Bangin' the Drums

(Just a note: This article has nothing to do with photography, but I kind of got in the mood looking at some pics I'd taken a while back.)

Have you taken the time to bang a drum lately? I haven't, and boy do I miss it. They are loud, pounding and great relievers of life's daily stresses.

The oldest known drums are from 6000 BC.

The talking drums of Africa can imitate the inflections and pitch variations of a spoken language and are used for communicating over great distances. (Wikipedia)

Drums are instruments built by stretching a membrane across an opening in a vessel. The sound originates from the vibration caused when you strike the membrane, called the head, with another object.

There is some debate as to who the greatest rock drummer of all time is. Is it Neil Peart from RUSH? Or John Bonham or Keith Moon or Lars Ulrich or Animal from The Muppet Show?

Back to something of relevance - these pics were taken at a cultural day in Buena Park, CA. People from the town came down to the city recreation office and joined in a day of music and performance. There was this great drum circle session with people of all ages and cultures.

Day of the Bride

Wedding season is just around the corner and schedules are starting to get busy. Brides are trying on dresses, grooms are staying out of the brides way, and plans are getting more and more stressful!

Weddings are one of the best lifestyle photographic experiences. People have planned for a long time to put on a beautiful event that will be remembered throughout their lives. Every detail is in order and every guest is checked. And right up until the big day it can be a logistical nightmare - and often hard on the couple.


But that day - the big day - something happens. Things turn magical. And at that moment, a photographer is graced with one of the greatest honors - they are allowed to join the family in one of the most special moments of their lives.

One of my favorite aspects of wedding photography is the preparation period. As the bride gets ready for her big day, the energy is magnetic. Even in today's society where people often live together before matrimony, there is still an unmistakable vibrancy that burbles to life as the makeup and gowns go on.


As a male photographer, one of the keys to catching this moment is to be as personable and non-intrusive as possible. This period is where excellent photojournalism comes into play. The bride and her court are too busy to worry about set up shots, and you certainly don't want to be the most memorable part of their morning... so - it's always a great idea to try and become a fly on the wall - even when you're in a cramped space like a hotel room. If you are able to do this, you will find the real emotion of the day burbles to life and those great portraits find their way onto your memory card.

The Huntington Gardens

While I primarily snap pictures of people, I have long had a passion for capturing images of flowers, trees, and other plants. About a month back, I took the afternoon and traveled to Huntington Gardens in Pasadena to see what the winter had to offer in terms of bloom. As I expected, the incredible gardens didn't let me down. Separated into sections based on the natural topography of the plant life, The Gardens offer a wide array of gorgeous foliage.


Unfortunately, I waited until pretty late in the day to go. I only had about an hour and a half until closing time and found myself in a hurry to cover the park as fast as possible. In some ways - much like wedding photography - this turned out to be a good thing. It forced me to make choices and react to existing light. However, it didn't offer me the widest opportunity to access various levels of light.


Early in the day, I found myself shooting a lot of greenery. I spent a bit of time in the rose garden, Japanese Garden, and tropical section near the water banks of their small pond. At the pond, I was able to grab the shot above - a backlit image of a Bird of Paradise against the water. With the sun nearing its last moments in the sky, I used the light to pick up the orange in the flower and give me a small reflective element off the water itself.


As the sun began to set, I found myself in the desert section. I actually spent much more time here than expected. Since LA is basically a desert, the conditions are perfect for the plants. Some of the cactus groves were stunning - one of which I captured above. I'm not certain what type of cactus this is, but its' got a gorgeous green / purple / white combination of colors.

Daytrip to Ojai

Yesterday, my wife Angie and I took a trip to Ojai, CA for a little rest and relaxation. Neither of us had been before, and what an amazing treat it was. The city is made up of artists and the downtown has a beautiful shopping district.


We did a little shopping, had lunch, and took a hike on an amazing trail that overlooks the Ojai Valley floor and the gorgeous farms that exist there. I, of course, managed to snap a few pictures (check out the pic above) - but didn't feel like I had enough time to really capture the beauty of the area.


I find that I like to spend a couple of days in a town before I really get to know it. Capturing the obvious elements like popular architecture and city landmarks is a pretty simple task. But the truly exciting aspect of shooting pictures in a community is finding the hidden soul that lies beneath. And the best way to do that is finding the nuances of the town.

I managed to snap a couple of beautiful shots on the trail, overlooking the town. But I also tried to snap some images of the art that surrounded every aspect of the community. If you're in southern cali, take a drive up there one afternoon - it won't disappoint!

Portraits

I read a NY Times article yesterday about popular surnames. Turns out Williams is the third most popular surname in American culture. Pretty wild. A lot of Williams out there.

So how do so many families from the same last names have such unique identities? It reminds me a bit of taking portraits. How do so many human bodies with so many of the same features generate such unique images?

The great part of taking pictures of people comes in the variety of human form. No one person is exactly like any other person. Their physical features and personalities range widely, and then you as a photographer can work to accent these things - bring them out with light, color, and environment.

One of the great basic tests of this comes in the form of a yearbook. Check out your yearbook from high school or junior high. The portrait settings for hundreds if not thousands of kids are exactly the same. The environment is set, creating the most base level photographic experience for everyone involved. Yet personalities still shine through. Timothy Greenfield Sanders and other great portrait photos often use the same techniques (at a much higher technical level, of course).

To me, however, I love concept-driven portraits. Images that capture the person, but bring out the qualities of their personality through props, locations and light. Annie Liebowitz is arguably the most well-known living master of this. Working for Vanity Fair and Rolling Stone, she employed (usually) subtle metaphors for her subject's personality and dropped them in the photo. Combined with excellent technical ability, her photos bring out something much deeper than the aesthetic aspect alone. Something inside the soul of the picture.


I have included a couple of environmental portraits in this post. One uses make-up and costume, while the other is focused on the light of the subject.

New Family Pics!

Hey everyone! Hope you had a great weekend. I spent a lot of time in the digital post processing lab working on some family portraits for some friends of ours. Great family and cute kids! Some pictures are below. I'm sure I will show some more in the coming posts.

One of the really great aspects of taking photos for the Krichevers was their great spirit! Such a fun, sweet family with a great attitude toward life.


I had a chance to really work on some of the new color techniques I have been learning in this photo set and think they came out pretty solid. One of the interesting things about shooting photos of adults and children is the difference in their skin tone. At such an early age, you can really see that a child has a much lighter skin tone that needs to be balanced with the darker, warmer skin tones of adults. When putting together portraits for families, it's really important to find the most natural presentation possible - unless the shoot focuses on high-contrast or B&W photos.

My Color Realization

The past few days have been all about education... serious learning curve on a very confusing subject - Color Management. I recently shot photos for some friends, edited them in Photoshop, then saved the JPGs for sending and guess what... they didn't look anything like my edits. The colors were completely different. They were faded and bland compared to those in PS.

Now, I have been working with digital media for a while now - especially photographs - and feel like a moron for not understanding this point earlier. But... my lesson may help you on your road to creating great images for the web and print. So, let me start out by saying I am going to give a VERY abbreviated explanation of this issue; however, if you want to read in great, concise detail about it, visit Jeff Friedl's blog. It's an excellent post that really breaks down the technical and historical aspects of it.

To start - there are a few basic facts we need to discuss upfront:

1) Digital SLR photos (the higher priced cameras with interchangeable lenses) create meta data for their photos. In that meta data you will find a tag that describes the color space in which the picture was taken - although there are more, sRGB and AdobeRGB are the most commonly used. That meta data sticks with the photo throughout its life.

2) Most (if not all) Point and Shoots (the little digis you can carry in your pocket) don't come with any meta data - so this topic probably won't apply if that's all you own.

3) If embedded into your SLR photo, that meta data travels with it throughout the life of the photo.

4) The different types of color space (eg. sRGB, AdobeRGB, etc) are basically proprietary color spaces created and marketed by different companies throughout the history of the digital imaging landscape (you can read more about this in the article).

5) These different types of color spaces don't play well together.

6) MOST IMPORTANTLY - your web browser or Microsoft imaging applications DO NOT read this meta data.



Okay, so now that these rules are laid out, you're asking yourself - how does this apply to me. Well it does - even if you aren't a photographer. I'll explain as simply as possible:

Most Pro / Semipro / Enthusiast photogs do their image manipulation in Photoshop. That application reads the meta data and allows you to manipulate based on that data. So, if you are manipulating an sRGB file, then your changes in photoshop will be affected based on the color space you chose. There is a big debate about which is the best to use, but in general - this seems to be the rule - AdobeRGB is better for print work, and sRGB is better for web. And unless you are working with a RAW image file, the twain shall never play together.

Now I know this may be getting a little complex for someone who stopped by just to check out some pics, so...

Here's the deal.

While almost all web browsers don't read a pics color space meta data, they do work in a space that's pretty close to sRGB.

So... drum roll... If you plan to put your pictures on the web and have your colors show up at least close to what you had in mind - convert your image to sRGB first! If you do plan to create an AdobeRGB file in RAW, be sure it's only for print. Because when you place it on the web, the Browser will not be able to read the Meta Data and it will look nothing like the color space you are placing it into!

I've put up a couple examples for you to check out to better demonstrate this confusing ass thing. And if you are a serious photographer that doesn't fully understand this, please take the time to read this 7 page article - it will be well worth it.



In the meantime, I promise to make my articles a little less technical in the future and focus on other things like pretty sunsets, fashion models, and funny dogs!

Visual Pollution

I wasn't going to write anything today, but while editing some photos I stumbled across this excellent photo/audio essay on NYTimes.com about visual pollution and how it is isolating Americans from connecting to their community.

Check out the Essay here


Photos are by NY Times Photog Angel Franco and the audio portion of it is from Kevin Fry, president of Scenic America. As a photographer and graphic designer, I spend a lot of time contemplating the impact of images on people - but not in terms of how they effect the cultural soul of our country. This piece delves into that and shows photos of the drab, disconnected imagery bombarding us on a daily basis. Mr. Fry goes into some interesting theories about how it's impossible to connect as people when we can't connect to our place. And megamalls and landscapes filled with signs take away the identities that American towns used to possess. It's interesting to note that small towns with identities (at least in California) have developed more into tourist destinations than true , affordable, livable spaces. Have we as a culture become visually apathetic?

Here are a couple of LA pics that I snapped over the past few years. These, of course, are not representative of photography I would normally show - but they capture the essence of this disconnection to place in the American landscape.


It's a great 2 minute slide show - I suggest checking it out.

Light in the Eyes

Did you hear??? There's going to be rain in LA today! When it rains here, it's reported in the news even more than a class 5 hurricane hitting Florida. This morning on the news, the big story was running on almost every station - it was inescapable!

But that's why photography is so great in Southern Cali, right? A lot of sunshine and great natural light throughout the day. A few months back, I had the pleasure to take pictures of some friends' children. One of them, Faith, has the eyes of a golden goddess. Her cousin Madison, does, as well.

Both of these pictures were shot with total natural lighting. It was a bright sunny day out in the desert and we had them under a patio cover. That combo works very well, as we were able to use the directional bright light from the sun to strike their eyes from the sides, as opposed to an overhead light missing the angle completely. This allowed for great detail in the center of their eyes, making them 'pop' to life. Now, of course, it also helps that they had big smiles and a great attitude.


Check out more pics at Rawtography.com

Momma Bird

I don't shoot pictures of animals much - mostly when they are around. However, while at a friend's house, we discovered this mother bird with her chicks. Capturing birds usually takes a lot of patience and a quiet hand. But this little momma sat patiently in her nest as I snapped off a few shots.

Lately I have been rediscovering nature shooting. I did quite a bit of it years back, but changed my focus to people. I recently went down to the Huntington Gardens in Pasadena and shot pictures of flowers, cactus, and beautiful scenery - some of which I will put up later. There is a peacefulness to taking these kind of images. It's probably the most meditative style of shooting. For the most part, nature and landscape waits for you to get the shot. It's about how patient you are to find just the right thing.


About this photo:
f 5.6
1/500
ISO 200
A touch of color saturation in Adobe RAW

I probably could have dodged the face a bit to bring it out some more, but overall the whites framing her eyes bring out a great pop in the face.

2008 - A New Year!

So my goal this year is to try and keep and build a consistent blog... I started late last year, but didn't get a chance to make too many entries. This year will be different! So - welcome 2008! Glad to have you here.

So - to pick up from last year - here's a couple of pics from my shoot with Sarah. We had an excellent time showing off my friend Courtney's clothing designs. While it was an adventure trying to figure out the best way to display a series of capes, cloaks, and dresses - the shots really came out nice. A great learning experience for everyone.