Not one of the tens of millions of people who have watched Lindsey Stirling then go check out her Youtube channel now
To see all in high quality go here
Do you have a favorite? Let Lindsey (and me) know.
Ore even try Pairing a picture with an Album title name.
BTW most all of these pictures were taken near a large fire… so you see many of the effects of the lighting with smoke in the background and during sunset.
The intent of this post is to prove the point : that sometimes you photograph for a while just to get the subjects prepped for that one epic moment.
On another note I don’t think people come to me to get engagement pictures for that one wedding announcement picture.
That might be kind of silly… I think they’re hoping for a set of pictures that share all the aspects of their relationship. A mini-scrapbook of their love story.
BTW you can see 150+ images in this gallery
In my mind their shoot is kind of like a third wheel Date with Jarvie – An expensive one
The beginning part of the shoot is often just to find the rythm and be comfortable. I believe it’s an art to making people comfortable or even happy in front of the camera… to ignore them when they talk about being nervous or whatever defense mechanism they have… and just start having fun.
Doing things like putting them in a tiny little alley way… mainly because you just are intrigued to see how it turns out. (And you think it’ll break down their pre-conceptions of what they’ll be doing)
OR… placing them next to a porta-potty … to make them laugh (or something like that)
But providing plenty of moments to be tender
And then of course what I’m good at… the joyful stuff
Then seeing how they react when they’re all by themselves for some individual portraits… gives me a perspective of where they’re willing to go or where they’re naturally drawn to
And then you’re at the END of the day and you bring out the fun lighting and things get a little more dramatic.
But by that time you’re all seasoned pros and they can handle a little more standing still and set up for lights and they’re comfortable and you know what their strong suits are… OR… they come up with something totally different and awesome
(Write-up as Originally posted by Scott Jarvie on Google+)
Yesterday I had the amazing opportunity to go on one of the most coveted hikes in the area. The Wave … after watching the moon eclipse the sun and the sky turn to dark I decided it was time to step up the game a notch. This is what you do when there is no moon no light to light up the ground. This is what you do to get the stars.
I put my years of using Off Camera Flash on Brides and Models to the test by lighting up stuff much bigger. I directed a couple of friends (not-photographers) on where to stand, how to operate the flash, what settings to use and where to point.
The results are as seen.
Worth It
This picture made the long arduous hike luggin 43lbs of gear in the strong sun worth it. Even though coming back in the pitch dark took twice as long because we missed the trail.
Partly I did this hike and others this weekend with such a heavy backpack to see if I could handle a couple weeks in Bolivia at 13,000ft elevation and not die. Turns out I’m in better shape than I thought.
It’s always nice when you can outperform even your own expectations.
Disclaimer: I do not condone doing the hike and staying here this late unless you really know what you’re doing and are well prepared. Don’t get lost hiking back at midnight and die and then blame me.
Decisions
I posted a horizontal picture of the wave at night to great response I wanted to show a couple others specially this vertical one. I went with the dark skies not-blue look for the last one and am still pondering the decision.
And Travel
Though I’m known as the wedding photographer I certainly got my start in photography doing Travel pictures in Europe and Peru. Travel and culture are in my blood along with my 5 languages spoken.
Light it big
Now I’m itching to go do other places and put this skillset of landscapes and lighting-stuff-up to work… suggestions welcome.
THE BUZZ about the PHOTOGRAPHY DECATHLON
There’s already been a lot of talk about the Photography Decathlon.
Our first official announcement was on the show “Life through the Lens”
I figure I need to do a good writeup which we can come back to and reference.
AUTUMN PICTURES
I’ll also be adding pictures of Utah in October to entice people
Summary
The Photo-Decathlon is a photography competition involving 10 styles of photography (landscape, portrait, street, macro, night, commercial, photojournalism etc)
Teams of 2-4 photographers (or solo photographers) have 2.5 days to strategize their schedule and photograph and prep a small portfolio for each of the 10 styles.
10 ambassadors (one for each field) acting as judges will award prizes.
GOAL: The photography decathlon hopes to provide a place for photographers to push themselves to do their best and find appreciation for their years of improvement… it’s also an event where photographers learn and grow and socialize and make new connections with other great photographers.
Video: The preparation, the classes, the sponsors and the competition will all be heavily filmed in order to share this event with the rest of the world who are not able to make it.
Team Entry : Teams are limited to sponsors. Sponsors are able to use them for their valued clients or employees or to stack a team as they so desire.
Theme of Decathlon: Autumn/Colors – Because we will be in the midst of the Fall colors in utah.
DATES: Oct 9-12 (tues-friday) With a 2 day free fall colors themed photowalk to follow the decathlon. (Saturday & Sunday)
Location:
Utah (With events happening from Provo to SLC to Park City)… we will be stationed in the mountains near Midway and Heber (50 minutes from the SLC airport, 15 minutes from Park City)
Many might choose to stay in Cabins with us in Heber or Midway and there are hotels there and in the nearby Park City. We will have cabins fitting 10-30 photographers available for a nominal charge.
TEAMS and Costs
Admission will typically cost nothing for photographers because company sponsors are paying for them.
However competitors will need to take care of travel costs, food and lodging… Unless the sponsors also cover those.
All decathlon participants also have free entry to the educational day and the opening and closing ceremony dinners.
There will be separate tickets for the galla dinners and the educational day.
Businesses should contact us about sponsoring a team. Space is limited. And only sponsors may have a team.
Some levels of sponsorship come with access to two teams (ex. employee team and client team?)
Ambassadors:
One of the most exciting parts of the decathlon is that we will be flying to Utah 10 of the best photographers to come act as teachers and judges.
We plan to involve the photography community heavily in who will represent each of the 10 styles of photography.
So start thinking about who you’d nominate each of the 10 styles. Tell them to block off their schedule in early October.
Decathlon = 10 events
Landscape, Macro, Night, Street, Portrait, Commercial, Photojournalism (Subject: The decathlon), architecture, Thematic (Colors/Autumn), 10th (TBA)
SCHEDULE
Day 1: Educational Day
Classes, Panels and Mentoring Sessions. Led by our ambassadors
Opening Ceremony Galla Dinner: With special presentations and introductions while we eat.
A good opportunity to mix and mingle and it will also be when we hand out the packets for all the teams.
Day 2-3: Photograph
Teams strategize their schedule and their division (or non-division) of labor and decide when, where and how they’ll photograph each of the 10 styles of photography.
It will be exciting to see how each of the teams spend their 3 sunrises and 2 sunsets and how many of the styles will they tackle in the same location.
During this time our film crews will be following the actions of several of the teams to share with those unable to come to the event.
Day 4: (Final Day of competition)
At noon all teams will have all their portfolios submitted. The ambassadors will then proceed to judge them.
In the meanwhile we expect many more people to be coming in from out of town for the final 3 days of events.
We will have a small local photowalk for everyone to freely enjoy.
Closing Ceremony Galla Dinner and Awards:
8pm we will start the closing ceremonies with some special presentations/videos and we’ll also hand out the awards.
We will award Best Portfolio for each Style of photography and separately award Best Photograph for each style of photography.
We will announce the grand prizes and a few sponsors and our commercial product clients will also give their own awards.
There will be extra tickets available for The Dinner and Awards show for those coming just for the weekend events.
Day 5-6: Fall Colors Photowalk
With more people coming in from out of town for the weekend we’ll be doing a free photowalk focusing on fall colors. Decathlon participants and ambassadors are not required to stay.
Be Involved
Are you interested in: Sponsoring, Competing or Volunteering to help put on the event?
In any of these cases you’ll be in contact with myself (for the time being)
jarvie@jarviedigital.com or on Google+ or FB
Volunteers – We are working to assemble a team to help with the many areas of the event.
(Educational day organization, dinners/ceremonies, video, PR, online presence, housing and sponsorships. Also people to organize and manage interactions with our models, commercial clients, teams, ambassadors and our Sponsors)
Do you want to compete?
Be part of the early admission for teams when we start in the next month or two.
Of note: Some companies interested in sponsoring have said they just want to be involved and might make slots in their funded team freely available.
The decathlon itself will reserve a couple of teams to make available later in the summer.
But I say that if you and your friends are interested that you should find a business that might sponsor you.
Because space is limited we will be somewhat selective in the types of companies that we accept to be sponsors.
Individuals: Are you hardcore enough to compete in the individual photographer division? My hat is off to you!
Good Response already: We already have a bunch of well known photography companies planning on being involved and filling teams.
We will announce them as we finish up the contracts and start to make the sponsorships/teams official by signing on the dotted lines.
Updates will be at Photography Decathlon Google+ page for the time being until a site is finished. Or follow Scott Jarvie on Google+ or FaceBook
I will put together an FAQ if you have any questions
MORE PICTURES
These were all taken last year in fall and the full gallery can be viewed here
Landscape is only one of the styles but people can shoot their night, macro, portrait, commercial pictures all up in the canyons
Along with our Open Style themed category which is COLORS
These specific locations will be in our list of places to shoot.
Headshots
This was the first paid photoshoot with the new Nikon D800 and it was a fun one.
I like doing individual portraits though I don’t advertize them half enough… probably because I’m more used to weddings paying the bills and sending me to fun locations.
NIKON D800
For those interested in my thoughts about my first paid photoshoot with the D800 go to the end of the blog post
ABOUT Jennie
Jennie Litster is an Opera Singer
I met her at a wedding about 1.5yrs ago and we’ve been great friends ever since. The last time she had headshots was about 4yrs ago so she decided it was time to get new ones.
She uses the headshots heavily and says she’ll probably send out several hundred and I’m not sure what amount of time. But every year she travels around auditioning for different parts usually New York and California and sometimes Europe. This year she had a full time job working with the Utah Opera so she was here for a while.
The light in the house was so nice that we just did most of the headshots there… specially helpful because there was no wind… except for when we stood next to the door.
There are a bunch of looks for her to choose from as I know she’ll be very selective about which one she uses. I have about 90 pictures in the full gallery
GOWNS
Doing the pictures of the gowns though more fun was a secondary need for her. But we were able to get three different gowns
I new I’d be getting a very high MegaPixel count and that now my pictures could be blown up to cover the side of a large building.
Sharpness. What I didn’t realize was that because of this (and probably other factors) is that my pictures would be much much sharper.
In fact I’m still blown away at how much sharper my images are and I hope that this was not just the circumstances of this one photoshoot and a few other pictures I’ve taken.
Blown out highlights (bright spots) … well simply put: There are fewer. The camera really does have a much higher range. I guess it makes sense that it was rated the highest camera in this department by DxOMark.
Auto Focus – I still need more interaction specially in adverse situations like backlight or low light. But so far so good. The best compliment I can give is that I have yet to stress or work hard to focus on anything.
Battery Life - So far so good. I think I shot about 1400 pictures on the last battery. But I’ll keep double checking to make sure i was correct. The real test will come when I plug in my GPS and see how fast that depletes the battery. I don’t think I’ll be getting the grip very soon because it’s crazy expensive for a battery grip. But it’ll be wierd to re-adjust to not having one and not being able to use AA batteries to power the camera
File Size – Yep they’re big. 40-50MBs … and this has changed my workflow a bit. Meaning I am now starting to delete pictures from my computer that are blurry and out of focus. In fact I’m starting to chimp straight from the camera as well. The center button zoom is a life saver and I couldn’t live without it. But more than that when you are zoomed in you can scroll around in the picture much faster than any previous camera i’ve had and that does make a difference for me. I used to say storage is so cheap I don’t need to delete… but when your pictures are 3 times the size and you’re bringing home 15GB for a small shoot and 60+GB sometimes for a wedding then you start calculating numbers and realizing you could have about 4-5TBs of pictures a year when you’re used to 1-1.5 … Yeah so I’m changing my mind on the deleting thing. Good thing for me that I’ve already selected tens of thousands of blurry pictures over the years that I could easily, with one click of the button, delete.
ISO – I know people are more interested in High ISO performance but I think I’m most excited about having a lower ISO setting of ISO50 that will be awesome for night shots or even shooting at f/1.4 in the middle of the day. There is indeed noise at higher ISOs and since there are a lot more megapixels you can really zoom in and see it. But when you zoom out and just see the picture online and stuff I don’t think it’s a big issue. What I’m trying to say is that I just assume it’s better than the D700 but will try shooting some more HighISO stuff and get back to you on that.
COLOR – I’m still getting used to turning the pictures I take into the bright colorful images i’m used to. Using the Vivid profile in LR4 is good but not quite as punchy as I’m used to. Also I’ve found myself tweaking the WB in post a bit more than I was ever used to and I’m hoping it was just for this shoot. I think my picture color will be different than in the past… but I’m sure I’ll find a good method and be happy about it. With a short amount of experience one thing I could say is that the colors look more real.
BUTTONS - My muscle memory says that the AF-L button, the Mode button and the Front scroll wheel are all just slightly in the wrong place. It’s been awkward for me to adjust to.
Happy surprise – Changing Image size on the fly. Yep I’ve programmed the Fn button to change between full frame, 1.2x, 1.5x and 5:4 image sizes… it’s been pretty fun actually and only time will tell if I’ll continue to do that when the newness wears off… but something tells me I will if only because it saves so much space on the hard drive. Well to be fair it does help me previsualize the correct cropping when I can’t get any closer to my subject.
ONE TEST - You can’t really take anything I write to seriously because I’ve only shot 1400 pictures with the camera. But in this next week I’ll have done 2 weddings and this time next week I’ll be in Japan to do an engagement shoot and taking lots of travel pictures. So that’s when I’ll get a really good idea.
I thought I’d be happier with a D4 than a D800 but I really am warming up to the idea of a D800 the image quality is spectacular and that’s a pretty big deal. I think I’ll just stay away from a D4 so that I don’t know any better and my wallet is happier that way.
ZOOM IN
To get a better feel for the images why don’t you go to the gallery on SmugMug where you can view the images pretty large
VISUAL RECAP
Many of you know I’m very active on GooglePlus (my profile)
I’ve added these pictures on my business profile as well so you can comment on them individually.
QUICK SELECT
I very quickly perused the thumbnails of 4000+ pictures and picked out about 50 pictures I thought would be nice to show off from the event, just to wet the curiosity of those wanting to see pictures of the event.
I organized a 3 day photowalk for many of the GooglePlus photographers and we went to this event for 2 days. I’ll write more about that event as well as post lots more pictures from the event.
For now… Enjoy the pictures: (See them here as well)
In the comments let me know which one I should talk more about and I’ll put it up on GooglePlus and Facebook
(Above) The organizer
Characters Welcome
Come join us for 3 days (or less) in Utah March 23-25 for some awesome photography adventures.
My event The Jarvie Photography Decathlon (happening October) is sponsoring this epic 3 day photowalk
Kind of a pre-event festivity. If another group/company would like to help sponsor more than organization skills and help us rent a clean room tent get in contact with me.
LOTS OF PHOTOGRAPHERS
It’s a time for lots of photographers to get together for a weekend have fun, socialize and go take pictures.
This could possibly be the largest weekend-long photowalk so far in the history of Google+
We already have some well known photographers like Lotus, Hawk and Colby coming
Some photographers are even coming from out of the country.
When and Where
Friday 23rd of March through Sunday 25th of march in UTAH
Friday we’ll do photowalks in Salt Lake City and a couple other locations
Saturday and sunday we’ll go to the festival of colors
All days we’ll probably find locations to eat together
People are organizing groups to rent houses for the weekend since it’s more fun and cheaper.
And remember almost all details will be given on Google+ on my Profile or the Festival of Colors page
Things to know about the festival of colors
Other things to know about the photowalk
Here’s a small collection of some of the pics I took that year
2010
1000 More of my shots from 2010
2011
Last year I did some actual shoots… like a couple of real engagements, trash the dress (with models) and some portraits.
ABOUT YOUR CAMERA
This will be the most popular section.
People always ask me about keeping the camera safe??
The safest thing you can do is to not own a camera to worry about.
Personally, I really don’t worry about it… tons of people that bring their camera and if they’re not stupid they’re just fine.
I will NOT try to convince you to come… some people will remain paranoid no matter what. I will not try to talk sense into you. If logic can’t save you then just don’t come, or come and don’t shoot, or come and buy a underwater bag.
If you read this section and you still whine about it… I will probably not answer your questions and simply mock you and your pansiness… so don’t expect babying from me.
But below I will give you the perfect TIPS on how to be SMART
We will also have gaffer tape, rain bags, and syran wrap and rubber bands at the event.
BTW it’s not smart to be in the middle of the crowd with no protection and a external zoom lens… but you can always NOT be in the middle of the crowd.
For those that are concerned
I would NOT recomend the following
As for me
Worst Case?
Send your camera to my favorite camera repair shop (Kew’s) where for a nominal fee they’ll clean the entire camera for something like 100 (that includes sensor… and well everything)
So in any case… it’s a ton of fun and hope to see you all there.
It was short and sweet and yet I got so much done. I was able to take pictures of about 15 groups of people.
From families to couples to individuals.
Groups ranging from 1-7ppl
To see all the pictures see the highlights first gallery OR the by shoots chronological gallery
LOCATION
1. Engaged Couple
2. An Individual
3. A Family
4. A Random Family I don’t know
5. A couple and their cousin
6. Married Couple
7. Sisters
8. Random Highschool kids
9. Random College Students
10. Boyfriend Girlfriend
11. Another random family
12. Newlyweds
13. Past Wedding Clients
14. Myself (setup by me and then taken by Jon Barker)
15. A couple
This is a rundown of the highlights of the shoot
The hope of this post is that you get an idea for the flow of a photoshoot like this engagement shoot…
This was last night in SLC
All three locations we all of us not been too… in fact they were just recommended to the bride by friends and the old truck was on an ad listing.
Sunset is so dang early 5:20pm and we started a bit late so we didn’t have all that much time.
SPOT 1
They wanted an old car to match their 50s theme… they had the idea of the broken down look.
We didn’t move the car to a place because the owner wasn’t even home when we started… so I had to make due with the neighborhood where it sat… and it wasn’t that easy, I assure you.
SPOT 2
I’ve actually shot near here before but never in these spots. This is near my photo store pictureline.
Spot 2.1 So we started with this cool old brick building
Spot 2.2
There were tracks nearbye and they were talking about the possibility of tracks
Spot2.3
This was a wall nearbye
SPOT 3
This was a diner that doesn’t look like a diner outside but go inside and it’s wonderfully decorated.
To see more of the pictures we presently have up online go to the gallery
We started the photoshoot after the sun was down… so speedlights play an essential role in all of these pictures.
In many of these pictures I lit up the lavender at the same time lighting up the bride.
Frequently I would use 3 lights. I had three things to do:
Light up the bride
Light up the lavender
Backlight the Bride
Here’s another post I did of one of the models that also came along that evening.
Hair and Makeup done by Versa Artistry
The skies worked so well with the fields of lavender… the soft twilight worked well for the fields.
Hair and makeup company set up their on location studio in the lavender fields… worked on the brides’ makeup there and so this is where we started the shoot.
I did some for the bride and some for the company Versa Artistry based in Utah. Flavia and Kali are fun wonderful gals.
Sunset colors weren’t hit you over the head vibrant but there was some in the skies (this was all of it) and so we got it in some of the pictures.
We brought umbrellas because it was pretty rainy that day… but it wasn’t at the fields… but we thought might as well give it a whirl.
And we were pretty much done with the evening… but I thought about how Versa might want some pics of their makeup work… so we did some closeups of everyone there… Here are the brides pics.
Photo: Story and Tips
Shooting just for fun
I’ve written about this in the past about how often I go on just for fun photoshoots and get pictures of the people I’m with (like +Liz Draper who’s a local photographer) I had them model and as you can see in the pictures so did I even.
I’ll have to find that article about how and when I’m totally cool with doing pics for the heck of it.
Flowy Water
We often see the flowing water theme in landscapes but perhaps not enough with portraits.
I’m sure all skill levels will read this but just as a recap: the lower your shutter speed (longer time) the more flowing it looks.
I shot this whole series without a tripod and on the smugmug gallery you can go in and see photo details to see the times if you so desire.
If I remember correctly from 2 seconds all the way to 1/20th of a second.
No Tripod… no problem
I love being creative with how to get low shutter speeds without a tripod. When I travel and I’m in big cities it’s a pain to carry around a tripod all day long just so you can have one at night. So I frequently use all sorts of poles or walls or any of the many, many things you find along the sidewalks… or use the ground. I get some unique pictures because I’m putting the camera in places I might have never considered.
So for a couple of these I was using nearby trees and some of them a ledge that was a bit higher. I think for one or two I was handholding… I’m pretty sure you can tell on one or two of them. (If you see a black “void” around the subject)
Sieze the moment with flash
Even with putting the camera in steady places it’s not perfect because the subject will be moving, but it’s not a reason to not take the pictures.
Flash can help.
There’s some technical reasons going on (which I refrain from getting into at the moment) but just suffice it to say you’ll capture and seize the moment with flash which helps a lot with low shutter speeds.
Testing new stuff
I usually won’t go and play at pictures without trying something new I can use safely here on a for fun shoot before I take it to a paid shoot.
I was testing out two things this time: a battery pack for my speedlight (sb-900) and a flash bender which i was using as a snoot to direct the light straight onto the subject without much bleed onto the surrounding area. It worked well because we had to be sometimes 20ft from the subject standing on the bridge over the river with the flash pointed like a sniper at the subject while I stood from the angle you see here (first picture).
Verdict on the things I tested…
Well it wasn’t a long shoot so I’m not sure how long the battery pack will last but I’ve done 2-3 short shoots with it and it’s still going. And I might consider having a different device for my snoot as the one I was using was a little small for how huge the sb-900 is compared to all the other typical speedlights.
Colors
I love the spotlight look and I also love the colors. Because it was just after sunset the light was a lot cooler and we were able to warm her up a bit with the light so it’s a pretty stark contrast between warm and cold light.
Random models
I had some friends from church doing a picnic of sorts nearby. Of of my friends is into photography and he came and watched a bit so we threw him and his fiancee into a couple pictures.
On the last picture you can see the nice dramatic pose… in clothing that certainly did not match. eh? haha (Like them nice green running shorts for the dramatic dip with dramatic lighting?)
Not too slow
I went to a pretty low shutter speed but liked the look of the river at a somewhat faster speed so you could see just how rough the river was running.
Anyway those are some tips and the story behind the pictures.
Taken Saturday night at the Stadium of Fire at BYU stadium. In fact from on top of the stadium.
Taken without a tripod in bulb mode (but braced against something to prevent from shake)
Basically I had the shutter open for as long as the firework looked cool.
During the 10 day bootcamp for photography I took the interns on assignment.
We went to meet with my clients at abravanel hall where we’d be shooting 2 days the next week for headshots for the symphony.
We needed to find a great location for the pictures… and I like showing how to use different locations to their full potential.
So we brought along 2 models and here is one of them.
(Above) The use of the brick wall in the background with special care of how to make sure the railing doesn’t become a distraction. One from down low another having her go a story above us.
(above) This is the backdrop that we went with for the headshots of the symphony members. The gold walls in abravanel hall.
We also did some pictures outside for a bit.
We enlisted the help of Morgan for a location search workshop. Inside and out of Abravanel Hall.
We practiced finding and using a small area for taking pictures. Being able to talk about why some spots were better than others.
(Below) this was also part of a walk through for pictures I would take the next week for the Utah Symphony. We showed them the options they had for locations.
