I am pleased to announce that I am now the official photographer for The Independent Critic – an independent voice for the reel world.
My first official duties will be covering the red carpet Indy premiere of Rob Reiner’s “Flipped” on Monday, August 2.
Before July is over, I’m posting a few of my favorite fireworks photos from this year. I went to Beech Grove on the 3rd, then Cicero on the 4th. The photo above took first place in our monthly photo club competition for July. Live in Central Indiana? Check out our club website.
Want some tips for your fireworks shots? Read on.
1. ALWAYS use a tripod! If you don’t have a tripod – then find something to support your camera as it points to the sky. I had to do use boulders and smaller rocks at a waterfall in Tennessee. We hiked about 300 feet down to the bottom – no tripod – so I had to improvise.
2. Manual exposure. I vary my exposures every minute or so. My shutter usually ranges from 2 seconds to 10 seconds. My f/stop usually ranges from f/8 to f/14. Preferred ISO is 100, although some of these were shot at ISO 250.
3. If you want just the explosions, sometimes you can hear them shoot and know it’s time to open the shutter. If you want the tails, it’s a bit tougher! The pyro-experts don’t always have consistent timing and sometimes there are multiple bursts. Luck can play into it, too. Sometimes you open too soon, other times too late. But they are almost always interesting shots.
4. If you have it – use a remote. I don’t have one for my current camera, so I press the shutter as gently as possible to avoid camera shake. I could do a 2-second shutter delay – but those two seconds could lose the shot.
The shots that show the burst only or show tree silhouettes at the bottom are from Beech Grove, the ones with the tails and are on the water are from Cicero. I had hoped for better reflections, but the barge was too close to shore to get them. It was so close to shore that by the end of the night, we were getting pieces of ash falling on us.
The song says “the first cut is the deepest” …. well, the first post is the hardest! In this blog I will be sharing photos and tips. Sometimes the tips will be more defined that at other times. Sometimes they will be with the photo relating some choices I made for the photo.
I decided to start with photos from a recent photoshoot with little J. She turned the big 0-1 on July 5. She spent the weekend after her big birthday with her grandparents. I went over and set up a mini-studio in their kitchen.
J was almost a July 4 baby so what better than a red, white, and blue dress? She’s not quite standing on her own yet so we had to pull in a chair for support. Cheerios, well, those just made her happy! Those are one of her favorite things.
For this photo I did a quick burn of the edges to bring the focus in on her since this was a full-length shot.
In the photo on the right she’s wearing her “my first birthday” dress and you can see that she’s trading the “pearl” necklace for the Cheerios she just spotted on the floor of the background. I’m not sure that the “who needs a necklace when there are Cheerios to eat???” attitude will last very long! Hopefully it will for Mommy & Daddy’s sake – I’m sure cereal is cheaper than necklaces.
For this photo I decided that a square format fit perfectly. I then did a burn around the edges, but changed the burn to a pink to white gradient because I wanted it to have a light and bright finish. This photo looks fantastic in a metallic print.
As seen in the photo below, she also enjoys playing “patty cake”. That was one of the things we found to keep her occupied for a few minutes.
This photo is in a sepia tone but with some hints of color showing through. I wanted to get it more of an “old-fashioned” look since it’s just her in her diaper and with some toys. I also knocked some of the brightness out of the toys so they didn’t stand out as a focal point. Full and partial sepia tones both look fabulous in a metallic print.
If you live in the Central Indianapolis area and want to schedule a photoshoot for your little beauty that won’t require maxing out the credit cards contact me at cheri@fotosbycheri.com.
I can bring my portable studio to you or we can meet in a park or other location for outdoor portraits. The ideal minimum footprint for setup 10-12 ft wide by 12-15 ft long, but this was set up in an area without that ideal length.
I don’t have a permanent studio yet, but I do have a couple of offices on the south side of Indianapolis where I can set up my equipment and you can meet me there.
Your minimum investment is $80 which includes some prints.
