Inspiration

This Sunday,

I listened to an excellent interview with Anne Day. Anne is a world renowned photographer who spoke about photographing in your own home. You know when the light is right, When the color is golden and when the shadows fall just so. Her boys were being... well... boys and running around indoors. She snapped the picture at just the right moment and froze that instant to share with the world. Being a father, some of her images struck me. I felt my chin begin to quiver.

Photography is an art. Its as if we are all walking around in a painting that changes as we move through it. The light in the morning is colder, bluer and the evening is warmer, and more golden. the shadows play with the wind. All we need to do is frame it and release the shutter to capture that fleeting moment in time.

Happy Friday

This week's post is brought to you by a couple of talented students at Kingston University. Enjoy!

HP - invent from Tom and Matt on Vimeo.

The Bus Yard

When was the last time you stood next to a school bus?

On certain weekdays in the summer I drop my kids off at a day camp. Right across the street is the county’s transit yard. I've driven by this yard many times. This particular time, I had my DSLR with me. I stood outside the fence and shot a few pictures, but it felt funny. I didn’t have permission and there was a big "No Trespassing" sign posted. Still I felt compelled to get in closer. After quite a bit of mental deliberation, I decided to go around and see if there was someone in the office I could talk to.

Two Ladies
There were two nice ladies there who referred me to their supervisor. After a few questions, he agreed and let me walk around and take some shots. Being the Friday afternoon before the 4th of July, the place was pretty empty.

Shiny and Clean!
Many of these busses were recently detailed. One in particular, Number 9, caught my eye. All of the rivets stood out and the clean black lines made for some interesting photos. Since it was midday, the side lighting was sparse and I had to rely on the reflected light from the adjacent bus.

Nice People
I spent about 40 minutes walking around, kneeling, checking exposure and sharpness of each capture. As I left, I passed back by the office where those two nice ladies took a genuine interest in what I was doing. “Will you post them?” “Where can I see them?” and “Do you have a card?” We talked for a while then I said “Goodbye and Thank You!”

Returning the kindness…
A few days later, I returned and dropped off a few 8x10 prints of the best 3 shots along with a business card. Neither of the two ladies was there at the time, so I handed the envelope to someone else and then disappeared around the corner to look at one of the workers in the wash bay.

Linda…
I wasn’t there two minutes, when someone approached me and said “You took a wonderful picture of my bus! Its Number 9 and my name is Linda”. Speaking with her for a while, I could sense the pride she had in what she does and how important it is. She pointed out how there are steel reinforcements that form a cage to protect the children in the event of a crash. Linda has been responsible for the safety of thousands of children, moving them from point A to point B, day after day, with out incident. She should feel proud!

Accepted!

This morning I received some excellent news from the folks at iStock photo:

Dear Timothy (timlimon),
Welcome to iStockphoto.com, the
designer's dirty little secret. Congratulations, the iStockphoto administrators
have determined that your files are commercially and technically ready for
iStockphoto.com. Please begin uploading at your convenience. ....

WhooooHoooo!

As many of you know, I have been trying for many months now to make images worthy enough to be used as stock photos. This post was one of many rejections received. Stock photos are those that you see on websites, billboards, or the side of a bus. You know, like this:

So What...
...does this mean? Well it meant that I can start selling images and, hopefully, make a little money too. It also means that I have a small chance at seeing one of my shots on a billboard someday. I have to temper the excitement with a dose of reality; There are many, many photographers contributing to iStock, so the chances are still slim, but at least I've cleared the first hurdle.

I'm happy with that!

What's A Clamshell?

Recently,
I was fortunate enough to purchase a Nikon SB900 Speedlight (a camera flash). I have been eyeing this one for several months now and finally got up enough nerve to make the purchase. Joe McNallys book, "The Hot Shoe Diaries" has been instrumental helping my understanding.

One of the reasons that this flash is so useful is that it works using the Nikon Creative Lighting System (CLS). This system enables the flash and the camera to "have a conversation" about how much light should be used to properly expose the subject. The Canon equivalent is "eTTL" which does pretty much the same thing. The amazing thing about both of these systems is that this conversation happens in a few milliseconds and yields some pretty impressive results!



In this shot...
The Nikon D90 camera acted as the master unit, controlling the output of the new SB900 (camera left at 7 feet high and aiming downward) and the SB600 (camera left at 2 feet high and aiming upward). Each flash was softened using a translucent "shoot through" umbrella. I used a white bounce card (camera right) to light her left side. The background was illuminated using my old Vivitar flash with the hot shoe slave. Because the studio is shallow, I had a tough time getting the background lit evenly. Here is the set up shot for reference:





Because ...
The umbrellas are facing one another, the setup is referred to as a "clam shell". One nice thing about this type of a set up is that both flashes are on one lightstand making it very easy to adjust. The lower flash is held in place on the stand using a Justin clamp.

As you may have noticed by now, I tend to gravitate toward inexpensive (don't say cheap...) studio equipment. One reason for this is that I see the real value in the high tech electronics (flashes, camera bodies, slaves and the like). A simple satin umbrella, or tubular steel lightstand is relatively low-tech and should be priced accordingly.

One thing
That I notice now, is that I tend to look at magazines, websites, and billboards differently. I'm looking for how the lighting was done. And now I'm starting to understand!

Get Up and Shoot Down

Would you like to add some interest to your shots?
One sure way to do this is to change your point of view. As humans we are used to seeing the world from our own two eyes. Whether standing or sitting, we generally look forward and outward making pictures from this vantage a bit on the ordinary side. Try getting up high and looking downward at your subject. This technique can be especially flattering in portraiture.

Try This:
Look at yourself in the mirror and tilt your head down. Notice how the skin on your jaw broadens? Now tilt your head up and watch as the skin on the lower part of your face gets narrow and tightened.

In Practice...
Look for opportunities to photograph your subject from above. When they are seated, stand. When they are standing, get up on a step stool and shoot downward. Try shooting so that the subjects shoulders are at an angle to the camera to add a bit of warmth to the shot.

"Real" Darkroom Photography (Part One)

When I was a kid, I used to watch a TV show called Mission Impossible. Inevitably, one of the main characters would spend time in the darkroom developing film to incriminate the criminal-du-jour. Have you ever wondered how that process works? Well, in this first segment, I'll explain how a latent image is captured on film and how the developing process works.


Many years ago, I was fortunate enough to have a class in darkroom photography when I was in school. After that, I set up my own darkroom in a spare room that used to be the garage. The process was so fascinating to me. Now, in the age of digital cameras, that knowledge is getting a bit scarce.

There's Jello inside?
Inside the metal canister is a roll of plastic which is coated with various layers. One of these layers is a special form of gelatin (the exact same chemical you can eat at desert!) Suspended in this dry gelatin are microscopic with silver-halide crystals. These crystals act as light detectors and change chemically when hit by photons. Areas of the film that were hit by bright light will contain large numbers of activated silver halide coating. Other areas which have not been exposed to bright light will not contain many activated crystals. Its important to note that the film contains only a latent image at this point. That is to say that the activated areas look exactly the same as the un-activated areas but their chemically different. The silver-halide crystals are amazingly stable and can hold their state (activated or not) for a long time. To render the image, we need the next step.

The Developer
The developer is a fluid that replaces the exposed silver halide crystals with pure silver. This chemical reaction takes place in a light-tight canister in which the film has been placed on a spiral spool. The spool is needed to keep the film surfaces separated to the developing agent can do its work. The film sits in the tank for about 12 minutes depending on the temperature. The higher the amount of activated crystals, the more silver you get in that spot, and the darker the spot will appear in the end.

Whoa! Stop
If left in the developer for too long, the remaining unexposed silver-halide crystals would start to be affected. To prevent this you add something called the "Stop Bath". This chemical would stop the developing process before it began to eat up the rest of the latent image on the film. 30 seconds is all the time it takes for the stop bath to do its job.

The Fixer:
In order to make the image light durable, we need to remove the unexposed crystals using something called fixer. Generally this liquid dissolves away those crystals that have not become silver metal so that subsequent exposure to light doesn't activate them. The film soaks in the fixer for about 3 minutes. Now the image can be viewed. The image on film will appear as a negative of the image that was shot because bright spots = lots of exposed crystals = lots of silver = a dark area on the developed film.



Sticky Stuff
Remember that the film has coating of gelatin on it? This stuff is pretty sticky when it's wet and needs to be dried thoroughly before it can be handled. I used to have a clothes line strung out with a clothes pin on the top and bottom to keep the film from curling back up. Once dry, the film can be handled, but can still be scratched fairly easily.

There's some great further reading from Illford on the whole process


That's it for now. In the next segment we'll take a look at how the negative gets printed.