So I love the concept of family lifestyle photography. I don’t often find the time to do a lot, but it’s a lot of fun and perfect for my style of shooting.
BTW, if you have ideas or events like these let me know… who knows I might be free and able to come do them. It’s worth a shot.
So the question is… Who’s totally jealous of this little kid’s birthday party?? Come on now, admit it!
Yes they did have Jedi Training available!
Yes I made a church cultural hall look pretty OK! I’m awesome! hahaha
Oh and the jarvie window pictures are always fun for a little end of party.
50 pictures of the largest Festival of Colors (Holi) in the United States.
It takes place in a small farming community in Utah! At the Krishna Temple.
20,000+ people come to the event often parking miles away.
Pictures were taken by a group of 12 photographers organized by JarvieU
They had 2 countdowns (color explosions) this year.
By Grouping (individuals, groups, couples, crowds)
(Above) The launch of the colors the first time around.
I Didin’t get any colors on me until about 9hr into the day when this batch of yellow hit me.
Choosing your spot for the color explosion is very important. I picked a bland spot… but I made it work and focused on the crowd experience and colors.
So what do you think? Should I quit the Wedding Photography business (Day Job) and jump into the big bucks of Political campaigns {sarcasm}? Specially the non-incumbent ones that don’t have the big funding?
Well as much as I enjoyed yesterday… which I did a lot. I think weddings are actually a lot more exciting adventure and are more apt towards exploring artistic avenues. I’ll be sticking with weddings for now. That and travel photography.
I have (i think) a good aptitude and personality for a political photographer and the realms of photojournalism it touches. After years as an All Day wedding photographer the days aren’t even that long. I shot 8-5 for this campaign today along with plenty of editing to get done. Par for the course, except it appears post-process stuff is even a bit faster because I don’t feel inclined to any “fancy” edits.
Meeting the great fun people and creating even stronger connections that even at most weddings is very appealing. The challenge of making something repetitive (like speeches and rallies) and greetings and pomp look new and to bring originality into it is an interesting challenge that I do happen to like.
However in the end of it all I have my guess that campaign/political photographer is kind of like an area of service, something I’d like to feel is beneficial to Scott Jarvie the citizen and probably isn’t in the cards for JarvieDigital the creative photographer. That being said I bet you, you’ll see a lot more political type pictures in the months to come, when I can fit them in. I believe it will really help to hone my skills. It will also help me to be around more of this stuff and get me a nice education about our government along with lots of great connections.
Me adding a little spice to the campaign rally.
(Above) Lots of different photo ops and ways to make the day/events look very special and historical.
(Above) I was able to play around with 3 flashes on radio trigger and what all that meant and how to position them around the room.
(Below) This was an interview by a NYTimes reporter
When: Saturday March 27, 2010 at 12-7pm
Where: Krishna Temple, 8628 S Main St., Spanish Fork, Utah
What: COLORS – There will be 50,000 bags of Colors for sell.
They will do the event TWICE this year 12pm and 4pm
The initial start of the throwing will happen about 1 hour into each event so about 1pm and 5pm
What happens? Throwing of colors, dancing, chanting, body surfing, indian cuisine, people watching etc…
I will be there from before sunrise until after sunset. I will have about 12 other photographers there helping out. (See bottom or contact me for details)
Anyone is invited to come and take pictures, they love having you there and seeing your pictures.
Photography safety
Last year I wrote a post that dealt more with the philosophy of being smart with your camera. It still applies.
This year while I would go without any protection to the camera… I will also be buying underwater bag so I can get a little more crazy and closer.
Key Suggestions:
Stay away from people that are throwing if you don’t want to be thrown on.
Consider a long telephoto lens to shoot from far.
Consider staying in no throw areas. (If you’re more worried)
Use an internal focus, internal zoom lens… or a prime.
Pro lenses will handle the dust better than cheap lenses.
Use lens filters.
Consider a lens hood.
Don’t change lenses, specially not anywhere near the action.
Don’t change memory cards, specially not anywhere near the action, dust can be even more dangerous than water to a memory card.
This means get a big memory card.
Bag them cameras and lenses up… get some tap and cover any openings.
Wear a jacket and tuck the camera inside when not being used.
Make it known you’re not part of the action and they’ll tend to be nicer.
The mentality
This festival is meant for the throwing of colors, what do you expect? You’ll probably get stuff thrown at you. If at once you involve yourself you become part of the crowd and you’re probably fair game to everyone. If you’re clean you could either be a target to some or a keep-clean-sign to others that this person isn’t here to be thrown at.
People in the middle of the fray are way into this and expect anything and do anything.
People on the outskirts tend to do a little throwing hear and there but aren’t as hard core as the center.
Watch out for un-savory characters who don’t care that you’re carrying a nice camera. 99% will respect the fact the other 1% don’t care.
My 1st time experience
I took my brand new DSLR and didn’t cover it with bags or anything. I had a jacket which helped. I kept it under the jacket most of the time until all of a sudden i needed to take a pictures and I pulled it out fast took a picture and put it back inside. When I was in an safe spot I didn’t worry as much. More so when going through the crowds.
I even changed lenses and used an external focus and external zoom lens along with a prime 50mm.
Result: I was fine! The camera bag I was carrying was the hardest thing to clean. (Washer in delicate mode was best) The bag got hit hardest because from behind no one knew I was carrying a camera.
I made a lot of eye contact and was always vigilant of people with bags of colors ready to throw. I avoided areas that might be problematic
Safe Zones – and Crazy Zones
There will be areas (on or in the temple) where throwing will not be allowed for those wanting refuge.
The closer to the throng of people the more you should not have problems with claustrophobia and the ability to hold your breath when the initial throwing happens.
Worst Case Scenario?
Colored corn maze gets inside the camera and you need to take the camera to Kew’s in Provo and for $135 he cleans a large DSLR, meaning he opens it up and cleans out the intire insides.
He’s done a lot over the years after Holi
Photography for the more adventurous or the more paranoid.
Get an underwater casing. They can cost $1500 and up or perhaps get an ewa-marine bag. B&H sells them. for $300-400
They’ll make it a bit harder to navigate your controls but you shouldn’t have any problems taking pictures.
You can even use a point an click made for underwater.
I’ll have an EWA bag for one of my D-SLRs and my G-11 will be in the underwater casing.
Then I’ll probably have another 1 or 2 DSLRs that I’ll prep with bags and tape the night before.
I’m mounting a camera for time lapse pictures right above the stage.
Join JarvieU photographing the event
We will have about 12 photographers shooting the event.
We will have our own safe and clean staging area.
We will have an area for people to come and get portraits done quickly.
We’re syncing our cameras, they’re all getting sorted and edited at once (each photog can use their own pics at home As Well)
We’re printing up 10,000+ business cards with the link to the pictures photos.jarviedigital.com/holi
We’re donating half of the enlargement profits to the krishna temple
We’re using other of the money (if there is any) for future JarvieU events and projects.
We’re contacting newspapers and national media outlets to tell them about the event and offer our pictures for use.
If we can get it done in time we could even do banners they said.
We’re trying to get them all done and online in one day.
We’re experienced on how to edit them well. (But we’ll take as much help as we can that next day)
We’re having a prep our cameras party the night before.
This really isn’t a photo-making event… for me it’s a labor of love.
So if you’re thinking of joining us because you want to make money… sorry think again. You’re free to go on your own and do your own thing.
I was just going to straight up share the pictures and be done with it.
But readers of the blog have probably noticed the trend to share photo shoots along with commentary and perhaps even a lesson from time to time.
Those interested in the pictures will probably just view the pictures anyway
or maybe they should just skip right to the FULL GALLERY With an open invitation to use these pictures online to your heart’s content (Assuming they’re of you)
Read the end for more info.
Those wanting to wax philosophical might do so with me in the text of the blog.
I’ll be intertwining some pictures as well.
Read my discourse about giving and receiving and see more pictures after the jump
I got to my location at the SW corner of the BYU stadium for the stadium of fire at 8pm and waited 1hr until people started lighting of personal fireworks
The first actual firework went off at 10:18
I’ll be there again this year barring any unforeseen circumstances.
TIPS:
Use bulb mode and usually shoot 2-5 seconds. Shoot manual and have aperture usually f/9-13
Shoot low ISO
And the obvious… have a tripod.
A remote trigger is awesome, one that does bulb mode is superb.
But if not then use a timer and set it to like 2 seconds… a little more annoying
almost forgot: a lens that does internal focusing or at least locks or doesn’t creep when shooting a long shot.
Because you will be pointing up.
I usually shoot with a telephoto and focus on shapes.
Mainly because of the location I’m at.
But others tend to do cool foregrounds or backdrops.
The smoke from the fireworks can be your friend but in some cases it might be bad
Oh have a good tripod that won’t creep on you during the 2-5 second shot.
Have lots of battery because long exposure drains batteries.
This is a recap from the pictures I shot last year.
One of the cool things about fireworks is that there is no editing needing to be done on them.
Well except darkening blacks can help in some cases specially with smokey pics
My job at church (calling) is to be the photographer.
How chill is that?? Per’ Darn – is the answer.
Yeah sure it’s tons of work in comparison to other things… but it’s no different than what I do every other day.
I’ve had this calling starting back in 2005 in 3 different wards! In the 3 places i’ve lived… since that first time.
I don’t take quite as many as I did when i lived in my previous house… but still all my friends at church get hooked up with some great pictures at the activities I show up with a camera.
This was my first experience with this group.
It was a tough shoot because of how dark it was outside.
I spent most of the evening trying to help some of the other photographers get good pictures, because I love doing that and I think it’s even more fun.
But for a good 20 minutes or so I was taking pictures.
It’s late and I’m just now going through them… so I’ll post one now and a bunch later.
I took this picture then realized that i was still on the settings from a previous shoot.
Sad… but I didn’t erase the dark pictures.
And when I got home I looked at those pictures and in Lightroom
I thought: “Why not give it a shot”
I raised the exposure +2.5 and added 29 fill light.
And on second thought things turned out just fine.
I’ve decided that I prefer erring on the side of too dark than too light.
Specially with the new cameras.
It made the backgound in this picture noisy, but it really works for this style. And I decided not to even run a noise reduction on the picture or do anythign besides up exposure…. Fun stuff!
And I suppose it’s hard to even see the noise when the picture is as small as it is on the blog.
I decided that if anyone wants to invite me to go jetskiing or boating, In return I’ll take some rockin’ pictures.
I’ve never been out on a boat taking pictures but this was a blast. And I even bought a watertight bag to make sure my thousands of dollars of equipment is dry when needed.
Then i handed my bishop the camera and jumped in myself.
He has some training (I taught him a lesson a while back) and has used an SLR.
Besides I set all the settings and just said click away!
This is me… ummm… diving into the water. I totally meant to!
Me… I debated putting up the black and white because as you can tell from other pictures… look how blue the water is. It’s a very unique blue at bear lake. I’ve never been there before. Very nice.
One of my roommates went along as well. Jared
Here’s a series of more tubing pictures. Staring Marta. She’s a lot of fun and from Mongolia.
She’ll get upset that I’m putting so many pictures of her on the blog…. so that’s why I did it. To tease her, and because they turned out awesome!
What a cool shot! They were pretty far out there… that’s when the 200mm 2.8 comes in handy
This is where we camped… things were starting to get colorful up in Logan canyon.
Here’s one in the early morning
We weren’t able to camp too close to the cars… but there were little carts like this to facilitate things.
I’m very proud of my wonderful Costco Tent. It’s 2 rooms with a cool entry way canopy.
I’m not really the roughing it kind of camper. I like camping. I just like to have a lot of stuff with me.
Any camping event is not a success without a fire!
And then some crazy people decided to jump said fire.
Wait that’s me!
Others jumped it more often.
And we got a little carried away with piling wood onto the fire.
And yet sean continued to jump if we even mentioned it.
Just don’t land in the fire and you should be alright.
That’s my hand!
I found that when a fire is big enough it lets off a lot of light!
Fun subject and a good beard makes for a good portrait.
Football and a chinese hat… they go together don’t they?
Another picture of my fun Mongolian friend.
She taught me how to say “Your pants are on fire” in mongolian… but I’ve since forgotten.
I must learn that sometimes when they know you’re taking a picture the pictures can still be fun.
Tender moments.
It was mainly Young Single Adults… but sometimes you can’t go unless you bring your younger brother to babysit.
I love this picture because this was my bishop playing hearts with us. I got up and snapped a picture of the fun event. He apparently really really loves playing hearts. I should teach him the real partner game! Pinochle
Morning. Dousing the once-raging fire from the night before.
This is a picture of whatever you want it to be… I can’t really remember the moment that was going on here.
Looks good though.
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