Seasons Change - A Cautionary Tale for Video Producers

What is one thing that often (not always) gets overlooked when planning a video shoot?
Weather? Possibly, but most people do take the weather into account when planning a video shoot especially if it will be shot outdoors.
No more often overlooked is the season.

Now to tell you a little story.

A few years ago I was hired to shoot some business profiles for a municipality. The majority of these shoots would be indoors so we wouldn't have to even worry about weather or what season they were shot in. So we thought.
The shoots took place through the end of November into December. We shot interviews combined with b-roll of each business doing what they do. Everything was going smoothly. That is until the municipality decided it would be a good idea (and it was a good idea) to include some b-roll or beauty shots of the municipality when it was mentioned in the interviews. What was envisioned was nice shots of a busy shopping district with pedestrians window shopping, lush green parks, flowers in the flower beds, and a nice warm sunny feel. That would be perfect.
Of course we were shooting in November/December in Canada. What does that look like? Leafless trees, brown grass, possibly snow. Now it is very possible to shoot a street in the downtown anytime of year on a sunny day and make it look warm, but unless we hired extras, there would not be pedestrians window shopping in t-shirts. To make matters worse, many towns put up there Christmas decorations around mid-November. So while we may be able to disguise the fact that it was not summer, there was no way (other than expensive effects work) to get rid of the Christmas decorations. This was meant to be a year round piece and Christmas decor would certainly place it at a specific time.
Of course we did our best shooting around things and getting the best looking shots. The videos turned out great. But I can't help feeling that they would have been just a little bit better had someone had the foresight to plan the shoot just a little earlier in the year.

Another tale.

I had a friend who was taking a film making course. As part of their course they had to write and produce a short film. They came up with a fantastic idea about someone finding a note in a bottle on a beach. Some of the scenes took place on the crowded beach, some took place in the water.
They had planned out exactly how they would shoot it. They had only neglected to consider one small fact.
It was January. It was -10 degrees outside, there was snow on the ground and ice on the lake.
They still managed to shoot something that was acceptable using winter scenes and an indoor pool, but it would have been infinitely better had they been able to shoot on a nice warm sunny beach.

I realize that when you plan a video shoot is based on many factors, seasons often being one further down the priority list, however it is something that you should keep in mind. Because the season do change.

Canada Day Fireworks

I shot fireworks Canada Day. Here are the results.

The first two photos were shot at 1.0 sec;   f/8;   ISO 100

The remainder were shot at 8.0 sec;   f/10;   ISO 100

All were shot with manual focus, pre-focused before shooting.

Canada Day! Time to Shoot Some Fireworks

Any holiday, whether Canada Day, Victoria Day or the Fourth of July, when there are fireworks, offer a great opportunity to get some spectacular photographs. But how do you shoot fireworks.

Location
First, find the location from which you will be shooting. What do you want to include in the shots? Are you going to include the landscape, people or just the sky?
I used to always try to just capture the fireworks all by themselves. But I found that the shots that I was happiest with, were ones that included the location I was in. Look for interesting features to include in your composition. Are there trees or interesting architecture you could include. Fireworks over water add the possibility of including great reflection in the shot. And of course there is nothing wrong with including people in the shots.
I do suggest that you scout out the location ahead of time as most places with fireworks have crowds of people. You don't want to show up late and then not be able to get a good spot.

Tripod
Using a tripod is of the utmost importance. Handheld shots usually will not turn out very good. The advantage to using a tripod (and a remote trigger if possible) is that you can frame the shot ahead of time then focus on the sky and choose when to release the shutter.

Shoot on Manual
Put every setting that can be put on manual on manual. You want control over your ISO (lower the better), aperture, shutter speed and focus. Auto focus will not work well, if at all, in the dark and you will miss your shots or have a blurred mess. Pre-focus on manual and leave it there.
Also, turn off your flash.

Aperture
Many people believe that, because it's dark, you need to shoot with a wide open aperture. But fireworks are bright. If you let too much light in, you will end up with just bright white, overexposed, fireworks. You are probably going to be better off with a smaller aperture (f/8 - f/16).

Shutter Speed
Think slow. Fireworks are moving through the sky. The patterns they make as they move are what make them spectacular. If you shoot with a fast shutter speed you will only be catching a fraction of that pattern. Here is where you can experiment. Try various shutter speeds. Try from maybe 1/8 of a second to a few seconds or more. See what gives you the best results.

So give it a try.

I will be shooting some fireworks tonight and will post the results.

Family Portraits - Reality TV Style

Posed family portraits are the norm and can be very creative. Yet posing often doesn't really reflect the true personality of the family.
Candid photos are great at capturing the moments where personality shines.
But how do you catch those moments when you don't have a professional photographer with you all the time?
Simple. You hire a professional photographer.
I had often thought it would be great to document family events, a trip to the zoo, a picnic, a camping trip, or whatever and capture those moments. What if you could have a photographer follow your family for the day? What if you could focus on spending the time with your family but have an objective eye there to capture it?
So that us what I have decided to offer. I am available to hire for a morning, an afternoon, a day or a weekend to follow and photograph your family and whatever they are doing. The majority of the photos would be candids but there would be plenty of opportunity to do posed shots as well.
You can think of it as your own little reality TV show where you have a camera crew following you, but in still pictures.
I can cover any type of event, outing, whatever you like.
It is a unique way to do family photos and I look forward to shooting a vast array of different families doing different things.
Please contact me if this is something that you may be interested in.

Family Portrait Present and Past

Family portraits, just like family, are important. Over the years they will change. There will be new additions and sadly there will be people that will no longer be there.

My Dad died just over seven years ago. He never got to meet my Niece and of course we never had a family photo including both my Dad and my Niece. I had an idea of creating a photo that included all of us. I searched through photos from when my Dad was alive. I was looking for one that was as recent as possible and that had him in a pose that would be appropriate to incorporate into the family photo.
It was important to visualize and plan out the shot so that it would look like my Dad fit into it naturally. I found a photo in which he was standing. That determined that the rest of the family would be standing. I wanted it to look like he (or his ghost) was with us but was participating from a distance. Behind the fence seemed appropriate.
It was then a matter of compositing my Dad into the shot.

I think it is a great way for families to keep lost loved ones with them.

I Am a Photographer

I have been a photographer since I was fourteen years old. That is getting near thirty years now. I learned with a 35mm film camera. It was a completely manual Praktica camera.

I believe that is the best way to learn photography. It forces you to really understand light and how the camera works. Shooting film is rare now and even I sometimes forget when shooting hundreds of photos that I used to be limited to a role of film (24 or 36 exposures). That limit made you think about a shot before you took it. Understanding the principles of photography helped you picture what that shot would look like when it was developed. Yes, you had to wait until the film was processed and printed (often a week, later as little as one hour). No looking at the back of the camera to see the shot you just took.

Learning the basics is important and it served me well as I went on to focus on film and video production.

Film and video production is a little different than photography. You have other things to deal with like story, actors, audio, editing and of course motion. But it is still a visual medium. It still primarily relies on light passing through a lens and being recorded.

Through all the years I have been doing film and video, I have never stopped shooting photos. I just hadn't been doing it professionally. Recently I decided it was time to start shooting professionally. I have known a few really good and successful photographers that became photographers long after I was shooting. I thought to myself, why am I not also doing this. So now I am.

In this blog I intend to share some of what I have shot and will shoot and share how I shot it. I also welcome any questions on either what I shoot or photography in general. So please comment and submit questions about photography that you would like answered.