A very informative night with Joe McNally

Kudos to friends Renee and Nathan Derksen for hooking me up with a seminar that Joe McNally was doing in town. Considering I had been following his work through National Geographic, Strobist, and his book ("the moment it clicks") over the past couple of years, I was stoked to be able to hear him speak in person. It was an inspiring enough to see him talk about pictures he had done, but even more inspiring when he did a sort of bonus live demonstration (complete with a ballerina as model). It was the live demonstration that was really neat to see.

He demonstrated how easy it is to be able to take quality, lit, on location portraits with just a few speedlights, and a reflector. He also demonstrated that even the pros experience difficulties on the field sometimes. (One of his flashes kept malfunctioning during the session.) It is comforting to know that even people who have done this for 25 years still encounter the same problems!

I put what I learned to practice that Sunday by doing a quick, lit portrait of Abby. She had needed a portrait for her upcoming prayer card / short term missions letter, and I thought what better way to practice what I learned. Here are some of the results:

Photo Caption: This was taken in a boardroom with 70s style wood panelling.
I shot this at ISO 400, 1/200, f4.0 @ 73mm with flash 1/2 CTO at 1/8 power
camera right through umbrella, reflector underneath subject to
slight camera left.

Photo Caption: Against a white wall. ISO 400, 1/200, f4.0 @ 70mm.

Flash at 1/8 power camera right, reflector underneath subject to slight
camera left, plus background flash at 1/4 power aimed at the wall.

Photo Caption: Taken outside against North shore mountains.
ISO 100, 1/200, f/16 @ 75mm. Flash full power camera right throwing
hard 1/2 CTO'd light from further distance than previous two shots. (attempt
to sort of emulate a setting sun.) Reflector camera left, close to subject.

It took about 20-30 minutes for all three scenes including setup. All things considered, this is really a very easy way to do some quick portraits - definitely good enough for the purpose she wanted. To be honest, this sort of stuff (off camera lighting on manual) used to scare me a bit - but as I've been practicing on how to effectively use off camera lighting, I'm beginning to understand how much more control one has over the photograph when you can introduce light.... and as they say, practice makes perfect.

Day 7: Safe arrival back in Vancouver and fun with Pocketwizards!

We arrived safely back in Vancouver. I had been anticipating this moment for a while: not so much because I had been dying to come home but because I had been gearing up to take an interesting photograph of Erich and Karen with the train. Hey - Photographers think of crazy ideas when they have nothing better to do on a 16 hour train ride!

Now first some background: This was the first major trip I had taken without taking an SLR with me. On almost all previous trips, I had always brought along an SLR, and a sometimes with dizzying array of lenses. But when you're trying to travel light (read: married with kids), this doesn't work so well.

So this time, I brought along a Canon G9 point-and-shoot, a flash, two pocketwizards, and a compact light stand. Comparatively speaking, this was very light gear inspired by this Strobist article. The great thing about this setup was that it allowed me to take both interesting lit or available light photographs without the overhead of a lot of equipment. The very configurable G9 combined with the relatively fast f2.8 lens work well to suit any serious amateur or professional photographer wanting to travel light. Combine this with the power of a 580EX and the range of pocketwizard remote triggers and you have a great setup.

I digress. Back to what I had been dying to do. I had been anticipating that we would have decent morning light when we arrived back - a necessary requirement to making this photo work. (I had actually tried this same photo the night we left, but did not have sufficient available light to balance properly.)

With the train safely back at the station, I asked one of the train attendants whether it would be okay if we stayed an extra minute while I took a photo. I quickly handed Karen a slaved flash on pocketwizard mounted on a light stand. She placed it at the same position as one of the overhead reading lights inside the train. I guessed at the power setting, figuring I would adjust it by asking Karen to vary the distance via walkie-talkie. I went outside the train and took a photo. The result was this photo where you have dark window upon dark window with the exception of one lit (as if by reading light). It's simple, but illustrates the power of what one can do with a light setup like this.

Strobist Info: Canon G9 @ f/5.6, 1/30, ISO 400, Flash set to 1/8th power.

Sarah's Photo Shoot

With graduations come graduation photographs. This past July, I had the privelege of taking Sarah's "seniors" photos. Sarah, who has spent the last several years in Vancouver along with her missionary parents, is moving back to Kansas where she will begin her freshman year.

She is a beautiful young lady, and a joy to photograph. Some bystanders even mistook her for a model! Not a bad situation to be in considering we got a free cruise on the harbour because of that!

Exposure Information: Canon 10D, EF 70-200mm f/4L lens @ 200mm, f/4.0, 1/800 ISO 200. Gold reflector camera left.

From a photographical point of view, this was my favourite shoot yet. I had a lot of fun, and I was able to employ techniques I hadn't tried in 'production' before. For instance, I made heavy use of off camera diffused strobe lighting: first as the fill, then as the key light as the evening wore on. It made for a great learning experience and good confidence booster.

Many thanks to the Conners who trusted me with this opportunity and also many thanks to my wife Karen for encouraging me to pursue my photographic skills. (plus she's pretty good at getting people to pose also!)

Here are some of the results.

Exposure Information: Canon 10D, EF 70-200mm f/4L lens
@ 70mm, f/5.6, 1/60 ISO 200. (Strobist) Shot into sun, fill flash from off
camera flash @ 1/4 power through white umbrella, camera right.

Exposure Information: Canon 10D, EF 70-200mm f/4L lens
@ 104mm, f/5.0, 1/40 ISO 200, tripod mounted. (Strobist) Shot into
sun, fill flash from off camera flash @ 1/4 power through white
umbrella, camera right.

Exposure Information: Canon 10D, EF 35mm f/2 lens @ f/3.5, 1/60 ISO 100
(Strobist) Off camera flash @ 1/2 power through white umbrella, camera left.

Bartlett Family Photo Shoot

Late in July, I had the opportunity to take some photos for the Bartletts in preparation for my upcoming wedding shoot with the Brenners. Now weddings and kid photography aren't really the same. But, as it turned out it was nevertheless a great opportunity for me to practice on moving subjects (kids do move around *a lot* - so do brides). It was also the first time shooting with a dedicated assistant (Thanks Danila!). We had a lot of fun and learned lots too.

Here are some of my favorite shots from this session:

Emily receives a kiss from her mom. Canon EF 70-200 f4L on Canon 10D @ 145mm f/4.0 1/60 ISO 400 with [Strobist info] off-camera flash set at 1/4 power about 5 feet away adding some rim light to Tiffany's hair.

Rodney and the boys pose for a goofy shot underneath the Granville Street Bridge. Canon EF 50mm f1.4 on Canon 10D @ f/8.0 1/200 ISO 100 with [Strobist info] off-camera flash from camera bottom right set at 1/4 power about 5 feet away adding the scary light effect.

Title Photo: Family Portrait - Canon EF 70-200 f4L on Canon 10D @ f4.0 1/60 ISO 100. Ambient light only.