The Luke Photography Studio Journal

Watching Paint Dry...Nauseously

2012-02-15T11:30:00.004-05:00

On and off for two weeks I‘ve been spending time painting several of the walls in my new studio. Because I still have jobs to shoot and orders to fulfill, I can’t spend all my time there getting things ready. So I pick and choose the days I can get there and try to make the most of the time that I do spend there. Which makes me all that much crazier when I feel like I’ve wasted time.

I was planning on the walls in my waiting area reflect the nice warm, inviting, chocolately brown that is prominent in my logo and web site and is consistent with my branding. As such, I proceeded down to the local Home Depot paint aisle and picked out a fantastic shade of paint called “Shaved Chocolate”. Now….seeing that there was the name “chocolate” in the title of this latex-infused pigmented wonder, you’d assume that the resulting painted wall would be a reasonable facsimilie of a chocolate-like color. I don’t know what corner of the world you are reading this from, but I have to assume if we all picked out a color that resembled chocolate, we’d all be pretty close.

As I watched the paint dry, I prayed to the God of Sherwin Williams that the color of the wall would indeed look better as it dried. Boy was I mistaken. For what to my wondering eyes should appear, but a color that was not Shaved Chocolate. If I had to describe it to my friends….and I did…it was Infant Diarrhea Brown. Now, for those of you without kids…Infant Diarrhea Brown would never be mistaken for Shaved Chocolate. No matter how late in the night the Infant Diarrhea Brown presented itself and no matter how badly you pleaded with your wife that it was ‘her turn’.

After assessing the situation, I knew that not only would my customers not like it, but it may cause many of the younger parents to rush out screaming with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. One of the great things about paint aisles in big box stores is that they will often take back custom mixed paint that didn’t quite set the buyer’s world on fire. Over a year ago I purchased a gallon of one such paint. It was dark brown paint that I plucked from the Shelf of Mis-Fit Paints for $5, knowing that I could use it to paint backgrounds for my studio, or somewhere else. I precisely mixed in 14 Dixie cups full of this dark brown paint into what was left of my Infant Diarrhea Brown paint, magically transforming it into….Shaved Chocolate.

As I happily covered all evidence of the…let’s say it together…Infant Diarrhea Brown, I was pleasantly surprised at how perfect the color was. So I watched it dry. Just to be sure that it stayed perfect. And it did. And now I can move on to another area of the studio, with the knowledge that I need to stay away from colors that resemble anything you might find in a diaper or regurgitated on a bib. That being said, I may have to rethink the choice of Split Pea Soup in the sales room.

The End of a Kodak Era

2012-02-13T11:15:00.021-05:00

This week Kodak announced that it was getting out of the camera business in order to save money. No, that’s not a typo. The company that brought photography to the masses in 1884 is exiting the business.

Kodak did not invent the camera. Cameras were around for decades before. In fact, the first known photograph dates back to 1825. For the next 60 years, large box cameras were used to expose light onto glass or metal plates that were coated with light-sensitive materials, making it a very time intensive and laborious process. Taking photographs often involved a strong-willed photographer, a couple of Sherpas, and a mule train to carry all the equipment.

What George Eastman did when he patented roll film in 1885 was to make it easier for everyday people to take photographs, without Sherpas or mule teams. He coined the phrase “YouPush the Button, We Do the Rest”, which described the process by which a camera owner would send the whole camera back to Kodak when the roll was completely shot, and Kodak would process the film, make prints, and load film back in the camera, which it would then return to the owner.

Kodak started making cameras in 1891, introduced the No.2 Brownie in 1903 (which basically invented the photography enthusiast), and invented the first digital camera by Steve Sasson in 1975.

Fast-forward all the way to 1999, when I worked in Kodak Professional, testing the DCS professional digital cameras. Kodak would buy camera bodies from Canon and Nikon and strip out all the film parts and replace them with all the digital components. Half the Canon cameras would have a Kodak logo on them and were sold by Kodak, and half got the Canon logo and were sold by Canon. Likewise with the Nikon cameras.

These cameras were the best digital cameras in the world. I remember watching events like the Super Bowl, and noticed that at least 90% of the photographers on the sidelines were using Kodak cameras. Only a photography geek would notice that, although I apologize to no one for that. The cameras were also used by photojournalists all over the world, who happily used the amazing 2-megapixel cameras and could send photos all over the world…within hours…not days as with film. We laugh at that now...but at the time, they were the cat's pajamas.

I also worked on the DCS Pro Back system, which was a 16-megapixel back that would fit on a medium format camera. The camera back was amazing, but at $10,000, you weren’t expecting to sell a lot of them. I felt very fortunate to be able to use that system, knowing that it was going to go into the hands of the best commercial photographers in the world.

In 2001 or 2002, Nikon introduced their own digital SLR camera. Although it didn’t have all the bells and whistles, it was priced at about half of what the Kodak cameras were selling for. I remember it being really quiet around the Kodak offices for almost a week. As other camera manufacturers came up to speed on digital technology, other cameras came to market. None of them had the quality of the Kodak digital SLRs, but they were good enough for the common man. Sales of the Kodak cameras dropped, and Kodak Professional stopped making professional digital SLRs in 2005. And this week, the announcement came that consumer cameras would no longer be made.

It is the end of an era. I have a collection of old Kodak cameras, some dating back to the 1920s. As a Rochester resident, the home of Kodak, we lived and breathed Kodak cameras our whole lives….for the better part of 120 years. Until this week. Now we get to witness Kodak moving off in another direction.

Creating a Photography Studio

2012-02-06T11:32:00.002-05:00

It's finally here. Twenty-five years in the making...and I finally have my first commercial studio. Well, not yet. What I have now is an open office area painted a horrible dark olive green that was formerly occupied by Country Wide Home Loans. You know Country Wide...one of those mortgage lending companies that robo-stamped mortgages and helped ease us in the the Great Recession. A very dubious honor for the future World Headquarters of Luke Photography. Maybe my first call should have been to have an exorcism performed.

What the studio "does" have is potential. There are two offices in opposite corners of the room. The one with the windows overlooking Donnelly's Pub will be my office, natch. In the opposite corner is an office with no windows that will work nicely as a sales room for reviewing my customer's images with them.

There will be a large area (Shooting Bay #1 in photos) that will be my main shooting area. There will be another area (Shooting Bay #2) that will be a natural light studio, and at least two other walls that will be used as backgrounds to shoot against.

These photos are from Day 0, when I got the keys from the landlord. Within an hour, I actually started priming the walls to get rid of that excruciatingly ugly dark olive green paint. Within a week, the painting should be done. Within two weeks, the furniture should be delivered. Within three weeks, the hardwood flooring and any construction that is needed should be done. And within four weeks, I should be shooting in the new studio. A Grand Opening-Open House is scheduled for Saturday, April 14th. That is, unless an exorcism is really needed. Then I'm calling 1-800-EXORCIST, and postponing the Open House.

Western half of studio.

Eastern half of studio. The landlord won't be staying.

Stay tuned as more progress is made.

Photo Chosen in Top 10 of Project 9.11

2012-02-02T09:21:00.000-05:00

On September 11, 2011, I was one of more than 40 photographers that took part in Project 9.11, sponsored by the Professional Photographers of NY State (PPSNYS). The project was merely to capture a day in the life of people on the 10th anniversary of the 9-11 attacks.

One of the photos I took and submitted was chosen in the Top 10 of the more than 400 photographs that were submitted. The photo shows the detail of mourning bands on the badges of several officers lined up in formation. It was taken at a memorial service held by the City of Rochester to honor all the first responders....police officers, fire fighters and emergency medical technicians....that lost their lives rushing towards the disaster as everyone else was running away.

The Top 10 photographs are shown on the PPSNYS website, and are all truly works of art.

A winner will be selected among the Top 10 and will be announced at the Photo Northeast Convention in Woodcliff Lake, NY in March 2012.

The other photos I submitted for the project are shown below.

PPA Craftsman Degree in New Orleans

2012-01-30T21:12:00.001-05:00

Ever wonder what a 5'10" penguin looks like?

Last week I returned from the city of New Orleans after taking in the Professional Photographers of America (PPA) national convention. I spent four glorious days in The Big Easy with several other photographers from Upstate NY taking in the warm temperatures, friendly people, outrageous food…and some inspiring classes and awesome trade show.

The reason I was there was two-fold. I was also there to receive the Photographic Craftsman degree. PPA members achieve the degree of Photographic Craftsman (Cr.Photog.) through their commitment of service to the profession as an orator, author, or mentor. By giving back to the industry, these PPA members share their knowledge and expertise with those who wish to improve their skills and stay successful in business. For me, it was a nice end to a whirlwind of speaking engagements that started less than 2 years ago. But the thing that I like most is that it indicates that I am an ambassador of photography. It was also a nice occasion to put on a tuxedo and look like a 5’10” penguin.

All in all, it was a great four days, made even better by the fact that we could sit on a balcony…In January…at 7pm drinking adult beverages while it was 12 degrees here at home. My wife was “not” happy about that. And after four days of eating alligator, catfish, crawfish, gumbo and jumbalaya…the cold cereal I had on my first morning back was…..pitiful.

Good friend and mentor Deb Woodard also received her
Photographic Craftsman degree in New Orleans

Say Hello to My 'Lil Friend

2012-01-22T11:50:00.002-05:00

Children's Portraits at Luke Photography

Sometimes there are singular moments that define your career. Hopefully they are positive, not negative moments. I experienced a moment like this this weekend during a session with 1-yr. old Michaela, who I first photographed as a newborn. Well, that's not really true.. She was in the studio during her mother's maternity shoot, but I'm sure she had other things on her mind, what with all the packing and getting ready for the big move, which was to come three weeks later.

I've now photographed 'lil Michaela four times in her first year, and it became obvious that she had somewhat become accustomed to me. During her most recent session she was very active, as most 1-yr olds are, once they've figured that their legs are made for walking. Come to find out, the only time she was content to sit still was when she came over and sat on my lap when I was sitting on the floor following her every movement with the camera. She even sat there while I gave the camera to her father, and I scooched over in front of the lights for my big moment in front of the camera with my newest 'lil friend.

I've always been good with children, and they always seem to like me, but this is the first time during a session that one of them preferred to be with me behind the camera instead of in front of it. As I felt her little hand reach up and touch my cheek...this singular moment...made me glad I do what I do.

A Photographer Should Be In Every Photograph

2012-01-03T08:57:00.000-05:00

Team Building at Luke Photography.
This is where I literally and figuratively put myself into my photography.

I saw a question recently that struck home with me….and I think the answer should be blatantly obvious to anyone in any creative field.

“What’s more important as a photographer… to remove yourself from the photograph, or to make the photograph about you as a photographer?” - fashion photographer Jay McLaughlin

See the Light, Not the Camera

2011-12-01T12:00:00.000-05:00

I just saw a really great quote about photography, and it really resonated with me, especially after the last session I just shot:

Beginning photographers think about cameras.
Intermediate photographers think about composition.
Advanced photographers think about light.

The photography industry has been bombarded with new photographers in the last 5 or so years, now that digital cameras have come down in price, and produce such high quality results. Now stop right there if you think this article is going to lambaste all those new photographers. Let's get beyond that.
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1-on-1 Training

2011-11-28T16:00:00.001-05:00

I received an e-mail over a month ago from a photographer that attended an all-day seminar I gave during the May 2011 Super Monday program I put on sponsored by the PPA. She enjoyed the class, and really wanted to get a little more education under her belt. She was getting nowhere with other photographers in her area, so she wondered, if she drove the 2.5 hours to my studio, would I give her an all-day, 1-on-1 training.

The DoubleTree Hotel Knows Customer Service

2011-10-28T11:38:00.003-04:00

I was in the middle leg of a three-part trip that took me from my home in Rochester to NYC for the day, then an evening flight to Chicago, where I was to meet a client the next day.

I had to wake at 4am to catch a 6am flight to LaGuardia. I ate two bagels when I landed. Breakfast accomplished. I worked all day...skipping lunch...at a client's location, then proceeded on to what is normally a half-hour drive to the airport to catch my flight to Chicago. After two hours in traffic, I got to the airport, ran through security, ran through the terminal, ran to my gate and was the last one to board the flight. The plane pushed away from the gate at 7pm, and we didn't take off until 8pm. For dinner, I had a wonderful can of ginger ale as I sat cramped in my seat, elbow-to-elbow with my seatmates, with my underwear giving me a screaming wedgie.

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Free Generic Photos on Your Website Cost More Than You Think

2011-10-12T13:10:00.001-04:00

Sure...using free or low-cost stock generic images on your web site can be quite a cost effective means of adding content to your website, but like the old adage says, "You get what you pay for".

The New York Times published a recent study by Jakob Nielsen, a web site consultant and author of several books about web design and user interface. The research showed that most people that browse web sites ignore royalty-free or generic images that were purchased from stock agencies. Not only that, but the images only added clutter to the page and didn’t necessarily help from a business standpoint.

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Just a Pinch of Light - DIY Grid Snoots

2011-09-30T17:29:00.001-04:00

Chefs who cook without recipes go on instinct, knowing when to add a pinch of ‘this’, or a pinch of ‘that’. If a newbie cook were learning from them, they’d ask: “how much is a pinch”? Almost always, the answer would be: “it’s just the right amount, and you’ll know if it is too much. Like the kid who gets his pudgy cheeks pinched by his scary Aunt Betty, too much is too much.

Photographers cook with light. As you get better and better at it, you start realizing when and where you need a pinch of light to set your image apart from everything else out there. Often, an umbrella or soft box over your light source will add too much light. Like the kid with the pinched cheeks, you’ll get all irritated and run screaming into the other room.

Beauty and the Booth

2011-09-19T12:21:00.002-04:00

I’ve been getting a lot of comments from the HS Seniors and their parents when they look at the images after the HS Senior portrait sessions: “Wow! That looks like it should be in a magazine!” Well, what is it about the images that say to them ‘it should be in a magazine’?

Well, it takes a nice looking model. That’s a ginormous step in the right direction, but it is not always necessary. But there is one thing that links all these images together: the lighting. During high school senior sessions, I set up a Beauty Booth, which is a lighting set up used by…you guessed it....photographers that shoot magazine cover shots. It’s not always an easy set up, seeing that I employ five different lights to get it to look the way I want it to. However, instead of spending thousands of dollars on equipment, I’ve manufactured much of it myself…and that money instead stays in my pocket. Here's how it's done.

Beach Photography Quiz – The Lightning Round

2011-09-07T00:00:00.002-04:00

One of my recent high school seniors, Becky from Churchville-Chili, requested that we photograph part of her session on the beach at Lake Ontario, because she likes to spend time there with her friends. I was happy to oblige, because I don’t get many requests to shoot on the beach. We scheduled her session for later in the day, so we could finish at the beach near sundown.

As we were driving north to the beach, I could see some nasty-looking clouds ahead. About 5 minutes from the beach, the clouds unleashed a new challenge in the form of lightning bolts out over the lake. Several questions popped into my head:

1. Does she still want to hit the beach?

2. How desperate am I to please this client?

3. How many shots can I get in before the lighting gets in a shot of its own?

The Ladder to Success

2011-08-25T11:10:00.002-04:00

I was faced with a dilemma recently: how do you photograph a tennis player differently than everyone else does? Tennis takes place on the ground, on a standard sized court, in daylight. Usually. That is, unless you fly over Arthur Ashe Stadium in NY in the evening and get to see the US Open Tennis Championships from 800 feet in the air, like I did last night. I swear I could hear Maria Sharapova grunting from that high up.

Kayla is a Rush-Henrietta high school senior who plays tennis. When she came to my studio, and I felt like I owed her something different…something that no one else had. It required a change of perspective…a different point of view. After photographing her near the net in different standing and sitting poses, I brought out a new weapon: an 8 ft. step ladder.

“So the Man Says to the Duck…”

2011-08-15T10:25:00.001-04:00

The greatest thing about having babies enrolled in my Lifetime of Memories program is that I get to photograph these children up to four times in the first year of their life. Patrick Luke of Luke Photography, recently photographed one year old Zachary, who I’d photographed as a six-month old. Between these two sessions, he had surgery to correct an issue with his eyes which caused double vision. He was quiet and well-behaved during his six-month session with double vision, but he was downright giddy during his year-old session. I’m guessing that he finally got a good look at what my face looked like…and he couldn’t stop laughing.

Next Generation Greatness

2011-07-06T14:20:00.009-04:00

Pat Luke of Luke Photography recently photographed the athletic Coleston, from Pal-Mac's Class of 2012 at Pal-Mac in his Fairport studio.

Coleston is the son of one of my childhood friends, and next year graduates from the same high school his father, mother, and I went to. His mother was a great high school athlete, and his dad and I grew up on the same street and played all sorts of sports together, often pitting ourselves against all the other kids in the neighborhood. So when I was asked to photograph his son, who plays varsity basketball and baseball, I jumped at the chance to really work on the athletic angle.

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Let There Be Light

2011-06-23T13:49:00.003-04:00

Recently, Patrick Luke (Luke Photography) a Fairport, NY portrait photographer finished a two-phase Portrait session with Lesley, who is a pitcher on the Victor girls’ varsity softball team. Being such a big part of her life, we wanted to make sure we included it as part of her session. Not wanting run-of-the-mill photographs, we headed out on location her high school to shoot on the turf field that was equipped with stadium lights. Yeah, I know this was not a softball field, but just go with me on this one. I wanted to color of the mid-field graphics, her uniform, and the cloudy sky in the background in the frame. And with the lighting that I was planning on using, all these colors were supposed to create impact and place nicely together. And play they did.

Softballs and Racing Stripes

2011-06-14T23:29:00.002-04:00

This past weekend, I photographed one of my favorite subjects: a high school senior athlete.
Lesley came to the studio of Fairport Senior Portrait photographer Patrick Luke and brought a multitude of clothes, and we conducted the first part of a 4 hour session with her. This first session lasted two-and-a-half hours and started in the studio, then stretched into a local parking garage when I heard she wanted to pose with her car, which happened to have a racing stripe that matched her pink prom dress.

Once Lesley changed into her pink prom dress, things really started clicking. She's also on the school's color guard, and I thought the juxtaposition of her pink dress and her saber looked great together. Things really took off when she changed into her softball uniform. She's an excellent pitcher on her school's varsity softball team, and we wanted to make sure that this part of her life was represented well. I love photographing athletes, making them look like they belong in the pages of Sports Illustrated.

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Scamper Over to Something Different

2011-05-18T21:40:00.003-04:00

This week I taught an all-day photography class sponsored by the Professional Photographers of America (PPA) as part of their nation-wide Super Monday educational series. My class was entitled, "The MacGyver Method: Big Budget Photography with Low Budget Equipment". One woman drove all the way from Massachusetts to Rochester to attend the class and learn how to create really interesting portraits with simple, inexpensive equipment that they may already have. Hopefully the gas money that she spent getting here will be made up by the not having to purchase any new equipment for awhile.

Part of the thrill I get from teaching and sharing my photographic techniques is watching those "a-ha" moments appear, when the light bulb suddenly flashes above their heads. My intent is not to teach people how to photograph like me...it's to get them to start thinking of things a little differently, and start the creative juices flowing. I want them to realize that the most interesting path from A to D may not necessarily be through B and C.

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The LukeSphere Light Modifier

2011-05-06T11:46:00.002-04:00

The best inspiration comes from desperation and exasperation. I was exasperated to see that photographers were paying $60 or more to buy a piece of Tupperware from a nationally-known photographer that they could put over their flashes to modify and soften their camera-mounted hot shoe flashes. I know that real Tupperware cost a lot less than that, and I knew that there was an even better alternative that would do exactly the same thing for a lot less Andrew Jacksons donated from my wallet.

The Lion’s Share of Creativity Comes From….Everywhere

2011-04-18T23:35:00.004-04:00

Last weekend, my family and I went to see the touring show of The Lion King. If you haven’t gone, then you simply have to find a way of getting to this show. It took all of 5 seconds into the first scene and I was hooked. Those of you who have seen it will understand…when the giraffes enter the stage…you had me at “Hello”. We first saw this show four years ago when it came to town, and I couldn’t wait to go back when the show came through this way again.

It’s not only the giraffes and the spectacular costumes and puppets that caught my eye. The scenery was inspiring. Looking at anything inspiring should…well, inspire you. As a photographer and a slave to visual imagery, I find inspiration in all things around me. Big or small, long or short, high or low. Artists can and should be inspired by whatever they happen across. By the way the light strikes a shape, or the way two objects interplay with each other.

Let's Try This Again

2011-04-11T16:00:00.000-04:00

After numerous requests, I have put another blog on-line. The old blog (Blog O'Luke v1.0) got hacked and spammed almost to death, and I made the hard decision to set it free on a farm out in the country. At least, that's what I told my daughter. No sense in getting into the gory details.

As before, this version will include postings from recent sessions, musings about photography, and much sharing from my out-of-the box thinking about photographic equipment.

As many of you know, my peers have anointed me "MacGyver", and I have been speaking to professional photographers all over about getting great results with equipment they already have, or by making inexpensive versions of very expensive equipment...which often prompts the question: "How the &@^#%$ did you think of that?" MacGyver's Corner will provide photographers with a little insight into the sometimes scary recesses of my brain and provide "how-to" tutorials and share my upcoming speaking engagements.

So, let's strap it on and have some fun.