The Junction courses are about to wrap up, and although there are many photos and stories to share, getting to sleep four hours every night is catching up on us! So, I’ll just share a shot of my class, the A-Team! I ended up with four in the videography course, and they are working their butts off! We paired up with Wyman Meinzer’s photography course for 95 percent of the shoots, and hopefully I’ll have images up from the flash flood we caught today soon!

With that, more to come! Enjoy the action above!

Some time ago, I wrote about photographing with big light sources, such as large soft boxes. One nice thing about soft boxes is that they provide a large, soft light source that’s not stark and brutally intense like a bare-bulb speedlight or strobe. Before recently (ah, within the past several years, since the popularity of the Strobist movement), you couldn’t find manufactured soft boxes small enough for most speedlights. However, they were commonly found for larger, more traditional lighting rigs. Even today, the really large softboxes are manufactured for studio-grade kits (even though, technically, there’s nothing stopping you from sticking a speedlight inside an 84″ octa, but that’s a discussion for another time). While the speedlights are nice, especially when in the field, there is still something nice about knowing you have enough power to over power the sun during the middle of the day with more than a few watt-seconds of power.

Each spring, I teach a photography lighting course at Texas Tech University, and while teaching in the studio is fundamental and necessary for a good deal of this course, that’s not what this lighting series is all about. At least two weeks out of the semester, we’ll drag the lights out of the studio, and commence throwing photons around outside, in an attempt to learn how to work with the ambient light, shoot in a variety of environments, and lug equipment around in the heat (essential for all field photographers)! Since the class is composed of 10 plus students each spring, we are never short of models. Alison Church (@SwinginSquirrel) put her camera down for this particular setting, allowing the rest of the class to work around her and the light.

As I was saying, more powerful lights allow you to override the ambient light, even at 1:00 p.m. on a clear day in April. As long as you are controlling the aperture, a soft box with enough light pushed through it creates a nice, focused (yet soft) source of light that will start to fall off quickly (tip: shoot at the maximum shutter speed the kit will allow you to knock out the ambient; if it’s still not enough, close your aperture down and control the light exposure from the power pack/lights). If it’s an extremely bright day, shutting the ambient light out may create more depth of field in your shot than you wanted, so be aware of your aperture.

Using one light is fairly popular today, and the only source for these shots is a 16″X24″ softbox, running through an 1100 watt-second pack, dialed down about half way. By reverse-engineering the shots, you can tell the top image has the light placed slightly to the left of the camera, and the center of the light source (the soft box) just barely above her head, creating that small shadow dropping down from her nose (a small butterfly lighting effect). The second shot is obviously more dramatic, with the same soft box to the extreme left of the model, slightly above her head again. This allows the shadow side to sink in to the darker levels of the histogram, and by stopping down the aperture and shutter speed, the fall off of light becomes more evident, and in this case, more leading and intriguing. The final shot is actually a movement made on my part, moving in front of Alison. Now, the shadow side doesn’t see so mysterious.

Keep in mind the environment. This corrugated tin background worked well for us, and if you can knock out the ambient all the way, you’ve just created yourself an outside studio…in the middle of the day!

Without first putting yourself here!

There are a lot of photographers in the market these days. Let me clarify: there are a lot of great photographers in the market these days, and the numbers keep growing! Many of us are at varying levels of technique and/or time behind the lens, and many people contribute these characteristics to the success behind many well-known photographers. However, it’s not necessarily experience or know-how that ultimately makes a photographer lay down three feet in front of a venomous rattlesnake. Wildlife photographers would agree in telling you that as far as technique goes, shooting a rattlesnake is much like photographing a portrait: use low depth of field, a medium telephoto lens, use the lowest ISO possible, put some muted color behind the snake, shoot on an overcast day, etc., etc., etc. That being said, getting down on the ground with a deadly reptile should be a piece of cake, right?

I’ll answer that for you: No! It’s not that technique doesn’t matter, because when you are in a situation like this, you better know you’re getting the shot instead of wondering if you are exposing properly or wondering how your auto-focus works. More important to this situation, though, is the amount of passion you have for getting the shot! It’s not the “know-how,” it’s the “want-to” that matters! Reciprocally, the “want-to” will inevitably lead to the “know-how.” I’ve seen students shakingly crouch down in front of momentous terror (i.e. the snake), but because of their drive to learn, and to push themselves as photographers, they rise with more confidence and a renewed passion for capturing images.

It doesn’t have to be a rattlesnake in front of you. It could be a college football game unfolding in front of your camera, or a bride and groom that practically placed the most important day of their lives up to this point in your hands and said, “Have fun (and you better nail us walking down the aisle)!” No matter what it is, no matter how stressful a situation can get (and believe me, many students have found the above situation VERY stressful), if you want to photograph for a living, your passion, your “want-to” will help override the anxiety that keeps many photographers from getting dirty on the job, pushing their own limits, and exceeding others’ expectations.

This post should really be titled “Jerod Foster’s opinionated list of what photography students need, besides a camera and MacBook Pro.” At the risk of being too forward, this is a small compilation of what I believe takes a photography student from someone that is just simply attending class to becoming an individual storyteller. I have taught photography now for a little over two years at Texas Tech University in Lubbock, Texas, and over the course of those semesters, I’ve noticed certain characteristics in students that make them more successful in and outside the classroom. I like to think of this list as a work in progress, and by no means should you take this to be THE exhaustive list on being an “A” student (apply this as a metaphor if you are not in school). However, it’s a good head start in choosing photography as a career path.

*Disclaimer: I left out passion and vision for reason. Developmentally, these are what we as photographers strive for, and at the same time, we inherently use to communicate with our cameras. Without these, the following list would be truly difficult to adhere to, however, the following five items may spark or reinvigorate one’s own residing passion for the craft!

1. Willingness to learn

“Be open-minded” is a cliche phrase, but it’s true! Not one successful photographer has ever developed his/her style without experimentation and creative exercise. Many did not have the time or resources students have in an institutional classroom, however, they developed their style and craft as a result of eagerness and focus. If you are a student passionate about this line of work, take full advantage of where you are, ask all the questions you want answers to, pick your instructor’s brain about communicating with the tool we call a camera, and take notes (mentally or physically). All the while, adapt this knowledge to your style, your vision, and be ready to learn more. It does not end when you have a diploma or certificate in hand.

2. An eye for others

“Who is your favorite photographer.” I ask this question of all my students at some point in their first semester as a photo/visual communication majors. I’m often answered with steady stares, but no answers. This is not all that surprising if you think about it. For one thing, it’s not as if photographers’ bylines are printed in large, bold font next to their photographs in the standard magazine. And in today’s fast-paced media world, who really has time to search for the byline in the first place, right? I’ll tell you who: other photographers. Students have the best opportunity to become totally infatuated with their field of study, and really delve deep in to classic works such as those of Adams, Bresson, and Newman (my favorite portrait maker), to more contemporary images made by folks like McNally, Cowart, and Orwig. Just as important as studying work of “big names,” is the effort put in to studying, critiquing, and appreciating peers’ images, and local/regional photographers, as well as those photographers make “paradigm shifting” changes in the convergence of stills and video, such as LaForet. Take the time to visit a different photographer’s portfolio everyday. You never know what you will find or what will inspire you!

3. A good ear (for the classroom and for others)

I’ve heard countless times the significance of the eye in photography, and by all means, there would be no images without a strong vision! I’ve also heard successful lifelong photographers speak of having a good ear. If you were to sit down with an editorial photographer, an environmental portrait maker, or a photojournalist, listening to who they are photographing is just as important as the eye is in telling their story through images. I’d be willing to bet that even fashion photographers have a similar relationship with listening. Be able to communicate audibly with your subjects, not only visually, and your images take on a new life: their life meshed with your vision. Of course, listening in the classroom would be helpful as well.

4. A story

No matter what type of photography you study or pursue, in school or otherwise, you are communicating something. Whatever the format of the story, whether it is extremely tactile such as the victims of the devastating destruction in Haiti’s capitol, or abstract art, it is crucial to the message of the image, and the core of why we become photographers. Study other stories, learn to look for them, and listen and watch for their appearance. The human race has always been made up of storytellers. If you don’t believe me, just take a look at ancient art and writing, and then listen to your grandmother “spin those yarns.” You’ll notice the stories, and as photographers, it’s our job to learn how to further communicate their message in to visuals!

5. Influence

Where would we be without it? I once heard that creativity is half stolen. Whether this is true or not, I do believe that nothing begets nothing, and influence develops into much of those characteristics I’ve already outlined. Find a mentor, it doesn’t even necessarily have to be a photographer, that inspires you to pick your camera up every day. Find multiple mentors for that matter. You will always be influenced by something, no matter how much of a rogue photographer you might think you are. Here’s the catch: influence is not a bad thing. It’s something to take into account each time you make a new photograph, and then you massage that influence to fit your own style and voice as a visual storyteller.

I’m starting to think that those folks that blog everyday either a) have a lot of time on their hands, b) are making direct advertising monies (yes, monies) from their blog hits (just check out Strobist, great blog), c) are always at a computer, or d) love what they do, and see the benefit in providing information about said occupation. I think I fit in to the last selection, however, I don’t blog everyday due to the lack of selection A and B, and I would rather not participate in C.

That being said, I apologize for not keeping the posts updated through the past two weeks while Wyman Meinzer and I led a group of students all over the Texas Hill Country and out in to the desert. A typical day for us was wake up at 5:45 a.m., gone by 6:15 a.m., shoot until the light became pretty anemic on some of the most beautiful places in the state, head back to the campus and arrive at approximately one hour before lunch, take a quick break from the photographs, edit a bit, head back out at 4:30 p.m., photograph again until our hearts were content, sometimes stretching in to early morning, get back to campus anywhere between midnight and 2:00 a.m., then start over at 5:45 a.m. All of our students this year allowed us positive attitudes and strong work ethics, even in light of lack of sleep and sometimes with nothing more than a gas station burrito for nourishment (come to think of it, I was probably the only one that ate the burritos).

Nevertheless, we did shoot, and I mean SHOOT. We visited some magnificent areas that over the years Wyman has researched at included in many of his book projects. He has taught the class for ten years now, and fortunately, I have acted as a TA or co-insructor for the past five years. This is such a great opportunity for students to really see what we do professionally, and the best thing about it is they are doing it with us. There is no definite line drawn between all-powerful instructor and measly amateur students (like some workshops I have read horror stories from), rather, we are all in the trenches together, tossing around ideas, critiqueing them, and then photographing what we come up with. Wyman and I are there to fascilitate, and provide professional advice, but we are definitely not squashing ideas to make sure students are shooting only one way.

The images here are only a few of many that I will be posting about the trip. We all took some inspirational photographs, and if not for anything, they will provide good fodder for the blog posts. However, as we tell the students, all the images that we take and edit are useable beyond social media. I hope this happens for those students that came along on the bogus adventure we had at TTU Junction, 2009!

Flowers on Mason Mountain, one of the places we take students on our 15-day photo field trip!

Alright! Wyman and I are back at Texas Tech University in Junction, our OTHER place, ha! Each year, Wyman and I come to Junction to lead a 15-day photography workshop that counts as class credit with the university, and each year, we get a totally new batch of eager students who get to see some of the most beautiful locations in the state! The course is unlike almost all photo workshops out there, due to the time spent shooting and the intense pace that we lead it.

To keep everyone abreast, I will be blogging periodically while down here, getting in to some technical information, aesthetics, history, and mischief that we get ourselves wrapped around! We’re finishing up preparing our classroom, which we just use as a storage locker basically for the mounds of gear we bring every year, and we’re up early in the morning! More to come!