Simplicity is nice. One light is nice. One subject is nice. The entirety of this photograph says look at the subject, study his eyes, facial expression, where his hands are, what he’s wearing, and other things about him. Nothing more needs to be in this shot. Another shot might include quite a bit, but this one doesn’t. We’re relying on emotional interpretation for this image. We’re relying on simplicity. Simple lighting, simple background. Yet, the subject is not all that simple.

Todd Chambers is a professor in the college that I teach. Todd actually gave me my first job after my master’s as a photography instructor, a place I still hold while working toward a Ph.D. in mass communications and media sociology. I’m blessed to know quite a few people I can say are genuinely good people, and Todd is one of them. Todd is an outstanding teacher, researcher, husband, father, and believer (the last three I’m sure he would no doubt note as the most important). Todd is also a cancer survivor, and he is a huge advocate and mission representative of the American Cancer Society and Relay for Life. In 2008, he was selected as an ACS Hero of Hope. His story of survival has been shared numerous times across the region, state and nation. An inspiration to say the least, this year, Todd was given his five years clear – a long ways away from where he was when he was diagnosed.

This was a quick shot. I actually had just finished one shoot and was packing up when I thought I would go ahead a grab this shot. Sometimes, images are envisioned long before they are taken, and this was such a time. Todd always wears the two bracelets you see on his left wrist, and I wanted a shot that featured those as a secondary feature to his facial features. I always imagined a dark environment engulfing him in a shot where he was lit very cleanly, very simply. There was nothing to getting the light right for the shot (by now, you’ve probably recognized that the complication of the light is not key to any of my images, it’s how that light tangibly makes sense of the subject). The Elinchrom Qaudra set at the absolute lowest power it could punch through a Rotalux softbox placed slightly behind the subject’s right side (camera left). This causes the nose shadow to drastically dip into the dark tones, and the camera right shadow side to creep in to the background. The key here is to place the subject far enough away from the black (I’ve used dark browns and blues as well to get this type of shot) that the light does not bleed over on to the background, creating a more grayish environment. Shoot at the fastest shutter speed the sync will allow, and you will knock out the ambient while still exposing for the light.

The light does nothing but provide depth across the face and contrast between light and extreme dark, possibly the two most important features of the shot: light and dark. Put yourself in what is and what may have been his shoes not too long ago. That in itself is the simplistic determination of what the light is like in the shot. This wasn’t a shot deeply involved with developmental thought, it was one that subconsciously arrived, but probably from some sort of influence from his story. Nevertheless, the shot itself can BE deeply involved with interpretive thought with just a few details. I show my students an American Masters documentary on Richard Avedon each year, and during a gallery presentation of his work, voiceovers continually try to interpret the simple images he created mid-career.

The truth and fallacy in which images like this can be interpreted are beautiful components of what we do as image makers.

You can catch up with Todd on Twitter: @tchambersttu

Some great things coming down the pipe here, and I’ll do my best to keep it posted! More to come…

10.Q Logo is copyrighted by Heber Vega.

I’ve been fortunate this past few months to have met several great people who provide fantastic photographic and creative services to not only their immediate surroundings but to those worldwide as well. Heber Vega, a humanitarian and cultural photographer based in northern Iraq is one such person. Heber’s work as a photographer and aid worker deems recognition, and I hope you visit his site often as it is a wealth of photographic and storytelling resources.

One of the more prominent features of Heber’s site is his 10.Q blog series, where he leads interviews with some of the top cultural/travel/humanitarian photographers in the world. A little while back, Heber asked me if I would like to participate in an interview, and I was humbled. Link here to see the interview. This is a great collection of interviews and an even more impressive group of interviewees, including David duChemin, Matt Brandon, Gavin Gough, Karl Grobl, and Brian Hirschy. I’m lucky/fortunate/proud to be included in this series.

Thanks goes to Heber Vega for this opportunity! Hopefully you’ll see more from him soon on this site as well!

To check out more of Heber’s work:

Web site: http://www.hebervega.com

Twitter: @hebervega

On Facebook

It’s been a busy week, full of shooting, writing, designing, and some great discussions with other photographers, near and afar! I was going through some old images tonight looking for some submit-worthy photographs to go with an assignment, and I came across this image from the Big Bend Ranch State Park near Lajitas, Texas. I drove back in down some fairly fresh cut roads the afternoon before this morning and car-camped until an hour before sunrise.

There is nothing better than waking up before the dawn and hearing nothing, while being able to barely see across this vast expanse of rugged land, decorated with desert vegetation and craggy peaks. Twilight (no, not the movie) is an interesting time to shoot as well, and it’s a good practice to do so if you are interested in understanding the dynamic range capabilities of your camera (sorry, enough of the nerd talk, let’s just soak it in). You sense the stillness at this time of day, regardless of where you are. I continually tell my students that it’s worth waking up at least one morning out of the year before the sunrises. Your life will be better. Wake up more often, go take a few images, and you might just have struck the fountain of youth!

If you happen to be camped out on a mountaintop straddling the Texas-Mexico border, even better!

Fast-forward until just a few WEEKS ago. I was catching the Crosby, Stills, & Nash portion of a DVR’d Rock’n'Roll Hall of Fame 25th Anniversary concert, when I noticed someone I recognized, but I couldn’t quite place where I knew him from. Every now and then, Stephen Stills (if you don’t know which one that is, go buy a CSN album, look at the liner notes, but more importantly, be blown away by the music) would look up at the keyboardist behind him. I knew him…but where.

Then it hit me. His name is Todd Caldwell, and (if you didn’t guess by now) he was playing that night several years ago at the wine bar. I had a ton of photos of him, and caught a nice conversation with him after the jam. It makes you think how small the world really is, and that you just never know who you’ll run in to, and where and when they’ll pop back up, in person or on TV. I thought about not taking my cameras that night, but I’m glad I had them with me. One of those times, for a lot of reasons, I’m glad I don’t have to say, “If I’d had a camera…”

If you’re interested to hear what Todd Caldwell’s been up to, check out his Twitter feed, and catch him while he’s on tour with CSN.

By the way, for those photographers reading: You’ve probably heard, but the noise reduction in LR3 is outstanding. These images were shot at ISO 1600 with an old Canon EOS 5D, which we all can agree was not the most attractive ISO to shoot at…

OK, so at the risk of wearing you thin on the subject in the photographs, I’m going to chronologically detail an evening shoot that serves as the epitome of unique natural light conditions where I live (yes, I wrote the EPITOME, I think it’s the Johnny Winter I’m listening to right now that’s riled me up on my description). In a previous post, I wrote that a few weeks ago I finished a huge trip off with an evening run into the farmland of West Texas. I have never seen the light and atmospheric conditions come together for what I saw later that night in a wheat field 20 miles north of Lubbock (which is for those of you not familiar, one of the most agriculturally intensive areas in the world…and the flattest).

What I want to do is display the chosen images in the temporal order they were taken in, just so you can wrap your mind around what I saw as time progressed. At the same time, I want to note a few tips along the way in explaining how these shots (or rather the light) developed:

Tip #1: Some Light Takes Time. Think about the first image in this post. I went out chasing a thunderstorm that night, and what usually happens when you’re in the middle of a storm (I mean, right in the middle)? You see a drastic drop in light intensity. That doesn’t necessarily mean the light is gone, or what the light creates. It just means you don’t necessarily have the type of light that creates dramatic shadows that a ton of landscape photographers talk about (we’re getting there). Sometimes, looking harder and envisioning what the conditions present you lobs a nice image in your archive. In this case, the clouds were bulging downward, and when the sky was given enough time to expose, I noticed the bluish veins of light running around in the sky. There’s your light in this type of situation. A subtle offering, but nonetheless there. When the sun is still above the clouds, the light it throws can oftentimes offer you a ton of color!

Tip #2: Wait the Light Out. After I was done with the first shot, I actually just jumped back in the FJammer (that’s what my wife calls my wheels), and drove a half mile up the road. It started to rain and lightning, and we all know how well the latter mixes with flatland and tripods. I was actually ready to pack it in, convinced that the rain was going to set in for a while. I decided to hang out a little while though, noticing a break between the western clouds and the horizon. If West Texas gives you anything, it’s darn good visibility for such things! After about 20 minutes, the rain was starting to let up, and the horizon looked to stay clear of clouds, with the edge of the storm seemingly just 100 yards off the ground. Waiting to see if the sun peeked below the clouds happened to be the best thing I could have done that evening. As it was drifting down, the light started changing dramatically. I drove back down to the field across the road from the original, grabbed two cameras (one with a 17-35mm f/2.8 L, the other with a 24-105mm f/4L), and got in a location before the light hit. The shot above is the start of the transition. What came next BLEW my mind, and I hope it does yours!

Tip #3: When the Light is Right, Shoot, Shoot, Shoot! The sun made its debut. Enough said. As photographers, “professional” or “amateur,” we’re programmed to recognize good light! I can’t tell you how many times I’ve annoyed people in the car during the morning or evening saying, “That’s nice…look at that light!” This evening didn’t even compare, it was phenomenal! The late evening light combined with the massiveness of the thunderstorm and the golden wheat stopped me in my tracks at first. I was suddenly standing in a field on fire with tangible photons! What do you do when you’re given this gift? SHOOT! I tend to be long-winded, but that’s all I need to write for this tip. You know what to do!

Tip #4: Don’t Forget About Technique and Aesthetics. We’ve all been there, and I see many-a-photography student be overcome by such awe at the light that they forget to move. Now, I know what you’re thinking: “This guy is just showing us shots of wheat, he didn’t move much! Practice what you preach brother!” See the next tip for the answer to this statement. In all seriousness though, don’t get bogged down on just one type of shot. Remember to shift up and down, shoot vertically if it works in the situation, get in close, use shadows to your advantage, pay attention to the sky, the contrast, your EXPOSURE, your DEPTH OF FIELD, and you SHUTTER SPEED (ah, we’ll throw ISO in there too). In a situation like this, make sure everything comes together! Remember how all these things can come together to visually create a story of that moment. Tell it as diversely as you can!

Tip #5: Know How Much Time You Have. When the sun dipped below this huge thunderstorm, I had about 15 minutes worth of great light. This is how much time you have when the sun reaches this point every day, but every day doesn’t look like this! In 15 minutes, I ran from one wheat field to the next (across the road), trying to do as much as I could with the subject I was given during that time period. There was no time to jump in the car and find another spot. This was it, and if you’re aware of the time, then you can get a lot done. My rule of thumb is that if I can hold my hand out horizontally to the horizon, and the sun is above my hand, I have roughly 45 minutes of shooting before sunset. This is kind of hokey, but I also check the weather online to see when the sun actually sets as well. Give yourself the most time possible to shoot.

Tip #6: Reflect a Moment…Then Capture It. Take a little bit of the time you’re given in Tip #5, and squeeze just a bit of appreciation for what’s unfolding before you in there. It doesn’t take much, but it helps. The shot above Tip #5 isn’t necessarily the best shot from the night (who’s kidding, it has a freakin’ shadow in it, mine). However, this was my moment of recognition for what was going on. Besides showing how close the sun was to the horizon (look at the shadow length), it also proved that I was standing in the middle of this. I can’t tell you how excited and and a little spooked at the light and atmospheric conditions I was standing in. To the East, a black wall of thunderstorm, to the North, the same plus nearby lightning, and to the West, a reminder that it will all pass over. If you’re just there to push a button to say you collected the shot and move on, then you’re not doing yourself any good as a photographer. We talk a lot about vision, especially among the photographers I keep up with, and appreciation for what one’s photographing/capturing is one of the keys to embracing your vision. All you need is a moment, then you can get back to the dirty work!

Tip #7: Repeat Tip #4. Once you recollect yourself, take on what you’ve been given. Expose correctly.

Move around. Find something a little different (looking North by the way).

Experiment. How else could I show what was going on with this wheat and still express what conditions it existed? Slow the shutter down, throw some motion in there, look at the movement in the patterns!

Tip #8: Notice the Changes in the Light. Stay keenly aware of how the light changes, and how it in turn changes everything else. Light creates color, and in 15 minutes, the colors in such a scene can change dramatically! Train your eyes to notice subtlety in light shifts, and visualize how those occurrences can help your recreation of the environment. You don’t have much time, but an active eye notices these changes, and adjusts to their happening.

Tip #9: See It All Through. No doubt you saw the pieces of rainbow in the other shots, and you may have seen the above shot in an earlier post. Why no earlier shot of the rainbow? Two reasons: 1. I couldn’t get wide enough where I was to avoid power lines and road. The wheat took precedence at the time. 2. It just wasn’t that intense. Rainbow shots are relatively common (I don’t mean to offend). This one pales even in the face of my friend Wyman Meinzer’s famous shot of the lighting bolt in the middle of the rainbow (he can summon weather, though).

Back to my point. Notice those things going on around you that may produce. You might be focused on shooting the wheat that’s in front of you (metaphorically speaking), but in the back of your mind, you have intentions of shooting that rainbow. So, you keep an eye on it, think about a location that’s a quarter mile up the road that gives you clearance of any uninvited extraneous subject matter, and once the sun sets, and you lose light on the wheat, you make your move. Hopefully the sun does exactly what it should do if there is a clear break under the clouds: light the sky up! You stay at this until it’s all gone. Seriously. Note the changes in light, adjust with them, and see it through to the end.

Alright, if you made it this far, congratulations! You have spent more time reading a blog post than most people do. And not once did you read about camera settings or gear brands (alright, maybe a note of gear used, but just a note). The point of the post, in keeping with the Field Lighting Series mission, is to give you insight on how to SEE light and the changes it produces, as well as the time it takes (or doesn’t take) for those changes to ensue. This is not rocket science, but there is a bit of science to how light naturally works, and knowing how it happens, and what to do when it explodes in your face, naturally or artificially, allows you a more enjoyable, prosperous photographic experience.

If you have any moments like that described in how these images were captured, please link them in the comments below. I would love to see your instances of light awe!

We trekked it back home from Colorado yesterday evening, tired from the road, and ready for rest! The week was spent mostly with family, yet the weather cooperated enough that on our hikes and off-road drives through the Rio Grande National Forest I could walk away with some nice images. As evidenced in a previous post, the water was flowing nicely, and the cool mountain lakes were full. I’ll have more images to post later, including another natural light Field Lighting post, but I thought I would capitalize on a suggestion made not too long ago. The images seen in this post are freely available to you as backgrounds for your mobile phone and Internet devices. Just click on the links for your respective device(s), and display away!

Above image: (iPhone, iPad)

The Aspens were quaking beautifully the past week, and photographers cannot get enough of these trees. They offer such wonderful patters in nature, and they stand out so distinguishably against the evergreens. So much so that you notice that they often survive forest fires, standing polished against years-old burned firs. They are the everlasting shaman of the forests, and their high-reaching canopy shifts brilliantly against dark greens and cobalt blues.

Above image: (iPhone, iPad)

I know not all of you have an iPhone or iPad, but the images are all JPEG, and if you can put them on your (insert other brand of mobile device here), then you can more than likely set them as your background or lock screen. Even for the non-iPhone 4 users, you can download them and set one (if you like) as a lock screen background. The iPad backgrounds are formatted as square 1,024 X 1,024 images so they’ll cooperate with your frequent turning of the device.

Above image: (iPhone, iPad)

I hope you enjoy the Aspen Tree wallpapers, and there will be more in the future. I’m finishing up design work on a new Wyman Meinzer/Henry Chappell book, and afterwards, I’ll have a host of posts to throw up there, including a few new reviews and Field Lighting posts.

We’re half way through a week in Colorado, and we’ve spent a good bit of that time hiking around much like we do in Texas…only it’s a nice 60 to 70 degrees F when the light’s right here. Last night we got back to the car and it was 49 degrees F. I live in West Texas, which is more north than a lot of the state, but we don’t get summer temperatures like this! Luckily we do have the lack of humidity.

Before I run for a little rafting, I thought I would share a shot from just below Hunters Lake, an 8-acre jewel of a pool of water near Wolf Creek Pass. The water is flowing good around here, and many of the shots I’m getting are back in the woods around streams and miniature waterfalls, where it’s even cooler, the light is even and dark.

More to come!

Happy Independence Day for all of those living within the United States, and happy any other day elsewise! Like many other photographers this month, I’m releasing a few holiday-inspired desktop calendars. Both come in large and small, which you can find below:

Have a great one, and be safe! Download the files at will, and share if you like! I’m headed out on the road for a week, so hopefully I’ll make it at least once to the site. Until then…

Top image: 1440 X 960, 1920 X 1280

Bottom image: 1440 X 960, 1920 X 1280

I’ve come to appreciate how little light it actually takes to make some field/environmental portraits work. Take for example the setup above. I shot this for a magazine cover a little over a month ago, and it did not take much light from one Elinchrom Quadra head to punch in just enough light.

I love early morning shoots, even though I’m sure the talent and art directors don’t like them as much as I do. The assignment was for a fitness-themed issue of the magazine, and we found a great little park with a nice running path to do the shoot. Early in the morning in these locations can be hit and miss…that is with the amount of people on the track. We had to move out of the way several times, lest we be run over with drooling muts and their owners. I’m happy to say no drool befell the lighting equipment!

I digress. Anyways, one of the nice things about the Quadra is you can get the power down nearly as well as an off-camera flash. Almost. I was having this discussion with fellow Texas photographer, Jeff Lynch, just the other day, and if you need to get much lower power, you’re still always going to have to go with a smaller flash unit. That or throw on a ND filter, but I was already open enough on my depth of field and I felt good about my shutter for that. Just to be fair to the strobists out there, I would just as happily done this shoot with a Canon 580EX flash and Pocket Wizards if I had one of those nifty Lastolite EzyBoxes.

Morning light, before it pops over the horizon, is particularly subdued, and the ambient light it does create falls on your subject in an almost angelic way. I faced the model away from the rising sun, which although it wasn’t quite up yet, still provided that nice back light (not over-the-top back light, nice, soft, light that is easy to control with exposure). She’s lit using an Elinchrom Rotalux Octa, which helps focus the light more toward the subject than a shoot-through umbrella, decreasing the amount of spill on the ground around the model. This helps simply blend her in with her surroundings without looking too “extreme football light-o-mania!” This is a casual runner. No need to make her look like she’s about to run around the world fast enough to turn back time.

Back to what I was talking about earlier. When the conditions are right, lighting with low power is more effective than over-powering the light and knocking the ambient light down. Note I said when the conditions are right. This includes the time of day, the contextual environment, as well as the subject (refer to light-o-mania statement) and the mood you are trying to create. We write with light, but we don’t always have to write the same way. This shot actually could easily have been pulled off with no lights, not even a reflector. The dynamic range of the camera was broad enough to capture plenty of detail in the shadows, but that touch of light provided a little more color, contrast, and style. I didn’t want to sacrifice exposure for the model’s surroundings, so I knew getting out there early would give me this dynamic range to work with, and keeping the Quadra powered all the way down on channel B (the lowest of the low to be non-technical) and backed out a bit from the model knocks the artificial light down to where you know it’s there, it’s just not too intrusive. Just enough!

This past Sunday was my and Amanda’s first wedding anniversary, and we spent it at the Ironman 70.3 at Buffalo Springs Lake in Lubbock, Texas. To clarify, Amanda (she’s the one smiling, in the pink and blue) participated in the triathlon, and like any proud husband, I went for support…and to take photographs of the event! In fact, Amanda and her teammate, Lindsey Putman, won the female team sprint portion of the race! So, not a bad way to start an anniversary, I might say!

Again, like any proud husband, I thought I would post a few photographs of the event. Amanda participated in the swim and bike portions of the sprint, and I think she surprised herself. I couldn’t even make it to the first buoy in the swim if I wanted to! Of course, she’s no stranger to this kind of competition, completing an earlier triathlon and several marathons before we were married. She has staying power, and I suppose if she’s going to be married to a hard-headed traveling photographer, she ought to have it!

The Buffalo Springs Ironman qualifier race is actually one of the more popular races in the nation, and many of the pros appreciate the fact that it combines a hilly ride and run, which if you were to come to Lubbock, you would ask yourself, “Hills? Where?” Thanks to folks like Mike Greer, the race here is a gem of a competition for more than 1,500 competitors each year!

Every year sees some of the top athletes in the field compete at Buffalo Springs, and this year didn’t disappoint. Chris Lieto (pictured above), a U.S. Ironman Champion, and one of the top athletes in the business took home the men’s top spot, while Magali Tisseyre (below left) and Angela Naeth (below right) finished out the top two spots, respectively, for the female 70.3 race. It’s impressive to be where records are being broke, and world-class athletes compete alongside those just starting out!

Amanda said it best when she mentioned that the atmosphere around triathlons is one of the best in sports. You see everyone from teenagers to 70-year-olds competing, and everyone is encouraging the next to have a great race. Even the spectators are an integral part of the performance, providing vocal support to ALL the racers that pass by! It reminds me of high school cross country…ahh, the golden days, ha!

I was certainly impressed by the performance, from the sprinters and 70.3 triathletes, to the 70.3 aqua bikers and hand cyclers. You want to talk about determination. These guys and gals will make you feel like a pile of unfit bones. I can’t imagine doing the full 70.3 miles, water and land, by hand! Kudos to these folks for showing everyone up!

That was my first year anniversary, and I couldn’t imagine not being able to spend it with Amanda. As it would turn out, I got a few good photographs out of the day as well! I really am blessed to be with a extraordinarily driven, supporting, and loving individual! Thanks for letting me share this with all of you!