Father-Daughter Reception Dance

I love the effect you can get with this type of reception lighting.

Here we have Kelli, the subject of my last two blog posts, but this time dancing with her father at her wedding reception. I’ve positioned a remote-activated flash on a light stand in the far corner of the dance floor. I’ve got another flash on a bracket over my camera. Both flashes are gelled for full tungsten, and the camera is set on tungsten white balance, but the fact that the facility has dimmed their lights, means there’s still a nice amount of warmth in the shot (because dimming tungsten lights just makes them appear even warmer).

The flash just off camera on the bracket is connected with a TTL sync cable and is on TTL auto-exposure. The camera is on manual exposure (15th of a second at f/4.5. ISO 800) with the aperture and ISO set for an appropriate exposure from the remote flash, which I had metered previously.

The result is a nice cross lit scene, with the flash at the camera providing a nice general exposure and the flash in the background creating a rim light along the dancers and shadows on the floor. I’ve positioned myself to catch the shadows cast by the people in the background, which lead the eye down into the frame where the bride’s white gown leads you to the pair of dancers. In all, a very nice father-daughter moment and a great memory to keep. I chose this image to appear as a two-page spread in their book and it looks wonderful.

I will admit that I had no idea where everyone was going to be standing during the dancing when I set my lighting up. It was luck that this scene presented itself, but it was preparation that permitted me to be ready for it and catch it.

James River Portrait

This is Brian and Kelli again, shot a few months prior to my last post, the Adam and Eve Portrait.

This couple booked me in the late spring/early summer for their wedding which wasn’t going to be until November. I suggested that we had the time to shoot a number of different locations for their engagement portraits, shooting some in the summer with the nice weather and another set in the fall after the leaves turned. The previous Maymont image was the autumn shoot, this one was one in the summer, as if you couldn’t tell.

Both Brian and Kelli love their dogs. They have three of them and all three were with us this day. They didn’t trust the other two to sit still enough for this portrait, though, so only this little guy got to join in the fun for this shot.

The lighting here is pretty simple: I’m using the sun, of course, as the key light with fill being provided by a Canon 580 exII in a small softbox held by a friend of the couple. The flash was fired remotely using a couple of pocketwizard remotes. The camera was a Canon 5D Mark II, the lens was a Canon 85 f/1.2L and the exposure was 1/200th of a second at f/16 (ISO 400).

It was incredibly hot that day. I think the temperature topped out a little over 100 degrees that afternoon. Fortunately, we started this shoot in the morning, moving all around Belle Island, and were having a nice lunch at O’Toole’s before it got too hot. In all, a terrific way to spend part of a day.

Maymont Waterfall Portrait

Now that my clients have received their book and images, I can finally show off some of the images I shot during two portrait sessions and a wedding late last year!

I call the one above my “Adam and Eve Portrait”. I mean really, all we needed was for them to be naked with an apple near by, don’t you think? Meet Brian and Kelli.

This is my favorite nature portrait to date. The location was the waterfall at the Japanese Gardens in Maymont Park in Richmond, VA. We were extremely lucky with this scene as Maymont can turn this waterfall on or off and this was the first day in quite a few months that it had been on while I was there. I can’t quite figure out their schedule or if there is rhyme or reason to when they have it running or not. But on this day, luck was on our side.

The sun was setting, if not already set, by the time we arrived at this location. I’m lighting the couple (and what a great couple they are too!) with a single Canon 580 exII  flash on a light stand just out of the frame to the right. I’m several dozen feet away, shooting with a Canon 50mm f/1.2 lens on a Canon 5D Mark II camera with an exposure of 1/30th sec. @ f/5. The ISO was 400 and the flash was fired using a Pocket Wizard remote. The flash was gelled with a 1/2 CTO and the camera’s white balance was set to 5700 K.

I use a Sekonic I-358 Light meter to determine the baseline exposure for the flash in situations like this, then use the image review on the camera, with the histogram displayed, to work out the proper exposure for the ambient light. In this situation, I wanted the couple to stand out a bit from the background, so the ultimate exposure was one that underexposed the ambient light by about one stop, but kept the “proper” flash exposure. The trick is to do this fast enough that you don’t send your subjects into a coma from boredom. I think I got this in two shots. We were at this specific spot less than 2 minutes before moving on. I knew I had the shot; no need to linger!

We shot at several locations this day, in and around Maymont, but this one is my favorite.

The next blog update will be a shot of this couple we did at the James River.

Hidden Wash

In Canyonlands National Park, a little way outside of the Squaw Flat Campground, was an area that had some promising rocks and features for some sunset photography. Carefully making my way along what rocks I could find to avoid damaging any cryptobiotic soil, I came across the area you can see in the image above. I call this image “Hidden Wash” as nothing you can see here was visible from the road; there was a terrific bit of serendipity coming across this.

In the foreground is a young Juniper Pine just beginning to grow from a crack in the large boulder on which I’ve positioned my camera. In the middle distance is a Cottonwood Tree that has already undergone it’s autumn color change, even though this image was taken in early September. The Cottonwood is located in what appears to be a wash that collects water fairly frequently, to judge from the amount of greenery within it. The sun had set behind some nearby hills about 5 minutes prior to this image being taken, which explains why there is no sunset light in the scene. I’ll have to try to find this location again the next time I’m in the area and see if I can catch this area in full sunset light.

By the way, the small web-resolution image you see here doesn’t do justice to the full-sized print. The print is all about textures: the texture of the rocks and pine in the foreground, the crispy texture of the dry Cottonwood Tree in the middle distance, and the texture of the rocks along the sides of the wash in the background. The final image is made with a single exposure from a Canon 5D Mark II, a Canon 16-35 mm lens and an exposure of 1/2 second at f/16 at ISO 100.

Needles Starburst

Canyonlands National Park in Southeast Utah is divided into 3 geographically diverse areas: Island in the Sky, The Needles and The Maze.

The image above was shot in the Needles district. This is a region of the park where columns of stone are practically everywhere. In this image, taken about an hour before sunset, the late-afternoon sun is being reflected from the rocks on the other side of a small canyon to camera right. This reflected light is striking the needles in the scene, causing them to practically glow with warm colors. The rocks in the foreground are lit by the cooler blue light of the sky, creating the warm-cool color balance in the image.

The sun can be seen peeking through a hole in the rocks, creating a starburst effect. You can achieve this effect by positioning your camera to catch just a bit of the sun as it appears around a foreground obstruction, and use a small aperture on your lens. For this image, I noticed the sun would be coming down close to a hole in the rocks and I positioned my camera to just catch this event. As I was preparing to take the shot, I kept having to move my camera closer and closer to the rocks to keep moving the sun slightly upwards relative to the hole, so I would be ready just as it made it’s appearance.

This image is made from a single exposure on a Canon 5D Mark II and a Canon 16-35 mm lens. The exposure was 1/8th of a second at f/22 (the smallest aperture available on this lens) at ISO 100.

By using such a small aperture, I sacrificed a bit of resolution to maximize the starburst effect. On a 21 megapixel image like the Canon 5D Mark II, diffraction effects at apertures smaller than f/16 will cause a detectable loss in resolution. However, I felt it was worth it for this image.

Mesa Arch Sunrise

This is an image of the famous Mesa Arch in Canyonlands National Park in Southeast Utah. This is one of the most photographed locations in the whole of the southwest, but it’s something I really wanted to have in my own collection.

This location has become, perhaps, far too popular. At the time I clicked the shutter for this image (and the two other images of which it is composed), there were approximately 80 people surrounding me. I thought it was getting bad before the busload of Chinese tourists showed up shortly after sunrise.

At one point, I got so fed up with the crowd just before sunrise that I backed off and climbed a small tower of rock behind the arch just to take pictures of the madness of the crowd. Then the tour bus showed up. Sigh.

This image was taken after I got brave enough to venture back into the crowd. I had noticed the position of the sun, combined with the haze, was beginning to form a shadow in the air cast from Monster Tower you see in the background. I wormed my way into the crowd so the shadow would come in at the point where I wanted it and proceeded to get several exposures from 1/10th of a second to about 15 seconds at ISO 100. This image is a blending of three of those exposures to retain detail from the shadows through the highlights.

Mesa Arch itself is a wonder at sunrise. The arch is situated such that sunlight, reflected off the cliff face below it, causes the underside of the arch to glow a deep orange-red for a few minutes after sunrise. To get to the arch in time to photograph this phenomenon requires a short walk in the dark (less than 1/2 mile, I believe) from the parking lot. It’s not a difficult walk, but you must be careful about the numerous rocks and roots along the path.

This image was shot with a Canon 5D Mark II and a Canon 16-35 mm zoom lens. The lens is zoomed out to 16 mm, but this image is bit of a crop from the full frame.

Sunrise at Larkin's Garden

Wow. Can’t believe how long it’s been since I posted a Blog update. I must apologize; my only excuse is that I have been incredibly busy these past few months and things are only now slowing down enough for me to begin posting updates again.

What I’d like to start with are the images from my trip out west in September. Take the one above, for example.

What I love most about this image, after its apparent uniqueness (I can’t find any image like it after extensive searching) is the way the clouds are a reflection, if you will, of the canyons below them. I love how the pine provides a balance with the canyons in the background and how the entire image generates a sense of isolation and peacefulness.

Most folks I’ve shown this image assume this is the Grand Canyon. It’s not. It’s called Dead Horse Point State Park and it’s in Southeast Utah, next to Canyonlands National Park.

Almost every image I’ve ever seen of Dead Horse Point is taken from the observation deck at the end of the road, or from the rim near the observation deck.

“Sunrise at Larkin’s Garden” is taken from a ledge about 20 feet BELOW the observation deck. Some published images of Dead Horse Point are wide enough that you can actually see this tree, a Pinyon Pine, in the bottom right of the image. I thought this was such an interesting tree, I had to find a way down to it to make it the subject of my picture.

To get to this tree, you must brave a short climb (about 10 feet) down to the ledge by walking west of the observation platform until you see a way down to the lower ledge and then make your way back to where the tree is, almost directly below the observation deck. It’s not exactly a narrow ledge, but there is the small matter of an 800 foot drop straight down should you venture a little too close to the edge. Overall, it’s about 2000 feet down to the level of the Colorado River you see in the background. From the point where I’m taking this picture, I’m about 5 feet from the edge in front of me, and about 8 feet from the edge where the ledge ends to camera right. This image was taken with a Canon 5D Mark II and a Canon 16-35 mm zoom lens at 16 mm. The exposure was 1/10th of a second at f/16 using ISO 100. The camera was on a tripod, naturally. Unlike many of the images I make of my trips out west, this image was made with a single exposure.

I’ve titled this image “Sunrise at Larkin’s Garden” because there is a boulder to the right of this pine tree (just outside the frame of this image) with the words “Larkin’s Garden” carved into it. From the amount of weathering, it might have been 100 years since these words were carved.

The boulder with "Larkin's Garden" carved into it

I wonder who Larkin was. A little research has shown that Larkin is a fairly old name somewhat common among the Mormons of Utah. If anyone who comes across this blog post knows anything about who this particular Larkin might be, a rancher in the area at some time in the past, for instance, I would be very interested in hearing about it.

More images from my trip out west to come!

Rings form a heart-shaped shadow on a bible

I’ve made a new friend. About two weeks ago, I was preparing my thoughts for how I was going to shoot a wedding when a thought popped into my head: the bride and groom will be getting ready at a hotel. Hotels frequently have bibles in their rooms. Put rings just so on an open book and light it just right, and you can make a heart-shaped shadow. Works like a charm and now I’ve got a new favorite image to shoot while I’m waiting for my clients to get ready in their hotel rooms!

I have to come clean and admit that the image you see here is not the one from that wedding a few weeks ago. The bride’s ring in that wedding was so thin, it wouldn’t stand on it’s own in the crease of the bible very well, so only the groom’s ring was really used. The image you see here is my second attempt at this. These rings were thick enough to stand well on their own, though I couldn’t light the rings quite right to get the diamonds in the front ring to be lit, so they’re a little dark. Also, in that very first attempt, I just opened the bible to any spot and plopped the rings down. I realized later that the right chapter to use is the Song of Solomon, with all those wonderful references to love and all. That’s what you see here.

The trick in this kind of shot is to open the bible to a chapter that’s reasonably near the center of the book. Too many pages on one side will cause the curves of the heart shadow to be asymmetrical. Fortunately, in the King James version, the Song of Solomon is pretty near the middle of the book. To get the shadow just right, you need to play around with the height of the flash to get the length of the heart shadow just right. Too high and the heart will be too short, too low means too long. Also, the flash should be just about the only light hitting the bible. Too much ambient light and the shadow will be too faint to non-existent.

Taken with a Canon 5D Mark II and Canon 135mm f/2 lens. Exposure was 1/200th sec @ f/16, ISO 100. The flash used was a Canon 580ex II. Pocket wizards were used to trigger the flash. All settings were on manual on both flash and camera.

I’m looking forward to the day when my clients are a huge groom and a petite bride. I think a large groom’s ring would make a heart shape wide enough that a small bride’s ring would fit laying down inside the heart shadow. So, all you engaged and soon-to-be-engaged football players and/or weight lifters out there: call me: (804) 564-1765!

A Bridal (Family) Portrait with a Train

I’m happy I can finally show you this image! I have an unwritten rule with the images I take for my clients: I never show any images publicly until after the wedding. That way, if the couple is hoping to surprise anyone with an image (say, the printed portrait displayed at the reception, like this one was), I won’t spoil the surprise by showing it early on this blog.

This image was shot last fall. The groom works for the railroad and wanted a portrait with his fiance and his son, dressed as they would be for their wedding, with a train. Unfortunately, the railroad companies have these all-too-serious regulations against using their equipment for something like this. Fortunately, I knew just where to go: The Science Museum of Virginia! If you’ve never been, the Science Museum is housed in what used to be a very large railway station. They still have the tracks in the back and some nice trains to show off too!

For this image, I have a polarizer on the lens to darken the sky and increase the contrast with the clouds. I’m shooting with a Canon 5D and a 16-35mm f/2.8 lens at about 20mm. ISO 400, 160th of a second at f/5.6. There’s a Canon 580exII flash on a light stand just out of the frame to the left gelled with a 3/4 CTO, creating the warm pool of light falling on the subjects. the flash was triggered with Pocket Wizards.

The couple had me print this up as a 16×20 and they had it framed beautifully. The wedding took place at Lewis Ginter Botanical Gardens and the reception was in the dining room of the Robins Center there at Lewis Ginter. Wonderful location for a wedding. I’ll be showing more images from this portrait shoot as well as the wedding itself soon.

My daughter at the beach taken with a Canon G9

Whenever anyone finds out I’m a professional photographer, inevitably the first question I’m asked is “what camera do you think I should get?” as if the fact that I make money with my cameras is all that’s required to know what would work best for them.

The fact of the matter is that the best camera to own is the one you’re going to have with you when you’re going to want to take a picture. While it never hurts to try to choose the camera with the very best quality your money can buy, sometimes that camera is rather cumbersome to carry around. I own a tremendous amount of camera equipment, all very expensive and extremely high quality, but when I’m traveling with my family, I don’t want to be buried under 90 pounds of camera gear.

I purchased a Canon G9 last year to be my “carry everywhere” camera because it fits neatly (if not lightly) in a jacket pocket. My wife loves it too and didn’t like the fact that I always had it with me, which meant it was never around when she wanted it, so she bought me the G10 for Christmas so she could have the G9. What a woman!

The picture above is a perfect example of a situation where I don’t want to be weighed down by a heavy SLR with a zoom lens; taking a walk with my daughter on the beach. I barely feel it when I’m carrying the G9 on it’s strap over my shoulder and when this scene presented itself, I just grabbed the camera, framed the scene by watching the LCD screen while holding the camera out in front of me at waist level and clicked when the wave was just right.

And the quality is just wonderful; I’ve printed a 16×20 of this image!

So, my answer to those who ask that question: whatever camera is going to be around your neck when the moment happens.