Finding frames during freelance gigs

July 18, 2016

Finding frames during freelance gigs

It’s no secret that I was nervous about this summer, with having little direction and too much freedom to potentially squander. But I’ve found it to be quite the contrary - I began picking up a bunch of photo gigs to the point that I am now shooting very frequently. On top of that, I’ve been photographing for fun (what a notion!) and liking the results (an even more foreign idea to me).

I spend the majority of the time at each event photographing how I’m “supposed to” be shooting, people smiling and straightforward shots that I can deliver to the client. But I stay vigilant, similar to when shooting an assignment, to snap things that strike me. This has been an excellent exercise for my shooting, treating each gig as an opportunity to sharpen my eye. So far, I’m pretty happy with the results, making a couple frames that I’m proud of at each event.

One more thing I’ve been considering a lot recently is photojournalistic trends. I remember my professor Marcy Nighswander would look down on trends, which at the moment happened to be an influx of wide angle shots, but I never understood it. Until recently, when I was flipping through recent copies of the British Journal of Photography and noting that photographer after photographer was going after that washed-out, low contrast, stark and awkward composition look and I became frustrated. Because I too was trying to achieve that look and now I realized I would just be another one of the same.

For that reason, I got a huge photo book of Magnum photographers to look into historic examples of shooting styles. My most recent inspiration comes from Martin Parr, whose style is similar to the modern graphic look yet not the same. Anyone know knows me knows I do not particularly like street photography, but his take on it is so brash that it works.

Up next: the Ohio State Fair, which I will be covering for two straight weeks… expect a wealth of Americana photos, hopefully shot in an interesting way!

CP Editing

January 27, 2016
CP Editing

I’ve been meaning to do this for a while but I wanted to examine how my photos were used in the paper. The designers chose to place text over many of my photos, which gives them a whole new look. 

Some of these compositions have a lot of negative space that accommodates the addition of text quite well (the farmer photograph, for instance.)

Some (like the sports portrait) were cropped in a way I didn’t like as much because what they took away was essential to the photo (I’ve included both, you can make your own conclusions)- I had composed it to include the athlete’s shadow against the stadium wall, which was truly the only strong part of that image. As glad as I am that they ran in large, it took away from my intended impact. 

At some point, photographers have to give up control of their images to those putting them into context. And I’ve always found it interesting to see the two different takes on the same image. Regardless whether I agree with the edit or not, it’s always a rush to see a photo I’ve taken run so prominently. 

Wrestling

January 15, 2016
Wrestling

I used to shoot the majority of my high school’s games - all sports- because we simply had no one else to cover them and I had a cheap offbrand 75-300mm, which at the time as if I was brandishing a real telephoto. I wasn’t that bad (aside from the appalling overediting) but once I got to OU, I was intimidated by the increase in rules limiting photographers and stuck to other assignments. 

Apparently ignoring a problem doesn’t make it go away and my portfolio was sports-less for a while. Right now feels like a good time to get back into it so I took a couple assignments for The Post shooting wrestling and women’s basketball. And I’m relatively happy with the results, looking forward to shooting more!

Still struggling with focus and reaction times, but I believe I’ll get those back with time.

It was a new experience for me to wait for the checkout room to open to make certain I got the lens I wanted- a 300mm f/2.8. This lens is comically large, and honestly a workout to shoot with, but the results were worth it. 

Review of Weekend Shots

January 25, 2016
Review of Weekend Shots

I was going through my old work on this blog, when I was posting primarily personal shooting with an old cropped sensor Canon and Helios 58mm (manual focus!) film lens. I really missed the old soft and grainy look and the dreary, understated mood. So I tried to revive that look for my second shoot of the weekend- cropping my photos to an aspect ratio of 16:9 and toned in a muted way.

My future-housemates and I went hiking at Ash Cave in Hocking Hills to see the giant “frozen waterfall’ that forms each year. A fellow sightseer came up and asked if I had ever seen it when it connected all the way to the top, which apparently happens only every 10-15 years. I’d love to see that sometime- I feel like I’ll have a longtime connection to this area.

I’m now looking to purchase a mid-length film lens to continue to continue to refine the look of my personal work.