Posted by: Terry Mayer
in Terry's Blog on August 24, 2009
I should do a whole photo story on photographs I take out the back door of the house. The lightening photo that I posted a few posts ago was shot a few steps out the back door. For this one, I never left our kitchen.
This is a weather vein along our fence in the back yard around 25 feet from our house. On this night I had gone out running and while I was out, the sky lit up with lightening. It made for an awesome show in the night time twilight. While running, I was trying to think how I could get a photo of the lightning in the sky. Just a photo of the sky wouldn't cut it. I needed something in the foreground.
By the time I got home nothing really came to me. The ideas that I had would require some set up which would take some time. Since it was starting to sprinkle, I gave up on those ideas, but as I went to the kitchen to get a drink I could see the weather vein silhouetted against the lightning. I knew that was what I wanted.
I ran upstairs to get a tripod but couldn't find a head for it. With the storm moving pass fast I had little time. I ran back down to the kitchen, turning off the lights and grabbing my camera on the way. I always keep my 80-200mm lens on the body so I can grab it and go, which I did in this case. I opened the sliding door, stuck the lens out and shut the door enough to hold the lens tight. This is not the best thing to do with a camera but it worked for me at that time and many times you have to improvise and use whatever is at hand. The exposure is a lot like the lightning photo I posted a little while ago. I open up the aperture to let as much light in as possible, get focused in on something in the foreground (or sometimes the background) and hold the shutter open until the lighting strikes or just open it up when I think it will strike. This works best for me. I know there are other ways to achieve the same result but you have to find what works for you. I do get a lot of all black images but once you get a feel for where the lighting is and how the camera reacts it gets easier. I am not sure what my exposure is on this image but the ISO was 800 and f-stop was set at 2.8 . I do have more from the backdoor but will post them at future dates.
Posted by: Terry Mayer
in Terry's Blog on August 14, 2009
This is a recent photo I took at the Venetian festival in Lake Geneva over looking the Rivera. It was a fireworks display on the final night and I always look to do something different. For 5 years I have been wanting to do a shot like this with the Riv in front and the fireworks up high. This year I was granted permission by the owner Sal, to go up into the condos across the street and get some photos and this is what I got. The lens is a 14-mm at f/9 and I cannot tell you how long the the shutter was open mainly because I used instink and my best guess. I did a couple of test shots but each firework is different so it depended on how big the firework was and how bright, plus you have to remember the lights already avaibile. After one or two fireworks I got a feel for what would works and what wouldn't. I had forgotten my tripod (D'oh) so I resting the camera on the balcony ledge to steady the camera. One thing that really bugs me about this photo is the trees in the lower right corner it is covering up some of the building and also a fountain in front which would have been nice to see.
Posted by: Terry Mayer
in Terry's Blog on August 07, 2009
Tagged in: Untagged
This was a very tricky photo for many reasons. The first reason is access: this was in the County jail. You just can't walk into the jail and start snapping photos so a few weeks before the shoot I had to get clearance. When shooting in the jail the officers let you know what you can and cannot photograph, and they trust you to follow the guidelines. No matter if I think it is a good photo or not, I do what the officers tell me to do. If they say that I cannot photograph someone or something, I leave the camera at my side so there is no question. I want to stay on the officers' good sides so I can return for assignments in the future.
After the debriefing on photo ethics in the jail, I was led to a room where a pastor and his volunteers have bible studies with the inmates. One of the photo stipulations was that I could not photograph the inmates' faces. This makes it a little difficult but also makes for a great challenge and forces me to be creative. During one of the studies the inmates bowed their heads to pray. When the inmate in this photo bowed his head, a shadow was cast across his face but his hands stayed in the light. I did have to darken the shadow a little around 10% in Photoshop, just to make sure you could not identify the inmate. The original was probably okay as it was but I didn't want any question as to the inmate's identity. I originally shot the image in color and then converted to to black and white, which I really liked so I then tried it as a duo tone with a bluish grey color and which I liked even more.
Posted by: Terry Mayer
in Terry's Blog on July 24, 2009
Tagged in: Untagged
Sometimes, i just drive around looking for photos with no real game plan in mind. I have certain areas that I drive past but the time of day is off or the subject isn't in the right place. This photo is one of those spots where I would drive by but nothing ever matched the way I wanted it... until one day.
I drove by the spot and looked up onto the hill, and saw the white horse in the exact spot I wanted and as a bonus it was a cloudy day that provided me with the background I was looking for. WIth the darker clouds and the shadow on the ground and the horse eating, everything I was looking for came together at that moment.
I got out of my car with my 200-mm lens and snapped away. Less than a minute later, the horse walked down the hill. I had driven by this area for years but this was the day that it all came together. If I had been 5 minutes sooner or later the photo would have been gone and I would have missed the shot.
Posted by: Terry Mayer
in Terry's Blog on July 17, 2009
Tagged in: Untagged
This photo of a spike being driven into the track is one of my personal favorites. I photographed this in December 2007. The East Troy Electric Railroad drove a silver spike into the rail line commemorating the beginning of East Troy Railroad's second century of continuous service. There was quite a bit of media in attendance and when a lot of media is around, I try and look for something different then the rest. You can see some of the other photographers and reporters standing around the man driving the silver spike; they are all in shadows.
When I went to make the photo, I saw the light in the background. That's why everyone was on that side so the light from the light post would illuminate the subject better. I was positioned in the middle of the track and I am sure I was in the way of the other photographers so I had to decide get out of their way and let them get the shot or get in the way and get the shot I wanted. As you can see I, got in their way and got what I think is a much more interesting photograph. With enough light in the sky and the added light from the street, I then spot metered off that light causing the silhouettes.
Posted by: Terry Mayer
in Terry's Blog on July 10, 2009
Tagged in: Untagged
Lightening can be tricky to photograph. First of all, you have to have an idea of where the lighting is going to strike. Second, you have to then figure out the exposure and the focusing. Finally, you have to take the photo at the same time the lighting is striking. It's a lot to figure while trying not to get wet.
There are several ways to go about getting the photo. This is just the way that works best for me; other ways may work better for you. I approach lightening like I would shoot fireworks; both are very similar.
First I get an idea of something else in the photo that will be the subject. In this photo the subject is the road and the power-lines. Shutter speeds will be slower for lightening photography so I put my camera on a tripod or mono-pod. I then put my camera on manual and my shutter on bulb. This allows me to determine when the shutter opens and closes. I then point my camera in the general direction of the lighting and will hold my shutter down during the lightening sequence. Once the lightening has struck, I release the shutter.
Granted I get a lot of black images but that's the beauty of shooting digital. The exposures vary; some are faster then others but each one is different with different results.
