrait session, the five models that we used for three days did their thing for us in two setups in the studio and then we went on location using battery generators and reflectors. You very quickly become clear about why it takes two or three assistants to do a location shoot ... particularly where it's windy! The models were dynamite!

So, with a pocketful of our images Kevin then proceeded to walk us through the post processing segment of his workflow. We created an action (something everyone should know how to do ... and I didn't) that setup several layers including a strategy layer where you determine what needs to be done and mark it up as well as the initial adjustment layers. I need to jump in here to say that I am a Photoshop neophyte and still felt very comfortable following and then doing the processes that Kevin shared.

So, here's a process "trick" that blew me away. When I want to "burn" or "dodge" an area, such as eyes, I have always used dodge and burn tools. But those don't retain all the texture, color and contrast of the original. Kevin uses copied layers and then combines them using masks and blending modes: screen for lightening and multiply for darkening. Very effective and retains a very natural look that is undetectable. Kevin also covered detailed eye treatment and a variety of skin enhancement procedures.

This workshop has certainly impacted my workflow. Even before shooting I find myself reviewing the steps I need to do and planning much more completely. Once again I can't recommend strongly enough how valuable I have found the Lepp courses and this Kevin Ames class in particular. I urge you to check out their 2009 Course Schedule ... I know Kevin is coming back ... but if you need an intro to Photoshop, a refresher, intermediate or advanced methods in almost any facet of photography they will have a class for you.

If you have questions please don't hesitate to ask. If you sign up for a Lepp class please mention my name as they'll give me a credit toward my next one, although I have no affiliation beyond what any student has.

You can see some of my images from this workshop at http://dwightmccann.com/Glamor/Leah111808.html.

Be Safe.

Dwight

When Brown, Flush Down

I've been very busy as usual. Since last I wrote I have photographed the Native American Heritage Celebration at the Chumash Casino Resort, a Veterans' Honorary Dinner, Foreigner, Hall & Oates, Anita Baker, done a weeklong workshop with Kevin Ames and played with my family. I will be writing a review of the Kevin Ames experience next.

But I'm here today with a complaint. As a result of the Andy Katz and Kevin Ames classes at Lepp Institute, I decided to upgrade my medium tripod. I made a trip to Really Right Stuff in San Luis Obispo and picked up a new tripod and ball head. Used 'em once and it is a fantastic setup. Then I realized I needed a new ball head to go on my tabletop tripod since all my bodies now have RRS L-Plates on them. I called and ordered. RRS said it would go out the same day, Tuesday, and arrive Wednesday by UPS.

Sure enough, I got the emailed UPS notification that they had received pickup info and that the ballhead was "In transit and On Time" ... a phrase I now hate! So, wednesday I went to work thinking how nice it would be to have the Gitzo G0012 with the new RRS BH-25 LR head for the Thanksgiving weekend. I got to work and checked the tracking number. Still said "In transit and On Time." Great! But as it got later in the day it hadn't arrived. At 3:00, my manager said that due to traffic concerns we could leave. Since I knew the ballhead was going to arrive I decided to stay. But at 5:00 pm when we close the doors, my "In transit and On Time" delivery hadn't arrived. So I got a two hour late start for nothing. Well, not too big a deal. So, we left the house on our Thanksgiving pilgrimage to the in-laws two hours late. But, on Hwy 46, just East of Paso Robles, the four lane divided highway came to a complete stop due to a fatal traffic collision. After an hour of waiting we got diverted to a detour into the middle of nowhere. After another couple of hours of delays we were on our way once again to Selma, California. But, being several hours later, we managed to hit the Tule Fog that we had planned to avoid since it causes so many accidents over there. We did finally make it without another incident. But I'm very unhappy with UPS. From my perspective, their service consistently stinks. This is hardly the first time that they have failed to properly update their tracking information ... it seems quite common. The last time that really distressed me was when my package from B&H Photovideo in New York City was "In Transit and On Time" but didn't arrive and it turned out it was part of a derailed train well before it was still tracking as "In Transit and On Time." Not only does it seem to me that their tracking information isn't useful, it is misleading which is a lot worse!

I ship to my customers. I use FedEx. FedEx is very reliable ... well, I haven't had a single delayed delivery since I started with them a few years ago. I check the tracking information on every delivery. Sometimes a package gets to its destination too early and they hold it a day ... which they clearly mark in the tracking information. I know when it's on the truck to be delivered. I know when it is delivered. My customers also know as they also get the updates emailed to them. And there is a convenient pickup box both near my office at the University and just down the street from me in my hometown of Buellton. They are RELIABLE! My guess is that UPS causes countless upsets every day but the companies that use them don't hear about it so they continue on. I certainly sent Really Right Stuff an eamil describing what happened.

So, back to Flush Down ... my ballhead still hasn't arrived, although I expect it will come on Monday, four days late.

Travel Safe

Dwight

Lepp Institute: Available Light with Andy Katz

Falling ever farther behind elsewhere I thought I would catch up once again on my blog. Actually I'm still working on getting migrated to my new computer ... today I swapped out the old computer for my backup computer and immediately ran into trouble with getting the POST/BIOS screens to write through the KVM to my ACD ... I'll just have to work on it, but once again unexpected hardware issues are sucking away my time.
Last weekend I spent at yet another Lepp Institute weekend class: Available Light Photography: Vineyards and Wineries, with Andy Katz (See above.) Since I have a winery client, Casa Cassara, I thought it would be a wonderful opportunity to learn some tips and tricks among the grapevines and barrels. I'm going to jump right in here and say the class didn't meet my expectations: I had hoped for some one-on-one and group focus on shooting grape clusters, barrels, vineyards, etc., with Andy first showing just what he would shoot, including actually shooting it with his new Sony Alpha DSLR and then discussing his results and work with each in turn to achieve our vision. But several things worked against this: it isn't Andy's style and the weather, both the weekend overcast and the early frosts this season, didn't lend itself to what I was after. To make up for the lack of spectacular vineyards, Andy spent about half the field time working on available light portraiture, both indoors and out, which wasn't all that interesting to me as I have shot portraits for forty years.

Andy showing how to use light working with a model:


So, while I was a bit disappointed in very specific ways, there are always many unexpected benefits popping up at Lepp and I actually felt as though I got my money's worth before we ever left the Digital Darkroom on our first outing. In his "Warm Up" image presentation and discussion, Andy walked us through about thirty of his images, all stunning, and talked about his vision and particulars for many of them. If Andy has anything, it is vision, the very thing I miss the most in my own work. And then, Andy proceeded to thump one of my own big emphases, using a tripod! I am always amazed how few people use a tripod! But to top it off, Andy even espouses the use of "Mirror Lockup" ... a tremendously overlooked feature of most high end DSLRs that can make or break telephoto images. So with Andy's pep talk still ringing in my ears, off we went for some field work.

Off we went to Jada Vineyard and Winery where we walked the vineyards shooting, then tasted their current vintages with matching cheeses. A glorious experience. Then off to Booker Vineyard & Winery for more vineyard and winery shooting and another tasting ... and here I've got to mention Booker Alchemist ... knock your socks off wine! I am buying it for my wife's Christmas present ... seriously! From there to lunch at Midnight Winery, some more shooting, and then off to review at the Digital Darkroom at Lepp.


And this is where Andy Katz really shines! He had each student select 10 to 12 images from the field work, post process them as desired in Lightroom and/or Photoshop, and then we critiqued. Andy's critiques are eye opening. He can find images within images, extraneous material that detracts from the gestalt, power, strength, romance and really sees the light. And he is merciless ... which is a good thing. This was the first time I'd even been exposed to world class image review in person and it is enlightening. It will change the way you see. You will be a better shooter just for being in the room. Geez, I'm a romantic!

So, without flogging you about our dinner Saturday night or the activities on Sunday, rest assured the trip to the Edna Valley was also treat. And while I am hoping that next year we into the fields before the harvest and frost, I expect the wine tasting in San Luis Obispo will always be a superb experience. Here's Hal listening intently to Andy:


Be Safe!

Dwight

EXIF & IPTC: From the Browser

Having gotten 99.99% moved to my new computer I find that I am now discovering small tweaks that I had come to rely on but didn't really think to recreate during the initial massive migration. One of these little items provided the ability to view the EXIF and IPTC data in an image being browsed via a contextual right-click menu choice from Firefox. I tend to use this dozens of times a day.

If you are a digital photographer and don't know what EXIF and IPTC data are, the very quick answer is that they are metadata (data about data) embedded in most modern image file formats. Your camera embeds EXIF data when you take an exposure which records such things as camera type, ISO, f-stop, date, time, etc. IPTC data describes the image and is embedded by the photographer using a software tool such as PhotoMechanic (my choice) or LightRoom (which I use but not for this purpose.) For specifics of these formats do a Google search.

So, I am out browsing around on my favorite photography forum, POTN, and see an image that I find interesting taken in very low light at a concert (something I do a lot of) and want to know what ISO, f-stop and shutter speed was used. With the Add-On I use in Firefox 3 I can just right click the image and select the EXIF viewer and bam ... there's all the information. And with the viewer I use I can also see the IPTC data and even the GPS data if it is there.

I have used several EXIF viewers, all freeware, and I vastly prefer the IEXIF from Opanda. The nicest thing compared with others is that the popup window with the information is expandable and sometimes that EXIF or particularly IPTC data can get very long. The Opanda presentation is simple, elegant and easy to use.

So, what do you do? I don't know what Mac users do! But if you're a PC person you go to Opanda's website and from their homepage you install IEXIF V2.3 (at the moment.) This needs to be sitting on your computer. You then install the Firefox Add-On in the usual fashion. Restart Firefox as normal for adding an Add-On. Browse to an image and right click and there's a new item from Opanda and you simply click it. When you're done, close the IEXIF window because otherwise it will stick around ... you can have several of these open at once which is handy.

I consider the Opanda an essential piece of software.

Be safe!

Dwight

Computers: A Necessary Evil

I feel as though I have yet again been missing in action blogwise! For those of you who aren't interested in all things computer, feel free to leave now. For those who would like to benefit from the experience of others, read on!

The last time I built new computers for my photography business was about two years ago as a result of my then current primary workstation going completely dead. It was a case of my PC-DL motherboard dying while under warranty. That was a very painful lesson as I had to finally buy a new PC-DL motherboard and move all the components from the failed motherboard to the new motherboard in order to demonstrate to ASUS that it was the motherboard that was bad ... they finally sent me the replacement but, of course, I already had one. But since I couldn't put my business on hold for a month while screwing with that computer, I built one, and then another for backup, to replace the PC-DL. I used ABIT AN8 and KN8 motherboards.

First I built the ABIT AN8-Ultra. All went well until my first big image download via a USB port. About 6GB in to the transfer the system locked up ... just froze. For two years I simply endured these lockups because I couldn't figure out what was wrong. They finally started getting worse and worse. In the meantime I had built the KN8-Ultra system (as my backup box) and just started downloading there and transferring across my intranet. I'll short circuit this story to say that it turns out that ABIT released this board with a significant design flaw making running USB with dual CPUs very unstable. Never a note on the website. Never an email to registered users. Nothing. Nada. They just let everyone suffer. Of course, this is typical motherboard manufacturer style. I was finally able to get perfect stability by running with only a single CPU enabled ... but it made the box very slow with the Athlon 4400+ CPU only running one core.

The KN8-Ultra box with an Athlon 4800+ processor was my backup box (both backup in the sense of data backup and in the sense of being available if the primary box should die) and will remain so into the near future. It is reliable but doesn't seem to want to take a big video card upgrade to support my Dell 30" monitor.

With those two computers having various issues I decided to build a new machine and optimize it for Photoshop. In my mind that means as much memory as Windows 32 bit XP Pro can take, a powerful CPU and at least three separate RAID arrays. After much research (you cannot do enough research no matter how much time you put into it so just accept that) I decided on an ASUS P5E WS Pro motherboard. This motherboard supports two PCI-E x16 video cards so it should be able to drive the 23" ACD, 30" Dell and the Wacom Cintiq 21ux ... I haven't yet put the second video card in as I am using it in my about to be decommissioned AN8 box. In addition, this motherboard has a PCI-X slot and I happened (due to a total brain fart on my part) to have an LSI MegaRaid SATA 300-8X raid controller card which makes it a great fit ... but, the PCI-X slot turns out to really be just a PCI-E X1 slot with a different adapter so I can't really get full performance out of it, sigh. And, of course, this isn't revealed up front by ASUS!

The big Gotcha's! First, the P5E has two onboard RAID controllers, one of which has e-SATA connectors. That's wonderful except the Marvell driver doesn't seem to support ACHI which is necessary for e-SATA hot swap. And since the 'e' in e-SATA stands for 'external', not having hot swap is rather stupid. Also, the Marvell controller supports IDE and there is an IDE adapter on the motherboard ... but its unadvertised restriction is that if you use it for non-disk use, such as with my IDE CD-ROM, you will be sorely disappointed when after doing a complete install of Windows and try to do the reboot, the BIOS will be unable to find your boot disks! Oh, how easy it would have been if ASUS had noted that you must use a SATA CDROM! What a waste of three days of my life trying countless variations. It was only by virtue of my boss using his Linux Rescue Disk that we discovered this cleverness! I have disabled the Marvell hardware since it is clearly a half-assed and useless addition to this motherboard. And finally, the wonderful RealTek audio chipset and driver won't install under default Windows XP ... it will run the full driver install until the last instant and then fail for no obvious reason. After days of searching via Google I found that there is an incompatible system device, the UAA driver, that must be disabled and then uninstalled before installing the RealTek drivers ... but once you have discovered that "feature" (that ASUS doesn't publish)the sound support appears to work well and the driver is very friendly for those of us who are audio challenged.

Anyway, this new box is finally up and spinning as my primary business computer. I have an E8600 3.33 GHz dual core CPU, 4GB DDR2 memory, three RAID arrays: 2x250GB RAID1 for system disk, 2x250GB (soon to be replaced by 3x320GB) RAID0 scratch disk, and 3x750GB RAID5 work disk. It has two 1G NICs although it would be nicer if it had WiFi instead or even Firewire-800. I migrated the last of the applications and data from the old box to this one over this weekend. And here let me put in a BIG plug for MozBackup ... a shareware utility that will export/import your Firefox and Thunderbird profiles including email, registry settings, add-ons, etc., etc. I had read about several add-ons that supposedly did this in Firefox but none had good ratings and a complex solution for doing it by hand with Thunderbird and even though I am moderately computer literate, no manual system seemed to work properly ... MozBackup did exactly what I wanted, creating my old environment on my new box using the principal of 'least unexpected result' perfectly! I have already PayPal'd them their requested Shareware donation.

Phew, I am now on my new box with Adobe CS3 Web Premium, LR2.1, Corel PIX3 & Painter X, PhotoMechanic 5, and other odds and ends and expect to get back to doing useful Blog entries once again. Certainly one thing you can learn from my blog is that almost nothing goes as expected in small business and most of the unexpected events are not good! :-)

Be Safe!

Dwight

LightRoom 2.0 with Hal Schmitt at The Institute

I spent the weekend with Hal Schmitt learning about LightRoom 2.0 at The [Lepp] Institute in Los Osos and running off to shoot the Santa Barbara County Vintners' Association Harvest Festival at Rancho Sisquoc, California. Both were superb.

But I need to back up just a second to report that I have had two major computer failures that have been taking up my time which is why I haven't been blogging as frequently as intended. I won't dwell on them ... I am a compulsive backer upper and would have lost no data even if I had not been able to recover both machines which I have been able to do. One up side is that I have built and am migrating onto a new machine that I will describe completely with pictures when I'm done and one down side is that the two failures really have complicated the hell out of the process of migrating! But I will fill you all in later when I have a nostril above the waterline.

LightRoom 2.0 is here. Hal says LightRoom 2.1 is close and that it will fix lots of the little bugs that have been revealed, making a much more solid release by Adobe. I have been a LightRoom user since the first public release of 1.0 due to a most fortuitous coincidence of taking a class at The Institute that I thought was going to be Photoshop but which turned out to be LightRoom. It is now an integral part of my workflow where I mainly use it for RAW conversion. I rarely Photoshop any images after the conversion. This is mainly because the things you do with Photoshop are not things that interest my current clientele. But this is changing and as I move into more areas of photography such as fashion, glamor, family and maybe weddings, I will need these skills. To this end, LightRoom 2 looks like another significant increment in the toolkit. I have LR2 installed on my new machine and 1.4.1 on my old machine ... I'm trying to tease myself along!

So, in his usual inimitable instructor fashion, Hal has created a really super LightRoom weekend that combines material for LR newbies and for those of us migrating from 1 to 2. I think our class of about a dozen was a mixed bag of new and continuing users. No one was bored! And there are a lot of little tricks and treats that I can't imagine stumbling upon or even reading about that are part of Hal's show. In fact, I was chatting with Hal and a couple of other students when I heard myself say, "It's not that I get everything that I expect in taking a Hal Schmitt class, it's that I get so much that I didn't expect that makes Hal's classes so exciting!" Hal and Victoria bring a lot of top flight instructors through The Institute, but I don't think any of those I've attended or read do quite the job that Hal does. He's not as cute as Tim Gray. He's not as verbose and chatty as Scott Kelby. He's only been into photography for a short time. But he understands teaching and students so thoroughly that he is seamless and getting better with experience.

Hmmm, I guess I'm impressed ... yet again. Anyway, Hal covered all the significant new stuff, particularly in the develop module, as well as its interface with PS CS3, since that's where the meat of the new release lives. But be clear, you would understand the entire workflow through all modules after attending this weekend seminar.

Enough of that! My next Institute class will be with Andy Katz the first weekend in November doing vineyard and winery photography and I'll give you another report.

I have a lot of topics lined up (my wife is getting tired of all the boxes, lenses, bags, Pelican cases and the like that are cluttering the hallway to and inside my office and studio) to write about. I really want to show the rest of my gear so I can finally talk more about using it and the workflow involved. So stay tuned and we'll get to everything from grapes to girls and concerts, too!

Be Safe!

Dwight

The Institute: Photoshop 2 with Hal Schmitt

Just got back from my second introductory Photoshop weekend with Hal Schmitt at Lepp Institute of Digital Imaging ... to be known simply as the The Institute at this time ... and I am stoked! It was beyond my greatest expectations. Not only did Hal march us through all the major layer operations but he made them part of a solid digital photography workflow that can be the foundation of whatever additional post processing one might do. After showing us Levels, Hal worked our butts over and over on Curves! Anyone who thought that Curves was just too complicated for the average guy (or gal) just never sat through Hal's workshop. And I don't just mean seeing it in action, but taking advantage of all the more subtle uses including use of the clipping display, white balance, selective curves, the appropriate blending modes and combining with the automatically available mask and on and on. A little overload for some folks but this isn't supposed to be the introductory class ... that was last weekend!

So, I drove up to Los Osos yesterday and today, about 75 miles each way and arrived to excellent coffee and super donuts ... I'm partial to those glazed cake donuts and cinnamon rolls, sigh. The group this week was also much bigger with a wider range of experience and focus. Unfortunately no other concert shooters but mostly landscape and bird shooters, plus Greg who wants to do his own product shooting for his furniture business ... a really nice group augmented by Miss Leah in her "Little Black Dress" who is auditing as a member of The Institute staff.

So, as with each of the previous classes I have taken with The Institute I am overjoyed and feel that I got a lot more than my money's worth and more than I expected ... and I have pretty high expectations of this place. Hal ended the day after I left but the last thing he did while I was there was to run us through one of the new powerful tools in CS3 the Photomerge ... mind numbing but a feature I wouldn't have thought to investigate. The great thing about Hal is he gets his hands dirty ... really dirty actually ... and has personal experience and lots of opinions (but not those ugly religious level ones) that he will debate.

But here's the really impressive thing about Hal from this weekend ... he made a statement based on what he had been taught about a feature that didn't jibe with my experience, so I asked about it ... data saved in jpeg files. Well, we hit a break and Hal went out and tested it and when it turned out to be as I had suggested, he immediately corrected himself. It is very impressive to work with instructors who don't let ego constrict their openness to student knowledge.

Again, my disclaimer from last week: while I am very pleased with my experiences at The Institute and am sharing that with you, I am not in any way associated with them other than as a full paying student and I receive no consideration (other than being the target of extra abuse) for telling you about them. I strongly urge you to consider them if you are in the market for any digital photography education ... sign up for their newsletter as they are adding new classes and other opportunities as they move forward ... I hear they are partnering with some well known field photographers for photo-safaris to amazing locations!

And finally, if you are a NAPP or NANPA member they give a steep discount!

Be Safe!

Dwight

NAPP: A Tip from Hal at Lepp Institute

In my last post I meant to mention that Hal had suggested that joining NAPP (National Association of Photoshop Professionals) was a good idea. I have always ignored it as I'm not a Photoshop Professional and said so to Hal. Well, much to my surprise, you don't have to be a full time Photoshop professional to join. Just slap down your money ... $99/year for one year with deals on multiple years! You can also sign up for Layers magazine for $19/year which Hal calls the best photoshop magazine around. But, the kicker is, you get a 15% discount on Lepp Institute classes if you are a NAPP member ... so you actually turn a profit on almost any one-week class at Lepp. Personally I plan to buy a new lens with the money I save in 2009 by having joined NAPP!

Photoshop 1 at Lepp Institute

Once again I spent an amazing weekend at Lepp Institute of Digital Imaging in Los Osos, California. Many of my peers are aware that I am not currently a Photoshop user. While I do use Photo Mechanic to cull, rename and inject IPTC data into my images and LightRoom to do RAW conversion and catalog, I am a fan and user of Ulead's PhotoImpact product. But this must change as I really need to be "Industry Standard" and that is Photoshop. I've known this for a long time and have had installed versions of Adobe Creative Studio since their first version. I just haven't used it, sigh.

So, in my quest forward, I have read several Photoshop CS3 books. I really like Martin Evening's book. I didn't care for Scott Kelby's book. I am currently reading Blatner, Chavez and Fraser and like it so far. And I really like the ever prolific Tim Grey's "Photoshop CS3 Workflow" book. But I was very surprised to discover that Hal Schmitt's Photoshop 1 course really smacks down the books! :-) Really, no kidding. From making great sense about the organization of menus and panels and their flow in your workflow, navigating about the images, how to approach each tool and where to look for options, to the ever popular 'learn those damn keyboard shortcuts' drumbeat [although I must take off one point for Hal's failure to include the shortcuts in his handout!] Hal has good image material on which to demonstrate and practice what is taught. The whole weekend had a super flow and Hal used the inevitable student errors in navigation and option selection to bring home his experiences on these same paths and reinforce his teachings.

A word about Hal: besides photographer/Photoshopper, he is a winemaker. Oh, wait, while that's true it is not where I want to go. Hal is an Instructor. He knows how to instruct people. I am sure he would be great teaching enology. He spent quite a while instructing aircraft fighting for the Navy at Top Gun and while his vast experience in this area goes almost unmentioned (although there are several pertinent photographs that keep popping up), it is clear why the brass would have selected him for such a job ... he really is a "Natural" at instructing. In my 30 plus years as a computer person I have taken many classes. And I have given many seminars, lectures and presentations to both handfuls and auditoriums of people on fairly esoteric computer topics ... my specialty was Operating System modifications in machine language for one of IBM's two mainframe Operating Systems, VM. I understand about teaching arcane and unintuitive topics. So does Hal. Plus he is much more personable than I am. :-)

So, I finished Photoshop 1, a weekend course, this past weekend. I will take Hal's Photoshop 2 next weekend. I won't bore you with how he divides topics or what specific tools/techniques are in each segment. I will mention that I am signed up for Hal's LightRoom 2.0 weekend next month even though I will have to miss a significant portion of it to go shoot at the Santa Barbara County Harvest Festival at Rancho Sisquoc for my both of my corporate clients ... but Hal, the winemaker, will understand. And so you know that it's not just Hal that I like at Lepp, I'm also signed up for Andy Katz's winery and vineyard photography workshop the first weekend in November and Kevin Ames photographing women week long seminar also in November. Lepp really has something for everyone! I am already reviewing their 2009 courses and have found two for which I am budgeting ... but that's another story!

I need to include a couple of other things. First, my wife and I have a truck camper and she likes to come up to Los Osos, well actually Morro Bay, with my daughter and camp out while I go to Lepp. There are numerous RV parks, public and private in the area that make attending classes into a vacation with extensive photo-ops. Second, I am not affiliated with Lepp Institute of Digital Imaging, it's employees or owners or sponsors in any way and am not compensated for sharing my thoughts about them. I have just found that every experience with Hal and Victoria (his much more of an artist wife) has been much more rewarding than I expected and plunged me forward into areas that I have resisted. This is a place you need to check out if you want to be one of those "Advanced Amateurs" who all seem to have the best of all possible worlds in photography. In fact, I think there are still slots open in all the courses for which I am signed up ... although there are some 2008 courses that are full. So, check out the courses as well as this lovely little coastal town.

Be safe!

Dwight

Equipment Review: 1j - Canon TC-80N3

I'm running late as usual. But I grabbed a minute to mention Canon's TC-80N3, which is a very flexible and handy "cable release". It can do multiple exposures with timing, self-timer, long exposures, plain old "cable release" duty so you don't touch the camera for very sensitive exposures where you need to reduce jiggle, etc. Amazon currently has it for about $139. I use mine when doing table-top tripod long exposures of band equipment, normally with my Canon 5D and 15mm fisheye.

And, if the provided cord length isn't enough for you, there is a 33' extension cord, ET-1000N3, for about $80 at B&H, that let's you get way back far from the camera, either to be in the picture or to be away from the camera so as not to scare wildlife!

If this is too pricey for you, Canon also has the RS-80N3, which is just a simple cable release which Amazon has for about $48. You really need one of these in your camera bag if you use Canon EOS bodies with the N3 adapter.

Equipment Review: 1i Leatherman Charge Tools

Slot 16, right next to my trifocals, is my Leatherman Charge Tool in its leather pouch. I don't use this often but when you need it, you need it. You can see the major tools it has or check it out here on the Leatherman website. It does seem that mine doesn't exactly match any of the Charge models shown on the website: it has no scissors or lanyard ring. but as with a fair amount of my equipment, models have changed or been discontinued ... if it is not a camera body then I don't really feel that I need the latest or greatest!

So, while these puppies list at up to $160, the street price is usually around $100, and I paid somewhere in the middle two or three years ago. But you need something like this in your camera bag!

Be Safe!

Dwight

Equipment Review: 1i Quantum SC Battery & CZ Cord

Phew! I just finished my busiest photographic month ever! No time for anything much. But now I'm back and am ready to continue with the equipment review. And as previously promised I will tell about my "replacement" for the Canon CP-E4 reviewed below. Actually, this is a little misleading as I am not getting rid of the CP-E4. It will act as a backup for the Quantum SC battery with CZ cord that is now my default. It is a bit more convenient than the Quantum ... slips into a front pocket.

But, the new boy on the block is the Quantum SC battery: http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/467222-REG/Quantum_Instruments_TSC_Turbo_SC_Battery_Pack.html which runs about $430, a few bucks cheaper than when I bought it a couple of months ago. I had a Quantum Turbo battery long ago that I loved. I used it to power both my digital camera and my flash. These batteries have a lot of power, great power level indicators and the battery technology has no "memory" so you can recharge to full without having to drain the battery down for optimum performance.

I also like the clip to the belt gizmo on the back better than slipping it into my pocket ... looks a bit more professional, too! :-)

So, that's it for today. I will be continuing with my equipment review intermixed with other notable items.

BTW, I have now signed up for the Winery/Vineyard workshop at Lepp Institute in November as well as two Photoshop weekends at Lepp Institute in September as noted in an earlier post.

Lepp Institute: Printing & Mounting on Canvas Weekend Seminar

No equipment review this time as I spent the weekend at Lepp Institute of Digital Imaging in Los Osos, California, which is right next to Morro Bay. Lepp Institute at http://www.leppphoto.com/ was created by George Lepp and is now owned and run by Victoria and Hal Schmitt (yup, two 't's) in concert with George. And this weekend, at my personal request, Hal & Victoria had their first canvas printing & stretching class. They have had several previous canvas classes taught by other instructors but they have done so much canvas work at the Institute for themselves and clients that they have become quite adept ... and for this first class in this new area they have simply outdone themselves. This is an image of the Digital Classroom taken from the instructors podium.

If you are interested in becoming familiar with the mysteries of printing on canvas and subsequent preparation and mounting on stretcher bars, this is a course for you, and they have several of these weekend wonders already on their schedule due to high demand. Hal & Victoria start with image optimization (in Photoshop) and work with you all the way out through gallery wrap expansion of your images including test prints on real canvas. The techniques and insights and experiences they share will save you days and weeks of heartache and problems ... they have had this experience for you! Below is the studio/canvas mounting area.

After test prints, you will make one or more "real" print images on canvas and then learn how to prep your images for stretching ... these images, prepared as "PremeirArt Nouveau Fine Art Prints" are true Giclee (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gicl%C3%A9e) prints and are simply stunning. We did both hand and machine stretching.

Now I've got to put in a word for Victoria ... several of the prints had some serious defects due to scanning ... one was covered in dust and hairs ... others picked up detritus during preparation ... Victoria stepped in with Photoshop and her fine paint brush and showed how to correct errors and problems. She is a real artist but is ever so modest (everyone who deals with Hal is modest, of course!)

So, after hands on learning about PremierArt Eco Print Shield application we all proceeded to prepare an image (or two), hand stretch and complete the process. I did my famous KISS performance collage (see below) and will be giving it to Wayne Hurte, my boss at the Chumash Casino Resort for his Condo renovation. In addition there were beautiful images of stored boats on a lake, a raptor, a gnarly old tree, a mother's portrait, a beach and others printed at this seminar, both color and Black-and-White (you would not believe how amazing B&W canvas prints are.)

If you either want to knock the socks off your photography friends or sell your work as fine art Giclee, you really need to make the time and effort to attend this class. It is under $500 (at this time) and you walk out with at least one canvas image that would retail for $450. There has never been such a bang-for-the-buck class in digital photography! You can read the Lepp Institute blog entry: Welcome to the Lepp Institute Blog: Canvas Printing and Finishing Workshop

I'm going to end this by saying that I am about to register for their weekend November 1-2, 2008, class which will be about shooting wineries and vineyards. And I have promised to attend a set of the weekend seminars for Photoshop so that I will finally get converted from my beloved PhotoImpact, sigh! :-)

Be Safe!

Dwight

Equipment Review: 1h - Battery Power for 580EX II

I learned the hard way that those four AA batteries in a 580EX don't last very long, particularly if you use rechargeable batteries which I do and you are shooting not only maximum power every shot, but using high speed sync as well, on a football field at night in the rain! High speed sync is another discussion, but it involves multiple flashes for each exposure. And running out of battery power for your flash makes you look rather lame, sigh. Fortunately there are a few alternatives. One option is to simply carry extra AA batteries in your pocket (which I was doing the night I discovered how fast they run out.) It can also be a bit of a problem reloading them in the 580EX due to a poor battery door design. I have since bought a 580EX II which makes better use of batteries and has a much improved battery door.


Perhaps a better, though pricey alternative, is a Canon CP-E4 Compact Battery Pack, at about $155. It comes with a nice black canvas case that slips into your pocket or onto your belt or you can use the screw adapter and put it on the bottom of your camera. It is fairly lightweight and professional looking. I used its predecessor, the CP-E3, and now use the CP-E4 which has better weather seals and is designed for use with the 580EX II although it is backward compatible.

I next discovered that even an additional eight AA's, which is what the CP-E4 holds, doesn't always do the trick, especially if you have two events back-to-back or just haven't charged them up since the last gig. Again, this may have a lot to do with using rechargeables, although I really like the 2000 mAh Radio Shack NiMH batteries that I use exclusively these days. Luckily I discovered the Canon CPM-E4, a pricey (again) plastic battery holder for the CP-E4. It is what holds the batteries inside the battery pack and can be purchased separately for around $42 each ... not cheap, but invaluable.

So, until very recently, I carried a CP-E4 with eight batteries and had two CPM-E4's in my case with charged batteries. I marked each CPM-E4 with a number, 1-3 (you can see the "3" in the image above, written with a Sharpy), and traded them into the CP-E4 always in order and charged the last used holder. Never had a problem. But two notes: (1) the 580EX II will use power from all 12 batteries, so the four in the flash itself will be drained as quickly as the others unless you set the option to use only the external battery pack for flash power and the four internal batteries to drive the flash logic [This is C.Fn-12 set to 1], and (2) you need to carry extra batteries for the internal power because if the internal batteries run out, even switching the option to use power from all batteries will not work as the 580EX [II] won't run with its internal batteries discharged ... this was one of the ways I found out how useful the battery tester mentioned below can be ... I thought my 580EX had died because I knew the CP-E3 I was using had good batteries but the unit wasn't working. I just happened to decide to test ALL the batteries and the internal set was totally discharged. I had a spare set in my Pelican case (you cannot have too many spare batteries!), popped them in and all was right with the world.


One more significant lesson: you never know when a battery may go bad ... and one bad battery in the barrel can be a disaster! So, you also need a way to check your batteries ... which will also save you from discarding or recharging batteries that are really OK! I picked up, and love, my Radio Shack battery tester. There have been a number of times that I was sure I had bad batteries when it was something else! And I have been able to locate a bad battery in a set and replace it ... saving a lot of blood pressure. So this is an essential, small, lightweight and soul satisfying item that should be in your bag (or Pelican Case.) It is Radio Shack Model: 22-93 Catalog #: 22-093 and is under $7 ... sweet!

Next time, what I am using now!

Be Safe,

Dwight

I'm Still Here!

I know it's been several weeks since I posted, but as I say again and again, every time I get started here I am overtaken by events. I will continue my equipment reviews, which will now include new equipment I have purchased such the Bowens Explorer 1500 battery powered generator and various Sun Bounce gear. At the moment I up to my ass in alligators with projects sprouting up everywhere and just not enough time.

I would urge you to go to my website and look at my Glamor Project to see some of the things I am struggling with at the moment.

Be Safe!

Dwight

Equipment Review: 1g

Well, another short review for today, slot 11, the Giotto Rocket Blower. This is a great device because it is so simple and handy. Don't let the rocket shape fool you, it is nifty. If you change lenses on your DSLR(s) you will get dust on the sensor, even if you have one of those fancy new ones with dust removal vibrating functions! I know because I have three of them and I still need a blower. To use it, you simply remove your lens, invoke the 'sensor cleaning' function of your camera (I hope you aren't so timid that you won't even do this), turn the camera so that the lens opening is facing down, and without touching the sensor with the blower, blow on that puppy!

Some folks aren't sure how to tell if they have dust bunnies on their sensor. Let me first say that if they aren't causing you a problem, ignore them! Really, having some sensor dust is OK if it doesn't cause you problems ... just leave it alone! But if it is an issue but you don't know how to tell if your sensor is clean, here's what to do: take a properly exposed (just let your camera do it as usual) image in Av mode at a small f-stop, like f/22, of a homogeneous subject ... this usual means blue sky which is where most of us have trouble with the dust. Look at the image either via the enlarging function of your body or on your computer. If there are gray spots (or even black) then you have dust. It is OK not to have dust! But if you do, the very first thing to do is use your Rocket Blower. Sometimes it may take three or four iterations to get most of the dust off. I find this usually greatly reduces the dust. You don't have to get it all. It is OK to just reduce it to where it is not a problem. This is not something to have a hemorrhage about!

If you can't get enough of the dust off with the blower, then you need to "wet clean" your sensor. There are dozens of online tutorials about how to do this. DO NOT BE AFRAID TO TRY IT! I have NEVER heard of anyone damaging their sensor if they follow the simple directions in the tutorials. It is not rocket science. It is easy, although the tools are pricey and you may have to do two or three iterations. Do not be distraught if the first pass or two doesn't clean it perfectly! I have had to do four rounds (which cost about $6/round) of wet cleaning sometimes. Just get over it ... that's how it is!

OK, next equipment review will be about batteries for flash. Since starting this tutorial I have upgraded my flash battery setup so I'll go over both AA's and my new Quantum battery!

Be Safe!

Dwight

Back from Club Med, Cancun, Yucatan, Mexico

I am back from Club Med at Cancun where I went for a week with my family. A grand time was had by all and I highly recommend it ... a bit pricey but well, well worth every dime, er, ah, I mean peso! The first image is the Club Med reception area. When you arrive they have warm towels to wipe off the travel grime and drinks to quench the thirst.

The next two images are of the general look and feel of the campus. The beaches are beautiful white sand, the clouds are amazing and water an amazing blue/green.


The last image is my daughter in a fashion show. Luckily she didn't insist that we buy the outfit. Unluckily that was only because she wanted one with more color that we did have to get her! :-)



Be Safe!

Dwight

Glamor: Janie Arnold

Every time I start blogging I am overtaken by events, but I am trying to keep posting. And while I will continue with the equipment review I think my Glamor Project is more interesting at the moment. The History: I bought a Bowens QUADX studio strobe system about four years ago as I had always wanted to try out those big fancy lights we always see in the "behind the scenes" photographs of models working. The images can really be stunning, but it takes a bit more care, time and experience than is immediately obvious. I used them a few times on family with some decent results. Then, about two and a half years ago we moved to our present house where there was an office and another room I am using as a studio. The studio is 10' x 17' with 9' ceiling ... way too small to be effective, but large enough to allow me to practice and experiment. It has taken me the last two years to finally get it mostly equipped ... there are still odds and ends like flags and gels that I need.

Back a couple of posts I talked about shooting Amber Rhodes, rising country singer/songwriter. I shot her for my friend Rick Barker. But my real goal is to learn to shoot glamor. And to that end I have joined ModelMayhem.com, an online resource for models, photographers and others in the industry. I also made a couple of contacts through Scott Sneddon, an Air Force sergeant and photographer currently deployed in Korea. Among much else, Scott introduced me to Janie Arnold, a 21 year old aspiring model and fitness student. While I have additional shoots in the pipeline and several more scheduled with various models, I'm going to briefly cover my two experimental shoots with Janie.

For the first shoot I wanted to work with a white seamless background along with my white studio walls and ceiling. I used two medium softboxes and some background lights in a very simple setup. As you will see in the accompanying images they are a bit overexposed, similar to the Amber Rhodes images ... an effect that I generally like. For the second shoot, I used black seamless, draped off the walls, used a beauty light for a main light, a softbox for fill, a gelled snoot for an accent light and low reflector/barn door head for side lighting ... a very different look.

I'm not really facile enough to give instruction in lighting at this point. I have spent countless hours reading forums and tutorials but it just takes a lot of hands on time to get the hang of it and I'm not there yet. So, enjoy the images. I will have additional glamor sessions to post in the future.

You can also see these images and many more from these sessions on my website in the Glamor Project section.

Be Safe!

Dwight

Equipment Review: 1f

I am, as always, busy. This afternoon I am shooting a family portrait or two for my good friend, Rick Barker (I can't mention him too much), promoter of rising country talent and after that, of Janie, a glamor model. I am just finishing work on Engelbert Humperdinck photos as well as Jan and Dean. I am awash in talent.

But today I want to acquaint you with my favorite lens from slot #10: a Canon 300mm f/2.8L IS. This is the lens with which I take my signature concert images: crystal clear head/shoulders shots normally taken from fifteen to twenty feet away in front of the stage. Far enough to be unimposing and near enough to count the freckles and see every imperfection. But lest you get the impression that am collecting a vast catalog of unflattering images of aging stars, I want to assure you that I throw all the unflattering images away ... sometimes 98% of these closeups.

The wonderful thing about this lens is that it is the biggest hand holdable lens in Canon's line. How do I know it is hand holdable? Easy, Canon makes the tripod collar removable and I haven't had it on the lens for over a year. Next obvious question is, aren't all the tripod collars removable? Nope! The slightly bigger brother to this lens is the 400mm f/2.8L IS, that I also own, has a permanent tripod collar. That puppy is just too heavy for hand holding, particularly on a 1D body. This is not to say some people don't do it ... but it is usually on a monopod, although I use mine on a big Gitzo legset with leveling head and Wimberley head. I'm including images of the 300mm f/2.8L IS on this big tripod setup, but isn't how I use it.

The Canon 300mm f/2.8L IS as seen on B&H PhotoVideo isn't cheap ... here's the full description link with a price of $4100, slightly MORE than I paid for it over two years ago. This is one of those classic lenses, like the 70-200mm f/2.8L IS that are so popular that they keep their value over long periods of time.

Here's an image of KC, from KC and the Sunshine band.

When shooting concerts at the casino I almost always have this lens on one of the two 1DMIII bodies I use. I carry both bodies with me, setting one or the other on the floor as I shoot, usually filling the buffer and switching to the other body/lens combination at that point. The images are usually superb from both, but there is something just a little sharper, a little contrastier and brighter from the 300mm f/2.8L IS. The only downside is that you can accidentally get too close and get inside the minimum focal distance.

And an image of the saxophonist from B.B. King's band.


This is a great lens. I have loaned mine a couple of times and caused several to be purchased.

Be Safe!

Dwight

Amber Rhodes: Singer/Songwriter and Lovely Model

I mentioned on Thursday that I was busy and doing all sorts of things that were delaying my Equipment Review. Still promise that it will continue soon. But in the meantime I wanted to share my session with Amber Rhodes (www.AmberRhodes.com) in my studio. I don't know Amber's music, yet, but if she needs a break from the recording studio she can certainly work in the photography studio. Amber is a photographer's delight. Gushing with personality and a natural beauty with perfect skin, she simply took over her own session. She marched in with three outfits and a makeup kit, spent ten minutes getting ready in her first outfit while I did a lighting test with her guitarist, and then marched into the studio already laughing ... a quick wit and ready smile already in high gear.

One of the hallmarks of professional experienced models is that they require very little direction and have a huge range of facial expressions. Amber is every bit of that. She posed. She twirled. She bent, jumped, twisted, turned, plopped down. She gave the 'Girl Next Door' smile, the sultry look, the happy, the pouty, the come-hither. I got to shooting so fast that I popped a circuit breaker twice and got black images where the strobes hadn't recharged.

Amber is an American singer/songwriter out of Lexington, KY. She writes country, rock and pop. She is on the radar, so watch out for her.

Oh, some technical details: all images shot with Canon 1DsMIII and 70-200mm f/2.8L IS lens. Lighting is two Bowens QUADX 3000 generators and five heads. Post processing consisted of LightRoom conversion with some resizing, levels, and color temperature. No retouching ... none ... not a spot removed or skin smoothed. Amber is a natural beauty.

You can see about 60 images in her gallery at my website at http://dwightmccann.com/Glamor/AmberRhodes05222008.html. Let me know what you think.

And once again, I promise to get back to my equipment review project soon.

Be Safe!

Dwight

Lots of Shoots

Well, I got the 400 ballerinas shot: 2055 images. Now delivered to Mike Mesikep. Phew, lots of fun and lotsa work. And I have since shot a 4 year old for a birthday invitation. And last night I shot Amber Rhodes, rising country singer/songwriter in my studio. She was awesome and I will have some shots from the session at some point. Tonight I shoot Englebert Humperdinck at the casino. And Saturday I have a VIP event at the casino with Jan and Dean. Monday I have a model shoot back in my studio. So, I will be picking up on the equipment review sometime in the next few days hopefully but I have been very busy.

400 Ballerinas

I've been so good about posting that I didn't want anyone to think I'm slacking but I likely won't get the next installment of my equipment review for a few days as I am off photographing 400 little ballerinas (well, not ALL are little) through the weekend. The event is the annual Los Olivos Dance Gallery's Center Stage, being performed at Solvang's Theaterfest theater in the round in Santa Barbara County, California. This event is put on by Maggie and Mike Mesikep as the premier recital of dance of all kinds in our little Santa Ynez Valley. It is a community event with dozens of parent volunteers, support of Arts Outreach and many other organizations, and total exhaustion of Mike and Maggie and their staff. It is a joy to watch as well as photograph. [Disclaimer: My six year old daughter attends Los Olivos Dance Gallery and dances in the Center Stage production.]

I am given full and total access, although I have to stay out of the way of the bizillion dancers and stage personnel. But since I can see over the heads of most participants, who are four to eighteen with a few adults thrown in, that's not too hard. This year the tear jerker dance is "Fathers & Daughters" which includes about eight or ten Dads dancing with their own Jazz Dancers. I know a few of the Dads and it tugs strongly on my heartstrings to see them performing ... these are not your young new Dads, they are 40-60 and loving the opportunity.

I gotta download last night's images, so I'm off.

Be Safe!

Dwight

Equipment Review: 1e

Slot #9: I am one of the few photographers I know who carries a tripod in his case all the time: a Gitzo G0012 (discontinued) with a Manfrotto 484 ball head attached. I have at least two other tripods and various other tripod-like gadgets that I will review later on ... one of which is designed to clamp onto your car window ... very neat! And I have a very good monopod that I will also review even though I do think this item is overkill!

But today it's the little Gitzo that could! I did a quick review on the web and couldn't find one, but they ran about $180. Yes, yes, I know that's a lot of money for this tiny little gadget and that doesn't count the Manfrotto 484 ball head which is only $45 at B&H. But this setup is worth the price and trouble to carry it around all the time even when no one else seems to think so, sigh.

The first image is just the tripod and head. The second image is my 5D with 24-105mm f/4L IS lens. Also note that there is a split ring in the strap bracket. I'll talk about that later when I discuss remote shooting with cameras mounted overhead.

I have made two good uses of this puppy, both using my Canon 5D body. First, at concerts where I have access to the stage after sound check with all the instruments sitting there waiting for the show to start, I often pop a fisheye onto the 5D and put it on this little tripod. I then walk around the stage, setting this assembly near instruments and taking time exposures. I have gotten a number of very interesting images that I just couldn't have gotten without a tripod and probably couldn't have gotten with a fullsize one. The Gitzo has both extension legs (just one extension for about six inches) and the center post extends (for about six inches) although I have very rarely used either ... I did once to shoot a CD cover at a concert.

The other frequent use is at the Chumash Casino Resort "Supper Club" VIP events. These are invitation only buffet/sit down dinners with dinner music and entertainment hosted by Linda Nielsen. There are about a dozen tables for seating and each is elaborately decorated for each event by John Blair and his staff with hand made center pieces and lovely settings. While I have to rely on flash to capture these most of the time, I am occasionally able to use the little tripod for stunning ambient light images. I also shoot some of the handsome buffet lines as I did last night as shown in the third image ... no way to get that in ambient light without a tripod.

The last picture today is Ed Zajac with his percussion setup, including timpani, prior to my last Johnny Mathis concert. There would be no way to get this image in the very dim light available prior to the concert, let alone with enough depth of field to catch that harp in the left rear of the image, without a tripod.

I've also used it to capture bands in small clubs where I have a table with a clear view but that is infrequent ... although when I do manage it the images are unobtainable any other way. So take a tip from a Pro, get and use a tripod ... or two or three!

Be safe!

Dwight