Bethlehem A.D. - Hail and Farewell

For thirty years, Bethlehem A. D. has been a holiday event in Redwood City. The Rise Church has been presenting this recreation of Bethlehem as it might have appeared at the First Christmas, complete with Roman tax collectors, shops, temples, domestic animals, and of course, King Harod, seeking out male children aged two or less in an attempt to secure his own power. 

It is sad that this will be the final act for Bethlehem because the lot where it is staged was owned by the Church, but had to be sold to raise money to restore the church after a recent fire. I only found this out when I checked with their Facebook page to verify the schedule, only to the the word "last" ominously attached to the dates. And while this is their thirtieth presentation, it was only my fifteenth, having photographed my first on in 2013.

From 2013 Bethlehem 2013 A.D.

I was new in my role as an SMDJ  Community Photographer, and relatively ignorant to the holiday events in San Mateo County. My editor suggested that if I never attended on, I might give the event a visit and bring back a photo. This I did, and actually scored a two-fer consisting of this photo, and one of two boys "talking" to a camel. It was a dumb luck photo, the sort one makes when the happen to be standing in the right spot at the right time, and your subject just happens to strike an animated pose as search lights across the street are spread out behind him. It became known as "the shot" among the Bethlehem people, and I gained some small notoriety as the photographer who made it.

This year is a little different. The Heavenly Choir on the rooftop of the church was cut back to three angels, and many of the "actors" failed to show up on the first night. The Roman Legion was reduced to eight soldiers, down from at least a dozen, if memory serves me. Even King Harod's entourage was much smaller than years past. But the actors give it their collective all, in spite of the absences and that invisible pall that comes from knowing that this is the event's last year.

I made this shot during the dress rehearsal. Since the public wasn't present, I was able to set up a 10' light stand to achieve some high key lighting. I installed a Full CTO gel on the flash, and set the White Balance in the camera to 4500 Kelvin. This allowed me to warm the flash output and create a more natural balance for the existing tungsten lights. A subtle compromise white balance setting.

 I overlooked the context provided in the background, and the number of recognizable (though unidentified) dancers in the image. I regret not submitting the image.

This camel photo was my second submission. The handler-camel affection is appealing0, and the costume gave me the necessary context. Unfortunately, this s hot had to be made early in the evening because I needed the sky to help separate my subjects from the background. If I waited an hour, I might have had some children in the shot, but the sky would have been completely black.

The image at the top of the post was the one submitted for publication. Because the event started on a Tuesday, I was confident it could be published in the Friday edition, giving the paper's readers a chance to attend that evening. As it turned out, the paper never published the image on Friday, or during the weekend. However, the grand finale of Bethlehem's thirty-year run was celebrated in several local papers, so I can believe that my photo would have been overkill for so local an event. The image could have failed to generate sufficient interest by the editorial staff, as it doesn't come anywhere near the visual interest of that image I summitted when the event was, to me, both new and novel.

I will certainly miss working this event every Christmas, and working with the dedicated staff who worked so hard to put it on. It gave me valuable experience in working flash outdoors and at night, and am thankful for the number of times the SMDJ published my work. For me, 2022 leaves with a whimper, not a bang. In spite of the disappointment, I am looking forward to my next assignment in 2023.

Filoli Holiday Light Show

 

Filoli knows how to light up a garden. During the holidays, the trees and bushes are adorned with thousands of lights, more than exceed 20 miles worth if stretched end to end. I photographed this event last year and managed to get a photograph near the entrance to the mansion. With that photo in the can, I went home, and didn't take the time to explore the grounds.

This year there was an orientation specefically for the press, just outside of the mansion itself. From our meeting area, I saw that the light displays were much more extensive than I imagined, so when the meeting broke, I scurried about, looking for something that would convey the visual excitement of the season.

When I happened upon this Tunnel of Lights, I immediately thought of the hyperspace scene in Star Wars, and started setting up the shot. The lights seemed to move in a wave from back to front, and different strings provided tints of blue and orange.  At this moment, the lights were  at their brightest, and I used this as the base for my final exposure.

I chose to submit the image at the top of the post. The blurred kids, running down the tunnel, made it look like a fun thing for the whole family, and since they were blurred, I didn't bother to get their names. My two subjects, Vicki and Jim, were very cooperative, and I managed to get everything wrapped up in less than five minutes. 

The shot was made from a very low angle to emphasize the tunnel effect. I mounted a flash on the camera and tilted the head up slightly to prevent overexposing the foreground, If you look at the sample shot, you'll notice that the lights appeared to be smaller than those in the image at the top of the post. This is because I lengthened the exposure so the lights would flare a bit and appear larger. 

When I started to process the image on my computer, I noticed something important about where I placed my subjects and what improvements I might make in the future. I made the shot near the middle of the tunnel, and the tunnel lights above and behind me produced a very flat, shadow-free light fill light. Had I moved closer to the "mouth" of the tunnel, there would have been fewer of these lights, and the effect of any flash, either on the camera on a light stand, would have been much more pronounced. I could have made the lighting much more dramatic had I just moved away from the center, and positioned the flash in a more dramatic way. 

I will remember that for next year.

Teenie Ballerinas

I was sent to submit a photograph from the San Francisco Ballet's Dance In Schools and Communities program, and their instructor, Phonecia Pettyjohn. My editor gave me free rein on the project, leaving the focus of the photograph entirely up to me. I decided that I would try to produce a photo showing Ms. Pettyjohn working with one or more of her first-grade students, and hold out for a photo highlighting just her.

This is the second time I've made a photo in the  SF Ballet ecosystem, and the Covid restrictions require masks for all "outsiders" and vaccination verification. I tested myself two days before the shoot, and self-isolated until the day of the shoot. 

The assignment turned into two approaches. The instruction itself, which would be done with available light, while the 3/4 shot would be done with flash. Since the overhead florescent lights were of an unknown white balance, I used the camera's Custom WB feature rather than one of the presets. As is always the case, there would be problems when the available windowlight contaminated the image, but luckily, the overcast day minimized the problem.

I submitted this shot, in spite of the fact that I couldn't see Ms. Pettyjohn's face. My little ballerina was facing away from me, so I wouldn't need to get permission. The white balance setting was spot on, giving me accurate flesh tones. Notice that the reflection off of the floor has a definite tint, giving a hint at how different the artificial light was from daylight.

I was surprised to see that Ms. Pettyjohn used a tablet to illustrate how she needed her students to approach their future roles as dancers, and instill a sense that they would be part of a much larger whole. Seeing images of an actual ballet in progress gave these young dancers a visible goal to work towards. This appeared to be an effective approach when working with youngsters who might have some difficulty seeing themselves as part of an ensemble, rather that center stage in the comfort of their own bedrooms.

There was a brief recess between the two morning sessions, so I set up a shoot-through umbrella with a single 60 WS speedlight. A second speedlight was aimed at the background, just enough to brighten things up. When the students left, I positioned my lights next to the wall of mirrors, put Ms. Pettyjohn in position, and made my shot.

The True Takeaway: When the next group of students came in, I continued with my available light coverage. I was lucky to have had that distraction, because when I examined my 3/4 shots, I found that they were not as critically focus as they could have been. I hadn't yet put my lights away, so when the second group left, I managed to get just a few more minutes for a quick re-shoot. I explained that the images weren't as critically sharp as I waned, and that since the lights were still set up, the re-shoot would take only a minute or two. The lesson is to  never pack up your gear until you are absolutely sure the session is over. You never know when some technical problem will make a reshoot the only way to salvage an assignment.

Reflections On Reflections: This isn't the most original photo I've ever made, but it is the first time I used a mirror as part of the composition. For the sake of comparison, I took the submitted image and cropped both the original and the reflected image to compare. I also rotated the reflection to better match the original. I learned a few things:

• Retouch both the subject and its reflection. If I retouch out a blemish on my subject, I must do the same the the reflection.
• The reflection is going to be softer than the original. The reflection will probably be slightly blurry when compared to the actual subject. Since the reflective coating of the mirror is actually behind the glass, image bearing light will be refracted slightly as it passes back through it.
• The eyes may appear to be looking in a different direction. In this sample the reflected image appears to be looking slightly to camera left. 

In the end, the article (Q & A format) will do the heavy lifting, and this pleasing double-portrait will probably do just fine. I'm looking forward to another opportunity to improve on portraits that include reflections, as this assignment showed me that they are not as simple or straight forward as I once thought.

Flashpoint Dual Cold Shoe Extension

Buy your here.

Even in this day of working with ISO settings of 6400 and higher, you can still use some additional speedlight power when working on location.  For my own use, I use a 200 watt-second Godox AD-200 flash as my preferred location light source when I need lots and LOTS of power.

The double-speedlight thing and I go back a long way. Early on, I fashioned this twin-speedlight bracket using a short piece of aluminum channel stock and two Nikon AS-10 flash shoes. At the time, I still relied on the Nikon Creative Lighting System, so I needed to be sure the the sensor eyes were always pointing towards the on-camera controller. The system worked well enough, but as you can see, the bracket was a little bulky, and when you figure in the costs of two AS-10 flash shoes, relatively expensive. Subsequent iterations of this twin flash brackets would use less-expensive screw-tensioned cold shoes. My bracket had the disadvantage of occasionally unscrewing inside my camera bag, making for some frantic moments as I scrambled to find and reassemble the parts while my subject waited.

In contrast, the Flashpoint unit appears to be extruded from an extruded bar of what I assume is aluminum. This gives the unit both simplicity and rigidity, and is compact enough to easily stow itself in my increasingly crowded lighting bag. Notice that there is a threaded 1/4 x 20 threaded hole on both the front and back of the bracket. This allows the user to thread a like-threaded accessory into the front or back. In desperation, I can imagine threading a separate cold shoe in front to give me the total output of three speedlights. 

There are some cautions.  This would not be a good choice for direct lighting because each speedlight will cast its own shadow. This would normally not be an issue, but double and triple shadows are visible if the image is examined carefully.  This was less of an issue with my home-made unit, as I purposely mounted the two flash heads close together. But if used with an umbrella in shoot-through or bounce mode, you'll never notice. And it's a way in combine the power of two speedlights to create a single light source.

Respite From The Rain

It's showering today, and during a lull, I drove back to Blackie's Pasture in Marin County. Today's lens of choice was a 12mm F 2.8 from 7artisans, one which has given me good results in the past. One problem did occur - its wide angle of acceptance and excessive depth of field made it difficult to focus. Still, the image is reasonably sharp, but the uneven texture of the bronze statue made it a little hard to tell.

The pasture is surrounded by a rail fence of rough-hewn planks. The aging grain and prominent knots made for an odd sort juxtaposition of textures. To my eye, it has a dinosaur vibe.

Welcome Winter

Winter has finally arrived in the Bay Area. The city is drying out after some light rain last night, and the sky and air were clear and crisp, as they should be. This photo was made at a relatively large aperture. I can't be more specific because the manual focus Meike 28mm F 2.8 lens doesn't transmit EXIF data to the JPG image file. I remember trying to achieve an out of focus background, and to some extent, I succeeded. In truth,  this photo is too cluttered to carry a specific message. For example, which leaf was I trying to emphasize? Is the phone pole meant to compliment the random orientation of the leaves? No, I was just fascinated by the way the Fuji X-E1 renders its colors. Fuji has had a history of making color appealing, perhaps in the same way Kodachrome rendered its colored subjects. It seems that Fuji cameras just bring a little more saturation, although this could also be my habit of underexposing my photos by 1/3 of a stop for better color saturation. I just like the way the red and yellow(ish) leaves contrasted against the cyan sky.

I guess the joy of saturated color is the only reason this photo exists, and the impetus for nearly all of my morning walk photos.