Spring is Near

Brenden at the Palais de Tokyo.

Thank God spring is coming because it has been raining nonstop since I arrived in Paris. All my friends back home have been posting photos of them in their shorts outside. While I'm in thirty degree weather and raining. It has made me really miss home lately, but the sun has finally traveled to Paris. It has been so amazing outside lately, sixty to seventy degrees and sunny. You can't really ask for better weather that that. Since it has been so nice outside lately, I have definitely taken advantage of it and been shooting outside a lot. Not only has it given me an opportunity to enjoy the weather, but I also get to explore Paris and get some miles on my pedometer app.

Patricia at rue de Cremieux.

The first set I did was with a male model from America. He was traveling to Paris to watch his brother play basketball here. So why not have his agent find a photographer and get some shots done? Always working is the moto of today. We decided to meet at the Palais de Tokyo here in Paris. We both arrive and get to work. Brenden was a great model to work with. I didn't have to tell him much, he knew a lot of his looks which is always a good thing. We walked around to the nearby areas to get some different location shots. That's the one great thing about Paris, around every corner is another great location. We shot for about two hours, put a few miles on my app, and called it a day.

The Bastille shot with the one second exposure.

The next day I did another location shoot, this time with a model that I worked with before, Patricia. She messaged me saying that she's heading to London next week so of course I quickly set up another shoot with her. I wanted to do a night time shoot with some artificial lighting and a long exposure, she would be perfect for it. Thankfully she loved the idea and we always decided to do some daylight shots before it got dark. We met up and walked to rue de Cremieux, which is an absolute gem, if you ever go to Paris you should definitely check it out. As we walked down the street, I thought my GPS was wrong because nothing looked like the street I was trying to get to. We arrive at the last turn and bam! An entire street with every house different colors. It is definitely my favorite street in Paris. We shoot there for about an hour, two outfits, and every house that allowed photography of it.

Patricia in front of the restaraunt.

We then walk to Bastille, where we planned the night shots. We go down to the river and shoot a bit more while we wait for it to get dark. Eventually, we take a break and go sit at a restaurant until the sun goes down. Voila! The sun finally decides to go to bed and we get ready for the next shot. The main shot of this set is her standing in a dress in front of the roundabout with a one second exposure to get the car headlight trails. After about 30 shots we finally get the one and I instantly loved it. While we were there with everything we took a few more at different locations utilising the ambient light with the artificial light to freeze her. I remember one shot we shot in front of a restaurant and the waiter just stared at us the entire time, I know he was one shot away from telling us to leave. We got the shot though and left. Have you guys shot with ambient and flash at night? Let me know, and see you next week!

The Best View in Paris

View of the Eiffel Tower from Montmartre.

This week my friend took me to Montmartre. It's a city on a hill in the 18th district in Paris that lets you see the whole city from the top. I definitely got my workout that day. Walking almost a mile on an incline, but in the end it was all worth it. On the way up, there were dozens of street artists creating and selling their work in the squares. There were restaurants around every corner and walking past just made me more hunger each time. I did give in eventually and get a crepe, with Nutella and bananas of course.

People looking out at the view of Montmartre.

The walk seemed never ending as we turn each corner and there is more hill to climb. The most important thing I've found about Europe is to have good tennis shoes, best decision I've made yet! We finally arrive at our destination and the view from up top there was absolutely stunning. There are buildings as far as the eye can see and of course I went when it was warm and sunny out, so it was packed with people. Some people were having picnics on the stairs, some were playing music in the grass, and some, of course, were being touristy and taking photos, like me. Everywhere I looked was an interesting photo. From the people hanging out to the great scenery. So glad I brought my camera that day.

That is one thing I find difficult about being a photographer. I always want to capture the moments I experience and forget to simply enjoy it sometimes. There's always a battle within on whether to go as a photographer or as a participant. I've tried going as both and it just doesn't work out as well. I don't fully enjoy it because I don't want to break my camera and the photos are always rushed. Most of the time I choose to go as a photographer because I want me and all my friends to have photos of the great times together.

Great photo of the people looking out at the view, captured by my friend, Lina.

I think I will always have that struggle when I go out and do things, but I'm ok with it. Just remember all those photos you see of people having fun, there's somebody behind the camera deciding to be a photographer that day. I hope you all have a great week and see you next time!

Leveling-up

Photo from last week in the studio.

The past week has been the most hectic since I left America. Waking up early and staying up late everyday to be able to fit everything in. Being busy like this is one of my favorite feelings because after it's all over you look back and see all the amazing stuff you did. Then, you get ready for the next hectic week. Really it's just the life of anybody who loves what they do and are motivated to do more and improve themselves. 

When I was back in America, I would do a photoshoot either at 9 AM til noon or 9 PM til midnight because I worked in the salon from noon til 9 PM. Sometimes I would shoot both times and work. Then, on the weekends I would spend the days catching up on all my post production, website, and whatever else needed to be done. Working that much was definitely hard and required me to stay focused and motivated, but I saw a drastic improvement in my work. Throughout that year I refined my lighting techniques, communication with models, and post production. 

Photo from the beginning of last year.

Trial and error has been the main instructor of my photography career. I was never taught how to use the light in a scholastic fashion. It was seeing what worked and didn't work with the light to achieve my desired result. With editing, most of my training was watching countless hours of youtube tutorials and figuring out when certain techniques would work with my current problem with a photo. There's nothing wrong with learning through trial and error, but I felt like the best way I could take my craft to the next level would be getting a proper education. It was a hard choice to decide whether to spend thousands of dollars and go to school or to keep on learning by myself. I read dozens of articles from both sides and they all have one thing in common. They all say that in the end it depends on the individual and their personal needs. 

During the basics I did know most of what they were teaching, but it is all the fine details that I wanted to learn and did learn. It was the reasons why you would use a certain lighting and how to properly set up a photoshoot that I wanted to learn. Initially, I thought that was what I was going to learn the most, but I couldn't have been more wrong. I have learned things that I hadn't even thought about before like developing a proper image naming system, triple backing up my photos, printer profiles, color profiles, monitor calibration, and the list goes on and on. 

Photo from last week, shooting outside more.

For those of you out there that are just starting out or are wanting to improve themselves. I highly suggest developing a naming system for your files and folders as soon as possible so you don't have to go back six months of work to rename everything. Develop something that makes sense to you and stick with it because if you change you have to redo the entire process all over again. I would also back-up your files with a 3-2-1 rule: three copies, two mediums, one copy offsite. For example, I have two back up hard drives and one cloud back up. So there are three copies, the two mediums are hard drive and cloud, and the offsite copy is in the cloud. 

This isn't the most interesting subject, but it is vital when you are dealing with thousands upon thousands of files. However, focusing on file management wasn't doing much good for my photography. I soon came to realize that how often I shot had a direct correlation with the quality of my photographs. That is why I was so happy this past week being busy with shoots even if it was tiring. I hope this helped any of you who were deciding if school is right for them or if they wanted to be self taught. Have a great week and I'll see you next time!

 

 

20,000 Steps Through Versailles

Oleksii along the pond behind the Palace of Versailles.

This week has been quite an adventure, especially today. The reason this post is coming out later than normal is because I had spent all day with my good friends, Will and Rohan, in Versailles. Will is a fantastic editorial photographer with a unique classic style. He had a shoot today with two great models, Virgil and Oleksii, and invited me along. The trip itself is extremely affordable, only €7. 

I woke up early this morning and we all met at Will's place, then headed off to Notre Dame to catch the train to Versailles. We chatted during the hour or so the train took and the models were really amazing guys. Virgil is studying geology at university to one day study a form of astro science and Oleksii is a communication designer and hobbyist photographer.  We finally arrive at our destination and begin to soon-to-be trek around the Palace of Versailles and Gardens of Versailles. We reach the first location after walking a few miles to behind the palace to this open field with a giant pond and swans swimming about.

Will photographing Virgil and Oleksii.

Will assigned the garments to the models and they got changed while we looked for shots in the area. Will's style of clothing is literally of a different century and it's fantastic to see and shoot such a unique style. We start shooting, while getting attacked by nettles, and the sun is absolutely perfect. It's the first week in over a month the sun has been out and we were so lucky today it decided to come out for us. We keep a pretty fast pace as we shoot for several frames/poses in a location and then move about 100 feet along our route. As we head towards an archway Rohan spots a red armchair just in the middle of the woods to our left. Sometimes everything just works in your favor because it was an amazing scene with the most random chair. Honestly, I salute the person who lugged that chair out there because it weighed a good 100 lbs. 

Virgil on the chair in the woods.

After that magnificent discover we shoot there for a bit then head over to the archway, then the long walk to the gardens. As we enter the gardens there's a endless path with trees as far as the eye can see in a perfect line down each side. It was an absolute perfect day for this walk as we tread down the path passing families with their children and tourists taking photos. We find a secluded location in the vast lawn of grass so we can photograph without having people in our shot. We take a few dozen shots and our friend, the sun, decides he's done for the day. All in all we got all the shots we needed behind the palace and the gardens were icing on the cake because we could only shoot in the estate. We all have a brief talk and decide that after 20,000 steps we're all happy with the shots and all of us are famished. We head back to the train station and stop by a pub on the way to grab a drink and some food. It was an incredible day and hope you all had a fantastic week! See you next time.

 

William Waterworth: @willwaterworth

Rohan Harnal: @roahaar

Oleksii Neliubov: @oleksiineliubov

Don't Move.

Experimenting with gels for still life.

This week will be a pure photography blog post, but it may be interesting to non-photographers as well. There's a genre of photography that most people never speak about, but everybody sees it hundreds of times each day. You see it driving your car, walking down the street, on almost every website. Have you guessed it yet? It's still life photography. I think most people don't talk about still life photography because to most people, me included initially, it sounds easy and boring. Oh man, have I ever been more wrong. 

It could take several hours to photograph one object. I couldn't understand why it would take an enormous commitment of time to photograph a watch. I had the opportunity to have my eyes opened when I spoke to a professional still life photographer. He explained how each photo is composites of several photos, each one used for a specific reflection of light. For example, for watches there is a special pink light just for a certain gear in the watch. You also have to make sure you have photos of each tiny gear visible from the watch, a photo for the reflection of the glass on the watch, a photo for the rim, a photo of the band, and a photo of the stem. Oh don't forget you also have to edit all of them to look like a single image and figure out new creative ways to set the scene. 

Trying a new way to display a gas mask.

With all of that, what persuades any sane person to pursue the world of still life? Yes, it's an extraordinary amount of work, but it's actually a interesting technical challenge. It forces you to truly focus on your light and makes you critically think about how to solve the problem. To make it even more challenging you can try to not composite the photo and do it in one shot. I did that with a wine bottle and it certainly took some creative solutions. For example, for the label we cut out a piece of white board the size of the label and used metal wire to create a makeshift stand. I had to cut it out the specific size so it wouldn't be shown in the reflection of the bottle and the wire was thin enough to not see it either. Then, I was getting some white reflection on the outline of the bottle and solved it by lining the entire scene, except the frame, with black cloth. Finally, getting the thin line of light on the bottle was the easiest part by playing with the height and angle of a strip box.  

Let me know of your experiences with still life and see you next week! 

There's no 'I' in TEAM

This week was my first photo shoot with a French model. It's always difficult to build a new team and network when you're in a new area. Most teams consist of six basic categories: make-up artist (MUA), hairstylist, stylist, retoucher, model, and photographer. Yes, you can get away with a model and photographer, but everything runs more smoothly and the quality is usually better with a full team.

For any new photographers out there or photographers getting into any kind of photography involving people, fashion, beauty, lifestyle, portraiture, etc., I highly recommend building a team. The best thing that I've found for building a team is to find people building their portfolios. This is mainly due to the fact that they most likely won't require money as payment and will do time for product (TFP). Essentially that means the payment will be the photos themselves. 

In the beginning you can fulfill multiple roles, for example, I also retouch and do the hairstyling since I've been a hairstylist for Toni&Guy for seven years and have been heavily working with Photoshop for several years. This is fine for the beginning, but after a while, you will want to have different people for each role so you can focus on the photography or whichever your talent is. For instance, you'll be shooting and the hairstylist and MUA will be looking at their specific areas to let you know if either is off and needs adjusting.

You simply can't compare the technical ability to somebody who has trained in that specific field to somebody who does it on occasion. Take photography for example, ok anybody can click a shutter button, but what makes you better? It's the hundreds of hours that you have spent on honing your craft to allow you to focus on every little aspect. Knowing how to light the subject, using the light to achieve the desired result and to know exactly what equipment you will need to achieve that. Realizing the limitations of your equipment, like I knew the flash I was using had a fast enough flash duration the freeze the hair in motion. Having in depth knowledge of angles and focal length to know which will be more flattering and how to use them to your advantage. This is just the tip of the iceberg, but you can see how your average person taking snapshots just doesn't think about these things. This is why a team is important. 

A good resource, for me at least, has been using Model Mayhem to find team members. Feel free to add me there, URL will be at the bottom. You can browse for specific categories based on location and several other filters. This is where I found Diane for my photo shoot this week. It was a tad hard to find a model in Paris that spoke French, but with time I found Diane. Not only was she a model, but also a MUA and had clothes from a stylist from a previous photo shoot. Which meant we could fulfill all the roles for a proper team.

Go on out there, find a team, and set a shoot up! I would love to see some of you work, so feel free to e-mail me or tag me on IG or FB.

modelmayhem.com/justin-proctor

justinscottproctor@gmail.com

@justinproctor_

Diane Martin:

kaprice.book.fr/

@diane_martin_

Exploring the Bois de Vincennes

Today Austin and I met some of his highlining friends at Bois de Vincennes, the largest public park in Paris. The park is so incredible, I have never seen anything so enormous. It has four lakes, a zoo, botanical garden, horse racing track, velodrome, and the campus of the French national institute for sports and physical education. Just needs a Starbucks and it's all set, please no I'm kidding. Walking around it was just so beautiful, though, with the lakes covered in ice and the vast amount of greenery and various birds flying about.

One of Austin's friends highlining in Bois de Vincennes, using the harsh back light in my favor.

After a good trek around one of the lakes, we finally meet up with Austin's friends. They already have one longline and a slackline set up and are working on setting up a second longline. I help finish tightening the longline and take out my camera. It was a little hard shooting at mid afternoon, but it made for some great silhouettes. I love my 24-105mm for my everyday lens because it gives me the option of a wide shot for landscape or to capture more of the background and then I can also zoom in and get tighter for portraits and capturing emotion.

The photograph that everybody was taking, but I got a little lower to get some of that grass in the foreground and to be able to see more of the landscape.

As I wait for the guys to get warmed up, I go and shoot some photos of this terrific park. There's a few dozen ducks and swans right at shore and there are several people huddled around taking photographs for their Instagram and Facebook. Whenever I see a situation like that I like to go where everybody isn't. Sure you can get the photo that everybody else is getting, and that's great to have. However, the ones that stand out are the photos that nobody else has, so go to where nobody else is or look in a different direction then everybody else. 

At this point I head back over to the group and see they already have some bystanders watching them as they walk across a one inch line that's 200 feet long and ten feet off the ground. Yes, in the photos they aren't that high off the ground, but that's their body weight pushing down on the line. I get several compositions of the shoot in my head and then look for different angles that might work out just as good or better. When taking a photo, always try different angles because that is what will set you apart from everybody else taking photos from eye level. Don't be afraid to get down low or find a vantage point up high. This isn't just for if you're using an expensive DSLR either, do this with your iPhone and your photos will be far better!

Looking the other way and getting the photo that nobody else was taking.

After photographing for a while, I try the slackline and I will say it is much much harder than it looks. Just getting up on the line requires technique so you don't wobble back and forth, let alone balancing well enough to walk across it. A few hours pass and we do head out after I reach my goal of walking five steps! Hope everybody had a great week and check back next Sunday for my next post!

 

Sights for Sound

My friends, George and Joe, went to follow their passion and start up a company that matches bands with venues, called Sights for Sound. Months of preparation go into their first event, finding the perfect venue, sound and light technicians, designer for flyers and banners, somebody to build the stage, and finally a photographer, me. The band is Cathryn Joseph, a indie, Scottish singer, and the opening act is Kristin McClement, an acoustic solo singer. George and Joe had found the perfect venue for the gig, St. John's Church in Bethnal Green.

Cathryn Joseph performing at St. John's Church in London.

The day finally arrives as I pack my gear and head for the bus to take me to Bethnal Green. I walk up to the church and colored lights illuminate the front windows and everybody is doing last minute preparations before people arrive. I head to the back room to unpack and get ready to start shooting. I love seeing events in the prep phase because you can see how much work goes into it. The sound techs are running wires, the sound guy is setting up lights, the stage is being set up, and it's all done before anybody steps foot into the venue. 

The door opens and people flood through the door, grabbing drinks, and filling up the seats. Everybody begins to get quiet as Kristin McClement enters the stage and picks up her guitar. She has an incredible voice, it was such a pleasure to listen to as I photographed. Using the 24-105mm I had enough flexibility to get up close and to go up on the balcony to get some general view shots, I do wish I had the new f/ 2.8 though. Working with the f/ 4 was a little hard due to I'm still on the 5D mark ii. 

Kristin McClement performing at St. John's Church in London.

Kristin McClement finishes her set and Cathryn Joseph and her drummer enter the stage. Candles are lit in front of the stage to add to the mood. Those candles offered some nice photos though, using them in the foreground and blurring them out. The lights his Cathryn Joseph very nicely as she sat on her piano playing, I do wish there was more light on the drummer, it was very difficult to photograph him. To any lighting techs out there, please put a light in the front and not just back lights, for the photographers. It was an amazing night with wonderful music, however. I was honored to be apart of it.