Rick’s Rants and Raves

Today Emily had her first track meet. She was to compete in the long jump and the 800m run. Because her school doesn’t actually have a track (and isn’t within walking distance of a high school that has one), her coach hadn’t been able to arrange for Emily (or other kids on the team) to actually practice several of their events.

Since the long jump actually requires skill, and the 800m requires mental stamina that isn’t always present in 7th graders, I took Emily to a high school track this past weekend. Fortunately the rain broke for just long enough to get a bit of long jumping practice in, as well as some running. I explained the mechanics of the long jump (pacing, planting, landing, etc) as well as pacing strategies for the 800m. After some practice jumps, we got on the track, and I ran the 800m with her at what I thought was close to competition pace for her. Around 300m into the race, she was convinced she couldn’t make it the whole way. I told her quitting wasn’t an option and that she would just have to pull through. At 600m we started the first phase of the kick, then encouraged her to pour everything she had into the last 100m. She finished surprisingly strongly, and felt tired but very empowered. I timed the run at 3:51 and told her she would likely improve on that over the year. She was beaming as we completed some 200m pacing runs as she realized that she really did have the strength and stamina to run the full race. I also tried to caution against going too crazy during the first 200m of the race induced by adrenaline–she needed to know her pace, and save a bit for the end.

At the meet today, the long jump was canceled due to a wet pit, so all she had to worry about was the 800m. When her race time came up, I went to the opposite corner of the track so that I could encourage her at the end of the brutal back stretch. At 200m into the race, I thought she was running just a touch fast, but not too much. I shouted generic words of encouragement that I don’t recall at this point. She finished her first lap at 1:40 and had pulled away from her teammate whom she had been keeping pace with. When she came back to my position I reminded her “Drop your arms and stretch your stride. Pour everything into the front stretch!” As I said this, I could see her alter her stride, as did a competitor that was just in front of her. By the time she rounded the bend into the final 100m, she had passed that competitor and had her sights set on the next one 10m ahead. She finished really strongly, beating both of those competitors, placing second overall. From the opposite side of the field, I had her time at 3:25. I beamed.

I’ve got some Irish blood in me somewhere, I’m just sure of it. Of course, I’m full blood Irish on St. Patrick’s Day. This year I managed to take a day off from work so that we could enjoy some of the festivities while the kids were at school. Of course we didn’t actually leave the house until around noon, to deliver Girl Scout cookies. After that, we headed toward Byrne’s Pub where we were able to catch a performance by a band we’d never heard of before: 9 Castle Close. Since it was only 1PM, the tent was sparsely populated compared to what it will have been later.

Of course, I had the camera bag full of the normal “shooting a band in a pub” gear. And this time, I had my lovely voice activated light stand with me. I’ve shot a few gigs solo recently, and I’ve come up with some interesting ways to mount a remote flash in a bar, but today there was nowhere to hang a strobe. We were in one of those industrial strength party tents, with no center poles. And the roof peak was probably 15 feet up. Had I been solo, I would have had to shoot 9 Castle Close entirely with ambient light.

And I shot ambient for about half of the time we were there. But I prefer the look of lit stage performers for the most part. Especially because in this environment, the background was so busy, and it is hard to isolate a performer and make a compelling composition using ambient light. Narrow depth of focus helps, but killing ambient with flash does it better.

Previous performances, my VAL was on the same level as the performers, and she could hold a snooted flash at eye level to be sure she was aiming it properly. Today, she was holding it over her head because the performers were on a bit of a stage, and having a difficult time keeping the strongest part of the flash on the performers’ faces. Perhaps I should have removed the snoot, or changed the zoom on the flash to help the spread a bit.

This was one of those rare performances where the drummer was in full view from several different angles. And he happened to be reasonably expressive in his playing, making some great “music faces”.

During the break, we introduced ourselves to the band. The first question from the lead singer was whether we were shooting bands for a living. Score one for looking like you know what you’re doing. After checking their website, I can see at least one pro (or attempting to be pro) photographer has shot them, at the Dayton Celtic Festival. So it is good to know we looked like we knew what we were doing. I got to hand them a brand new Moo.com business card to help seal the “professional look”. Now I just need to work a bit more on my portfolio page.

We headed home shortly after the end of their performance.

Of course that wasn’t the end of our St. Patrick’s Day. I got to take half of the Cub Scout pack to Free Geek. There they learned about the parts of a computer, and how they are recycled. They also got to spent some time taking them apart, which was the best part for them.

Scott was a great help and a good sport. The kids went through the computers almost as fast as he could deliver them for dis-assembly. The event was well received by the kids and the parents alike.

Thanks to Scott and Free Geek for helping to organize the event.

When I’m shooting in public spaces, I want people to know where they can see my work, if a) they seem the slight bit interested, or b) I’ve made a decent photo of them. I used to have a “personal” card that had my name, e-mail and cell number on it. And I handed those out to a number of people at the sledding hill, for example, asking them to e-mail me and I’d be happy to share the pic with them.

But after the sledding hill, I realized that giving my card (with my cell number) to random strangers might feel to them like I’ve revealed a little too much information, like the guy who walks up to you in the bar and starts telling you about the colon surgery he had last week. TMI! OK, maybe not that bad, but still a bit uncomfortable nonetheless. And they might think that by giving me their e-mail address (if they sent me a message) would then subject them to spam from me.

Since I’m not really worried about making that contact for a longer term harassment, I decided to change my “personal” card to a “pics” card. On this card is my name, e-mail address, and an address: http://pics.nearbennett.com. This is a page with a Flickr slide show embedded and links to my Flickr and Facebook profiles. That way, if the person wishes to contact me they can. But if they just want to see the picture I made, they can do that and not have to reveal anything to me. For me its win-win (I think): they see my pics, I get someone to look at them.

To this point, I’ve not handed out a lot of these cards. For example, when I shot 9 Castle Close at Byrne’s today, I didn’t go around handing out these cards. I do this for subjects of my pics, not just everyone who was present.

The “pics” cards, as I’m calling them, are printed on my own printer using pre-perforated cards from Staples. They are obviously done at home. That’s no longer good enough for me in promoting my band photography. Enter moo.com. I just had a set of real business cards created by Moo.com with a selection of several pics on the front, and my contact info on the back. They look incredibly sharp and cost a wee bit more than your average business card. So I’m intending that they are for potential band photography contacts. Today I got to hand them to a band for the first time since they arrived this week.

So, that’s how I shoot in the wild–with two different cards to hand out. A “pics” card that I hand to random strangers who might be interested in the shot I made, and a “band” card that I hand to band members, bar owners, or others who might put me in contact with a band interested in a photo shoot.

Since my last post on the Strobist Boot Camp 102, I’ve done two more assignments. First the Umbrella Specular Portrait.

The idea here was to make a portrait using just a single flash that serves to light the subject and cast a pleasing halo on the back ground. The light around Emily’s head on the wall behind her is actually the reflection of the umbrella that my flash shot through. A number of people found this assignment pretty difficult. It didn’t take too long for me to make this picture, but I think I might have gotten lucky. Emily didn’t really care for it that much, and instead wanted something a bit more moody.

Next was the Balancing Twilight assignment. I’ve got two different shots of Emily, and I’m not sure which I like best.

(see the comments on the photos on Flickr for more technical detail)

The two shots were taken 7 minutes apart (and a minor wardrobe change due to the chilly wind) but demonstrates just how dramatically different portraits can be with the rapidly setting sun behind them (or a bit of open sky, for that matter).

Nathan let me make a few pictures of him after Emily was done. He quickly got bored with a sitting pose and wanted to be more dynamic. This, of course, is very difficult with light stands. But I made one fun shot.