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Welcome to my online column. It's a few notes on what happens on different photo shoots and thoughts about shooting and image processing that may be useful to you if you're looking for my services as a photographic artist, or if you're a fellow shooter/image maker who works in the same areas in which I do. Sometimes It's Better to be Lucky Than Good
Sometimes you get a shot that would have been very difficult to execute intentionally. In this image, I was following the model through the water-air interface to capture a post-dive expression of satisfaction, and grabbed this frame just before she surfaced. Of course, being "lucky" has a whole string of caveats -- being in the right place at the right time with the right equipment aimed for the right composition and set for the right exposure and the right focus. This is why experienced photographers are "lucky" more often than the laws of large numbers and chance would dictate. Unappreciated Art
Unless you're someone who shoots and retouches, you probably don't recognize the work that goes into images you see in Vogue, W, Elle and so on. I don't get to shoot as much fashion as I would like, but I apply fashion style shooting and retouching to portrait and lifestyle imaging, as appropriate. Fashion imaging is the cutting-edge of still photography and sets the bar for the photo profession. Twenty years ago, retouching wasn't expected except at the high end because it was expensive and difficult. Today it is the standard of practice for most forms of professional photography. This is from a studio shoot a couple months ago in which we featured Stella & Dot jewelry (this was not commissioned by Stella & Dot, but the model is a Stella & Dot stylist). If you're into fashion, by the way, check out www.socialbliss.com. It's a Pinterest style site devoted to fashion collection by member contributors. Dr. Kristen San Jose Shiele is a consultant on the social bliss project -- and also happens to be the model in this image. Jump to stelladot.com for some high end costume jewelry that's making its rounds in high fashion and the Hollywood set.
Tremor
I don't have a musical bone in my body, but I admire those who do, and I enjoy their work. Recently, I shot an up-and-coming teen band, Tremor -- check out my Portraits gallery for more. It was a lot of fun and they're great, enthusiastic young people. (Update: The group is no longer together, but I was great shooting them.)
Update March 2015 Although Tremor is no longer together, lead guitarist Casey Moreta (extreme left) has gone on to two acclaimed rock bands. Shortly after leaving Tremor, he began playing with alternative rock group Cherri Bomb, a popular band that already had releases available, when one band member left and he was invited to join them. After working together for a bit over a year, the foursome decided that they needed a new direction, so they disbanded Cherri Bomb. A few months later, they re emerged as a new pop/rock band, Hey Violet. Since announcing the new band, direction and name to their fans vis á vis Cherri Bomb, Hey Violet has released covers that have been popularly received, with their release of original music awaited with anticipation. Shooting with CCRs
Copyright PADI 2012
I got into photography through underwater photography in the late 1970s. Since then, there have been two major innovations for shooting underwater: digital, and closed-circuit rebreathers (CCRs). Digital imaging eliminated the limit of 36 photos before you have to surface, open the housing and reload the camera. In that era, I sometimes worked with an assistant on the boat to whom I would hand the housing. The assistant would rinse it, open it, pull out the camera and exchange it for another one (identical model) with a fresh roll in it, then reseal it. While I shot the next roll, he unloaded and reloaded the camera.
On my first production shoot with a digital camera, I did on a dive what used to take a day. With digital imaging, UW shooters are limited to their life support -- how long their air lasts and other limits. With conventional scuba using as single cylinder, this means you have no more than an hour -- typically less. More recently, serious divers are using CCRs, which recycle your breathing gases and optimize the oxygen-nitrogen ratio. Without getting into technical details, with CCRs, dives of two or three hours aren't unusual. The image above was taken on a 2+ hour dive while on location in Grand Cayman. My first production shoot with a CCR repeated the experience I had when I switched to digital: I did in a dive what used to take a day. I estimate that with respect to underwater shooting, using the combination of digital/CCR (assuming your models are using CCRs) we have an efficiency factor of around 9. That is, we do in one dive what used to take us 9 dives in the film era.
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© Karl Shreeves
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