As a working studio photographer it is easy to get in a rut photographically. My friend Kelly and I had been talking about participating in some kind of workshop for some time. I have attended a number of half and one day events but this is the first time I attended a photo workshop that was longer than a day. It is something that I have wanted to do for some time.

The workshop we decided to attend was a wild horse workshop put on by Rocky Mountain Photo Adventures. We stayed in the small the town of Eagle Butte South Dakota, and it was just a short drive to the location of our horse friends.
 http://www.rockymountainphotoadventures.com/

We had access to three different herds, one of them the Gila heard are genetic descendants of horses brought here by the Spanish. Our workshop leaders were Weldon Lee and Lori Huff. Lori is a friend of both Kelley and I. She was originally from our area and we've have known her a number of years.

For three days we got out and start shooting before the sun was up  until a bit before lunch time, then went and got something to eat. We went back to the hotel downloaded our images and had a critique session and maybe a nap. Later on we went back out and shot until after sunset.

It was a great experience and I met a number a great folks from different parts of the country. Well worth the price.

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It has been way too long since I posted anything. I have no excuse, I have just been lazy I guess.

Saturday I leave for South Dakota to photograh wild horses. It is a workshop and it the first time I have gone to a workshop that was more than a few hours or a single day long.

I am looking forward to it. If I get anything reasonably good I post some of the images when I get back.

The Prime Mover

I have been using more prime lenses rather than zooms lately. I am getting very nice results using them.
Even with their limitations they are sharp and in most cases faster and most prime lenses are smaller and lighter.
With my first 35mm camera all I used with it was prime lenses, I had a 28,50, and a 135mm for it. This set of lenses did a fine  job for me for years. The first zoom lenses I bought was 80- 200mm and it was one of the worst lens I have ever seen in my life. Later zooms I owned were much better, but I still think prime lenses have the advantage in sharpness and contrast.

This past weekend I went out on a day trip with a group of some photographer friends and used only prime lenses.
Here are some of my results.

Out Shooting Again (finally)

It has been a while since I have had a chance to shoot any personal photography.

 Last month my friend Chris and another photographer had their latest exhibit open at a gallery in Lansing, so I went to the shows opening and we got a bit of a chance to catch up.  We decided to make a shooting trip out to the lake shore in Muskegon Mi.

I worked with Chris for a number of years before he left the company and started a studio of his own. Now he spends a great deal of his time teaching photography at a community college in Lansing.

For the Birds

Here are 2 examples of shots I took this past weekend. At the "Birds of Prey" shoot at the SWMCCC Summer Weekend of Photography.

SOFOBOMO 2010

I just recently finished and upload my 2010 SOFOBOMO PDF book project. If you are unfamiliar with is it's an annual event that gives participants a 30 day window to shoot, produce and upload a PDF phototbook. Here is a link to the project SOFOBOMO HomePage

This is my second year of participation. Here's a link to this year's effort 2010 and this is a link to my 2009 effort.

Check them out and let me know what you think. Also go to the project home page and check out some of the other books there.

Improvement

Not to long ago someone asked me what was the best way they could improve as photographer. I think that my answer caught them by surprise judging by the look on their face. I simply told them to go out and shoot.

In order to learn the craft of photography you do need to read, take a class or seminar, take part in workshops and utilize any educational opportunity you can. But it does no good to learn about something and not put it in to practice. The doing is where the greatest learning takes place. You learn from making mistakes and correcting them, but you need to participate in order for that to happen.

Why Argue?

For some reason photographers like to argue.
And some of the things they argue seem mighty silly to me.
Here are some examples of exactly what I mean.



6 Things Photographers Like to argue about

Smoke Gets In Your Eyes

Playing around in the studio shooting smoke yesterday.

Urban Explorations

Last Sunday I went to Gary Indiana with a group of Flickr photographers to do a bit of Urban Exploring. Brian the guy who set up the outing brought along some lights and two nice young ladies to model for the group.
We started out in a old abandoned church and after a while a group of us went a few blocks away to an abandoned bolt factory and did some shooting there.
I was a good time and I am sure a lot of good images were made.

7 Things Photographers Should Never Do

http://www.lightstalking.com/7-things-photographers-should-never-do

This is very interesting. I especially like the last don't in the list.

The Outhouse 500

For the last few years I have been working on an adhoc project of sorts. I get a real kick out of photographing events like this that are put on by some of the smaller communities in the area.

I'm trying to figure out what to do with the shots I have made. I have a lot of very nice images that I should put together in some form that I can show people. Maybe it's time to do a book.

These events whether single day or multiple day affairs are great to photograph because they are so accessible. In most cases you can get very close to the action and generally no one gives you any problems about being there.

If you like to photograph people these types of events are perfect for it.

These images are from "The Outhouse 500" in Coopersville MI a small town a few mile west of where I live. I have wanted to shoot there for a couple of years now but something always came up that prevented me from going. So I made the effort to go this year and I'm glad I did.

It was a hoot.

2010 Jammie Awards

My oldest daughter invited me to go see the Jammie Awards with her last night. She knew a couple of the people playing. There were a number of bands and solo artists who performed small sets over the course of the evening on two different stages.

For those who don't know what the Jammies are I'll explain. WYCE is a local community supported radio station in Grand Rapids Michigan and for the past 11 years the have given awards to local musical talent at this special awards show.



Here are a few of the shots I made.

Playing Can Be Creative

The other night I went to the studio of a friend of mine. We are putting on a lighting workshop for a couple of local area camera clubs and we needed figure out what we were going to cover, lighting setups, as well as some other details.

Larry rounded up a couple of models to work with. It was a great time because we got to play with all kinds of lighting arrangements we wanted to try and to figure out what would work out the best at the workshop. If we wanted to try something to see how it looked we could.

We did a lot of "what if we put a light here" or "what about a blue or red gel on the background light" kind of things. It was very refreshing to just mess around with light without the constants of shooting for a client's needs.

We got to play.

My New Favorite Photographer

I like the work of many photographers both old ones and new ones. One of my all time favorites is Edward Weston. This has changed a bit. I had to move Weston over and make room for Vivian Maier.

The work of Vivian Maier, a french woman living in Chicago doing incredible street photography, is worthy of being shown in any great museum in the world. Her work to me is similar to Henri Cartier-Bresson, it has the same kind of "divisive moment" feel to it. I also like that the images were shot using an old TLR and they look to be full frame and in a square format.

Here is a prime example of an extremely talented photographer, working in obscurity, and producing an incredible body work over a long period of time coming to light. Her images were recently discovered by by a guy named John Maloof. Her story is on the blog he has created to feature her photographs. I ran across a link to this blog about a week ago and I subscribed to the RSS feed.

So here is the link to the "Vivian Maier-Her Discovered Work" blog http://vivianmaier.blogspot.com/

"The Seduction of Potential"

As I have said in the past I am a fan of Brooks Jensen the publisher of Lenswork. His most recent podcast really hit home for me. I really can't add too much more, so here is a link so you can listen for yourself.

"The Seduction of Potential"

What is the Best Camera?

OK so when someone asks you "what is the best camera?"

How you you answer?

This question is impossible to answer without more information, what are they going to use it for, what is their skill level, how much do they want to spend, and so on.

For me the answer is "The best camera is the one in my hands". I know this is a flip answer and it has been made by many other people, but there's a lot of truth in it.

What good is my $8000 DSLR with the most expensive zoom lens possible, sitting in it's camera bag back at my house doing me? What if all I have is the camera in the cell phone in my pocket and the mother ship from Alpha Centari lands 100 feet in front of me in broad daylight, which is the best camera in that case?

I take a camera with me a lot, and I always have my cell phonecamera. Bringing a camera with you as much as possible insures that you won't have the "boy I sure wish I had my camera" experience less often. I know that even if you have your camera with you can still miss capturing that great image, but without it it's a guarantee that you won't get the shot.

So like American Express says "Don't leave home with out it!".

Saint Ansel and the Myth of the Zone System

I am sure I will be crucified for this one, but here goes.

My friend and shooting buddy Steve refers to Ansel Adams as Saint Ansel. I think there are two reasons he does this, one is he is truly a fan of Adams and the other mainly is to piss me off. At least in a friendly way.

Don't get me wrong I like AA's work and if you were to ask most normal people who he was, they could tell you that he was a great photographer. I'll give odds that they probably have seen only one or two of his photographs. He has become larger than life, a cultural icon, a person of mythological proportions.

There are not many other photographers who have achieved that kind of recognition. I am not trying to take anything away from his accomplishments, but I think there are many other photographers who were his contemporaries that don't get the notice that they deserve.

When you put a group of photographers together especially ones who shoot B&W and the conversation turns to photographers, Ansel is generally the first name thrown out. It's sort of like recognising the Beatles and no one else. Rolling stones anyone?

What happen to people like Minor White, Wynn Bullock or dare I say it, Edward Weston. These guys were much more then just a footnote in photographic history, but Adams is the person that the myth was created about. I find this interesting.

We all have our favorites, but I think we need to expand our horizons. It doesn't hurt to look at the work others even if we are not that big a fan just to broaden our scope a bit. We could gain a new perspective on how we look at things.

Then again I could be full of it............

Who Sez Living in The Country is Boring

This past weekend I ran a lighting workshop at an annual photography summer school, put on by SWMCCC. It's held at Hope College in Holland MI.

I got home about 4 PM, put all my stuff away and I was just getting ready to take a shower.
When I heard a loud crack, like the sound made by a large branch breaking. I looked out the window and saw a car in the ditch in front of my neighbor's house. I had my mother in law call 911 and ran out to see who was in the car and to see if anyone was hurt.


When I got there an older man was climbing out on the passenger side of the car. He said he was all right. The air bags had deployed and he had scraped up his hand but otherwise seemed all right.


He said he thought he had fallen asleep. His car had come across the road into the ditch taking out the power pole in front of my neighbor's house. I spent the next the next 30 or so minutes directing traffic to keep other cars from running into the partially downed power line as emergency people and the power company arrived. Before too long I the road was full of plenty of help and so I went up the house and grabbed my camera.

There is excitement even in the country.

Persistance of Vision

I believe that I have a much better eye now then ever before, and it improves the older I get.

I don't mean that my eyesight has improved; I need glasses to read and for closeup work, what I mean is it's how I look at the subjects that I photograph.

Now I notice things that I am sure that I overlooked as a younger person. Sometimes that makes the difference if I trip the shutter or not.

Subtle nuances in lighting, odd things in the background are some of the things I just automatically notice. Most of the time that is.

I all just comes with experience, the more you shoot the better you see.

Your first step is getting past the learning how to use the equipment part. The next step is learning the photographic technique part of the equation. Then when you feel comfortable with those two parts you can concentrate your efforts on learning what makes a good image.

Like most things this all takes time. The more effort and time you put forth the quicker you will improve your vision.