Yet again I had the privilege of photographing the family of a dear friend. It was a lovely time.  I've started working on the proofing in the middle of all the final Christmas prep, but I think I might be getting some new software from Santa Hubby, so I'm waiting a couple more days for the final work. :o)  I'm happy with what we were able to accomplish in some bitterly cold weather with all the challenges of flat light and snow.  It was just dark enough that I chose to raise my ISO a bit rather than use flash and wash everyone out even more. I'll have to decide after the real fiddly processing if that was the right decision or not.

I've embarked on the volunteer assignment to serve as an official photographer for my son's wrestling team. I've been taking pictures of my sons wrestling now for about 9 years, but this time I'm trying to capture all the team and tell a story for the end-of-year slideshow.  The first meet I was at last week had a commonly used lighting scheme of a single overhead spotlight that leaves the gym dark except for the wrestling ring. I think it is meant to enhance the intensity of the experience, and maybe intimidate the other team, but it presented some challenges to me as a photographer. I don't want to have a flash going off in the boys eyes right at the edge of the ring, so I have to use my settings to get enough light. Fortunately, I have my super-fast 70-200 f/2.8 so I knew I could get great close-ups and action, but in that hideous light, I still had to ramp my ISO all the way to 6400. So, I'm going to run with it and just love the grainy, newspaperish look that these photos have. Today's meet was lit normally so I have all sorts of shots that are much brighter.  By comparison, even though the first ones are grainy and dark, they can't be matched for drama and interest. The bodies become the story and the shadows create an intimacy that the more typical ones do not have. So, it will be good to have a combination, even though it will stretch my camera to its limits.






 What I learned from these shoots:

• Wrestling photos aren't necessarily going to be beautiful to anyone but a wrestler. Those singlets. Those body positions. I know.  I'd like to take at least a few shots that can transcend the esoteric nature of the sport and be self-explanatory and of interest to anyone. 
• I will need to use wider apertures to be able to lower the ISO a bit and get better quality. I will be able to de-noise some in photoshop, but I don't want to lose detail. So, I'll need to get better and better at quickly finding my focus and being precise even with a limited focal plane. 

This shoot was a bit disadvantaged from the start. It was very cold and windy, so the three super-cute kids were not terribly happy. Bring on the compositing. Usually, this is considered a sort of secret weapon, but the mom and I are working together to make a composite image that she is happy with. I'm okay with that. It has been a good experience to explore more techniques, fine-tune settings to get different elements to match, and trying to make it look natural.

The good news is that as I continue to explore Savage Mill and environs, I continue to find great locations that keep it fresh. I love having this amazing location so close to home.





What I learned from this shoot:

• I think I'm going to save up for the 24-105 f/4 lens. I've rented it twice now and it has really been great. Hopefully next year sometime.
• I would really like to shadow another photographer sometime to get more ideas on working with families to get kids to pay attention and pose. I do okay, but I know there are tricks I could add to my repertoire.

Yes, that's what they're called in some places. This was a pre-wedding shoot of a bride and groom who will be married on Saturday.  We had partly cloudy skies, and while we did deal somewhat with direct sunlight, we had enough shade, high overhead clouds and benefit from the slowly tilting earth of late autumn to give us rather nice light overall.  We lucked out for mid-to-late November and found lots of beautiful foliage. Overall I'm thrilled with the shots we got today and look forward to the actual ceremony and reception on Saturday.  The f/4 24-105 Canon L lens that I used was the rock star everyone says it is. Clear, vibrant, reliable, and comfortable.  Worth every penny.

PS. While some of these have some obvious post-processing effects quite visible, the red and orange leaves were not processed at all. In fact, I found that bumping up the saturation or the vibrance even the least bit made the leaves look strange. So, they are au naturel, straight out of the camera.

This is the family of my running pal and they are very photogenic. It was easy and fun to capture lots of nice shots. It was windy, so I'll have to decide whether to do meticulous fixing of stray hairs. There are a couple shots in which I will do that, especially for the mom, then there are some facial blemishes that she told me about right from the get-go. Anyway, we didn't have much time so Savage Mill it was again. We didn't go up to Carroll Baldwin Hall, but I love how there are so many different options here that it never seems to get stale. These folks were very natural and playful with each other, so we got a lot of great personality showing through in the photos.











What I learned from this shoot:

• I like to use aperture priority when I won't have the luxury to change the settings for each shot. I can choose the aperture based on the depth of field I need, then the camera does the rest. It allows for a lot more confidence and ease when working with families.

This gal is a dear friend, as are most of my clients at this stage of my "career," which is just peachy-fine with me.  For senior portraits, I like to go as natural as possible, so I mostly try to get lots of images of the face, with many different expressions and micro-expressions so the family can see the ones that really capture the personality at that time of life. This was such a fun shoot, again with a fellow photographer, beautiful weather and my old favorite Savage Mill as the background.