Judge's Night 2014

Because my editor was a local attorney, I have photographed a number of events unique to the legal community in San Mateo County, where Redwood City is the county seat. I photographed a number of events in the picturesque historic county courthouse, and have done some "behind the scenes" shots that most people don't get to see.

My father told me that whenever there is a group to be photographed, start looking for a staircase.This is still good advise. It allows you to get better separation top and bottom separation in the subject's faces than you'd get by using the standard, "Tall people in back, less tall people in front". These particular stairs allowed passage to a sort of sunken living room, which in this case, was where the real party was happening.

Photo #1

Since I expected to be photographing a fairly large group, I brought my longest lightstand, and mounted 2 Nikon SB-800s in a mount I made that put the two flash heads side by side (Photo #1).The device is simply a piece of aluminum channel stock with three 1/4" holes: one for the brass spigot for attachment to an umbrella bracket, and two to hold, in this case, two Nikon AS-10 knockoff mounting shoes held in place with a 1/4 X 20 socket head screw. The distance between the mounting holes is equal to the width of the flash head (the widest point in the SB-800) plus an extra 1/4" in case I needed some additional width to accommodate any attachments. I purposely mounted the shoes so that the speedlight sensor eyes both faced forward. If my speedlights are position in front of me, I'll the sensors will face rearward. If my speedlights are behind me, the sensors will face forward. In most cases, I'll default to the sensor forward position, as shown. If I'm using a shoot-through umbrella, the sensors can usually detect the flash pulse if it's reflected from or passing through the fabric, depending on where the light is placed.

Photo #2

On suggestion: If you have the time to adjust your exposure manually, you can use the optical SU-4 sensor built into the SB-800, SB-900, and SB-910 speedlights. Used in this mode, the speedlights are much more responsive, so it didn't surprise me that the they "see" through a shoot-through umbrella. This is how I triggered the speedlights.
In this extreme closeup (Photo #2), you can see the double shadow from the chandelier created by the side by side mounting arrangement. This is more prominent when the distance from the object to its shadow increases, although I doubt that most viewer would notice. But if you're shooting against the sky, you're golden.

Photo #3

I rearranged some of the furniture to make room for my light stand, which for this shot placed the speedlights nearly 10 feet in the air. Once everything was set I stood by it, warning people away, and hoping it wouldn't get bumped, or worse, tipped. But the height was necessary to eliminate the "billiard ball" glare you often see on the tip of the nose. The extreme high also narrowed the distance between the front and rear row subjects, resulting in even lighting from front to back.

This preliminary shot shows the staircase as seen from my shooting position (Photo #3). One thing that is very obvious: The sun is shining through windows just behind me. It would have been nice if there were blinds I could close, but that was not to be. And another thing: because the sun was setting, the "hot spot" would move higher and higher. I really needed to get the shot done as soon as possible.

I knew that there would be problem with the dappled lighting effect, but this couldn't be helped. I wasn't going to scout out a better location, since to took no small amount of cajoling just to get my subjects to gather in one place. In arranging my subjects, I applied some quick, basic rules:

• Taller subjects in the back, less tall subjects in front.
• Subjects wearing glasses were moved to camera left, the same side as my speedlights. On close examination, I missed one.
• Front row subjects would stand on the first step to make sure that everybody's face was out of the sun.
• Ladies on camera right. This would give them slightly better lighting than their male counterparts, something that was noticed by some of the men.

Photo #4

In the pre-cropped sample (Photo #4), you can see that everybody's face is lit only by the speedlights. By setting both SB-800s to full power and giving each one its own SD-8a battery pack, I got the power I needed without the long re-cycle times. A bit more effort, but when faced with 17 current and former judges, you really don't want to keep them waiting.

Photo #5

The final cropped version (Photo #5) removed the carpet as a reference point. Next time, I'll remember to ask that all of the men button their jackets. I did see the one judge without a coat, and moved him to the second level. But I missed the judge in the front row with the open coat. But the time between the first shot and the last shot was less than four minutes, and the results perfectly acceptable under the circumstances. And I managed to keep everyone's face properly lit, which is really all that matters.

The "See" Change: Posing Then And Now

Photo #1

Then. It funny how we "see" things changes over the years. So far as photography goes, many of the images taken during the 1960's were influenced by the limitations of the available equipment,  or the tastes and preferences of the day.

Peggy was my classmate at the Twin Peaks Elementary School (Class of '63). Recently, her name came up in a conversation with some friends and  when I Googled her name, this photo, dated September 30, 1968, appeared (Photo #1). I have no idea what the two are either holding, or pulling apart. Peggy's arm band is a nice touch. A little heavy on the "context", I would say. I'm sure if I were to compare it the other photos from the time, they'd all look about the same.

Photo #2

On May 23, 1973, my first photo (Photo #2) was published. It has a similar bounce-flash look (soft shadows, top lighting) because that's how I made it. Since my I didn't own a Honeywell, I had to calculate/guestimate a workable exposure. A few years later, I read Techniques of Photojournalism: Available Light and the 35mm Camera by Milton Feinberg, and his approach to photographing people included portraying them as animated and involved subjects interacting with each other, or doing something interesting. Looking back, I tried to do this with all my photos, and have come to believe that I was on the right track.

I probably had much more fun photographing a cooking class than an award winning high school senior, since there was lots of action at the former, and almost none at the later. Still, I have to wonder if something couldn't have been done to make the first shot more interesting. I'm obviously not above Monday morning quarterbacking.
 

Now. I was asked to photography a handgun safety class being sponsored by a local shooting club. When they took a break, I introduced myself to the entire group and explained what I was doing, and that I wanted to make a photograph showing that women, often ignored in the shooting sports, could learn to handle firearms in a safe and relaxed environment. When class resumed, I went outside looking for a suitable background.

Since there would be no live fire that day, I had to approach the photo from a safety, rather than a marksmanship, angle. After finding a suitable location, I had these three students bring their safety equipment (hearing and eye protection) to the firing line. When the arrived, they brought some Blue Guns, non-firing plastic replicas made to look and feel like actual handguns. When they brought them to the firing line they were already demonstrating safe gun handling practices: muzzles up and fingers off the trigger. This photo is starting to come together.

Arranging Subjects. Due to restrictions on space, I had to use a my widest angle lens, which makes the women in the background appear smaller. I had arranged for the smallest woman to stand nearest to me. As for the other two, I purposely placed the second woman slightly behind the first to make her appear a bit slimmer. The third student was tall and slender, so her standing by herself wasn't an issue. Now all I needed was an instructor. I went back into the classroom and grabbed a female instructor and asked her if she would join us outside. Thankfully, she agreed.

 

Photo #3

To expand on the safety aspect, I had the instructor hold a pair of ear muffs and re-explain the advantage of "muffs" over "plugs" (Photo #3). Although this was covered in the classroom, they didn't seem to mind the review. One thing I noticed: The instructor allowed her left arm to fall to her side. So as she spoke, I gently guided her arm to an elevated position. She continued her talk, not missing a beat.

Photo #4

You can see that my simple redirection of her arm helps to keep the viewer's interest inside the photo. At one point, her left hand opened, she made a joke, and everyone chuckled. I had my shot (Photo #4).

A purist might argue that this is a posed shot, and therefore not "real". I believe it is a managed shot, as they were actually in the process of reviewing material covered in class. I believe the image both tells a story and engages the viewer with some interesting visual elements. It doesn't shout "posed". By combining words (the caption) with the image, we help the viewer understand the situation better than either could have done alone.

And it's much more interesting than the shot of Peggy and Mrs. Wilson. 

I am well aware that from a documentary standpoint, my interaction with my subjects invalidated this photo's journalistic integrity. However, I would argue that as a photographer submitting a shot for the Community Section, pages full of smiling "picket fence" photos, one is entitled to a bit more leeway so far how much a photo has been managed. If this was considered hard news I should never do what I did.