It's been a while...

Hey everyone!

I hope you all are having wonderful holidays. Mine has been fantastic so far. It's been a while since I've posted, needed some time to recharge, rebuild and re-energize. Now that's not to say that I've been idle, far from it. Here is just 1 example of that, the new 2.0 version of Faded & Blurred. We upgraded everything, please come by and check it out. We took what we liked from places like Facebook, Model Mayhem, DP Review, Supershoots, AllTop, etc and rolled it all up into 1 place, and we are hoping it will become a daily destination for you on the web. Register for free, and you'll get to upload images to your portfolio, participate in the forums, comment on the blogs, and add/interact with friends.

Also getting ready for next semester at Tri-Community. Going to be a busy 1 for me, 4 days including a Sunday class. This will most likely be a 1 time only Sunday class for me, as weekends tend to be really tough with so many other obligations, so join us while you can.

If you got a shiny new toy for Christmas that you really want to try out, consider joining Faded & Blurred as we go check out the floats in Pasadena on 1/2/2010. Details are here: Showcase of Floats

I got 1 of these for Christmas: The Diana I loaded it up with film yesterday and am having a blast getting back to the basics. Very basic. Very, very basic. :-). I've been shooting B&W, Ilford HP5, but may load up some color film for the float walk. Now if only I can find the LCD...

We also have several of our walks set up for next year, those details can all be found on F&B too.

And last but not least, we are also hosting a 365 Project on flickr. What is a 365 project you ask? Just take 1 image a day and upload it to the group. Lot's more info about that here: F&B Project 365

Hope to see you all soon, either on a walk, or in school. 2010 is going to be a great year!

Last week of school!

Hey everyone!

This is the last week of school before winter break. So here is what is going on:

Monday night we will be doing our Star Wars shoot, and this time we are shooting the Jedi, bring your gear, and be ready for some slow shutter speeds. And we may have a few surprises... (Don't click here)

Wednesday night and Thursday night we will have review, questions, and Pot Luck, so please bring a dish.

I'm off to go ice skating wit my daughter in Pershing Square today. I fell in love with it on our Faded & Blurred downtown LA photo walk, and my daughter loves trains, so off we go!

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving, and I will see you next week...

I am thankful for...

Hey everyone!

Today in the united States is Thanksgiving. A day set aside for giving thanks, and while it is nice to set aside some time for doing just that, it should by no means be the only time we should remember the things we are thankful for. But as such, here are just a few of the things I am thankful for...

My beautiful wife Laurie













My amazing daughter Stella














My son Dash, and his irrepressible sense of wonder


















I am thankful that I get to share my love of photography with so many people both through teaching at Tri-Community, and my newest joint
venture Faded & Blurred









I am thankful that this year I have had amazing opportunities to meet some amazing people











I am thankful for the many friends I have made this year











I am thankful for being able to express my passion for photography






And I am thankful that I have people in my life that love and respect me, both as a person, a father, a husband, a teacher, a friend, and an equal. I am so very thankful for all of these things, and thank you for being a part of it.







So, what are you thankful for?

On vacation...

Hey everyone!

I am on a well earned vacation with my family this week. For those of you in my Monday night class, Albert will be substituting for me. You will have models, and you will be shooting. Wednesday night and Thursday night Tri is closed for Thanksgiving.

I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday, I know I will. I have a lot to be thankful for this year.

If you joined us on our Faded & Blurred Photo walk this past weekend, please don't forget to post your images here: Faded & Blurred Flickr group

You can take a look at my images here: Frank's Flickr

And tell us what you thought here: Faded & Blurred

See you all next week. Now just go shoot!

Frank

Letter to myself...

A letter to myself…

It’s that time of year again, when we start thinking about all the things we are thankful for, a time to spend with loved ones, both family and friends, and start thinking of the new year. As I was going through my mental inventory of all that I am thankful for, which is a huge list, and growing all the time, I couldn’t help but realize how selfish I have been for at least the last 25 years of my life. I am a smoker.

I had a heart attack at the ripe old age of 38. Some of you know that, many of you don’t. Obviously I survived, and I am very thankful for that. But it didn’t get me to quit. At the time, my wife was 9 months pregnant with my son. When I think about all the amazing things that have happened in my life over these last 2 years that I might have missed, it’s just mind boggling. The birth of my son, my daughter’s 1st year of school, her 1st recital, horseback riding lessons, the way my son says “Thank you dada”, my families amazing road trip to see Bob Dylan in Fresno, and then the beautiful car ride to Monterey, the satisfaction I get from my teaching photography at Tri-Community, and getting to watch my amazing students progress their skills and creativity, meeting Jeffery and Nikki and the birth of Faded and Blurred, seeing a light at the end of this tunnel of 9-5 grind, every day I get to spend with my beautiful wife and children, picking up a camera and being able to express myself, meeting some of my heroes, how could I possibly not want that to continue?

Now I have said this before, but I hope to never have to say it again. The picture below is of my very last cigarette. I will have that as soon as this is posted. Again, this letter is being written to myself, and being posted publicly so I can refer to it as often as I need to for a reminder of how truly thankful I am for everything I have, and all of the things going forward that I don’t want to miss. It is also a request to those of you I see often. I need help. Please ask how I’m doing with this. Inquire. Keep an eye out for me. This isn’t an easy task to accomplish, just ask the 40 year old that had a heart attack at 38…

I love my life, I love my wife, I love my children, I love my friends and family, I love my students, I love the Faded and Blurred crew, I love the direction I have taken in the last year, and I don’t want that to end anytime soon.

Stuff you should be checking out

Hey everyone!

I haven't done 1 of these in awhile, so here are some things I found interesting this week:

Joe McNally's "Letter to a young photographer"

David duChemin's "Just"

And David's new $5 "E-book"

Help-Portrait

And here is what Faded and Blurred is doing for help-portrait on 12/12:

F&B help-portrait 12/12/09

Scott Kelby's 10 Lightroom tips for new users

Terry White's Annual Christmas gift list

KuperBlog (just because I love her photography ;-P)

And if you've got nothing to do this Saturday, why not come join the Faded and Blurred crew in Downtown LA?

For my classes this week:

Monday night: We will be splitting up in groups and having fun. The gloves come off, and it's gonna be a competition!

Wednesday night: Lecture. Bring your questions, bring your images for critique

Thursday night: Shooting the reception. Helpful hints, tips, and techniques to get the shot!

Also, students, I have been extremely disappointed with the amount of images we have been receiving. Please surprise me, or for the next few weeks, we will be shooting "Still life, fruit in a bowl"

My 40th Birthday

Hey everyone!

So on Friday, 11/6/09, I celebrated my 40th birthday. I wanted to do something fun, and 3 weeks ago, I found the perfect way to spend a birthday for a photo geek like me. I got an email from Scott Kelby (well, not exactly a personal email, but a mass generated email from NAPP) telling me that Joe McNally would be in LA doing his Lighting on Location tour at the convention center on my birthday!


I immediately bought my ticket, and then told a few close friends, and then we notified the Faded and Blurred troups and students at Tri-Community. Both groups were well represented at the event, and even got to interact with Joe. To say it was an amazing event wouldn't do it any justice at all. Joe is extremely knowledgeable, humble, and funny. A true pleasure to attend his events. We got there early (6:15), had breakfast at the Pantry, (I had never eaten there) and then photo walked our way over to the Convention Center.

Registration was supposed to begin at 9, but we were there by 7:30, so as we were waiting, Jeffery happened to notice Joe McNally sitting in the conference room writing up some notes. We had a t-shirt made for him (I did mention we were geeks, right?) so we snuck in and headed over to meet a photo hero. He was gracious and kind, shook our hands, accepted the t-shirt, and to be honest, my birthday could have ended right then.

Since we were early, we were able to sit right up front, and I thoroughly enjoyed the seminar. Joe does 5 specific sections in his seminar, and builds his lighting with small flash with each new hour. The great part of the show is that Joe get's himself in trouble with his lighting, and we get to see him work through it until he get's his shot. Again, a great message to all photographers that it happens to everyone, and you just need to keep working it out. Except we don't do it in front of 800 people.

At lunch time a big group of us headed over to ESPN Sports Zone, where I got to tweet my first beer as a 40 year old.
If you don't follow me on twitter, I'm known to take a picture of a beer wherever I am. You can find me here: FrankWisePhoto

After lunch, we settled in for the rest of the seminar. At some point in the show, John Pacala slipped Joe's assistant Drew a note asking Joe to announce my birthday. So in front of 800 people, Joe wished me a happy birthday. Awesome. But they weren't done yet. For Joe's final set-up of the day, he needed audience members, and I was choosen. So up I went. I had my picture taken by Joe McNally. He even gave me an 8gb memory card for my birthday! What a way to end the day. Except it still wasn't over. The seminar ended at 5, and of course on a Friday in Los Angeles, you can't actually leave LA, so we headed over to Philippe's for a sandwich and beer, (Sense a theme?) The plan was to grab some food, and then shoot some city lights after dark. Well, plans being what they are, they changed. My friend Maria Carmel (VH1's The Shot photographer reality show winner)was following our days events on Twitter, and knew we were near her home, so she met us at Phillipe's, sat and chatted with us a while.
She happened to mention that her LA loft has a rooftop deck with amazing views in the heart of LA, so away we went, tripods in hand. Again, a great photography experience, with another great photographer.

I would like to thank everyone who made this day so special, and I'm glad I got to spend it with so many friends that also share my passions for photography, and understand just how great a day like this was. Jeffery, a huge thank you for being the the same little giddy school kid I am when we get to meet these people we so look up to.
Nikki, thank you for allowing Jeffery and I just enough rope to climb out on the ledge, and knowing just the right time to grab it and pull us back before we hang ourselves. Paul, thank you for wanting to take this crazy journey we're on with us. Joe, thank you for driving us around, and wanting to spend the day hanging out with us. Some amazing driving skills in the Odyssey my friend. John, thank you for slipping the note to McNally. Jason, thank you for the beer, the beer, the beer, that other beer, and the t-shirt. And thank you for the constant words of encouragement. To the Marias', thank you for hassling Joe McNally, It was fun to watch.
Dave, a big thank you for letting me watch your progression as a photog. It is fun to watch and know that maybe a few of the things I am teaching are being utilized and appreciated. Al, thank the wife for letting you out to come play with us. Todd, I'm glad your aboard, your creativity and willingness to just go with us is a blast. Berto and Lisa, thank you for jumping on board with us from the beginning and always promoting us. Dan, I'm glad I've got a fellow photog always wanting to know when we can break for a beer. To everyone else (and there are a lot of you) just a huge THANK YOU for your constant support and for helping put Faded and Blurred on the map.
To Maria Carmel and Joe McNally, thank you for giving a bunch of photo geeks a day they will never forget.

To my wife Laurie, and my kids, a huge thank you for always being supportive of what I am trying to do, and understanding that I need to do it. You mean the world to me, and none of this really matters without you. I love you more than you'll ever know.

All the images you see here were shot on 11/6/09. what an amazing day. Thank you everyone!


You can see more images here: Frank's Flickr





Joe McNally doing his thing












Getting my picture taken by Joe McNally












Taking direction from Joe












The view from Maria's roof top



















The view from Maria's rooftop

Coming up this week in class:

Monday night, Noir shoot. If you have a trench coat, or a fedora, please bring them with you.

Wednesday night: NO CLASS, closed for Veterans Day

Thursday night: Workflow

See you all soon,

Frank

Dia de los Muertos part 2

Hi everyone!

I hope those of you that came out to the Dia de los Muertos event at Live Oak Memorial Park enjoyed yourselves. I would like to thank the people from Live Oak Memorial Park for allowing us to come in and photograph their beautiful event. The mass was beautiful, they had face painting for the children, and the Mariachi Band were really good, but the high lite for me was the Aztec dancers. Watching the story unfold from beginning to end was amazing. I opted to shoot the event without flash, to add some movement and blur to my images to convey motion. It was a tough shoot, outside at night, with very poor light
but I think I did okay. If you would like to see more of what I shot, please go to my flickr site here: Dia de los Muertos on flickr That set includes images shot at Live Oak Memorial Park and Hollywood Forever Cemetery the week before.

We have promised to share our images with the people that attended, and I believe they are being pointed here to my blog, so please add your images to the Tri Community Flickr Group here:
Tri-Community Flickr Group.

Thanks again everyone for coming out, I hope to see many great images. I have already seen some on Facebook and on individual flickr pages, now let's get all of them into our flickr group.

Frank

Wednesday night Church shoot

Okay everybody, this is only open to students of my wedding classes. We are shooting at a church in Baldwin Park on Wednesday night, 11/4/09 from 7-10pm. We will be meeting there, and I will take roll. Please bring your cameras and flashes!

The address is:

4303 Maupin Ave.
Baldwin Park

[
View Larger Map]

The link takes you to directions from Tri-Community. See you there!

Dia de los Muertos

Hey everyone,

As we talked about last night, next Monday's "Lighting on Location" class will be a special one.I spoke to the nice people at Live Oak Memorial Park about having us attend their Dia de los Muertos celebration, and they have graciously allowed us to come and photograph their event with 2 conditions.

#1. That we don't shoot the grave sites out of respect, and only shoot the festivities.

#2. That we share our images with them.

Done, and done. Please keep these conditions in mind when we attend the event, and I will be constantly reminding you of those conditions. I may set up a Tri-Community flickr group just for this event, so we can provide a place for the organizers to go look at our images. I am really looking forward to this event, I think it will be special. The location is at:

Live Oak Memorial Park

200 E Duarte Rd

Monrovia, Ca. 91016

Here is a link to the map: Map here

It is 1 block east of Myrtle on Duarte rd.

The event will be from 7-10, and it is free to enter. We will meet inside the front gate at 7pm. I will be taking roll there.

Here is the Wikipedia entry for Dia de los Muertos for some more info.

Bring your cameras and flash. I would suggest lenses in the 24-105 range, with f/2.8 being a big plus. There won't be any available light at all, this is all outdoors.

Here is a link to my flickr set from last weekends event at Hollywood Forever Cemetery

I hope to see you all there!

Frank

Griffith Park Walk

Hey everyone!

First off, I want to thank everyone who came out to the Griffith Park Walk today, it was an amazing day. We had enough for everyone to look at. There were motorcycles, plenty of characters, and then I took everyone to one of my favorite "secret" spots, the Old Zoo, a hidden gem in Los Angeles. I arranged to have a couple of models there, and a special thanks goes out to Amanda and Sondra, for being such great sports. The weather couldn't have been any nicer, and we got to use the "open shade" technique that Faded and Blurred just did a tutorial on. You can see that here.

Now that I have gotten all the niceties out of the way, I want to say a few things. First and foremost is that Faded and Blurred is in no way associated with Tri-Community. Yes, many of you know Jeffery and I from there, and many of you participate, but Faded and Blurred will hopefully draw from a much larger base from that and in many ways, all ready is. As such, I am not a teacher at these events, I am a participant and organizer. What that means is that we set these up in a way that these are events that Jeffery, Nikki, Paul, and I would probably be attending anyway. We think they have a cool location or offering that may be fun to take pictures of. Whether anyone shows up to them or not, we will continue to be at these places. Our hope is that we can provide a cool locale that you may not know existed, and that you may get your creative juices going and you will see the potential of such places. These are "Photo walks" for photographers, not a 3 hour class or seminar. They are free, and we do our best to provide enough information to get you there. We provide a link to the walk page, a map, and if there is an associated web page, we provide that too. All that info is right here.

We also tell you what time to be there. And we stay much later than that posted time to allow for stragglers. We understand how LA traffic is, we live here, I get it. But eventually, we will need to gather up the troops and move on. I can't be blamed for your bad time, or lack of knowing what the plan is, or your perception that we are disorganized if you weren't there when we specified. If I told you the movie started at 5, and you showed up at 5:30, should I be expected to rewind the movie, or pause it to get you up to speed? Again, this is an opportunity for you to get out and shoot. If you don't like the proposed subject matter, then please skip that walk, and maybe the next one will be more to your liking.

Again, this is an event for Faded and Blurred, a photowalk. It is not a mandatory event, it is put on by people who love photography, for people who love photography. And again, I am probably the most approachable, easy to get hold of person you will ever meet.

And as such, here is all my info, again. Ask around how long it takes me to respond to emails or voice mails. How many other teachers have you had that were this transparent?

Gmail: frankwisephotography@gmail.com
Website: http://frankwisephotography.com
Twitter: @frankwisephoto
Facebook: FrankWise
Phone # 818-458-9761

Perhaps I am too available? Perhaps I care too much? It seems that 60 people had a wonderful time, many of them for their 1st walk. And I will obsess over the one person that didn't. Perhaps I wouldn't be that way if I weren't available to you 24/7? Perhaps I shouldn't be, but that is who I am.

Okay, done, I'm over it.

Coming up this week in class:

Monday night we will have a band coming in to shoot.

Wednesday night we will talk about other fun shoots you can do with your wedding clients, the "E-session", the "Day After", and "Trash the Dress"

Thursday night, we will be discussing ways to get your product to your client. Prints, galleries, etc.

See you all this week.

Frank

Nuff said about that, and if anyone has anything to say, good or bad, please let me know, I am open to discussing

Pasadena ARTwalk

Hey everyone! I am in the process of finishing up images from our most recent walk in Pasadena for ARTwalk. We had a smaller than usual crowd, but it turned out to be an amazing day. There were several photographers showing work, along with painters and sculptors. After the walk, we went to one of my favorite restaurants, the Yard House. Not necessarily for the food, more so for the 150 beers on tap ;-)



After some much needed lunch, we had a meeting with all interested parties about our plans for the 12/12/09 Help-Portrait project. For more info on what we are doing, you can click here. We had about 25 people for that meeting, and several more have expressed an interest, so we are seriously considering expanding our efforts for the day, and for that, I thank you.

After the meeting, many of us continued our walk. We went to City Hall, where we stumbled into a wedding, and several wedding photogs doing portraits. We also met this lovely lady, Natasha Martinez, who just happens to be Miss Panamerican. I assumed she was there being photographed, but there was no photographer around. I had Carol go ask her if she minded if the 10 of us still there shot her, and she was gracious enough to give us 10 minutes of her time. This amazing light was created by the sun reflecting off a column and bouncing back onto her.

We finished up the evening catching sunset on the Colorado Bridge, and caught some beautiful light. All in all, a wonderful day. If you would like to see images that the group shot, you can click here. If you shot with us on Saturday, please post your images there, we look forward to seeing them.

It was also great to watch many of our group getting very creative with their photos. Doing fun reflective self portraits, shooting through magnifying glasses, shooting each other, all sorts of things. Vincent has a new camera and lens, and he is really putting it through it's paces.

Our next walk will be in Griffith Park on 10/25, you won't want to miss this one. Details here.

Now, what should we do in class this week?

Monday night we will have models.

Wednesday night in Beginning Wedding, we will talk about the events of the day, and go from beginning to end.

Thursday night I will lecture, and assign some homework (Thanks Alberto, great idea!)

See you all soon,

Frank

We're walkin, yes indeed...

In case you haven't heard, Faded and Blurred are pounding the pavement again this Saturday. We will be in Pasadena for the ARTwalk, and all the juicy details and maps are here.

We will have our Flickr group up and running Saturday night so you can share your images. There will be several photographers exhibiting work at the ARTwalk, so I am excited to see what they are showing, how they are displaying it, and possibly pulling some inspiration from it. We hope to see you all there, and please be there at 11. We have to get our group shot!

If you like shooting, like being around other photogs, and are enjoying the beautiful weather we are having, then come on down Saturday! It will be a great day. And after the walk, please remember to tell us about your experience. You can do that here: http://fadedandblurred.com/community/

Make sure your batteries are charged, your memory cards are formatted, and bring some water and a snack. After the walk, if you are interested in participating in our 12/12/09 Help-Portrait giving back event, we will be having a logistical meeting at a local watering hole. Ask myself, Nikki, or Jeffery for details on Saturday. Here are some of the ideas we have:

http://fadedandblurred.com/community/Thread-Help-Portrait

And here is the site that started it all: http://www.help-portrait.com/

See you on Saturday!

Fall is here

Thankful that fall is finally settling in. Cooler temperatures are always welcome, especially after the crazy hot September we had here. I'm not so happy about the shorter days. As a people shooter, it makes it a little easier to grab a model and go shoot when it's not 105 degrees. As a wedding photographer, your not as miserable shooting that wedding in the un-air conditioned church. Landscape shooters look forward to the fall colors. There is so much to enjoy over the next few weeks photographically.

A quick reminder that Faded and Blurred has the Pasadena ARTwalk photo walk coming up on 10/10. I do hope that you will attend, it should be a fun event, in a great city to shoot. And then, just 2 weeks later is our Griffith Park photo walk, so we are keeping busy, and taking advantage of the cooler weather too.

If you haven't backed up your images recently, why not do it now? Burn them to DVD, copy them to your external hard drive, or get yourself an automated back up program. I use Goodsync, and I highly recommend it for PC users. It will run as often as you want it too. I have mine run every 2 hours. Do you have a system that works for you? If so, share it in the comments.

Coming up in class this week:

Monday night we have models

Wednesday night: Album Design

Thursday night: The amazing wedding photography of Jerry Ghionis

See you soon,

Frank

Sometimes equipment really is important...

Creativity and vision are always more important than equipment in photography. Without those, you can take crappy pictures with a 60gb $40,000 Hasselblad all day. With those, you can take amazing pictures with an iPhone.

But when it comes to particular photographic endeavors, sometimes, equipment really is important. In my wedding class, I am often asked if you can shoot a wedding with a Nikon D40 or a Canon Rebel XTI and the 18-55 kit lens.

While the quick answer is yes you can, the truthful answer is "not my wedding". Often times, in weddings, you are shooting under extreme lighting conditions. Wedding photographers live at high ISO's and big apertures. This ain't no sissy job. Dark churches that don't allow flash, dark reception halls that do allow flash, harsh midday sun, group portraits at dusk, large groups, huge groups, beach weddings with sand and wind, the list is long. As such, often times, consumer gear won't suffice. You need the extra boost of fast glass, f/2.8 zooms, and f/1.4 primes. You need the extra boost of quality high ISO's. You need the ability to change settings on the fly without diving into a menu.

Sports photography requires many of the same things, as does photojournalistic work. Wedding shooters live at f/2.8 and ISO 1600. The newer cameras (Think Canon 5D MKII and Nikon D700) take amazing images at high ISO's. They make the job for the shooter easier. It gives the shooter 1 less thing to worry about. Less stress, worrying about image quality or what will happen if you can't use flash, or how do I keep my shutter speeds up enough to avoid blur. The next piece of the puzzle is glass. Gotta have f/2.8 zooms if you are serious about shooting weddings. And IS or VR if it is available for the zoom your looking for. I live with my 24-70 f/2.8 and 70-200 f/2.8IS attached to my camera bodies.

And if that wasn't enough, what do you do if a camera or flash malfunctions during a shoot? Well, you grab another one out of your bag and keep shooting. You don't get to come back tomorrow if your flash breaks down. I see a lot of people getting their first DSLR and a kit lens, and now they are wedding photographers. Please keep in mind, that to do this professionally, taking pretty pictures is only part of the occasion.

The 2 pictures you see here were taken during a class I taught on Thursday night. The lovely model is Sondra. Thank you Sondra, I know it must be overwhelming to work with so many students. While the class was using my flashes off camera, in the dark at an abandoned gas station, we had the model lit with a low powered hot light to aid in focusing. I utilized that light, ISO 6400, and f/2.8 with my Canon 5D MKII. Are they noisy? Sure, but I had 80 students that wanted to shoot, and I didn't want to get in their way. So I just followed the hot light, and fired away. All in all, I am amazed at the quality of these images at ISO 6400. The Canon 5D MKII continues to surprise me. And the good thing about this exercise is that I get to test out things like this before I need to utilize it in a real world, paying situation.

If you have any equipment questions or concerns, you can always ask them here: Faded and Blurred

And of course, if you are looking to learn more about photography, you can always come check out Tri-Community.

Coming up in class this week:

Monday night we have cars and models. Bring your gear!

Wednesday night we will cover paperwork. Contracts, releases, etc.

Thursday night we will have some Photoshop instruction.

See you all soon, have a great rest of your weekend!

Frank

Just keep shooting!

Hey everyone! And to all the new Tri-Community students, welcome!

I'm often asked what is the best way to become a better photographer. And the first thing I need to do is look around to see who they are talking to.

Actually, the answer is easy. Get out and shoot. But what if you can't shoot the subject of your choice? Who cares. Just get out and shoot.

But what if your a wedding photographer and need practice shooting wedding related things?

If you think shooting landscapes or products or your kids/family/TFP modeling shoots won't help your wedding photography think again.

Get out and shoot. Call a friend and go shoot. Go to a Faded and Blurred photo walk. Take the kids to the park. Post a casting on Model Mayhem, or an ad on Craigs List. Go take a hike, or hit the park or a car show.

Now you may ask, exactly how will this help? Because it gives you stick time. Time behind the wheel. Got a new technique you wanna try?

Practice on something non-important.

Got some new equipment you need to break in? Practice on your family.

See something in a magazine, or Flickr you want to recreate? Try it on your own dime. Don't wait to do these things until you have a paying gig, that could spell disaster. Work it out on your own first. Give yourself some challenges, like only taking a fixed lens next time you go out with the kids. Or only shoot at a particular aperature to play with depth of field. You'll learn more about your equipment and it's capabilities. You'll expand YOUR capabilities. You might find a lens that has been sitting in your bag for years has some special look or feel that you love. Just go shoot!
Something else I love to do is shoot with my iPhone. Just me and a 2mp camera, and some pretty cool software installed. Fixed lens, no control of anything (I have the 3G), gotta frame it the way you want, and shoot. It's always with me. These 2 shots of electrical towers were shot today with the iPhone. It challenges me to get creative to overcome it's lack of controls.

Coming up in this weeks classes:

Monday night in Advanced Lighting on Location we will be shooting models. Come to studio B, bring your camera and flash if you have it, and we will check in and then be off.

Wednesday night in Beginning Wedding I will be lecturing.

Thursday night in Advanced wedding, we will be shooting a bride. Bring your camera and flash. We will be meeting in Studio B, and then heading out.

If you are new to Tri or my blog, and are looking for ways to find me, here goes:

Frank Wise Photography

My Flickr Page

Faded and Blurred

My Model Mayhem Portfolio

My Supershoots Portfolio

Twitter

And I am other places too, but you'll need to find those yourself ;-)

And if you are new here, please take the time to read the past entries, and there are links to other sites that I find important on the right hand side. There is also an Amazon Store below with some helpful gear listed, often things I use or we talk about in class. And don't forget that if your interested in a back end solution for your photography business, SmugMug provides a great and easy solution. You can get a 25% discount by using the code "fadedandblurred" at checkout

Now go shoot!

Frank

Not shooting people

Hi everyone. As most of you know, I'm a people photographer. If I'm not shooting people at a wedding or event, I'm working on my fashion skills with models. If I'm not doing that, I'm shooting my family. I took a good hard look at my images 6 months ago, and noticed it was seriously lacking in shots that didn't involve people. And the images of other things that were there, weren't very good. So I tried to figure out what I could do to remedy that. I didn't want to set up lights at the house and shoot still life, I wanted something that could help me in my actual line of expertise, shooting weddings. Which entails shooting the rings, shoes, dresses, centerpieces, flowers, cake, the interior of the banquet and church, the exterior of the church, maybe a beautiful bluff overlooking the water.

You get the point, wedding photography is so much more than just the "wedding couple", that if you want to do it right, you need experience and a bag of tricks to draw from to help you get all those shots. Now that's not to say I wasn't shooting those things, I do. I just thought I saw a little room for improvement.

The great thing about digital photography, the practice is free, and results are instantaneous. No more shooting a roll, then off to the lab to see what you got. If you see an area that needs improvement, you can focus on that and practice to your hearts content. So, I determined that I needed to focus on randomness. That should be easy, right? That could include ANYTHING. Way to focus and make a decision Frank. But I really want to improve at a lot of things in my photography.

So what did I do? Back in May I set off with a 2 other friends to photowalk Olvera Street. I had just gotten the new 5D MKII and wanted to put it through it's paces. It did admirably, and I walked away with several keepers that had no person in the frame.

Then it was off to Scott Kelby's Worlwide Photowalk in July that took place in Chinatown. My account of that is here: Frank's Blog on Chinatown. Now we were up to 50 people. The image I shot of the lanterns reflected in the pond won the local event, and was entered into the worldwide contest. To say I was hooked is an understatement. Photowalking with friends is a great way to remember what you love about photography in the first place. We shoot because we want to share. But why start sharing at the end of the process when the image has been printed? Why not start sharing at the beginning of the process? You know, at image capture?

Why not go off with a friend to shoot something. You probably have lots of other friends that also like photography. Maybe you both have kids. Take your kids to the park to shoot. The kids get some fun and exercise, and you get to share your excitement and passion with a fellow shutterbug. Your kids also get to see you doing something passionately. what a great thing to pass along to them. Even if they don't get the "bug" they will remember fondly that you were doing something you loved.

Like old cars? Head off with a buddy to a car show. Lot's of photogs there. Like beautiful sunsets? When was the last time you sat at the beach and waited? That is also great practice. One of the nuances of photography that needs to be learned is patience. Capturing the decisive moment. Wedding and sports photographers know this and practice patience.

The next step is to share what you each shot. I love looking at images that someone shot who was standing right next to me. What a great way to learn what types of things are appealing to other people. They may be shooting over your shoulder, but with a different lens, different framing, a different aperture, the image looks nothing like yours. What started off as a need and way for me to improve my images, turned in to a very fun endeavor. So if practice and work become fun, what's not to like? And by sharing with a fellow enthusiast, you are making friends. And that may lead to something else. Like shooting a wedding together for some $$. Or shooting the kids sports teams for $$. Or creating still lifes and having a gallery. Who knows? The possibilities are endless. Maybe you could put together a calendar to raise money or awareness to a cause you are attached to.

In the last few months, I've come across several Pro photographers willing to share their passions too. Maybe they aren't telling you what f/stop to use, or what mode to shoot in, but they do share their passion. They can be found here:

David duChemin He also has an excellent ebook available for $5 here: 10
Zack Arias
Chase Jarvis
Joe McNally

They all want the same basic thing. To share their passion.

It led me to wanting to share my passion with you. That's why Jeffery Saddoris, Nicole Rae, and I started this: Faded & Blurred We want to share our passion with you. We want to walk with you, and stand next to you and see the twinkle in your eye. We've got that twinkle. We want to share it. We want us all to grow, experience, shoot, live, breathe, and share. Have a question? Ask it. Don't know how to do something in Photoshop? Post the question. Have a charity that needs some assistance? Tell us. Need some exercise? We have walks coming up. Our 1st walk last weekend had almost 70 participants. Info on our upcoming walks are here: Photowalks. What's the worst that could happen? Meet some new, like minded friends? That would be horrible. Just remember, we want everyone to share what they've taken away from it.

So have I shot anything new that I'm proud of? That doesn't include people? Yes, I have...