Just about midway between Houston and Beaumont, Texas lies the little town of Anahuac, “which no one has ever heard of,” proclaims native Robert Seale. Anahuac sits on both massive Trinity Bay and smaller Lake Anahuac. I inform Seale I’ve driven through the area on Interstate 10. “When you get to the swampy area, that’s where I’m from,” he says, laughing. “It’s good for ducks and alligators, but not necessarily people.”

In many respects, Seale strove for and acquired the American Dream. He left the hometown he jokes about, and his photography has sent him around the country on assignment shooting athlete portraits. Seale also witnessed the dark side of the American Dream: shrinking budgets of news corporations and resultant layoffs. While in college, he had an internship at The Houston Chronicle. Convinced he wanted to be a newspaper photographer, he then worked in Augusta, Georgia until a job opened at The Houston Post. In a few years, during the frenzy of corporate mergers, the failing Post was absorbed by The Chronicle. Downsized, Seale became a freelancer until he found an unconventional position at The Austin American Statesman. It was 1995, and newspapers were doing even worse than they are now. Paper costs were high, and most of them hadn’t embraced the Internet as a delivery mechanism. Working 32 hours a week with no benefits, he stuck with it until everything changed in 1996 when he got a full-time position as one of just three staff photographers at The Sporting News, which relocated him to their base in St. Louis.

©Robert Seale

As a staff photographer with The Sporting News, Seale greatly expanded his skills over the course of twelve years. “It was great,” he recalls. “It was interesting because I got hired more for having portrait skills than having action skills. There are probably a lot of guys who could shoot action better than me at that time, but you had to be able to both since we were such a small staff.” Due to the small size of the photography staff, Seale found himself shooting covers, portraits, feature stories, and behind-the-scenes photos. This forced the young photographer to gain a wide skill set beyond shooting the action of professional games.

In December of 2006, Seale left the paper to turn full-time independent pro. Already taking on a lot of freelance work before leaving, he didn’t limit himself to only sports. Shooting annual reports and other corporate clients, he also started his informative and well-written blog. Always wishing to distance himself from the pack, Seale received many questions about lighting. Rather than make his blog a series of posts about recent work, he’s chosen to make it an informative resource for other photographers.

©Robert Seale

Since becoming a free agent, Seale has noticed an interesting shift in the way he does business. Previously, he was able to schedule his jobs with more flexibility. Now, especially when corporate work is done, terms are more frequently dictated to him, closing off much of the creative decisions he could make, such as location, concepts, and ever-critical time-of-day decisions. For the most part, his approach to portraits remains the same, whether it’s an athlete or a CEO with one caveat. “The main thing with CEO’s is you sometimes can’t get as dramatic with the lights as you can with an athlete. That’s probably the biggest change because you have to open things up. I call it moving the light closer to the center,” he says, referring to positioning lights closer to the camera. “With certain CEO’s, they just want the guy to look nice. They want it to be dynamic and interesting, but if you get too shadowy and too dramatic you may not get hired again because the guy may not like his picture.”

©Robert Seale

When I ask Seale about group portraits, he considers them one of his larger challenges. Due to the time constraints of corporate directors, Seale typically sets up lighting and uses stand-ins. When conditions are perfect, he brings in the actual subjects, starts shooting, and they’re free to leave in minutes. Finding locations for all employees to reach and feel comfortable in is also a challenge. “Most CEOs, their time crunch is such they are not willing to go out in the field and have their picture made next to an oil rig or something,” he says. “It’s much more interesting. It’s more dynamic to make those kind of pictures. Sometimes you just have to solve problems within their office, within a lobby, or whatever you’ve got to work with, and try to make an interesting picture there. There was one case where we did a group of oil company executives and we used a green screen and projected an old black and white photo of an oil field behind them.”

Regarding the athlete-work he’s most known for, Seale freely shares an answer to a common question he gets. “A lot of athletes are in motion, basketball players flying through the air, and stuff like that. People always ask about trampolines and there’s never been a trampoline in any of those pictures,” he says.

©Robert Seale

These shots are meticulously planned, focused and lit, with the athlete hitting a mark, then jumping. A shot like this which he’s particularly proud of is of LaDainian Tomlinson on the deck of an aircraft carrier. A simple but effective camera position gives Tomlinson some extra lift. “That’s just him jumping straight up in the air. I found if you put the camera all the way down on the ground—just absolutely on the ground—and you are laying on the ground, using a wide angle, having the guy leap straight up into the air, you can get that effect. People ask if that was rear flash sync. Actually, it was normal flash sync because the drop shadow is coming off of his leg and is actually him as he’s coming down. If you fire the flash right as someone is at their apex of their jump, then you’ll get that flash blur on the back edge of it. It looks like rear sync, even though it’s not.”

©Robert Seale

Shooting Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III cameras these days, Seale’s favorite lens is the EF 24-105mm f/4L IS USM. “When I used to shoot film with a Hasselblad, I shot with a 40, an 80, and a 120mm a lot,” he recalls. “That was kind of my range for portraiture. This lens kind of encompasses all those focal lengths.” Seale actively zooms during shoots in order to get the maximum range of shots while working within time constraints.

Seale stresses how critical it is to be prepared and not stop the action during a shoot. “I always found if you went to change lenses and you’ve got somebody famous in front of you, or even a CEO who has very little time for you, anytime you stop to do anything the shoot is potentially over,” he says. “The athlete gets tired of you and he’s going to walk away. It depends on how nice they are and how much time they have. When I shot Hasselblads, I would have two or three bodies, and I would have six backs preloaded with 24 exposure film, 220 film, and had lenses on them ready to go. I could have one put in my hands and keep shooting. The assistant could change one camera while I was shooting with the other one. We just never stopped. Anytime you stop, they look around and they’re like ‘Okay, we’re done.’” Digital media and the zoom helps prevent this break in action for him. He finds sports figures more apt to abruptly leave a shoot than CEOs.

©Robert Seale

Seale’s other gear includes a Sekonic L-758DR and multiple PocketWizard MultiMAX units. “I probably have eight of those,” he reports. “When we shot basketball action, we would use the MultiMaxes to equalize cameras to the same strobe flash. We would have multiple cameras going off at the same time with one set of strobes. It was interesting because a colleague of mine eventually figured out how to do that. They were very useful.”

For lighting, Seale relies on Profoto. “I own Pro-7b’s that I use,” he says. “I don’t own any 7a’s but I’ve rented them. Most of what I do is with 7b’s, I’d say. I can’t say enough good things about 7b’s. I’ve just used them like crazy and shipped them everywhere and never had a problem.” The oldest Profoto unit he owns is eight years old. I ask him if it’s still running. “Oh, yeah. Just flawless, other than replacing batteries, that sort of thing. Even the batteries lasted forever on them, though. I’m not one of these people who trickle charge them each day either. I pretty much abused them as far as the charging went.”

©Robert Seale

Working from an interesting starting point, Seale outlines one of his main approaches to lighting. “I’ve told students at workshops if you can start with a silhouette of a person and then add your light from there, you’re much better off. If I can put somebody in the shade or put them in the time of day when they’re backlit, it makes my job a lot easier. I see a lot of photographers take people out at high noon and the sun’s coming high from the left side and they put a strobe on the right side and they wonder why it doesn’t look like it’s lit. They’re not canceling everything out to start with. I like to start zeroed out.”

©Robert Seale

From this point, Seale then adjusts accordingly, working from light meter readings. “If you start with that silhouette and add light,” he says, “either you put a Scrim Jim over them to shade them if it’s the wrong time of day, or you put them under an awning or inside a building looking out. Whatever it is, you start with that outside on location shots. I treat the sky just like it’s a piece of background paper. Meter it like it’s anything else. I don’t get intimidated by what’s out there, or the fact it’s a sunset or a blue sky or clouds or whatever it happens to be.”

This is Seale’s fundamental approach to shooting outside. After starting with a silhouette, he adds light. First, he meters the background and lights the subject to match the background. Then he can change the shutter speed and do variations to make the background lighter or darker. He then adjusts according to what’s looking good. Art direction might call for a blown out background, or dark and moody background. This is done via shutter speed.

©Robert Seale

Seale isn’t a fan of currently-popular blown out, lifestyle shots. “It’s an ugly, ugly look,” he says. “I don’t care how hot the model is, nobody looks good that way. Years ago there was a photographer named Jeffrey Salter who was a Miami Herald photographer. He said to me when I was a young newspaper photographer, ‘Saw the hot shoe off your camera.’ I think that’s a good philosophy. He said, ‘The light almost always looks better coming from anywhere other than head on.’ So, it gives shape to things when you move the camera, the flash off camera, and now I’m doing more bringing it back to the center, but I’m doing it with big, huge modifiers and stuff so it’s still flattering and it’s still above the camera.”

It’s not easy for every artist to sum up a philosophy of how they approach their craft. I ask Robert Seale to do this, and he thinks for a moment. “I’ve always really admired Gregory Heisler and Frank Ockenfels 3, people who have a huge toolbox of lighting skills, and are able to light their portraits appropriate to the subject they are dealing with. I’ve tried hard not to be a one-trick-pony—someone with one lighting shtick they keep doing over and over.  Despite the difficulty marketing this approach, I enjoy the variety of subjects and assignments it generates. I’m able to shoot CEO’s one day, athletes another, and a rapper, or a rural cowboy the next—all with appropriate lighting that tells their story in a visually interesting way.”

©Robert Seale

Although starting off in sports photography, Robert Seale is comfortable shooting almost any kind of portrait. His signature lighting has proven his skills for diverse photo editors who’ve come to rely on him to deliver. Leaving the security of a staff photographer’s job has vastly increased his audience. Looks like the American Dream, albeit a little harder to find, is still out there, and achievable.

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Written by Ron Egatz

If you’ve looked at a few magazines in the last twenty-five years, odds are you know the photographic work of Jerry Avenaim. Born and raised in Chicago, his love affair with cameras began with an Exakta he was given when in high school. At nineteen he headed to New York City, where he assisted Patrick Demarchelier and learned the business, art, and psychology of professional fashion photo shoots.

Halle Berry ©Jerry Aveniam

Read more about Jerry, including his latest shoots with Jeff Bridges and Topher Grace, plus many more examples of his talented work after the jump.

Read the rest of this article…

CONTEST UPDATE: The Winner of the Matthew Jordan Smith Contest is @OhioHikerPhoto !  We would like to thank everyone for participating in the contest. Follow @ProfotoUSA for future contests & promotions. Check out the seminar details below. This is a course that is not to be missed!

Contest, Contest! Win a free seat in Matthew’s Seminar – details below.

Chances are if you’re facing Matthew Jordan Smith with a camera in his hand, you’re an A-list celebrity. Or perhaps you’re a bright white polar bear. Or maybe an iceberg that caught his talented eye. Now Matthew is placing the camera in your hands and giving you the opportunity to learn from his 20-plus years of experience and inspirations. Or as he likes to put it, “releasing the secrets.”

With the aptly named Your Creative Experience, Matthew Jordan Smith is setting out on another adventure. This time he plans on dropping some serious knowledge for those who share his passion for the art of photography. “If you want to grow, especially when things are changing as fast as they are in our industry, you need to get more information, so I’m doing a full seminar. I’m teaching people, inspiring them in new ways”, says Matthew. As previous attendees have proclaimed, you will learn more in one day with Matthew Jordan Smith than you did in a year at college.

To make things even more interesting, we are running a contest with Matthew alongside the tour. The rules are simple. Good luck!

1.  Follow ProfotoUSA on Twitter
2.  Follow Matthew_JordanS on Twitter
3.  Tweet “Check out Matthew Jordan Smith’s Photo Seminar – win a free Intensive Course for 7/19 in Ohio! http://bit.ly/9NRszr”

That’s all – get Tweeting!

Note: If you already followed one or both accounts, you do not need to unfollow/refollow. Just make sure you follow both accounts and Tweet the above.

We will choose a winner from all followers on 7/14 at 10am EST. Get Tweeting!

Want to learn more about what you will win? Here’s more seminar details:

———————————————————-
Creative Experience Evening Lecture
Cost  $55.00 ($75 at door)
7:00p.m. -10:00p.m
Door Prizes Include
Sony A550 Camera
Four X-rite Color Checker Passports
One year membership to PPA and full registration to Imaging USA 2011

What you will learn in this seminar:
* Part 1:  Creativity – How to find and use your creative vision.
* Part 2:  Lighting- Secrets to mastering lighting:  Tips, techniques and more.
* Part 3:  Promotion and Marketing:  It’s not what you think.
* Part 4:  Secrets to creating great photographs.

———————————————————-
Creative Experience Intensive Course
Cost:  $995.00 ($1100 at door)
Part 1: Include evening lecture – VIP Seating
Part 2: Creative Experience Intensive Course
Tuesday Intensive Class: 8:30a.m.-6:00p.m.
Discussion Dinner with Matthew Jordan Smith 7:00p.m.-9:00p.m.

10-Hour Intensive Creative Workshop
Tuesday 8:30a.m. – 6:00p.m.

* How to use your new creative vision to photograph a model in class
* How to shoot an editorial story tailored to your individual style
* How to submit photo stories for publication around the world
* Detailed secrets to building and keeping repeat clients
* Social media marketing tips
* Powerful Marketing and Promotional instruction

* How to build a winning T.E.A.M.
* Advanced lighting techniques using Profoto strobes – Individual instruction from Matthew
* Matthew’s seven secrets to generating work in good and bad times
* How to select the right light for the job.  (Hands on instruction and shooting)
* How to edit for powerful stories (students will take turns editing)
* Complimentary book (donated by SONY)

Day two starts off with the BIG SURPRISE which is reserved for intensive students only. The seminar continues with an intensive 10-hour workshop aimed at advancing your career in photography. On a commercial assignment the concept never happens the day of the shoot, so students will be given detailed instructions before the seminar to prepare for the two-part photo shoot. Students will take part in a creative photo shoot in class. Prior to class each student will receive an online portfolio review and critique from Matthew.

Intensive Extra’s
*  Lighting test with Profoto D1strobes and air remote
*  Secrets to creating work in good and bad times
*  Matthew’s seven marketing and promotional secrets revealed
*  VIP Dinner with Matthew Jordan Smith. (VIP Dinner follows immediately after the seminar.)

Creative Experience Photo Seminar from Matthew Jordan Smith on Vimeo.

Learn more at Matthew’s seminar website: http://yourcreativeexperience.com/. And good luck to everyone – we’re looking forward to giving away a seat for a truly amazing experience. And read more in our previous posts here and here.

Dominic Marley has been named the most recent winner of the Profoto Assistant’s Monthly Competition. A London native, Marley used both the Pro-8 Air and the D1 to achieve his morphed shot of a slam dunk.

©Dominic Marley

You can learn more about Marley, his shot, and his win on the Profoto Assistant site. As this month’s winner, Marley is eligible for the Grand Prize, US$10,000 in Profoto equipment. Second and Third Place winners receive US$5,000 and US$2,500 in equipment. The contest is now closed, and we will be announcing the remaining monthly winners as they are determined.

Check out the new video of Gregory Heisler explaining his lighting techniques on a Sports Illustrated photoshoot of Derek Jeter.

Also find links to other informative Heisler videos on this page!

Many of us find ourselves thinking of our fathers at this time of year. Matthew Jordan Smith has much to be thankful for regarding his own father. He credits his father’s decision to move the family from his native Brooklyn to Columbia, South Carolina when he was six, as a key event helping to shape the man he’s become. “When I was a kid I had an anger problem. I think moving down south helped solve that quite a bit,” he says with the warm candor which has disarmed celebrities in front of his lenses for 23 years.

©Matthew Jordan Smith

Smith’s father was also instrumental in his career. As a boy, Smith showed interest in photography, which was his father’s hobby. The elder Smith encouraged and began informal instruction on how to take pictures, care for hardware, and other aspects of photography.

Another critical male mentor in Smith’s development as an artist was Gordon Parks. As a boy, Smith read The Learning Tree by Parks. “That book kind of launched me. My father turned me on to photography. Then, reading about Gordon turned me on to making photography a career. That’s when it switched in my head. From that point on, I’ve been in love with photography.”

©Matthew Jordan Smith

Eventually attending The Art Institute of Atlanta, Smith got his fundamentals down before returning to New York, where he began work as a photo assistant. “That’s when I got my real training in photography. In school, you learn the fundamentals and what to do,” he explains. “Then you get out in the real world and figure out how to break the rules.”

Along with breaking the rules, Matthew Jordan Smith has developed a few of his own. One thing he’s known for is creating a “common bond” with his portrait subjects. If the individual is well-known, he will do research online to discover everything he can about them. “Even if I shot them a dozen times, I’ll still go to Google and read something new,” he says. This even applies to celebrities like Vanessa Williams, whom Smith has been shooting for twenty years.

©Matthew Jordan Smith

“If the person is not famous, you’ve got to figure out how to connect with that person,” he explains. “When you’re a kid, and you come back from summer vacation, you talk about all the things that were great in your life. You do the same thing, as an adult. You find out what their experience is like in life. You find out how their holidays were. You find out things we can all relate to that aren’t about work or about the shoot. Let them talk about it and get the connection. You talk about music. You talk about movies. You find that bond you have in common. Then, you talk about that throughout the shoot. You build that connection.”

Smith’s first celebrity shoot was Anita Hill for Essence magazine. It was his first location job, and the second job of his career. Done in the middle of the Clarence Thomas confirmation hearings, Dr. Hill was at the height of the buzz surrounding her past professional relationship with Supreme Court nominee Thomas. Smith still has fond and deep memories of the complete production. “The entire time she talked about photography and what my dreams were,” he recalls. “I was in my early 20′s at the time and she was discussing where I wanted to be as a photographer and where I saw myself—all these little things. We just had a great time talking.”

Despite the incredible scrutiny and pressure Hill was under, the shoot went well, in large part because of how Smith ran the session. “I didn’t talk about what was going on in terms of the hearings,” Smith says. “I wanted to talk about her so I could get her to relax so I could get a good shot of her. She was very comfortable in front of the camera, as I recall. We got great shots. The magazine, I guess, liked what I did. They went on to hire me for years and gave me tons of covers. My first cover of my career was done with that magazine.”

©Matthew Jordan Smith

Another early milestone for Smith was his 2001 book Sepia Dreams. Smith credits his mentor with making both that project and his career a reality. “My career started, in a lot of ways, by reading Gordon Parks, and his book, The Learning Tree,” he explains. “I want to try to do the same thing with my first book, Sepia Dreams, and talk about how people make their life [dreams] come true. Sepia Dreams was done because of Gordon Parks, for the most part. The Learning Tree was so powerful for me in such a major way. I wanted to do the same thing with my first book. I wanted to inspire people by giving them the information on how to make their dreams come true.”

Smith interviewed and photographed fifty celebrities on how their careers started. The process of exploring the power of fortitude was as enlightening as learning how to create the entire project itself. Smith enumerates the points learned by artists being tested at every step of their growth, particularly at the start of their careers. He feels strongly about younger people who don’t understand why the struggle to succeed is a struggle. “It doesn’t come easy. It’s not supposed to be easy—that’s part of it,” he says. “Photography is an art form and you don’t have to have somebody hire you to do your art. You need be hired, of course, to sustain yourself, but you don’t need to have someone hire you to make images. I love creating images. When I’m being paid for it, I love creating images and I’m always pushing to make that happen. The book gave me the ability to go out there and make images, have fun, do what I love, with being paid.”

©Matthew Jordan Smith

The second book Smith published was Lost and Found, with Frank Lovece. This was a departure for Smith, who refocused his lens not on celebrities in studios, but on American citizens who had suffered a child disappearing. Smith also asked Ford Models if they would supply talent to hold photographs of missing children. Those shots are scattered throughout the book.

“Very often when you’re working in the entertainment field or fashion fields, it’s all fantasy, almost,” Smith says. “You are creating something. With Lost and Found, I was documenting people’s lives in a different type of way. The approach is different. The feeling is different for sure. It was a very emotional project to work on, doing lots of trailing all over America, photographing families of missing children. Sometimes the children themselves when they were found. Often, they weren’t found, or they were found deceased. It was a very hard project to work on, but, I love photography. I’m known for shooting celebrities and doing fashion and beauty, but I love photography, period.”

©Matthew Jordan Smith

Although the book was not sold in most retail stores, it was given away or sold by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. Any profits went to the center for their continued work. On this personal project, too, Smith discovered new things about life and art. “I learned I love telling stories,” he says. “I love working on personal projects. When I fell back in love with photography again and found out that it was not just about…” he trails off. “I don’t get a high from the payday, I get a high from photography.”

The latest book Smith has been working on for four years is a personal project inspired by a trip to India and Nepal. He’s uncharacteristically quiet about this work-in-progress, and we’ll have to wait for more details to emerge on the subject matter. Smith is, however willing to discuss technical details. It will be shot entirely on film. “It can’t be done digitally,” he insists. “The photography fits into a box. We have 35mm box. We have a medium format box. You look at a picture in a frame, and that frame is the box. What I try to do is take the traditional doors off. Which I know sounds a little weird until you see the images, then you understand. What I’ve done with this project is I’ve taken off the doors. To my knowledge, the things I’m doing with this book have never been done before in the history of photography. That’s why I’m being quiet about it. The people who have seen it all agreed they’ve never seen [anything like] it before.” The book will have a New York gallery exhibit as part of the launch.

©Matthew Jordan Smith

This month Smith started a tour with the help of MAC Group and Sony. Visiting one city each month, Smith will be doing a seminar, the likes of which he’s never seen before. “When I was starting out as an assistant, it was hard getting information,” he remembers. “Everybody wanted to hold onto their secrets. I think you have to always get knowledge in some way. I always tell people you learn in three ways: the places you go, the people you meet, the books you read, that’s it. If you want to grow, especially when things are changing as fast as they are in our industry, you need to get more information, so I’m doing a full seminar. I’m teaching people, inspiring them in new ways. In my seminar, I want to make it as realistic as possible because when people hire you, it’s not just about going there and taking a picture. There are so many folks out there where they bring models in, or their cousin, or whoever and you shoot pictures of a pretty girl and get excited about that, but it doesn’t help you in terms of advancing your career. So I’ve put together a two-part seminar. The first night is speaking and inspiring people by giving them all this information others hold onto and are scared to talk about. I’m giving out all the secrets. The second day is a very intensive full-day workshop and for those who sign up for it, they will get the advantage of, number one, having me critique their work, but number two, and more importantly, we’re going to work on an assignment together the same way if as a client gave an assignment. I’m going to give each person in the class an assignment and they’ll shoot part of it before the seminar starts and they’ll shoot the second part in class with me. When you get an assignment, it doesn’t happen in just one day. You have to do some research and really work at it. I wanted to really hit home how important the research is and how that makes you stand out from everybody else out there.”

©Matthew Jordan Smith

As passionate as he is about creating impressive photography, Smith is just as passionate about the gear he equips himself with. Known for bringing a lot of hardware to shoots, he feels there’s adequate reasons to. “I bring the kitchen sink,” he says, laughing. “You’ve got to have a back-up plan in case something goes wrong. I want to have everything I need to make my vision come to life. I’ve got to have the right gear, the right lights, the right color management, the right lenses, everything. I want to have everything when I need it. You don’t know unless you get up there sometimes. I do have a tendency to overpack. It’s harder now, with the airlines being what they are and charging everything they can for being overweight.”

Smith currently shoots a Sony A900 body, primarily. He also shoots a Mamiya RZ33. He carries a Sekonic L-758DR light meter with him on every shoot. “That one is still my standard,” he says. “I use that every day, whether location or studio; I’m using it all the time. People think the meter thinks for them. The camera and the meter are just tools. You can’t just say, ‘Oh, the camera will do it all.’ You’ve got to think. Having a hand‑held meter allows you to think more.”

©Matthew Jordan Smith

PocketWizard Plus II units are used to fire some of Smith’s Profoto gear, particularly his Acute system or Pro-7 units. The rest of the time, he triggers with D1 generators. “The D1′s are amazing,” he says. “They’re light in weight. Especially now, with travel being what it is—becoming harder and harder and harder—and the airlines charging you more for gear and overweight. Weight’s an issue, in being able to travel. I wish I had the D1′s when I did Lost and Found. I was in airports left and right. I’m still in airports left and right, but not the way I was back then by myself. The D1′s are great to travel around with. The package you can get away with, without getting killed with excess weight in baggage fees. Instead of having your heads in a separate pack, you have them all compiled into one self‑contained unit, which makes it so much easier, lighter to work with. Then, also having the remote on your camera, you can change light settings. This is huge. You can change all your light settings, your exposure settings from your camera. You can take a light up or down a tenth or a third, right from your camera, versus having to walk and go to the pack and change it. It makes it so much easier and faster. It’s lightweight. They’ve changed the game, with the D1.” He uses his Acutes and Pro-7 units in the studio.

Smith doesn’t remain static with technology he incorporates on both professional and personal projects. “In terms of going on location with lights, being out in the elements with lights. The new BatPac is quite amazing. I’m starting to do a project, where I’m shooting a bunch of different brand new NFL players. I’m using the BatPac to do it that. We’ll be on location, shooting all over. It’s just lightweight. It’s easy. Self‑contained. Using the D1 head is great to have. It’s another new tool that’s changing the game and making life for photographers easier, which we all need these days.”

©Matthew Jordan Smith

The manipulation of light is what Smith does, and does well, under a wide variety of conditions, both indoors and out. “I love the end of the daylight. I love that golden hour of light,” he declares. “When I’m shooting with artificial light, I’m always trying to figure out a way to imitate that light. I’ll look at reality, I’ll look for how the sun is affecting light and shadows. I’ll try to do that same thing in studio or on location and enhance it to get the light I want, the look I want. I’m always looking, when I’m going out and about, to figure out, ‘how do I get that light? How do I get this feel?’ Having the right Profoto light-shaping tools helps me do that.”

When asked about the difference between shooting models and celebrities, Smith’s vast experience with both groups makes him an expert. “There’s a big difference,” he quickly says. “The models are easier, because they are used to being in front of a still camera. An actor is different because an actor is not used to being in front of a film camera. They are not looking into the lens. With a photographer, you are looking into the lens. The models are used to that. So, shooting a celebrity is almost like shooting an average person, because you’ve got to get them used to the camera. The camera can be very exposing, showing everything. It’s a still image. They get to focus on you longer than they do on the moving screen, where you are seeing them moving and in action. The still image is nothing like it, and it never will be. Yes, I know we have this whole thing now about the convergence of video and still photography. That’s the new thing, but I think stills will always have a home, because nothing there’s nothing like it. There’s nothing like it.”

©Matthew Jordan Smith

Near the end of our conversation, I remind Matthew Jordan Smith about a quote I read. He once said, “Shoot from the heart. Shoot what you love. Shoot what moves you.” This philosophy hasn’t changed, and he had more thoughts on the difference between shooting what you love, versus shooting for money. “You start hating what you’re doing,” he says of the latter. “You don’t love it like you used to. You’ve got to keep yourself inspired by doing what you love, because then you’re getting paid to do what you love. It’s not work, so much. I remember working as an assistant, and seeing photographers who were hating what they were doing. They loved the paydays, but they hated the work. I don’t want to get there, I don’t want to be there. I want to always love photography, whether I get paid for it or not. I want to be able to sustain my lifestyle for sure and all that, but I love photography, I love doing it. I want to do it forever.”

The trick to making this happen for Smith is his personal projects. “With personal projects, it’s all you,” he says. “You’re doing it because you want to do it, not because somebody is forcing you to do it. That’s what keeps you fresh.” Armed with this approach, the world will continue to enjoy more quality images from Matthew Jordan Smith’s cameras for some time to come.

©Matthew Jordan Smith

Matthew Jordan Smith Photography
Matthew Jordan Smith blog
The Creative Experience Photo Seminar

Written by Ron Egatz

A professional photographer for only four years, the United Kingdom’s Tom Barnes was destined to become a high‑value commercial office building realtor. “My passion for photography kind of took over,” Barnes says with typical understatement. With an uncle who directs television commercials advising him to steer clear of a degree in photography, Barnes was destined for a business career. While studying urban land economics, he used his spare time to immerse himself in different self-taught photographic exercises. His autodidactic method has paid off, and 25-year-old Barnes is now a fulltime professional photographer.

©Tom Barnes

Having shot photos throughout his teenage years, Barnes had a majority of the basic skills under his belt by the time he seriously devoted himself to learning photography. He transitioned from hobbyist to professional, having never assisted. “It never occurred to me,” he explains, “probably because I was so young and just didn’t know photographer’s assistants existed. I just never did it. I got offered. My uncle said, ‘Do you want to go assist this guy?’ and I always said, ‘No, I’m afraid I’ve already been commissioned for something that day.’”

Located in Guildford, some friends from Sheffield had a band, and asked Barnes if he could shoot some promo stills. “I thought, ‘I’m a photographer. I could do promos. How hard could it be?’” Barnes recalls, laughing. He took the assignment, handed over his work to the band, and they’ve been loyal to him ever since. “And just my luck they’ve become kind of one of the biggest rock bands in the world,” he reports, smiling.

©Tom Barnes

The band, Bring Me the Horizon, has continued to use Barnes for photos as their popularity has increased. “They’re quite big in the States. They pull about 2000 kids in every city,” he reports. The work he’s done for Bring me the Horizon has enabled him to work with other musical groups. “I got a call from a band called You Me At Six,” Barnes says. “Over here in the U.K., they weren’t big. There was a little talk about them. They asked, ‘Look, can you come down? Can you do some photos?’ and so I went down the next morning. We did some photos, and I literally just got off tour with them a week and a half ago. They were playing to 6000 kids in every city in the U.K.”

The heavily-tattooed and body-modified young men of Bring Me the Horizon and similar bands are visually interesting, to say the least. Alternative Press and other U.S. publications want photos for their readers, and Barnes has been there to document the band with his signature look. Brooding images with a hint of the bleach bypass effect suit the musicians well, and this wasn’t lost on other bands. Now in demand by bands and corporate clients looking for the same image to appeal to similar youth/rock demographics, four years into his career as a pro shooter, Barnes is enjoying a level of success many photographers never achieve. Regarding the moody imagery he’s become known for, Barnes feels it’s evolved in an organic way, almost on its own. “I don’t know; it just kind of happened over the years,” he explains. “In the past three years I started getting known for a certain look. It has become a signature thing. I never really set out to have that signature look.”

©Tom Barnes

Barnes rarely shoots with natural light alone, if ever. He’ll typically use two heads when shooting bands, but has been known to use up to five. “It’s not a particularly hard set-up,” he says. “Most of my work is done with three Profoto Pro-7b units and six ProB heads.” Barnes is about to begin using the new Pro-B3 generators. His smaller flash needs are met by two Canon 580EX II units.

Starting off with a Canon 10D, Barnes’ equipment has grown to keep pace with his talent. “I’ve invested heavily in ridiculous amounts of equipment,” he says. “I always try to have my own stuff.” His body needs are now covered by three Canon 5D Mark II units. His main lens is a Canon 24 – 70mm f/2.8L lens.

©Tom Barnes

The commercial work he does for clients is all digital, but Barnes is well-versed in film photography. His ever-growing collection of film cameras include a Kodak Retina 1b, a Ricoh KR-10, a Nikon L35, a Asahi Pentax SP500, two Miranda G’s, a Miranda RE‑II, and an Olympus Trip 35. “I love film and I never use it on a commission, he says. “It’s just for documenting my life and just chilling out.”

With an entirely digital workflow for his commercial clients, Barnes currently runs Apple Aperture and Adobe CS4. “Aperture is for jobs I need to batch process. I use it as my RAW converter.”

©Tom Barnes

Although Barnes relies on his lights to help achieve the style his clients ask for, it’s the way he implements his equipment which delivers his look. For instance, he incorporates a 16-foot boom. “I use it quite a lot,” he says. “I don’t have it straight up. I have it boomed out over them. Literally, I can be standing eight or nine feet away, and the light can be two feet from their faces. That way you can avoid all the light spill that might happen if you have the light further back.” What helps this photographer stand apart is “little trick bits most people don’t occur to use,” he says.

Locations are an integral part of the image Barnes portrays for his clients. Armed with an almost encyclopedic knowledge of interesting outdoor locations in Britian, Barnes is able to deliver just about anything he’s asked. Abandoned train station? No problem. Rolling hills in the background with one dead tree in foreground? Got it. When he lived in Sheffield, the area’s diversity made this easier than his current location in London, but clients know they can rely on Barnes to find what they’re envisioning for the next round of photography.

©Tom Barnes

When asked why he prefers to shoot on location, the reasons are both physical and psychological. Squeezing a band, their crew and handlers into a small studio environment is not the most relaxing atmosphere for creating good portraits. Barnes feels people tend to relax more when they’re outdoors, with a stereo in the background. “I find it looser than in studio environments,” he explains. “Everyone gets very uptight in a studio. ‘Oh, God, I’m going to have my picture taken.’ Whereas outside it just feels like six dudes hanging out.”

Barnes has largely retired himself from shooting bands live. He cites the hours and conditions of that type of photography as something he’d like to leave in his youth. The art he can create in a controlled environment of a proper photo shoot is infinitely more appealing to this young photographer. While primarily known for his work with British bands, Barnes is not interested in being typecast as the next Jim Marshall. “I’m trying to break out of that a little bit, because I don’t want to get stuck in the mold of just being ‘that music guy,’” he says. I would love to do more advertorial kind of jobs for other clients with larger budgets with sets and props. That’s definitely where I see myself going.”

©Tom Barnes

Regarding other gear, Barnes has been using PocketWizard MultiMAX units and three Plus II’s for over a year. “Before that, I’ve literally been through every type of trigger. I had infrared to start, and then I had the cheap eBay wireless things,” he says, before mentioning a long list of other triggers. “I’ve either broken them, or they’ve been so unbelievably unreliable, I’ve just had to get rid of them. PocketWizards have been the only ones I’ve never had a problem with, never gotten rid of, and intend to use probably for the rest of my career. They have to support rear‑curtain sync, and Multimax does that better than any others.”

The Sekonic L-358 is Barnes’ choice of light meter. “I’ve had it years. Literally, I can’t even remember when I bought it. I’ve had it since it came out, and it’s just been absolutely brilliant,” he says. “I’ve never had to change the batteries, and I think I’ve still got full battery recharge life. It’s been an absolute work horse. It’s been battered, and thrown about, and yeah, it’s still working absolutely brilliantly. Those things—the light meter, the PocketWizards, and the Profoto stuff—have actually been my best purchases. I can confidentially say if they broke, I wouldn’t know what to do. I would have to have the exact same ones straight away. But luckily, they’re probably never going to break. I’ve spent over £25,000 on equipment, and most of that has been Profoto.”

©Tom Barnes

Barnes also has a magazine habit to the tune of £150 per month. He is constantly doing research on fashion campaigns for ideas and to keep track of what’s current. “My whole idea behind this style that I’ve grown into is I want people to look how they’ve never looked,” he explains. “I want them to look how they don’t look in real life. You’re trying to make people look as impressive as possible. I want people on the fashion side of things. When I do a shoot like that, I want them to feel the same way. I want them to say, ‘Wow! That’s amazing.’”

©Tom Barnes

Citing communication as one of the most important things in dealing with his clients, Barnes typically has a 20-minute conversation with them on the day of a scheduled shoot. He works hard to understand the expectations clients have and what type of personalities he’s dealing with. In this way, he can set the mood accordingly, and then goes about portraying them how they want to be seen. “If they’re going to do a wink in a photo, that’s going to make them look cocky, now, for six months, because these are going to be their press photos for six months,” he says. “I make them aware of how they are going to be coming across, and listen to all of the ideas they have. I very much think that, as a photographer, and as a band, we’re all just one-half of the same thing. We’re a unit for the duration of the shoot. We’re after the very best photos from the session. I listen to their suggestions, and they listen to mine. We just bounce off each other most of the time. I will keep shooting until they’re happy.”

However long it takes, and whatever he’s doing, Tom Barnes’ clients keep returning, and new ones seek him out. At nearly the start of his career, Barnes keeps evolving, shooting, and is obviously doing it long enough to make his subjects happy.

Tom Barnes Photography
Tom Barnes on Twitter
Tom Barnes on YouTube

Written by Ron Egatz

by DC Chavez

I first saw the new D1′s at the Los Angeles Profoto Assistant event last March and I was instantly impressed with the build quality of the units but more importantly the range of power the units can deliver. The D1′s are fully digital have a 7 stop range adjustable by 1/10th of a stop allowing for precise control. The D1 1000 Air monobloc can deliver anything from 1000 to as low as 15.6 watt seconds!

I was amazed that with one unit I could take it outdoors and potentially overpower the sun or use it in a studio at a low enough power to use a really wide open aperture and a shallow depth of field without stacking on ND filters. I was also really impressed by the AIR system and the amount of control you have of the lights without even touching them. Even better, the Profoto Studio system allows me to control AIR equipped lights from my computer! I couldn’t wait to get my hands on a kit and see what they could do- especially after seeing the D1 demonstration videos by Tony Corbell.

I must admit, I was a little taken back when I saw the front of the D1 unit- where was the usual bulb? Would the D1′s not work with some of the light shapers? According to the D1 brochure the lights are “designed for use with softboxes and umbrellas and for use with or without additional reflectors.” My worries were quickly addressed by the Profoto rep on hand. He explained that the front glass plate could be removed and could accept a Glass Dome kit which would bring back the bare bulb I was so used to seeing.

I headed down to Samys Camera in Playa Vista and picked up a D1 1000 kit and a few other light shaping tools to put it through its paces. I also got the glass dome kit to compare the light spread between the two:

Profoto D1 Glass Dome Cover- Part #101561

Here are some shots of the D1 with the standard glass plate and the optional glass dome. The white arrows point to the mounting points for the glass dome or plate:

Closeup of Profoto D1 glass plate

D1 1000 Monobloc with Glass Dome attached

Without the glass dome, Profoto says the unit has a 77 degree spread of light. With the glass dome in place, the monoblocs have the light spread of a normal Profoto head. I wanted to take a closer look at this, so I headed down to Stage 12 at Southbay Studios to shine the light on a bare cyclorama. Here is a side by side comparison of the light spread of the standard glass plate and the optional glass dome:

D1 Light spread: Glass Plate vs. Glass Dome

As you can see in the picture the light on the right is more concentrated in the center and has a relatively quick falloff compared to the Glass dome. The light output was also 6/10 of a stop higher than with the glass dome. One other interesting thing I noticed was the distinct line on the floor with the built-in reflector. The D1 straight out of the box acts pretty similar to a standard head with a zoom reflector, directing all the light forward. This angle does not do the light spread justice, so I pulled my Induro CT313 Tripod around the side to show the whole picture:

D1 w/built-in reflector against cyc wall

This shows you how concentrated the light output is with the built-in reflector. In this case there was a center spot that fell of pretty quickly as you got away from the focal point of the light. This is strikingly different to how the monobloc reacts with the glass dome installed:

D1 w/glass dome against cyc wall

As you can see, a nice even distribution of the light from the center all the way out- typical of a standard bare-bulb. To me this illustrates the need for the glass dome when using light shapers light a beauty dish or Parabolic Reflector, where the light is dispersed evenly over the light shaper before being reflected out. It would be interesting to see how the light output changes on a D1 with a beauty dish with or without the glass dome. I think that’s another blog post though…

The last thing I was wondering about was the light output with the glass dome compared to the standard glass plate. I set up the light and ran it through the full range of power output and recorded the light readings. Here are the results:

D1 Output test results

As stated before, the light output was consistently 6/10 of a stop higher with the built-in reflector compared to the glass dome. From what I could see, the concentration of light is much higher with the built-in reflector across the entire power range.

The last thing to do was put the lights through a quick shoot to see how they performed on the fly. I must admit, it was a bit odd to start working with the AIR system. I am so programmed to walk over to the monobloc or the generator to adjust the output that it took a few minutes to get used to not having to move from the camera. However, once I retrained my brain to use the AIR remote to adjust the power and turn on modeling lights it became cumbersome to walk over to the Acute 2R 2400 Pack to adjust. I quickly learned to love the AIR remote, especially for adjusting my key light that was overhead and angled out of reach. Here is a shot of the setup:

Light Setup- Profoto Blog Shoot

And here is the final result:

© 2010 DC Chavez

A few more from the shoot:

© 2010 DC Chavez

Let me know if you have any more questions about the D1 kit. Hopefully I can pair these monoblocs with a new Profoto Batpac and take them out of the studio and on location sometime soon.

Thank you to all the people that helped make this shoot happen:

Samys Camera
Southbay Studios
Corinne Leigh
Rebecca Jewelry

For more info on me, please visit: http://www.dcchavez.com/

Dividing her time between Toronto, and Richmond Hill, Ontario, young Maayan Ziv was originally drawn to photographing insects and architecture. Blessed with pretty sisters who love to be in front of the camera, Ziv soon became fixated on photographing people, be it lifestyle, portrait, fashion, or street scenes. Studying Radio and Television at Ryerson University, “I’m trying to do both that and photography in order to expand my knowledge of other kinds of media,” she says.

A graduate of the Waldorf School, Ziv benefitted from the pedagogical ethos of Rudolf Steiner, who believed in interdisciplinary education which incorporated creative thinking, among other disciplines, as critical to an individual’s development. She studied four years of acting, writing, and directing in high school before attending Ryerson, from where she expects to graduate in two years.

©Maayan Ziv

When she was a young child, Ziv’s mother took endless photos of her. Ziv credits this as helping spark her interest in photography. Working with no knowledge of other photographers’ work, she recruited her sisters and also shot a lot of street photography. “I’ve always worked backwards,” she explains. “I get ideas for shoots, then I go back and learn how to do it.”

Working from her heart, then investigating theory and others’ practice afterwards, Ziv has created a body of work that surpasses her years. Her lifestyle work would never be thought of as coming from an undergraduate. Her editorial photographs can hold their own in magazines which regularly feature the work of professionals who have been shooting longer than the nineteen years Ziv has been alive.

©Maayan Ziv

The tone, subject matter, cropping, and processing of her images mark Ziv as a photographer to be aware of even at this stage in her relatively short career. Further turning conventional wisdom on its head, Ziv’s accomplishments behind the lens are even more remarkable when factoring in muscular dystrophy, which has dictated all her shooting is done from a wheelchair. “I have to find different ways of shooting what I want,” she says. “It’s definitely a big part of my photography. Sitting on a wheelchair affects my perception. I see things differently from the majority of people who are walking at a certain eye level. I have to adjust to that and find ways of shooting what I want.”

Shooting where she wants is a testament to Ziv’s intrepid spirit. She has been known to bring models into abandoned or off-limits locations and navigate outdoor terrain not conducive to accessibility. She has also traveled for her photography, including a trip to Barcelona, which was provided by Make-a-Wish Canada. Also in her teenage years, Ziv received financial assistance with the photography hardware she uses. Children’s Wish provided the main body she’s currently shooting, a Canon 5D Mark II. Mike Boylan of Blazes Photographic Inc. provided two Profoto D1s and several light modifiers. Daymen contributed a Sekonic L-358 light meter.

©Maayan Ziv

“I’m using the Canon 50mm as my main lens,” Ziv says. “I have an issue working with heavier glass, and the 50mm is really light. It works well for me. I’ve been wanting to look into 85mm fixed length.” She avoids zoom lenses because she feels it removes her from her subjects.

“I use the Profoto Air Remote. For me, it’s perfect. I can change all my settings straight from the camera,” Ziv explains. “For me, that’s so important. Otherwise, I have to ask people to change settings, and that doesn’t work for me. I want to do it myself. The D1 is sleek and clean and simple, which is how I like to work—simply. Their design makes it really easy for you to use and get the results you want. I’m not a technical person who is good with numbers. I started experimenting with Profoto and got the results I wanted. I didn’t even read the manual. I’ve taken them on location and they’ve held up really well. A lot of times I have people come with me who just want to help me out. Most of them don’t have any photographic experience or background at all. I just have to show them once what the D1 is, and we’re up and running in ten minutes. It’s pretty easy to explain how to work it.”

©Maayan Ziv

While she possesses an admiration for photographers who use large banks of lights, Ziv likes to keep it simple. “I’d rather work with a minimal amount of lighting gear,” she says, regarding her signature portraiture look. “My goal when using artificial light is to get deep contrast—that depth I like—and have it look natural. I try to do this whether in the studio or on location. The depth is always my goal, and the eyes. I like the catchlight in the eyes. It’s very important. When I’m lighting things, I’m looking at the eyes. That’s my main focus. The windows to the soul,” she says, laughing.

©Maayan Ziv

Preferring to do all her street shooting in black and white, Ziv does her post work in Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom. She has no desire to begin landscape photography or a career as a product photographer. “I’m definitely always going to be working with people, that’s for sure. I want to get more into portraiture as a pro,” she says. “Lately I’ve been getting involved in fashion photography in a bigger way. I’m interested in editoral work, where there’s more of a story attached to the fashion photography. I would love to be a professional portraiture photographer.”

©Maayan Ziv

Viewing life and her subjects from the height she’s at is non-issue for this creative shooter. “For me, it’s just life. It’s the way I see things. I don’t know how to see things otherwise. There’s not a lot of pro photographers with a disability sitting in a wheelchair. It sheds light on the fact there’s not a lot of talk about shooting from this perspective. I think it’s time for different kinds of art by people with disabilities. There’s been a hush. You don’t talk about disabilities and art very much. When I go pro, I hope to bring awareness to this.”

Ziv points out the difficulties she’s encountered when traveling. “Traveling is hard enough, but going with a chair makes things pretty damn hard. There’s ethical issues. Sometimes people haven’t even spoken to me because they think I’m not human, or something crazy like that. These things should be looked at, and I think art can have a strong voice in this. I think my photography can bring a new perspective, rather than shout at someone about it. I want to provide them the opportunity to see things.”

©Maayan Ziv

Possessing an attitude which can’t be stopped, Ziv is nothing but positive for her future and her art. These days, her disability is rarely given a second thought by this photographer. “It’s not a negative aspect in my life,” she declares. “If anything, I see it as a positive thing. It’s a challenge to try things differently. Otherwise, I could just be lazy and pick up a camera and go. It gives me an opportunity to break boundaries, to try things in a new way, and I think that could be a very positive thing for an artist. It doesn’t limit me in any way. Sometimes I get frustrated because I want to do something immediately, but there’s a step to an abandoned building I probably shouldn’t be in anyway. It’s just finding a creative way to make it happen.”

Maayan Ziv Photography
Maayan Ziv blog
Maayan Ziv on Twitter
Maayan Ziv on Facebook
Maayan Ziv on Flickr
Maayan Ziv on YouTube

Written by Ron Egatz

Mark Wallace‘s series “How’d They Do That?” for AdoramaTV recently posted this video with photographer Jason Wallis. Jason describes what he loves to do, how he does it, and what gear he uses, including his Profoto AcuteB 600R’s. =D

Watch the full video to see how Jason gets the results he does, including ones from this outdoor shoot. Great job, guys!