THE THINGS I DO…

At a recent photo walk, one of the participants pulled me aside and expressed his frustration at not shooting lots of “keeper” images during group photo outings. He was visibly irritated with his performance (or lack of) and it was pretty obvious that he was not enjoying himself. Since the whole point of a photo walk is to enjoy yourself, I gave him some words of advice that kept me from chucking my gear in a bin years ago… take things one step at a time and always remember how far you’ve come, not how far you have to go. You see, digital photography can be both as simple or as complex as you want to make it. Be careful not to try too many things at once, especially when you’re learning the basics.

Someone once told me “there’ll always be greater and lesser people than you out there, the trick is to accept that fact and do your best with the tools at hand.” Applied to digital photography, it means set small goals for yourself at every step in your photo evolution. Goals such as “I’m going to use the manual exposure settings for half the photos I shoot today” or “I’m going to experiment with at least one HDR image” are easy to set and, once achieved, will give you a real sense of accomplishment. Stack one accomplishment onto another, then add another and you’ll soon see how much your skills are improving.

I set small “fun” goals for myself all the time. Last weekend, I hosted a photo walk and, knowing I would be tied up helping folks with their photography and making sure everyone was having a great time,  set only one goal for myself. I wanted to make one good photograph…something I could frame and hang on my wall. No stress, just one photo. After walking through the park for a couple hours, I missed several shots, let other possibilities pass me by for one reason or another. No pressure, I only needed one shot, right? As I was leaning on the railing, taking a break after the walk down to the swamp bridge, the shot I was looking for happened right in front of me. That’s when I shot this photo:

Knowing I had this shot “in the bag,” I relaxed a bit and focused my attentions (pun intended) on helping other photo walkers for the rest of the morning. I didn’t stop looking, mind you (see my previous post on why you don’t want to do that), but my main photographic goal for the day was accomplished. As I look at the framed photo over my Mac, I’ll always be reminded of the fun I had hosting this photo walk, thanks to setting my goals to “minimum” for the day. Remember, if photography stresses you out, you’re doing something wrong!

I’ve found that having a written or  ”shot list” for events is counter-productive to my creativity. That’s right, instead of being a helpful reference, I find it becomes a subconscious shopping list that hinders my creativity. For example, during a recent wedding I photographed, I had already made the “usual” pre-wedding shot of the couple’s rings. It was the standard stuff, sharp, cake in background, nicely composed…but boring. Had I been satisfied with this photo and checked it off my mental shot list, I wouldn’t have been looking for something better that presented itself later, during the reception.

By not checking this shot off that list, I kept looking for a way to improve upon it when the situation above presented itself for a few scant moments. I quickly moved in and snapped the photo above.  I think it’s much more creative and “different” for my clients. I liked it so much that I never showed them the earlier photos. So, be careful when using a shot list. Don’t let it become a checklist that squelches your creative process.

Having just finished a day-long wedding shoot, I plan to share some tips of the trade with you in the next few blog posts. Today’s tip is to shoot in RAW format. I’ve extolled on the virtues of this format here many times before and can’t emphasize enough the importance of shooting events in RAW.

Having shot my share of events on film, I’ve gotta tell you my stress level’s a lot lower since I switched to digital. No more agonizing over whether I successfully captured a tricky lighting situation or not. With digital, I will know immediately whether or not the shot is a keeper.  Plus, shooting in RAW gives me even more confidence to try making photos I wouldn’t have considered shooting on film. The photo posted here was taken at the end of the reception as things were winding down. I wanted to shoot something that captured the dance floor a bit more artistically than the flash-blur photos I had been shooting all evening.  I figured I had nothing to lose but a few pixels, so I experimented a bit.

The venue lighting was tricky and called for a long exposure (1 second) to bring out the details of the tent and the dancers. I also wanted to move the camera a bit while popping a flash from the far left side to partially freeze the dancers and add some motion to the dance lights. Did I mention that this was shot during the last dance of the evening? That’s where RAW saved me time and allowed me to shoot fast with enough time to concentrate on my photography and make the shot when the dancers were in the right place. The wider exposure latitude provided by RAW allowed me to fix a lot of the problems in post-processing that I wouldn’t have been able to save had I shot this on JPEG format. For example, I bumped up the color saturation of the dance lights increased the clarity and brought back some of the detail in the blown-out highlights during post-processing.

Now that RAW has become the only format I use, I find I experiment much more than I used to and those experiments, as you see, sometimes turn out pretty well.

Water. That’s right, a bottle of the wet, clear stuff has saved my bacon on more occasions than I care to mention. Most recently, a well-chilled bottle of water revitalized me in the middle of a marathon wedding shoot on a sweltering, 90-degree Virginia summer day.

Too many shooters get caught up with packing all the photo gear needed for a shoot and completely forget about bringing along the supplies needed to maintain themselves during the event. Weddings have a tendency to last a long time. That means you’ll be working hard without a break for most of your day (at least, if you’re giving the sort of event coverage I’m known for) and that’s a recipe for failure unless you’ve planned ahead. Toss a couple energy/granola bars in your bag and a couple bottles of water into a waterproof bag (and I don’t need to explain WHY a waterproof bag, do I?) for a quick snack and hydration throughout the day.  It’s amazing how invigorating a bite of granola bar and a slug of water can be during a long afternoon of runnin’ and gunnin’…. a refreshing pause that’ll help you to maintain your focus and energy till the bridal party, like Elvis, leaves the building.

With graduation season upon us, it’s a good time to go over some photo tips for shooting these family milestones. If you’re like me, when one rolls around, you are responsible for capturing the moments…and you’d better not fail! Here’s some tips for getting great images from these fairly formal ceremonies…

• First, interrogation. Leave the waterboard behind. But do ask some questions of your graduate after he or she returns from the rehearsal. Most important, find out where they’ll be seated for the ceremony and the route of the processional.
• Next, grab a seat ON THE AISLE on the same side your target is sitting. An aisle seat will allow you to quickly move about without disturbing others. Being on the same side as your graduate will also save you some steps. Leave your camera bag here with your spouse or whoever accompanies you to allow you to move about without looking like a pack mule. If you aren’t allowed to move about (and some schools have a tendency to restrict this sort of thing), you’ll be in a great spot to get the photos that come after.
• Set your color balance, ISO and, in general, have your camera ready. A freshly-formatted memory card is a must.
• Concentrate on the action, not the speeches. Using the intel you gathered earlier, you will have an advantage over all the other mommies and daddies shooting the event. Shoot the processional, looking for your special person. No one will care about how great your photos are of the main speaker…except maybe his mom!
• Wide, medium, tight. The formula for making an interesting series of photos. Shoot a wide angle shot to show the crowd and act as a scene-setter for what’s to follow, then shoot medium shots of the action and zero in on your subject for a couple close-ups. My lens of choice for this is a zoom. It keeps lens-changes to a minimum and allows me to pack only two lenses: my 24-70mm f/2.8 and my 70-200mm f/2.8.
• Inside or out, add a pop of flash to brighten colors and freeze action. Digital images benefit from a pop of flash. It brightens the colors while helping you to stop action. Balance the flash with the background so that your flash is just adding a slight “kick” to the scene. You might want to practice on other folks’ kids before your “money shot” rolls walks across the stage.
• Remember your alphabet. Since every graduation I’ve ever attended marches the grads to their diplomas alphabetically, you have plenty of warning for when your grad will be taking the long walk to the stage. Be ready for it and position yourself in plenty of time to get the diploma hand-off. I usually spring into action when they start calling names a couple letters ahead of those I’m photographing.
• Get low and watch your line of sight. After you’ve found the spot where you want to shoot from, bend your knees and get down low. You do this for two reasons: you won’t be blocking the view of others and you’ll be able to use the sky or the ceiling as your background and not a distracting crowd of other graduates. I like to shoot at f/5.6 or wider to further blur my background…watch your focus point, though.
• Get the important shot but look for something better. Sure, the shot of the headmaster handing over the goodies is important, but don’t get so hung up on getting that shot that you miss better opportunities. A great expression is more important in the larger sceme of things.
• Don’t put the camera down after the ceremony! This is the time when the most memorable moments happen. Caps get thrown in the air, hugs are exchanged and the real memories happen. Slap your wide-angle lens on the camera and blaze away. Why a wide-angle? It forces you to get close to your subjects while making it harder for someone to walk in front of you. Believe me, the latter reason alone is reason enough!
• And finally, don’t wait to post and share your work… crank it out as soon as you can. Post your photos, e-mail your photos, print your photos to share these moments with friends and family. After all, that’s what’s most important!