Thanks to the Volunteers

Somehow - I don't remember exactly how - I ended up volunteering to photograph the thank you dinner for the folks at Ronald McDonald House. It was pretty much my one bright spot in an otherwise really stinky, stinky day. Photographing this event really made me feel grateful for everything that I've been learning this semester. No, it was not everything I dreamed it would be (technically), but I was able to get some shots that would have been impossible without my handy-dandy strobe. What's even cooler, not only did I get to practice my event photography, but I am also going to get to practice my multi-media presentation skills - I'm going to interview some of the people from the house and put it all together with the stills. The director, Jenn, was really excited about the idea. I haven't mentioned wanting to add some pictures from people at the House (since I just thought of it), but I think they'd be game. I am picturing something that really says, 'thank you,' to all the volunteers. (The more I think about the possibilities, the more excited I feel about it... Yes, I am a dork - but I wouldn't change a thing :)

Here's some of my shots.

Ghosts of the 63 Diner

Wow, to go from one of my least favorite assignments to one of my most favorite...

My latest assignment for class was "Painting with Light," which means we set out cameras to a long open shutter/exposure and then we run around and illuminate things so that they appear lit in the final picture. And when you do it right, it turns out really well!

For this assignment, we drove north on Rangeline to the 63 Diner, which has been closed for about a year now (but is re-opening soon - if you've never gone, it's a fun experience with good food to boot). The plan was to illuminate parts of the diner for our picture with the ghosts of some former 50's diners hanging around. But when we got there, we discovered that the lights were on. At least some of them. The owner had apparently left on most of the neon signs out front, the clock on the building, and the light in the entranceway. And once we were there, we discovered there are lots of stinky ambient lights (coming from the parking lot lights and the gas station across the street). Those stinky lights yeilded a picture like this:


Pretty much *all* of that is ambient light - except the writing in the windows, the glow on the car, and the atomic eat sign. The colored lines on the chrome are reflected light from the neon signs that were flashing. The big white light by the door on the right is the reflection of the gas station lights. And, of course, you can't even tell that that's a clock above the car.

After trying a bunch of different angles, we had almost given up when we decided to try shooting the picture straight on at the hood of the car. Here's the lay of the land:

And here's our light diagram:


Here's our finished product:


Pretty cool, hunh?

PS - many thanks to Jason for being our human gobo!

Blending... Bah, Humbug!

I just want to say that I am *not* a fan of blending. I mean, I like how it looks, but I am really not liking doing it myself. It's one of those things that I will probably have to practice tons more before I get anywhere good at it. I hated this assignment. I can't remember muttering, "I hate this assignment!" more often than I did doing this one.

Here's my select (what I'm turning in):


I wasn't really thrilled with anything that I shot. Which I find really frustrating. Because I like to have at least one picture that I like...

I did like some of the stuff that I took when we were practicing in lab, but that's about it! And that's not something that we can 'turn in'...

Multiple Flash at Hulett House

Last Sunday, I had fun working with multiple strobe, trying to capture some Mixed Martial Arts fighters while they practiced their moves. My group is focusing on them for our final project and I am really liking our subject. Here's my final shot:


I ended up chosing this one because it really gave me an 'in the ring' feel. I wanted to background to drop off so that you couldn't see the other fighters practicing and I really liked the way the light gives him a halo.
Getting the light right for this was hard, because they were constantly moving. And when we finally got it to where I liked it, the guys moved. Arg!

Afterwards, when my partner, David, was shooting, and I was playing the human light stand, I thought I would just take a few shots with my camera. I discovered that when I shoot my mounted flash, my hand-held would go off too. So I was able to get a shot like this:

It's an Audio Slideshow

As part of our class, we were required to research audio slideshows and find one that we felt was well done, ones in which sound really contribute to the overall effect of the piece. For my slideshow, I chose to feature a slideshow I found on the Los Angeles Times website called Ana's Story. It featured photos and interviews with Ana Rodarte, a 24 year-old woman deformed with the disease commonly known as Elephantism, her father, and with the surgeon who helped remove most of her deformity. I say most because her face still bears some of the distortion of her disease. I chose this one partially because of the access that this woman gave the photographer and partially because I was really disturbed by her condition. It really bothered me, not because of what it looked like, but because of how hard her life must have been interacting with people who can be unkind.

Balance and Fill

Hooray! I think I'm starting to get this...

Our next assignment has been balance and fill. Balancing is the term for when you take a picture with a window in the background and you can see both the outside and the inside. This is not a balanced shot:
The outside is really blown out to where you can't really see anything.

But this is:
Practically the exact same spot, but you can see the detail in the church across the street.

Stinkin' Flash Photography

I don't know about anyone else, but this using the flash is hard! Sometimes I wonder if I will ever get it. For our next assignment, Color Correction, we had to use what we in the biz call a gel over our flash to compensate for either tungsten (lightbulb) or flourescent light. With tungsten you compensate by using a orange gel, and with flourescent, a green one. (Unless it's one of the many weird flourescent bulbs that's tintes say, orange. In class, Rita told us that at last count there were 67 different types of flourescent bulbs... At least we can 'chimp.')

The week that I did this assignment, I felt really tired and sick (like mono sick) and the things that I planned on going out and photographing didn't pan out, so I ended up using an image from a friend's birthday party. The picture I picked, I picked it because I liked the moment.

I'm hoping that more practice will help me feel like I'm mastering this challenge, because right now, I am stymied. And I'm not used to being stymied.