I Give Up!

 Robbie and Tatum. Taken with my iPad Air 2.

 From time to time I've had a few things to say about cell phone cameras on this blog. If you read carefully, you probably caught my attitude that they are not really suitable for serious photography.

That attitude hasn't changed, but non-serious photography is another story. As in family snaps.

Last Saturday, we went to Lexington, Kentucky to the home of our second grandson, Michael and his delightful wife, Jenn. Jenn is a chemist, and Michael is working on his PhD. in marketing at the university there. Also present for the weekend were our son Rob and his wife, Bonnie and our oldest grandson, Robbie, with his wife Bailey and daughters Madilyn and Tatum, flown in from Houston.

For years I documented family gatherings with my cameras. In film days I had 4x6 prints made to send around, and when I switched to digital I emailed photos and/or made DVDs to send out.

Digital is quicker and easier than film, but still, I had to download the SD cards to my computer, edit the files, and send them out by email or WeTransfer (depending on quantity of photos). By the time various family members received their pictures, days may have passed. (Often more, I'm sorry to say.)

I came to this family event prepared with cameras and lenses. Serious cameras and lenses. Ready to document the day.

But when I got there, everyone was busy snapping photos with their devices and sending them to each other.  

With cell phone cameras, immediacy is the name of the game. I capitulated. I surrendered, and to my shame as a professional photographer, began snapping photos with my iPad. 

But you know what? I don't even care. It's quick and easy, and very few of those photos will be made into prints. If they are, they probably won't be printed larger than 4x6, or at most, 8x10, and at those sizes they look about as good as they would if they had been made with my professional cameras.

The picture below is a cell phone photo of our great-granddaughter Maddie in the pasture of our old farm. Our granddaughter-in-law Bailey, had it made into an 8x10 canvas panel that currently hangs over the desk in my study. It looks great.

Madilyn in the pasture at our farm. Pigeon Mountain in the background.

So, I give up. From now on, it's serious cameras for serious work and cell phones and iPads for family snaps. (I prefer the iPad because the screen is larger.) 

Signed copies of the new second edition of Backroads and Byways of Georgia are available. The price is $22.95 plus $3.95 shipping. My PayPal address is djphoto@vol.com (which is also my email). Or you can mail a check to me at 8943 Wesley Place, Knoxville, TN 37922. Include your address and tell me how you would like your book inscribed.

Check out the pictures at my online gallery: https://davejenkins.pixels.com/  Looking is free, and you might find something you like.

Photography and text copyright 2023 David B.Jenkins.

I post Monday, Wednesday, and Friday unless life gets in the way.

Soli Gloria Deo -- For the glory of God alone.

Tags:   photography   cell phone photography     iPad Air 2

 

Seeing the Light

 

 A tailor making school uniforms in Totonicopan, Guatemala.

My last two posts have been about solving lighting problems in commercial photography through the use of artificial light; artificial, that is, as something other than daylight. The ability to use artificial light is an essential skill for success as a commercial photographer, because photography is about light. In fact, the word "photograph" comes from two Greek words: photos, which means "light," and grapho, which means "to write." So to photograph really means to write with light.

Actually, learning to see light and use it well is the most basic, but also the most important skill in any kind of photography, professional or amateur. For me, it has also been the most difficult to acquire and I'm still working at it. A true master of photography can find ways to use almost any kind of light, even the harsh glare and black shadows of mid-day. 

But sometimes, beautiful light simply presents itself to us ready-made. A kiss of serendipity. We don't have to do anything to create it, we just have to be able to see it.

Serendipity favors the slanting, directional rays of morning and evening, the softness of open shade, and the warm glow of windowlight, as in this picture of a tailor making uniforms for students at an evangelical mission school in the mountain town of Totonicopan, Guatemala. A large window to his right was the sole and beautifully sufficient source of illumination. 

There was no way I could improve the lighting of the scene; the only thing left for me to do was make a picture of it.

Olympus OM 35mm camera, 85mm f2 Olympus Zuiko lens, Fujichrome 100 film.

Signed copies of the new second edition of Backroads and Byways of Georgia are available. The price is $22.95 plus $3.95 shipping. My PayPal address is djphoto@vol.com (which is also my email). Or you can mail a check to me at 8943 Wesley Place, Knoxville, TN 37922. Include your address and tell me how you would like your book inscribed.

Check out the pictures at my online gallery: https://davejenkins.pixels.com/  Looking is free, and you might find something you like.

Photography and text copyright 2023 David B.Jenkins.

I post Monday, Wednesday, and Friday unless life gets in the way.

Soli Gloria Deo -- For the glory of God alone.

Tags:   photography    commercial photography    Olympus  OM cameras     Olympus Zuiko lenses    Fujichrome 100 film     film photography    photographic lighting    Totonicopan    Guatemala

Making a Difficult Lighting Problem Look Easy

A photo for the Vinings Investment Company's annual report, 1997.

In my previous post I said that "the thing I like most about commercial photography is that it's an endless process of problem-solving." This statement is doubly true of annual report photography, because there are always problems to be solved and more often than not, they're lighting problems.

I did annual reports for a number of companies over the years, but one of my favorites was an assignment for the Vinings Investment Company of Atlanta in 1997. The simple-looking scene at the top of this post was actually the most challenging shot of the day. But as the saying goes, "If it doesn't look easy, you're not doing it right!"

The purpose of the photo was to show several people looking at a computer screen. The challenge was to make it appear that the scene was being illuminated by the light coming from the screen itself. It all had to be very subtle and natural-looking.

As always on any assignment where I would be away from the studio and possibly facing unpredictable situations, I carried a full lighting kit consisting of several large, studio-type flash units on light stands and also several small flashes of the type that mount on a camera.

The lighting solution I came up with for this scene was to set one of the large flashes to low power and bounce it off the ceiling to give the appearance of a semi-darkened room. Then, I hid one of the small flash units, a Vivitar 283, just on the other side of the monitor and covered it with two layers of white handkerchief to soften and diffuse the light playing on the faces of the people. Voila!

The camera was a medium format Mamiya RB67 (my workhorse for commercial photography,) the 127mm f4.5 Mamiya-Sekor lens, and Fujichrome 100 film.

 

Signed copies of the new second edition of Backroads and Byways of Georgia are available. The price is $22.95 plus $3.95 shipping. My PayPal address is djphoto@vol.com (which is also my email). Or you can mail a check to me at 8943 Wesley Place, Knoxville, TN 37922. Include your address and tell me how you would like your book inscribed.

Check out the pictures at my online gallery: https://davejenkins.pixels.com/  Looking is free, and you might find something you like.

Photography and text copyright 2023 David B.Jenkins.

I post Monday, Wednesday, and Friday unless life gets in the way.

Soli Gloria Deo -- For the glory of God alone.

Tags:   photography    commercial photography     annual report photography     Vivitar 283 flash     Mamiya RB67 camera     127mm f4.5 Mamiya-Sekor lens    Fujichrome 100 film     film photography    photographic lighting

A Non-Glamorous Photo Assignment

Electronics technician, T.J. Snow Company, Chattanooga

 

One of my long-time clients was the T.J. Snow Company of Chattanooga, a pioneer in the development and manufacturing of robotic welding machines. I spent many days over a period of twelve to fifteen years documenting the process of assembling the machines and photographing the finished products, some of which were as large as a small room.

I'm not sure what this technician was doing, and probably wouldn't understand it anyway, but I liked his look of total concentration. 

Lighting was one large electronic flash unit placed almost 90 degrees to my right. In retrospect, I sometimes wish I had used another light from camera position to fill the shadows a bit and put a little more light on the dark side of his face. But then it might be less dramatic. Probably should have tried it both ways.

The thing I like most about commercial photography is that it's an endless process of problem-solving, but none of the problems are earth-shaking, and nobody will die if I get it wrong. 

Contrary to rumors, commercial photography, while often fascinating, is seldom glamorous.

I used both Olympus OM and Canon EOS cameras during the years I worked with T.J Snow. I have no idea which was used for this photo. 

Signed copies of the new second edition of Backroads and Byways of Georgia are available. The price is $22.95 plus $3.95 shipping. My PayPal address is djphoto@vol.com (which is also my email). Or you can mail a check to me at 8943 Wesley Place, Knoxville, TN 37922. Include your address and tell me how you would like your book inscribed.

Check out the pictures at my online gallery: https://davejenkins.pixels.com/  Looking is free, and you might find something you like.

Photography and text copyright 2023 David B.Jenkins.

I post Monday, Wednesday, and Friday unless life gets in the way.

Soli Gloria Deo -- For the glory of God alone.

Tags:   photography    commercial photography     T.J. Snow Company, Inc.    Olympus OM cameras     Canon EOS cameras