"Just Between Brothers"

I love taking candid shots of people without them knowing.  If you're lucky you can capture a moment or an emotion that might have been lost had the shot been posed.  I took this shot of these two boys at scout camp.  Their parents are friends of our family.  I noticed the older brother instructing his little brother on the finer points of rock climbing.  This was the picture that came out of my camera.

This is an OK picture... but this is what I saw in my mind.

Much better!  An intimate moment between two brothers.  That's why I love Lightroom and Photoshop, they allow me to recreate what I saw in my mind... something a camera cannot always capture.  Converting the photo to B&W in Lightroom seemed to really enhance and soften the natural lighting.  It also enhanced the weathered look of the climbing wall behind them.  I cropped out the distractions and added some vignetting (darkening of the edges) to really focus on the subjects.  I really like this picture and it probably took only about five minutes in the digital darkroom.

Keep shooting!

Ryan 

From Picture to Portrait!

Here is a picture I took of a friend of mine and his son at scout camp this summer.  I thought it was a nice picture, but all the people and activity in the background really detracts from the subjects, don't you think?

The trees and sky are really over exposed and, since our eye is drawn to the light, we are pulled toward the trees, almost missing our subjects altogether.  No problem!  Using Lightroom and Photoshop (my two favorite programs on the planet!), I was able to turn that picture... into this portrait!

Much better don't you think?  This went from being a nice picture of my friend and his son, to being a great little candid portrait that they will hopefully cherish for a very long time.

The original picture was shot with my Canon 20D with a 17-85mm lens at 44mm; shutter speed was 1/60 @ f/8.0; ISO 800; no flash. 

Keep shooting!

Ryan

The Disappearing Kid

A buddy of mine sent me this photo recently and asked if I could photoshop the girl in the yellow and the guy in the black out of this picture for him.  The little girl with her arms around him is his niece.  I have no idea who the others are or how the little girl in yellow ended up so prominently in the photo.

A couple of hours later this is the photo I sent back to him.

Poof!  Like magic they're gone.  Pretty cool, huh?  I did a little adjusting to the exposure and sharpness in Lightroom to remove some of the original photo's haziness.  I cropped out the guy in black since he was close to the edge of the photo anyway.  Then I moved over to Photoshop to remove the little girl and repair the lettering on the sign.  I finished things off by using a slight Gaussian Blur to throw the background just a little out of focus and pop the subjects off the page.

I recently started using Lightroom and it is a fantastic program.  I used to think I could do everything I needed to do in Photoshop and didn't want to "waste" my money on yet another program.  Boy was I wrong!  I am finding that I probably do 80% of my photo processing work in Lightroom, using Photoshop for the "heavy lifting," such as removing little girls dressed in yellow!

Keep shooting!

Ryan

"The Climb"

This is why I keep my Canon 20D around.  When you are trying to take a picture at a place aptly named "Sand Mountain," and the winds are howling, you do not want to use your 1D Mark III. 

I took this picture on the annual Jessie Beck Elementary School field trip to Sand Mountain.  You can see the sand blowing at the top of the mountain.  Those are 4th graders (with a few adult chaperones mixed in) heading into the heart of an amazing (amazing in a bad way) wind storm.  To be honest, it was miserable hike... but I really like this photograph.  It does what any good photograph does... it tells a story.  This story is about peoples ability to overcome obstacles.  The group moving towards the hill convey a sense of scale.  Without them the picture would lose all meaning and interest in my opinion. 

Camera specs: Canon 20D with a 17-85mm lens at 41mm; 1/640 @ f/8.0; ISO 200.  The sky was gray and boring so I used the Graduated Filter in Lightroom to give it a little color.

Keep shooting!

Ryan

"The Uncle"

Today I thought I would share this photo I took at my nieces wedding.  It is my nephew JJ and his Uncle Kenny.

At weddings sometimes you have to shoot in the worst conditions... bright sunshine in the middle of the day.  That doesn't mean you can't get a great picture.  I love pictures that capture an emotion.  It is clear from looking at this photo that these two guys really like each other.  That is what I think makes good photography.  I have learned a lot since I took this photo.  I could have used a scrim to reduce the harsh brightness of the sun and eliminate the funky shadows, and gotten my flash off the camera to create directional light and create more shadow depth.  Even so, I like this photo!

Camera Specs: Canon 20D with 17-85mm set to 53mm; 1/100 @ f/22; ISO 200.  The on-camera flash fired giving a little fill light and I darked down the background about 1 stop in Lightroom to pop out the subjects.

Keep shooting!

Ryan

Welcome to the Photog Buzz

Welcome to my blog... the Photog Buzz!  In life you pretty much have two choices: you can think about doing something... or you can actually do it!  That's where I'm at with this blog.  I have always wanted to get involved in charity at a little bit deeper level then writing a check or volunteering my time for a day.  I have thought about it and talked about it with my wife for years, but I have never done anything about it.  What with owning my own business (non-photography) and raising five kids, I just always seemed to be too busy.  And the years went by.

I finally decided that I had talked about it long enough, it was time to do something.  So what could I do for charity that I would really enjoy?  I love photography and creating portraits, so I decided to offer portraits for charity... and thus, "Portraits for Water" was born.  I chose to support charity: water with my "Portraits for Water" campaign because 100% of your donation goes towards building wells for people who don't have access to clean, safe drinking water.  Something most of us take for granted without giving it a second thought.  All administrative costs for charity: water are paid for through corporate sponsorships.

This is a work in progress.  It is kind of exciting... but at the same time I don't know if anyone will even be interested in what I'm trying to do.  But you know what they say... "nothing ventured, nothing gained."

So here we go!  Check back in every now and then if you want to see how things are going!

Ryan
Member: Professional Photographers of America

"Portraits for Water"... How It Works

The "Portraits for Water" concept is simple... create a beautiful studio or location portrait, but rather then charge for the portrait session and prints, we ask that you make a donation to charity: water on behalf of the Photog Buzz.  Our goal is to raise $5,000... enough to build a freshwater well in a village and provide 250+ people with clean drinking water.  How cool is that!

You can visit this blog and track our progress towards achieving this goal.  We suggest a $50 donation for a portrait sitting.

At this time we are offering photography sessions by appointment only.  If you are interested in scheduling an appointment you may contact us at photogbuzz@charterinternet.com  We will contact you shortly after receiving your request.

Click here if you would like to learn more about charity:water and their extraordinary efforts.

The Idea Behind the "Portraits for Water" Campaign

For years now my wife and I have been going on a weekly "date night" to the Outback Steak House.  With five kids at home, this chance to get together and reconnect is a very important part of our routine.  Besides that, Outback has a really great Tilapia dish and the seared tuna appetizer is fantastic! 

For as long as I can remember, one of things my wife and I have discussed is my desire to do something for charity that goes beyond just writing a check.  We have always been pretty good about supporting our kid's schools and the various fund raisers they are involved in, but I always felt like I wanted to do just a little bit more, and perhaps... just a little bit different.  In fact, I talked about it for so long that my wife finally got tired of hearing about it.  You can only "talk" for so long... eventually you need to "do".

We own a successful landscape architectural firm, but over the years I have also pursued my passion for photography, going so far as to set up a fully operational portrait studio.  I always figured that when I "retired" from landscape architecture I would do portait photography.  I have been content doing photography "on the side."  Over time people have found out about my "side" passion and mention that they want to have me do a family portrait for them.  I also take a lot of photos at local sporting events and am frequently asked by parents if they can pay me for some photos of their kid?  I always say... don't worry about it, I'll just email the pictures to you.

The more I thought about it, though, I started thinking that instead of saying "no" when people make the offer, why not say "sure," and donate that money to charity.  That it how the idea for the "Portraits for Water" campaign was born.

If you want to learn more about having a portrait done for charity click here, or on "PFC... How It Works!" in the blog sidebar.

Backup... or wish you had!

Last week a friend of mine told me that their hard drive crashed and they lost all of the family photos that they had taken over the past several years.  One company told him they could try and retrieve the information from the hard drive for $3,000... but there were no guarantees how successful they would be.

That's a lot of money, especially considering how easy it is to back up the information on your computer.  I own a landscape architecture firm and for years now I have taken an external hard drive to the office every Friday.  We back up all the information on our server and I store the external hard drive in a safe at my house.  This way, at the very worst, we would lose a weeks worth of work if our hard drive crashed on a Friday.  I kept the back up at a seperate location in case of fire.  This system is better then nothing... but far from ideal.

A few months ago we decided to try Carbonite, an online company that backs up your information whenever you are not on the computer.  When your computer is idle, Carbonite automatically backs up new and changed files. You don’t have to do anything! When you’re using your computer, Carbonite goes to sleep so it will never slow down your computer or internet connection.  And  get this, it only costs about $50 per year!

We have already used our Carbonite account to retrieve some plans that I accidentally deleted from our system.   It was a really simple process.  I am going to set up an account for my photography business as well.  I have heard a lot of people say good things about Carbonite... and I have definately been impressed.  You might want to look into it for yourself.  After all, $50 seems like pretty cheap insurance.

I have no affilliation with this company... I just wanted to pass along what I found.

Ryan

   

A Piece of Advice From Joe McNally

As I mentioned yesterday, I recently attended the Photoshop World Conference in Vegas.  Joe McNally, a world renowned photographer who has worked for such note worthy magazines as Life and National Geographic, gave this piece of advice.  He said that you should blog... even if no one is reading it.  It is important to "be out there, to have a voice."  Well, I have been blogging for a few months now and, sure enough, no one reads it... so, according to Joe McNally, I guess I'm doing something right.

One real benefit to blogging is that it helps the writer learn.  I blog about photography even though I do not have decades of experience like some of the bloggers I read.  What I have discovered in doing this is that it forces me to delve deeper into subjects so that I can blog about them.  The act of blogging then serves to further reinforce what I have learned.  It's the old adage that the best way to learn... is to teach.  That is what I am doing through my blog, conveying information that I have learned.  In other words, teaching. 

Try it sometime.  You might find that it works for you too.

Ryan 

Fun at the Photoshop World Conference in Vegas

I just spent three days at the Photoshop World Conference in Vegas.  This was my second time to attend and it won't be my last.  PWC is a first class photography and Photoshop conference.  The staff at NAPP (National Association of Photoshop Professionals) do a fantastic job and all of the instructors and speakers are first rate.  The only drawback to the conference is that there are so many fantastic seminars going on it is extremely difficult to choose which one to attend.

This video starring Scott Kelby and Joe McNally was used during the opening "ceremony," I guess you would call it.  They always start the conference off with a bang. 



This was just one of the many clever things they did.  Enjoy it... I certainly did!

Ryan