When in Doubt, Shoot.

March 16, 2011 in Parties

I know this is from a while ago, but I'm so excited about this new storyboard layout that I'm digging up some old shoots to experiment with.

This wasn't really a "shoot", it was a birthday party of a cute little mushball named Freida (namesake of the world famous freidafroo.wordpress.com , in which I scored a write up after sending over some photos). I had two of my kids wrapped around me most of the time so I didn't end up taking too many pics, and most were of my kids.

Big mistake.

If you know how to handle a camera and you happen to be at someone's party (unless you're a pro, in which case you're not reading this anyways:)) take pictures! The family will love you for it (and you could sell some prints). So I got pictures of the b-day girl and a few of her parents but not of all the other kids and families that were there (I was also shooting with a 50mm lens. Not very good for indoor parties, a 35 or even a 24 would have been much better). I'll know for next time.

Anyway here are the aforementioned photos. Enjoy.

Here's a link to my first write up,

Thanks!

Shooting Sputnik

March 14, 2011 in Families

Paying pensions with my quarters. That seems to be the plan.

If I'm not mistaken this was my first shoot of 2011 (not to be confused with 2012). They're a friend of a friend who saw some of my work on facebook (I love facebook (and Hashem, though not in that order). Not that I'm very active but it is free advertising.).

The monumental shootage started at Veteran's Park in Redondo Beach, after which we meandered down (they meandered, I ran backwards) to the pier. It's quite a pier this Redondo version. Much to buy, more to eat and they even have this huge scale so you could see how much you gained (and consequentially how much aerobics you need to do (does anyone still do aerobics? Please tell me they at least changed the costume)).

The boys were über cute, ridiculously well behaved and smart to boot (to boot? really?). Parents were fun, and the dad had to go because he had a satellite to launch. Seriously. Now I know who to blame when my phone loses reception. Darn commies.

I still have some film to develop, so we may see some updates in the future. Stay tuned.

In other news I got this awesome new photoshop plugin (technically a script) that compiles the photos into neat little storyboards. Upside is it looks awesome and tells a story (more on that in a subsequent (which is directly underneath sequent) post). Downside is I don't get to write corny comments about each photo (quite possibly an upside).

I also widened my blog, so some of the previous posts will look awkward until i find such time as to fix things up.

This post is best served warm with a chilled beer and pink sauerkraut.

I think I'll break it up next time so it will load better. Remind me.

Use Silencer When Shooting Indoors

March 03, 2011 in Families

This following post is dedicated to the city and people of Long Beach, who may not know it but they are beautiful and so is their city.

I don't shoot much indoors. Officially because I'm a "natural/available light photographer". Unofficially? That's complete balderdash. Well, maybe more like partial balderdash, or maybe more of a balderwalk or a recedingdash (I'm getting lost here, help me out).

The truth is I do not know how to control the lighting indoors enough to shoot consistent exposures. Although I do have a book on the way on the subject (I'll let you know if it's any good). It's somewhere between my old place (the address on my Amazon profile) and the new one, hopefully closer to the latter.

The issue is more of bad lighting than low lighting. There's usually a mixture of light sources, light types, light temperatures, light direction etc. And while many times the mix looks good, if the subject moves a bit everything changes. If I'd be doing posed studio shots, I'd be able to set up the room, the subjects and the lighting properly, but that's not what I do. I'm not a fan of the posed shots (i.e. I'm not good at it. Or to be fair I'm not good at awesome posed shots. And until I am I'm not into the cheesy ones). So somehow I need to have consistent lighting all across the shooting area (which may move from room to room).

The obvious answer would be to use a flash. Problems: pop-up flash is weak (only lights short distances) and straight on (gives that washed out ghost face look). So we stick one of those fancy gilkonks on top of the camera. Now it's much stronger but it still has that straight on, dead man walking look. So now we bounce the flash off of the wall/roof/mirror. But as we move we got to keep adjusting where you're going to bounce of. (Well one option would be to anticipate the moment and plan the shot. Yeah right. Maybe one day). So we get one of those Gary Fong knock off's to stick on top of our gilkonks. And we get a cord that allows us to take the flash off the camera and hold it up and to the side with our left hand while we hold the camera in the right. Which leads to carpal tunnel and texting thumbs. But we do what we got to do. And then, since we still feel inadequate, we convert almost everything to black & white.

Here's my first (mostly) indoor shoot. There was much extended family involved so for the most part I have no clue who the photos are of.

First some family pics outside

Silly one. Of course. The kids got to have fun.

Would have been the perfect shot IF I'D HAVE SPENT A FEW SECONDS LOOKING FOR DISTRACTIONS! (sorry about the caps) The water bottle and hat on the table should have been chucked along with the ottoman. Dork.

Playing with my new baby (she's actually holding it quite nicely. You have to make sure to hold its head)

Posing with my baby

Grandma and Granddaughter

The grandson wasn't into the whole kissing thing

Mommy and daughter

Love the look on her face

Got to love glowing ears

Example of nice window light (though a small fill flash may have helped. I just can't work quick enough yet)

The grandparents are really into music, so we posed a shot with all the grandkiddies and some instruments (though it's hard to make everyone look interested). The mom was standing on the couch holding the flash.

Love this one

The whole fam was running around with nerf guns shooting each other (even granddad!). Was mucho fun.

You could see that the flash is not straight on. Makes a big difference.

Cut off her hand. Crazy bearded amputator.

And for some film shots:

Should have fixed her hair.

Yeehaw. The camera must have gotten into my herbs.

And there you have it. My first indoor shoot. As usual a shoot very much depends on the people having fun (especially kids and the photographer), and we definitely had a good time.

Peace & Love. Harmony & Trust. Jinkerdinks & Tongerlocks.

Which Camera?!?!?!

February 23, 2011 in Families

Once in a while I get a question or two about photography, so I figured I may as well answer them in posts so the masses (all two of you) will get to read my words of recently acquired (and usually quite plagiarized) words of wisdom.

Question (not the exact words):

Dear photographer of extreme talent, much humility, and understated elegance,

I am interested in getting into photography a bit (or upgrading to a DSLR). What does the great moment capturer and pontificator have to recommend?

Yours truly,
Bobby Dooley

Answer:

That is a wonderful question Mr. (Mrs.?) Dooley, although I do take issue with some of your accolades, if you would be able to see my face (no one has since I was 15) you may see a hint of a blush.

Being that I have the (mostly) unhelpful tendency to read way too much (instead of just going out and shooting), I do end up knowing more about photography and cameras than I know how to actually take pictures.

I could go through all the pros and cons of different cameras and camera companies, but that would be boring and the end result will be the same.

So here's your answer Bobby: Buy yourself a used Nikon D90 (for around 500 buckaroos), a used Nikkor 35mm f/1.8 DX ($170), a used Nikkor 18-70mm (around $140) and a used Nikkor 50mm f/1.8D lens ($80). If you could only get one lens, get the 35mm.

A great place to buy used camera gear is Fredmiranda.com. You have to register (free) but it's worth the time. Do not buy a used camera body on craigslist unless you know what to look for. Lens are cool though.

Why buy used you ask? Cameras (especially lens) hold their value extremely well, and if you don't like what you got or want to upgrade you could always sell for the price you paid.

Why Nikon? Good question. I'll answer that in another post. (Basically better autofocus, better ISO (sometimes), better build, and more lens to choose from (including a whole slew of awesome and cheap manual focus lens))

Why the D90 and not one of the newer Dx000 series? the D90 has a built in focus motor so it works with a much larger variety of lens. The dx000 only work with the newer AF-S, which cost a lot more and many times are not any better.

Whats a post without pics (you ask)? Another good question. So here are some photos from a wonderful session we had in Agoura hills (I think).

I think she was dancing here. Quite a fun girl this one was.

Focusing while swinging, not for the faint of heart (nor for the Canon owners :))

repeat after me: smaller apertures, smaller apertures, smaller apertures. Good.

Love the faces this one was making.

Wood: High in starch, unessential amino acids, handprints and zinc.

Kids and funny faces. It's a part of growing up (once you grow up it becomes adults and funny faces)

I love, love, love this one.

Whatcha snappin' at Mr. Bearded man? (Hey missy, I'll have none of your adolescent smart-rear end talk. It's Rabbi Bearded man to you)

Me like. (smaller apertures!!! @##$%#@%$#*%)

Gotta lov her hair.

Mother Daughter

Impish I-Got-Mommy's-Coffee look

Getting into the square format a bit

Film!!!!

More film!!! (I'll post about what and why another time)

I need to do more of this. Get a bit more of the environment in, I need some wider lens(es?)...

Couldn't resist the color combo.

Any more questions? Email me or leave a comment.

Have y'all a good day (who cares if it doesn't make sense. Life hardly makes sense anyways).

Eli Chaim's Upshernish Invitation

January 17, 2011 in Families

Oh my, this one is old. Just posting for completeness' sake. (Also because it seems, that for some odd reason, much of my traffic is driven from people searching for "upshernish invitation" on google).

This was designed for my bro's son (photography not by me, and the aleph beis is a pic of a poster my wife made:)).

Enjoy.