Rick’s Rants and Raves

Great expressions, as long as he didn't bug-out his eyes.

One result of the recent Free Profile Pics session I did with my co-workers was that one of them wanted to know if I could take some pictures of her kids. “Absolutely” was my reply. We negotiated a price that included digital files and some 8×10 prints. We worked out that the session would be last Sunday evening. Our game plan was to start with white seamless (she liked that look in the profile pics) in her living room, then move to less formal work outside in her yard.

I arrived at the appointed time with a trunk full of gear (54″ roll of paper, stands, 6 flashes, 2 umbrellas, snoots, remotes, camera, etc). I took a couple of minutes to talk with the kids, 8, 5, and 3 (I believe), before I started moving their living room around to make way for the paper.

Following advice I’d recently read about shooting on white seamless (this was a first for me), I put two flashes on either side, high, pointing down the paper. Then for the most part I worked with a third flash through an umbrella as the light on the subject.

I immediately discovered that 54″ of paper is not a lot of width, and would definitely not work for a full length portrait of an adult. At least not without some post processing. And I guess that it isn’t that difficult to add white to a picture to get the proper aspect ratio as long as the subject is within the boundaries of the paper. It was not wide enough to easily get all three kids in a shot together.

Awkward pose, too tight, not looking at camera

I also discovered that 3-year-olds really don’t care much about looking at the camera. She was a stitch to pose–actually she did that all by herself. But only one in five shots was she looking at the camera, even with mom standing behind me to help.

Mom was behind the camera. She was looking at a blank window.

All in all, while they were on the white seamless, I struggled. With. Everything. They had stuffed animals (at my suggestion), but the animals were either right in front of their faces, or dangled limply at their sides. I failed to prompt them to interact with the stuffed playthings. I also needed other posing aids or props for them. One of the kids even complained “I wish I had something to sit on”. Ouch. Yeah, that would have been good.

I managed to get a few decent shots on the white seamless. But ultimately their mom didn’t really like them. “They don’t look natural with all that white around them” she told me when she saw the images.

Fortunately, we moved outside where the sun was about an hour from setting. With my 70-300mm, I was able to make trees and houses go bokeh and get a few decent shots of the kids.

Natural expression, nice bokeh

I had them sit in the grass by a fence, with sunlight streaming through the slats. I thought this would make a great shot, but the three-year-old insisted on pulling grass rather than looking at the camera. In the one frame where she glanced at the camera, the expression on the others was lost.

Grassy fist, odd expression on middle child, doh!

So at the end of an hour, I knew I had a weak set of photos. And though we had agreed on price, we hadn’t discussed the timing of the payment. I figured she would get the prints and the files when I got the payment, but if she was unhappy with the set of files, no payment need be made. I did not make this clear. So instead, at the end of the shoot, she handed me a check for $20 MORE than the agreed upon price. She explained that it was because I had really worked hard with the kids, and brought a lot more gear than she was expecting.  I guess the paper and light stands really impressed her.

Now that she has seen the images, she’s pretty sure she doesn’t like enough of them to get her allotment of 8×10, so I’ve arranged a second session in a park near her house. The kids can run around and have fun, and this is where I can really excel. Getting natural looking poses out of kids in an artificial environment I clearly need more work on. Or I can just admit that kid-studio work is not what I want to do.

decent shot

Incidentally, she gave me permission to use these pictures without identifying information.

Last weekend, I had the opportunity to shoot ten performances at two venues in about 28 hours, for a total of about 1200 images. (That sentence was your TLDR summary… this is a long post) The vector for how this came to be started on St Paddy’s day. We shot 9 Castle Close, and provided them some shots from that performance. They had expressed some interest in promo/press-kit photos, so I continued to follow up with them as I saw their performance calendar continue to develop. When I noticed that they were playing Byrnes again, we worked out timing to do a promo shoot before the performance.

I noticed that 9CC was opening for The Prodigals, a pretty well-known band on the Celtic circuit. I figured that if I was shooing the 9CC performance, The Prodigals wouldn’t mind me shooting them. But then I figured out that these performances were part of a larger fundraiser, Green for Grene, raising money for the Andrew Grene Foundation. Suddenly, my presence at this fundraiser took on a whole new importance for me. I figured (and this was later confirmed) that the bands would be performing for free, so I knew it would be uncool of me to “shoot on spec”. So I decided to propose shooting all the bands as part of the benefit, donating my work to the bands and the organization. The benefit to me would be huge–great networking opportunities, connections with the bands who get to see my work in a personal way, and probably some portfolio additions. Plus the organization and bands would get some photos to place on their web sites.

So this was my strategy–get 9CC and Prodigals to want me to shoot. Then contact the organizer of the event and propose shooting the rest of the bands.  9CC was easy since I was already in personal contact with them. Next, I put a note on the Prodigals Facebook page introducing myself and my desire to shoot their performance, donating my work as part of the benefit. Their response: “It’s actually ideal timing that you offer your services because the band is updating their material and media on all their websites.”

With connections to two of the bands, I sent an e-mail to the organizer for the event explaining that “I would be interested in shooting the rest of the benefit performances”. Her response was to tell me my name would be on the will-call list, and that “there is always a need for great photos. Looking forward to meeting you.” And with that, I had the “official” role as music photog for the event.

I exchanged several e-mails with 9CC regarding the details of the promo shoot. They were pretty laid-back about what they wanted–group members the focus of the shot, nondescript background. I found a park near Byrne’s with lots of trees and space and recommended we shoot there. One other bit of preparation that I learned from Clay: I made sure I knew all their names.

We arrived at the park a little behind schedule, but still had an hour to play with. They had discussed wardrobe amongst themselves and brought a number of decent selections. In that hour we moved through 6 different poses (with a few minor variations), and I stole one individual portrait. I say “stole” because when I offered to do head shots, they had said ‘no thanks’ because they wanted to spend time on the band. But I grabbed this one of Mike while the rest were changing.

They are still debating which one they’ll prefer and use, but I like this pose and post-processing the best of the group.

I had a couple of bare strobes at eye level on either side of me, and a third close to the ground giving a little background kicker to Kevin on the right. That ground level kicker actually “ruined” one of the other poses for me because it left some funky shadows on a couple of faces. But on this one, it works. Post processing was done in GIMP with the National Geographic script (thanks Iffles!).

Overall I think the promo shoot went well. The “knowing everyone’s names” was perfect, and gave me a great deal of confidence in helping to direct their poses. I am really self-conscious when I don’t know names, and I’m typically terrible at remembering them the first time or two I’m told. So that bit of advice was worth the price of entrance to the Clay event. I tried to work quickly and adjust lighting as needed. Several of the poses I lit with three strobes, a few were ambient only. They were great subjects to work with and we all had a great time. I also had to remind myself not to be a smart-ass when they were trying to do “we’re all very serious” looks. I also made sure I was the time keeper for them, making sure that we departed on time for their sound-check.

The band was also pleased with the result. “Wow!  Those photos are incredible, man!   I’m very impressed! ” was one comment, and “love them all” was another. Sweet glorious music to my budding ego.

We returned to Byrne’s and they finished unloading their gear and did their sound-check. I talked to the sound guy, explained my role, and made sure it was OK with him if I hung a flash from his light bar. I tried hanging a flash on the light bar to the left of the stage, and another one from a drop-ceiling scissor clamp right of the stage. Byrne’s had recently redone their stage, and it was wrapped in black paint. Glossy black paint. It seemed that no matter what I did, the left flash was creating a ton of specular highlight on the back wall. Not good. So I changed them up a bit, putting both flashes to the right of the stage, one across the front row of musicians, one across the back row, on different trigger channels. About the time I finished with my lights, they were done with the sound check. I joined them for pizza and pints, and caught this moment between Stuart and Kevin.

I’ve started to develop a pattern in how I shoot performances like this. During the first set, I shoot with the strobes on separate channels, and change the transmitter to choose where I light to come from. During the second set, I change the lights to trigger on the same channel, typically with cross light, so that I get decent full-face light (rather than half-shadow with one flash). I also tend to shoot a bit in both sets using my Jive Thirty Five and no flash. I also like to try for sorta-blurry-fingers-on-instruments details shots. I’m pleased with this example.

Alas, 9CC played just one set since they were opening for The Prodigals.

As The Prodigals were getting their gear together, I introduced myself to the guitar player, took a few test shots, and waited for the performance to start. When they did, it was with an emotional bang. Gregory thanked everyone for coming out for the benefit concert, and with a thick, choked up voice explained that he was going to sing a song that his brother used to sing.

At the end, he saluted his brother with the whiskey, and then the band rocked Byrne’s for three hours.

I really enjoyed the bass player using a beer bottle…

As a band, The Prodigals did a nice job of interacting on stage, being performers as well as musicians. I tried to capture as many of these moments as I could, and I love Gregory’s disembodied head in the shot above.

One of the challenges of shooting a band while they are performing is capturing a “stage shot” where every member of the band is visible in the picture, is reasonably exposed, in focus, faces are free of motion blur, and ideally there is something interesting going on. I try to get one of these with each performance, but rarely get one I like. This one exemplifies what I’m looking for in a stage shot.

This one was shot during the second set, so both flashes fired (camera left and camera right since I’d moved one during the set break) and all the performers are properly exposed. I like the guitar player’s knee jamming to the tune. The only thing I don’t like is the specular highlight on the back wall making it more obvious I’ve added flash. I suppose it adds a bit of background separation, kinda like what I did intentionally for a portrait.

The accordion was great for some detail shots. I just love the color and intricacy.

At some point during the evening, I managed to meet the organizer for the event. We chatted briefly between the first and second set. Toward the end of the gig, I captured her dancing with her daughter.

When I showed her the picture after the gig, she asked me to take a picture of her, her daughter, and Gregory’s mother. For a moment, I contemplated taking the picture on auto, with built-in flash. I thought to myself “Patience, you must practice patience!” I had just removed my flashes from their perches near the ceiling, so I grabbed one of them, set its power to 1/4, put it on my camera, pointed at 75 degrees toward the ceiling (white drop panel, you can see in a couple shots above), fired a test pop, made a couple of adjustments, then composed and shot this pic.

I showed her the picture on the back of the camera, and pointed out that I had placed the banner in the background (I look at it now and wonder why I didn’t re-shoot because Gregory’s mother wasn’t looking at the camera. I think I was tired and just pleased that the lighting was nice). That’s when she told me how much she liked my work, and wanted to talk about further opportunities.

The next day, I charged all my batteries, and downloaded images of my memory cards. I also printed pictures for each Prodigals member, and a couple of the three women above. I put these pictures, along with my business card into envelopes, and took them with me to the second phase of the benefit, at Digger and Finch.

I got there early so that I could capture set-up details or other quiet moments before the crowds descended. This is Gregory’s mother enjoying him playing a song during sound-check.

I showed The Prodigals their pictures (they were performing again the second day) which they loved. One of their girlfriends asked me “Is that from last night? How did you get it developed so fast?” A wee bit surprised that a twenty-something would ask that question,  I told her I had a photo printer at home.

The biggest challenge of shooting at Digger and Finch was getting the exposure correct for the band members when a) I was staring at my LCD in sunlight, and b) their background would be nearly completely blown out, making the histogram difficult to interpret. Even with spot metering in aperture priority, I tended to have exposure compensation boosted a stop to get decent color on their faces. I especially like the reflection in the sunglasses on this one.

click to view large size

One of my goals was to take group shots of the bands that were performing. I missed that opportunity with The Prodigals, but I made sure I took it with “Sold Out”, a brand-new 14 member band from Haiti. Remember the whole “call people by name” suggestion? The photography gods were with me that day because they were all wearing shirts with their names on the fronts! Score! They were hysterical to work with, and were shocked when I had the tallest members crouch in front. They had learned “tallest in back” but I insisted on tallest in front.

Except that big guy in the back second from the left informed me his knees wouldn’t handle my request. Shot all ambient under a sorta-bright-sorta-cloudy sky.

My Voice Activated Light stand was able to come along, and since we were walking around in outdoor areas where the music wasn’t too loud, we could talk more about the photography, and I could explain some of the decisions I was making with camera settings and choice of lenses. Early on, we discovered that my flashes just weren’t strong enough to approach lowering the ambient levels without Anne burning out someone’s pupils while getting in the frame. Getting separation (especially for a band the size of Sold Out) meant full zoom on the 300mm lens.

For the next performers, Ladies of Longford with Aoife Clancy, I tried to get a group portrait done before their performance, but didn’t my settings correct. I was trying to blast down the ambient a little bit to give the clouds a bit of definition, and give them a bit of pop. Fortunately they were game to try again.

I’m pleased with the technical result, I just wish I’d figured out something better to do with their hands. This was made with a single strobe (LumoPro LP120), seven feet high directly over the camera, set to full power. Unfortunately, this was the last group shot I managed to get. I think my confidence waned a little bit after having to ask them to re-do the shot, so I decided to not bother anyone else.

A couple of the bands had Irish step-dancers perform with them. I kept trying to capture a “high kick” but never did get my timing right.

We got into a rhythm as the bands came on stage. We’d assess the layout of the performers, decide where Anne should stand with the light (especially as the sun was setting), then I’d move around to get the angles I wanted for each performer. In this venue we were fortunate because the spectators were (voluntarily) staying behind a fence (where they were allowed to have alcohol) but there was a nice brick path between the fence and the stage, which afforded us free movement near the performers. And again, since I had official sanction, I didn’t mind going right up to the stage to get a shot. I’m typically very careful to not obstruct the view of the audience for longer than one shot at a time, so I do a lot of shooting from my knees.

Toward dusk, the organizer of the event asked me to do a group shot for the committee that helped organize the event. I would have preferred a more nondescript background, but they wanted the venue (name clearly visible) instead. I had wanted to add flash to help them pop a little bit and so had Anne hold one camera left and another camera right on a light stand. The first two shots came out too hot on the right side of the group. Looking at it in camera, in the heat of the moment, I couldn’t tell what was wrong, and my brain went into “oh crap” mode. So rather than fiddle with the lights for 5 more shots (and look like an idiot), I switched to all ambient, no flash. This meant changing about 4 settings on the camera (mode from Manual to Aperture priority, ISO, aperture, exposure compensation). I did it as quickly as I could, and I think I did it in 10 seconds (of course I think that) but it was just long enough for someone to ask if I was developing the film in my camera. Even Anne commented later that perhaps I needed more practice with the settings on my camera. Ah yes, the tension between having enough patience to get the right settings (and get the shot) versus not making your subject wait too long while you make adjustments. Fortunately, they held together long enough for me to get two more shots. The first ambient shot had a woman in the back row turning her head (which I fortunately noticed) so I re-shot. No one blinked and they’re all looking at the camera.

ISO 1600, f/3.5, 1/125s

I probably could have gone to 1/60 at ISO 800, but I knew my light was fading and I wanted the shot to be free of motion blur, even if it had a bit of noise. So the first thing I set was ISO, and after the “developing film” comment, I knew their patience was wearing thin. No more time to fiddle with settings.

I handed out my business cards to all the bands. I hope to be able to maintain those connections, and shoot them in the future. When I introduced myself, I used my best “I’m official” demeanor, and explained that I was donating my work to them and the foundation as part of the benefit. They all seemed genuinely interested and grateful for my efforts.

So, what were my lessons learned?

• My wife is an amazingly supportive partner. OK, fine. I didn’t learn that during this event, but it sure was reiterated shot after shot.
• Composure and demeanor are 70% of getting portraits or group shots done. Maybe 73%.
• Though I charged batteries in between days, I didn’t have to change anything during the shoots. Flash and camera batteries lasted the whole time.
• When I’m shooting, I don’t hear much of the music. I have very vague memories of what Sold Out sounds like. I have to remember to sit back and enjoy the performance.
• I actually like the developing film comment. I’ll have to use that the next time I’m fiddling with settings during a portrait session.

Sorry for the TLDR post (too long didn’t read), but if you got this far, thanks for your interest.

After shooting two bands tonight, I was talking with the Director of Community Relations for Dublin (Ohio). I’ll discuss how I came to meet her more fully in another post. She said it was clear, after watching me shoot these bands, that my heart was really into music photography, and that she really wanted to talk to me about hiring me for some Dublin events.

Phenomenal!

Anne, thanks for suggesting that I wear the Dublin Irish Festival shirt tonight!

This weekend is going to be busy as hell. I’ll kill every battery and memory card I’ve got. I just hope I can stay healthy enough to get through it all. But this is not a post about this weekend. Its a post about random stuff, mostly photographic, but none of which deserves its own blog post.

• I recently started following a blog of a photographer in Ireland. It was this post that struck me. I really liked his style and the how-to nature of the post. More recently, he posted his experience shooting his sister’s band on-stage. He had already impressed me as someone way more experienced than I was, so I looked forward to hearing how he overcame the challenges of shooting performances in dim, funky colored light. High ISO. Been There. Fast Glass. Done That. Monochrome. Bought the T-shirt. I also frequently do what he couldn’t have done at that performance–augment with flash.
• Last night I was at the local office supply store visiting their copy center to get some color copies made for a local band I’m helping to book. I also asked the manager (who happened to be behind the counter) about business cards. I’m very happy with my Moo.com cards, but they were a bit on the pricey side, and took several days to deliver. So I asked the manager about their premium stock cards and asked him if they were as thick as my current cards. When I handed him a Moo.com card, his reply was “Wow [awkward pause] uh, no, I don’t have anything that thick.” We agreed that he could get me cheap cards fast.
• I’m working with Anne on a reunion book project for my mom. We’ve got pictures from 60 of her high-school classmates to match up with pictures from their senior year. The senior year portraits were clearly all done by the same photographer. They nearly all involve an unnaturally heavy body lean. Most are looking away from the lens. And there’s almost always a little bit of background showing on the bottom edge.
  
  In contrast, most of the “current” pictures are snapshots from family living rooms. A few are professional portraits (one was 15 years old!). My favorites are the ones where the flash glare in the glasses completely obscures the eyes of the subject. There was about an even mix of  prints versus digital files sent in. One guy even mailed a print on plain printer paper–clearly someone has that digital file, but not us so his picture in the reunion book will be a scan of a crappy print. Oh well.
• One of the professional prints in the reunion “current” group was from Olan Mills, and had a copyright symbol right on the front of the image. I understand that the images are copyrighted, but it just seems obnoxious to put it on the print that someone paid for. Its like putting the copyright notice on the front cover of a book, or as the intro track of an album. I’m also a bit torn on the concept of copyright, but I’ll have to flesh those ideas out more fully in a separate post. And yes, I know I’ve put a watermark on some of my band photographs, but when I sell or give my pictures to someone, they get them without the watermark. Only the “teaser” version has a watermark.
• Nothing terribly significant to say about the horse picture up top. Used the Jive Thirty Five, ISO 800, f/2.8 aperture priority, and waited for them to walk by a north-facing door that opened to a perfectly cloudy gray sky. Done by request so that we have some “scrapbook-able” images.