Joe Baraban’s Digital Photography Blog

A new way of looking at the ordinary.

This is my ninth post in my series I call “Did It Do It”.

In my online classes at the PPSOP, and in my “Stretching Your Frame of Mind” workshops I conduct around the planet, I show fellow photographers how to incorporate the elements of Visual Design and composition into their thought process, and as a result, they’re able to take their photos what  I refer to as “up a notch”. I also give them my “did it do it” list which is a set of guidelines I’ve been thinking about for the majority of my career. These are not rules, since I don’t like nor do I follow any rules that others before me have put out there to create mediocre photographers.

In this new post, I want to talk about looking at new ways to photograph ordinary ideas. During my forty-five year career as a corporate and advertising photographer, I was always asked by an Art Director (who was told by a client) to take a photo of an incredible ordinary idea. To be sure, it wasn’t ordinary to the powers that be; quite the contrary, it was ground breaking to them. To be able to live with myself, I always took it as a challenge to come up with a new way of showing the same old, same old.

I tell my students to “consider the scene and it’s outcome”. In other words take a step out of your body and right before you think that you’re ready to snap the shutter ask yourself if what you’re about to take is a photo that you would think is ordinary if someone had shown it to you. If there’s the slightest chance that it is, why take it? Why not look for a way to say the same thing, but in a new way; at least a way you haven’t seen before.

In the above photo, i was hired by the advertising agency that handled Texas Tourism. As is usually the case, they had a list of ideas (ordinary) that they once again wanted to portray in the ads they were running in local and national magazines. One of the ongoing ideas was to show a family of four enjoying the beaches on South Padre Island. It had been done so many times that even the Art Director” got nauseous at the mere thought of reliving it again.

There was no way I was going to take a photo of a mom, dad, son, and daughter enjoying the beach. I would have rather had my ‘eye’ carved out with a snow shovel. So what did I do?  I went to the nearest tourist shop and found four colorful beach chairs. I set them up as though there were the family sitting there, only there was just one at the time. The rest of the family was implied. The client loved it!!!!!

Visit my website at: www.joebaraban.com and check out my 2013 workshop schedule at the top of this blog. Come shoot the un-ordinary with me sometime.

Don’t forget to send me a photo and question to: AskJoeB@gmail.com.

JoeB

Painting the lighthouse at Pemaquid Point

I had conducted my “Stretching Your Frame of Mind” workshop at the Maine Media Workshops in Rockport, Maine. One of the locations I took my class was Pemaquid Lighthouse, and it was always a great way to introduce the class to painting with light.

Sitting in the shadow of the lighthouse at Pemaquid Point with an incredible view, my class and I enjoyed lunch provided by the workshop. I had taken them there to scout the lighthouse, and with my software called Sunpath and a hand bearing compass called a Morin 2000, I showed them how to determine where the sun was going to rise (to the exact degree) and when it would hit the horizon. By the way, it’s a hell of a lot accurate than any app you can put on your phone.

Painting the Lighthouse

The next morning we met at 3:30AM for the drive to Pemaquid. I wanted to be there an hour before sunrise to give us enough time to set up. That day dawn began at 5:05AM, with the actual sunrise coming at 5:27AM at 81 degrees. I knew we had twenty-two minutes before the sun came up to paint the lighthouse with my RedLine tactical flashlight. I had the class set up and shoot while I ran around and showed them how to paint while keeping their camera shutter open.

It was a beautiful morning, and the class really enjoyed the experience. Afterward, we had my traditional breakfast at Moody’s Diner in Waldoboro, Maine.

What fun!

JoeB

“Taxi”!!!

I recently returned from yet another of my latest workshop in New York, and it will have to go down as one of the best group of people I’ve ever had…or close to it since so many had taken at least one if not ten  previous workshops with me. The level of work was amazing and I was was proud to be a part of it. Nor only am I proud to show you their week taken during the week, but I would think you will agree that it’s pretty impressive work.

We shot at several places you’ll recognize in the slideshow: The Seaport, Memorial Gardens, the Brooklyn Bridge, Chinatown, Washing Square Park, the Village, Central Park, Calatrava Path Station, and a private hard hat tour of the shuttered hospitals on Ellis Island…not counting just walking around the city finding photo ops wherever you looked.

As I said, most of the people had taken my “Stretching Your Frame of Mind” workshop, or had taken my online classes with the BPSOP…or both, and I would put their body of work against the majority of working professionals living through the US…and abroad.

Group photo taken after the hard hat tour on Ellis Island.

You’ll have to excuse me this time for the amount of photos I’ve selected, but it was very difficult and this is less than half of what I went through as to make it as short as possible. Just keep your finger clicking on the arrow and it will go by a lot quicker!!!!

🙂

I always try to select a photo to highlight and it was very difficult to do so. I finally settled on the one at the top that to me represents New York, albeit in a semi-strange (NY) way. It’s the one image you see happening more than any other when in the Big Apple.

Enjoy:

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Visit my website at: www.joebaraban.com and follow me on Instagram: www.instagram.com/barabanjoe. Check out my workshop schedule at the top of this blog.

JoeB

Game, Set, Match

Although it feels like centuries, some thirty years ago I was hired to shoot the annual report for Anderson Consulting. By all accounts, it was a great project that took me around the world shooting their clients.

One of their clients was the Social Security Department of Spain, and my assignment was to just shoot the people of their country. What a great job I thought to myself upon hearing what they wanted me to do. What more could I ask for since I love to shoot environmental portraits, and to travel around doing just that (with a complete free hand in what subject I picked to shoot) was just about as good as it got.

We based out of Madrid, and we were there during their Carnival…another story of really weird people dressing up and walking around the Plaza Mayor, Puerta Del Sol.  Besides shooting in Madrid, we also went to Toledo, and Cordoba to shoot there as well.

While in a small plaza in Toledo, I had a 300mm F/2.8 lens on a tripod and I felt as if I were a submarine captain in World War II looking through a periscope hunted enemy targets. Instead I was looking in the viewfinder, and after I had loosened all the knobs, I could freely swivel my camera around the crowds back and forth looking for subjects/targets of any height.

As I tell my online students with the BPSOP, and in my “Stretching Your Frame of Mind” workshops I conduct around our planet, constantly look around you, be aware of any movements and especially look behind you because that illusive ‘OMG” photo is lurking somewhere out there and just waiting to be captured.

While scanning the crowd, I saw this woman holding a fan close to her face. The first time I saw here she quickly turned away…the game was on!! I wanted her picture, and she was doing everything she could to avoid me. What I had in my favor was her extreme curiosity as to what I was doing and she couldn’t help herself to periodically look in my direction. At that point come hell or high water, and if it took me the rest of my life, I was going to get my shot.

In those days I was shooting film, and you had to focus your own camera. While her head was turned I pre-focused on her, and since I was at F/2.8, and at the minimum distance for that lens to get her sharp; I didn’t have much latitude as far as my DOF was concerned.

Since I was focused on her, I pretended to scan the rest of the people but was not actually shooting. Not knowing whether she was looking or not I looked back in her direction, and before a blink of either her or my eye, I clicked the shutter. I got her!!!!!

I smiled at her and reluctantly she gave me a half smile back as she knew at that moment that it was game, set, and match.

Visit my website at: www.joebaraban.com, and follow me on Instagram: www.instagram.com/barabanjoe. Check out my workshop schedule at the top of this blog as it becomes available. onderful country.

JoeB

In the last couple of years I’ve seen a trend develop concerning my fellow photographers that take my three classes with the BPSOP, and also in my “Stretching Your Frame of Mind” workshops I conduct around the planet.

It seems that everyone wants to have a website and actually try to generate some income from it. I’m often been asked what type of photos would need to be in it in order for people to be interested in buying their services.

My first question to anyone is what do you like taking pictures of? That’s so important, because if you don’t love your subject matter, you’ll never be happy with whatever outcome befalls you. Second question would be where do you want this new generated income to be coming from. Are you looking for people to buy prints from your site, or do you want someone to hire you to shoot original photography.

If you’re only interested in selling prints, then the subject matter should be generic in nature. In other words, color photography of land or seascapes, flowers, abstracts, or B/W editorial or photojournalism. Of course any of the areas I’ve mentioned can also be shot in B/W.

If you’re interested in being hired to shoot editorial, corporate, or advertising photography, then it’s very important to be able to shoot people. People like to see people in photos, and for an editor, art director, or graphic designer to hire you you need to be good at what’s called Lifestyle Photography.

Lifestyle was one of the areas I was best known for back in the days when I was shooting for all three of these avenues. It’s about capturing people in everyday life. Situations that are common to the people that will be looking at your pictures. Situations that they are involved in every day of their lives. Needless to say these Lifestyle photos need to be shot by portrait or people photographers and handled in an artistic manner.

Although Lifestyle photography depicts common everyday occurrences, it would also include those moments that are not seen everyday, but still include people interacting with other people or people being alone with nature. For example a lone cross country skier alone against the elements.

Think of situations that you’ve experienced or seen being experienced by others. Finding these happening in real time…real life may take you a long time to accumulate enough images to put on a site.

Or, try setting  these scenarios up and then shooting in a reportage style. In other words, set up a situation and shoot it as if it were really happening.

Here’s a few examples of what I mean:

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Visit my website at: www.joebaraban.com, and follow me on Instagram: www.instagram.com/barabanjoe. Check out my workshop schedule at the top of this blog. come shoot with me sometime.

JoeB

The jockey picture.

In my part I post on the “Law of the Light” I talked about positioning my 57’Chevy in a position where I could get a “POP” on the front grill. By placing the car in such a way as to have the Angle of Incidence (the light falling on the grill) being the same as the Angle of Reflection (the light reflecting off the grill to the lens).. I also said that it was my favorite way to light …anything!!! Well that, next to backlight, is my favorite way to light people as well.

In my online class with the BPSOP, and in my “Stretching Your Frame of Mind ” workshop I conduct around the planet, I provide my students with a diagram of a clock as I’ve provided here. If you notice, I have my subject right in the center and my camera right above the six. I tell them to imagine this clock on the ground (or behind your subject depending what is easier for you to imagine) and the person they want to photograph standing where I have the subject (in the middle of the clock).

In order to light the person so that they’re in the “Law of the light”, I want the sun, or the light source to be either around 10 o’clock or around 2 o’clock with the camera at 6 o’clock. This would be when the angle of the light source hitting the subject is the same angle as the light sources reflecting off the subject hitting the lens.

As you can see by my clock diagram, the source of the light is coming from about 2 o’clock and from behind the jockey. The angle from the ‘2’ to the subject is the same angle as the subject to the camera.

Here’s a few more examples of shooting people in the “Law of the Light” In each of these photos, imagine the clock superimposed over the photo:

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Visit my website at: www.joebaraban.com, and follow me on Instagram www.instagram.com/barabanjoe. Check out my workshop schedule and come shoot in the “Law of the Light” with me.

JoeB

Mary sent me this image with a question. I like to include what fellow photographers have to say so that others that might have a similar question or photo can benefit. Here’s what Mary had to say:

“Hi,

My name is Mary Robinson and I came across your site via Lightstalking.com. I have enjoyed reading your blog and am interested in having a photo critiqued. My question is, I have always been told and read numerous times that the most important thing would be to make sure in portraits that the eyes are in focus. In this particular image I have done that, but the beak itself is not, given the settings I was using and that my angle of view was slightly above the bird how would I have avoided getting parts of the bird out of focus while others are in focus and does it matter in this particular instance as the eyes are what drew me to take the shot in the first place?”

Mary,

I looked at you camera settings and it said you were using a 70-200 zoom, and you were just about all the way out at 190mm. It also says that you were at F/7.1 at 1/160th of a second.  This could be the problem.

I realize that the distance from the end of the beak to the eyes is not very far, but it might be too great a distance to get it all sharp at F/7.1 with a 200mm lens. At 200mm, the plane of focus is not very much, which is why it’s used to separate the Figure from the Ground. In my new class with the BPSOP, and in my “Stretching Your Frame of Mind” workshops we work on the six principles of Gestalt. One of them is called Figure-Ground”, and it deals with ways to separate the figure (the subject) from the ground (background). The best way is to use a long lens and shoot with a minimum aperture. This is sort of what’s happening with your photo of the hawk.

Here’s what I suggest: First of all I assume you were using a tripod, because if you were hand holding it you already started out with a sharpness problem. Ok, assuming you were on a tripod, I believe it would have taken more DOF to get him sharp from the beak to the eyes…if you were at 190mm.

It also appears that you were over to the right side of the beak, so the distance from the feathers and eye on the left was further away from the features and eye on the right on the right. That would have been enough to not get all of it sharp. Remember that you’re dealing with a long lens so you have to remember that it’s going to take more DOF to get everything you want in focus.

It’s also possible that 1/160th of a second was not fast enough to maintain sharpness. That’s not really all that fast when shooting wildlife.

I hope this helped.

Visit my website at: www.joeBaraban.com and follow me on Instagram: www.instagram.com/barabanjoe. Check out my workshop schedule at the top of this blog. Come shoot with me sometime.

JoeB

First place

In my recent Paris Workshop, that incidentally was a huge success, I had ask the class to photograph the Eiffel Tower sometime during the week. Since it’s the most iconic structure in France, or any country for that matter, I thought it might be fun to have a juried exhibition and award a special memento to the photo that was judged (I stayed out of it) by  three independent people (artists in their own right) as being the most unusual and creative photograph taken during the course of the workshop.

Several photos were taken after our farewell dinner at Procope, the oldest restaurant in Paris. A private coach picked everyone up after a fantastic meal and great wine and went to the Eiffel Tower at sunset ( 9:41pm) for one last shoot. I gave the first place winner a Crystal Eiffel Tower made by Swarovski.

The second, third, and honorable mention are the first three in the slideshow. All the rest were finalists.

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Visit my website at: www.joebaraban.com and follow me on Instagram: www.instagram.com/barabanjoe. Check out future workshops at the top of this blog.

Springtime in Paris workshop.

JoeB

Sunrise at the Louvre

I’ve been wanting to share this workshop post since it was in one of my favorite cities in the world for photo ops, good wine and food. Being around a group of good shooters doesn’t hurt, and seeing so many again from previous workshops is a great treat. I have people from all over the world and to have two women coming from Australia to shoot with me again after being in my last “Springtime in Tuscany” is a pretty good feeling.

Most of the photographers have either taken my online class with the BPSOP, or have taken my “Stretching Your Frame of Mind” workshops I conduct around the planet. In these photos there are lots of elements from their ‘Artist Palette’ they walk away with from my online classes. If you’re wondering why you like so many of these photos for one reason or another…that’s the reason.

This time I’m going to divide my students work into two posts. This first one is about the city, it’s architecture, famous landmarks, and people. The next post will showcase the Eiffel tower. Since the Eiffel Tower is probably the most photographed structure in France, I had decided a little creative competition would be a good thing…a motivator, if you will. An exhibition and competition to the workshop participants to portray the famous structure in the most unusual and creative way. I had three people (not in class) decide on the first, second and third pace photo. First place was a crystal Eiffel Tower designed by Swarovski.

Enjoy the show:

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FYI, it was difficult to narrow down the photos to a reasonably amount, so if you get tired looking at them, I’ll understand…although they’re awfully good photos!!!

Springtime in Paris workshop.

Visit my website at:www.joebaraban.com, and follow me on Instagram: www.instagram.com/barabanjoe. Be sure to watch for my new  workshop schedule at the top of this blog.

JoeB

Making pictures is a lot more fun than taking them.

The first workshop I ever taught was at the Maine Media Workshop in 1984, and up until the last few years I’ve been teaching while shooting advertising and corporate photography ever since. That’s thirty years of looking at my fellow photographer’s photos.

Thirty years later, I’m semi-retired and now teaching online with the BPSOP, and still conducting my “Stretching Your Frame of Mind” workshops around the planet.

If I were to pick out one thing that I’ve seen over the course of my teaching career, it would be the fact that the majority of all my students just go out with their camera and take pictures. I wrote a post about it called “I came, I shot, I left”, which somewhat touches on the subject at hand.

One of my favorite lines that I say to my students is, “I don’t photograph what I see because I never see what I want, so I photograph what I’d like to see”. What does that mean you say? It means that I’m in the business of making, not taking pictures. My background isn’t in photography. Truth be known, I didn’t hold a 35mm camera until I was twenty-one. I was an art student who loved painting and design. The day I picked up that camera was the day I changed my favorite medium, a paintbrush, to a 35mm Pentax Spotmatic with a 50mm lens.

I still consider myself an artist. Now, instead of a canvas on an easel where I was making works of art, I have a camera on a tripod, and I’m now making pictures.

If you’re out with a camera over your shoulder with the intent of coming back with your ‘work of art’, and you’ve taken my online class or my workshop, you have an ‘Artist Palette’ with you. You’re using the elements of visual design to help you see things you wouldn’t normally see and be able to make a picture from what you looking at by using one or all of these Elements.

Think about going out and making pictures, here’s what I mean: Before you click the shutter, take some time to walk around your subject, center of interest, or even the entire location your about to shoot in. Shoot it from different points of view. Before you even bring the camera up to your eye, look where the sun or light source is coming from. Position yourself to side light then backlight your subject. I’m not a fan of front light, but there’s time when it works so look for it as well. I wrote a post about looking at things in a new way. It’s also about making pictures.

Think about scouting the location ahead of time to check on the direction of the light. Maybe there’s some props you’d like to bring to help tell some kind of story. Being a storyteller is about making pictures. Maybe adding a person would help, so you drag one of your kids (you do have to pay them something if you want their undivided attention), or a spouse or friend. If you live in or close to a large city, Google up that cities Tourism Bureau or Film Commission for places to shoot; they love to help photographers. What about festivals (lots of photo ops) that come once a year? These are the kinds of things that change your thought process, and now you’re also in the business of making pictures.

Visit my website at: www.joebaraban.com, and follow me on Instagram: www.instagram.com/barabanjoe. Check out my new workshop schedule at the top of this blog. Come shoot with me sometime.

JoeB

“And there was light”.

Trust me when I say that I’m very far from being a religious person, but the other day I was listening to a piece on PBS and the book of Genesis was being quoted. I can’t remember exactly what the gist of the conversation was, but the moment this phrase was said, my ears perked up. The direct quote from Genesis 1:3 is,…then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light.

My ears picked up because I remembered walking back to my hotel in Paris during my workshop there from what was a “bust” as far as the afternoon light was concerned. As you can see in the above photo that it was about as dark gray (and threatening rain) as it gets especially so close to sunset.

I tell my online class with the BPSOP, and my fellow photographers that join me in one of my “Stretching Your Frame of Mind” workshops to always be ready because you just never know when something will happen. As always, I still had my camera attached to my tripod and both were resting comfortably on my shoulder. I was asking no one in particular if I could just have a minute of light, and at that moment, as I always do, I was looking all around me from front to back. As I turned around the sun came out for a matter of seconds, and I was able to capture this photo. Needless to say it made my afternoon.

I guess somebody up there likes me!!!

Visit my website at: www.joebaraban.com, and follow me on Instagram: www.instagram.com/barabanjoe. Check out my upcoming workshops at the top of this blog. Come shoot with me sometime.

JoeB

Not a true Vanishing Point, but close.

Years ago, when the now Maine Media Workshop was just called the Maine Workshop, I took a group out looking for the elements of Visual Design and composition. Now I call it my Artist Palette, and these elements are placed on it so your imagination can easily get to them. We work on this same Artist Palette both in my online class with the BPSOP, and in my “Stretching Your Frame of mind” workshops I conduct around our planet.

Probably twenty plus years ago I was taking a group out late in the afternoon, driving in the countryside outside Rockport (where the workshop Homestead is located) looking for Vanishing Points to incorporate into my students composition. Out of the corner of my eye I saw a man sitting on the railing of his back porch. I quickly noticed that the railing contained parallel lines that were almost converging to a point on the horizon.

I couldn’t tell if it was a true Vanishing Point (which it wasn’t) , but the man was great looking…a true Mainer. I turned around and drove back to see what if anything was worth having my fellow photographers shoot.

We pulled up next to the house and I began talking with this man who turned out to be very warm and friendly, and a great guy to boot. I asked him if I could take a quick photo to show the students how to combine a Vanishing Point with an environmental portrait; as seen in the above photo.

I then had the class take over and just stood back to see what they could each come up with individually while the light was beautiful. I went to put away my gear while thinking that they would try their hand at incorporating a Vanishing Point and a portrait. When I returned, I was surprised (to say the least) that they had positioned this man in a chair and proceeded to photograph him. I couldn’t imagine what they were seeing or trying to see, but since they were having fun, I just let them be….and then I quietly snickered, then a giggle, then I laughed, and laughed.

Not sure what they were seeing.

I still smile when I see this photo I shot of them.

Visit my website at: www.joebaraban.com, and follow me on Instagram: www.instagram.com/barabanjoe. Check out my upcoming workshops at the top of this blog.

JoeB

Look ma, no Photoshop

In 1983 I was hired to shoot a series of ads for IBM. One of the ads featured a class of young students painting a mural of the United States. I wanted strong window light coming in from 9 o’clock to side light providing depth to the room. The clock is one of the most important topics I talk about in my online class with the BPSOP, and in my “Stretching Your Frame of Mind” workshops I conduct around the planet.

In the old film days, the days when the word Adobe meant a type of house in the Southwest part of the US, I couldn’t rely on post processing to help create the illusion of depth.; for that matter, for anything. I also couldn’t rely on finding a room that would give me nice sidelight on the kids; let alone count on a sunny day. There was too much money involved for the advertising agency and client to reach a level of comfort in my ability to arrange for everything needed..for example late afternoon light at 9 o’clock.

So, what do you do? You bring out the “big lights”, 12K HMI’s, the lights I often used both in print and when I was acting as a director/cameraman on TV commercials. These lights were 12,000 watt daylight balanced lights that needed a big generator and ballasts to operate…and a package that included a gaffer, assistant, truck and portable generator would run about $2000.00 a day for just one light, CTO gels (warming gels since the light was on the blue side) and barn doors.

An all day shoot.

In order to create an even exposure from one end of the kids to the other it took six lights and several hours to set up and shoot. It was the “good old days” where it was fun creating the look on one piece of film and one exposure.

Visit my website at: www.joebaraban.com, and follow me on Instagram: www.instagram.com/barabanjoe. Check out my workshop schedule at the top of this blog. Come shoot with me sometime.

JoeB