WTF stands for “What the Flash” and a special guest post thanks to good buddy, Bob Davis. I’m really having fun sharing this guest post this morning, because it’s completely different from anything I’ve ever run on the blog. This couldn’t be more “how2″ and I love the way Bob put it together. 

I first met Bob and Dawn Davis at Photo Plus Expo in New York when I was asked to look at an album they shot for Oprah. They were hired to document Oprah’s recognition of African-American Women Who Changed the World. The event took place at Oprah’s estate outside Chicago.  The images were incredible and the way they told the story of the day in the album was even more impressive.  Over the years the friendship just naturally grew. We’d see each other at various conventions, were involved in some of the same charity events and then Bob joined us last summer, teaching at Skip’s Summer School. 

Okay, so admit it, it was the “WTF” that got you reading this morning, so I’m turning this over to Bob…

The goal: Shoot a twilight portrait in a snowstorm using Speedlights.

The challenge: Photograph Kelly during a winter storm with blistering wind chills and huge snowflakes falling at the rate of one inch per hour.  Who’s crazy enough to do this?  I knew the storm was coming, the weatherman was right this time, called my buddy Ed Weiland, he’s always up for my crazy ideas, we loaded up our gear and headed out into the tundra. 

The Gear: Camera: EOS 1D Mark IV

Lenses: 16 – 35 F/2.8 L & 70 – 200 F/2.8 II L

Lighting: 3 Canon 580 EXII Speedlights & STE2 Wireless Speedlight Transmitter in combination with Radiopopper transmitter & receivers.  Calumet 9′ Light Stands, large Rogue FlashBender & Rogue Diffusion Panel and Westcott Apollo Strip & Orb along with a few plastic bags to keep the Speedlights and Radiopoppers protected from the elements.

The Settings: Manual mode on camera, ETTL mode and forced manual mode on the Speedlights,

ISO ranged from 200 to 1600 as the night grew darker, Aperture f/4, shutter speed varied from 1/160^th to 1/8^th, slowing as the night grew darker to allow for some ambient light.

Note for Canon users: I have found a way to combine ETTL mode and Manual flash mode.  With the Speedlight in slave mode, hold the mode button on the rear of any Canon Speedlight for a good long second, say to yourself “one thousand and one thousand and two”!  Magically the flash drops out of ETTL mode and into Manual mode.  The Speedlight is still dedicated to you, can’t control it from camera, you have to manually dial in the power you want.  I usually start around ¼ power and go from there. 

Remember! Shutter Speed = ambient light     Aperture = flash output

Kelly, our adventurous model, was brave enough to go along with this craziness and keep smiling during the shoot all while the wind chill dipped below zero.  In-between shots she would run to the car to warm up.  It was so cold the rear command dial on Ed’s Mark IV froze from him breathing on it.  I learned a long time during my photojournalism days to hold your breath when your eye is to the viewfinder in extreme cold.  Once while covering a fire I fogged the viewfinder and it frosted over with ice and froze the controls on back of my camera, boy that camera was cold!  I tucked it inside my coat next to my body to thaw it out.

I always say to myself, slow down, breathe and think!  This always helps me during a tough shooting situation.  If I were to use on camera or direct flash (on axis) the light would reflect off of the white snowflakes preventing a clean shot.  This is known as the angel of reflectance.  Getting the flash off camera will sidelight the snowflakes allowing for a clean view of Kelly. 

Using one off camera flash either camera right or left would make a nice portrait, always be careful where that shadow falls, you don’t a long unflattering shadow across your subject’s face.  Good lighting will have the shadow fall right into the crease where the nose meets the cheek.  I chose to use two Speedlights.  One as a back light to separate Kelly from the background and highlight the snow, creating depth and one off camera right, (see lighting diagram). 

Since we were shooting in an open field and the wind was blowing I choose to use small light modifiers.  I didn’t want my Speedlights sailing away like Auntie Em’s house in the Wizard of Oz.  Toto we’re not in Kansas anymore, this feels like the Arctic.  The Light modifiers on this shot were the Rogue FlashBender large as a snoot for the back light and the RogueFlash Bender large with the new Rogue Diffusion Panel for the main light. 

I always like to say the right tool for the right job; in this situation anything bigger would need a team of circus carneys to keep them grounded.  I was totally impressed with the quality of light from the Rogue Diffusion Panel.

In this first image you can see how direct flash, with a back light, lights the snowflakes, very distracting.  The direct flash is on axis with the lens causing the light to reflect off the snowflakes.

Settings: ISO 1250 f/4 @ 1/30^th sec, lens @200mm, main light in ETTL mode, rim light in forced manual 1/16^th power.

Off camera flash, camera right, using large Rogue FlashBender and Diffusion Panel.Settings: ISO 200 f/4 @1/80^th sec, lens @75mm, main in ETTL mode.

Okay gang, this is short and sweet and I’m hoping, after you read this, you’ll click and vote immediately.

I’ve talked a lot about various charities in our industry over the last few years. One of them, near and dear to my heart, is Cameras for Kids Foundation, started by fine art photographer, Betsey Chesler.  Betsey, starting off with funding mostly out of her own pocket and launched this non-profit in 2009, working with abandoned teens and using photography to help rebuild their self-esteem.

Cameras For Kids Foundation  is dedicated to making a difference in the lives of  abandoned children by exposing the teens to the process of creating art through a camera’s lens. CFKF uses photography to capture participants imaginations, to empower them, build confidence, self-esteem and open a whole new world for them to visualize and create.

Like any non-profit, especially in this economic climate, CFKF never has enough money to do the things they really need to do and here’s where all of you come in:

CFKF has been selected as one of seven charities to be the possible grand prize winner of a $100,000 grant from Cars.com.  There’s a rumor that they’ll even be talking about it in their commercial during Super Bowl! But here’s what CFKF has to do to win! They’ve got to have the most votes through the Cars.com facebook page which just went live today!

Please, we need your help and all it takes is a click, your vote and you can vote once a day for the next three weeks. All of the charities selected are excellent organizations, but CFKF is the only one in photography. (Many of you met Betsy at last year’s Summer School and I know Roberto Valenzuela helped teach with Betsy at an orphanage in Los Angeles last year.)

Here’s an opportunity for all of us to play a role in expanding photography’s reach into more communities and all it takes is a trip with your mouse!  Please vote now and help us spread the word!

Go to Cars.com’s facebook page and vote for Cameras for Kids Foundation!  Here’s the link one more time:

https://www.facebook.com/CarsDotCom?sk=app_111475642307764

CFKF really needs our help, so spread the word to everybody you know on line and let’s get this great little organization the horsepower they need to help more kids!

I originally wrote this post a short time back for GoingPro, but here’s why I’d like to share it with you here today. 

Yesterday I had a great conversation with a photographer who’s about to go full time. Her work is terrific, her website, while it needs a little fine-tuning is all in place and overall has a great feel.  Having been part time for the last four years, it’s that first jump “into the pool” that’s the hardest and she’s working through all the questions all of us have asked ourselves at one time or another.

Well, this post just seems to fit the issues so many of you are facing today… 

Robert Frost wrote, “Two roads diverged in the wood, and I – took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference.”

Diversity can take on many meanings. In this post – it means standing out by being great at what you do.

So, let’s talk about the different path you choose to travel with your business with one big question – are you taking the road less traveled or the one everybody else is always taking? By that I mean, are you like those who say “It’s good enough.” Or are you the one who says “It can be better.”

Quality:Are the images you’re showing on your website and in your albums the very best they can be? I’ve seen so many websites with images that photographers have just loaded in to fill it up, paying no attention to the quality. You’re much better off to show just a few spectacular images than everything you have! This is about the finest steak at Ruth’s Chris, not the big buffet at Stuckeys!

With every image ask yourself one question, “If this was the only image I could show, would I hire me?”

Style: Are you working to be unique? I’m not just talking about your images, but your personal style. This is about everything from being personable and approachable to the composition of your images, the look of your website, your logo, etc.

Products:Are you offering presentations that are unique or, when you work with a client do you show them the same things everybody has? Yes, I know they’re a GoingPro sponsor, but remember, we pick our sponsors for a reason! I love the new look of so many of Album Epoca’s products, (www.albumepoca.com). You need a final presentation that shines through and above what every other photographer is showing!

Mining:There still aren’t enough photographers building business off of their past clients, in new directions and it’s definitely a road less traveled. Here’s the point, if they loved your work on the wedding then why wouldn’t you want to be there when the first child is born? And, if you don’t like photographing babies and kids, then how about working with another photographer in the area who does, and building a referral business and cross-promoting each other’s work?

Your past clients are your greatest resource. They’re already believers in your work and you have credibility with each one of them, unless of course you did a lousy job!  So, assuming they loved working with you, then here’s another aspect of diversity. Send them a personal letter and remind them of your skill set.  Plant the seed for an updated family portrait, an on-location day in the life shoot of the kids or maybe a new business head-shot. It’s Marketing 101 and you’ve got the perfect target – a client who already knows how good you are!

The list could go on and on, but here’s the point: There are thousands of photographers all accepting mediocrity. What are you doing to make yourself and your work different? Have you chosen the right road?

I recently saw an email blast from my buddy, George Varanakis at Rangefinder/WPPI. He listed the top ten reasons not to miss WPPI. Personally, I’d drop a few and add a few, one of them being your ability to interact with vendor after vendor to help strengthen your business. I’d also add, one trip to Vegas gets you exposed to hundreds of new products and concepts, one of them being GoingPro Bootcamp.

A trip to Las Vegas in February isn’t just about WPPI anymore. It’s about adding new building blocks to your business and some of them are outside WPPI programming. For two years I’ve started every marketing presentation with the same statement.

Just because the media says it’s going to be a bad year, doesn’t mean it has to be!

That’s a big part of the GoingPro theme and Bootcamp. We started the project because there are so many aspiring photographers interested in going pro and missing the boat on the right way to get started. Frustrated, they jump into the market with lousy quality and low-ball pricing. Instead of building a business on a solid foundation, they try and build it on the word “professional”, having no understanding of the importance of how to sustain a business.

Well, it’s been two years since we started the GoingPro, which originally was just a book with Random House. Now it’s a blog with an estimated 50,000 followers and sixty-four podcasts, resulting in 120-150,000 downloads a month. Last but not least, it’s our second Bootcamp, an all day event helping you with everything, but photography.

George missed the last GoingPro Bootcamp, but we didn’t and neither did a 100+ aspiring and working professional photographers. He’s got another chance and so do you! With the combination of Michele Celentano, Scott Bourne and me we’ll help you with ideas on marketing, pricing, building your business, insurance, social media, community involvement and local networking, just to name a few. Most important of all, we’ll help you figure out how to promote yourself and your work so you can get your second customer.

Anybody can get their first customer. The trick of building a solid business is getting your second customer and even better, getting the first customer to come back a second time. You know how to focus your camera. Well, we’re going to help you focus on concepts like quality, value, integrity and the ability to exceed customer expectations. Those are the key attributes of any business that brings customers back!

And speaking of exceeding expectations – that’s just what we intend to do on February 18. It’s only $99 for the day. So, whether you’re just getting ready to take the plunge into the pro side of the business or you’ve been out there for a few years and need some help – we intend to exceed your expectations. 

See you in Vegas! Signing up for GoingPro Bootcamp is just a click away!

Every day there are things that happen that have become normal events, but there aren’t any words out there to describe them.

I was on the phone one morning talking with the Queen of Lighting, Bobbi Lane. About three minutes into the call we got disconnected. It was instinct, since I originated the call, to just call her [...]

We set the stage with yesterday’s post for some great background on how David Ziser has built his pricing platform and worked on one of the biggest challenges for photographers. Even the seasoned pros often forget how much needs to go into their pricing philosophy.
You should be following David’s posts at Digital Pro Talk. I [...]

It’s one of David Ziser’s best posts and also a very long read. I’ve broken it up into two parts, because it’s such an important topic, establishing your pricing.  
It’s that time of year when two key events start to happen. First, you’re going to be doing your taxes and for most of you it’ll be the first time you [...]

A key component of every marketing program I’ve ever presented has included talking about photographers using their own images for holiday cards and stationery. Think about it for just a second. There isn’t a better, easier or more subliminal way to use your images. You’re just there, soft sell, no pressure, just showing your work.
This [...]

There are thousands of you who have blogs today and even more on Facebook or Twitter. If it’s just a hobby you can stop reading now. However, if it’s part of your livelihood and meant to be one of your marketing tools, if you’re not consistent then you’re completely wasting your time! Consistency is such [...]