Whenever we’re on the road for one of our shenanigans, we hugely underestimate distances. So we find ourselves in the middle of nowhere, trying to get to where we need to be on time within speed limits (they’re not forgiving around here: this isn’t Italy any more).
So as we drove through Death Valley I was a bit bummed and as the light went down I started to be a bit bummed about it.
But Ale had to stop for a minute to check that the GoPro was doing ok, so I took advantage of that, jumped out of the car, placed the camera on the asphalt with a self timer, shot one frame and jumped back into the car.
Some days you just make do with what you get.
And when we got home I found out I was actually recorded by the GoPro while doing that:
Even though I’m here to work at a specific project and I’m in obsessive-compulsive mode most of the time, it as nice to take a break and do a test shooting.
I don’t have a studio here, of course, but the great thin in L.A. is that you can shoot outdoor almost every day of the year (and with the help of a couple of strobes and umbrella, you can easily recreate the setup for studio lighting).
I have the greatest looking grey wall right down the street, with one side lit by the sun and the other side in the shade, with another darker grey wall right next to it.
Even though she’s just 16, Amber has been a great model. She’s got an amazing work ethic for a teenager and was a pleasure to shoot.
Make up and hair were done by Sarah Nelson. I’m in love with her and her work. She’s professional, great at what she does and brought a lot to the table.
The shoulder is still off (and apparently the culprits are wisdom teeth, pushing on the nerves. I’ll have to undergo surgery when I go back home. Not looking forward to that)
This 10-New-Year’s-Resolution list by Mike Monteiro is definitely worth reading. And that’s true even if you don’t do New Year’s resolutions: just consider it a few tips on what to do from now on.
It’s aimed at designers, but every working photographer can easily relate. Enjoy!
It’s no big secret I was crushed when the flash bus tour happened last spring and I was on the wrong side of the ocean because, seriously? David Hobby AND Joe McNally on the same day for less than 100 bucks? INSANE.
So I was pretty hyper when Santa, in the form of mr. Hobby himself, got me a copy of the Flash Bus Video Edition, five hours of Scenes and lessons shot during one of the dates, basically uncut.
Since 2011 is coming to an end and I have neglected this place way too much lately, I thought I’d close the year reviewing something I loved: watching two middle aged men talk on stage about taking pictures.
My expectations were of course high, even though I thought it would have been more of a recap because I’ve attended 2 of David’s seminar in the past, plus I already own both of his cd sets (frankly, still the best educational stuff you can find out there if you are a casual shooter and want to really leap forward. You can also read most of the stuff you’ll need on strobist.com, but at this point there’s a huge amount of stuff to read and there’s added value to watching him work, if -like me- you’re not the sharpest tool in the box).
David was the opening act, and talked about using strobes in manual mode building light from the base up. It’s a process than makes perfect sense. I’ve always worked starting from the key light (I’ve always worked with BIG lights, in the past year), and I need to experiment with this a bit more, now that I’m in L.A. with minimal gear.
What surprised me about his portion was noticing how much he grew as a photographer since the last time I saw him speak (a process already started with the lighting in layers dvds). His old strobist dvd set was amazingly valuable, clear and would give the viewer a set of useful tools he/she could use to work with, but I think he’s starting to really have a point of view in his work, which is exciting to see. It looks like he’s starting to enjoy not only the technical side of photography, but also the creative and communicative potential.
As always, he doesn’t hold back. What he learns on the field, he shares.
His explanations always follow a very logical path, are easy to understand even if you’re not a native speaker, but he doesn’t dumb down his process. By the end I was pretty confident that I could replicate his lighting workflow, even though he intentionally left out fstops, shutters speeds and overall set up data.
The McNally portion I was curious and concerned about. Curious because I really admire what this man has been consistenly doing for years and nervous because some of the stuff he does and the amount of gear he uses is WAY out of 99% of the populations ability to try.
Watching him demo the way he works with ttl strobes I was actually surprised at how much he had to offer to a Canon shooter who owns 3 SB800 as her complete set of lighting gear, at the moment (not joking, that’s all I have with me. And I only have 2 light stands and 1 umbrella).
It’s a lot about the ability to understand how light works and bend it to your needs and desires.
And it’s even more about understanding those little things that have nothing to do with gear or light but more with the capacity to relate with a human being, to choose among the endless possibilities those that could work best for your narrative process. It’s about knowing when to stop and -most of all- when NOT to stop. It’s about willingly putting yourself into a situation you’re not perfeclty sure you can get out of unscarred.
Some part of me probably thought people like McNally pooped perfect pictures, and being able to witness him make mistakes and think his way through them, was something pretty useful in itself.
In my opinion, the photographers who would benefit the most from this set would be those who are at least a little familiar with how shutter and aperture relate with flash and have already played with at least some off-camera lighting.
Both Hobby and McNally are great photographers, seasoned artisans and amazing teachers. There’s a complete lack of ego display, but they REALLY know what they are doing up there and it’s really easy to see when they are bombarded with questions.
The production value is a bit on the poor side, which is a pity. It’s shot in one of those venues with dreadful fluorescent lights, so it’s not like they’re shooting in some fancy TV studio, and it actually help demonstrate how little something like this matters if you know what you’re doing with your strobes (as you see Joe McNally’s picture pop up on screen, you understand that “my picture sucks because the light in the room was bad” is essentially code for “I have no idea what I’m doing”).
In my wildest dreams, though, for something like this, there would be some A-level film crew documenting the whole tour with really high quality footage, crazy high-def details, schemes, dancing animals and then they’d put together a 10 episodes documentary/TV show. And there would be behind-the-scenes footage, including interviews to the crew members and all kind of crazy stuff, like the spinoff “Turn Phil the driver into a kickass photographer by the end of the tour”. But I’m my wildest dream there’s also a stack of pancake that doesn’t make you fat, so I’m aware that I need to compromise on life.
All jokes aside, I am a “visual candy” type of person, but the truth is I didn’t care much about the glitter after the first 10 minutes. The content is great, the sound is perfect and you can rewatch it whenever you want (I’m at the third time already).
I’d probably have added some overlay text each time some photographer is mentioned, just because it’s not always easy to understand a name when english is your second language.
That said, totally worth having, if you ask me, but only if you’re willing to get your hands dirty and really do some stuff after that. If you’re looking for something more along the lines of “I buy a dvd and I become a photographer without shooting pictures”, thankyou for always making me laugh. At you.
A while ago I started working on a collaborative piece with Iris Knippels, a super talented tattoo artist from Holland.
I wish she had a website so I could show you all how freaking mind blowing her stuff is.
She sent me a quick sketch of what she had in mind, as a reference for body positioning and suggested to use fur of some kind (to make it hard for herself, I guess).
These are a couple of pictures from the set I sent her.
She then worked her magic and using a simple pencil on a A3 piece of paper she ended up drawing this
The details are so beautiful and the feathers on the arm are a touch of genius, if you ask me. That’s what I love most about collaboration: having someone talented take my work on a completely different level and making it so much better
Mark Wallace gives a great explanation on how to set a price for your photos. If you think you don’t have 15 minutes to watch this, think twice.
Also, it’s monday: what else should you be doing anyway?
After only using imovie for my editing purposes (I know, I know) we bought Final Cut Pro and I’m playing with it.
I still don’t get 90% of the stuff, but it’s still fun to try…
I’m still unable to shoot due to my rotator cuff lesion, so I’m editing old stuff.
Meet Elena. She came into my studio at the beginning of summer for a test shooting and she’s just adorable (also, there’s something in her that reminds me of Anna Paquin)
A while ago David Hobby posted a call for correspondents and I applied because… well, he’s the Strobist. I owe the guy most of the stuff I know about lighting and working with him sounded like a great opportunity!
I ended up being picked to represent Europe and I’ll be searching amazing photographer and interviewing them about their work. My first article went online today , featuring an amazing photograph by Berlin photographer Christoph Martin Schmid’s. Snoopy Dance!
Elena needed some new “quick” pictures for her portfolio after her dramatic haircut (which I completely adore) and what was planned as a quick-and-dirty photoshoot turned out to be a fun afternoon in my studio.
As if my bajillion blogs, tumblr, flickr, twitter things weren’t enough, I accepted to guest blog for the lovely Tracy Zhang, who let me use her place to share my manifesto.
It’s a set of rules I wrote down in one of my moleskines in 2005 as a half-joke and crazily enough I still live by them.
This is Gabriele; he was my ex boyfriend’s best friend in high school and the three of us used to hang out quite a lot. He is fun, he is clever and most of all he has one of the qualities I like most in people: he’s kind. Then we lost track of each other, he became a physicist, I could get a real job so I became a photographer. He’s one of the very few reasons why I don’t completely regret having had facebook for a couple of months. So when I started my blackboard projects I asked him to be part of it. I have no idea of what the stuff written on the blackboard means. But there’s arrows and greek letters so it has to be clever, right?
This 10-New-Year’s-Resolution list by Mike Monteiro is definitely worth reading. And that’s true even if you don’t do New Year’s resolutions: just consider it a ...
