u n b i d d e n

The other day I was reading a discussion on a popular forum for photographers about Twitter, the micro blogging tool that’s becoming ever more popular. The basic consensus from these photographers was “I don’t get it.”

I use Twitter, however it’s pretty easy to say that not every one gets it. And those that do understand what it’s about have thousands of reasons why they use it. I myself have more than one reason to use Twitter besides the obvious reason; that I’m a geek.

One of the reasons I use it is for crowd-sourcing things that correspond with my job. Here’s an example.

We had an incident a while back where I had to quickly choose an image for the paper. Then I spent a little time putting the rest of the pictures together for a slide show.

After everything was published I had someone question why I chose one photo over another. I sent this person a detailed email stating my thought process and that was the end of it. But later it occurred to me that it would be interesting to find out what a variety of other people thought.

So I posted the question to my twitter feed. It was quite interesting to see the responses I got back. Not only did other photographers and photo editors chime in with their thoughts. I received compelling answers back from local readers too.

Click though the slide show below to see my question, the pictures and some of the answers.

This little exercise really brought home the potential benefits being involved in social networking such as this. It allows me to connect with people in my profession and with local readers. It allows them to feel in touch with me, and what I do.

Don’t take my word for it though.

Why journalists should use Twitter

Don’t Fear Twitter

Why journalists (and others) should use Twitter

For a shot about using food as beauty products. I was almost able to pull off an equipment cliche trifecta. I used a Lensbaby that I borrowed from Nick and a DYI ring flash made by Parker.

Some times it’s the test shot I like the most. When I get the lights close to how I want them and want to check what’s going on I tell the subjects, “this is a test shot.” They let down their guard. They get lost in thought. I make a snap. They come back to the present and I say, “Ok, we’re ready for the real pictures.” But now I think that the test shot is the real picture. Even when it’s from a sort two minute portrait session. One problem. No one sees the real pictures. Most go unseen. Well almost, most.

I handled a portrait assignment the other day. This lady is a Sports Information Director at a local college here. She won an award we are doing a story about here at the paper.

During the interview I walked around looking for locations in the athletic facilities. I finally decided on the hall of fame. I quickly decided on using just two lights. A main light with the soft-box and a bare strobe hitting the wall behind my subject.

I carry two colored gels in my lighting bag. A red one and a blue one (some day I’ll put more in there). I thought using some color would jazz things up some. And since she had on a blue shirt I thought red might be a nice contrast. Then I remembered that the schools colors are blue and silver. So I went with the blue.

I shot some test images before my subject arrived and I quickly learned that my main strobe was not firing my background light. I was relying on photo-eye slaves since I didn’t have along any Pocket Wizards.

My quick workaround was to put down a third strobe on the floor with a photo-eye slave on it and set the power to 1/16th. This set up a relay of lights that would trigger my background light placed down the hallway.

I get a lot of satisfaction out of improvising solutions on the fly.

This is my eye doctor