Umm, I just remembered, I have a blog. So, I'll be posting now... well, not right now, but soon... yes, soon, I promise. For now, I leave you with this:

http://www.chipsimons.com/users/chips2623/images/chips2623136065.jpg

Environmental portraits, nothing to do with global warming

I'm a big fan of environmental portraiture. Don't worry, I'm not going to join Greenpeace and start taking pictures of baby seals or anything... not that there is anything wrong with pictures of baby seals. I'm talking about portraits of people where the environment they are in tells part of the story. If the portrait depends on the background elements to work, then it's probably environmental.
Today I got to shoot a few environmental portraits of my pastor, Dr. Todd Baucum. I wanted to bring out two different themes, the scholarly inquisitive side and the solemn pastoral side. So, we set up in the sanctuary and in Dr. Baucum's office/library (which is quite impressive).

This is the more dramatic/solemn version.





Here is the more vibrant version, showing off his love of learning.





I really enjoy the process of figuring out the composition and lighting, then the post-processing work setting the colors and detail work. But, the best part is the collaboration, after all the subject has to be comfortable with the shot.

I love this gig.

Medium Format

I have been using digital cameras, exclusively, for several years. Over that past few weeks I've been experimenting with a Fuji GW670III Medium format film camera. It uses 120 and 220 roll film, with 6cm x 7 cm negatives. It's a wonderfully simple camera, with no meter or fancy electronics to confuse you. It's a rangefinder type camera, which uses two points of view to establish a focal point (it's hard to explain, much easier if you see it in action). It has a fixed 90mm lens, which is excellent! You have to wind the film manually (manual labor, ewww). There are two shutter release buttons, one on top and one on the front for portrait orientation shots. It's a very large camera, but surprisingly light. Since it has no meter I have to use a handheld ambient/flash meter, which is really no big deal. I've gotten to the point where I can pretty much visualize the changing light and adjust without too much mental gymnastics.

I shot a couple of rolls of film around the house and at the park just to get a feel for how the camera exposes film. I wanted to be sure that I knew if I needed to slightly under or overexpose under certain conditions and with certain film. It reacts very predictably with the fuji film I'm using, very slightly overexposed at the meter's predicted settings. Not a big deal, because the film has a higher dynamic range than digital and I'll be mostly working off of digital scans and post-processing in Adobe Photoshop. The higher dynamic range means it is able to capture detail across a broader spectrum of dark to light. I got my first few rolls scanned last week, and was very happy with the results. I wasn't exactly taking the most artistic or well thought out pictures, but trying to take test shots in varying lighting conditions.

All in all, I really love this camera. I think there is a very good chance I will purchase one for myself, since this one is a loaner. I will continue to use my Nikon digital cameras for the majority of my work, but I can see a need for the higher dynamic range and detail captured in medium format. The Fuji GW670III is a very nice, utilitarian, camera. It's especially lightweight for a medium format, so I highly recommend it for anyone looking to get into medium format or just looking for a "hand-holdable" medium format camera.

My obligatory introduction

I figure that since this is my first blog post it should be an introduction. So, without further ado...

For those of you who don't know me, I'm superhuman. Yes, I have super powers. Ok, not really, but I do have an extraordinarily sensitive nose (resulting in lots of sneezing) and I am definitely faster than a speeding armadillo (I know from experience running trails in Southeast Alabama).

Aside from my secret identity as SinusMan, I spend my days taking photographs of people. Sound familiar? Yeah, Peter Parker's got nothing on me. I'm a portrait photographer, huzzah! I especially enjoy environmental portraits of kids and adults. There's something really cool about watching someone get comfortable with you as you start to learn to spot the different emotions and attitudes from their outward expressions. I love the feeling when I fire off a frame and know for sure that I just got a "classic" expression, you know the one that everyone remembers a person by.

My personal favorite photographer is Gregory Heisler. The guy is amazing. He has something like 75 Time Magazine covers to his credit. I can pretty much guarantee you've seen his work. I really dig his stuff. But, I don't really want to "be like him." I want to be like me. I want my work to truly represent my own fascination with portraiture. I want it to be my take on the world and who the subject is at that exact moment. It's good to have influences to learn from, but I just really want to be me.

If you haven't already, please check out my website at http://robeaton.smugmug.com and the rob eaton photography page on facebook. Feel free to leave me a comment, preferably not along the lines of "you should really try to be like Gregory Heisler, because being like you isn't working." Something like "Wow, your super powers are really amazing! Will you autograph my forehead?" would be cool, though.

Until next time... stay classy and thanks for stopping by!