For Damian’s senior photos, we went out one beautiful day for a portrait session at Boulevard Park in Bellingham, Wash. He was a charm to work with and easy-going.
Damian at Boulevard Park – Senior photo session with Damian on Saturday afternoon Jan, 14, 2017, at Boulevard Park in Bellingham, Wash. (© Paul Conrad/Paul Conrad Photography)
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On Friday, I photographed the actress, and now fashion designer, Melissa McCarthy at Nordstrom Seattle. The flagship store hosted the event where she announced her new line: Melissa McCarthy Seven7.
It was a simple assignment from Getty Images: photograph McCarthy posing with fans as well as a few candid photos. Pretty easy.
SEATTLE, WA – JULY 22: Actress Melissa McCarthy poses in one of her creations as while promoting her fashion line Melissa McCarthy Seven7 at Nordstrom Downtown Seattle on July 22, 2016 in Seattle, Washington. (Photo by Paul Conrad/Getty Images for Nordstrom)
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And the performers were enlightening!!! Fire performance artists entertained over 200 people during the evening of July 17th. As the Sun set, spectators flowed from the trail to the beach inundating a normally quiet park.
Locust Beach is the one park I like to go to that is close to town, but not well visited. There’s limited parking and a good 1/4 to 1/2 mile hike down to the beach. It’s rocky with no facilities. But super nice to get away from it all within town.
Lindsay McFinland of Bellingham spits a fireball into the sky while performing during sunset at Locust Beach on Sunday evening July 17, 2016, in Bellingham, Wash. A group of artists are attempting to make the third Sunday of each month a meeting time to perform at Locust Beach. (© Paul Conrad/Paul Conrad Photography)
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This summer in the Pacific Northwest, and in particular, Bellingham, Wash., has been spectacular. Dry with little rain or even clouds, the spring and summer have been fantastic. As this had been the norm for months here in the Pacific Northwest, I put out a call for willing “guinea pigs” as I wanted to practice my location lighting: matching strobes with the setting Sun.
It was a beautiful evening in Bellingham a few weeks ago. One of my guinea pigs was local artist Julia “Joules” Martin. We’ve known each other for 3 years or so after meeting in Total Body Fitness class. She’s a local artist with a fantastic eye.
© Paul Conrad/Paul Conrad Photography – Joules at Boulevard Park helping me test my lights in Bellingham, Wash., on Sunday afternoon August 6, 2015.
Joules was fantastic to work with. She was patient and willing to try to climb atop rocks and boulders for the shot. When I was setting up and testing the lights, she calmly waited. What a trooper!!!
When we first arrived, The sky was hazy due to smoke from fires we are experience in the area. I set my lights up to take a few test shots. Using the ol’ Sunny 16 Rule (more info at this Link: Sunny 16), I calculated my exposures at f/4 at 1/2000. I made sure my flash and camera were set to Auto FP mode.
© Paul Conrad/Paul Conrad Photography – Joules at Boulevard Park helping me test my lights in Bellingham, Wash., on Sunday afternoon August 6, 2015.
Essentially, in Auto FP mode or High Speed Synch (HSS), the flash fires in rapid pulses so as the shutter slit exposes the film/sensor, the flash exposes the entire frame. It allows for flash syncing up to the camera’s limit. For my D300s, it synchs to 1/8000. It allows me to use the flash in bright daylight.
Example: Take three sheets of paper. Use one as the sensor, use the others as your shutter curtains. Start at the top of one the “sensors” with the two “shutters” slightly over each other. At normal flash synch speed or slower, one of the curtains will drop down to the other side of the sensor. The other is still at the top so the full sensor is exposed. The flash then fires exposing the entire sensor at one time.
© Paul Conrad/Paul Conrad Photography – Joules at Boulevard Park helping me test my lights in Bellingham, Wash., on Sunday afternoon August 6, 2015.
During fast shutter speeds, one of the curtains begins to drop and after it get partway down the sensor, the other curtain travels behind it essentially forming a slit. Without HSS, if the flash fired normally, only a small part of the sensor will be exposed.
However, in HSS, the flash strobes as the curtains cross the sensor to expose the entire frame. To the eye, it looks like a regular flash, but in reality, it’s strobing quite rapidly as it exposes the sensor.
For a better explanation of how it works, this blog post explains it well: Understanding Nikon’s Auto FP Mode.
Nikon’s explanation on their official website: Using Auto FP High Speed Synch.
© Paul Conrad/Paul Conrad Photography – Joules at Boulevard Park helping me test my lights in Bellingham, Wash., on Sunday afternoon August 6, 2015.
Auto FP mode expands your creativity by giving you tools to use during full daylight hours. Don’t limit yourself to just using flash when it’s dark, or by stopping down to f/16 or smaller, use this mode to open up your lens and take advantage of your whole aperture range.
© Paul Conrad/Paul Conrad Photography – Joules at Boulevard Park helping me test my lights in Bellingham, Wash., on Sunday afternoon August 6, 2015.
Now go grab some friends and practice with this great tool you’ve just added to your toolbox.
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Shutter speed varied between 1/1000 and 1/4000 with f/stop set to f/2.8 or f/4. I kept tabs on the sunset to vary those settings.
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Paul “pablo” Conrad
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Paul Conrad is an award-winning, nationally and internationally published freelance editorial photographer living in Bellingham north of Seattle, WA, in the Pacific Northwest. His work has been published in newspapers and magazine throughout the United States and in Europe. He is available for assignments anywhere in the Pacific Northwest.
His clients include Getty Images, Wire Image, AirBnB, The Bellingham Herald, and many local business in Whatcom County. Previous clients are Associated Press, the New York Times, L.A. Times, Denver Post, Rocky Mountain News, and many others.
His specialty is photojournalism covering news, sports, and editorial portraits, he also is skilled in family portraiture, high school senior portraits, and weddings.
On Sunday I had an assignment to shoot 3 team members of the Ferndale U11 Cal Ripkin All-Stars.
As part of the assignment for The Bellingham Herald, I was to meet three standouts and photograph them at practice. To be safe, I met the three early for a quick portrait session.
Always thinking on a larger scale, I kept picturing 3 major leaguers and wanted to light them as if I was working at Sports Illustrated. Hey why not think big. They may be 11, but why let that limit how you shoot it.
Using my set Nikon SB-910 speedlights and Phottix Odin TTL flash trigger and remotes, I set up a simple “studio” at home plate.
© Paul Conrad/The Bellingham Herald – Evan Rehrberger, Ethan Brooks, and Greg Roberts of the Ferndale 11-U Cal Ripkin All-Star team.
As a safety, I asked one of the dads to be a test subject so I can get the light placed correctly and power output set properly. I like my strobes at a 1:2 ratio.
The main light I place on the right at about 90 degrees from the camera-subject line. The secondary fill light, at a 45 degree angle on the left. I switched the main from left to right while keeping the 1:2 ratio. This gave me lighting choices to keep me from second guessing myself during the editing process.
With the sky dark from clouds, I tried to set my exposure to underexpose the ambient light by one stop. But in retrospect, I should have underexposed the ambient by 2 stops. Live and learn I guess.
For the three youths in one shot, I kept the lights simple: placed each strobe at a 45° angle and evenly lit.
© Paul Conrad/The Bellingham Herald -(l to r) Second baseman Evan Rehrberger, catcher Greg Roberts, and first baseman Ethan Brooks, of the Ferndale 11U All-Star baseball team during practice at Pioneer Park on Sunday afternoon July 6, 2014, in Ferndale, Wash.
Here’s a couple of tips, which I went over in a previous blog Intro To Creative Flash: Balancing Your Flash with Ambient Light
Simply: aperture for your flash, shutter speed for the ambient. It takes some practice, but it’s well worth it and gives you more tools for your photographic toolbox.
© Paul Conrad/Pablo Conrad Photography – Using just two strobes with diffusers place about 5 feet from subjects. Radio remotes to trigger. Simple and easy.
Practice! Practice! Practice!!!
Photography is NOT a Spectator Sport!!
Thank you for stopping by to read and view my work. Feel free to comment, critique, or just ask questions.
Also, feel free to share and reblog, link to, and add your site in the comment section.
Paul “pablo” Conrad
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Compositions of a Rambling PJ 