project 52

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February 6, 2011 by Schweiger Photo

Assignment Four, Project52 – Photorgraphing an Entrepreneur

Assignment 4 – Photographing an Entrepreneur:

Lighting Essentials Project 52’s fourth assignment was to shoot a local Entrepreneur for a vertical full page lead or cover 8×11.5, leaving enough room for a Title. The Forbes Magazine type of thing… Environmental Portraits..

Shooting to the provided layout of the Title was optional, but I made a conscious effort to frame the shot accordingly. For the assignment I had to deliver

2 photographs, the entrepreneur’s business description (faux, of course) and a paragraph that explains what the entrepreneur has done within their industry. They will both be vertical. One close up in environment, and one in a more expansive shot with more environment. We also would like to see your shoot planning docs, any sketches you are working with or have done for this image, and a lighting explanation

Project52 Assignment Four 386x500 Assignment Four, Project52 Photorgraphing an Entrepreneur

Ron Cortez | Project52 Assignment #4 | Photograph an Entrepreneur

But let me tell you there is nothing Faux about the Entrepreneur I photographed:

For those of you that don’t know Ronald Cortez (also known as Ron), he was born in the heartland of the coffee growing region Costa Rica. Throughout his life he’s developed an attraction to all things coffee. Being the son of a plantation worker, who was also the son of a plantation worker, gave Ron Cortez the absolute inside scoop on the coffee industry.

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Ron Cortez of Cafe Cortez | Project 52 | Assignment 4| Entrepreneur

Ron was practically born in a coffee field and for the past thirty years he as been involved in the coffee industry in every aspect. The last fifteen years he has dedicated to running a highly successful coffee roasting company, Cafe Cortez.

Not only is Ron importing and roasting green coffee, he has also became a pillar of the Metro Phoenix Coffee House Culture. As mentor and educator in all-things-coffee, Ron Cortez teaches about green beans, roasting, brewing methods and how to go about “cupping coffee”.

After all, life is too short and there is no time for secrets. In the Entrepreneurial spirit, Ron Cortez is not holding back and is always willing to share with anybody who is interested in Coffee, entrepreneur and consumer a like.

5420760284 59ebc7823f Assignment Four, Project52 Photorgraphing an EntrepreneurRon Cortez – Innovation Meets Determination, Finding a new Voice in an old Market!

Lighting diagram and set-up notes:

The shoot took place inside the warehouse of Café Cortez and I used one PCB Einstein 640 with a 30×60 Softbox. I postitioned the soft box to the left of the coffee bags on the pallette infront of the roaster. I placed another PCB Einstein 640 with the 8.5 inch reflector hiding it behind the roaster. To the right of the roaster I positioned a large silver reflector (oval 48×72). Of course there had to be a small glitch and discovered that my Paul C. Buff Cyber Commander was spontanously rebooting and the lights kept loosing sync. Changing the frequency on the Einsteins, setting them manually and using the CST trigger solved that problem. Set up and takedown was acomplished rather quickly (except I hate the assembly/disassembly of the large softbox – perhaps time to switch to a foldable one) and I did not have to worry about finding a poweroutlet.

Assignment 4 Notesjpg 620x755 Assignment Four, Project52 Photorgraphing an Entrepreneur

Project 52 | Assignment 4 | Notes

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January 27, 2011 by Schweiger Photo

Still Life Photography for Editorial – Project 52, Assignment Three

Project 52, Assignment #3 Still Life – Editorial

Project Fifty Two Assingment Three 590x590 Still Life Photography for Editorial Project 52, Assignment Three

Assignment 3 - Still Life

The third Assignment of Project 52 was to photograph a simple small Still Life with some special requirements. This image needed to be small enough to fit into a 8 x 8 format, pretending that this photo would be used editorial, as the cover for a brochure.

The emphasis was to produce a Still Life and not a product shot.

I thought to myself, but aren’t great product shots also nicely composed Still Lifes’? Reading further in the Project 52 Assignment Three instructions, Don Giannatti explains the subtle difference between the two:

“The point is sometimes to be a bit more ‘artistic’ and we don’t have to concern ourselves with showing a label, or something that is part of a product that is branded.”

After brainstorming a little bit about what to shoot and how to compose a still life I came to the conclusion that I wanted to create an image with a little bit of “sizzle”, after all the assignment was called Project 52, Assignment #3 Still Life and NOT “Still Death”.

Remembering a blog post by Atlanta-based Photographer Alex Koloskov, Water in Product and Advertisement Photography, I wanted to implement and build on that idea. After further contemplating this idea I almost did not do do it because thinking about all the stuff I did not have for this shot was starting to take the wind out of my sails. No Studio, no shooting table, no cinema foil, no flags, not enough stands and last but not least NO fish tank. But liking that idea so much it became clear that I could do this on a much smaller scale. Not in the studio – on my dining room table, with the stuff I already have. The only thing I did not have was a fish tank.

Fish tanks aren’t so expensive if you get a small one (2.5 Gallons) – So I went to the pet store and got mine for less than $15.00 bucks, stopped at the hardware store and bought small suction cups and wire. The last stop was the grocery store – 1 jug of distilled water, 2 bottles of club soda and one Green Jalapeno. The check out clerk looked at me with “Really?” written all over her face.

Fish Thank Still Life Photography for Editorial Project 52, Assignment Three

When I got home I started to set up the shot on my dining room table. I put the fish tank on a larger box to get some height (I did not feel like using several light stands). Then I cut a piece of wire, squeezed it around the small suction cup. The other end of the wire was bent to a small “hook” and I poked it right into the pepper. I prefer not having to doctor my shots in Photoshop and sticking the pepper on the far side of the glass with the wire-and-suction-cup-method worked very well. Checking through the viewfinder, the pepper concealed the wire and suction-cup perfectly.

Having the set rigged up, it was time to set up the lights and do a couple of dry-shots. All I used was two Speed Lights (one Nikon SB-800 and one Nikon SB-900), one 45 inch convertible white umbrella, one grid, one 32 inch 5-1 reflector disc, two pieces of household aluminum foil and two gels from the rosco strobist collection (one red and one orange)

After I dialed in my light and the “dry” shots looked really good, it was time to fill the tank. Since the tank was brand new it was perfectly clean. The first gallon of distilled water went in and the tip of the pepper was submerged. Pouring in the first bottle of club soda the pepper started to float up, of course I did not put into the equation that peppers are hollow, but squeezing it and letting it suck itself full of water solved the problem. Finally the fish tank was full and the pepper in place. But there was another problem. There were too many bubbles sticking on the near side of the tank. Not having one of those aquarium-cleaner-thingamajigs handy I used a silicon cooking spatula and started to “squeegee” off the excess bubbles – and it worked.

Filing the fish tank with water changed the light and exposure significantly. Of course I did not keep in mind that:

“when light travels from a denser to a less dense medium, such as water to air, there is a critical angle of incidence beyond which the light will be total internally reflected at the internal surface of the water rather than refracted out into the air”

Hot Stuff 590x393 Still Life Photography for Editorial Project 52, Assignment Three

Jalapeno Pepper under Bubble Water

The best way I can describe it in plain English is that the glass-bottom of the tank mirror turned into a giant mirror.

So I dialed the light down, added a couple of makeshift flags to my umbrella (I tapped the black cover of my reflector disc to the umbrella on the side closer to the camera, I used the outer black cover of another umbrella as a flag to prevent light spilling on the back ground) and clipped a piece of aluminum foil on the right side of the tank for a little bounce.

Finally I taped the orange and red gel in a criss-cross fashion over the grid.

I took plenty of shots and changed the exposure and direction of the back-ground light to get different effects.

All in all I spent about 3 hours shooting this jalapeno-pepper. Post processing was done in 10 minutes, picking a shot of the many was probably the most time consuming.

Here is what I took away from Project 52, Assignment #3 Still Life:

  • Big complex set-ups can be scaled down and simplified
  • Combining a Fish Tank, a Jalapeno Pepper and lots of Club Soda can be very entertaining
  • Framing a shot correctly and to the assignment specifications in the camera will save you a lot of time in post production and lay-out

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January 25, 2011 by Schweiger Photo

Portrait of a Stranger

Project 52, Assignment #2 Photograph a Stranger

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Portrait of a Stranger - José

Assignment two at project52.org was to photograph a  stranger. I must say this particular assignment was an eyeopener.

I am sure that any photographer, professional or amateur, has suffered from some form of “photography-block” – including me. No inspiration, no motivation and the list goes on and on and then come all the excuses as to why you cannot take any “great” images.

Let me tell you, participating in a photography project will definitely help open your photographic eye, especially if your are not shooting on a regular basis

The assignment of photographing a total stranger was very liberating. At first I had no idea where to go, what gear to take and who to ask to photograph. But then I said to myself “screw it” and I put the 50mm prime on my camera, grabbed my smallest reflector disc (32 inch) and jumped into my car and started to drive.

Not really having a plan as to where to go I ended up at a park near my house and decided to get out of the car to look around and see whom I could ask to photograph – and there I saw this frail and elderly slow-walking man walking with a cane. I nervously approached him and asked him if I could have a moment of his time. Explaining my assignment to him, without hesitation he agreed to let me photograph him and take his portrait. And then there it was, a moment hard to describe – but it was a special moment, looking through the viewfinder, seeing a simple man who has probably endured a lot of pain, seemed full of wisdom and hope and perseverance.

At first I kept focusing only on his face wanting to just take a tight head shot but then I noticed the long shadows cast by him and some street lamps intersecting the path. Instead of waisting time trying to get this stranger into a pose I simply moved around to find a frame – The only words of instrucions from me were “Just be yourself…”

Hard to explain, but it simply clicked and I thought i just captured “it”.

After I took this picture, José told me that he was staying with his daughter and he had to stay close to his house in case there was an emergency. Jose just had a stroke about three months ago and his doctor told him that it was good for him to go on short walks.

I asked him if he would like a print of the photograph I took, but he said: “No – that’s o.k.” Then I thanked him for his time and we parted ways. This all took place in less than 2 minuts.

After the encounter with José I strolled a little bit longer around in the park and photographed three more strangers.

Wow, this assignment was quite liberating and a profound experience.

Now I know what Don Giannatti meant when he said;

Photographing someone you don’t know can be a scary proposition for many of us. I am fairly shy, or at least not that comfortable with walking up to someone and striking up a conversation. I usually will not do that.

UNLESS… I have my camera around my neck or in my hand. When I am ‘a photographer’ I can easily and without hesitation walk up to people and ask to make their picture. I do it a lot, actually.

Here is what I took away from Assignment Two, Photographing a Stranger:

  • You don’t need 8 speed-lights, 4 boom arms, umbrellas, soft boxes, beauty dishes or high-speed synced pocketwizards to take great images – Liberate yourself from all excess gear, it is quite refreshing…
  • It is cliché, but going back to the basics still applies, even nowadays!
  • Prime lenses are your best friends.
  • You don’t need a $4,500 camera body with a $2,000.00 lens.
  • Take advantage of ambient lighting, seek it, be patient and wait for it.
  • Stepping out of your comfort zone is a great catalyst for your creativity and motivation.
  • Don’t be afraid of asking strangers for their help – what’s the worst that could happen? Right, the only thing possibly they can say is No – big deal.
  • Don’t force it, just let it flow.

    • Assignment two very well could be the holy grail to overcoming lack of inspiration, lack of creativity and/or motivation – at least for me.