Sandy Puc – Tots Teens Seminar.

 

Yesterday, I had the pleasure of attending the Tots Teens seminar presented by the highly acclaimed photographer Sandy “Sam” Puc.  I would summarize the experience with one word “inspirational.”  

Very early on in the seminar Sandy shared a story about her name.   According to Sandy,  when she was born, her father was hoping to have a boy and he wanted to call this son “Sam”.   So, growing up  Sandy was called “Sam”  by her family and close friends.    Once she got married, she was not too thrilled with being called “Sam Puc” so she reverted to her  real name  “Sandy Puc”  for her photography business.   She told this story to end the confusion regarding “Sam” vs.  “Sandy” Puc.   She explained that it was not uncommon for her to receive emails from her clients/associates  that ended with “Say hello to your husband Sam for me!” Jokingly, she said  “No, my husband is not named Sam!” 

Well, I can definitely relate to this story.  My first born Sophia was born approximately seven years ago.  She was named after my now 95 year old  grandmother Cleda Sophia Jackle.  I would not trade her for the world.   I remember she used pretend that she was a boy named “Sam”. In fact, when she was playing this game, she would correct us saying that her name is not Sophia/Sophie but we needed to call her Sam. 

Like many fathers, I wanted to have a boy.  Along with the typical reasons for this, I also wanted to carry on my last name to future generations.  In my family tree, all the grandsons with the last name “Jackle” are having girls.  We have yet to produce a boy to carry on my last name.  Since my grandmother has truly touched all of our lives, I wanted to be the first grandson to give her the news that the Jackle last name would carry on with the birth of a son.  You see my grandmother has defined the meaning of the importance of family to all us and this would be a great tribute to her.

So, a few years back, Jackie was pregnant with our second child.  We found out that we were going to have another girl and I would not be able to surprise my grandmother with my desired news.  What was interesting at that time , I think Jackie was more disappointed with the news than I was.  Our disappointment was short lived,  and  all  we really wanted was the birth of a healthy baby girl.   So, our baby girl arrived at the hospital and we still had not decided on the name yet.  We narrowed the name down to Savannah or Samantha.  It was in the hospital that the “Savannah” decision was made. 

The connection with Sandy Puc was made and I was all ears for the next few hours.  Sandy proceeded to talk about her background which included raising 5 foster children and 5 natural children, starting a photography business in her home,  and moving into her first and now brand new second studio.  She currently has close to 30 people working in her studio in Littleton, Colorado.  

She willingly shared many useful tips on running a photography business including marketing strategies, studio lighting demonstrations,  working with children strategies for all age groups, and various other business insights.   She constantly pointed out that she would not be where she was at in this business if it was not for other people that took their time to teach her over the years.  She wanted to share her knowledge with all of us in an effort to help us not to make the same mistakes she had over the years. 

It was the charity work that she does that really hit home to me.   Her Now I lay me down to sleep  charity was real touching.   Photographers  all over the world donate their time to photograph children that probably will not make it home from hospital.  This effort is to help to provide memories and hopefully some closure to the parents of these lost children.  She also is involved with other charities  like Denver Affiliate of the Susan G. Komen for the Cure, Locks of Love, Operation Smile, The Children’s Hospital, The Food Bank of the Rockies, and The Denver Dumb Friends League. 

She strongly feels that photography is a need not a luxury.  Every family needs to have photographs to pass along to their family and future generations.    Each family makes choices of who does this photography.   This reminds me of the treasured photographs that the previous Jackle generations have passed along from generation to generation.  Thank god that photography has helped us all to preserve our memories.   Sandy has truly inspired me to continue my quest to be the best “memory preserver” that I can be. Hopefully, my photographs will touch  people in the same manner as previous photographers work have touched me.

James “Jason” Lee Photography

Over the summer,  I attended a wedding of one of my wife’s best friends in Charlotte, NC.   My wife was one of the bridesmaids.  I found I had some time to kill while some of the “bridesmaid/wedding party only” activities took place.  

Since I am always looking for reasons to shoot, I did bring my camera for the festivities.  

Since I was not the hired photographer for the wedding, I took pictures during the reception and during  bridesmaid  “getting ready” session before the wedding.   The last thing I wanted to do was to step on the wedding photographers toes.  Covering the “getting ready” session was not part of his arrangement. 

 

As I was standing outside in a 6 feet concrete fenced in area in the back of the hotel when part of the reception was going to take place,  I met this easy going person decided to ask him what he did for the living.    He said his name was Jason(James “Jason” Lee) and he was a photographer.  He told me he had to get used to not glancing over concrete wells looking for snipers.  He was a photo journalistic photographer that was embedded with the American troops in Iraq.  

I explained that I had recently started my own  photography business and was always interested in other photographer’s input to help improve my craft.  Jason was more than willingly to discuss all aspects of photography.  He even corrected the way I used my camera strap to prevent me for looking  like a tourist and more like a photographer.

He showed me this technique where  I set the camera a very slow shutter speed like 1/8 or 1/4 with a high ISO to allow as much ambient light in the image as possible for a dark scene.   Also, we  set just a “wink” of flash to freeze the main subject  but not over power the ambient light.  These settings allowed the sparklers to show their “trails” and  the flash froze the couple keeping them relatively in focus.  

Interesting enough as I was trying this technique during the “sparkler” bride-groom departure , Jason was standing in the background of the picture.   I love this image not only for the couple(guests at the wedding)  sharing a kiss  but also for the fact the “mentor” was in the frame.

 

Be sure to check out Jason’s photography for truly eye-opening experience. Every picture tells a story.  He is truly a unique talent.

Plesha’s Pick 2: Understanding Exposure

I remember a time when I was starting out in digital photography where I was trying to understand what photographers meant when they said the word “exposure.”  The today’s digital cameras make things a bit easier for photographers than the film cameras.  They allow us to experiment with photography without adding the substantial cost of developing film. 

Even though there have been many advances in today digital cameras, a camera still is basically a “box with a hole, a shutter mechanism,  and some sort of sensor that allows us to capture an image.” 

You will hear the term “stop” in referring to exposure.  I typically use this term as relative term.  Moving up or down a stop in a particular setting means that the setting will allow 2 times the amount of light or 1/2 amount of light for the exposure respectively.

Some people may call the following three parts of the camera the holy trinity of photography:

• Aperture(“hole”) -  This reflects the size of the hole of the lens that determines the amount of light allowed into the camera and affects the depth of field(“focus”) in the image.   Aperture is measured in F-stops.  The higher the F-stop number the smaller the hole and greater the depth of field.  For example,  F-5.6 aperture setting allows  2 times the amount of light into the camera than the one stop higher F-8.0 aperture setting  and has a lesser depth of field.  By the same token, F-8.0 aperture setting allows 1/2 the amount of  light into the camera than f-5.6 aperture setting but has a greater depth of field.  In essence, opening up the lens one stop of light(lower F-Stop number) allows twice as much light into the camera and decreases the depth of field.  Closing the lens one stop of light(higher F-Stop)  reduces the amount of light into the camera by  one-half and increase the depth of field.
  
• Shutter speed -   This determines how fast the shutter opens and closes to allow the light from the hole(Aperture) to hit the sensor that creates the image.  This setting can affect whether you freeze the action in an image  to allow some or all of the image to be blurry.  Doubling the shutter speed reduces the amount of light hitting the sensor by 1/2 the amount of light.  Slowing the shutter speed by one half increases the amount of light hitting the sensor  by 2 times.  For example, changing the shutter speed from 1/125 to 1/250 reduces the amount of light to the sensor by 1/2(1 stop).  Changing the shutter speed from 1/125 to 1/60 will allow twice the amount of the light to the sensor(1 stop).
  
• Sensor(ISO) setting  -  This determines how sensitive the sensor is to the light hitting it.  For example,   a  ISO 200 setting is 2 times(1 stop)  as sensitive to the incoming light as a ISO 100 setting.  a  ISO 400 setting is 2 times as sensitive to the incoming light as a ISO 200 setting and  4 times as sensitive(2 stops) as an ISO 100 setting.   Higher ISO settings allow us to work in lower light situation where minimal light is hitting the sensor. This can come with the price of high noise in the digital image.  

Exposure is combination of all the above.  Adjusting one of the settings does affect at least one of the other settings in a typical situation.  The following are just examples to show the relationships of the above three items.  They also assume that the camera’s built light meter is metering the scene correctly.

Fixed ISO example:

Let’s assume for example that we set the camera to the ISO 100(really could be any ISO setting).  Our plan is not to change this setting.  We frame a portrait of something and use  digital camera’s program exposure setting.  The camera’s  built-in light meter will help us determine the proper aperture and shutter speed settings.  In this case, the program mode set camera’s aperture to  F-8.0 with a shutter speed of  1/250.  We take the picture.

The overall image look good and it is not too dark(under exposed) or too light(over exposed).  We decide that we would like the background of the photo to be more blurry(out of the focus).  So we want a lesser depth of field for the image than the camera has suggested for us.  We also want to ensure that we keep the same over all exposure of the image(light hitting the sensor).   After switching the camera to manual exposure mode, we can increase the aperture by one stop by changing the F-stop from F-8.0 to F-5.6.   This change will allow twice as much light into the camera and reduce the depth of field to give us a more blurred background.  

Since we increased the amount of light hitting the sensor with this change, we run the risk of over exposing the image. We need to adjust the shutter speed to offset the increase in light.  So we would then increase the shutter speed from 1/250 to 1/500 which would allow 1/2 the amount of light hitting the sensor.  

So in this example,   the F-8.0/ 1/250 and 5.6/ 1/500 settings allow the same amount of light to the sensor which produces the final exposure.  If we wanted to have more depth of field than the original image, we could have also have chosen to change the F-stop to F-11..o (close down a stop from f-8.0- 1/2 the amount of light) and decreased the shutter speed to 1/125(twice the amount of light from 1/250)  .  The amount of light hitting the sensor would be the same in all three cases. There is a relationship between the shutter speed and the aperture as far the amount of light that hits the sensor.   We could continue to play with various aperture/shutter speed combinations like F16.c/ 1/160 and f-4.0/1/1000 etc.. 

Fixed Aperture example:

Let’s assume we had a similar scenario as above in a lower light situation.  We set the ISO to 100 and the program setting  set the camera’s  aperture to F-5.6 and a shutter speed of 1/30.  We are taking a family portrait in this case and are concerned that any movement of the family members will result in a blurred image.  Looking at the suggested shutter speed, this definitely could be the case. 

We take our first photo. We definitely like the depth of field and the overall exposure of the image but noticed some blurring around the children’s arm were they moved when the photo was taken.  Since we can not keep the subjects from moving, we need to have a faster shutter speed to “freeze” the action.  We like everything else about the image.  

So, let’s change the shutter speed to 1/125 in an attempt to freeze any slight movement in our portrait.  We could  go to manual mode and set the camera to the following: aperture f 5.6 , shutter 1/125, and ISO 100.  The change in shutter speed reduce the amount of light hitting the sensor by two stops( 1/30 to 1/60 – 1 stop and 1/60 to 1/125 additional stop) . 

Since we like the depth of field, we do not want to adjust the aperture in this case.  We could then change the ISO setting from  ISO 100 to ISO 400( ISO 100 to ISO 200 increase 1 stop of light sensitivity and ISO 200 to ISO 400 another stop of light sensitivity)  to offset the reduction in light caused by the increase in the shutter speed.   So  ISO 100/ aperture 5.6 / shutter 1/30  equals ISO 400/ aperture 5.6 / shutter 1/125 as far as the exposure goes.

 

Fixed Shutter speed example:

Assume we are taking pictures of a neighbor basketball game.  We again set the ISO to 400 on the camera. We decide that we will start by using our shutter priority mode of the camera and set the shutter speed to 1/500 to freeze  the action on the court. The camera sets the aperture to F-11.0.  This aperture provides us with a fairly deep depth of field where all the players are coming into focus.  We take the picture and find that we did freeze the action and are happy with the overall exposure of the image.   We would like to focus on a particular player on the court and make the other players less in focus. 

In order to accomplish this, we decide to change the aperture  from F-11.0 to F-5.6 (opening up two stops – 4 times as much light to sensor).  Now. we need to offset this increase in light to the sensor to keep our nice original exposure.  Since we do not want to change the shutter speed that is effectively freezing the action, we decide to adjust the ISO speed to ISO 100. This reduces the sensor sensitivity 2 stops(4 times less sensitive).  So ISO 400/aperture f-11.0/ shutter 1/500 equals  ISO 100/aperture f-5.6/ shutter 1/500  as far as exposure goes.

The main points to remember is that these settings are all interrelated when making an image(exposure).  It is up to us as photographers to creatively choose these settings to produce the desired results we want in our images.

One of the most valuable resources, that assisted me to kick starting my understanding of exposure is the Understanding Exposure book by Bryan Peterson.   I strongly recommend it to those that are trying to take their photography to the next level  beyond the automatic exposure modes of their camera.   He thoroughly explains these settings and also provides a guide  on when to use certain values to achieve the results that you are looking for.

Announcing Plesha's Picks

Over the last several years, I gained much of my photography knowledge through researching photography web sites/blogs,  reading photography books, and consulting with several photographers(mentors).   These various resources have been invaluable to me in my quest to improve my photography skills.  I really do appreciate all the efforts that people make to share their knowledge with the photographer community.  I know I would not have progressed in honing my skills without their support.

Here are some critical  blog resources examples(not inclusive) for my never ending learning process:

• Strobist Blog
• Digital Pro Talk - David Ziser blog
• Lighting Essentials - Don Giannatti blog
• Planet Neal - Neil van Niekerk blog
• Sweet Life Photo blog

I check these resources almost daily for new information to improve my craft.  I started to realize that people running these sites are giving back to the photography community and I was mainly "on the take."(Sort of speak).   This did not seem too fair. 

So,  I am starting a section on this blog called "Plesha Picks" where I will be sharing information about various photography related resources/articles that have inspired and educated me.  This is done in hopes that you may find the same type of inspiration and education.   This is one way to show my appreciation for the effort by individuals to help keep the photography community  "alive and kicking." 

Why are you calling this section "Plesha's Picks" do you ask ? Please ask or at least sound interested in the answer.  :)

Well... it is a tribute to my late grandmother Viola Plesha.  She was definitely a no-nonsense and "slightly opinionated (ya.. right!)" ex-factory worker from Flint,Michigan with  a heart of gold.  She always had an opinion about everything.  Her straight-to-the-point no-holds-barred opinions became famous in our family so much that we started calling them "Plesha's Picks." 

So in her spirit, my  photography resource picks will be called "Plesha's  Picks."  God bless her wonderful soul!!

Please Stay tuned ....