by jprentice on June 30, 2009
Last week I discussed an image I shot for my friend Daniel, Co-Founder of TheFullPint.com in the post Strobist Boot Camp II. It was partially to help Dan in his blog, but also as an assignment at strobist.com. It didn’t feel right shooting only half of the founders, so I shot the other one, Jon Sims, this past weekend. Below are the results.
I had never actually met Jon before and I had no idea what I was going to do when I got to his apartment. We tried a couple of ideas that were pretty fail-rrific. But eventually we worked our way to this gem. I say we because Jon played a huge role in making this picture. I’m glad that I was open to his suggestions.
I want to publicly throw out a huge thanks to both Dan and Jon. I appreciate your time and I hope you’re happy with the pictures and that you can find a use for them. This helps me a lot with building experience and exposure (it’s impossible to avoid bad photog puns, so I don’t try anymore).
by jprentice on June 3, 2009
In April I had the pleasure of shooting for GSF Truck Training in Los Angeles. They were in the process of building out a new website and needed some images of their equipment and shots of their instructors in action. Somehow I convinced them to meet at 7am on a Saturday. I think I complained about that more than they did. To get some of the shots, I had to climb up onto one of the trucks with this amazingly awesome ladder that was “customized” by a truck backing over it. And because it was early in the morning, the truck was conveniently covered in dew. It was cool trying not to play bambi on ice while on top of the truck. I’m not sure if I ever mentioned all that to my wife…well, now you know Marie! I’m not broken, you’re welcome!
Despite nearly killing myself, I thought the shoot went well. I had fun and the guys were cool, what more could you ask for?!
Here’s a couple of links to their site where my images are used (scroll toward the bottom) CDL A Training and CDL B Training.
by jprentice on May 11, 2009
On May 7th I had the pleasure of hanging out at the Pasadena Public Library. They shut the library down for the day and had training sessions and team building exercises for their employees. The reason I was there was to do a 40 minute talk on how to improve their own photography. They hold a lot of events and take their own pictures which are later used on their website and possibly brochures, blackmail and other things. I was also asked to arrive early in order to shoot some portraits which employees could use in their profiles on the library’s intranet.
I arrived around 1pm and was met by Kirk, their super cool Network Administrator. I’m a recovering IT guy myself, so I can relate to Kirk’s situation. Numerous rooms each with laptop’s and projector’s. Get their early to set up. Then leave late because you have to tear it all down. And to top it off he had to escort some crazy photographer around the building. Be nice to your IT staff, they work harder than they let on! Kirk looks like a guy that wouldn’t turn down a nice steak dinner *wink* *wink*
Anyway…I had about 10 whole minutes to scope things out and then another 20 to setup (again, huge thanks to Kirk for helping setup). By 1:30pm I was shooting and it didn’t stop until 2:45. The assignment required that everyone be shot in front of a green screen. For those interested, I also offered to take a picture of them with the library’s giant corridor in the background (the architecture of the library is REALLY nice). So most of the employees had two pictures taken. If my counting is correct, 31 people had their portrait taken. I was very pleased with the results, and the staff was amazing! They were very tolerant of a few (minor) hiccups and a little “on the fly” testing. I’m always looking to improve, so I have a small list of things I would have done differently. That could make for a good post…I’ll think about it.
At 2:45pm I stopped shooting, we moved some equipment out of major walkways, and then made our way to the Children’s Reading room (appropriately) to learn up my new friends on pictures! The class was amazing (the people, not necessarily the content)! The topics included things like composition guidelines, as well as some equipment tips. They were all very engaged and had excellent questions. I’m not a great public speaker, much less an instructor. But I have to admit that I really enjoyed myself. I wouldn’t object to doing it again.
A HUGE thanks to the library and an even HUGERER thanks to my friend Pablo who convinced the library to let me in.
And now…some pictures!
by jprentice on March 31, 2009
A week ago I shot my Sister-in-Law’s baby shower. She had this great idea of taking portraits of her with each family attending the shower. Not only would she have a nice picture of her with each family for herself, but she would also be able to send a copy off with the Thank You cards. Now that I think about it, I hope all those people brought gifts. Otherwise, the Thank You card could get awkward.
Look at little Samantha smile!
Flor! I wonder if she won the pacifier collection contest. I sure didn’t.
This, hands down, was one of the craziest and most challenging shots I’ve ever had to do with humans. I’m happy to say that no kids were injured while taking this photo, and none of them learned any new colorful words. Seriously, fill a mess of kids with cake and soda and take a picture of them. I’m clearly lacking any form of good judgment. Thankfully all the parents were there to reign them in.
This is a shot my Wife took during the insane kids portrait. My SB-900 had SU-4 enabled, so she triggered it with her point and shoot.
This is another picture my Wife took of me while I was cleaning things up. This is my Blue Steel pose.
And to end this post, I learned something huge at this shoot. It can be summed up in one small, simple word. Advil. To my fellow photogs: Always. Take. Advil. After the party, we drove right to CVS (because it was closer than my house) to get Advil. My allergies kicked in that morning and I had the worst headache all day.
Thanks again to Grace and everyone else at the shower! I had a great time and we got some nice pictures!
by jprentice on February 18, 2009
Over the weekend I was invited to shoot my nephew Robert’s basketball game. He plays in a league with a bunch of other seven year olds. The league is loose on certain rules, such as dribbling, traveling, etc. And tight on others, such as stealing the ball (as in, they can’t steal). So it’s a fast paced game and fun to watch. But you can see the frustration in all the boy’s eyes that they can’t rip the ball out of another player’s hands. In some cases they would clearly steal from their own teammate if permitted.
Image Details: The court was relatively well lit. There were big windows letting in a lot of light. But it wasn’t enough light for shooting basketball. So I’m glad I brought my flash. I shot with the sb-900 on the camera. I was happiest with the results when I used a 1/4 cto gel, aimed the flash up at 45 degrees and extended the built in bounce card. Since I was shooting with the flash, my fastest shutter speed could be 1/250. For this kind of action, I prefer at least 1/500. I used f/2.8 and did my best to get as close as possible to the action. Thankfully there were two large openings at one end of the basketball court behind the basket. So getting close was not a problem. Thankfully I didn’t get a ball and/or camera smashed into my face.
One lesson I keep learning (and need to stop learning) is to pay close attention to my camera settings. I always shoot in raw but half way through the game I accidentally switched it to jpeg. I shot half the game that way. I try to always shoot the proper exposure, so no blood no foul. But it still made me mad. I really don’t like leaving data behind.
