NAB inspires with new ideas, techniques and equipment.

Los Angeles photographers have the NAB convention to help keep them up-to-date. Commercial photographers like me often do advertising photography with the flavor of photojournalism to make location photography seem more real including my video work. The new video equipment I saw at NAB will help with that. When I do editorial photography, I often get to do video interviews and some of the new equipment will help with that was well.

Los Angeles photographer dramatic night portraiture with Canon 5D

I had some very productive chats with the following representatives and want to thank them for all their information. In chronological order Peter of Lectronics, Fred at Audio Technica, Red of Photoflex, Joey of Mathhews Studio Equipment, Greg at JVC, Douglas at Shure, Ulrich Goetze of California Sunbounce, Mike of Marshall Electronics, Bernie of Panasonic, and Jennifer of dedoweightfilm.de.

California photographers are lucky to have so many resources locally. I have been shooting video for over seven years and there is more demand for it than ever.

Portrait Photo-Drama at sunset

Editorial portrait

Again, this is location photography with direct light used for impact. I photographed this portrait on the beach at sunset with dramatic clouds in the background, so I wanted to keep the crisp outdoor feel to the picture using direct light. Photographing with direct light can be challenging, but in this case it makes the woman stand out nicely from the powerful background. The portable lighting system I use allows me to adjust to the quickly changing light at sunset and move about without dealing with generators or power cords. This time I used a Canon 5D and Canon EX580. I plan ahead and always think about keeping it simple, so I can concentrate on the picture.

Editorial Photo-Seeing the light.

This weekend while walking the dogs down to the beach, I realized I was daydreaming about two advertising photography projects I want to do. Not assignments for an advertising agency, corporate communications or editorial client, but advertising photography projects that I wanted to do for myself. I was thinking about the lighting, casting, wardrobe and propping while I’m sure others this Sunday morning were thinking about where they wanted to go for brunch or the upcoming game. I then thought about a question Ian Summers asked in one of his webinars about whether photography is your calling. Ian questions, “If assignment photography was banned in America, would you continue to make pictures?”

I already have my answer that dovetails in nicely with my last blog post on finding subjects; my answer is of course I would. Recently, I had a very pleasant lunch with some photographers including Anthony Nex, an excellent photographer. While the conversion was engrossing, I couldn’t help but notice a shaft of light that played nicely on the wall across from us in the restaurant. It slowly walked its way along the wall until, as we were leaving, it rested on an abstract painting. I asked Anthony to stand in a spot that would allow the light to play across his face and took the one shot, shown above, with my ever-present Canon G9. No matter how involving the discussion on photography was, it did not detour me from seeing another possible photograph.

It reminded me that not only are there interesting subjects all around but that it is not about the equipment, it’s about the craft. As a professional photographer, for a job, I would have had the necessary equipment to create the light I wanted if it had not been there. In fact, that will be a subject of an upcoming post. But, if photography is your passion, it is about your eye and your craft.