Ron Shoots

Trying to find my way in the darkness of a hotel room, I grab my camera bag and quietly close the door behind me. Sunrise is only a few moments away and I’m trying to get down to the harbor as quickly as I can for a few early morning shots of the Sydney skyline. This was the scenario last month.

(Alex, my 13 year old son, finding better angles in Sydney than me!)

For many photographers, vacation is a major shooting opportunity, and even for a full-time shooter, there’s rarely moments that a camera is not far away. The art is in balancing vacation time, family time and making a few stock photos along the way.

Tips for balancing a successful holiday and a stock shoot.

Here’s a few practical suggestions that might help. Of course, we’re all at different stations in life. Some of us may have 2 teenagers (mine are 13 and 15), and others no children at all, but there should be a hint or two in here for anyone… [read more]

I’m wrapping up a 3 week trip in Australia- part family vacation and part travel shoot. There have been a total of 5 sunny days out of 22, but that’s because its also winter “down under”. The country is beautiful- diverse landscapes, amazingly friendly people and easy for travelers.

Nine and counting down…

One of the top landscapes along the Great Ocean Road in Southern Australia is a collection of free-standing limestone columns known as the “Twelve Apostles”. Wind, rain and waves take their toll so now there’s only 9 remaining, with the latest collapse just last year. (Look for the pile of rocks in the front of the photo below.)

I can see why these columns fall down… on-shore gale force winds and rain squalls buffeted the tourist crowd as we made out way out to the viewing platforms. The sunsets are usually beautiful (at least, according to all the great stock shots I saw!) but today would have to be a stormy seas photo. That’s cool- I actually like all the emotion in the skies and ocean as an alternative.

For this shot, I worked with a 24-105 zoom on the Canon. Fortunately, the Canon 1DsMII is water-resistant so I don’t mind taking it out in nasty weather. To darken and intensify the skies, I used a half-grad neutral density filter. These filters darken one half the frame with a transition to clear on the other half of the frame. I also used the custom color balance setting pushing the color temp to warm up the otherwise really gray/blue scene.

The really good travel shooters (not me) always know ahead of time where to find the best sunset or sunrise images. There’s great spots around the world, and every photographer should put a few of these sunset or sunrise locations on their list. Whether at Oia on Santorini in the Greek Islands, Haleakala Crater on Maui, or Uluru in Australia, you’ll find a mass gathering of people and cameras . In the case of Uluru, finding a good spot isn’t hard- there’s a parking lot for at least 200 cars and a big sign that says “Sunset Car Park” here! Every evening, a ritual of travelers, digital cameras, and tailgate wine & cheese parties unfold in the middle of the Australian desert.

Finding a place to shoot from isn’t difficult- the parking lot is perfectly aligned to allow a great uninterrupted view. I’m in the midst of at least 300 other travelers viewing the same spectacular sunset. More than anything, I’m fascinated by the number of digital cameras- everyone has one, some are set up with tripods, others are on the rooftop of their serious-looking 4 wheel drive. And I’m only at the car park area- buses have to park in a separate lot and there’s another 200 on top of the sand dune.

This sounds sorta dumb, or at least obvious, but photography is such an important part of all our lives. As a commercial shooter, I’m privileged to be able to integrate photography into virtually every day of my life. Those of us, as commercial shooters, also have a great responsibility to treat images and our subjects with respect, and to pass along our knowledge so that others can have the same enjoyment.

What do you do on rainy days on a family vacation? How about visiting one of those roadside tourist attractions with crocodile and snake shows… there must be at least a few hours of entertainment value and maybe a few stock photos!

I was pleasantly surprised- lots of stuff to shoot in this manmade “natural” habitat here in northeastern Australia. And I even learned a few things about crocodiles. These reptiles have been around for 70 million years- and the sex of the baby croc is determined by the temperature of the nest. (Can’t wait to use these fun facts on my shoot with humans!)

Always fascinated by details, I shot with a 300mm and zoomed in close. The habitats were set-up so you could safely be within a few feet of the crocodiles. While I shoot mostly people and a few aerials or landscape, I enjoyed venturing into a few “wildlife” images. (True appreciation goes to real wildlife shooters who spend days researching and finding great shots of animals in their truly natural habitat! I could only hope to do this kind of work…)

How NOT to shoot a crocodile!

I did learn that a croc can only run about 8 mph on land. So if you happen to encounter one on land, just sprint like crazy and you will outrun the bad boy. And another tidbit… in Australia, there’s a 50% greater chance of dying from a bee sting than from a croc attack. Aren’t you glad you have all this knowledge? I promise, the next post will be more about photography!

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TECH NOTE: Both ronshoots.com and ronchapple.com endured hacker attacks over the past few days. My apologies if our sites were down or acting strange. This only affected the sites, not the database or subscriber lists.

Here’s a cool zoom shot of the famous Sydney Harbour Bridge. Referred to by the locals as the “Coat Hanger”, the structure is the world’s largest steel arch bridge.

Zoom shots like this are pretty easy to shoot. With the camera on a tripod, I mess around with the settings until I get the exposure around 15 seconds. The “focused” image is the first part of the exposure- I count down 10 seconds, then for the remaining part of the exposure, I twist the zoom ring until the exposure ends. This movement of the zoom gives the streak effect as the highlights are “painted” on to the image. The ballpark camera settings for this shot were ISO 200, f/16 at 15 seconds. The lens was a 24-105mm. With digital, its easy to look at the LCD and see if you’ve got the shot.

Sydney is even more amazing from the air. There’s dozens of bays, beaches and small harbors. With the third day in a row of beautiful weather, I set-up a quick 2 hour helicopter shoot to photograph the city from a different perspective.

Good pilots are key!

The pilot I worked with today was excellent. He was extremely knowledgeable of all the local sites as well as the permissions we would need to get from Air Traffic Control to accomplish the shots I wanted. For example, the scene above is shot from “restricted” air space and needs to be cleared by the tower before entering- this space is set aside for approaching jets to the Sydney International Airport. We were allowed to “pop-up” for a few minutes before having to clear the airspace.

When shooting aerials, a good pre-production meeting with the pilot is essential. We made a basic route plan and he showed me, in advance, areas where we would need clearance. Working our the details on the ground is far better than trying to figure out things in the air when time is money.

Always looking for a different angle!

I’m always looking for a different perspective on the classic shots. While the classic may have more staying power for most audiences, having an alternate angle is not only fun to shoot, but gives the client more choice.

In this case, the 1,000 ft tall Sydney Tower dominates the skyline. The pilot was able to get us clearance to move through the business district. I then saw my opportunity for the different angle- why not shoot straight down on the tower! Most of the time, we spend our time looking up, so let’s have a look down. I had the pilot fly sideways so I would have plenty of time to set up the shot.

Thanks Pete, for helping make this shoot a success!

WOW is all I can say! Just arrived Sydney, Australia yesterday for the start of our family vacation. We’re traveling around this beautiful country over the next 3 weeks. To any photographers who live here, or have shot here- I will keep your secret safe! (Just a few blog mentions…) You are truly blessed with one of the most spectacular cities I have ever seen- the views, the weather, the people. We’re here at the end of fall going into winter.. the equivalent of early December for those who live in the Northern Hemisphere.

Visiting the Taronga Zoo was at the top of the list for our first day. We took the ferry from Circular Quay in downtown Sydney directly to the zoo- here’s a couple of the views on the ride over. The city is wrapped around the harbor and water is everywhere you look.

Shooting travel

Shooting travel is a fun break from working on full scale productions. I’m always humbled at the great images that already exist of any beautiful location- so I simply shoot both as a reminder of the trip, and as a way of discovering the location.

I find myself looking for the details that make a place unique. I’ll also shoot a few editorial images for possible travel publication use. I keep the gear really really simple on travel shoots and put everything in a very small non-camera gear looking backpack. The two lenses I’m carrying are a 24-105mm and a 17-40mm along with just one 1DsMII body. (OK, and I have a secret… my 13 year old is also a great shooter- so he carries a 28-300mm so we can trade back and forth. Hint: always have your kids carry the heavy lenses!)