My friend since University Neil, one of the coolest guys I know.

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One of my wonderful hosts from the last week, the lovely Ayesha standing in her kitchen window for a quick portrait.

The post Portrait-52 Week #19 appeared first on Alan Bailward Photography.

• Aperture
• Shutter Speed
• ISO
• Lens focal length

The mistake that a lot of photographers make when at workshops is thinking there’s more to it than that. They fiddle their aperture and shutter speed constantly, convinced that that will change things.

They’re wrong (most of the time).

Once you dial in the shutter and f-stop, then its all down to lighting and your model. Once you get your lighting set properly, you’ll have to interact with a person to get a great shot, sorry.

This is still one of my own personal phobias, dealing with people. I’ve always been an introvert and have been way more comfortable with computers and technology than people. I tend to fulfill the stereotype of the photographer fiddling with the lights constantly, or their camera, all whilst ignoring the model.

If you think that the last shot didn’t work because the main light was three inches too close or far, or that you should dial in f/7.1 instead of f/8 you (and I) are completely wrong.

You have to wait. Interact with the person you’re making a picture of, talk to them, find out what they’re doing, what they’re up to, what they like and don’t like.

You have to mean it. You can tell when you’re talking to someone who really doesn’t care about the answers. The bored looking waiter who asks you how you are, and says “that’s nice” whether you tell him it’s going well or that your family was just sent to the moon? Yea, your model can tell when you ask what they do on the weekends for fun and don’t care as well.

A greatly respected photographer says that the camera looks both ways, and if you’re freaked out about making a portrait it would be reflected by the subject. I’ve also heard great portrait photographers say that at a certain point you’ll see the veil lift from the eyes and you see the real person, and you can capture the real person with your camera. I think I’ve seen that happen, once, maybe twice, maybe I didn’t notice it or maybe it’s never happened. Maybe I still don’t know what I’m looking for, but that’s why I’ve been shooting people as much as I’ve been able to in the last couple of years. My Portrait-a-Week project is to get me in front of as many people as possible to get me better and better at finding that true person within the subject.

I can only hope that someday I’ll be able to get just one “right” shot.

Someday.

The post Photography Workshop Camera Settings and Working With Models appeared first on Alan Bailward Photography.

My dear friend and classmate since kindergarden, Chani.  Gorgeous makeup by her sister Catie.

The post Portrait-52 Week #18 appeared first on Alan Bailward Photography.

Anyway, as you know, or don’t know based on the responses from friends on Facebook seeing me posting from the other side of the world, I’m on a work trip from Vancouver to Bangladesh with the two founders of the company I work for to check out the office we have in Khulna, meet the 20-odd people that we have working with us, and of course, have an excuse for a cool trip to a place we’d otherwise probably never go.

 Looking across the harbour from Kowloon to Hong Kong Island

 Greeted by a friendly tugboat in the harbour

 Downtown Hong Kong is full of huge buildings

 Kowloon harbour looking to Hong Kong Island

 View from The Peak, overlooking Hong Kong Island… an amazing view

 Last but not least, bidding farewall to Hong Kong and winging the way to Dhaka

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I photographed Chef Victor Bongo as an assignment for Front Row Marketing.  Victor has an amazingly vibrant personality, and a smile that’s a mile wide.  It was a short shoot, with not a lot done by me, basically set up the lights, chat with Victor and Joe (my tame designer) and then point the camera at Victor.  Twenty minutes later there were peppers being chopped in mid-air, chefs jackets being swapped, wine being served and all sorts of other awesomeness.

For the photographers out there, here’s the lighting setup.  I used the brolly to create a back light to give Joe something to cut Victor out of for logos and design work.  Then camera left and back a bare flash at low power to get a bit of rim light, the main light is an umbrella camera right, and then a softbox camera left to fill in some of the shadows.  Victor is a dynamic guy and it was far easier to add more lights to the scene than try to control his wild enthusiasm and dynamic movements around the floor!

My sincere thanks to Joe for the opportunity and Victor, and the Establishment Lounge in Vancouver for the use of their, uhm, establishment for the shoot.

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The best way to Print & Share pictures with the people you love. From your iPhone. In a snap.

The app boils down to a very simple workflow. You select images, select an address (or addresses) to send it to, and physical prints show up in a cute little orange envelope. The images are printed at a 3×4″ size at a traditional wet lab with quality control and a personal check of each print (according to what the website says).

The pricing model is simple as well, a free app, $0.99 per print, no shipping costs, no extra fees. Print fees are paid through the app’s in-app purchase mechanism (note that there is a no-returns policy).

Overall the process is about as easy as I wrote above. You go into an image picker (you can also link your account to Instagram or Facebook and pull images from there, but I chose three images from my camera roll. Next step, put in the delivery name and address, allowing you to send to multiple parties. This is nice if you’re on vacation and want to rub it in your friends noses, or send off some images from a get together to multiple people. Addresses can be imported from your address book which makes it pretty easy.

Honestly the process was about as easy as could be. When the images arrived (after a long wait that turned out to be nothing to do with Printic, but in fact with my ability to properly sort incoming mail!) they were of decent quality. The 3×4″ print size is a bit deceiving (as you can see, the print is a square orientation on top of the rectangular print size, so it looks a bit like a Polaroid).

Conclusion

The biggest issue I have with Printic is the print size and paper quality. The fact that you can get what you get for $0.99 (well, $2.97 USD as there’s a three image minimum), with no up-selling and a simple UI? Well, I wish my local photo lab (which charges about $0.23 for a 4×6″ print) had a UI as easy as this. Even with some minor issues importing addresses from the address book, this app still takes the cake in terms of workflow that I’d love to see in interfaces for the local London Drugs or Lens & Shutter.

Some options I’d love to see in a future update is a way to choose different levels of print quality. A real 4×6″ or 5×7″ option, or a “high quality paper” option would be great (at an increased price of course). However for the quality of images that most people shoot with their iPhones, this is more than adequate, and there is a certain amount of joy in having physical prints in your hand?

Is the app (and the print cost) worth it? I say absolutely. The simple fact that this gives you a quick and easy way to get physical prints in your (and your friends) hands without leaving the couch is enough to get my recommendation. Too often these days pictures stay 100% digital their entire life, and are never turned into physical objects. I’ll be taking a work vacation for a week to a far off land and plan to use Printic for sending a postcard home to my wife and parents for less than the cost of a Starbucks Latte.

Great job to Flo, Ben and the rest of the team on a great app.

The post Printic iPhone Picture Printing App Review appeared first on Alan Bailward Photography.

I call this one “Epic Jeff”.  My buddy Jeff Tsai (@legacyb4) let me use and abuse him at a photoshoot we were both helping out with yesterday. Jeff’s a great photographer in his own right, and an awesome guy.

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I have been doing a Photo 365 project for a year and over 4 months now, and when I looked at the images at the end of the first year I noticed that I really went back to certain areas more often than I should have. I wanted the Photo 365 project to make me think in a more creative way, not just taking the same picture of the same purple flower 4 days in a row, because it’s the only thing I can think of that looks photogenic on my afternoon walk. I even went as far as to join a photography meetup group just for their weekly assignments, though it didn’t last long.

This is where I think the Photo Assignment app (app store link) and iPhone Assignments app (app store link) shine.

 

Whether you are taking on a 365 day photo challenge or just looking for inspiration the Learnphoto.ca Photography Assignment Generator App is perfect for you. While most photo apps out there let you DO things to the photos you have taken (add text, borders, effects, etc) this app is all about IDEAS for shooting.

I’m going to put this review into two parts. First, what the app does and second, the aesthetics of the app.

The Assignment Apps

App Functionality

Both of the apps do essentially the same thing, a list of ideas to draw on when you need inspiration, with details and examples.  There is a list of categories ranging from composition, techniques, landscapes, people, as well as camera settings.  Each one either opens up into another list of possibilities (for example under Creative Thinking you’ll get items such as Photo Story, Photographic Alphabet, and others).

Each will then give you a longer description of the assignment with example images (which open up larger with descriptions).

   

Essentially that’s it.  Don’t think I’m being dismissive here, there’s a fair amount of content for the different categories, example images, and so on.

The difference between the Assignments app and the iPhone Assignments app is that the techniques section of the Assignment App are possible on your DSLR (allowing for different lenses, manual control over shutter speed, white balance, etc etc), while the iPhoneography version has a Camera+ Tips and Instagram Tips section in leu of the Camera Settings section.  These both have a tutorial on the different facets of both these two apps (fairly simplistic in my opinion, but there really is only so much you can do with the iPhone camera).

 

 Other Bits

Both apps have a random button which will (unsurprisingly) take you to a random assignment (cool for when you’re not feeling inspired) and setting up a daily reminder and will send you a random assignment at 9am every morning.  A nice twist on other apps which will just give you a reminder.

The App Look & Feel

I don’t like the feel of this app, I’ll say this right at the start. It is (I believe) a “PhoneGap” app, which is basically a toolkit that allows programmers to create apps in essentially HTML and Javascript, embedded in a webpage.  The big downside of PhoneGap is that the app doesn’t feel like a native app. The whole app “scrolls” when it shouldn’t, it’s slow switching screens and overall has some rough edges which you’d associated with a web app and not a native app (mostly I believe, due to the limitations of phone gap and not the programmer).

Other issues I’ll quickly list out:

• Doesn’t scale to the iPhone 5′s “tall” proportions
• Image popups are using the standard web “light box” popup which looks out of place and creates some touch targets that are hard to hit in places
• In some locations the UI elements are being cut off slightly… Potentially rage inducing in your snobby designer friends

The question is, can one look beyond the UI and enjoy this app for what is is?

Conclusion

While I ragged on the app for the design and look in a very snobbish way, what the app does is the biggest key, and the apps success.  If you need to have a jolt of creativity, this app does provide a lot of ideas for shots.  I like that it goes into SLR specific techniques, and that it’s substituted in the iPhoneography version with app tutorials (though they are a bit light).

Should you get them?  Yes, they’re total cost is $4, less than the cost of a decent latte.  Will you need them?  This depends on you.  If you find yourself stuck for creative ideas but have a burning desire to shoot pictures this will help give you a jump-start on something like (clicks random button) a Collage or (clicks button again) Reflections.

If you find yourself always shooting the things you love already?  This won’t do that much for you.  Though if you’re feeling in a creative rut and want to branch out and don’t really know where to go?  Maybe it’ll give you an idea.  If you’re only doing portraits, you might give (click) Flower Macros a shot to juice your creativity in a different direction.

The post Photo Assignment App and Photo Assignment App for iPhone Review appeared first on Alan Bailward Photography.

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A high school classmate, now owner of a Haney Automotive, a great auto shop in Maple Ridge, was the subject this week.  I’m really, really happy with this image, it turned out almost exactly like I envisioned.

The post Portrait-52 Week #16 appeared first on Alan Bailward Photography.

My photographer friend Rick MacDonald was kind enough to let me shoot him at his home this weekend.

The post Portrait-52 Week #15 appeared first on Alan Bailward Photography.

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My dear friend Dee, whom I coded beside in the dot com days.

The post Portrait-52 Week #14 appeared first on Alan Bailward Photography.

Have a fun Friday everyone!

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• Take lots of pictures
• Move from green mode to Av early (have your images defined by the depth of field)
• Then shoot in manual mode
• Understand manual mode
• Shoot more pictures
• Read the manual
• Yes, it’s boring and isn’t a shiny new toy but read it anyway
• Take pictures of your friends, your family, your pets
• Make silhouettes of your friends and family
• Make high key images of your friends and family
• Read on the internet how do high key, then low key
• Notice how a well lit image looks awesome
• Start looking at light. Every day. Every where. Look at how shadows look on a cloudy day and a bright day. Look at how people’s faces look in shadows and light, and remember that.
• Realize that the best camera in the world with the best gear will take a shitty picture if you don’t know what you’re doing (case in point: the tons of photographers out there with $10k rigs using it to take pictures that you can take on your iPhone)
• Notice the light when you see a random scene and think how gorgeous it looks
• Realize (hopefully before you’ve been taking pictures for 10 years) that IT’S ALL ABOUT THE LIGHT
• Take more pictures
• Bring your camera with you everywhere
• EVERYWHERE
• Read the manual again
• Start to figure out what you want to take pictures of
• Take more pictures of that thing
• Reject an offer to shoot a wedding for $100 “because you have a good camera”
• Take more pictures of the things you love
• Realize it’s about capturing moments

The post What To Do When You Get a new Camera {New Photographer Advice} appeared first on Alan Bailward Photography.

The gorgeous and talented Andrea Walker of Andrea Walker Photography and Walker Park Media let me shoot her out at the riding arena today.  I got a ton of great shots, but I felt this one captured her the best.   Of course, because she’s a fellow photographer I’m completely paranoid about showing her any pictures

I’ll post a few others to my facebook page if you want to check them out!

The post Portrait-52 Week #13 appeared first on Alan Bailward Photography.

Abbotsford model Alexandra Vespertine, on a beautiful Saturday near the Abbotsford library.

The post Portrait-52 Week #12 appeared first on Alan Bailward Photography.

Just a fun shot from work, with our Office Cat Dennis being none too pleased about the introduction to Office Dog for the first time.  I’m always doing my best to draw emotion out of my subjects, looks like this method works well!

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I thought it was odd that when I shared I got basically nothing at all, maybe a passing comment or like from a friend. “Oh you need to use hashtags” I was told. Ok, that makes sense. Hastags (like #cat #dog or #funnylookingbride) help users find content via searches. So the next couple of days I made a conscious effort to use Instagram more and tag and label my images more precisely.

It worked. I’m not going to say that followers and likes flooded in, but it was more than before. Random people on the internet were seeing my stuff and liked it enough to hit a little heart button to tell the photographer that they thought it was good. I know it’s silly, but sometimes it is nice to have the validation from someone not your mom that your work is good.

I did notice something interesting though. Lots of times the likes were coming from people with thousands or tens of thousands of Instagram followers even though they only had a few images posted. While they didn’t look like fake profiles, they didn’t seem like the sort of people that would end up on a random picture of a cat I posted and hit like mere seconds after it was posted.

And how did they get all these followers anyway? The only person I “knew” on Instagram was @withhearts, after his excellent interview on the Cult Cast, and I attributed his 202,000+ followers due to, frankly, his excellent work. So I figured maybe there’s a way to shortcut some of the “do good work, get recognition” treadmill, so I did a bit of digging. Unsurprisingly, I didn’t like what I found. As this video shows, you can game the Instagram system for followers in two different ways:

• Follow lots of people, get lots of followers. In the experiment in the video he follows 900 people and gets 300 back in an hour. This is similar to twitter. People either are so happy that they got a follower that they immediately follow back, or have an auto-follow setup that will add you to their list automatically.
• Like lots of photos. Searching on popular hashtags (i.e.: #cats… hmm…. I tag things with #cats a lot because of the subject matter of my photos) and then liking lots of other peoples images will get you followers back as well. Same principle I guess, you get liked by a random person and follow them in thanks.

There is lots of other info if you’re looking to up your follower feed by the way.

See a pattern here? You get lots of followers who don’t know who you are or care who you are or what you do, and a ton of liked images from people who are probably just going down a list of everything tagged #cat or #coffee and hitting the little heart button.

How long before it’s just a massive pool of people posting pictures to get likes and liking pictures they don’t to get followers? Like a pile of dogs humping and no one really knows what’s going on! (Pardon the crass analogy).

Do the people who aren’t putting 20 lines of hashtags get any love? Do people sharing photos who are actually good get recognition of any sort or is it all lost in the crowd of people screaming for followers and likes and….

I realized it didn’t matter. I know it never mattered, that likes or followers on the internet don’t equate to real world friends you can count on, but I do like validation, don’t get me wrong, I think everyone does. Having a following on the internet will also give you a (sometimes legitimate) sign of authority and sometimes followers and likes equate to real clients and real jobs.

Having someone say something like:

… the shot captured me. It was like she was staring at me. The colour was good. Image balanced. It was a great innocent headshot of an attractive girl. […] Your work is getting better and better with every click. Keep it up.

makes me feel great, really great. But I would rather have a few followers that are listening to me because they actually care (for the most part) about my images and my words than 10,000 that are there because I’m one more tick on their own way to getting another follower or two.

I want the people looking at my shots and perhaps thinking of me when they need to hire a photographer for a prom or event, or are looking for a portrait, not to never see me because they’re following 50,000 people so they can have 40,000 following them.

So to you, my 329 twitter followers and 198 Facebook followers, I thank you, appreciate you, and love that you’ve taken the time out to read this, see what I post and care enough to give me that small slice of attention during your day.

Tags: #cat #dog #instagood #followme #highfive #followbackclub #shoutout

(Note: above tags added for irony only)

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This week’s portrait is a tiny bit of a cheat.  I used a pick from a shoot I did today with local model Chelsea, shooting against a purple wall.

The post Portrait-52 Week #11 appeared first on Alan Bailward Photography.

I shot with the awesome Tammy last week.  She has a wonderful old barn that we got to use.  Had a blast, and she’s an awesome person and a lot of fun to work with.   Here are a few shots from the session.

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It was a simple shoot, basically we waited until the group was there, looked at a couple of angles and then shot a few stinker photos.  Matt (head honcho in charge and one half of the Switchcube team) asked if I “had an aperture camera” (more on this in a second), and luckily I did, and was able to get the image he was thinking of for the ad.

The ad came out great, I may have changed a couple of things with 20/20 hindsight, but I think it worked out well and it’s a great advertisement for the area.

Here’s the ad in it’s final form (click for full size).

Working alone does suck, and if you are looking for a place to hang your hat for the day to be around people because you’re a contractor, work for yourself, or just want to get out of the office but still have meeting rooms, phones, internet, friendly faces and a fresh pot of decent coffee (well, as long as the other partner, John Koetsier is the one who made it), you really should check out Switchcube.ca.

Photographers Only: Just to clarify about the “aperture camera”, first of all Matt is a great guy, but isn’t 100% up to speed on photography terminology.  He really meant an “aperture lens”, and by that he meant a “prime lens”, and by that he really meant “I’d like a shot with a low depth of field with only hands on a keyboard in focus.”  The lesson here is sometimes you need to tell your photographer what you want, not try to talk tech to them.  Sometimes.  I do however thank Matt (who I know was just kidding about not knowing the right terms) for the funny story to share with my photographer friends

The post Commercial Photography – Switchcube Print Ad appeared first on Alan Bailward Photography.

Another friend, Brian, taken at an impromptu shoot this weekend.

The post Portrait-52 Week #10 appeared first on Alan Bailward Photography.

From David duChemin’s ‘Editing Hokkaido’ blogpost:

Sort images to show only 5-Star ratings, then view at 100% and eliminate images that are unacceptable for technical reasons. If they’re not sharp enough, or not blurry enough, or show some other reason – perhaps on viewing it larger the gesture isn’t right – someone blinked, or something – I remove the 5-star rating and it disappears from my cut. I could use flagged picks, but I use 5-stars or nothing. Just the system that fits my way of thinking. But there are lots of ways to use ratings, and this isn’t about that.An image is either a yes or no to me.

I understand this, and I understand why David, my friend Chris Pike and others use this. Don’t polish a turd, don’t wallow and delay wondering if an images is a two star or a three star image, etc. It makes sense.

I can’t do it though, I just can’t. Maybe it’s something I read in The Dam Book at an influential time in my learning where Peter says that using the full range of star ratings gives you time to grow. What is a five star image to you now won’t be in a few years time, and in 10 years when you go back into your library and say “show me all the 5 star images” I want to see the real five star images, not the hundreds of images that have made the cut over that time. Your standards are going to go up as you grow as a photographer and I just see it as “metadata corruption” to do that binary a rating.

Based on the photographer learning curve, this is going to happen a lot.

Maybe this means that this year you use a binary rating system of zero or two stars, and next year it’s zero or three stars. Maybe you use a rating methodology like Gavin Gough advocates in his excellent eBook The Photographers Workflow? Maybe you come up with your own.

I’m not trying to judge anyone for how they rate their pictures. Use what works for you, ignore what I say. I just wanted to write out (and get straight in my head) why I don’t use  the “five stars or nothing” workflow.

Because I started writing this post before I had completely read all of David’s post, I see later on how he does a ‘months later’ edit and further culls out the non-5 star images, which is a good way to do it.  Still, I maintain that for me (again, no disrespect at all to David, he’s a guy whom I look at with nothing but respect and admiration), I really like the 1-5 star system that I adapted from both The Dam Book and Gavin’s Photographer’s Workflow eBook, though I have noticed lately that I tend to categorize into 1-5 stars, but only ever really work on the 5 and sometimes 4 star images.   Maybe it is time to look at another way to do it. 

Resources:

The Dam Book – Peter Krogh

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This week the beautiful Tammy Yacyshyn volunteered to shoot with me.  I shot Tammy last year as well, and had a blast, and was really happy she wanted to shoot again, and in a very cool location.

The post Portrait-52 Week #9 appeared first on Alan Bailward Photography.

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This week it was a friend of mine from the old days, Avi, who let me take over her sisters house with a bunch of photography gear, and then drag her (and her niece) in front of the lens.

The post Portrait-52 Week #8 appeared first on Alan Bailward Photography.

This is mine.

I heard about the Pebble Watch on Kickstarter the day that it made it’s goal, and even though I didn’t write about it, I did back it immediately. I got back into wearing a watch a couple of years ago with a gift from my grandmother, but the watch strap has been slowly deteriorating, so it felt like a good excuse to replace it.

The Pebble team originally planned an October 2012 release, but as time moved on, it became more obvious that they weren’t going to make it. Instead of promising another release date, and potentially breaking it, they did the smart thing and said nothing until they knew a schedule that would work. They announced that shipping would start January 23. Long story short, mine finally arrived today, after an extended stay in Vancouver customs and one false start.

The “out of box” experience is good, the shipping box is unique, fits the watch well, and there was no shifting of the watch. There was no documentation inside, no quick start guide, but I suppose if you’re the sort of person who guys a Smartwatch off of the internet via Kickstarter, you can figure stuff out yourself. The watch is smaller than I thought it would be, but still not “tiny”. Definitely not a downside.

The screen is just the right size I think, or pretty close to it. The wrist strap is less “plastic-y” than I thought. Seeing the reviews didn’t prepare me for the soft plastic that it is made out of. Not low quality as far as I can tell (not being a plastics expert), and pleasant against the wrist.

Watch build quality is good, but not perfect. The seams aren’t perfect, and there is a bit of odd distortion on the e-ink display that others have noted. Not a big deal though.

The software is simple and easy to understand. There are some bugs (being able to re-order downloaded watch faces, some backlight oddness, etc), but they are all (potentially) easily fixable with software updates. Some software updates to the watch has already been made to fix things like notification display and backlight control. The ‘flick your wrist to turn on the back light’ is a nifty feature as well.

I’m not a BlueTooth borg person, so I’m not used to having my phone tethered to BlueTooth. I was a bit worried that the battery would die sooner than normal, but my iPhone 5′s battery has only seemed to wind down a bit faster than normal (maybe 5-10% faster?) but it’s hard to tell as usage is pretty much dependant on the user. It’ll take a few more days of use to see.

Right now the watch is a bit plain. On the iPhone it can:

• show the time, with different watch faces that can be used.
• control the music on your smartphone
• display some notifications for SMSs, calendar events, incoming phone calls, and emails (android is less restricted by Apple’s draconian rules about what you can and can’t get notifications for, and lets you have much finer grained control of what notifications (and you get more of them))

… and that’s about it. No, not buyers remorse, but you have to remember that this is, in essence, just a watch with a couple of extra bits, not a magic do-everything smart watch (yet). That said, the ability to see what my phone is trying to tell me without pulling it out of my pocket is pretty awesome. Is the text ignorable? What thing is it that I’m about to be late for? Etc.

So conclusions…

Is it cool? Yes. Is it worth the (now) $150 cost? Probably, but it’s definitely something for people with a bit of disposable income. Do I love it? Hell yea

(Note: this is a cross post from my personal blog).

The post My Pebble Smart Watch Review appeared first on Alan Bailward Photography.

The Big List of DON’Ts

Some DOs

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This weeks portrait is Shaun, a friend of mine from grade 8 who remains to this day one of my best friends.  He needed a new headshot, I needed a portrait, he came over and I spent about 40 minutes shooting him in the under-renovations bedroom.

The post Portrait-52 Week #7 appeared first on Alan Bailward Photography.

Model: Rachelle Hay
Hair/Makeup: Mandy Bhangu

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No really, I am.  My friend John Koetsier writes for Venture Beat and after a conversation a couple of weeks ago about the number of crazy insane (or is it insane crazy) number of useless and silly iPhone camera apps out there, he said “want to do a guest post?”  Hey, why not!

So today it was published, in all it’s 1400-odd word glory.  You can read the story here: A photographer and developer with 86 camera apps highlights the best — and worst — iPhone camera apps.

No, the title wasn’t my idea, but it is catchy

Anyway, I had fun writing it and investigating the crazy stuff that’s out there, and thought that I had some pretty decent advice on how to find the good apps, as well as my “survival list” of the minimum set of iPhone apps you need.

Note that even with 86 camera apps already, today I got another one, an add-on pack of the old school”wet plate look” (thanks to something that Jeffery Saddoris mention on his podcast).  It looks pretty cool.

I’ll link up the post in it’s entirety to preserve it for the future.

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On Taking Pictures: I know I’m pandering, but this has to be my favorite podcast in the list. It’s done by fancy New York Photographer Bill Wadman (known in part for his 365 Portraits project from a few years ago) and Faded and Blurred‘s  Jeffery  Saddoris.  This is a podcast focussed almost completely on the art and intention of Photography, with only a whafer thin smattering of gear (though mostly in the context of “this is how gear doesn’t matter”).  Bill and Jeffery are an amusing duo, with lots of good conversation, but they’re not afraid to go deep into sometimes highly emotional topics.  A staple of the show is The Photographer of the Week in which they will talk about a perhaps unknown-to-you photographer and why they are important or interesting.  If there is one podcast on this list that you add to your podcatcher or iTunes subscription, this is it. As a bonus they’ve discussed a couple of the emails I’ve sent in at length, and even called me “friend of the show”.  Swoon.

(iTunes Subscription / RSS)

The Two Hosers:  My most recently discovered podcast, the product of Allan (a Canadian in Germany) and Adam (a Canadian in Vancouver).  The guys cover topics more towards the beginner and techniques. One of their staple bits (at least as far as I’ve heard in the three or four episodes I’ve listen to so far) is “Exifoku“, in which you are given two parts of the exposure triangle, and need to guess the third.

(iTunes Subscription / RSS)

This Week in Photo (TWiP): One of the oldest photography podcasts I listen to.  It’s gone through a couple of different (excellent) hosts and is now steered by Frederick Van Johnson, who is not only a very “familiar” photographer (ie: he reads my mind in terms of interesting topics), but also is using the show exactly as I would, to get interesting people on and then ask them questions akin to “how do I get there from here”.  This podcast is more news and gear focussed, though there’s a lot of time spent explaining why you don’t need the new gear (before talking about how we all want the new gear).  Lots of interesting topics along the lines of the various moral and ethical questions are addressed as well, and a variety of great guests from the “well known” photo community are interviewed.

(iTunes Subscription / RSS)

The Candid Frame: Interview podcast done by the buttery smooth-voiced Ibarionex Perello.  He interviews artists of all types, not juts photographers, and often goes deep into their stories, not only what they do and how they do it, but where they came from and why they do it.  Mostly (but not always) more unknown artists, or rather, not famous (or even “internet famous“), which makes it all the more interesting than hearing the same talking points by someone pimping their new book or class and making the rounds of the photo podcasts.  His concentration on the people and not the gear, and did I mention he has an amazing radio voice, make this one for me.  A staple of the show is getting the interviewee to name a photographer to investigate for the audience.

(iTunes Subscription / RSS)

Photofocus: Another of the “old guard” of photography podcasts, run by (now less so) Scott Bourne and  Richard Harrington, Photofocus is a question and answer style (mostly) podcast, taking in questions from the listeners and answering them with a combination of about 800 years of experience.  Scott, if you haven’t heard him before, is opinionated and not afraid to share why he’s right, and frankly he’s been around long enough that he is (mostly) right most of the time.  Lots of good information, and a variety of different topics, and the fact that there’s a fair amount of interaction with the audience makes this a podcast with ever changing topics.  There’s a lot of gear talk, if you’re into that, and a lot of good advice doled out.  Pick of the week (hardware, software, etc) is the end-of-show staple.

(iTunes Subscription / RSS)

The Photography Show: This is a podcast with one of my favorite guys from a previous podcast, Ted Forbes and his buddy Wade Griffith.  After a bit of a hiatus the guys are back in a weekly  format with lots of good discussion around the news and often the business side of photography.  The guys are in a bit of a different area than many of the other podcast hosts, which is a refreshing change.  They recently did an episode completely on mailing lists, how to manage them, how to use the, should you use them, and so on. Pretty awesome stuff.   Ted is an old school film guy as well, and recently did his last episode of his excellent The Art of Photography (iTunes Link), where a lot of amazingly cool stuff with developing film and his Holga Project were done.

(iTunes Subscription / RSS)

Camera Dojo: Kerry Garrison, a wedding photographer, hosts this podcast, and gives great information on not only the business side of photography, but interviews and photo news.  Hearing about wedding photography from a non-wedding photographer, sometimes you’d think that it’s akin to being hit over the head repeatedly with a baseball bat, but hearing Kerry talk about it makes you want to get into it.  There’s also a lot of great interviews with some pretty epic photographers, and is well worth the subscription.

(iTunes Subscription / RSS)

The Digital Convergence Podcast: Something out of my comfort zone in the photographic world is video, but these guys (Chris Fenwick, planetMitch of Planet 5D, and Carl Olson) are all video shooters and editors working in a variety of different jobs within the video world, and do a great job talking about subjects of interest to anyone who has wondered if they could do more interesting things with the Movie Mode on their SLR.  There are also some great interviews with real world film-makers and some of the most awesome people producing content on (for example) Vimeo.  Great conversation and a set of fun hosts make this worth a listen, even if you’re not knee deep in video, but are just a tiny bit interested.

(iTunes Subscription / RSS)

Here’s a bonus link, not really photography related, but still good enough to fall into that section of my podcasts.

The Gainfully Unemployed Podcast: An interview podcast hosted by Carl Olsen (who, if you were paying attention, is one of the hosts of the previous podcast in the list, The Digital Convergence Podcast) talking about how, why, when and how to go from working for The Man for a living to working for a much harder boss, yourself.  There are only two episodes out so far, but it’s already on my subscription list.  Talking to people who have gone from gainfully employed to gainfully unemployed is pretty fascinating, especially hearing how it is seldom (never?) a straight line from “hey, I should quit my job and become my own boss” to “hey, I’m successful and my own boss”.  If you’re like me and would love to ditch that silly day job and do something like photography for a living, this is a great one, both cautionary and inspiring.

(iTunes Subscription / RSS)

I know that sometimes “top ten” lists are a bit gauche, but sometimes they just fit right.  Hopefully the above list will help you find podcasts to listen to and help you figure out which ones you should subscribe to, based on your interests.

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This week is my co-worker Joe, who was kind enough to stay a bit late to let me experiment with a new bit of lighting kit.  I did my best to replicate this image from the Strobist site, using a 43″ brolly, which worked fantastically.  I really love this shot, can’t wait to work it out on other subjects!

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This week’s portrait is a bit different.  As you can see this dapper gentleman isn’t scared of society’s thoughts on fashion or bawling his eyes out for no reason in public.  He wasn’t that bad in our photo shoot, but he did have to have a couple of parental interventions to keep his tears at a minimum  Much thanks to James and Sarah for letting me shoot their 8 week old bundle of joy, and for permission to use him as a Portrait-52 candidate!

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Here is the results of the last MVP Workshops glamour photography workshop.  An amazing set of models and photographers made this a great time.  If you’re interested in joining up as a model or photographer, head over to the MVP Workshops meetup page to find out how.  If you’re a model, this is a great opportunity to stretch your modelling muscles and network with a group of photographers and makeup artists from the area.  If you’re a photographer, this is a great way to learn about the different aspects of photography, with an emphasis on lighting and portraiture.  And hey, we’re just a fun group to hang out with!

You can check out some of the other workshop images that I’ve done in the past.

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Model: Alexis Scigliano
Hair/Makeup: Judy Andreson, Jessica Stotts

As usual Chris put on a great show, and myself and the other helpers (Jeff of Three Photos Photography, Xel, and Anna of Machuca Photography) were awesome and I had a great time shooting the models and meeting new photographers.  Probably the best part of the day was having my last softbox lighting setup stolen (maliciously) by Chris to use in a lighting setup of what looked like about 9 lights.  That guy is heading to be the next Joe McNally! (For those who don’t know, Joe is know for, well, lets just say he likes using a lot of lights in his setups

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My coworker Benedict needed some headshots done, and I took the opportunity to use one of the more pensive shots (taken while I was “testing the lighting” wink, wink) for my Portrait 52 project.

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This week’s subject is a lady who I watched makeup a young Miss Canada hopeful over the day in some fantastic makeup and effects. She was a bit hesitant to get photographed, but I wore her down in the end. A fantastic and fun lady who I hope to spend more time with in the future.

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A couple of images from a trip to Heritage Park to try to get some shots of the amazing sunrise we had the day before.  Unfortunately it was the start of what I’m sure some are calling “Fogamagedon”, and this was what I got.  Still a beautiful morning.

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Revisiting some old images, looking back through the archives to find what sort of hidden gems might be in there, and found this one taken just after I got a new camera in 2008, and there happened to be one of those circuses that consist of rides only that show up in your local mall parking lot.  I did a bit more editing and really like the result.

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The lovely Nicole, a Maple Ridge portrait, wedding and lifestyle photographer, agreed to be my subject for the second week of my Portrait-52 project. I was working to simulate the Bill Wadman look ™(r)(c), I really like how his 4×5 black and white portraits look.

This shot was done in the corner of a dance floor while we were shooting a wedding this weekend, of all the shots I took, I liked the one with the fake moustache (from the prop table for the photo booth she had setup) the best.

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Revisiting some images from the past and I found a nice shot from a few years back from downtown Abbotsford.

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Portrait52 Week #1′s portrait is of Jennifer Coombes, a friend and local Photographer who manages JC Moments Photography.

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I am so in love with this shot that I had to share it hot off the (Photoshop) presses.

The post Fort Langely Portrait of Tia Berry – Lower Mainland Model appeared first on Alan Bailward Photography.

Scrambled Eggs

It seems that all bloggers (and podcasters) are contractually obligated to write up a retrospective of the previous year on January 1st.  While I really enjoyed creating my Photo 365 2012 page, that was really more of something that was being done on the side.  So a few highlights from this year:

• Finally moved this site from Drupal (way more than I need) to WordPress (more usable).
• The Evening at Sande’s concept shoot with Athena Leskun.
• Accomplished some fairly decent longer length articles over the year.
  •  Why I Love Photography
  • Using Evernote as a Photographer or Model
  • Pre-Visualize for better pictures
  • Breaking Photography Rules
  • Natural Light vs Flash Photographers
• Shot many fun, sexy, messy, gory, and beautiful photoshoots.
• Had a fantastic time doing a wedding re-shoot with the awesome Cher (I wasn’t the original photographer!).
• Almost got smooshed when a tall truck went under a short overpass right next to me.
• Started getting more into event photography.
  • The Mill Lake Old Car Show
  • Shooting with The United Way
  • The Mission Business Excellence Awards, manning the red carpet
• Participated in David duChemin‘s first The Vancouver Gathering workshop to help expand my photography skills
• Finally answered the age old question of What Camera Should I Buy
• Wrote an embarrassingly honest article on How to Take a Correct Self Shot using a mirror in an attempt to educate the masses.

The post Looking Back on 2012 appeared first on Alan Bailward Photography.

I set out a few rules for myself. The image had to be taken on that day, but not posted on that day. I downloaded the Photo 365 iPhone app to help out a bit, and used it to post to both my twitter and Flickr pages. I could use either the iPhone or my DSLR to take the pictures, but they had to be posted through the Photo 365 app (it was, as they say, the Repository of Truth).

Most of the purpose of the exercise, for me anyway, was not so much to produce amazing images, but to get the creative juices flowing on a daily basis. Even if the end result was a fairly “meh” (and there were many), if it got me thinking “how can I make this situation creative”, then it was successful.

There was a lot of repetition… a lot. Many pictures of lunch, a latte, and the same purple flower were taken. I definitely found that I got in a rut (or two, or ten) with some of the photographic subjects, and on more than one day I’d find it’d be 5pm, no pictures taken at all, and I’d just take a shot of the cat on my lap and apply a filter of some sort and call it a day.

I’m happy to say that I only “missed” one day, but I did have my Everday picture-a-day iPhone app shot, so I called that still a “legal” shot. Interestingly that was almost exactly mid-way through the year, the July 1st shot.

There are a lot of different ways you can see your own Photo365 project. I’ve heard photographers say that it’s not good to “force” yourself to shoot if you’re not in the mood, as you might end up starting to hate your camera, as it’s forcing you to do something you don’t want to do every day. Other people say that shooting everyday increases your creativity. I say if you’re a photographer or artist of any sort, and interested in increasing your creativity, it’s definitely something to do for one year. If every day, you do what you want to get better at, be it taking a picture, writing a song, painting, writing a program, or creating a new website, as long as you establish “rules” and stand by them, it’s definitely a exercise worth taking on.

Just for fun I’ve set a gallery below of all the images from my project, tagged so they’re sortable by the subject of the day. Very interesting to see how things matched up day by day.  You can visit it by going to my Photo 365 2012 Project page.  A bit more of a sample of the images are at the bottom of this post.

So what’s up next? I don’t know if I’ll continue on with a Photo 365 project next year, I really don’t. I admit that it will feel very very weird to not have that little beep from my phone every day at 4pm reminding me to take a picture. I’m thinking perhaps a portrait-a-week project next. I’ve been concentrating on portraiture lately, and a Portrait52 project might be right up the right alley.

Please take a few minutes and browse the full Photo 365 Project page here (I took a long time getting it to work as well as it does!)

The post Looking Back on My Photo 365 Project appeared first on Alan Bailward Photography.

(Note: not my dog)

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Model Juanita was amazing, and I fell in love with her cheekbones, the makeup artist did an amazing job.

This is Mitzi, who was a blast to shoot, and I really love the way the black and white drew out her tattoo.

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Is all of this overwhelming? Does it all sound like it’s too much of a pain in the ass? Get over it. It’s called professional photography. Be good at your craft.Be great at your craft. Think a pastry chef trusts a new oven to be exactly 350 degrees when they set that on the dial? No. They test it. 350 on the dial might mean 380 degrees in the oven. You need to know that. You need to know your cameras. Your lenses. Your lights. Your exposure. Your screens and monitors. You need to test this shit. It’s boring and tedious and all of that. I know. It is. Get over it. Wait till you build color profiles for all your cameras, lights, and modifiers. Be a professional and do it. Don’t be another mediocre photographer. There’s millions of those. Don’t be one. Be great at what you do. Know what you are doing. Do the hard work to learn all this stuff. It’s worth it. It’ll save your ass one day.

[Emphasis mine]

It’s true.

It’s the difference between getting one amazing shot in 50 and getting 49 great shots out of 50.  It’s the difference between knowing how to use the light without thinking about it and fiddling with your camera settings to get your exposure right.  It’s the difference between a great model and a pretty girl, a programmer who wrote the code for Slashdot.org and the hundreds of clone sites that died after a few months because they were, well, just clones.

No matter what you do, repeat after me: I will be great at my craft.

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I got some epic poses…

And good friends!

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First of all it’s a matter of which bag. I have an old LowePro bag which fits my camera and a spare lens, but not a lot else. I also have a full on Jack Bauer like man-purse, but the trade off for it having a ton of space is it doesn’t offer a lot in protection for camera gear.

My awesome wife got me the Passport Sling for Christmas, but sadly I haven’t been able to use it because the combination of my camera body and favourite long lens is too tall to fit in properly. However after a bit of experimentation (and after 9 months of it sitting there unused on my desk) I simply moved one of the inside wall partitions to allow me to move the lens over a bit and allow everything to close down properly.

So for the day of shooting, I brought (and I’m sure over-brought):

• My camera body and wide angle to mid-range lens for general crowd shots, wide angle funky shots, and overall establishing shots
• My portrait zoom lens for portraits and isolating people in the crowd, or long range “street photography”
• Two flashes (in case one conks out)
• A battery grip for the camera body
• A fistful of AA batteries for the flash
• Another spare battery for the camera
• My camera strap with lots of spare memory cards
• My newly purchased Flash Bender=21) to hopefully give a little bit of interesting fill light when making pictures of people and the other volunteers

That’s a lot of gear for a day of shooting! It’s also amazing that it all fits inside the little (well, now bulging at the sides) camera bag. Here’s a couple of shots of what it looks like.

And all buttoned up.

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Really.

Now I’m not talking soft core porn or “sexy self shots” that you’d expect to find on the slightly creepier side of the net, taken by girls for their boyfriends, trying to look sexy with various body parts revealed (well, or so I’ve heard), or the really bad horrible examples we can all laugh at. No, I’m talking about your Facebook profile pictures, your twitter pictures, showing off a new haircut, makeup, your shaved eyebrows, I’m talking about portfolio pictures. Seriously. I see all sorts of these on places like Model Mayhem in their portfolios. You don’t even have to be following @worstofmayhem to see them, just browse your friends list.

I’m not going to go into why having this sort of picture in your

portfolio is a bad idea, even if you’re just starting out there are way better ways to get a picture or two to show yourself off, I’m just going to show you how to take a “better” self-shot using a mirror.

I don’t want to call anyone out here, so I’m going to use myself as the example. Please don’t be scared.

Method #1: The Bad Self-Shot

First, lets see the stereotypical “self-shot”.

Wow, that’s pretty awful. Lets list the obvious things that are wrong here.

• Bad model
• Duck lips, bad pose, no “smizing“
• High potential of something embarrassing in the background
• Eyes looking at the camera instead of the viewer
• Camera not only in the picture but huge

Last point is the one that bugs me the most. Lets see the shot being taken.

The problem is that because our, erhm, “model”, is using the camera phone’s rear display to look at themselves to make sure they are centred in the image their eyes are a) drawn to it and b) because they’re using the mirror to bounce the light off, you end up with the camera in the way.

Method #2: The Good Self-Shot

Now lets see something a bit better (again, excuse the model).

Far better here. Still a bored look, bad lighting, too-wide eyes, no duck lips at least, and no phone in the picture. How is this magic done!? Ever try to take a picture of yourself without being able to see where it’s aimed? It’s nearly impossible! This is why most people go with method #1, because they need to see what the camera sees. So what did I do? Did I take 30 pictures and pick the one that I actually got centred and focussed properly?

Nope, I used a little trick that I saw online. Same bathroom, same mirror, but the camera is reversed, letting me have it pointed directly at me (not bounced off a mirror), but using the mirror check focus and composure on the back of it. Here’s the shot in action:

Or maybe illustrated to show what’s going on.

See? The camera is directed right at you, and because it’s got the LCD in the back, standing in front of the mirror lets you take a self-shot using the mirror, but not with the mirror in it.  Obviously this works with any digital camera, smartphone, or in fact, anything with an LCD on the back when you can’t get a friend to take a picture of you.

Now go forth and take this message of good to your friends, your relatives, your sons, daughters, little sisters, and everyone else who has got a self-shot in their portfolio, Facebook wall, or twitter feed!

Got any other tips or suggestions? Leave them in the comments below!

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Instead today I’d like to tell you while I was taking some pictures of the roses in my front walkway. They’re very nice, and I thought that backlit by the setting sun it might make a nice picture. So when I got home from work I pulled out my camera and wandered out to the front yard and started shooting. A gentleman walking a pair of young puppies (no, not a euphemism) came down the street and passed by. Being that I had gotten home, my cat Rex, was outside giving me the love and attention that I so deserved (read: “get your ass inside and give me the gooshy food). Rex doesn’t like dogs. Rex really doesn’t like strange dogs.

This guy let his dogs get close to Rex, not in a mean way of course, more a “you guys want to sniff the nice cat, I’ll give you a bit of leash to let you learn a lesson” way. So Rex basically ignores the dogs as they get close, knowing they’re on a leash. Until they get a bit too close. Then he attacked, rightfully putting those canine beasts in their place. I managed to catch a picture of it at that moment (note that the motion blur is the cat going forwards and the dogs going backwards).

The guy was fine with it, agreeing with me that they “needed to learn” (the dogs were two 8 month old sisters, very sweet and cute dogs actually) and went on his way.

The look on my cat’s face would say it all I think

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The class was amazing, I met lots of great people, got to pick David’s brain a bunch and came out with a renewed sense of vision!  Bring it on world!

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While she’s a very pretty girl, Alexa has a mean side…. you know, the side that makes her want to attack and consume her own sister!

But then sometimes the sister gets revenge…

I had a blast shooting with this team and can’t wait to go again!

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When people ask me this the main thing that I tell them is this

Go the camera store and look for a model that is a) in your budget and b) feels good in your hands and then buy it.

A bit more:

• It doesn’t matter. As Scott Bourne is known to say, 99% of the cameras are better than 99% of the photographers out there. The cheapest DSLR body and crappiest lens will produce images (in the right hands) that you can blow up to put on your wall at home, and will more than be adequate to take pictures to put in a tiny box on your Facebook wall.
• Buy what your friends have. If your friends all shoot Nikon, buy Nikon. If they shoot Canon, buy a Canon, or Pentax, or whatever. This makes things like sharing lenses, getting help for settings, and getting access to hand-me-downs when someone upgrades much easier.
• Go to the camera store (an actual camera store, not your local best buy) and talk to the people there about your needs, and if they’re not scumbag salesguy, they’ll give you a good idea about what you actually need, not what they can sell you. Then go to a different store and do the same thing, and get a second (or 3rd or 4th) opinion. Having a good relationship with your local camera store (Hi Duncan and Charmaine from Lens and Shutter!) makes a word of difference in getting inside information, good advice and yes, the occasional good deal.
• In the camera store get your hands on as many cameras as possible. A great camera with controls that feel odd or that doesn’t feel right in your hands isn’t going to get used nearly as much as a “lesser” camera that feels oh-so right. This is why I bought the Pentax *ist-D vs the original Canon Rebel back in 2004… a smaller body and simply felt more at home in my hands.
• Think more about lenses than bodies, but not at first. The lenses available (and for that matter, flash system) will affect you more as you get more into photography, and you’ll realize that even though the body is the thing with the buttons dials and features, it’s really just a box you stick on the back of your lenses. The more pictures you take the more you’ll see that a good lens will go far longer than a good body. While the body might be out of date in six months, and you may upgrade every 5 years, your lenses can easily last you a (literal) lifetime.

Last but not least (again):

• It doesn’t matter. No, it doesn’t matter. The hardware these days is so good that unless you’re at a very high level (and therefor are getting paid in truckloads of cash and can afford to just buy whatever your clients insist is needed for the shoot), or pixel peeping with a microscope (“measurbation” I hear it called) it will have zero effect on you or I.

That all said, you didn’t say what you are using the camera for? Portrait work? Action? Sports? Wildlife? Or just “I want a DSLR”? If the latter my advice above holds. If you’re looking at specifically one of the other uses there are different directions that others can point you. Other real humans that you can talk to face to face, not the faceless hordes screaming at you in the forums from the safety of their basements. I know that while Canon and Nikon tend to leapfrog each other in features and performance, some specific types of photography can (can) be more easy with one manufacturer or another, at least once you’ve been in it for a decade and are able to tell.

Finally an entry level DSLR from any manufacturer, combined with the kit lens will give you a great camera, great lens and almost all of the things you’re looking for. The next step is to go out and take pictures all day, everyday, and have fun!

The post What Camera Should I Buy? appeared first on Alan Bailward Photography.

(Don’t worry, we also did some “classic beauty” shots which also turned out great!)

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Years ago I took a photography class from a gentleman by the name of Ken Pugh who talked about some of his wildlife photography. He didn’t show up at Manning Park and get great shots, he imagined the type of shot he wanted to get (say a bear catching a salmon) then he researched and planned to find out the best location, time of year, and other factors that led to him getting the sorts of shots he imagined.

To illustrate a bit more, let’s take a look at two different scenarios quickly.

First Scenario – The Everyman

You’ve got your camera and are going somewhere nice, say the gorgeous Cannon Beach in Oregonrder=popularity). You get there, spend the night in the hotel, wake up, find a nice little cafe for breakfast, and head out for a walk on the beach in the noon sun. Gorgeous blue sky, waves crashing, outcroppings of rocks, what a great picture. You put the camera to your eye, compose the rocks, sky, and sea and take the shot, then a few more. Maybe you change the camera settings from “P” to “Landscape” mode too, and play with the settings.

After you get a chance to look at the shots later they are… ok. Kinda flat, drab, somehow missing the “feel” of how it felt when you were there. They do show what was there but why aren’t they like the ones you saw in the travel brochures?

This I think describes a fair chunk of photographers out there who are on the cusp of moving from decent to great.

Second Scenario – Man With A Plan

Same trip, different plan. This time you pre-visualize the image you want before you show up on the beach.

You have it in your head that you want the sunset lighting up the sky with purple flares, you want the water to be still and the pillars of rock mirrored on the ground. The light should be kissing the edges of the rock just enough to give them detail but not enough to detract from the sun. There needs to be a foreground object, maybe a small rock to give a bit of visual interest to draw the viewer in. The scene should be in focus from foreground to background.

So how do you go about getting this, now you have it in your head?

Pre-Trip Planning

First there’s the pre-trip stuff. You need to find out what season the sky looks good with great clouds but no rain. There’s no guarantee of a sunset but it helps. You probably will need to pre-scout too to see how the light and angles look, maybe not in person but you can research times for sunset and sunrise, and look at some examples online. Make sure you have the right lenses, your batteries are charged, etc.

Mission on the Ground

Now you’re at the beach, you’ve had your bagel, coffee (it’s not Tim Horton’s so you can’t really call it “coffee”, but it’ll do for now), what next? Well, maybe you wander around the beach till you find an angle that suits the shot you want. You wanted to accentuate the beach, so you know you’ll need a wide angle lens and to get low, so you’ll have to make sure that you have a position that lets you go low and wide without getting the bagel shop in the background. Evening shooting means low light so you had better bring a tripod.

To get that lighting that’s kissing the rocks you have to have just the right angle and know where on the horizon the sun is going to be, so better find out that too. Luckily there are tools like The Photographers Ephemeris to figure it out. You have to get the angles right or else the rocks will just be big black blobs, and while that could look cool, the pre-visualize, the intention is to have them being kissed on the edges by the sun, so you better find the right angle (or have a spot where you can move fast as the sun goes down to get a few different angles. Lastly you know you want that foreground object so you have to find it (or get a rock and drop it where you want it to be).

When the time comes you are setup as the sun nears the horizon, the purple skies blaze, you already have your camera settings set to capture maximum depth of field and click, you fire a single frame and walk away knowing that what you got was exactly what you imagined in your mind’s eye.

Ok, some of the stuff might be going a bit far fetched (especially the single shot part), but hopefully you got the idea I am going for, that is if you know what you want when you go out you’re going to have a much easier time of getting it.

This works for photography, this works if you’re a model this works if you’re a makeup artist and this works for sports, cooking, programming and everything from pitching a company identity refresh to a new client to having a great first day as a manager in a small company.

I don’t want to get all holistic on you, and I won’t get into the “to think is to create” stuff, but for photography and artistic endeavours in general you have to know that going in with a plan, even a partial plan, is way better than not going in with any. That’s a recipe for disappointment when you get back and think the result is either crap of “meh”. Think of the makeup artist starting work on a model but not knowing what the final result she wanted. Now think of the same thing but the makeup artist goes in knowing exactly what she wants.

A quick story and image before I leave you. The shot below was essentially pre-visualized before I snapped the shutter. I had a great model with awesome eye makeup, and I knew that I wanted just her eyes in focus and her face angled away. I had to set up the lights to give me the right amount of output for a shallow depth of field, I had to use the right lens and get the model positioned with the right expression and closed eyes. In the end (and I hate to admit that it even came as a bit of a shock to me) the shot was pretty much exactly what I had imagined it would be. You can debate whether it’s a good image or not, but the fact is it’s what I had in my head and chances are I wouldn’t have gotten it if I’d just been stumbling around and experimenting (not that there’s not merit to that as well

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Recognizing a pattern yet? Yea, I’m feeling a bit punchy lately and I figured after my post about natural light vs flash photographers, I’d follow it up with something similar…

A good friend of mine when he was starting to learn about photography spoke about this when I mentioned the rule of thirds at one point. “Rules are made to be broken, Alan” he said, “how can you get anywhere when you stay in some predefined box”. He may have been more or less elegant of course.

• Yes, rules are made to be broken.
• Yes, the “rules” of photography seem fairly arbitrary.
• Yes, great photographers and great photographs break the moulds.

But you have to know the rules before you can break them, and I think that knowing why the rules are there is a requirement before you can break them.

The rule of thirds wasn’t created by some photographers guild back in the 1800s to create an artificial barrier for new shooters to enter, it’s something noticed from the origin of art that images where the subjects are in the thirds lines make the image more interesting. Why? Something about human psychology, maybe the way our lizard brains work. Who knows. But before you go off and stick your subject dead centre know why you’re doing it, and do it with intention, not because you need a quick answer for the photo-geek next to you muttering about how you should have shot with the subject a bit off center.  You can absolutely take an image with the subject dead center, over-exposed, under-exposed, but if you’re trying to be better at your craft know why you’re doing it.

Below is an example of a classically “correct” image (Dawn over Turimetta By Crouchy69 on Flickr).  Note the foreground has a subject to draw the eye in, the horizon is offcenter, the sun isn’t dead above so there are shadows and great contrast all around, and there are recognizable figures (the people) to lend some scale.

Now lets look at the opposite.  This is titled “My Slipper” by yours truely (though it could be part of any of a thousand different instagram feeds).  Note the lack of any care put into it, no staging other than placing the slipper on the floor, no attempt at lighting, that the subject is dead center with full depth of field and a metric crap-tonne (that’s the techical term) of filters applied.

I did the above to prove a point of course, and maybe you’ll cry that the artist of “My Slipper” was making a point by not lighting it and the reason for the framing was to rally against the oppression of the system.  End result is I’m sorry but it’s just not as good an image.

The last example is another one from flickr, simply “flowers” by saxyman0:

Centered? Yup.  Against “the rules”?  Yup.  Does it work because the photographer did it with intention and knows that one case where a subject does look good centered is when it’s circular like that of a flower shot head on?  Yup.

It’s the vibe of proud ignorance I think that gets me.  The impression that they are so good they can skip over knowing the basics and go straight to breaking the rules.  Now I know you’d never do something like that, it’s the other people.  The ones who don’t know about exposure compensation and say that their horribly backlit picture of a black blob that is probably a person is “artsy” and “breaking the rules”.  Maybe some of the rules are there for a good reason and we should spend a bit more time studying to see what “the rules” are before we are so quick to break them.

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I Think (Some) Natural Light Shooters Just Don’t Understand Flash

I hear a lot of people proudly proclaim, generally amidst a discussion of flash technology, or studio lighting gear “oh I’m a ‘natural light shooter’”. Whenever I hear that I think what they’re really saying is:

“I don’t need silly flashes to make my pictures better, I use the sun and that’s it, making me a better photographer than you and your fancy gear.”

So here’s the thing. While I use flashes and reflectors and soft boxes, the light is still natural, it’s just controlled by me. The light is coming out of a flash is created in nature. The reflections in the models eyes from the umbrella? Natural as well.

So why do people get so hung up on proclaiming their status as a “natural light shooter”? It sometimes feels like one of those “doth protest too much” things sometimes.

One of my favorite images of Terra Jean, natural light.

I think it has to do with the idea that, like eating organic food or not having cable, there’s pride in minimalism. I also think that there’s a rebellion against the Joe McNallytypes who go out on a shoot with 53 strobes just to take one picture of a silly aeroplane.

Here’s my point. I think that some of these people just don’t want to admit that they don’t understand lighting with flashes as well as they could. I know I didn’t until I started learning how to shoot a flash. Before I read the strobist site or watched Zach Arias in the One Light Workshop I didn’t really, really understand lighting with flash either. Hell, I’d be the first to admit that I still don’t, and have had only the faintest glimpse into the magic of manipulating it.

Don’t look down on flash and studio shooters because they use unnatural gear to create portraits that you can create in the back yard. Embrace it as a way of understanding how light moves and shakes and how it can bake an image into a horrible contrasty mess or a beautiful image. Jump in, use 3 flashes, or 2, or that old one that will just barely fire on slave mode from your camera. Hell – start off with a 5-in-1 reflector and use it to move the light around. Learn what light does when you intervene, a lot or just a little.

The awesome David duChemin writes in one of his Craft and Vision eBooks about how he’s mostly a natural light shooter, and his images look great. Is it because he’s never bothered to learn how to use a flash because it would make him a lesser photographer? Of course not!

If you don’t understand what holding a large light source really close to the subject will do (say, using a large umbrella in a studio), then maybe you’re missing great opportunities to just move a subject from one side of the room to the side with sunlight and a curtain to create a better “natural light” portrait.

I think that, in general, photographers are beyond the pettiness of rejecting an idea outright. I’d hate to hear of a studio shooter rejecting ever shooting something without strobes as much as I would the opposite. While I understand that we all can’t afford 53 strobe units to manipulate light down to the femtocell, don’t reject the idea of a flash because it’s unnatural.

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Image by Joe Campbell via Flickr.

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Happy Canada Day to all my fellow Canadians!  Hope you have a fun (and safe) day of celebration, fireworks, dogsledding, Heineken, or whatever you have in store for the day!

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Is this for real? This shows “official U.S. Olympics portraits”, but they’re so bad it’s difficult to believe. Wow.solsticevisuals.com/post/262298306…

— Nicole S. Young (@nicolesy) July 1, 2012

They really are bad, and the commenters on the story rightly agree that the images are mediocre at best, and not represent the work of the photographer Joe Klamar, whose other work doesn’t (for example, the shot of the fencer) seem to be as.. “unpolished” as what’s shown there.

The images seem unfinished, and quite frankly, poor quality. I don’t claim to be a great photographer compared to the vast majority of folks out there, but these scream “soccer mom with Rebel” (no insult to soccer mom’s and dad’s intended). The posing, the lighting…. just doesn’t work. Some of the images look like they’re going for an “unpolished” look, but the vast majority of them, well, they just don’t do it for me.

A bit of searching found some more polished versions on The Atlantic’s site, which look like they came from the same shoot(s). If you compare the images of Michael Phelps for example. Same pose, similar lighting, but the one on the atlantic’s site looks good, not like someone had taken the shot off the back of a camera.

Solstice Visual Find

The Atlantic Version

(Images via the mentioned sites)

I really hope that the Solstice Visuals site just happened on outtakes, or second shooter shots, or something, and these aren’t a real representation of the quality of work representing the US athletes. It’s also a stark reminder to photographers as to why you never ever let any images you are not proud of out into the wild. Of course the pros have publishers they work for, editors, or retouchers that simply get a memory stick full of shots and it’s out of control of the the image creator, the photographer. But if you can avoid sending out shots that you’re not happy with, and making sure that the only thing that leaves your computer and makes its way onto the internet are fully edited, adjusted images that you are proud of.

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When you talk to marketing people about marketing and advertising, you’re generally told to not market features, but instead market benefits.  For example:

Wrong: This widget has 4 slots, two USB, one CF and one SD
Right: You can be confident that you can connect any of your electronics.

Wrong: Uses super-awesome wireless induction subcutaneous charging.
Right: Have the freedom to do your work wherever you want.

See the difference?  The features tell you about the thing, the benefits tell you how it affects you.  I actually wrote about this in 2002 after completing a course on marketing.  In there I put it as such:

They want to know what you can do for them. Start out your sales pitch, be it on paper or by voice with a benefit. “Save yourself time.” “Don’t worry about Christmas bills.” “Make your employees happy.” Lets say you do car detailing… saying “don’t worry about detailing your car” is OK, but not great. Where is the benefit? How about “have a beautiful car without doing any work”? Better. I am by no means an expert on any of this, just giving an example or two to chew on.

About Your Goals

So how can you relate this to your goals?

I hear friends of mine saying things like “my goal is to work at xyz company” or “I know I’m never going to retire but I’m going to always be working”.  I think this is the wrong way to talk about it.  Note that I said “talk” about it, not think about it, their sentiment of always wanting to be doing something or having a goal of working at a prestigious company such as apple or Google is great.  But I see this as talking about the features (ie: working at a specific company, or being employed when they are past retirement) instead of the benefits.

I think it’s fairly common knowledge that how you think about things changes how you go about your life.  Go around with a bad attitude and think that everyone is out to get you and you (in general) won’t be as likely to find new opportunities and success as someone who goes around thinking that the world is full of new and wonderful things, adventures to have and magic to find.  ”Think and you create” and all that.  Ok, enough hippy-dippy for you.

• Instead of saying “I want to work for XYZ company” say “I want to work at a fantastic company that fits me perfectly”.
• Instead of “I want to make $60,000 a year” say “I want to make at least $60,000 a year”, or even better “I want to make enough money to be comfortable and do what I want to do.”
• Instead of “I want to continue working past retirement” say “I want to be productive and be doing what I want to do as long as I want to do it.”
• Instead of “I want the new Nikon D800 with the 24-70/2.8″ say “I want to have the equipment and gear that I need to produce great work.”

OK, the last one might be a bit of a stretch, who wouldn’t want that new full frame beast!

Basically imagine if the goals that you state to yourself come true, exactly as you state them through some sort of magic goal granting fairy.  What if you find out that working at Google sucked?  Wouldn’t your magic goal granting fairy be better off granting you the wish of working at a company that fits you (which for all you know is Google, but it might not be).  Do you really want to work forever or do you want to be productive and do what you enjoy for as long as you want?  The magic goal fairy could send you to work as a bricklayer till you’re 90, so like all wishes, you have to make sure you phrase them just right.

Benefits, not features.

“I will be creative and productive as long as I choose to be.”
“I will work at a job that I enjoy and which satisfies my creative and monetary desires.”
“I will produce awesome work.”

Specific Goals

There is a fatal flaw here.  People who set and achieve their goals often rely on the SMART criteria.  SMART goals are:

• Specific – stated in non-ambiguous language
• Measurable – you’ll know when you hit it or not
• Attainable – if you’ve never gone on a hike a goal of summiting Mt. Everest isn’t a good idea
• Realistic – you won’t be a Ansel Adams in a month, but you can get a photo published in a magazine
• Timely – have a specific time-frame on your goals or there’s no end point to have them done by

You’ll see that my advice does contract both the Specific and Measurable lines.  Saying “I will work at a great company” isn’t a specific or measurable goal as compared to “I will work for Apple by month.”  So how does one reconcile this?

Honestly I don’t know.  I think it’s part of the way that you think about things, and partly how you implement it.  I don’t think that it’s not something that you can do both, or translate the goals so that the vague “I want to be happy” still applies without being open to the possibilities outside of “I want to work at XYZ company as a ABC worker.”

Thoughts?

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A tribute of sorts to to David DuChemin’s Objects of Beauty series, I’ve begun a photo series of objects of things both past and present.  Starting with a messanger bag which has served me both home and away as a stealth camera bag.

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Stunning images not only showing a mastery of light and composition.  Definitely going to be heading over to the florist to get some willing subjects over the next few days.  This is a great reminder to branch out and step outside your comfort zone, be you photographer, model, or just someone to enjoys art.  You’ll never know what you’ll find!

If you’d like to follow me on 500px, I’d love to see you as a follower!  Hit the ‘follow’ link over at http://500px.com/alanbailward!

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Kaylee travelled farther than anyone else I think, coming down from the wilds of Kamloops to shoot with us!

Melissa introduced herself to me by coming up and saying “you’re shooting me next”, and then proceeded to look fantastic and produce awesome images.

Laura came along as a friend of Melissa, claimed to have no experience as a model, felt completely uncomfortable, and then BAM gave great shot after great shot.

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Teagan:

Melissa:

Laura:

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First of all, what is Evernote?

From the website:

“Keep everything in sync.  Remember things you like. Save favorite webpages.  Take notes anywhere.”

In short, Evernote lets you keep notes, which can be text, images, audio, or a combination thereof.  They are synced through a central service to whatever device you want to access it from.  Currently there are Evernote clients for Windows, Mac, iOS, Android, Blackberry, Windows Phone 7, and if all else fails, their web interface is pretty awesome.  There is also a web “clipper”, which lets you select a webpage or part of a webpage and save it (think Pinterest, but not just for images).  Last but not least when you set up an account you get a special email address that you can send mail to and it will appear in your Evernote notebook!

Imagine going to a webpage, selecting a section with an interesting article, cool image or set of images, selecting it, and hitting the Evernote clip button and boom, automatically synced into your account.  Or taking a picture of a great outfit or cool photo location on your smart-phone and boom, into your account.  Add a few custom tags to the note (“location” “photo idea” and “shoot”) and that’s even more searchable.  They also do some pretty amazing magic to do with making text in images searchable, so taking a picture of say, a sale sign, will make the text in the picturesearchable.  All very cool.  Oh and did I mention that you can just drag a PDF into it and it’ll save (and index the text in it for searching as well).

The Evernote business model is the freemium one, where you get the base service and software free but to get higher transfers a month for the relatively low cost of $45 a year.  The philosophy is that you provide a good enough service and enough of your customers will convert to support the company, and it seems they’re doing well so far.  I’ve actually only once hit the 60mb limit for the free accounts.

Saving To Your Advantage

So getting data into Evernote is pretty easy, but a tool like this is only as useful as it’s ability to get data back out.  Having a thousand notes without a way to filter through them is completely useless right?  When you use the search in Evernote you obviously search the text that you’ve entered, but you can also set it to search by tag (just put “tag:” in front of your search term) and as mentioned before it’ll search any text it finds in images as well.

However, saved Searches really are the bees knees. What you can do is save a search for something so that it’s there for easy access later.  For example, when I find an image of a shot I’d like to try, I add it to a note in my “Photo Inspiration” folder with the appropriate name.  IE: “Boudoir”, “Poses”, “Lighting”, “Wedding” or the like.  This gives me a set of notebooks with inspiring photos categorized.  I then go one step farther and make sure I tag each of the notes with the tag “shotstotry“.  Then I create a saved search for “tag:shotstotry”.  Now I have a smart folder that will update itself whenever I add another note with that tag.  That’s just the start of the possibilities, imagine what else you could do with it!

How I Use Evernote as a Photographer

Here is a quick list of how I use Evernote as a photographer:

• Saved searches for photo, lighting, or outfit ideas
• Compiling multiple bits of data together (for example I have a note with everything I need to get into my computer server in downtown Vancouver, including access codes (you can encrypt selections of text in a note, so that’s safe!), a map and instructions on how to navigate the labyrinth of passages)
• Quick references for lighting setup
• All my camera and flash manuals (with a saved search for “tag:manual”)
• Scans of photography contracts
• A huge notebook of articles to read, photoshop howtos and a variety of other photography related things I’ve found on the web.  If I’m bored and have a few minutes I’ll pull up one of these and go through it, tagging it as “read’ when I’m done.
• I email any registration confirmations for events, classes, hotel or flight bookings into Evernote through the special email address just so that I know I have a copy if I don’t remember on the day.  Worst case scenario I pull out my phone and pull up a copy of the confirmation.
• The shared notebook functionality is very useful to save notes and pictures of doodles and handwritten notes and drawings from classes I’ve taken with friends.  I can “brain dump” everything I got from a seminar into a shared notebook and a friend who was at the same location can do the same, end result is double the amount remembered, and more importantly, double the amount of data saved and retrievable!
• Saving business cards as well.  If you’re a model or makeup artist and I get your card at a shoot there’s a 99% chance that within a few minutes I’ve taken a picture of it, saved it to a “Business Cards” notebook, tagged with “contact” and “business card” and a note added to the image about who you are, what you do and how I met you.
• For location scouting it’s awesome.  Since all the notes are geo-tagged automatically (when using the mobile), I can take a picture or three of a potential location and then easily find them later (when asking that continuous question of “where’s good to shoot”) using the map view and the search functionality.

Some Tips For Evernote Use

So once you get started you probably will wonder “OK, so now I’m started how can I use it best?”  Here are a few tips.

Use the Favorite button if you want quick access on your mobile device.

If you’re using Evernote on a mobile device and you know that you’re going to need the data a lot, set it as a favorite.  This saves it to the locate data cache on the phone so it doesn’t need to connect to the Internet to get it the next time you access it (handy in slow (or no) Internet areas).

Be careful about your upload quota

I’m not against paying people money, and of the tools I use every day, $45 a year is well worth it to give the Evernote guys some love.  But when you’re starting out you want to be concious of how much of your free space that you’re using and get a feel for how long it will last you.  It’s no fun to try a new tool and max out your free account in the first few days and then be face with paying for something (just to try it out) or waiting another 27 days before you can sync notes with it again.

Listen to the Podcast

The guys at Evernote have a great monthly(ish) podcast where they discuss the business of the company, use cases, answering user questions, and overall getting information out about how to use Evernote better.  This isn’t a “selling” podcast, they even admit more than once) that they’ve been very bad at pimping their own stuff on it.  You can check out The Evernote Podcast here, or if you’re an iTunes person, here’s the iTunes feed.

Read the Blog and Twitter Feed

There’s tons of good info (and use cases that will surprise you) at http://blog.evernote.com/ and@evernote.

Don’t be discouraged if it doesn’t “click” right away

I started with Evernote in 2008 and after adding a few notes just sort of forgot about the app.  It didn’t really match my workflow and what I was looking for, and the few lists of random bits (this is the first URL I clipped into my first notebook) just weren’t being retrieved after I put them in.  About a year later I picked up the app again (so to speak) and this time really understood what I was needing and looking for, and I’ve been going full bore since.  I’ve heard a similar story from other people, so if you try it out and it doesn’t work for you, don’t worry about it, maybe it’s just not time for you or maybe it’s just not the tool for the job you’re looking to do.  Hopefully some of the things I use it for that I’ve listed here will help inspire you to use this fantastic app however!

It’s not just the main Evernote app

People were using Evernote a lot to save pictures of food, so the guys there created Evernote Food, a streamlined iPhone application that is designed to let you save your food pictures (and notes, and location) into your Evernote notebooks.  People were also using Evernote to get contact information from people (see my “how I use Evernote as a photographer” section above) so they created Evernote Hello, which I absolutely love.  These days instead of asking for your business card I’ll probably hand you my phone and ask you to input your own information (it even prompts you to take a picture of yourself).  It’ll then save that to my Evernote account, connected with any other notes from the same time and location (ie: if I meet several people at a lunch it’d create an easy way to link my Evernote Food note on the burger I had for lunch with the contact information and even any other notes that I added to the main Evernote application at the same location and time).  Super cool.  It also lets you sync data to your iPhone’s address book as well as letting you contact people right from the array of faces in the application.

There’s also Evernote Clearly, a Readability/Instapaper-like plug-in that will remote extra crap from a webpage (banners, navigation, ads, etc) and let you more easily clip just the parts you want without the extras.  Skitch is an Mac application that was acquired last year and looks great, but I haven’t used at all, but it’s integrated and you can use it to doodle on notes or images.

Conclusion

If you haven’t heard of Evernote or haven’t used it before, you really should.  It’s got a great premise, use it to remember things, and because the second premise is “sync it to any electronic device you have” works so well, it’s incredibly useful. If you’re a creative person the ability to load it with drawings, pictures, or random web clippings makes it a powerful too, and combined with it’s search, asking the question “where did I see that cool chair I wanted to have a photo shoot with last year” doesn’t have to have an answer of “I dunno” anymore

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I had the pleasure to work with Bry Jensen again recently for a “quiet night by the fireplace” shoot.  She loved the serenity of just sitting in the living room and having some tea.  I think we got some amazing images.

One of my favorite moments was when we had a fuzzy interloper come in and interfere!  Luckily in this business, cuteness, and the opportunity for a great shot, equals forgiveness

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Love it all.

My folks went on holiday a couple of weeks ago and I stopped by their place to get the mail check the house, etc.  I ended up pulling out a photo album and looking through for some images from elementary or high school to share with ex-classmates on facebook.  Luckily my parents are festidious about organizing pictures, the albums are ordered by years, photos have month and year and are labelled, it’s great.

As I was flipping through the pages two things happened.  The first was an hour slipped away in what felt like a few minutes.  The second was I was struck at just how often capturing an image is so much about the time and the place and so little about the things that I’ve been caring about so much lately.  Composition, photoshopping out skin blemishes or worrying if there is a strand of hair out of place, or if the white balance is correct or not.

[Grade 1, I'm the one in the clown costume]

That just doesn’t matter.  It’s about having an image that you can look at and think “oh wow that’s me and look at how funny the clothes were and how awesome I thought I was”.  It’s about looking back and having an image of you and your first girlfriend or boyfriend posing by your very first car and being brought back in a split second to how your hair was long and how she smelled and how that car seemed like a magic van that could transport you far away and out of the world of school and homework and bullies even though it was just a junker that the neighbor gave you.

It’s about seeing an image of your parents and remembering what they looked like when their hair wasn’t white and they stood up a little straighter but how really, deep down they haven’t changed at all.  When you look at that polaroid picture that’s yellowing on the edges and you have that feeling of being zapped back in time.

That’s what’s important.  That’s what matters.

That’s why you have those pictures on your computer or printed out, not because they had great composition, or the white balance is perfect, or the photographer made you look really great, but that they are a connection to the past and they reminded you of people or places or events that had significance to you, even if they were the most inconsequencial of things, even if you’re the only one who knows why that picture gives you a little smile or makes you tear up a little bit.

That’s the power of photography.  That’s what I love.  That’s what I’m trying to share.

(Proof I was always a crazy cat man)

The post Why I Love Photography appeared first on Alan Bailward Photography.

The idea of the shoot was glamour, and we had a great set of models.  I’ve shot with Bry several times before.

Terra Jean looking amazing in her long white dress.

Ashley was relatively new to the modelling world, and yet still looked fantastic.

Sometimes amazing images happen away from the lights and setup and the bar.  I got some amazing shots of Bry and Terra Jean in the natural light streaming through the curtain.

I haven’t shot with Krista before, but man I can’t wait to work with her again!

All in all a great experience with a great set of people.  I can’t wait for the next one!

The post “An Evening at Sande’s” – Concept Photo Shoot appeared first on Alan Bailward Photography.

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Joyan was a joy (I had to do it) to work with.  Amazing skin and I loved her rings in this shot.

Angelina had a great, strong face and amazing peircing eyes.  I wanted to go a bit retro on her too, so the second shot below got a bit of black and white treatment.

Last and certainly not least is Alexa, who (don’t tell anyone) was maybe a bit of my favorite to shoot.  Amazing body and the light just flowed around her like she was made for it.

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There doesn’t seem to be a way to “nicely” funnel pins onPintrest (which I’ve been using a lot lately to collect ideas for shots, posing, and lighting) into Evernote (which I use as my always-synced collection of ideas, shots, and external memory, article with more details on this coming up), so after using someideas in the Evernote forum I created an If This Then Thatrecipe that takes entries from your RSS feed and puts them into a notebook in Evernote. Simple but seems to be nicely effective. You can grab the IFTT recipe at http://ifttt.com/recipes/17504. Let me know how you like it!

If you’re a photographer, model or makeup artist and you’re not using either Evernote or Pintrest already to collect ideas for shoots, posing, makeup, looks, styles, and pretty much anything, you really should be!  I’ll be writing a full article on how I use Evernote in the next couple of days to go through the details on how to be more efficient in your use of these excellent online tools.

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Spent some time at lunch today wandering along the dyke near my work, until the cold was bad enough (and my lack of proper winter clothes enough of an issue) that I retrated into the car.   Along the way though I met Petra from Slovakia, who allowed me to photograph her and her 8 year old dog who was having a great time in the snow.

As I was leaving I had to admit that the landscape was absolutely gorgeous, but man, it was cold!

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I met Abbotsford model Azam Nokhandan through her Model Mayhem page, and shot her in my home studio.  She was a trooper, doing great modelling work even with an audience!  A pleasure to shoot and some amazing images were produced, and I am completely in love with her amazing beautiful eyes!

Azam works as a professional model with local Punjabi designers and magazines, modelling funky clothes like this dress.

One of my favorite headshots.  Black and white and pure gorgeousness!

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Him: “So what you fellas doing?  You playing dem computer games?”

Us: “Nope, just doing some things….” <continue to go about our stuff>

Him: “Ah’m computer ILLITrit you know.  You fellas with your screens, I’d have no idea what’s going on”

Us: “Uh huh…. well…. it’s all about practice I guess… we’re just computer geeks playing around” <go back to our own stuff once again>

Him: “Oh yea, I’m a geek as well, ah repair watches!”

Us: “Yup, just practice, computers are just like watches.” <why does this guy not get that we don’t want to talk to him?>

Him: “I have an old watch ‘ere… 80 odd years old.”

Now I wish I could say that I was the one of us who had said “I should talk to this guy, I should hear his story and delve into a strangers world” at the start, but I can’t, because I didn’t.  I did perk up when I saw the watch be passed over though, as it was a gorgeous old pocket watch.

And I happened to have a camera and a flash with me.

So with the help of my friend @curtismchale acting as a VAL I got a few shots of it before sending it back to the old guy, who by this point his wife had realized we weren’t interested in talking to him (of course at this point I was) and moved him to the other side of the coffee shop.  Still, I got a couple of great shots out of it and a bit of a story to tell.  More importantly a lesson in hindsight about being more open to talking to the crazy old man at the coffee shop.

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Here’s a quick look back at the last year.

• January started with taking some headshots for my buddy James for his social media sites. It was a great experience and I got a few of the ins and outs of “location” photography (in this case, his apartment).
• February was my first introduction to the Metro Vancouver Photography Workshops and my now good buddy Chris Pike.  We shoot a “James Dean” shoot and I got a bunch of images that still adorn my Model Mayhem profile page.  A fun experience and I also met a bunch of other folks (Anna, Wilson, Adrian) whom I still shoot with often.
• In march the most epic thing was The Flash Bus, a day long seminar with photography lighting legends Joe McNally and David Hobby.  This was spent with my friend Jim, and Chris Anna and Wilson spending all day absorbing a ton of lighting information.  Brain overload.
• April the strobist group met up at a farm we had access to and we shot with a set of awesome models among farm animals and green fields.  A great time all born out of the thought of “would that ugly blue bathtub be good to stick a model in and shoot her?”.
• In May I volunteered for the Run for Water, shooting in and around the crowds with my wife.
• June brought what I feel is really the start of portraits. I went to Seattle and shot with my friend Jim again who had brought in a model for a shoot of his own.  In some down time I set up my own gear, and with some great collaboration with the model Justine Mariiie, we made some awesome shots.  There was also a bunch of other shooting that went on this month with other models and other groups and people.  I think my wife forgot what I looked like that month.
• For July more shooting with local models ensued, shooting most memorably Dylaina, who shot with me in the Matsqui park where we fought off mosquitoes the size of VWs.
• August and September I shot with Bry Jensen twice.  Once was a Gym and fitness oriented shoot, the other was “Autumn”.  One of the shots from the former went on to be published in Natural Muscle magazine, something I’m very proud of.
• October, of course, was Halloween, and I collaborated with a local makeup artist and made a bunch of images of local goblins and ghouls all dressed up and with full makeup done.  Lots of fun
• In November one of the local groups I hang with put together a boudoir meet and greet, where a bunch of photographers and a bunch of models got together in an awesome log house and did just that boudoir shots.  Great fun and I had a great time meeting up with Peter, Victor, Randy and a bunch of other folks that I’d only known online.
• December finally rolls along and the best shoot was with the amazing Terra Jean, who spent a few hours with me making some just incredible images.  Some of my best work yet I think.

So that’s it, the year in review.  A lot happened and looking forward I’m incredibly excited about what the next year will bring!

Happy New Years from Bailward Photography!

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Not the best example of photography, but I like to mix things up a bit now and then.  A kitten was abandoned by the barn my wife has horses at and through a series of events (specifically, it being cute and adorable), it ended up home with us and our other cats  Here are a few shots of the little sweetie (still in need of a name too, any suggestions?)…

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