RobertsonExposure Blog

Work

2012-01-19T18:34:00.000-08:00

My revision of the Micello maps 'Places' page. Now with social media integration and directory.

http://www.micello.com/places - Find out what's happening at one of our mapped venues in your area.

2012

2012-01-14T19:03:00.000-08:00

My social media app for micello.com/places showing activity at CES this week:

Web Design, the meantime, etc

2011-11-18T22:26:00.000-08:00

I've been busy working at my internship and spending very little time updating this blog. I remember leaving 'RobertsonExposure' open-ended on purpose, leaving room for the content to evolve a little and still make sense. Get ready for RobertsonExposure web development ... the three of you can feel free to unsubscribe at any time.

I'm still shooting wedding photography when people ask me to, but my primary focus has been web development. I've been helping friends get together basic websites by using a lot of the background I received from my classes at Foothill College in Javascript and PHP.

A few screenshots and links if you're interested:

Introducing: www.tomliuphoto.com

My photographer friend Tom Liu and I put together this site featuring his work. I really enjoy his eye and I encourage you to check out these galleries.

Next, my good friend from Chapman University, Luke Rutherford, has recently launched a new company, Trestle Street Partners. I can't explain what they do because I know nothing about commercial real estate, but check out the site for more info if you own commercial real estate in Orange County: www.trestlesp.com

I have an internship at Micello Inc., a company that makes interactive indoor maps for use on the internet and mobile devices. Take a look at what we're up to here: www.micello.com

Here is a screen shot of a new developer tool I made for them:

It allows people using the Micello API to conveniently get information about map entities, and see examples of how to find map information via javascript. Indoor navigation requires indoor maps, think about it. Micello.

Ok, now wedding photo update:

Shiela & Neil - 10/22/2011

This is the little sister of one of my oldest friends. This wedding was a blast. I'm reading a Steinbeck book right now so it was fun to get to drive around the various parts of Watsonville.

And finally, a picture of me eating it on water skis. Sometimes my friends do take really good pictures of me.

Corinna in SnapMatter Magazine

2011-09-26T21:36:00.000-07:00

Some of my shots of Corinna made their way into Vol. 4 of SnapMatter magazine. If you've never heard of the magazine, neither have I. I'm not wild about the way they cropped my shot and filled the extra space with a banner, but I guess it's cool to be published.

It's a compliment to be featured next to some of the other photographers in this edition, so if you're interested check it out here:

http://www.magcloud.com/browse/issue/263061
Click the big picture and you'll see what I mean.

I would hate to let this moment pass without recognizing it: Not being paid to be published in this unknown magazine might be the closest I'll ever get to accomplishing my dream of shooting for Sports Illustrated. At least I realize it.

Gordon Prill composites

2011-09-05T22:13:00.000-07:00

The end-product of my work for Gordon Prill.

Tomatoes & Basil

2011-09-04T23:02:00.000-07:00

August garden update

2011-08-08T22:10:00.000-07:00

While other things may be more important... here is the August garden update.

Heirloom Tomatoes

Small ( Grape or Cherry? ) tomatoes

Anaheim Peppers

Other Tomatoes

A Tokyo cherry blossom bonsai, 1 1/2 months old.

Finally, my only sunflower. It's about 7 ft tall and just starting to bloom. This was the only of 12 seeds to sprout.

* To be clear - all the vegetables are my mom's work!

Sonoma Springs & Lagunitas Brewing Co's

2011-08-06T22:30:00.000-07:00

I took a little trip up to Petaluma on Saturday to visit two great breweries.

First we stopped by Sonoma Springs Brewing Co. and sampled the four beers they were pouring. Almost all of us had a Groupon in hand for a growler full of beer, so we left with several gallons of great beer.

This was the 'Dark IPA'

This is really the whole place. It's a small setup.

I have no pictures of Lagunitas, but I promise that it was worth visiting. To me it's the closest thing to Stone Brewery that exists in Northern California. ( Except even more family & dog friendly. )

Tomato Update

2011-06-21T19:09:00.001-07:00

2011-06-16T22:01:00.000-07:00

I'm really trying to post more often, but until that actually happens...

I had two shoots on May 9th over in Santa Cruz and they were both productive. My first shoot was around 11am and I wanted to quickly show two of my favorite solutions to midday light.

Setup #1: Photographed under this bridge:

When you shoot under a bridge or any large object that casts a shadow it gets your subject out of the sun and removes the problem of overexposed highlights. The key light comes from the brightness of everything outside of the shade.

If you can manage to find a somewhat dark/shady background you can avoid having an overexposed background.

One thing to watch out for is too much key light coming up from the ground, so a bounce board can be used for negative fill ( flagging light reflecting up from the ground ).

If there isn't enough key light the photographer can step into the sun and use a bounce board to reflect sunlight. I've also used a boardwalk or pier in the past with this same basic setup.

#2 Direct Sunlight - see image right
Face your model away from the sun to keep highlights off their face. Fill with a bounce board and keep yourself in the shade at the same time :)
This is clearly not an ideal setup, but my point here is that it can be done. Some models can handle almost enough bounce-fill without squinting that the backgrounds aren't too overexposed. A little photoshop makes up for the rest and I like the look of the result. I like people looking bright and flush with color.

Daylight is free and I'm not afraid of a few highlights.

Second shoot was nearby with more great scenery. Tall grass is my favorite. I certainly risked being bitten by ticks and getting poison oak all over my feet ( that pair of Rainbows is now retired ), but the weather was great and it was worth it.

Finally, I shot a wedding this past Sunday the 12th for my friends John and Kerry.

The Crystal Springs Golf Course turned out to be a great venue with this incredible vista for the ceremony.

I'll find some more favorites soon but for now that's all. There's nothing like nice weather.

2011-05-24T21:47:00.000-07:00

Only two things that money cant buy
That's true love and home grown tomatoes

Laura & Eric

2011-05-07T19:31:00.001-07:00

Fairfield, Ca. Beautiful.

Agfa Shur Shot B2

2011-04-28T22:54:00.000-07:00

I'm having a lot of trouble coming up with any information on this specific model. Most of the similar ones I see online have a different face plate and film advance knob. Apparently these were made starting as early as 1932. Though I somehow doubt it's that old, it is probably still the oldest camera I've got.

1972 Ricoh 500 G

2011-04-24T23:51:00.000-07:00

My 'newest' camera. Picked up this little guy at International Camera Technicians in Mountain View. I've wanted a 35mm that I can run with for a long time.

retouching

2011-04-05T01:11:00.000-07:00

Sherra, Santa Cruz, Tsunami Warning

2011-03-15T00:59:00.001-07:00

I drove to Santa Cruz despite the treat of tsunami to do this shoot with Sherra. This is the first retouched image.

Update?

2011-02-27T22:59:00.000-08:00

I still take pictures. Some of these are new and some are random.

First, a picture of my eyeball by my friend Tom Liu:Next, a picture of my girlfriend's dog getting a bath because he rolled in his own crap. I apparently thought this was funny enough to photograph.

This shot is from back in 2008 when I lived in eastern San Diego. We'd had a mouse sneak into our apartment from behind the stove and the cats were naturally fascinated. The only trouble was that it was extremely hot and they couldn't stay alert enough to maintain their watch on the kitchen. This was Cleo's compromise:

I mean, that is an awesome cat. Speaking of awesome, next is this barefoot guy riding a pink vespa. I ran through traffic to get this picture and I'm not sure I'll ever understand it. Another moment spontaneously worth photographing.

Finally, a headshot I did for my friend Kris:

Family Photos

2011-01-25T23:50:00.001-08:00

Some photographs of my great grandfather and his crew in Benton City, Washington. I don't have exact dates, but I'm pretty sure this was the early 1920's.
A more serious photograph of the group:

Corinna, Santa Cruz

2011-01-22T00:00:00.000-08:00

I played around a lot with overexposure on this shoot. We started at 10am and it was already pretty bright so I just decided to blow the backgrounds out get exposure on the subject.

Gordon Prill and Kaboodle

2010-10-21T22:56:00.001-07:00

Portraits for my new friends at Gordon Prill:
Shot on a white seamless the background and drop shadow are added in post.

The Kaboodle holiday card:

Climbing a sketchy ladder is also in my skill set.

Retroactive blog update

2010-10-11T19:20:00.000-07:00

I have to admit I haven't been very diligent about updating my blog since I've moved. Here is what I've been up to over the past two months. Wedding update coming soon!

Tylara. North Park. San Diego, Ca.

Chloe. San Diego, Ca.

Megan. Rancho San Antonio Open Space. Los Altos, Ca.

Greta. Mirian Bear Regional Open Space. San Diego, Ca.

Corinna. Wilder Ranch State Reserve. Santa Cruz, Ca.

What have I been doing?

2010-08-10T13:18:00.000-07:00

Not sure. I moved back to the Bay Area and I'm feeling out my options. I felt like I should post something though, so here is a look at one of my photoshop sessions:

2010-07-10T18:11:00.001-07:00

I had three shoots over the last three days while San Diego delivered the worst July weather I've ever seen. When the forecast for 5pm says 80% overcast, I have to change up my approach a little. Check out the models:

July 7th: Paige Montgomery @ Mirian Bear Regional Park

July 8th: Leona Snell @ Mission Trails Regional Park

July 9th: Greta Proctor @ Torrey Pines State Reserve

These overcast conditions taught me a few things. There is a general agreement that a light cloud cover gives a softer ( more flattering ) light by cutting and diffusing the suns direct rays. My problem was that this was not a 'light overcast', this was a 'doom and gloom with chances of showers' kind of overcast.

Even though the sky appears evenly gray in all directions there is still a 'key light' direction where the sun is at the moment. When your model faces into this light the result is a flat, yet flattering soft and even look. When facing away from this 'key/sun' the light will appear to wrap around the sides of the model's face slightly, which is also a nice look. ( In the examples above, #1 is facing directly west into the key, #2 is turned 3/4 away from key, and #3 is with the key behind the model - notice the wrap in this one especially)

The biggest problem is filling in the dark eye sockets that result from there being so much overhead light. This can easily be solved with a little reflecting from below. Be careful not to fill more than the key or you'll get a weird, horror-type look. I found that having the model hold the bounce card herself allowed me to shoot with longer lenses and manually focus at apertures below f2, ( which I usually don't get to do because I'm holding my own bounce. )

An added bonus is the way this low bounce lights up the eye:

So don't be discouraged by overcast. In many ways it was easier to not have to fight the sun, but I do miss those backlit highlights.

BTS pictures

2010-06-30T15:13:00.000-07:00

It's really rare that I ever get any behind the scenes shots of me working, but here are a few from this year:
This is the magic board in action. See my earlier post on this lighting setup: The Magic Board.

Video Shoot:

My 1963 Voighlander Ultramatic

2010-06-29T20:01:00.000-07:00

This camera is amazing. Leave it to the Germans, the West Germans to be exact.

Not only is the light meter powered by the stylish photocell on the front, but the viewfinder has a periscope view of the aperture / shutter speed settings. This camera was seriously ahead of it's time.

I really wish you could hear the sound of the shutter in this camera. Its such a forceful, hollow sound. Pure evil.

More of Kathryn, Ami & Carin

2010-06-23T22:21:00.000-07:00

Here are some other noteworthy ones from my 5-30 shoot with these great dancers:

There is no trick or photoshop to this. It's basically a bellyflop onto the earth.

fortune

2010-06-16T21:47:00.000-07:00

Krizia

2010-06-15T20:57:00.000-07:00

More to come as always:
This gives me a Kubrick, Herzog creepy feeling. Love it.

Savannah

2010-06-14T00:00:00.000-07:00

Kathryn, Ami & Caryn @ Torrey Pines

2010-06-03T13:37:00.000-07:00

Click to enlarge. 1680x1050px for a desktop background. Otherwise I would not have made this so stylized.

Let me say this again:
Working with trained dancers is so easy it feels like cheating. It might actually be cheating.

The joy of homebrew

2010-06-01T15:30:00.000-07:00

Maté-veza. A corn-brewed beer in the Mexican style with a maté kick. Serving suggestion:

Take a minute for Dennis Hopper

2010-05-29T21:39:00.000-07:00

I promise not to do this often, but we need to acknowledge the passing of Dennis Hopper. It probably depends how familiar you are with his work, but I feel like I just lost a crazy uncle or something.

I really don't care if you wish to dispute this; His best role was in Francis Ford Coppola's "Apocalypse Now" where he plays the photographer who has been living amongst the followers of the infamous Colonel Kurtz. Granted, he is only introduced in the last 30 minutes of the film, but his compulsive enthusiasm reignites the screen in such a 'lengthy' film.

One of my friends from film school once said to me, "Imagine if there was really film in those cameras. There must have been right? That's what Coppola would do."

This is not a role that Robert Redford or Clint Eastwood could have pulled off. Well, maybe they could have but I can't imagine it because Dennis truly goes off the deep end in this film. ( I mean, you have to be insane to follow Coppola into the jungles of South Vietnam for months of filming... but my confused admiration for the making of Apocalypse Now will have to wait for another blog article )

The easiest way to sum this up is... If you haven't seen him in Easy Rider, you don't even know Dennis Hopper:

This film puts hippies and beatniks to shame. Seriously. For the last twenty minutes of the film they just drop a ton of acid in a cemetery in New Orleans and film it... This production had drugs as a line item in the budget... Lets just say you should see it.

Philosophical? Existential? I'm not sure what they were going for when they made this film ( because they were probably too high to have a cohesive vision ), but it is certainly a masterpiece.

Nick Brandt blows my mind

2010-05-27T15:29:00.000-07:00

So I'm not usually like, "ohh check out this photographer..." But when something blows me away like these wildlife portraits by Nick Brandt, I have to.

http://www.nickbrandt.com/index.cfm

Vanessa and the Magic Board

2010-05-24T13:07:00.000-07:00

I had a great shoot yesterday up in Oceanside with Vanessa. It was a classic Anthony Robertson shoot: no stylists, not lights, no bs.... only The Magic Board! I really wish I had a picture to show of me using my magic bounce board, because it looks ridiculous, but I'll do my best to describe its practical applications. The simple description is how beautiful this light looks:

The 'magic board' was basically a product of my poorness. To the untrained eye it might look like a 20"x30" foam presentation board from CVS with some tin foil gaff taped to it. And, well, that's basically what it is. I've actually got some shiny paper product rather than foil, but its probably comparable to the 'soft' side of tin foil. ( Tip: crumple your foil prior to application for more diffusion )

Now here is the big secret. I'm serious. Pay attention. Not only is this a bounce board, it's also a lenser. ( Lenser = anything that keeps a flare (sun) out of your lens ) This is why nobody but me can use the magic board. Here is a little diagram to help you understand:

Just imagine how funny this looks in real life. Here is the crucial part in closeup.

Notice that the field of view of the camera (blue/green) is not obstructed by the board or flooded by the direct sunlight.

Reap the benefits:

1) subject is beautifully and powerfully backlit

2) The magic board will produce as much fill as you want, often way more than a model can tolerate.

3) The board flags off any lens flare ( unless you want some )

The source:

By working at this relative proximity ( I shoot a 50mm generally, so a 3/4 shot size on a person leaves me about 4.5 feet away ) this board is a 'large' source, producing a soft, wrapping light. The crumpled reflective surface provides additional diffusion.

Pros:

- No assistant required

- Cheap to make

- Free to use ( no batteries or power )

- Beautiful natural light aesthetic

Cons:

- You will look like a tool and other photographers will probably laugh at you.

- Often it is not possible to fill with enough light to capture a brighter background. This can be solved by selectively choosing a dark background or some highlight recovery in post processing.

- This technique will limit your working distance from your subject. The reflected light is only useful within 10 feet of your subject/model so you're either using a 50mm or shooting close ups.

Stick a 50 on your Dslr and some tin foil on a board and make me proud.

This is the way I light 90% of my work. If you don't like it you can go suck an egg.

2010-05-09T18:49:00.000-07:00

This is my pocketknife that I've owned for over fifteen years now. Not only has it survived boy scouts and film school, but also multiple moves and random adventures.

That's my mom's labeling work. My favorite memory with this knife was from one afternoon when I was cleaning it. I was using nail polish remover and I must not have realized how potent it was because I accidentally melted my fingerprints into the plastic outer casing:

I think I might photograph more of my things.

DIY #1: Dry mounting at home!

2010-05-08T13:51:00.000-07:00

I was going to take my own pictures and write a fancy blog article about the ease of dry mounting at home, but I've found that someone has beaten me to it. Here's a 15 minute video outlining the whole process: http://www.depressing.org/archives/mounting56k.wmv

I'll summarize the important points for you, but I'm going to assume you already know the basic steps of dry mounting the traditional way. ( Here is a quick rundown: http://www.itg.uiuc.edu/help/drymounting/ )

I developed this same technique myself about six months ago because it seemed like a straightforward concept. I thought, "I've got an iron. Why won't that work?" And the answer is it works fine with a few pointers.

You will need:
A print to be mounted ( I've only gone up to 8x12 in. )
A piece of matte board
Drymounting adhesive tissue
A ruler
A household iron
An ironing board or heat-safe surface to work on
A blank piece of paper larger than the print

It would be helpful to have:
A paper cutter ( for trimming your print and tissue )
A T-ruler for centering and leveling your print

Tips:
1) Be sure to use a blank piece of paper between your iron and your print. Paper with any kind of ink on it may damage your print.
2) When you print is tacked in place and you're ready to really apply the heat, start in the center of the print and work circularly out to the edges. This will prevent air bubbles and creasing of the print.
3) Do a test mounting with a small print of the same print material as your enlargement. Different paper stocks will respond differently to this process. The 8x10s I get cost $5, which is just enough for me to be concerned about ruining one.
4) Set your iron to the 'synthetic' setting and be sure to keep it moving while heating the print.
5) When finished the print will tend to curl as the adhesive cools. Place a heavy book or other object on the print to help it cool flat. Some curling is inevitable however.

* Remember, dry mounting is a permanent process. Whatever you're mounting your print to is going to be its new background forever.

Another shoot with Tylara

2010-05-06T15:30:00.000-07:00

Models do like to climb stuff. I can't explain it.

Book Recommendation: Collapse

2010-05-05T20:20:00.000-07:00

Jared Diamond's 525 page epic, Collapse, was published in 2005 and has become more relevant every year since. The book is basically a chapter by chapter case study of past civilizations ranging from Easter Island to the Greenland Norse, explaining how each of their 'collapses' was highly correlated to the mismanagement of natural resources.

Towards the end of the book he relates the examples to modern day environmental issues, showing how we can learn to properly manage our resources by learning from mistakes made in the past. He address the role of big business as well as the responsibility of the individual in developing solutions to our current problems.

It might sound a little apocalyptic, but Diamond categorizes himself as 'a cautious optimist'. He presents both the merits and downfalls of past civilizations as well as modern examples of people working together to protect the environment.

My opinion: The first few chapters about the Polynesian expansion were fascinating. The section on the Greenland Norse drags on for several chapters and was not my favorite part. The political background on the mining, farming, and oil industries were very educational. I feel like I know more about soil erosion than I would have ever hoped.

Definitely a good read, I recommend it. I'll now be moving on to Jimes Michener's 937 page epic novel, Hawaii. This could take awhile.

Kevan & Carolyn Darling

2010-05-05T19:55:00.000-07:00

Back on the 17th of April I had the opportunity to shoot the beautiful wedding of Kevan and Carolyn Darling. The ceremony was traditional Greek Orthodox, meaning there are a lot of built in traditions and the priest sings a lot. Here is the couple circling the altar:

I hadn't met Carolyn prior to the wedding so I think I was possibly even more shocked than everyone else at how beautiful she looked. Kevin was looking pretty sharp himself in his Army Officer's uniform.
Their reception was at a beautiful vacation rental / event venue up in Temecula. The location was incredibly photogenic and some thin clouds rolled in offering the perfect diffusion. I was using a 580EX II speedlite with diffusion for some fill on most of the portraits. Let me make this clear: this was like shooting fish in a barrel.

This one ( above ) is an early attempt at an HDR, but I think it still looks a little overblown. Too much detail in the grass perhaps?

Carolyn and Kevan were possibly the most laid back couple I've ever worked with. It was good to see people enjoy their wedding day so thoroughly without worrying about any of the logistics.

Highpass retouch comparison

2010-05-05T13:08:00.001-07:00

This is a picture of my friend Ray who drank an entire bottle of Alize before having this portrait taken. It was shot on Fuji Provia 100 which is a beautiful color slide film but I scrapped the color because it didn't scan well. Anyway, you can see here how a little highpass retouching puts the pop back into a black and white image.

Maybe one day I'll get into doing tutorials, but in the meantime its basically: Ctrl+J (copy layer), Ctrl+U (HLS) desaturate - even for color images, Filter menu--> Highpass - experiment with the slider, set the Blending mode of the top layer to 'soft light' or 'hard light', tune down the top layer opacity a little bit, ( if you want to get fancy you can selectively apply the top layer using a mask ), Ctrl+E (merge layer down). Done.

A quick way to cheer yourself up

2010-05-02T18:20:00.000-07:00

Step one: Log on to YouTube
Step two: Find someone who is exponentially more of a dork than yourself.
Step three: At least you aren't them.

I'm sitting here sucking at the banjo and I find a guy playing the Star Wars theme on the bagpipes while wearing a darth vader mask.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aV-0Nj7sA24&feature=related

Amazing

Film Rec: Soy Cuba ( Kalatozov, 1964 )

2010-04-30T18:06:00.000-07:00

In an attempt to maintain the degree of obscurity of my previous book and film recommendations, I've got a great one for you: Soy Cuba ( I am Cuba ) by Mikhail Kalatozov, 1964.

This 144 minute epic is constructed of several vignettes that each portray a different facet of the Cuban revolution. Because it was a co-production between the former U.S.S.R and Cuba, the words 'socialist propoganda' are the quickest way to describe it.

The film is not intended to be a documentary. The struggle of the Cuban working class is romanticized by both Kalatozov and his cinematographer Sergei Uresevsky through each elaborately lyrical sequence.
( Visually: Uresevsky would not film without clouds in the sky. In many scenes he used infra-red film to enhance the darkness of the sky and the lightness of the foliage. )

The most memorable and impressive sequences in the film are often due to Uresevsky's dynamic cinematography. The opening sequence is one of the most impressive, in which the camera descends from a rooftop party at a hotel to the pool deck many stories below. It then moves through the party and follows a woman into the pool, submerging and filming the swimmers below the surface.
Apparently the actors and crew would sometimes rehearse these scenes for days before filming. Here Kalatozov blocks out the rooftop party scene with a directors viewfinder:

And the resulting scene:

The film didn't receive much of a premiere in either the Soviet Union or Cuba despite over a year in production and a budget that is probably unable to be calculated for political reasons. The film was never premiered in the United States due to the embargo. It wouldn't have been a big success anyway...

I don't think the Cubans felt accurately portrayed by Kalatozov, but I don't blame him for his approach. His goal was to capture the revolutionary spirit of the Cubans, and he saw that in the liveliness of their music, culture and character. He was attempting to depict them as a romantic underdog, which I imagine made them feel like they were being used as a character on a larger world stage.

Soviet audiences didn't like it, I hear, because it, "wasn't revolutionary enough." I'm not going to pretend like I know what it means to say that, all I know is that they weren't impressed. People literally forgot about this film for 30 years.

A Russian historian dug up a copy of the film for a series on Kalatozov in 1992. By the next year the film was screening at the San Francisco International film festival, and in 1994 copy of Soy Cuba was screened for Martin Scorsese. In 1995 it was being distributed by Milestone with both the Scorsese and Coppola names attached to it.
I guess these guys were just so enamored with the film, they spent whatever it cost to bring it back to life.

Reasons to watch this film:
1. You like black and white cinematography
2. You have a sense of humor about propaganda and it's historical context.
3. You have a talent for reading Portuguese subtitles while listening to overdubbing in Russian and trying to guess what the hell is going on in English.

11 Questions for your wedding photographer

2010-04-25T16:31:00.000-07:00

( aka. "this is how I do business" )

I've compiled this list of questions to help clients make the best decision possible when selecting a wedding photographer.

I'm doing this in hopes of clarifying everyone's expectations in this industry. Things have changed considerably with the transition to the digital age and I believe communication will help avoid unnecessary disputes and complaints.

A photographer worthy of your business should have the patience to answer these questions completely and confidently.

1. What kind of deposit / retainer do you require with the signing of a contract? How does the payment schedule work?

Knowing when you'll have to pay your photographer is crucial. He/she should have a clearly outlined payment schedule that is described in their contract with specific $#'s. We charge deposits/retainers because unfortunately sometimes weddings fall through. We can't afford to take a total loss on anticipated income, especially when it means avoiding other potential clients on a specific date.

For example, I refer to my payment schedule as 20/40/40. 20% retainer ( non refundable by definition ), 40% paid the day of the event, 40% paid when the client receives all prints/files/etc that I've promised. Of course I've been screwed out of the final 40% several times. It isn't my conscience that will suffer.

Payment schedules avoid uncomfortable discussions about money. By being able to refer back to the contract, everyone remains on the same page. I've found this is one of the most commonly asked questions.

2. Are the specifics of your packages negotiable?

Well, mine are. In my opinion a photographer should be willing to negotiate with you in the event that one of their packages doesn't exactly meet what you're looking for. I often have people who want to scrap an engagement shoot in the interest of saving money, or get a different # of 8x10 prints than one of my packages provides. I can't imagine how many clients I would have turned off if my answer was simply 'no'.

3. Do you bring backup equipment to every event?

This one should be obvious. Equipment failures happen and can put a photographer entirely out of commission. The simple redundancy of two cameras and two flashes is a much safer way to go.

4. Can you provide a list of references?

A list of references will give you a good idea of how many satisfied customers a photographer has, even if you don't call any of them. However, making a quick phone call or two will give you insight to the character and professionalism of your potential photographer.

5. Will I receieve all the photographs from the wedding day? And will I have the right to duplicate ( print ) them?

I get asked this all the time! This is probably the #1 source of paranoia for wedding clients. The answer is complicated so bear with me.

A photographer should be willing to provide you with a copy of everything shot during the event ( aside from the absolutely unusable images due to exposure/focus mistakes, because they happen ). However, most photographers prefer to have the opportunity to retouch any images that might later be shown as a representation of their work.

My philosophy is: If you're going to print it, I'm going to retouch it. I require each of my clients to tell me which images are going to wind up as prints so I have the opportunity to make sure they look their best. Imagine a bride getting married without makeup. It would never happen. That's how we feel about our prints.

The second issue is rights to printing which is also complicated....

It used to be that everything was shot on film so the process of proofing / printing was expensive and time consuming. Photographers would often retain the rights to the original negatives so they could make prints themselves, as well as require clients to pay additional charges for additional prints. I believe this is where the paranoia has come from.

Welcome to the digital age. An exact duplicate of the 'negative' can be made so both the photographer and client can keep a copy for future printing. I provide a copy and keep a copy to avoid the image being lost for either party in the event of a hard drive failure.

Legally this gets complicated. Pay attention to your contracts. A photographer with a minimal contract may be operating under the terms of 'work made for hire.' Meaning, if you're paying them to take pictures, then you own whatever pictures they take.

My solution to this: My contract includes a clause about model release and rights to use images for promotional purposes. I retain the rights to use the images for my promotional purposes and the client retains the right to duplicate their images for prints indefinitely. Everybody wins.

6. If I order prints as part of my package, what rates will I be getting on the various sizes of enlargements?

Again referencing the days of celluloid film.... It used to be that only the party with the original negatives was able to make prints. For this reason I find that my clients are often concerned that I'm going to 'mark up' the cost of prints ( charge them more for prints than it costs to make them ).

I give every client the choice of managing printing themselves, or allowing me to do it for them at no additional cost. I call it 'prepaying for prints'. They pay me in advance for the basic cost of printing and shipping their prints.

I actually prefer to do this for clients because I have a lab that I use frequently which I know is consistent and professional. Though I explain this to clients, some prefer to manage printing themselves. If they go to RiteAid and their prints wind up looking like crap because a 16 year old is the photo tech there, at least I tried to make my point.

7. Can I see printed examples of your work?

Printed work is often different than what you will see on a computer monitor. If you're going to trust your photographer to manage printing for you, get a look at some printed examples they're willing to show for themselves. If their prints look incorrectly exposed or color corrected it indicates an error somewhere in the retouching or printing processes.

8. How will the proofing process work? Will I be able to review my images online and share them with my wedding guests?

Your photographer should have some kind of online proofing process. It is often the fastest way to see your images, and certainly the easiest way to share photos with your wedding guests.

The online process streamlines photo selection and retouching, and can be made secure with passwords.

9. Will my images be retouched? What types of retouching can you provide?

Some photographers will be willing to deliver images 'straight out of camera', meaning NO retouching. Clients often ask for this in the interest of their budget. I don't recommend it, but some people think that at some point in the future they'll pay someone to touch up the pictures. ( Imagine the probability of this actually happening )

I would recommend seeking out a photographer willing to offer basic exposure and color correction on all of your images. If you're going to be printing images to share with family and friends I would absolutely encourage selecting a photographer who is experienced in advanced retouching including cosmetic touch-ups. Everybody has at least one pimple or blemish on their wedding day. Although I have been the guy who has had to fix the same pimple 200 times, I recommend you pay someone willing to do this for you.

Black and white alternate versions, as well as 'selective colorization' are things you may consider asking about as well.

Quick lesson about 'Raw' images: Most people assume 'raw' to mean 'unedited' or 'original' images. In the photography world the term 'raw' actually has a different meaning ( often capitalized as RAW ). RAW is actually a different file format which is not viewable or editable on most consumers computers. While most of us in fact do shoot RAW files, we hesitate to deliver them to clients fearing that they'll complain about not being able to access the files. There was actually a lawsuit in San Diego about five years ago involving this exact misunderstanding. Be clear when asking for 'raw' vs 'unedited' files.

10. What other services or referrals are you able to provide?

A photographer with a list of referrals for videographers and DJs can be a good sign. It shows that they have working relationships within the industry.

I'm often asked for referrals and I only provide the ones I truly know to be professionals. Not only do I fear the blame coming back to me for their lack of performance, but I know who I prefer to work with. I often trade images/video with these same vendors to ensure that our mutual clients are as satisfied as possible.

11. How long can I expect it to take for our contract to be complete? ( ie. all payments and deliveries of product completed )

I hear horror stories all the time about people waiting 6 months or more for their pictures. The reality is that if you have no specific deadline in your contract, your photographer has an indefinite time line to deliver your images. It all comes back to the contract. If you have a concern, politely ask your photographer to add a clause to their contract. They should be willing.

I hope this has been helpful. I'm exhausted!

2010-04-22T17:53:00.000-07:00

Book Recommendation: 100 Years of Solitude ( way off topic )

2010-04-15T20:00:00.000-07:00

I've been realizing how powerful the correlation is between me not being busy and the amount that I blog. Would you believe that?

Here is a great off topic book rec for you: 100 Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Though the book has nothing to do with photography it is an amazing novel. I don't even like fiction ( let alone magical realism! ) but this book really roped me in.

I have to warn you, there are about 100 characters in the story and half of them have some variation of the same name. Incredibly confusing yet rewarding. As soon as I finished the last page I wanted to start it again.

Send your imagination for a holiday and give this classic a shot.

An announcement

2010-04-15T10:42:00.000-07:00

On April 15th, 2010 Anthony Robertson announced in his blog that he is no longer a photographer. He will continue to take photographs for a living and be an artist who uses cameras regularly.

Canon 7D back from service center

2010-04-01T20:32:00.000-07:00

"Your product has been examined and it was found that the product performed according to specification. Electrical adjustments were carried out on the AF assembly and product functions were confirmed. Other inspection and cleaning were carried out."

We shall see.

Gabbi's Mexican Kitchen!

2010-03-31T18:49:00.002-07:00

I had the opportunity to work at Gabbi's Mexican Kitchen again today with Chef Gabbi and her culinary works of art. The latest news is that shes working on her own line of products, and possibly a cookbook...

Look out for these hot sauces, I hear the Habanero is out of control.

To be honest I didn't have time to learn about each of the plates we shot, so I don't really know what all of these are. Here is some cake.

For these food shots we were working on the patio and using ambient daylight as the key. I filled in from the right side using a Canon 580EX II speedlite at 1/16th power.

Gabbi's has a particularly dark atmosphere so exposure is always tricky. In the kitchen, I used a tota-lite 500w tungsten bounced against the ceiling to bring up the ambient exposure ( ghostbusters style ), and then the 580EX II as my key strobe. ( With full CTO gel to match the ambient temp )

They also wanted me to get some shots that capture the action in the kitchen, so I was using shutter speeds slower than 1/15th of a second at times. There is a lot of hit and miss involved here. This lady was a really good sport.

I honestly have no idea what this is but it looks nice. Something like a pork sushi roll I think.

Retouching, and re-retouching

2010-03-30T17:30:00.000-07:00

The undeniable plague of the digital workflow is the endless editing and re-editing process. It can be hard to decide that something is 'finished' when you can always come back and launch photoshop again. I say all this because I'm guilty. Just thought I would let you in on the process for one of my portrait retouches:

Would you believe that the underexposed, off-color image on the left is what came out of the camera that evening! I remember being frustrated with myself for not exposing Amber better on this shoot and I knew I was going to take a lot of work to get these images to resemble the way I remember things looking.

The image in the middle is the edit I made back in 2008. It took me probably three hours and I was never quite satisfied, yet I've still used it in my portfolio since.

The image on the right is an edit I did yesterday. It took me only ten minutes and I feel certain aspects are improvements. The elimination of so much skin detail makes it look a little more plastic which I usually try to avoid. I might prefer somewhat of a compromise between #2 and #3.

There is a lot to be said for 'straight out of the camera' photographs, but unless it's specifically stated, you better believe we're all using photoshop :)

Composition Lesson #2: Correct Headroom

2010-03-27T19:15:00.000-07:00

( Check out Lesson 1: The Rule of Thirds )

Incorrect 'head room' is a frequent compositional problem and it really annoys me. This is exactly the picture you get when you ask a stranger to take a shot of your family on vacation. I guess having your face in the center of the picture is better than having your head cut off, but for more reasons than I care to get into it makes for a horrible composition:

In high school I used to work at a cable station and got hours of composition practice doing television production. Almost all the same principles apply to photography, and they can even make your images have a more narrative / cinematic look to them.

The principle of headroom is simple: In any composition involving people there should only be a small amount of open frame above the subject’s heads.

The amount of space to leave should be relative to your shot size ( wider shot = more head room, tighter shot = less. )

In head shots and close up portraits it’s actually the convention to cut off the top of the subjects head slightly.

Like any convention in photography there are exceptions but there isn’t much you can do when experimenting with headroom. If you’re going to violate the convention make it intentional. I do it with my fashion and wedding work when I see an opportunity.

Generally you need either another subject to occupy all that space or at least something visually appealing. Clear blue skies are boring but dramatic clouds work out great. I like the atmosphere of the open headroom because it humbles the subject and shows more of the setting.

Mexico City again - Tips on traveling with your gear

2010-03-25T14:56:00.000-07:00

Just got back from another short trip to Mexico City, Aguascalientes, and Puebla doing some video work for Cisco systems. I took my DSLR along this time but I had very few opportunities to shoot. This was the view from my hotel room on the 21st floor of the W.

I decided to compile a few tips on traveling with your photo/video gear because I was pretty proud of myself for not having to check any luggage or equipment the whole trip.

That being said,
Tip #1 : Don't check your gear if you don't have to.
Nothing is going to screw up your shoot like having your equipment damaged, lost or delayed. If your gear meets your airlines carry on size requirements ( generally about 14 x 9 x 22 in ) take whatever you can onboard. Cameras especially should not be placed with checked luggage.

Here are the few items that you cannot take onboard:
Certain flammable types of film/print stocks.
Compressed ( canned ) air products
Gaff tape ( not sure why, but I've had it taken by security )

Tip #2: Pack light and be creative
Tripods:
I was really concerned on this trip that I would have trouble getting my small photo/video tripod on board but a friend told me a trick. If your tripod has a removable head, unscrew it and put the head in your carry-on. If you strap the legs of the tripod to the outside of your camera bag, boom, all of a sudden you've got only two items that meet carry on requirements. ( I did get my bag inspected all five times I cleared security. They really wanted to see what that tripod head was. )
If your tripod has spikes on the feet see if they are removable. The ones on my tripod are fixed but I screwed the floor protector nuts down over the tips to make them appear less threatening.

Gaff Tape:
Take some foot long strips and tape them somewhere on the interior of your camera bag. For most small shoots you won't need a whole roll anyway.

Tip #3: Work with the TSA agents
When you approach the X-ray machine tell the agent that your bag has camera equipment in it and ask them if they would like you to place it separately into bins. Sometimes they will ask you to, other times they will just tell you to run it through whole. Generally after they see all the electronics in your bag someone will ask you to do a hand inspection. Just be cooperative and help them repack the bag if it helps keep your equipment organized. Remember they are given lot of discretion in the way they enforce the security regulations, so work with them.

Mexico City y Puebla

2010-03-07T10:10:00.000-08:00

I spent the last four days in Mexico City and Puebla shooting video for Cisco systems and their partners Flip Video and Promethean. I'm very excited to be heading back in two weeks to follow up on the teacher trainings being carried out by my new friends, the DOT interns. Unfortunately I was unable to take a camera with me so there are no pictures! I promise to take a DSLR next time and bring back some images. Until then, hasta luego.

Pet Portaits - A few quick tips

2010-02-23T16:36:00.001-08:00

I'm certainly not a pro at pet portraits but I've done a few and have a few tips to pass on. ( This is Abby btw, and a 16x20 canvas wrap print of this image was a Christmas gift for a friends mom. ) Ok, first three tips that come to mind....
1. Use Natural Light - Using a flash can startle ( or just annoy ) an animal. I prefer the aesthetic of natural light whenever enough is available. A large window can provide a convenient and beautiful source but lighting can be tricky because you can't just ask the animal to turn 90 degrees.

2. Know your animals - Especially when working with cats this will ensure that your subject is relaxed and comfortable. Dogs are a little more flexible and can be more animated when excited. Taking a dog to a park might make for great pictures but a cat would probably freak out. I know nothing about working with birds or reptiles. Just try to reflect the qualities the owner admires about their pet.

3. Work Quickly - This is not a model you're working with here. As long as the pet is comfortable with you around you're going to get the best shots within the first few minutes. Especially cats will lose interest with you and your clicking box as soon as they realize they can't eat it.

4. ( Bonus ) I generally use a 50mm lens to maintain a sense of proximity to the animal. It does require you to work closer to the pet to achieve a portrait shot size, but you will avoid the 'wildlife' photography compression of spatial relationships that comes with longer focal lengths. I feel it keeps things more personal, and you get a very photographic shallow depth of field as a bonus.

Oh yeah and manually focus because dog noses and cat whiskers can trick your AF off of the eyes.

Book Recommendation: Optics and Focus for Camera Assistants: Art, Science and Zen

2010-02-23T15:49:00.000-08:00

Yes, this is the nerdiest book I've ever read. Whats nerdier is that I took notes on the whole thing.

I read this back in film school and it blew my focus skills wide open. I spent months thinking only in terms of depth of field. I cannot tell a lie, I'm a pretty amazing camera assistant and this book helped me get there.

This text is definitely more for filmmakers but a lot of the information is relevant to photographers. I don't know if the title "...& Zen" is a reference to the Robert Pirsig book Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance but Fritz Hershey seems to have a similar utilitarian perspective on his work.

Stuart & Jeff - Feb 14th 2010

2010-02-15T16:05:00.000-08:00

I had my first opportunity to shoot a same sex wedding over Valentines weekend and it was a blast.

When I was originally contacted by Stuart I thought to myself, "... a wedding with no bride? This is what I've been waiting for!" and they were truly easy to work with.

Another reason this event was particularly fun was that it was in their beautiful home in Laguna Beach. The ceremony was held on their patio which has an incredible view of Catalina Island.

This was also my first traditional Jewish wedding.
You can see here the chuppa ( the 'c' is silent ) which I thought was an interesting tradition. It requires a person to hold up each of the four corners, and the chuppa holders are usually close family members. I think it makes a nice metaphor for the support of family and friends.

I enjoy these in-home weddings because I find that everyone is more relaxed and there are fewer hangups. Not to mention a beautiful home makes for a nicer backdrop than a hotel conference room. It was a little crowded with their 100 guests but I found ways to work around it.

Silkk the Shocker - how could I forget

2010-02-12T21:21:00.000-08:00

I would just like to call attention to the fact that I have worked with rapper Silkk the Shocker. In case you weren't privy to hip hop back in '96, he was kind of a big deal. He is also the brother of rapper Master-P ( which yes, makes him Romeo's uncle ).
I had an unexpected opportunity to work with him back in 2007 for some clothing retailers or something. I just happened upon these pictures again while cleaning up my hard drives.

My product work gets around...

2010-02-12T18:05:00.000-08:00

I love it when my product clients update me on the usage of my pictures. Right now I'm represented by StudBar Exercise Equipment on Amazon.com, and Sophia & Sam on Costco.com

At least I'm meeting somebody's standards :)

Dove Apparel - scrubs for days

2010-02-05T11:15:00.000-08:00

I spent the last three days working with the good people over at Dove Professional Apparel helping them photograph their new lines of scrubs and medical apparel. They sell sweatshop-free, high quality garments to nursing and medical students across the county. Learn more at their website: www.doveapparel.com Here Souley and Myscha are looking professional in a unisex scrub top (one of about fourty style / color combinations we shot)John models a poly-blend mens polo in navy. I had a crew of four very dedicated models to get through this shoot. Patience and a collaborative spirit were crucial.

Product shoots are a mixed bag

2010-01-28T10:06:00.000-08:00

Hand puppets for children, seriously.

Kathryn @ Torrey Pines

2010-01-25T23:16:00.000-08:00

Ok, so more insights on dance photography.

Lets start with silhouettes ( which are apparently harder to spell than to shoot ). Shooting silhouettes is great, mostly because it's easy. Why fight the sun by trying to light your subject, am I right? No worrying about flash recycle times, maximum sync speeds, or all of those other things I hate about using a speedlite.

So it's as easy as exposing for the sunset and you'll get a shutter speed plenty fast enough ( even at ISO 250 ) to freeze the awesome dance action.

There are obviously a lot of ways to retouch silhouettes, but these in particular I haven't modified very much. I would have liked to get even more contrast in the original exposure to make Kathryn's figure silhouette-out entirely but there is a huge bluff at Torrey Pines that reflects the sun back towards the water.

We worked for awhile with this sheer fabric thing and got a few good shots. The wind was blowing hard enough that we had to cooperate with it. It looks pretty cool but I've seen it photographed better.

Note: I spent a lot of time staring at the sun during this shoot which I do not recommend. When I got tired of it I just started shooting from the hip and hand-held just inches off the sand. The wide lens and low angles help dramatize the landscape and dancer.

Heres an alternative using the sun as key light rather than backlight. As long as you keep your model facing the sunset it works pretty well and there are plenty of opportunities for profiles with dance.

Kathryn teaches ballet and it shows in her dance. Shes so trained and reliable that she can reproduce the same leap for me five times so I can get the timing right. And like a good actor, it's great to be working with a dancer who can both improvise and take direction.

And let me mention how freezing it was... We finally had to give up when Kathryn's feet got so cold she couldn't point her toes anymore. She was a really good sport about the whole thing. You can see in the background that this was not a particularly popular time to be prancing around in the surf.

I probably could have kept more footprints out of the sand also but I'm not a perfectionist.

Jason & Jen's engagement @ Balboa Park

2010-01-20T18:54:00.000-08:00

I headed out to Balboa Park this past Sunday to shoot some engagement portraits for Jason and Jen:

Jason planned a surprise vacation from Colorado to pop the question here in San Diego, which he did the night before our shoot. Unfortunately the weather wasn't typical of San Diego ( and they did get out of town before the storm ), but we made the most of the last overcast hours of the day.

Their personalities and smiles helped keep the mood lighthearted and we quickly covered a lot of locations.

I did my best to provide the historical background of the

park... "Who was Balboa? Umm.." and I felt I gave a pretty good tour.

Engagement shoots can be challenging for a variety of reasons but I find striking a balance of candid and conceptual ( cheesy ) shots is the most difficult. Trying to shoot two different styles simultaneously is a tough state of mind to maintain. I'm always just trying to give my clients variety so they're left with options in the editorial process.

Another challenge is to capture the personalities and character of people who you've had very little interaction with. This is a talent I've had success in refining. I can generally have people laughing at themselves ( or me ) within just a few minutes.

At the end of the day it's all about getting people animated and looking like they love each other! ( A lot of engagement photographers are so avant garde these days their subjects don't even appear to like each other. But thats a rant I'll save for later... )

Book Recommendation: The Tao of Photography

2010-01-18T19:10:00.000-08:00

I would never recommend a book that I haven't read, and this one I thoroughly enjoyed. The Tao of Photography ( Gross, Shapiro ) is a hybrid of a text and coffee table book including lots of full page images as examples as well as exercises to develop one's photo-chi.

The authors reference the work of several famous photographers but place a lot of emphasis on Henri Cartier Bresson. All the examples and discussion are based on the black and white process, but the concepts can easily be extrapolated to a color format.

Photography is actually a great way to practice mindfulness. It is in all truth an art form based on how to look at things. This book does a good job of convincing the reader to break down guidelines for what makes a 'good' subject, or even a 'good' photograph. There is almost no discussion of the technical aspects of cameras, but instead an emphasis on process and composition.

Being someone who has studied photography up and down, I can say that this book provided a refreshing new way to think. It helps put motivation and sense of purpose back at the forefront of shooting.

Available at Amazon. And you can get it used for under $10.

Katie and Kevin Tritch - Jan 9th 2009

2010-01-11T12:33:00.000-08:00

I had a great day Saturday shooting the wedding of Katie & Kevin Tritch down here in sunny San Diego. To say that this was a beautiful wedding wouldn't begin to do it justice. These are the kinds of events where I'm challenged to make sure everything looks as amazing in the camera as it does in reality.

The ceremony was held on the USD campus ( Katie's alma-mater ) in The Immaculata chapel. Everything was stress free from the start and I've rarely seen an event run so smoothly.

I had my friend Mike Patterson of Oalian Photography help me out with shooting the ceremony and following portrait session. He rounded out my focus on the traditional shots by getting candids and alternative angles whenever possible. Working with a 2nd shooter can really alleviate some of the pressure of working on such a tight schedule. The only real drawback is having another thousand images or so to manage. ( I left this wedding with 56 gigs of photographs ) Some photographers may disagree with me, but shooting everything in RAW is the best policy if you've got the storage media.

Around sunset the whole gang headed down to the Naval Submarine Station in Point Loma for more photo ops and the reception. I had never been on the base ( or shot a Navy wedding before for that matter ). It was a perfect venue with a deck that opened to the ocean.

Now I've said that I've seen some families that know how to party before but the Kavanaugh / Tritch clan might top them all. The dance floor was raging with a bunch of uniforms and even grandma. By the time I headed out around 10pm there was no sign of anybody slowing down.

When working an event doesn't feel like work at all you know you've got a great gig. Thanks Katie & Kevin!

1st Fashion shoot of the year with Megan

2010-01-08T17:13:00.000-08:00

I headed out to the open space preserve with Megan yesterday morning to keep my fashion shooting skills sharp and spend some time with my new Canon 7D.

A few observations on the camera first. Having to compare this with my old 5D is a tough standard to follow, especially considering that the 7D retails for $1,000 less.
The fact that the new 7D is not a 'full frame' camera had me kind of bummed but the decision to buy finally came down to $$. The smaller sensor in the camera means working with a 'conversion factor' of 1.6x, or basically multiplying the focal length indicated on any lens by 160%. I did my best to find the bright side of this fact and the answer was hidden in my EF 50mm f1.4. ( 50mm x 1.6 = 80mm ) I now own an 80mm lens for portraits! Of course the optics won't have the exact benefits of a real 80mm lens, but it is one way to save about $1,600 on Canon glass!
So in summary I was pleased to be working with a more appropriate focal length than my previous standard of 50mm.

Now for the bad news... I'm not the first new 7D owner to quickly realize that this camera has problems in it's redesigned auto-focus system. There is nothing worse than getting your images on a monitor and realizing that they're just barely soft enough to be unusable. The jury is still out on the nature of the problem but I've read all over the net about possible solutions involving manually tuning focus, firmware updates, and custom function workarounds.
Several buyers have exchanged their 7D bodies ( even twice ) with no improvement in the autofocus system and in the meantime Canon has yet to propose a solution ( or even admit a problem exists ) .

So the moral here is... Don't go out shooting a whole wedding on your brand spanking new camera without testing it! I have a wedding tomorrow and I couldn't be more pleased with myself that I set up a test shoot. Also, I'm not getting attached to this thing. Yes it's new and flashy and it shoots HD video, but if the AF system is shoddy I'll return this thing first thing Monday morning.

Megan was a great model and a true pleasure to work with. Being a photographer herself makes it even more embarrassing for me to have committed one of the most seemingly amateur mistakes in the book. Fortunately she was consistent and delivered her best which shows in the images that did come out sharp.

San Felipe New Years 2010

2010-01-06T17:44:00.000-08:00

Just sharing a few images from this year's trip to San Felipe.
To see more check out this gallery:
http://www.robertsonexposure.com/galleries/sfan10/index.html

These dogs were hanging out at the fireworks trailer. This brown one was cool but the black one in the background tried to bite my heel. It's bound to happen one of these days.

This is my friend Arturo who owns a hardware store downtown. His band, Agave Blues, performs around town almost every night of the week. A new bar opened outside town called the JollyMon and this picture is from their New Year's eve performance.

I don't think you can get these over sized sparklers in the states. They're pretty fun to photograph because the sparks come out sharp even though I'm hand-holding a five second shutter speed.

One of my other favorite San Felipe pastimes is taking walks (drinking beer) in the desert at sunset. I could tell earlier in the day that this was going to be a good sunset and it turned out to be possibly the best one I've seen. The color show kept going after the sun went down for at least an hour.

Happy 2010!

Digital archiving – how safe are your pictures?

2009-12-20T22:31:00.000-08:00

It hasn't been long now since digital photography has been the standard for both professional and casual photographers. Digital files have replaced celluloid negatives and raised a whole new discussion of archiving

techniques.

There have been pros and cons to the transition to 'digital negatives' and I've gathered the following tips to share some responsible practices for archiving your digital files. It would be a catastrophe to my business for me to lose a clients work before delivering it, and equally as devastating to lose sentimental family photographs. These basic principles apply to pros and amateurs alike.

Fun fact: Ansel Adams lost up to a third of his early work to a fire in his San Francisco studio in 1937. Film stock used to have a nitrate base which was extremely flammable and could auto-ignite from exposure to heat or even static. At least today our storage media are not spontaneously combustible.

To begin with lets address a few risky practices. The absolutely most irresponsible way to store your pictures is on your cameras flash media card. I've seen far too many people who still have snapshots from last Christmas on their camera. Those images could be gone as easy as the camera being lost or stolen or deleted as a group with just a few button strokes. Please don't let me catch you doing this or you'll be in for a lecture. Get into the practice of regularly downloading the images to a hard drive or taking your flash card into a photo lab to have them transferred to disc or printed.

Now speaking of hard drives... they have a list of problems of their own. As a

general rule try to store your images on a separate drive or partition than your system drive ( where your operating system is installed ). This way if something goes wrong with your computer it's much easier to recover your files. ( I don't keep anything besides OS and program files on my C:\ drive )

Hard drives cannot be trusted. None of them. It doesn't matter how much you pay or what kind of guarantee they carry because when they break you're left with very few options. Professional data recovery rates are profane and often have no correlation to the difficulty of the job at hand. It's best to just plan ahead and cover your own bases by keeping redundant copies of your images on at least two hard drives. This can be set up with RAID mirroring ( the simultaneous writing of everything to two identical drives ), or automated with a variety of backup programs. A free and easy solution I've used in the past is SyncBack by 2BrightSparks - a free version is available. The biggest advantage of the digital negative is that it can be copied with no loss of quality, so take advantage of that fact.

What if your computer is stolen or destroyed by fire? Well it's likely that all of

your hard drives will be too, including your copies. To protect yourself against these situations you'll need to employ a form of off-site backup using an internet connection. There are several paid services which make setting up off-site backup simple, like Mozy.com Firesafe, bolt-down hard drives are also an affordable option. They're even waterproof so they'll survive the fire department hosing down your house. ( IoSafe makes a good one )

( I should point out here that I'm never compensated in any way to make product endorsements. I'm just offering a starting point if you're interested. )

If this is all starting to seem excessive its probably because you're hearing it from me. I'm absolutely paranoid about losing the work I've put so much time into. It's also probably why I have over three terabytes of hard drives hooked up to my computer and redundant copies hidden in various places to avoid total theft.

If you don't feel the need to take your photo archiving to the extreme a solution might be as simple as regularly making some prints of your favorite images. In many ways a photographic print is more permanent than a digital negative.

With a little planning most of your digital archiving can be automated using free or affordable solutions. The day something goes wrong you'll be glad you did.

Reflections on Jewelry photography

2009-12-01T09:50:00.000-08:00

I had a jewelry shoot yesterday and I was quite pleased with the results. With jewelry you never know what kinds of materials you're going to be working with; shiny, opaque, transparent, or any combination of those in the same piece.

Aside from making the piece look good, communicating both the design and function are the priorities.

Working with such small subjects is a test of my patience, as well as the amount of 'styling' involved. Food is worse though.

A good macro lens is critical for getting as close to the subject as you'll need to be. The trade off of course is going to be your depth of field. I was using my Speedotron strobes to get enough exposure to use f22 and still having to work very cautiously with focus.

Patience is a requirement. 30 pieces took me 5 1/2 hours.

Almost forgot about Kalalau

2009-12-01T09:12:00.000-08:00

I somehow forgot to share my slides from this year's trip to Kalalau valley on Kauai. The full set of 100 images or so is available here:

Kalalau Slides 2009

Without captions it might be a little hard to tell what you're looking at, so watch carefully for the Polynesian archeological sites and secret jungle gardens.

This portrait is of Biff, the self proclaimed tour guide of the valley. The bluff we're on for this photo has to be the best vista point for watching the sun set and it's not bad for photo ops.

Speaking of Kalalau sunsets, here is one of my favorites from this trip:

I've collected a lot of images over my five trips to Kalalau but somehow I never come away feeling like I've gotten the whole story on film. I guess the obvious lesson here is that it just isn't possible. One day I'm going to compile some photos and stories into a short book but there is still more to be learned.

Another San Felipe Thanksgiving

2009-11-30T11:38:00.001-08:00

My family enjoyed another Thanksgiving in San Felipe this year with a lot of margaritas and guacamole. It was a pretty quiet holiday and the weather was surprisingly warm for November.

I caught this dog taking a nap outside a gas station. I'm not quite clear about the pink jacket.

There were fewer Americans than ever and the local economy isn't doing very well without the tourism. A lot of businesses have closed up or cut their hours.

Cerveza Sol, indisputably the best Mexican beer:

I found this bike while taking a walk in the desert with my sister. Sometimes you come across the weirdest stuff. I really like how colors in this image are all so similar.

Chicago - a big, cold city

2009-11-23T16:45:00.000-08:00

I spent last Tuesday through Friday in Chicago at the Mobilize.org 'Millennial ROI' summit. The city has got to be the biggest thing I've ever seen in my life ( I guess I don't get around much ) and we had a great time exploring.

I took along my Voighlander 35mm SLR to shoot some black and white images which I've yet to develop.

This shot was taken by my friend Ryan ( pictured above ) on his Canon Powershot G10. I was really impressed with the low light shooting capabilities which came in handy for evening exteriors. The rain soaked streets and breaking storm clouds made for great images of the city.

A little post processing here too using Topaz Adjust 3.

Composition Lesson 1: The Rule of Thirds

2009-11-15T16:22:00.000-08:00

One of the easiest rules of composition, the rule of thirds, is also one of the most universally applicable. (Whenever I talk about ‘rules’ I get uncomfortable and feel like I should remind everyone that these are conventions. Conventions are great most of the time. When they aren’t applicable, they can be effectively reversed or parodied.) Back to the topic…

The rule of thirds states that most subjects can be comfortably composed within a frame by having its most interesting parts fall along imaginary lines that divide the frame into thirds. (Just look at the picture) The four intersections of these thirds show particularly powerful areas of the frame. There are many ways to put this guideline into action but let’s talk about the most straightforward.

Once you’ve identified your subject try to determine what it’s most attractive (attention worthy) traits are. In your viewfinder imagine the lines of the thirds dividing your frame and try to place the most interesting parts of your subject along the lines and especially on their intersecting points.

Here is an alternative approach, using the thirds to divide the frame:

Most of the time when your subject is a person their face is going to be your only real concern. You’ll notice that almost no pictures of people are shot ‘dead-centered’ because it produces a feeling of ambiguity. By instead placing the subject in one of the thirds we get a more dynamic feeling about them, like they’re going somewhere.

This simple rule can transform the way you compose your pictures. Just be careful not to think about it too much. Most teachers stress that this is a good guideline. You don’t get any points for cluttering up all of the thirds in your composition, sometimes leaving them vacant can be just as

important.

Dance in OB with Sarah, Amanda, and Kelly

2009-11-12T13:48:00.000-08:00

I headed out to Ocean Beach yesterday to help some friends shoot their class assignment and had the chance to shoot these great silhouettes.

I shot these all with a 50mm, so this isn't a wide angle lens that makes these look crazy. These girls are flying.

It was too dark to get exposure on the girls faces so I figured I would just expose for the sunset and get a nice sharp aperture and shutter speed to stop the motion.

Most of these were shot at around an f5.6 at 1/500 or faster. ISO was cranked to 1000 which produced some noise that needed to be worked out.

This was one of those nice spontaneous shoots that produces something unexpected. I have to remind myself how easy it is to work with good dancers. I've only learned when to press the button. I've found few recipes for success as reliable as getting great dancers and enough light to shoot them.

Canon vs. Nikon ?

2009-11-09T15:52:00.000-08:00

I get asked this question so often it’s annoying. I’m just not the type of photographer who enjoys debating the specs of equipment. I think it’s a ‘guy thing’ to talk about gear, and some guys do it endlessly. Sorry, back to the topic.

It makes no difference whether you choose to use Canon or Nikon. I’m a Canon guy, my dad was a Nikon guy. The only real factor that should influence your decision is if you’ve already invested in quality lenses of one brand.

I don’t know why there is even a debate over which brand is better because there are virtually no differences between the products. One company comes out with a feature, the other copies it. That’s it. Nikon was a little earlier with the low-noise, high ISO technology while I believe it was Canon who integrated HD video shooting into their DLSRs first. Now you can get both on either brand. How many more features do we need?

So in conclusion… don’t try to sound cool asking a photog this question, especially this one.

Turn your Photographs into Christmas Presents

2009-11-09T13:11:00.000-08:00

If you’re feeling the pinch this season and thinking about scaling-down your gift giving, consider turning your pictures into presents. There are several great websites that specialize in photo products and can help you get an image onto almost anything you can imagine. I personally recommend either Zazzle.com or Shutterfly.com

I got a great response from the calendars I made for my family two years ago. They were easy to layout online and relatively affordable. ( about $17 each ) Last year I just got a picture of my mom printed on a coffee cup and she thought it was hilarious. Mouse pads and photo postage are some other funny ideas. Maybe I’ll put her face on a stamp this year.

If you get your act together soon, the internet is also a convenient way to get Christmas cards made. Be sure to get your orders placed early though, some of these sites don’t have a great turnaround time.

If you’re feeling the DIY angle and want to spend less I’ve got a few ideas for you:

Refrigerator frames – These cool little magnetic frames are available at CVS for both 4x6

and 5x7 prints. They hold your prints down flat and actually look pretty classy. Give a friend several of your favorite BFF images in one frame and they can rotate them.

Bookmarks – This is the ultimately affordable route. I like to make them by printing a lot of 4x6s and cutting them in half lengthwise. A 5x7 cut into three strips works equally well. Prints without people in them generally work best. These can actually be personalized and thoughtful gifts with a little planning.

DazlMe Hats shoot

2009-10-29T12:52:00.000-07:00

I had a quick shoot on Thursday in Escondido for DazzlMe Hats. This unique line of womens head wear is designed by Camille Wood and is sold in boutiques in both Arizona and California.

To see the rest of her current collection, visit: DazzlMe.com

Pettel Maternity - Winter 2009 collection

2009-10-25T14:37:00.000-07:00

I had another great shoot with Shimi and Keren of Pettel Maternity, this time for their winter 2009 collection.

Their entire line of stylish and affordable maternity clothing is available online at: PettelMaternity.com

CA road trip

2009-10-23T20:10:00.001-07:00

Here are a few shots from my recent road trip north. I decided to drive to the Bay Area without using highway 5 and I picked a few historic destinations along the way.

First stop was the remains of a socialist commune called Llano del Rio which existed from 1913-1917. The site is just off highway 138 near Palmdale.

At it's peak, 1000 residents occupied this self-proclaimed utopia but a lack of water resources forced them to relocate to Louisiana.
It is considered to be the most important socialist experiment in the western US but currently is not recognized as California historical site.

Next stop was an abandoned gold mine outside of Mojave. ( Special point of interest here: Mojave has branded itself 'The Gateway to Space' due to the Rotary Rocket project which was conducted at the Mojave airport, discontinued in 2001. Now it's an air and space port. )

The mine wasn't as old or interesting as I expected, but these abandoned houses on the property were creepy and awesome.

I drove up through the Tehachapi pass and North into the Sequoia National Forest where I camped for a night. I didn't get rained on nearly as much as I expected, but the breakup of the storm made for some great clouds.

These are possible Native American grinding holes along the Kern River, but sometimes you just get rocks with holes in them....

Product Site Launched!

2009-09-30T09:01:00.000-07:00

Check out my new product photography site:
You guessed it.... ProductsByAnthony.com

The site will showcase all my tabletop, clothing, and lifestyle product photography.

If you're thinking of launching a clothing line or have a new product to market lets get in touch.

ProductsByAnthony.com

Wedding Portfolio Update

2009-08-30T11:03:00.000-07:00

Catch up on the awesome weddings I had an opportunity to shoot this summer on my weddings site:

Jeff & Carla's Wedding

2009-08-15T20:04:00.000-07:00

A beautiful event for a beautiful couple. Enough said:

Watches for Hawk & Hunt

2009-08-13T21:06:00.000-07:00

Some lifestyle shots in Pacific Beach for Hawk & Hunt's sports watch, available on their website in 5 colors:

Swimwear under the Stars with SGMM

2009-08-03T23:27:00.000-07:00

I helped out my friend Whitney Bond this weekend with her three-day event "Swimwear Under the Stars," which featured the girls of her new company SG Model Management:

Friday night was a live photo shoot at Stingaree
( photos coming soon ).

Saturday was the swimwear runway show at the Hard Rock hotel, and Sunday was a fundraiser for It's All About the Kids at the hotel Ivy.
(where I got this shot of Gina)

I really never knew that downtown partied this hard.

Check out SGMM

Pettel Maternity Clothes

2009-08-02T09:11:00.000-07:00

I did a shoot Saturday morning for Pettel Maternity, a new company offering high quality, affordable maternity clothing online.

My work will soon be featured on their site at:

PettelMaternity.com

Hawk and Hunt Clothing Co.

2009-07-22T13:35:00.000-07:00

I worked with the guys over at Hawk & Hunt Clothing Co. this week to shoot these images for their online catalog:

Their website will be up and running shortly at:
HawkandHunt.com

Sarah and Michael Taylor's Wedding

2009-06-21T21:36:00.000-07:00

I had a blast yesterday shooting the Taylor's wedding at the Hotel Del Coronado.

Their tasteful planning and beautiful families made it impossible to take bad pictures.

Even the weather cooperated by not raining, yet still giving me this soft light to work with. I wish they could all be this easy.

BenJamminFulton.com

2009-06-12T14:32:00.000-07:00

6/12/09 - BenJamminFulton.com

I just helped my friend Ben Fulton launch a new website at BenJamminFulton.com .

The site will showcase his guitar performance and teaching services as well as his talents as a fine art painter.

Riviera Magazine ! ( last Dec... )

2009-05-11T15:58:00.000-07:00

5/11/09 - Riviera Magazine ! ( last Dec... )

One of my pictures got used in the Dec 2008 issue of Riviera magazine! ( Nobody bothers to tell me these

things ) This shot of Jennifer Capaci was from a shoot promoting her line of eco-friendly shirts: The Terra Collection

Dragon Rojo Kenpo in Chula Vista

2009-05-08T17:41:00.000-07:00

On Friday night I had the chance to help out the Dragon Rojo Kenpo dojo down in Chula Vista with some promotional photos.

I can certainly say I learned a few things but I'm still working on perfecting this kick:

Whitney at Cedar Creek Falls

2009-05-07T21:41:00.000-07:00

Whitney and I set up another shoot, this time at Cedar Creek Falls near Julian, Ca.

It was a killer hike in 100 degree weather but somehow Whitney pulled off some beautiful hair and makeup work!

More info on Whitney's model management company:
Simple Glam Girls

2009-04-24T17:43:00.000-07:00

4/24/09 - Dirty Dirt McGurt - album art

I've also been designing a lot of album artwork for some recording artist friends of mine. Hear tracks off Dirty Dirt's myspace page at: myspace.com/dirtydirtmcgurt

Punjammies Spring collection

2009-04-17T10:44:00.000-07:00

I had another shoot with my friends at the International Princess Project, this time for the Spring line of Punjammies pajama pants.

Take a minute to learn about their awesome organization:

International Princess Project

Erika for the Patriot Girls

2009-04-14T13:46:00.000-07:00

I finally finished the images of Erika for Patriot Girls.

More of my shots as well as other patriot girls and info is all on their MySpace

This beautiful location was out in Corona. You would be amazed at how much beautiful land is private and fenced off. It's really a shame.

More Fashion work

2009-04-09T17:47:00.000-07:00

I had another shoot with the lovely Ashley Fulton the other day. I've been having bad luck with scheduling shoots on overcast days, but I always make the most of it. Here are two of my favorites:

I also had a third shoot with Sea J, and this time it wasn't a maternity shoot! We had a great time stomping around in the woods and I still have some poison oak to remember it by.

Smiley face on a bad day

2009-03-21T15:59:00.000-07:00

There is a tagger that lives somewhere in my neighborhood who keeps tagging these frowny faces everywhere.

I continue to believe that it's just a smiley face having a bad day.

Cy and Ashley!

2009-03-18T14:00:00.000-07:00

I had a great time running around at Torrey Pines and shooting with Cy and Ashley last week. Despite the fog, we got some really fun shots:

For more information on my engagement and wedding photography services, please visit my weddings site at:

WeddingsByAnthony.Com

Ari and Daylight Savings

2009-03-08T16:02:00.000-07:00

Ari and I took advantage of the extra hour of sunlight this Sunday by going out and shooting.

We saw a big, hairy mole that was really gross and a three year old mountain biking.

It was a pretty fun afternoon and more good pictures are to come.

Deena & Sean Callahan's Wedding

2009-03-07T21:04:00.000-08:00

On Saturday I got to shoot the beautiful wedding of Sean and Deena Callahan up in Cypress, Ca.

There is nothing better than working with people who have a sense of humor and are ready to have a good time.

And wow, Irish Catholics know how to party! The theme was thorough, including green afro - wigs and green beer at the reception.

Erica for Patriot Girls!

2009-03-06T17:01:00.000-08:00

This is a sneak peek from my photo shoot with Erica for Patriot Girls, an NPO which supports the troops by shooting in stars and stripes bikinis.

We finally settled on this beautiful location in Corona, Ca.

More info on their organization can be found on myspace at:
Patriot Girls

Scott Kelly available on Itunes

2009-03-04T22:05:00.000-08:00

Scott's debut album, "Best of Days," is now available on Itunes.

I did all the album artwork, as well as photographing the album cover. This was in Kalalau.

2009-03-02T10:26:00.000-08:00

3/2/09 - Portrait & Fashion Portfolios updated

I just recently added a lot of new work to both my Portrait and Fashion galleries.

If you've got a moment, take a look at what I've been up to.