Jon Heller Photography

Something from this fall.

2012-01-15T21:48:00.000-08:00

This are some images from an assignment I did this past fall for AirCorps Aviation that is working on rebuilding a world war II fighter plane

In this image I placed an Elincrom Quadra with the diffusion cover on it with a full CTO gel on it right of the machine and fired it in through a window on the end of it.

For this one I used mostly natural light but placed the Quadra on the other side of the plane and pointed at the top of the engine above the mechanics head.

This is probably one of my best group shots and it was actually pretty simple for light. I had the Quadra in a 27" square softbox camera left and placed a Nikon SB-900 behind the engine to bring up the background detail.

Caitlin

2012-01-14T11:40:00.000-08:00

Recently I have been doing a lot of shooting in the studio and here is some of those images I shot with my friend Caitlin.

53" octa camera left on a C-Stand shot with a Nikon 50mm

Typical glamour solution 53" octa above Caitlin on a C-stand, a gold tri grip reflector at waist level. Shot with Nikon 70-200mm.

Same light as the previous image except I added a Nikon SB-900 zoomed to 200mm to cast the hard shadows on the background. Shot with a Nikon 70-200.

Caught her in a beam of natural light coming in through the studio window.

First day in the studio

2011-12-04T00:18:00.000-08:00

I got to shoot in the new studio space I share with a friend of mine in Bemidji yesterday. It was nice to finally be in a proper studio, between the two of us we have enough gear and experience to do any assignment that comes our way. I got to shoot with my friend Shena again and we got some great images including the one below.

for this image I used a 6x4 foot softbox above the camera, a head pumping into a gold reflector on the floor and two head aimed at the background.

I used a combination of Speedotron and Elincrom lights and a Nikon 16-85 on my D300. Processed in Lightroom.

Right tools for the job.

2011-10-29T01:04:00.000-07:00

This spring I started shooting with the Elinchrom Ranger Quadra system kind of moving away from my smaller Nikon flashes. I have gained more power and access to a larger range of light modifiers my favorite for location work is a 27" square softbox.

The C-Stand is a beast to haul around on location but it makes getting the softbox in position so much easier and the weight makes the whole setup more stable in the breeze, had it been windier or if I were using a larger softbox I would have wanted to sandbag the stand.

This image was shot with a Nikon 50mm 1.4 on my D300 with the above lighting setup and processed in Adobe Lightroom.

Walking with a camera

2011-10-15T18:12:00.000-07:00

I love to just go for a walk with a camera and see what I can come up for images and I have been doing this even more now that I have have gotten my little Nikon P7000 which goes with me just about everywhere. These images were all shot around the downtown Bemidji area. Everything processed in Lightroom.

Channeling my inner Helmut Newton

2011-10-08T00:53:00.000-07:00

Helmut Newton was an amazing fashion photographer and he continued to shoot for Vogue into his 80's. He was one of the shooters I wanted to emulate along with Herb Ritts, Walter Iooss Jr and Mark Seliger. If you don't know any of those names as soon as you are done here you need to Google them.

I thought this would be a great follow up to the pin up type shot I did with Alice yesterday, this is NOT Alice though.

I shot this with natural light and a borrowed 50mm 1.8 Nikon lens on my D300. Processed in Lightroom.

Alice

2011-10-07T22:09:00.000-07:00

Today I got to work with my friend Alice on a photo we had been talking about for a while. But this was not the photo that we were originally planning on shooting, I love how a photo shoot can start one place and end up with the best shot being inspired by the person getting ready for the shot.

Here is a production shot, I don't think I could go back to a time before I had C-Stands they make the work so much easier and their weight made made me feel safe while working in the wind today. If I had been working with a bigger softbox I would have sandbagged everything.

I shot the top shot with a Nikon D300 and a 50mm 1.4, lit with an Elinchrom Quadra and a 27" square softbox and a Lastolite trigrip reflector for a beauty light combo. Processed in Lightroom.

Untitled

2011-09-09T21:41:00.000-07:00

I shot this one back in June using a 53" Octabank with my Elinchrom Quadra. It produces an amazing quality of light so it took very little processing and what little I did was done in Adobe Lightroom.

Stoney Point climbing

2011-09-02T09:26:00.000-07:00

I shot this image when I was in LA for the winter at a place called Stoney Point which is a popular climbing area near where I was staying. I lit this image with an SB-900 held camera left. Shot with a Nikon D300 with a 16-85mm and processed in Lightroom

Day 7

2011-09-01T10:10:00.000-07:00

I shot this when I was in LA over the winter with a Nikon D300 and a 20mm lens. Processed in Lightroom.

Day 5

2011-08-30T09:43:00.000-07:00

I shot this image when the carnival was in town. When I saw the scene my first thought was some one needed to stop the senseless slaughter of stuffed carnival animal because is some one doesn't speak up for them no one will. I shot it with the P7000 and processed in Lightroom.

Day 4

2011-08-29T22:03:00.000-07:00

I just really like the lines with this one. I shot it with my Nikon P7000 and processed in lightroom.

A simple image for today.

2011-08-28T00:21:00.000-07:00

I have tried to shoot this several times with different lenses and lighting situations. This time it was shot with my Nikon P7000 with natural light, processed in Lightroom.

A cool thing about the P7000

2011-08-27T00:19:00.000-07:00

When your working with flash outside one thing that is always hard to deal with is the sync speed of the camera. Typically it is around 1/250 of a second but with most Nikon DSLR's and the Nikon SB flashes you can get up to around 1/4000 of a second. The problem is that you have to practically be on top of your subject with the light to get it to work properly and it really sucks power from the batteries. But with the Nikon P7000 point and shoot camera you can get sync all the way up to 1/2000 of a second as easily as if you were shooting your DSLR at 1/250th and it isn't a power suck like with the DSLR.

The above image was shot at 1/2000 of a second at f2.8 and it was part of a burst of five images. I used a Nikon SB-900 camera left tethered to the camera with an SC-17 cord. Then I processed it in Adobe Lightroom.

About time

2011-08-26T00:45:00.000-07:00

You have to love when the weather works in your favor, even though these storm clouds cut the shoot a little short but it added a lot of drama to the photo. For this image I had a quadra head running through a softbox above Caitlin on a C-stand.

On the edge of the day.

2011-07-29T08:37:00.000-07:00

I really like shooting at around the twilight realm, everything takes on a whole new look then during the day. Lights are coming on as the daylight fades so you can get an interesting mix of light. I shot these about two weeks ago when I was out for a friends birthday party.

Everything was shot with my Nikon P7000 and processed in Lightroom.

Its all about the color

2011-07-28T10:42:00.000-07:00

Back in the film days I shot nothing but black and white not that I had anything color images but black and white was something I could process and print myself to save some money. With digital though it's the same price either way so I try to take advantage of good color whenever I can.

Sidewalk chalk during the 4th of July parade.

I was drawn to how the pole and wires framed the cloud the colors were just a bonus.

Warm and cool tones always seem to work well together. Paul and Babe during the annual water carnival.

First two images were shot with a Nikon D300 with a 16-85mm and the bottom shot with a Nikon P7000 and everything was processed in Adobe Lightroom.

Shooting with Nora

2011-07-19T00:24:00.000-07:00

I've been shooting a lot since I've been back from California, closing in on 5,000 images in the last four months. One of the people I have been shooting with is my new friend Nora featured here.

For this image I used an Elinchrom Quadra with a 27x27" softbox above me and slightly camera left using the sun as a backlight.

For this image I placed the Quadra behind Nora and camera right to act as a back light but then over exposed Nora.

The lighting here was the Quadra with a full cut of CTO on it behind her and camera right to simulate warm afternoon sunlight because it was a dark and rainy day.

All images were shot with a Nikon D300 with a 16-85mm and they were all processed in Adobe Lightroom.

Portfolio part 2

2011-06-25T10:25:00.001-07:00

From my day at Pikes Place Market in Seattle, WA

Speed skating race on Lake Bemidji.

Scenes from "Wait Till Dark"

Mountain biking in southern California.

Actor waiting to do his scene in a historical cemetery walk.

Local musician Brett Cease performing on the streets of Bemidji.

Bemidji State University women's basketball.

Guitarist for Eddie Money at Moondance Jam, Walker, MN.

A drunk getting tossed from the Bemidji State University homecoming dance.

One of my covers for Northwoods Woman magazine. It was a story on Beverly Everette conductor of the Bemidji Symphony Orchestra.

Performers heading back to their cars from The Night We Light parade in Bemidji.

My portfolio

2011-05-23T10:46:00.000-07:00

While I wait for my new website to be built I need something online to show people more then a couple shots at a time. This is my current portfolio and the thing that ties them all together is that they were all shot with some sort of flash or flash and ambient light combination.

On the set.

2011-05-19T22:49:00.000-07:00

I spent the afternoon on the set of a movie some of my friends are making as the official photographer. This was the second day I did this and even with 300+ zombies at my disposal one of those days this is by far my favorite portrait from the set. This actor was done for the day and got to peel off his appliances but he still looked like he could be in character. I shot most of the day with my Nikon P7000 due to it just being a lot quieter on set while the main cameras were rolling and a little bonus was I got to shoot some B roll footage that might get used you never know.

Hiking with Justine

2011-05-11T09:07:00.001-07:00

When I was in LA some one showed me this cool hiking trail on the backside of the Topenga Canyon State Park. I went there several times to shoot photos or just hike. One of those hikes I went there with my friend Justine and on the way back out I saw this scene and was able to grab it quick before she passed through it. Shot with a Nikon D300 with a 35mm 1.8 and processed in Lightroom.

A little late night sax

2011-05-06T07:50:00.001-07:00

I did a shoot last night with Brett Cease from Bemidji. I had seen him playing sax with a friend of mine a few weeks ago and set out to do some saxophone photos.

These were all shot with a Nikon D300 w/ a 16-85mm Nikkor lens. I used my Elinchrom Quadra with a 20 degree grid on some of the shots otherwise it was just a hard light out of a 7" reflector. Everything was processed in Adobe Lightroom.

Mike

2011-05-03T08:37:00.001-07:00

Since I got back from LA my friend Mike has really stepped up and helped me out with some of my photo ideas that I came up with over the winter.

For this one I put my Elinchrom Quadra flash outside and fired it back into the bar through the window.

This was a one light set up, I had the Quadra set up camera right with a 10 degree grid to control light spill. The light on his back is late evening sun that was a happy accident.

This was lit with a Quadra camera left fired through a 53" Octabank.

Same light as previous image. All shot with a 16-85 Nikkor, Nikon D300 and processed in Adobe Lightroom.

Crouching Tiger, Venice Beach

2011-04-28T18:29:00.000-07:00

This was a shot that I did on my last shoot at Venice Beach. Jackie wanted to do some leaps and I thought it would be cool to shoot under the pier. I wasn't sure what she was going to do till she started running and leaping off of this piling. We started with two lights hidden behind the nearest piling camera left but every time she pushed off of the one piling she would turn away from the light. A quick and easy fix was to have some one hold one of the two flashes camera right to become the main light.

I took the dome diffusor off the main light and zoomed it to 200mm but left the dome on the SB-900 camera left. They were both set at half power but by taking off the dome I changed the ratio by at least a stop.

This was shot with a Nikon D300, a 16-85mm, two SB-900's and processed in Adobe Lightroom.