Family Photos...

I have a bad habit of looking for portrait settings everywhere I go! This isn't necessarily a bad thing. Often, when approached by someone who wants to do an on location portrait session the very first thing they ask is..."where would be a good place". As long as I keep my bad habit up I guess I will never have to scratch my head to answer that question. There is a treasure trove of excellent locations in and around Baton Rouge, and I have made great use of many of them.

A week or so ago, I was approached by a friend about doing a set of family portraits for her family. Sure enough, the question of locations arose. Although I can supply recommendations of great locations, I usually make certain to point out that a location that actually means something to those involved would be best. On this recommendation, it was decided that we would do their photos out of town on a beautiful piece of property owned by her father. With his barn and the golden glow of the afternoon sun as a backdrop, we were able to capture some very good looking photographs that will become even more valuble to the family over time. So, when booking for your on location family portraits remember....location, location, location!!!

"Released"

Last week, I found out that this photograph recieved enough votes to place as second runner up in a photo contest. I was thrilled with this news, but even more thrilled that I had envisioned this and been competent enough to capture it and see it through its post processing to realize that vision. Although many of the photos in the competition were of the type that could be repeatedly shot until it was right, my idea for an entry was based on a one-shot opportunity. I arrived at my daughter's high school graduation early enough to insure that I would have a seat in close proximity to where I would need to be for this shot. During the ceremony, I fiddled constantly with camera settings trading ISO, aperture, and shutter speeds around until I felt I had a wide enough aperture and fast enough shutter speed to accomplish my goal. I wanted a perfectly crisp image, but not necessarily one that did not have any motion blur. I used a hotshoe mounted flash bounced into the ceiling behind me for additional light. As the ceremony wound down I positioned myself for this shot and was able to squeeze off three shots that captured the hats in the air. This one was the first of the three frames, and held the most hats aloft. I knew instantly when I viewed it on the LCD that it was an excellent photojournalistic type photograph.

"Released"

I awoke the morning following graduation and immediately went to work on the image. My first step after minor adjustments and converting from the RAW file was to convert the image to black and white. I chose to use a LAB Mode conversion method which is by far my favorite method of conversion when working with portraits. It seems to offer the very delicate, crisp, smooth tones that I like in a good black and white photograph. The only ill effects of this type of conversion is that mid-tones are usually somewhat lost in the conversion, and it will magnify noise in a high ISO photograph. Since I was going for that richly toned photojournalistic look, I would need to take special care that I retained as much mid-tone contrast as possible. I achieved this by doing curves adjustment layers and masks in Photoshop to squeeze every drop of contrast that I could get out of several key areas in the photo. I had one layer totally devoted to pulling a shadow out that had gone inky dark between the feet of the young man at front left. This part of the photo isn't visible in the version I have posted here, but you can at least appreciate the trouble I was going through to achieve my end-goal. Another layer was entirely devoted to adjusting for contrast in the faces of the kids. The hats in the air were also treated to their own layer to adjust their sharpness and contrast. Once I had the tones I was looking for, I moved over to noise control. The well exposed foreground had very little noise, but the dark curtains on the back wall were another story. My solution here was to do two noise correction layers, one for the foreground and one for that back wall, to allow me to minimize the ill effects of noise removal in the important areas of the photograph and keep my image crisp. I then added a warm tint to the photograph to keep it from having that greenish grey cast that is present in many black and white photos. The final step was to sharpen the image using the high-pass sharpening method. I have found that this is an excellent way to sharpen the details in an image while having 100% control over sharpening the noise in an image.

The version here is one that I plan to present to our school board. They have only been in existence for one year and this was their very first graduating class. I hope that they can see and appreciate the sheer joy on each of the faces within the frame. So many dreams and ambitions together with relief are evident in every corner of this photograph. I think it speaks well to what the goals of the school board should set for itself. Congratulations to the class of 2008!

Devine Intervention-Live

Our youth director at church is also a musician. Last Sunday night, his band "Devine Intervention" held a concert to raise funds for our summer mission trip. Of course Chris, our youth director, had a special interest in raising money for our kids, but the other guys were there purely out of kindness and generosity. Thanks guys!!!

The music was great. Very upbeat and modern. I know that Devine Intervention plays venues near and far at every opportunity. If they are in your area, I urge you to check them out. If anyone is interested in booking them for a concert let me know, and I can put you in touch.

Never having had the opportunity to photograph a concert I decided to give it a try last Sunday night. In addition to the existing light in the fellowship hall, I used a single speedlight that was fired wirelessly using the Canon STE2 transmitter. The speedlight was located on the other side and in front of the stage from me. It provided some additional light, but also threw many interesting shadows on the walls in some of the photos. For processing, I used some common Lightroom presets and then applied an assortment of textures in Photoshop to add an edgy grunge appearance.

Congratulations Courtney and Tommy!!!

Last Friday night, I was blessed with the opportunity to share in the festivities as Courtney and Tommy got hitched!!! The location was a rustic building just across the St. Helena Parish line and was the perfect spot for a cozy and romantic evening. The bride wore a beautiful candlelight gown. The Groom, and groomsmen, wore black tuxedos that were accessorized with camoflauge vests and ties. The music was good! The food was great! ...and a good time was had by all!!! Congratulations Courtney and Tommy!!!

Late Date...

Prom season is here!!! We had a busy weekend last weekend with my oldest daughter and her senior prom, and my youngest attending two different proms. I am pretty sure( I can't keep up!) that we still have one coming up next weekend. I will be glad when it is over. As a father, I can say with certainty that the best part of prom is when they whisper through my bedroom door, "I'm home".

I do like the idea of a prom for the photographic possibilities. A time when the girls have a chance to pretty-up and are actually willing to have their photos taken. Of course it just so happens that our climbing rose on the patio blooms every year for prom. That makes it even all the more better!!!

I know that many of my blog visits are by family and friends. Statistics, however, lead me to believe that most of my visitors are fellow photographers. Either way what we all have in common is that the majority of us are watching our children, grandchildren, or nieces and nephews grow up. So for the sake of sentimentalism I have a story to share about a photograph I captured on last year's prom night, and a bit of advice.

The first photo in this post is a shot of my daughter Kristina in the mirror. It was taken this year as she was preparing for her senior prom. I have always made it a habit to grab a few of these type shots as the girls prepare for such events. I chose to give this particular photograph an aged look, and I am pleased with the results.

The last photograph in this post(below) is a similar type one that I captured last year as she was preparing for her junior prom. Looking at it you will notice several things. First and foremost the photo was captured with an exagerrated tilt. I shot the photo through a 50mm prime lens in a fairly tight area. The tilt was needed to keep the elements of the composition inside the frame. All of the elements in this composition are important to the story that this photograph tells. Secondly, this photo is finished with an aged look achieved by processing it as a duotone. This was an easy choice at the time since the color of her clothing and all of the items on the counter were a distraction to what was really going on in this image. Lastly is the story itself. The photograph depicts Kristina applying make-up while sitting on the vanity with her feet in the sink. This, of course, used to be a common occurance anytime she was doing her hair or make-up. In fact, while I did make sure that the photograph clearly depicted her sitting on the vanity, the specialness of her action did not really cross my mind. As I said, we saw her doing this every day.

Now the sad part...

The day that I captured that photograph was the last time that I can remember seeing her sit like that while dolling herself up. The end of an era in my home. That simple fact makes this photograph priceless to me. It is another example of how fast our kids grow up. Their habits that are cute and commonplace could be only a memory as soon as tommorrow. My advice to you is to be absolutely sure that you are capturing these memories of your little ones. Words cannot even begin to express how thankfull I am that I was there on that day to capture this image of her. There she is...through the lens...for all time.

Help!!!...I Can't Keep Up!!!.....

The saying "time marches on" is completely off the mark. "Time races on, nearly ahead of us, swallowing everything up in it's wake" would be a more accurate phrase. Maybe it is common among "over 40" adults and they just don't talk about it, but lately I cannot help but feel that time has slipped like sand through my very fingers. My son, the oldest of our three children is graduating from college in one month. If that isn't enough, my oldest daughter will graduate high school the same week. I feel as though I have lost something that is terribly important to my existence.

A week or so ago the Army Corps of Engineers opened the gates at the Bonnet Carre Spillway. This is a flood control gate that diverts water from the swollen Mississippi River to Lake Pontchartrain just north of New Orleans. The last time this protection system was used was in 1997, eleven years ago. It so happens that eleven years ago I drove the family to downtown Baton Rouge and we walked up on the levee to witness the historic high water level. I did not remember bringing a camera, but I did.

I was charged, last week, with putting together a slide show for our church to honor our high school seniors. We do this every year. Among the sports and senior portraits we include photos of the kids that were taken at various stages in life. So I found myself digging through boxes of old photos when the photo above presented itself. That is Kristina in the center(our high school senior) and Josh just to the left (our college senior). At the very left of the frame is Kim and Breanna. I didn't include the photo in the slideshow, but brought it to work to show the guys how high the water was in 1997. It so happens that I was also planning my 10 year service celebration at work this week. I am treating the guys to boiled shrimp and fried fish next week.

Joshua, Breanna, and Kristina last week

It dawned on me, when all these various events of the week lined up together that it really seems as if I started that job yesterday. The photo was taken only one year before. My kids are sooo tiny in that photo, and now they are all but grown. What is going on? I can't keep up!!!