Potrait Much?

So portraits are fun. I enjoy them every now and then because they let me use strobes in ways general news doesn't call for. You get to weave your creativity into an image that needs to both inform and intrigue, and it can be difficult, depending on how much you want to do it up.

Normally my editor gets all of the cool portraits, but since he has been out, the staff has been turning to me to "git 'r dun." So here are portraits that have been printed in the most recent issues of The Towerlight.



This portrait was a jump in that I was notified I was going to do it that day, and when I got there my editor had been there 10 minutes before she said she would. SO...I set up my brella and asked him for a few seconds of his time, and this is what happened. Gruesome, in my opinion (sorry, Police dude). The light is very harsh and almost fake, and it just doesn't appeal to me...don't worry, it didn't run like this in the paper.



A few critiques and a day later, this is what happened to my shooting. I got the call that Nicole Burlew, pictured, was coming in and I was to do a portrait for cover. Ok...crap. What do I do? Cover, not in her "environment" (she was running for mayor of Aberdeen), and I had a time limit (duh). I pulled myself together and I thought the image turned out well. Nice sunlight to the back right, ella ella to the left, beautiful light.



Ok. This shoot happened 10 minutes after I was asked to do it. The Arts editor said that he wanted a portrait of this guy scheduled at 2:30. I have a lesson at 2:30, but it usually starts late anyway...no biggie, I'll just set up my equipment, ask him to please sit, and boom, be done. And that's exactly what I did. I like how the window light on the right seems to be the only light present. Little does the average reader know that there is a brelly over there as well, filling in his upper body and face. It would have looked terrible without. Props to my assistant Blake for helping with the setup.

Digression: There are these nasty bugs in my dorm. They have about 100 legs and they crawl on my walls, above and near my bed BTW, every now and then. I believe I just killed one...not sure, might have been a spider, which I am also not fond of. Oi...Towson...anyway.



Phew...last one (for now). This is cover for tomorrow issue. Similar situation as the mayor girl. This woman, who is a finalist in the Miss Maryland Pageant, was to come in for a shoot, not in her environment and completely improvised. Again, I thought I did alright. I have some different shots that are on my Flickr site with her and a trophy prop, but this is what the staff wanted on cover.

As you can see, lots of portraits, lots of strobing, not lots of recharging batteries (surprisingly). So if you happen to be at Towson, check out The Towerlight, maybe you'll see one of these lovely images in print.


Next up: Who knows. I think it's going to be another, yes you guessed it....a PJClass report! News is the name of the game this time, so I'll tell you about an experience that I had almost a month ago that sent me into the heart of a fire. Exciting, huh?

Gym Class Heroes at College

I enjoy shooting concerts. They're a break from everyday podium shots, portraits, and general news assignments.



Being a musician, I get more out of the concert than might other photographers. I love listening and shooting; they go hand it hand for me. Not to mention the crowd and the crazy lighting and the ambiance all adds to an atmosphere that could get a congressman hyped up.



I was disappointed when I first heard that Gym Class Heroes were coming to Towson. I think they're an ok band, but I knew that my editor was going to get to shoot it over me.

That was until he got men...lymes disease.

Yay lymes disease! (sorry Pat)

I consider concerts to be somewhat tricky. Light flying everywhere, low light environment, fog, lots of movement...exciting, but tricky if you're inexperienced. Not saying that I am experienced at concerts, but I have shot a few before, so I wasn't clueless going into it.



I was with the Arts editor, Alex Plimack, for most of the time. He had a terrible night, first not getting a press pass and then getting screwed over by a certain campus organization that will rename unnamed. As crappy as his night was, however, both of us got to go onto the band's tour bus for an interview with the drummer, Matt McGinley.

Overall, the concert was fun. The "first 3 songs and you're out" limitation caught me off guard, but I think I did pretty well considering the circumstances.



Next up: Cops, mayors, potraits, oh my! Another portrait heavy issue at the Towerlight, all by yours truly.

Holding Up the Fort

Being an Associate Photo Editor has its benefits. You don't have as much pressure on you to do well, less responsibility, and less time in the office (if you consider those benefits...). Sometimes I forget just how much the Photo Editor actually does in a day. Everything becomes automatic: images are always just assumed to be edited and ready to be laid out, pictures always looks good, and everything just IS.

So when everything is dumped on you because your Photo Editor is out with a terrible illness, things come in to reality.

Cup check? You betcha.

I got the news from my editor Tuesday night in a text message. I was informed that he would not be in because of an emergency, and that I would need to edit all of the images and make sure shit gets done.

This didn't really concern me until I realized what was actually happening: I had to be Photo Editor for a Wednesday production day. Wednesday. The day I have class from 9 a.m. until 9 p.m., straight through, stopping only for an hour between band and Photojournalism class.

So beginning production day was easy. I was just going to edit the images (I feel like I have a decent eye for what needs to be done to an image, at least for my amount of education on the topic) and go on my merry way. It's amazing what a phone call can do, though.

My EIC calls me 5 minutes before my 11 o'clock programming class and says that no one has taken an assignment and that she needs a photog, ASAP, for 11 a.m. Having never skipped the class, and knowing that nothing was going to be done, I skipped and did the assignment. Nothing hard, but something like that will definitely shake up your day.

Fast forward to noon.

With an absolutely AMAZING finish to last Saturday's football game against the Hofstra Pride (that you can read about on www.thetowerlight.com), Kiel, sports editor here at The Towerlight, decided to do a feature on quarterback Sean Schaefer, hero of the game.

The entire week my editor had this idea of setting the ball on fire and having Sean hold it upright against a sunset with some 3D lighting going on.

But when your Photo Editor falls ill, your circumstances change.

At first I thought that we were just going run this story as an inside without a portrait. When Kiel approached me and asked me if I could cover it, I said yes enthusiastically, but inside I was nervous. I had NO idea what I could do with one strobe and make it as effective as what was was originally planned.

Up top is what ran in the paper, and below is another shot that I like for different reasons.



Which do you like better?

This was a big deal for me. It being my first sports feature image, I wanted to "do it up" as they say. I think I could have done much better, but for the circumstances I was in I think it turned out well.

This story does have a happy end. The paper was printed, as usual, and none of the photos were a sloppy mess (yay!).

I give myself a PAT on the back, along with the rest of the photo team who helped me get 'r done.

Next up: my explorations into high ISOs, fog, and drunk college kids. No, not tailgating in the early morning: concert photography!

Hot as a Dog in Heat

Not to be cliche or anything, but my title is fitting.

Today was HOT.

After a long weekend (which I will talk more about around the time of my PJClass: Spot News post), Sunday is always a safe day for me. Yes, it's production day, and yes it can be stressful sometimes, but it's fun. I get to cool down. Not today.

I woke up at 10 a.m., which was nice considering I'd been waking up around 7 the past week. Scheduled to shoot the Men's soccer game again UNC Wilmington at 1, I drove to the office so I could upload my images from an event that will be talked about later. Never go to a game without empty memory cards, unless you're using an 8 GB card.

Never buy an 8 GB card, either.

Sports editor Kiel McLaughlin and I drove to Royal Farms to snatch some lunch before the game. Did you know that Royal Farms actually makes FRIED french fries? They're amazing, but eat more than one and forget enjoying the rest of your day.

After finishing my savory ham and cheese wrap, it hit suddenly hit me that the temperature had risen tremendously. 90 degrees? What!? For it to be this hot in October is ridiculous. Global Warming? Freak incident? Too many RF fries?

Nobody knows.

However, though the heat was draining, the Towson men's soccer team won over UNC Wilmington with a 4-1 victory. The second half came out of nowhere, with two goals scored within four minutes of each other.

Well, it's late on production day, and I still need to go practice and do some homework.

Homework. I always forget about that stuff.

PJClass: Feature

David Hobby, a former staff photographer at the Baltimore Sun, also known as the Strobist, once joked on his blog about his editor telling him "Hey, I see you have 15 minutes between your afternoon assignments. Can you find me some weather art? Make it a vertical, okay?" I don't know the truth behind a quote like this, but after doing this assignment, a question like this would probably bring me to my wit's end.

This was a tough assignment. To find a slice of life in a candid fashion in a part of town that you are very familiar with is no simple task. As Monica Lopossay puts it, "Sometimes we get so caught up in our lives that we develop 'tunnel vision.'" I was definitely feeling the tunnel vision.

The shot I eventually got, shown at the top, was originally disappointing to me. The unedited image was a very wide shot of the store front with a car passing by. The exposure was just a stop underexposed (half of the finished image is underexposed as well, but I didn't touch it because it works as is, IMHO), and it was just a very busy picture.

After some inspection, however, I looked into the details of the image: the fact that Shane Gullivan is sitting on a barstool on the stoop of his shop, the "tragical" word/theme, the manakin staring Shane down, "no solicition", the 410 area code, and the initial perception that this might be two images combined. Perfect details to show, and nothing that a tight crop couldn't pimp out.

That's right. PIMP out. How do you like them apples?

Next assignment: News

Maybe I will catch a fire, or a crash, or maybe a beating.

Or a podium shot. Sigh.

On Style and Swag

Recently I've been thinking a lot about how I can "define" myself as a photographer. I look at other people's work and I think, "Man, what a great idea!" or "Wow, I wish I would have thought about that." I don't think there's anything wrong with looking at other people's work and extracting ideas or concepts, but I am a little concerned with where I stand in terms of "style."

The last thing I want to do is imitate someone. I'll admit that when I first started shooting I went off of some people's ideas or methods, and I still share some of those things. These are all minor, common doings, though, such as marking equipment with my name, putting a black border around some of my finished images, and cropping certain ways.

In my quest for finding my own style, I stumbled across this article from Sports Shooter. To sum it up, I, or anyone else in my situation, should not worry or search for my style: my style will find me eventually. And if it doesn't, well...not worrying about it.

On a similar note, commercial photographer Nick Vedros spoke last Thursday at MICA. Most of what he talked about was the business side of commercial photography, such as bidding correctly, being marketable, and balancing the art and the business. And, as arrogant as he may have been, he had me hooked when he spoke about having an Identity, and how crucial it is for you and your work to be recognized as one.


Switching gears.

The gear stork has landed on the beer-stained carpet outside of my dorm room several times in the last month. I thought I might take a moment to share what I have acquired with the enormous pool of readers I have attracted to this blog (you know who you are...anyone? hello?).





Above is my Manfrotto 681B Monopod next to a Pocket Wizard pre-trigger motor cable for my Canon 30D. The motor cable allows for remote firing up to about 1600 feet about, and the pre-trigger box on it keeps the camera body from falling asleep. Very handy for sports.

And of course this fine image couldn't be done without...(drum roll please)...a light stand and umbrella! Yes, ladies and gentlemen, the Manfrotto 3373 and a Westcott 43" umbrella with removable black cover. The flash shown is an SB-28 I haggled for with the fine people down at Service Photo in Baltimore, and it is being fired with Pocket Wizards that I got at a reduced price through MOC.





I am also proud to say that the majority of all this equipment was purchased on my own (that's saying a lot for being a college student). You can check out my Flickr page to see some of the work I've done so far with the new swag.

Next up: I am saving for a lens. Thinking 17-35mm f2.8 Canon, or something very similar. If anyone has any insight or recommendations, please let me know.