A Little News

Some days are just cool. Today was one of those days. I had the privilege of shooting the leader of the Blue Angels, Captain Kevin Mannix, to promote an air show in Huntsville. I day dreamed a shot on the way over to Huntsville thinking that I would have to shoot a portrait because I would not have time to stay and see the Blue Angels do their practice run through before I had to leave.

In my mind’s eye I could see a low angle shot of the pilot standing in front of his plane with side lighting. The sky was full of puffy cumulus clouds and could see a nice photo taking shape. The only problem was I didn’t know if we would even be allowed to see the airplanes much less photograph the pilot with the plane. Upon arrival at the airport, I found that, indeed, we would be interviewing the pilots directly in front of their aircraft. Ronnie Thomas was the reporter doing the interview and he and I were assigned Captain Mannix, the squadron boss.

Captain Mannix is an excellent man and very enthusiastic member of America’s armed forces. He has flown many combat missions the Middle East and hopes to return to carrier aviation when his tour is over with the Blue Angels. As he and Ronnie talked, I set up and tested my lights. I set two light stands about 10 feet apart with an SB28DX on one stand and an SB800 on the other with Pocket Wizards to fire them. I banged off a couple of frames to check exposure while Ronnie continued to talk with Captain Mannix. Realizing that I would need to light a full length portrait of the Captain, I decided to add a Vivitar 285HV with Pocket Wizard at the base of each light stand to illuminate the lower half of the man. These strobes I just laid in the cradle formed by the leg supports on the light stands.

I was just standing there listening to the interview when the Lieutenant managing the media tapped me on the shoulder and said, “Time’s up.” Now I just about freaked out because I had not yet taken one for real photo. I begged for just a minute and that was about all I had to shoot. Fortunately, I had my lights already set and tested. I literally shot five frames before I had to move. I had hoped to go through about three different set ups. Now I was stuck with just five frames! Had I not set up and tested while the interview was going on, I would have had nothing, literally.

Follow the Boy Scout motto and always be prepared. You just don’t know when that tap on the shoulder will come and you have to leave. In my few, brief seconds, I adjusted the Captain, set my camera on the tarmac and tilted it up with a 14mm lens and squeezed off three frames. I managed to stand up and get close with the 17-35 for the final two images and then I had to move so a TV guy could do an interview. I wasn’t happy but there was nothing left to do. If I could have a do over, I would certainly vary the pose and my angle of view. As it turned out, I was pleased with what I left with, especially considering the circumstances.

Then, to my absolute delight, the Air Force A-10 Warthawg began its practice session. The A-10 is my favorite military aircraft. It has no glamor but it is a beast with wings. The A-10 is designed for close air support and sports a variety of devastating ground attack weapons including the incredible 30mm cannon in its nose. The aircraft was designed to even the odds on the European battlefield where the Soviet Army would have had a vastly superior armored force to allied troops. The A-10 was to be the great equalizer. Thank God that it did not have to perform that role but it has proved entirely effective on Middle Eastern battlefields and in other deployments in the Balkans.

To cap off the time I had at the event, A P51 Mustang of World War II fame flew in formation with the A-10 and I was able to shoot two of my favorite planes flying side by side. What an excellent day!

Photos copyright The Decatur Daily, Gary Cosby Jr. The opinions expressed in this blog are my own and do not necessarily reflect those of my employer.

No one really likes problems but when you come up with a solution and overcome the problem you are better for it. This was the case when I photographed pro bikers Seth Kimbrough and Corey Martinez. These guys are fantastic bikers and I was totally amazed at their skills. Had I tried even one of the tricks they were doing I would still be in a cast, a full body cast!

Seth and Corey both grew up in and around Hartselle, Alabama and they became pros the hard way. There was never a skate park or any official place for them to practice. Both of these young men have helped to set up a skate park in Hartselle so kids growing up and idolizing them will have a place locally to go and bike or skate. Many of the ramps in the park were built and then donated to the park by one or both of them.

I had know about Corey for some time but we had never met. He and my oldest daughter are friends and my oldest daughter’s best friend is married to Corey. We finally connected to do this shoot but the only time available was mid-afternoon with a high blue sky. That was fine for action photos but not for the portrait. I really wanted some late afternoon, even dusk, light to do the portrait with. Since none of our schedules worked and Corey was leaving town for a pro event we had to shoot when we had the time available.

I had seen the guys pause on top of this flat topped concrete pyramid in the middle of the park several times while they were riding and it seemed like a great spot to pose them for the portrait. The problem was the light was far too contrasty to shoot anything but a back lit portrait which meant I had to light them. I had three Nikon SB strobes at my disposal. My basic lighting plan was to set two strobes on stands at roughly 45 degrees relative to the camera position. The concrete ramp slanted in such a way that I could not set the light stands anywhere on the slope. This meant putting them on the ground with a flash to subject distance that would be somewhere between six and ten feet from the subjects. Not good.

I tried it anyway with predictable results. The strobe exposure was more than a full stop under. I was shooting a Nikon D2Hs and a full stop underexposure with strong back light was just too much. What to do? I had used my Bogen Friction Arm to set up a remote camera on top of one of the ramps earlier so I grabbed it and used an SC17 shoe cord to attach another strobe to the camera platform on the Friction Arm. Then I clamped the strobe onto the stunt peg on the front tire of Seth’s bike. He is the one of the left. I set this strobe to fire via the SU4 optical slave function on the SB800. I also pointed the strobe straight up and extended the built in bounce card to give some fill.

The problem that I could not solve with the equipment at hand was the direction of this third light. Since it was lower than the faces it created hot areas on the neck and made some crazy shadows. I would have preferred not to do this but I could not use a larger bounce device and keep the strobe invisible. In the end, the lighting kind of creates a funky feel that goes along with the whole trick bike scene so it works okay for me. Basically, you run across all kinds of situations in photojournalism that require problem solving skills. You probably won’t ever solve them perfectly; however, the more problems you solve the better you get at solving problems. You can also take the solutions to those thorny problems and use them in other situations so the general quality of your work gets elevated. Everybody is gonna have problems. Applying creative solutions, a little hard work and some sweat will make you better and that means better pictures. Hey man, in everything give thanks, even for the problems. They make you better!

About the photo: You already know I shot with a Nikon D2Hs. I used the 17-35mm lens and obviously shot from below the guys and directly into the sun with an ambient exposure of approximately 1/250th sec at about f16. My ambient exposure is about 2/3 stop under the strobe exposure. The two strobes on stands were fired with Pocket Wizards and the third strobe was fired via its built in optical slave.

Photo copyright Gary Cosby Jr., The Decatur Daily. The opinions expressed in this blog are my own and do not necessarily reflect those of my employer.

Joe Johnston, a staff photographer for the Tribune in San Luis Obispo in California, gets the nod as our featured reader photo of this week. Joe’s portrait of Cal Poly pitcher Eric Massingham has a lot going for it and I wanted to point out some of the strong points.

First, the lighting is excellent. If you look at the photo and do a little Strobist exercise you can see Joe used two lights. His main light is a Canon strobe shot through an umbrella about a foot away from the guy’s face. The second light is positioned about four feet out of the frame to the left and is direct and about a +1 stop hotter than the main light giving him the excellent separation.

The next thing you are going to see is how Joe used a low angle to give him a clean, and interesting background. When ever you have a poor background, go low angle. The sky is an endlessly variable background that is totally free. Use it liberally. The slightly overcast condition also gives him some depth and texture in the background which adds a layer of interest. Although Joe did not tell me this in his description, I suspect he has underexposed the sky by at least 1/2 stop allowing the strobes to set the key of the photograph.

I highly recommend you check out Joe’s Flickr photostream. It is a beautiful collection of photos that will inspire you. Also check out a story Joe did for the Tribune. The story details a kayak trip he and a reporter did along the Pacific coast covering 100 miles in six days. Okay, now he is just showing off but if you live on the California coast, why not? Joe is 34 years old and has been at the paper for the past eight years. He has been a working photojournalist for ten years total.

Photos copyright Joe Johnston, The Tribune.  The opinions expressed in this blog are my own and do not necessarily represent those of The Decatur Daily or The Tribune.

Not too long ago, my co-worker Jonathan Palmer did a super shot of a guy driving his classic V-Dub beetle. He did the shot in fairly low light and used a strobe inside the car to provide the illumination. You can check out JP’s shot in his November gallery on his blog. The only problem is the image did not run. Well, it was a problem for Jonathan but a great boon to me. I loved the shot and though that it would be good to use the concept some time in the future.

Low and behold, I had the opportunity just last week. We were doing a story on a man who uses classic Rolls Royce autos in his limo business. The day was miserable, in fact I did the shoot between covering the two tornadoes last Friday. The man lives in the country so his home had to be the setting. I needed to get a portrait of him and I needed to limit the background which was a plowed field. I used Jonathan’s internal lighting scheme with a Vivitar 285HV laid on the seat beside him. The ambient light on the field was about 1/2 stop below the strobe and the front of the car was at least one stop below the strobe.

The real key to making this happen was to position the car so that some dark foliage was strategically blocking the light from the sky so I could see him inside the car. He had some tall evergreens in his yard that allowed me to have the area of windshield where he was seated to be free from the reflected sky light. Keep in mind that shiny objects will reflect whatever they “see.” This applies to a table top product shot just as well as it does to a car’s windshield. You can see my slacks reflected in some of the chrome on the front of the car. There was just nothing I could do about that.

The shot has real nice contrast because the paint is dark which creates a low key feel but the chrome gives some really nice highlight and, combined with the strobe, makes the shot really work from the lighting standpoint. I did the two versions you see here and we ran the tighter shot which was my favorite. The photo ran with a couple of other images that showed more of the car. For those of you reading this in the English Isles, the Rolls Royce is no big deal and you see them all the time. Let’s just say they are pretty rare in North Alabama so showing the car was a major part of the assignment.

Now when you check out Jonathan’s shot, you should know that he did his while driving down the road in front of the other car with his Canon D1 and a 300 2.8 hand held, out the window, backwards and without looking through the viewfinder. And he nailed it on the first frame. Jonathan is known by some around here as a legend, or just J-Ledge for short. By the way, he and I are partners in a real estate venture selling ocean front property in Arizona so drop us a line if you are interested. The prices are incredible!

About the photos: Both shots were done using a Canon EOS 5D with a 24-70 f2.8 lens, pocket wizards and a Vivitar 285HV. I believe the Vivitar was set to 1/4 power and was aimed at the roof of the car on its widest zoom setting. The exposure for ambient was about one stop under the metered exposure to ensure the car would drop down to a true black allowing the chrome and the guy to shine.

Photos copyright The Decatur Daily. The opinions expressed in this blog are my own and do not necessarily reflect those of my employer.

I don’t know if any of you play golf so this may not makes too much sense. I don’t play much any more. I just have too much else going on but from the days when I used to play I draw this analogy. Golf can be an extremely rewarding game. You make a nice shot, drive the ball straight down the middle 300 yards or sink a long putt and it is very gratifying. Unfortunately, for a duffer like me, those were too few and far between. However, I would usually make a few really goood shots in any round of golf and that kept me coming back for more.

Photojournalism is a lot like that. We have to shoot all kinds of pictures in all kinds of light and under a wild variety of circumstances and that can make for some frustration. But, I make a shot every now and then and just go, “Ahh!” And I come back to work again and look for the next Ahh! moment. Right now, we are mired in a very involved tab section for advertising that we do every year. It takes the better part of January and February and this one will contain more than 80 profiles of different folks and the jobs they do. I shot three of these today. In two of the three jobs I came away with photos that I really like. One photo because I worked the light and one photo because I happened to be in the right place at the right time with the camera ready. I’ll take it either way. These shots help me get ready for tomorrow when I will probably have three or four more of these jobs to shoot.

Here is the rundown on the portrait. The guy is a funeral home manager so I can’t really shoot him working. Directing a funeral is a delicate business and having some guy chasing him around with a camera would just be inappropriate. Ergo, the portrait. This could be pretty pedestrian stuff. Guy standing in chapel looking at camera. The light saved the day and I came away very satisfied. I know it looks like something you might see in a brochure but that is not necessarily a bad thing in this case. He looks sharp and professional and that is what he is supposed to look like in the bereavement business. I was very happy with the result. The main light is an SB8oo fired into an umbrella at 1/8th power. The background light is an SB800 fired direct at 1/2 power and aimed right at him from the back of the chapel. I used a 17-35mm lens and a Nikon D2Hs.

The other shot was done in a restaurant in the same town an hour or so later. Same camera and lens but this one is unposed. She is really working and that makes it much easier to get spontaneity but much harder to get good light. I used an SB800 on camera in bounce mode with the little plastic diffusion dome on top. I think it was set manually to 1/8th power. I seldom use a strobe in any auto mode because I have been burned too many times. Anyway, the light is not so good but the expression and movement make the image. I came away pleased from two out of three jobs that could have really been sows ear assignments. But hey, that’s what we get paid the big bucks for, right? Turning the proverbial sows ear into a silk purse is the job about half the time.

Photos copyright The Decatur Daily. The opinions expressed in this blog are my own and do not necessarily reflect those of my employer.

Merry Christmas! At the end of every year I do a Pictures of the Year DVD for my Dad. I tried something a little different this year and made him a book which is not yet ready. In the process of doing this I get to see what I have done both good and bad throughout the year. I don’t show the bad so you don’t get to see that junk. The good; however, I am more than happy to share. So here goes the first installment. In addition to the portraits show, I will add a news slide show, a sports slide show and a feature slide show over the course of the next few days. Then you guys can see how I have done this year. You will laugh, you’ll cry and you might get and idea or two to pursue for yourself next year. Or not. At any rate, I hope you really enjoy the shows. So grab and eggnog, sit back and relax and enjoy the show!

p.s. that really cute girl and little baby right in the middle of the show are my oldest and youngest children!

Photos copyright The Decatur Daily and Gary Cosby Jr.

A couple of days ago I had to shoot a portrait of a surgeon just a few minutes before he would be operating. The portrait was to be done in the operating room where he would be working. The portrait was to accompany a story about the man being honored by the hospital’s foundation during their annual fund raising gala. This is a pretty normal situation except that it is being done in a sterile environment on a tight time schedule.

I arrived at the hospital about a half hour early anticipating problems and delays and it was well that I did. One thing I did not know in advance was that we would be using a “live” operating room which was already prepped for surgery. I had to change into surgical greens complete with the surgical cap and mask. I was given specific instructions about not violating the sterile field which meant keeping myself and all my gear in one are of the room away from the surgical instruments.

To speed things up, I used a stand in to set my lights. I used two SB800s on pocket wizards fired into umbrellas to light the subject and a third SB800 to light the background. It was fired optically. I used a nurse to stand in for the subject so by the time he arrived I was completely set and all I had to do was plug him into a completed lighting setup. I had already worked three angles with my stand in so when the doctor arrived, I spent less than five minutes shooting his portrait and was out of the OR promptly allowing the hospital to do their real work.

Using a stand in for a busy person is a technique used in many portrait situations where the subject will have very little time in front of the camera. Its a great technique to use on busy politicians, business persons and professionals of all types. If you come in unprepared these situations can deteriorate into a disaster. If you arrive a bit early and get set up you can work quickly and professionally and maybe even go through two or three quick sets. When you do your job quickly and professionally you earn the respect and trust of the people you are working with. When jobs come up in the future that require a bit of professionalism you will be the go to guy. If you go in looking like you don’t know what you are doing they will call the newspaper and ask for someone else for future jobs.

A little advance planning can turn a tense situation into a successful shoot and all it takes is a little thought on your part.

Photos copyright The Decatur Daily. The opinions expressed in this blog are my own and do not necessarily reflect those of my employer.

Retired first sergeant Jimmy Coggins gave a lot to his country. During his service in the U.S. Army during the Viet Nam war, Coggins was exposed to the defoliant known as Agent Orange. As the years have passed his body has deteriorated. He has lost both of his legs and both of his kidneys and he struggles with the VA as he tries to get the benefits he needs to function.

Coggins lives a quite life in rural Cullman County with his wife and carries on a quiet battle with the government that is supposed to take care of him. You can read Jimmy’s story at decaturdaily.com written by Ronnie Thomas, one of The Daily’s most talented story tellers. Ronnie and I have told many veterans stories over the years and there has never been a man’s story that didn’t move me. I particularly remember one we did for Thanksgiving Day several years ago. We talked to a WWII vet who was in a fox hole with a buddy on Thanksgiving Day in 1944 somewhere in Europe. The man had just gotten up to take his turn on watch and his buddy lay down to sleep. A German artillery shell hit in a tree just over their heads. The man was unhurt but when he went to get his buddy up for his turn on watch he discovered that shrapnel from the shell had pierced his friends skull killing him in his sleep.

Most of us will never know what it was like to come ashore on one of the countless Pacific islands or to charge onto the violent Normandy shores on D-day or try to pick through the Vietnamese jungle or climb down one of the rat holes or drive down an Iraqi street not knowing where the next explosive device is planted. The reason we will never know these trials is because other men have endured them for us and are still enduring them for us. Remember these men today. Remember them every day. Whether you believe in the cause they are sent into battle for or whether you protest the government who sends them into the jaws of death, don’t forget the men, and now the women, who are doing their duty all across the globe.

Today is the day we have set aside to remember the service, the sacrifice and the freedom they have purchased with their own blood and sometimes their own lives. Don’t hesitate to take a moment to shake a veterans hand and thank them for what they did. We honor our Veterans today with the wish that the future will bring a time when the services of men under arms will no longer be needed. In the mean time, sincerest thanks for what you have done, for what you are doing and for what you will do on our behalf.

I just came across a very moving AV piece by Los Angeles Times photojournalist Luis Sinco based around an iconic photo he made in Iraq of U.S. Marine James Blake Miller. You can view the piece at the Los Angeles Times web site. This is a truly moving piece about the young man’s struggle to come to terms with life after battle and his attempt to overcome post traumatic stress syndrome.

Photos copyright The Decatur Daily. The opinions expressed in this blog are my own and do not necessarily reflect those of my employer.

Once in a while you just get a jewel. I was out roaming the country side for features the other day and I decided to go to one of my favorite visual fishing holes. This one is on the Flint Creek near a little boat launch on the south border of Decatur right at the city limit. With fall upon us, there is usually some color here even in dry years like this one where it just goes from summer green to winter brown. I found a couple out paddling the creek in a canoe and shot a few pictures. They pulled up to the bank to chat for a minute and I saw this great face framed against the color reflected on the creek. I only wish the guy had not posed but even then it was still nice. This photo didn’t make the paper, which really didn’t surprise me, because the photo of them actually paddling the creek was probably a bit more interesting for the readers. Still, I filed this one away as one of those pictures that make me happy to be shooting for a living. I know I have it and now you know I have it and that’s enough. The joy is in the shooting first and foremost and the publishing is just a bonus anyway. I hope you all enjoy this guy as much I enjoyed photographing him.

Photo copyright The Decatur Daily. The opinions expressed in this blog are my own and do not necessarily reflect those of my employer.

Lighting can be either fun or frustrating. It is fun when you know what you are doing and frustrating when you don’t. This post has three photos. The first is a one light, the second a two light and the third, you guessed it, a three light. In photo one and three there is also daylight but I am only talking about the added lighting. So here we go.

This photo was done in a pretty well lit room. Daylight was coming in through two, large floor to ceiling windows and it was already pretty nice. Still, I thought it would be a two light shot. I set my first light to camera left, an SB800 with a pocket wizard and shot through a white umbrella. I did the test shot and was blown away by the quality of light. I never even added the second light. The real trick was to get the dog to sit still for the picture. When I first came into the room, a cat was sitting in the chair and I was trying to get it to stay there. No luck. I’m not a cat person. The dog however, made the perfect counterfoil to the well dressed lady. By the way, all three portraits were done for a fashion spread and were all shot at the same home within about a hour.

Shot number two is virtually all strobe lighting. My main light was an SB800 shot through a white umbrella again. I positioned the second light at the top of the steps and out of camera range with a short snoot to help control spill on the walls of the stairwell. I would have used and eight inch snoot but I didn’t have one with me. It is a very simple set up but it yields a classic portrait light and highlights the clothing and the excellent location.

The final shot is by far the most complex. It looks simple, in fact, it even looks like no flash has been added. He, he, he! That’s the trick. It is a daylight shot but my subject and all the foliage is in shade. My first light is an SB28DX aimed directly at the subject and is on a light stand and is unmodified. A second light is clamped to the light stand and aimed at the foliage to the left of the frame. The third light is an SB800 shot through an umbrella behind the subject. The main light adds light to her face and clothing. The second light is only to light the foliage and the third light only functions to provide a separation light on her back side so she doesn’t blend into the background.

Hopefully, you don’t really notice the light, especially in the first and third photos. My goal was to light well without the lighting being obvious. This means blending. The ability to used different strobes at different power settings and at different distances to the subject all at the same time isn’t something you just fall out of bed knowing how to do. You guys are seeing a fairly successful execution but it takes a lot of practice to get where you want to be with light. The only way to really get better is to just go and do it.

Photos copyright The Decatur Daily. Opinions expressed in this blog are my own and do not necessarily reflect those of my employer.