JSP Visual Week In Review ~ 05.04.24
Do you shoot with your phone over your “regular” camera sometimes?
If so, is it because of convenience or the phone now does “just a good a job” as your regular kit?
I read an Instagram Story post by Sean Tucker this week and he noted how sometimes he forgets what a good job his phone camera does.
I don’t know if we forget about that, but if you’re used to carrying around a camera – even a point-and-shoot – you may not use your phone camera the same way you do your kit.
There are some times when I feel my phone camera actually DOES do a better job of capturing some scenes than my regular Canon or Fuji.
Well, maybe not better, but comparable to.
You know the scenes I mean…the quick snaps to visually journal a scene…. That plate of carbonara in front of you. A shot of a group of family or friends where you don’t want to make a big production out of pulling out the regular camera.
Even walk-around street photography images…though these are less so for me; the camera on my Samsung Galaxy is slow to focus and I’d miss the scene. Prefer my Fuji XT3 for that.
But, last weekend, after my daughter’s Jazz On The Town event at school, I shot this with my phone and am really happy with it.
Why my phone? Because…I need to be agile and quick and not “make a scene”. While Liv is usually cool with me setting up and doing portraits, this was after the performance, her friends were around…but I still wanted a quick portrait. Here’s another, which ran small in last’s week VWIR.
Yes, super vertical. But, in this case, my phone camera got the job done and I’m happy with the results.
How are you using your phone camera? As an afterthought or a forethought?
__________________________
This Week’s Links:
What I’m Reading This Week: It was weird…the other night, I just started reading New York Trilogy, by Paul Auster. I was about 25 pages in when I saw a NY Times alert on my phone saying Auster had passed away. I didn’t know much about him before starting this books, but in the wake of his death, I’ve read a number of obits and listened to interviews that NPR’s Fresh Air podcast re-ran. Interesting fellow. I also started The Passenger, by Cormac McCarthy which I’m really liking. A slow -burn.
What I Watched This Week: Nothing but baseball at night.
What I Listened To This Week: A Disgraceland podcast about Garth Brooks. Jake took us down one path and then…screeeech….like a needle being dragged across a record…took us down another. Fascinating and fun.
Favorite Image I Saw This Week: via @carol_highsmith_ameria
In Theaters Soon: The trailer for Lee about fashion and war photographer Lee Miller.
Au Natural: Zooming In On Nature’s Wonders via Photofocus
Getting Lost: Danny Lyon on Photographing A Lost New York via NY Book Review (FYI paywall)
We Can Be Heroes: How Platon Captures Everyday Heroes via Time
Don’t Have A Leica, Dude: The Simpsons…photography fans? via Zach Dobson Photo
“To be an artist you need a lot of sincerity, which comes at a very high price,” Serge Gainsbourg
© Mark V. Krajnak | JerseyStyle Photography | All Rights Reserved 2024
In The Field: Baseball Portraits With The Hamilton A’s
It was late winter.
I hadn’t really shot anything of note – except for some concert stuff – in a while.
And I really hadn’t done any planned portraiture in a really long time.
I was getting edgy to create something…so I started planning.
For the last couple of seasons, I had wanted to do portraits of my son, Matt’s Hamilton A’s baseball team.
Because this is his travel team, they don’t set up a “picture day” like the the Rec League does. Maybe because I love the light in their dugouts in the evenings.
But, we (me and the Coach) were never able to get it together.
Then, in February, I started to see these Instagram posts from photographers doing photo days with Major League Baseball players at Spring Training…like Kelly in South Florida, and Daniel Shirey and Scott Paulus and also the athlete portraits my friend, Saed Hindash, shoots.
I started to think of cool portraits with the Hamilton A’s team, using some inexpensive, simple Neewer battery power 160 LED panel lights and green and yellow gel sheets…their team colors…that I taped to the light panels.
Since it was February, and still too cold for them to be on the field, they were doing indoor practices in this converted warehouse. As you walk it, there’s all this exposed brick and really high ceilings with fluorescent lights. And pigeons flying around.
Honestly, I’ve been looking for an excuse to shoot in this space for a long time – all the metal and exposed brick looks really cool. There’s also a roll-down door that I used for a background too (that first pic of Matt).
For the metal door photos, I was using a Neewer 16″ Beauty dish on a Neewer Vision 4 strobe. It was set to the lowers power and I really liked the look it was giving me.
This team is a really good bunch of boys, tough to make them look, well, touch. But I didn’t want smiles from them and followed the art direction well.
And, while I had plain gray backdrop with me, I opted instead to use the exposed brick – which is painted white – as the background for the portraits using the green and yellow gels. Not sure how the gels would have looked on with metal door, but I didn’t want to keep switching set-ups, so beauty dish one, light panels on the other.
This one, of David, is one of my favorites of the set that I shot. Feels like this was exactly the lighting balance I was going for, plus you can still see the eyes.
BTS
The set-ups were really simple, I had each boy for about 5 minutes – practice was going on so I didn’t want to keep them too long. I shot this on a Sunday and what was great was that me, Chase and Matt went to the facility on Saturday for me to do some tests. It was chilly and pouring down rain when we went, but the scouting helped me figure out what I wanted to do before we even go there (Chase was my assistant for the shoot, while Matt was practicing. He also shot the BTS photos.)
Actually, there was another spot in this area where I wanted to shoot the boys – near these long plastic curtain doors. But, in the heat of the shoot, I totally forgot to do a third set-up, even though I had written it down. Looked like it could work well. Lesson learned: Always look at your notes, kids!
Could have been a cool option.
Another test shot the day before
To further achieve the look I wanted, I did use the Nik Analog Filter set in my post-processing. There is one called “Color Cast” that gave the me the tones I really wanted.
To put a cap on this….I made prints of the boys to give to the parents….and I gave them out last night at practice. While the boys liked them….the parents really liked them. It was fun to hand over 11×14 prints for them to enjoy. I used MPix Photo Lab to do the printing this time around, and they looked amazing.
And here’s a quick video I shot after I laid them out on the bleachers.
The Neewer equipment I used was great, and the Canon 5DMIV did all the heavy lifting. I had a whole other set of things I wanted to do…green eye paint. LED lights on the bats…but in the end, maybe simpler was better. I can tuck those ideas away for another project.
Let me know what you think in the comments!
© Mark V. Krajnak | JerseyStyle Photography | All Rights Reserved 2024
JSP Visual Week In Review ~ 04.27.24
Where did this month go?
Feels like April few by for me. How did it feel for you?
Finishing up a an extra-long weekend as I took last Thursday and Friday off. Got some stuff done around my place, just relaxed in the evenings, which is what I needed, and today, took a drive down to Asbury Park to see a classic car show.
While the cars were awesome, I also had a late burger lunch at The Wonder Bar – for my money, one of the best burgers out there.
Of course, tonight I have to start digging out of email – the bane of taking days off. Gotta pay the piper at some point, though.
How was your April? Drop your “wins” in the comments below and let’s celebrate them!
_______________________
This Week’s Links:
What I Read This Week: I finished The Enchanters. I think I’m done reading James Ellroy. Just not my cup of tea. Also finished up the audio book of The Big Sleep and started listening to The Rules of Magic (which I read a few years ago, and liked). I started The Passenger by Cormac McCarthy and am enjoying The Lobster Chronicles by Linda Greenlaw.
What I Watched This Week: Baby Reindeer. Still processing. Not sure I can recommend.
What I Listened To This Week: The Photo Banter interview with photographer Drew Gurian, whom I’ve had the pleasure of knowing for a few years now. Wonderful guy.
Favorite Photo Of The Week: This “Reading The Room” set via @scottstrazz
Beauty out of Horror: The extraordinary life of Tim Hetherington
Changes: James Balog on documenting climate change, via CBS News
RIP: NY Post photographer Ellis Kaplan
“The photographer should not allow himself to be trapped by something that excites him only as a subject; if he does not see the image decisively in his mind’s eye, the result is likely to be disappointing. “ – Ansel Adams
© Mark V. Krajnak | JerseyStyle Photography | All Rights Reserved 2024
In The Field: Route 130, Bordentown
Route 130, Bordentown
An image from earlier this month.
I was home from one of my boys’ baseball games, this one in a quaint New Jersey town called New Egypt, I had to pick up Route 130 to then jog over to I-195.
This took me through another old NJ town, Bordentown, but one which has Route 130 bisecting it.
Not sure what made me notice it this time, but this scene caught my eye.
I guess all the neon did it.
So, I pulled over into a parking lot, and pulled out my Fuji Xt3 with the 23 mm lens.
Shooting from my driver’s side window, I had to reposition my truck a few times.
I wanted to get it all in the scene…the great Anthony’s Pizza Town sign, the lit-up gas station and the, ahem, adult book store on the lower right (who still goes to those??)
I like the scene, but wanted a car in the scene.
Finally got one, and the headlights bouncing off the asphalt of another.
Of course, I had to try in B&W, too.
Any preference?
Think I might need to make a couple of prints, too.
© Mark V. Krajnak | JerseyStyle Photography | All Rights Reserved 2024
JerseyStyle Photography 