Missourian work

Since the Summer session has begun, I have already started to cover numerous events around the Mid-Missouri for The Columbia Missourian as staff photographer. Take a look at some of my work in the portfolio link below:

https://www.columbiamissourian.com/users/profile/etlq48/

Portrait Series: Untraditional Passion

Chris Thompson, 30, slings a disc across a field at McKay Park while practicing his form on Monday, May 1, 2017. "The game moves with you," said Thompson,"When you jump into football, that's already established, basketball---already established--but once you got this, it's a young sport, it's growing and I can play this into my seventies or eighties as long as I'm allowed." Thompson is a Jefferson City resident and has been playing disc golf for four years and has competed in national tournaments with up to 1900 participants.

Chris Thompson, 30, prepares to sling a disc across a field at McKay Park on Monday, May 1, 2017. "What you put into it is what you’ll get out of it and even if you don’t reach that high pinnacle level of being  pro player, you’ll still be able to enjoy it for years to come. I play this with my daughter, my wife plays its spread out through all spectrums of people." Thompson practices three times a week to stay in shape and keep his form consistent, his favorite aspect of disc golf is how, "you never play the same round twice."

Abby Dodge, 20, balances a Lacrosse ball while warming up at Stankowski Field on Tuesday, May 2, 2017. "You can manipulate the game, its starts with the draw, if you can control the draw, you can control the game." Dodge is a defensive player, if she were to describe her play in one word, it would be, "aggressive." Dodge was one of two freshman to be selected on the varsity team during her time at Lee's Summit West High School. Since coming to the University of Missouri, Dodge has joined the club Lacrosse team, who went undefeated with an 8-0 record in the 2016-2017 season.

Abby Dodge, 20, stands in a defensive stance while warming up at Stankowski Field on Tuesday, May 2, 2017. "When you’re standing on the line getting ready to start, I get nervous every single time I mean Ive been playing for 6 years and I get nervous every single time even if its a game we’re probably going to win I just get excited and anxious and I just wanna play, thats all I wanna do—I wanna play I wanna have fun and I wanna do the sport justice." Dodge has been playing Lacrosse for six years since her freshman year at Lee's Summit West High School and says she will play until she's old.

Painting with Light

Missouri trails light up as the warm weather rolls in at Rock Bridge Memorial State Park on Tuesday, April 25, 2017. Columbia is home to multiple trails and nature areas, including the Gans Creek Wild Area. The rugged trail system welcomes hikers and horseback riders year round.



Painting with light was difficult. While I had some previous experience going into this project, trying to come up with a solid concept that wasn't visually overbearing was a challenge. Getting on the same page with everyone was another challenge. Strange things would happen in some of our images when we would see unintentional ghosting and other unexplainable light sources.

Blending & Color Correction

GELS and Journalism

The select:

Cindy Gwinner turns up the music as the cake walk gets started during the Earth Day Fair at South Elementary School in Eldon, Missouri on Saturday, April 22, 2017. "It's a wonderful event! The kids have fun and there's good prizes!" All cakes were baked by the faculty and all proceeds at the Earth Day Fair go towards funding for both South Elementary and Eldon Upper Elementary.

Outtakes of Cindy w/ different gels (orange for a warmer tone)

Blending was a challenge. In order to "match the ugly", one first has to find it and then also be able to capture a relevant moment.

Lighting Diagram at the cake walk:

Final Project Lighting Test

My final project will be a portrait series of passionate high school athletes. Each athlete is involved in a unique sport. Unlike your traditional high school football, basketball, or baseball star--I am looking for the passionate horse rider, golfer, track star, or any other wild athlete I can find in mid-Missouri.

This is a lighting test with my classmate, I shall see what adjustments I will need to make in order to express the subjects passion and personality accurately.

Multiple Flash

Levi Firkins grinds his skateboard across a rail at Cosmo Park in Columbia, Missouri on Wednesday, April 12, 2017.

Levi Firkins attempts to control his board while doing a trick in mid-air at Cosmo Park in Columbia, Missouri on Wednesday, April 12, 2017. Firkins has lived in Columbia all of his life and has been skating at Cosmo Park for 11 years. "I just come out here to get the stress off," Firkins says, "you just kinda feel free."

Video Interview: Marta

Link to video:
https://vimeo.com/209808586

I put a lot of thought into the lighting setup. I know Marta, at least well from my time in the journalism school. She’s kind, spiritual, caring. I wanted to include a gradient for the background that would add some visual variety including a single light from the right to illuminate Marta with the fill light being off to the left. I wanted there to be balance in the shot and I feel that I achieved that. In terms of making sure that the video and audio was in sync also was a process. I wanted to make sure that I had different angels with different focal lengths so I chose to do my close-up at 135mm and my wide shot at about 80mm. I felt that the video was balanced and the pacing was good.

In terms of questions I started off by asking her if there was one piece of advice that she wishes she would have had when she first started college. She told me how she had a big shocker at the beginning of college and that she wasn’t as good at some things as she originally thought. I had the same experience so we just got to talking and it was easy to make it a conversation at that point.

Looking back on the video itself, I wish that I would have been able to keep a better eye on both cameras because one of my shots was a little out of focus, I think this occurred after I set a focus point and then Marta moved.

The audio was tedious but manageable overall. Audio is just a weakness of mine that I have steadily been improving on over the last couple of semesters.

I wish that I had somebody else to help me out because I was not able to keep track of the secondary frame and that really hindered my video, the framing and the focus was off. Not sure how I could have fixed that by myself while talking to the interviewee. Having another hand would help next time doing this just so that somebody can keep track of the focus that things of that nature. Thinking ahead next time I can fix this problem. It just requires that much attention to detail.

Fill & Balance

Ben Rosenfelder, 31, hammers a softball while practicing for an upcoming slow pitch softball tournament at Cosmo Park on Thursday, March 16, 2017. Rosenfelder played baseball all of his life and picked up the game of softball at age 18. In addition to taking trips from Iowa all the way down to Texas, Rosenfelder says, "the competitiveness of the game," is what keeps him playing.

Lighting diagram:

Ben was a fantastic subject, he was very conversational and open about his passion for baseball and softball. This project tested me. I had to go out and find a subject that was in the sunlight so that I could fill any dark shadows with flash. For the most part, I successfully implemented the technique. 

The only small problem is the placement of the flash and the mark that it left on the photo. You can see the shadow of the ball stand on Ben's leg. Really a quick fix if I had a stand that I could place the flash on, that way the light would come from a better direction that doesn't result in an awkwardly placed shadow.

I am still getting used to looking for certain marks such as these harsh shadows in photos. It makes you pay attention to the entire frame and make the photographer think about the best placement for the flash. 

Glass Heart

According to a recent study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Missouri is considered one of the worst cardiovascular health states in the nation. Every year, heart disease accounts for around 15,000 deaths in Missouri, the leading factors being high blood pressure, obesity and smoking.

Lighting glass is difficult.

After receiving feed back from my peers, I have quite a few ideas that I would incorporate back into this project to improve it. First off, the shape of the heart is misleading, it doesn't suggest heart disease---but most associate it with cupid and the symbol of love. This is an accurate reading, I mean what else does it really look like?

While the lighting of the glass is decent, some of the features of the item are lost because of the bright background. This can be fixed by using a black background in the future. Not only will that help the features of the glass come out more, but the fire will be more defined as well, helping the effect of the fire. One complication that my partner and I had while taking this photo was the placement of the rubber cement that was used to line the edges of the glass heart that would later be ignited. We found that the placement would need to be more precise and it will just take time to figure out that sweet spot--if there even is one. ALSO, the blue glass fixtures on the inside of the heart are not consistent at all with the ideas of a heart, red and white fixtures (to represent red and white blood cells??) would be better. 

I can envision how the changes would make the photo stronger, all I need to do is play with some different pieces and I can improve this project. 

Photo Projects: Metal

Photographing glass and metal is a process. The items themselves hold complexities that cannot be captured in just any light. Light is the component that is hardest to control in these circumstances.

The family of angles is also the main aspect that is hardest to understand when it comes to the light. How does light react when it is reflected from metal or glass? For metal, the object itself is essential to understand, is it round? Flat? Does it have sharp edges to it, texture, curves? All of these need to be taken into account when setting up the lighting for the object.

The family of angles is how light reacts with light. Essentially a game of understanding reflections. For metal, I have chosen to photograph a metal bowl with a lot of texture. Refining detail will be difficult and take time, but the object should not be too complicated to light.

Studio Portraits: Whitney

This last week, I had my first experience with studio lighting. The goal was to come away with two portraits of my classmate Whitney Matewe. One of the portraits required the use of a single light while the other required the use of a multiple lights.

Whitney Matewe leans back with ease at Lee Hills Hall on Sunday, Feb. 12, 2017. Whitney has many ambitious goals in photography. One project idea is to go back to Africa to document the lives of its people from a different perspective.

Whitney Matewe stands relaxed at Lee Hills Hall on Sunday, Feb. 12, 2017. After being raised around the globe in places like South Africa, Ghana and the Netherlands, Whitney has lived in the United States since she was eleven years old. Ever since moving to Columbia, Missouri for college, the new environment has a unique feel of home, "the j-school, my convergence family and my photo family, people I can go to for support and who encourage my creative expression."

As for lighting Whitney, the process was time consuming and grueling. Please forgive the poor drawings as I hope they somewhat illustrate my thinking process into this first studio assignment.

As this was my first experience in the studio lighting a subject, my approach to lighting was primarily experimental. After getting feedback from my professors and peers, I have better ideas that I can incorporate during my next shoot in the studio.

I found that the use of gels on a subject can convey different subject matter and can prove to be a little overwhelming to the viewer. What do you see first, the subject or the gel used to light her face?

In summary, I decided that in the future I might want to chill with the colors a little bit. I did enjoy using gels to help light the background, I think that provides room for creativity when the photographer has complete control of the background in the studio and it is a skill that I look to improve.

Copy Assignment

Philip-Lorca DiCorcia’s photograph of a man staring into the void of an empty restaurant in Houston, Texas.

George Hurell’s photograph of a model as she poses intently for the portrait.

For this assignment, the technique was figuring out how to take a copy photograph. By using different white balances and shutter speeds, I have copied both of the above photographs in the best light that I saw possible.

I chose the top photo because of the color pallet in the frame, the placement of the flash is very unique. The bottom photo caught my attention by the pose and the use of glamour lighting on the subject.

Both lighting techniques suggest more specific subject matter that can be interpreted by the viewer. I look to use these techniques with the proper intention in order to help further my own skills in portraiture.