Woke up in the middle of the night thinking about possibilities. Love/Hate it when that happens!
Let me set the stage for this no pun intended.
Imaging USA in Nashville.
Huge Atrium with band across the way.
Playing with the Lumix FZ 1000.
Standing here with this view in the camera when it was set to it’s widest field of view. See the video here…
Opreyland hotel atrium IUSA closing party band.
Not really too much to get excited about right? WRONG!
Here’s why. Same camera. Same position. Zoomed in. Hand held. AND, the images below were pulled from video!
Lead singer in band video still.
Another version.
Version three.
Here’s the beauty of this. These stills were all within moments of each other as the lighting was flashing and changing allowing me to select the moment when the lighting color was as I wished and the hair in place. Did I mention that this was captured hand held? The Optical Image Stabilization (OIS) is absolutely incredible. People were standing behind me or passing y a stopping with, “What camera is that???” popping out of their mouths when they saw the zoom range and stability on the back of the camera.
Is this camera promoted as a pro camera? Nope it’s a Bridge camera. Above an advanced amateur but missing some pro features. Does it have a place in a pros kit. You bet! At the very least the ultimate vacation camera. And I’ve found several uses for the reach and 4K video capabilities of this camera. Remember you can pull 8 mega pixel stills from 4K video…
OK now that I’ve written this post maybe I can get a nap to make up for the sleep I missed last night…
Comedian Dana Daniels his parrot Luigi were at Sound Bites Grill last week before I left for the PPA Convention Imaging USA in Nashville. Really enjoyed the show and as soon as I got back I got to working on the image for the SBG ‘Wall of Fame’.
Dana Daniels live on stage with Luigi with audience participation.
Dana does a lively and fun show involving the audience at every possible moment to help with the magic or to help as a foil for his humor. A good time was had by all…
Even Luigi. He smiled throughout the entire performance.
Images were made with the Lumix GH4 and the 35-100mm f2.8 Lumix Vario Leica lens. This combo works well. The longer zoom gives plenty of reach to capture the live stage action from across the room. I find it’s important when photographing live events to cover them unobtrusively. The GH4 has plenty of density to encompass the range of harsh lighting conditions caused by the use of LED stage lighting and the 12 frames per second doesn’t hurt for stopping action with juggling objects during the show. Setting were ISO 3200 f2.8 shutter between 1/15 to 1/60th sec in Aperture Priority with an exposure compensation of minus 1 stop to make sure I didn’t loose the highlights in the scene and to account for the black curtains and deep shadows.
I was extremely fortunate in PPA Imaging Competition this past year.
It resulted in earning a Silver Photographer of the Year Award in the Photographic Open and a Diamond Photographer of the Year Award in the Artist category. For those unfamiliar with the awards they are for having all four of your images submitted attaining Merit status which for simplicity sake is defined as an ‘above-average’ image made by an ‘above-average’ photographer. The Silver designation comes from additionally having one of those images selected for inclusion into the PPA Loan Collection. The Diamond comes from all four of the images being accepted in the the Loan Collection of which there were only 24 this year. For more in-depth information on the International Photographic Competition and awards check here.
Diamond four for four Merits with four Loan Collection images. Silver four for four Merits with one Loan Collection image. Imaging Excellence Award for thirteen Loan Collection images. Three medals are for the Degrees the most recent being the Master Artist Degree.
The American Society of Photographers has an additional judging of their member’s Loan Collection images and
Awards a Gold, Silver and Bronze Medallion to the top three ASP member images.
Received lots of congratulations from fellow photographers that remind me of what a wonderful way we have to make a living, learning, sharing while being creative. I am truly thankful that this is the way I choose to make my living and live my life among so many wonderful people.
Yours in Creative Photography, Bob
PS – You think there are any possibilities for press releases from this good fortune? You betcha!
I often hear from fellow photographers that they don’t have time for things like imaging competition.
I call BS!
And that brings me to today’s Photo/Art quote from Rich Mann.
“There’s no time like the present, and no present like time.” Rich Mann
I don’t suggest that you take time from your family, but be more efficient with your time at work. There’s a huge difference between being busy and being efficient at your job. I’ve been quite guilty of it at times myself. Thinking that I was too busy to do things and found that non-constructive work habits were not allowing me to get the most important things done while insignificant things were taking up waaaayyy tooooo much time. For some quick ideas I suggest checking out this post from Brian Caporicci on Sprouting Photographeron how a tool meant to save you time, energy and make your life easier has started to become a ball and chain.
That tool’s name is email. And Brian will gives you some solutions to put that bad boy back in place.
…Now what to do with the extra time you just carved out??
HMMM, I know!
Put some time on your schedule to prep 1-2 images a month for competition. Then when the deadline comes around you’ll have plenty of images ready to choose from…
At the convention here in Nashville Tennessee with Professional Photographers Association at Imaging USA.
WOW!
Way over 10,000 photographers here to network, learn about photography, learn about new products and become inspired bout this wonderful business we have chosen in which to make our living.
That brings me to why my Sunday Photo/Art quote is running a day late (it’s been a really busy time!) And to not delay the quote any longer…
“It’s all about the process!” Thom Rouse
Thom presented a program called “The Case for Fine Art” and suggests if we choose or as we try to move our photography in an artistic direction that it starts with OUR process – whatever that may be.
What is creativity? Thom suggests that Creativity is the process of the prepared mind. It’s anything you do in your creative life to make your imagery. What kind of lens do you put on your camera? What format? What subjects do you shoot? What settings do you use? How do you expose yourself to new imagery to draw inspiration from? Art in museums museums, web sites, books, other photographers images?
Once you have the tools of the process down you go through a number of steps as you create your images. You need a prepared mind as noted above looking at art and life for inspiration. You can get stuck or as he calls this moment, ‘incubation’. Then possibly a reversal of thinking. Making mistakes including ‘AHA!’ moments and ‘Happy Accidents’. Having Passion and perseverance and knowing that failure defines success.
Failure defines success. We’ve been talking about that here on Successful-Photographer a lot in this Sunday morning corner and I submit once again if you are not making mistakes not constantly trying to learn you probably won’t be doing anything really creative.
What mistakes are you going to make this week, this month, this year? Go for it!
Yours in Creative Photography, Bob
PS – This is only one of over 90 programs available to choose from this year. If you aren’t getting out to conventions and educational programs you are going tot be growing your art and your business
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