Anyone interested in shooting a 4 hour event in Tempe tonight from 10pm to 1am give me a call.  It is for a movie opening – “red carpet” work… shooting guests against a sponsor board.  Simple flash on camera.  A liaison will be there to handle the guests and logistics for you.  This is a paying gig.

We just finished a corporate lifestyle and portraiture project for the Berkeley Research Group.  The highlight of the shoot were the corporate portraits of their Phoenix division Director, Steve Clarke who kept our us in stitches for most of the shoot.  Here are some out takes from the shoot including a photo composite we put together just for fun one evening when a few of our staff and interns were hanging out way too late and the wine was flowing a little too freely.

Allen Murabayashi posted this great rant to the Photoshelter Blog.  It will put a smile on your face and in a world of negative rants, whining about the demise of professional photography as we know it, it is a rare opportunity to reconnect with the upsides of why we do what we do.  Well said Allen!

How and when to do “Spec” work is often a difficult question for all of us.

I received the email below from a emerging photographer in Ohio who is being asked to do spec work with a interesting twist.  The prospective client is also asking three other photographers to do the same and I after which they will then choose the “winner”.  I am using the word winner here in the loosest sense of the word’s meaning.

To presume there are no situations where working on spec makes good sense defies common sense.  The question is always about the conditions of doing so and how to do so. 

We do spec work on rare occasions and only when the conditions are right, in writing, with a commensurately higher upside to the risk we are taking, with close involvement with the client and with all expenses paid in advance.

The most important element in a spec job is the quid pro quo …there has to be a clear, measurable and probable pay off for both ourselves and the client.  Like any good deal there must be mutual consideration even if it is not measured in dollars. The dynamic I most often see when others do spec work is that the quid pro quo is more ethereal than measurable (‘it will be really good for your career’) and no contribution of time, energy and money in the shoot by the client which means the professional photographer is carrying 100% of the risk and all of the investment in its value and success.  This is the main reason doing such work rare.

In most cases, working for free or on spec is going to be a one sided deal favoring the client.  There are many examples of what this can look like…here is one of the more egregious….

We just returned from a week in Orlando shooting for the Universal Technical Institute.  We had a great time and capped of a very successful gig with a awesome dinner at Emril’s and then dancing into the night at The Groove Club at Universal City Walk.   It was a well deserved party for our clients, agencies and crew.

“Generations” by Christopher Barr & Dan Coogan.  For the Arizona Highways Centennial Photo Project.   Shot on location at Arizona Sunrays gym, Feb. 14, 2012.

This kind of complex environmental photography required a lot of thought about how to block and set-up the main elements not to mention the coordination required to get the everyone in the vicinity where Dan & I wanted them in the hope of minimum of post production compositing later.  Arizona Sunrays gym owner and team coach Dan Witenstein helped coordinate the timing of the main gymnasts.  In the end, we still composited three plates of gymnasts from other frames. The inherent visual complexity was also a challenge in order to avoid the image looking like a test pattern while maintaining the storytelling we wanted to deliver.  Rim lighting did most of the work to lift the main elements out of the background (lighting schematic attached).  The final step was to convert the image to black and white which significantly simplified the final image allowing the eye to easily scan the overall scene to enjoy the many smaller parts that make up the whole.    I have attached the shot blocking diagram Dan & I settled upon from my iPad composed during our location scout which we ended up sticking to pretty closely.

Thanks to Julie and Dan Witenstein who graciously allowed us to shoot at Arizona Sunrays gym during team practice and all their technical assistance in producing the shoot.  Thanks to Jane Janssen for styling and photography interns Susan Luther and Ty Wilda for their photo assistance on this lifestyle photography shoot.  Also special thanks to Dan Coogan who I have been collaborating with regularly over the past 4-5 years.  He is a photographer’s photographer whose passion for our craft is rare by any measure.

"Generations" © Christopher Barr & Dan Coogan 2012

"Generations" Shot Blocking Sketch / AZ Sunrays Gymnastics

"Generations" Lighting Schematic

Chris & AZ Sunrays owner, Dan Witenstein going over shot blocking & preliminary timing

Dan Coogan

Final foreground casting and staging of the youngest gymnasts.

CB doing final prep

Final staging about a minute before shooting.

1. FILE SIZE:   By far the easiest and most important setting to fumble if you fog out.  If you vary the file size/output setting from shoot to shoot, particularly if you vary it infrequently this can be the easiest way to significantly sabotage your results.  Shooting low res location scouting shots and having a magazine cover shoot following soon after is a recipe for disaster if you don’t make a habit of checking this setting first and foremost.

2. ISO:  Your ISO is less important now than it used to be because of the post production options we now have with regards to noise reduction, however make no mistake its far better to set it right in the camera than correct a bad setting in post.  Like checking your file size output, simply checking the back of your camera or monitor if you shooting tethered will not be obvious if your shooting too fast or slow….Yes, too slow, most camera algorithms have a sweet spot that is the ideal balance of speed, noise and contrast… it is rarely the lowest ISO setting on your camera. Check your manual or google it for community feedback about your particular camera.

3. WHITE BALANCE: Do yourself a favor, shooting AWB is for the birds and a lazy compromise if your a pro.  Shooting a color chart is always the final step after setting your lights.  Carrying the color chart isn’t enough, you have to remember to use it too.  In the heat of battle it is easy to overlook this step.  If your particularly left brain about white balance remember that even if you primarily shoot with your own strobes, their color balance will shift depending on the head, setting and modifier you use.  If you don’t know how to execute a color balance using the chart in Photo Shop, Lightroom, Aperture, Capture 1, etc.  Check your software manual and learn it fast.  Its the easiest and most accurate way zeroing in a neutral balance.  There are cheap cards and expensive ones…more money doesn’t buy all that much more accuracy in the long run as they basically do the same thing.  There are also various types of  white balance disc that are available that work better than your AWB.

4. AUTO FOCUS vs. MANUAL FOCUS:  Curiously this is a easy setting to overlook if you usually shoot auto focus.  When set to manual focus the wider the lens the harder it is to tell whether or not the lens is set to manual instead of auto.  A audio or digital focus confirmation or more importantly the lack thereof isn’t the red flag you would think it is.  Even if you never shoot manual focus, statistically you will inadvertently change this setting by mistake or accident at some point and if you don’t do it, one of your assistants will.  On those occasions when it is happened to me, I will usually catch it within a few minutes when I finally miss the audibly alert but why waste those front end frames?

While shooting a corporate portait of Ross Meyer (CEO / American Infrastructure) for the cover of Construction Executive Magazine at the Biltmore Hotel in Phoenix, I was excited to be offered exclusive back stage credentials to also shoot Mitt Romney’s speech this morning to the Associated Builders & Contractors, Inc.  The event was a significant media event aired live and a lot of fun.  Here is a peek at a few shots.

Industry Tape! We have been using this great new product for the past 90 days…here is the good news and bad about our experience with it. Buyer beware…it isn’t a perfect alternative to gaffer tape…but it comes darn close! Sorry about all the “ums” on the vlog…this is my first one.