Criticizing your own work

Most of the time when I shoot, I'm bracketing for exposure. So naturally I'm already tossing 1/3 to 2/3 (or more!) of my shoot on the first edit. Also, on my first edit I'm checking for sharpness. Sometimes, a really intriguing shot leaps out that breaks all the rules, so I'm open to them. 
One of my best shots was a wild motion blur of a fair midway. It was completely unintentional at the time (I thought I finished the exposure and moved my camera early.), but it worked so well that it graces my portfolio back cover. 

Lights on the Midway

Back to the first sort: I look hard at the technical aspects of the image so I don't try to invest emotionally in what would otherwise be just bad technique. 
The second sort (often a day or so later) looks at the artistic merit of the photos. I'm looking for images that "speak" to me. Often, these are the images and impressions I was trying to capture at the time. The selected pictures are deemed worthy enough of my time to perform basic adjustments and cropping. These are then the images I'd present to a client. 
The third sort selects those that I'd recommend to a client. 
The fourth sort selects those that I'd keep copies of in my presentation galleries. 
The fifth sort selects contest entries and portfolio images. 
So the questions I'm asking at each stage are these: 
First: Is the picture technically competent? If not, is it compelling enough to keep in spite of the flawed technique? (For instance, my motion blurred shot was dead on in exposure.) 
Second: Do the images tell a story? 
Third: Do the images tell the story you want to tell? 
Fourth: Is this an image that keeps drawing you back to it? Do you keep seeing more and more in it? 
Fifth: Is this an image that consistently make you say, "Oh. Wow."? 
That's how I look at my images after I've taken them. 
Granted the 10,000 hour rule still applies for looking through the camera, but you'll find after even 1000 hours that your images are improving, and you'll be willing to take informed risks that will push your work further. 
Really, if all the pictures on your card are keepers, you aren't pushing yourself enough.

Working with Models or Talent

Stephanie and my Hat

In still photography, they're models. In motion imagery, they are talent. In either case, they are the people (and sometimes animals) you put in front of your lens to help you tell your story. They are also a big factor in your collaborative effort to deliver a product for your client.

Sometimes the hardest part of the whole process is simply finding the model or talent that you need. Most beginning photographers and videographers recruit from their circle of friends and family. My most reliable model is my lovely wife. She'll complain, but she models very well. College acting classes, small local agencies as well as nationally connected talent bureaus all are sources for recruiting that person that will work in front of your lens. It's just a matter of how much time and budget you have.

The first step in making sure you have what you need is to ask very specifically for what you are looking for: approximate age, gender, hair color, facial hair (men), hair length, height, body build, secondary talent (dance, singing, horsemanship, etc.), and/or anything else that would be what you have in mind for your imagery. Also, be specific in what type of role this person would play. For instance: "Physical comedy as an always ready to please, clumsy husband for a competent, but indulgent wife." Hopefully, from your listing you'll get a set of people willing to audition for you.

Quite often, with models for still work the selection process gets done through head shots, resumes, portfolios and availability checks. Motion talent usually must be "tested" to see how well they fit the ideal  for your project. (Benedict Cumberbach was the only one tested for the role of Holmes in "Sherlock". Martin Freeman was one of many who were tested for the role of Watson, but the instant chemistry between him and Cumberbach during Freeman's test cemented the role for him.)

Hannah: "This is awkward!"

Make sure that responsibility for secondary items like wardrobe, hair styling and makeup are clearly spelled out before your talent arrives on the set or studio. Almost always, you are responsible for any props or products, but these other considerations, if fairly basic, can be covered by your talent. (They should tell you if they don't have something specific that you asked them to bring, i.e. ripped jeans. If that's the case you will need to supply it for them. Be sure to get the correct size. Whether they keep what you supply them is up to you.)

Once your talent is decided, make sure they understand exactly what you want them to do. They are quite willing to do so if they know what you are after. For a commercial I shot, an actor deliberately fumbled the large assortment of tools he was holding. It was marvelously fake, and you could see that it was fake on the recording. I explained to him that the many items in his hands will naturally fumble when he selects just one to use, just let them do so. It looked much better (and was funnier) when he relaxed and just let the pieces fall.

How tight of control you use is up to you. I tend to be more collaborative, and only correct or re-do when something didn't work. Annoyingly for the talent, that might be something other than what the talent did. I've been known to retake a scene for minor corrections (see above), but I do enjoy letting my talent run with an idea.

Don't forget to make sure the appropriate releases are signed.

One last thing. Most models or talent are part-timers in this. Be sure to feed them.

Thoughts on the new year and knee

It'll be a spectacular scar!

 

As most of my friends, family and Facebook fans know, I had my left knee replaced just before Thanksgiving. I tried putting it off by losing weight (I lost 70 pounds, and so far kept 50 from coming back.), physical therapy, braces on my legs, injections with various substances, changing shoes...the whole gamut my physician asked me to try before succumbing to the inevitable: My knees were in sad shape and needed serious repair.

My surgeon and I figure that if we do the worst side, the other--less bad--side can limp along a few years before it needed to be done as well. So far, I agree with that decision.

As it turned out. I am well ahead of the curve for recovery from this kind of surgery. My day job expects me to show up on time as the end of the month approaches. And my wife thought I'd be bored out of my skull by now! Hah!

Blizzard Drake and my holiday lights.

Suddenly, a whole bunch of projects I was hoping to do while recovering become shoe-horned in the last weeks of my convalescence. There were a bunch of little projects that are mostly taken care of (The last of these is the removal of the outside Christmas lights, but that always waits for a January thaw. Otherwise, I'd be fighting to remove rather delicate wires from ice-encasement.), and a milestone in my photography work has been accomplished: I had a portfolio review. (Thank you, Andy Manis!)

I needed this review so I can refine the photos that I will eventually post on a web site. I have a host provider picked out and their prices are reasonable. I just need to show my vision for those who would want to hire me to capture imagery. Cross fingers that I can get this done before the end of the month. It is a reasonable goal.

Another project is this blog post. Enough said.

My third project involves scanning a bunch of slides my brother-in-law has into digital format. I'll have to clean the dust as I go, because they were housed briefly in northern Arizona. The grit gets everywhere there. I haven't even looked a the scope of that project yet, but I will soon after I post this.

Last, but not least, is the organization of dances and music for dance ball to be held by my history club in May. It may seem a long way off, but the need to familiarize and practice some 20 new arrangements makes the intervening months all too short. Fortunately, I don't have to choreograph the dances, just select them and get the sheet music to the musicians. For this project, I am already late, but not too late to avoid the ire of my fellow players.

One thing that has changed over the course of the last couple months is my set of priorities. Part of that is temporal: Seasonal items, like school projects and home decorations for the Holidays. A big priority was and is recovery from my surgery. That includes daily exercise and weight lifting activities. I have close to 30 routines--just remembering to do them all is an exercise!

Now, the priorities shift to where I want to grow as a photographer, hence the portfolio review and preparation for a website. Part of what I also need to do is just get ready for the day-to-day grind of my day job, a new semester of school and getting a business presence so my customers can find me.

I also have to cook for myself this winter. My wife got a generous allowance from our HMO to take part in a boot-camp workout and dietary food program over the next three months. She goes in before work five days a week for an intense hour of weights and exercises. For two months, they provide all her meals, and the last month she gets home-sourced food on the weekends--she still gets their food on weekdays. It's been fun so far to match the suppers they give her with what we have on hand, so she doesn't feel like I'm eating radically different food than what she's getting. It's been reminding me to keep on my eating plan as well.

It's not that I can't cook--my parents made sure I knew how--I'm just a lazy cook. I'd much rather have ready-to-eat goodies out of the refrigerator than spend hours preparing something spectacular, at least most of the time. I have to remind myself that if I want bread I have to slice it! My wife did freeze ahead a bunch of entrees for use when I went back to work. I'm supposed to eat them for my lunches while I'm convalescing, too. I do. It is a little hard when faced with a dozen tubs of pea soup to keep picking from that pile. I just have to keep on, then.

Crystal Still Life at Poynette Antique Market

The biggest priorities are my lovely bride and our families. My brother has new digs that he'll need help moving to, and our other siblings and their children are so interesting that electronic scorecards are needed to keep track of them all. Life really is a lot of fun (especially with my family) when you look at it as an adventure to experience, rather than drudgery to endure.

Accomplishments

Tinney S. Heath

Meet Tinney Heath. Tinney recently published a historical fiction book titled A Thing Done (a delicious read, by the way). Among the many fabulous things she is and does, she just happens to be one of my music mentors.

Way back in my college days, I was just getting involved in the living history club I still enjoy today, and wanted to make music. I really didn't know what I was in for, but after foisting myself as a beginning mandolin player into an established recorder band, Tinney and the other band members (the Jararvellir Music Guild) welcomed me and the challenge of incorporating a plucked string instrument into the voicing of a previously all woodwind ensemble.

It worked. The Bug bit me bad. As the members of the Guild ebbed and flowed with new jobs, spouses and opportunities, I managed to stick with it for three decades(!). I remain the only active member that dates to that time, jokingly calling myself the "Memory of the Guild" as I personally saw and did most of the things the Guild took part in over the years. Now, I lead the remnants of the Guild with the hopes for a dance ball performance this upcoming May. More on that later.

Soon after I joined the band, Tinney became the Guildmistress. I learned a lot under her leadership, including the fine art of herding cats. (You don't drive cats toward something; you put something they want at your desired destination.) Unfortunately, she and her equally talented husband (Timothy, also a Guild member at the time) burned out dealing with what amounted to a lack of respect. I still don't blame them for not wanting to deal with it anymore. They became active in another music club, the Winds of Wisconsin. As the years wore on, keeping in touch became almost isolated incidents.

Fast forward to last year: Facebook, that time and attention consumer, helped Tinney find me, and we resumed our friendship on a quiet basis. This autumn as part of my coursework at Edgewood College I started doing photographic portraiture and needed models. What better place to rally/bully my friends to sit in front my camera than an announcement on Facebook? Among the respondents, Tinney had just found out she was to be published and volunteered in exchange for something that can be used for her publisher's website and the dust jacket of the book. Deal.

Now a copy of Tinney's smiling face and another portrait of her among her instruments adorn her publisher's website. Happy customers and a happy photographer make a good pairing.

Among the things I learned from my friend and mentor is the idea that it's okay to push my boundaries, better the status quo and don't give up something you believe in.

Thanks, Tinney!

Bringing Things Together

Edgewood Park and Pleasure Drive

A friend reminded me of some basic things that need constant, well, nagging: Practice, balance, responsibility and caring. I am notorious for being scattered, impulsive, often absent-minded, and usually procrastinating chores. However,...well, my accomplishments will have to wait for later.

There are times when a rather ephemeral idea keeps showing up in my head, and it's a good one, making me excited about it. The problem is the connections that led to that idea are fragile at best, so keeping that idea in mind isn't easy. What made it easier is a mild setback with my left knee.

As many of you know already, I've been fighting sciatica in my left leg, caused by a bulging disk in my lower spine and osteoarthritis in both knees. My recent weight loss has taken a lot of stress off of my joints, but the damage is done for my knees. Last October, my left knee "loosened" (my word, but it accurately describes the action) in the middle of a fencing bout and caused me to seek Urgent Care and physical therapy. The good news is that my knee should heal at least as good as it was last summer. The bad news is that I am more dependent on a cane for walking until the knee heals. I also have a lovely 20-30 minute twice-a-day (not counting swim work) exercise routine to rebuild the muscles around my knees and tighten up the joint. I also can't sit/stand/walk for more than a half hour before requiring a change in state. At least that gives me an excuse to refill my coffee or water while at the computer.

That was ten months ago.

The real joy is that the culprits are the cartilage pads (meniscus, menisci?) in my knees. They are best described as tattered. Beyond healing on their own. Come November, my left knee will be changed over to metal parts. The right knee, which was the bad one, should cruise on for years with a better leg to stand on the other side. With diligent physical therapy, I should be mostly restored to a pretty much normal life by early in the new year.

Meanwhile, I'm exploring more with my photography aided by new toy: the Pentax K-01. It's the less expensive mirror-less version of the K-5 I've been lusting after the last couple years. I'm having a lot of fun learning its quirks and how to manage my old (and the new two) lenses with it.

My lovely bride

Mattias and Seonag

The new tool is part of an experiment in portraiture. On the go: a 10x10 portable shelter, LOTS of blankets, even more spring clamps, a couple sheepskins, a couple stools, a bench and a handful of CFL and LED spot lights and a knowledge of stage lighting and away I went to two camping events photographing and printing portraits on site. I've yet to make back my investment, but this has proved interesting and fun!

Now that I'm taking portraiture at Edgewood College, I've already started to refine my techniques and strategies. I just need to keep developing my stable of models....

More next month. I promise!

Pending changes

Badger sculpture at Francis Street Mall on
State Street, Madison, Wisconsin

This is an exhausting and exciting time for me:

1) I've finally got the basics of doing a work flow of my digital pictures so that I don't lose them in the process. Now to process the previous six years or so of digitally rendered pictures on CDs stored in boxes below this desk.

2) I'm taking a new class at Edgewood College: Photojournalism taught by Linda Friend, a veteran freelance photographer. Already, in spite of the class mostly starting from scratch, I've learned a lot.

3) As I've mentioned, I've taken part of the DeForest Area Photographers' group. Hey, it's free and they fuel the creative juices. The picture at left is from the current project: State Street. I'll find out next week what the others saw and photographed.

There's more blog to come! I have to stop procrastinating and get my homework done.