Dancing in the Streets: A reason to Smile

These are some of the photos that I was able to shoot a couple weekends ago! Yosakoi is a dance festival that takes place in Sasebo and is all about the dancing and energy! I had the opportunity to shoot this festival last year, but this year I was able to get involved! Had a lot of fun just running around and experiencing all of the Japanese culture. If you wish to see more from this shoot, you can visit my Flickr account as well.



I do however, want to take the time out to mention just this one thing. Last year I showed up right at the end of the event. I only was able to shoot a couple photos. This is the photo I shot last year:


And this is the photo I shot this year:

Notice anything? If you couldn't tell... both photos were of the EXACT same group of kids. It would have been nice to get a shot of the same kid twice, exactly a year apart, right? Either way, i find it interesting none the less. I think some of the children recognized me too!






One thing that I absolutely loved, was the fact that everyone had fun! Never a dull moment. If you are ever in the Sasebo area during this festival, it would be a shame to miss such an exciting event.

What are you SMILING about?

Flo Rida and The D700

Multi-Award winning rap artist Flo Rida recently visited Sasebo, Japan in support of the Commander Naval Installations Command tour to show love to the forward deployed Naval forces overseas. Seeing as this would be a rare opportunity for me, I decided to shoot some photos of the concert.

After realizing that the show was going to be held in the Fleet Gym, its not hard to assume that it would be pretty dark and I was going to have to use some skill to expose for the show. D700 time! With todays technology, low light situations are getting easier to handle!

Gear:
Nikon D700
20mm 2.8
80-200@200mm 2.8
10.5mm 2.8
NO FLASH!

20mm@2.8 125th/sec. 3200iso

20mm@2.8 125th/sec. 3200iso

80-200@80mm 2.8 125th/sec. 3200iso

80-200@200mm 2.8 125th/sec. 3200iso

20mm@2.8 125th/sec. 3200iso

80-200@200 2.8 200th/sec. 3200iso

80-200@200mm 2.8 125th/sec. 3200iso

80-200@80mm 2.8 125th/sec. 3200iso

Its scaring me how todays technology is advancing soo fast. Hopefully in the future I can be more prepared for a shoot like this. All in all, pretty satisfied with the results. What do you think?

What did you do in the DARK today?

Man on the Street: May I?

Here is a series that i shot on the streets of Japan. A good mentor of mine suggested i do this. He sent me a link to a gentleman that would walk the streets and shoot portraits of the Japanese locals. The whole idea I got from him was to be comfortable enough to convince a random stranger to stand in front of the lens for one photo.

All that i did was set up a tripod for my camera, an SB900 camera left and a SB800 on a tripod directly behind the subject. All in all it took 5 minutes to set up, and an hour to shoot. So far I am happy with the results.


I will tell you however, that you should be careful setting up lighting like this in a public area. You always run the risk of equipment getting damaged, or lost.

Here are the photos i shot so far:

Technical aspects are as follows:
Nikon D300 on a SLIK 400 DX-LE
ISO 200/50mm 1.4 f/1.4 at 250th
SB900 against a 45" Calumet Umbrella
SB800 on a SLIK 400 DX-LE Behind Subject

It really took some convincing sometimes to get the people to pose for me. Once I was able to show them a semi-result on the digital back, they were more open minded about standing there.


When I said you need to be careful, you really do. I was actually asked to leave the area by Japanese police. Granted we had shot plenty of photos already though.. Just be careful!

Very happy with the results. Next step is to get a whole series done. Maybe a whole group of people at a time? hmmm....

What did you do UNCOMFORTABLE today?

Tackling the Darkness: Confidence

I was recently asked to shoot photos of my friend and his car. I know that my re-occuring theme in the last few blogs has been the thought of 'uncomfortable' feelings.

Having never shot photos of a car before, this was something I would be completely interested in.

When we approached the area we were going to shoot the subject and his car, it was COMPLETELY dark, with little to no ambient light.

One of my good friends and I had been talking about HDR images and the way they work. In a nutshell, you expose for highlights, darks, and mid-tones in three separate images. Then using Photoshop(or whatever platform of your choice) you essentially make one solid image, that captures all three elements at their fullest.

That's EXACTLY what I was able to do with this image.

To start I placed the car in a good position, along with the tripod. The key to this type of image is that the tripod should not move at all. It was also key that the car did not move at all either. Any slight movement would make merging the image in post production harder.

Step 1: Expose for the entire sky and all ambient light around.
- The exposure I set for this image is: f/5.6 at 30 sec.


Step 2: Expose for the anything around the car. For this shot I exposed for a vehicle driving by. The light off of the vehicle allowed for further exposure on the back side of the car, as well as adding a slight artistic feel to the photo with the stream of light in the background.

This exposure was set to: f/5.6 at 15 sec.


Step 3: expose for the Person in the photo. This is where your studio style lighting comes into play. I shot with an sb900 camera right through a white calumet 45" umbrella.

This exposure was set to: f/5.6 at 3 sec.


Step 4: Now that I have all three images, post production time. Here is the final result after some time spent at the computer merging the images carefully.

Its really that simple if you think about it. I suggest you try something like this! It was fun, and totally worth the time spent for one image.

Getting out of my comfort zone, and attacking a photo shoot with full confidence. Have fun with what you do, and NEVER let anyone tell you that you CANT do it. Cause you can.

Here in the future, what if i did this same photo with an entire Navy Warship? Hmmmmm....

What did you do Creative today?

If You Have Not Failed, You Have Not Lived...

Check out this video. Great inspiration to remember that failure, doesn't mean you should quit trying.



Ill be the first to admit that failure is not easy to handle for most.... As a matter of fact, I am still dealing with the battle on a regular basis. You know, the battle of being Humble, and knowing when you messed up.

I suggest you remember that even if you fail, you are gradually learning from the mistakes you made, or will make.

Come to find failure as an inspiration, not as an excuse to give up.

What did you fail at today?

Driving Blind: Aint That the Truth...

In June, I had the honor and the privilege of shooting photos for an old friend, and prior band mate of mine. As the story goes, I flew into Albuquerque about mid-month and was excited to hear that his band would be headlining a show while i was in town. So, I thought to myself: "I should shoot some photos of them playing". I didnt turn out how i had expected it at all! Mind you, I would never leave home without the handy dandy camera, and gear.

I went there expecting to only shoot photos of them playing live.... But as the night went on, my old friend asked if i would be interested in shooting some portraits of them while at the show. I did not hesitate. Quickly i picked up all of the gear i had with me(Two SB800's, D200, and D300 and a single tripod).

This type of situation is something i was completely new to, and to be completely honest i was terrified I would look bad if i screwed up. I have had my share of shooting single portraits of one person, but never multiple people in one photo, while maintaining a good amount of lighting. As my mentors have said in the past, its always good to be uncomfortable because it means you are learning from your mistakes.

Being uncomfortable is a good thing, and driving blind will allow for you to make mistakes. I would suggest to whom ever is reading this that you make it a point to go out of your way to be in an awkward situation.

I felt very down about the situation, because i was alone and wanted these photos to be outstanding for the band. But, I charged through it and made it out on top.

Step out of your box, and learn a little. I was recently reminded that a photographer is as good as he wants to be, and the best piece of equipment he has is the camera right next to him. Instead of spending my time worrying about all the little petty things, i should have been confident in the quality of work i can produce.

On a side note, it was because i used what i had in hand, and worked so hard that i am now privileged to work with one of the Atlantic Records Reps. out of Albuquerque, NM. With a little more work under my belt and time spent behind the lens practicing this type of photography, maybe i can begin to shoot bands for the rest of my career?? :)

To explain a little about the photos.... I used a single strobe directly behind the subjects for some sort of "back" lighting to seperate them in the photo. Using the other strobe I was able to grab my friends brother, and direct him where to hold and point the flash as i shot. Simple set up = simple situation.

Because of the time of day, and the back light available i shot at about an ISO of 500 to compensate. Allowing me to keep my shutter speed up, and maintain a steady amount of light.

I guess at the end of the day you really dont know what your capable of unless you take that leap of faith, right? Blinddryve was a great band to shoot! I hope to work with them in the near future!

BlindDryve Myspace

GET OUT OF YOUR COMFORT ZONE! WHAT ARE YOU GONNA DO CREATIVE TODAY?

Becoming the Archetype: Who am I?

Today was the first day that i realized what i can do in life. The possibilities are endless! Right now, I am young and restless. Learning and adventure should be an everyday part of my life. I should be taking everything in like a sponge. Fortunately, I was smart enough to seek out the guidance I would need in order to get better at the things i want to do in life.

Talking, interacting and just straight networking through people is how i have come to find what i need to know. What do you do? I suggest you think about it. A wise man once asked me "What do you want to be when you grow up? and what are you doing now to get there?". A great question that gave me a sort of "new" inspiration to work to what i want to do in life. Do what you want to do, when you want to do it. Be what you want to be, when you want to be it. I look forward to everyday because there are new events in life i can capture with my camera.

Lets move on... I havent properly introduced myself yet. I'm Travis. A 22 year old man, that is searching for his place in life. As for right now, i know that i will be a photographer for as long as my limbs on my body function properly. My passion for photography has grown tremendously in the last year. Note that i said, PASSION. Thanks to the photographers that have been gracious enough to pound these ideas in my head constantly... Their passion for this Profession has given me a new idea of what photography is. Photography has been described as many things, by MANY people. As for myself, i find photography to be my PASSION. I dream about it. I think about it constantly. And most of all, I love it.