Lanikai Sunrise Shoot

The other weekend I went with Kenway to Lanikai where we met up with Reid for another early morning sunrise shoot. Kenway said he would be picking me up at 5:00am and we would meet up with Reid at 5:30am...they were trying to beat the sunrise since the sun comes up so early now.

When we arrived at Lanikai we saw Reid's car parked on the side of the road, but Reid wasn't in it. We walked to the beach and saw Reid had already setup his tripod and was shooting the stars. It was still pretty dark so I decided to try a few long exposure shots of the lights shining in Kailua.

The sky started to lighten so we moved our tripods into position. The first time I was here with Kenway the beach was full of people waiting for the sunrise...this time it was just us and the crabs. After a few minutes the colors started to show and I got down to business. The early morning sky lit up with some nice subtle pinks, light orange and pale blues.

There wasn't much wind this time and the ocean was fairly calm and gave us some nice reflections on the water. A few minutes later we saw a paddleboarder enter the water up the beach and watched as he slowly made his way along the coast. When he got to where we were we started firing off shot after to shot to capture his progress.



After the paddleboarder passed, the sun popped up over the horizon and gave us a really nice light and color show. The lack of wind made the ocean remain fairly calm and we were able to get some pretty nice shots of the sunrise. To give this image a little more "pop" I used a Lightroom preset to help bright out the colors and then used Photokit Color 2 in PS5 to pop the colors a little more.

A few minutes later we saw the paddleboarder coming back down the coast and we all got busy shooting him as he slowly paddled by. I processed this image similar to the previous one and I'm pretty happy with it, but I think I'm going to re-edit it to try and change the mood a little more.

Once the sun is over the horizon I put my tripod away and will take candids of my fellow photographers...I really enjoy shooting other photographers as they're doing their thing. I managed to get these images that morning...

Kenway and Reid sharing a lighter moment...these two always have a good time when they get together...

A serious Kenway going over one of his shots...

Kenway and Reid enjoying the early morning light...

Reid framing a shot of Kenway...



It was another great early morning sunrise shoot with Da Crazies. After the shoot we went to Boots and Kimo's for breakfast...going there at 7:00am meant no waiting to be seated. 

After breakfast I was still kinda amped up because my Lee GND filter sets were scheduled for delivery later that day. Couldn't wait to try them out.

Easter Lighting & Pot Luck Meet - Part Two

Here's Part Two of my Easter Lighting & Pot Luck Meet blog entry. It's mostly behind the scene shots of the other photographers as they went about photographing the models.

But before the models were scheduled to arrive, light meister Shon did a basic lighting workshop for the natural light shooters who wanted to learn about off-camera lighting gear, principles and techniques.

Nikki, a natural light shooter and new to off-camera lighting, was Shon's first "pupil" and she  came up to fire off a few test shots during the workshop.

Since the models hadn't arrived yet, Stacey was nice enough to volunteer to be the model...we even got him to smile a few times.

Shon went over Nikki's test shots as Reid observed. Nikki wanted to bring more of the background into the shot and was learning to drag the shutter.

After the workshop the photographers were waiting around for the models to arrive. Reid, Kenway, Norris and Kyle shared a light moment near Stacey's light setup...I think they were trying to figure out the best way to steal Stacey's lighting gear.



The models arrived and everyone rejoiced! Well, maybe they weren't that excited, but they were happy to see the models.



Now the serious shooting could begin! Brandon was off to a quick start. Norris volunteered to be Brandon's VAL (voice activated lightstand) and accessory holder.



Brandon recruited a few more voluteers to assist him as the afternoon wore on. Here Juro, Norris and Kyle help out with the lighting and reflectors.

Group shoot. I was hovering around in the background and noticed this mob of photographers shooting the 3 models at the same time. I laughed as I took this because I don't think this was planned.

Kalia was one of the models and the only one I actually took a portrait type shot of. She has a wonderful personality and was a fun model to work with...beautiful red hair, wonderfully pale skin and a great smile.

I had a great time at this meet and it made me start to consider doing more portrait type shooting in the future. I'm still trying to figure out what type of photography I want to concentrate on...but I'm in no rush. Just want to keep having fun at this.

Easter Lighting & Pot Luck Meet - Part One

For Easter this year I spent most of the day at the Waahila Ridge State Recreational Area with the HPF/808 Photogs for a Lighting & Pot Luck Meet. Thanks to Nikki we even had a few models for the afternoon. It was a pretty big meet and the weather was fairly nice...except for the light showers we had later in the afternoon. But it was still nice to spend time with other photographers talking about gear and eating good food.

I decided to break this blog entry into several parts because I took a lot of pictures that day (and because it's an easy way for me to keep up with this blogging thing). This set of pictures was taken earlier in the day when we were talking, eating and waiting for the models to arrive.

Since it was a lighting meet I brought my strobist gear with me. Tashi, Janet's puppy, was there so I thought I'd practice with her as my model. I set up a Manfrotto Nano lightstand, 580EX II Speedlite,  Lastolite Ezybox Speed-Lite, CyberSync wireless triggers and took a few portrait type shots of Tashi. In the first shot she was lying down under a covered area that had some daylight coming from in front and behind her while she was lying in the shadow. I tried to balance the flash with the natural light and thought this shot came out pretty nicely.

In this second shot she came out from the covered area and was lying down facing towards the shadows. I placed my light a few feet in front of her to light her face up a bit and it seemed to help prevent her face being all in shadow.

I didn't use my strobist gear much more during the meet, but I did have fun using it with Tashi. For the rest of the meet I took a lot of candids and behind the scenes shots as the others were shooting the models. I'm not comfortable working with models yet...but I think I'd eventually like to get into it a little more for the experience.

Here are a few candid shots from the meet...

Guys and gear.



Nikki, Charlie and Stacey waiting for brunch.

Uncle Reid playing with the kiddos.

 

A new face: Bradley.

  



Dreaming of new gear?



Juro and Bradley.

After brunch and waiting around for the models to show up.

Nap time.

Coming up next in Part Two...the lighting workshop with Light Meister Shon and some behind the scenes shots of the model shoots.

Post Processing Fun

I had a really great time at the 2012 Kawaii Kon...it was especially nice to hang out with friends I hadn't seen in almost a year...and it was fun to get out and experience shooting at a cosplay convention. I've never done event photography before and I found it can be pretty challenging when you're shooting outside with changing light conditions and dealing with all the people walking around. I rarely shoot using fill-flash and knew this would be a good time to learn how to use it properly.

One of the conditions we had to deal with was shooting in shade with bright backlight coming from the surrounding area.  In this shot Kenway wanted to pose Kagamine Rin with Boba Fett in the same shot. He moved them away from the crowded walkway and had them stand with their backs to the brightly lit buildings in the background. The top image is straight out of camera with no processing. Because of the bright buildings my camera's internal light meter said a setting of f/2.8 and 1/400 @ ISO 100 would give me the proper exposure...for the buildlings. But the main subjects were all underexposed. This is where knowing how to use fill-flash would have come in handy.





Lightroom 3 (LR3) and Photoshop CS5 (CS5) to the rescue. First thing I did in LR3 was up the exposure and add fill light. To keep the background from blowing out completely, I used a trick that Kenway told me about...I used the gradient filter to reduce the exposure on the buildings and then I used the adjustment brush to bring the exposure back up on the foreground elements. After getting the image close to what I wanted as far as expose goes, I finished up doing the initial adjustments in LR3 and then sent the image over to PS5 for noise reduction, adjust contrast a little more, a little more vibrance work, some smoothing and output sharpening.

One thing I learnd about shooting at a cosplay convention is that the people who are dressed up are more than happy to pose for you...the problem is they'll strike a pose wherever they're standing and I wasn't comfortable enough to ask them to move to another location that would present a better background and less people walking around.

In the following picture I had asked the cosplayer if I could get a picture and she happily struck a pose...in a not so photo friendly location where she was in shade, the background had a mix of bright and dark areas and lots of people walking around.

First thing I did in LR3 was to crop the picture tighter to the cosplayer to remove unwanted elements. I then did adjustments so that the main subject looked okay. Then I got the adjustment brush, reduced the exposure and brightness and painted the areas I wanted to darken. Then I sent the image over to CS5 for more adjustments. Okay, so that image is still pretty bad, but it was a good learning experience for me...it got me to use the adjustment brush more than I ever have and I think I'll be using it more in the future.

For this last example, Kenway asked this cosplayer to pose for us and as you can see I had a bit of trouble getting the exposure right. With all the bright buildings in the background I knew the meter would make the exposure darker, so I pushed the exposure up 2 stops so that the dark areas would not get plugged up. The exposure for face wasn't too bad, but the background got sorta blown out. Again, this is where knowing how to use fill flash would have been helpful.

To fix the image I first went into LR3 and cropped the image a little tighter. Then I used the gradient filter in the upper left corner to bring the exposure and brightness down in that area. Then I lowered the exposure and brightness for the entire image. I adjusted the colors using the vibrance and saturation sliders. Then I used the adjustment brush to increase the exposure and brightness in the face and chest areas to bring out some of the details a bit.

Then I sent the image over to PS5 for final adjustments and sharpening. I do final adjustments in PS5 because I have Photoshop plugins for noise reduction and sharpening that just make things easier for me. In LR3 I have the noise reduction and sharpening set to zero since all that is done in PS5. Seems like more work than necessary, but I don't mind...makes me feel like I'm getting my money's worth from both programs.

Looking at the image now, I think I could have left the background a little lighter to help separate the Samurai Darth Vader from the background a bit more.  

I've been thinking about my photography lately and I think it's time to starting figuring out just what I want to do with it. I know I don't want to do this professionally, but even as a hobby I think I still need to narrow it down to something more specific. Right now I'm kinda shooting all willy-nilly and have been having fun with it, but something inside of me is starting to tell me that I should really start to focus on a particular type of photography. I don't want to be a jack-of-all-trade and master of none. I want to start to get good at a particular type of photography and need to know what to concentrate on. So in the next few blog entries I think I'll be trying to sort this all out.

Motorcycle Madness & Custom Bike Show - March 24 & 25

A friend of mine told me about the Motorcycle Madness & Custom Bike Show at Windward Mall and that he was going to have his Harley Davidson on display. He asked me to do a shoot of his motorcycle one of these days and I thought going to the bike show would be good practice since I've never taken pictures of motorcycles before.

I went to the bike show with Kenway Kua, Stacey Sawa and Reid Fujita and we stayed there for about an hour. Unfortunately my friend was not there at the show and I didn't know which Harley was his. But there were a lot of nice bikes there we all enjoyed the opportunity to shoot at the show. I'll have to get in touch with my friend to schedule the shoot.

I shot these with my 5D using available light and high ISO. I later found out we missed some of the bikes that were on display on the second floor of the mall. Oh well...next time...

Sunrise With "Da Crazies"

Just started blogging again recently and already I'm falling behind...oh well, I won't kid myself, I knew this would happen.

Anyway, instead of doing a long winded post I thought I'd just type up a quick blurb and post a few sunrise pictures that I took over the past few weekends.

Since we have to get up so early to take sunrise photos, our friends (who love to sleep in) have dubbed us "Da Crazies". But the real reason we do this is to go somewhere nice for breakfast after shooting.

Taken at Kokololio Beach Park.

Taken at Waihole Beach Park.

Taken at the Makai Research Pier.

Taken at the Makai Research Pier.

Taken at Laenani Neighborhood Park, sun behind the clouds.

Taken at Laenani Neighborhood Park, sun peeking through the clouds.

I have 2 more blog entries in draft form just waiting for me to finish up. I'll try to get those posted soon...but no promises.