by successfulbob | photography, photography - art quote
Unknown and Anonymous are some pretty prolific writers and many times have distilled thoughts down to a very small number of words that have a big impact. Today’s Photo/Art quote comes from Unknown…
“The earth without art is just ‘eh’. Unknown
Plays on words, or portions of words are fun and this one resonates with me. So let’s move this to the photography world where you and I hang out… “Are you taking ‘pitchers’ or are you creating Art?”
I like to think I am creating Art but sometimes (probably too often) I find I am just taking images rather than making or creating them. You ask, “What’s the difference?” It comes down to planning, thought, timing, execution, experience, having the right equipment in the right place at the right time with the right light.
I respectfully ask again, “Are you taking pictures? Or, are you creating ART?”
Yours in Photography, Bob
by successfulbob | Lumix GH3, Lumix Lounge, photography, time lapse
Tom Tayback and the Daddy O’s play a monthly show at the Sound bites Grill in Sedona, Arizona. When you see the show it is a seamless presentation of music and stories from the 50’s and 60’s called the Graffiti Gold Show. What you don’t see is the proverbial feet of the duck paddling underwater like crazy to make it work.
That’s why I like time lapse photography.
Here I take an hour and a half and show it to you in about one minute. I used the Lumix GH3. It has a built in intervalometer that allows you to set all your specific times, number of exposures and time between images captured. It even has a readout that tell you how long a time period will be covered with the settings saving some time with the calculator. On my previous camera systems I had to buy accessory equipment in order to accomplish time lapse images.
This is about 1400 images photographed every 3 seconds. The playback is at 30 frames per second…
Getting the Graffiti Gold Show show set up is quite a job…
by successfulbob | photography, photography books, photography education
Even if you are a seasoned photographer, if you are new to the Lumix GX7 & Lumix GM1 you’ll get a lot out of Rob Knight’s book From Snapshots to Great Shots. I picked up some great tips for set-up of these cameras. These are more like computers with all the possibilities available. Being able to find the quickest ways to work the menus make these cameras extremely versatile. Check it out here…
Panasonic Lumix GX7 and GM1From Snapshots to Great Shots book by Lumix Luminary Rob Knight.
by successfulbob | commercial photography, Lumix GH3, Lumix Lounge, photography
This is continued coverage from yesterday’s post of a photo shoot for the Sedona Integrative Medical Clinic….
The sense of place is important to show in your marketing materials. The mood and decor are helpful in making people comfortable in coming to your establishment. I can help you tell the story you want to share with your customers… Here’s a sampling of some images from the Center and the Medi-Spa.
Natalie at the front desk working the computer.
Dom at his station in the back office.
Looking over the Jane
Patient care with Vanessa.
by successfulbob | commercial photography, Lumix GH3, Lumix Lounge, people photography, photography, photography education
The Sedona Integrative Medical Clinic was a great opportunity to shoot in many different styles of work on one job. The catchphrase of Bob Coates Photography is ‘Making people, places and products look better than good.” Here was the job. Head shots, group shot, action images (for sense of place) and product images.
What a great group of people! I went to get some Physical Therapy from Eric and suggested I might be able to help in dressing up the Sedona Integrative Medical Clinic’s web site and marketing material. First on the docket was to update the Facebook header with a group image of the staff.
Nicole, Dom, Linda, Eric, Tera and Vanessa. Staff of the clinic.
I was looking for a very clean background and went with white to help give a clean medical feel. The font is Trajan Pro from their logo to tie together with previous marketing and is reversed with a drop shadow to keep with the white theme. Images were captured with the Lumix GH3 with a trigger to set off studio lights I brought in for the job. Paul C Buff lights were used one equipped with a shoot-through umbrella. A second light was outfitted with a regular umbrella on the same side as the shoot though for form fill. This gives a nice shape to the faces but doesn’t let the shadow side go too dark.
One suggestion I make for offices with multiple people is to photograph each individual separately and then assemble them into the group photo. This saves trying to rally all the staff for a new photo when there is a change of personnel. When that happens now we only need to photograph the new employee, remove the employee that is leaving and insert the new employee in the image. This saves tons of time and allows the staff photos to be up-to-date with little additional fuss or the cost of redoing the entire photo. Many different styles of background or lighting may be chosen with this approach.
I also set up a quick faux studio to highlight different product lines offered for sale. If this was a shoot for the manufacturer’s advertising there would have been a lot more attention to detail and lighting, but since this is just for web use I think we did OK using the ivy wall as a background and white surface as the base. I had Dom hold a scrim over the product in order to control the overhead lights giving an even illumination with no hot spots. Here are a couple examples…
Using a shallow depth of field allows the product to come forward in the photo.
Light coming form the window behind adds depth and dimension by
also helping to separate the product from the background.
The scrim Dom is holding spreads the light and keeps distracting
highlights from taking your attention away from the product.
I always ask in my business blog posts, “How may I help you tell your business story in a professional way?? Give me a call or drop me an email to have a chat about your wants and needs. No obligation and as always if you aren’t thrilled with the images we’ll work it again or I’ll refund your money.” And give them contact information.
I’ll show you some more images tomorrow that help tell the story of the clinic.
Yours in Photography, Bob
