So anyhoo, off to Spokane we went. It was a loooong session. We were having too much fun to stop. For the first part we met at a rather well-know park. Apparently too well know as I counted no less than six photographers shooting there that night. Plus somebody was having a prom because I’m pretty sure your average teenage walk in the park doesn’t usually include ball gowns and tuxes.

I’m kind of spoiled living where I do because I never have to worry about working around other photographers. This place was just loaded with them. The funny thing is, though, I was the only one shooting where I was. I guess my brain just works differently (insert your snarky comment here folks; come-on, I totally gave you an opening).

OK, here’s my tip of the day people: get off the grass!!! Seriously, manicured lawns are boring. Go to the edges. Go to where there’s some character. Go to where they haven’t made a path yet (unless of course it makes really cool leading lines, aka see below). Get dirty, risk getting a tick on you. I swear it’ll be worth it. Just bring bug spray…lots and lots of bug spray. Just kidding…well kind of. OK, I’m not. Tip of the day number 2: bring bug spray.

Happy Shooting! Until next time….

XOXO,

Sandy

Scroll down below for some photography Q & A’s I’ve had thrown at me recently. If you’ve got a question for me shoot it to my Facebook Page, and you might just see it answered on a coming blog post!

If you’ve got a photography question I might just have the answer, so ask away!

From Chris M

Q: Looking at your photos, I would have guessed you were a 100% natural light photographer, but reading this post tells me you use that off camera flash sometimes. How often do you use it and do you take it with you on every shoot? Also your shots are all super tack sharp. What Nikon body and lenses do you use, I know you have to use the prime lenses…to be that sharp!??

A: I do take an off camera flash to every shoot, but I don’t always use it as it depends on the look I’m going for. I’m more likely to if it’s cloudy, the skies are cool and I want to preserve it (like sunset shots), a night time shoot, or a commercial shoot. I have been using it more since I got the D4 camera as it works seamlessly with the PocketWizard Flex. Approximately 70% of the time, though, I’m using a reflector because it’s quick and easy and it’s the most mobile with little kids. They’re all just a tool, and as an artist I want access to all brushes so that my vision isn’t limited by any one trick or skill.

I shoot a Nikon D4 and D3s. Up until march of this year, though, I was using two D2Hs bodies (old school baby!). When I’m shooting portraits I only use prime lenses (primarily the 85 1.4 and the 50 1.4). When I’m doing weddings or editorial work I’ll pull out my 17-35 2.8 and the 70-200 2.8. You can’t beat primes for their sharpness, lack of distortion, and beautiful bokeh.

From Rebecca

Q: I have a question about the umbrella … is it the shoot through white type or something else? Thanks for sharing .

A:  It’s just a plain old silver and white reflective umbrella. I use one of those most times. Sometimes I’ll use a small collapsible soft box or a brolly box too if it’s windy, I want a softer light, I’m gelling a light to make it colored, or I don’t want to worry about light bouncing back into my lens. If you keep it at a 45degree angle to your subject and you that’s usually not a problem.

From Bethany O

Q: I have two questions for you. First, you mentioned in a comment that you prefer a reflector over an external flash when you are photographing children. Have you figured out a way to handle the reflector yourself, or are you using an assistant? (I have found it difficult to manage a reflector on my own while chasing after the little ones.) Also, do you recommend any resources for learning natural-looking flash lighting? I think your flash lighting looks far more natural than examples I have observed in the couple of books I’ve perused about how to use flash. Thanks so much!!

A: Awww…thank you Bethany! I usually try to bring an assistant with me. It makes my life easier and the end product better. If one’s not available then I’ll use a parent. If that’s not possible then I’ll set a reflector up on a light stand and boom and/or use the strobe. I learned my off-camera techniques from my many years as a newspaper photojournalist. I like to keep the look subtle. When I’m using strobe it doesn’t steal the show, and the ambient light is still a large factor. If you’re interested in learning from me, I do offer one-on-one mentoring sessions, just e-mail me for details. Someone I look to for lighting inspiration is Joe McNally who I had the honor of meeting at the Eddie Adams Barnstorm workshop many years ago. He’s a rock star of the journalism world. Hope that helps

From Carrie E

Q: I shoot with the 700 but I have been thinking about getting the d3 or D4 for a while…have you noticed a huge difference?

A:  I love my D4 and I would recommend the D3s too (it’s the newer version of the D3). I picked one of them up used as a second body. I like them because they’re a much sturdier body and the vertical grip is built in, and I prefer to shoot with those. Where I live and work it’s really dusty, and I need something that can hold up. As far as difference, the D4 controls are set up a little different, the viewing screen is bigger, and I feel like the response time is faster. Do I think its better? Sure, but it’s all just a tool right? Up until March I was shooting everything with a pair of D2Hs I bought used in 2007 and those suckers were ancient, lol.

This photo was taken at Bumping Lake near Washington State’s Mount Rainier at a recent photo shoot. On my Facebook page I was asked how I got both them and the sky exposed properly. The short answer is that I used my off camera flash. If you want to know the longer version stick around, and I’ll give you an ear full.

The skies during the session were beautiful after a recent storm, and I wanted to make sure they weren’t blown out. To do that I underexposed the image a little bit to keep the skies nice and dark. My in camera meter on matrix metering told me that exposure. I then took a spot meter reading off their faces, and compared that to my hand-held incident meter. The hand-held meter will be more accurate because it’s not influenced by colors like your in-camera reflective meter; however I’m on the shore so I can’t get right next to them to to take an incident meter reading so I use both and average them.

Now to pick an exposure. I start off with what I want my aperture to be. In this case it was f/4. That’s a little higher than I normally shoot, but I wanted to make sure they both were in focus as well as show off the beautiful landscape. The exposure for the sky is going to have a much faster shutter speed than the shutter speed exposure for their faces. They trick is to pick an exposure that’s between them, but a little closer to the sky exposure than their face exposure. That way I still have detail in the sky, but the trees and water don’t go too dark. I choose 1/250 s at ISO 100 and I’m shooting in Manual mode. I then checked the back of my camera to make sure the highlights weren’t blown.

Now, if I left this exposure as is I’d probably be OK with their faces having enough light because the water is reflecting light back up at them, but I’d have to do a lot of Photoshop magic to bring out the details. Why do all that post production work if you don’t have to. If there had been more sunlight, I would have just used a large reflector to bounce light back at them; but the sun was going in and out of clouds and wasn’t reliable. To fill in the two of them just a little bit I had my SB800 flash and an umbrella on a light stand on the shore to camera right. It’s attached to a quantum battery pack to help it recycle faster and triggered by a PocketWizard FlexTT5 Transceiver. Because it’s somewhat far away the result is very subtle, but it does the trick of filling in the shadows on their face beautifully.

Now this big long explanation makes it sounds like it took five minutes to set up this shot. Thankfully that’s not the case because I totally would have missed this beautiful moment between them if it had. I already knew the exposure range I was using for the sky. The light stand was set up and ready to go, and I just moved it to where I needed it. So all I had to do was adjust the exposure I already had to bring it a little closure to the exposure for their face. The result: a beautiful moment captured forever between a father and his young daughter.

June Photo Challenge: Dads

http://www.rocktheshotforum.com

If you follow my Facebook page, you may have had the chance to see a few of these. If not, I hope you enjoy this massive smorgasbord of photo goodness. I know I loved making every one of them.

Now all my Tri-cities, Wash. area clients will have a place to come for client consultations and ordering sessions, and for my national and regional clients my one-on-one photography mentoring sessions. This new studio space also has a beautiful and spacious shooting area (squeal!!!!) with both natural light and studio strobe options. That means you now have another choice for newborn, baby, child, and maternity portrait sessions.

Of course I’ll still be doing on-location shoots. After all it’s just too gorgeous here in Washington State not to use what God gave us. But now there’s another option if you want to do indoor sessions, or dramatic studio lighting, but you don’t want me to take over your home (or you clean it, hehehe) for your portrait session.

The biggest change with this new location will be with my newborn sessions. On-location newborn session are still offered; however in-studio newborn sessions will have a reduced session fee. Plus, you’ll have full access to all of my props and backdrops (after all, my car can only fit so much).

I can’t wait to share this new studio space with you!!!!

And because I can’t do a blog post without a photo, here’s a handsome little fellow from a recent newborn session:

It’s a big world, baby
And you’re little
For a Little While

~ Renee & Jeremy

By the way, I nabbed that red rocker straight out of the son’s room as soon as I saw it. Not only did it photograph beautifully, but it belonged to his grandfather which makes it ten times more meaningful than anything I could ever bring. And speaking of grandpa, a big shot out to him, too. He was the one who picked out, all by himself, the outfit his granddaughter is wearing in the yellow basket. I’m thinking a certain little cutie pie already has her granddaddy wrapped around her little finger.