Making a Moooo-ving Portrait

Outdoor portrait with Lastolite EzyBox

It was the last farmers market of the season in Uptown Westerville and although I’d visited the market every Wednesday afternoon I wasn’t pleased with most of the portraits, or attempted portraits, I’d taken during the three hours it was open for business. This day I tossed my Lastolite EzyBox in the trunk of the [...]

Beauty Dish Contrast

Mixed Marrtial Arts Fighters Lumodi Beauty Dish

First, the client bought me dinner so we could talk about our relationship and discuss his needs for the photo shoot to follow. It was my second free meal of the day with the first being fried catfish and green beans with sweet tea. The evening meal was chicken parmigiana with cheese ravioli and red [...]

High Speed Corners – Shutter Speed #2

High speed shutter stops bike racing action

Finding the spot was easy. I knew that when I laid down on the wet sidewalk I’d have a great low angle to frame a bike racer against the skyline as he made a turn into Uptown Westerville. The low view would place the rider in an exaggerated angle with the city’s small town building [...]

1/800th not fast enough – Shutter Speed #1

Softball bat and ball at 1/800th of a second

Sports photographers strive to  catch that moment when the bat strikes the ball. It’s the peak action so important to creating a story. The batter’s arms are extended, their eyes focused on the ball. The ball is compressed against the bat as its direction is reversed by a stronger force. The short backlight separates the batter and ball from [...]

Lighting the way

Nikon SB800 Vivitar 283 lighting Pockt Wizards Manual settings

Back in the day, almost two years ago, when newspapers and wire services assigned freelance photographers to shoot photos to accompany business stories, I often searched out photogenic subjects to best illustrate manufacturing, warehousing, shipping, and business-to-business and retail sales. The reality of most manufacturing facilities is that they don’t look anything like what the [...]

You can’t keep managers happy

The Rock at Inniswood

I once was chastised, and punished, for including people in some of the photos I shot during a year long project at InnisWood Metro Gardens park. The self-assigned project [ rockatinniswood.com ]  was to document the activity within line-of-sight of the rock in toad pond. Toad pond is one corner of a triangle of spaces [...]

It’s all a matter of perspective

Lens choice is a matter of perspective

Lens choice modifies the mood and impact of your photos. My first thought shooting this group of almost Spring fitness seekers was with a telephoto view to compress their figures against the chaotic water falling over Hoover Reservoir as the background. I chose a point on the entrance road leading to the parking lot at [...]

It’s all in the eyes

Gymnast prepares for horizontal bar event

An annual assignment for me is the Arnold Sports Festival where as many as 17,000 athletes compete in about 40 sports. This will be my 16th year shooting the weekend having made the transition from processing color film in a utility closet to a staff of six photographers all shooting digital and delivering photos in [...]

Simple News Portrait. Two lights.

Nikon SB800 Creative Lighting System, Two Light Portrait

Brent needed a quick photo for a newspaper article about a local boy, him, who’d advanced to great things. Now the Director of Communications for the Arnold Sports Festival, Brent’s hometown newspaper’s article about his ascendancy to greatness needed a photo to complete the layout. Choosing the spot for the shoot was easy. The office [...]

Continued profits in the Best Buy light

Best Buy install Nikon Creative Lighting System

I’ve shot Best Buy more times than I’d like to remember. It is a friendly company usually welcoming news photographers with a legitimate need access to their store with little more than a knock at the door. Other consumer electronics companies are prepared to physically remove news photographers from their property without any opportunity to [...]