An evening of Burlesque..

    Last Friday I had the pleasure of shooting a Burlesque Circus show. Lots of fun performers, and yet another challenging shooting environment. Three other photogs claimed seats in the front row with wide angle lenses, so I decided to go for something different, and got a spot at the back of the room and shot long with the 70-200 zoom. I should have brought my stilts, I wound up shooting from the top of a rather rickety ladder while ducking to keep from slamming my head into the ceiling. I was actually sore on Sat from maintaining this position, not to mention hand holding that monster tank of a lens for two hours and change. Note to self... monopod for heavy lenses in the future.....
  I have been feeling kind of one note for the past few shoots, I just set an exposure that works and leave it set for the whole show. This time I decided to play a little bit and vary the exposures depending on the act. I also played with some various autofocus modes and shooting modes as well. Some of these experiments worked, some didn't. I will now get to spend weeks going through the exif data and looking at trends, figuring out what worked and what didn't. Some things I learned right off the bat were that 1- noise reduction capabilities seem to be very dependent on color and tone of said noise. Most of the pics cleaned up great, even, surprisingly, a couple of test shots I did at 6400 and 12500, but a few, even at the 3200 or lower,  resisted even the strongest NR processing. Those seemed to be mostly very low key shots, the high key ones cleaned up a lot better. Will have to research this more. I also learned that my IR remote for the speedlights is very limited in line of sight, and couldn't cover the throw of the theatre. I had hoped to do some good rear curtain syncs for the fire and led numbers, but I wound up having to shoot them completely ambient. Wound up with some colorful shots I liked for artistic value on the LED hoopers, but not a lot of great shots of the performers. Also didn't get the fire as well as I would have liked. I need to start bringing the camera to some spin jams and doing more experiments.
    Finally, this gig convinced me I really to need to upgrade my camera body, the 3200's AF system just couldn't keep up with the performers and hunted a lot in what should have been reasonable light. I have pretty much narrowed my field down to either a used D3S or a D600, will have to see what I can find when the tax refund shows up. In the meantime I think I will try and rent both and test them at upcoming events. 
    Anyway, you can see the highlights here and tell me what you think.

Noises OFF!!! (nod to my theatre past....)

   Let me start by saying- WOOOOHOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  As you might have guessed, I have found something awesome. The answer to a total prayer. Ok, it isn't an answer to the what body to upgrade to question, but something that will save me infinitely more time and improve my turnaround and quality of life.

  Shooting circus and other performances means I need to use fast shutter speeds in generally craptastic lighting situations. This means I need to really push my ISO up. Which (maybe it won't be such a problem when I make the previously referred to upgrade) means NOISE. Lots of noise. Not really problem, with the D3200 and my collection of 2.8 zooms I can shoot at ISO 3200 and kill the boise in post. Right? Easier said than done (spoiler alert.... until now)

   Actually, this was kind of a revelation to me a few gigs ago, I was comparing my shots with another photographer who shot the same show on the same night. Her images were much cleaner than mine, so I asked what settings she was shooting.  Shana Siler was kind enough to introduce me to the wonderful world of noise reduction software. Seriously, I am that new to digital, I didn't know you could fix that later, I thought you were pretty much stuck with what you shot. Thank goodness for awesome and helpful people to school the newbie.

  Being a mac guy and not having the time/money/desire to really become a photoshop guru, I chose to stick with Aperture for my workflow. Built in noise reduction isn't really that great, and I didn't want to deal with exporting to photoshop just for NR, so I started looking for plug-ins. Found a couple that were pretty darn good, DeNoise and Dfine 2.0. Both are excellent and let me shoot at any ISO my camera is capable of without worry. The trouble is that even after editing down to the best of the best, for a given performance I usually come out with about 100 or so shots worth posting. Denoise requires me to process each shot individually. And it takes a minute or so per shot. Not fun. Dfine sort of lets me  do a batch process, but I still have to click through each shot in the batch and let the program analyze the shot and store the result, then do a batch save at the end. A bit faster but still less than ideal. There are a lot of reviews out there for the two programs, but from my limited testing, DeNoise worked better and gave me cleaner images, Dfine was not as great but was much faster for groups of images. So my workflow wound up being split. The very best shots from a given set, the ones I want to post to my gallery, I would process individually with DeNoise. The rest of the set, the ones I was posting just for the client, I would "batch" process with Define. You can see the results of this process in the Being Loved and Angel's Gift galleries here. It works, but it is very time consuming. If it wasn't for boring  nights stuck on a ship either on duty or out to sea, it would take me forever to finish a project. What I really wanted was to be able to select an entire collection, start a plug in running to cut the noise, and get an alert when it was done. But I hadn't been able to find this mythical beast..... yet.....

  After a one of my first posed portrait shoots with my beautiful girlfriend and out cute and very photogenic son, she complained about her skin. Even though I disagreed, as any intelligent boyfriend with a desire to continue to have a hot girlfriend would have, I started looking for plug-ins that would handle that task. I found a free trial of Potraiture, from Imagenomic. Stupidly expensive, but I tried the free trial and it totally rocked. If I ever start shooting portraits with any regularity, I am going to drop the money on this plug-in. Actually, if I go with the D600 upgrade option and have some left over money I may get it anyway just to have it lying around. It's pretty awesome. I am sure someone proficient with photoshop could do better, but for a one click solution for the lazy, yeah, it rocks. The neat thing about portraiture is that it is a true batch process. Select x number of pics, set the settings you want or tell it to auto set each image in the batch, hit save all, grab a cup of coffee or run a 5k, come back and it's done.

   I couldn't help but notice they also had a noise reduction plug in, Noiseware. Hm... thought I, if one of their plug ins offers true batch functionality, why wouldn't the rest? Maybe it's worth a trial run. So I downloaded the trial. Lo and Behold.... it works exactly the same. True batch functionality. And so far at least, the noise reduction seems to be as good, if not better, than either of the other two contenders. But hold crap. I can set it once and just let it run while I do other things... a bargain at a million times the cost...... The first gig i have used this one on is one I can't post publicly, but I will update this as soon as I have something I can, but it's great. I am still grouping the batches by acts, similarly lit and shot segments, I haven't tried it over a whole gamut yet, will have to go back and do that later as a fun experiment, but just being able to take the computer and photo drive to work, set 45 shots or so processing, go to a meeting, come back, set the next 30 or so processing, no fuss, is awesome. It let me get the pics from the private gig up at least three days sooner than I would have been able to do with the prior work flow. Have to say I am happy with this find and highly recommend it!

   Ok- update. Here are the first round of Noiseware Processed shots.  These were shot at ISO 3200, which is pretty noisy on the D3200. Each act was processed as its' own batch. I used either the full or the strong noise automatic preset depending on whether it was a spotlight number or one of the darker ones. So these are pretty much my quick, heavy handed use of the program's automatic features. All three plug ins have auto options as well as lots of manual ones I am sure would give me a bit better results, but that is on the growing list of things to learn more about and experiment with later. 

Photographs can make a difference

Good quick read. I like the photographer's description of what she shoots and glad she got through.

http://annealmasy.com/an-open-letter-to-weddings-unveiled-magazine/

decisions, decisions, decisions...

    Ok. I think I am going to have to upgrade the camera body. Shot a show Friday, CirKiss, by Aerial Revolution, got a lot of great shots, album coming soon, lots of great shots means lots of processing and trying to decide which of the many good ones are the cream of the crop, then processing the noise out and uploading... these things take time. 8 month old sons seem to demand I pay more attention to them that to image editing. Thank goodness for duty days where I am stuck for 24 hours straight on a ship with nothing to do except edit pictures... /stream of consciousness....
    Anyway, as I started this third foray into the wonderful world of photography, I went with the wise teachings I found online. I went low end on the camera body and spent on glass. Overall this has served me well. I picked a Nikon D3200, which is nikon's entry level crop frame camera body. Even though it is entry level, its' selling points are resolution and image quality- 24mp sensor. I've flashed this out with a set of 2.8 zooms and a 35mm 1.8 DX prime, which are all as good as it gets lens wise. As you can see from my SD Fringe Festival commercial shoot album it can grab some amazing images in good light at a low ISO. It can keep up in decent lighting at a roller derby bout. It can perform decently well in low light with a pre-focused subject, but the AF system simply can't keep up with the demands of a dimly lit aerial performance. As long as there is a decent light on my target, I am good and can get some great images, especially with the high end 2.8 zooms, but for a lot of the mood lit numbers, especially ones that favor the blue end of the spectrum, the AF sensor just won't cut it.
    So, here is the dilemma- there are three bodies which would be a serious step up. I could theoretically afford any of them, depending on which other financial priorities I wanted to short change and by how much, and I am torn. The D600 is the low price FX nikon. It has decent resolution, but the weakest AF sensor of the three. It would still be a great improvement over the AF system on the 3200 and a marked improvement overall in low light. It also has the advantage of the U1/U2 custom menus, which neither of the higher priced options have. This would let me pre-set a group of settings for dark aerial shows, with a one click switch to a set up to better capture fire performers or LED flow. Then one click back to dark aerial. That option alone almost makes it the best choice.
  Then there is the D800. Better AF sensor, the same sensor as the total high end top dog. Better resolution, but the trade off is speed, lower frame rate than the D3200 I have now. But only slightly more expensive than the D600. Effectively the same for my current situation. Better resolution and better AF sensor, but more expensive, bigger files to work with, more importantly slower shooting, and no custom modes. (ok- they exist, but only through a system of menus, not just a quick click. Same AF system as the D4.
  At the holy crap top end, there is the D4. The king of the Nikon line, maybe slightly less resolution than the 600 or the 800, but frame rate is through the roof and the low light noise performance is at least as good, if not better than the others, depending on which review you choose. No easy custom buttons, but this is the king. Higher native ISO, and a low light autofocus system that is supposedly almost psychic. If I got this camera, it would be awesome because there would no excuse for not getting the shot. It would also be scary, because there would be no excuse for not getting the shot. I mean, it is the best Nikon has to offer, if I didn't get a shot with a D4 and a pro lens, the blame would inescapably fall on me, I would be the weak link. I couldn't blame the sensor, the AF system, the lens, anything. Any missed shot would be completely and totally the fault of the dork behind the lens. If I get either of the other two, I am afraid that part of me would always want to say, "well, I could have gotten that shot with a D4...." even if the logical part of my brain knows that is total BS. But if I go for less than the best that small out will always be there in the back of my rationalizing mind....
   I can "theoretically" afford the D4. If I blow my entire wad on it. Instead of saving for my kids' college fund. Instead of paying off some of the mountain of debt the divorce and bad but necessary financial choices on my part left me with. Or I can go for one of the less costly choices and pay some of that down. Really, I should stop dumping money into better gear, since to this point no one has paid me to take a picture really. I wanted to say that I would hold off of jumping to full frame until I was actually getting paid to shoot things. But two really awesome lenses found their way too me dirt cheap thanks to my endless and possibly fanatical daily craigslist job searches. So I have two out of three of the holy trinity of full frame pro lenses now (zooms at least..) and a full frame will be nice to have by the time I shoot the San Diego Fringe Festival this July. It's only a matter of time before I give in and go full frame.
  So, do I go cheap for now, since the 600 will definitely be an improvement over what I have, go the 800 and high resolution with the slow frame rate, or do I say screw getting out of debt faster and go all in and get the D4 so I have no more excuses? Right now I am thinking the D800 is not really an option, the high res would be nice, as would the great AF, but the low frame rate is a killer. So I think my options really are-
A) get the d600 now and enjoy it until i am out of debt and hopefully at least getting some money back getting paid to shoot, then re-visit the D4 or whatever Nikon puts out before that time comes around...
B) suck it up and just go for the D4, believe in myself, get the best gear, and know that the paying gigs will follow....
C) Shut the hell up, I am still not pushing the camera I have to its' limits, who needs a second body anyway.....
Depending on when you ask me, I am all over the map. I have a few weeks to decide, but please, toss any inputs you want my way....

And here are the results.... it was a learning experience. 79 shots out of 568 that I considered useable. the 70-200mm proved its' metal, I need to work on my panning and following skills. But I did get some good ones, and I had a great time and hopefully will get some more exposure and follow on shoots with the Derby Dolls.

Final gallery is viewable here. 

Outside the comfort zone- shooting Roller Derby

   Once again, the universe displays a keen sense of irony. Immediately after I post a rant about looking for gigs on Craigslist, I get a good gig from Craigslist. I was invited to shoot a bout for the San Diego Derby Dolls, banked track roller derby. I have a good friend who does flat track and have been to a couple of her bouts, and wound up at a bout in New Orleans once (and found out an old HS crush of mine was a team captain when she crashed right into my lap but that's another story and doesn't go anywhere all that interesting, sad to say) but had never seen banked track, and can't really say I am that familiar with the game.

    So, slightly outside my comfort zone. What I try to use my niche, to set me apart when it comes to performance photography, is that I am a performer. Even before my circus days, I was a theatre guy, graduated from the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts Theatre program, so I know circus performance and plays. I can see when the performers are setting up for something, I can see a wrap and anticipate the pose coming up. Not so with Roller Derby. Not familiar with the flow, the action, what the key moves or moments are, in short, no idea what to shoot other than spray and pray. Which I did to a certain extent. But I tried to minimize that.
    I got in touch with my derby friend, asked her what pics she would like to see of a bout she was in, then for the technical side I did what anyone does these days when faced with the unknown- I asked google- seriously, what did we do before all the world's knowledge was at out fingertips? Turning to google actually made the sense of being out of my depth worse. Turns out since it's sport action speed and lots of derby venues are horribly lit, the pros get in and set up multiple remote flashes at key points around the track to get their shots. Holy crap, I am used to doing what I can in ambient light, if I am lucky the performers are lit with a decent spot. Multiple remote off camera flashes? Yeah, I have them, I have used them for shooting my family so I can learn my way around lighting. But high speed sync sports fill flash is not something I had ever even contemplated. But what the heck, part of why I am doing this is to expand my horizons and learn something, right? So I packed for bear. Both my speedlights, stands, gaffers tape, remote trigger, strobe frame for the camera and sync cable just in case...
    Luckily I overpacked. The Dolls perform in a thankfully well lit arena, so I was able to shoot 1/250 or so at ISO 3200 and be fine. Plenty of light. Got there early, had plenty of time to check things out, try and find good places to shoot, and the best lens. I was torn on this one, the 17-55 was too wide, the 70-200mm was too tight, really wish I had been able to afford the 24-70mm I am planning to drop some tax refund money on, think it would have been just right. Didn't want to miss anything changing lenses, and a second body is also on the list of things to get when I have money, so I had to choose. I shot the first half with the long zoom, the second with the wide. This was the a great gear test, really got to put both lenses and the AF through their paces, and I am happy to say the camera and lenses were plenty fast, the weak part was the photographer- as long as I kept the focus point on the skaters, the system kept up. Out of 540 shots, only 25 were unusable due to poor focus. I can live with that. Shots started getting better towards the end too, started getting used to the flow of the action a bit. Overall happy and a good technical learning experience.
    Other than the technical, I had forgotten just how much fun the Derby experience is- and it's even better when I am a small part of it. Even got to shoot a bit from inside the track. It's rock and roll, pumping sound track of hair bands and power ballads, beer, half time rock bands, Gangnam Style dance competitions, and generally being surrounded by strong, powerful, aggressive women who are bucking old school stereotypes. Seriously, if I had a daughter instead of a son, I would want her to grow up to be a Derby girl. (her name would have been Sierra Danger, so she may not have even needed a Derby name) I hope Tucker dates Derby girls (when he's a bit older) I enjoyed the environment, had a great time, one of the refs even called me out for dancing to some 80s tunes between jams. But I got to see the San Diego WildFires take on the DairyLand Dolls visiting from Madison Wisconsin. The home team carried the day. Pleasure Fix provided the half time show. I got some great shots. They will be posted soon, have to do some post processing on them and all that, but here are a couple of teasers to tide you over.....
 

Ode to Craigslist.....

    I love shooting. I am even learning to love the digital darkroom side as acquire better software and learn how to use it. What I love less is the marketing side, trying to actually find clients and jobs. But I am working on becoming more internet and marketing savvy. (hence this blog, and finding a way to always sneak a link or two in to direct you, the reader, to check out my online portfolio site) I am getting caught up with Instagram, Tumblr, Flickr, Twitter, Facebook and anywhere else I can think of. I am getting the hang of those. But what I do not think I will ever fully understand is Craigslist. I am not sure my failure to fully get into CL is a bad thing either.

    I've use Craigslist before, and actually managed to find some great deals on used gear in great shape. But until I decided to make a real run at photography, I have never really spent a great deal of time on it, just quick hits looking for something in particular via the search function (nikon lenses, etc). Lately I have started scanning it every couple of days looking for job leads and contacts. I am getting both confused and slightly put off. Some of the ads I click on for the same reason you can't take your eyes off a train wreck, and I am not sure whether I should laugh or cry or both.

     There are repeat ads like one from a surf basketball league, looking for photographers good enough to "capture the beads of sweat on their faces..." except they don't want to pay anyone for that, they want free. Sorry, I will do free shoots for my friends to build my portfolio and practice my technique, and because I would probably be watching them perform anyway, but I am getting something out of that as well. Maybe there are people who will get the same thing from this basketball gig, guess that ad isn't too objectionable. Maybe they will hook up with one of the hundreds of "photographers" in san diego looking for TFP opportunities to build their portfolios.... Oh wait, those guys (and yes, this is a stereotype, but I am willing to bet a lens that at least 80% of these posters are male) only want to offer free shoots to "slim, open minded females," or "athletic, attractive females." Seriously guys, ever heard of Model Mahem?  Ok, still, I'll bite, I am sure somewhere out there are women who are so desperate to be models that they will answer these ads. Maybe some of them are even legit and not just guys with cameras wanting to get off and trying to get a date or at least some pics for their "personal use." Some even offer to pay the model a few bucks. But we're still in the only slightly disheartening category here.

    From there I will shift gears a bit, and just focus on the competition. It doesn't even seem like it's worth my time to post an add looking for clients, it would be lost in the shuffle of photographers willing to work stupidly cheap for, I lost count of how many offers there are out there to shoot weddings for $300 or less. Maybe I should follow each of those ads around with an offer to be a second shooter at no charge then just sell them the pics I take when they like them better than what the $300/wedding person gets? If I was going to shoot weddings right now, it would be for experience only and I would not want a couple to depend on me to capture their wedding day as the only photographer until I knew what the heck I was doing. One wedding I was at (as a guest) a few months back, I couldn't help but notice that the official photographer was using his built in camera flash as his sole lighting setup. I haven't seen the final product because I don't know the couple that well, but I can only imagine..... but hey, I don't know all these photographers, maybe a lot of them are great and just starting out, who am I to judge... I am really just frustrated because I haven't yet figured out how to differentiate myself from the crowd yet. But now we get into the really scary/sad arena that makes me want to flee CL and not come back.

    Sex ads. Not the ones that actual escorts post looking for clients. Those I get. I also understand the ones looking for adult industry talent. I am sure a lot of those are fakes as well, but with all the amateur porn sites and companies out there trying to make money on the interwebz, I am sure some of them are at least trying to be legit. What really makes me want to laugh/cry are the thinly veiled ads from guys (again, just guessing here, but pretty sure these are all guys) looking for "a newbie amateur to be my sugar baby and assistant," gee- wonder what she will be expected to "assist" with huh? What about the guy looking for a "secretary- female, no experience needed, must be attractive..." hmmmmm, wonder what she will be expected to file? But the one that finally took the cake and sent me over the top enough to want to  rant about CL was an ad- which seams to have already been taken down- otherwise I would link to it "seeking competitors for San Diego's best Blow Job competition....." I am only guessing that the poster would be the sole judge for all entrants. Seriously, people, just go online and find all the escorts you want without trolling for people stupid enough to fall for a blow job competition gig...

    And one more- if you are indeed "a world renowned fetish photographer" you probably don't need to post on CL to find models, if you are that good you should already have models knocking down your door trying to shoot with you. 

    Ok- enough ranting, time to go back and keep looking for cheap, gently used camera gear being sold by aspiring models who can win blow job competitions while gaining the experience they need at secretarial jobs and will one day hire me to shoot their shotgun wedding with their former "employer" for $300.
   

Fun in the Sun!

    The photo shoot for the San Diego Fringe Festival Commercial went pretty well. It was a challenge because I am used to thinking about how to shoot in limited light in dark venues, how to deal with uneven, chaotic rapidly shifting stage lighting. So shooting in bright mid day sunlight was a whole new environment. Seriously, I never thought I would be shooting at 1/2000 of a second just to use F2.8 at ISO 100, but there it was.
     Had to climb a tree to put up some silks. I feel almost ashamed, I used to climb every tree that could hold my weight within a mile of my house growing up (including a few that it turned out couldn't) You might say my journey into the circus grew out of that experience, we would climb the trees, hang ropes wherever we could from the branches, and swing like Tarzan all over the place. I was sort of embarrassed how hard it was to climb this darn tree. Scraped and sliced me up quite a bit, but I managed it, despite a fever and not feeling at all well. Was it worth it? For shots like this one I think it was.
    Overall, it was a chaotic day, lots of people who hadn't worked together before throwing choreography together. It did, and I can't wait to see the commercial that will come out of it. But other than the sunlight, it was a good new challenge for me. Stage shows and club performances have a single point of focus usually, (I haven't been lucky enough to be challenged shooting a multiple ring circus yet- but I welcome any invitations....) a main act I can concentrate on, and it's probably one I am at least familiar with. Even if I have not seen the routine before, I can guess what's coming when from how the performers are setting up, or feel a big beat coming in the music and guess something good is going to happen. But there was no music here, it was all free form, and the director was making changes on the fly. So it was challenging. I got a lot of shots I liked, and a lot I wasn't too happy with, but overall I think it was a success, you can see the pics here and let me know if you agree.
    And finally, found a disturbing site through a FB friend today, FauxTography, I know I am just starting out, but please, dear readers, warn me if you see me headed this direction. It's like a train wreck, horrible, but you have to look. You're welcome.