Making photos of glass products can be challenging since the surface reflects everything including lights, reflectors, the surrounding studio and even the guy behind the camera. To avoid this, the lights can be moved from the front of the product to the sides or behind. This allows the strobes to shape the edges of the glass product, not the center. Doing this allows the glass to maintain the appearance of transparency while also showing the shape of the object.
The photos were made for www.etchintoperfection.com, a company that makes customized chemical etched art on glassware for special occasions. Their artistic process creates unique keepsakes for weddings, showers, parties or just about any event you can imagine.
My plan was to set up one rig that would accommodate most of the different shaped glasses without having to make a custom shot for each one. This was important since I priced this job as bulk photography, and it was not in the budget to have a custom lighting solution for each style.
Here are a few examples of the glassware for weddings…
How many times have we all missed the true purpose of Memorial Day or Veteran’s Day? For many of us, it seems like a good chance to enjoy a super sale or have a cook out. But have you ever really stopped to think that those seemingly small freedoms were paid for by somebody else?
It is said that freedom is not free and that is true. The lives of our armed service men and women are risked, spent and lost to help maintain our way of life and protect our strategic interests abroad. You cannot fight a war with just robots and drones… yet anyway.
For someone like me who has never served in the military, I may truly never understand what is sacrificed by our soldiers. How could I? I have not seen what they have or lost friends that are like brothers. Talking to some veterans makes it clear to me that the memories of those passed friends are still fresh many years later… like ghosts that visit the edge of their mind.
The 80+ year old airmen that I met when shooting photos for the Liberty Foundation (who flew a WWII era Boeing B-17 bomber) are ones that I frankly cannot forget. The stories they told me were epic, sad, funny or terrifying. The one thing that was repeated by every single one of them… “I am not a hero. The true heroes were my friends that died.”
In honor of those soldiers on this Memorial Day, I would like to share some of the photos that I took of these humble Americans who did their duty and should be honored. Hopefully, I have all the facts correct.
Joe, the Ball Turret Gunner
Meet Joe Walters, a ball turret gunner on a B-17 Flying Fortress named the Chug a Lug Choo Choo. On a bombing run over occupied France, the plane was shot down. Joe was able to get out of claustrophobic ball turrest and parachute to the ground…only he did not make it all the way down. He got hung up in a tree. A farmer and his son found him.
Joe was rushed away to the French Resistance who eventually got him back to the the Allied forces. Many years later, the families of Joe and the farmer reunited to celebrate.
When I took the photos of Joe, his facial features were amazingly the same. Below is a rare photo showing Joe being led off by the farmer. My guess is that being photographed stealing a prisoner away from the Nazis was a pretty dangerous game, and he was taking a great risk.
Photographer: unknown
Bob, the Pilot
Even at his age, Bob still looks like a strapping flyboy full of confidence and swagger.
Below he is signing the Liberty Belle’s door that was reserved for World War Two veterans only. There was even some signatures from the German Luftwaffe present.
Charlie, the 3 Star General
Charlie was a pretty high ranking officer later in his career. I think he also few a Northrop P-61 Black Widow, one of the first night interceptors of the war.
Roy Reid, Shot Down at Pearl Harbor
I met Roy shortly before his 90th birthday and was there to witness him getting to fly again in a World War Two era warbird. Read my previous blog about him here.
To make a amazing story short, Roy was supposed to land his B-17 at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941 and got shot down by Japanese fighters. The B-17 crews were not fully aware that the base was under attack due to radio silence. Some of his friends did not survive the crash landing and the ensuing strafing. Roy said that armor plating welded to the back of his chair a few days prior saved his bacon. The photo below may be of his actual plane, but I cannot confirm it.
Photographer: unknown
Roy’s log book is filled with entries of flying exotic military machines from the 1940s.
Sam, the tailgunner from the Shiftless Skunk
The first thing I noticed about Sam was that he wore his pants very high, and that he was a character!
The next thing I noticed was his original bomber jacket with 28 missions recorded on it. The third mission had a parachute indicated instead of a bomb, which means he had to bail out. He said a fire on plane full of bombs during take off was “exciting, but not in a good way.”
Though there are usually many people walking around a plane like this on display, I asked Sam to hang back when everyone walked off so I can get a simple photo of man and machine. Ten men crewed each B-17, and you can see how large these flying pans were. I call them this because many were scrapped after the war to become pots and pans.
Michael Gold, the Jewish P.O.W.
Think about it… a Jewish prisoner of war in Nazi Germany. I am a little amazed that Dr. Gold survived that ordeal. I photographed him in the nose of the B-17 and I swear for a moment, he was really back in the 1940s. I could see it in his eyes.
He was a handsome devil back in the day… ladies beware.
Victory on so many levels… enough said.
Richard, back on the B-17 sixty three years later
This man held up a slip of paper showing the last time he was in a B-17 bomber, which was March 26, 1944 exactly 63 years to the day earlier. The only mission data that I found for that date that looks like the writing was a V-Weapon site in La Sorellerie France. The V-Weapons were the first long range missiles used in war.
The rest of the photos have fewer details to share. I did not catch their names, but it was an honor to meet them nonetheless.
“It’s all coming back… “
I always felt honored to have these men in my presence. They are MY heroes.
The next time you meet a veteran, thank him or her for what they have given you, whether you know it or not.
When I found out that my work friend, Barbie, had 2 Great Danes, I just had to take their portraits. Her dogs were different than the tan “Marmaduke” Danes that I knew. Instead, their fur is an amazing pattern of white and black splotches. In person, they are absolutely stunning creatures.
My sister had a 180 lb. great dane and she loved that dog. He was fiercely loyal, protective and looked like a small deer running around their farm. He could easily look you in the eye if he put his front legs on the window to look in. With his pointed ears, dark shiny eyes and long face, he looked like an alien scanning the room before making an abduction. I’ll admit that he was a bit scary to me. The snapshot to the right shows him with my dog, Winston.
The build of these dogs is unlike the average canine. Look how long those legs are.
Bella is a beautiful lady and less than 2 years old. Jackson is her half brother sharing the same father.
“Jax” was only 3 months old at the time of these photos, and very much a puppy despite his size.
I am told that since these photos, he has eaten lots of food, and he is on the fast track to becoming a big man.
To me, showing the dogs in “puppihood” is something that should make people exclaim “Awww… too cute!’ They they will never be this small again… especially this breed.
The other thing that I like to capture is the love between the owner and the” adopted child”. Any dog lover will tell you that this can be a strong unbreakable thread that lasts a lifetime and beyond.
The affection between Barbie, Bella and Jackson cannot be hidden.
Little Jax is still labeled a puppy, enven though at 50 lbs., he would be considered pretty large for a normal family dog. He could easily grow to be 150 lbs. or more when he grows into his enormous paws.
For convenience, we met outside the Graphic Works studio. My plan was to take some outdoor shots since the weather was unseasonably warm. The advantage was two-fold. This would allow the dogs to unwind from the car ride and get used to me pointing a big camera at them. Also, it would give a chance for them to empty their bladders which Jax did on my shoe in the first minute he saw me. I avoided an in-office disaster with a a little pre-planning.
Even though we were in the middle of an office park. I wanted the photos to look like we were in a city park. By strategically shooting up from a low angle, I was able to hide much of the parking lot and busy street in the background.
When I sensed that hey were tiring, we went inside to try some studio portraits. I had photographed dogs on paper rolls before, but not this heavy. They poked holes in the paper in no-time flat, but that is what Photoshop is for. Next time, I’ll use a muslin backdrop.
I wanted to emphasize the size difference between the two dogs which will disappear in a matter of months.
I also wanted to capture the unique personality of each animal. Talk about charisma… these two have it in spades. Here they were having a beautiful tongue contest.
I thought a speckled background might look good with our spotted doggies.
To me, this angle only makes Jaskson cuter!
As a photographer I cover the basic angles, and then I try to make images that are not what you would expect. A little experimentation can yield some interesting results.
Call me strange, but this last one is my favorite.
Check back again soon. There will be followup photos.
Some cakes seem just too pretty to eat… even if that is the point. Such is the case with anything made by Lisa Humphreys of Couture Cakes, an Atlanta boutique bakery specializing in dazzling wedding and event cakes.
I collaborated with Couture Cakes to make photos of a showcase cake that looked absolutely amazing. The theme included delicate flowers, pearls and butterflies.
Lisa styled the accessories and we moved various items in a out of the photo in different configurations. Below is an early image that we later abandoned for a simpler design.
The final destination for the photos is Cake Central magazine. We made the photo below with lots of negative space so that it could be used as a cover which often require space for a magazine logo and article teasers.
As it turns out, we did not get the cover, but we did get a nice 2 page spread.
It is amazing to think that all of this is made with flour, sugar, time and talent.
A closer look reveals details like hand painted butterflies and letters, meticulously formed shapes, subtle color design and a variety of surfaces.
The flowers are made from edible fondent which may be a surprise to anyone viewing it. I would bet some people looking at these did not even realize that they were not real flowers. They are so delicate that it took several days of patient work to make them.
Lisa is an absolute master of cake design and it was a pleasure working with her.
Photo details for this included 2-3 flashes, 1 humongous umbrella, and 1 soft box. An additional flash was sometimes used to lighten the background, which was a painted wall in her home.
Justinas and Marie are two of my oldest friends in Atlanta. I have know them since the days when riding motorcycles in the north Georgia mountains was a weekly event. We spent many a mile together and had some great adventures. It was wonderful when they got married and then pregnant later on.
Justinas and his brother, Paulius, are photographers just like their father back in Lithuania. The love of photography is something that we all have in common. Justinas was making a movie of the shoot.
I was honored to be able to take some of these photos of Marie, but I wanted to include Justinas in some too. He is always behind the camera so this time, the roles would be reversed for him. I also thought it would be important to show them as a couple. I love the negative space between them in the next photo.
We decided to meet at my office where we could take advantage of an open studio and also the last remaining Fall foliage outside. Many trees had already lost their vibrancy at this point, but I put my secret weapon to good use… I simply call it the THE TREE. This one always has incredible color.
My favorite tree in Atlanta still had a little Fall color left… but only if the sun hit it just right. The same tree is in the background of the image above and below. The only difference is that sun peeked out for a few brief moments on the latter one. I call this “boom pow” because this kind of color knocks me out.
Pretty soon the evening light was toast so we headed indoors to try a few different scenarios. The first was to photograph Marie against a painted blue wall using a ring flash. If you have never seen one of those, it would look similar to sticking your camera lens through the hole of a large doughnut shaped flash. It creates a signature ring highlight in the eyes and a soft shadow around a subject who is in close proximity to a wall. This look is not for everyone, but Marie pulls it off.
Then I wanted to try some dark background portraits with strong directional light. We used a sheer mesh here.
I wanted a very strong rim light to help define her against the dark background.
She then changed into something a little less comfortable. How she wrapped herself in this thing is a mystery, but I think I saw her twirling into it while Justinas held the end.
This is one of my favorites because of the modeling on that perfect belly, and the expectant look of motherhood. She will make an incredible mom.
This is one of those cases where I needed to match a style of portrait that I took several years before. Luckily, I meticulously measure the position of my equipment, flash power and camera settings for every job I do. That way if an office manager says “we need a photo of our new doctor and we want it to look JUST LIKE the ones you took 2 years ago, I can do it.
I have even kept old studio flash sets due to recurring jobs… even though I have much more capable and expensive gear now. The bottom line is that it is faster for me to set up the old stuff instead of recalibrate a previous setup with new gear. You can decide for yourself if that makes me smart or lazy.
I get to make a lot of headshot portraits for corporate clients. Instead of the client coming to my studio, it is usually more convenient for me to show up at their office with a portable setup. Scheduling is always an issue with busy executives so we time the photoshoot on a day when everyone is in town.
To make the photos consistently sized, I visualize the final proportions of the portrait. Sometimes I crop the photo very tight if it going to be used for low-res applications such as websites. That way, the face is larger and easier to see.
It is important to be fast and efficient when making these portraits. The last thing you want to do is waste the time of someone who has meetings planned all day. To do this, I shoot with my camera tethered to a laptop computer. As soon as I take the photo, it is transferred to the computer where we can review it. After several shots, we pull all the photos up on screen, and we pick the best one… usually by process of elimination. It is rare when we do not all agree on the final choice.
When I first visited the QSpex building, I was drawn to the front entrance that had a sitting area next to a huge window. Window lit portraits are things that photographers dream of… unless the sun is pouring in like bright white laser beams as it was that day.
The day we showed up was overcast which was very lucky indeed. I still could have made it work with bright sun, but maybe not without a more complex multi-light setup. There was no time for that since one of the executives had a lunch meeting and had to leave. Nothing like performance under pressure, but that is always part of the game. I set up a huge and high umbrella and fired off several frames concentrating on the placement of the executives. The basic photo is below marked with things that I did not like.
I am not a photo journalist so I am not bound by truthful reality. If I think I can make the final image better by retouching, compositing, tweaking or outright removal of distractions… I will do it. Of course, I do share this fact with the client and let them see both versions… just in case they like fire alarms and closet doors. The cleaned up image is below.
I knew we would be making a web site for QSpex also so I wanted to make sure I could use the group photo in a web banner which has more of a 16:9 aspect ratio. See it still works this way.
And finally, the image must work as a black and white photo. I often turn images to grayscale to make sure that they have enough detail and contrast to work without color.
I have known Lisa since the 90’s when I worked with her at my day job at Graphic Works. A lot has happened since those days, but one thing has remained the same. She is one of the nicest people that you will meet, and she has a zest for life. She’s Italian… what did you expect.
Her two children, Graham and Marissa, have the same adventurous spirit, and they are just fun to be around. Every couple of years we get together for a photoshoot and to compare how much bigger the kids have gotten. I do not know what she is feeding them, but they are growing like weeds.
Here are a few photos from that day. The Fall colors were not really in “bloom” yet in Atlanta, but they were on the verge of changing. The day was very overcast which I prefer over too-strong sunlight. This can give a hazy feel to the photos and the colors don’t pop as much as would strongly backlit leaves.
I hope to keep doing this with them for many years to come. It will be great to look back and remember the journey. To see last time’s photos, check out the previous Gallery Link here.
It is not hard to figure out who Marissa will look like when she grows up.
Sometimes the locations where I am hired to make portraits are not very exciting. Let’s be honest, many American corporate offices are basically gray painted boxes. In the case below, it was a narrow conference room in which I needed to make an eight person corporate group photo.You cannot tell form this angle, but I would have been hard pressed to squeeze behind the subjects.
Because of the tight confines of the room, my only option was to set up two large strobes to the right and left of me at the close end of the table, and push light into the room. This was not ideal because of the glass display at the end of the room showed the reflections of the strobes very clearly. Also, the frame rate of the screen was giving me weird partial images. In the end, I just decided it was faster and more efficient to put the logo in post-production.
People have asked why I did not just use the fluorescent overhead lights to make the photo. There are a few reasons. First fluorescent lights flicker unevenly and can cause issues with exposure and color balance. Those can be overcome, but it just adds complexity to the shoot. Secondly, there is not as much light as you might think in the room. Human eyes are much more sensitive than the sensor in my camera. Even at high ISO settings, I would have to set a longish exposure… not good for sharp shots of this many living, blinking people.
Flash captures the scene in 1/100th of a second freezing everyone perfectly. It allows me to control the color and shape of the light more easily, and in this case it made it possible to get the strong reflections in the table… the most interesting part of the photograph.
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