The assignment for week 5 was to shoot three images of weather for online publication’s article about how the weather is impacting peoples habits and behavior. The images were to accompany the article and help tell the tale.

I didn’t have many ideas for this project until the last weekend before it was due, which seems to be a trend I’d like to break. I decided to shoot images at a Farmer’s Market, and take the angle of warm weather/no winter having a negative effect on the crops. The Weather didn’t like that angle, and decided to move in some clouds and dump a little rain, which was fine by me. It played into my favor actually, allowing for some great shots of a near empty market with wet asphalt aisles and ominous clouds overhead.

Upon reviewing the images I was disappointed to find most were blurry due to slow shutter speeds while attempting to use a smaller aperture for a wider depth of field. Still trying to work out proper operation of the 11-16 f2.8 Tokina for maximum image quality. I was unsure what I’d do for the assignment, but really lucked out while looking for a car show on Sunday. I’d found a carshow, at a Farmer’s Market!

Sunday’s trip was to the OC Great Park, which was a new location for me. It was closer then I thought and turned out to be a great trip. I was really pleased to discover this location, and am looking forward to returning this weekend, but also got just the right images I needed to complete the assignment. I was able to turn in the three required images, featuring an empty parking lot with ominous clouds, a near empty gathering area in the center of the market, and an empty booth with a full inventory of produce.

I wasn’t thrilled about the images, they were too much like snapshots and didn’t really catch my eye as great photos. They did however tell the story they were supposed to, and went over very well in the live critique. I was surprised but happy to accept the pat on the back with a mention of being one of the best submissions for the assignment! It goes to show that sometimes you just need to follow directions.

The assignment for week 4 was to shoot an editorial portrait of an upcoming entrepreneur. I’d had a good plan for this and even setup a shoot, however I just couldn’t get the Nikon CLS system to trigger the remote flash the way I had wanted it to. I called the shoot off and decided to drop the money on a set of Pocket Wizards to get reliable off camera flash.

The delay really put this shoot on the back burner as other things became more important. The final weekend before the assignment was due came around and I wasn’t able to schedule anything. Things were looking grim as time was running out, until a wonderful coincidence occurred. At my day job, we were to take a forklift safety course to renew our certifications. I asked the instructor if I could make a few photographs of him and was able to get a couple of great shots. I setup my new 2′x2′ popup soft box on a small light stand with my SB-600 inside of it, triggered by my new Pocket Wizards.

I placed the subject in front of a forklift and light him from about 2 o clock. Rushing through the process I mixed up a few settings and ended up with what appeared to be extremely dark images, however I was able to recover just enough in post, and figured out what I was doing wrong right as the instructor was leaving. I was happy with the final product but there were tweaks to be made if I were to do this again. More detail in the background would be great, putting the subject in the environment that he works in.

An old Garden Gnome shot I intend to improve upon Week 3′s assignment has been announced, and it’s the always popular “Still Life”.

I’ve got a garden gnome in the courtyard that I like. I’ve shot it once before while testing one of my father in law’s old lenses. I think the piece is older then I am actually.

This gnome has been standing guard for about 3 years now. He’s pretty weathered, and I’m pretty sure it’s a he. He’s hanging out on a bed of red mulch, and surrounded by nice leafy green things. I think I’ll try improving on that last take, maybe with some artificial light this time. Try to create some hard, dramatic edges. Last time it was very dreamy.

Project52 Week 2 B&W test

Project52 Week 2 test image

These were both shot for week 2′s assignment, shoot a portrait of a stranger. I joined some friends at Fashion Island in Newport Beach, CA as they shopped for some denim. I thought it might be a solid place for this assignment.

I couldn’t quite bring myself to approach anyone, and didn’t really see anyone that fit what I had in my mind for the assignment either. As we decided it was time to head back to the cars, we rounded a fountain and found a pair of girls chatting away.

I asked if I could photograph them and after struggling to explain why, got to squeeze the shutter release a few times. This blonde caught my eye the most, her friend was leaning back and didn’t really fit into the image quite as well. It turned out that they were both pretty young and were disturbed that the boy of their affection had not returned a text message yet. In this image, she had just caught a glimpse of her mom walking back to meet with them, and had a bit of an embarrassed grin on her face. Realizing her age all at once and still being nervous about the experience anyways, I felt like a bit of a creeper and didn’t want to stick around to talk to mom.

I like this image quite a bit but feel like I hit a good one pretty quickly. I’d only attempted one other shot prior to this, so I’m stretching the due date out a bit and will attempt again this weekend. The other shot came from a quick trip to CES last week. I brought my Nikon with me specifically for this assignment. I happened across a photographer outside on a smoke break (his, I’ve quit). He fit perfectly what I’d hoped to find, texture. His hair was wild and salt and pepper colored. Atop his mussed do sat Ray Bans, and on his nose a pair of reading glasses. A few days of stubble graced his face, and he smoked a cigarette while reading emails (I imagine) on his iPhone. I asked if I could photograph him, again stumbling through an explanation why (I feel as if saying I’m a student would be cheating, as P52 is supposed to prepare you for professional assignments, hence the assignments and due dates). I managed to pop off one shot before thanking him and quickly returning to my fellow traveler.

I’d hoped to capture an image of a man with texture such as his with an off camera flash, enhancing the rough texture. I hadn’t exactly practiced this technique yet, but read all about it on the drive to Vegas. I’d played a bit in the car but once I hit the show floor I changed the settings to an aperture mode to quickly pickup snapshots of the wares. I didn’t remember to change things back before this shot, so it was terribly overexposed. I shoot in RAW primarily for situations such as this, to cover for my negligent skills. It’s saved me before. Some work in Aperture, a little fooling around in Snapseed, and I’ve got this. Better luck next time I say.

The week 1 critique just wrapped up. I tuned into the live broadcast on Vokle but discovered I didn’t really need to. In addition to the live show Don, head guy in charge of Project52, breezed through all of the submissions on the assignments flickr thread and did an audio critique of each vision statement. Not of the pictures though, which bummed me a bit because I was proud of my shot! I’m glad to know I can miss a live show and still manage to get the info I need as I’ll be attending a SmugMug meet up group next Thursday.

My critique consisted of cutting down my vision statement to simply “I tell the story of the day” or even shorter, “I tell stories”. Ehhhh, I think every photo tells a story in some way, so I don’t see that as necessarily a guiding light when I get lost on my path to greatness. I could have left out the second sentence, about capturing the experiences and hobbies I enjoy, though that’s what I enjoy shooting the most at the moment, “I capture a moment that others don’t get to see, in a way that those who were there did not see” is important to me. That really describes the way I try to shoot.

‘Til next time.

With week 1 wrapping up last night, I was motivated and ready for this weeks assignment to post. I really had no idea what to expect, and was definitely surprised to jump right into a solid project. This weeks assignment is to shoot a portrait of a stranger, not a candid or street photograph, but a real honest to goodness portrait of someone you’ve never met before.

Criteria:

- The person should be unknown to you.
- It can be a street portrait, studio portrait or environmental portrait.
- The portrait should be simply lit.
- Tell us a little bit about the person – through the image and the caption.
- Tell us how you approached and worked with the subject(s) for the project.

I live in Orange County, CA, and the weather right now is incredible. I’ve no doubt there will be all sorts of strangers available to photograph. I’m especially excited about this project because I’ve signed my wife and I up for a studio portrait lighting course at Calumet. It’s been awhile since I’ve done anything in a studio, and she’s just getting interested in picking up a camera to support her painting.

This week will be spent plotting ideas and concepts. I’ve got the lighting worked out, very simple, and looking for possible locations. Updates will come.