I thought that by having wordpress on my phone I would get around to more blogging. Entering the mobile world does make me potentially more connected. The big problem is taking the time to sit somewhere and write. Take right now for instance I’m sitting in a car park waiting for a function to start. I’m by myself and able to put few words together. Maybe I’ll take the time to say something tomorrow after I’ve spent some time in the railway museum tonight. It should be a bit more interesting than my inane ramblings now.

On connectivity though I did enjoy the ability to approve a comment from the phone rather than wait till I got to the computer at home.

Til later
Aaron

We have been getting more into developing design wedding albums. I have posted some sample design pages in the Photograft blog.

After reading a blog recently by Jasmine Star (a photog in California) about the death of her Grandmother and her process of letting go I was motivated to write down my thoughts about the loss of my grand parents. Most of  my life I have been distanced from my grand parents. One set lived in Melbourne and the other set travelled to warmer climates most of the year. I didn’t really have much of a relationship with either set of grandparents. I only got to go to the funeral of my Pop. He was great in the later years. He embraced my lovely bride into the family more than anyone else at the time. I was truly sad to say goodbye. However, when my Nan (his wife) passed away I wasn’t that upset. Don’t get me wrong, I didn’t hate my Nan. We just didn’t have anything to do with each other.  She didn’t want to be around my kids so I didn’t try to be around her and then I moved interstate.  The last time I saw her was at the nursing home when my Uncle took me round to see her while I was visiting Perth on a work trip. She was well advanced with dementia and non responsive so the visit didn’t seem to be of much benefit. At least as far as I know.

My other grandparents lived in Melbourne all the time I knew them. We lived in Perth on the other side of the country. I didn’t really know them well at all. The tireny of distance laid waste to this relationship for us. Things did change  in a positive way when I got a job over in Victoria for a while and we got to spend some time with them. The thing I liked best about that time was the unconditional acceptance of my wife Julie. Joining my family has been challenging for Julie but my Grandmother and Grandfather took her in immediately. We shared stories and laughed many times during that period.

We moved on but my relationship with them had changed for the better. Sadly my Grandmother died in her sleep one night while we were in Sydney. So now all I have left is my Grandfather. Even still I took him for granted and rarely called him. My family isn’t strong on the communication side. It took the description of a strong family relationship to jog  me into action. I have changed my behaviour and started to call my Grandfather. We don’t talk long as he still thinks of the cost of long distance calls as he remembers them. Even though it costs me the same regardless of the length of the call. However, we do talk now and I feel closer to him and more appreciative of him now. Family is important and it is easy to forget that until its gone forever.

Just remember its never too late until they are gone.

Well this week has been quite an adventure for me. My lovely wife has been away with my son in Perth. I have been at home with the girls. Normally I get to go away and the more competent Julie is left at home with the kids.
So to make sure I get the full experience of kid minding challenges Julie enrolled me in a fixing and flushing night course. The first three nights occurring while she was away. So here I am trying to do Mr mum and all that, renovate the house and attend a course. Thanks to the late hours from the course there hasn’t been much in the way of renovation going on. It has been a good course so far, learning on how to install plasterboard.
All the other guys on the course are doing it for work purposes. Not me, I’m doing it because Julie thought it would be a great idea to get me some trade skills. More reno work coming soon!! She also added the justification that I would be more useful in a missions environment if I could build stuff. My normal line of work is more aligned with bringing stuff down.

The first night was all about the theory. Useful info, last night was about fixing the plasterboard to the walls and ceiling. Tonight we get real dirty and start doing the flushing. I must remember my hat tonight.

If I do any good I’ll see if I can get some photos of my work.

Please note that no creatures were deliberately harmed after the production of these images. My youngest daughter helped to relocate the animals to suitable plants before I finalised felling activities.

Anyway after that disclaimer. I was clearing some trees from my front yard today and after taking a break to rest my vibration weary hands from chain sawing I noticed some caterpillars  climbing around the tree I was in the process of bringing down. These guys were quite interesting to watch and I decided that getting some shots would be a good idea. I had never seen the two green caterpillars before and was quite interested in them.  Not that interested to the point that I would look up what type they were, but interested enough to take some shots and get my girls out to have a look. Anyway, here are some images to see. The photos were taken in Gawler South Australia so if there are anyone who is interested enough to look up what they were. I’d be glad for you to drop a comment here about what they are.

Shots were taken with the 50m f1.4 and the 70-200 mm F4. I was using the camera flash for a touch of fill light to combat the bright sky in some shots with the 70-200 lens.

All the best

Aaron

I just wanted to share some detail shots that I took at Jeffrey and Kerry’s wedding. These guys have been a joy to work with and you can see more photos at our business blog.

Till next time.

Here are some thoughts on white balance. I hope they help you understand the concept better and leads to improving your photos.

What is white balance?

When taking colour photos the type of light illuminating the scene affects the details that are recorded on the photo. Some light wavelengths will record stronger than others and how they interact with the objects in the scene will affect the apparent colour of those objects. Scientists developed a scale that measured the balance of colours in light. They used a Kelvin scale to rate the temperature of light and provide a standard measure of light. To get the right colour photo  results the ‘film’ needs to be rated for the colour temperature of the  light illuminating the scene. The use of incorrect colour temperature will result in a colour cast across your photo. This is most evident with film cameras when using daylight film indoors with tungsten or fluorescent lights on.

What effect does it have?

As stated above the setting of the colour temperature in your film medium/sensor will affect the way the light is recorded on your images. What happens is the medium is more reactive to particular wavelengths and they will be more prominent on the image. In particular the medium will record reflected light from the scene with a prominence of certain wavelengths. This results in the colour cast and causes your images to be tainted in that tone. The best way to see this is to get a white object and use either film or set your white balance on your digital camera manually and then illuminate the object with different kinds of light sources. You will see the change in the colour of the white object.

Can I change it?

Thankfully, yes you can change the white balance of your medium. In film there are different colour balanced films. You can also get filters which compensate for the variation in the light from your film’s rating.  Fortunately with digital cameras there is the ability to select the white balance on the camera and it is adjusted electronically in the camera. This is a feature of digital cameras which I think is really cool.

What setting should I use?

The setting to use is dependent upon what light sources you have and, to add to the confusion, what end effect you want to achieve. If you want that warm reddish glow of the sunset to dramatise your photo then don’t adjust your white balance for the sunset, leave on daylight and the red wavelengths will feature in your image. Digital cameras tend to have daylight, tungsten, fluorescent, flash, auto and custom. There may also be cloudy and shade in the selections too. If you know the colour temperature of the light then select the appropriate setting for that light. Midday with strong sun is going to use daylight. A Cloudy day will use cloudy. Indoors with incandescent globes will require tungsten likewise fluoro tubes will need the fluorescent setting.

To complicate matter there are frequently times when there are multiple light sources affecting your scene. This is where auto comes to the fore. The camera can measure and adjust the white balance to match the scene. Modern cameras are getting much better at making these adjustments and now generally get it right all the time.

Getting you white balance right before taking the shot is very important if you are shooting in jpg format. With jpg the colour temperature is recorded in the image. If you get it wrong it is wrong in the image. It can be fixed most of the time but will require some effort in post processing. This is where digital cameras which shoot in RAW have the upper hand. If you get the white balance wrong in RAW image it doesn’t matter. open you image in your RAW editor and change the white balance. Its as easy as that.

Even in RAW it is best if you get the white balance right in camera as the image will be saved with that setting and it will speed up your processing if you don’t need to change white balance. However, if you venture out on a photo shoot and leave the white balance on one setting you will be able to adjust the image to what you remember the scene looking like after the event on your computer. How good is that. One tip I learn from Ryan Brenizer was for your shoots to pick a white balance for a group of shots and stick to it. Don’t use auto. Auto setting will cause the camera to adjust for every photo and every little nuance in the light will be adjusted for causing the white balance of your photos to change every time. This helps when processing lots of RAW shots. Get the white balance right for the first shot in a batch for a scene and then synchronise the rest to match. Big time saver! Also have a look at Michael’s blog on white balance and see how to use a gray card to get your white balance just right.

Can I see an example?

Sure. I was taking the time to record our new lights in our path the other night. I had the white balance set to daylight and stuck with that through the shoot. the biggest thing about that was the only source of light that night was from these little tungsten globes illuminating my path. The feel of the images were very different from what I had seen with my own eyes. No problem I just adjusted them to tungsten in Lightroom 2 and Bob’s my uncle the image represented what I had seen that night.

So the first image here is taken in daylight. you can notice the orange glow across the image. It really affects the feel dramatically and in my opinion loses impact.

The second image I have adjusted to tungsten and the feel is back and the impact is what I was looking for.

One note I would say is that the daylight temperature has made some detail more visible. It does, though for me, lose the grab you factor and comes across muddy. Some people will like that picture more than the second and that is not wrong. One of the joys of art is that the subject is subjective and dependent upon the viewers point of view and preferences. So get out there and practice your art and play around with your white balance to see how it works.

If you like this please let me know.

Our kids’ school Immanuel Lutheran Primary had their first shopping night event on Friday night. I had the privilege to be able to be a part of it. The idea was that the businesses involved would supply a percentage of their profit to the school’s toy library. That and the tiny entry fee for the night would have drawn in some good funds for the school. The event was an exploratory activity for the parents and friends association. I believe it was a success with fifty shoppers pre-purchasing tickets for the night.
I was happy to be there and get some exposure to the school community about our services. Unfortunately most of the people there were unwilling to have their photos taken because they weren’t prepared for it. Though it was fun asking them! I think people are so conditioned by what the magazines publish as people shots that they are scared to have their own photo taken unless they feel they look perfect. Well I was impressed with the ladies that did brave it in front of the lights. They can be confident of a nice portrait and providing a significant contribution to the school.
This is our kids first year at Immanuel and I am impressed by the school’s desire to foster and build a community spirit amongst it’s families. After having lived in various communities around our country that didn’t have much interest in transitory people like ourselves it’s good to be in a place that is trying to draw people together to impact on a community.
I am looking forward to the next event and am hoping that our donation can draw some good funds for the school. If you are a local Immanuel person looking out for some good portrait work. Check out the PhotoGraft website. The more local work in portraits and weddings booked the more we can afford to put back into the local community.

update: I have just been advised that the night raised $1500 dollars for the school. Well done!

Recently we purchased a really cool tool to help Julie with her editing. The prime drive for getting this tool was improved workflow and ergonomics. One thing that is for certain the removal of the mouse from Julie’s workflow has had a very positive impact on the ergonomics at Julie’s workstation. The traditional mouse is not very good for Julie’s hands and using Quikeys takes the use of the mouse out of the equation most of the time she is editing. Just on that fact Quikeys is a winner in my mind. However, the ability to drive Lightroom and Photoshop with Quikeys has had a big impact upon Julie’s workflow. Ultimately the change to the Quikeys workflow has not reduced the time it takes for her to edit a wedding. Though when you compare what was done prior to Quikeys and now you will see that there is a big shift in the quality of output that Julie generates. Having Quikeys has opened up the possibilities in her workflow and resulted in our standard of product to improve.
Working with Dave Cheung at DQ studios (the home of Quikeys) through the purchase and installation has been great. Dave has been very responsive to issues which is particularly important for me as an international customer. So if you are looking at ways in which you can improve your editing effort Quikeys is a tool and workflow solution that will see you reach new levels of creativity.

Finding a wedding photographer can be really difficult and time consuming work. I remember when Julie and I got married. We were engaged in April and set the wedding day in December that year. We didn’t have the bonus of access to the web back then. I must admit that I don’t know how many photographers Julie researched but the one we selected was new to the area and had advertised in our local paper. Knowing the industry now, we were lucky to have a photographer available on the date we wanted. It is possible to get a photographer when your wedding date is close but that can limit your choices significantly.
Today has so many opportunities for customers to check out potential photographers without leaving home. Finding photographers through web searching generates so many options. I think wise photographers will provide pricing information so potential clients can shortlist providers in their budget range. I have found that with many of our clients they have been thankful that we have clearly articulated the prices and some clearly stated they would not meet with photographers who didn’t. The general feel was that they were either very expensive or had a deceptive pricing structure. I wouldn’t want to be tagged like that by prospective clients and lose that business due to lack of transparency.
Sample galleries demonstrating your work are a great benefit and I don’t know how photographers get by without a web presence these days. Modern customers want to be able to make a shortlist based on what they can see of different photographers’ work. This gives them greater confidence when they get to the interview stage. As a photographer it makes it easier as the time together is allowing them to establish if they are comfortable with you. The rapport you develop with a client in that meeting will make or break the deal if they are happy with what they have already seen of your work. I have found our strike rate at interview time is high because we have been transparent and given pricing, package details and sample work for people to see. We also have a blog for further info  that customers can view and check us out with.

I would be interested to hear people’s thoughts on the subject. Especially brides and grooms that have been through the process or even going through it now.

Here’s a image for your enjoyment and you can see more at our blog