Robb at the Fair

Any day now I'm going to walk into Christian Photo and lay down a couple of thousand dollars for equipment. My needs for quality still photos and 1080p video — including stereo remote sound recording — means that I'm going to need either a Canon 5D or 7D.

In the mean time, I've been directing people (with needs that aren't as critical as mine) to buy the Canon 60D.  It is fast, high quality and very versatile. it is the answer to the question, "What's the best digital SLR available if I don't want to spend a small fortune?"

Robb Origer did just that, here's the proof below. Love the Fair!

Mit Romney and Dick Christian

Sorry for the long delay, I've been traveling quite a bit.

The last week in June I was laid off by the Des Moines Register, which probably brought my full time photojournalism career to an end after over 30 years. All good things come to an end at it has been a great ride.

Now I'm freelancing, looking for work and trying not to get too emotionally caught up in the "I'm unemployed" thing.

So, I'm exploring, trying to find a new way. I was at the Iowa State Fair yesterday, photographing Republican presidential hopeful Mit Romney. For the day, I was using some equipment out of the consignment case over at Christian Photo, 6721 Douglas Avenue, in Des Moines. (515) 270-8030.

To back track, I get messages all the time from people looking to get into a digital SLR, without spending $2000 or more.

Dick had a Nikon D70, coupled with a Nikon 18 - 70mm zoom. PEFECT!
The camera is $300 and the lens is $175. So, for under $500, you can have it all. I shot the photos below at 200 ISO in the daylight, and 1600 ISO inside the dark Varied Industries building. They all came out great.

I don't think these two items will last long. I get nothing from Dick for this promotion, he's just one of my favorite people!

Here are some photos of Romney at the 2011 Iowa State Fair.

RAGBRAI : First Photo

This from the email:

Took this picture of Silver City, Iowa on the RAGBRAI journey.   Population is around 260 on a normal day.

- Jim Deitchler

Having some fun in iMovie 11

iMovie 2006 was my favorite platform to edit video. Elegant, stable and straight forward, it was a fine tool that Apple screwed up with updates the last five years. They dumbed it down, made audio editing and sound sliding almost impossible. But now, iMovie 11 is here and it is fine, fine fine.

You must update your Apple computer so you have an APP Store widget, gadget, whatever. Then for $14.99 you download it as an Application (APP). It's a 500MB+ download, but once you've figured out a few basic tools, making movies is easy and FUN!

Here's an example of a template movie trailer I'm using on my freelance page:

Jim Dietchler shares some recent photos of western Iowa flooding. His message follows:

"Hi John.  I managed, but don't ask how to get some flood pictures of I-29 south heading into Hamburg, Iowa.   These were taken on June 22 looking into town.  Since then the levee has held, but it is anybodys guess as to how long.   If it gives way these pictures will only be worse."

Vic Kesse Exhibit

Central Iowa photographer Vic Kesse has been invited to display some of his photos at St. Benedict's Abbey in Atchison, Kansas, right on the Missouri River.

According to Vic: I heard from Father Blaine on Tuesday confirming the exhibit.  I am trying to get everything ready so I can deliver the pictures July 12 on our way home from the family reunion in Kansas City.  I will have 20 of my photos and 5 - 10 of the old Kesse/Maday photos that show some interesting historical/family subjects.  It's going to be a rush to get everything done.  The photos and framing materials that I have ordered have to get here on time.  They want to have the pictures hung so they can be part of the Amelia Earhart celebration that begins on July 15.  Needless to say I am very excited about this opportunity.  I owe a big thank you to my cousin Lizann for introducing me to Father Blaine.

Below are a sample of some of Vic's marvelous work. I especially like the composition of the whale surfacing with the boat at the top.

Bell Comes Down

I was coming home from the local grocery store and found this scene on the square in Winterset, Iowa. A renovation crew was lowering the old courthouse bell, using a crane, onto a flatbed truck, to clean and refurbish it as part of an overall facelift for the old stone building.

Since I had no camera on me, the iPhone did just fine in HDR mode. Gotta hold steady for it though.

Painting With Light - Another Try

Which one do you like? I went downtown last week, while still employed by the Des Moines Register (all good things come to an end, right?) and decided to illustrate, in advance, the upcoming Des Moines Arts Festival.

I went to the downtown Western Gateway, set up the camera on a tripod, set the iso at 100, the f-stop at 32 and left the camera in Aperture Priority. This gave me about a 45 second exposure. I used an LED night light, very bright, to paint an rough impression of the wall of tent fronts that would soon invade. Vote for your favorite and I'll tell you which one I like.

This weekend Robin and I will be showing at ArtFest Midwest, The Other Art Show, in the air conditioning of the Varied Industries Building at the Fairgrounds. Best way to see both shows is to park in the ample lots at the Fairgrounds, hop the shuttle to the downtown show, walk around, sweat, look at the booths and then come back to the pleasant indoor show, say "Hi," while you're there and find your vehicle with no hassle.

Hope to see you this weekend, let me know which one you like.

 Number 1

 Number 2

Number 3

Number 4

Just Friends

While waiting along a county road for a guide to take me into a habitat area to photograph eaglets still in the nest, a farm dog approached me as I sat in my car. One of the people nearby said, "Watch out for them huskies, they can be mean." Watch closely as this dog "attacks me." 

Good puppy. I miss him already

Ground View from Joplin

Mark George, an Iowa photo friend, when to Joplin recently and has shared some pictures. This is his message to me:
"Every year Kris's family has a reunion. We kept it at Joplin and planned on helping out. Saturday, 7,000 volunteers helped Joplin. More main roads were able to open up and get cleared of all debris. Tire punctures slowed the progress down. Curfew was lifted Friday night, but the Police stepped up on patrols. So Much Destruction.  Only took a few photos."

 Note: Sorry the postings have slowed... it's art show season, seven days a week, 12 to 14 hours in the lovely heat. If you have some photo endeavors you'd like to share, this is the place.

Art Show Season Begins

Tomorrow we begin the outdoor Art Show Season with a one day event in Valley Junction, West Des Moines, Iowa. It is their Spring Art Market. I haven't show in Valley Junction for several years, neither has my wife Robin. One day shows are physically demanding and a single thunderstorm can wipe out the day. But... let's hope the rain is done by then. Rain isn't the only fear. Hail can be a real show-stopper. This was in Edina Minnesota four years ago.

Also high winds, up to 100 MPH in this case, crushed the Omaha Summer Arts Festival three years ago.

But you take your chances. Most of my work revolves around exploring the abstractions created in atmospheric event or in the movement in water. I was in Rome and made this image, while genltly moving the camera, left to right, creating my own abstraction. It's new this year, the newest photo to the collection. I'll only have one with me tomorrow, to see how people like it.

Time flies unless you shoot it down

Last week was a wedding week in the family. My daughter Sarah was married in a brisk outdoor affair at Sand Piper Recreation Area near Polk City, Iowa.

So blogging has been far down on the list. My former brother in law Bill took photos and Charlie the video. I walked my lovely daughter down the aisle and then, later, couldn't help myself. I went to the car, got a camera and found a little moment of joy. After cutting the wedding cake, Sarah fed a bit to her new husband John and then to their first daugther Georgia.

I spend a good deal of time talking about technique on this blog. But the heart of creation is answering the question, "Does this work?" Who cares about the exposure, camera or lens. "Does this work?" Of course it does because it's a little moment.

All we are doing, at the end of the day, is using idioms... sorry, let me rephrase. The bottom line (another idiom) is that we are simply rescuing moments from vanishing into eternity. Amen.

The Heart of the Portable Strobe Shoot

Terra is a budding professional photographer from Ankeny, Iowa. She has a strong eye for portraiture, a winning smile and a great deal of patience. In our Digital Studio Safari class on Saturday, I was demonstrating to Terra and Gail (on the left) and Marnae, the how and why of using portable strobes in an environmental situation, using an infrared remote on my Canon SLR.

Zeroing in on Terra, I demonstrated that sometimes the ambient light of a room isn't intense enough to be able to hand-hold a heavy digital SLR. Also, the light isn't very interesting. Here's the starting point:

So, here is the shaky image depending on some overhead but mostly window light. Not very good. We need to improve the situation.

The lighting gear I'm using are two Canon speedlites and an infrared remote trigger, that fits into the hotshoe of the camera.
But we begin with one strobe in the hotshoe.
The first step, when I'm teaching this approach, is to place the portable speedlite on the Canon camera and give the subject the old blast in the face, lots of light, oh my, this is what Terra would look like to a coal miner. Flash on camera. Yuck.

So first things first, we get that light thrown up into the ceiling by bouncing turning the flash at 90-degrees to the subject. A slight improvement.

 But I know I'm going to use two lights so I take the strobe off the camera and place it to the side. At 45-degrees to subject Terra will look better...

A huge improvement. Now it's time to separate Terra and that sassy blonde hair with the red streak from the background. A second strobe, on the same channel as the infrared remote is placed behind her... like this.

And now it is time to play with the angles and exposures to keep Terra separated from the background, while making sure the light in front is not too direct.

This is only a partial success. The camera is set at ISO200, f5.6 with a shutter speed of 1/200th of a second. At that exposure the we aren't taking advantage of the significant ambient light in the room, mostly daylight streaming in through eight windows. As I try dialing down the shutter speed, Terra gets bored...

But now I'm getting closer. The last exposure was 1/125th of a second at 5.6. I drop down the shutter speed to 1/60th and VIOLA!!! Success.

Click on the photo to see it larger. It's a simple idea but really makes a difference for an environmental portrait.

Safari Fun on a Saturday

Saturday marked the 35th Photo Safari held at Madhaus Studio & Gallery. There are four different types of Safari's:  The Digital Photo, or intro course, The Digital Video Safari, Crop Shop, which is for working in Adobe Elements and PhotoShop and also the very intense, Digital Studio Safari, which is what we held on Saturday, May 7.
Click on image to enlarge.

I am usually the model as we go outside and inside to find wonderful ways to use light to our advantage.

Gail (bottom left) took the photo of me that is above her. I was using the diffuser inside my portable reflector to soften the harsh daylight.

Marne (top middle) made the nice photo of my old face, as I stepped out of the direct sunlight into a nearby alley.

Terra (bottom right) caught a wonderful moment of gallery golden retriever Gordon finishing up giving me a big smooch in the backlight.

It was very gratifying as an instructor to have a group that was so sharp and never behind the curve. We spent a little extra time outdoors, pushing situations in the shade, using a portable reflector and generally finding the sweet spots of indirect light that allow for effective outdoor portraiture.

Try, Try, Trytek

Stacey Trytek has her own contribution to the subject of spring baseball. This from Stacey: "As long as we’re sharing, here is a photo I shot at a Little League game.  Not a great shot but it caught the moment…
The opposing team members were friends, as you can tell by the third baseman’s cheer for the successfully stolen base."

This is a real moment and a priceless one. Great job.
Click on the image to see it full size.

O.K., does anyone have a topper for this one?

You must be willing to sacrifice

Jim Deitchler sends this photo along with the following comment:
"I looked at your latest blog and it reminded me of the pics I shot in Atlanta last year.   Troy Glaus is at first and Andres Thomas is diving back in an attempted pick off."

An O.K. photo, from my standpoint. Just another pick-off attempt with little result. BUT… look closer, there's a much better image here, it just requires something you must do to win in baseball… sacrifice.

Crop tight, lose most of the first baseman and look at the nice dirt bath Thomas gets going back to the bag head first. Nice shot Jim. Probably from the stands. Even better. Click on photo for full effect.

It's spring in Iowa, baseball is upon us

From Power Shots, Episode 2. My how time flies.

Always remember, it's hard to be better than your light. Shooting baseball at high noon on a sunny day means you're going to have a tough time picking out faces under the bill of the ballcap. Shooting in the evening light might be charming, but shooting backlit might have some challenges if you don't have a lens or camera that allows you to shoot into the shadows. 

Given the choice, I'm almost always going to choose backlit for my baseball because it allows for me to use that backlight to provide separation between the subject and the background. Baseball almost requires to you to be shooting through a screen or from a great distance. 

One of the ways I get separation between subject and background is by using an elevated angle (slightly) which uses some of the field as your background.

But I also like making photos that make you look twice. Here is former Iowa Cubs pitcher (now Chicago Cubs closer) Carlos Marmol, delivering a pitch to the plate. I manually focused on an imaginary point between pitcher and hitter and then shot with the 400mm lens at f2.8 (low depth of field, faster shutter) at 200 iso, at 1/8000th of a second. You can read the writing on the ball.

London, 1997

I'm not a big royal watcher. Won't be getting up to catch the wedding in London tomorrow. Robin encouraged me to share that last royal event I witnessed, the funeral for Princess Diana. Even got the cover of People Magazine with the profiles of the princes. Hope this isn't a downer.

Photo Safari 4.16.11

The class members for Saturday's Digital Photo Safari, held at the nearby Cedar Covered Bridge, were (l to r) Marnae, Patti, Rich, Pam and Nicole. Nicole came all the way from South Sioux City, Nebraska!
It was a blustery day, with very little sunshine, but the results were above average in every way.

Pam continued to grow in her understanding of light from the Digital Studio Safari class she took here two weeks ago. A fine sweet-spot of light for me to stand in just inside the bridge opening.

Pam also did some trouble-shooting, figuring out how to get the greenery around the bridge to jump out and even tried using her on-camera flash. The proper exposure here in ambient light was a winner. Pam will be getting paid to make pictures sooner than she thinks.

Patti has a very non-traditional eye. She found dozens of interesting designs in her overall take that we discussed during a review in class back at Madhaus Gallery. She made a wonderful study of this dry plant against the planks of the bridge.

And in the nearby standing waters in the area around the bridge she found this subtle distinction of color of the red leaf in the amber muddy puddle. Patti has an extremely individual eye, which is a rare thing to find. I enjoy looking at her photos.

Rich made a nice study of the "verticality" of the surrounding vegetation almost swallowing up the bridge from this angle. It is a startling photo and well done.

I also like how Rich likes to change angles, here going low in the nearby parking lot to make the bridge almost look like it is rising from earth to greet us. Rich has a great energy and was a positive participant who added valuable insights to discussions in the class.

Marnae is probably the least experienced photographer in the group, but her take was very solid. What she might have lacked in time with the camera in her hands did not impair her ability to make striking photos.

Marnae's natural tendency to composition that leads the eye in the top photo and then holds it dramatically in the one above, is outstanding. She could also apply that talent to sculpture, painting, print making or several other visual arts.

And then we come to Nicole. She is confident and put herself on the spot by choosing to shoot with a telephoto zoom lens on her camera for the entire class. Though risky the payoff was wonderful. The way the bridge goes into almost pure abstraction behind the branch is HUGE! A very fine image that stands on its own.

I also like the down home nature to this photo of Gordon and I making our way out of the south side of the bridge. The road just leads the eye back and forth. Well done.

If you are interested in our continuing education in digital photography or many other disciplines, go to the link below to see if you find a class that interests you:

http://www.madhausgallery.com/madhausgallery/Adult_Education.html