The Classic 50mm.

The 50mm prime lens (meaning a fixed focal length of 50mm rather than a zoom) has been an unparalleled photographic work horse since the invention of 35mm film. It's often referred to as a normal or standard lens and it used to be the regular kit lens included with most camera bodies. A 50mm offers a happy medium between wide-angle and telephoto and, usually, a fast aperture (typically 1.8 or 1.4) that gives you the option to shoot in low light or isolate the subject with a sliver of sharp focus. It's simplicity encourages good technique, it's price is approachable ($100 to $500 depending on features and brand), and its versatility makes it potentially the only lens you'll ever need.

Now, before I get too high and mighty about this let me say that I am terrible at taking my own advice. This post is supposed to be about simplifying, about using your equipment to its fullest rather than buying something else. It's about truly mastering the basics rather than just upgrading your gear. I, on the other hand, have often done the opposite.

Over the past decade, I've bought and sold more photographic equipment than most small camera shops. At one point I even sold one 50mm lens and then promptly bought a different one. Out of desperation and nagging insecurity, I have several times attempted to buy my way out of photographic slumps and creative dead ends. It almost never works. I tend to travel with more camera equipment than clothing. I have been known to take multiple cameras for a "relaxing" afternoon at the beach. The back seat of my car is like a drifting dune of photo equipment, ebbing and flowing from driver to passenger side and back again. This is partly because I'm an idiot, but also because I fear that with out lots of fancy equipment on hand at all times I will miss a great photo. This is almost never the case. When I look back through my archive, I find that most of my favorite images were taken with minimal (and often cheap) equipment at times and in places where a huge camera case would have only held me back.

That in mind, here is my resolution: I'm going back to shooting with a 50mm...most of the time. Now, I have to hedge my bet a little because I know I will have clients and shoots for whom the 50mm just won't be quite enough. I'm not going all Kung Fu Master and leaving my worldly possessions behind to simply walk the earth. But I am going to try to get back to basics as much as I can. And shooting with a simpler rig is a great way to do that.

I find that bare bones equipment forces you to be more intentional about composition. It forces you to zoom with your feet rather than your fingertips, to look carefully, to think about angles, and to pay attention. PAY ATTENTION. It creates challenges that you have to think through rather than skirt around. In short, it makes you work a little harder, but it makes you better. And it rewards you with images that you wouldn't get any other way.

 So here's to the classic 50mm, long may it reign.

 

Senior Portraits? Book Now.

Listen up people: if you're interested in booking a senior portrait session (or any portrait session for that matter) with Hired Lens Photography, contact us soon because the calendar is getting pretty darn full. July has been packed, August is almost all booked (I only have two openings left towards the end of the month), and September is already filling up fast. And for anyone interested in doing something really different, I've got a couple new locations in the old bag of tricks for this season. Where are they? I'm not going to ruin the surprise, but trust me when I say that they're cool. Call 262.305.9187 or go to the contact page to book your shoot.

P.S. Last year, we had a couple people who went for the underwater senior portrait challenge but due to some bad weather, some bad luck, and some super cloudy water, we had to scrap the idea. So it goes. But I haven't given up. I'm reissuing the challenge and offering a 15% discount again for anyone that uses one of their portrait settings to do an underwater photo. If we have to abandon the plan because of bad conditions, you still get the discount. Any takers?

Wood Spirit Gallery.

I'm just finishing the editing on a new batch of photos I shot for Wood Spirit Gallery a couple weeks ago. April and Jarrod are making some really beautiful things using some very traditional methods. As always, the really fun part of this job is talking to people and learning about what they do. I learned a ton during this shoot just by watching them work. For example, Jarrod uses a pole lathe to make bowls. It's an ancient technique that dates back to the 9th century (maybe earlier) when the Vikings were using it to make ale bowls. I understood the basic concept of this tool before this shoot, but this was the first time I'd actually seen one in use. And let me say it's a cool system. Very simple, but effective, especially with an artisan like Jarrod at the treadle. Check out their site for more info about what they make. And stay tuned for some more interesting photos in the next couple weeks.

Gone to the Races.

The first real car I ever drove was a race car. I was ten or eleven and my cousin Jason was racing dirt track stock cars at the time. His car was pretty much exactly like the one in the last photo in this post. What possessed a man who spent all his free time working on his car to then allow that car to be driven by a ten year old, I will never know. But he boosted me in through the window, clipped me into the five point harness and crouched on the passenger side holding onto the roll cage while I drove for the first time. It was incredible. I'm not what you would call a stock car fan, but from that day on there has always been a little soft spot in my heart for dirt track racing. It's not like the big NASCAR events. It's all little teams of two or three guys working in garages and little shops and backyards, building a car on nickels and dimes, and giving it hell every Saturday night because its fun. And you can tell they're loving it.

Jason stopped racing a long time ago and I hadn't been to a track since he hung up his driving gloves, but yesterday I had a free night and Sarah was out of town, so I grabbed a camera and went to ABC Raceway in Ashland. If you've never been before, let me say that short track dirt racing is a quintessentially American past time: It's loud. It's dirty. And it's not quite like anything else I've ever seen. Like any new sporting experience, the key to really enjoying it is to pick someone to cheer for. I was rooting for the guys from Lakeshore Sales and Service since they replaced the brakes in my truck last week. Whoever you cheer for, win or lose, the fun is in the drama.

Since this kind of racing is so classic, I decided to shoot it in black and white with a heavy film grain to give it a more timeless look. These shots could be from any one of a thousand tracks on any summer Saturday night in the last 50 years. That effect, which roughly approximates a classic black and white film called Tri-X, also helps to cover the need for high ISO and cancels out the weird color combinations that come from a mix of halogen, tungsten, and sodium vapor stadium lighting. It's a very different feel than the rich colors and smooth gradients I usually try to get. It's not the right look for everything, but for this, I think it's perfect.

 

Kraut, Curtido, & Kim-Chi. (& Pesto...& a couple other things.)

Over the past couple weeks, I've been working on some new photography for Spirit Creek Farm in Cornucopia, Wisconsin. If you're not familiar with their products, Spirit Creek specializes in lacto-fermented foods (read this if you're not sure what lacto-fermented means). They're also making really delicious garlic scape pesto now, too. Great stuff. I've been a huge fan of their curtido for a while and, beyond being a brat-grilling must at our house, their kraut was also a Good Food Award winner in 2011 and 2012. That's no small achievement.

I love food photography like this. Partly I think, because I love prepping and plating the food for the shoot (real chef's are probably cringing at what I've done with these, but I'm still proud of them). There's a little part of me that thinks I should have been a chef. Maybe in my next life.

Busy week.

Wow. It has been a busy frickin' week. Awesome, but busy. I was all over the map, thematically and literally, and next week shows no signs of slowing down. Plus, summer is now, beyond the shadow of a doubt, in full swing. I can tell because my forearms and the tops of my feet are a deep, swarthy tan. My legs, however, are still the delicate lily white of a man who wears long pants to work every day. If I wear shorts right now it looks like I'm still sporting a snug pair of freshly bleached thermals. The contrast is astounding, maybe even appalling. In photographic terms, I'd estimate the variation to be somewhere in the range of 8 full stops. Yikes. I need to find a little time to get some daylight on those puppies. Now that I've over-shared, here is a random smattering of this weeks photographic highlights. Rock the weekend. You've earned it, people.

 

 

Airplane? Yes, please. And some aerial photo tips.

Yesterday afternoon, local pilot Bob Breunig took Julie Buckles and I up over Chequamegon Bay to get some photos of the sediment cloud coming from Fish Creek in the wake of last week's epic storms. The photos are going to be used to promote restoration projects along the Fish Creek basin to prevent future erosion of this kind. Great cause, and I always love getting up in a plane. Thanks for a great flight, Bob.

Several times in the last few years people have come to me out of the blue (pun not originally intended, but now I sort of like it) and asked if I want to shoot photos of something from an airplane. Does a platypus lay eggs? And just in case you don't know the answer to that question, it's "Hells Yeah!" I wish I could say that these aerial shoots are carefully planned, that I make them happen by working through my extensive network of contacts to arrange an airplane and pilot and all that, but that would be...well, pretty much flat out lying. To be honest, these chances just keep sort of falling in my lap. I love my job.

That said, I've had enough random cracks at it to figure out a few things that I do every time that seem to be good advice for airborne imagery. So here we go, the Hired Lens Photography Guide to Not Royally Failing at Aerial Photography:

1.) Ask if you can take the door off. Crazy, right? But some small planes and helicopters that don't have pressurized cabins can fly without a door on the side where you intend to be shooting. Nothing messes with a photo like shooting through a dirty, hazy or glared window. Best solution get the window out of the way. Obviously, this isn't possible on all planes and not all pilots want to do it. There are still some tricks to shooting through glass that can make for a better photo (yesterday, I was shooting through a window and you can see some reflections from the glass, but I was able to minimize them and get them into areas of the photo that don't matter, watch for a blog about how to do this in the next week or so). If you can take the door off, be prepared for the fact that this will make take-off and landing a little scarier as you watch the run way whizzing past next to you. Also be aware that communication in the air will be much harder due to the noise, even with the airplane headsets on. It's not a bad idea to come up with a few basic hand signals to alert the pilot when you want them to turn, when you want to make another pass over something, and when you're done shooting.

2.) Ask if the windows are polarized. Normally, I use a polarizing filter just about any time I'm shooting outside. But if the plane has polarized windows (which some do), and the answer to the above question is no, you'll have to take your filter off. Two polarized surfaces in combination create a trippy mess of colored lines and waves to rival any Pink Floyd laser-light show. Unless your project is a visual ode to Timothy Leary you're going to want to remove the polarizer.

3.) Pack an obscene amount of film. And by film, I mean memory cards. And by pack, I mean make sure that when you take your seat in the plane you can easily switch them without digging through a bag that will be strapped in a seat just out of arms reach behind you. Particularly in helicopters and especially when the door is off/open, everything in the aircraft needs to be secured to keep it from exiting through afore mentioned open door or bashing around in the cabin. This means that if you fill a card and your extras are out of reach, you're done shooting (insert sad trombone sound here). A card case in a shirt pocket is a good way to avoid this problem. I use one made by Pelican, the eyelet on top makes it pretty easy to teather to some other part of yourself to prevent unintentional ejection and its big enough to not be fumbly.

4.) Use a wide lens. Tips four and five sort of go hand in hand. The real key here is to limit the impact of camera vibration as much as possible. The longer the lens, the more even minute camera shake will appear in the images. A wide lens will be able to create sharper images even while moving fast and shaking quite a bit which small planes do.

5.) Choose what seems like a ridiculously high shutter speed, then go two stops faster. Besides focal length the other major factor for reducing the evidence of motion in the camera is shutter speed. Choose a shutter speed that should freeze the motion your experiencing and then over shoot it by a couple stops just to be safe. It's a real shame to get back on the ground and find out that your images were almost sharp. Almost...

6.) Eat lunch after the flight. A few years ago, I got to the airport and the first thing the pilot asked me was "how strong of a stomach do you think you have?" Great question. I've flown a lot and done a lot of stupid things on my own that have given me a pretty iron clad stomach, but I have to admit that on one particularly rough flight in Northern Minnesota I came way closer to booting in my camera bag than I ever expected. The flight patterns that make great aerial images easier are not always conventional and looking through the viewfinder the whole time doesn't help. If you do have a weak stomach consider one of two options: stay out of aerial photography all together or plan ahead. Pretty much any pilot would greatly prefer that you pull a plastic bag from your pocket instead of redecorating their instrument cluster.

And there you have it. Now get out there and try not to hurt anyone.

Departures and Arrivals.

A couple weeks ago, we had a couple strange weeks and I'm finally getting caught up enough to write about it. As stories go, this one tends toward the long and convoluted end of the spectrum, including more than 1,300 miles in the car, two funerals, the birth of my first nephew Simon Gregory Gross, and a one-eyed dove named Blind Pete. If you want to know more, buy me a beer and I'll explain the whole thing. But for the purposes of this post the abridged version is fine.

Above is a photo of the orchids that were blooming in my Grandmother's house when she passed away. We were already in Michigan at Sarah's grandfather's funeral when she died. Doc had passed away the weekend before, Memorial Day Weekend, and we had gone to be with family there. So after the services in Alpena and several meals that included kielbasa (both smoked and boiled) we said our goodbyes, loaded up the car, and went straight to Southern Wisconsin. Do not pass home, do not collect clean laundry. At least we already had our dress clothes.

For me, the photo above says more about my Grandma than many of the photos of her. Maybe because Grandma always seemed more absorbed in the things she was caring for than herself. Constance spent a great deal of time shuffling her orchids around the house, moving them from light to shade, from the warm sun room on the back of her condo down to the cool dark of the basement. She cared for them and in turn they bloomed for her. They kept her busy. Before the orchids, it was finches. Sometimes more than a dozen at a time chirping and hopping around their cages. I remember a tiny nest once with two impossibly small eggs. Grandma joked about omelets.

Before the finches filled the empty nest, there were her children. Seven of them. My Grandfather passed away young. He was 51 years old. Grandma Constance raised the family on her own, going back to work after years as a stay at home mother. She did a variety of things in her career, but the only one I really know much about was her work as a chemist at Rayovac. I remember visiting her at the lab when I was little and thinking that it was her job to be a mad scientist. Probably not far off. All seven of her children went to college. All seven earned degrees. And all seven were in Madison two weeks ago for her funeral, each of them incredible people in their own right.

Grandma passed away on the first Friday in June, and the following Friday, my brother and his wife had their first child: Simon Gregory Gross. Simon is Constance's first great grandchild. Despite his early arrival (by almost 2 months), Simon and Grandma stilled missed each other by a few days. So it goes. Simon is small: 3 pounds 8 ounces at birth. But as it turns out, he's also a tough little guy and, despite some struggles, he's steadily improving. I can't even describe how excited I am to be an uncle, and to know that Simon and my sister-in-law are doing well. We're anxious to meet him.

Looking back at the last few weeks, I'm reminded of the words of my favorite philosopher, the Big Lebowski: "Ah, you know, strikes and gutters, ups and downs." I've spent a lot of time thinking about these recent arrivals and departures, the cycles of everything. The strikes and gutters, if you will. I've been thinking about what's actually important, instead of what seems important at the moment. About all sorts of things that I don't usually think about. And really, for all my thinking, I don't know that I've come up with anything new. No answers, per say. But I want there to be something bigger. Some take away message. So far, the lessons all sound like the motivational quotes in Hallmark cards: cherish your loved ones, rejoice in your health, live life to its fullest. Well of course. Didn't we know all those things already?

So, I guess the most important thing I learned is that maybe life is random, but at least the happy and the sad seem to average each other out. There's at least some comfort in that. I also learned this: one-eyed doves, lacking the binocular vision required for depth perception, have an unfortunate tendency of flying directly into hard, immovable objects. But that's really a different story all together. I think there's a metaphor in there somewhere...I'll keep thinking about it.

Loons.

Spent the day out covering loon research being done on the Turtle-Flambeau Flowage. I love these sorts of assignments because they get me way closer to the wildlife than I would ever go on my own. It's always nice to have the supervision of a professional with stuff like this. Really cool research method, too: they're using trail cams to monitior predation on the nests. I'm not going to spoil any of the surprises, but I will say they're getting some really interesting stuff.

Being a Photographer.

Two weeks ago our wonderful incredible friends Megan and Robert had a beautful little baby girl and we got to meet her this past weekend. As you may have guessed I took a photo...or two. We also went to my brother's baby shower, he and his wife are due later this summer. It's pretty incredible to meet a little person like this, or think about my brothers son who we'll get to meet soon, and know that I will be taking pictures of these people for a very long time. May be that sounds like a silly way to think about it, but that's what it means for me to be a photographer. I can't really separate that part of me from the rest of my life, they're one in the same. It means I'll take their pictures the first time we meet. And it means I'll be there to see them toddling around in diapers, maybe when they're riding their first bike. I might take their senior portraits, get a photo of them at college graduation, maybe even shoot their weddings. I might take photos of each of their first children. Pretty crazy.

I love being a photographer, but I struggle with the business end of it. I don't like the invoices, and the e-mails, and the spreadsheets. Taxes don't necessarily come naturally to me. And really, I could take or leave some of the more mundane marketing photographs that I take. But all those other things pay the bills. They keep lenses in my bag and a camera on the table. And for that I'm grateful. They make it possible for me to be a photographer, and be there with a camera for moments like this. So, they're worth it.

Nature Film-Sneak Peek 2.

Another little rough cut of footage shot for the nature film. Again, we're still right at the beginning here, but I'm getting more and more excited about this project. Pretty fun. And of course, Marvin had to take a crack at it too. Turns out he's not so great at action footage. But I still see the possibility for some other interesting film snippets with him.

 

Nature Film-Sneak Peek.

I've been in a big debate with myself about whether I'm ready to announce this or not, but at this point I'm too excited to keep it to myself. So here's a quick sneak peek at a scene from the new nature film centered around the Souix River currently in production at Hired Lens Photography. This is just a rough cut of some recent footage that will be part of one scene. But don't expect to see a final cut any time soon. If this project is a marathon, we're still not even to the first mile marker. There's hours of footage still to be shot and logged, narration to write and record, and, of course, the most tedious bit of all: the editing. Right now, I'm tentatively looking at Spring 2013 for an actual release of the full film, but that could (and probably will) get pushed back even farther. I'm just trying to be honest with myself, these projects take some serious time. Not to mention, I still need to get footage from three more seasons. I'm also looking for a few more sponsors. That's part of why I'm sharing a little preview right now. I have a couple partners/sponsors on this project already, but I'd love to get a couple more. Any one interested? Drop me a line.

Little Ones.

 Just a couple of my favorites from a photo shoot I had a couple days ago with little Abigail and her big brother "Batman." This is hands-down the happiest baby I have ever seen. She did nothing, but smile and laugh the whole time. Even when she started getting cold laying in the lawn, she just furrowed her brow a little bit. She never cried, never whined. I wish more of the adults I work with were like that. And look at those eyes. For anyone questioning that blue, these are not touched up. That's true, straight from the camera color.

And where would a little sister be without a big brother, always at the ready to defend her with a stick.

Oh yeah, and Marvin showed up too, just to take a quick crack at baby photos. Not too shabby for his first try. Way to go Marvin.

Sun Printing Stop-Motion.

The good people at Sun Printing in Wausau finished up the final editing on this stop-motion video we started working on together last month. This started as more than 3,000 still frames and got pieced together into this little film. I shot most of the stills and put them together into raw footage and then the creative department at Sun did the heavy lifting of trimming those clips into a great little story. I love it. Well done, team. Well done.

New Assistant.

As Hired Lens Photography has grown and expanded into new markets during the first part of 2012, we've found the need to bring on more staff. I'm proud to announce the addition of Tallulah Tarkington to our creative department. Though she brings limited experience to the job, she seems eager to learn. As a first step, I need her to stop trying to piddle on the camera bag, but once that's ironed out, I think we should be good to go. A special thanks to Animal Allies in Duluth, MN for helping us find our new helper.

Like photos...only they MOVE!

 

Here's a little sampling of the first couple film clips out of the new camera, the Canon 5D MkII. To be honest, I've been pretty hesitant to start working in video. It's a whole different animal. Different software, different files, different problems. And frankly, I still have a lot of things I want to try with still photography. But after playing with this feature on the new body with some really good lenses in front of it. I'm starting to see the potential to do some really cool things. No solid plans yet, just inklings of ideas. But watch for more of this stuff coming up soon.

Letterpress.

I had a great day yesterday working on a photo project with the good people at Sun Printing in Wausau, Wisconsin. Completely separate from the main project, I grabbed these images of some of their letterpress equipment while I was there. I'll be honest, I only have a vague clue what half these things are or what they actually do, but they look really cool. I'm not going to kid myself and pretend that I'm going to start letterpressing anything, but in another life I think I could have been way into this stuff. It's got all kinds of great little parts and widgets and gears and stuff. It's probably also tedious, so I suspect that I'm way better off leaving it as a romantic, artistic notion than a real life dissappointment. Either way, it makes for some cool photos. Thanks to Craig Bieri for being the human lightstand for these images; you, sir, can hold an umbrella with the best of them, and don't let anyone tell you otherwise.

Craig Bieri-artist, designer, human lightstand