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Goodbye, Zep.

Jul 262010

No more jingle jangle.

Nose focus

Our dog Zeppelin died yesterday. He was twelve years old and had lived a pretty healthy life but over the last two days a combination of arthritis, throat problems and pneumonia suddenly shut his canine body down. We had to make the tough decision that every pet owner dreads, and in the end we realized that we had to let him go to ease his suffering. My wife and I have been an emotional trainwreck for the last 24 hours, of course.

So many things spark new waves of grief and tears: a tuft of dog hair behind the couch, his bed lying empty on the floor, the empty water bowl, and the silence–especially the silence. Gone are the click-clacks of his feet on the wood floors, the jingle of his collar when he’d scratch his neck, and the barking at pretty much anything he heard outside. He used to wake us up at ridiculously early hours whining to be fed but this morning, the silence was deafening. And heart-breaking.

I know that we’re not the first people to lose a beloved pet. We’ve received overwhelming sympathy from friends and family that understand how much Zep meant to us and the role he played in our little family. After all, he had been with us as long as we’ve been married. We’ve never known life together without him. We’ve never lived in a dog-less house. I think that’s what’s most painful about the whole ordeal; there’s just a big gaping hole in our life right now.

“Helping” Tracy read in Santa Fe

The Bright Side

We had twelve years with him. Sure he was a pain in the ass sometimes (chewed up antique quilt rack anyone?) but the unconditional love and constant companionship he gave us enriched our lives to no end, and we’re certainly feeling that now. Last Christmas, we took a family vacation to Santa Fe and decided that we wanted him along for the ride. He was already going deaf and wasn’t as spry as he used to be but we knew that it might be the last chance we have to include him in a big family adventure. And alas, it was. But it was a trip in which we let him sleep in the hotel bed with us (kind of like sharing your bunk with a squirming triceratops), walked him in the high desert, and generally enjoyed each others’ company on the road. He even did some reading with Tracy in our casita.

Our last photo of Zep

Make Photos. Now.

The other bonus is that we have a lot of great photos of him that spark great memories. I’m not going to ruminate on the Mythical Power Of Photography To Stop Time And Capture Memories, but I will say this: make photos. Lots of them. There’s no reason not to these days, as cameras and storage are virtually free.

And if your photo involves more than just snapping a frame with your phone, find time to do it anyway. I had put off making a family portrait of the three of us for a long while but I finally threw one together last week. It took a whopping ten minutes to set up, light, pose and shoot and it’s not technically perfect by any means. But it ended up being the last photo taken of Zeppelin. Just a few days later and he’s gone.

So if you see a photo, take it. Don’t wait. It doesn’t have to impress anyone with its composition, clarity or color. It just needs to capture the moment or mean something, if only just for you.

And get yourself a dog. They make life better, even when you lose them.

No more jingle jangle.

Our first day with Zep. Look at those paws!

Puppy power

A bundle of cute and trouble

Bath time

The first photo of my Project365

Nose focus

“Hey man, you gonna eat that?”

“Helping” Tracy read in Santa Fe

Hogging the bed in Oklahoma City

Our last photo of Zep

FatPocket

Lighting, Music 1 Response »

Jul 232010

A couple weeks ago I did some promo photos for a talented new St. Louis band called FatPocket. I didn’t know a lot about the band going into the shoot other than the fact that they are a NINE-PIECE BAND. Actually, they probably told me a lot about the band but that was all my feeble little photographer brain heard: “Nine? Oh crap. How in the living hell am I gonna light NINE guys?”.

Well, it wasn’t so hard. The band rehearses in a cool loft space that happens to adjoin a former photo studio (complete with a full cyclorama wall!) so things could have been worse. After a quick walkthrough of the site, we came up with three setups and got to work.

Setup #1

A basic shot of the guys lounging in their rehearsal space. The shoot took place on a cloudy, hot Sunday afternoon and when I arrived most of the guys were contentedly sitting around sipping beers and critiquing the previous night’s show. The last thing I wanted to do was walk in, crack the whip and harsh their buzz. I’ve been on the other end of that approach when being photographed for my bands and it’s no good. Instead, I took the opportunity to set up a couple lights and shoot some casual shots while getting to know the band.

“Oh, you’re a funk and soul band? Sweet! Tell me more.” Turns out we have a LOT in common and know a lot of the same players around town. Yet another benefit of being a music photographer AND a working musician.

Cyc Out

After we had the ball rolling, the band made a wardrobe change for some high key portraits in the adjoining studio. I was astounded to find that it had a full blown cyclorama installed and quickly set to work exploiting the seamless white background. I put up two speedlights in shoot-through umbrellas to blast the background with white light, then I busted out my AlienBees ABR800 ringflash to use as a main/fill light. We also tried some shots with the ring light only. It’s easy to spot them: the background is gray and there are telltale halo-like shadows surrounding everyone. By simply turning off the background lights and moving in close I was able to give the band a completely different look. Variety is good, especially when it doesn’t require a ton of work.

Going Up?

The rehearsal space is also equipped with a massive freight elevator. This thing was huge; easily big enough to park a Hummer in or, better yet, a nine piece funk band! Strangely, there are windows in the elevator shaft as well. Not exactly a bad thing though, since the would help keep the freight car from being a blackened box. Once we had everyone in the elevator though, I realized that lighting them evenly would be tricky. There was no way to hide auxiliary flashes in the back of the car, so I clamped a bedsheet to the camera end of the car and fired three strobes through it–essentially making one end of the car a giant softbox to counteract the window light at the other end. Yeah, I totally stole that idea from Joe McNally.

Now if I could just steal some of his talent.

Need photos for your band? Get in touch. From solo artists to NINE PIECE BANDS I can do it all. Hell, I’m gonna see if the local symphony needs some shots now. I love a challenge.

I Shot My Family

Lighting, Personal, portrait 4 Responses »

Jul 202010

One of my goals for 2010 was to photograph the members of my immediate family and I recently completed the project. Since my brother, mom and dad are scattered throughout the Midwest it took a few months to pull those together but it was well worth the effort. It’s rare that my side of the family get together in the same place, especially since my mom and dad divorced several years ago so spending time with everyone while making these photos was nice.

Father Knows Best

I photographed my dad first, primarily because he had joined Facebook and wanted a cool avatar photo ahead of an impending high school reunion.

Yeah, my dad’s on Facebook.

I lit his photo with a single Nikon speedlight in a small softbox just out of frame to the left of the camera. He’s a smoker, so he had a cigarette going hence the smoky background. I really like the simplicity of this photo and the way it really brings out his Native American heritage.

I owe a lot to my dad, besides the whole genetic contribution thing. He’s an accomplished drummer and is the main reason I started playing all those years ago. If it wasn’t for him and his record collection I probably would have played something lame like basketball or the flute.

Stop! Or I’ll Shoot!

My baby brother is a professional shooter too, but I’ve shot way more people than he has. Then again, I shoot with a camera. He prefers a Glock .45 caliber handgun.

To be honest, he’s never shot anyone: he’s a cop. Actually he’s a detective now. He’s kind of a big deal. At the donut shop and Starbucks, anyway.

He’s a good cop, though. He treats folks with dignity and respect unless they really get out of hand, in which case he is fully capable of handing out a mighty smackdown. He’s a BIG dude. In fact he’s recently recovered from a shoulder injury suffered in a struggle with a wannabe MMA fighter that decided not to cooperate during fingerprinting. It takes a special kind of moron to provoke a cop, let alone a room full of giant ones.

Keeping my brother in line and a little soft around the edges, my sis-in-law is an admissions rep at the university where they met. If it weren’t for her I’m sure my brother would be living in squalor and still picking his butt in public. He’s the kind of guy that really benefits from a woman’s influence. Both of them are studying for masters degrees, too. Brainiacs.

Their dog Rufus is slightly less ambitious.

Lit with a shoot-through umbrella, camera left.

The Rock

Growing up, my mom ruled the roost. That’s not to say that my dad wasn’t around or influential in our upbringing but when it came to discipline she could bring the thunder. I don’t blame her, either. My brother and I could be a major pain in the ass.

She’s also one of the strongest people I know. She is a selfless caregiver whether taking care of her ailing mom or the residents at the Alzheimer’s facility she works at. This is also a fault of hers though, as she routinely ignores her own welfare for the sake of others. I’m certainly not gonna tell her though–she’ll kick my butt!

Truth be told, my mom is responsible for my self-reliance and ambition. She always told us that we could do anything if we worked hard enough and not to care what anyone else thought about us.

My Lovely Bride

Simply put, I’m a lucky man.

She endures a massive array of annoyances caused by yours truly, yet she still finds reasons to stick around. I don’t get it either.

Her support for all of my lofty artistic ambitions is limitless yet tempered by old-school German practicality. After all, someone has to keep me rooted in reality otherwise I’d drift off into the stratosphere.

And she puts up with all of my childish crap AFTER dealing with truly childish crap all day: she works as an academic advisor at a college. She spends most of her time dealing with slacker college students so I try to take it easy on her when she gets home. Hell, sometimes I even run the dishwasher!

Her photo was lit with two sources. The first is a DIY beauty dish placed high camera right, the second a small softbox placed low camera left. I’ve been wanting to try this “clamshell” configuration for a while now and it worked well.

So there you have it. Photos of the most important people I know. I’d love to photograph your important people too, so get in touch.

Zack Arias’ OneLight Workshop 7.14.2010

Lighting, Personal, portrait 1 Response »

Jul 172010

Tawaine poses, Zack waxes wise at the workshop

Zack Arias: Sucksessful Commercial Photographer

This week I had the honor of coordinating the St. Louis stop on the 2010 OneLight Workshop tour. This successful (or would that be sucksessful?) workshop is hosted Zack Arias, a talented photographer and educator from Atlanta. The basic premise behind Zack’s workshop is that you don’t need a zillion dollars worth of equipment to make a great photo; in fact you can create compelling images with a single light. Hence the whole “OneLight” thing. Duh.

Zack’s story is widely known, but the short version is that after a false start in the photo biz he re-entered the game with just a camera and an old flash. Since it was all he had and he was determined to resist the temptations of debt-financed gear, he adopted an approach of pushing the limits of what little gear he had available. As his client list has grown he has maintained this approach, learning every capability of every single piece of equipment he uses in order to maximize not only its value but its creative output.

Mixing It Up

The female photogs had Tawaine cracking up all day

The mixer Zack hosted on the night before the St. Louis workshop featured a pair of musical performances from Zack’s wife Meghan and STL’s own Sleepy Kitty. Meghan is a gloriously talented singer-songwriter with a fantastic voice and magnetic personality, and you can hear her work at MeghanCoffee.com.

Regular readers of this blog will no doubt recognize the name Sleepy Kitty from past entries featuring their live shows and the Hitchcock-themed promo shoot we did in April, and you may have seen the duo’s name in the press recently when they won the Riverfront Times’ 2010 music award for Best New Artist. Considering that they sound better every single time I see them perform, I’m not surprised at the award. Paige and Evan were also kind enough to act as subjects for the workshop, along with our mutual friend Tawaine Noah from Union Tree Review.

Near the end of the evening, Zack took a break from chatting with the dozens of folks in attendance, pulled up a stool and delivered an short address that knocked me on my artistic ass. I won’t get into details, but hearing his story and the no-BS approach he has to shooting was both revelatory and vindicating. On top of that, just seeing that someone so genuine and transparent can carve out a career in this volatile industry was hugely inspiring. I’ve been busting ass to get my own photo biz into orbit since last October and dealing with the emotional toll that such a struggle can impart. As I told him after the mixer, “everything you said just made the last nine months of my life worth while”. I’m no gushing fanboy, but when someone can light a candle under your ass like that you have to acknowledge it.

Overall, the mixer was a success. Studio Altius was packed all night, much networking and mingling went down and a great many snacks and beverages were consumed. In fact, when we returned to the studio in the morning for the workshop, the overflowing recycling bins at the curb made it look like an Animal House frat party had occurred. Good times.

Zack sets up a shot in the alley

Getting To Work

The workshop itself was an intense, 15-hour affair that included Zack’s presentation of exposure and lighting principles, hands-on shooting through his lighting setups, and groups shooting through their own setups. Much of the technical stuff was a little remedial for me, but I did pick up some interesting tricks and techniques from Zack in addition to learning a lot just from watching him work. However, there were several folks in the class with little or no experience with off-camera flash and by the end of the day they were not only using it but comfortable with it. Zack’s teaching methods are thorough, well-presented and effective. If you are serious about learning how to light, his workshops are worth the money.

But for me, the real worth in the workshops was in dealing with Zack, Meghan and Dan (Zack’s studio manager). As I said, seeing a group of creative folks making a living in this crazy business without being cutthroat or jaded is so inspiring. Sure, it’s a daily struggle and there’s no guarantee of success but if a guy can quit his job at Kinko’s with only a camera body and a beat-up flash and build a successful photography career, there’s no reason I can’t make a mark in the biz too. It was just the breath of fresh air/kick in the pants that I needed.

Thank you Zack, Meghan and Dan–for everything.

: Zack’s studio manager Dan sneaks a Hasselblad shot of Evan

: Attendees shoot Paige under Zack’s softbox setup

: Paige poses for me under Zack’s softbox setup

: My shot of Tawaine under Zack’s speed grid setup

: My shot of Tawaine under Zack’s speed grid setup

: My shot of Tawaine under Zack’s speed grid setup

: Zack explains his speed-grid setup

: Evan poses for a shot

: Zack sets up a shot in the alley

: The girl photogs had Tawaine cracking up all day

: Tawaine poses under Zack’s umbrella setup

: Tawaine poses under Zack’s umbrella setup

: Tawaine poses, Zack waxes wise at the workshop

Down On The Farm

Lighting, Personal, portrait 1 Response »

Jul 092010

Please Pardon the Interruption

We interrupt the recent overflow of guitar-wielding guys with flailing hair jumping around on stage to bring you something completely different. Some girly stuff. Portraits of the lovely Briann, fresh off the CF card.

My friends own this huge, picturesque farm outside the city and they were kind enough to allow me and my friend Briann to make some photos there. It’s the kind of place with limitless photographic possibilities; a place that turns my skull into a beehive as all the ideas buzz about. There are so many great spots, but when we learned that there is a log cabin dating from the 1800′s on the property we headed straight for it.

As I schlepped the gear up the soggy slope to the cabin, Briann looked around inside. When I finished toting everything up the hill, she summoned me inside and said, “what’s that sound?”. I listened and heard a grinding, hissing sound emanating form the partially caved-in ceiling. It stopped. Then I heard it again, and this time the hairs on the back of my neck stood up. “That’s one pissed-off possum”, I said. She wasn’t fazed, but having seen how nasty these things can get I told her that we’d be starting our shoot outside the cabin.

Corey Woodruff, Natural Light Photographer. Wait, what?

Call me a conclusion-hopping jerkface, but whenever I see someone bill themselves as working exclusively with natural light I read: “I have no idea how flashes work”. Many times I look at their work and am very impressed, but a lot of the time I think to myself, “meh, it’d be a nicer photo with some fill flash or a hair light”.

But as we moved outside the cabin and I surveyed the area I noticed the sun peeking through the trees, bathing the area in a beautiful light. Now I’m the first to admit that I am definitely not known as a “natural light” photographer. Hell, I tend to use more strobes than a discotheque in many of my photos. But I know nice light when I see it, so I quickly posed Briann and made a couple photos.

This shot is the third shutter click of the day. The first reminded me to reset my ISO from the shots I’d done the night before and the second convinced me to switch to spot metering.

Bouncing Back

Now as much as I like the moody quality of the photo above, I thought it wise to make some photos where you could actually see young Briann’s pretty face.

Since I was still reveling in my new found ability to make a photo without triggering a photon explosion, I left the flashes in my bag for a bit longer and broke out a 22″ collapsible reflector. These things are so cheap, useful and portable that there’s no excuse not to have one in your camera bag.

The one I had with me was a basic two-sided version with gold and silver surfaces, but I highly recommend the 5-in-1 versions that have a removable/reversible cover that give you white, silver, black and gold surfaces as well as a translucent disc that makes a great diffuser.

In any case, I wanted some light on Briann’s face, so I propped the reflector against a nearby tree to reflect some of the sunlight back into her face. It’s a pretty obvious difference and a completely different vibe when compared to the photo above. I could have gotten a similar effect with a flash too.

And… We’re Back

The flashes came out soon, enough though. Once we started shooting in the cabin they were pretty much required. All of the cabin shots you see here used two flashes. Forever the optimist, I started with just one.

I knew I wanted to light Briann with a softbox so that I could control the direction of the light. I positioned the box almost parallel to the side of the cabin so that the light was flowing across her, not blasting directly at her. This gave a little more texture to the weathered exterior of the cabin and created some shadows around Briann.

Unfortunately, this made the interior of the cabin go pitch black in the photos, so I reluctantly broke out the second flash. The idea was to illuminate the room and provide some highlights on Briann’s right side, not so that you can see the room but to separate her from the background.

Without this second light, her lovely dark hair that she spent time styling is essentially invisible because it blends into the dark room behind her. Not a good look. And if she doesn’t look good, I’m not doing my job.

Incidentally, the interior light had an orange gel on it (so it looks like warm tungsten light) and was aimed at the gold reflector I used earlier, which was lying on the floor. This bounced the light around the room a little more than if I’d just stuck it on a stand in the middle of the room.

I’m taking on more and more portrait sessions and thoroughly enjoying it, so if you need some creative shots of the family, kids, graduates, pets or even headshots for your professional use get in touch. (314) 910-3244 or corey (at) coreywoodruff.com

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