taking aim

News From the Shoot: Foodie Pics for Rasoi Caterers

2011-09-23T22:04:00.000-07:00

Rasoi Caterers features flavorful Indian Cuisine

Food photography is one of my favorite commercial assignments - especially when the client is begging us to eat the food after the shoot! Thank you to Mousami, Anita, Dipika and everybody at Rasoi Caterers in Castro Valley who were such generous hosts during and after the shoot. It was a collaborative effort with Helene Cygelman Paz styling the food and helping with lighting and composition.

And who says food photography is safe? Dipika bravely held the reflector in the late afternoon sun as hornets buzzed all around her, drawn by the scent of barbecued meat.

Assignments like this give the phrase "Will work for food" a whole new meaning!

The lowdown: All dishes shot with natural light through an open door, enhanced with a warm handheld reflector. A single, direct studio light at left rear provided glistening highlights. Shot handheld and with tripod. Telephoto, not macro. Processed on Lightroom 3, with depth of field control via Alien Skin's Bokeh 2 software.

Arriving at bookstores this month! The Everything Theodore Roosevelt Book - written by Arthur G. Sharp, historic illustrations by Steven Wynn

2011-09-10T23:06:00.000-07:00

TR's sons and photographer bury family dog in the sand, 1904

I had a lot of fun illustrating The Everything Theodore Roosevelt Book for Adams Media, a division of F+W Media. The book is a great overview of the life, politics, and exploits of the United States 26th President, written by Arthur G. Sharp.

In addition to historic photos and illustrations I researched and found on my own, I worked with the Library of Congress and the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library at Harvard to source images for the book. Out of a collection of over 70 great images, about 25 were included in the final edition that went to print.

Those that were selected are important, iconic images from the life of the President. Some of my favorites, however, are from the lesser known, private moments of the Roosevelt family, away from the White House. These did not make into the book, but I'll share a few with you now. As for those that are in the book? Guess you'll just have to pick up a copy, available at Amazon.com, many local bookstores, or download to Kindle for only $9.99!

TR as a teen, 1875 TR's son with pet badger, 1905 TR's one-legged pet rooster

armados de la selva, 1986

2011-09-04T12:00:00.000-07:00

I'm going deep into the archives for this one - all the way back to 1986, when I was 15 and armed with a lowly point-and-shoot 35mm camera. Oh, and a rifle. That's not me in the red shirt, that's my classmate and brother-in-arms, David.

Some shots develop a rich, even surreal quality as they age. The setting for this one is a trail into the remote, lowland dry forest of Nayarit State in western Mexico, in the spring of 1986. I was a young exchange student, and one weekend a small group of us clamored into the back of a pickup truck at the invitation of one of our host families for a Saturday picnic by the river. Being very trusting, and a bit naive, we asked few questions and just went along for the ride.

I remember the drive being about an hour, soon off the main highway and kicking up dust along a series of backwoods dirt roads. Our "aunt", the barefoot woman in blue sundress and red hat (and missing a few teeth), told crude jokes and cursed with the mouth of a Spanish pirata the entire way.

The truck stopped, we climbed out, and our hosts divvied up the food to carry, along with an arsenal of loaded rifles. We had no idea where we were, but next thing we knew we were marching down a trail and into la selva. It was that moment when David turned back to look at me with that haunting expression, a look of adventure, sure, but mixed with more than a little trepidation. Click! I can still feel that sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach.

It's impossible to look at this photo now without thinking about the terrifying, daily news that pours out of Mexico these days. The thought of allowing 15-year-old American students to wander off into the Mexican forest with rifles slung over their shoulders, with no American chaperone, and no means of communication (no cell phones!) is totally inconceivable.

And it's exactly that thought that gives this photo its power. As a photograph, here's what I see: The trail forms a strong, diagonal leading line into the heart of the forest and the image. David, wearing primary colors and looking at the camera, immediately grabs your attention - but then you look past him to see first a small boy also carrying a rifle, then the woman in blue, and last Henry, a bit off-balance in the distance (Henry was teen hair model back then, and completely out of his element). They combine to draw the viewer in and inexorably down the trail with an appropriate sense of foreboding - exactly the type of emotional tool that photographers love. David, an ordinary kid in red t-shirt and blue swimsuit, and shoe untied, is a "fish-out-of-water" in the scene, perfect for the plot of movie or a missing child poster.

As for technique, I've done very little with this image other than scan the negative and crop as a square. I used a little selective sharpening on David and his rifle, along with a bit of vignetting around the edges and corners.

As for the picnic, we had a great time. We swam in a cold river under the hot sun, and when the water got too cold we either sunned on a large rock or swam over to a natural hot spring to soak in its sulfurous waters. Our hosts were kind and generous; we had nothing to fear. I still don't know the reason behind the arsenal; was it to ward off marauding herds of wild pigs that we were warned about? Or to hunt? Or the danger of local banditos? I'll never know.

I did learn this lesson, though: Never point out a beautiful bird to a boy with a gun. "Look at that beautiful blue bird!" I cried out when I saw some type of parakeet perched in a tree about 20 yards away. Before I knew what was happening, mi primo took aim and dropped the bird to the ground, shot right through the breast. He ran over, picked it up and returned with a huge, warm smile. "Here you go!" he offered in Spanish. "Now you can see it up close! Isn't it beautiful?"

Welcome to my photography blog!

2011-09-03T23:12:00.000-07:00

Thanks for visiting wynnpix, my photography blog! Photography is more than a job or hobby for me; it is that incredible mix of art and memory - recording a moment in time - that preserves our lives in little slices of color and light. It is an alchemy that captures light in a box, using a mix of magic and science with lighting, motion, depth of field, and digital post-processing, all with the goal not necessarily to recreate the exact image on the screen but rather how it felt to be in the scene.

We're not always successful, but it's this goal that keeps the photographer's camera always at the ready.

My posts to this blog thumb through a collection of my favorite and most interesting photos. I'll share my newest shots, some of the oldest, revealing the stories behind them and the techniques used to record and process them. Thanks and enjoy!