I’d like to tell you a story about a colleague of mine. He’s a kind man. A giving man. A selfless man. And, a veteran himself.
Bruce Roscoe, Vision of Vets Founder. Portrait courtesy Studio 3 Images
In 2014 my friend Bruce Roscoe (of Aiyana Studio) had a vision. It came on a flight back from Rhode Island after photographing his best friend of 58 years. Doctors had told Bruce’s friend, Joe Rowe, he had only six months to live due to complications brought on by exposure to Agent Orange in Vietnam. Bruce offered to professionally photograph Joe so his family and friends would have something to remember him by when he was gone.
The Concept
Bruce’s idea was to create a nonprofit organization whose mission was to memorialize the stories of U.S combat veterans and share that history with the family and the world. He envisioned adding a method for bringing photographs of combat veterans to life with the use of Live Portrait technology. Families could now view these after their loved ones had passed.
Bruce gained support for his idea in the local community of Prescott, Arizona. This was no surprise because Prescott and the surrounding towns host the largest number of veterans per capita in Arizona. With a wonderful Veterans Administration (VA) hospital and the large veteran population, he started gathering veteran stories with the help of experts. The helpers are now the Vision of Vets board of directors.
Following three years of continual work, in June 2017, the IRS recognized Vision of Vets as an official 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, and Bruce’s vision became a reality.
Vision of Vets Portraits by Bruce Roscoe
The Vision of Vets team are committed to not only capturing the stories from our country’s living veterans, but also telling the stories of war heroes from the French & Indian War and forward. Vision of Vets hires professional re-enactors to bring the stories of heroism and sacrifice back to life with the use of modern technology.
The Gift
Each veteran in this project receives at no cost, a professional 16×20 framed portrait, prints in different sizes, a DVD of their interview, and an essay summarizing the interview.
You Can Help
You can be part of this story too! Help preserve history and add to the education tools in schools have to teach and remind students that ‘Freedom isn’t Free.’ Click here to learn more or Donate to Vision of Vets.
Yours in Creative Photography,      Bob
PS – Below you can get an idea of how the Vision of Vets Live Portraits work.
PPA – Photographic Craftsman & Certified Professional Photographer
The work in these Painterly Posts are usually a bit more on the obvious painting side using the digital tools we have. Today’s artist is one I’ve been following for a while and while it is not specifically a painting style the work in my opinion transcends photography into a realm of it’s own. I’ll leave you to decide… Let me know what you think of Kelly’s work.
“I think it is easier, assuming you commit and invest in yourself to do it,” stated Kelly. Today, you can take a pretty awesome shot and even do what used to be very intense post processing on a smart phone. Kids 10 years old are producing some pretty decent images and sharing them to the world in minutues. That’s something that could have taken hours or days just 20 years ago. The challenge to me is again, how do you produce “SALIENT” images that others are not able to do or cant do alone with a smart phone. I think it is easier to become one of the millions of professionals photographers out there… but harder to separate yourself and become more relevant. Thus, to produce work that is in demand and that people find of real value,” concluded Schneider.
“I am a natural teacher. I love getting in front of others and having a positive impact on their views or knowledge on something and even more so when their eyes open and start to learn a new skill. It is a passion. If you have heard of the Keirsey-Bates temperament test, I am an ENFJ and that puts me in the Teacher idealist. (ref. https://keirsey.com/temperament/idealist-teacher/) Basically, I truly enjoy watching clients smile and even tear up when they see their final images. I also get emotional when I see smiles on a student’s face when they become AWARE that they get it… they see it… and they can do it.”
Where do you see professional photography in 10 years?
“To be frank, I think the future has two fundamental paths… and I think both will be exists. Not so good path: Photographers who are not keeping up with technology and establishing a “constantly learning” modality in their work will become part of the vast ocean of others out there struggling to find themselves in a way that gets clients to find them… in that photographer’s “purgatory” where they are good, but not SALIENT or relative enough.”
Good path: Those who have persevered. Those willing to take the leap, to accept and embrace innovation, and not just thinking that because they WERE great, they will always be great. They will survive and continue to provide a service and product that there will always be clients willing to pay for. There are multiple integrated elements in becoming and staying a relevant “SALIENT” professional photographer. From your personality in dealing with and interacting with others, to your day to day running of your business. This includes your vision and standards you set and adhere to. Only one of them is in taking the image.”
What do you enjoy most as a professional photographer?
“When I was 18 and serving in the US Navy, the process of Capturing Life’s Journey and sharing it with others…”
Born and raised in Coronado California he joined the US Navy in 1980 and served for 29 years. During his US Navy travels including 137 countries, he began “capturing” life around him. In 2010, Kelly began his pursuit of professional portraiture, growing and developing his skills in creating “salient” portraits focused on weddings portraiture and boudoir.
Over time, Schneider has become passionate about teaching others. He earned a Master’s degree in Human Systems Integration from the Navy Post Graduate School in Monterey California. He completed the Executive leadership course at both UC Berkeley and Duke University and is a MDPPA Board of Directors member for 2019.
Kelly and his wife Kalina (also a gifted photographer and active PPA member/Maryland PPA member) have been hosting workshops both in the US and in Europe. Kelly Schneider Fine Arts ksfinearts.com focuses on Boudoir and Fine Art portraiture and workshops.
Schneider is writing his first book “The Salient Portrait – the science behind it and how to achieve it” and it is a core element of all his workshops and training events. He earned the Best Portrait of the Year award in 2017 for MDPPA and Best Portrait Photographer for the State of Maryland for 2017 and 2018 and Wedding Photographer of the year for 2018 as well as earning two Fujifilm Masterpiece Awards in 2019.
Kelly is married Mrs. Kalina Schneider from Katowice Poland. Kalina and Kelly currently call Accokeek, MD home with their two kids – a beagle and a terrier!
PPA – Photographic Craftsman & Certified Professional Photographer
The work in these Painterly Posts are usually a bit more on the obvious painting side using the digital tools we have. Today’s artist is one I’ve been following for a while and while it is not specifically a painting style the work in my opinion transcends photography into a realm of it’s own. I’ll leave you to decide… Let me know what you think of Kelly’s work.
Kelly got his start while traveling in the US Navy starting a business called Captured Journeys Photography. He shares, “Initially, I knew so little about photography and anyone doing it that I was not influenced except that I wanted to get great images! After a few years, I realized that if I was ever going to really grow my game and produce good work, I needed to invest in my craft and my skills. That is when I started looking at true professionals who were masters. I realized I knew next to nothing!” Schneider notes an early influence for stepping up his game was Trey Ratcliff of Stuck in Customs fame.
A True Professional
When asked what makes a true professional photographer Kelly said, “I think being a true professional has little to do with how many hours or if it is a full-time thing. A true professional is someone who has dedicated and committed themselves with all facets of a skill or craft and invested in both time and resources to grow and develop their knowledge, skill, and ability to be recognized for their work. Being a true professional and doing it full time is another layer. It is just a measurement of how much time you are doing it, not how much of a master you are while doing it.”
KS Fine Arts Portrait
Changes in Photography
Changes in professional photography are coming fast and furious and while Kelly recognizes the single most impact in photography comes from those photographers who can leverage the changes. “The single most impacting element in learning photography (outside of the core ability to “SEE” light and render wonderful and powerful images, is the capacity to learn and use more complex and advanced technology in your photography.” According to Kelly. “Those who have a natural and gift for awesome photography will find themselves fading into the “non relevant” layers of photographers if they don’t embrace and learn how to bring new and exciting technology into their game. From the expanded things a photographer can do with such little effort with lighting and tech, is making it harder and harder to separate yourself from the over 44 million practicing photographers in the USA.
I’ll continue this post with Kelly next week when we find out why Kelly teaches other photographers his techniques and where he sees photography going in the next ten years…
Born and raised in Coronado California he joined the US Navy in 1980 and served for 29 years. During his US Navy travels including 137 countries, he began “capturing” life around him. In 2010, Kelly began his pursuit of professional portraiture, growing and developing his skills in creating “salient” portraits focused on weddings portraiture and boudoir.
Over time, Schneider has become passionate about teaching others. He earned a Master’s degree in Human Systems Integration from the Navy Post Graduate School in Monterey California. He completed the Executive leadership course at both UC Berkeley and Duke University and is a MDPPA Board of Directors member for 2019.
Kelly and his wife Kalina (also a gifted photographer and active PPA member/Maryland PPA member) have been hosting workshops both in the US and in Europe. Kelly Schneider Fine Arts ksfinearts.com focuses on Boudoir and Fine Art portraiture and workshops.
Schneider is writing his first book “The Salient Portrait – the science behind it and how to achieve it” and it is a core element of all his workshops and training events. He earned the Best Portrait of the Year award in 2017 for MDPPA and Best Portrait Photographer for the State of Maryland for 2017 and 2018 and Wedding Photographer of the year for 2018 as well as earning two Fujifilm Masterpiece Awards in 2019.
Kelly is married Mrs. Kalina Schneider from Katowice Poland. Kalina and Kelly currently call Accokeek, MD home with their two kids – a beagle and a terrier!
I enjoy working with creative people. It’s a blast. Creative folks tend to bring an extra little something to the photo session. I was working with Sedona musician Peter Sterling the other day. He had some specific thoughts on the session we were photographing for some headshots and CD cover art.
Once an idea is put forward, then it’s time to tweak the lighting to create the mood and feeling needed. We started with a high key background then went to a low key background with more dramatic lighting.
One of the first images from the session. * setup described below Harpist Peter Sterling
Above and below are unretouched photos on a high key background. Peter was an excellent subject as he made excellent eye contact with the camera and was easy to get relaxed. He made my job pretty easy!
I liked this one as a different look but wasn’t thrilled with the foot pad and stool. I wanted to crop in but it has a very casual feel, and it keeps growing on me.
Moved to a black background and worked on a more moody look. Peter asked me to retouch this one, and I like it a lot! ** the setup described below
When I do final retouching for artists, I always include a black and white version. This is often way better than sending off a color image and letting the newspaper or magazine do the conversion.
* White seamless backdrop with a Fiilex 360ex Variable LED light with 24×36 inch softbox as main light (camera right) Camera left another light with a smaller softbox used as fill.
** Black seamless backdrop and lights as above but adjusted for more drama. A 5-inch Fiilex Fresnel attachment was added to another light for the background
One of the great pleasures of traveling to speak to photography groups is the fellowship with photographers. I met Ernst Ulrich Schafer while at the PPW Conference in Yakima, Washington. Ernst and I went out on an adventure and had a blast getting to know each other.
I asked Ernst to take a moment to pose for me to make a portrait. Found a decent spot for a nice lighting pattern on his face but the final portrait was completed in post-production. Here is the story of ‘The Making of Ernst”.
Final image of Ernst
Original capture. Looking for a soft split light pattern.
I looked for a background that had a little bit of a gradient and a soft shadow transition from light to dark. Accomplished but finding an overhead light block with two open sides. I placed Ernst closer to the left-hand side to make the short side of his face the lighted portion. The light coming from the other side worked as fill. If aI wanted a sharper contrast I would have moved him further left. Less contrast further right. Since we can’t move the lights in a situation like this moving the subject is the only way to go.
Process in NIK Silver FX Pro 2 with Sepia Tone. Note the difference between this image and the final at the top of the page. The white rim on the collar was removed as it was a distraction. Additional dodging and burning was done to lightly increase contrast and control some of the highlights. Check out the Layers Palette Screen Capture for more details.
If you don’t already have NIK filters be aware that they are a free download from Google. There is a great variety of filter effects available in the Suite. I often use Silver FX Pro 2 for my black and white and sepia tone conversions.
Layers Palette
Background is the original capture. Silver Efex Pro 2 is the Sepia Tone conversion. The copy Layer shows some retouching with the removal of the white collar. Layer 1 is a Soft Light Layer to burn in the sweater and add contrast to the shadow side of the face. Layer 2 is another Soft Light Layer to control some highlights and add a little sparkle to the eyes. I use the Soft Light Layer Mode to dodge and burn my images.
As you can see Adobe Photoshop with a pit stop in Adobe Camera Raw is a large part of my workflow.
Image made with the new Lumix GH5 and the 42.5mm f1.2 Nocticron lens @f1.2 1/320th sec ISO 200
For infrared conversion of my cameras I use LifePixel. Infrared allows you to put an older camera to use and opens up a new time time of day for productive image creation.
Fotopro tripods are well worth checking out. You can learn about the ones I use and recommend by clicking on the Fotopro Tripods link at the top of this page. If you want to see what other tripods might fit your needs check out the Fotopro.com website. Check back with me before you buy as a Fotopro Ambassador I’m able to get you discounted pricing including complementary continental USA shipping for my followers that you won’t find through retail outlets.
Learn Photoshop in a fun environment. Aaron Nace applies the right amount of fun with easy to understand and follow tutorials. Actions and brushes are included with lessons!
Lightning, waterdroplets, sound, time-lapse, HDR sequences, smiles and much more control for your camera!
Cameras Get Smarter -
A High Speed Smart Camera Remote
Best embroidery ever. Give Queensboro a try, get a $20 instant credit to get started by clicking on the logo! They specialize in great quality custom logo apparel and promotional products with the best customer service.
Platypod has become a great resource for being creative in getting your camera gear easily into unusual places. As an Platypod Pro I get to work/play with the gear even before it comes out. Head over to Platypod, subscribe to the newsletter and you will get special discounts reserved only for subscribers.
Harpist Peter Sterling
