SoFoBoMoFinito!

I'm finished! I suppose I have another week left if I wanted to use it, but it is done. The final edits have been reviewed and the PDF version (3.5Mb download) is available. I've also made it viewable here through Issuu in their flash viewer. I actually really like that presentation, particularly if you use the Fullscreen option in the menu bar of their browsing tool to remove all the stuff around the edges. Works well in Firefox, will be interested on feedback on that. I know some people dislike flash with a passion (please feel free to enjoy the pdf version!). I'm going to wait a few days and see if I get some feedback before starting the soft proofing process to make an actual book. Amanda was generous enough to read through it all and read it out loud to check how the text flowed. That was a fun experience. I've already had some feedback on potential issues with how some of the red on black text might not print successfully. Anyone have experience with that ? Any other feedback, comments or opinions are also very welcome on this, my first photography book! ETA: I've updated the two versions based on feedback from Holly Sisson. She was kind enough to look over the first version and find all of my typographical mistakes, giving me about three pages of corrections for the four pages of text that are in the book! I certainly appreciate her attention to detail and have adjusted the layout accordingly.

vivian

100mm 1/640 sec @f3.5 ISO 640

Visited some friends yesterday and we spent an enjoyable afternoon chasing their not-quite one-year old around the house to get some pictures. Kids are such a challenging photographic subject but so much fun. Get down low, play around, shoot tons and hope. Going for shallow depth of field with such a fast moving subject makes it even more of a challenge to get some with just the right focus. I did get a few okay shots out of the 400+ that I took.

This one here is my favourite. I used some almost out-of-focus palm fronds as a bit of a framing element behind her head and I really like the way the leaves mirror the shapes of her eyelashes and also mirror the way her hair is falling over her forehead. She is looking upwards towards a bright, cloudy sky that has filled her face and eyes with bright, even, beautiful light. Also got to play with a new toy that Amanda got me for Christmas. I was lucky enough to get a Canon ST-E2 flash trigger. This way I can set up a strobe and have the camera communicate and control it, using through the lens exposure metering to control the flash power level. Quite different from the manual control of a pocket wizard and really helped out shooting indoors with such a fast moving subject. I just pointed the flash towards a white wall and used it as a room-sized softbox for all the shooting I did. The ST-E2 did well, triggering the flash every time, even when the camera and sensors were nowhere near pointing towards each other. Very happy with it. Here's an example of one mostly lit by the flash, mixing well with the window light behind her.

100mm 1/160sec @ f2.8 ISO 400

In the comments, Holly asked That flash device sounds intriguing...what did you do with the flash while you were shooting? Was it on a light stand or something? (how did you get it to bounce where you wanted?) I had the flash on the small stand that it comes with. This is basically a foot that lets the unit stand on a table or the floor. All I did then was swivel the head to point at a wall, with the IR sensor turned to face roughly towards the room/camera. The biggest problem was stopping Vivian crawling straight towards the flash to find out what it was.

the amanda project

I've been talking a lot over the last year about the value of projects. A recent vacation to a few national parks seemed like the perfect opportunity to work on something with a consistent theme. For this trip, I picked my wife, Amanda, as the subject. The goal was to take a set of good pictures (around 20) of her that we were both happy with, in the various locations we found ourselves.
I decided to limit it technically too - I just took two lenses with me. I had a 50mm prime and an 85mm prime. The 50mm is one I haven't used much at all and the 85mm has been my go-to portrait lens for the last year. In fact, it's been my go-to lens for almost everything for the last year. I wanted to use the 50mm but put the 85mm in the bag as a fall back position. I tried to shake things up a bit by shooting almost everything with the 50mm. It turns out that about 90% of the shots I took were with the 50mm. Quite a turn around for me.
Now a 50mm and 85mm lens aren't exactly classic lens choices for a trip around national parks like Death Valley and Yosemite. Typically, you'd be thinking about some super wide lenses in the teens range and also a longer telephoto to abstract elements of the landscape. I decided to totally skip those options. I've been to Death Valley before and shot a lot of very wide scenics. I've never been to Yosemite but I've certainly seen a lot of classic landscapes from there. I wasn't going to compete with those images. I didn't even want to bother recreating various Ansel Adams views of the park, in worse light, or David Muench cloned images. Maybe I've finally gotten to the point where I have the courage to look for my own vision rather than copying others. Or I've switched to copying portrait photographers - I guess I'll find out over time. A few people suggested I was mad in taking this approach. That I'd spend the entire week regretting the decision or kicking myself, missing shots of a lifetime with the wrong lenses in my hand. Instead I took shots of my life and my times - I shot what matters to me. More valuable to me than pretty scenics of well-worn subjects. There's a joke that says half dome requires an extra stop of exposure now, than it did when Ansel Adams first took his shots of it, because so many photographers have sucked the light out of it. I contributed a bit, but with a slightly different motivation.
So the Amanda project was born, from an idea from Steve Barth with his excellent series featuring his wife. One week, 800 shots, lots of locations, dramatic changes in lighting, collaborations on clothing choices, hair. Hiking for miles, 4am starts, rain, bear sightings, climbing, driving : all in all a great time for both of us and I think a pretty good collection of images with a consistent theme.
I did cheat a touch on the only 50mm/85mm lens selection aspect - I took along a small, wide-angle, panoramic format point and shoot that I used a couple of times in this collection - but other than that, nearly all 50mm. I think there is one 85mm shot and that's the night image from Las Vegas. By the end of the week I was trying to find fresh ideas, use lighting, new focal lengths. I never actually felt I was missing out on shooting the grand landscapes by not having a wide angle lens. Yosemite is beautiful. Death Valley is amazing. We drank it all up, together, looked at the views, enjoyed the sunrises, sunsets and times in between. I did take a few landscapes and I'll start posting them up later, but I had a much more interesting project to work on, than scenery.
The project focus also pushed me beyond some of the standard portrait shots I'd have taken. I started looking for new angles, compared to how I've been shooting with the 85mm. Normally all I do is fairly tight head/shoulders portraits. The 50mm forced me to step back a bit. Shooting the same subject for an extended period forced me to look for new angles, new body positions, new ways to move. It got me thinking about posing a full person, even when they aren't posing as such, rather than just eliciting an expression. So again I found that pushing a subject area via an assigned project has helped me break new ground. I also pushed my lighting skills a bit, using room lights, rearranging furniture, etc. to light the night time Las Vegas shot. Something I probably wouldn't have done without this assignment in the back of my mind.
Hope you enjoy the results. We had a great time shooting them all. Click on the collage above to go to the set of images. Comments are very welcome.

In the comments, Kate asked: Of the shots in the project montage, were most with the 50mm? Of the 25 shown, 18 were taken with the 50mm lens. 2 were taken with the point and shoot DMC-LX1 and five were shot with the 85mm lens (old habits I guess).

Amanda on the rock

After about 7 years in Austin we finally made it out to Enchanted Rock State park, in the Hill Country. I have no idea why we waited so long! It is beautiful out there. The rock is a pink granite exfoliation dome (or big, bare rock in other words) that sticks up out of the surrounding trees and hills. We hiked up to the top, listening to the thunder booming off in the distance. There were a lot of people at the top, making the 0.6 mile trek from the car park and back. After taking a few shots up there, we worked our way down and around the side to the 4 mile loop trail. This was a whole lot quieter - we saw 3 people on the whole trail. You could stop, be quiet and just listen to the birds (and occasional thunder). Perfect. Clouds had rolled in and the light was much softer when we reached a sort of amphitheatre of rock half way around the trail. This rock was more orange than the generally pink batholith that the park is named after. It seemed like a perfect place to take some more portraits! For a change I shot this not with an 85mm lens. I'd finally taken that off the camera for a few moments, in favour of the 14-70 F4L (well this was a 'landscape' trip after all) so I thought I'd use that for the portrait and take in some more of the surroundings for a change. I do love shooting tight head shots with that 85mm though! I found this huge rock that Amanda is sitting on, framed with the ferns along the bottom and thought that'd make a great frame within the frame. The cracks in the rocks all lead towards where she is sitting, and the scrub and greenery to her left and right all seem to provide a good frameholder around her. She might only be about 10% of the picture but I think all those leading lines in the curve of the rock and the cracks make it clear where the subject is for this photo. Canon 1D MkII, 17-40 F4L @ 34mm. Lightly overcast sky

Not so mellow yellow

Right next to the pink wall used in Amanda's portrait, was this brightly painted, lemon yellow loading dock/ roll up door. The stripes added a bit of texture to the great colour and it seemed a perfect match /clash for Tim's stripped t-shirt. Similar light again - sunlight going in and out of the clouds. I suppose this is a non-traditional cropping of the arms and legs close to joints - you might or might not like that - I was mainly focused on trying to emphasise the stripes, stripes, stripes feel and wanted to be in close. 1DMkII, 85mm 1.8 lens

Amanda rocking out in pink

After about a three month hiatus, I think it's only fair to come back with something shocking. Shocking pink at least. Something to shock my eyes back in to action. Post ironman seemed to sap my energy, suddenly I had a whole lot more time but not so much get up and go. I worked more, trained less and the photography seemed to slip through the cracks too. This weekend we went to San Antonio and I pulled out the camera and charged it up. A few shots and I realised how much I'd missed taking pictures - lots of pictures followed. We visited the Alamo, toured San Antonio, went to the missions and I'll probably post some of those images during the rest of the week. My favourite part of the whole trip was the Mexican market though - just for the amazing colours around the area. I saw the side of one museum with this shocking purple/ pink wall, some lemon yellow and vivid green sections. We made a beeline for it - me dragging Kate, Tim & Amanda along. A few seconds of posing, some playing around and I've got my new favourite desktop wallpaper shot above of Amanda, hamming it up. She just looks like she's having fun! Lighting was just a bright, cloudy day - scattered cloud, sun coming in and out. A bit of timing and finding the right place at the right time.

Hobgoblins & Consistency

I've been attending a portrait class at AMOA for a couple of weeks now. So far it has been good for me, to push me to really think about lighting and how to work with a subject. Mainly though, it has been a way to carve out 3 hours a week to think about portraiture and photography. The instructor is great with some really inspiring portraits of his own, but what I really enjoy about these sorts of things is to be able to see and share images with a wide range of different photographers. The levels of experience and areas of interest are all over the place so it is great to see what people are doing and discuss and share process and ideas.

Last night we all put up three portraits from a series that we are working on. I used some of the images from my friends project. I'd shown one image on its own last week and the colour processing stood out from everyone else's work as somewhat different or odd. But when I put them together, the consistent treatment starts to work and my images pull together. After we talked about those three for a bit of time, I put the rest of the images up there - suddenly I could see that two stood out as not the right colour palette. Something was wrong - they didn't fit. What was interesting was I'd never seen that before - I think because I haven't yet put them out and really looked at them together.

Although I've been shooting this series in available light, the light that's available isn't always the same(*). Even though I've been applying the same set of colour manipulations to the images, the end results don't always tone in the same way - there's a couple that were shot outdoors that stood out as different and I think I'll need to re-work to fit in with the theme. I've been using the same focal length lens and roughly the same f-stop, but in a couple of cases I'm further away from the subject and that also stood out, side by side. On their own, they look perfectly okay, but as part of a consistent collection, the difference is clear. It is strange to realise how good your eye is at seeing the difference between colours - rather than seeing the absolute colours. Someone else had one picture printed at three different white balance settings. Each in isolation looked fine - the colour differences just were not very apparent - but when all three were shown side by side it really jumped out at you and only one looked right.

It was also instructive to note the effect of camera position, relative to the subjects in my portraits. The difference in camera height to subject height really changed the feel of the shots. Really subtle changes in where the eye level to camera level is changes the mood of the shots quite dramatically. The same with just where the person's head is, relative to the frame. Again this only really became visible to me when I started looking at the images side by side, so that I could compare the results.

I recently bought a metal rail for my office - I stick the prints up there to view them, so that they are in front of me more often. That way I can see them and they aren't hidden away in a box or on a hard drive. But I still hadn't confronted the images in the way I did last night. Taking the time to really look at them has given me new ideas on how to proceed - what needs to change, what's working and what needs to be adjusted. But what was good was how much they did all hang together and look like a consistent body of images. So I'm doing some things right and have some ideas to work out.

*There's an Arnold Newman quote where he was asked if he used available light and he replied 'yes, any light that's available'. I seem to be falling in to that mode.

Trey

Nedra's husband, Trey - again. This is the shot that is part of the natural light portrait project. I wanted to use this room for the really deep purple walls. I opened up the shutters on the window (to the camera right) and got Trey to stand fairly close to it, so the light would fall across his face. The wall was further back in the shade so went even darker. Again I liked the complimentary colours of the purple and orange. I composed this one with the Longhorns logo in it, which I find gives interesting repetition. The shape repeats in the logo, the shape of the shirt collar/buttons and also his eyes & nose are at a similar angle, so the T shape repeating through the frame at different scales ties the elements together.

Nedra

Nedra is a good friend of mine who I met through training for a triathlon a few years ago. She is an exceptional runner and recently qualified for the Boston marathon. There is no way I can keep up with her! This shot was taken in her home. The room is painted a really subtle green which I wanted to use to compliment her orange/ purple top. That top also played well on her signature glasses. I've recently been paying more attention to some of the ideas from colour theory and looking for complimentary colours, or close to complimentary colours to play on in my photography. Here the green/teal and orange are close to opposites and work well. The lighting is really simple, just window light behind me, to the camera rear/right. We set up and just talked a bit and shot several frames. Nedra even took her turn playing with my camera and shooting me, to get a feel for what I was seeing. Between that and showing her some of the results on the back of the camera, I think I managed to break the ice and give her a better idea of what I was trying to achieve. Post processed with the same partial desaturation and dodge/ burn that I've been working with for all of the portraits in this project. I've printed them all out and they are really starting to hang together thematically and visually. I'm also finding that the commitment to shooting in a similar style and subject over and over is really helping me to learn more about what I'm trying to do and how to improve each time.

Trey

I've been continuing with my friends photo project and managed to spend a couple of hours with Nedra & Trey at their house. We took a few shots that fit into the theme of the project, that I'll post later in the week. I also picked on them to help me out with some more elaborate lighting setups and this is one of those. The lighting isn't particularly difficult really but still a whole lot more than I'm used to doing. The whole setup for this took about 10 minutes, eyeballing it with the histogram on the camera. I used Amanda as a stand-in to get the lighting dialed in and then took just 8 shots of Trey to get something that I was happy with. I actually have about 5 good shots out of that 8 so it pays to have everything set up before hand! I really saw the value of having the light worked out before you bring the actual subject in with this. Before Trey was there, I was fussing around, moving lights, changing settings, but when he came in I was ready to go. The whole shoot from his perspective took about 2 minutes so he wasn't getting bored or fed up with the flashing strobe. Well worth spending the time up front to get good and painless results. Green wall behind him, hit with a green gelled flash on a stand down behind his back (SB-28 at about 1/8th power, zoomed to as narrow as possible. Main light: canon 580 EX to camera left & up into an umbrella at about 1/2 power, 4 feet away. Both strobes triggered with pocket wizards. 1/250s @ f5.6 ISO 100

UT Gobo light test 2

Second attempt (first here) at this idea for a University of Texas logo gobo and lighting test. Same basic lighting setup as last time (See Lighting Diagram), but with the key light firing into a umbrella about 2ft to camera left and quite a bit more background/ foreground separation. Background shadow isn't quite so well defined this time. Still playing around with the relative distances to cast a good, crisp shadow. Perhaps I need a bigger cutout to really get what I want.

This time I used the plamp to hold the cut-out, so gives it more of a floating in space feel, but that could be improved with a bit of photoshop to clean up the shadow at the bottom. Skin tones are also as shot, without any toning this time.

UT Gobo test shot

Trying out an idea that I have for a portrait of a friend of mine. He's a bit of a UT fan so I have this concept with a burnt orange background and longhorn gobo for the shadow and then lit myself with another unmodified strobe. Light on the subject will need to be a bit better controlled for the final shot but may well be natural light, rather than a second strobe, if I can work the angles out properly. This was really just exploring the potential for the background graduation and shadow effects, which I think have worked out quite well. The large dark area under the gobo UT logo is caused by the cardboard I'd mounted the cut-out in. I'm going try using a plamp for the next test. A plamp is an articulated clamp arm that is thinner and more controllable. It should also give a fairly easy to edit shadow for the final shot. Settings: Canon 1DMk II, 1/250s @ f5.0, ISO 100. 17-40mm F4L at 33mm. Set the camera at the max sync speed (1/250s) then adjusted aperture and background flash power to get the sort of shadow brightness I wanted. Brought in the second key light and adjusted the power levels on that appropriately too. More details are in the lighting diagram. Custom toning is similar to the rest of my 'friends photo project' which semi-desaturates the skin-tones.

Calm on top, paddling like crazy beneath the surface

A couple of people have commented on how lucky I am to have so many subjects willing to pose for me. I agree. I have wonderful friends. But the reality is that I also put quite a bit of effort in up front to make these shoots go quickly and appear simple and effortless. Most of the actual shoots are brief - 5 or 10 minutes per person is what I'm aiming for. I don't want to intrude beyond that. But prior to that there is often a week or more of email, discussion and cajoling that goes on. In some cases, the 5 or 10 minutes of shooting took two months from asking if I could take the picture to actually getting together to shoot it.

I think many people only ever have had their portraits done in the assembly line of school pictures or perhaps in the mayhem of their wedding day. So when I first ask if I can take someone's picture, there's all those 'fun' experiences that flashes into their head. So I need to get beyond that barrier and explain what I'm wanting to to - why I want to take their picture. Also, the majority of people are just shy about having their picture taken, lots of perfectly normal doubts and insecurities surface - it all seems much more formal than a quick snap at a party. I suspect most people are secretly flattered to be asked, but there is also usually a lot of questions or reticence about it. I show samples of what I've been doing (which is getting easier now that I have actually got more samples to show). Having a web site with the images on it helps a lot too. I can point people right at what the pictures will look like. I try to answer the questions or put the fears to rest. So far nobody has turned me down - though that's also fine if someone isn't interested. Nobody has to take part!

The other thing that pays off big time is asking more than once. That follow-through or persistence seems to count. People take you more seriously if you actually set up a date and try to schedule it in somewhere. It also gives them time to mentally prepare, to be in the right place and be ready to give you 10 minutes of their time, rather than just springing it from nowhere, with a camera in hand. I usually try to give some guidance about clothes or at least general styles that will work and we try to pick a time when the light should be good.

Before I turn up, I try to think through where I want to shoot. I'm lucky for this project because part of the aim is to shoot in familiar places - people's homes, or spaces that we spend a lot of time in. So I usually have some idea of what the location will be like. I'm thinking ahead for good windows facing away from the sun for even, easy to use light (such as in the shot with Arun) or else I'm looking for something that will work well as a background in good light. For the shot with Michelle, I saw where I wanted to shoot her about 4 hours before we actually shot there - a bright yellow wall - but when I saw it, it was in full sunlight. So I waited for the light to change and we happened to be near there that afternoon as well and I suggested we go and shoot. It took about 5 minutes total, from her perspective, but only because I'd been trying to find the right location all day. I also spend time thinking about what poses or expressions I want to get. People very strongly reflect the mood of the photographer, so if you are high energy, the shoot will be high energy. If you are quiet, the shoot will be quiet - so I have to get into the right frame of mind for the results I want to get. I also get the camera set up so that I can pay as little attention to it as possible and spend all of the time trying to talk to the subject, interact and move towards the results I want. I'll direct a bit but not a whole lot. Often I just try to talk about something I know will engage their attention and then just watch and shoot when I see the things I want happening. I'll try to guide the conversation in the right direction but I'm really aiming to keep things natural and flowing. The main thing I'm trying to pay attention to is the catchlights in the eyes and how the shadows are working in the scene. I'll occasionally check that the shutter speed is fast enough or that I'm getting a good exposure on the histogram but that's all I do with the camera. I use a small, prime lens (85mm 1.8) to avoid the lens looking too big or imposing, which is intimidating. The camera is often on a tripod so my head can appear out from behind it and make some eye contact while talking. Expressions change quickly so I try to react and shoot a lot, knowing that I'll miss some shots but that I can get natural responses rather than something that is really stiff or posed.

Arun

I spent a fun Sunday afternoon with JoEllen and Arun, taking their pictures for my friends' project. Arun was one of the first people I met in Austin. He & I worked on the same project at Motorola and he was very kind to me in those first few weeks, inviting me to his house for a Hallowe'en party, where Amanda & I first got to know each other.

We've become good friends over the last seven years, with repeat Hallowe'en parties and a shared love of whiskey and also the occasional game of squash. (Very occasional) Very simple set-up for this one, just available window light, to the camera left. Canon 1DII on a tripod, with an 85mm 1.8. Shot at f5.0, 1/40s, ISO 320

JoEllen

I managed to spend a bit of time on Sunday with my friends, Arun & Jo. The weekend had been hectic, with a long bike ride and a fairly tiring run that morning, so it was good to just relax and have a beer. They have a lovely, beautifully lit house with plenty of bright window light and white walls, so it was perfect for shooting portraits. I've probably known Arun longer than any of the other friends I've made in Austin, as he and I worked together on my first project here with Motorola. I've known JoEllen for about as long as I've known Arun. Since I met them, they have gotten married and now are expecting their first child in a few weeks time. When we first met, Jo was friendly to me, nodding and smiling. I only found out about a year later that she couldn't understand a word I said, with my odd, foreign accent! I think she can understand a few words now though. The shoot was pretty low key, with me needing to sit on a stool because my legs were aching and also just being tired and not feeling very creative or active. I just set the camera up on a tripod and talked to them, shooting occasionally when I saw something promising. This one above was actually taken after we'd pretty much finished and was shot hand-held. I like what was happening with the triangles of the red couch and yellow pillow, combined with Jo's neckline & face so we played around with some poses. Available light, shot handheld. Canon 1DII, 85mm 1.8 @ f3.2, 1/60s, ISO 320

2007 projects

Well, I've been waffling around writing these down for a few days now. Life's been busy (well, mostly its been sitting on a bike or running, but that passes for busy, in and around working). I have three ideas in mind for the projects that I'm going to work on at least for the first half of the year or possibly through the whole year.

Two are continuations/resurrections of on-going projects and the third is something that I'm trying to force myself to start up but I seem to be having a big issue just putting it out there and going for it.

First off, I'm going to keep working on the 'Friends in Austin' project. I started this late last year and have been making good progress, with 5 shots done. I need to get a bit more organised and start making the appointments with people to shoot some more. Should be easier now that the holidays are over. The next shoot for this project is tomorrow, assuming I manage to stay awake after the ARA 20 miler. This has been a lot of fun so far and I've been really happy with the results I've been getting. It is, all shot available light and I think I'm going to keep it that way. Also, I'm using one single lens for all the shots (Canon 85mm) which is giving a good, consistent feel to the images, along with some similar processing/ toning. The idea is to get some great pictures of the friends I've made in Austin over the last 7 years, partly to make sure I spend some time seeing my friends, partly to work on my portraits and also finally to have a good memento if and when Amanda & I move on from Austin. I can see this being put together as a small single issue book when it is done. But I really need to list out who's picture I'm going to take so I know where I"m at in the process - maybe its done when we leave - seems appropriate!

The second project is the iconic Austin theme project that I started last year. I got suggestions from a lot of people on what they consider iconic things or views of Austin - I just need to go and shoot them! The suggestions were from a mix of local Austinites & new transplants and covers the range from the tourist icons to the more eclectic. I did start out shooting this with the lensbaby and I think I'm going to keep going that way - but maybe with some more consideration on how I'm using it. I'm not 100% sure about the tungsten white balance used in the shots above - it feels like a gimmick for the sake of it. I need to compile the list and organise/prioritise it so I know where I'm going and when I get there. I might also try increasing the range of suggestions I get and I've also considered linking it in to the first project - and shooting the person's idea of an icon along with their portrait, so they could be shown together. The third project is one that I'm both excited about and somewhat nervous about starting. I'm calling it 'Everyday Ironmen'. There are a lot of articles and features on the exceptional athletes who finish Ironmen triathlons in the top places. There are also a lot of articles about those who overcome huge odds to complete one of these crazy races. But here I am, stuck in the middle. A friend remarked 'You know, Gordon really doesn't look like an Ironman' and that's true - I'm just ordinary in that respect, nothing special. But there are a whole lot of ordinary, everyday people who complete these races. I'm training with a bunch of the exceptional, everyday people who somehow manage to fit this huge challenge in and around their normal lives. There is a group of about 20 of us, all training for one race in a few months time. So I want to take pictures of those people. I have a somewhat more grandiose idea to have interviews to accompany the pictures and also perhaps include race reports when we all get done with Ironman Arizona in April. I know the lighting style I want to shoot most of the portraits in (though I don't yet know how to do it) . I know the theme of shots I want - full bod or 3/4 portraits of people in race gear, on bikes, running, swimming. I'm even considering some underwater portrait shoots too. But I need to start getting volunteers and writing something up to approach people with. I guess I've started that process here. Again, I think this has the potential to be a great book project, I have a writer in mind and I think it could be really exciting. If any of you have suggestions, thoughts, comments or ideas on how these could be improved, I'd love to hear it.

Michelle

This weekend I met up with a group of local photographers to shoot in the downtown Austin area. Michelle had asked me to shoot some portraits of her and so I was on the look-out for a good background. We all met up in the Hickory Street Bar & Grill on Congress Avenue. I'd parked up the hill and walked down to the bar, passed the south facing wall. They'd just painted the wall on the side of the place in a bright orange/yellow. I met Michelle a few minutes later, saw her red hair, and straight away I had the perfect co-ordinated colour background for her portrait. That was easy!

I've often shot with more complimentary colours but I actually like the similar wall tones with her hair - I think it makes for a bright but still not too zany colour palette. We'd all met around noon and the wall was in full sunlight, as it faces the South. Luckily enough we were back at that bar a few hours later after shooting various back alleyways and parking garages. The sun was behind a building and the wall was in bright, open shade. Perfect. We took about 5 minutes to shoot the portrait, setup, walk through a few poses and done. The other shot was taken in the capitol grounds, shooting with all the lights and twilight sky as a background. As I got lower to the ground I started noticing the traffic lights reflecting off the pavement and so I just got lower to play with that and combined in the green traffic light as a hair accent. The camera is turned backwards to give me something to focus on - another good tip for night shooting - focus on the bright lights at the distance you want to shoot at - give your camera a chance to lock on. All in all, it was a fun day to go out and shoot with a bunch of photographers who are willing to put up with the more silly suggestions. Most non-photographers would be bored, rolling their eyes and generally wanting to just move on to the next thing, rather than taking just one more shot.

Damien

Another addition to the 'friends' project. This was a simple grab shot while out for lunch. It was shot under a wide, bright yellow umbrella in Key West. The light was very even but with a bit of a strange colour cast to it. A bit of tweaking with the 'photo filters' in Photoshop brought it back close to normal then I treated it with the same partial desaturation toning that I'm using for all of the pictures in this series. When I started out with this, I wanted to use a consistent treatment to tie the various portraits together visually, as well as them being related through the subjects being friends of mine. The partial desaturation is interesting to me as it is really a tonal palette that is only available in the digital world and not something that was particularly common with film.

High Key Amanda

Took some more available light pictures with Amanda yesterday. Again this is just beside a bright window. This time though, I exposed a couple of stops above what the meter said, to go for a really high key, bright feel to the shot. I'd asked Amanda to wear a white shirt and balanced a bit of white board behind her to keep the background in theme. Then I was shooting down, standing on a chair, to get a slightly higher angle. I like how looking up has gotten some more light into her eyes. I've had some mixed reactions to this shot. I really like the bright, airy feel and the great smile. Some people don't like the really sharp fall-off in depth of field between the two eyes. I need to experiment more with different apertures - I tend to shot a lot either wide open or only a stop or two down from there. This was shot around f2 and perhaps f5.6 might be more appropriate at this distance from the subject, with this lens (85mm, 123mm effective)

Randy

Randy Kerr taught me just about everything I know on taking portraits in natural light. I might only just be starting out but everything I know came from Randy. So it was with not a little bit of nervousness I asked to take Randy's picture! He was gracious enough to give me the opportunity and we found a great natural location in Austin for the shoot. We were in a sort of limestone cave/ overhang, with lots of green ferns and dripping water. The light was soft and really wrap around, flowing into the shaded area, but still with enough direction to give some character. Perfect for portraits. I think I might use that location again. In a lot of ways it is similar to what I've been trying to achieve with window light - soft, directional side light, without any illumination from directly above. As I met Randy through shooting at the Wildflower Center and the majority of his work is taken outdoors, the setting was even more appropriate. This tight headshot doesn't show much of the location but the even light is very visible.