Here are a few photos that I took on the peninsula. Most were taken from the roadside. If you have never been to Traverse City in the summer you owe it to yourself to visit. The beauty and charm here are spectacular.

This house can be seen from the road. The house is nestled on the shores of Traverse City’s East Bay. The views from Hwy 37 are spectacular.

Small farms and wineries abound on the Old Mission Peninsula. You can buy fresh apples, cherries and other tasty delights from the various vendors who line the road with small booths set up by the local farmers.

More blossoms. The cherry trees are abundant this year as opposed to the previous year when an early warm up and later frost killed most of the crop.

At the end of the Peninsula stands a lighthouse. The lighthouse is open for visitors and includes a gift shop. The water on Lake Michigan has been at historic lows. I met a friend and fellow photographer while I was out here and he told me that he would have had to put on waders to get a shot like this when he moved to the area in 1978. The dry land stretches quite a ways out from here. Former Minnesota Governor, Jesse Ventura, filmed an episode of Conspiracy Theory several years ago and stood about where I am standing to take this shot.

These last two shots show the variation of the peninsula. Lush fields and grasses and dry, barren land give you a sense of the diversity. There is also a nice shoreline (not pictured) that you will have to experience for yourself. I can still smell the natural beauty and feel the warm sunshine as I look at these photos. Hopefully these photos have given you a sense for how nice this place is.

Here it is April 12th and it is snowing in Northern Michigan. This is the perfect chance for me to spend some time updating the blog.

I have been thinking about something lately and thought it would be a useful tip for my fellow photographers. Traverse City had an ice storm yesterday. This morning, as expected, people were posting close-up pictures of ice dripping off branches and other objects to their Facebook photo albums.

I think it’s great that people want to get out and use a shallow depth of field to blur the background to accentuate the  main focus of the photograph. It’s a great way to practice camera settings. You might even get one or two images that stand out as unique photographs.  My mantra, to improve your photography skills has always been to keep shooting until your button pushing finger hurts. Try to see the shot through the lens before you push the button. Compose your image before you take the shot.

Good camera skills with win you praise, Uniqueness will win you awards.

Have you ever seen a photo that stands out from the digital noise and sticks in your head? Some of the greatest photographs of all time are story-telling images that stand out because they tell the story in a unique way. If you check out the top photos on Photo.net you will see images that are of a wide variety of subjects that are photographed in unique ways. The photos on photo.net update often so there’s no way to say specifically which photos you will see when you click the link but I can guarantee that you will be impressed by the quality of the photos, not because they are unique subjects, but because the photographer chose a unique way to show you something that might be commonplace. They took the time to think about the shot before they pushed the button.

Always look for ways to get high.

That was a quote from my Journalism Professor at Michigan State University and he wasn’t talking about drugs or alcohol. He was talking about getting different angles in order to tell the story. Here are a couple examples from my work with the Traverse City Film Festival.

I took the photo on the left while standing in an area above the band to try and capture what they saw as they played. The one on the right was taken by attaching my camera to a monopod and using a remote to trigger the camera. I couldn’t see what I was getting when I took the shot because I was holding the camera up in the air on a stick. I’ve done this technique enough to have an idea of the result. Look for ways to tell a story by using camera angles. Don’t just tilt the camera for artistic affect.

Look around when you are taking photos

I was photographing stars over Green Lake in Interlochen. When I turned around I noticed this scene behind me. It pays to be open to unexpected shots. I didn’t go out looking for this shot. I found it as I was shooting something else.

Use Depth of field to tell a story

Depth of field is tricky. Most people think of it as an aperture setting, which it is, but it also has to do with lens choice and distance to the subject. You will see in the following examples how depth of field can be used effectively to focus the viewer’s attention. In the first case I used it to compress the accordion player with the sign in the background. I wanted the two to blend into one. You will also notice that the accordion player is in the lower third of the photo and he’s looking up in the direction of the sign. That was not by accident. I did not ask the man to pose. I simply composed the shot in camera and waited until he turned to face the right direction.

I took some ribbing about the wine glass shot. I was getting close with my 50mm f1.4 to blur the background and give me the bokeh that I was after. People who observed this thought I was crazy. People were commenting “What’s that guy doing at this party zooming in on a wine glass?”  I am paraphrasing but hopefully they could trust my judgment. Frankly, I didn’t care what they said. I knew what I wanted to get and I knew how to get it.

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So there it is. Boiled down. My tip of the day is this; Shoot as much as possible and be creative. Don’t fall into the trap of just shooting what everyone else is shooting. Use camera angles and settings to your advantage to tell the story or to capture the scene as you want people to see it.  Don’t be afraid to fail. It’s going to happen. I promise. Go with it and move to the next shot. Find your voice in the digital noise and I bet you will be more successful as an artist.

Take care. Until next time…

A sampling of his accomplishments include inventing the first digital product for the radio industry and being the first person to license MP3 technology and put it into a product. He won the National Association of Broadcaster’s (NAB) Radio Engineering Award in 2010.

Steve changed the world of radio broadcast.  A passion that started at a young age carried him throughout his life.  He never lost sight of what he loved to do. My brother was a genius. He built his first working radio station in his bedroom at age 12 and even had testing equipment to test the signal. He eventually went on to found the Telos Alliance, a company he started in his Cleveland kitchen that became the world’s largest manufacturer of radio station gear. 

I remember how, as a kid, Steve would sit at my Grandmother’s piano and make up radio shows with the girl next door.  He also helped my Grandfather build a Heathkit radio receiver and repaired televisions in his spare time.

Steve, along with my Grandfather, was also a budding photographer. He had his own photo studio and darkroom, which was located in the basement of my Grandparent’s home.  My Grandparent’s weren’t rich by any means but my Grandfather was a huge inspiration for Steve.

Another inspiration for Steve was a small radio station that was being built in Interlochen Michigan during the 1960′s. My other Grandfather, on my dad’s side, was the head carpenter at Interlochen during this time. He would often take Steve with him to work.  Steve was so inspired by watching the radio station being built that he knew from then on what he was going to do with his life. To top it all off…He did all this with only a High school education.

What a remarkable life he had. Truly an inspiration.

Following is a link from the company describing him in more detail, as well as a couple videos of him in action.

STEVE CHURCH REMEMBERED

I recently did a portrait session with the lovely Jessica Golota and posted a few of the images on Facebook. A few people commented. One comment that stood out was a comment about this photo. The person asked why I did not have more contrast in the image between the background and the subject?

The reason is simple. I wanted the viewer’s eye drawn towards Jessica’s face. When you look at a portrait you want your subject’s eyes to meet with the eyes of your viewer. This will give life to the portrait and make the viewer feel like they are connecting with the subject on some level.

This idea works well with most portraits where you want the viewer to connect directly with the subject as opposed to editorial or story telling portraits.

You often see story-telling portraits in wedding photos, editorial magazine photography, street photography, and romance book covers.

When the subject is not directly looking out at the viewer, they might be looking down or somewhere in the distance. Those photos are classified as story-telling images. It is as if the viewer has stepped into a scene as a voyeur. They are more connected with the story than with the subject.

If you want your viewer to connect directly with the subject of your portrait you should concentrate on focusing their attention on the eyes of your subject.

One way to do this is to darken the area on the edges of your photo to create a vignette that will draw the viewer’s attention in towards your subject.  Or, as in this case, use similar colors and tones on any element in your photo that will draw the viewer’s eyes away from the face.

It’s okay to make the background busy as long as the colors and tones match the clothing of your subject. If you have ever been into a casino you will see examples of how casino owners use busy textures on the floor and ceiling to draw your eye down, or up, to the machines. Your eyes move  towards a resting spot. In this case the resting spot is Jessica’s face and smile.

Portrait photography is an art. And, as with all art, there are no hard and fast rules. This is just one of the ideas I have that may help you to take better photos.

You can do this with white on white as well. Use a white background and have your subject wear white as shown in the next photo.

Notice how your eyes are drawn to the face? One caveat about using white is that you will need to have proper lighting to light the background. Otherwise you will end up with gray. In this shot I used three lights. One set in front, one used as a hair light, and one set on the background. The photo below is an example of the same scene shot without lighting the background or the hair.

In the first photo I was able to smooth the background in Photoshop but you can see the difference between the two photos.

You may like the style of the second shot. As I said there are no fast rules to portrait photography. The tips I give here are only suggestions. Try them yourself and let me know how it works for you.

Take care and I’ll chat with you next time.

I came up with a cool backdrop idea that will enhance your face photography. It’s fairly simple and doesn’t cost much. The most expensive thing about creating a shoot like this is lighting. You need at least three lights and stands. One of the light stands will hold a flash over the model’s head. The stand I used is the Impact multi-boom light stand and reflector holder from B&H.  That stand was a great buy for my needs because of its versatility. If you use a stand like that, be sure to get a sand bag to keep the stand from falling over. I broke a flash once because the stand tipped. Be careful!

Here is a diagram of the light set-up.

The CTS gel on the overhead flash created a unique daylight effect even though we were shooting in my living room in the middle of winter. That gel also works to balance daylight balanced flashes with tungsten lights.

Here is the result of that lighting set-up.

You can see in this shot that I crumpled  the aluminum foil  up to reflect the lights in different directions. I attached less than one box of aluminum foil to the
4 x 8  sheet of Styrofoam backing. That was enough to cover a 4 x 8 sheet. I also had the model wear a top that would stand out against the blue in the background.

In this next shot you can see the effect of moving the overhead light. The boom was just above her head in both shots but was lower in the shot above.

This gives the image a sunlit feel. I zoomed my 70-200 to 120mm and set aperture to f / 4.0 at 1/160 sec. I used the same setting for both photographs
I only changed the position of the lighting. The first photo was taken at 70mm instead of 120mm. Same lens but two different shots.

Next I had the model change outfits and move closer to the wall. This was a change from the face photography we were using before and went to more of a mid-range body shot. I changed the lens to a 17-55 mm and kicked the light up to f / 7.1. I also turned off the overhead light and eventually the blue gelled light. This was to create a metallic feel to the image. I wanted the light from the key light to bounce back. Here you can see the aluminum foil.

That’s it!  Aluminum foil makes a great backdrop because you can change the color by changing the light. The gels are easy to get too. Not expensive.

I bought a low-cost Rosco gel sampler pack from B&H years ago and have fun experimenting with the colors. I think the sampler pack cost about a dollar plus shipping. You will have to do your own investigation on that. If you find that you are using one gel for multiple purposes then I would suggest buying a full sheet. I use the CTS gel enough that it warranted buying a sheet. That only cost $5 plus shipping.

I don’t want to sound like a cheap skate but it has been my experience that you are better off keeping the cost down on photography gear as much as possible unless you have a particular job or a particular need, Then you can charge the client for materials. I have known people who go out and spend a fortune on gear only to discover that they use it once or twice and it ends up sitting and collecting dust.  Don’t be one of those.

How are things with you?

I haven’t been blogging enough. Seems like lately I’ve been experiencing the winter blahs. Do you ever get that?  Photographers have a difficult time during the winter months. Especially if you live in the Midwest.

I go between East Lansing, Lansing and Interlochen, Michigan where the winter temperatures reach down into the sub-zero levels.

Interlochen, while it is beautiful, is known for its long harsh winters. I have shot outdoors in sub-freezing, painfully windy conditions. It’s not the ideal conditions for shooting portraits, which is the bulk of my winter business.

Photo Studios are the best for shooting in winter. You can have everything set up inside and never have to get cold. In fact, you can turn the heat up if you need to.

This winter I decided to build my studio in my living room. My space and my budget isn’t too large so that meant cutting corners and pulling all the furniture out of the living room. I didn’t have a huge wall space so I created a wall using 4×8 sheets of Styrofoam panels that I bought at Lowe’s. I actually bought three of those. The total for three wasn’t more than $20. I also purchased a white/gloss hardboard wall panel for about $14. I used this panel to create my floor. My total cost of materials was $34. I also painted the back side of two of the Styrofoam boards to give me color options in the studio and bought some fabrics to hang on the Styrofoam to add color and interest if needed.

This is what I ended up with.

It’s not fancy, I know. But it was useful. It also paid for itself in the shoots I was able to book over the winter months.

I shot mostly boudoir this winter as this space doesn’t lend itself to big family shoots. It’s basically a one or two subject space. I imagine that you could use it for shooting children or pets also.

The main drawback to this studio is that you can see the texture of the Styrofoam in your background. I liked this in some of my shots but not all of them. One way you could get around that is to light the background to the point where you blow out the exposure. Then it just becomes a pure white.

You could also hang fabric on it as I mentioned earlier. That gives you more possibilities. You can see in this photo that I am testing to see how aluminum foil would look hanging on the backdrop.

Why didn’t I buy backdrop stands and seamless paper?

Good question. Actually the reason I didn’t do that is because of cost. Money was tight when I set this up so I didn’t want to invest in the seamless, which cost $50 on up, and the background stand, which would add more to the cost. This was cheap and simple and the materials are readily available in Northern Michigan. Plus the added bonus is that the images are different from the norm. Photography is an art. And different is good. Anything you can do that is different from what has already been done is a bonus in my opinion.

Enough talking. How about seeing some results.

Here are some of the images that I have taken over the winter in my studio.

These are just some of the effects you can get using home build photo studios. These are just a few examples. I am sure you can come up with many more. Give it a go and let me know how it turns out. I would love to hear your ideas.

I got the idea while strolling the neighborhood big box hardware store. Menard’s had a sale on a 3 foot tube of gum balls. Leslie Sevenski and I had a shoot lined up and I was trying to figure out something unique. She brought the pearls.

I love the color added by the gum balls. As a side note, Leslie’s favorite retort when things go wrong is “balls.” This shoot suits her personality.

I have a small space set up in my living room. Leslie looks awesome here in her red top and pearls.

Once we exhausted our shoot indoors we moved outside to a local park.

The temperatures were in the mid 30’s but Leslie wasn’t going to let that stop her. The last time we shot together was during a raging snow storm.

Leslie posed nude despite the cold. She’s a beauty.

The Michigan Athletic Club (M.A.C) is a large facility located off Hanna blvd in East Lansing.  The club is partnered with Sparrow Hospital to bring wellness to its members.  The MAC is located down the road from the Lodges of East Lansing, a student housing complex that hired me last year to photograph their model apartment and opening ceremonies.

I was extremely impressed by the size and scope of the M.A.C. It has indoor tennis courts and several pools including one with a large water slide that is covered in the winter and open to the elements in the summer. The club also has 150 cardiovascular exercise stations and the longest indoor track in Mid-Michigan. They have a cycling studio, two group fitness studios, weight rooms, and 10 indoor tennis courts among many other amenities that are too numerous to list here.

There are a range of available options for customers to use that will help them get in shape. Sabarras has partnered with medical facilities to offer a system where the patients can go to improve their health along with the advice of medical professionals.

Club Solutions magazine is a top industry publication serving health and fitness organizations.

I was also asked to interview Sabarras to use on a video for the site.