Against the wind

The only thing I like better than photographing people is photographing people doing something they love to do in the environment in which they love to do it. Suzanne was kind enough set aside some time to model for me. More than once. Unpredictable weather canceled more than one scheduled session. We finally wwere able to connect on a chilly spring day to get the picture above. Several times running around the bend. Sun in her face. Wind blowing like crazy. But she loves to run. She loves to help others. By posing for me, she got to do both.

Walking the lonely path

Taken last weekend on the shores of Lake Michigan near Evanston, Illinois. Recent weather has been more suited for late November than mid-May, and this picture is indicative of that.

Let it snow

Walk on by

Continuing with the theme of taking people's pictures while they're walking away from me. This is my wife, taken while out for a walk this past weekend. Curve of the path, shadow line and placement of the figure were all intentional. The footprint of a dude with a large foot and that of a horse are bonuses.

Photograph © 2010 James Jordan.

Carried away

Snapped this shot during some down time during a recent family portrait session. The little guy was getting restive and mom decided to take the young man for a spin. He loved it.

Photograph © 2010 James Jordan.

Katie

I spent the month of September shooting pictures for a lot of people. Nothing wrong with that, but I was kept so busy, I didn't have time to make any pictures for myself. I did get to go out this past Saturday and do some landscape shooting just for me. Didn't come back with too much worth keeping, but it was good to get out and play with possibilities.

One of the things that going out on Saturday helped with was a senior portrait session on Sunday. Once the fairly standard selection of senior picture poses were in the bag, I experimented with environmental portraits, and I'm pretty happy with the results.

Nearly every shot from the session is lit with flash, but in such a way as to blend in with the late day sunlight. Sometimes the flash was the key light with the sun adding an accent. Other times I let the sun be the main light while filling in the shadows with flash. Katie's mom is standing just to the right of the larger tree in the picture above, holding a flash unit aimed at her daughter which was fired with a wireless trigger. Had there been no flash, the right side of Katie's face would have been dark.



For the most part, this was straight-ahead, no diffusers, stark nekkid flash. There wasn't alot of choice because a diffuser or umbrella would have gotten blown away by pretty strong winds. But it worked.



Besides helping to balance the ambient sunlight, the flash adds a little catchlight in the eyes, a little sparkle, a little life. Nice.

Photographs © 2010 James Jordan.

Terms of engagement

I had the chance to shoot an engagement session recently in the historic town square of Woodstock, Illinois. The one that was used in the movie Groundhog Day to recreate Gobbler's Knob in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania.

It was an intimate session. Just Katie, her fiance Brent, my wife as an assistant and 200 partygoers crammed into the square for a late summer festival of some sort. The soiree was not listed on the square's upcoming events on the town web site. Ah, well. So much for recreating Bill Murray/Andie MacDowell dancing in the gazebo.

We made do. We hung around the outskirts of the square and I used clever angles and the occasional Photoshop clone tool to hide anyone who wandered into the background.

I love shooting late day portraits. I love shooting early morning, too, but haven't been able to interest too many clients in getting up before sunrise to get to a location. The low sun in the sky offers a whole lot of lighting possibilities that don't exist midday.

The picture above was lit with a single speedlight with a shoot-through umbrella to compensate for having the sun behind the subjects.

More pictures from this session can be found on my Facebook photography page.

Photograph © 2010 James Jordan.

Peoplescapes

Amy Rose discovered my photographs on this blog awhile back. She started following my work here and on Flickr. When it came time to select a photographer for her wedding, she had a short list. Last May, we got together in a Starbucks and talked about what she was looking for in her wedding pictures. "We love your landscapes. If you could shoot our wedding the same way, we'd be thrilled."

She even chose a wedding venue that would be condusive to landscape photography -- the Wedding Canyon in White Pines State Park near Oregon, Illinois. Walls of exposed rock layers rise up to twenty feet above a beautifully landscaped floor of grass, trees, ponds and rocks.



I shoot landscapes with an eye for the light. Where is it coming from? What is it doing? Can I add some light of my own and have it make sense? I look for shapes and colors that I can work into interesting compositions. Then I go for contrast and colors in the exposures. Which is exactly what I did on Amy Rose and James' wedding day.



And had a blast doing it.

Photographs © 2010 James Jordan.

Under the stars

Self portrait under a starry sky.

My wife and I visited my daughter, who lives in a rural part of Tennessee. Far from city lights that pollute the night sky. Clear nights provide a spectacular star show that I love to capture on camera. This photograph was made in one exposure, with no Photoshop other than to adjust levels a tad.

It took an hour or so to set up and choreograph this shot. I set up the camera on a tripod and framed the shot with an ultra wide angle lens while it was still light. Placed a flash on a stand just outside the frame to the left. Identified the spot in which I needed to stand.

When it was sufficiently dark (nearly pitch black), I set the camera to a 30 second exposure. The flash (fired by a wireless trigger on camera) was set to go off at the end of the exposure. That gave me 30 seconds from the time I hit the shutter to use a handheld flash unit to light the trees (five pops of the flash), find my mark, place the handheld flash unit behind me and hit a pose before the final flash went off. The advance planning paid off. It only took three or four tries to get a frame that I liked.

Ah, the things I do for my art.

Extra points if you can find the Big Dipper. The big dip is in the orange shirt.

Photograph © 2010 James Jordan.

Flame on!

The fish boil is a Door County tradition that, depending on whom you ask, was either brought to Wisconsin from the "old country" or originated right there on the Door peninsula a century and a half earlier. The premise is simple -- potatoes, onions, salt and chunks of Lake Michigan whitefish are introduced at specific times to a large pot of boiling water over an open fire. The finale is the boilover, when the fire is doused with kerosene, which causes the water to boil over the sides of the pot, which simultaneously removes the accumulated fish oils and douses the fire. Time to eat.



A good boilmaster is equal parts cook, thermodynamics engineer, showman, interpretive guide and pyromaniac. Such a person works the fire pot at Pelletier's Restaurant in Fish Creek, Wisconsin. Seven times a day, seven days a week for 26 weeks of the year, Matt Peterson, a third generation boilmaster, stokes the fire, engages the crowd, times the addition of ingredients to the pot, and poses for pictures. Together, we estimated that Matt's image is snapped about 5,ooo times in a given week, possibly giving him the edge over the goats on the grass roof of Al Johnson's restaurant in Sister Bay. Not a bad way to make a living.

I happened upon the 8:00 p.m. fish boil at Pelletier's, the last of the day. Matt confided to the crowd that the day's finale gets an extra charge -- double the dose of kerosene. (You'll note in the photographs below that everyone is standing well behind the chain fencing -- everyone, that is, except for a certain photographer who had poked his head under the chain to get those shots.)

This was a single-pot finale. During the busier dinner hours, Matt will have two pots going at once. He explained that in a two-pot scenario, the first pot gets a regular dose of fuel while the second gets a double dose. He tried to explain to me the dynamics of the timing and sizes of the charges to ensure proper consistency between the food in the two pots. I wasn't buying it. It was mainly to provide a better show for the patrons, wasn't it?

"Just between you and me, yes," he admitted.

I staked myself out in a corner of the chained-off boil area to wait for the conflagration. Two things I ignored -- the scorch marks on the ground and the singed shrubbery behind me -- should have told me that I was going to be pretty close to the action. I also used a very wide angle lens to frame the shot. It would catch the fireball and crowd reaction nicely, but it would also make objects in the viewfinder closer than they appeared. I set my camera to fire five frames a second, set the focus and exposure to manual so the fireball would not throw either setting off and waited for the blast.







The blast came and I felt warm. Very warm. In the second shot of the sequence above, it appears as if Matt is looking my way to assess the extent of the restaurant's liability at setting a photographer on fire. The third shot of the sequence shows Matt disregarding me in favor of getting out of Dodge himself.

After examining my arms and finding no singed hairs, I met up with my wife, who for some reason doesn't share my love of exploding pots of fish, and headed over to Sunset Park to catch the sunset and its watchers.

Photographs © 2010 James Jordan.

Cooler by the lake

Weekend sailors enjoy the late afternoon at Reefpoint Marina in Racine, Wisconsin. This particular day, the cool lake air mixed with the hot humid onshore air to produce thick fog over the water.



But the fog didn't hamper the sunset in any way.



Photographs © 2010 James Jordan.

Christopher Kenosha

Harbor Park in Kenosha, Wisconsin is a nice place to spend a summer Saturday. Expansive open area on the shore of Lake Michigan, nearby museums, beach, lighthouses, a trolley, and weddings. Lots of weddings. The cars, limos and sometimes buses pull up, wedding parties get out and photographers start doing their thang.

This little flower girl wandered around in front of the Christopher Columbus statue and fountain in the center of the park while waiting for her turn in front of the camera. Portions of the wedding party were getting their photos taken on the other side of the fountain. As she wandered in front of the statue, I saw a nice picture about to line up and I had a camera in my hands, so what the heck.

As my wife and I strolled further, we saw a photographer working with a bride and groom. The photog just finished a series of shots of the couple with Chris's backside behind them when we heard a trolley clanging along behind us. The photographer quickly jumped into position in front of the couple, told them not to move and got a couple of shots of the b&g with the trolley passing behind them.

Good man.

Photograph © 2010 James Jordan.

Candid shots

From the Port Washington Pirate Festival last weekend. The minstrel making music and telling tales of life on the open seas ...



The flaunter of flasks in the marketplace ...



And the sorcerer, using his silver box of magic to capture people's souls.

Photographs © 2010 James Jordan.

There be pirates

I headed up to the Port Washington Pirate Festival in Port Washington, Wisconsin last weekend. My main objective was to come back with a number of piratey portraits to feed my portfolio. I figured that anyone willing to go to the effort to turn themself into a pirate wouldn't mind posing for a couple of photos. I was right. I ran into one group of scallawags and wenches that called themselves the Sea Ratts. All I had to do was ask once to take a few photos and I became their official photographer for the weekend. Individual shots, couples, small groups, large group. I came away with shots for my portfolio and Getty Images, they had photos for their web site. Win-win.



I learned that many of the piratey participants traveled a regular summer circuit of festivals and fairs ranging from Rennaissance to Revolutionary War. One gentleman I spoke to said that since the economy tanked, having something like that to fall back on was not too bad of a way to make a living. He wouldn't go into detail about how they made money -- I presume some made money through selling concessions and others through performance fees, but I'm only speculating.



This was my favorite subject throughout the weekend. Meet the "Governor" of Port Washington. His job was to act alarmed and comically order his militia to repel the landing of a pirate vessel and subsequent invasion of his port, every two hours on the hour each day. I'd catch him between invasions, and he would always snap back into character as soon as he saw me and my camera. Lots of fun.

I've been meaning to turn my camera more often to the human landscape and this summer I plan to do more of it.

Photographs © 2010 James Jordan.

Points of view

I shot a wedding this past weekend. Mostly on my feet. Sometimes on my belly in the middle of the aisle. I asked the minister ahead of time if doing so might bother him, and he said to go for it.



From the balcony ...



From between the main photographer and the videographer ...



From the wedding party's viewpoint ...



And a whole lotta places in between. Shooting's done. Now the processing's begun.

Photographs © 2010 James Jordan. Shot for Holly Birch Photography, Champaign, Illinois.

The moon moved me so I moved it

Some double exposures of the moon and the goings on around the Sturgeon Bay lighthouse. As I packed up to leave, a couple of gentlemen arrived to do some fishing. I was nearly back to my car when I looked out to see them at work (good work if you can get it) on the pier. I zoomed in on them and got a shot or two, then added the moon in post.



While the telephoto zoom compresses and flattens perspective, I like how the waters on the shore side of the pier are calm while the open water beyond tosses and churns. I also like how one guy chose to anchor his net on the pier. It was pretty windy that night.

Photoshop tip: If you have a good shot of the moon in the semi-dark sky, you can select it with the elliptical selection tool, copy then paste it into another photo. This automatically places the moon on its own layer. It will have the dark ring around it from your selection, but not to worry. Select "Lighten" from the layer options menu. Voila. The moon is now seamlessly blended into the picture. You can then adjust the opacity (which will control the brightness of the moon) to your taste. Flatten the image and save.

Photographs © 2010 James Jordan.

The sun went down ...

I've been away for a few days. To stand. To watch. To ponder. And grab some pictures of what I saw while standing, watching and pondering.

I specifically made a trip to Door County, Wisconsin to fill a few holes in the selection of photographs that will hang in a gallery there from May to October. The theme is twilight and night scenes around the county.

The scene above is a self portrait taken at the marina in Sister Bay. I had wrapped up shooting the sunset and as an afterthought, decided to plop down the tripod, set the self timer and walk to the end of the pier for a shot.

A few stubborn chunks of ice hang around the harbors, slowly falling victim to the warm winds that blow from the south. Their days are numbered. Buds are budding. Grass is greening. Taps and buckets are attached to sugar maple trees. A season ending, another beginning.



Technical stuff: Graduated neutral density filter used to balance sky and foreground tones, 30cc magenta filter to warm up the sky. Photographs © 2010 James Jordan.

Happy St. Pat's Day

We interrupt all the photos I've been posting of green stuff to bring you ... more green stuff. Happy St. Patrick's Day.

Note: This photo was used to promote an Irish dance festival in Australia.

Photo from last September's Long Grove, Illinois Irish Days. Photograph © 2010 James Jordan.

Who's entertaining who?

Simultaneous primate entertainment at the ape/human exhibit, Henry Vilas Zoo, Madison, Wisconsin.

Photograph © 2010 James Jordan.

Carving his niche

After the disappointing ice sculpture fiasco, I shot some of the morning activity at Fish Creek's Winter Festival. Having sufficiently chilled myself to the bone after spending nearly three hours on the town's frozen harbor photographing kite fliers, ice bowlers, snow golfers and toilet seat tossers, I returned to a pre-determined rendezvous point to meet my wife.

I discovered that a guy with a chainsaw had set himself up in front of our rendezvous point and was busily, loudly and smokily carving away on a stump of wood. The guy was Dave Bartels, a chainsaw artist from Clintonville, Wisconsin who specializes in whimsical woodland creatures. I wasn't sure if Dave came in specially for the Winter Festival or if he regularly does Saturday demonstration carvings at the local retailer that carries his work. No matter. Watching Dave at work more than made up for the lack of quality ice sculptures in town that day.



Dave seemed to know exactly what he wanted to accomplish with the wood, methodically and purposefully circling the stump, roughly forming the animal cut by cut, wood chips and blue smoke billowing all the while. More precise and fine cuts followed. Finishing touches were applied with a blow torch to darken areas of the wood.



While I was photographing Dave from the street and from standing atop a nearby park bench to clear the protective mesh fence that surrounded his work area, several of his sculptures departed the scene while money simultaneously flowed into Dave's pocket.

Good work if you can get it.