Notes from the Field

I have read a ton of books, and blogs, gone to many seminars and workshops. So much information and good advice has been passed down to me from instructors and other photographers. But one piece of advice has been more useful than all of the information combined. To be a better photographer; you need to put yourself in front of more interesting things or people. It really is that simple. There are many variations of this advice, like you need to become a more interesting person to become a better photographer, but the idea is still the same. If you shoot interesting things, people or places, your work will standout. You are not going to standout and do great work shooting the girl next door in the local park, on a regular basis.

Over four years ago, after coming back from a workshop, I started searching for more interesting things and people to photograph. Now if you live in LA, New York City, or any other major city, you have no trouble finding interesting. Hell, interesting just finds you in most cities. But I live in a smaller town, with less people, and that can make it tougher to find interesting. That does not mean you cannot find anything interesting to shoot, in fact, you will find very interesting people and things all over, it just takes a bit more work, but you will learn more search for subject rather than just tripping over something in the big city.

Derby Girls as a chain gang. Just a little slice of heaven

My personal quest lead me to a simple headline on a local events web site, “Women’s Roller Derby”. The idea was like pure sugar to a small child, I was bouncing off of the walls. I contacted the team to inquire if I could photograph the upcoming match, technically called a bout. The team was very excited to have a photograher at the bout and it has been a great relationship ever since. I went from being a photographer at the bouts, to taking team photos, to becoming the team photographer. While I have worked with amazing people on other projects, I can say that no other thing has improved my skills and mentality as photographer as being so lucky to be the photographer for the team.
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A few years ago, I took a photography class from the Nevada Museum of Art. I never subscribe to the idea that there is nothing left to learn, or a class is too basic. In my case, the class was neither basic nor boring and is one of the best experiences I have had as a photographer. The topic of the class was studio lighting and the instructor is local photographer Jeff Ross.

I had personally never met Jeff Ross before taking the class, but the name was one that I had always heard around town, seen in publications, marketing campaigns, and usually cleaning up at advertising competitions. So when a local shooter of such note is offering to open up his studio and share his knowledge, you should jump at the chance, and I certainly did.

Since taking the class, I have assisted Jeff on an occasion and stayed in contact with him over the past few years. I try to show him some of my portfolio work and get advice from him when ever possible. And while it is great to have relationships with well-known photographers like Joe McNally, there is so much you can learn from local pro shooters who are working in your market and have to deal with the same conditions as yourself. You are not going to get that from a shooter that is working on the east coast and has no idea that Reno and Las Vegas are hundreds of miles apart. That local connection is worth its weight in gold.

It is hard in a town like Reno to get anyone to open up and share information. The town is small, compared to LA or NYC, and there are few creatives that are willing to open the doors and risk letting information out there. Jeff Ross is not one of those people. Jeff, like other great photographers, knows that his creativity, experience and knowledge are safe. And like Chase Jarvis and Joe McNally, Jeff knows that you get more from sharing that you do holding onto information.

Part of Jeff’s class deals with live models, and working with them in the studio. I asked Jeff if it would be OK to setup my DSLRs and shoot some video and interview himself and a few of the students. The video breaks down what the class is about and who Jeff Ross is.

Jeff Ross’s Studio Lighting Class with the Nevada Museum of Art from M.D. Welch on Vimeo.

This video was shot by me, on two Canon 7Ds, with 24-70mm 2.8, 50mm 1.4 and 85mm 1.8 Canon lenses. The audio for the interviews was captured on a Zoom H4N audio recorder and edited by me in Final Cut Pro.

For more information about Jeff Ross’ classes, including a great location workshop in Fallon, NV, check out the following link:

Nevada Museum of Art (Scroll to the bottom for Jeff’s next class)

I am not the type of person to make New Year’s resolutions. I have trouble, like most, holding myself to those resolutions. But in the last part of 2009, into the beginning of 2010, I decided that I needed to make a change to my approach to my photography.

While I do get paid to do video and photo work during the day at the mother ship. (What I call the day job to those new readers.) I was having trouble working on my own photography in my off hours. I would try to work on personal projects, and have them fall through, talent fail to show, or just have a general lack of drive to spend my own time doing something, that I was doing from 9-5 during the week. I needed to focus on my work.

The lovely Krissy!

Many photography friends and colleges suggested doing a personal project, or a 365 series through Flickr. But I know from past experiences that my ADD would keep me from completing these projects. All one needs to do is see how spotty my posting to this blog is, for proof of this theory.
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I always enjoying with working with models that I have had previous experience with. There is no ice breaking or tension that needs to be dealt with. Also, a model is used to some of my crazier ideas and there is a bit of trust that has been earned by both the models and myself.

More than a year ago was my first experience working with Anna. That day was a very interesting shoot, because I worked with over 6 different models at the Pipers Opera House in Virginia City, Nevada. All of the models came had period costumes and we shot group and individuals pictures. Anna was the first model that I worked with that day and she immediately demonstrated that she was going to be great to work with. I had only about an hour to work with Anna, but we ran with her intensity in her individual shots and then used that same energy to make her look like she was in charge of this cast of characters.

Anna at Piper's Opera House

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It should be public knowledge by now that Syl Arena and I have started a great adventure in shooting a DVD series about Canon Speedlites. It has been a great experience with Syl in front of the camera, creating great content and scenarios for Canon shooters to learn from, and myself behind the camera directing and editing all of this information. We are both very excited to be doing this project together and our goal is to make the definitive source for Canon shooters to find information about using their Speedlites in all sorts of situations, ETTL, manual, and mixed lighting.

Syl will be blogging about what is going on in front of the camera, while I will be documenting what is going on behind the camera. And the biggest news that I can break about this project is the we are using the Canon 5D Mark II exclusively to shoot all of the video for this project. To my knowledge, we are cutting some new trail in using this camera to shoot a project of this scope.

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