Going WITH the sunlight till the very end.

I know it has been FOREVER since I last posted. Lots of stuff has been going on, just not directly related to this blog. 

BUT 'tis the season for me to start shooting again!

This past weekend our dear friend Joe graduated from Columbia University's School of Engineering with his Masters! It was very exciting and a lots of family flew in for the occasion. Needless to say- photos were a must. 

The sun was fading fast but the light was GORGEOUS. 

Here's an amateur mistake that I've seen a lot of people do (and I'm so thankful I had one oopsy so I could show you!)

Which image do you think looks best? (Both are straight out of the camera ((SOOC)). 

There was the most AMAZING golden light but you do NOT want that on your subject's face. I had Maris and Joe step two feet to the left and BAM! The bottom photo happened. (Realistically, she could have stepped one more foot over, but I'm satisfied.) 

There's no camera tricks, no artificial light. Just straight shooting.  I exposed for the people, not the background. 

Here are a few more images from the festivities. (Also SOOC).

The Grad!

 Joe and his Momma that flew in all the way from Australia!

 The whole gang.

^ This is my New York family. :)

Below are two edited images that I played with. 

 ^ Maris and Joe.

Maris and her Daddy the next day. So beautiful. 

In other news: I will be in Metro Detroit from June 3rd till sometime in the fall. 

Glad to be back! And I hope to keep up with this, at least once a week.

Its been a MONTH?! WHAAAAA?

You know how you can sometimes just lose track of time?

This happened for me, for the past MONTH.

So much happened while I was gone.

•   I went to an amazing lecture, met some people who have already become amazing friends. 
•   Got to see a ton of my friends (and shoot with them) that I haven't seen since last Summer. 
•   Almost broke my ankle. SEVERELY bruised/ possibly fractured it. (I was off of it for about 4 days?)
•   My Gramma S was in and out of the hospital and now she is in a rehab facility. (TBD when she'll be out of there.)
•   Made some awesome connections for the Detroit project and found more supporters!
•   I was able to get in about 5 days of shooting for clients/ friends. (Blogs to come!)
•   Kicked ass on my instagram with updating it all the time. (FOLLOW ME!)
  

 

And I got back to 'the city' (NYC) just in time to celebrate my 29th Birthday with my Husband and good friends Maris and Joseph (originally from Montana!) 

Here's how the day went down:

My birthday morning shot! I still can't believe I made it to 29. How did this happen?

Before going to the Natural History Museum we hit up a restaurant called SHAKE SHACK. AMAZING burgers! And it was right across the street!

After wandering the museum for a few, we went into the store. I found this book... I knew she was with me today. 5 years almost to the moment of her going into open heart surgery. Time has flown, but I know shes watching over me. And has helped to get me to this point.

Little funny story about these Dino's, up until about 10 years ago I would NOT have gone anywhere near this floor! You want to talk about irrational fears? Yup, thank GOD for getting over them! :D

We then headed over to the East Village to look for 'Obscura Oddities' the store from TV with the weird two headed baby calves. It wasn't that cool... very small and the stuff was pretty standard. So we continued to wander, and we saw an adorable bar that had 'spiked hot spiced cider'. The below photo is the after shot. Those cheeks are red not from my blush :D

We had an impromptu birthday cake ice cream stop. It was 30 degrees out, that's totally reason enough for ice cream! lol.

Then we finally made our way to Chinatown! See Canal and Bowery street? Will you be standing next to me? :P

We made it to the last and best stop of the day! McSorley's Old Ale House. I was pumped about this stop all day! It was opened around the 1850s and NO WOMEN were allowed in until 1970 per a court order! So yes, I felt very honored. They have two kinds of beer- dark and light, and it's cash only.  The food is limited but amazing. I can not believe I went back in time with this place to a simple NYC. It was amazing! Best find ever.

 I also got my own creation from Vernon Bea Studio. I have been DYING to have a custom piece from her and the Hubby got me one! Not just any piece though, an owl (WHICH I LOVE) named 'Peculiar'. He says 'How ironic that would be yours...'. What's that mean buddy! She even wished me a Happy Birthday on Instagram! I love her!

Check out Vernon Bea Studios on Etsy:Click Here

(Her stuff goes FAST! So if you see something, buy it now!)

or on Facebook: Click Here

She's a Michigan girl too, so I love her an extra amount. 

I will catch you up on my shoots etc soon! And then be back on the path to tutorials/ regular blogs. 

Scarlett J

:( UNEXPECTED BREAK FROM THE BLOG!

I'm very excited to announce that I'm going 

home for about a week and a half to Michigan! 

Currently I'm trying to tie up loose ends and get a proposal together to meet with people about my Memories of Detroit project. As well as attend a lecture at the Scarab club in Detroit.

So I will be MIA for a few days, possibly a week.

But I will be back!

So in the meantime,  please check out my old blogs and make sure you're up to date :)

XOXOXOXO-

Scarlett J.

Basic lighting for eye glasses. Probably not for the very, very basic shooter.

I was asked how to properly light someone that wears glasses.

((This is not gospel, but what I have found to work)).

Although this can be tricky, it all depends on your style and what you have available to work with.

If you're in a studio, it becomes much easier because it's merely a matter of getting the right angle (primarily by top lighting a subject/ reflecting off foam core into face). When dealing with children, do your best and pray. :) But top lighting is still the easiest way in the studio with kids and fill from the side(s) depending on the look that you want with soft boxes or foam core/ reflectors.

(Double click to see bigger)

Natural Light--
Now, if you're on a budget, or just trying to get some snap shots at home. I highly suggest not worrying about any kind of lighting. Just put the ISO around 800 (if in low light around the house) and do your best with the aperture set at its widest setting (could be 1.2-- 4 depending on the quality of the lens, sometimes higher).  Also, make sure your focal points are spot on your subject because depending on what your widest setting is, there can be little room for error. But the bright side? NO REFLECTION!

Pop-up Flash (aka: on camera flash)--
If you have a camera with a Pop-up flash, I consider this to be disastrous. (Not that the camera has one, but the final product). Anytime that I have used a Pop-up flash there is never a true consistency in my images as well as the colors always being off because its not strong enough to truly light the area of the subject so you have a mixed lighting situation. You can never really get the color temperatures even and correct in the image (look above). Also, there's no way to bounce light so all that you have is reflection in the glasses. Poor POOR quality image all around. 

**If this is all over your head, I'd love to give you an in person tutoring session. Contact me for availability and prices.

External Flash with Gary Fong Dome--

This is where you can start to control the light somewhat. Simplest way to explain this is to bounce the light either straight up or up and towards the back of your head (like a 45 degree angle). Think of it as you want the light to fall on the subject's glasses in a perpendicular angle. So that it's not direct. If you can somewhat get this, you're golden. If only the rim reflects the light- just take it out in Photoshop. :)


Below is an example of direct flash (outside, obviously not indoors) with the Gary Fong Dome. Unfortunately these lovely ladies do not have glasses on, but I thought I would show the difference. I NEVER use my flash without the Dome on top. The quality without it is soooo 1990's. :P

Its amazing how much more professional the Dome helps your work to look.

Is your transcript a reflection of who you are?

I Haaaaaaaated going to school to get a 'Psychology' degree. I didn't feel like it fit who I was or who I was trying to become. (This was long before photography was ever a thought in my brain).

I took a lot of classes that didn't make sense to me. Why do I need to memorize definitions? Really? How is this useful in everyday life? Let alone how is the definition going to cure anyone of their schizophrenia? I think in terms of theories, not definitions. Blah.

So needless to say, I did not do so great with my GPA during my time at U of M (mainly in my psych classes). But I also minored in History-- which I LOOOOOVED!

Tonight I was updating my LinkedIn account and going over my old transcript. I was SHOCKED to see the classes that really influenced me are honestly a direct reflection of who I am today! Its also a direct reflection of my passion (obsession) and what I want to focus on in my life.

I've been researching and trying to put a proposal together tonight for a potential trip to Detroit next week to help build my Memories of Detroit project. I can not concentrate on anything but Detroit, Detroit, Detroit so I had to write about something Detroit related.

I only hope that some day I can transfer my passion on to others, whatever that passion is, I hope its contagious. This feeling is like an exciting high that never really comes down, there's always something else to do, create, learn and share with the world.

I truly hope anyone reading this can some day share in expressing their ideas, how I hope I express mine.

Scarlett J

PS- Next weeks blogs will have more images and will be more photography based!

Woe is me? Not anymore!

I've had a rough couple of days with trying to contain my thoughts and feelings towards 'friends' high and mighty attitudes and thoughts.

I am sick of trying to talk to 'friends' and hearing nothing but "Oh I can top that problem! Look! I have it worse! They shouldn't be in the news because I should be, my life is horrible".

Or hearing stuff like "I wish that skinny girl would just hush about not being able to gain weight, here I am not being able to lose this baby weight and that girl won't shut up about not being able to gain it!"

Or even not being considerate and hearing other people's ideas, thoughts or concepts. I don't care what your stance is on any issue. If you're not willing to listen to another point of view, in my opinion you're not allowed to talk to me about yours. The only way we will have a well-educated society is by listening to each other and trying to make decisions based on hearing all the facts.

I have a friend that I love dearly. When I was younger, he would make fun of me because I was such a spitfire and he could get me crazy over just about any controversial issue. (He just loved seeing me go nuts, my personality was a little less tame back then lol!) I wasn't mad at him, I was getting mad that he refused to listen to me.

I honestly think half of the world's problems would go away if we would just listen to the other people around us. That is all that most people want in life. We want to be heard. If it is by our significant other, our kids, our parents, lawmakers-- whomever!

You have to be able to see the other side of whatever you are opposed to, or else you're really not understanding the issues at hand and you're not doing your 'friends' justice and basically, wasting your time.

This is from a series I started last year called "What have we become?"

 I hope to continue it this year.

Scarlett J

"The Decisive Moment"

When photographing, the number one way to get that 'decisive moment' is by practicing. 

Every one that I know starts out 'machine gunning' their photos. Just trying to get something good some where in the batch.

That changed when I took a photojournalism class. It was one of the HARDEST classes to adjust to because I had to slow down. Concentrate. Be engulfed in my work and focus on the moment that the action is at its peak. 

The moment when the bride is smiling the most, when that a tear rolls down her face, or when the flower girl yawns while dropping her basket of pedals everywhere at the alter.

See, photojournalism isn't just for sports. Its a training phase for the rest of your photo career. I HIGHLY suggest taking a class if given the chance. Even if it's just for your personal photographs.

On to the Decisive Moment, coined by Henri Cartier-Bresson. He said "There is nothing in this world that does not have a decisive moment". If you are a hunter (Lord knows I don't want to touch this topic in this day and age...) but if you are or know someone that is think about when they shoot. (Especially if using a bow and arrow). If they shoot too soon, they will miss. Too late? They will miss. So on and so forth. Its that same idea. It takes tons of time and practice, practice, practice.

Be thankful we are in the age of digital and not film. Imagine how many thousands of dollars you would 'waste' on film just trying to practice.

Lets look at an example: 

(Click on the photo to see it larger)

The first picture is missing a little something. Its ok, but no real action or emotion coming from it. 

The second, some people would be happy with it because it's sweet and you can feel the connection. 

But once you see that smile in the third, GAME OVER! That's the image that you want. 

THAT is the one that will go on the wall.   

Here is the final image (all of the above are straight out of the camera (SOOC))

Did you learn anything? Please share!

Scarlett J

(Please comment and send me questions if you have any.)