Environmental Portrait

I have done a lot of different things when it comes to photography. The experts say you should focus on what you like. So what happens if you like everything? One area that I do enjoy is the Commercial side of photography. I like the challenges and have many years of experience printing. It fit’s me. I have an eye for what I am looking at.

Dr. John Elchinger at NorthWest Ohio Vision Center

I received a call from NorthWest Ohio Vision Center Marketing people and asked if I could do a headshot of one of their new Doctors. So, of course, I said yes, when and where? Next, I received an email asking if I could do an environmental picture instead of just a headshot.

I arrive at the client and begin to do the setup. In this case, I needed two lights—the environmental and a flash. Environmental was set up first. I wrote down my settings and then set up a flash. Yes, I am one of the strange ones; I still use a light meter. I like a light meter because I know it will be right when coming to shooting. Setup was made and time for the Doctor.

Thank you, NorthWest Ohio Vision Center; you now have helped me twice. Yes, I said twice; I went to see them about 4 years ago with one of my eye going blind. Dr. Tara knew what to do, and because of her and the resources, I have about 90% of my vision back in my eye. So make sure you see your eye doctor or get one if you like your eyes. You will not regret it.

Videography?

I love all aspects of photography and now including videography. I felt like a commercial photographer; this was a must to learn and understand videoing. I have been playing with this last year on and off, but I am taking it to another level this year.

Just like photography, it takes practice and again more practice. First, I have been learning different camera moves for other effects. Next, understanding the light and now learning audio. Next, we learn post-processing and why something works, and something doesn’t work.

It starts with practice, and the following video is of that. I am an actor, director, producer, special effects, yes you guess it, I am doing everything, including filming. The idea was just to go for a walk in the woods in the winter. I like these woods and have taken a lot of pictures of family, seniors, and some wildlife in these woods near me.

It was fun playing with different camera views and thinking about A shoot and B shoots. Next was to put it together. Using Adobe Premiere, I was able to put it all together. The sounds you hear are all sound effects for interest. While this video was fun doing. It won’t make the Oscars, but you need to start somewhere.

2022 is going to be fun for me. I am looking forward to adding videography to my portfolio.

Taking away things you don't like

I hope everyone had a great time during the Holidays. For Lisa and I, we sure did. We got to spend some family time. As with any event, you always want pictures. In this case, it was no different. We went to a restaurant in the Cincinnati, Ohio area, and after we were done, we wanted a quick picture. So you got it, the waiter took it with my iPhone. The picture is great for us. It did what we wanted. A memory.

We got back home, and I looked at the picture, and I thought. I wonder what this would look like if I got rid of the distractions. This will be an excellent picture to practice on. With that said, I opened photoshop and started to get rid of what I call the easy distractions. The easy thing I used is what is called the patch tool. Easy items would be like the glasses in front, the silverware in front. For me, it starts looking good. Next was let’s finish it with some of the hard things. Like Lisa with the napkin. Notice her hand is blocked. With that, I needed to make fingers that looked like they belonged. Out came the clone stamp. I had other tuff things and used a combination of clone stamp and brush tool. I got what I think is a better picture.

Final Image

Practice makes perfect, the old saying goes. I m always practicing something. One to keep up with the new things out there, and second, to be good at anything, you need to practice and, yes, practice some more. That's what this exercise was all about. You see, the first picture will be fine; after all, it's not going to any magazine, but my thought was, what if a client wanted something removed? Can you do it?

The Dermatology Group Parkview Health

My first blog of 2022. I have been blessed in my photography career to do work for the health community. This one was a special one for me. My assignment was to do individual headshots of this group and then a group photo for an advertisement ad on a BillBoard. Driving this Holiday season, we have about 4-5 Bill Boards on the highway. I noted that pictures that I have taken were on 3 of them, including this one.

Let me tell you; this group was so friendly and so much fun to be with that I felt at home. After the job was completed, I thought I would ask a question that I knew they could answer. That is, I have this thing growing above my lip that is not cosmetic pretty. Can I get this removed? She left and grabbed a magnifying glass, and said that you have Skin Cancer. The good news is that you have the good kind but need to be removed. Remember, I only ask for information. It was their time to play photographer and take a picture of it with that. With that, off it went to what was my Plastic Surgeon. In a few day’s I had my appointment to have this growth removed. This group did far more than I could expect. They were all great, but I want to give a special thank you to Hallie. This great woman did so much for a perfect stranger that most likely would not have gone through this if not for her. One thing that I noted threw this whole process was the team and how a team that likes what they do is not just a team, but a great team.

The procedure was done, and before I could even say thank you. They came in and had my appointment made for a complete skin checkup. They must have known that I would have waited. (LOL)

I am looking so forward to 2022. I have a list of things that I want to accomplish for my photography and videography. Yes, videography. More on this later, but I have been having fun learning all aspects of this.

2022 is upon us. The question is, what are you going to do with it? One last note, If you have some abnormal growth or mold on your skin. Get it checked out. You never know. Thank you, Parkview Health.

Playing and learning

The cool thing about photography is that you can do it anytime. I like to practice and learn and then practice some more. Today I wanted to play with gel lights and practice shadows and highlights. So I grabbed something that would not complain, and I worked with what I had. For I was at a bed and breakfast place, I had no idea I would do this.

I had two lights, one light stand, and my gels. The first thing I wanted to do was light from behind to give it backlight. Using a CTO gel and a MagMod Grid, I set this up first. I liked what I had, but way too much shadow in the front. I knew I wanted to reflect light back into the front but did not have one, or did I. Yep, pillowcase to the rescue. I brought in really close to the left side and got what I wanted. Next was to set up the fill light. I wanted the shadows to fill in with blue—my second light I set up using a blue gel. I had no light stand, so I set the light on the floor and flashed on the ceiling. Yep, I took advantage of a giant softbox with a flash of blue to fill in shadows with blue. It worked and did what I wanted without using Photoshop.

So much playing and learning. Just another thing to put into my back pocket.