Month: June 2014

A Photographer’s Quest to Capture the Mood of a Place

by Stanley LearyPhotography
 
Fuji X-E2, 18-55mm, ISO 3200, ƒ/4, 1/500

No matter where I adventure, I always want to capture a photo that encapsulates the mood I felt about the location.

This week my family is enjoying a vacation at Emerald Isle, NC. You can see the ocean from our front porch, and from the back porch, you can see the Intracoastal waterway. Get the sunrise and sunset over the water.

The downside of our location is seeing all the telephone poles and the wires stringing along them and cluttering the view.

Fuji X-E2, 18-55mm, ISO 6400, ƒ/2.8, 1/30

Our neighbors up and down the coast are all in what appears to be vacation mode. None is in a hurry. Even driving down the road, people are way below the speed limit rather than in a rush. It is peaceful and very relaxing.

Fuji X-E2, 55-200mm, ISO 200, ƒ/7.1, 1/640

Couples enjoy time together in the surf and walking along the beach. Here I enjoyed watching the team from our 3rd-floor balcony.

I can feel some of what I captured in the photos, but still, I am not entirely satisfied that I have an image that truly captures the mood of the place.

Fuji X-E2, 18-55mm, ISO 6400, ƒ/2.8, 1/75

There are no ships, just quiet times along the beach in the evenings.

Fuji X-E2, 55-200mm, ISO 200, ƒ/8, 1/800

I am also enjoying capturing the moments of the youth of today, reminding all of us that are older of the times we spent playing football on these same beaches years ago. Here I have captured my nephew with our new member of the family who married my niece. I think the activity captures a mood and takes me back.

Are these just memory joggers for my family and me, or are they capturing universally understood moments?

Fuji X-E2, 18-55mm, ISO 200, ƒ/5, 1/1800

Do the umbrellas on the beach capture what people around the world can relate to? Does this help take people to their vacation memory?

Visual metaphors are what most photographers who shoot with a photojournalistic intent look for when trying to capture the mood of a place. Travel photographers, street shooters, and photojournalists are looking for those triggers that create a mood and capture a moment.

Stay tuned and see what else I find during the rest of my vacation on Emerald Isle, North Carolina.

Photographers love the triangle and for good reason

by Stanley LearyOff Camera Flash / Tripod
 

Rembrandt Lighting

Rembrandt is generally considered one of the greatest painters. An illuminated triangle characterizes Rembrandt lighting under the eye of the subject on the less bright side of the face.

If you want to learn more about achieving this look, read my earlier blog post where I show some of the student’s work from a workshop I did in Kona, Hawaii, with the School of Photography at Youth With A Mission here.

Create Triangle with Off-Camera Flash

Another triangle used by professional photographers is the triangle created between the camera, subject, and flash.

Here you can see the simple setup I used for the photo above. The sun was behind the clouds. I caught this photo just in between showers. The flash also helped give that needed pop on an overcast day.

Create Triangle with Subject

Another way to use the triangle in photography is subject placement within a frame. For example, putting subjects in a group photo in triangles creates a pleasing composition.

Create Triangle with Gear

To make your camera stable, we also use a triangle. Three legs to our tripods and light stands create a stable platform for our camera and light stands.

May the triangle be present in your photographs: from lighting, composition, and support.

Photographer’s Ingredients for Creativity

by Stanley LearyPhotography

Inspiration from Photographers

I have many different things that I use to keep me inspired and keep those creative juices flowing. Another photographer’s work is one of the best ways to be inspired. One of the photographers I have followed my entire career is William Albert Allard.

There are two things that I continue to learn from him. First, I am inspired by his vision and capturing moments. The thing that made his work stand out from so many other photographers through the years was that he could control the exposure in such a way as to create a mood with his photos. He is one of the few photographers of his generation who spent most of his career shooting color.

When I think of his color photos, I think of Allard shaving the exposure ever so slightly to make the reds richer or going the other way and making it more of a pastel.

Preserving people’s dignity is the one thing I admire most about the subjects of Allard’s camera. He often romanticized the characters and made them hero’s by the camera angle, the light, and the moment he decided to capture for the audience.

When I started, I thought I would pick up the camera, walk out the door, and do the same images he captured. Now I understand that William Allard had to get permission to capture those images even more. He didn’t use some technique to squeeze off a frame without them knowing he was there.

Allard wove himself into the fabric of their lives. Once I discovered this about his work, I wanted to hear him speak and find out how he got that kind of access.

Recently I was inspired by Christopher Capozziello, or as his friends call him, “Capi.” Capi decided to do a very personal and intimate story about his relationship with his twin brother Nick who has cerebral palsy. The result was a short film and a book. The book The Distance Between Us is something I would recommend to any storyteller.

Willing to tell your own story as Capi did with his brother Nick really will help him going forward, in my opinion, for a few reasons. First, it showed that he was willing to be vulnerable and transparent. You can tell he was careful to protect his brother, but at the same time, looking for moments that would be appropriate to share helped tell of the struggles not only for Nick for also for Capi himself.

Do I have the right to tell anyone’s story if I am unwilling to be as transparent as Capi?

Inspiration Gear

It is costly to get inspired, but I cannot dismiss this as a way to get those juices flowing. I know of photographers who are frustrated that they have tried almost everything for inspiration to change to a new camera system.

One of the primary driving factors of the mirrorless camera is many photographers are finding their present DSLR cameras limiting them in some way. One of the most significant factors is the weight of cameras. Bill Fortney, retired Nikon Rep, is using the Fuji system. Read his latest blog post-Fuji X-System REPORT CARD – One Year In.

Carrying around a lot of heavy gear all day can keep you from wanting to shoot anymore, so equipment can help keep you inspired.

Inspiration Websites

http://www.daveblackphotography.com/

I go to websites like Dave Black’s for inspiration. Dave is always trying to figure out ways to take his vision and capture it using light. He is constantly pushing the limits using high-speed sync, painting with light, and studying his subject to find those unique moments that he can capture that sets his work apart from the rest of the industry.

Inspiration from Subject Matter

Fuji X-E2, 18-55mm, ISO 200, ƒ/2.8, 1/5

Taking my camera with me everywhere I go lets the places I visit help inspire me. So whether I am in Lisbon, Portugal, or my hometown of Roswell, GA, I take photos throughout my day.

Fuji X-E2, 55-200mm, ISO 5000, ƒ/3.6, 1/500

Sometimes the photos are just goofy and fun. For example, this I took of us on an airboat in Jacksonville, Florida.

This is a cropped version of the photo below.

What does all this have in common?

Work is what it all has in common, and it isn’t something that drops into your lap.

Inspiration comes from sweat.

Summary of my teaching points I had for Lisbon Multimedia Workshop

by Stanley Learymultimedia / storyline
Nikon D4, 28-300mm, ISO 800, ƒ/9, 1.3 sec

I returned from Lisbon, Portugal, a week ago, where I was teaching a Storytelling Workshop with Jeff Raymond of ABWE and James Dockery, coordinating editor for ESPN.

I taught the students the elements of a storyline, which they then used as they interviewed their subjects.

I have written a blog on the storyline and broken down each component if you want to know more about it here.

You can then break down this storyline into a shot list, which all the students worked on to put together their multimedia package.

  • Opener: Sets the scene for the story
  • Decisive moment: The one moment that can by itself tell the story
  • Details: Besides being like visual candy to the report, help often with transitions–especially in multimedia packages
  • Sequences: give a little variety to a situation
  • High overall shot: Gives a good perspective on how the elements all fit together.
  • Closer: Besides the classic shot of the cowboy riding off into the sunset, there are other visual ways to help bring the story to a close
  • Portraits: These photos are great for introducing the characters of the story

Before they even started, we had them tell us who the audience was for the story. We want the students to reach into the audience and pull on the experiences of that “specific” audience.

Audience

I kept the audience broad when I was telling the cooperative coffee story. I could have easily just targeted the Presbyterian Church and given money to support the missionary who was instrumental in funding the cooperative. I could have also targeted the Catholic Church because they had a role in starting the cooperative.

Nikon D4, 14-24mm, ISO 12800, ƒ/2.8, 1/50

I kept it broad enough, yet I had those audiences in mind. I told the story to those concerned about immigration and looking for a solution. The story was to establish the conflict of illegal immigration, with the resolution being cooperative. 

I have worked on stories for mission organizations many times through the years. The goal of those stories was to get the audience to Give; Go, or Pray for missions. 

Who, What, Where, Why, When & How

In Journalism 101, we teach the five Ws and H as the questions whose answers are considered essential in information-gathering. Importantly, none of these questions can be answered with a simple “yes” or “no.”

Before the formal interview, the storyteller interviewed each subject to gather and determine the story. If you didn’t do this, you would be editing your project forever.

B-Roll

B-roll is the supplemental or alternative footage intercut with the main shot in an interview. For example, people generally do not sit and watch a person talking in a video for very long. To prevent just talking heads is why you shoot a lot of B-rolls so you can show this while the subject is speaking.

Our students quickly discovered the story needed to revolve around the now and not the past or future, or you couldn’t shoot much B-roll. 

Here is a photo of me interviewing in Lisbon.

photo by Jeff Raymond

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  

PhotogenX DTS

I am teaching another Visual Storytelling Workshop in Kona, Hawaii, in a couple of weeks. I will teach students Visual Storytelling before they head out for coverage worldwide: an orphanage in Cambodia, poor in India, working with prostitutes in Thailand; and finally, scope on the street children in the Philippines. Go here to read more about the program.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Photographers: Speaker’s Kit and Camera Club Kit

by Stanley LearyPhotography
 

Here is my traveling speaking kit. This kit has two speakers, a projector, cables, and a spare bulb inside a Pelican 1650 case with dividers.

Be sure you have the best quality you can afford. So, for example, you would hate to continue to tell the audience if you could see it on my computer screen, you would appreciate it much better, or if we had some speakers, you could hear this much better.

If you are a camera club, invest in a kit that you use to show your member’s work. If you speak to groups, always carry your gear just in case the place you are saying isn’t prepared or has a cheap projector or sound system.

I use two of the Roland CUBE CM-30 speakers [$219]. Two speakers let me have stereo sound out of the sound system.

I have a 1/4″ jack running out of one into the other. I have the audio from the computer running into the Aux 1 jacks for Left & Right.

I can project my voice pretty well, but if needed, I plug my Shure Wireless Lavalier into Channel one and can now also project my voice if required.

This photo is my Shure FP Wireless Bodypack system.

I have an older Panasonic projector [Panasonic PT-LB20VU Projector] that works well. I recommend at least 2000 lumens for light output unless you are projecting to 10 – 12 people in a tiny dark room. Expect to pay between $500 to $1000 for a decent projector.

Here is a link to a collection that might work for your needs.

For a screen, well, this varies a great deal depending on where I am speaking. I have used 11′ seamless paper, white walls, and large screens and often will carry my 5’x7′ fold-up white/black background.