18-Mo. Old Toddler Photos

Every once in awhile, you see a child and think, "She must have everyone she meets wrapped around her little finger."  Mattingly is one of those special children.  She's an adorable 18-mo. old little flirt who recently came in for her third visit to the studio.  

Lighting a Gymnasium for Sports

Nikon speedlight, battery and wireless sync

When HS seniors that are athletes come through the studio for their senior portraits, I like to support the teams they play for.  During this time of the year, I am fairly active with winter sports.  Because a large majority of the HS seniors that came through the studio this year were athletes, I find myself out many nights or weekend mornings at boys' and girls' basketball games, hockey games and wrestling matches.

Even thought modern SLR cameras work extremely well in low-light conditions, I am not thrilled with the quality of light that most high school gymnasiums provide, so I like to supplement the existing light with my one.  This does two things: 1) help stop the action; and B). helps to add definition to the athletes, depending on where the lights are placed.

DIY Bare Bulb Attachment

This attachment is meant to expand the capabilities of your shoe-mounted flash by giving it the appearance of being a bare bulb, which spreads light in 360 degrees, not just in the direction the flash is pointed.

You can buy similar attachments that cost upwards of $100 or more that do the same thing.  I made this one for about two-and-a-half bucks and maybe 15 minutes of time.  You do the math.  Then go spend that saved money on something worthwhile, like a couple of new games for your X-Box.

10 Resolutions to Keep This Year

Forbes magazine's web site has an excellent article on new year's resolutions.  And not the ones that you've already abandoned by the 2nd week of January.  These are resolutions that will likely make you more efficient and successful in 2013...or any year, for that matter.

Ten Resolutions The Most Successful People Make And Then Keep

Hand-Built Video Dolly

Finished Video Dolly

Now that I have a digital SLR that will record high-definition video, I want to take advantage of it and produce video pieces for my clients.  However, as most photographers know, the shape of dSLRs does not always enable steady hand-held use, and if you want to introduce intentional camera movement, most results look like they came from the cutting room floor of The Blair Witch Project.

This has spawned a whole new-fast growth industry in accessories for video dSLRs that allow the photographer/videographer to get better footage with motion effects, which add impact to the resulting video.  One such accessory is the video dolly, which allows the camera to be moved laterally in a smooth motion.  Like any new cottage industry, the prices of said accessories tend to be outrageous.  And as many of my peers will attest, said author of this blog will likely come up with a unique, hand-built, inexpensive solution that will operate at least as well as its over-priced brethren.  My peers have dubbed me “MacGyver” and it is a moniker that has to be earned…and it is not just thrown around like a party favor.  Here is my story...and my honey of a dolly.

The Hall Family Portraits

One of my new favorite families called to have a family portrait done with their four kids over the Thanksgiving weekend.  This weekend is one of the busiest travel weekends of the whole year, and it also brings some of the most family portrait requests, because all the grown kids convene back in town to eat turkey, give thanks for what they have, and watch and argue over football.  The oldest of the kids in this family lives and works in NYC, two are in college, and the youngest is a senior in high school, and came through my studio once already this year for her senior portraits.  That's when I met and started really liking the Hall family.

From The Sports Desk...

Numerous HS Senior athletes have come through the Luke Photography studio recently, and I look at each and every one of them as a challenge: how do I make them look like professional athletes, make them all look different, and make them look realistic, all at the same time?

I go into each session with an athlete with the idea that I'm creating a cover photo for a story in Sports Illustrated.  There has to be drama and impact on first sight....something to entice you into stopping to read the article.  Drama and impact are usually created by lighting.  Sometimes it's a different vantage point of the viewer...but most often it's the lighting.  Here are some examples of some HS senior athletes with impact.

Workin' up a sweat during the session

A puck's eye view of a face off

Blue turf and sky...amazing color.

Intensity shows in the eyes

An 8 ft. stepladder...on the ice.

Would you want to bat against him?

Old school basketball in an old school gymnasium

The red and blue create the impact...his look creates the drama

Team chemistry and intangibles...that's what leads to trophies

Yeah, you wish you could play like a girl

Can't argue with the great John Wooden.  She knows it

You can't mask dedication.....it always shines through

During games, her expressive eyes just radiate through this mask

Drama, impact and intensity....it's all here

All soccer...all the time

Fairport HS Senior - Ellie

Ellie is the third of three ambassadors of Luke Photography at Fairport.  I was fortunate to hand-pick these three juniors from Fairport HS and I know that they are all athletic kids with great personalities from good families and they are well-liked.  It was difficult scheduling Ellie's session because not only was she busy six days a week with varsity lacrosse, but the SAT's and junior prom also fell at that time.  And beg as I tried, she wasn't willing to give up going to the prom to have her senior portrait session that afternoon.  That's a girl who has her priorities straight.

Ellie is one of those girls that is able to pull off a variety of good looks, from cute to sassy to athletically intimidating.  No matter what I suggested or what ideas I threw at her she responded well, which I guess she learned from her mother, who used to model occasionally for Kodak.  Good genetics shows.

Fairport HS Senior - Shawn

  This year I am working with three juniors at Fairport High School as ambassadors that will help spread the good word according to Luke Photography.  One of the ambassadors is Shawn who, as a junior, is a starter on three varsity sports in a school that graduates close to 500 students every year.  Let’s suffice it to say she is a good athlete.  Not only that, but she’s taking three AP classes.  It all adds up to one hell of a jock who is whip smart.

Here at Luke Photography, I take pride in the fact that I photograph each person to bring out their personality.  A lot of photographers claim to do that, but placing their subject in natural daylight up against a brick wall and taking their photograph says nothing about a person. At this studio, I actually interview the students before their session, so I can get an insight into what makes them tick.  During Shawn’s interview, it was obvious that sports have been a big part of their life, and they have been for a long time.

Shawn has this amazing red hair, and one of the best portraits from her session shows her in a bluish cardigan in front of a background that has streaks of cool blues, green and purples.  Warm and cool colors are complementary to each other, which means they are opposite each other on the color wheel.  When you place complementary colors (for example, red and green) next to each other in a painting or a photograph, they make each other seem brighter, more vibrant, and more intense.  This is the reason her hair and the background both “pop” in this image.

In addition to playing with the vibrant colors, I took advantage of her athletic nature for some great themed sports portraits in her soccer, basketball and lacrosse uniforms.  In the locker room image, I placed real metal locker doors into a hand-made frame and placed them on the right side of the background.  I placed a red gel over my background light, which is pointed at the left side of the background.  Then Shawn took her place on a makeshift locker room bench and played out a scenario that was meant to draw out a certain look.  An overhead light on Shawn and a little smoke from a smoke machine added a little drama to the image.

In the gymnasium image, Shawn was photographed against a white paper background, and a digital image of the old school gymnasium was added in post-production.  The warm, vibrant colors of her skin and her uniform stood out like a sore thumb against the muted colors of the background, so her color had to be adjusted to match that of the background in order to make it a believable image.  You don’t need to have taken AP courses to have seen that.  But Shawn would have picked it out in an instant.

Fairport HS Senior - Drew

Composite Portrait of Drew, a Fairport Varsity Soccer Player

Creating the Story of Someone in Photographs

Sometimes your job as a photographer is difficult.  Maybe your subject woke up on the wrong side of the bed…maybe they aren’t having a good hair day….maybe they just don’t want their portrait taken.  It’s days like those that truly make me appreciate the session I had recently with Drew, a junior from Fairport High School.  Not only is he easy-going, but has great looks, a great personality, and was actually looking forward to his session.  That is what we in the photography world call a “trifecta”.  I was the big winner that day.

Drew plays varsity and travel league soccer, and has been playing it forever, so the sport was going to be a big part of his session.  But there were plenty of other aspects of his personality to investigate.  He is planning on going into the ROTC program at his college of choice, Grove City, which is where is parents went and older brother is.  But I couldn’t get away from the soccer images.  I selected several images and created a composite that included several other elements.  Because sometimes just one or two (or three or four) images do not tell the story of a person.  Sometimes it takes many.

Drew brought his own flag for this patriotic-themed image

The monochromatic grey tones work well together in this color image

Soccer plays a big part in Drew's life, so we had to make it larger than life

This head shot is dominated by cool blue and grey colors