Glenn Harris Photography

Lighting Test Shots and Smiles

noreply@blogger.com (Glenn Harris) — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 21:14:00 +0000

The two images below were taken on the weekend when I was testing the lighting setup for the studio part of the maternity shoot. I wanted lighting that was soft and directional, and provided a smooth transition into shadow.

To smile or not to smile. How many times have we heard someone say smile for the camera? Yep, lots of times, and we usually end up with a forced grin. Not all portraits need to have a smile but if you want the subject to smile then they need to have a reason to smile, other than being told to, and nice teeth. In the first image below Heather's eyes are doing the smiling. In the second image we see a genuine smile, and really nice teeth. Both are nice portraits.

Happy Birthday Mum

noreply@blogger.com (Glenn Harris) — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 19:11:00 +0000

It is my mum's birthday on the 6th - have a great day mum. These images were taken almost a year ago when I was back in Australia. We were enjoying a nice summer evening in my nephew's backyard.

Heather and Tim plus one

noreply@blogger.com (Glenn Harris) — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 02:24:00 +0000

This afternoon we shot a maternity session with Tim and Heather. The weather was overcast, cold and windy - not ideal conditions but Tim and Heather were great to work with. We started out at Woodward Park.

Next we drove over to Centennial Park.

Heather and Tim did a great job out in the cold conditions and we were really pleased with the results. But we were all ready to head back to the warmth of the house for some portraits.

Australia Day

noreply@blogger.com (Glenn Harris) — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 23:24:00 +0000

Today is Australia Day and commemorates the first settlement of Australia by the English in 1788. So I grabbed a pair of shorts, one of my Australian shirts (green and gold are the colors of Australia) and tried to look like I was in Australia. Fortunately the sun was shining so that helped but the temperature was a long way from the 90F they were enjoying in Australia.

I stopped by the supermarket this morning and picked up a cake - party on!!!

Lauren was my super assistant for this shoot. She helped setup the lights - all three of them - and then took the photos.

Afton Eagles Freshman Basketball

noreply@blogger.com (Glenn Harris) — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 16:02:00 +0000

Last night we drove up to Afton to watch Dorothy's niece play basketball. The Afton Eagle were playing Wyandotte and for me and the girls this was our first time to see the gym where Dorothy played basketball when she attended Afton High School. Our night started with Dorothy showing us her old locker.

Then it was into the gym to watch the game. Wyandotte jumped out to an early lead, then Afton got back to within two points before Wyandotte pulled away in the last quarter.

We concluded the night by looking up Dorothy's senior photo in the entrance to the gym. Afton is a small school and usually has around 40 students in the graduating class and the senior class photos for classes going back to 1950s are on display.

Birthday Portraits

noreply@blogger.com (Glenn Harris) — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 19:52:00 +0000

This morning we took Dorothy's official birthday portraits. Taking these portraits on our birthday has become a bit of a tradition now, and also a good excuse to get another cake.

Birthdays

noreply@blogger.com (Glenn Harris) — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 17:29:00 +0000

Yesterday Dorothy and her Uncle Frank celebrated their birthday's. I won't tell you how old Dorothy turned (hint: check out the cupcakes below) but Frank was celebrating his 90th birthday. A somewhat large group gathered at Oklahoma Joe's for BBQ for lunch and to celebrate the occasion.

I hope we all look this happy on our 90th birthday.

The staff at Oklahoma Joe's really went out of their way to ensure we had a great time celebrating the birthdays. And the food is amazing.

Getting ready for cold weather

noreply@blogger.com (Glenn Harris) — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 02:54:00 +0000

So far we have had a somewhat mild winter but some colder weather is coming later this week so I thought it would be a good opportunity for Lauren to try on my old winter jacket. This jacket dates back to the early 80s when I went to Ecuador for some high altitude mountain climbing up around 20,000 feet. The jacket was manufactured by a company called Wilderness Experience and they didn't last too long for some reason - their clothing was excellent. I set up an 60 inch softlighter with a Canon 580 EX speedlight in the back yard and Lauren obliged with the modeling.

Eighteenth Birthday

noreply@blogger.com (Glenn Harris) — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 23:13:00 +0000

Yesterday was Lauren's 18th birthday. Today was the official birthday celebration photoshoot.

An afternoon at the park

noreply@blogger.com (Glenn Harris) — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 23:51:00 +0000

This afternoon Emilie and I went over to Hunter Park to get some images of her before college starts up again next week. The temperature was up in the 60s F with a bit of a breeze and quite a few other people were enjoying an afternoon in the park too.

Nice day for a bicycle ride

noreply@blogger.com (Glenn Harris) — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 21:46:00 +0000

Emilie wasn't working today and I was able to persuade her to ride the bicycle so I could get some action portraits of her. There was a cold wind and the temperature was around 40F but the sun was shining and Emilie had a couple of layers of The North Face on. I was looking for an effect where Emilie and the bicycle stood out from the somewhat drab background and I was very pleased the results.

Here is a setup shot showing my Alien Bee with diffused beauty dish set at full power connected to my Vagabond II power supply. In addition to the Vagabond, which weighs 18 lbs, I also had 35 lbs in dumbbells securing the light stand in the stiff wind. The setup allowed me to use the sun as a background or rim light source depending on where I was positioned to shoot the image.

New Years Day Barbecue

noreply@blogger.com (Glenn Harris) — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 22:42:00 +0000

Way back in my more youthful days in Australia we often had a barbecue on New Years Day. The temperature was usually in the 90s F and we would head off to the bush near the town of Rushworth. Today the sun was shining and the temperature was not in the 90s, more like in the 40s F, but still a good day to have a New Years Day barbecue, particularly since it was New Years Day.

We threw a steak, some chicken and some prawns on the old barbi and also had some potato salad and coleslaw waiting inside. Here we have Dorothy plating the steak while I take a rest in between the shooting.

Now for a few behind the scenes shots from the photo shoot that show the lighting setup and the crew who helped make this shoot possible.

Downtown with Lauren

noreply@blogger.com (Glenn Harris) — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 21:49:00 +0000

This morning Lauren and I went downtown to get some photos before she headed back to school next week, and also take advantage of the unseasonably mild weather. We started off outside of Cain's Ballroom on Main Street.

Lauren is holding my new color checker card so I can calibrate the colors and white balance when I download the images later. This little device really can make a difference to the look of the images.

After wrapping up outside of Cain's we headed over to the Blue Rose Cafe on Riverside for some lunch. This sunny, mild weather brought a lot of people out to dine on the river.

The river trail was busy with runners and cyclists.

The old barn

noreply@blogger.com (Glenn Harris) — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 04:34:00 +0000

After Christmas dinner we went outside to enjoy the nice weather, for a Christmas Day at least, and took some photos up by the remains of an old feed barn. We had a wonderful Christmas Day. The photo shoot started with Emilie and Zane.

Christmas dinner at the farm

noreply@blogger.com (Glenn Harris) — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 04:25:00 +0000

We drove up to the farm to have Christmas Dinner with Dorothy's parents. Lauren is showing her grandpa her iPhone while the food is being prepared.

Dorothy's mom cooked the turkey and the mashed potatoes and Dorothy brought corm, green beans, dressing and bread rolls.

Christmas morning

noreply@blogger.com (Glenn Harris) — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 04:19:00 +0000

Christmas morning at our house opening gifts. And Smokey is patiently waiting for his gift wrapped can of tuna and some crepe paper to tear into.

What more can anyone ask for: three different flavors of Tim Tams.

Happy Holidays

noreply@blogger.com (Glenn Harris) — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 21:33:00 +0000

Tis' the season....

The Golden Hour

noreply@blogger.com (Glenn Harris) — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 01:08:00 +0000

This evening I was taking some trash out and noticed the sun was producing a wonderful golden glow. So I asked Lauren to come out and pose for a few photos. While the sun was providing a nice golden glow, it was also brighter than what I wanted so I added a diffusion scrim to camera left about 18 inches from Lauren's face. This was getting closer to the look I was after and I did a black & white conversion because that is how I had visualized this shot - nice sunlight from camera left and soft shadow on the left side of Lauren's face.

Next I wanted to soften the sunlight even more and open up the shadow on Lauren's face. I moved the diffusion scrim in to right next to Lauren's shoulder and this softened the light even more. Then I had Lauren hold a piece of white foam-core board to her left to open up the shadows on that side of her face. And another black & white conversion to show the gradual transition of shadow across her face.

The setup for this next image was almost identical to the image above but without the black & white conversion. And this is why that time of day is referred to as the golden hour and highly sort after by photographers.

The light was fading fast when Lauren took this final image of me. All of these images were shot using only natural light. But I used a diffusion scrim and white reflector to control the light the way I wanted to get the look I was after when I first saw the sunlight while I was taking the trash out.

Young Farmer

noreply@blogger.com (Glenn Harris) — Sun, 18 Dec 2011 02:23:00 +0000

This little guy will probably be a farmer when he gets older.

Sellmeyer Christmas Dinner

noreply@blogger.com (Glenn Harris) — Sun, 18 Dec 2011 02:02:00 +0000

Today all of Dorothy's family got together for a Christmas dinner up near Adair. Not everyone was there but we still had 31 I think, and I shot portraits of nine people who weren't at the Thanksgiving dinner. There is still one person who I need to get a portrait of. After dinner I scouted a location on the front porch that would be good for the portraits. I had Lauren pose while I checked the lighting which was a gridded beauty dish up high and just to camera left.

Getting ready for Christmas

noreply@blogger.com (Glenn Harris) — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 02:00:00 +0000

Today was the day when Dorothy decided it was time to start decorating for Christmas, starting with the outside. As much as I really wanted to help I knew I had to capture the moments for historical purposes.

After the lights were up, and tested, it was on to raking up the leaves. And without resting I was there to capture that.

Dorothy couldn't resist playing in the huge pile of leaves.

This is probably my favorite from the afternoon and the key was getting down low

Mid American Wrestling Tournament

noreply@blogger.com (Glenn Harris) — Sun, 11 Dec 2011 02:17:00 +0000

Union High School were hosting the Mid American Tournament at the UMAC this Friday and Saturday and we stopped by after the basketball shoot to watch some of the matches and get some photos of a friend's son during his match. These guys were competing in the 106 lb weight and have zero percent body fat. I thought a black and white conversion would be good to show their muscle definition.

Thunder Basketball

noreply@blogger.com (Glenn Harris) — Sun, 11 Dec 2011 02:07:00 +0000

This morning we shot team photos and some of the action for the Union Thunder 2nd Grade team. After a slow first half the Thunder ran away to an 18-6 victory.

After the game we took the team photos and they were so excited to have their photos taken.

After seeing her serious face in the team photos I asked her to smile and this is the best she was going to give me.

Varsity Wrestling

noreply@blogger.com (Glenn Harris) — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 16:05:00 +0000

Last night I had the opportunity to shoot the action at a Varsity wrestling match between the Union Redskins and the Bixby Spartans. This was my first time shooting wrestling and I had a lot of fun capturing the action. Union has several State Champions and nationally ranked wrestlers on their roster and there was some great contests with Union coming away the victors on the night.

Shades of gray

noreply@blogger.com (Glenn Harris) — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 17:46:00 +0000

Yesterday I setup my softlighter, gridded beauty dish and gridded reflector for a three-light portrait of Lauren. I wanted soft lighting on Lauren's face with a gradual transition to shadow and also to highlight her hair. The softlighter, as the name suggests, provided a nice soft light from camera left and the gridded beauty dish filled in the shadow on the left of her face to provide the soft transition from light to shadow around at her nose. I knew I would be converting these images to black and white when I setup the lighting and I was very pleased with the result.

Here I had Lauren turn her body towards the softlighter.