One Man Band

Unless a photographer has a house full of staff, relatives, kids or significant other's running around the photo studio, ( or in my case the garage and basement) one has to be resourseful to find suitable "models" to set-in while the photographer tries out some new lighting techniques, practices lighting set-ups or other creative trail-and-error experiments.

For "One Man Band" gunners lke me, I am normally the only person hangin' around during the day when I have time set aside for practice and experimentation. So, thanks to the tripod and a "just long enough" shutter release cable, I end up being the subject for my set-ups. I't not that I want to have a huge portfolio of self portraits, it's just that our dog Gracie's a little bit tired of having the flash popped in her face all the time. I'm a ways away from being a small flash wizard like "Mr. Strobist" David Hobby - http://www.strobist.blogspot.com/ or Joe McNally - www.joemcnally.com/blog. My setups and exposures make me feel more confident so when I have an actual client in front of my lens, I will "appear" to know just what the heck I'm doing!

So to get ready for this weekend's senior portrait session and some future work with our local medical center, I've been playing around. Here's a "practice shot" using up to two Nikon SB Speedlights and various light modifiers. I'm just starting to put some effort into developing a "style" for my images. I know my way of "seeing" and my "street shooter" approach to photojournalism is totally different than any of the other photographers in the area. So, I'm counting on that, with a little help from my Speedlights, to set me apart for the pack.

Springtime Awakening!

Well Hello....is there anybody out there?

Springtime has begun and it's time to get serious about shooting again and posting to my photo blog. I've been dusting off the camera gear and working on tuning-up my multi-flash location lighting chops. It was another long and snowy winter in this corner of the Midwest and now at the last few days of March 2011, the snow is nearly gone from our yard and around town. The glimer of hope of green grass and blooming flowers helps make everyone's mood a bit lighter and happier, including yours truly! My wife and I have been in the Midwest now a full year. And we are now talking of establishing roots in her old hometown.

With that said, I have a renewed energy to develop new freelance photography relationships with agricultural, farming and regional publications. I've also begun a plan to establish a photography foothold into the community I live, offering my work for senior/athlete portraits, sports action and events. I already have one senior photo session on the books. I have a few personal photo projects on the list as well to keep the picture taking pulse pumping...that and a fresh pot of coffee!

One of the Springtime events farmers can count-on in the low lying river valley areas of the Midwest is flooding. In the local county, there a number of corn fields that are submerged with runoff from melting snow. But the up-side is very few farmers in this area have to use field irrigation during the growing season.

Flooded Corn Fields, west of Fairmont, MN.

www.josephkreissphotography.zoomshare.com

Fall's Arrival

Today I realized (again) that great photography has very little to do with camera 'skills' and everything to do with "seeing."

While headed out the back door of our old garage, my eye caught our lawn rake, sitting handle down in the garden tool caddy. Maybe it was this morning's filtered light, but I had been walking past the tool and leaf for days and never 'saw' this photo until this morning. The fallen leaf had been impaled on the tines of the rake, set back in it's place after use raking up fallen apples in the front yard.

I ran and grabbed the camera, made a quick few exposures in the available light and here is the result. Except for a slight adjustment in contrast and sharpening in Photoshop, this is the image that was "found" this morning.

Five-Minute Self Portrait Photo Project

I wanted to get a few portraits of myself for my Classic Rock radio station Facebook pages and wanted something a little more ‘edgy’ and hard to fit the rock format. One morning the light coming from the east was very nice. So I grabbed the camera with the 18mm wide-angle lens and fired up a cigar. I knew with the wide angle and depth of field I would be pretty close with focus and getting myself in the frame. So I positioned myself in the east-facing doorway of our old garage and started shooting. I hand-held the camera at arm’s length, shooting a few frames with the motor drive then “chipping” to see what I was getting.

I wanted to prove you can get great self-portraits doing the old “hold the camera at arms-length and fire away” method that so many of us do to get ourselves in the picture at the Grand Canyon, at the concert, or with friends at the party. I used a little fill flash from the built-in strobe, dialed down to –2 on most of the images to kick the available light just a touch.

I have adolescent memories of a San Francisco Bay Area TV show host back in the late 60’s early 70’s named Bob Wilkerson. He hosted at late night weekend TV show called ‘Creature Feature’…introducing all the really bad ‘B movie’ horror and cheesy sci-fi flicks from the 1950’s. He sat in a big easy chair puffing away on his stogie! I wanted to get a similar feel to my photo of mystery and macabre with the slow shutter speed blur of the smoke that I had seen done so well by a famous photojournalist years back.

I’m not promoting smoking for all you ‘kids’ out there… It becomes a prop with the shade and my hat to add that element of hip mystery to the image. In post-production, I added some more contrast and edge to the images to get a look that is currently very popular with photographers, advertising and magazine covers.

Well I “survived” my first 'Midwest tornado fest.' The severe weather this past Thursday afternoon/evening brought more than 40 tornados to the state of Minnesota and more to the south in Iowa. Two of the Minnesota twisters were deadly. We were lucky in Fairmont to escape any touchdowns or damaging weather. It was a stressful day watching the TV and listing to the radio reports of what was going on all around us, wondering if we would hear the tornado sirens next.

But as is the case, first destruction, then beauty. At dusk, the massive storm front moved northeast, the sky displayed such almost surreal looking clouds. They are 'Aftermath Clouds' or as a weather professional friend said, they are “Mammatus” clouds and they usually show as a particularly potent thunderstorm moves out of an area. Indeed true.

Contrasts

I’ve mentioned before how impressed I am with the mammoth grain structures that tower above the midwestern landscape. Driving around Des Moines, Iowa recently looking for interesting “stuff” to photograph, I found this silo facility along the mostly unused Norfolk and Southern rail yard. I love to show contrasts in my images and this one has several. I love the “large and small” aspect of the modest brick building along the railroad tracks contrasted with the massive silos in back. I also like the white washed paint of the small structure in contrast with the weathered concrete elevator silos. The other interesting element that I really didn’t notice until doing a post-shooting edit is the left window on the brick building has a very bright, yellow shade behid the glass contrasted to the plain, dark window on the right. The small building itself would have made a fun picture, but placing it in contrast with the huge silos adds some punch.

Fitting Gesture

Country singer Billy Currington had a recent hit song that talks about honoring a departed one with a six-pack of beer. The song’s called “God is Great, Beer Is Good and People Are Crazy.” I found a little bit of that going on over the Memorial Day weekend at a local cemetery outside Northrop, MN. Don’t know the story, but it’s likely an old Army buddy stopped by to pay tribute to a long lost friend with a can of Hamm’s beer on the gravestone and some red, white and blue flowers. Actually quite touching. Thanks to all who have given all for our country!