The Inner Workings of My Workflow
I’m often asked about my work flow as a photographer. Everything from what’s in my camera bag, what kind of lights do I use, to what kind of fanny pack I use. So I thought I would give a little insight about my work flow. And there’s no better time of year to illustrate this than now. This is my busiest time of year, plus I’ve been on some really cool photo shoots lately. Kentucky Living Magazine has been keeping me busy. After covering the Sweet 16, I flew out the next week to Orlando to cover Kentucky native Kenny Perry at the Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill. We’ve also been shooting annual report photos for the electric co-ops across the state. I’ve really gotten pumped about some of my linemen shots. One of the best shoots that I have done in a long time, happened in Lexington last week when I shot the cover photos for the World Equestrian Games, coming to town later this fall. The weather was great, and I couldn’t have asked for any better cooperation from the rider and horse.
I usually keep all of my equipment with me on a shoot. I never know what I’ll need. Katie Decker
assisted me on the World Equestrian shoot and grabbed these shots of me getting set up.
I scheduled this shoot about an hour and a half too soon because the sun was too much over head
and way too bright. So we hung out in the drive way for a while. Notice that my light was a
White Lightning 1600, with a big ole honkin’ beauty dish and a Vagabond battery to power it. I like leaving the
dish in my garage, because the dirtier and grimier that it gets the warmer the light is that comes from it.
I like using a fanny pack to hold an Ale-8 and a flash. Then I usually run two bodies. I hate having to
change lenses in the middle of a shoot.
I shot my first wedding that was solely with speed lights back in February. I’m pretty addicted to using my
White Lightnings, but I found that the speed lights, also known as on-camera flashes, were much
more convenient and light weight. They were especially nice for this outside shot that we did after the
ceremony in the dark. I over exposed the shot with my shutter speed so that the sky would burn in with
a pretty blue.
The Kenny Perry assignment was a whirl-wind, 36-hour round trip. I hadn’t flown with my camera equipment
since before 911. But it wasn’t to bad. Roller bags have come a long way. You couldn’t pay me to carry an actual
camera bag these days.
Events like this, football games, The Kentucky Derby, etc., can sometimes be tough on the back because
you have to pack so much equipment around your waist and on your shoulders.
This was the only major event that I’ve worked where the Will Call window was off site. I got there that morning,
through on all of my gear, and started walking toward the course, when I saw a course official driving a golf cart.
I stopped him and asked where Will Call was. He looked at me kind of funny and said, “Oh! It’s not here,
it’s over at Universal.”
Kenny Perry was great. He was just as nice as everyone said he would be.
I’ve decided that I’m going to create the ISO 640 Fan Club. I’ve just recently discovered the beauty of
ISO 640. It’s the most versatile ISO. It’s low enough that you can still use a flash with it, but it’s also
high enough to pull in a lot of available light at the same time. You can also achieve this by dragging your shutter,
but the extra sensitivity with ISO 640 allows you to keep your shutter on or around 125 and still keep the background.
I used the ISO 640 method to document Saint Joseph Hospital moving the Moms
and Babies from Saint Joseph East to their new Women’s Hospital. It allowed me to
capture the movement and keep the background from going dark.
I truly believe that photographers have the greatest job in the world. But sometimes we get so caught
up in our work that we forget to have fun. This was part of the electrical linemen series that I did for the
electric co-ops. I climbed on the truck with this lineman from Licking Valley RECC in West Liberty. I used
one hand to hold on to the auger so that I could lean out over the truck for a nice wide angle. It was fun!
My good friend Kellie Carter assisted me down in Somerset with the South Kentucky RECC lineman. We
had a couple of soft boxes setup on each side. I always try to use the sun as a legitimate light
source any time I can. The sun not only made a great light source for this shot, it also created
a beautiful blue sky as a background.
Same approach here with Clark Energy in Winchester. Two soft boxes on each side as fill light,
letting the sun do the rest of the work.
An example of my soft box set up.
This was a cool shoot. I got to hang out with UK President Lee Todd as he participated in
UK’s Mini Medical School program, a one day simulation of what it’s like to be a med student. On shoots like these,
try to blend in and shoot as much available light as I feel comfortable with. The light on this shot came
solely from the X-Ray light box.
I was really proud of this shot on Easter Sunday because I shot it with a Canon G10 point and shoot. It goes
to show that you don’t have to have a $2,000 camera to get a great shot! Yes, I was on macro.
I couldn’t have asked for anything better on my World Equestrian shoot. The rider and horse were fabulous,
and the light and weather were as if I had ordered them up.
Reese Koffler-Stanfield and her champion dressage horse, Kasper.
My motto with available light has always been, if you have it and it’s
good, then use it. If you have it and it’s not good, you better have a damn good Plan B.
I used my White Lightnings some on this job but it was mostly available light.
I did use a strobe on this shot to fill in the left side of her face.
Well kiss my ass. That’s the end of this blog!
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