David Beckstead's Blog
March 10, 2014
Urban Wedding with Zombies!
The ambient lighting in this urban alleyway was way cool! I mean warm. Or I mean more amber in color and cool to use! Or 2700 K. Or..never mind!
I have always been fascinated by the juxtaposition of grunge background and nice wedding couple! Now, getting a willing wedding couple to enter a dark alleyway with mud and yuck takes a passionate and persuasive photographer! ( …and a promise to dry-clean the dress) Keeping the wedding dress clean in disgusting environments is a skill I teach classes on!
To really separate the couple (who were deep in conversation about alley smells) from the background, I wanted a silhouette with rim lighting. I set my Sunpak LED-126 video light in the grooms hand hidden behind the couple because it was small and threw a wider beam of light.
This is an example where the quality of light did not matter, and using this panel light was just fine. I never use the Sunpak to front-light faces of couples if I am concerned about the quality of light on skin tones. I use the higher quality Wescot Ice Light or the Dedolight LEDzilla for better skin tones.
With my Canon 24mm 1.4 lens on a Canon 5D Mark II camera I dropped to the muddy ground to brace my camera like a tripod to stabilize the slower shutter speed at the edge of a small chocolate brown typhoid infested puddle.
And then… strange sounds came from across the street; loud and seemingly obnoxious hardly discernible guttural animal sounds! It was dark and I could not decide if I should fight or flight! Of course, I would have to leave the bride! Can you imagine trying to outrun zombies? Well, I mean fast zombies with her big poofy dress on? Sorry. She was zombie bait! I was about to start my sprint, when out of the darkness came five smiling teenagers saying, “Congratulations!” Not your typical blockbuster ending I can tell you that!
Back to the shoot:
I overexposed to bring in more ambient lighting. It was not easy to put all the puzzle pieces together for a power and dynamic composition, but it is always a rewarding experience!!
The couple was happy to leave. The dress was spotless. My nerves were wrecked. All was good! No apocalypse!
I have an assortment of super inexpensive panel LED lights. I use them to highlight foreground and background elements, rim lighting, hair light, secondary sidelight, lighting table settings and more.
I am a big believer in portability and ease of use. Sunpak LED-126 and Sima SL-100LX Pro LED are nice little lights kept ready in my bag to toss some light around when I need it!
Another great use for lightweight LED video lights? Lighting your way out of a dark alleyway when being chased by fast zombies! Of course!
If you are interested in any of the equipment listed in this article, check out My Gear page: http://www.davidbeckstead.net/Pages/My-Gear/37144621_R5TkK6
B&H Photo is my most trusted camera equipment store! I find their prices and service are the best! At times, I need advice on equipment and B&H is always willing and helpful!
Join David’s page if you are interested in being different and shooting dynamic imagery: https://www.facebook.com/David.A.Beckstead
November 25, 2013
Frank DiMeo’s Facebook Post
Frank DiMeo is a great dad! At least his last post showed me something deeper about him. A dad willing to get a pedicure with his daughter is a man I want to know more about!
Check out the link!
April 20, 2013
Learning composition from children’s books
As creative artists we should be also looking for inspiration outside of our own industry and fields and genres. This helps us look outside of what everyone else is doing (wedding photography for me) and finding new concepts to incorporate into your own business. This includes the art, the business and the branding. Let’s take the art: last night I saw a great movie called Oblivion. Right in the movie and used so well at the end was one of my very favorite paintings, Christina’s World by Andrew Wyeth https://pinterest.com/pin/135811744983257228/
Andrew Wyeth happens to be a massive influence on me. I first fell in love with his paintings as freshman in high school. I will always go back and learn from his compositions and mood.
I have loved books that Doris Burn illustrated. My favorite children’s book of all time was Andrew Henry’s Meadow. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doris_Burn
I just found this book by Doris.
http://readmeastorynow.blogspot.com/2011/06/we-were-tired-of-living-in-house.html
The compositions are wonderful! You can learn a lot from her subject placements and use of lines created by the subjects. Her use of triangles. Her use of contrast and space to make the subject pop from the chaotic forests full of interweaving lines. Her use of direction and action to move us along from page to page. Truly you could take her concepts to weddings and create better stories with your isolations and crops.
Never stop learning! Never stop studying and never just study wedding photographers or wedding photography.
February 12, 2013
5 top regrets of the dying
This is a great read! It says it all! short and sweet!
My plan and goal is to follow this to the letter!
http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2012/feb/01/top-five-regrets-of-the-dying
February 3, 2013
Might as well jump!!
My first post on this new blog! I am just going to JUMP! I don’t know when I first started this but I have been jumping from day one I think. My family knows me as the guy that cannot sit still for a nice clean normal portrait. I try! Really I do! But my facial muscles will not allow me to just smile more than a few seconds. My feet will not allow me to stay planted on the ground for long! I am compelled to make funny faces and lift off!
“I think there is more satisfaction knowing you took the jump, regardless of how you landed, than if you never left the ground” David
B
February 10, 2011
Cate Blanchett W Magazine October 2007
This image back in 2007 got me thinking about the rules of eyes and shadows and contrast. It has helped me shape my style more. Meaning: they did this shot for a reason and the mood came out just right. They took the risk and it paid off. I am sure many of the other sho…ts did not. I learned to take more risks with strong downward angled sun rays.
http://style.popcrunch.com/cate-blanchett-w-magazine-october-2007/
December 8, 2010
Lionhearted wedding couple!
My friend Grant Oakes scored this great wedding on:
It is a crazy Disneyworld looking place with an Aztec theme in the Bahamas!
He invited me and we had a blast on this unbelievable place!!
Toward the evening after a great beach wedding we found the helicopter pad with 2 massive lion statues protecting it! Wow! We just had to use the statues in our shots!
The bride in the lion’s mouth!! We just had to have that dramatic image! She was up for anything!
So much fun!
Here is my album with more shots from this wedding.
http://www.facebook.com/David.A.Beckstead#!/album.php?aid=176290&id=133452761392
December 5, 2010
Colossal Qoutes!
“Movement and playing with perception are continual threads in my imagery as I question what is real in space and time”
- Ani Garrick
Colossal Qoutes!
“Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep”
– Scott Adams
December 4, 2010
My mistakes with posing and composition
I have made tons of mistakes and I still make them all the time. Often I don’t even see the mistake until I have viewed it many times on my monitor. I have had plenty of images published and later see my glaring mistake in print.
For my own learning experience I went back to my most used images: the ones that I post on my favorites galleries and use for marketing. I have used hundreds of images for marketing so I have a lot to go through. I am still searching for more.
My eyes are more open now. I have learned new poses and ‘rules’ and concepts that help me see these mistakes better. Some mistakes are glaring and some seem a little picky to talk about. Some I will not use again because of the mistakes. Others can be fixed. Some are powerful enough for me to use and just ignore the mistakes. In fact some you would not see these mistakes at first until I pointed them out.
A powerful emotion or composition can trump technicality. An out of focus image can look great on the web. Sometimes a mistake is just not that big of a deal. I want to keep adding to this album because I will learn from it.
I hope it helps you also.
Check out each shot and my comments are there!
