David Beckstead's Blog, page 2

I perceive (sometimes unconsciously) …

Are you poor?

A man in a nice car drove up beside me during a red light. The light took awhile for it to change which angered the driver. He turned red and shook his fist at the light. To be honest I felt no compassion of him. I felt he was very poor!

A friend of mine articulated something I had deeply felt for many years: poor is not a state of your monetary resources, it is truly a state of mind and heart! There is always someone poorer than you, monetarily. You are always as rich as you want to be: rich in how you live your life!

I have been to many monetarily poor countries. What they lack is not just money. They also have less of three important things we Americans have in spades: freedom, opportunity and choice.

My definition of the idea of being poor came to turning point in Auschwitz. I had read as much as I could about WWII. I was extremely intrigued by war because of mans desire for power. I went to Poland to immerse myself in man’s inhumanity to man. It was as close as I have ever gotten to it. I hope I never get closer!

When I got back to America and I must confess, I felt I had never been to a poorer country! We do not appreciate what we have! Many Americans have not been educated on the global-road. It is a big and amazing world but many cannot see past their own problems and weaknesses…past the boarders of their own walls.

If you want for nothing then you are in the position to help others. I would like to help others see that being poor is only a state of mind and heart.  I am not a pessimistic guy but I feel our photography industry will get worse before it gets better. You will need to lean on your spades more than ever: freedom, opportunity and choice.

If you concentrate on helping other photographers,

If you get off the dang television and spend quality time with your family and friends,

If you have an open mind to the changes,

If you finally admit that the walls you created are the tallest and thickest and the walls others have put in front of you are thin and built on sand,

You go a long way to not being poor and seeing how rich you really are!

Lose shooting and dramatic imagery! By David Beckstead

Lose shooting and dramatic imagery!  By David Beckstead

This shot is one of my favorite images I have ever taken at a wedding. It taught me a lot about how I love the mechanics of shooting loosely with little regard for technicality. Of course I had a general idea of exposure and a very lose concept for composition. I keep my camera on aperture priority mode mainly for the very quick access to the back exposure dial. I essentially shoot manual because I never let the camera choose the exposure. I ‘spin’ the dial without regard to how many clicks or stops of exposure, plus or minus. I know that forward spins are overexposure and backward spins are under. I can do this without looking and ‘feel’ it. I check/chimp the LCD constantly; not to get perfect exposures on every shot, I am not after this. No, I prefer radical over and underexposures to get more dramatic effects. That is why I need to rely on the LCD to see what my camera is recording and I am creating because I often cannot see the radical exposure with my own eyes. My eyes see exposures in the middle like 18% gray. I keep my focus point in the middle where I can focus and recompose even without looking through the lens. All of these techniques coupled with my 16-35 2.8 lens gives me the ability to shoot a lot without looking through the viewfinder. I have practiced for years pointing the focus point around like a laser. How I angle the plane of my camera will put the focus point where I want it. Takes practice. Let’s say I am shooting the processional and I am at the end following the flow of the bride and her dress from behind. I love to shoot low and follow the lines of the dress up with the chairs balancing the composition on each side. I know all I have to do is hit the dress somewhere with my lens on 16mm and the focus point plane will be broad enough to get what I want in focus. I don’t look through the lens and rely on my years of experience to know the possible outcome. I stand up and shoot the grooms smiling face with my 70-200 2.8 attached to my other camera slung around my shoulder.  At one point I back up and find some flower petals on the center aisle. I put the camera on the ground, tilt the lens down and point the focus to the flower petals. I put the F-Stop on 5.6 to give me a little bokeh yet retain a nice depth feel and include the backs of the bride & groom.

Now that I have explained this shooting concept, I will go back to one of my favorite shots and how I got it. I was in Tuscany, Italy shooting a great wedding. I had the bride & groom for a few hours after the ceremony. I had them in a relaxed pose, yet being aware of my surroundings, looked around and ‘saw the light’. There was large tunnel for cars under some old-world homes. There were cobblestones on the roadway and light at the end of the tunnel. Glorious light! I asked my couple to walk over to the light where I would place them for a new pose. Yet the 100 yard distance to the natural light was also useful for me. I never let a walking couple walk without me shooting them in the process. This is a rule for me: never ever let motion pass me by without being photographed! Often these bodies in motion provide the best and most dynamic imagery! I used my 16-36 on 16mm and camera low at the hip for a different angle. I pre shot for exposure and started to pop off image after image with the focus point hitting her dress from behind as we walked. I wanted motion and framing and the light at the end of the tunnel in my image. I have a love for compositions not completely planned. I was sure that most if not all the images I took within that 100 yards (20 shots I think) would not turn out. In fact when I check my experimental imagery out in Lightroom back at home, I just choose the best shots by staring them. I never look at the bad ones again. It is a mixture of luck, exposure and body positioning for all the elements to come together and create a shot that is very difficult to set up. Bodies in motion are not easy to just stop and pose and keep a natural look. I prefer the natural feeling I get when I am photographing bodies moving naturally; but my odds of success are lower and I need to shoot faster and more shutter hits.

The mixture of everything I have been studying and practicing came to fruition in this composition: Leading lines, framing, natural light, movement, shape, texture, negative spaces and more elements.

This is the kind of image that just keeps me fired-up and passionate about my art and business! They don’t teach this in most photo schools. It is too lose and hard to teach. I teach it at my workshops. I have done it long enough to understand that I can ‘up’ my percentage of great shots by applying a few cool lose techniques and some fun luck!

Next time your couples are moving, stop looking at all the cool posed shots you just took on your LCD and start shooting them as they walk. You will be surprised at all the great shots you could get and all the opportunities you used to leave on the table!

‘© Copyright David Beckstead 2010’