Wanamaker Photography Blog

Behind The Scenes Of A Photography Studio

Last night we headed up to Kingston, New York for the Section 9 Class D semi-final basketball game between John A Coleman Catholic and Eldred High School. Loretta’s little brother, Robert, was one of the players for the Eldred team.

We arrived a little early so we had time to setup our strobes at the end of the gym. Thankfully, there was a small stage at one end of the court where we could setup everything as there was barely any room behind the hoops. Using some tips given to us by a friend, we set our strobes and cameras to the proper settings and took a couple of test shots of the girls basketball game, which was in the third period when we arrived.

As the game got underway, the points lead bounced back and forth between the two teams until John A Coleman had a series of dead on shots and fouls in their favor. From this moment forward, the points between the teams would be close, but the players for Eldred weren’t able to regain the lead.

Here are a couple shots of both teams in action …

Excited to see some of the shots we got, I immediately downloaded the cards at 11:30PM last night and began browsing through a bunch of the shots. As I viewed the thumbnails, I saw this great shot of a John A Coleman player “attacking” the ball as it bounced off the back board …

 … And this image of a couple players during a foul shot …

I guess thats what “extreme concentration” looks like!

After my recent trip to San Francisco, I began looking back through some of the other trips I’ve made throughout the past year and the images I captured while visiting. The first trip that came to mind was one that I took back in the early part of February of last year to Las Vegas. Again, this trip was mainly business with a little free time for myself to check out the sights.

Now, they say that New York is the city that never sleeps … well … I think that title should be given to Sin City. No matter where you were staying or where you wound up for the night, there was always something to do or see. With the incredible amount of shows, clubs and other nightly entertainment … you could avoid sleep for a week and still not see and experience everything that Vegas (and the surrounding area) has to offer.

After getting out of classes early one day, I decided to head out into the beautiful 75 degree weather and take a walk around the strip. Luckily, there was a tram that stopped right at the hotel and would take you from one end of the strip to the other in just a couple minutes. For $5, I hopped on and headed for MGM. When I came out of the MGM hotel, I was greeted with a familiar sight …

Never having visited Vegas before, seeing a hotel that looked like your own home-town city was pretty cool. Every little detail that they could have packed into the design … they did … and it was incredible!

I continued up the strip, past the hotels in progress and the hookers working the streets and finally made it up to the Bellagio where I walked up one of their driveways, turned around and shot Paris in the desert …

As I continued up the strip, I also grabbed a shot of the Mirage volcano that amazed so many at night …

But overall, I have to say that the Venetian is the one hotel that I liked the most. Just walking up to the front entrance was a sight to see. Unfortunately, because I was too busy looking at everything, I didn’t even shoot a picture until I got inside and remembered I had a camera slung around my neck!

As I walked through the main entrance, they had this water fountain that was just screaming to have its picture taken …

As I continued my personal tour through the hotel, I eventually wound up in their rendition of the Grand Canal, complete with Gondolas and singing Gondoliers. As I made my way through the shops, I saw a really cool looking statue with a ton of money laying on the railing in front of it. Again, not having been to Vegas before, I was curious to find out what it was all about.

All I have to say is that this guy was good …

I stood next to him for nearly 5 minutes and not once did he move, sway or make a noise. After I took my shot, I decided to make my own contribution … and when I did, he reached out to shake my hand as a thank you, only to freak out a little girl standing near by who thought he was a statue as well!

Like San Francisco, Vegas was a cool city to check out and is definitely on my list of re-visits. Unlike most tourists to the area, I didnt get a chance to see Red Rock, the Grand Canyon or Hoover Dam … so they are a must for next time!

Now … lets see what else I can dig up …

Yesterday, Loretta was out covering the Section 9 Wrestling Finals at Monroe-Woodbury as a Team Photographer for Minisink Valley.

During one of the matches, the coaches in the corner of the mat kept blurting out moves and opportunities that they saw as the wrestling match progressed. After a few minutes of this, it seemed that the wrestler had had enough and decided to tell the coaches how he felt …

We actually thought that this was pretty funny. In all the times we’ve photographed wrestling matches, it was the first time we’ve actually seen a wrestler telling his coaches to be quiet during a match. While the extra eyes and expertise can be an added advantage for the wrestler … trying to listen to two coaches yelling moves to you can definitely break your concentration.

This image was shot using our Mark III and 70-200mm lense, zoomed all the way in at 1/200 at F3.2 with the ISO at 500. The light actually came via a friend of ours, who had two strobes on the upper level tied to a pocket wizard. While he uploaded some of the images he shot to the newspaper for a play-by-play, he let Loretta use the system for some of her shots.

Being a photographer and artist, I look to many different areas for inspiration. This morning, my Google Desktop Sidebar RSS Widget popped up with a little note that someone, somewhere in the world had written a blog post related to photography. I clicked the link and it brought me over to a post about Finding Grace (not the TV Show) by David’s Digital ProTalk.

It turns out that Multi-Gazillionaire, President and Chief Executive Officer of ACS, Lynn Blodgett, has produced one of the best photography books of 2007 (according to PopPhoto.Com). Not of landscapes or children or models - but of homeless people.

Finding Grace - The Face Of America’s Homeless is a book of 140 images of homeless people and families throughout America. In David’s words …

Don’t get the wrong idea here, this isn’t rich man photographs poor people to get famous. Lynn has had a love of phtotgraphy and considers himself an amateur photographer since he was a kid. At a recent workshop in which he participated, he produced some really compelling images according to Andrew Eccles, the course instructor.

Encouraged by this experience, Lynn began his journey. He would get out of his car in areas of towns where homeless people gather for shelter and protection, set up a white seamless background and begin photographing anyone who would stand in front of the camera. The images are a peek into a part of the world most of us would shun and try to ignore. But the result is that Lynn found the humanness in these people and his portraits truly reflect it.

Lynn’s efforts have resulted in the founding of Finding Grace Homeless Initiative which is an emerging coalition of individuals and organizations aiming to increase awareness and raise money for homeless organizations.

After my recent trip to San Francisco and the encounters that I had with the homeless there, I think that the Finding Grace Homeless Initiative is something that everyone should try to take part in - whether you are a gazillionaire or not - as that could be one of us someday, down and out on our luck, looking for someone to provide a helping hand!

To check out some of the pages from the book, be sure to check out the website!

Now, we usually post our Image Of The Week on Sunday … but since this shoot wasn’t wrapped up until later in the day yesterday, we needed a little extra time to get it to press! 

Starting in 2008, we began our marketing campaign for “Senior Portraits: Your Way!” with the premise that each high school senior is unique … and their images should be the same. Granted, most parents want the traditional cap and gown or tux or drape shots … but the seniors want something that is as unique as they are without looking the same as everyone else.

Roberta is the younger sister of our photographer, Loretta, who wanted just what we were offering and loved the end results! The entire shoot lasted a few hours and provided her with a couple different backgrounds and outfit changes to work with. We provided her with a hair stylist and she brought her own clothes and did her own makeup.

This image was shot with our Canon Rebel XTI, 28-105mm lense at F4 at 1/500 with the ISO at 400. This was zoomed into about 75mm and had some minor retouching, lighting levels and saturation adjustments done in Photoshop.