Really Amazing Photographic Display
- At February 04, 2017
- By Johnny Stevens
- In art show, exhibit, Fine Art, landscape, travel, Utah
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Amazing photographic display. If you get the chance to fly through the Salt Lake Airport, this display of photography is really outstanding. It is all landscapes, scenic and lifestyle images from around the area, and is a collection from many different photographers from the area.
Park City airport photography exhibit
That’s One Bad Egg
- At February 03, 2017
- By Johnny Stevens
- In abstract, adobe, Fine Art, stock, stock photography
- 0
One bad egg. So I have been submitting photographs to Adobe Stock in my spare time, and having lots of fun doing it while learning some lessons. I found this defective egg in a carton in Park City, Utah while on a ski vacation.
That’s one bad egg
I shot this photograph That’s One Bed Egg with my Sony RX-100 camera which shoots in raw format. It was not accepted to the stock library because even at the 200 ISO setting, with the tungsten lighting from a lamp on the table, the image still has too much grain and noise, which you could only see if you zoomed into it. Too bad because I have been searching for another mutated egg to shoot this again and I cannot find a source. I will have to visit poultry farms around Austin to see if I can find one. For the next version I will shoot at ISO 80, 125/sec shutter speed at f 2.8 on my Manfrotto tripod so I can get the same look, but I will light it with my 600 EX RT speed light shot through an umbrella. Till then, happy shooting!
Pre-post of an upcoming blog post by Robin Bond Interior Design
I thought it would be smart to post this content that I provided for a blog post by Robin Bond Design this fall. It is about how I work as a photographic fine artist with my clients who commission my art.
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BIO: Johnny Stevens was raised in Lenoir, NC, where he attended high school at Asheville School for Boys, studied photography and studio art at Fleming College, Florence Italy, psychology at Wake Forest University, and at Appalachian State studied Radio-TV-Film. In 1980 he attended The University of Texas Graduate Film School, where he was awarded a Student Academy Award in 1982 for a short film. He founded HORIZON Film & Video, Inc. in Austin, and spent 28 years behind motion picture and video cameras producing and directing hundreds of films and videos of all genres, all the while honing his eye for balance and composition that would fuel his passion for photography. He is currently enjoying photography as his sole profession in Austin specializing in architectural, interior design, and portrait photography – which feeds his bank account, but it is the abstract fine art photography that feeds his soul.
In terms of photographic composition, I always start by following the rules…. but only in anticipation of breaking those rules. In my abstract fine art work my task is to discover opportunities to build mystery – to create an image that make the viewer curious. My quest is to reveal unique perspectives the ordinary that others would not otherwise see.
Although I have an extensive abstract fine art portfolio, by far my favorite collection is my Rust Rapture Series. These are all images that I photographed over the last 8 years at the Lone Star Kustom Car Roundup which attracts owners of rat rods from around the nation. Rat Rods are vintage hot rods whose exteriors have been left to the demise of mother nature – rain, wind, blazing sun, and occasionally the owner’s belt sander. The amalgam of colors and textures that I find on the exteriors of these cars is unbelievable.
Deep Sea Dive is actually about a 3 square inch section of the hood of a 1940 Willy’s Coup. I love the movement in this print. I love it so much that I hired the owner to bring his car to Austin to show it off outside of the O2 Gallery in Austin where I held my last exhibit. The crowd loved it!
1940 Willy’s Coup fine art print from Rust Rapture collection
Radioactive is extracted from the door of a 1941 Chevy sedan. The bold texture is what makes this one of my favorites – very masculine.
Radioactive fine art print from Rust Rapture collection
For those who need a hint of reality, Hidden Faces offers a visual anchor within the bold textures – the door handle of a 1952 Chevy.
1952 Chevy Truck door fine art print from Rust Rapture collection
And one of my best selling prints is Hidden Agenda which I discovered on the fender of a 1948 International KBL. This print has spectacular color and graces the walls of both a spectacular home on the 8th hole of the TPC Sawgrass golf course as well as the office of a VP of Marketing in Austin. This print has rhythm!
1948-International-KBL fine art print from Rust Rapture collection
One thing I love about these Rust Rapture prints is that since they are abstract, they can often be hung as landscape or portrait prints – whichever the beholder prefers.
I enjoy being involved in the creative process of choosing from the dozens of images I have in this collection. I can crop and resize each image to fit the installation. Also creating a diptic or a triptic is easily done as I did for “Crystallized” which hangs in the lobby of a saw firm downtown Austin. Canvas is one of my favorite substrates for printing but fine art luster paper beautifully framed is always a safe way to go. Often, to make it easier for my clients, I ask them to send me photo of the wall on which they are considering installing a print – even a phone pic – and I can easily photoshop the print, scaled to size, onto the wall and send it back to them so they can see how the design and the colors of the print work with that room. It helps taking the guess work out.
Christmas Family Portrait
I had these friends call me just before Christmas day asking if I could find a place to shoot a family portrait they needed to deliver as a gift on Christmas Day. My fireplace worked just fine. Three speedlights did the job. I gelled the speedlights with 1/2 CTO which is a light orange filter. There is a beauty dish on the left, back light above Erika, and a kicker just to the right of Evan. Cue the guitar for filling an empty space. I tried shooting with the fireplace on but they started melting so I added the fire in Photoshop.
Erica Holley, Debbie Holley, Evan Holley
Adding light to your portrait subject
When you are adding light to a subject (which I hope you are always doing), things can get complicated quickly. Here is my set up for a simple single light exterior portrait: I like to use the Canon EX 600 RT Speedlight on a light stand bouncing into a umbrella, or shooting through and umbrella. Nikon has similar speed lights that are easily triggered wirelessly from a Nikon trigger mounted on your camera. The Canon wireless trigger is the ST-E3-RT. Here is one method I use when shooting outdoors that really helps get nice results without having to scratch your head about your camera and flash settings in front of the client. Scratching your head does not help keep the subject calm and happy!
Find a shaded area for the subject and decide on the background. Find an angle on the background only and meter it (or just shoot the background in Program mode with an open f stop of f 2.8 or f 4. (The open f stop will help blur the background for a pleasant effect…..and a longer lens will accentuate the blurred background. 70 to 100 mm focal length is always safe for portraits.) Let’s say you are shooting at ISO 100 and it is a sunny day. Your metered shot of the background at a shutter speed of 125 (fast enough to hand hold your 100 mm lens and not get hand shake blur) will be around f8 or f11. Let’s say it is f8. Now put your camera in manual mode with the same settings – ISO 100, shutter speed 125 and f stop at f8. You already know that these are the perfect settings for the background. You know that the background exposure will never change. It is set. No longer do you have to worry about the background. OK so now, your wireless trigger on the camera will also be on manual. Your trigger will automatically tell the flash to fire in manual too. Set your trigger on your camera to a flash output of half power to start. If you have a light meter, you can determine exactly how much light the flash is putting on the subject. If you don’t then you can just eyeball the test shot to see how the light falling on the subject. You are looking for an f stop that is AT LEAST what it is for the background which you have already determined is f8. Better yet, bump up the subject to f8.5 or f11 because we always want the subject to be the brightest part of the image since the bright area is where our eyes naturally go first when we look at a photo. Now, this means the background will be a bit darker than the subject, which adds drama. Click away and ask the subject to face the umbrella and to face away from it so you can get both short lighting and broad lighting options. I like to start sessions by asking for NO smile. This is easier for anxious subjects to get started, and often is the most accurate representation of them. I constantly compliment them – sometimes showing them the images on the back of the camera – and ramp up the smile by asking them to “turn up the volume”. After 20 or 30 shots with these techniques you are sure to get 5 keepers!
