Taking better Snow pictures

I’m not sure if this video link will work, but it is funny. It is a Balimore weather man talking about the snow that is coming this February 6th, 2010. Click on the link and see if if works and have a chuckle before I give you some tips on taking better pictures in snow.

Baltimore weather man

With so much heavy snow throughout the region I know that photographers will be out in droves trying to take some lovely snow pictures and portraits. Horses in the snow, kids in the snow, trees covered with snow and everything else will be photographed by everyone who enjoys photography. Many will be frustrated with their snow picture results. My professional friends, people who just got a great new digital camera for Christmas, and people who just take a few pictures now and then will be wondering if their camera broke.

Why are my snow pictures always so dark? I don’t want any more gray snow pictures

Camera meters which determine the amount of exposure that comes into the camera are based on average lighting situations. In most average situations 18% gray is what your camera wants to record. There are some dark areas, some lighter areas and some mid-tone areas in almost every image so your camera sets the amount of light exposing the film or sensor to that reading. The problem with snow pictures is that they have very little mid-tones and dark areas. Most of the image is white with snow. Your camera although quite sophisticated does not have a brain of its own and needs a little help from you. Without your help it will do what it knows to do and create an average 18% gray image. Your snow pictures will not have white snow, but will be VERY underexposed and dark. With digital cameras underexposed images also show a lot of noise or grain and so not only will your snow pictures be darks, but they will also be murky.

What is the solution to my dark, murky snow pictures?

Since you want your snow to appear white in your pictures, you have to take control of the situation and make some adjustments. The solution is fairly easy. If you are on one of the automatic exposure settings, that’s fine. You can stay there, but you need to find a menu setting called EXPOSURE COMPENSATION. Usually it is a little table with a plus + and a minus – sign showing. The normal setting is “0″. You need to tell your camera you want MORE LIGHT even though it may be very bright outside with all that snow. Remember, your camera wants to create an 18% gray scene so it will set the camera shutter speed and aperture to allow less light in turning your snow to 18% gray. Now more gray snow. Move that compensation setting to +1 and give it a test. Still dark? Then move it to +2 and take another test image. Oops, too bright (if you have your highlights warning on you will see the snow flashing in red perhaps), then try +1.5. Good, that looks great.

What should my HISTOGRAM look like?

If you are used to checking your histogram to confirm good exposures, you will be used to something that looks something like a bell curve. There is some data showing on the left and a big hump somewhere in the middle and then some on the right. A big hump in the middle USUALLY works good, but not with snow images. Average images show up that way because they are average with some dark areas, lots of mid-tones and some bright or highlight areas. With snow you do not want your histogram to look that way. With an image that is dominated with white snow, you histogram will be a hump toward the right of the graph. In fact it will be a big hump and very to the right of your viewing window. However, you don’t want it to be up against the right wall of your histogram. If your histogram looks like a graph that would continue to the right (not a spike or a hump but a wall), then it is likely you have over compensated and you will lose some detail in the bright areas of your image. If you have an image program like photoshop, you are welcome to drag these two images to your desktop and check the histogram of both. The dark image below has a middle hump histogram. The correctly exposed snow picture show a spike or hump to the right (the brighter side of the graph).

Histogram of darker image showing most data in the middle. Most of the data is toward the middle of the histogram where your mid-tones would normally be showing. What that means is that your camera is recording your snow as a mid-tone and you will have gray snow :

Below is the histogram of the image with proper exposure for snow images. Most of the data (the snow part of the image) shows up on the right side of the histogram where the white part of your image should register:

This last histogram shown below is overcompensated. You are too high on the plus + and the highlights will be “blown out” which means that the data about the texture of the snow will be lost. Do you see what I mean by the data is up against the wall of the right side of your histogram. There is more data to the right, but it is off the graph and is not being recorded by the camera. It is lost information and you cannot fix lost information.

Here is the image that you would normally get without compensating for all the bright snow. This is the first exposure and histogram example:

Below is an image with exposure compensation of +1.5 set on the camera before taking the picture. Remember, if you don’t make the change, your images will be very under exposed and this cannot be corrected with your image program because it will look murky and noisy from the lack of proper exposure. This is the second histogram example.

Manual mode as an option

Some folks like to know exactly what their camera is doing all the time and they want to set all the exposure settings manually. However, the outdoors is not a studio where everything will stay the same. One minute there may be an opening in the sky and it could become much brighter. Another minute another brightness level. If you are in full manual mode, you will need to be checking frequently for changes in the amount of light in the scene. Personally, I would prefer to be able to concentrate on my subject after once making the adjustments in the camera to correct for all the bright snow. BUT, if you are a die-hard manual shooter, just overexpose by one or two stops and check your histogram to make sure you are not clipping the highlights.

LAST—Big caution–YOU MUST DO THIS–Remember this!!!!!

When you are finished shooting in a snowy scene. YOU MUST SET YOUR CAMERA COMPENSATION SETTING BACK TO “0″. If you leave it at plus +1.5 then when you encounter a more normal scene all your images will be over exposed.

I hope this helps you to have some great photography fun in the snow and get spectacular results. Go out and take some pictures and make some comments here.

This post will appear on my web site: http://www.photosbypdemott.com It will also appear on my facebook personal page and my facebook fan page along with a post on twitter. I am a portrait photographer in the Dayton, Ohio area specializing in on-location portraits of seniors, families and children. I also have a specialty in equine (horse) photography and will come to your farm or stable for your session. If you like my style I encourage you to follow me in any or all the above mentioned areas. If you are a photographer, I enjoy networking with other photographers both professional and amateur.

The meaning of 1/1000th of one second and capturing a moment in time

Ears up and alert:

As I was listening to some other photographers being interviewed in podcast interview, I was considering a common thing that happens with my equine portrait (horse portrait) clients. During an equine portrait session at a farm or boarding stable I usually have an extra person with me that is in charge of getting the attention of the horse. Now I have to explain to the person in the portrait that they need to pay attention to me and my instructions and not worry about how the horse looks as that is my responsibility.

Ears are the RADAR animals use to protect themselves

Horses like other animals have ears that can be turned every which way like radar to find out what is happening around them. It is something that God gave them to help them to more effectively deal with predators and dangers. When you are around horses, you will see their ears twitching this way or that continuously. The movements are very quick and effortless.

Client Seeming disappointment

Now as I am taking the portraits involving horses and humans, the person in the portrait hears the shutter firing, then they look up at their horse and they see the horse with their ears in various places, but seldom do they see ears pricked forward and looking interested.  Every fraction of a second that horse moves its ears this way and that as it explores its environment and surroundings. It takes a moment or two (lets say two full seconds) for the human subject to look up at the horse. So the impression they have is that I am capturing portraits of their horse when he looks like a mule (not to insult mules), he looks disinterested or distracted.

Trying to help someone get a better portrait / timing is everything – or at least it is VERY important

I have also noticed this when I’m around a mom or a dad with a camera or a grandma with a camera it’s in my nature to try to help them get good portraits of their daughter or son or gand-kid with their horse. In one case, I even stood behind the person with a camera explaining that I would help them with “ears up” so they could get a better portrait. Every time when the ears were pricked forward, I would say,”now!” and in every case about 3 full seconds later they would depress the shutter button (or in some cases if they had a point and shoot, there was a shutter delay of several seconds). By then the horse’s ears had gone several different ways, but were no longer pricked forward and at attention. From a professional point of view, these would be failed portraits or perhaps what we might call it just a “snapshot”, not a portrait.

It’s the same with other animals. Each kind of animal or breed has a list of things that have to look just so for the image to be outstanding.

The meaning of 1/1000th of one second

Now for the meaning of 1/1000th of one second. When my subject opens their web page at the proofs page from their equine photo session it is not uncommon for me to get an email something like this, “Wow, how did you do that? These are great….oh my gosh.” You recall from above every time I clicked the shutter they would look up at their horse and they saw their horse with its ears back or cockeyed (looking mulish, not to insult mules), but what they did not realize was that I had captured 1/1000th of one second and that was 50 1/1000ths of a second ago. EVERYTHING had changed by the time they turned their eyes up toward their horse.

Choosing One 1/1000th of one second from 7 million 200 thousand others

There are ONE THOUSAND 1/1000ths of a second IN EACH SECOND and I picked  JUST ONE to create an enduring moment that could be cherished by the horse owner for years to come. Think of it just a little more. In a two hour farm call session there are 120 minutes. Each minutes has 60 seconds in it for a total of 7,200 seconds and each second has one thousand 1/1000ths of a second shutter click opportunities for a whopping total of 7 million 200 thousand shutter click opportunities in a two hour session. Not that we need to go there, but my camera has a 1/5000th of one second shutter speed option…Whew!

After about an hour with Kristen, she was exhausted from pulling her horse’s head up out of the green grass an exceptionally green early fall. Every time she looked up her horse was distracted and each ear was going a different direction. Her dad who watched from afar was skeptical that there would be much of anything to look at from the session. Both Kristen and her mom said, “Oh well, we tried (or something of that nature).” I said, “I think you are both going to be pleasantly surprised.”

As you look through her senior portrait session with her horse, consider all the moments that are not recorded. As photographers we have many, many choices as to the exact moment we choose to record. And this is just one aspect of what is important for good animal and animal with human portraits.

To see Kristen’s session with her and her horse and her puppy just click on this link.

As an equine photographer and senior portrait photographer her in SW Ohio (Greater Dayton area including Miamisburg, Springboro, Centerville, Kettering, Oakwood, Beavercreek, Xenia, Fairborn, Troy, Tipp City, Englewoood and Vandalia) I really enjoy combining the two. Other senior portrait photographers, even if they are willing to come to your location, seldom know much about horses. Nothing can ruin a senior portrait with a beautiful young lady more than a beautiful horse that looks like a mule (again, no insult intended for mules).

Also, for those in Tennessee visit my friend JULIE POOLE’s web site. She photographs horses, but along with humans she is well known for portraits of dogs and cats and their humans. Look at how alert they look and consider how many different moments she has to choose from when taking these portraits.

This post is on my web site: http:www.photosbypdemott.com . It will also be on my facebook fan page and on my personal facebook page. It will be linked on my twitter account. You are welcome to follow or friend me in any or all of these locations.

Senior Portraits in Snow, Horse and Rider Portraits in Snow & Family and Kids in Snow

Gray and dreary outdoors here in the Dayton area. I cannot wait for Spring and the blossoms and new green foliage.

Right now in the Dayton area, there is not much snow. However the first weeks of February can be unpredictable and we could have what West Virginia is digging out of any time in the next several weeks (first three weeks of February, that is). As it is now, we have nothing but gray and it does not make for beautiful outdoor portraits.

BUT, if the snow flies again consider professional on-location outdoor portraits

If we do get a big dose of snow in the coming weeks, I just want you to know that I am available to take Senior Portraits in Snow. I’ve recently posted some snow portraits with horses along with some tips on how to get great snow pictures and portraits. Lots of white snow is NOT a time when you can just trust you camera to make the right decisions. If you want to take your own pictures in the snow, review my previous posts to get some good ideas, but it you want professional on-location snow portraits of your high school senior or your children (special family time portraits of mom and dad with the kids), don’t hesitate to give me a call when the weather man starts talking heavy snow. If you have a wooly horse that you want portraits with in the snow, I can do those too. If it works out, you will have extra special portraits, completely unique and fun to share. Call me at 937-478-6222 (Peter DeMott). IF the snow comes and IF someone takes me up on this offer, I will share some extra special and completely unique family portraits, senior portraits, or horse and rider portraits here on my blog.

If you missed my earlier posts with tips on getting good snow pictures and portraits with your digital camera, here they are:

http://www.photosbypdemott.com/2010/01/snow-snow-snow-taking-better-pictures-in-snow/

http://www.photosbypdemott.com/2010/01/taking-better-winter-snow-portraits-follow-up/

This post is on my web site and blog here: http://www.photosbypdemott.com . It will also appear on my personal facebook page where you are welcome to friend me: Peter DeMott . It will be on my Twitter account: pdemottphoto . And last it will show up on my facebook fan page: Peter DeMott Photography . You are welcome to share these posts and links with your friends in snowy areas, become a fan or friend or follow my web site by subscribing on the top right of my home page. Thanks, Peter DeMott

Taking better portraits and pictures with your digital camera

Recently I’ve had a couple people email me to ask how to improve their photography. Even though I’ve been taking pictures since I was about twelve, I have found that the speed of learning has increased significantly since going digital. My personal goal is to continue to improve with every shoot or every session that I do for the rest of my life. For someone who loves photography, that is an easy goal.

I’ve always appreciated other photographers who were willing to help me to get to the next level in my work. So in this post I am going to make some suggestions for those who are new to photography or those wanting to grow in their knowledge of photography. I’m going to list some basic suggestions that followed can bring you growth and learning.

The first thing is to have a teachable mindset. These days things are changing pretty fast. It is very easy to reach a point where you think you know enough and you just stop being willing and open to learning. It means not being embarrassed to ask questions. It means being eager to continue to learn no matter how much experience you think you have. My goal is to be a lifelong learner. My associates at Professional Photographers Of SW Ohio will testify that I am always asking questions and open to learning and sharing.

Where can you practice your teachable mindset. Here are some of the things that I do.
- Subscribe to free podcasts on iTunes about photography (try several and stick with the ones you enjoy most)
- Join some free photography internet forums or even pay forums where you can get constructive criticism ( I am a member of EPnet)
- Buy photography books AND/OR pick them up free from the public library
- READ you camera manual and try out each feature to see what it does until you feel comfortable using all the dials and buttons on your camera
- Join a local photography club or professional organization (if you are a professional)
- Go on a photography weekend training seminar or participate in your club’s field trips or call someone you meet to do a shoot together

Take lots of pictures. I don’t mean to take a bunch of the same pictures from the same place, but rather if you find something that you would like to photograph, that you really explore your subject and take lots of pictures from various angles, various distances, and from various places. I was discussing this with a new photographer that asked me for some guidance. I asked her if she moved her feet when she took some pictures. It is common for a newer photographer to plant their feet and start shooting. When you take lots of pictures of a subject you have interest in, explore your subject and unplant your feet. One great thing about digital is that you can take lots of pictures from lots of angles using lots of different settings and it doesn’t cost you a thing.

Learn to LOOK at what you are seeing in your viewfinder. One of the easiest ways to improve your images is to eliminate clutter in your backgrounds and foregrounds. If there are piles of junk or trash cans in the background, that distracts you from your main subject. Sometimes it means that you will have to unplant your feet and move around some. Maybe it means that you will have to try some different angles to shoot from. In some cases you just have to pick up before you start shooting.

Learn to SEE THE LIGHT. This is something that comes with some time, but it comes faster if you work at it. Here is how you work on it. As you look at a scene that you want to photograph, look at where the light is coming from. Are there bright spots? Are there areas where there is not much light? Find out what soft light means and what harsh light means and learn how each affects your pictures and portraits. I’ve been having my wife, Patty, assist me with my location portrait sessions. I have a 52″ silver reflector so that I can shoot with light coming from various directions and still have her reflect some light onto my subjects for a more pleasing portrait. Sometimes I have taken the reflector and showed her by having her concentrate on my subject’s face while I adjust the angle of the reflector. I will say… see that even when the difference is very subtle and suddenly, as she concentrates on the subject she will say, “Oh, wow, I do see the difference now.”

NOW IT IS MY TURN to learn from you. I was just listening to a podcast about how you can learn from your clients by asking them to complete a simple sentence. For a bank, you would ask your customers to complete this sentence, “If I were a banker I would……….you fill in this part……..” Well, I’m wanting to learn what my portrait customers and prospective customers want, so if you have gotten this far, please finish this sentence as if you were me. “If I was a professional portrait photographer, I would_____(complete the sentence)_________________.”

This post is on my web site where you can click on the comment after this post. It will also appear on my personal facebook notes page and it will be on my facebook fan page wall where you can “comment” or “Like” it.  You can comment in any of these three places and I will get to see your response. I also want to know if you want me to continue with these how-to-photography posts?

Taking better winter & snow portraits (follow up)

A couple days ago as the big snow was about to arrive here in the Dayton area, I posted about how to take better snow pictures.

Snow is white and bright and it will trick your camera into thinking that it needs to cut down the amount of light coming into the camera. You see cameras are calibrated to average the scene at 18% gray. When you are shooting in snow and most of the scene is white, your camera is programed to make the scene 18% gray. So your camera without a little help from you will severely underexpose your snow pictures. Your white snow will become gray murky snow because not only is it under exposed severely, but because it is underexposed there will be an increase in digital noise (that looks like little specks of various colors sprinkled about the picture).

What needs to happen to make good snow pictures? Most modern digital cameras have a control called “exposure compensation”. If it is in your menu, it will be a marker that can be moved to 1+, 2+, 3+ to add more light or 1-, 2-, 3- to reduce the exposure. With snow, you want to increase the exposure by 1+ or 1.5+ or 2+. This is counterintuitive (it is not what you expect without much thought). But, you don’t want gray snow right? So do it. Now take a picture with lots of snow in it and take a look at the histogram on the back of your camera. The white portion of the scene will show mostly on the right. If the histogram graph shows mostly in the middle, your snow will be gray. If most of the data is to the left your picture will be very underexposed, almost black.

The snow came and I noticed a bunch of dark snow pictures on Facebook and other places. I am sure there are many folks out there, frustrated that their portraits and snow pictures did not turn out very good.

This morning we woke up and saw that there was hoarfrost all over the trees. It was very cold and yet the air had some humidity in it. The humidity frosted onto the branches of the trees as if it had snowed. It’s very pretty. My wife Patty said, “lets go take some pictures of the hoarfrost and the horses. The following portraits are the result of using the exposure compensation adjustment (on my camera there is quick access to the exposure compensation). I tried 2+, but that was a tad too much. When I looked at the image on the back on my camera my over exposure blinkers were showing. I moved it down to 1.5+ and in some cases 1+ and the images turned out great.

Additonal portraits from this morning’s session can be found here: SNOW PORTRAITS

This post will appear on my facebook and my facebook business page. It is also on my web site here. You are welcome to follow my by friending me on facebook, becoming a fan or signing up for email delivery from the front page of my web site.

Surviving as a professional photographer in a down economy

As a professional photographer, I always want to be growing in two ways.

First is to always be improving my photography. In light of that there are several things that I do. I participate in monthly training through PPSO (Professional Photographers of SW Ohio). I am a member of PPO (Professional Photographers of Ohio) and I go to the annual convention in the spring. At the convention I participate in every seminar that I can get my hands on. I also have a subscription to PhotoVision which is a collection of video presentations for professional photographers (Also a bi-montlhly DVD mailed to my home). Communication with other photographers through Facebook and photography forums, email and the telephone is important and I also have several Podcasts that I regularly listen to. Through these involvements I am always sharpening the product and the experience that I provide to my clients.

One thing that I just discovered, I think I saw it on a Twitter Tweet from another photographer, is the Jeff Smith books blog. This particular blog has an email subscription option (something that I always do – I don’t have to login, go searching for a web site or blog, it just shows up in my email box) so I signed up. He just published yet another book for professional photographers, this one on Senior Portraits. Yesterday I went on Amazon and purchased that book and another.

But this brings me to the other way that I think that I and other professional photographers must keep growing. That is to understand your market and current trends that effect your business. Each of the sources that I mentioned regarding improving my photography above also provide education about marketing and advertising professional photography.

Jeff Smith books blog had this post today. In it he was talking about not just surviving, but learning to do well in our current economic climate. It involved changing things up a bit on his senior portrait marketing and packages to eliminate some of the guilt and fear that people are experiencing about spending money. Here is a portion of what he said:

As business people we have to be smarter in this economy. While excessive spending is currently out of fashion, spending on memorable moments with the ones we love is viewed by Americans as perfectly fine. With our seniors, we are marketing more for the mother being included in the session and making it a “lady’s day out” experience. If it’s as much (or so the senior would think) about mom as it is the senior, the seniors doesn’t feel guilty when moms wants to buy the largest package, a wall portrait or additional wallets.

In this changing economy, many seniors that used to expect senior portraits at a premium studio as just a part of their senior year and now having to ask for senior portraits as gifts for birthdays or Christmas. The good new is when a senior is willing to give up a birthday gift for senior portraits the guilt of spending more is lessened. Again this just means as a business we change our marketing strategies to thrive in this economy as well as the next, because when it comes the economy nothing lasts forever!

Just as it is important to always be willing to learn new things with regard to the quality of your imagery, it is important to be willing to learn new ways to package and market your photography to meet the needs and wants of your clients. If you are a photographer friend, I would encourage you to go and sign-up for Jeff Smith’s blog and continue your learning (and being willing to learn) each day.

This blog post appears on my web site: Peter DeMott Photography. It will also appear on Twitter and Facebook on my personal page and my business page. You can follow me using the subscription option or by friending or becoming a fan on Facebook.

SNOW, SNOW, SNOW…taking better pictures in snow

Snow is on its way to my area here near Dayton, Ohio. It seems from the news that there is lots of snow in lots of places all over the country. I thought I would put up a blog post to help people take better pictures in snow.

Here is the big problem with snow. Your camera light meter is tuned so that it will take an average scene that has some white, some gray, and some dark tones. It tries to find an average for the scene. Average gray is 18% gray and this is why photographers sometimes take meter readings from a “gray card”. But with a snowy scene, you don’t have grays and darker tones… everything is white. Therefore your camera will take all that white and try to average it down to a medium gray by underexposing the white snow. When your pictures come back you have gray snow. If the processor does a good job, they will try to make it white for you, but it is very under exposed and will be very grainy looking even if it is processed so that it looks white. In other words all your beautiful snowy pictures will be yucky and gross.

The solution is counter intuitive. Because everything is so white, you might think the way your camera does and think that you need to reduce the exposure. Actually what you need to do is add exposure. Most cameras have some sort of exposure compensation option. It shows as plus or minus exposure (+ or -). What you will do is to give the exposure a +1 or + 1 and a 1/2 compensation on the exposure. If you have an older camera you want your needle to be be plus one or one and a half stops.

Next you will want to check the histogram of some images. Most of the data needs to be toward the right (lightness area), but not completely to the right. The right side of your histogram is an illustration data showing the amount of white in the scene. It  is where the white portions of the scene would normally show up in and AVERAGE image. In an average image you would see some data on the left (darker portions of the scene), some data in the middle (the average gray portions of the scene) and some on the right (the whiter or brighter portions of the scene). If all your data is in a big hump in the middle of the histogram, your snow is being metered as average gray and not as white (you need more exposure to move the data to the white portion of the histogram). If it is completely against the right wall of your histogram then you are over exposing the snow and it will not have any detail (you have over exposed and you need to bring it back some). It will be white, but it will not seem visually pleasing because of the lack of detail.

So what do you do in bright snow? You tell your camera you want it brighter so that the bright white snow comes out nice a white rather than middle gray.

We just watched the news and schools are already showing delays for Thursday, January 7th even though the snow is not supposed to show up until late morning. Here is Dayton we so seldom get PRETTY snow. What we get is freezing rain, dirty and salty snow, and all that nasty stuff. Even when it comes down nice a pretty and white, it is usually wet and dirty snow in no time. Your opportunities to take pictures and portraits in snow are limited. Take advantage when you have the chance.

I mentioned on my FACEBOOK business page that I am offering a special if someone wants to do their senior portraits, family portraits, animals or perhaps their horse in snow. If you are in the Dayton area and you enjoy my style and artistry in portraiture, I would encourage you to become a fan of my business page and also become a FACEBOOK friend. You can also sign up to receive this blog via your email in-box by visiting my website home page.

Hoping you have the opportunity to enjoy some pretty white snow.

A telephoto zoom and kids / I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE natural smiles.

I have to say that I have always liked taking pictures of people with a telephoto lens. It is particularly great for taking pictures of kids with completely natural expressions. In this particular portrait I was at a competitive trail ride near Dayton during the vet check portion of the ride. This young rider is the son of Shannon Loomis. All her children are quite cute and this young man was waiting his turn to show his horse to the vet at the finish of the ride. Natural smile come so easily to young children when they are unaware of the camera.

When I do a kids portrait session there is nothing that can frustrate me more than a parent telling their child to smile. Sometimes this results in a completely unnatural pasted on smile that is unappealing. It is not the smile that comes from delight or finding something funny. It ends up being a false representation of the person. There are two things that can help with this. First it is important to instruct the parents that they may not instruct there children during the session. No instructions like, “Not that smile…you know the smile we want.” There is nothing that will cause a child not to relax more than a parent making them feel selfconscious about how they look or what they are doing.

And second I have had good success doing a “candid” session where the parent and the child play together and I tell the parent to just pretend they are alone and to just forget about me. With the telephoto lens I can walk about looking for those natural moments without being right there close to the action. I can be 15 to 20 feet away like I was with this portrait. As I have posted before (this blog appears on my website and on my facebook accounts) sometimes my best images of children occur in the first few moments or the very last moments of a session either before the children figure out that I am photographing or after we announce that we are all finished. Of course all these things depend on the age of the child.

Here is the young boy I mentioned in the paragraphs above – just too cute. One thing that you will notice is that in all competitive trail rides and endurance rides junior riders are required to wear protective riding helmets. In addition Shannon has protective riding vests on each of her children when they participate in these events together.

I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE Natural smiles.

This portrait was taken from 20 feet away using a 70-200 mm telephoto zoom lens using available light.

HELP PORTRAIT Dayton was fun and a great learning experience for all involved

December 19th was the date for HELP PORTRAIT Dayton. As this was the first time for Dayton and the rest of the country, we had no idea of how many people might show up. Would we be completely overwhelmed? Would there be people waiting out the doors or would we be very slow. As it turned out, we were very slow until after 12 noon. So after three backdrops and light set-ups were in place, and tested we sat about for a while wondering what to do.

After about an hour, we just started to play. First we took a group shot with someone’s fisheye lens:

This is everyone that was there at the time including helpers, photographers, make-up and friends.

I took some more portraits for fun trying out the light set-up and thinking about what I would need to set up the same sort of portrait lighting set up in my country barn studio in the future. We had a white seamless paper background and two black backgrounds. At about noon people started coming in for portrait sessions. First one family, then a couple more and then several more. We all had great fun creating and GIVING the portraits away with no payment expected whatsoever.  One father grabbed Jordan Begley as he was about the leave, “Hey, I want to thank you folks for doing this, this is our first family portrait….we’ve never had one and this means a lot.”  Jordan came over and shared his conversation with me saying that the oldest boy in the family was 9 and he was so surprised and touched by the conversation.

Well as it turned out we had about, I think 50+ people representing 6-8 different families and since we were by no means swamped, we were able to come up with variations and sub-group portraits of each family. But, the originator of this event suggested that we not publish actual families from the event to respect their privacy.

The following images are portraits of photographers and friends helping at the event before actual families started showing up. The beginnings of some good friendships were started and everyone helped everyone else try out various lighting set-ups and learn more about photography together. Some of us were outside of our comfort zones and it was a great experience for all. THANKS everyone who helped and for all the sharing of knowledge at the event.

The Difference Between Video and Photographs

I was listening to one of my favorite podcasts, F Stop Beyond by Host Ron Dawson, and I heard a photographer talking about the difference between video and still images in a way that really caught my attention. The photographer asked, “How many times do you typically watch a movie?” The answer is usually ONCE. If you are really intrigued, you might watch a movie several times, but that would be more unusual than the standard answer of ONCE.

Now, when you look at an intriguing or exciting photograph, how many times might you look at that? 10, 20, 100 times perhaps. If it is a portrait of someone you love you may look at it every day of your life and appreciate it each time you see it. The photographer talked about how photography CREATES AN ENDURING MOMENT. Wow, an enduring moment. What an outstanding way to describe a photographer’s challenge. I’m not just “Capturing an image” or “capturing a moment in time” as many digital photographers describe what they do. As a photographer your goal is to create an enduring moment.

This reminds me of a photograph I took some years back. It was a picture of the finish of the last day of a trek across the state of Michigan on horseback. The riders started at a camp that touched lake Michigan then when they completed a week of 50 mile endurance rides across the state it ended at Lake Huron. The tradition at the finish was to go into the lake with your horse to celebrate the ride. It was great fun to watch as many of the horses had never encountered waves before. One rider’s helper during the week was a grandmother and she was encouraged to join into the fun by coming into the lake with horse and the rider. Two other people helped her to get out into the water (she was very unsteady in the light surf) where the rider was standing with her horse. When they got to the rider for only a moment, they all joined hands and raised there hands in celebration of the accomplishment. I captured that joyous moment in a spectacular photograph.

Several months later, I had an opportunity to watch video recaps of the week including this spectacular moment. Only it was not that spectacular in the streaming moments in video. That spectacular moment was there and gone and there were other moments to view. The power of the moment disappeared in video. It was a small blip and then it was gone. Now I know how to describe what I do with photography.

As a photographer I create ENDURING MOMENTS which can be enjoyed again and again and again by viewers. This is of course not a criticism of motion pictures or video, but it is a significant difference for sure.

Do you have an example of an ENDURING MOMENT; a photograph that can be appreciated over and over and over again?

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