Adventures with Chris the graphics guy!

Hi everyone! Busy, busy! We have been vary active with new work projects and a few just opportunity shoots involving several widely known entertainers. It's kind of wild when you have the opportunity to photograph several well know stars in the same picture, print them and put them in photo sleeves, give them to each of the stars and then set back as they look at your pictures of them and then take turns autographing each others photos. While I can't use names I can say that one of them tends to fly around the stage a lot during their performance and several others dress funny but collectively sing real pretty.

We are still waiting on the completion of the "History of Branson" movie. Mike from Bear Creek Production tells me that the editing is coming right along and I plan to visit their production facility in the next few days. I have always found video production fascinating and Mike has been kind enough to allow me the opportunity to come by and annoy him. I am looking forward to that visit.

I have in the past talked about the guys who work for and with me. Jackie has been working on her photo skills and during a recent post wedding shoot and the impromptu star shoot she captured some great shots. She also was the backup for a wedding we shoot and those turned out great as well. Chris our graphics guy got an opportunity to do the old on location assistant thing the other day. It was a tad windy to say the least. Now in order to appreciate the rest of this story it would be appropriate for me to have another Pro Pix Tips inserted here and then give you the rest of the story.

Pro Pix Tips: I'd like to remind you that photography is all about how you control and capture the light. Sometimes we need only use position to get the light to be our friend and illuminate our subject as we need. Other times the light causes too harsh of light (commonly referred to as a hard light source) which produces to heavy of a shadow area on our subject or will be at such an angle as to cause a deep shadow around the subjects eyes commonly referred to as Raccoon eyes. There are several different kinds of tools we as photographers use to control the light and they all have funny little names. Anything that is placed between the subject and a light source whether it be a flash/strobe, room or spot lights, or the sun itself is called a GOBO. Some GOBOs are designed to prevent the light from illuminating part of the area you want to photograph. These are called "flags" and are usually black in color to help prevent any unwanted reflections of the light. Others are designed to allow light to pass through them thereby softening the light so as to reduce the harsh shadows. These are called "scrims" and are usually white in color so as to not project an unwanted color onto your subject. The ones we use are home made out of a light weight frame and a white bed sheet. The size depends on how big of area your trying to cover or illuminate. The bigger the scrim the softer the light because the scrim when placed between the subject and the light source actually becomes the light source and generally increase the overall size of the light source (yes the sun is very big but at the distance we are from it, while very bright, is still is a relative small dot in the sky). Depending on the area it covers the scrim cause the light to spread out over the entire surface of the scrim and then over the subject allowing the light to more readily wrap around the subject and reducing the hardness of the shadows caused by a small light source like the small dot sun in the sky. This allows your pictures to have softer contrast to your subject and give a nicer more three D effect for your pictures. Try it out for your self. Find a toy or another none flat subject to photograph. To light up light your subject us a strong flashlight pointed directly at your subject. Note the hard shadows caused by the small light source. It's small light sources that cause hard light. Now find a small sheet to place between the subject and the light source (flashlight). Make sure that the flashlight is back about three or four feet from the sheet. Note how much softer or less harsh the shadows are and how much more of the subject is illuminated. Just remember that any time you place something like a scrim between your subject and light source the strength of the light is diminished and so you will need to move your light source closer or adjust the shutter speed and lens opening to accommodate for the light reduction. Play with that and see if it doesn't make your pictures look a lot better especially those taken outside.

Now to continue my story about the adventures with Chris the graphics guy. Chris was holding one of our scrims up and over the heads of our bride and groom placing great light onto our subjects. Now there is one small detail that I left out of the Tips. If you will remember what they are made of you might notice a similarity to a sail on a ship. Please recall it was a windy day. While I'm looking through my view finder, one of the many things I don't want to see is any part of that scrim so it and Chris our out of my view. Just as I am about to take my picture I hear Chris start saying "Oh! Oh! Oh!". Then I hear Jackie yell for Chris to hold on as she runs in front of me and my camera toward Chris. It's only then I realize that the wind has caught the scrim and is wiping it around coming very close to hitting my bride and groom who was looking at the camera and unaware of the events unfolding inches from their heads. With the help of Jackie the scrim was brought back under control and we were able to complete the shoot without any more incidents and the bride and groom alive to tell the tail. And to think my mom wanted me to be a brain surgeon. Where I ask you is the adventure in that?

Got to run guys. Have a great day everyone!

Richard