Ron Shoots

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!)

Here’s a quick behind-the-scenes on a kayak shoot with a mature couple from earlier this week. I shot a few with a long lens but wanted to get a really low angle as an alternative view.

Shooting from a boat would have worked, but also would have required a lot more logistics. So we just took the simple approach. I laid down on the dock and hung over the side, elbows in the water, while our stylist Krista held the kayak from straying too far with a rope tied to the bow.

On command, the models would paddle and Krista would give the boat a tug to give the effect of gliding through the water. I’m shooting with a wide angle to leave lots of copyspace above and below the kayak. The flash helped fill some of the shadows in the mid-morning sun. This was our third set-up of the day so we had already shot sunrise and early morning scenes.

Today was just an air travel day- getting from Point A to B. Charlotte, NC to Orange County, CA. (Yesterday was actually the frantic travel day just getting to Charlotte from the coastal resort location after missing the ferry and having to take a much later one…) Heading towards home after 24 days on the road… The first flight to Dallas was uneventful and we arrived early. The weather report had possible storms in the afternoon forecast.

This is the sequence of events that would then transpire- actually pretty funny now!

- Boarding delayed 20 minutes due to late arrival of aircraft

- Takes a good 30 minutes to get to runway.

- Pilot announces up to 2 hour delay. The storm is approaching and the FAA tower is giving each take-off 50 miles of space between each aircraft!

- After 2 hours, we’re now 7th in line. About another hour. We inch forward.

- Yes, we’re #1 for take-off! Almost outa here after 3 hours! Pilot announces departure in 7 minutes.

- I look at the windsock, steady winds out of the south.

- I look at the windsock 2 minutes later. The wind is now out of the north… uh-oh! The skies are not only dark gray, they are that pre-storm ominous green.

- A split-second later I see an approaching plane do a “go-around” which is when they are about to land then pull up. I guess the wind shear is too strong.

- Pilot announces airport is now shut down, and we have to taxi to the other end to get ready for a northerly departure. We pass a line at least 2 miles long of other planes waiting.

- We wait, ready to go. Winds and rain are rocking our 737.

- Pilot announces we have been called back to the gate. We’ve now been sitting on the plane for 4 hours, and we’re headed back to the gate!

- We stop short of the gate. Because of all the lightning strikes, ramp personnel are not allowed to bring us to the gate. We wait 1 more hour.

- Finally, at the gate. Pilot announces that if we get off the plane that there are no flights available for at least 2 days, and not a single hotel room available. (OK, now this is getting exciting…. my driver’s license expires in 2 days so I won’t even have an ID to get on a plane if I’m stuck at DFW for 2 days! And I can’t exactly rent a car and drive to Maui!)

- Pilot announces that he and co-pilot are almost at the end of their “duty day” and there is no crew to fly the plane.

- Flight attendants announce limited food if we decide to stay aboard.

- Then we hear another announcement that the pilots are re-considering taking the flight to our intended destination. (This is the time when you begin to think about all those articles you’ve read on pilot fatigue…)

- The new plan is to take on more fuel, and get out of DFW as quickly as possible. The storm has mostly passed by now. We’ve been granted “Priority Taxi” rights… didn’t even know that existed. My guess is that these guys are going to crank up the airspeed and beat the speed record to the West Coast to stay under their hours.

- Next I see flight attendants carrying huge bags of McDonald’s pre-made salads aboard. Guess the food problem has been solved! (This is a first…)

- We’re on our way, to the cheers and clapping of all the passengers. Only we’ve been on the plane now for five and a half hours.

- A record time! I enjoyed my McDonald’s pre-made salad. I think they shaved at least 30 minutes off the estimated time and I know we were flying into strong headwinds. Gotta wonder how many extra pounds of fuel they burned.

- And yes, you guessed it! We’re at our destination, and there’s no one to meet the plane. Everyone’s busy on other flights. We wait another 10 minutes before we can pull up to the gate.

- I’m now approaching the exit to baggage claim when all the sirens go off and TSA shuts down the exit! Just a drill we’re told. Do not pass go, do not collect $200… just wait 2 minutes.

But my bags did arrive, last off the carrousel, but that’s fine. Safety is always first, and I got a lot of emails answered! With all the travel, I can only count serious delays a few times a year. The record was waiting out a storm for 8 hours in Montreal. So the next time someone mentions how traveling is so glamorous, could you please point them to this post!

(For the record… in the last 6 months, I’ve been stuck in a snow bank, had tire blow-out, and a near miss mid-air collision with a military jet. I gotta get a life…)

Working at a resort community offers a ton of activity options! We’ve been able to shoot beach, biking, dining, fishing, kayaking and a ton of leisurely lifestyle over the past few days.

(Krista, our stylist, keeps an eye on details while Luke handles the fill-flash.)

Yesterday, we were on the golf course for a couple of hours. The best time to shoot on a golf course is usually late afternoon after most of the golfers have already played the holes. We’ve tried shooting in the morning before, but its hard to work around all the footprints and tracks left in the morning dew.

The excitement of the day was seeing a couple of alligators along the path enroute to the golf hole. Just little 6 - 7 footers, but still pretty cool!

Fresh takes needed

I’m not much of a golfer. I know enough vocabulary to get me in trouble… but golf is a huge category in any stock collection. The challenge is to always find fresh angles. There’s tons of golf images, so its always worth the extra effort to come up with something a little new & different.

The man in our husband/wife model couple team knew how to play so he became the feature actor in this set. He had his own golf shoes- these are an expensive prop so we nixed getting a pair for her knowing we would only have a couple hours to shoot. Feet don’t always need to show so getting the golf “lifestyle” was easy, and I discovered the shadow didn’t need to have golf shoes.

Details are cool

I love shooting details!

The big scene is important and the detail shots help fill out the image set. Often, the detail shots become the concept images. I usually wear old clothes on most shoot days. Partly my style… but mostly so I can lay down in the dirt or grass, and find new angles without the fear of messing up anything! My crew jokes that I probably spend more time laying on the ground than I do on my feet.

We’re on location at an island resort off the coast of North Carolina. The really cool thing about this place is that no cars are permitted on island- you take everything on a passenger ferry across the Cape Fear River, then golf cart is the only mode of transportation once on-island. So yeah… no car for 5 days! (The only challenge is packing all the lighting gear, props and cameras… and 6 models plus 4 crew into 5 golf carts.)

We’re shooting casual lifestyle with an upscale twist. The challenge is keeping the shots looking natural, and essentially “un-stock-like” as much as possible. You would think that “candid” approach would be easy, but its the toughest type of shooting that I’ve done. Besides the composition part (with tons of copyspace) and the lighting, the models need to be set-up and then the scene set in motion so that the final shot looks like it was a spontaneous moment.

Above is a behind-the-scenes snapshot of one of the set-ups. Maybe not quite as candid as some of the others. Working with natural light and reflectors when possible to keep that “natural” feel, or if we use the strobe, we’re toning it down to the bare minimum of fill-light. (Note the blanket around the models as the temperature was an unseasonably 60 degrees chilly this morning…)

Here’s a couple of the selects from the above set. If you look at the composition, check out how we’ve set up the shot to be used as either a 2 page horizontal spread, or to be cropped into a single page vertical. In both cases, there’s plenty of copyspace and crop room for the art director to work with the image.

All of the images were shot on the Hasselblad H3D-39 with a 28mm lens so the files are large enough to crop tight and still have enough pixels for a very sharp file. While you won’t be friends with this camera on your first date, a real love of large files doesn’t take long to develop. (If you shoot with an H series digital, please feel free to email me- I’ll be glad to share any tips we’ve learned on using this camera… or post your experiences on the gear page.)