New Explorations
20 Feb 2012 Leave a Comment
Over the past few years I have been focusing primarily on Sports, Theater and High School Seniors from a photographic standpoint. I have done a few other smaller projects such as generating promotional shots for local schools as well as nature photography but my focus has been Sports, Theater, and High School.
I don’t want to give up on any of those three and I won’t but I do plan on exploring another avenue for my photography and the other avenue is Interior Photography.
Last October I started discussions with a local Interior Designer about the possibility of focusing on some of their work to develop a portfolio for Interior Photography. Unfortunately due to time constraints for both parties, that didn’t materialize but I was still very interested and started doing some research on different lighting and photographic techniques.
Now I am to the point where I want to start to do some hands on work to build my portfolio. I’m looking for perhaps two or three different Interior Designers who would agree to have some of their work photographed. For these initial shoots all of the typical fees would be waived. I seriously want to concentrate on building a body of work that I can move forward with in the future.
If you are an interior designer (or perhaps a real estate agent) who is looking for some interior photography, please contact me at 517-518-0786 or via my email at arrick@boxfirephotography.com . Additionally, if you know someone who may be interested in helping out please forward my information to them.
Thanks as always!
tim
Social Media To the Point of Distraction!
11 Nov 2011 Leave a Comment
One of the things that a person very close to me has been talking a lot about is simplifying things from a Social Media standpoint and trying to get some of the ‘shiny things’ as she loves to call them under control. At first I basically ignored what she was saying but I’ll be honest, in the last couple of days, I’m starting to see what she is talking about.
As Fall turns into Winter here in Michigan I’m starting to evaluate 2011 from a business perspective and see how I can begin to get a grasp on where I have been, what I am currently doing, and where I want to go in the future. One of the things I’m looking at is how I interact with people.
I sat down and made a list of the Social Media that I am currently using
1. Facebook: Professional and Personal
2. Twitter: Professional and 2 Personal Accounts
3. Google +: Professional and Personal
4. Website: Professional
5. Blog: Professional and Personal
What I realized is that I’m doing a heck of a lot of time trying to keep people informed about what I’m doing and no where near enough doing what I’m supposed to be doing. The problem is that each of those different things holds something that I value and don’t necessarily get in other ways.
For me Facebook is an incredible connection place with friends from my past and has helped me gain exposure to High School Seniors for professional purposes. Both of those are invaluable to me and I really can’t see giving them up. Twitter is another valuable personal connection that I have made some professional connections through. The aforementioned friend is someone that I met through Twitter and I would not trade that friendship for the world. Still from a business side, I don’t fine that my Professional Twitter account is doing that much for me. Granted, I’m not on it as much but to be honest, I don’t see that even if I were on it more, I would see an appreciable change in how I benefit from it over what I get from my personal Twitter account.
Google + is the new kid on the block, the Facebook Killer, the way all Social Media will be, or maybe not. I have found it to be incredible in its depth from a photographer standpoint in helping me see other work and learning new things. There was a slight uptake in new people on there from a “normal person” standpoint when they opened everything up and Facebook decided to make some changes but realistically, it is 2 years away at a minimum from being a heavy hitter for the connections I need to grow my business. For the meantime I see myself keeping the personal page somewhat active and keeping the professional page merely as a placeholder. Something to direct people to other areas that I tend to keep more properly tended.
That brings me to my blogs. Again, neither one of them are kept up as much as they should be or perhaps I’m jaded in what I thought I would be doing with them originally. At first the thought was to update the professional blog at least 5 times a week and hopefully update the personal blog maybe 2 times a week. Honestly, that is going to be scaled back considerably. The professional blog (what you are reading now) I am looking to set a schedule up to update twice a week and the personal one (a weight loss blog) I’ll update weekly.
Finally the website. I have already changed the website from one that I created myself and maintained to one hosted by SmugMug where I can utilize their infrastructure geared towards photographers to my advantage. In the next few weeks as I begin to determine where my business will take me in 2012 and beyond, I’ll make modifications to this basic infrastructure to meet the style and direction of my business. As for a personal website? Honestly in the days of Facebook, there really isn’t a strong need for one.
Where does this leave me in the end. For one thing, within the next two weeks, I foresee only one Twitter account. It will be a renamed personal account that I use to cross promote the photography. On Facebook, I’ll keep the personal page and the professional page but instead of uploading as many pictures to the Facebook page, the thought is to link back to the website since it can do all the things Facebook can, people can use images from there to post on their profiles. This is subject to change but it will be helpful in updating.
Similarly with the Google +. The personal page stays, the professional page will stay dormant at this point. I will update the personal page occasionally but most stuff is going to run through the blog or the website.
Finally the blog. Your here right now although not many people read it I know. As I mentioned earlier, I’ll blog shoots and will try to keep this updated twice a week simply so you know what I’m going both personally and professionally. The hope is more consistent content here as well.
I know this has rambled a bit but it was good for me to work though and I hope you can utilize some of my thoughts if you are in a similar position.
Thanks 
Tim
How I Shoot High School Football
27 Oct 2011 Leave a Comment
Every now and then I get a question asking how to go about shooting a high school football game. There really isn’t one totally correct answer to this question but I’ll try to cover how I think things through and some of the settings and equipment that I use.
Equipment:
For me it all starts with equipment. High school fields are not, as a general rule, the best lit facilities and most games in the fall are played after sunset so light gathering capabilities are at a premium.
There are two ways that you can deal with this, the first is by using an off-camera flash such as a Canon Speedlite (most of my references will be to Canon equipment because that is what I use). This will allow you to add additional light into a scene and it gives you the ability to fully light a players face. I’ve played with this a couple of times but to be honest, I’m not entirely comfortable with it. My major concern is at some point, I’m going to hit the flash and distract a player. Now this may be an irrational fear. I’ve talked to various High School players and they tell me that they don’t even notice the camera flash. My fear then if probably just me thinking I’m more important to a situation than I really am. Still though on the off chance that an opposing player wants to use it as an excuse for dropping a pass or heaven forbid, it actually does impact a play, I can’t bring myself to use flash at high school sporting events. My other reasons for not using flash is more technical and esthetic. First I don’t prefer the uneven lighting that I was getting and the glow in the eyes. I’m sure that I could edit both of these out for my images but I just haven’t experimented enough. My second technical reason is flash recycle times. I currently shoot with a Canon 7D which is capable of 8 frames per second. My Speedlite isn’t capable of keeping up with that speed so if I am shooting a receiver hauling in a pass, I might get light on my first frame and then not get anything until my fifth frame. Since I like to shoot in an action sequence, this doesn’t really work for my shooting style. I know that there are photographers that have great success shooting with flash and I love their work, it just isn’t something I am comfortable doing.
So if I don’t use flash, how do I shoot high school football under the lights? For me it starts with a fast lens and a camera that has what in the past, was considered high ISO capability(my ISO range during a game can run from 800 at kickoff to 12,800 in the endzone late in the game, 4 full stops). The lens I am currently using is a 70 – 200mm Sigma f2.8. The 70 – 200mm gives me enough reach to get all the way across the field while the aperture of f2.8 allows enough light into the sensor that I can keep my shutter speeds up where I want them. If you are using a kit lens that comes with your DSLR then you typically have a maximum aperture of f4.0 or 5.6 so the shutter speeds of 1/500 that I typically shoot with becomes 1/250 or 1/125 which isn’t fast enough to stop all motion in either case. (NOTE: One thing that I am assuming here is that you are shooting with a DSLR, point and shoots won’t cut it in most cases.) One last lens consideration is Image Stabilization (VR in Nikon product). There are debates back and forth as to how much this feature will help you with football. Once school of thought is that if you are shooting at 1/500 shutter speeds than the IS/VR features really won’t help you and may through an in focus image out of focus. The second school of thought is that with a longer lens, you will invariably have a small amount of shake as you hold the camera and that the IS/VR will overcome this shake. To this point, I have not shot with an IS/VR lens during a football game. I did use one for a portrait session and loved it for that however.
My Settings:
Again, what I use is not the only way to shoot a game, there are probably as many correct techniques as there are photographers. As I mentioned above, my equipment consists of a Canon 7D with a Sigma 70 – 200mm f2.8 non IS/VR lens. I utilize UDMA 6 compact flash cards that store 8GB. I could go with larger cards but the 8GB cards tend to give me 260 – 300 images per card so with my complement of 4 cards I am pretty well set. I have looked at 16GB cards but to be honest, I never seem to have the money to pull the trigger on one of those while I can almost always afford to throw another 8GB card into my pack.
So, which camera mode do I shoot in? Personally I choose Tv (Shutter Priority) on my Canon system. This allows me to set my preferred shutter speed of 1/500 and allows the camera to change the aperture based on the available light. Depending upon when kickoff of the game is I will usually start with my ISO set at 800 and then move that steadily upwards as the game progresses. By the time the game finishes, I have found recently at the Millington High School field that ISO 4000 tends to be my sweet spot. For shots where I am in the endzone shooting back at plays near the goal line I will bump this up to ISO 6400 and ISO 12,800 depending upon my what I am seeing in my images. (My one wish would be for a set of lights near the goal line so that endzones aren’t so dark.) As I mentioned before, my Canon 7D is capable of shooting at 8 frames per second so I like to take full advantage of that and shoot in the highest setting. A lot of times this will help me capture a shot where the ball is right on a players fingertips or a hand is pulling a facemask that I wouldn’t ordinarily get if I were not shooting with high speed.
One setting that I am still experimenting with and I will occasionally change during the game is the exposure meter. On the 7D I have the option of a spot meter, a full frame meter, and two center weighted features. Predominately I will use the spot meter but this can get me into trouble exposure wise if I am focusing on a white jersey or a black jersey. At times like that I will move to one of the center-weighted meters to help me balance out an overly dark or overly light shot.
For autofocus settings I am fortunate that the 7D has a very good tracking system. I set my autofocus on servo which will continually adjust the focus of an object as it moves. I also go into the customer functions an tweak some settings so that the tracking changes quickly. With the 7D (and other Canon models for that matter) I can adjust the sensitivity of the autofocus system so that if something quickly moves into the frame the autofocus will either quickly adjust or slowly adjust. I prefer to go with the quickly adjust myself as I tend to change where I am focusing rapidly depending upon how a play develops. For instance, if a quarterback is dropping back to pass I may start the play focusing on him but quickly pick up the intended receiver once the pass is thrown. I want to be able to focus the first shot, not the second or third shot when I swing the camera.
Another setting that I make sure is set is the type of format I am recording images in. Again, most DSLR’s give you the opportunity to shoot in JPEG or in what is called RAW. RAW format is essentially what the camera sees while a JPEG is what the camera gives you after it automatically corrects for exposure, white balance, noise and other factors. JPEG has advantages in that they are smaller file sizes and in my camera I can shoot burst of well over 121 images before I fill up the camera buffer. What I give up though is editing control. I personally like to be able to tweak my white balance, my exposure levels and noise levels on my own in Photoshop Lightroom. If I let the camera make those decisions, I don’t have as much control after the fact due to fact that a JPEG is a compressed file so not all of the original information is there. In my camera a JPEG is roughly 2MB file size while my RAW files can run up to 22MP. The downside for me is that because the file size is so much larger, I go through more hard disk, more compact flash and I fill my camera buffer up much quicker so I can only get 14 – 16 shots off before I have to wait on the camera.
The final setting that I use is a trick I have learned from a few photography blogs and that is back button focusing. When you pull your camera out of the box, pushing the shutter button down 1/2 way will focus on a subject as well as set your exposure for the image. When you push the button the rest of the way down, an image is made. Back button focusing moves this feature of 1/2 way down off of the shutter button and moves it to one of the buttons on the back of the camera. On the 7D I move it to the button AF-ON. What this allows me to do is continually keep my focus moving while the shutter button is fully depressed. If I were to leave it on the shutter button, and fired a 14 image burst, the subject may start out in focus but because I never take my finger off the shutter and refocus (i.e. push the shutter 1/2 way down) I am still focusing where the player was 2 – 3 seconds ago and may not have him in focus any longer. With back button focus that same player is continually tracked while I am continually shooting.
Other odds and ends:
Positioning is another area where I tend to be a bit different than other high school football photographers. I like to shoot from my knees. It can cause some difficulties from time to time as officials tend to move in front of my regularly and I get blocked out from time to time but I simply like that angles that it produces. To me it is more representative of being in the action. Again, this is a personal preference. There are photographers who shoot standing up and I love their work too. This is just what works for me. Something that I just added last week and I think I am going to keep in the next few weeks is a monopod. This gives me a bit more camera stability when I am lower to the ground and I felt added to the shot quality but more importantly helped eliminate camera shake when I was shooting video.
The last thing is where do I set up to shoot. This all depends on the type of shot that I want and a bit on intuition. No matter how hard a team tries, there are occasionally subtle tip offs as to what play is going to be run (ok sometimes they aren’t so subtle). One team a few years ago, I picked up that line splits shifted depending on where they were going to run. I almost always knew where the ball was going. Most of the time it isn’t that easy and quite often on my guessing, I am wrong. Still, if it is 3rd and long, I might guess a pass and move downfield more than if I think it is going to be a run.
Conclusion:
In the end it comes down to knowing your equipment, knowing the game and experimenting. I have been shooting high school football for only 3 years so I have a lot to learn and I am still trying new things every week. Obviously I don’t just go in and try something new for an entire game. Even last week when I broke the monopod out for the game, I didn’t use it on all my shots until I felt comfortable with it and I knew it was going to work.
Remember, this is just an overview of what I do, it isn’t right and it isn’t wrong, it is me. If you have questions, feel free to drop me an email at arrick@boxfirephotography.com and I’ll be glad to talk to you and see if I can help out.
Here we go again!
20 Sep 2011 Leave a Comment
The hope is that this time I actually understand how I got into my blog from work
Even though the blog doesn’t show it, this has been a busy if not financially rewarding summer for me photography wise. The new addition to the shooting line up has been Triathlons. I’ve shot one in the past but this summer I was actually able to shoot 4 different ones freelance and in a couple of weeks I will be the race photographer for the Shepherd of the Lakes Lutheran School 5k Storm Run in Brighton, MI.
In addition to the Triathlon events I am shooting football again this year and am branching out a bit. This week I will be shooting my first out of state game down in Ohio and I am thrilled about the possibilities with that. Here are a few images that I’ve taken this summer with many more to come now that I have figured this out again
The IT God’s have smiled upon me!
05 Aug 2011 Leave a Comment
Well, it appears that the blog can begin regular posting again. Most recently I was taking a hiatus from blogging over my lunch hours (when I usually have time to blog) due to the fact that my day job’s IT department had effectively blocked a way for me to logon to my account. Either the defenses are down today OR I have finally managed to work around the blocking so I am back at least for a little bit.
The summer has been busy but unfortunately not shooting as much as I’d like to. Due to some things going on at home, I haven’t been able to market myself as effectively as I have wanted to so the Senior Sessions have been down. I am working on hooking up with 3 Disciplines Racing to shoot some of their Triathlon events and I have also shot some for the Hartland Players as I usually do.
Now that I’m back I’ll be going on vacation so I’m not sure how much I’ll be able to blog from there however High School Football season is starting so that will keep me busy as well when I get back. In parting, here are a couple of recent shots that I have done!
Canon 7D
23 Mar 2011 Leave a Comment
I have been looking at it for over a year and a few weeks ago, I finally was able to pull the trigger on my own Canon 7D through the Canon Loyalty Program. So, it essentially cost me a dead Rebel XT and $1,200. I am definitely loving this camera. I tend to do a lot of low light photography, High School Sports and theater which is where I am really finding the advantages. On Monday, I shot a performance of “Cinderella” by the Hartland Players Encore Youth Theater and the higher ISO capabilities really stood out. I shot the majority of the performance at ISO 6400 and on rare occasions, I even bumped that to ISO 12,800. Yes, the noise is significant in a non-edited file. However when I couple the RAW files with the noise reduction algorithms of Lightroom 3.3 I am able to get a usable file. If you pixel peep will you see noise and some softness from the noise reduction? Of course but when you compare the results to images that are shot at ISO 1600 or ISO 3200 where I would have gotten motion blur from having to shoot with a lower shutter speed. Here are a couple of shots that I have taken in the last few weeks with the camera that have tested its low light capabilities.
The Irish Rovers in Concert
Super Moon shot with the 7D and 5" Mak-Cassegrain Telescope.
My director from "The Gingerbread Lady"
The battle for the bottle
Making an entrance
Why I don’t shoot weddings yet!
22 Mar 2011 Leave a Comment
in Business
My First Wedding Picture
In the course of reading one of the blogs I follow, I saw a post from an individual who was asking what lens they should buy so they could shoot weddings. The poster said that he had a Canon 50D with the standard kit lens. Now, the Canon 50D is a good camera and could easily handle the speed and the dimly lit wedding venues that one would typically run into at a wedding shoot but is it enough?
I am lucky that I have friends that know I am a photographer and will constantly refer different people to me. In the course of the last year, I have been requested to shoot probably 5 weddings and it pains me that each time, I have had to decline the opportunity. Not because they couldn’t pay enough or my schedule was full but because I realize that a wedding is one of the single biggest events in a persons life and that at this stage in my career, I am not ready either from an equipment standpoint or from an experience standpoint either.
Take for instance the individual that I mentioned when I started this post. He essentially said that he had one camera body and two lenses (when he purchased the new one). I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt and assume that he also has one SpeedLite for working some of the post ceremony and pre-ceremony shots. Now, while I don’t ever want to discourage people from doing what they love, there are certain safety aspects that one needs to take into account for everything in life. Shooting someones wedding is a once in a lifetime (well, in today’s society that isn’t necessarily true) but their FIRST wedding is a once in a lifetime event and there are no do-overs. Working with only one camera by yourself is very risky. There are a myriad of things that could go wrong from a camera malfunction that renders the camera inoperable to tripping over the ring bearer and dropping your camera on the ground. Once that camera is done for, there are no backups and no other pictures get taken and in all likelihood, you are facing a lawsuit. Similarly if the lens has issues or your SpeedLite fails, you are facing the same albeit slightly less drastic outcome.
As of recently, my gear situation has improved. I have a fairly good main camera (Canon 7D) and a suitable backup (Canon 40D) in case I have a failure of the first camera. Additionally, I have a couple of fairly good pro lenses that I can utilize and two SpeedLites to give the appropriate fill lighting and flash needed for the portrait sessions. To be honest, I’d still like to have another high quality prime lens to round out my repertoire and perhaps upgrade my backup camera to the same camera I use as my main camera, a Canon 7D or even perhaps upgrade all the way to a Canon 5D Mark II and relegate the 7D to a backup camera at weddings. Even then, I consider my gear to be a the bare minimum for shooting a wedding.
The second portion of the equation that I mentioned was the experience. Hmmmm, I’ve been married, been to a few weddings and have seen a few wedding albums so that should be enough right? Honestly, I wouldn’t even attempt to shoot a wedding until I had shot at least 2 or 3 as a second shooter to an established professional. My reasoning is that weddings have ebbs and flows. It isn’t all constant posing and shooting with the bride and groom but there are plenty of other opportunities for making sure your gear is set up correctly to photographing guests as they come in. I’m sure I could layout a game plan and hit all the ‘major’ and ‘expected’ shots but to me it is the small things that make the wedding and I would hate to miss those by not knowing what to look for.
With all that said, would I begrudge our photographer that was mentioned at the beginning of this post the opportunity to shoot a wedding? Probably not. There are plenty of brides and grooms out there that simply cannot afford a higher priced wedding photographer. I would hope that our photographer would take a few precautions however. First of all, explain to the couple that you are just getting started and that there are inherent risks involved. Secondly rent a back-up camera and lens. There are plenty of rental sites online ( personally prefer Borrow Lenses at http://www.borrowlenses.com ) where you can rent excellent gear to at least minimize any chance of problems. Finally I would hope that he doesn’t charge an arm and a leg. One of the reasons that he is in consideration for the job in the first place is that he is less experienced. Cover the cost of some time and the rental gear and then figure that you’ll make any money on appropriately priced prints.
Now, will I ever shoot weddings? In all honestly, I think that I will and probably within the next year or two. It will probably be on a limited basis to start. I also see myself more as filling the low end of the price option. Not because I’m not capable of shooting a higher end wedding but to me there is something about helping out a couple getting started that may not be able to afford all of the expensive trappings. Naturally, I’d have to make sure that I’m not just getting used by someone who just wants it cheap but truly needs the services.
Coming Soon
09 Mar 2011 Leave a Comment
Unfortunately it is been a few weeks since I’ve been able to blog. Never fear, I will be back on a regular schedule in the very very near future!
Wednesday Picture of the Day
26 Jan 2011 Leave a Comment
in Uncategorized Tags: Autumn, Fall, Foliage, Lake, michigan, Outdoors, Picture, POTD
Autumn Shot from Brighton State Recreation Area in Michigan
Counting myself lucky
25 Jan 2011 Leave a Comment
in Shooting
One of the really fun things I like about being a photography is that I get to help out at my kids events. Last week, my son’s Cub Scout Council sponsored a Penguin Day which included sledding and other activities. Here are just a couple of the shots that I managed as the kids and parents came hurtling down the hill.
This morning I opened up my Facebook to see the sad news that a business venture that one of my friends recently started has come to a premature end. The business concept was awesome but unfortunately, in the time-frame that she was alloted to get the business off the ground, the response simply wasn’t there. It wasn’t for lack of marketing, a good product or enthusiasm, that things didn’t work out. The problem simply was that the response wasn’t there in a timely manner. I think a lot of photographers, myself included simply thought that “Hey, that is an awesome idea, I don’t have the cash right now but I’ll sign up in a month or two”. Unfortunately for us, that option won’t be there.
This made me think how fortunate I am with my photography situation. I launched my business almost one year ago and my profit/loss statement is about the break even point. I have the good fortune of time because of my day job. Yes, I want to turn this into a profitable business but I don’t have a time limit set and I don’t have to go to the lengths that some newcomers go to in buying business and putting themselves in a difficult position financially.
