Classmates

Last Wednesday night was the last night of our three-session portraiture class. After critiquing our fluorescent lighting homework, we turned to playing in the studio. Previously, we’d asked Jeff to give us some tips on lighting, how to work with different facial structures, etc. We did some work with fluorescent, direct, diffused, and reflected lighting.

Here are some of my shots taken that night. I’m sorry that it looks like the class was mostly men. Our class actually had five men and four women. I was holding reflector cards when one of the other women was being shot. Others took my photo but I have none of those. Female #4 didn’t get a chance to be photographed, and only one of us photographed male #5.

So Busy!

I haven’t forgotten any of you, but I haven’t been able to visit any of your blogs in the past few days. Wednesday night was the second night of our portraiture class, and last night I went to my first meet and greet with a group of northern Nevada photographers. Between that and work and something else that you will hear about soon, I’ve been up to my eyeballs. For now, here are a couple of photos from Wednesday night. I still have more from the shoot to process, but aforementioned life is getting in the way.

Continuous Lighting Practice: Sweetie helps me again

I’m taking a portrait lighting class on Wednesday nights (just three sessions) through the Nevada Museum of Art. We were given the option of shooting someone with a single continuous light source (direct, diffused, and reflected). I gave it a go using some lights I haven’t used in awhile (no flash, no umbrellas, etc). The results were mixed.

Diffused light.

This one is my favorite. I used my humble little cheapie soft box (Cowboy Studio) to camera right at about a 45-degree angle to Sweetie. No fill on this one. I like the shape of his face in this one, and his very strong jaw line is clear. Nice catch light in his eyes.

Same light with a bit of reflected fill on the left. Not crazy about what happened to his jaw on the left, but I think it’s because he’s a bit scrunched. He tends to do that sometimes and I just didn’t catch it this time.

Reflected light.

I sat Sweetie near the wall with a white muslin backdrop, clamped a shop lamp onto the back of a tall chair and shined it onto the white backdrop. I was definitely handicapping myself with this light, but I made a point to go “old school.” That is, I wanted to use the same lighting I was using way back when I first started my lighting class at UNR last spring. So, shop lamp it was.

Light reflecting from the right, fill on left provided by white foam board (handheld by your humble photographer).

Reflected light, no fill.

I had Sweetie turn his head a bit to get more light on his face. Fill on left with same white foam board.

Direct light.

One thing I learned? Sweetie does not look very appealing in direct light. He does not have the kind of chiseled features that this kind of lighting would accentuate. Frankly, most people don’t look good in it, and that’s why I tend to reserve it for creating rim lighting or lighting a backdrop.

This one was my best one of the batch, and for me it’s definitely “Meh.” Like I said, I can see how this kind of light could be used for great effect, but on Sweetie’s face, not so much. Then again, maybe I just didn’t manipulate the light source enough. And yes, I used the same shop lamp for the direct light shots too.

Another one that’s not horrible, but really, can you see that direct light is just not for him? He shines like crazy and every wrinkle is accentuated. His face is too soft and kind for this kind of treatment.

So far I’m enjoying the class (after just one session). Some of it is information I’ve already gotten before, and some information is new to me. The people in the class are all about my age (some younger, some older), all with a passion for photography. Tonight we’ll have models in studio to shoot, and I can’t wait!

Lighting Class

February 23, 2012. Taken during one of our early sessions in Jeff Ross’ studio. During this class we were learning how to light a wine bottle.

Day 139 – Final Project

I didn’t want to post this until the results were in. (And yes, the last photo was taken today). What follows are just thirteen of the approximately 400 photos I took of the event and the days leading up to it.

Final Project – ART 235
Medical Outreach Response Event
April 13 – 14, 2012
Silver Stage High School, Silver Springs, NV

Organizers and Volunteers
Christy (right) is the Director of the Healthy Communities Coalition. Freida (left) runs the Dayton Food bank and was the instigating force for the event. She wondered, What good did it do to give people food if they couldn’t chew it? Freida was the volunteer organizer and logistics person for the event.

Wendy organized the professionals (dentists, doctors, nurses, optometrists, etc). She is the head of Community Roots.

Rita was one of a couple hundred extraordinary volunteers. Here she is calling people who registered late for the event to let them know what services would be available.<

The Event – Friday, April 13 (12 – 5pm) & Saturday, April 14 (9am – 5pm)

Community Health Nurses consult with one another in preparation for the MORE event.

One of the dentists and his assistants heading out to the mobile dental van.

Wendy cannot contain her excitement after getting a look at the dental van. It really was amazing. It was a complete, modern dental office (five chairs) on wheels.

There were so many who needed dental work, that it was meted out via lottery tickets. On day one 8 numbers were drawn every half hour. The dentists did their best to keep up, but many clients with tickets had not been served by the end of the first day, so those patients came back the next day, as did anyone else who had a lottery ticket in the raffle can. There was no way all who needed help were going to be seen. And yet the people waited and hoped. Once their number was called, it was still a long wait and I saw some people who had been standing in line on Friday morning still waiting for dental treatment on Saturday at 4pm when I left , No one who was lucky enough to get their number called complained. They waited and waited and waited until they finally saw the dentist. And among those lucky enough to get their ticket pulled, well, in some cases they gave their place to someone else in their family whose needs were more urgent.

One client speaking to a volunteer at the lottery table.

Other services were also offered. Immunizations were by far the most popular after dental work.

We had optometrists on hand as well. The Lions Club volunteers did vision testing and screening, and prospective patients were sent back to the optometrists.

Dental work was, by far, the most requested and labor intensive service offered at MORE 2012.

Mark needed a filling in his front incisor.

Dr. Brad Munninger of Desert Valley Dental in Fernley worked his magic.

Mark’s reaction was pretty typical of all the dental patients. Big smiles, hugs, and even some tears.

“If I cannot eat, cannot smile, cannot kiss without pain, do you think I can work, attend school, participate in the normal affairs of my family, peers and community?”

~ Shaun Griffin

I was very proud to have done this project and I’m honored the organizers trusted me to do the event justice. I’m happy with the result, but more than that, I’m happy that the photographs I took will be used to influence support for further events of this type in the near future, and legislation and change in the coming years.

Icing on the cake:

Day 108 – School Night

A few photos from school tonight.

Caught this guy on his skateboard as I was heading to class.

The first floor hallway of the art building.

Is this where I tell you I messed up and didn’t print my assignment? I thought we were going to show JPEGs. Guess where I will be tomorrow?

Anyway, after critique we all grabbed our cameras and flashes and remotes and headed outside for a lesson on how to shoot with flash outdoors and still have a lovely photo. To get the background to have detail and color and not blow out the subject, essentially you expose for the background, then stop down two stops, and adjust your flash to light your subject. After a lot of trial and error, my partner and I seemed to get the hang of it. I get the concept. Now I must practice, practice, practice!

My partner. This was shot in a well-shaded area with bright light behind her. A little blurry, but you get the idea.

Another classmate working with two others and using a remote flash trigger to light their subject with two Speedlites. I took her picture with my flash, and it set off the other Speedlite being held by her partner.