Also, this year (for seniors graduating in 2013) I will be taking applications for senior studio ambassadors. What does that mean? It means that a select boy and girl will get an exceptional chance for some awesome senior photos for free if they help promote my studio. Contact me for more details.

Well, thanks for reading!

-Ken

My decision was to sit out a year, then reapply. So what happened? During that year I landed a good job at a financial institution. After being a striving college student, it was nice to have money and a job with benefits. The motivation to go back to school started to wane. Although after I got married, I took some classes and thought about getting another degree in Economics, I decided it wasn’t for me.

So you might be asking how I transitioned from banking back to my first love, photography? The company I worked at asked me to join a committee to create the company’s website, which I ended up managing. Since I had a strong background in photography, I started shooting photos for the website and other marketing materials.

In July of 2000, I made the switch from film to digital. At the time I was skeptical that digital would ultimately replace film, but after the first couple of months I was convinced.

In 2006, I had the opportunity to leave the company and open my studio. It’s been a fun adventure and I wouldn’t change a thing. Looking back, I have no regrets. While I still think I would have made a good attorney, I would not have been happy. Since I was a child I always wanted to be a photographer. It’s interesting how the decisions we make lead us thru life. I am so fortunate to be able to do what I love.

-Ken.

When I meet with a client, we discuss what they are looking for in their portraits. This includes the style, lighting, mood, and poses they want. We also talk about possible locations and the time of day, if we are going to shoot outdoors. Knowing what my client wants prior to shooting also give me some time to come up with creative ideas to make the shoot unique and different.

So call me, let’s schedule a meeting and discuss how I can create some one-of-a-kind images for you!

-Ken

Here are a couple of photos from that day.

As always, thanks for reading!!

-Ken

It’s amazing the amount of digital alteration model’s and celebrity’s photos go thru before they appear in a magazine or advertisement. There are some graphic designers that are highly sought after by A-list celebrities based on their abilities to improve a photo’s appearance. In fact there are celebrities who, before a photo shoot, have it in their contract that the photos will be retouched by a specific graphic artist.

Then again, we’ve all seen the botched alterations that have appeared in the media where things were altered to such an extent that the images are laughable. For a laugh, Google: Bad Photoshop. You’ll see lots of really bad images that have been used in advertising as well as magazines.

OK, here’s my take on all this. Do the people pushing for legislation have a point? Yes, I think they do. However, I don’t think it’s worthy of legislation or that it can be enforced. The verbiage varies but basically they want restrictions on photos of the human form that has been materially or significantly altered. Just what does that mean? Is it ok to remove a blemish from the face of a model? If that’s ok, what about smoothing the skin or getting rid of a couple of acne scars? If that’s ok, how about thickening/lengthening the eyelashes? Then how about straightening that slightly crooked nose?

You get my point. Where do you draw the line?

What the public needs to be aware of is that all advertising makes sure the product appears as desirable as possible. It happens not only to models and celebrities, but also to products. Almost every product you see on billboards, in magazines, and on TV and been digitally altered to look as appealing as possible.

As a consumer, I strongly support truth in advertising. When you buy any product you should have a clear and reasonable expectation of what you are getting for your money. However common sense must prevail. When you buy a jar of night cream and remove the lid, the contents will not look like the advertisement that shows the cream curling out of the jar like soft serve ice cream. You may also notice that your jar has certain imperfections in the glass that you did not see in the advertisement. The product photos were altered to make it more appealing.

By the same token, you have to realize that using that night cream will not make you look like Kate Winslet or Kira Knightly.

The bottom lines is that we need more common sense and less unenforceable legislation. I’m getting off my soap box now.

Thanks for reading!

- Ken

Once I started shooting digital and became familiar with it, I decided that digital was the future of photography. While I still shot some film, I was preparing to make the switch permanently.

One photo I came across was shot in 2007. It was a photo that I always like but forgot about. The photo shoot was for her high school senior pictures. While we shot a bunch of different poses and styles, but I always like this one. In fact on my portrait page there are couple of other photos from this same shoot. They are photos 10 and 11.

I like the pose, her expression, and the lighting. It’s not a typical senior picture which is another reason I like it.

And, by the way, I didn’t forget to find those photos for my client.

Thanks for reading and have a good weekend.

- Ken

I came into the house walked past a vase full of tulips that my wife picked up at the grocery. They looked amazing and the light streaming in was perfect. I grabbed my camera and put on my 50mm f/1.2 lens to capture the image below. It worked out well that the striped tulip stood out against the red ones. The shallow depth of field helped bring out the one flower.

Sometimes capturing a cool photo is about seeing everyday things in a different way and exploring the possibilities.

Once again, thanks for reading. If you want to see more of personal projects click here.

- Ken

I was also lucky to have some friends help me out in setting up the shoot. There was a lot of gear involved and hauling it into the woods was not fun. We had to setup booms, background stands, props, plus lights. In the end we spent more time setting up/ tearing down gear than I did shooting, but I got some great photos.

The shoot was at a park that is next to the local zoo. So as we were setting up gear in the dark, we could hear strange animal noises echoing in the woods. It added a fun element to the night. We were safe though, in the parking lot we could see a couple of police cars thru the trees. I’m sure they were curious about the crazy photographer with a generator lighting up the woods and creating fake lightening.

Over all it was a really fun shoot and I want to thank my buddies for assisting me – Jude, Aaron, Barb, Andrea, and Ali (the model for posing in shorts in the cold. She shivered but never complained.)

As always, thanks for reading!

-Ken

Non-Camera camera gear. I think most experienced photographers carry more than cameras and lenses in their bags. So I thought I’d share few of the stranger items I carry. I carry a small role of gaffer’s tape. It has saved my butt several times. Gaffer’s tape differs from duck tape in that leaves much less residue and it made with cotton fabric not plastic. Awesome stuff. Sticks to about anything.

I carry a multi-tool. My preference is an old Swiss Army tool. All steel, well made, and rugged. It’s heavy enough to use to lightly hammer stuff and has most of the tools you will need.

Disposable ear plugs. If you’ve ever been to a heavy metal concert and find yourself shooting from right in front of a huge speaker stack, you’d be thankful you brought earplugs. They also work well on a loud factory floor. Plus they are light and take up very little space.

Cash. It’s alway good to have little cash on location. You never know when you need to buy batteries, gas, or lunch.

OK, another thought. When you work in a creative profession, it’s easy to get burned out and can suffer from a lack of inspiration. There’s lots of tricks people use. Earlier this week my intern was helping me clean up the studio after a couple of shoots. I asked her to put away all the lights, even though I was going to be using them later. The reason for this? When I have to set the lights up from scratch I makes me rethink how I want to light a subject. As a result, the lighting scheme is custom to that individual. I’m pretty sure I’ve blogged about that before.

Last thought. I’m going to try to work on a personal project next week, if the weather cooperates. It is going to be a night shoot in the woods and may be quite involved. So I testing some lighting schemes that will involve mixing strobes, incandescent lights, and gelled strobes. It may be a lighting nightmare. We’ll see. Anyway while playing with my newly assembled light fixtures I shot some test images. The one below I kinda liked.

Incandescent Light Bulbs

Well, that it for now. Thanks for reading and I’d interested in hearing from other photographer about what kinds of whacky things they carry in their bags.

For more examples of my personal projects check this out.

- Ken

When you think about it, composition is really about putting together three basic elements. The first is the organization of the subject you are shooting, the next is your camera angle, and the third is how you frame/crop the shot. In the world of commercial photography we often have the luxury of shooting in the studio which gives us a lot of control over all the variable. How we use the elements of composition depends on how the images of the products are going to be used. For instance, if the images are for a catalog/website, then the images will just be clean product shots showing a potential buyer what they will get for their money. However if the shot is going to be used for like an advertisement or a catalog cover it needs to evoke a response and can be much more artistic in nature.

Catalog Product Shot

The image above was shot to show what the product looks like. The product is centered in the image and the composition is pretty boring.

One of the basic premises of composition is called the Rule of Thirds. It’s pretty basic and says that you should usually divide your image up into thirds and organize your subject accordingly. You can use the rule for horizontal as well as vertical images.

The Rule of Thirds

Think of your canvas as having imaginary sets of lines like the image above and compose your subject into the grid. See the image below for example.

Example of the Rule of Thirds

In the above photo for a magazine ad, the main subject is the avocado since it is the main ingredient in the product. Notice that it sits in the lower third of the image. But it is also not centered, it sits in the left two thirds of the image. This is more pleasing to the eye than if the avocado sat dead center of the image.

So now you are saying “that’s fine for product photography, how can I relate that to shooting other things?”. First of all, the rule of thirds isn’t really a rule, but a suggestion for composition and rules were made to be broken, weren’t they? (We’ll take about that in a minute).

Rule of Thirds in a Portrait

OK, above is an example of using the rule of thirds in a portrait. I placed Tasha in the left third of the frame. The empty space on the right helps balance the image. So play around with the rule of thirds, it works particularly well when shooting landscapes where the horizon is place in the top or bottom third of the image.

In portraiture, the basic rule is that if you are placing your subject off center in the photo, you them to be looking into space you are leaving open. In the photo above, Tasha’s body and head are facing into the frame. When someone is facing out of the frame it can make the viewer uncomfortable because the subject is looking at something the viewer can not see.

Breaking some of the rules.

Now in the photo above, I broke that rule. Notice that I did honor the rule of thirds both in her placement in the photo, but also the horizon in the top third. But here Morgan is facing out of the frame. While some people don’t like this image, I think it works for me because she isn’t looking at anything, her eyes are closed. I like the tension her placement created.

You can see more of my various image by click here.

That’s it for this week. Next time we’ll talk more about composition and balancing your images.

Thanks for reading!!

-Ken