11-25-12 Happiness

There are many ways to picture happiness but I would choose the look on Evie's face from this Thanksgiving's celebration to illustrate it. It's hard to know what she's thinking, but in the arms of her loving great grandmother, it can only be good things. . . .

11-19-12 Mother & Daughter

It is a rare occasion that I can get Deb and Glenyce to pose for even an informal portrait. This opportunity presented itself at the 2012 Lake Area Technical Institute Festival of Trees. And they both look "mahvelous. . . "

11-09-12 Jeff

This blog is decidedly apolitical. If there is any political content, it is so subliminal that even I am not aware of it.That aside, in the USA we just finished conducting our once-every-four-year presidential contest and the incumbent won. In South Dakota we conducted our state legislative races and Jeff, the subject of this post, was one of the candidates. In his race the incumbent won, too, which means that Jeff, the challenger, lost.I have never known a candidate for office who believed that he or she wasn't good and right for the office they were running for. And I imagine that when you lose, you wonder if what you believe about yourself is true. I also know that good candidates invest not only some of their money but a good part of their heart and soul. The money can be recovered, I suppose, but a loss must cause wounds that are otherwise slow to heal. All of that makes me grateful for people like Jeff who take the risk of being a candidate.I gladly accepted Jeff's request to capture a casual portrait to be used in a political mailing. My motive for saying "yes" wasn't political. My reason was that I believe that Jeff is a good and genuine person whose cause is public service. It's hard to go wrong taking portraits of people like that. . .

11-06-12 The Right Place At the Right Time

Here's another portrait from the archives (2007). This shot is of Gabe H. and the location is a short distance away from the abandoned farms that I have posted several times in this blog. What made this photo special to me was the subject: Gabe was relaxed, happy and, being a country girl, in her element.The timing was right, too. This is a beautiful field of ready-to-harvest wheat and the setting sun was strong enough to create excellent backlighting. To balance the sunlight, I put the camera in Aperture Priority mode and used a shoot-through umbrella and a Canon flash running off of a Canon IR transmitter. This lighting set-up is very user friendly and does a good job lighting Gabe, especially her eyes. Because South Dakota is a windy place, using an umbrella lighting set-up outside is risky. But on this particular evening it was calm and quiet.I could return to this field on the same date at the same time for a decade and not get the conditions I had on this evening in July. I certainly believe that good timing is the essence of good photography and this photo may be evidence of that.Canon 1D Mark II 1/160s f/4.0 ISO200 59mm

11-01-12 Halloween

Several of my studio photography students spent most of the day yesterday getting face paint applied and then documenting their efforts in the studio. The makeup artist was Alli, who is also a talented photographer. The subject of this portrait is Valerie, who is a talented photographer, too. And she is a natural in front of the camera. :-)Canon 5DIII 1/125s f/8.0 ISO200 70mm

10-19-12 Justin

Just to prove that I do take portraits of guys from time to time, here's a picture of Justin P that I took a few years ago at my favorite old farm.

10-16-12 Emily

After finishing our "normal" outdoor and studio sessions, Emily asked if we could get together for a few photos when winter set in. Being inexperienced with taking outdoor portraits in cold weather I said, "Sure."And it theory it was a good idea. In practice, I found that I got only a few photos before the cold January day turned her face from rosy red to red. So much for winter portraits on a cold day. But even in bad conditions, it's hard to take a bad picture of a good subject like Emily. :-)(Incidentally, my weather source tells me that it averaged 4 degrees celsius and reached a high of 10 degrees. That's cold!)Canon 5DI 1/200s f/3.2 ISO100 100mm

10-07-12 Newlyweds

Canon 5DIII 1/60s f/4.0 ISO5000 102mm

10-06-12 Jessica & James

09-01-12 A Quiet Moment

I've been a little wordy in the photo blog lately. So I'll spare you today. This is Elise B in a relaxed moment in my studio a few years ago.Canon 1DII (?) 1/250s f/8.0 ISO100 58mmPlease take the "A Photo A Day" survey!

08-20-12 Glamorous Grain

Some of you remember Tri-X Pan black and white film. It was made by Kodak and was a standard "high speed" film with an ISO of 400. That meant that you could shoot in relatively low light with this film. The down side was that you got quite a bit of grain.I can remember that when digital DSLRs hit the market, some photographers bemoaned the fact that digital photos were so smooth - there was no grain. That prompted software companies to make filters that added grain. It was an artistic effect but it also soothed the jangled nerves of photographers who were raised on film.I never missed grain, though I did play with the filters in software from time to time. This photo is evidence of that. It was shot with my 1D II, a camera that led the market at the time and which produced pretty smooth photos at ISO 100, which is what this studio photo was shot with.It occurs to me as I head back into the classroom tomorrow to meet a new group of photography candidates that much of what I've talked about in this post will be foreign to them. But so are phones with cords and movies on cassette tapes. The times, they are a changing, as Dylan says. Or was that Ecclesiastes?Canon 1DII 1/250s f/8.0 ISO100 40mm

08-16-12 Allison

So I was looking for a connector for my iPad yesterday, which I hadn't seen since May. And though I didn't find the connector, I did find a collection of DVDs of senior portraits I had taken in the summer of 2004. And when I saw "Allison R" on one of the labels, I immediately remembered this particular outfit and pose.Allison was a beautiful subject who came to the session with many props and ideas. I am always worried when a portrait subject says he or she wants to bring a prop. I usually ask two questions: 1)Is it living? 2)Is it bigger than your face?The first question is because living things (boy friends, snakes, cats, dogs, parrots, etc) can be challenging, though I'll takes snakes over the other animals listed.The second question is because, if you ask me (who is admittedly old fashioned), I think a portrait is about the face.In Allison's case, she brought her cello (bigger than her face but OK by me) and a huge, hot pink prom dress. The prom dress begged for a high-key treatment and that's what we ended up doing. Allison liked this photo and so did I, largely because she is very comfortable in the shot and she has a wonderful, relaxed smile. Allison ordered this photo in color and when I did some basic re-editing today, I decided to convert it to black and white, maybe because I am even more old fashioned than I used to be - I don't want you to be distracted by the bright color of her dress.I have been writing a bit about what is "real" in the last few posts and I think that this is the "real" Allison. And that's what portrait photographers should always strive to capture.