Sunday, May 24, 2009

Los Olivos Dance Gallery Centre Stage 2009: 300 Ballerinas

Last week I shot 300 ballerinas during the Los Olivos Dance Gallery Centre Stage 2009 annual performance recital in Solvang, California's Festival Theater. This was the third year I have done this as a volunteer in support of Artistic Director Maggie Mesikep. It is an awesome experience to watch these girls (and a few guys) perform ... sometimes I am so moved that I forget to press the shutter release. My daughter, Anna, age seven, just completed her third year as a dancer-in-training. I got involved when Mike Mesikep, husband of Maggie and Chief Photographer and Technical Director for the shows, lost his primary volunteer photographer as the result of a family tragedy and came to me as a possible participant. I agreed to shoot the dress rehearsal. It was a mistake ... but only in the best way: after that first experience I took vacation from my day job and shot for four days straight.

OK, now let me go back and correct a couple of things. First, it isn't just ballet ... I just say that because it appeals to me. There is ballet, tap, jazz, hip-hop, flamenco and I expect others that I am totally ignorant about. I am not a dance person. As for the shooting, Mike pretty much just says, "Come and do your thing" and I do. Many of you will know that I am the house photographer for the Entertainment Department at the Chumash Casino Resort and have a lot of experience shooting world class performers ... and my boss at the casino, Wayne Hurte, gives the same kind of management ... "Go do what you do!" I am quite comfortable shooting what amounts to a continual stream of "One time only and just for an instant" captures for which my 'Best in the World' Canon cameras work wonders. It is a gift many, many years in the making.

Festival Theater is almost a Theater-in-the-Round ... similar to what I think of as the Shakespearean setup with a stage that projects out into the audience but with a tall facade off one edge where lighting and dressing rooms exist. It is nestled almost in the middle of Solvang, California, which is a pseudo-Danish tourist trap. The images from my 'Eye-in-the-Sky' (this year a Canon 5D Mark II with 24-105mm f/2.8L) are from as high in this facade as they will let me go.

This year I spent my hours sitting on a cold hard concrete step with a wool blanket as padding and no back support. Next year I'm getting a seat! I'm too old for this.

The performances include the dress rehearsal day with both juniors and seniors. The public performances are by juniors on Saturday morning and by seniors on Thursday, Friday and Saturday evenings. It is a huge production involving about half the little girls in the valley and their families ... there is a lot of family participation as Maggie and Mike make everyone feel essential and loved.

I shot using two Canon 1DMIII's bodies and a variety of lenses from 14mm f/2.8L to 70-200mm f/2.8L IS and including 16-35mm f/2.8L and 24-70mm f/2.8L. Selecting some example images to include with this blog entry is almost impossible. I have 1236 "Keepers" that I will provide to Mike on a DVD and from which I must select for here. I hope they are representative! You can click on the images in the blog post to see larger versions. For the technically inclined, the larger versions contain both EXIF and IPTC data for your persual.

I am already planning for next year. Mike and I are going to try to put a second 'Eye-in-the-Sky' camera in one of the very high lighting towers that sit up behind the amphitheater style seating ... the lighting provider says I'll have to wear a harness to climb the pole to the tiny little platform where the ellipticals are positioned, but it'll be worth it to capture images from directly above and from a high angle out front at the same time. I do have to remember to use bigger CF cards. This year I used 8GB and ran out of space. Next year I'll use 16GB or bigger. There's always something new to learn! The following photograph is a three frame panorama stitched together by Photoshop ... there's "errors" near the middle:

Below are Maggie and Mike with their daughter Hannah.

Travel safe!

Dwight

Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Light Photographic Workshops: More on Canon Presentation

Well, I bashed Canon's presentation last weekend at LIGHT pretty thoroughly: I was not impressed by the Rep's or their seminars. So now I want to offer a few suggestions on what they should have presented.

(1) Flash: most of the attendees were primarily interested in learning to use their Canon flashes better. Rather than demonstrating only with one flash in an expensive softbox ($500) which none of the students owned (to my knowledge), the Reps should have polled the students about what they needed to know. In addition they should have explained in as much detail as possible how E-TTL works (which by my reckoning is, "Not very well!") and worked with students to explain how to overcome the deficiencies. And rather than make disparaging comments about the diffusers students did own, such as Sto-fen, Demb and Fong, they should have done clear demonstrations showing the effects of each and allowing the students to experiment under their tutelage. And how about showing the off-camera-cord and how to use it to the best advantage? And there should have been a fair amount of time devoted to using two flash units in various scenarios. What was needed was an opportunity for the students to learn how to get the most out of the Canon gear they owned and were used to. The way to brand loyalty is through photographers who feel they are getting great value for their money.

One of the more unintuitive flash subjects that deserved much more/better attention (although it was approached by the Rep) was using and controlling ambient versus flash lighting. It was demonstrated. But in order to take something home in this area, each student probably needed ten minutes one-on-one and then group experimentation in the field. As it was, the Rep spent all his time shooting the professional model with his own camera (and the expensive softbox and unused on-camera flash) and telling the students to wait.

(2) Cameras: nothing was said about the various features of the various DSLRs that Canon sells. It would have benefited many there to understand the limits and advantages of several Canon lines: Rebels, x0D line (20D, 30D, 40D, 50D), 5D (original and Mk II) and not least, the 1DMIII and 1DsMIII. About the only comparative remarks made were, "You can't do this with 5D. It's only available on the 5D Mark II."

(3) Printers: most of the second day, until I left at noon being pretty disgusted, was devoted to Photoshop retouching techniques. The morning should have been devoted to printing images, student and instructor, and explaining what makes a good print, what kinds of things go wrong, how to work with the Canon software/drivers to overcome these issues and making the same print on numerous different kinds of media. Before I left the Rep did say he was going to go over the Canon printer driver plugin for Photoshop so I hope that happened in a way to help students use it effectively back home.

(4) Miscellaneous: Most of the prosumer level bodies now support Wifi. I have a WFT-E2A and wanted to learn to connect it to my laptop. I asked about this early the first day. It was never acknowledged after that. I expect this is a feature very few of the other students know about.

Most of the newer prosumer bodies support lens microadjustments. This was a procedure I wanted to see demonstrated. I asked about this early the first day. It was never acknowledged after that. This is a feature that has been known to cure a lot of frustration and a process that used to require a trip of both camera and lens to Canon repair for several hundred dollars. Probably a 30 minute demonstration would have handled it.

Live View is a new and very popular feature. Live View tethered to a laptop would have been interesting. In fact, hands on use and demonstrations of DPP and EOS Utilities would have been excellent rather than just having one of the Reps run it for the other, as they did, and blaming it's failures on Apple. Knowing how to review your images while shooting using a laptop is very useful but few amateurs I've met have a clue how it is done, they just see it in all of the professional lighting tutorials.

Disclaimer: I am obviously not paid by Canon to review their seminar (although it would probably be a good idea!) I am not paid by LIGHT to review or promote their facility nor do I get any special treatment. I simply think that it is the premier facility in the country with the best instructors, particularly including Hal, and it is in my own best interests to promote it.

Second disclaimer: I own LOTS of Canon equipment including 580EX II flashes, 5D Mark II, 1DMIIIs, 1DsMIII and lots of "L" lenses from 400mm f/2.8L IS down to 14mm f/2.8L II and I am fairly familiar with it. I have been photographing for over 40 years.

Travel Safe!

Dwight

Monday, May 11, 2009

LIGHT Photography Workshops: Canon & The New Lepp

Some of you know that I have been trekking up to Los Osos every couple of months for the last two years to take photography classes at Lepp Institute, owned and operated by Hal & Victoria Schmitt. I go there because I have always gotten great 'Bang for the Buck'. It has been through their classes that I stepped up to shooting RAW and profiling my monitors as well as finally starting to migrate from PhotoImpact to Photoshop. In my mind, Hal Schmitt is the premier photography instructor on the planet.

So, it is a rarity that I have anything less than stellar to say about my attendance there, but this weekend is a bit of an exception. As part of their sponsorship of Hal & Victoria, Canon provides occasional workshops by their representatives. One such presentation was this weekend. From my reading of the flyer, the two Canon reps were going to cover things Canon from cameras and flash, including WiFi through printing. That's not quite what happened. The complete first day was about shooting using a 5D Mark II, two 580EX II strobes and very expensive softbox setup ... oh, but only light from a single flash was used as the other, on camera flash, was only ever used as a Master with flash disabled. Now, I have a lot of equipment. But I don't have a large, $500 BruceDorn softbox with special Wescott shoe for my two 580EX II's and none of the other students did either. So, the extended shooting in the studio with this softbox wasn't useful for anyone. Nor was much of the information useful for those with slightly older bodies/flashes. I guess if the flyer had suggested that only the latest greatest Canon products were being showcased that wouldn't be so bad ... oh, except Canon doesn't make a softbox! That's a Wescott affair. The same thing happened when we went into the field ... softbox! I don't know very many folks who haul a softbox into the field ... literal field with grass and trees. But again, that's all the Canon Rep did. And, while pretty continually saying how much better this was than using true studio strobes, the 580EX II's misfired often and the much vaunted E-TTL system misexposed often. Several times he noted that his flash had not recycled quickly enough but when I offered to loan him a Quantum SC battery (of which I have two for my 580EX IIs) he put them down saying they would burn out the flash ... even though he had just commented about how the flash has circuitry to prevent overheating, etc. There were frequent comments about how much easier this was than having to use a meter as one does with studio strobes, but in almost the same breath the Rep would talk about having to use FEC (flash exposure compensation) to correct the bad E-TTL exposures. And, consider, his entire studio shoot was done tethered to a laptop so he could see and adjust the light. I am one of a very few photographers that I know who always shoot tethered to a computer in the studio. I doubt any other student there has ever done that. I really don't think anyone was favorably impressed by this presentation.

The second day was to be about printing. I left early since the rep spent almost the entire morning demonstrating his favorite Photoshop techniques for retouching women. They never touched on WiFi and although I had explicitly asked, they never reviewed making microadjustments for lenses. In fact, they never seemed to hear any of the questions students asked and anything outside their predefined patter seemed like a big issue for guys who should be experts. And when their vaunted Canon DPP software failed, it was quickly blamed on Apple ... although the computers they used were their own and their own choice. All-in-all, pretty sad from Canon.

But, I gotta' say, Hal & Victoria know full well what they are about. They had a Grand Opening ... although it was really a rebranding of sorts. Huge party! Great turnout! Superb food. Amazing wine. Wonderful guests. Made new friends and ran into old friends not seen for some time. The amazing Kevin Cole was there talking about his pending Canon 800mm f/5.6 purchase and wildlife techniques. There were even some folks who had an interest in my Chumash Casino Resort photography ... a little eqo stroke for me.

My wife, Marna, and daughter, Anna, attended. Anna spent most of the evening playing/dancing with Reagan (I'm not sure of the spelling) who is Hal & Victoria's daughter. And somewhere mixed in was a ribbon cutting for the new LIGHT Photography Workshops! Lepp Institute Gone High Tech!

I will be back up to LIGHT soon. I will not be attending any Canon workshops soon.

Travel Safe!

Dwight