Mike Wiesman Photography
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Sunday Coffee Links!
This has been a great week for reading RSS feeds although I will admit I’m a bit behind in reading the ones that I subscribe to. But I made progress on 200+ feeds this week but still have 456-and counting to catch up on.
- As a recent follower to fstoppers.com, I have dug deep into their content and found how valuable their site really is. One could spend an entire year learning from what they share. Great content and behind the scenes videos, daily. From How to Shoot Fashion Photography In a Pool to their latest Product Review (Nikon Pocket Wizard FlexTT5, MiniTT1 and AC3 Review).
- This goes back to July 2010, but it’s a great way to deliver your photography to new clients. Clark Vandergrift I have mentioned before, but he’s a very creative guy and deserves a mention here because this package that he put together to promote himself is AWESOME!
- Lastolite opened a new section of their website lastyear and have been adding valuable tutorial videos on how to get the most out of their products. Check out the Lastolite School of Photography’s FREE tutorial videos!
- Check out this Idiot with a tripod.
- Here is a VERY creative guy and what he did with his boat. Part artwork, part boat. French artist Julien Berthier has designed a fully functional boat to look as if it is sinking.
- Another link from fstoppers but I had to share this footage that NASA captures of every shuttle launch. This particular footage just might be some of the last footage, as the funding for the space program has been cut.
- Last but not least I’d like to share an interview with a photographer that inspired me a lot lately. Jeremy Cowart explains and discusses his photography to Chase Jarvis. Cowart is also the brains behind Help-Portrait. What I really enjoy about this interview is that it brings in into Jeremy’s personality and shows how humble of a guy he really is. He’s another guy in this world, following his passion, giving back to the community and producing some amazing work. To save you a jump, I’ve included the video below.
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RSS Feed Edit and Update
I would like to take a minute and let the already subscribed RSSer’s along with new RSSer’s that my feed link has changed. The new link is as follows: http://feeds.feedburner.com/mikewiesman
Please update your reader or feed as needed. Thanks to everyone who follows!
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Dead Modern Villains LIVE
I read a headline in the Green Bay Press Gazette the other day that a venue that was well known for throwing some of the biggest shows in area closed their doors. Tom, Dick and Harry’s of Ashwaubenon closed, it’s a bit of a story that I won’t get into here, but you can read about it here it you would like.
The venue as far as a photographer looks at things was a beauty. Great big stage, lots of lights, front lit and back lit performers. It was honestly one of the “easiest” places that I can remember to shoot live performances, mainly because when they had a show, they did it right. The last show that I shot there was for The Dead Modern Villains (facebook page). I actually was asked to come along with a friend of mine and shoot together. Have a few brews with the band, shoot some pictures, and have a good time. Needless to say, we got some great shots for these guys. And for those of you that may have been there that night, we all know that these guys showed-up the headliner (some washed-up 80′s band that I already forget their name). Great show Dave, Keith and Mitch!
Shows like this one are really fun for me. Music is a huge passion of mine and honestly if I could go to a show like this every night of the week I think that I would be one happy camper. Know any bands/musicians that are looking for photography? Feel free to point them to me or leave a link in the comments!
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Photographs of Dean the Luthier
Dean, a Luthier, also a good friend of mine, was kind enough to let me make a few portraits of him awhile back. Mainly shooting with a few “styles” and ideas within my head, I set out to make some portraits that expressed this humble master craftsman. Thought that I would share a few of these with you.
I have been shooting a lot lately with some of my old manual focus (MF) lenses that I have accumulated over the years. There are a few reasons behind my use of these. For one, you can often pick these up for a lot less than the new fancy-schmancy AF lenses. The good MF lenses hold their value, so don’t expect to get them for free, but you can get a good deal if you know what you are looking for and where to look. Plus, there aren’t all the computerized controls and components within, which means less to go wrong with them. [insert smily here] And two, they work just as well if your shooting portraits or moderately still objects.
Another thing that I really enjoy about the MF lenses is the extra time and thought that I am putting into my shots. With everything digital now, it’s just TOO easy to get caught-up in the speed and auto-ness of these amazing cameras. With the MF lenses I am thinking much more about composition, focal point, along with interacting and exchanging more dialog with my subject which in-turn has created some very nice outcomes. Dean being the first of the series of portraits that I have shot with the MF Nikkor 50mm f1.4 lens. I love the shallow DOF and the crispness of where I focused.
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A Solo Exhibition at St. Norbert College [recap w/ photos]
After a period of “downage” I have my blog and web site back up and running to it’s fullest. There have been a series of changes and events for me personally, mostly for the positive, that will give me lost of content to fill upcoming posts. But for now, I want to share this one big event that happened this past October 28th – November 23rd. I was asked to have a my work in a solo-exhibit at St. Norbert College’s Baer Gallery. How it all came together is quite a story, feel free to ask Donald Taylor, Fr. James Neilson, Brian Pirman or William Bohne; moral of the story – Be prepared when opportunity presents itself.
The exhibit consisted of selected 40″ x 60″ prints of photographs from personal work I have done from 2007 through 2010 with varying subject matter. There was an awesome atmosphere during the reception that carried over to emails and phone calls during the duration of the exhibit. A giant THANK YOU to everyone that took time to swing into the gallery and check out my work!
I’ll share what a SNC Times thought about the exhibition;
Photographs by Michael Wiesman ’06 by: Leslie Shapy – SNC Times (Source)
Michael Wiesman ’06 is currently showing his photography in the Bush Art Center – an exhibit that should not be missed. His clear, unique pictures capture the essence of various settings and subjects that he encounters. His exhibit will be on display in the Baer Gallery until Nov. 23, so that gives students plenty of time to experience Wiesman’s photography.
The first photograph that I viewed in the exhibit was called “Series: Uniquely Complicated” which is the perfect description for such a picture. The white backdrop behind a simple glass of clear liquid enhances the vividness of the red dye flowering out into a cloud in the glass.
My favorite photograph was “Pleasant Valley Orchard,” but don’t let the title fool you. The picture is anything but “pleasant.” The photo was unsettling, and featured an abandoned house in a gray, black and white setting. Wiesman’s wonderful contrast complimented the tone of the picture. The clouds forming above the abandoned house show a possible oncoming storm over a barren land. The eeriness of the barren trees and the decrepit building with such a worn sign (stating the name of the orchard) made the title as fascinating as the picture itself.
Another riveting piece was named “Urban Color – Las Vegas,” which showcased a cosmopolitan scene full of bright colors and the geometric shapes that we find in architectural masterpieces. The photograph shows modern buildings with a skyscraper and a simple geometric staircase on the side of one building. The color contrast and the bright, vivid geometry of the picture made it intriguing to view.
The last photo I viewed was called “Self Portrait” which showed the depth that can be found in simplicity. In the black and white picture, the subject wears headphones with a serious and contemplating face. The vividness and clarity of the picture puts an emphasis on the eyes of the individual and the depth that could be found there. I loved how this simple close-up could say so much without any form of words.
Wiesman’s photography exhibit was really enjoyable and I spent a long time viewing each picture because of the depth behind each subject. The clarity and the color schemes of each photograph complement each other, while adding another story to his collection. Each picture tells a story, and every single subject was “uniquely complicated.”
A really big THANKS goes to the SNC Art Department for all that they have done. Their impression on my life and artistic voice are forever imprinted with lasting values that drive the artist within.
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Bluehost Lost all my account info
After having two of the worst things happen to me that I can think of, I am patching together backups and files trying to get everything back up and running.
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(Sunday night) Monday Coffee Links!
I have put together another great list of inspirational, yet informative links for you. This week there are a few new artists that I would like to draw some attention to along with some industry news that is worthy of reading as well.
- Leading-off is some very high quality work that I have been looking at for the past three days. The Photography of Joanna Kustra is simply stunning. Obviously working with large light modifiers and creating very soft-lit wonderfully-beautiful portraits. I also enjoyed looking back through her previous work to see her style changes. Over all very nice work.
- 2010 PDN PhotoPlus International Conference + Expo is just around the corner, October 28-30. Register early to make sure that you reserve your spot. You can look at the Exhibitor List here, and register here.
- Nikon Announces New D3100 Consumer Digital SLR and Four New Pro-Worthy Lenses
- JPG Magazine released Issue 22. Issue 22 of JPG Magazine starts by looking at the world through tinted lenses for Color Theory. Next, our contributors reveal that the human condition continues to shape, redefine, and create a multitude of Gender Roles within society. Lastly, JPG gazes into a crystal ball to imagine what the World of Tomorrow will look like. Check out all of these themes and more in Issue 22 of JPG Magazine!
- 40 Amazing Before and After Photo Retouching Photos. Models and celebrities always look stunning with their flawless skins on magazine and album covers. Photoshop not only can do enhancements to poorly shot photographs, but also able to turn an ordinary person into someone with superstar qualities. Below are 40 great examples in showing the magic that Photoshop can do to an average or lousy image.
- A beginner’s guide to focal lengths and how they affect photographs. Most people quickly learned what the focal lengths represented for their particular camera format. But these days, with so many digital camera sensor sizes and other lens peculiarities, the millimeter measurement of a lens’ focal length tells only part of the story.
- Commercial Photographer Dan Escobar has been producing some head-turning images for a few years now. Totally worth the look.
- Jensen Walker, also a commercial photographer, has some outstanding work that will more than likely help inspire you to shoot a variety of new work if you haven’t shot anything like that before yet.
- Polina Osherov is a Fashion Photographer, that is producing some stunning images in environments that present themselves as challenging as I have seen. Osherov’s “Stories” is something really worth taking a look at.
Well I hope that this fuels your fire for a bit and that you find something inspirational out of at least one of the links above. Feel free to share your favorite or other comments about the post below.
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The 8×12, the “New 8×10″.
Over the years I have done my share of cropping photos, and even back in the darkroom I would be a little upset when I put my 8×10 piece of paper under the enlarger only to find that I would end up clipping 2-inches of my image right off. The 8×10 format has a long standing in the history of photography, but I wouldn’t mind seeing a shift to the 8×12, the “New 8×10″.
To be honest, my framer that has been making 8×12 inch frames for awhile now. I was in the process of picking up some 20×30 inch frames and I saw an 8×12 frame that Tom had made up. I said, “Tom, now that’s a really great idea! Finally I can show off ALL of my image! I didn’t know that you stocked 8×12′s?” His response, “Mike, I make custom frames. I just need to know the size you need.”
I tend to believe that I am not the only one that is having this 8×10/8×12 battle and yesterday I found a post on Scott Kelby’s Photoshop Insider Blog‘ that shared concern. If Scott Kelby is talking about it, then MUST be a popular topic among professionals.
Here’s what I mean:
By cropping to the 8×10 format 2 inches is lost. It creates an entirely different picture that what is originally captured in camera. Movies made the first conversion, then computers, then TVs. I would hope that photography will be the next medium to convert.
Currently it’s hard for custom framers to sell 8×12 frames. It’s really hard to compete with department stores who sell 8x10s for pennies, thus bringing up another point of comparison. My 8x12s are only $25.00 not too shabby I think, but for the general person, is the bonus of 2 inches on their picture worth the extra hard-earned Bucks? I’d like to hear your thoughts and stories on this topic. What side of the bill are you on?
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What Is High-Speed Sync?
What is High-Speed Sync? High-Speed Sync allows photographers the ability to shoot using flash at higher than normal flash sync speeds. With older cameras your highest shutter speed that you could flash sync with was either 1/60s or 1/125s. But thanks to the new technology in current digital cameras we are now able to sync at shutter speeds up to 1/8000s of a second.
A few basics about flash:
1. Flash Duration. The amount of time that it takes your flash to dispense it’s set power. A flash set at 1/1(full)-power takes a longer amount of time to discharge than a flash set to, lets say a 1/16-power. Keeping that in mind, if you are going for speed with your shutter, then open up that aperture to let in that smaller about of flash power. (You’re flash will love you for it and so will your batteries)
2. Controlling the Power. The power that is expelled from the flash can be controlled by you the photographer, your camera, or your flash. With flashes in manual mode, the photographer dials in the amount of power. Some cameras have a sensors that meter the “whole scene” and then tell the flashes what power to fire at. The last type is the flashes surveying the scene and dialing in their own power setting from a series of “monitor pre-flashes” that reflect back. Most of the digital cameras made today include some type of through-the-lens (TTL) flash metering. (Nikon – i-TTL, Canon e-TTL)
3. Sync Speed. Flash Sync Speed is the fastest shutter speed that your camera can shoot at without clipping the frame with your shutter. (Or “screwing-up” and using it to your advantage) Most digital SLR cameras sync at 1/250s. Anything over 1/320s is considered high-speed-sync, generally. On a side note, some digital point and shoots have a sync speed of 1/1000s due to their digital shutter system. Check out strobist for an article on that.
4. How Exactly Does High-Speed Snyc Work? When using high-speed sync you must be using dedicated flashes. Your camera and flash are having a very serious conversation one could say, they have to know exactly what one-another are saying. To start things off, make sure that your camera and flashes are compatible for high-speed sync and enable it on all units. Most of the time this only has to be done in the camera.
Lets quickly take a moment to understand what happens with standard sync: Mainly, the shutter must be fully open for the flash to fire (“1st-curtain sync”, “front curtain” – it is also referred to as) or when shooting in rear-sync (or “2nd-curtain sync”) the flash fires at the very last millisecond before the shutter closes.
Going back to high-speed sync; Instead of the flash firing out one giant pulse of light, high-speed sync actually changes the way that the camera tells the flash to fire. The flash now sends out a series of super-fast, low-power flashes. (Don’t mix this up with RPT mode, but the concept is the same.) This light appears to be continuous within the camera and as the shutter curtain is passing over the sensor, the flash also appears to be “on”. Pretty sweet technology when you think about it!
(For Nikon users - Auto FP High Speed Sync is a flash mode used for fill-flash photography under brightly lit conditions. It will fill in and open up shadowed areas in order to portray the greatest detail in subjects. It’s also ideal when using wide aperture lenses, and because it allows fast shutter speeds—up to fastest shutter speeds on compatible Nikon D-SLRs—it is often used for action-stopping sports photography. And for portraits, you can open up your lenses to their full aperture in order to isolate your subject against a blurred background without overexposing the image.
When Auto FP High Speed Sync is selected, the flash will fire for the duration of the shutter curtain’s travel, thus syncing with the camera’s shutter speed when that speed is set higher than the camera’s normal sync speed. Source)
Here is a diagram that displays the difference between normal sync and high-speed sync.
5. The high-speed sync advantage. Now you can use just about any shutter speed with your flash. The disadvantage of doing so is that your flash output is greatly reduced. I have found that the fix for the loss in power is to stack up multiple speedlights to compensate. One other thing that high-speed sync allows you to do is to open-up that aperture in the bright sun and crank that shutter speed higher.
So now that you have a better understanding about high-speed sync watch it in action with Joe McNally in the desert.
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What I wanted to be when I was 9 years old.
When I was about 9 I think that most of my life was wrapped-up in playing baseball and the most responsibility that I had was making sure that my paper route was done by 5pm on weekdays – 8am on the weekends. Getting every paper delivered by 8am on weekends was actually like my warm-up for baseball which usually started at 8, 9 or 10 am. Dad was always there with me, arriving a good 30 minutes early most of the time to stretch and warm-up.
Flashback: I have always had a mild amusement with the camera and the fact that one could take a moment in time and put it into a single stand-still image. My Grandmother worked in a Portrait Studio when I was just a little guy and I remember days when we would get to visit Grandma at work. I don’t remember being as interested in the ‘gear’ at the studio at the time, just was more thrilled to be with Grandma at the studio. I grew-up around cameras, my dad always had a still camera with him as well as a video camera. His still camera was an old rangefinder that was larger and clunkier than all the other cameras that I usually saw moms and dads have. I loved that dad’s camera was all manual and that he had control over what he was capturing. Of course I didn’t know what all the controls did or what/why he was setting those controls, but it always pulled my attention when ever it was taken out for a picture. Plus is was made from metal, not plastic like all the others. I even remember the sound of the flash as it powered up.
I guess it would be safe to say that sometime, as young minds always do, I would get sidetrack during the games and start looking for Dad and where he was. Looking to find the perspective that Dad had taken to capture the game from. I would always notice the “guys with big cameras” at my older siblings high school sports events. I would always watch their every move closer than I would watch the game. I especially liked watching them frantically re-load film in the middle of an intense basketball game, something that less and less photographers can relate to anymore. I didn’t know it at the time, but looking back at it now, I feel that I had a glimpse of my calling. Something that we all have in life. Problem being that we usually do not know that it is happening at the time.
Just think, the camera hadn’t even entered my life and I had little idea about what a camera does except make a lot of people grumpy when they have to stand in front of it. The ‘Camera’ also made some of the moms run like lighting back to their car to get it, trying not to miss a landmark moment in their child’s life or that team photo that we all look back at years down the road.
When I sit and seriously think about what it is that I currently do for a living I cannot help but think, wow. I am basically what I wanted to be when I was 9, but I didn’t know it then. Just a thank-you to everyone along the way that has supported me, inspired me, and increased my knowledge base in photography.
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