Slanger Photography at my New Location

Hello,
I have at least temporarily moved my blog posts to http://snorkie128.zenfolio.com/blog/2012/6/shoeing-horses-at-stanford. I just posted a new blog, so please take a look. I appreciate you following me at the new location.

Sincerely,
Alexander

AFRICA: A Feast for My Eyes

A few days ago my wife and I returned from a two-week safari in Africa. Traveling with another couple, we trekked through Kenya and Tanzania, in search of the Big Five, as well as other quadrupeds. We went on night drives for nocturnal creatures with the Samburu, played baseball with elephant bones in the middle of the Maasai Mara, and went on a hunt with the Hadzabe bush men (and shared in the spoils). We had the time of our lives. Though it is difficult to verbally express what it felt like to be in Africa, I can expose what I saw through the lens. My camera rarely left my hand, and I was fortunate enough to have my wife (an excellent shooter in her own right), and our friends Sanjog and Christie to assist me when they were not off shooting on their own. Sanjog can mount a small lightbox on a 580EX like nobody's business....and he's a doctor. Along with the resulting images, I will include a few behind-the-scenes images my wife captured while I frantically attempted to conduct mini impromptu shoots. My lighting was not complicated, but there was rarely any time to plan a "shoot" since it sometimes involved shepherds walking up to us in the middle of the African plains, and then finding themselves the subject of the shoot. This blog will be less about intricate lighting setups, and more about having a plan in mind, and then trying to implement it when the opportunity arises. For those curious, I was shooting with a Canon 5D Mark II, the Canon 24-105 for some portraits, and Tamron's 70-300 for most of the animals and the Maasai portraits. By the way, the fine people at Tamron were kind enough to lend me the lens for this odyssey, in exchange for collaboration on an upcoming article about our adventures. My thanks to them. My lighting was a 580EX or EX II through a Lumiquest softbox or a shoot-through umbrella. If I had it to do again, I would have used two strobes in tandem, and used the Pocket Wizards which I lugged around Africa, but never used. Beating back the African midday sun with a single 580EX is not exactly doable, when you are trying to create a large light source with an umbrella...even at full power.

So, our adventure began with the Samburu tribe in Northern Kenya. We stayed at the Saruni Samburu, a remarkable lodge. I only mention our accommodations because our tracker Sumoro works there, and it was he and Joseph that introduced us to their friends and the wildlife. Our first night there, I had mentioned that I'd like to get some sunset shots from the hill above the lodge. As we made our way up the hill (always accompanied by a warrior to protect us), we were greeted by our hosts and a table of edibles and drinks. After grabbing the typical sunset shots, I asked one of the Samburu if he would pose for me for a shot or two. That was how it all started. I would end up photographing all the tribesmen who worked at the lodge by our stay's end. They were all willing and active participants. I brought out my 580EX and shoot-through umbrella, and got to work. As I mentioned earlier, I had a game plan, and I now had a chance to implement it. I knew I would expose for a "proper" sky, and strobe my subject, thereby getting the best of both worlds. I must say that over the last few years, Mr. David Hobby (the Strobist), has been a great influence on my style of lighting. I respectfully stole ( I mean, employed, some of what I have gleaned from him). Now, any of you shooters out there know that one of the great rewards of shooting is seeing the reaction of your subjects. When I showed Sidai what I was working on, his reaction was priceless. He covers his mouth, smiles and shows the excitement of a kid opening presents on his birthday. I frequently stop shooting and show the subject what I'm trying to do. That way they are involved as well, and they enjoy seeing the project evolve. He started changing his pose, and got the spear to use as a prop. I was shooting ISO 200, at 40mm, at a 1/160th. The 580EX was attached via a shoe cord, as I never felt I had the time to attach the Pocket Wizards and go wireless. I regret it a bit, but my "assistants" had not been versed in PW work, and when you're hot and sweaty, you go for the most convenient route. Regardless, I like the slightly wide angle of the shots, as it allowed me to reveal Sidai and his outfit, as well as the beautiful scenery. This first shot shows us at a later shoot, but you can see the studio-like atmosphere we created above the Samburu Nationl Reserve. While I believe this was shot the next day, you can get the jist of the simple lighting setup involved. I do not claim to be a lighting expert by an means, but when you have a go-to lighting setup, willing participants, and an extraordinary setting, you can bet you'll end up with something special. That is Sanjog working the umbrella, and Christie shooting in the foreground.

Sidai

Our second model was Joseph. It was suggested by his friends that he demonstrate his jumping abilities. The Samburu are closely related to the Maasai, who are known for their high jumping dance, or adumu. For Joseph, I switched to a small lightbox, as it focused the light a bit more. This was useful because I had to back up a bit in order to capture the jumping, and needed all the power I could get. The drawback was of course that I could only cover a part of his body, forcing his lower torso to go a bit dark. The settings were a 1/125th at f/9, and I believe the strobe was at either half or full power from camera left. You can actually see the strobe's reflection in his eyes. It is a bit low, since our subject was jumping rather high, and I was shooting from a low angle. Joseph is facing the setting sun, so he is getting a decent amount of ambient light as well. 

Joseph

Our last subject for the evening was our tracker, Sumoro. Unlike Sidai and Joseph, Sumoro is a junior elder. That means that if his cell phone dies, and he is unable to make smoke signals for any reason, Joseph or Sidai will have to walk across the valley and over the mountain to communicate with their village. If you are ever in the area, and need anything found, Sumoro is the man for the job. He can track anything, and can even smell what animals are in the area. It is amazing what one can do when one focuses his/her senses. He promises me that the next time I come to Samburu, he will live with me in the bush for a week, and show me how to track. I just have to convince myself that I am NOT the lion's natural prey. They fear me as much as I fear them................?
In my upcoming blogs, I will touch on a couple of the other unexpected scenarios that arose while shooting on safari in Kenya and Tanzania.



Sumoro

One Day in Chicago: Or How to Freeze Your Lens off in Beautiful Chitown

  My wife and I recently traveled to Chicago for a two-night stay, and I had one day to see the city for the first time. While she busied herself with an exam or something, I took an architectural boat tour of the Windy City. In all fairness, my wife was taking her exam to become board certified as a clinical neuropsychologist. Isn't that adorable? For the record, she passed with flying colors. Sincere congratulations to her and our friend who also took the 3-hour oral exam. To start off my day, I took a quick taxi ride to the dock to catch my boat.......the incorrect dock. Always confirm which company your are touring with before heading out. I apparently went with http://caf.architecture.org. After a brisk walk to the correct dock, I grabbed an aisle seat near the rear of the boat. I always take an aisle seat, as I know I'll be jumping up and bumping people with my camera bag. I am a nuisance. A young lady asked if I could switch seats with her grandmother, so the two could sit together. I was a little reluctant, but eventually caved. Expecting a frail woman with a cane to hobble over, her grandmother approached with the dexterity of a woman half her age. I joked to some other passengers that I wanted my seat back. Never fall for the old "may my grandmother and I sit together?" scam in Second City.
  So with only 3 hours to see the Big Onion, I definitely recommend taking the architectural tour. Our guide knew every story behind every building. As for the photography, I obviously did not use a tripod, and never put on my strobe or bracketed for the exterior shots. I shot by the seat of my pants, and could only wait for the boat to take me to the next spot. I used my 24-105 for the entire boat tour (though I would employ my 17-35 the next morning in Millennium Park). Going wide for some of the cityscapes of course left me with some keystoning and chromatic aberration, which I corrected for in Lightroom and Photoshop.
   With our luggage in hand, we took a quick taxi ride to Millennium Park the following morning to get my last taste of Paris on the Prairie. If you've never been there, I suggest arriving before 9 o'clock on a Sunday morning. At that time, most of the tourist riff-raff are still bundled up or eating breakfast. I spotted the iconic Cloud Fountain through the trees along the steps leading to Gehry's Jap Pritzker's Pavillion, and lept over with excitement. It's not often I leave my camera bag with my wife, but seeing that there were no tourists as of yet, I seized the opportunity. The shot of the end of the silvery bean was taken from this vantage point. I shot it with my 24-105 at 24 mm, 1/200th at f/11. While the wide angle would also assist, I went with an f/11 to get the reflection in focus as well as the bean itself. The bean profile image was shot at 1/160th, f/11 at 92mm to isolate the cloud and building from the street and tourists.

    We then moved along to Gehry's Pavillion, just a stone's throw to your 4 o'clock. Because I was immediately asked to get off the grass, I had to go wide, but liked the city vista and crossing bars. From this location, the Pritzker appears to be a dust cloud from the launching Aon Center...in my simple mind. After needlessly crossing a bridge on the southeast corner of the park, we made it to the Crown Fountain. If any of my reader(s) make it to the park in the near future, please tell the security guard at this bridge that I understand that I'm not allowed to use my tripod on the bridge. She gave me a lot of attitude, and clearly does not enjoy her job.

 For my shot of the Crown Fountain, I was shot at 1/640th at f/4. A second copy of her face in Screen mode was used in Photoshop to brighten things up. Had I shot straight-on, I would have had the sun directly in my lens, and they tell me that's a bad idea. 

    So that wraps up our trip to That Toddling Town. I realize there was not much how-to in this episode, but  I guess I just wanted to share my brief adventure.......and the interwebs continue to push me to publish. Until next time.................

My First Blog: Look at Me, I'm Bloggin', I'm Bloggin'!

So.............this is blogging. Am I doing it yet? Well, the interwebs told me that as a photographer, I should be doing this. So....here I am. Is there anybody there? I thought for my first posting, I would talk about my frantic experience photographing my 6 nephews this past June in Duck, North Carolina. Not only was it an adventure, but it is also timely, with Hurricane Earl approaching. I hope our rental home is safe, since we plan to return next year.

We had a week in Duck, and I put off my little photography assignment until the second to last day. Obviously I had no plan on how I was going to wrangle 6 critters to pose for me, but I know each well enough to figure out how I could coerce them to earn their keep. One simply required that his cup of popcorn be just out of frame, one wished to trigger the strobe several times, while another demanded that some shots be taken with his swimming goggles and floaties on (somehow those did not make the final cut). Ideally, I would have liked to have shot all the images at dusk, but this was not possible due to eating schedules. They seem to require frequent feedings. My wife and I only have carnivorous plants to deal with at home. Not wanting to do much masking or post work in general, I left the sky as it was, and only slightly tweaked the recovery slider and luminance in Lightroom, in hopes of getting some of the sky blues to pop.

Our location for the shoot was beneath the hot tub, with the subjects' backs to the ocean...the Atlantic Ocean, to be pacific. I kept the lighting to a minimum, as I spent half my time chasing and positioning my models, rarely having a moment or a safe place to put down my camera. I shoot with the Canon 5D Mark II, and my 24-105 was the lens of the day. With a Pocket Wizard on top, I positioned one Canon 580EX thorough a white umbrella on an Avenger stand, just barely out of camera-left frame. For some reason, kids love staring directly into flashing lights. I lost several frames to these hypnotized stares. I was shooting at a 1/200th and around a f/10, in an effort to underexpose the sky. I must acknowledge my lighting guru, David Hobby (http://www.strobist.blogspot.com/) as my inspiration for the mixed lighting setup.With such small models, the umbrella was large enough to create some wrap on the non-lit side. In the end, I probably had 2 minutes per model, as they each had their own reasons for wishing to leave. One had to refill his popcorn and another had to get into the pool before going down to the beach. Prima donnas! W.C. Fields was correct. Still, it was a pleasure, and I've recently started photographing dogs and their "owners." Thanks go out to all the parents/agents. The checks are in the mail.
   Hey, did I just blog? That wasn't so bad. If you have not seen my work recently, please check it out at http://www.slangerphotography.com/.