Family Portraits on a Dreary Fall Day

Part of being a photographer is making lemonade out of lemons which was the case when I took family portraits on a very ugly, about-to-rain, dark-and-dreary day for a wonderful gal named Christy. I had been watching the weather with hope that the sun might pop out for a brief guest appearance, but I had no such luck. I was afraid that all my photos would not have much color like the vintage style photo.

Normally, if the client is flexible, I give them the option of picking a different day if the weather is terrible. Sometimes that is not possible, especially if the portrait is to include out of town family members or rare occasions when all family members are present. I know in my own clan how precious this time can be when we are all under one roof.

In poor lighting situations like these, I bring my own sun in the form of a Paul C. Buff Parabolic Light Modifier (PLM). What the heck is that you ask? It's a huge 5 foot umbrella for my Einstein flashes. On set I call it my moon dish because I am pretty sure that the aliens can see that thing flash from outer space. It literally looks like a gigantic silver radar dish.

The advantage of the PLM is that it can create soft but directional light over a focused area that can look a lot like natural sunlight. I use a warming gel to enhance the effect. Many people would not know that these photos were taken on a day sans sunshine.

I took one dramatic shot where I decided to keep the storm clouds in the photo to prove it was about to rain...

UPDATED: 10/20/2012
Many months later, I found out what happened with the photos... they got turned into a big poster seen below. I think that is cool.

Photos for the Struve Family

The Struve family has 2 beautiful children, and I just had to photograph them. One cold winter day, I showed up at their house with with lots of different photo equipment to try.

Ava is the newest addition to the family and the rat terriers had not quite figured out what type of dog she is.

Ava was an easy subject. All I had to do is say "Smile!" and she would light up on cue. What a star!

Here is Ava with young looking Grandma...

Elijah was not as easy. Imagine a bolt of pure lighting shaped like a little boy, and you will have the perfect description of how energetic he is. Below is a rare, non-blurred photo when he was still for a millisecond. It took bribery with a cookie to get this. I erased crumbs from his chin to hide the evidence.

In other cases, the old trick of holding the child with a death grip worked...

When Elijah got wise to that, we tried to distract him with a shiny iPad.

And then a romp outside where I proceeded to have a pile of leaves
tossed into my mouth. Delicious! You can see the windup here...

After that, we played "Find the Leprechaun's Gold", a made up game which had
him checking every tree hole and rock for a pot of treasure. He never found it.

After all that running around, I think he took a 5 second power nap with Mom and
Sis (captured below) before he started running laps around the yard again.

The morale of the story is that it is hard to capture lightning...

Cut Resistant Glove Search Engine by Showa Best Glove

Last year I had the opportunity to work on a complex web design project for Showa Best Glove. They are one of the largest glove manufacturers in the world producing gloves for general purpose, disposable, chemical resistant, cut resistant and hi-tech applications.

Our task was to create a search engine for their cut resistant product line. With so many choices available to customers, it can be overwhelming to find the perfect glove for the job. The new search engine allows customers to select gloves based on different parameters and compare their favorites. The parameters include options of materials, color, cut resistance rankings, grip texture and so on.

Once a glove is chosen, they can elect to read detailed information about the glove, order a sample or download a product tech sheet. The site is meant for global use and has been translated into French and Spanish and also supplies different product options for 5 regions.

The site is driven by a massive database which alone was a herculean task to whip into shape after years of bloat and inconsistency. As simple as this site seems, it represents months of work by a small team of programmers, designers and photographers.

It is an ongoing project to update the photography on this site. We have set up a dedicated rig in the studio to make product photos of the palm and top of the glove. This allows us to shoot at a consistant angle in similar lighting for a reduced cost to the client.

We also shoot application photos of the gloves in use... This can involve setting up scenes in the studio or going to a location.

The site can be visited at www.cutrest.com 

Newborn Baby Photography of Kendall

Baby Kendall is the daughter of David and Kimberly who wanted to get some photos for announcements and sharing with family and friends. Here are the ones that I liked though they may not be traditional newborn style photos. I left the bare baby butt photos out since those are kinda personal.

The photo below to me is the minimum for any portrait. What else do you need to recognize someone?

One day her daddy can show her the watch in this photo and she will not believe how small she was.

If only we could have gotten the dog to look up. They told me that she is deaf,
but that still did not stop me from whistling at her to get her to look at the camera.

This daddy is in love. When he is not playing Mr. Mom, he is flying airplanes to Afghanistan.

In case there is any doubt, this photo should prove that the stork really does bring babies.

And in the end, Kendall was tuckered out and slept like a baby...

Sentimental Painting of a Friend's Beloved Dog

For many people, their dogs are important members of their family. They are constant companions providing laughter, joy and sometimes the occasional cleanup on aisle 6. The messes they make of our houses is far outweighed by the unconditional love they share with us.

My friends, David and Kimberly, had just lost their black lab, Cheyenne, to cancer after a long struggle. Anyone who has lost a special pet knows how hard it is to say goodbye. This feeling of loss can linger.

Later that year, the couple became pregnant with their first child. As a thoughtful surprise, David wanted to give his wife a "push present" before the birth. He asked me to make a painting for her based on her favorite snapshot of Kimberly and her dogs from many years ago.

I would not consider myself a painter... at least not a good one. Still, I could not resist the opportunity to be part of this. It hit all the right emotional chords with me. I told him that I would give it my best shot.

Instead of painting using traditional media which had long since dried up in my art kit, I decided to paint it using digital software and a pressure sensitive stylus. Unlike a filter that is added to a photo to give painterly effects, I painted every stroke as I would have on a canvas, with the bonus feature of hitting the "UNDO" button when I made a mistake... and I made a lot of them.

The snapshot was the starting point. I decided to make the scene at a beach house and have Cheyenne looking at us instead of turning her back to us. He is looking right at us as if to say, "Don't forget me". David sent me another photo of Cheyenne's face for reference.

I am told that the present was a complete surprise and brought tears of joy to Kimberly's face. I don't usually like making pregnant women cry, but in this case it was alright.

Epic Photoshoot at Preferred Jet FBO

Last year I was approached by Preferred Jet to make a large group photo of the company employees, their FBO (like a private airport building) and some of their airplanes. The photo was to be used in a trade show booth and on various promotions like their web site.

Large Tradeshow Graphic

We discussed optimal schedules to get the look they wanted which included dramatic golden light seen either in the early morning or late afternoon right before sunset. Unfortunately, the only time that all employees could come together was during a harshly bright day in noon sun... usually the worst time of day to shoot drama. To make matters worse, the position of the sun would be behind the building making the front of the building in dark shadow.

I knew this beforehand so my plan was to use multiple exposures to tame the extreme latitude of the scene in front of me. I would take an exposure for the bright sky, one for the mid-tones and a few for the extremely inky shadows. Later, I would composite these together creating a high-dynamic range photo.

Very Expensive Equipment

If you think moving people around in regular group photo is tough, try adding 12 people, a multi-million dollar aircraft, a gasoline tanker and a sports car into the mix. From atop of an aircraft tug, I looked through my lens as workers moved the elements into place. I would pass instructions to my client who would yell them out and use hand gestures. I was about to pull my hair out when it all came together. I was literally asking to move the jet back and forth by an inch or  two, and it was surprising to see how much that could make the difference.

The fun part of the job happened later during the retouching phase. The trick was to find the right balance between realism and idealism... or, let's call it enhanced reality. Below are the original exposures showing that a single exposure would not have captured details in the bright highlights or the dark shadows.

Multiple Exposures Captured on a Tripod and Combined Later

The most important enhancement I made was to replace the sky which made it look more like sunset instead of noon. The color of the sky meant that I had to make sure that the rest of the photo matched in temperature and color cast. Changing the sky can really effect the drama in the photo as shown by this early color test.

Early Color Sketches Not Used. You can see the harsh shadows that were later replaced by hand.

I also did a lot of cleanup removing distracting elements like wires, gas tanks and even all the cars from the back parking lot. This was a tough to do since I had no reference photo of the lot without cars. I had to draw in the asphalt blacktop and then redraw a digital fence and gate on top. The fence was created using a seamless pattern I made. It's a small element, but makes a difference in how clean the final photo looks.

The fence on the right was digitally created.

I also took an impromptu fun set of photos that were much less formal...Heck, this one even had a chopper! This was quite a project.

Breakfast with the Grinch at Melia Atlanta Hotel

I have been photographing some interesting events during this holiday season. One of the more unique photo sessions happened on the top floor of the Melia Atlanta hotel. Their event room has incredible views of downtown Atlanta. Several of the patrons watched a holiday parade from this bird's eye view.

Photo by Melissa Witcher

The guest of honor was none other than the "Grinch Who Stole Christmas" fresh from his musical play at the Fabulous Fox Theater. I did not see the play, but I can tell you that the stage makeup for the green meanie looks like it took several hours and a few assistants to put on.

I might have accidentally let that slip in front of a child who did not know who was coming to breakfast. I guess I let the Cat out of the Hat. I had figured that most parents would have warned their children that they would soon be seeing a 6 foot tall green hairy monster. I am just glad that the Grinch does not hide in my bedroom closet at night because I might not be able to get to sleep.

To everyone's delight, the Grinch was a complete sweetheart. He knew which children to tease and which ones to be gentle with. I was very impressed that he could read the moods of children that quickly. Not only that, the actor was a man of 1,000 faces and could change his expression and body language in an instant. No two pictures of him were alike. This guy was good.

After visiting with every family, it was time to take portraits with the Grinch. This was the main reason that I was hired. The goal was to take photos of guests with the Grinch and print them on the spot as a memento with a a graphic overlay as seen below.

The whole process from start to finish had to be completed in about an hour before the guests left. That was pretty ambitious considering that each photo had to be combined with the graphics and printed which takes about a minute each. I shot over 40 different groupings that had to be printed so there was not much room for error. Everything had to run smoothly, and luckily it did.

To ensure success, I had set up the portrait area an hour before the event. Scouting an area and pre-staging are the most important insurances that a photographer can give himself. Surprises cost time and and unwelcome anxiety. I enlisted the help of my friends above to check everything.

At the time that I was going to take the photos, the morning sun was blasting through the windows making bright pools of intense light in the portrait area. I try avoid situations like this as much as possible when making these kinds of quick portraits. The fastest fix was to pull the curtains and add a flash to evenly light the scene from camera left. I have found that curtains are my best friends when trying to tame extreme latitudes in exposure.

The little girls pictured above had just given the Grinch a present and I think it touched his cold green heart... just like in the book. Just a few minutes before this, the Grinch was trying to get the girls to join him by stealing Christmas presents... that rascal!

Photo by Melissa Witcher

No Dr. Seuss-themed event would be complete without green eggs and ham and a huge bowlful was available on the buffet.... They were pretty good! The food at the Melia Atlanta Hotel is top notch.

A special "thank you" goes out to Melissa Witcher who helped me by taking candid photos and setting up the event. Check her photography out on her web site at www.melissawitcher.com.