Another beautiful evening for an E-Session

It was another good evening for photos. This time we took a trip to Pepperdine University here in Malibu to shoot some images on their beautiful lawn. But of course, no Malibu photo session would be complete without a trip to the beach!  Greg and Angelique are booked for an August 2013 wedding here in Malibu.

-cg

Experiments with time....

If there is one thing about photography everyone must embrace; it's learning to experiment. I love to experiment in preparation for a specific event or photo shoot. Aside from general portrait shoots this weekend I took some time to do some experimenting.

My first experiment was last night. I attended a Star Party with a group of astronomer friends. Not a bad way to spend a Saturday night in July. The stars were bright and I learned much more about our great universe.

Now the whole astronomy field has been a new experience for me but it also gave me a chance to experiment with a technique I've wanted to perfect. I have an image in mind for a fine art piece I want to take in a very specific spot here in Malibu. One I hope to share with you soon when completed. The image involves long exposures that allow me to capture "star trails" as the earth moves through space. 

My experience for this project was actually successful. I aimed my camera straight at the big dipper among all these telescopes. Here is my end result.

It's not my best work by far, but it did provide me with valuable insight for my planned fine art piece. So in most regards it was a success. I was able to capture the star trails.

What you see above is a compilation of 140 photographs stacked on top of each other. How did I do this?

It's really not that hard. I aimed at the Big Dipper and took 140 thirty-sec exposures. So for almost 2 hours I pressed my camera shutter every 30 seconds. Yes it takes patience, but the result can be intriguing.  

I used image stacking software to place every image on top one another to get the final product. So essentially what you see above is nearly a 2 hour long exposure. With the success of last night I am now excited to go out an complete the photograph I really want to take....more on that in the future.

The other side of the spectrum:

This afternoon, I decided to experiment with the other side of the spectrum; High Speed photography. I decided to test out some high speed work with the fountains we have on our property.

This experiment is also for a special shot a client has ordered from me that involves photographing an arrow from a bow while in midair. Yes...that will be a complicated photo shoot.

So I set my camera to 1/8000 of a sec, set the F-Stop to 2.8, and bumped up my ISO to 640. 

This is what I got.

Now I'm confident that I will be able to create both of the shots I have planned. It's takes experimenting, but I'm always amazed by the amount of fun it can be when you experiment. Hopefully soon  I can share the real photo shoot that these experiments have helped me prepare for. -cg

E-Session: A beautiful evening in Malibu

Yesterday evening I had the honor of photographing Tom and Alyssa's Engagement session at a really amazing beach here in Malibu. And of course, we were blessed with just a perfect evening and light.

This was my first location shoot since having knee reconstruction surgery. It was quite a challenge but it felt good to get back to what I love doing! Congrats Tom and Alyssa!

Here are a few shots from the session. -cg

Channeling my inner Ansel

Last night, I was once again cleaning up some space on my hard-drive, backing up photographs, and digging up some photos from the recent past. I came across a some photos I took at Yosemite during the winter. It's an amazing time in Yosemite when it's snowing...a scene that is not often seen for some reason. Here are a few photos I dug up on my hard drive. I call them some of my best emulations of the great Ansel Adams.

Digging in the archives...

The last couple of nights I've been digging through my hard drive just cleaning up some space. I have two 3 Terabit hard drives that I normally back up all my photographs onto. Inevitably, I find images I somehow skipped in the editing process. Here's a couple images that I skipped but now rediscovered and added to my collection.

This image was taken at Point Dume in Malibu. It just sat on my hard drive I until I discovered it this evening.

Here's another that was just buried in my archives. It was taken at College Fjord in Alaska. The Harvard, Yale, and Columbia glaciers are all visible in this shot. 

The Challenge at Sunset: Malibu Light

When it comes to light, I really can't ask for a better place in SoCal to photograph than Malibu. Whether it's portraits, weddings, or fine art photography it's just a great place to shoot.

Malibu stretches 27 miles along a jagged coast that pretty much has a photographic opportunity at nearly every bit of those 27 miles (minus the lagoon, which is sadly, another topic in itself recently). It's why hundreds of couples chose Malibu as a destination for their beach wedding every single year. 

Now I hate cliches, but in Malibu it really is all about the light. I can't think of a better place I've been so far (okay maybe the Masai Mara in Kenya is better) that offers such a unique and advantageous lighting source.  Malibu is unique in that it's coast runs East and West for roughly half of the 27 miles and runs North and South on the other half. This is a photographers dream. 

Now utilizing that light to it's maximum is another topic, especially at sunset, when the light is best. Sunset is my favorite time to shoot in Malibu. It's also the most challenging. 

The Challenge:

For anyone shooting at sunset, the challenge, if you aren't shooting a silhouette, is to expose the whole picture evenly from front to back to capture the details of the image in both the dark and light areas. Now when I am photographing a person within a natural landscape I normally use an external light source (including a reflector) for the subject. When I'm just photographing a landscape or waterscape without a person incorporated into it, I don't usually use an external light source. 

Below is an example of an image where I incorporated subjects with the rocks at El Matador Beach in Malibu. Notice the balance from the front to the back in lighting. There is detail, ratio, and clean highlights within. 

Now the image above is a technically difficult lighting situation. First and foremost, let me say that it is not a HDR image. Many photographers often mistake some of my work as HDR photography but in reality I'm not a fan of HDR photography and find it rather unappealing quite frankly.  It is a single photograph, and not multiple images placed on top of each other. 

Rather the image above is carefully planned. One thing I always try to incorporate into all my images is a clear and natural sky. If you are shooting sunsets, especially sunsets in Malibu or on the beach, it's important to have true color in your skies. More often than not I see photographers whose whole wedding portfolio consists of couples in beautiful places with white or "washed out" skies. Many photographers say they shoot those white skies to create a dreamy effect. Quite frankly, I feel most of the time it's because many photographer's don't understand how to properly expose a sky.  

So how is it done? First of all, you must become acquainted with the practice of good metering. Like I've stated before in my previous blogs. I do not use an external light meter when I shoot. I've gotten to be best friends with my in-camera meter. 

How I Did It:

For a scene like the one above and like most scenes I always use ISO as the baseline for all other calculations. I didn't want the image to be too grainy so for this image I used a 400ISO.

1. Took a metering of the brightest spot in the sky (just behind the rocks) AND
2. Mentally calculated the amount of light output I would need to illuminate the foreground.

Now my external flash unit is not your conventional top of the line flash unit. Aside from using my dedicated Canon 580Ex, I use a few Sunpak Auto 2000DZ Shoe Mount flashes that I've tied together.

Yes...that's an old flash. But I use it for good reason. It's my secret to achieving my unique lighting. I can put them anywhere, at any angle. Plus they are light in weight. But most importantly, I can manually control the light out put on them. I still don't trust any automatic flash systems. Even my $500 Canon Flash doesn't provide me the results as a fully manual flash like the Sunpak.

To achieve the unique lighting of the image above I fired two Sunpak flashes using Slaves. One flash on the right from about 30 degrees. One flash on the left from about 45 degrees. I had a Difusser on each flash to smooth the output. The output was determined by the measuring the light on subjects.

I also have my Canon fully auto flash with a bounce card pointed directly at the sky. The light bounced off the card and provides me just a bit more kick. 

So basically if my subjects in my meter where two or three stops underexposed, I upped the power on the flashes to cover those two or three stops. This allows me to keep the camera setting exposed to the sky, so that my sky comes out true in color. 

It took practice, but with time I perfected my method. I would gladly accept any questions regarding the technique so don't be shy! Until next time...

Below are some more images I've shot both weddings and nature using the same techniques. 

Sunpak flash placed behind the subjects and wireless execution. Image taken in downtown Oklahoma City.

Flashes on the side, diffused to keep the sky in color. 

Flashes shot from 45 degrees above me with diffuser. 

Giraffes of Kenya...

One of the most beautiful experiences of visiting Kenya was watching giraffes in the wild. I did not realize there are three different subspecies of the giraffe in Kenya. Below are some of my favorite images of giraffes.

The Reticulated Giraffe. Image taken at Samburu National Reserve. 

This is a large family of Masai Giraffes at Lake Navaisha, Kenya.

Moon over Malibu

Tonight I took a photo of the moon over Malibu from my balcony. Since I recently had knee surgery my options for shooting are someone limited since I can't drive or walk for 6 weeks. I was really wanting to get the camera in hand and just photograph anything since being inside rehabbing a hurt knee does not necessarily allow for many photo ops.  I was really itching to photograph something. On top of that, I recently purchased some new ND (Neutral Density) filters and so I was excited to try one out.

I shot the photo below with a 4 Stop ND filter. This is a 30 second exposure shot at 200ISO at F8.