I had a lot of fun covering my nephew’s high school football game. The oldest is a senior and played; the youngest was dressed if they ever needed him.

Like all small-town high school football, the lighting for these games is not great. I covered high school football in these small towns in 1984 for the Hickory Daily Record. Just getting a photo in focus, and somewhat good exposure was challenging in just Black and White. Today I can shoot colors and get great results.

So the camera settings for this game were:

ISO 64000
Aperture ƒ/5.6
Shutter 1/2000

Compare this to the Billion Dollar Mercedes Benz Stadium where I was shooting the Chick-fil-A Kickoff games:

ISO 12800
Aperture ƒ/5.6
Shutter 1/2000

2 1/2 stops are different in the quantity of light.

High School Color Temperature 5650º Kelvin with +2 Magenta
Mercedes Benz Stadium Color Temperature 5000º Kelvin with +11 Magenta

This was a big game for my nephew’s team. They were undefeated 9-0 before the game and basically needed the win to seal their conference win.

They went into the locker room at halftime 14 – 0.

They went on to win the game for 36 – 14 and now are 10 – 0 for the season in their conference.

The visiting team was in white and in the first half showed signs of frustration and turnover after turnover. Their coaches were losing their cool with the kids.

I think the coaches had a good talk with my nephew’s team. I think they explained how the other team’s outbursts and turnovers were signs that they had gotten into their heads. So they came out with more confidence in that second half.

What this made me realize is how much we all need encouragement. When you believe you can do something versus feeling like the underdog, you make the big plays.

During the first half, the offensive line couldn’t create holes for the running backs, but the pep talk gave them the confidence they could play better than the other team if they just believed.

While my nephews might not have played as much as they wanted, at the end of the game, they knew they were as much a part of the team that got them to 10 – 0 as the star players.

I could tell everyone was giving their all to win the game.

PHOTO TIPS:

Here are a few tips for those wanting to get better photos of your kids playing under the Friday Night lights game of football.

1. Buy a lens that is longer than 400mm. I suggest things like the Sigma – 150-600mm f/5-6.3 Sports DG OS HSM Contemporary, which is under $1,000.
2. Use the ExpoDisc to do a custom white balance under the lights. Gives you more accurate colors in your photos and significantly better skin tones.
3. Use a monopod to help steady your camera.
4. Use a fast shutter speed. I suggest 1/2000 if possible.
5. Use high ISO. You may need a new camera that shoots above ISO 12800.
6. Stand in front of the action and let the players go towards you. You get more photos of the faces this way.

Photography Students or Wannabe Photographers I realized that I need to connect the dots for many of you on how to start your career from those already in the profession.

First, this is not about photography skills but about developing relationships that can help you grow professionally.

While I love to teach photography skills such as lighting, and students love taking on those assignments, I share the business tips that, for the most part, very few ever follow through on, and the reason is simple–it isn’t as fun.

If you have a good portfolio and do not listen to the professionals when they talk about business practices, you will have missed the most important tips we can share.

If you are a student like Mark Johnson at UGA, then you have a significant advantage over those who are not. Mark Johnson is the person who knows most people in the industry and can help make that first introduction for you.

While Mark may not pick up the phone to make the call, he has essentially done this when he gives you the assignment and even names to call when you need to shadow a professional photographer.

That first email or phone call started with my teacher Mark Johnson, giving me an assignment. Those few words open a door that others cannot use.

Once you have met the photographer and done your assignment, writing a thank you note is essential in your career. I recommend the handwritten note over an email or just saying thank you in person.

I am realizing now that more people are writing those thank you notes that they forget to ask themselves the question, “Why do I write this handwritten note?”.

Students, I can tell you the one thing that is quite annoying to your teachers and professionals who will hire you later is when you check off an assignment. This attitude of treating people and stories like items on a checklist undermines the content.

To tell someone’s story, you must peel the onion, which also builds trust with the person. Checking your list is like washing the onion rather than peeling the onion.

Most of the Thank You notes I get seem to be done to check this off the list. They don’t know why they wrote the note, but they heard good etiquette requires it.

What is the purpose of a Thank You Note when you are trying to become a professional or move up in the profession? You are building a RELATIONSHIP with someone who can help you. If you try to move up without the relationship, it can come back to haunt you later.

The type of relationship you build is up to you and the other person. Keeping it professional can be done without you having to become the best of friends. You still need to mix some kindness in your conversations.

My recommendation is to build your relationship over time. Thank them for what they have done and then ask if it is OK to contact them again.

You may say something like: “Thank you for taking time today to visit with me. Do you mind if I send you a sample of my work in a month or so and get some of your feedback?” Then do a follow-up.

Then it is much easier to ask again with your correspondence if they see any improvements based on their previous comments. It can be more detailed, showing that you did listen and try to make those suggestions.

Then every once in a while, send a note thanking them for all they have done and how their suggestions have proven helpful in your professional development.

Ask them for referrals later in your relationship to see if they have someone they recommend that you get to know and show your work to for more professional growth.

While you may not want to become good friends with some of the people who have helped you do take the time and effort to thank them proportionally to how much they helped you.

If you got a job due to their connections and suggestions, a small gift is an excellent way to let them know you were appreciative and not just using them. It could be just a gift card to Starbucks or something similar. Take them to lunch to catch up, tell them about your new job, and thank them in person.

If you are reading this blog and you have people who have helped you along the way, write each of them a thank you note. Sometimes your note can be the little encouragement they need today. You would be surprised how many people never know they made a difference in someone’s life. And if their life is you, you need to thank them again even if you did it before.

It boils down to this. When you write a thank you note, you show appreciation for someone taking time out of their life that helps you. You also want to be sure that the person who helped you is open to helping you even more if possible. Don’t write thank you notes to put a check on some list. Don’t be the person that uses others for personal gain.

Just remember the Golden Rule: Treat others the way you want to be treated.

The California Honeydrops play at Terminal West in Atlanta, Georgia. [Nikon D5, 28-300mm ƒ/3.5-5.6, ISO 25600, ƒ/5.6, 1/200]

One of the most fun things I ever did in my years of playing trumpet was sit in on a JAM Session.

A jam session is a relatively informal musical event, process, or activity where musicians, typically instrumentalists, play improvised solos and vamp on tunes, songs, and chord progressions. To “jam” is to improvise music without extensive preparation or predefined arrangements, except when the group plays well-known jazz standards or covers of existing popular songs. Musicians often use original jam sessions and ‘free flow sessions’ to develop new material (music) and find suitable arrangements. – Wikipedia

For me, this is one of the best artistic renderings of what it is like to have good friends.

Many people never take their bands out of garages and enjoy the time of sharing music.

This gives and takes in the Jam Session, where bands form their bonds and write new music.

I get a lot of phone calls where someone is trying to sell me something. The sad thing is that often this is from my “friends.”

I have a small group of friends calling to catch up and talk about anything. We find that our spouses are often reminding us we have been on the phone too long. That is a good friend when the two of you get lost in time.

The funny thing is that most of my closest friends were musicians. They understand we need others for our creativity to be pushed, and we need friendship due to how lonely often it is being an artist.

Then there are the formal groups where I worked with people with the hope of building friendships. I served on industry boards and helped with many conferences for years.

When I needed to leave those roles for several reasons, I often sent letters to the group explaining my departure. Sadly only one person at the most ever reached out to say thanks or check to be sure everything was alright.

I have often talked about my mentor Don Rutledge and his impact on my life and many of my closest friends.

Don had an open door policy. If he wasn’t editing, the door of his office was empty. He had regular visitors through the years of all different levels of photography. He treated them all the same. Usually, he looked at their work and then would ask one of the other staff photographers to join him for a few minutes before asking the photo staff to go to lunch with him and the new acquaintance.

One day I was eating dinner with Don and his wife, Lucy. I said to them how much I appreciated his openness. Then Lucy got very serious. She was upset at how many photographers came by, and Don gave them some pointers, and they even went to Black Star, his agency in NYC, to try and take his work. They never came back again and just used Don.

Don bowed his head and felt a little shame. He never stopped welcoming people.

Don was trying to develop long-lasting friendships. He would call photographers and mention he saw their work and compliment them. He wrote letters all the time telling people what he thought and often gave little tips that were most of the time welcomed.

Matthew 22:37-40

37 Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

Rodeo at Parker Ranch, Waimea, The Big Island of Hawaii [Nikon D750, Sigma 24-105mm ƒ/4, ISO 100, ƒ/4, 1/1000]

Every once in a while, I like to go back through older photo shoots and look through them. I sometimes find photos I glanced over that are much better than I first noticed.

I use the software PhotoMechanic for my culling and reviewing of photos. 

I can make the photo large and also see all the information about the camera settings on the right of the image.

This is quite helpful for evaluating a photo. Why isn’t the image sharp? The shutter speed helps you see if it was fast enough to eliminate camera or subject motion.

I also like clicking on seeing the photo 1:1, so I can evaluate down to the pixels.

I am doing this with images I have already edited through Adobe Lightroom. If I think I could do a better job now than, say, when I first did the edit or that Lightroom now has tools that were not available when I first edited the photo, I may go back to the RAW image and work on it again.

When you first edit a photograph, you are on a deadline—having the luxury of a lot more time to evaluate photos, I find that I seldom feel much different than I did at the time of the first edit.

One thing I notice a great deal when I go back a few years or more is that the cameras have improved. In 2006 when I took this photo of the dear, I owned the Nikon D2X camera. This was a cropped 12-megapixel sensor with a usable ISO range of 100 to 800.

Just this Wednesday night, I was shooting at a music venue with my Nikon D5, a full sensor, and ISO 40000 to get this photo above. Basically, with the Nikon D2X, this photo wouldn’t have been possible.

Too often, when I look back at photos where I was hand holding the camera, the shutter speed wasn’t high enough to eliminate movement.

While this is a very recent photo of the Hawk in our backyard, it is so sharp because it isn’t the shutter speed as much as I was on a tripod.

I recommend you go back through your photos and not just look for great moments, but evaluate them for sharpness. If they are not sharp, then ask yourself, why not? Look at the camera data and see if you can learn from your older photos.

While shooting is a great way to improve your photos, learning to take the time and evaluate pictures for how to improve them next time technically can mean that when you do shoot again, you will not make those same mistakes due to not having the camera on the best setting.

On trumpet, the California Honeydrops’ Lech Wierzynski plays with Ben Malament on the washboard at Terminal West in Atlanta, Georgia. [Nikon D5, 28-300mm, ISO 6400, ƒ/5.6, 1/200]

For my wife’s birthday, we went to Terminal West, a concert venue in Atlanta, Georgia, to hear The California Honeydrops play.

I am thrilled I brought my Nikon D5 and Nikkor 28-3oomm ƒ/3.5-5.6, so I could capture some of the band playing for our family album.

From their website: http://www.cahoneydrops.com/

The California Honeydrops don’t just play music—they throw parties. Drawing on diverse musical influences, including Bay Area R&B, funk, Southern soul, Delta blues, and New Orleans second-line, they have taken those parties worldwide, playing festivals of all kinds and touring widely across North America, Europe, and Australia. The band was honored to travel with Bonnie Raitt on her 2016 North American album release tour and, in the past, has been privileged to support the likes of B.B. King, Allen Toussaint, Buddy Guy, and Dr. John. Whether playing for audiences of thousands or in intimate venues where they can leave the stage and get down on the dance floor, the California Honeydrops’ shared vision and purpose remain: to make the audience dance and sing.

Founded by vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Lech Wierzynski and percussionist Ben Malament, The Honeydrops started busking on the streets of the San Francisco Bay Area, where they quickly developed a passionate local following. But the band’s roots stretch back to Wierzynski’s childhood in Poland, where he soaked up the sounds of contraband American recordings by Sam Cooke, Ray Charles, and Louis Armstrong. Later, as a first-generation immigrant to the U.S. and child of political refugees, he assimilated himself by devouring American rock & roll, soul, jazz, and hip-hop recordings. His musical immersion continued at Oberlin College and on the club circuit in Oakland, California.

Growing up playing trumpet all the way into college bands and singing for the church, I loved the group’s sound. Their music is eclectic because most bands have a more narrow style.

Hearing a washboard being played with a horn section was just amazing. The syncopation and groove made me feel like I was enjoying the musicians in a garage jam session where they were playing for the love of the music rather than for performance only.

Terminal West was one of the best venues in Atlanta that I have been to for a small intimate band experience.

The cost of our tickets was only $15 each. The food was also great and reasonably priced.

They had two bars, and the staff was excellent.

We will be looking for more bands playing at Terminal West shortly.

Robin Nelson encouraged me for years to cover the Atlanta Pride Parade.

Each year UGA’s Photojournalism students are asked by their teacher Mark Johnson to shadow a working professional photojournalist. Kayla Renie contacted Robin to follow her shooting. Robin suggested she follow her at the Atlanta Pride Parade.

The mission of the Atlanta Pride Committee is to advance unity, visibility, and wellness among persons with widely diverse gender and sexual identities through cultural, social, political, and educational programs and activities.

Kayla did her interview on the front end of the coverage since Robin would have to leave for another engagement before the parade was done.

Things get confrontational when the parade hits the intersection of 10th Street and Piedmont. A “Christian” group stood at the street corner holding signs denouncing not just the LGBTQ community but Muslims, Women who work outside the home, and the list went on and on.

What interested me was how the “Christian” group would pick people out and start yelling at them. All based on what they perceived as a person deserving condemnation.

I put the “Christian” group in quotes because this created a great deal of tension in my gut. Robin approached me at one point and asked if covering something like this can give you PTSD [Post Traumatic Stress Disorder] from covering an event.

According to the Dart Center for Journalism & Trauma, “Journalists frequently bear witness to human suffering whether covering mass disasters or individual atrocities; however, little is known regarding the impact of such exposure on the well-being of journalists. Researchers in the field of traumatic stress are only beginning to examine the toll this line of work may have on the health of journalists.”

“Research suggests that 80-100% of journalists have been exposed to a work-related traumatic event.”

When a protestor gets in the journalist’s face and starts to yell, this can be very traumatic. If the journalists feel they are in physical danger, this can trigger a traumatic experience that the brain has difficulty processing.

I watched as Kayla and Robin took moments to talk to each other to process all they were seeing, hearing, and most of all feeling from covering such an event.

According to research on PTSD reported by the Dart Center, you can have a personal experience with work-related stressors such as experiencing Aggression, Intimidation, or Moral Injury.

The hardest part for Robin, Kayla, and even me today was that each of us is professing Christians who disagreed with the tactics of this “Christian” group. It was running opposite our beliefs of how to act as a Christian.

Other Christians have felt this way and created signs that reflect a different position and declare that all those in the Atlanta Pride events could also be Christians.

Each of those polar opposite groups believed that the others were wrong and right.

This man confronts Robin, saying he wasn’t part of their group. This is when Robin wanted a friendly conversation and said, “I am a born-again believer as well.” I think the photo reveals the posturing that was happening between them. One wanted dialogue, and one wanted just to judge.

So how does a person cover an event as a “journalist” when they have all these feelings? How do you protect something when you may pick one of the sides personally because of your belief system?

This was what Robin was trying to teach Kayla that day as she shadowed Robin. Robin has been able to bring her faith into her work and not leave it behind. She believes that everyone is God’s child. This means everyone deserves to be treated with honor, dignity, and respect, even when wearing a strange outfit.

As a journalist, you do all you can to be sure you let both sides be represented in the coverage. If you are aware of your bias and acknowledge it, you have a better chance of overcoming the bias.

This photo was as close as I came to showing both sides. The “Christian” Group was first on the corner, and then you could hear the crowd roar as a group carrying Pansies came down the sidewalk.

They called themselves the Pansy Patrol. They had whistles to blow and these giant pansies on sticks. Their mission was to block as many of the “Christian” group’s protest banners and make enough noise to drown them out with their whistles.

Still, some chose to be more aggressive to the “Christians.”

They not only confronted the group but took selfies in front of their banners, mocking them on social media.

When you are at an event like Atlanta’s Pride Weekend, where hundreds of thousands of people are expected to attend the parade, which ends at Piedmont Park, you have to be able to cover the event for your news outlet. You also have not editorialized your coverage to be more of an activist with a plan about the event.

If you want to do this, you may find a job with an organization that fits your beliefs and do social activism, but don’t consider this the same as journalism.

Robin told me that the Atlanta Pride Parade had become more commercial than in the early years. I saw many corporations participating in the parade.

Each company had its #hashtag and was there to let everyone know they supported the LGBTQ community. I included them in my photos to show how the corporate community supported the event.

While it was a tough assignment for Kayla to jump into with all the emotions surrounding the Atlanta Pride event, I think she enjoyed watching a professional photojournalist like Robin do her job and be able to ask her questions to help her understand how she might have to cover something outside her comfort zone in the future as a photojournalist herself.

Robin and I were impressed with Kayla’s eagerness to learn and how well she interacted with people throughout the day.

35 By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

John 13:35

The best moments for celebration are when we have set goals that took a great deal of effort to achieve.

“Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Won’t you first sit down and estimate the cost to see if you have enough money to complete it?”

Luke 14:28

At The Citadel, there is the fourth class system. The purpose of the Fourth Class System at The Citadel is to provide a base upon which a fourth class cadet may develop those qualities essential to a good leader.

Although the System is demanding and complex, the rewards are considerable and more than justify the effort. Upon recognition by the upper-class cadets in the spring of the Knob year, a better person emerges – one who is mentally, morally, physically, and spiritually prepared to accept the responsibilities of leadership – a role which will ultimately be his/hers at The Citadel and in the world.

Isn’t that the purpose of setting goals and meeting them? You are better at taking action to meet those goals.

Don’t just create a goal without much thought about what you are setting up for yourself.

“Unless the Lord builds the house, the builders labor in vain.”

Psalms 127:1

My faith teaches me to pray about decisions. Take some time and allow God to speak to you. He will give you the peace of making a decision, and your chances of achieving the goal are not just better, but the reward is often much better than when we pursue vanity.

I find that making goals where others are there to support you as they do in the Fourth Class system at The Citadel means you have a better chance of achieving them.

The Citadel has an above average at retaining students past the first year with an 86.0% retention rate.

Based on the caliber of first-time/full-time students attending Citadel Military College of South Carolina, we expect an overall graduation rate of 58.3%. However, students are graduating at a rate that is 9.1% higher. That means Citadel Military College of South Carolina is performing above average at graduating students based on those students’ anticipated academic achievement in college.

“But as for you, be strong and do not give up, for your work will be rewarded.”

2 Chronicles 15:7

Do you have a goal that you are working on in your life? If not–Why Not?

I believe if you are not growing, you are dying.

Praise band singing at the Summerall Chapel on the Citadel Campus. [Nikon D5, Sigma 24-105mm ƒ/4 Art, ISO 7200, ƒ/4, 1/100]

This past Sunday, my wife Dorie Griggs was asked to give the message for Parent’s Weekend at the Summerall Chapel on The Citadel by Chaplain to the Corps of Cadets and Director of Religious Activities Joe Molina.

Dorie introduced the concept that often, we live either in the mindset of Good Friday, the Saturday in between, or Resurrection Sunday.

I came prepared to videotape Dorie speaking for our records and to share with friends and family that couldn’t be there.

Listen to her message here. Many people commented on how much they appreciated the notification.

Now before Dorie’s sermon, The Citadel’s Gospel Choir sang.

I didn’t plan on shooting a video of them singing, or I would have been further back. But please listen to them sing.

I enjoyed seeing the joy on the cadet’s faces.

Now the service was a lot of pomp and circumstance. They have a Color Guard bring the colors in to start the service.

Here are a few tips if you decide to cover your church service.

• Talk to the minister first to get permission.
• Arrive Early
• Stand on the stage and get a custom white balance.
• If videotaping, use a wireless Lavalier microphone for the speaker
• Plan your moves around so that it is at a minimum
• Recommend zoom for less movement versus a fixed lens
• Upload your photos to an online gallery like PhotoShelter

The Summerall Guards perform half-time at the Parent’ss Weekend football game at The Citadel in Charleston, SC. [Nikon D5, Sigma 120-300mm ƒ/2.8 S, Sigma TC-2001, ISO 1000, ƒ/5.6, 1/4000]

Knowing your subject gives you insights into what makes a better photo than any photo.

My son was a Summerall Guard at the Citadel in the class of 2011. During this time, I took more photos of them performing and started to see these moments that gave you insights into how they communicate during a silent drill.

The facial expressions showed them counting to themselves or breathing loudly so those around them would hear. This lets them know if they were together in their counts and moves.

The Summerall Guard was formed in 1932. Membership is considered a high honor at the military college. The platoon aims to exemplify the exactness and thoroughness of a cadet’s training through a unique series of movements based on the old German close-order drill. The exercise is performed to a silent count. Each year’s Guards take responsibility for teaching the following year’s unit the precise drill.

In sports, very similar predictable moments happen as well. I know that if I am covering a team like The Citadel, they are trying to get to the goal they are facing. So even on defense, if a fumble or interception happens, the players will try and go towards the goal.

I like to stand or kneel in the endzone where they are going so I can see their faces. If I am on the sideline, I sometimes get their faces, but when I am facing them, the percentage of photos with their faces seems to be a loCitadel’sfor photos.

Their extra effort on the play will be them lunging toward the goal line, which is where I am standing.

The offensive linemen are creating holes for the running backs facing that goal line.

Even if they are stopped, their expressions usually show that they are putting it all on the line. This type of tackle photo works well on sports pages when the guy just got a first down.

As you can see in both the examples of the Citadel cadets, if they are on the Summerall Guards or playing a sport, the facial expression draws the audience into the photograph.

What you want to show as the photographer is the effort; one of the best ways to capture this is in the expressions.

By the way, we were at The Citadel due to a request for my wife, Dorie Griggs, to preach on Sunday. So here is her message if you would like to hear it.

He was spraying bug spray for protection during the parade for Corps Day Weekend at The Citadel in Charleston, SC. [Nikon D3, Sigma 120-300mm, 2X, ISO 200, ƒ/4, 1/1250]

“I didn’t have time to write a short letter, so I wrote a long one instead.”

― Mark Twain

Too many photographers do not spend enough time editing their photos. Editing has many different stages of the process. The very first step is that of culling. I want to address culling today for this blog.

Culling describes reducing the population of (a wild animal) by selective slaughter.

While there are maybe more definitions, I think this one will help you remember you will take the entire shoot and narrow it down to the keepers.

When using PhotoMechanic as my editing tool, I first go one by one and look at each image’s full-screen size after I ingest all the photos. I then press the “T” key to keep the ones that are:

1. In focus
2. Well Exposed
3. Good or great moment – If I have a series of sports plays, I may only keep 2 or 3 of 20 to 30 images of a play.
4. Can see faces/No back of heads – If someone starts to turn away from me or someone blocks them, I don’t keep those that you cannot see their faces.
5. Good expressions – When people are giving a speech, I eliminate those awkward expressions. The same as avoiding people putting food in their mouths. No blinks of the critical people in the photo.

After I have tagged the keepers, I select all the untagged photos and delete them. For an event, this may well be 80% of the images. For studio portraits, more than 20% will be deleted.

Too many photographers often think this is the only photo I have of someone, and I don’t want to leave them out. So they put up their social media or gallery for people to see an out-of-focus, back of the head, and badly exposed photo so that the person knows they took their picture.

It is much easier to take photos and then post everyone you took than to take the time to go through and eliminate all the images that a client would never publish. If you can’t imagine a commercial client taking your photo and putting it up on a billboard to sell their product due to focus, exposure, and seeing the people’s faces, then don’t put it up on social media.

More people will have the opportunity to see your photo published on social media than will ever drive by the billboard, so get rid of anything that shouldn’t be issued for the world to see.

There are two main reasons to edit your photos to the best ones and eliminate all those that shouldn’t be published.

The first reason is treating people with honor, dignity, and respect. If you publish a photo of a person, they will regret being of them; you have damaged them. Now I will admit that sometimes there are photos that people don’t like of themselves even if they are beautiful photos of them. There are just some people that wouldn’t want any image.

There is a second reason to cull a photo out of your take–Your Reputation!

You want to think of yourself as a photographer and not a hack. We use this to describe poor golfers as well. But you don’t want to have a reputation as a hack regarding photography.

You want people to invite you to their events and not to tell you to come but leave your camera at home.

Conduct yourselves with wisdom toward outsiders, making the most of the opportunity.

– Colossians 4:5

[Nikon D5, Sigma 35mm ƒ/1.4, ISO 900, ƒ/1.4, 1/100]

What lenses do you take on a job? I might take all I can, but a better question might be which ones you try to use the most.

One lens I have loved to use a lot these past couple of years is the Sigma 35mm ƒ/1.4 Art lens. It is so sharp.

I love to fill the frame, get pretty close to people, and let that background go out of focus, giving that smooth BOKEH. Bokeh has been defined as “the way the lens renders out-of-focus points of light.”

The cool thing beyond the BOKEH is shooting a much lower ISO than you have to do, say ƒ/4 or ƒ/5.6.

The shallow depth-of-field makes the subject pop out of the photo.

The closer you get to the subject, the even shallower depth-of-field becomes with the lens.

The other cool thing I love about giving clients photos with this lens is you cannot get this look with your iPhone.

While I love this lens, I often have to just react to a moment. I need to have more than a 35mm lens. I love a good zoom, and when photographing people, I love the Sigma 24-105mm ƒ/4 Art lens.

Sometimes I need to be wide, like in this photo of the Sunday School teacher reading a story about the Protestant Reformer Martin Luther.

Next, I need to go a little tighter in the photo.

Then I am right back out shooting wide again.

I like working around three to five feet of the people I photograph. Sometimes I might get a little closer or have something in between me and the subject that backs me up.

I am on the other side of the table with this lady in the Sunday School class. But I could get a little closer by zooming.

Here the lady is in between this lady and me smiling. But I could isolate her and make you, the audience, look where I want you to look.

Next, I turn and get some shots of the teacher. You cannot run everywhere on a photo shoot without becoming the focus of everyone. That often happens when I have just a couple of fixed lenses. I might have an 85mm ƒ/1.8 on one camera and then the 35mm ƒ/1.4 on the other camera, but with the zoom, I can get much better compositions without moving so much that I become distracted.

I rarely use on-camera flash, but I had no assistant, and setting up a light stand would have been knocked over with so many people. The people were backlit and were pretty much a silhouette. I filled in using the Godox V860IIN with MagMod sphere to soften and spread the light. I used slow sync and was able to capture this moment with the Sigma 24-105mm ƒ/4 Art lens.

My goal was to give the client a variety. You cannot do that with one lens as quickly as mixing up the looks with a few lenses.

I hope these insights help you on your next photo shoot.