County Fair: How I Like To Shoot Long Exposures

This past week the annual Clark County Fair wrapped up. I'll admit, I've never been huge into the fair, but this year I knew that I wanted to go and experiment with some long exposure night photography. I headed up to the fairgrounds about 45 minutes before sunset. This way I could walk around a bit and see what some good locations to shoot from would be and what rides I thought would look cool with long exposures. The photo below wasn't shot using a long exposure but shows all the cool colors that you could potentially pull out in the image when you go to take your photo.

To set up the long exposures, I always shoot on a tripod. Sometimes, the shots are up to 30 seconds long and without a tripod these would be impossible. Since I am shooting longer exposure times, I also try to keep my ISO at 100 to minimize any noise in the image. Even shooting at ISO 100, because you're shooting a long exposure, there will be some noise in the image. Most of the time, this can be removed in Lightroom, Adobe Camera Raw or whatever image processing software you prefer to use. For most of my night photography, I shoot aperture priority. However, this is if there is not a lot of change in light (i.e. shooting a cityscape). This allows me to control for my ISO and I can get the shutter speed I want by adjusting my aperture that I am shooting at. Because I was setting up for the shot before the ride started, the light that my camera metered for was much different than what I would be shooting at while the ride was going. I used aperture priority as a general starting point and then switched over to manual to lock in my exposure. 

The key to shooting the moving lights was experimentation. Some shots that I got weren't that cool at all... But this allowed me to change my settings. For this, I knew that I wanted a gap in ferris wheel, so I played around with my shutter speed to get the right time interval to accomplish this. The light pattern when I shot this was coming from the center to the edge of the ferris wheel. I liked the spiral pattern this gave and was much more interesting than just a solid wheel of light. This is another thing about long exposures: learn to see beyond what your human eye can see. Playing around with your settings will give you different effects and it's up to you to visualize that.

When doing night photography, you have to be patient. For these shots, they probably took 10 minutes each to set up and timing it so that my composition was correct. I knew that I wanted a unique pattern in each, but had to make sure that I had all my settings correct and had an idea where the ride would start and stop during my exposure to get the effect I wanted. 

Sometimes, the normal shot looks best. I thought this would be a cool ride to photograph with a long exposure when I was first walking around the fair. I thought I would like how the streaks looked. Turns out that there wasn't as much excitement to the image and didn't feel like there was much going on. Looking back, a cool way to do this would have been to take an even longer exposure and have the ride stopped at the bottom. Perhaps that would have added to the image and portrayed the ride dropping.

The above shots I liked the best out of the whole night. I think that this told the story of the speed and excitement behind some of the fair rides. Unfortunately the sun set quicker than I thought it would, so I didn't get the blue skies that I typically like to have in my photos. I recommend shooting at blue hour because it gives the image a little more pop. Going back, I probably would have shot this at blue hour to see how it would look without the dark blue being added in during post-processing. However, even without the blue in the sky, I still like the story that the light streaks tell and how it goes to show the lights and fun of the fair rides.

Fun Summer Senior Session (with a sneak peek)

As the school year starts coming more into focus (no pun intended), it's been busy with students getting their senior photos done. Yesterday I had the opportunity to shoot Maria's senior photos. As we finished the session, I asked if she wanted a sneak peek at the photos before she would see all the photos. She said "yes" and so I thought a blog post would be a good way to show some of the techniques that I used to get the images as well as a way to showcase a few photos from her session. :) 

When I got her questionnaire back that I send to all my clients, she mentioned that she wanted her photos to be bright, happy and fun. I think that we nailed that part! The session was lots of fun for me personally and the entire time spent shooting was laid-back and relaxed. Meeting her, I knew that getting her to smile in front of the camera wouldn't be a challenge!

We started out the session with just some standard poses. I like to start with simple poses that aren't too hard or unusual just to get the person comfortable with me. I tend to shoot  somewhat up close to really capture the person's eyes, so this is another thing that I let them know so that they aren't freaked out by how close I get all the time. I tend not to shoot with a lot of gear and try to suggest locations that will have good available light. I feel this makes the session more free flowing and not tied down to one particular location for too long. 

I shot the photo above in a location where there was sufficient shade from the trees. The sun was low in the sky and I really enjoyed the soft light that I was able to get on the left side of her face.

For the photo above, I thought it would be a cool idea to have Maria stand on one of the park benches. My original plan was to shoot wide to show that she was up on the table. I had her play with her hair a bit and moved in closer and was able to capture this shot. I was shooting wide open and this provided the nice bokeh in the background. It helped that the trees were closer to eye level since we were both standing on the park bench and table.

We decided to change up locations after a little to get a different background. We headed over to a gazebo, but the sun was really harsh when it was hitting the steps where I planned to shoot. I broke out my 5-in-1 Reflector and used the middle disk, which acts as a diffuser. 

Maria's mom was nice enough to hold the reflector for most of the session if I needed to use it, but for this I actually held the diffuser behind my head and using one arm out secured it. (If you look closely, you can see the reflection in her eyes of the reflector and a dark line across the bottom of it, which was my arm holding it.) This allowed me to diffuse the straight on light but also get this angle for the shot. This happens to be one of my favorite shots from the session. 

To keep the photo session fun, I like to try out different poses. No, they're not going to be used as yearbook photos, but it gives another dimension to the photos. I try to stay creative while I'm shooting and try not to stick with the conventional poses, but give some variety.

I had pre-visualized this photo before the session. At first, I was going to try shooting it with my main portrait lens, but with the longer focal length that was not going to happen. I broke out my wide angle lens to get this shot. I used the widest focal length on it to try and remove as much possible distortion as I could before post-processing. I also made sure that her hair was as spread out as possible, which I think gave a cool look. I really like this pose because it's different and not something you see everyday. 

I like to usually take one or two photos of my subject looking away from the camera. I think this gives a different perspective of the subject that is normally not seen in the other photos.

We finished the end of the session with some more 'fun' shots that weren't the traditional senior photo. She mentioned that she wanted some photos with the sun in the background. We planned the session so that we could finish the session with the sun setting low and to have her in a field. Once again, I wanted to try out a non-traditional pose. We had a little bit of trouble nailing the pose, but when we got the hang of it, I think it produced some wonderful images. I had her awesome mom hold the gold reflector to give that warm glow to her face-- thank you again for holding the reflector! There were some of her looking at the camera, but I like the different look that looking down gave with the slight smile.

I had a wonderful and fun time doing Maria's senior photos and really think I was able to capture her 'smiley' personality. Thanks again for letting me capture part of your senior year! :)

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If you are looking for senior photos, please feel free to check out my website to see my other work and get contact information. If you have other photography needs, contact me to see if we can work out a customized photo package.

Gorgeous Falls in the Gorge

All summer I've been wanting to head into the Columbia River Gorge to go on some hikes and of course bring my camera for some photos along the way. I finally packed up my gear and headed into the gorge for the afternoon. The plan was to head to Horsetail and Ponytail falls. Taking the exit along Oregon Historic Highway 30, I didn't quite follow the directions and ended up heading west along it instead of east... Oops. Heading a few miles, I finally realized that we were heading the wrong way. We stopped at the Vista House, which I had never been to. I had seen it from I-84 before, but had never been to the top of it. The house was designed with 360 degree views in mind, featuring a balcony around the entire house. The views from the house and balcony allowed for you to be able to see the entire Columbia River Gorge.

After making an unintended stop at the Vista House, we finally were back on our way to where we were supposed to be. Since I hadn't been to the falls before, I parked a little before the trailhead for Horsetail falls and we began our hike at the Oneonta Falls trailhead. That was okay though because it meant we got to see one more falls! The hike itself was not bad at all for being 93 degrees out. It was nice and cool for the most part around the trails and the falls.

I just wish I could have gotten a better viewpoint and there was even lighting!

This was the first falls that we came to on the hike. There was an option to go to Triple Falls, but we decided to stay the course and continue on the Horsetail Falls Trail.  I decided to go venture a little further upstream and came to a really peaceful pond where there was a small falls that was right before the larger one. 

On our way back along this trail, people were swimming in the water and there was even a group of guys jumping off of the rocks next to the falls into the water.

Ponytail Falls was our next stop and it was worth it! The trail wraps around the back of the falls and cuts into the rocks right behind the falls. This was my favorite falls of the day. If the water was a little warmer, I would have definitely gotten into the water for a swim. 

Ponytail Falls, also known as the upper half of Horsetail Falls, which is located further down in elevation. 

I think that the second shot of Ponytail Falls was my favorite of the day. It does look just like a ponytail with how the water seemingly shoots out of the rocks.

We continued the hike past Ponytail falls, but soon realized that we would be a little far away from the car if we hiked to the bottom of the trail to the falls. We headed back along the path and headed to the car. I didn't realize how close we had parked the car to Horsetail Falls. Getting into the car, I thought that we had missed it, but soon we found Horsetail Falls. I couldn't resist the opportunity to get out and photograph it. It wasn't quite as pretty as the other falls, but it was still cool to be around it, 

Horsetail Falls

Since Multnomah Falls was along the way back home, I decided to stop-- if we could find parking that is. I was able to find a couple spots and pulled in. 

Multnomah Falls Lodge

Multnomah Falls

University of Portland at Night

As I've been wanting to do more night photography, I'm always on the lookout for more places to set up my camera and tripod to get some good night shots. I stumbled upon the University of Portland campus and found one spot that I thought would be perfect for some night photography. Immediately when I saw that the bell tower was lit at night right next to the chapel, I knew I would be coming here. I got to the campus right as the sun was setting, so I walked around while I waited for the skies to grow a little bit darker. I loved the architecture of Clark Library, which had an entire wall composed of glass windows. Right next to Clark Library was Franz Hall. 

I headed across the quad to set up for the shot that I had been waiting for. I first had to get a photo of the chapel door's details. The wood working was amazing and had such detail in it. 

I knew that I wanted to photograph the chapel with the bell tower in the background. I shot this from multiple different angles, which all gave a slightly different look. The look also changed dramatically with the changing light. 

After I had gotten some "safe shots", I decided it was time to have some fun. :) I tried experimenting with longer exposures and rolling the focus ring or zoom ring during the exposure to get some different photo effects. These were my favorite two images that I got using these different techniques. I especially like the halo effect that was created and the beams of light that came from the crosses. It created a more interesting look to the campus landmarks that have probably been photographed numerous times before.

There was a garden right next to the bell tower and chapel and I decided to go check this out. 

In the middle of the courtyard was a sculpture. I liked how the stained glass window for the chapel was illuminated, but the rocks were not. I took a few shots, but you could not really make out the rocks as well as I would have liked. I took a long exposure and ran around with my iPhone flashlight and put it on each rock for about 5 seconds. Because the long exposure averages everything, I knew that I could walk around the shot and not be seen, but the light from my phone would show up because of its intensity. Kind of cool that I was invisible in the photo! 

It was definitely fun to get to try out some new techniques with the night photography and will continue to keep trying new ideas out when I get the chance.

Mr. & Mrs. Conor Gentes

This weekend I had the opportunity to attend my cousin's wedding and celebrate the marriage of Conor and Elle. It was a great to be able to have all the family together. It usually is quite the task to get 50 Browns together. 

The wedding took place right on Lake Washington during the evening and was an absolutely gorgeous location for the ceremony to take place. Luckily, we had a very warm and sunny day-- no rain to be found here! 

The ceremony took place in Elle's father's backyard with around 150 chairs set up on the lawn to accommodate all of the guests between the both of them. I knew that I was not going to be able to get a clean shot of the wedding party coming down the aisle based on where I was sitting and I didn't want to get in the wedding photographer's way, so I resorted to using my wide angle lens to try and get as much in frame without sticking out into the aisle. 

My plan was to switch to another lens once Elle and Conor were at the front, but per the wedding photographer's request, no cameras were permitted during the ceremony. As much as I would have loved to shoot some shots of the couple, anyone with a camera was going to be thrown into the lake. I would rather not risk that with my equipment... The ceremony was filled with humor and was overall beautiful and the setting was perfect. 

As they were setting up the tables for the dinner portion of the evening-- or as I like to call it, free food-- the guests were all asked to step off the lawn. I walked around and was able to grab some shots of the tables and setting once again. All of the name tags for which table you were assigned to were hung with clothespins on a string that was on a picture frame. I thought this was a creative idea that was a spin on your traditional place holder!

As the sun was setting right behind Mercer Island, the lights turned on overhead and just made the already beautiful location even better! Everything for the decor was done by Elle's family from the lights to the dance floor. The dance floor was built right on the water next to their dock. They even had the band set up on the dance floor for the festivities later. What a cool idea! 

Before the dancing, it was time for the speeches. I was going to head to the front to get a better picture of Conor and Elle, but it was right during the speeches. I got stuck up front in between a couple tables and right behind the videographer. But hey, I was OK with that because it meant a better location for shooting photos of the lovely newlyweds. :) 

Concluding with a night of dancing and sending the new couple off in a boat decorated in white Christmas lights, all in all, it was a night to remember. Congrats to Conor and Elle and a HUGE thank you to all who helped make it a wonderful night and put it all together.

A Sky Full of Color

After getting back from San Diego and being disappointed by the lack of color in the sunsets, the Washington sunsets did not disappoint! I was out playing golf with my dad earlier that evening and mentioned that the sunset was going to be awesome tonight. There were clouds in the sky and the light looked just right. As we got back home, I quickly grabbed my camera and headed over to a school park close to my house to get some better shots than what I could get from my backyard. I like these two shots for the colors that I was able to get when properly exposing for the sky and keeping the foreground elements in shadow, which is the effect I was going for.

Heading back, I looked and saw some writing in chalk along one of the brick walls of the school. "DUDE. be nice." Months earlier, a guest speaker came to one of the local middle schools to tell them about his story of change for the better. He gave a call to action to help make their school and community a little bit better by making changes to treat others better. Check out the "DUDE. be nice." apparel line and Mike Smith, the guest speaker that came to help represent the "DUDE. be nice" apparel brand.

Cabrillo National Monument

While it was a gorgeous day, sadly, Cabrillo National Monument was our last stop in San Diego before flying back to the Pacific Northwest. We headed along the coast to Cabrillo National Monument, which is about a half hour from downtown San Diego. The park is situated at the very tip of Point Loma peninsula and oversees all of San Diego including Coronado Island and the famous Hotel Del Coronado. Our first stop at Cabrillo National Monument was down the hill to the tide pools. Supposedly we were there during low-tide... I guess when you're spoiled by Oregon tide pools, you can come up disappointed. Except for the occasional small crab that would run away to hide from any people invading their habitat, the tide pools were barren. 

Getting down to the rocks was a little bit of a trek in flip flops while trying to navigate loose rocks and dirt. (I definitely thought that there was going to be more sandy beach than there ended up being!) Even though there wasn't much to see in the tide pools, the coast was still impressive. The California coastline is still some of my favorite stretch of coastline along the West Coast. While the time of day wasn't ideal for photos, the photos still go to show how rugged the coast really is.

After we headed to the tide pools at the base of Cabrillo National Monument, we drove back up to the top of the hill to see the Old Point Loma Lighthouse. This was the original lighthouse built at the very top of the hill in 1854, but later became inactive when New Point Loma Lighthouse was built at the base of the hill in 1891 and served as a beacon that marked the edge of the coastline. 

Unfortunately, the tower to the lighthouse was closed and I wasn't able to get into the tower. I wish I could have because it would have been spectacular to be able to grab a panoramic shot of San Diego! In an attempt to get the best picture I could of the light, I stuck my camera through a gate blocking the entrance to the tower and fired away. Luckily I was using a wide angle and was able to show most of the light and capture some of the detail in the light. I knew shooting with a wide aperture would let me get it in focus. After all, the camera was arms length away and I couldn't see through the viewfinder to focus or aim... :)

Close to the visitor's center is the statue of Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo, the first European to step foot onto the west coast of the United States. The land for Cabrillo National Monument was first purchased in 1913 by Woodrow Wilson, but it wasn't until 1939 that a statue of Cabrillo was put in place. The location of the statue has Cabrillo overlooking the entire bay of San Diego. It was quite a popular spot and everyone wanted their photo taken with the famous discoverer. 

I have to say, this was not a bad last stop before heading to the airport straight from here.