This is the last weekend of October. Only two months left till the new year, and hopefully some new directions. Seems like I always think of January, June, and September as transitional months. Maybe from all those years in school… I dunno.
But change is in the air, and I know it is not just me from talking to a lot of people. Both in this industry and outside of it. Photographers have seen huge changes, and the digital onslaught keeps on coming. We seem to be chasing technology more than images some days. I wish I could have half the hours back that I spend on screwing around with the tech. Plug ‘n Play… my ass.
$3K computers from three years ago have to be updated to play simple software… software that is needed to do the things we need to do. Yeah – it is cheaper than the old days, but it is a lot more time intensive. A lot more.
Part of our lives I guess.
Well, anyway, I am starting this “End of the Month” potpourri posting thing where I can finally find a place for all the little things that haven’t made it into the posts that I wanted to.
First: New Contest is in the works:
The winner will receive… me. For two days. A one-on-one workshop either in the winner’s city, my studio, or a third city that the winner would like to shoot in. There are some caveats… aren’t there always.
- I will use my Southwest Airlines Frequent Flyer Miles for this, so I need to fly to an airport that is close to the winner’s home. I like to drive, so let’s say within 2-3 hour drive from an airport with Southwest’s flights. ‘K?
- Southwest doesn’t fly outside the borders of the US, so that will mean I will not be coming to anywhere where my passport is needed. However, if you want to enter, and think you can get to the US, I will cover your plane fare to Phoenix from any Southwest airport. Round trip, of course.
- If I come to you, I pay my own hotel and rental car. You buy lunch. If you come to me, you pay for your own hotel and rental car. I buy lunch. If we go to a third city, we split rental car, pay for our own hotel rooms and buy one lunch each – oh, and you will have to pick up your own airfare – I am using a round trip ticket.
- We will make some video while we are shooting, and we will broadcast out to the Lighting Essentials visitors at least twice during the two days.
- They do not have to be weekend days.
- Winner will be responsible for getting the models if models is what they want to shoot.
The winner will be announced sometime the first week of January. We gotta get the workshop done within 6 months of the winner being chosen… hopefully 4 months. I did mention 3rd city (San Diego… heh.) I am still working out how we are going to do this… I am seeking maximum buzz on this.
You may notice some changes on this blog within the next few weeks. I am working on getting a new look and feel ready, and the change will be rather quick. There may be a day when it is down, but I will let you know when it is coming.
Stuff I think You Would Be Interested In:
- What Changed: What Remains here at LE.
- Bidding Strategies that will help you get more work. Really. Also here at LE.
- Selina Maitreya has a new program that is custom made for commercial photographers who may be feeling a little down, or wanting to change direction, or simply those who want to up their game a notch or two. Check it out here.
- If you are using Google + for photo sharing (and really, who isn’t… heh) check out this impressive flow of how your ‘sharing’ gets shared. Impressive stuff, googleguys.
- Photographer Rodney Smith has some wonderful thoughts to share about the value of a photograph. Make sure you read the previous installments on the value of photographs.
Changes:
I love doing what I am doing, but some things have gotten in the way, and now it is time to clean the office of the mind and clear out some old things that are not working. My third book will be finished and off to the publisher by the end of November. I will then immediately start a fourth book that will discuss more of the holistic approach of photography/social media/marketing/self awareness approach that will create a simpler, easier ‘flow’ toward keeping the business out there. No baloney – no pie-in-the-sky crappola. Just my views and how they can help you make choices about how connected you are gonna be.
By the way, I am no longer supporting my old company name: Steel ID. That is a name of a firm, and I am not wanting to be a firm any longer – just me. I am my brand. So the new site for the other things I do is, interestingly enough, named: www.dongiannatti.com. Wild, huh? I am going to have to move the photography out from underneath it to a new home, but that is later.
I would also like to ask your indulgence. I have been doing this blog for quite a while now, and the focus has been somewhat on the emerging and semi-pro photographers. There are so many other sites that handle using small flashes, and how to light airplanes with a gazillion strobes and how cool it is to shoot 35 days on location with super models… I have kept the focus here on the little things that keep us normal working Joes and Josephines going.
But I also wrote a book on lighting. And the ‘lighting’ part of this blog is a little diminished of late. My question: would you all like to see more lighting posts? Serious posts about shooting and lighting and propping and styling and posing… Your thoughts are welcome – either in the comments, or on the Facebook page or by email.
Thanks for following, stay tuned for more info on the whacky contest.
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“My question: would you all like to see more lighting posts? Serious posts about shooting and lighting and propping and styling and posing…”
My answer: Yes. I’d particularly like to see this discussed from the decision-making point of view.
As you know, there are plenty of sites where you can read, “I lit Sylvia Supermodel with a 10KW Molabeam spotlight as key, a 48-foot Broncolor platinum parabolic reflector with a kidskin diffusion sock for on-axis fill, and a custom-made reflector hammered from 24K solid gold to provide catchlights in her eyes. Gosh, I’m such a genius.” That’s cool, but I don’t have all that stuff. And I can’t help wondering if I might have been able to get a somewhat similar effect using a strobe and a 4×8-foot sheet of foam insulation from Lowe’s.
On the other hand, if the photographer tells me WHY and HOW he made the decisions he made to get the results he got, that helps me “reverse-engineer” his thinking, so I can use it to figure out how to get the results I want to get with the stuff I’ve got available.
I think this kind of information — “Here’s how I figured out what to do” — is just as applicable to many other areas of photography as well, from propping/styling/casting/production to business practices and personal development, and it isn’t all that easy to find. That may be because there a lot of people writing online about photography who may be very, very successful photographers and competent writers — but Don, frankly, I can see just by looking at your hair you’ve been around a lot longer than most of them, and naturally you’re going to have a much broader base of experience from which to draw when it comes to talking about how to analyze photography problems and figure out solutions to them.
So that’s the emphasis I’d like to see on LE.
Don, you are one of the most common-sense, approachable photo-bloggers I follow. I enjoy your posts on the industry and visual creativity the most. Whatever you write, I’ll continue to read – here and on FB. Thanks for all you’ve done.
P.S. Your workshops are the greatest!
As far as the lighting goes, what Ranger 9 said. I think the why is as important as the how. Even if the why is because it was all you had to work with at the time.
And just in case I get you for two days next spring, how about start in a city and make it a two day road trip?
Ranger 9 said it well. Yes, please.
Love to see lots of lighting posts
Cool, looking forward to the changes you’re coming up with.
Here’s one topic on lighting which has recently interested me, and I think it doesn’t receive enough coverage – using gels and filters to match varying light source colors. About half of my work includes a mix of ambient and controlled lighting, and often they don’t match. Even more so when I work with video and a separate set of lights.
And in this case I’m not just thinking ‘slap that CTO gel on your speedlight’ kind’a answers, but a more holistic approach, and the trade-offs. This used to be an art that was well understood in the days before digital white balance, and it’s gotten lost, and I think to the detriment – because the white balance which most folks now rely on only works in consistent light situations, and we end up with a lot of crappy photos.
Everyone knows about a light meter. But what about a color meter? I have one, but don’t use it regularly enough, and when I don’t have enough muscle memory. With tungsten light bulbs being outlawed beginning in January, many lights we’ll encounter will have funky spectrums and will be harder to match – more than the old green spike of fluorescent.
There are details such as “well you could put a CTB on your light, but you loose a whole stop, or you could put a half CTO on the window and not only is your light more efficient, but your ambient / controlled light contrast ratio is more suitable to what your camera can handle” kind of thoughts…. You can see a lot of that discussion in film lighting forums, where the lights they use don’t overpower sunlight as easily as modern still flash does.
Another detail that has been of interest to me with lighting is shadow control. In still photography we often enjoy a shadow as a way to create dimension. And we accept our lights to throw shadows in the scene. But when it comes to video a too obvious light source shadow is frowned upon – the same could be true in some still work. So how can you create flattering light that creates dimension, yet does not introduce any unnatural shadows in the scene?
Cheers,
Jan
Lighting, posing and styling is something I definitely would be interested to see. Thank you for Lighting Essentials and Project52!
Always love lighting posts, how and why is perfect.
Problem solving posts are great (like CB said on the forum)