My Top Three Favorite Photoshoots

Photography lends itself well to a wide variety of activities.  Most of us will over time migrate our photography toward the things we enjoy doing...I'm no different.  I've tried a lot of different kinds of photography but tend to focus in on nature photography as it more closely follows the kinds of things I enjoy doing anyway and so it became a natural extension of those activities.  Even so, I can name three distinct photo shoots that I probably enjoyed the most...and all three of them were different.

Number three on my most favorite photo shoots list involved oddly enough photographing a local event...Bowling Green's International Festival that occurs late in the summer every year down on the circus square area.  It's a great venue with all kinds of people and performances...and a target rich environment photographically speaking.  There is a lot of energy, lots of color, tremendous variety, and actually a lot of talent...some of which is quite unique.  Take for instance the belly dancers.  Yeah...yeah...I know what you're thinking and it ain't so...but I did find the performance quite entertaining and very tastefully done.  The young ladies were very talented and very expressive...and that made for an interesting photo shoot.  But, the festival involved more than belly dancers...there were the Flamenco dancers...wow talk about intense energy...the Chinese dancers...bands of all kinds...Indonesian dancers...even a Native American dancer...a lots more.  I have really enjoyed the festival for the last three years.

Number two on my list is the Tallgrass Prairie of Oklahoma.  This involves a series of shoots really, not just one shoot as you could never fully capture this place on just one visit.  Just thumb through my blog long enough and you will find several articles relating to this location.  It is perhaps the most underutilized resource photographically that I am aware of...and that suits me just fine.  It is an amazing location with a rich and diverse history...the largest protected area of original Tallgrass Prairie that remain in North America.  I have hiked dozens of miles across it rolling landscape...dodged angry buffalo (American Bison to be more precise), got caught in thunder storms, and photographed it from sunup to sundown...and I've still only touched a small portion of what it has to offer.  There have been days I believe I may have been the only person on the 38,000 acres except maybe the caretaker staff.  It's a big place with a big sky and amazing landscapes.  I love this place and will continue to revisit it again and again.

My number one favorite photo shoot of all time though was a shoot one of the members of our local photography club organized which involved several models.  I had never done that kind of shooting before.  Michael was his name, and he is an amazing photographer in his own right and does a lot of model shooting both location and studio.  He was able to convince two of his regular models to join several of us from the club so we could get some practice doing some location shooting.  It was amazing...the young ladies were amazingly delightful...Michael was amazing at how he easily directed and interacted with them.  Two other young ladies also joined us that day and they also did a remarkable job and added a lot to the days events.  I've never had so much actual fun while on a photo shoot.  I learned a great deal about location shooting. It was by far the number one most enjoyable photo shoot I've ever had the pleasure of being a part of.

Honorable mention Second team members on this list include a return trip to my old Coast Guard unit in Oregon a few years ago and the annual Balloons and Tunes in Bowling Green.  Another third team member would be the local Civil War re-enactment down at Lost River Cave.

Okay...so there you have it...my top three favorite photo shoots of all time plus a couple of honorable mentions thrown in...no extra charge.

What camera took what Photo?

Here's a little game for you.  Four photo's...each taken with a different kind of camera.  One was taken with a modern era digital SLR camera, one was taken with a late model SLR film camera with average electronics, one was taken with a 35 to 40 year old mechanical film camera that included a type of first generation exposure metering, and one was taken with a $5.00 plastic disposable film camera.  Can you tell me which one was taken with what camera?

I won't tell and no pixel peeking...You gotta guess.

June 22...Okay..give up?  The top photo was taken with the late model film camera, the second picture was taken with the $5.00 plastic disposable camera, the third picture was taken with a modern era digital camera, and the bottom picture was taken with the 35 year old vintage film camera....Kind of hard to tell isn't it.  Just goes to show that it matter less about what camera you use and more about how you understand the capabilities of the camera and how it will react to the lighting conditions.

Summer Skies

I love the smell of a summer rain shower.  On those occasions when the Kentucky skies darken and the rumble of thunder growls in the distance, I will often make my way to the front porch and sit in the rocking chair and wait for the spell of stormy weather to arrive.  When it does, the muggy air and hot nature of a summer day will suddenly be transformed by wind and rain blessed by cooler air and a fragrance like no other.

Seems like this season we've so far been blessed with a number of those moments and I am grateful to be able to enjoy one of natures great programs.  Another program I enjoy is to capture the first light of a summer morning. The haze in the sky at that time will often turn the rising sun into a subtle pink or pale orange.  Add an old barn or some farm equipment and throw in some tall weeds for atmosphere and with a bit of luck and timing, some of the best photo moments will often appear.

Recently I had one such experience.  I've been in somewhat of a dry spell photographically speaking and was anticipating a good morning.  I set the alarm for 30 minutes before sunrise and headed out the door to a location just a few miles down the road where an old windmill still pulls water from the ground.  There was some fog drifting in the lower areas and around the structure and the morning light created a rustic atmosphere. After firing off a few shots I headed back down the road to another location. where an old barn sat higher on a shallow hill and the summer sunrise always lines up across from it.  When I got there the sun was not yet above the horizon, so I fired off a few quick shots of the farm equipment sitting out in the field.  A few minutes later the sun began to burn through the low morning haze and I realized if I changed my position slightly I could catch the sun behind the equipment.

I'm always amazed at just how fast the sun moves once it breaks free of the horizon, and I almost missed the best shots of the day as it hovered in front of the barn.  The morning haze generated a nice warm glow in the sky and I felt good at having taken the moment to be there when the moment occurred.