Good things happen when the sun goes down… twilight is often more exciting… and then there’s a clear evening with the stars coming out and some nice palm trees.
In this post I’d love to drive home the point:
Make wherever you happen to be work for you.
And get good at seeking out spots and SEEing the spots you’re at.
Don’t wait for the perfect opportunity… make it the perfect opportunity.
(Above) As you see these pictures you might wonder why they call it Sunset Beach… haha
This day was proof-example, after example, of why going out with a set purpose (set picture) in mind is in many (not all) ways is retarded.
But having a “way point” can be smart.
Yes have plans… but be open to all the amazing things that surround you.
In this case we penciled in Sunset beach for sunset.
When you’re on a road trip with me you realize I’m using a pencil and that pencil has an eraser.
But beyond that when you are wherever you are… be ready to shoot them when they happen. (know how)
And be ready to SEE them.
It makes me wonder how/why those photographers who set out with one specific shot in mind do it.
That would drive me batty… and doesn’t seem like a good idea. (Open for discussion, as long as we’re trying to understand eachother)
(Though perhaps having fewer pictures would sure cut down on processing and make picking easier)
Going back to the car to grab the tripod… low and behold, I saw the light.
I was saying to myself… how do these things like this keep happening to me?
I really couldn’t have planned the mist, the sunlight angle because of clouds, the color of the sunlight is beyond our control as we know.
Yes I put myself in a situation where i could get back lit pictures of surfers when they came out… but I certainly wasn’t expecting this.
I can’t move this dude I’m not in charge of the posing.
I just frame it up to tell the story and wait for the elements to be in a good spot.
This is a big example of just wandering around searching and being in the right place at the right time.
We didn’t write Hawaii 2009 in the sand but we came by literally seconds before the wave washed it away forever.
I barely had time to aim and spray fire shoot it as it got washed away.
The lighting was hardly what people aim for, but I knew that it would make it unique and that I could add back some of the contrast from shooting towards a setting sun.
This was not planned it was a result of waiting around for other people to be ready to go and getting bored and saying… hey why not take pictures of the palm trees.
If only I had my cable release to take longer than 30 second exposures. But that’s what I could do…
and I set the White balance to 2500 kelvin to bring out the blue because the street lights were throwing off the colors.
On this trip I discovered the joy of setting my white balance to Shady A2 to really bring out warm colors
I think any white balance could have worked for this evening and the camera itself would have been stumped with the colors of the sunset at sunset beach.
Don’t just take good pictures and call it good… add spice.
OK obviously the above picture was taken a while before sunset colors hit… but I wanted to show the kind of waves they were looking at.
You’ll see some better pictures of waves coming up… but I take pictures to document what was going around a whole lot.
Now planning your shots ahead of time is not a bad thing… don’t misunderstand.
I planned on being at sunset beach at sunset.
And when I got there an hour before sunset I said I wanted to be on such and such side of the water/beach.
But the point is: Up until that time (your way-point time) and after and maybe even instead be willing to let your hunches, ideas and the light take you where they will…
Kinda like the waves of see, they go here and there and wherever the wind and tide takes them.
Yes there could have been other paths… but make the path you decided on, or were thrust into work for you
You’ll find some amazing things start to happen.
And you’ll learn to deal with (photographically) what you’re given… and not just search for what you want and always see the green green grass just beyond reach.
I’m saying both things can be good when done correctly.
But don’t wait for the perfect opportunity… make it the perfect opportunity.
A lot of my pictures are a testament to my laziness… i was shooting sunset here and just didn’t feel like moving.
I was hoping more surfers would just walk past me. (They’ve done it in the past)
So i just sat around, not being pulled in any other way.
So I made where I was Work.
Instead of perhaps finding another better location. (Which might have been good too)
People almost seem to refuse to take pictures when the light is not perfect for them.
I say learn how to deal with the light no matter what it’s giving you.
Use it to your advantage… take the pictures the present light situation is giving you.
Don’t wait for the perfect opportunity… make it the perfect opportunity.
Even better if what’s been given is pretty darn nice!
Thought I’d write a short little ditty about my new baby.
Sorry I’m not all detailed and didn’t include fancy screen shots and what not.
But what I lack because of my lazieness I’ll make up for with awesome detailed info.
The beginning
I bought the new 2nd gen 30″ Dell monitor. I can’t compare it to the 1st gen that is 500$ cheaper.
But I’ll compare it to all my previous monitors. old crts for ages and ages past… dozens. More recently sony 17″, samsung 22″s
And a few laptops with the biggest being the 17″ macbookpro functioning at 1920 resolution.
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
Both will be about the same cost.
The HP will have more horsepower and more bells and whistles when it’s loaded up.
But I must admit the MacBookPro is pretty snazzy and has some crazy good battery life and the size and weight are nice.
I don’t think the other options (dell, gateway, Toshiba etc) are that much better. To give them the nod over these two.
I could be swayed otherwise given that I haven’t had real life experience with all of them.
But for now I’d say the HP 18″ or the new macbookpro
You really need to have a large screen if you’re going to edit on the road.
And a word on that:
Laptops and Editing
Try not to Edit on the road!
in fact
Don’t edit with a Laptop!!
Particularly the SCREEN or the TRACKPAD!
Both are terrible choices!!
(Now That I’ve said my inflammatory statements I’ll continue on and say why)
For the insistent
If you insist on it being your only computer for some interesting personal reasons, OK, Fine… but understand. It’s never as good as a desktop when it comes to EVERYTHING besides portability.
Use a Desktop
I will still be using my custom built PC for editing because it’s Much much faster
It’s consistent… I’m not moving it around into different lighting situations.
I get to use two identical monitors or 3 monitors or even 4… maximising my efficiency.
A keyboard and a mouse are a must and I’m not tempted to try to edit without them.
I use my desk and am not tempted to edit on a couch.
(For busy moms out there maybe that’s why you go with a laptop so you can edit in different rooms throughout the day. Or computers on the bus or subway)
I’m busy and stuff… so I’ve just decided if you haven’t signed up for thursday yet… JUST COME.
Leave the nice tables for those who’ve already signed up. But there will be chairs and stuff.
Also please send an email to lightroom@jarviedigital.com to list things you want me to cover in intermediate class.
I’ll try to cover them all.
Intro/Beginning Class
(Those wanting the intro and the basic rundown of Lightroom)
Tuesday 14th April
7pm-9:30pm
Intermediate Class
(Those who have used it for projects &/or gone to a previous long workshops.
We’ll be learning some tips and tricks, guest presentations and a more extensive Q&A for me and other Advanced Lightroom users)
Thursday 16th April
7pm-9:30pm
Advanced Class
There is no workshop or class
But we will be a monthly meetup. Lightroom Advanced User Group Meetups – “Jarvie’s fellow Lightroom Geeks”
You must have a good deal of lightroom experience
If you want to be involved or help organize these meetups email lightroom@jarviedigital.com and specify your interest
There is a cool special format for these meetups.
Location:
East Bay Studios
85 Eastbay Blvd
Provo, UT 84606
How to register – Follow directions exactly
Send email to lightroom@jarviedigital.com – Or leave a comment on this blog post
Write out the following items 1,2,3,4
Email Title: “April Workshop”
Name
Which class you’ll be attending (1 class only, you pick)
If you want to be on the waiting list for the other class. (The one you didn’t pick.)
Whether you expect to want to go in for Pizza &/or Rootbeer Floats
5. Notes/Comments – Anything you want me to cover, thoughts, inspirations, resources, ideas! Everything else I can skim through for kicks. Or questions.
Extra: If you’ll be bringing anyone else please supply their information as well – including email
Example:
Title: “April Workshop”
1. Scott Jarvie
2. Tuesday Class (beginning)
3. Yes (for waiting list on thursday/intermediate class) 4. Yes, Pizza (Yum Yum)
5. My question and ideas: Are you going to give away all your presets? Have people there to talk about their experiences, share their workflow.
80 person Limit
… so RSVP soon. (Specially since it’s only 1 week away)
Questions?
If there are further questions please try to use lightroom@jarviedigital.com – or twitter @jarvie
I will try to refrain from doing much chatting on facebook or gmail chat about the subject to help save me some time to get pictures edited to free up time to do these workshops.
Part 2 : A run down of the events & how to approach as a photographer
RE-Edits
I’m including on this informative post new pictures or new edits on old pictures.
So I guess we can say we get to see some never before seen footage from last year.
Well it appears there is enough interest when i posted my last blog
I think Holi: Festival of Colors will be well documented this year.
Please respond to let me know what you think of the information I provide in this Book-Post
I know other photographers do things way different… I know and respect and understand… let me explain my way for a moment or two
My goal is often to mix great art, making someone look good and showing off who someone is.
This of all the pics is Kambria’s smile to me. The real one.
I can be lazy i know this… and most others know this.
OK so I’m a tad lazy sometimes and that’s what leads to a lot of this style.
I know how to do a bunch of things with lighting… but i don’t often do it.
I stick to easy lighting situations and simple techniques.
But there’s a reason…
thing is my style doesn’t really allow for some of this fancy stuff.
It’s a whole experience being around me… I usually want happy faces and good experiences.
Or for them to feel like they can be creative.
I set up the shot… i picked the background… i got the camera set. But she did the moves.
I told her “look here”… or “look to your right” – she picked the rest… and i thought she did good. And since she did it herself… it’s much more likely to be something that is who she is.
My style??
Well I’d like to think that what I offer is a very fluid interaction and that people so often feel very very comfortable around me.
Even those that aren’t into pictures… they become into it. Or at least have a non-painful time.
My style is bringing out their style…. facilitating their ability to come up with ideas and make them their own.
This leads to more pictures.
Sure i could pose them and put their head and hands right in the perfect spot… but each time i do that we just lost 10 more pictures… at least.
Sure I personally have a distinct way of shooting and a look to my pictures… and I have poses that i fall back on. But each time they get to put a flare on those… as i get to put my own flare on concepts I’ve done before.
Quantity
So, i suppose i go for the quantity approach.
People love that i take lots of pictures in so many styles and views.
They certainly get their bang for their buck when they walk away with 100+ good pictures of themselves.
And it also increases the odds of ones they absolutely love.
See the thing is we might have an idea in our mind and work super hard to make that spot and that lighting perfect. But it doesn’t always assure that is what the client loves the most.
So often they love the moment. They love their expression, they love the memories associated with that moment. Or perhaps they just like another spot a bit more. They might prefer a picture of a lesser quality than the one you made look imaculate. And it just takes exploring and playing around to find that spot.
It’s so interesting to see what someone likes in the end and finding out why they like it.
This girl loved these little piglets… she’s going to love these series of pictures.
Hey Scott! Since we first talked last year I’ve been keeping up with your shoots and studying them to see what the difference is between yours and mine. Because your’s have a completely different look to them! And they’re totally awesome by the way!
Besides general style of shooting, I’ve realized it’s the color and feel to the picture. So I have a couple questions!
First of all, what camera(s) do you use? What lenses do you use most often?
Do you use Photoshop or Aperture? I’m looking into getting Aperture and wanted to know how it is compared to Photoshop but I don’t know anyone out here who uses Aperture on a regular basis. Also, do you shoot in RAW or jpeg?
One thing I loved about all your pictures is the super RICH color. What do you attribute that to? Is it your camera (beyond just correctly exposing the image in the first place), image format, what you do to it after, etc?
Thanks Scott!
Jen
Scott Jarvie
I shoot in RAW which gives me the leniency in Lightroom to minimize shadows
I develop the picture with more contrast and usually aim for a generally brighter picture.
Believe it or not I usually don’t make changes to saturation controls.
When you up contrast it usually punches the colors anyway.
Mostly it’s the camera and the lenses and the way i shoot. Which is usually a low aperture like 2.8 or less and often with a thrown out background.
I have used everything from the d70 up to the d700
right now it’s the D700
Which means I’m able to go pretty high in ISO
So i already mentioned it but I use Lightroom
I teach it too.
But that’s hard when you’re living out of the state.
But the last one i did was recorded and perhaps I’ll put it online so more people can see.
But RAW definetly lets you pull out shadows and also a big part is it lets you up contrast without affecting the saturation too much.
Because on JPG you up contrast and I’ve seen that it messes with the saturation of the faces and stuff in a way I don’t like.
Plus JPGs have a pretty high contrast already… but it isn’t really a style of contrast I prefer.
Hope that helps to answer the questions a little bit.
I’m gonna throw this answer on my blog so more people can see and hopefully learn something knew.
First time out to Speed Week out on the Salt Flats.
Not only was this the first time to Speed Week: Known to some as the last true amateur racing competition.
But it was also my first time to the Salt Flats in the 7 years I’ve lived in Utah.
I’ve passed by them on I-80 more than a dozen times… but I’ve never stopped.
It was a fun and interesting experience.
It really is a cultural experience to be around so many speed loving car centered men.
But I did see A girl there and she was even cute.
I went not only to see what it was like but to hang out with a couple of Utah Photographers that were also going for the first time.
My Tips:
Everyone says where sun block (everywhere) – I would agree but I didn’t and was fine. But I was only there 3 hours and that was 6:30am – 9:30am
Get there before 7am. That’s when sunrise is best. 6:30-7:30. Plus they don’t seem to start taking money until 7am. And they also let you go almost anywhere before 7am.
Try out some stuff along the pits and towards the end but the action is happening at the start, so that’s probably where you’ll spend the majority of your time.
There’s a lot of clutter, but the scenery is surreal so if you find an excluded car/bike you’ll be happy.
Talk to people becuase they’re more than willing. (They’re there a week waiting around for a race here and there. it seems to be a place where they come and hang out with like minded people)
So go ahead and send a couple in and I might choose yours and edit it and send it back…
I’ll probably also do a post. To show how cool it was.
Whatever you want… including wedding stuff if you’re married and your uncle did your pictures or something. haha (Just make sure you’re allowed to let me edit the picture)
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