Available light and flashes

Like most of the jobs I do , I show up early and look at what I'm up against , light wise.
I look to see how much light is in the venue and what color the light is. Florescent, incandescent, natural, a mix?
The reason I bring this up is because my last job had the perfect amount of natural and man made light I have had to deal with in a while. A big open window and a high white ceiling to bounce my flash off of. Perfect!
Not so fast!
Then the teacher who was in charge of this event closed the blind and turned off a bank of lights to make her video easier to see. There goes my perfect lighting. So now I've got to up the power of my flash and this makes it bothersome to the video guys and the people watching this event. No way around it, sorry people.
Even if the photographer has a camera that is better at low light images there is no way around taking pictures in a room with very low light.
So what is the answer to the question when the client is asking for certain images?
Well I think the answer is to become a director and re-shoot and set up the shot quickly with better lighting. And yes I know that at a news event I can't do this but at a client shoot where the client has a list of shots that they would like it is worth it to re-do some of the shots.

So here is a screen shot of the redo. Light from the open window off to the right and my flash bounced off of the ceiling. Giving the client a nice clean image to work with and not taking up to much time for those involved.

McDonalds, Purolator, and the importance of direction

When you do media driven photography like I do is very important that you have some sort of direction before and during the shoot.
First.The Canadian Press sends me a job sheet which lays out what the shoot is going to be and this includes quite often a detail shot list. Then when I get to the job it's very important to work closely with my contact at the event. They let me know if things have changed, what they need and any shots that come up that aren't on the list but they would like as well.
My last two jobs for Purolator and McDonalds are a prime example of working closely with the contacts, knowing what is expected before going in and then adjusting the shoots on the fly.
Here are a couple of screen shots from those two jobs.
First two are for McDonalds and the last is for Purolator.

Click, wind, click, wind. The back to film post.

I have lots of cameras, as you might expect. Digital, film, instant, large format etc. A wile back I bought a SLR film camera. It was in great shape and dirt cheep with a 50mm standard lens. I already had a medium wide angle lens that would fit, so it was a no brainer.
Turns out I really like the thunk of the old shutters. I like the simple metering of the old cameras. I like the big viewfinders of the old cameras. I like loading the film and winding it to the next picture.

But the love affair stops there!

I don't like paying for the film and processing, digital is free once you buy the camera and cards.
I'm not in love with the scanning. It's slow and tedious.
The grain is bugging me. Yes I can minimize it but it's bugging me. (400 ASA grain T-Max.)
Storing the negatives is a pain.

Does it bring me back to my youth, yes!
Am I going to use it again, yes. Don't ask me why. It makes no sense. I can't understand it, it's not 1975 it's 2015.
As far as I can figure out it comes down to the thunk and wind.

Reel West Ad

Many years ago when I worked for a local television station as a production photographer I would cover most of the on air personalities for print media. The station had the most popular sports program and so I did a group shot of the reporters.
Jump ahead thirty years and Reel West magazine (on line) that has been around since I shot the original image, reprinted the image of the sports reporters. In exchange for payment they gave me an add in the magazine.
It's a simple add but what really had me shaking my head was the time that has passed! Thirty years! As john MacEnroe would say "you can not be serious!"

BMO Vancouver Marathon

Not very often do I get images of myself at work. These two images were shot of me working at the BMO Vancouver Marathon. Photo credit to Harry Bohm.

And a more obscure image of myself and the other photographers waiting for the winner to cross the line.

Resent work for The Canadian Press

Having shot these two jobs over the last little while I noticed that I took a very different slant on each image. For the first image, Women in trades I climbed up on a ladder for the group shot and had them look up at me. For the second image for World Vision I was laying on the cement in downtown Vancouver looking up.
I'm always trying to give the client something different so that the editor of the papers has a image that is not just your straight on, run of the mill, newsworthy shot.