by successfulbob | Lumix GH4, Lumix Lounge, people photography, photography, photography education
I was working with a new lens the Lumix G Leica DG NOCTICRON 42.5mm/F1.2 Lens and is it sweet and fast. In this play session after a couple days of judging and presenting at the Tennessee Professional Photographers Association convention thought I’d try some fun stuff with Sarah Wykhuis. She was a great subject. It started in the hall when she was standing near a light. I set the camera for a high contrast black and white look.
Sarah in the hall. Kind of a Julia Roberts look don’t you think?
Then we went outside to shoot in the dark to see what we could see. It was pitch dark so we used the building lighting and fellow photographer and presenter Pierre Stephenson used his IPhone to add a bit of fill light.
I shot in RAW plus jpeg so I could get to all the info presented to the camera and was surprised at how much detail I was able to pull form the file. Camera was Lumix GH4.
I always advocate getting out to play. You learn the limits of your equipment, sharpen your skills and discover new ways of doing creative imagery.
Yours in Photography, Bob
by successfulbob | photography
Holy crap! Am I tickled!!
The International Photographic Competition (IPC) with Professional Photographers of America (PPA) has been going on for a couple days now and I’ve got some news I want to share. I received top possible scores for an entry in the Master Artists category. All four of my images were accepted into the Loan Collection. Usually I’m very happy to achieve even merit status on my images… To go four for four Loan is freakin’ unbelievable. Here’s shot of my phone with the texts I received today from the judging at PPA.
This is amazing. The designation for this accomplishment is Diamond Photographer of the Year – Master Artist.
My IPhone with results form my Master Artist entries…
I’ll share the actual images with you in a couple of days when the results are set in stone. The competition is still happening in Atlanta and if you are a PPA member you can stream the judging and see behind the curtain what the process is. They will be judging over 5,000 images and finishing up on the 7th of August. I’m still going to be watching as I have a Photographic Open entry submission on which to see the results.
Quite a few of the people I have been coaching have had good results also. I think I’m more excited about their successes than my own.
Yours, in Photography, Bob
by successfulbob | Lumix Lounge, photography education, photography seminar, success education
Been away a little bit as I flew across the country to present my ‘Fine Art Photo Synthesis’ program to the TNPPA courtesy of Panasonic Lumix. I was also invited to be a judge for their state image competition.
While I was there I had time to catch Pierre Stephenson’s program on posing and picked up a few new ideas from him. I love learning this photography stuff! You can pick up some ideas from Pierre and you don’t even need to see him in person. He has some online lessons here on his Facebook page.
Some of the attendees at the TNPPA photography convention in Chattanooga, Tennessee.
Thanks to Dorma Tabisz for grabbing some action photos of me speaking!
It was a great convention held by a wonderful group of people. The southern hospitality was on display big time! We took a riverboat cruise as part of the activities and I had a blast. I’ll share some of the people images I captured during the cruise. I was running the new 42.5mm f 1.2 DG Nocticron Leica lens through it’s paces. Wow is that thing sweet!
Here’s a few comments from attendees…
“For the first time in over 40 years in our photographic industry I set through the entire program Bob Coates presented to our Tenn. Professional Photographers convention. Even strained my neck and kept my hearing aids in so that I didn’t miss a thing. Thanks Bob.”
Gary Moor M. Photog., Cr. FBIPP, FRPS, FMPA
“Bob, I sure enjoyed your program last night at the TNPPA. I am not a member and mainly shoot landscape but your program inspired me to try some new directions with my photography.
Thanks again.” Sincerely, Latta Johnston
“Your program was fabulous and held my attention with information I KNOW I can put to use immediately !!! I can now leave the show knowing my time was well spent !!! Thank you for your willingness to share!” J. Wade Tipton M. Photog., Cr., CPP, TCD, TSD, F-PPMo, F-PPO
Til tomorrow…
Yours in Photography, Bob
by successfulbob | photography - art quote
Art museums.
Web sites with artists I admire.
Art image books.
Reading inspirational books.
Well lit movies.
Looking for shadows.
“Bob, What the heck are you talking about?”
I’m getting started with today’s Photo/art quote and the point is… Oh wait where’s the quote??
“All true artists, whether they know it or not, Create from a place of no-mind, from inner stillness.” Eckhart Tolle
Eckhart Tolle is an author, The Power of Now and A New Earth with subjects on spirituality, inner thinking and power. In 2011, he was listed by Watkins Review as the most spiritually influential person in the world.
The point is I agree with Eckhart. But, I believe this only happens after lots of information is gathered and stored in the memory banks. Study images as much as possible. Study shadows and how the edge of the transition works ie how fast it falls off or ends. Think of it like this. Garbage in = Garbage out. Great visual information in leads to Great images out. Eventually.
Fill your head with great imagery whether it be from the Masters and Impressionists, movie makers, fellow photographers images, magazines, advertisements, etc… and that will begin to inform your image making.
What do you do to find inspiration? Share it here if you get a chance…
Yours in Photography, Bob
by successfulbob | Lumix GH4, Lumix Lounge, people photography, photography
It was a blast creating images for the Greenfield/Weems real estate team photo session. While they need to project professionalism they want to add personality to their ad campaigns. Here’s an image that is just a bit different going all out for the personality!
Jolynn, Robin and Jackie from Greenfield/Weems Real Estate office.
I work in a fairly small (16’x16′) shooting studio so I take advantage of that and use my walls as lighting modifiers. In this shoot there’s one Paul C Buff light with a 7 inch reflector just to camera right pointing to the corner and ceiling of the room. This is metered to be about 2/3rds of a stop less than the main light. Another PCB light is forward of camera left just in front of the clients and pointing straight toward the wall. The reflecting light from these surfaces gives solid modeling and very soft shadow edge transitions. If I was photographing males or wanted a more dramatic lighting pattern I could lower the power on the fill light or increase the power on the main light or both. Since these images are going to be cut out I used a Super White background paper from Savage. Camera was the Lumix GH4 with a 12mm-35mm f2.8 Lumix Vario Lens. (24mm-70mm 35mm equivalent)
The clients were stripped out from the background and a soft drop shadow added.
Yours in Photography, Bob
