I refer to myself as a Fine Art Photographer.  Some people describe Fine Art Photography as a nude shot in monochrome.  Another description that is bandied about is out of focus images of uninteresting subjects.  Here in the Southwest, some gallery owners would describe Fine Art Photography as scenes reminiscent of the glorious past.  None of those definitions fit my work.  I shoot nudes that may be incorporated into other works, but monochrome nudes are not part of the portfolio I would publish.  My out of focus works, I discard.  The past I find interesting, but not interesting enough to devote much time for my art.    

Art requires an ability to convey emotional impact of some sort, nostalgia, joy, sorrow, love, etc., many of my images have that impact to me.  My camera records images that I later process into the works you can see.  Where most people consider photographs to be truthful renditions of a scene, I do not.  Images that I produce take advantage of the lie of omission all printed images have, so as to improve the likelihood that a specific emotion will be recalled or felt.  In other words, I exploit the lie and sometimes embellish it because abstracts of some objects are more interesting to me.

Art photography is more personal than commercial photography.  Either one exhibits the character and style of the photographer, but when the photograph is produced for a particular client, the photographer becomes limited to making a technically masterful work that the client must like.  A Fine Art Photographer produces works primarily for his own gratification, if anyone else likes a piece well enough to buy it, all the better!  The work I exhibit is not produced with any specific goal other than to please me.  I am glad to show it and if you like it enough to want it hanging in your home, contact me or visit my sales sites at Fine Art America or Red Bubble.

I find my most creative time of day varies depending upon what I am doing.  For instance;
     I write most of my blogs between 9:00 and 11:00 in the morning.
     Most of my photo shoots with models are set for 3:00 to 6;00 in the afternoon.
     The Majority of my photo editing is done after 8:00 at night and can go on until very early the next morning. 
Photo editing is also determined by mood.
     Anger or frustration tends to make me create psychedelic work.
     Tension causes me to work using techniques that emphasize and isolate the subjects.
     When I am relaxed, I tend to pull up landscapes or my older shots.
     Sad times will find me going into my alien shots, as they tend to force smiles and change my mood.
Landscape shots or shots involving people in landscapes I prefer to shoot early morning or early evening.  Studio shooting is determined by either client's or model's schedule.  I actually will use my camera whenever I see something that piques my interest.  I tend to not edit my images until at least 24 hours after a shoot, so that any excitement that may cloud my judgment has had a chance to subside.  Editing is best done using fresh well rested eyes.
I plan a shoot about 24 to 48 hours before I have to take my camera out, unless models are involved.  Models are wild cards in that unless they are shooting a concept I asked them to shoot, I have to wait until they arrive and see what their ideas and choice of wardrobe will permit.  Shooting nudes is still a wild card in many ways as body type can be vastly different between similarly sized models based upon their fitness level and posture, but I do have a set concept for nude shoots that has usually been discussed at least 24 hours ahead of time.  When traveling, the only planning done is for the logistics of getting to and from a destination and the time of day simply determines the direction the camera is likely to be pointing.

If given a choice between having a good makeup artist on set or doing retouching in Gimp or Photoshop, which would you choose?  My own choice is for a good makeup artist.  Here's why;
     1.  Retouching takes time, lots of it if you have a subject with problem skin, or VWUW (vain with unwanted wrinkles). 
     2.  It is much easier to hide unwanted features under a good quality makeup than it is to clone or brush it out in post processing.
     3.  A good makeup artist will notice some things like out of place hairs, or an area that could use a bit of powder so time isn't wasted.
     4.  Having a makeup artist on the set makes the photographer look more professional.  It shows you care about your clients.


    

When photographing artwork, the single most important thing to remember is that a camera sees differently than your eye!  If the plane of the camera (film or sensor location) is not parallel to the artwork being photographed, distortion will occur (whether you can live with it or not depends upon your desire to look professional).  I find a tripod works best for keeping the art and camera correctly aligned.  The light a camera records is not the same as the light we see.  Film and digital sensors record light with considerably less sensitivity than our eyes.  Our eyes compensate automatically for variations in color temperature, film does not, and when digital cameras are set to do this most of the time they will destroy the color rendition you took care to create.

For flat work like oils, acrylics, watercolors, etc., indirect light from the sun works best.  North facing walls are great. most of the day.  If you must light it indoors, be sure to use 4 equal wattage lights that are set at 45 degrees from the center of the piece.  Set your camera's White balance in accordance with the type of light (incandescent, fluorescent, or LED),  Do Not Mix The Type Of Light) or if using film be sure to use the correct type of film or the proper filter to compensate for the kind of lighting you chose.

Galleries want to see your art, not your framed art.  Filling the frame is a must.  To do this, you can move the camera to fill the frame, or use the camera's optical zoom feature to do so.  If the camera has only a digital zoom, Do Not Use It.  Digital zoom simply crops the image and you get less detail than you would have in the full sized image.  Another thing to consider is that a wide angle lens when moved in close to an object tends to distort the image (straight lines often take on a curved look).  You are almost always better off being about the mid distance of your zoom lens on most digital cameras.  

Sculpture looks its best when the viewer can see the 3 dimensional aspects of it.  Lighting sculpture requires one to use at least 2 and often 3 lights for best effect.  The key light should be a bright and "small" source (gridded spot, bare bulb flash, etc.).  It should cast a strong shadow.  A fill light is used at about 1/2 the power of the key light, but it should be a much larger source (think large soft box, reflector, or umbrella).  The purpose of the fill light is to lessen the strength of the shadow, not to eliminate it.  If a third light is used, it is often set up to provide rim or edge lighting to the subject.  This light pulls the subject out of the background.  In all cases, the camera has to be set for the type of light that is used or you have to choose your film and filters accordingly.

In the days of film, photographers that were not shooting with large format cameras (4 x 6, 5 x 7, 8 x 10, or larger), had to use consistent lighting and exposure for the entire roll of film in order to ensure quality negatives to print from.  With digital cameras, no consistency is required for, but it does help your work flow if you try to maintain at least some sense of order to your shooting.  Shooting using similar exposure and lighting enables one to make your pictures more uniform.  If you are doing event, wedding, or commercial work, this will save time. 

Adobe Camera Raw and Lightroom enable one to "batch process" large numbers of images in short time.  Batch processing is not the best way to produce quality work, but it does help speed up the work.  I tend to see batch processing as building the infrastructure to a housing development.  You don't have to rely on it if you choose to live elsewhere, but when it is not there, you may find your car stuck in the mud.  Batch processing is just another tool within Photoshop.


I do not batch process for color correction, sharpening, or creating my psychedelic work.  I do batch process to add tags and key words to items that are going to be posted on the web. 

I've been shooting events.  No real surprise there as the only events I don't like to shoot are weddings (I prefer to select people I am going to shoot, without the added pressure of a "mostly" once in a lifetime affair).  When preparing to shoot an event, there are many things to consider:

    Venue - These range from huge outdoor areas to cramped rooms packed tightly with people.  Many don't allow flash.  Some require all people that have "pro gear" (more often than not pro gear is a camera with a big lens on it) to either be registered or have a media pass.

    Lighting - Light changes constantly out doors, but not nearly as much as some venues for dancing.  In harsh sunlight, you need to use fill flash or try to shoot your subjects in areas of diffuse light.  At low light level dances, even if the use of flash is permitted, you may want to use a high ISO to minimize the impact the flash will have on your subjects.  Stoffen or Gary Fong filters used on your flash will give more diffuse light for most situations.  Bounced flash is often used, but in order to use it well, you have to be aware of ceiling height (or bounce your light off of a white shirt (unless you can manage to get someone to hold a reflector).  The lighting also determines your ISO and white balance choices. 

    Type of Event - This dictates your lens, shutter speed, and where you will place yourself.  Shooting sports from bleachers requires a longer lens than the dance floor at a nightclub.  A fast shutter speed is not often necessary to capture  a politician at a campaign rally,  but is required if you want to catch the water spray as a diver enters a pool.  If taking candid shots, you don't stand in the middle of the action.


    ISO choice - This can be forced upon you by the lighting or speed of the action.  I sometimes choose my ISO because i want the overall feeling I am attempting to achieve to be something different.  I tend to shoot Swing bands and dancers using a very high ISO so I can get noise that simulates film grain, the result of which is more reminiscent of the images from the 1940's.




Event photography for me is not simply recording an instant of time, it is making that moment's emotional impact a bit more easily felt.  The above photo would not have the same impact had I shot and processed it to be a a color, non vignetted shot.

Pain is one of the things most of us try to avoid or eliminate.  There are many ways we can ease pain signals, drugs, meditation, distraction, etc., but none of these is 100% effective 100% of the time.  In my experience, for some of the pains I have had, the amount of drug needed to make my pain tolerable usually would make it impossible to function mentally, while other pains were ignorable without medication of any kind.

If pain interferes with your sleep, by all means take what ever medication you need.  But if you can get to sleep without taking pain medication, do not use it when you are awake.  Anti inflammatory medication, or medications recommended by your doctor for treatment of your specific ailment are not to be avoided.  I do not shun all drugs, but I do read enough about them to understand what they do, how they do it, and what to watch out for when taking them.  I do not generally take medication just for handling pain.  The only recreational drug I take is caffeine, which is found in my favorite drinks (the ones without it don't seem to be as enjoyable).  

Pain signals often are telling us that part of your body is not functioning well and you need to stop doing something, or do something else to correct the problem.  When I broke fingers playing volleyball, I often taped them to the good finger next to them and finished the game, as I had enough adrenaline flowing through my body to suppress the pain to the point where I could still function.  It was only after the game that I would seek treatment, but I also never felt much pain from those breaks.  I suspect that was because I had trained myself such that as long as I was actively taking steps to heal the problem I could turn off the pain receptors in my brain.  It is not an easy thing to do and it doesn't work 100%  of the time, but being drug free and in control makes it worth the effort.

Pain from Kidney Stones takes a lot more effort to control.  Taking drugs may work for others, but once again, my own method is different.  I start drinking water, about 1.5 liters an hour and I spend as much time as I can doing puzzles, reading books, or playing games on my computer to distract my mind from the passing of time and the stone.  I found out long ago that washing the stone out of your system requires large quantities of water (in part to assist in dissolving the stone) to flush the remnants out of the body).

The pain that one experiences after surgery, is one I found requires drugs, for a short duration.  Proper preparation before surgery can make the difference in how you handle your recovery.  The fitter you can be prior to surgery, the better.  Drugs are okay to use during the time you are confined to bed, but it is essential that you are able to monitor your pain signals in order to assist your therapists, any sharp pain signals stop the activity, whereas, an increase in the overall ache generally is expected and should not be used to halt activity.  I found rather fast that relying on pain killers can result in over doing an activity and lead to far longer times in the hands of therapists (sadists) than one would desire (although I have had some therapists I liked).  A clear mind is far more important in monitoring pain and is actually preferable to me than being pain free.

My knees have little to no cartilage left in them.  I have received Synvisc injections, which have been beneficial for periods of as short as 3 weeks and as long as 3 months.  The recommended interval between injections is 6 months, so I end up in pain for long periods of time in between the injections.  I have found that alternating between Ibuprofen, nsaids, aspirin and acetaminophen work for a bit, (one week on each), but never come close to making the pain bearable.  On days I have photo shoots, I have been known to mix nsaids and ibuprofen to relieve the stress my knees are going to be put through.  I refuse to stop my activities, although I have been slowed down considerably, as doing so would cause a more sinister pain, depression.  I have to wait until December before my next Synvisc injection, and I do not find the wait enjoyable.

Many people take pictures.  Some take a lot of pictures.  Most have at least one or 2 shots they consider great!  Professional photographers need to have consistently good shots.  A photographers portfolio should contain a strong opening image and a strong end image, but it is the consistency of the images between them that must be evaluated.  If the difference in quality varies, you can't be sure of what you will get.  You can almost bet on not getting the same results as the first and last picture in the portfolio.

By consistency, I do not mean the subject matter is the same.  Contrast, Brightness, Color Correction, Focus, and Timing all contribute to creating an image.  It is the manner in which the photographer shows his ability to produce results that reflect mastery of these elements that you need to see consistency.  If you are hiring a photographer to shoot a sporting event, the work should consistently show an ability to capture subjects at an optimal time (just as the football leaves the hand of the quarterback, at the moment the ball hits the bat, etc.).  Wedding photographers need to show consistent color balance over the 4 to 8 hours they shot even though the light varies.  When the work is good and shows consistency, that's a photographer worthy of consideration.

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One of the worst things an event coordinator can do is allow too many photographers into their event!  If an event is to be photographed well, all photographers must be working from the same script and not stray from their assignments.  When lights are set up on a set, only the photographer working that set should be taking photographs!  Having a bunch of idiots trying to crowd in and utilize a set can cause lights to be knocked out of position, shots to be missed, or have a light stand knocked over into a guest!  Most strobe heads have a lot of high voltage energy that could ruin someone's evening (electrocutions are dangerous). 

Another reason the set should be left in the hands of only one person is that his camera is set to give high quality images using his lights without any additional flash power.  Having another flash go off when my shutter is open over exposes my shot and means retakes must be done.  Time is money and should not be wasted redoing shots that should not have been interfered with in the first place.  The weak power of point and shoot cameras are not a big problem, but the large flash units on prosumer cameras (cameras with features pros use on cameras used by people that think that the camera makes the picture) do interfere.

Then there is the problem of "jockeying for position, each of the invited idiots with cameras rushes to be at the "in" spot for taking pictures.  This is not acceptable behavior, as it means that some guests are not going to be able to enjoy themselves because an insensitive person that happens to have a camera is blocking their view.  Guests at charitable functions that are not having a good time tend to donate less!  If you feel you need more than one photographer, assign duties and an area to each of them and do not let them stray from that assignment.  When I work with other photographers, I do my best to not interfere in their shots.

Cheap access to powerful camera equipment makes it so anybody that wants to call themselves a photographer does so.  The big camera manufacturers, Nikon, Canon, Pentax, etc., have put a lot of effort into figuring out what and how most people shoot and their latest cameras are designed to enhance those aspects of photos.  When a photo straight out of the camera looks good, the logical question follows, Why should I pay someone to take a picture I can do myself?  Is there a reason to hire a photographer?  Can't everyone with a good camera take great pictures?

You should never hire a photographer to take a picture you yourself could do!  You do not hire a photographer because his camera is better than yours, it may not be.  You do not hire a photographer just because you need someone to push the button on a camera.  You hire a photographer that has a particular style of work you like.  The artistic vision of a photographer is his knowledge of what his camera can do, what types of poses fit the occasion, and the kind of post processing he or his lab performs.  Photographers look not only at the subject, but also at the details in the background, foreground, and middle ground and use their choices of white balance, ISO, shutter speed, f-stop, and sense of timing to create their shot.  You hire a photographer because you like what they create out of a scene.

Equipment is not capable of compensating for mistakes like; the lamp post growing out of Uncle Bob's head, the garbage can just behind the banquet table, or the toilet seen in the mirror the bride is using to apply her makeup.  Your photographer should see those things and adjust the shot to compensate (they will not be in his direct from camera shots).  The most expensive camera when placed in the hands of a novice will produce pictures that look like they were shot by a novice.  A good photographer, can take just about any camera and compose a shot that looks great. 

The best photographers get great shots consistently right out of the camera, but will still have a bit of post processing done.  Photoshop, Gimp or some other software will be used to ensure that skin tones will be correct in all shots, that minor blemishes not already concealed by makeup are hidden, and that the look of the images remains consistent.  Be wary of any photographer that does not do any post production work. 

Some photographers create works of art!  Even if you know where a particular shot was done, and the time of day, you may not be able to capture a shot similar to the one done by a photographic master.  Cameras set in "program" mode with auto white balance are by nature, going to give a good exposure for skin tones.  Most great landscapes come out rather poorly when shot that way.  Overly red or orange scenes throw off the camera's sensor, similarly, so will overly dark or overly light scenes.  There is far more to taking a picture than pushing a button.  If you see a photographic work that you like, buy it!  If it is one of mine, I will gladly tell you how I created it!  I assure you, since all photos tell lies (if only of omission), telling how I created the image you see is the only way you will find out the truth the image conveys!