Behind the Face Off

Last Saturday I shot a ton of people making faces. It was amazing and a lot of fun! Here are some of the behind the scenes shots from Miss Tory Jane. Don't forget to go check out the gallery at www.simonmcconico.com and vote for your favorite face! You can find the gallery in the featured gallery section.

Pull!

I shot a shotgun once. Well... I shot it a few times, but I hardly ever hit anything. So since shooting a shot gun didn't seem like the thing for me I started to shoot a Canon... wow. Uh... Canon Xt to be exact. Got the camera and immediately went on a road trip to master the world and take amazing photos. Low and behold, my photos were bad. They were quite bad. I had no clue what I was doing. I didn't know how to make things brighter and didn't know what the M was or the different numbers that were changing. I just knew that if I moved it one way it got dark and if I moved it the other it got lighter. I think that I have come a long way from that, but my learning process is still the same. By the end of the road trip I could kinda use the camera to take an okay photo that wasn't all black and wasn't totally blown out. Which brings me to my point for writing this blog...

There are always new things to learn and learning how to learn is crucial for growth. I didn't know anything about weddings when I shot one and learned a ton. Didn't know anything about lights when someone gave me two and now I know at least a little bit. Didn't know anything about off camera flash, but got one and got some triggers to get that thing off my camera and now know a bit about it, but not half as much as Sir David Hobby of Strobist.

Tonight I got new flash receivers for my camera. Weeeeell, one for me and one for Sarah, who's receiver I happed to have dropped when it was attached to my flash. Oops. The other one that I needed was because I dropped my flash with my receiver attached to it. So I ordered two of them, one for me and one for her. I decided to break out the flash again and do a shot for my 365 photo project. I have always liked shadows. There are lots of stories in the shadows. You don't know what is hiding in them and you don't know if they hold something good or bad. If it is a horror flick, stay in a mall or someplace that is well lit, but if it is real life, go and explore (Unless you are scared of spiders like my brother). I had the idea of using a hoodie and getting shadows on the face and only having part of my face lit. Then I was walking in the kitchen and decided to take the photo outside.

Outside presents a problem because there isn't much light out there. That isn't much of a problem because it adds to the photo, but it makes it really hard to focus! The camera is good, but it is no eyeball that can see and focus with just the tiniest bit of light. It took a shot or two to figure out how to get the lighting to where I needed it and then a few shots to get something in focus. When you are shooting outside, bring a flashlight or some sort of light to constantly illuminate what you are trying to shoot, at least until your camera focus on it. I used my cell phone. I didn't know where my little pen light was, so I grabbed my phone and opened that baby up, focused on it, then took its place after I pushed the self timer button. Getting a shot in the dark without a remote trigger, without a flashlight, and without an assistant can be annoying, but I enjoyed the results.

365 (Part Deux)

So. Back again to blog. I guess that is a good thing. A few thoughts about some stuff I am working on today. I still have a ton of backlog images to edit, but I am getting there. I am on pace to get the Face Off photos up by Friday, so hold on for that.

I started a 365 project last year doing a self portrait every day for a whole year. It was pretty intense and crazy. I did a ton of work and it was hard to take a photo every day, but I learned a lot. I got a lot of guff from people, mainly in jest, but things such as, "Someone is a little vain eh?". Part of it was that I had seen other people do that, so I thought, heck, I can do that (not really thinking that about having 365 photos of me). In the process of shooting that whole series though I had some fantastic shots and some not so fantastic shots.

i.e.

bad

good

The most amazing thing though, is that when you force your self to take a photo of the same subject for an extended period of time you need to find new ways to present the material or it will just get boring. To present the material in a new way, I needed to learn new techniques that would help me achieve the image that I had in my head.

I am doing a new 365 project, which you can check out at my Flickr site, and already I am much more impressed with the photos that I am taking. In about a year and a half I learned how to use lights, tons of post processing tricks and tips, and many things about actually using my camera. You can do a 365 project and learn nothing other then how to sit still (2190 days) or be consistent, but if you push yourself to get out of your comfort zone and learn a little bit, in a year you will be in a much better place creatively. You have to sift through a lot of dirt and mud to find gold. Here are a few examples of my new 365 that you can check out at my Flickr site.

Post Face-Off

Sooo.... shooting all day is pretty crazy. Not that I haven't shot a whole day before, because I have, but every time I do I remember how tired I get. For the Face Off I had a fantastic turn out and a great time, so a big thanks to everyone who helped make it happen. I will be working to get the images up on Friday so voting can begin. The voting will be open for two weeks and the winner will get a free portrait session from me and a gas gift card (because gas prices will make your face contort).

Setting up was crazyness. I was going to set up Friday night, but ended up needing to get some other things done. Big mistake! I showed up about a hour early to set up and get stuff ready and we were still finishing set up an hour and a half later! That was not fun. I don't really like coming across as un-professional (who does?), but I think that as I am starting this business I live and learn and that makes it okay. Next time I will get set up the night before.

I was shooting on an all white background with a huge roll of Savage brand paper. I got it off of Amazon.com about a week before I needed it, which was good. Planning ahead... always good. I ended up using a TV to display the photos as I took them, much to the delight (and sometimes dismay) of the people that I was shooting (Got the idea from Mr. McDuff). After I got done shooting someone I would hand the card off to my friend Tory who was assisting me for the day and she would dump the card onto the computer and preview them with the people I just shot to seletct which photo of theirs would be entered into the competition. That was really helpful to have. That way I didnt need to go through all of the photos I took just to figure out which one needs to be edited. I still have a ton to edit, but that will cut hours off of the time that I need to finish the photos. There were also a few behind the scene photos taken that will get put up here sometime soon. Be on the lookout for new stuff often!

That is a quick recap of the shoot... soo.... now that it is 1:10 and I need to go to work in the morning to my non-photo related job, I bid you good night.