While shooting some aerials of local hospitals I spied these two soccer players in a field. The image boils down the essence of sport into finite components. The interaction could be competetive or perhaps a father imparting knowledge to his son. The pockmarked field could be anywhere in the world.
When I was a kid, baseball was king. We asked each other to “play catch.” A hardball felt good in my hand as I tried to throw a curve or a knuckleball. Sometimes a fastball stung the palm of my hand. It was always more special with my dad. The sound of the ball hitting the leather glove was all the conversation that was needed. For those moments, etched in memory, past nor future mattered much. The smell of food cooking wafted out the kitchen window. The shout of “dinner is ready” broke the spell as time started again. Silverware clanged and portions were passed as eleven kids sat down to eat in organized chaos.
Gen Vang Pao was a General in the Laotian army who helped in the CIA’s ‘secret war’ in Laos and Cambodia. Vang Pao was a charismatic leader of the Hmong people and highly revered in the U.S. His funeral drew people from around the world who came to pay their respects. I photographed his funeral in downtown Fresno.
When I need to know something I gravitate toward an expert or a faq. I find that many of the organic questions that arise from my inquiries have been already been thought out and explained. When seeking answers as to why design is important in photography I went back; way back!
One of the experts in design wasn’t necessarily known for his drawings or paintings but rather for his philosophy about it. I was first acquainted with the teachings of my namesake, St. Thomas Aquinas in a college philosophy class.
Aquinas used the design argument to explain the existence of God or Divine Intelligence.
Aquinas’ basic premise was that all things have an order or arrangement and work for an end. The order of the universe cannot be explained by chance, but only by design and purpose. Design and purpose is a product of intelligence. Therefore nature is directed by a Divine Intelligence or Great Designer. It makes sense; right?
Well, what does this have to do with corporate photography? Everything! When I look at a subject I am photographing, I often look for an order or arrangement. I do this by looking for repetition of form, shape, color, and line. Often my subject(s) are interacting within this environment which not only provides visual appeal but also communicates a message based on the interaction of the subject and the environment. When viewed there is a recognition of the order and it makes a certain visual sense. One of the most interesting factors of photography is that it takes what looks like chance in the universe and gives an order to it. The art of the photographer is seeing the order in the chaos and making visual sense of it.
Intelligent design with purpose garners success not only in the corporate world but in the photographic world as well. If you incorporate these elements you may be proving the philosophy of St. Thomas Aquinas but you will also give a visual voice to elements within the business world that are sought out as principles of success.
One other very important aspect about incorporating design elements into corporate photography; it just looks cool!
All photos above were taken at the Genesys G-Force Conference in mid-May in Dallas, Texas.
I photographed Arnold Schwarzenegger about a half-dozen times. Each of his press conferences were very scripted and choreographed. I had occasion to photograph Maria Schriver and found her to be very personable, intelligent, and real. Photographs have a way of revealing the interior landscape of a person. What do you think this image reveals about Arnold?
I recently took pictures of my friend’s newborn baby girl. This was a wonderful experience and I would like to share it with you. Although I am a photojournalist, the title might better be stated as photo-generalist these days. Along with the work that I perform for California’s largest newspapers, I take assignments from clients desiring portraits. These portraits range from families, executives, high school seniors, to the most challenging of all, infants! Make no mistake, working with a CEO on a ten minute deadline can get the adrenaline pumping. There is however a respectful sizing up that occurs similar to two boxers first touching gloves in the ring before the fight. The CEO wants to look her best and the photographer wants to capture the unique fingerprint of her personality and character. Good communication facilitates the process of getting to know one another.
Photographing a baby, on the other hand, reminds me of the time I photographed Jose Canseco. I introduced myself and he replied; “You’ve got 60 seconds.” That was all he said! When shooting with a motor drive at 7 frames a second I took a lot of pictures in a minute. I think he was somewhat surprised!
When photographing babies, success is in the planning. There is a window of photographic opportunity with every child or baby. As the world was on Jose Canseco’s schedule in his heyday, you are on the baby’s schedule. It is important to have a strategic game plan to facilitate the photographic process. The best time to photograph a baby is just after nap time and feeding time. Your odds of having a happy photo session will increase!
There are many schools of baby portraiture ranging from Anne Geddes’ elaborate outfits and backgrounds to the local portrait studio’s white seamless backdrop and a baby blanket. As a professional photographer of 25 years I have developed my unique style. You can develop your unique style as well, with your choice of props, lighting, and location.
Choosing a simple and uncluttered background is important. Is there a place in the home that requires very little rearranging? I find that a large knitted baby blanket with a strategic fold draped over a background stand can add texture and design. Background stands may be purchased at a local photography store. Set the draped stand 4 to 8 feet behind the baby. I prefer the background to be a little out of focus. Shooting from F2.8 to F5.6 will offer this effect.
What will the baby wear? What will she be placed in or on? Is there a theme that you want to convey? If you google ‘baby photo props’, search Ebay, or visit your local arts and crafts store you will find a variety of props and accessories including caps, headbands, bowls, baskets, and crochet cocoons. I prefer to use one color and a simple theme. Pink and pretty was a recent theme with baby Lauren (pictured). She posed with a pink headband and pink baby blanket. She wore only a diaper, so keeping the room at a comfortable temperature was important so she would not get cold.
Lighting is a very important and effective element. A large window can provide beautiful available light to readily photograph a sleeping baby. I prefer a serene photo aesthetic with soft lighting. With my light source off-camera, I avoid any harsh light and shadow. If you have a portable flash, purchase a light and umbrella shoe mount and an umbrella. Set it off to one side of your subject at a 45 degree angle. Put your camera on a tripod during the shoot to avoid camera shake and lens blur. I like to shoot with a telephoto lens and shoot from ten feet away. I usually focus on the eyes of the baby shooting from different angles, moving up and down, right and left. Try this movement technique during the shoot and when you think you have a nice angle, wait for the moment to happen. You must move quickly when photographing an infant! A yawn, smile or a good position of the hands and feet happen quickly. Don’t worry if you feel you have missed the moment the baby moves. This is when the fun begins! Be ready for the next little movement and it will happen! Many times on a news photo assignment I adjust my camera settings, position myself in relation to the subject, and wait. Opportunities for success come with planning, patience and perseverance!
So you have your background, props, lighting, camera on a tripod, your baby positioned perfectly and then she starts to cry. Don’t panic! Take a couple of shots, have mom or dad comfort her and try again. Keep mom and dad in close proximity to the baby and encourage a constant dialogue between them and the baby. I often will ask the baby’s parents to sing, hold, sway or nurse the baby. Repeating the same thing over and over again will comfort the baby. Sometimes, swaddling the baby will calm her. If all else fails, call time out. Get a cup of coffee, run some errands and try again in an hour or two. If the baby falls asleep, you’re still in the game. Some of the most beautiful pictures are of sleeping babies!
What is beauty? How do we measure it? How do we achieve it? Is it as Thomas Aquinas stated; a balance of wholeness, balance and radiance?
I made this image at a body building contest recently. This lady won her division and obviously has worked very hard to achieve a level of fitness revealed by the definition of her musculature. The antithesis of this morphology can be found in Renaissance art where the woman was painted as voluptuous with a ghostly white pallor. Beauty has a relativity based on culture, opinion, and genetics. Incredible amounts of time, effort, and expense are utilized to achieve a semblance of relative beauty.
I am of the opinion that beauty is organic. I find it everywhere. Photography is the pedestal on which I place the beautiful.
When I photograph a bride, we enter into a collaborative effort to make art. There is trust, an exchange of thoughts and ideas, and ultimately, visual documentation of our efforts. The images reflect the exchange and the unique fingerprint of the time and place and the realized photographic vision. 
I photographed Congressman Kevin McCarthy for the San Francisco Chronicle in Bakersfield. McCarthy was sworn in as the Majority Whip which makes him the third-highest ranking member of the GOP’s new majority in the House of Representatives. McCarthy is a gregarious and interesting man who is the son of a firefighter and played football at Bakersfield High School. Read the San Francisco Chronicle article: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/01/01/MN7P1H2DPU.DTL
Kathy Reid is a competitor who writes about competition. An avid cyclist and runner, Kathy takes her knowledge and expertice to the pages of Velonews and other sports oriented publications. These images are for her new webpage.
On a recent cold November morning I went out to my backyard to watch the sunrise with a cup of espresso. On the lawn I spied a bird, lifeless and glistening in the morning sun. It was a starling. I turned it over and it had been partially eaten just around it’s heart. It’s head was visually intriguing and thought it would be an interesting subject to photograph. I retrieved a stone from my front yard and set up a still life on a table in my backyard. I balanced the birds head on a stone which made it look like it was mounted like a deer or elk.
It reminded me of the editorial meeting room of the Contra Costa Times, where the publisher had stuffed animal head “trophies” on the walls. I filled out my new employee forms under the fixed gaze of an antelope as I heard about Dean Lesher, the Publisher, and how he had done some big game hunting in Africa. Dean was a soft-spoken, rotund and bespectacled man who got divorced to marry a waitress. At that time in the 1980’s he was a rising media mogul who, as he used to say; “had the sense to put a newspaper at the intersection of two major freeways” just East of the Bay Area. The paper in Walnut Creek served the bedroom communities of San Francisco, Oakland and San Jose and took a good portion of the advertising revenue from those markets. He was the last person you would picture hunting lions, zebras, and water buffaloes. In that room, and during those times, you had the impression a city editor’s head, mounted on the wall, would have been more a more likely trophy for the self-important and self-made man.
I shook his hand once, when I had made my ten-year anniversary. I picked a knife as a memento of what was known as Lesher Communications Inc. The sheath had a small ruby attached over the LCI logo. His hand was cold and clammy and his belt and pants were way over his waistline. It gave the impression that he was a man who could move lines of demarcation, damn the consequences, and be totally impervious to criticism. During the employee aniversay luncheon I had the feeling I was valued as an employee, as one values having an aquarium full of tropical fish. You feed them, they swim, and you get hours of enjoyment watching them swim.
Animals sustain us and entertain us in a balancing act between friend, foe, or foie gras. The starling, who perhaps was dropped in my yard by a hawk, begs the question of our relationship with the creatures with whom we share our existence on this planet earth.
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