More Chase, and DIY Professional?

Everyone who reads my ramblings knows I have a thing for Chase Jarvis – he lives the notion that photography is a business, and I have to admire that dedication to his business!! Just because he happens to take an OK image every now and then certainly doesn’t hurt (and Chase, should you ever read this, I really mean “mind blowing awesome image”!!)

But I digress – Chase is doing my head in again, with his throw-away pearls of wisdom!! In a post he did last month (yes, I’m slightly behind on my RSS feeds), Chase suggested photographers should “Stop trying to get everyone to like your work”. He makes a great point, and it’s like Chase is talking DIRECTLY TO ME!!!

How many of us have an awesome idea for a shot – and then over a few minutes, hours, days, weeks, that brilliant idea loses its shine, puts a few doubts in your mind, and before you know it – you hate it! I’ve bin’d so many ideas using this process, it’s a wonder I ever shoot anything!! (Stop laughing at me, I do actually shoot sometimes!!). But Chaswami is correct, I need to “quit with my shifty eyes” and stop looking at what everyone else is doing – and just get on with my stuff!!

Here’s hoping I can convert this concept into more spontaneous shoots – some of the best images I’ve seen and admired came from that breathtaking idea moment being immediately followed up with some action!!

On a side note, I was impressed with the idea of a cheap PVC Flash Bracket for off-camera flash photography. However, what are the chances you’ll ever do a second fashion or catalogue gig if you used one of those on a commercial project!! It’s annoying and irrelevant, but commercial clients will notice cheap gear – it shouldn’t make a difference to the photos, but it will make a difference to the number of zeros you can put on your invoice!

Lytro, where did you come from??

Ummm, wow?  This one completely took me by surprise, and I will open by saying that a whole lot more investigation will be undertaken before I get too excited.  On the surface, the Lytro sounds like weird voodoo camera magic, and maybe it is!  Continue on for more…

Got me a new axe!

Back in late 2008 (yes, that long ago!!), I invested in a Universal Timer – you can still buy them, and they are a very cool bit of kit! For the uninitiated (and those who don’t bother clicking through the many links I provide!), the Universal Time is effectively a remote control trigger for your DSLR, on steroids! It takes input from different types of sensors, and fires a couple of attached flashes! Read on for the details…

More on light painting

I’ve been really enjoying some recent forays into light painting – I’m no expert by any stretch of the imagination, but it is fun to get outside and actually INTERACT with my own images. Light painting is great because I get to be in my own images, without actually being IN them. Perfect for someone like me, who prefers to be behind the lens rather than in front of it!

Steal like an artist

Regular readers here know that I tend to get a bit gooey when talking about Chase Jarvis – he takes the occasional pleasant image (!!) and also knows how succeed and grow in the business of photography! He’s an all-rounder, pure and simple – while old skool film shooters are lamenting the loss of the good ol’ days, Chase continues to tear it up!

So I was a little surprised when I saw Chase had updated his blog with an article titled “How to steal ideas like an artist“. Eh, what?

Light Painting Trial

It’s been ages since I’ve posted, and for that I apologise!! Things are always hectic, what can I say!! But I would like to point out that things are still moving with the studio, which is now sponsoring a great little group on meetup.com – Melbourne Photography Workshops! It’s simply a portal for people who host workshops and people who want to attend workshops to come together!! It seems to be going well so far, lots of fun workshops have been held already and there’s quite a few to come!

Speaking of workshops, a small group from Melbourne Light Painters and a couple of people from Melbourne Photography Workshops went out last Friday night for some lightpainting. Great night had by all, and we got some great shots. There’s another lightpainting night in the pipeworks (ha! a pun!), so keep your eye on the workshop announcements on the Melbourne Photography Workshops meetup group and get involved!!

I’d post some images, but that’s partly the reason why I’ve been so long between updates – I’ve broken this site!! I can’t seem to upload and post images, which is only slightly problematic for a PHOTOGRAPHY site!! *sigh* It’s always something… So, you get this post for now, and then perhaps the site will start behaving strangely for a bit while I tear it down and try and get it running again!

Please be patient, things will be back to normal in no time at all (did that sound convincing??). Hopefully, there’ll be new images shortly!

Even video light painting…

On one hand I can’t believe it, and on the other I am completely unsurprised – it is now officially possible to largely automate the complexity of lightpainting in video.

For me, much of the “wow” factor of light painted videos is the knowledge that the poor suckers amazing artists actually produced 24 frames per second to deliver the final results (usually only a couple of minutes long). It was hard, painstaking work, and the results were hit and miss a lot of the time but you had to be impressed with the effort.

Inspiration

Another ramble, but only a short one – inspiration comes from a variety of places, and sometimes places where I least expect it – the supermarket has aisle after aisle of possibilities, at reasonable prices! But inspiration also comes from more expected places, like the websites of other awesome photographers!

What really gets me are those concepts that are so far beyond my own ideas, that I’m blind-sided by their awesomeness and immediately relegate my own idea to the archive (ie bin!!).

ShutterClass studio progress continues

It’s been almost 3 weeks since the last update, and quite a bit has happened (always busy, as you all know!!). We had quite a bit of rain in Melbourne recently, and combined with the heat it was a perfect recipe for really testing out the plaster and cyc curve stability! Guess what – cyc curves hate humidity! We had a little cracking and some lifting, we we’ve had to spend some time working on repairs already! On the plus side, repairs turned out to be pretty easy, and the end result is much more stable. Hopefully the heat and humidity predicted over the coming months will prove it’s a better result. And then we have winter cold to look forward to…

The studio has been quite busy lately, which has slowed down completion of the construction – today is the last day of a 3-day fashion/portfolio shoot. We’ve had around 20 people onsite every day, with lots of models coming and going as they attend their session. It’s been relatively smooth, although a small incident with a courier van driving into our front doors, and a modelling lamp exploding meant we had our fair share of excitement!

As we rapidly head towards Christmas, the studio will be closed from 23/12 to 4/1. In that time I’ll be getting organised and planning out the workshops I plan to run in January – at this stage there’ll be a couple of basic lighting workshops, along with some “play” workshops. I’m considering short sessions on using laser/sound triggers, paint/powder/water shoots, and maybe timelapse and lightpainting. I’ve also got a couple of shoots of my own I need to get organised, but more about those once I get the details sorted!!

Next update will probably be early in the new year – until then, I hope everyone has a safe and happy Christmas, and a memorable new year!

Studio build progressing well, first shoots done!

It’s been almost a month since the last update, and what a busy 3 or so weeks it has been. Floors are in and complete, we now have 2.5 cycs (the corner cyc 3 is still a work in progress, but the main half of it is functional). The portrait walls are done and came up really well with the chosen colours, but there are still more coats of paint required on the cyc curves (masonite is a resilient product, but pretty ordinary to get filled and painted). The biggest challenge has simply been time and the weather – hot humid conditions has not been ideal for plastering, sanding and painting, but we are getting there. We’ve encountered some cracks in some of the plaster and may need to revisit that if time permits.

First shoots happened today in the studios, and they appear to have been successful – got some positive feedback, and hopefully we’ll see people back in the studios in future. It was great to get back in the studio and work with other shooters – while I like nothing better than having a great shoot myself, I also get right into helping others solve their challenges, particularly when it works out and they are getting the results they want!

Did some light testing as well, initial tests to see what the cyc looks like under strobe – seems to produce workable results so far. As mentioned above, the cracking may be an issue depending on light angle, but in most cases it is not even visible (so perhaps I worry too much about it being perfect?). Here’s a candid shot of me taking a look, shot by the wonderful and supportive Morgana (of Morgana Creely Photography. Model is the ever talented Martin (of Martin Creely Photography) who’s also a great sport and event shooter too! Go check them both out!

More images to come, as the build wraps up! Thanks everyone for your support so far – feel free to check out the ShutterClass site, and drop past the studio or keep an eye on the upcoming workshops (announced via the ShutterClass Facebook page)