INSPIRED

High Dynamic Range (HDR) photograph taken during a family vacation to Maine during the winter. This was the first vacation that I remember where I specifically wanted to take photographs as part of the experience.

For many years taking pictures has been my job. That's not to say I didn't like being a photographer, in fact I loved it, and still do, however over time I came to realize that the only work I had to show was related to the job. And while I am proud of that work and still get excited to see my photos in print, I had stopped taking images for the fun of it. Very little personal photography.

When someone would discover I was a photographer they would invariably ask what I liked to take pictures of, or where they could see my work and until recently the best I could offer was a website that hadn't been updated in nine years or maybe tell them to do a Google search on my name plus Navy and they would see some examples.

So what changed? What has me excited about personal photography again? Why am I blogging and tweeting again, posting photos on Flickr, 500px, and Google+? The answer isn't simple, but I do know it has something to do with the web and more specifically the incredible photographers, some young and some recognizable, out there who are sharing their work and techniques everywhere, mostly on the sites I mentioned above, but also through their blogs and videos on YouTube.

Experimenting with HDR at the Museum of the U.S. Navy located at the Washington Navy Yard, Washington, D.C.

This didn't happen overnight and it's been kind of a slow return. I really started getting excited about the time that High Dynamic Range (HDR) photography was coming on the scene and I stumbled across Trey Ratcliff's stuckincustoms.com site. Trey's incredible images and willingness to share how he made them had me trying HDR techniques myself and I was hooked. It was fun to try something new. But more than that, blogs and web TV from Scott Kelby and the Photoshop guys, podcasts from Leo Laporte and the TWIT network, all had me itching to get back out there.

Joe Macnally of National Geographic and small strobe fame along with David Hobby from Strobist.com had me actually looking forward to taking environmental portraits at work again.

All this isn't really new I guess, I've been following photographers like Rob Galbraith, Dave Black and others on the web for a long time. I suppose it all just hit the tipping point and I'm glad.

So thanks to all those photographers who are so willing to share and make it easy to feel as if I'm surrounded by friends with the ability to share work, discuss work and for the inspiration to dust off my website and blog.

After 28 years in the business it really is nice to feel so inspired again.

Back-Button Focus Faux Pas

About three months ago I switched to using back-button focus on my Nikon D3S and for the most part have adapted fairly well. Although I've had a few missteps, such as yesterday when I was shooting a change of command and retirement ceremony, switching back and forth between a D700 without back-button focus set and the aforementioned D3, I just failed to focus during a cake cutting. Since I was using a 14-24 lens, I was able to recover the images in post, but it had me thinking if I should switch back.

I have also been thinking about all the other things I've changed recently such as shooting flash with the camera set to manual mode vice aperture priority mode (default setting for most of my photography) and pushing ISOs to 3200 on a regular basis. Well technology has certainly improved and my photography has improved as a direct result of these changes, but sometimes I wonder why I'm changing. After all I've been using the shutter button to set focus ever since there has been auto focus. And truth be told, setting my Nikon's to aperture priority and the flash to TTL produces fine results.

I think it simply comes down to change is good and after all why would I shoot my D3s or D700 the same way I shot with my N90 or F4 film cameras. It feels good to push myself and starting tomorrow I'm going all in and switching my D700 to back-button focus as well. One word of warning, be prepared to explain back-button focus to everyone you hand the camera to.



And speaking of my assignment yesterday, I've probably photographed hundreds of change of commands and retirement ceremonies over the years and while some are bigger, they are all pretty much the same. Yesterday's assignment also included spending some time behind-the-scenes prior to the ceremony, mostly to cover the promotion of the incoming admiral. Enjoyed that more than I thought I would and was really happy with the results. The location was Quarters E on the historic Washington Navy Yard which made a real nice environmental location and setting my camera to manual mode - along with using a SU-800 wireless Speedlight Commander - allowed me to get my SB-900 flash off camera and resulted in some nice natural looking images.

One other thing I do when shooting an event is to look for something that I find interesting or different, something that may not make it into the final edit for the client. I thought the photo below of the Washington Honor Guard crowding into the exit following the ceremony was funny.

EVERY PHOTO COUNTS

Spent the entire afternoon yesterday photographing awards presentations as my departing boss made his way around the building thanking employees for the work they have done.

It is easy to forget that while these photographs (grip-and-grins) get a bad rap and may never make it to your portfolio or website, they are important to the person being recognized. In fact, I have a photograph shot by a Navy photographer of me as a ten-year-old standing with my grandfather during his retirement ceremony from the Naval Air Development Center in Willow Grove, Pa. That photo reminds me daily to give my best during every photo assignment both big and small.

I was reminded of that yesterday as I was standing around between presentations, an employee got my attention and asked if I thought it would be okay if the admiral signed something for her after the ceremony. I told her I didn't think it would be a problem and that is when she produced a photograph I had taken of her and the Admiral in 2009 during a cake cutting to celebrate the Navy's 234th birthday.

Every photo counts!

TinEye for the next guy

I received a request a couple of weeks back from a Russian railway magazine for a photograph of robotic lobsters I took in 2005 during my first year working for the Office of Naval Research. I posted an update to this blog about the original shoot in December of that year.

I didn't realize it at the time, but that one day shoot north of Boston would produce probably the most requested photograph I've made here in seven years. Everyone from the Smithsonian's Cooper Hewitt museum to trade journals, websites and even apparently railway magazines in Russia have requested this image.

I bring this all up because I was demonstrating the TinEye reverse image search site to a coworker and happened to have the RoboLobster photo on my desktop (Russian railway magazine). I uploaded the image and one of the results was National Geographic - the Japanese edition mind you - but still I thought it was pretty funny.

Try out the service yourself, you never know? And if your images are not in the public domain like mine, and you've copyrighted them, it could mean a very nice payday as well.

Temple Redux

On Friday I returned to Temple University for the first time in three years. My lunch companion, also a friend, reminded me of that. Traveling to New York on Thursday for PhotoPlusExpo gave me the perfect excuse to take Friday off and make this long overdue visit. Even longer overdue than visiting the campus was a visit with my first photography professor, mentor, and friend, Dr. Ed Trayes. It seemed like only months ago that I was in that same hallway, sitting on a couch (his office is still so full there is nowhere to sit), as we reminisced, caught up, and of course talked about photography. But it was when he took me to the old dark room, now converted to a digital photo lab, that I realized things had changed. I met and talked to some students, saw some of the amazing work they are doing, and once again listened as Dr. Trayes joked, pushed, and encouraged them. What a perfect place to pull out my camera, hand it to senior Richard Kauffman, and ask that he take a photo of us. And of course I couldn't resist converting it to black & white. I'm so glad that I have this memory now, but more importantly it reminds me of the three and half years I spent as a photojournalism student and the eight years following graduation I spent teaching alongside Dr. Trayes.

To see Richard''s photos, visit his website at onlygoodlooks.com