The Eaton Family

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Whangarei Academy of Gymnastics

It was my privilege recently to photograph members of the Whangarei Academy of Gymnastics.
I have long known that a great image depends in a big way on putting something interesting in front of the camera.
To say I was unprepared for the grace, poise and athletic prowess of these girls would be a massive understatement.
In fact, my initial planning was woefully inadequate, as I underestimated the size of the backdrop I would need to illuminate in order to capture them doing what they do best.

But as with everything in my life, I was not satisfied with a second rate performance, and quickly arranged for a second shoot with Hannah Russell (Pictured above) which ironed out all the wrinkles that the first shoot threw my way.

Th idea I had in my head from the start was to do their abilities justice with a camera.
Gymnastics to me is all about grace and flexibility - it is a demonstration of the abilities of a finely tuned and meticulously trained body.
The simple fact that these girls are easily capable of physical feats that most people will never accomplish, demands that they are captured in as pure a manner as possible.
For this reason I opted to use a pure white backdrop, and in most cases, eliminate the distraction of shadows and the texture of the gym mat in order to present the gymnasts in a pure and uncluttered manner.

So, 7 hours of shooting and 10 hours+ of editing has brought me to this point.
I hope you enjoy these images as much as I enjoyed creating them.



Hannah Russell
Hannah is grace personified, and what she was able to do from a standing jump still amazes me.
Aside from this, she is absolute dynamite when tumbling, which was something I was determined to capture with a camera.





Claire Fuller
Photographing Claire was an absolute pleasure.
Aside from being incredibly comfortable in front of a camera, she has both poise and natural beauty in spades, which made photographing her so easy and so much fun.





Emma Espie
I haven't laughed so much behind a camera in a long time.
Working with Emma was a real pleasure because of that fact.
She is incredibly focused, and pours all her concentration into what she does.
However, she tends to poke out her tongue when she is concentrating hard, and this simple gesture had her, and most of us, in hysterics during the shoot.
(Wait for the blooper reel!)





Zoe Espie
Talk about dynamite in small packages!
Both Zoe and Emma were adamant about getting things "just right", which is a principle I am sure will reward them in their lives.
Zoe too shares Emma's penchant for strange facial expressions when she is concentrating, which honestly had me chuckling through most of the process of making the rough selections.
(Again, wait for the blooper reel...)





Pippa Benton
It's been a while since I've photographed anyone who has been as enthusiastic in front of a camera as Pippa was.
She has such a beaming smile I should have turned the lights down when shooting her!
Full of life and energy, she was also a pretty tough artistic director who regularly headed away from the lights to check the images that I was getting.
I hope you like what we came up with.





Maia Prochazka
There is something really special about Maia.
It is clear to see that she enjoys what she does immensely, and is so visibly happy that I am led to wonder if she has ever frowned in her life.





The WAGS Complete Slideshow
I am very grateful to have worked with such an amazing group of girls.
You are all so talented and well mannered that you made the act of photographing you so much easier than I had expected it to be.
I wish you all well with your young lives ahead, though I am sure, given what I have seen of you thus far, you are all headed for bright and wonderful futures.




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Aayden and Toni

I love the fact that I enjoy my work so much.
Not just seeing the final images, but the whole process of creating something beautiful for a client.
Getting a feel for their personalities, conceptualising the shoot, planning the lighting, deciding on props, setting the lighting, shooting, adapting, uploading and finally, loving what the whole process created.

I feel extremely blessed to have shot these two beautiful souls.
We had a great amount of fun, and Aayden's playful nature kept both her mom and me in stitches.





The shoot started out as a bit of a personal mission for me.
I believe strongly in having a standard, especially if you're charging people for the work you do.
Poorly lit, fuzzy images should never see the light of day, and should NEVER be paid for. (Yes, I know this is a personal rant)

Toni had received images of Aayden taken at her kindergarten by a photographer who had come in to shoot kid's portraits as part of a package deal.
As can be expected of a quick job, especially with children who don't always cooperate, the images did not capture Aayden's character, and just seemed to lack soul.

I don't like the idea of having anyone pay for work they aren't satisfied with.
There is something special about photographing kids - their personalities are ever changing, and I think it's a necessary thing to capture each stage of their lives, and capture it well. There is no way of turning back the clock and doing it a later stage.
But this also means that you do the job properly, and take the time to create an image (yes, it IS an active process that starts WAY before you lift a camera) that captures your subject as they truly are.

So, it was with this in mind that I offered to shoot pro bono to create something special for 2 very special people.
Now, I don't necessarily condone shooting for free, though not every reward needs to be financial.
My payback on this job was to spread my photographic philosophy on planning and approaching a client, and to garner some great word of mouth (Which truly is a priceless commodity)

The setup was a fairly simple one:
White seamless backdrop
White seratone floorboard
2 Background lights - metering a stop and a half hotter than the key light (Which creates the pure white background without flaring light on Toni and Aayden)
Key light - 90cm softbox
Camera - Canon 5D with a 70-200mm f2.8 lens, handheld



The shoot took all of 45 minutes, and yielded 49 "keepers" which I subsequently arranged into a video slideshow. (Which was a HUGE hit)



After delivering the images, I asked Toni to pick her top 6 images.
I was curious to see whether we'd have different points of view; me looking at the images from a photographer's perspective, and Toni viewing them very subjectively.

To be honest, I was expecting us to be pretty much similar with our picks - I could not have been more surprised.

Of six images, the two at the top of this post are the only images where our tastes coincided.

The 4 images below are Toni's other picks...
































































Whilst these 4 are my picks...




































































My thanks to Toni and Aayden for being such amazing people, and for reminding me how much I love doing what I do.

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GET MORE: Gear. Equipment. Technique. My Own Rambling Experience.

My previous post brought up a few details that I thought would make a good follow up piece.
These relate to a few techniques and items of gear that I used on the Butter Factory shoot.

Much of what I know has been gleaned from the works and advice of other photographers.
In the interests of paying things forward, I'd like to share a few lessons and techniques that my experience has taught me.

More after the jump




First up is the Tronix Explorer XT
Not to knock (un)available light photographers, but there is nothing that separates poor photography from art more than meticulously planned lighting - which invariably means studio lighting and the tons of modifiers available to make magic with light.

This is all very well in a studio setup, but what happens when you want to use that lighting in locations where power outlets are lacking?

Invariably, you could invest in top of the range lighting systems which come with their own battery packs. (Think $$$, and lots of it)

Or, you could opt for something a little less pricey, which is what I did.

At a little more than $800, The Explorer XT is by no means an item you could buy on a whim.
The clincher for me was that it would allow location work that I otherwise would only be able to do if I sold my current lighting setup (Interfit) and invested in something far more costly.

Two things to remember with a sine wave inverter:

1) They need to remain on charge when not in use, or they could lose power permanently.
(I actually sent a mail to Tronix asking about this, and apparently they'll work just fine if allowed to charge for an uninterrupted 24 hours once per week.)

2) They do not fare well supplying continuous power.
What this means for me is that the strobe lights will work fine, but having the modelling lights turned on would not be a good idea.

This unit fared brilliantly during the shoot, and is likely to continue giving me joy down the track.



Secondly, we have the combination of Studio strobes and hot shoe flashes.

As far as lighting goes, I have 3 studio strobes and 2 Canon 580EXII flashes at my disposal, each with their own unique pros and cons.

The studio strobes are more powerful and are capable of creating a quality of light that I cannot achieve with the speedlites.
The speedlites however are very portable and versatile enough for quite a number of projects.

Ordinarily a shoot will require one or the other.
On the odd occasion a need will arise for both types to be used.
Sometimes I also have need for 4 lights or more, and in this case I have to use both types.

With the Butter Factory shoot I needed the 1m x 1m softbox to create the soft light on my subjects - cue the 600Ws Interfit Stellar strobe.

The speedlite was necessary for a few reasons:
1) I didn't want another strobe running off the Sine wave inverter (It could easily handle it, but I wanted to play it safe)
2) The speedlite was small enough to fit behind the couch without trouble and provide illumination for the shelves on the wall.
3) I have a little more options wrt gels on the speedlites - even if, in this case, I settled on something as basic as a CTO gel to warm the wall.

The trick with all of this is finding a way to trigger everything easily.
The strobe uses an Elinchrom Skyport, whilst the speedlite was triggered with a Pocketwizard Mini.
Fortunately, the Pocketwizard transmitter has a hotshoe above it, which allowed me to slot the Skyport transmitter on without trouble - and Robert's your mother's brother.





I must mention that ordinarily I could get away with a Pocketwizard only; the speedlite's flash will trigger the studio strobe, provided the strobe can "see" the flash.
Again here I chose to play it safe, and opted to use both the transmitters as the speedlite was firing away from the strobe.

The last thing I want to do in front of a client is fiddle with gear that isn't performing as it should.

Lastly, I want to share a lesson that the experience taught me.
In hindsight, this should not have occurred, but sometimes in the face of something new you end up being so overwhelmed by the experience that your normal routine is disturbed.

In this case I left one little element out of my preparation for the shoot that had me kicking myself repeatedly in post-production - I neglected to do a thorough clothing inspection before we started shooting.

Admittedly, the darkness of the location contributed, as I would have picked up on this if we were shooting outdoors.

Take a look at Steve's hat.
This little item is such an integral part of his character, and as such is evident in every shot - necessitating a touch up in every shot.
For a photographer - time is money, and unnecessary time spent editing can be a very costly mistake - especially if it could have been avoided with 2 minutes of primping before the time.



So to wrap up I'd like to share the post-game summary from the shoot - the little lessons I ALWAYS write down the minute I get home.

1) Low ambient light creates problems that you have to overcome.

-Find a way to illuminate your subject so that the camera can focus without difficulty. (Torch, modelling light etc...)
-Your environment/backdrop may have to be lit with flash.
-If you have to light the background with flash, be creative enough that your lighting does not ruin the ambiance.

2) Examine your subjects clothing before and during the shoot.

- Fluff, lint and other elements can cause nightmares in post.
- Changing poses can lead to make-up smudges on clothes, be prepared.

3) Don't skimp on your location preparation.

- Knowing the lighting conditions and options for setups will save a lot of headaches and spare you the ignominy of looking like an amateur in front of your client.

4)Be confident and methodical.
- This comes with experience.
- You will get the most from your clients if they truly believe that you know what you are doing and are focused on getting things perfect.

Happy snapping fellow photographers.



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Persistence pays off

Part of the process of building your skills as a photographer depends on pushing your boundaries at times and trying something new.
Getting out of your comfort zone can mean many different things - from new equipment and techniques to new locations and unique subjects.

The old truths remain valid - for great images, find something interesting, put it in an interesting place and light it well.

More info after the jump...


There are a number of very interesting locations in the city I live in, and one in particular has been tempting me for a while.

Butter Factory is a location I've been dying to shoot in for some time.
As its name implies, it is located in a historic building within the CBD, and because of its aged appearance, has a very specific feel to it.
Maybe it's just me, but every time I walk in there, Frank Sinatra starts playing in my head and all I want to do is plonk myslef down on one of the leather couches with a good single malt and a fat Cuban cigar and just relax.

Many months ago I started working towards getting a location shoot lined up.
From the start I knew I had 2 options: Either be ballsy and ask the proprietor for permission to drag subjects and gear in on a quiet evening or go the "quid pro quo" route.

I opted for the latter, and approached the owner offering to provide him with free interior shots in exchange for the permission to do the work I wanted to do.
This would involve more work, but I figured it was the smarter move for 3 reasons:

1) It would give me a chance to do some very detailed location scouting - both for places to shoot and times when it would be least disruptive to other patrons.

2) Knowing what kind of ambient light you're dealing with will save a lot of headaches. (Turns out the place was a photographic black hole - which made things quite interesting)

3) If it turned into a useful location for repeat work, being on the owner's good side would make future requests easier.

So, step 1.
Shoot the locations pro bono.



The above scene is actually from Butter Bank, which is a bar, under the same management, directly above the location I was angling for.





Permission to drag lights and subjects in on a quiet evening - check

Next problem - Good subjects.
The mood of the location demanded something quite specific - classy, sophisticated and mature would be the words of the day.

Enter Sarah Shields and Steve Haywood, willing guinea pigs from my BNI group who fit the brief perfectly.
Not married, or even related, they were both keen to do a little TFCD work when I had explained what I had in mind.



Steve is a local Master Jeweller, and Sarah is the General Manager of Oceans Resort Hotel

And so it happened that we found ourselves in Butter Factory one quiet Thursday evening with a car full of lighting gear and a number of little road bumps to navigate.

Lighting a Black Hole
Step number 1 for me is to work out the ambient light first.
For me, this involves working in manual and dialling in the exposure settings I am hoping to work with.
The trick here is that both your shutter speed and aperture provide their own limitations wrt safe hand-holding, sync speed and depth of field.

So, not keen on shooting slower than 1/125, and not keen on a depth of field shallower than f6.3, I dialled these settings into the camera (Along with an ISO of 200) and got...



...exactly what I expected.

Given the work I had already done in that location, I was fairly certain that ambient light would not be a part of the image.
Regardless, things can change on the day of a shoot, and I took a few shots to find out if my initial hunch was correct.

Step 2 - ramp up the ISO by 1 stop and open lens all the way (f2.8)



Better, but in the same way that a BMI of 40 is better than 50!
So, question answered.
Scientifically I could bump up the ambient light by increasing ISO to "Holy shit that's noisy" or drop my shutter speed to well within "get me a tripod and don't move a bloody muscle" range.
Realistically, for image quality, neither was an option.

So, question answered, I need flash to light my background.

Step 3 - set up a TTL flash (triggered with pocketwizard mini/flex) and take a look.
Camera settings: ISO 200, f2.8, 1/125



Better, but not quite there.
It almost approximated the the ambient light.
Problems for me - the colour and intensity of the light.

Easy fixes.
Added a 1/2 cut CTO gel to the flash - warm light, and the gel itself would suck a stop or so of light out of the flash.
- 2 birds with 1 stone

Lather, rinse, repeat...
This time I brought Steve into the shot, as I was certain I was pretty much in the ballpark.



Definately getting there, but the depth of field was a problem.
Normally I'm all for blurring everything but your subject, but this time I wanted detail in the background, because it added to the mood and "feel" of the image.

Easy fix this time.
Set aperture to f11 and the miracle of wireless ETTL flash would sort out the rest. (I do love the pocketwizard Mini)



BINGO!
Time to start making magic.

Brought in a 90cm square softbox on a 600w/s Interfit head, triggered with Elinchrom skyports.
I've found the combination of Pocketwizards and Skyports to be quite useful in certain circumstances, even if it does make the camera hotshoe look a little odd.
(Will be doing a post on this soon)

The Interfit was powered by a Tronix sine wave inverter which has been a godsend for this kind of work.

The combination worked fine; soft light on the subject, mood in the background thanks to a gelled 580EXII.

All that was left was to work on poses and switch out lenses for close in work.











BIG PROBLEM though was the ambient light which made the simple act of focussing impossible.
Once again I had the help of two fantastic assistants, Heather and Shelly.
Even with one of them using torch light to illuminate the subjects, I still got a lot more blurry shots than I'd want - not good when eyes have to be pin sharp.

Ordinarily the modelling light on the softbox would work fine, but this is not an option with a sine wave inverter.
Note to self - mains power if possible next time, or do something about the ambient light.

All in all, a very enjoyable shoot with two great people.

Great location, even if the ambient light was a problem.
Even better to know that your skills are improving, both in what you are capable of doing, and in the confidence that comes with smoothly negotiating the little hiccups that are inherent with any location work.

My thanks to Steve and Sarah for their time and patience.
It really was worth the wait.

And just to add a little to the mood, I put the images to some fitting music.






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Finding inspiration - Part 1: Jill Greenberg

I have a very enquiring mind; if I don't quite understand something I'll generally do everything I can to turn confusion into sense. (God bless the internet!)

I do a lot of reading, and it amazes me that sometimes the smallest of articles can become an amazingly complex rabbit-hole of insight, where each question leads to another that needs answering. Sometimes the journey takes you to some amazing places, or provides you with a whole treasure trove of new ideas to explore.

Honestly, I don't know how people like me survived these burning questions before the internet became such a big part of our daily lives.

Sometimes these little searches yield some real gems, and open my mind to something else.
Sometimes it's just amazing to take stock of whatever revelation has been made known to you and then work your way back to the initial switch that set the whole process in motion.

The train of thought that got me acquainted with the work of Jill Greenberg is such a journey, and one that I thought would make a great blog post.

More info after the jump.


I had an absolutely fantastic birthday this year; I had a great day with a wife who I love immensely, and spent a great evening enjoying the company of good friends.

I also received an amazing book as a gift - Photo Wisdom by Lewis Blackwell

As a self taught photographer I will admit that I know very little about the big names in the field.
As amazing as this book is for the visual feast it provides, for me the real value lies in what each photographer has written.
I found it ironic that there were so many images that I remember seeing before, but had no idea of the photographer behind that image.
Sometimes the photographer's story - the passion and the motivation behind the image are just as inspiring as the pictures themselves.

I've also made the decision to start learning about the Photographic Greats and spend time looking at he work they've created.

And so it was that I got stuck on Jill Greenberg's chapter and the words she had written.
One particular paragraph stood out for me though, as it re-iterates a feeling I've had that I wish I could somehow express to potential clients; Photographers know that photography is not simply about arriving with a camera and taking images. There is work involved - lots of it!

"The actual shoot doesn't usually take that long. A shoot day is a few hours, but if you are shooting a celebrity you might only have fifteen minutes or an hour. It is more about the preparation - the pre-production is the most time, second is the post production, and the actual shooting is usually the least amount of time."

And so I decided to jump on the internet and learn a little more about Jill Greenberg and take a look at other work she has created.

What struck me immediately was, again, the fact that there were images I had seen before and been amazed by.
Prime example is the image of Michael C. Hall, T.V.'s Dexter Morgan.



I won't even try and deny the fact that I'm intrigued by anything sinister or creepy.
As such, Dexter is a show I've been crazy about ever since I started watching it.
If you've never watched Dexter you won't know what I mean.

As much as I love the series' storyline, I have to admit that it's the mixture of music and amazing visuals that captivate me.
I remember being thrilled by the opening title when I first saw it.



Talk about combining some inspired thinking with great execution.(pun almost intended!)

But I digress.

Jill Greenberg is herself no stranger to controversy.

She once landed in hot water after doing a portrait shoot of Senator John McCain for Atlantic Monthly magazine.

The following paraphrased off Wikipedia:

In August 2008, Greenberg was hired by The Atlantic to photograph John McCain for the magazine's October 2008 cover. Once the magazine hit the newsstands, Greenberg admitted to a photo industry magazine to shooting additional images, to depict McCain in a sinister light, so that she could create her own political art. Greenberg also posted to her website altered versions of photographs.

The Atlantic said of Greenberg, "we expected her, like the other photographers we work with, to behave professionally. Jill Greenberg has obviously not done that. She has, in fact, disgraced herself, and we are appalled by the manipulated images of John McCain she has created for her Web site."

Similarly, controversy arose after her "End Times" exhibition, which depicted child models in various states of distress and misery.
Questions were asked as to the methods used, and a lively debate was started.

Being new to the story I found quite a number of interesting pieces online.

It's interesting to see the how polarized the response to photography can be.
I'm reminded of a Facebook group I saw which denounced the work of Anne Geddes as tantamount to child abuse. Go figure!
I suppose, given the world we live in, it would be hard to find a subject or issue which the whole world would view in the same light.

Makes you think.
Not bad for a morning's reading!

So wherein lies the inspiration?
Firstly, it's always great to have beautiful imagery to be inspired by, and some of the portraits Jill Greenberg has taken honestly amaze me.

Secondly, controversy aside, it's interesting to catch glimpses of a photographer's emotions and beliefs resonating through their work.
Though I do feel sorry for John McCain, I'm astounded by the nerve it must have taken to create and display those images and the strength of the motivation behind that action.
I admire work with a message - though the fact that the message cannot always be separated from its method of creation is worth bearing in mind.

I hope one day to produce work that has a significant meaning to me, and that resonates within the consciences of my audience.

Bottom line for me today: Great pictures paint more than a thousand words.

I look forward to making a number of similar discoveries as I delve deeper into the book.


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Having a little fun...

There's something refreshing about working with clients who REALLY want to be photographed, and who put as much effort and planning into a shoot as you do.

I had the pleasure of working on a few different ideas with Shane and Catherine in May.
Shane's sister had bought a voucher off me as a Christmas present, as she was sure they'd want to do something strange and outrageous.

When I first met them I was immediately convinced that we were going to have a lot of fun, and that there would be plenty of opportunity to aim for something a little out of the ordinary.

They both were involved with local theatre, and had access to a whole heap of costumes, accessories and props.
Aside from this, Shane's sister runs one of the local preschools, and they were really keen to use it as a backdrop for one of the shoots.

We met up there one Sunday afternoon to take a look around and see what ideas might be feasible.
And so the the building blocks storyline was born...




Shane and Catherine are now living and working in the UK, and I wish them well with their endeavours.
All I can say for sure is that a little corner of England is about to get a whole lot wackier!
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