Beach Photography

Beach photography is tricky. Water, sand, and cameras do not tend to mix well together. However, if you visit Puerto Rico you have to go to the beach at least once, I’m pretty sure that’s a law. Thankfully Puerto Rico has lots of amazing beaches available all around the island. For this session we went to Crash Boat.

For beaches, I try to plan. If I am traveling with friends and family, and in this case, I was, I also consider the time. Most people like to visit places from 10 AM – 4 PM. There is some variation here but that means the lighting must be considered. It was a sunny day so that meant I would be keeping to shade but also utilizing a ND filter on my lens. The good thing about the filter in this situation is that it is one more layer of protection for my gear. ND filters are cheaper to replace then camera lenses.

Also consider that sand can get into things if you are not careful. So really put some thought into how you intend to carry your camera around. In my case I used a small camera backpack and an over the shoulder harness. Your setup may be different depending on your preferences but keep careful consider the absent-minded habits you may have. Putting your camera down in a studio or at a park is much different then putting it down at the beach.

As for water, the closer or further you go into the water with your camera, the greater to risk. Use your best judgement.

Fortunately, we went back to the beach later in the week, so I left my camera back at where I was staying for that 2nd trip so I could enjoy the beach that time.

Summer Mini Sessions on August 21, 2022 for food donations!

Now booking for 15 Minute Seasonal Sessions at Kinder Farm Park for Sunday, August 21, 2022 from 5:00 PM to 7:00 PM (exact times for available slots are below).

This is a mini 15-minute photo session for you and your family up to a total of 6 people at Kinder Farm Park.

Cost: Instead of charging for this I will be collecting food items for the Caring Cupboard, LLC.  

What Food items? There is flexibility but below would be ideal:

-          Peanut Butter

-          Jelly

-          Cereal or breakfast items

-          Mac and Cheese

How many items?

That’s up to you.  Normally, I’d charge $75 for this sort of photo session, but times are tough so whatever you feel you can donate will be acceptable.

PLEASE NOTE: While the session itself is for food items for charity, it still costs $6.00 to get on to Kinder Farm Park.

Open slots:

5:00 PM

5:20 PM

5:40 PM

6:00 PM

6:20 PM

6: 40 PM

A senior photo session in Puerto Rico.

It’s been difficult picking photo sessions from Puerto Rico to start since they all are turning out so well! So, let’s start with the senior photo session we did there and give someone bragging rights to a high school senior before the school year even begins.

Remember, senior photos shouldn’t be a chore, they should be fun and constantly moving. Teenagers don’t like to sit around waiting for too long. Actually, no one likes to sit around waiting for too long, but especially teenagers and once they get that phone out to look for entertainment your work just got a lot more difficult. To combat this, do a run through before you even start. Ideally, you will have looked over the location and formulated a plan already and it follows a somewhat linear path. This way you spend less time thinking and more time moving from photo spot to photo spot doing actual photography.

Also, don’t fret if you lack access to a beautiful tropical island, use what you have access to and work from there. Believe it or not, it is not about the location but about the subject and your skill as a photographer. Doubt your skill? Welcome to the club! Most photographers do and I know I do, but that’s what practice is for and that’s why I share practice sessions from time to time. Pro athletes go out and practice all the time, why would it be any different for photographers? Things run so much more smoothly when you’ve already tried some of the techniques you will be using.

Finally, you get the weather you get. For some of these, we got clouds, for others we got sun, and for others we needed shade. So long as you have done the research and practice, you can make it work regardless of the scenario.

On Traveling with your photography Gear

A few nature photos to start but this is predominantly about traveling with your photography gear.

Traveling with photography gear can be risky. There are numerous ways your gear can be damaged and numerous ways your gear can be stolen. In fact, the more of it you carry, the more risk you are putting it at being damaged or stolen. Sure, insurance will help but let’s be honest it rarely covers the total loss and even if it does you still need wait for things to get repaired or wait for things to get replaced. Except you want that gear on your trip!

So, the first thing you want to do is plan your photography gear for your trip. You want to try and minimize how much gear you take with you – only take what you absolutely need to do the photography types you want to do. Then there is packing. Ideally, you have some sort of case or luggage that is allowed to remain with you on your travels. For planes, this means something that can fit in the overhead or under the seat in front of you and that also means it is one of your carry-ons. On the plus side, you can likely fit your other electronics in this bag or suitcase and make security easier. Just don’t let it leave your sight.

Next, you will want to understand the location you are traveling to. You need to know what crime is like, especially theft statistics are, what scams are common in the area, and how the weather acts in that area. You need to plan accordingly for all this. Granted, most travel in the world is safe, and most of the time your gear is safe too but having a plan to protect it will ensure it remains safe during those moments when the risk you are taking is a little higher.

Finally, understand the rules and laws for photography for where you are traveling and to be perfectly frank, if the place you want to travel to frowns on photography to the point where photographers get arrested simply for taking a picture then you probably want to stay away from there.

Anyway, back to fun stuff next post.

Another round of dogs.

Final set of the “I am in Puerto Rico” session. I should have some pretty good posts next week (or even weeks).  But in the meantime here are more dog photos, especially of my awesome dog.  

This one will be quick but it’s good if it is the focus of a single post. If you want to photograph pets, then you should probably want to freeze the motion. If you want to freeze motion, you need to increase the speed of your shutters speed. For these I was shooting at 1/320 of a second for shutter speed but I probably should have set it a little faster.  

The only catch is that if you speed up the shutter speed then you have to offset ISO or aperture as faster shutter speed means darker photos.

Still in Puerto Rico, another quick post.

Another quick post as I am still away in Puerto Rico. These are the shots of the two sisters who were the focus of last weeks post.

For two siblings, hands on shoulders looks great or try to get some sort of similar contact as it really does carry the subjects through the photo session. Don’t be afraid to try looking different directions or different looks, that also adds to the intrigue of the photo.

Finally, always do the walking away together photo. Have each sibling look back and then do what I forgot to do here: have them look back together.

Dog Pictures

Away in Puerto Rico so here is a quick post with a few quick pictures of my dog wearing a hat that she chewed up. The hat was really more of a necklace at this point, but we managed to still use it.

These pictures were just a two-light job, one overhead with a snoot and one just off to the side with an Octagon softbox aimed at her. There are a lot of photos you aren’t seeing here where she is just out of the light from overhead. That happens, especially when working with animals. The trick is to just be patient.

Working with teenagers.

Posing teenagers is a little trickier as they tend to be more self-conscious. Trickier but not impossible. What you need to do is to pull off a good photo early in the session to build trust. If they aren’t in for a smile, and most teenagers aren’t, skip right over it and go with a serious look.  You can go back for smiles after you build that trust, but your first goal is cranking out a photo that makes them look cool.

To do this, go with the basic rule first: “Neck like a giraffe and chin down a hair.” After that have them fold their arms. Alternatively, you can have them swing their arms side to side very slowly. Either of these give the arms something to do and makes the body look more fluid and less stiff. Stiff limbs look awkward, loose limbs looks relax and improves your odds of some solid shots.

 Finally, notice again the clothing. Simple designs. Sure, you can mix them together into something more complicated but so long as it is a mix of solid colors or simple patterns. Anything else and you risk losing your composed image to the complex and distracting clothing.

Posing younger children.

4-year-olds are a little better at posing directions but are still very young that they may not understand everything you are trying to say. But often times they will give you their best interpretation of what you are trying to get them to do and often times that is a much better pose because it catches their personality with it. So don’t get so hung up on getting the pose correct when you can get the solid gold of a pose that catches who they are even better then the pose you had in mind.

One other thing, that I will likely reiterate or at least repeat on the next post: clothing. Keep it simple. Either patterns or solid colors or a mix of patterns and solid colors but you don’t want complicated designs. Simple colors or simple patterns look great in photos. That shirt you have that has that long winded speech on it is just going to end up distracting everyone as they try to read your shirt.

More of that intended 4th of July photosession.

So, we stepped it up a notch with my assistant by throwing in a flag and moving one of the lights.

For the light setup, I went with the octagon softbox up front and a speedlight in back with a regular reflector on pointed directly facing the back of the subject. This was to bring out the flag given the way we were using it for this photo session.

Initially, my subject and then subjects were just posing with the flag in various ways, but then got the flag to fly up. There is no complicated trick to this. I simply had one of my subjects grab the other end and gentle toss it up into the air and gravity did the rest of the work. I timed my shot and after a few attempts I had a subject wrapped in one end of the flag with the other end flying in the air. Light positioning helped but if you did this outside during the day, you might have an easier time.

Remember, you can do things with the props you have, just consider what they normally do and try and do something along those lines. Nothing we did here is new or groundbreaking, but the shots turned out and that means they can turn out for you too.

The July 4th photos I intended to do.

Here are some of the photos I wanted to do for July 4th, unfortunately we had to do them a week and a half later since I had covid. You see all those USA things in Walmart and the Dollar Store? Yeah, those make great props for photos for the 4th of July. They also make for an easy low budget photo session. So, I grabbed those and went, after recovering, I went to work.

As always, when working with babies, you are at their mercy. Work with their parents to figure out what tricks might get the responses you need but keep it simple. For example, looking in a direction and maybe smiling but settle for just getting the proper direction. Also be open to other behaviors their parents may be aware of like how this one-year-old likes standing up and holding the back of the chair. That works so we went with it. But the point is, and I know I sound like a broken record at this point, but the point is that information is key and the best source of information for a baby are the people the baby has spent pretty much all their existence with up to this point.

Also keep in mind that if you use sunglasses, they will reflect the light. If you set your lights at a 45-degree angle to the sunglasses but good luck keeping that direction perfect with a baby.

We then moved into something more but that’s next post.

A Rocking Photo Session

I intended for another set of photos for this post, but my assistant really wanted me to get these done first so here we are.

My assistant saw this guitar and immediately got inspired for a rocking session outfit. So, while she was getting ready, I was setting up the lighting for it. I ultimately went with one speedlight overhead with a snoot aimed down this would give more of a performance look. However, that light alone would just create shadows everywhere below her head, so I also threw in a strobe with an octogon softbox. I didn’t want to wash out the overhead light, so I dropped the octagon softbox low, aimed up, and had it set low. This created a nice fill light without overtaking the overhead light.

For posing, she just sorts of got in character and played around. She did look at me like I was crazy when I told her to jump with it, but she went for it. Had I noticed the platform shoes I probably wouldn’t have suggested the jump, but it happened and it worked out well. The rest were pretty easy “act like your playing” and she had seen the Elvis movie recently, so I told her steal some of his moves and she went for it.

Finally, I also wanted to be sure to get the instrument. A good rule of thumb when working with artists is that you also capture the tools of their trade as they often have as much character as your human subjects, and I can pretty much guarantee your human subjects will appreciate that you went that extra mile. Give their tools a closeup or two as well.  

Practice photography types outside of your wheelhouse.

Sorry about the break. I had the pleasure of having Covid.

Here are some nature shots I did a few weeks ago. Nature photography isn’t something I do a whole lot but I do it from time to time. I don’t really see myself profiting  

If photography is something you are interested in, then you should be trying out other types of photography every now and then. You don’t need to approach them as a professional, amateur is fine, but the point is to try them. Attempting other types of photography forces you to use the photography skills you already have in a different way and uses your whole photography chain in a different way as well. Suddenly your standards for composing a shot have to be adjusted and you might utilize other features of your processing tools then you normally use.

In short, attempting other types of photography forces your photography to grow because you are using your current skills and knowledge in a different way.  I also like to try different types of photography when I feel I am having a creative block or feel my work is getting stagnant. Something about it just helps me move forward from these places.

Plus, you get the photos from those other types of photography you try and who knows they might come in handy. I’ve referenced a few for backdrops in other photos and I like to use my nature shots as digital album covers when delivering work to clients.

#marylandphotographer #annearundelphotographer #photographytips

Even more single light work.

More single light work, just to add more detail to the previous post.

In this shot I am again using a strobe with an octagon softbox and a reflector as a fill light. This time positioning. Look at the pictures of my subject holding up the paper. In one, the subject is blocking the light creating a shadow across her face and reducing the fill light all in one motion. I am not going to say this is wrong, it might be an effect you might want but it is something to consider – props can modify your light so keep that in mind when posing with light. In the next photo we changed the direction she is holding the paper up. Now the light can hit her, and the paper even acts as a slight fill light.

Again, it is only right or wrong depending on what you are trying to do with your shot.

For the last two we got a little fun threw some paper into the air. Initially I had my subject do it but it was tricky to get the best direction. So, I recruited someone to stand on a step ladder and throw the paper… and it was still tricky to get the best direction. After a little trial and error things worked out.

Single light with a reflector session

Here is another quick one. This was a single light set up. I used a strobe with an octagon softbox as the key light and I used the white side of a reflector as a key light by bouncing some of the key light back on to the subject. One of these days I will remember to photograph the set up so I can show exactly what I did but that day isn’t today apparently.

Anyway, when using a reflector try to visualize where you need your reflector to be to best reflect the light. For example, if you want a fill light under the chin, then you need to place the reflector in a way that will make that happen while also being sure that the light you are reflecting is actually going to hit the reflector so it can do what you want it to do. It does make fill lighting a little trickier but remember you can move the reflector and the light source if you are using artificial light. It is a placement puzzle.

A few other quick tips, as always, most places that sell fabric usually have a precut section that has a random assortment of fabric cut to 3 yards and 2 yards. These make for great props in photography. In this session she was naturally drawn to the shiny goldish fabric, so we went with that.  Also, and totally unrelated, when using minimal lighting the photos usually convert to grayscale rather well.

In studio dance photos.

I was able to work with a talented dancer in studio. These were a from a few months back. I enjoy working with other artists, especially from other crafts. Regardless of what craft you may be photographing the first tip you should always start with is do research. First of what craft you are photographing and what direction your subject has gone with their craft. This order is crucial because you aren’t going to be able to ask your subject questions and understand the answers if you don’t know the very basics of the subject matter. Research will also help you understand what poses you might want to try as well.

Next up, get that shutter speed as fast as you can. In this case, I opted to use a mix of my studio lights. Some of the strobes I used here lacked a high-speed sync option so that limited my shutter speed to 1/250 of a second. Any higher and I’d get light sync issues.

Finally, try a variation of looks and poses. Obviously, you want poses that are related to the craft involved but they don’t have to all look super happy. Remember, when artists work, despite all the enjoyment they get out of their craft, they likely take their work seriously. So do some serious shots too. It will compliment your subject and respect their craft.

Actress Headshots

Some more Actress headshots, keep an eye out for this young lady as you will likely see her again soon on a different medium. And probably often.

When doing actor/actress headshots the always find out if they have an agent or are approaching an agent and find out what the agent’s standards are for headshots. Different agents will have different standards and you want to work within whatever the current agent demands. It may seem like these agents are pulling standards out of a hat, but they really aren’t. They just know what the casting directors they communicate with on a regular basis want and tailor their headshot standards to that. So, an agent in constant contact with one set of casting directors may have one standard for them but a different agent working with a different set of casting directors may have a different standard. That’s just how it goes.

And don’t be disappointed if they don’t pick the picture you think is the one. These agents know what their circles want and tailor their decisions to that. Remember, it isn’t personal, it is business.

Parks are your friend!

These photos were done for a wonderful client in celebration of completing grad school. The park we agreed on was Kinder Farm Park which was a great decision and a location I will try to get clients out to again sooner rather than later.

Parks are your friend. I repeat parks are your friend. Often they have numerous angles you can approach a photo session from while still delivering a wide variety of backgrounds and space, so you aren’t pushed out by crowds or even other photographers. That stated there are some things to keep in mind when working on parks. First and foremost – you want to understand if you need to get a permit and if so, how to do so. This will take research on your part and your milage will vary as not all parks make it clear as day what their professional photography policies are. Second, even with a permit you and your clients are on the park property as guests. Everyone else on the park property has just as much right to be there as you so just be patient if an area you want is occupied or better yet go some where else and check back later.

As for the session itself, gates, walls, trees, and benches are all great places to start. I should probably take a step back here and explain; you will know where these are as you will arrive early just to reality check everything and plan your path. It is a lot easier to keep momentum in a photo session if you know where you are going. You can do a point A to point B approach or a big loop but just be sure you have a few stop off points for photos and enough so you can be flexible in case one of your spots is occupied by the time you get there.

Finally, when you are doing the photo session, check the backgrounds. You might need to adjust angles to avoid having to edit out distracting background objects or people. Modern photo processing software is amazing but the less time you have to spend on it, the better as the faster you can return the photos to your client. That stated, it isn’t a race, you want to spend just enough time on them to do the job right but not so much time on them that you start to see imaginary flaws because you are overly focused on stuff no one but you will ever see.

Faking golden hour.

I met my subject’s parents very early one morning and we had her jump in the pool.  Afterall, all kids love getting up super early to get an incredible morning golden hour light. Unless I made it up, which I did. These photos were taken in the afternoon and not only that they were taken on a cloudy day.

The golden light is just a strobe with a gel on and cranked up to spread golden light everywhere. You can even see the set up with the one without the light. There are two tripods because I was switching out the between the medium sized one and the small sized one for various shots. Anyway, a good strobe with a good gel can fake a golden hour. Granted, you probably don’t want one so cranked up as this one for more realistic shots, but it is definitely a good crutch if you can’t get the golden hour you want – you just have to understand how to make it happen with the gear you have. Different strobes and speedlights will manage this sort of goal to different degrees and you will have to work within those limits to make what you want to have happen, happen.

But that’s just photography, and art for that matter, in general; figuring out how to make what you want with what you got.

Backdrop practice.

This will be a quick one because I did a few really cool photo sessions recently that I need to finish processing. And good news – I got permission to use some of them so we can do a few photography tips from some awesome client sessions. The cool thing about processing is when you know you did a great job with the photo session and already know the client is going to be happy with the end results.

But for today, back drops. I’ve been toying with some ways to make my backdrops a little more interesting without stealing the show. These photos here were for actress headshots… which ended up not working out because the talent agent wanted a simpler background. That’s okay, just a little aside here but if you are doing actor/actress headshots you go with what the talent agent and casting director says – always.

Anyway, I have a brick backdrop that looks great on its own, but I went ahead and flung some cloth over it too. I think I’ve mentioned this before, but Walmart and more fabric stores have a section with precut yards of random fabric usually at a discount. This stuff is AWESOME. You can make fake wall drapes out them and wrap them around your subject for fake cloths. If the fabric is thin enough, you can shoot through it or even put it in front of your flash to give it some color. There is just so much you can do.

However, make sure your backdrop doesn’t take away focus from your subject. It should compliment your subject; not take away attention from your subject. If you make your backdrop too busy you will lose your subject and end up with a cluttered mess of a photo.