photo show

My show is up this week in the KTC library, but I wanted to post it here as well so that everyone can see it.

While this show is considered a "portrait" show, we were only required to have one half of our photos be portraits and the other half could be anything, so several of the photos are of objects that remind me of my family.
My idea for the show was to catch family members, for the most part, in their natural environment, doing things that spark a fond memory or capture their personality. While some photos are more traditional portraits, I did make an effort to take more true-to-life photos. However, I would not consider any of these photos to be "snapshots". A lot of thought went into each photo, including the photos I had taken previous to the show.

Ok, now that we're done with all that hoity-toity nonsense, onto the photos :) Enjoy!

 

annie leibovitz

Annie Leibovitz was born Anna-Lou Leibovitz on October 2, 1949 in Waterbury, Connecticut. She was one of six children. Her mother, Marilyn Leibovitz, was a dance instructor, and her father, Sam Leibovitz, was a Lieutenant in the Air Force. Due to her father’s involvement in the Air Force, the family moved often. During a posting in the Philippines during the Vietnam War, Leibovitz became interested in photography. The base where the family was stationed had a darkroom, which enabled Leibovitz’s interest to develop into a hobby.

            Upon graduation from high school in the late 1960’s, Leibovitz attended college at the San Francisco Art Institute, where she studied painting. However, while attending the San Francisco Art Institute, she took a class on photography because of her previous hobby. After her first photography class, Annie decided to change her major to photography. During the summer after her sophomore year of college, she left San Francisco to travel with her mother to Japan, where she purchased her first camera. After returning from Japan, Leibovitz enrolled in photography night classes, receiving her first formal training in photography. However, she has said that in college, she was never taught anything about lighting or color photography. Her classes focused only on black and white film. After college, in 1970, Leibovitz briefly lived on an Israeli kibbutz, which is essentially a small Israeli agricultural community, where she further honed her skills. During her time living at the kibbutz, she participated in an archaeological dig at the site of King Solomon’s temple.

            When Leibovitz returned to San Francisco in 1970, she approached the founding editor of then-start-up Rolling Stone magazine, Jann Wenner, and asked for a position. Wenner was impressed with Leibovitz’s portfolio and gave Leibovitz a job as a staff photographer, along with her first assignment: photograph John Lennon. This photograph, a black-and-white portrait of Lennon, became the cover for the January 12, 1971 issue of Rolling Stone. Two year later, in 1973, 23-year-old Leibovitz was promoted to the position of the Rolling Stone’s chief photographer. The next year, the magazine began printing in color. Since Leibovitz had not been taught about lighting and color during her years at the San Francisco Art Institute, she had to teach herself how to work with color. It is possible that her need to self-teach color photography led to her signature use of bold, primary colors. Among her subjects from her time at Rolling Stone were Bob Dylan, Bob Marley, Patti Smith, and other celebrities of the time.

            In 1975, Leibovitz decided to go on tour with the band the Rolling Stones, becoming their official photographer. Rolling Stone magazine editor Jann Wenner encouraged Leibovitz to skip the trip, concerned that the environment of traveling with a rock and roll band would lead Leibovtiz to a lifestyle of partying and drug use, which ended up being a correct prediction. Leibovitz eventually ended up in rehab for her drug use. However, through touring with the band, Leibovitz captured iconic black-and-white photos of Keith Richards and Mick Jagger, in all their 1970’s rock band glory.

            By the time Leibovitz left Rolling Stone magazine ten years later, she had shot 142 covers for the magazine. She was credited with making several Rolling Stone covers collector’s items.

The 1980’s were arguably Leibovitz’s time of best work. In 1980, Leibovitz shot her best-known photograph. Rolling Stone magazine had sent her to photograph John Lennon and wife Yoko Ono. The couple had recently released their album entitled “Double Fantasy” and Rolling Stone wanted a photo of the duo for their cover. Leibovitz intended to photograph the couple nude. While Lennon agreed to disrobe, Ono agreed to remove her top, but refused to remove her pants. Leibovitz was disappointed in the lack of cooperation from Ono and decided to have Ono leave her clothes on. The resulting portrait shows Lennon, nude, curled around Ono’s fully clothed body. Just hours later that day, Lennon was shot dead in front of his apartment in New York City. The photograph did run as a cover of Rolling Stone magazine, but not as a promotional cover for the album. Instead, the magazine devoted the issue as a commemorative issue to John Lennon. The cover is the most collectible cover in the history of Rolling Stone magazine and in 2005 the photo of Lennon and his wife was named the best magazine cover from the past 40 years by the American Society of Magazine Editors.

Her first book, entitled Annie Leibovitz: Photographs, was published in 1983. She also published several more books in the 1980’s. Also in 1983, she began working for Vanity Fair magazine as the magazine’s first contributing photographer. She remains a contributing photographer today. At Vanity Fair, Leibovitz became known for her strangely lit, staged, and often-provocative portraits of celebrities. Most notable among these include a photo of a naked Whoopi Goldberg submerged in a milk bath, a photo of Demi Moore, naked and holding her pregnant belly, and a photo of the late artist Keith Haring, who painted his naked body into one of his canvases for a photo. The cover photo of Moore was named the second best photo from the past 40 years, right after the photo of John Lennon and Yoko Ono, by the American Society of Magazine Editors. Since starting at Vanity Fair, Leibovitz has photographed celebrities such as Brad Pitt, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Ellen DeGeneres, the George W. Bush cabinet, Michael Moore, Madeleine Albright, Bill Clinton, Scarlett Johannson, Keira Knightley, Tom Ford, Nicole Kidman, Suri Cruise, and many, many more.

Annie Leibovitz’s portraits have appeared in publications such as Vogue, The New York Times Magazine, and The New Yorker. She has also worked on advertising campaigns for companies such as American Express, the Gap, the Milk Board’s “Got Milk?” campaign, and Disney. Leibovitz’s work for the American Express “Membership” campaign earned Leibovitz a Clio Award in 1987. Her campaign for Disney incorporated several A-list celebrities posing as characters from popular Disney films. Additionally, she has worked with several arts organizations, such as the American Ballet Theatre, the Brooklyn Academy of Music, and the Mark Morris Dance Group.

Leibovitz’s style of photography is fairly easy to identify because it is very different from other photographers’. In her portrait photography, Leibovitz attempts to emphasize and aspect of each subject’s public persona. She generally incorporates the entire body of the subject in her photos, often while the subject is in the midst of some sort of physical action. This effect is achieved without looking fake and often gives the photo a feeling of outrageousness, effectively setting her apart from photographers who take less dramatic, more boring approaches to their photography. Another trademark technique of Leibovitz’s is the use of bold primary colors and bizarre, surprising poses.

Leibovitz has had exhibitions throughout the United States and Europe, including at the National Portrait Gallery and the Corcoran Gallery in Washington, D.C., the International Center of Photography in New York, the Brooklyn Museum, the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, the Centre National de la Photographie in Paris, and the National Portrait Gallery in London. She was honored with a retrospective by the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C. in 1991. This retrospective toured the United States, Europe, and Asia. She has received many awards in her years of work, including the American Society of Magazine Photographers Photographer of the Year Award in 1984, the American Society of Magazine Photographers Innovation in Photography Award in 1987, the Clio Award and the Campaign of the Decade Award from Advertising Age magazine in 1987, and the Infinity Award for applied photography from the International Center for Photography in 1990. The Library of Congress has designated Annie Leibovitz a Living Legend. She was also decorated a Commander in the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (Order of Arts and of Letters) by the French government, as recognition of her significant contribution to the arts. These awards make it obvious that Annie Leibovitz is one of the most important and significant portrait photographers of our time.

There is a lot to be learned from someone as accomplished as Annie Leibovitz. Among the most important things I have learned from studying her is to think outside the box. Through her bizarre, often controversial photographs, she inspires amateur photographers to do things differently and set themselves apart.

photographing steam

The successful photography of steam is a challenge faced in studio product photography, specifically food photography, which can be solved by a variety of strategies. These strategies include careful creation of heavy steam when photographing the food and manipulation of food photos in Photoshop to create the illusion of steam. Both methods, when done correctly, can result in realistic, believable photos of steaming food and drinks.

            Ideally, photographing steam should take place in a studio environment. The main reason for this (besides the obvious reasons, such as available additional lighting) is that steam needs to be created in an environment in which there is no breeze. The air should be turned off and, if applicable, the windows should be closed. If there is any movement of the air, the steam may move in an unwanted direction. In fact, the movement of the air in the room is so important that the photographer should ask others in the room not to walk by product that is being shot or breathe in the direction of the steam. If all of these precautions are followed, the steam will rise naturally, and without unnecessary movement in any horizontal direction.

            Another important set-up step is to be sure you are photographing on a dark background. In my trial, I wanted a white background because the food I was photographing was breakfast food and I thought a white background would be more appropriate for the morning. However, when we were finally able to get some photos with steam, the background appeared gray, allowing the steam to show up. While it is acceptable to photograph white foods, such as eggs, on a white background, it is not possible to photograph steam. The difference between the two is that eggs have a defined edge, allowing light to hit them in a manor that shows their shape through shadowing, while steam does not have a defined edge and is semi-transparent.

            The third set-up technique is the use of a backlight. Without the backlight, you cannot successfully incorporate steam into your photograph. The light from the backlight coming through the steam lights the water particles, causing the steam to really pop. In fact, two backlights can be used, one off to the left and the other to the right. One of these lights can be designated the main light while the other can be designated the steam light. The steam light should be at about the same height as the food from which the steam is flowing. That way, the light doesn’t affect the food as much, but aims directly at the steam, affecting the lighting of the steam appropriately. The steam light should not hit the food or drink or the background. Only the main light should be used for lighting the food itself, but the main light must still come from behind the subject. As for the intensity of the light, you must work with the lighting on a trial and error basis. Shoot the steam and adjust the lighting and metering as you go.

            One final set-up technique is to be sure that the steam appears from behind the subject. If it appears in front of the subject, the subject will be in a haze. This is not ideal, especially if you are intending to sell the subject being photographed. The subject should appear clear and in focus and should not be covered by any distortion or fog from the steam.

            After your set-up is complete, you must create the steam to be photographed. There are a variety of ways of accomplishing this. Choose the method that works best for your budget, available tools, and convenience. It’s important to note that steam is not equal to heat or smoke. In terms of heat, the object you are photographing (in my case coffee) does not need to be hot to create steam. The steam can, and probably will, be created using an external source completely unrelated to the subject you’re photographing. Also, be sure to remember that steam is not the same as smoke. Smoke is a different color than steam and is made of different particles. While smoke is made up of small particles of ash, gases, and water vapor, steam is water vapor only. This causes smoke to appear a whitish color, while steam appears simply transparent. For this reason, smoke should not be used as a stand-in for steam for photographic purposes, because it makes the photo less believable and unrealistic.

            Several methods for creating steam include a steamer (often used for reducing wrinkles in clothing), a “smoke cookie” (which can be purchased at a photography specialty store), a modified cappuccino machine, or a very hot, damp cloth. Any of these methods will produce realistic, believable steam.

            The solution I used when creating steam was to fill a container with very hot water, straight from the microwave. Then, I used a coffee pot with ice cubes to “pour” the cold air from the ice cubes over the container of hot water. When the two temperatures of air met, this produced the steam, which was able to be captured. This method was found after quite a few trials, but did eventually create steam when the above techniques were followed.

            One additional trick that can be used to make your shot look realistic is to spritz the food with water, because if the food truly was steaming, some condensation would form on the top. Small detail such as this really make your shot believable and make the steam appear to be coming directly from the product.

            Don’t get discouraged when attempting to photograph steam. It is a very unpredictable thing to photograph and is very difficult to control. If you find that it is too complicated to photograph steam, there are other ways to add steam to the photo digitally. Using Photoshop, the photographer can use a number of tools that will enable them to create realistic illusions of steam.

            To create steam in Photoshop is really fairly easy. First, open the photo to which you want to add steam. Make sure the photo is in RGB color mode. Create a new layer and call it “steam”. Using the steam tool, creating a curvy shape that looks similar to the shape the steam will make in the end. Make sure that use close your path. In the Paths palette options menu, choose the “Make Selection” command. Check the “anti-aliased” box and set the feathering to 5 pixels or more. Be sure that the steam layer is selected and fill the now-feathered selection with white. Click anywhere outside the path in the Paths palette to make the steam path disappear. Using the background eraser tool to paint holes at random in the cloud of steam you have just created. The more holes you create in your steam at this point, the more transparent it will be in the end. Make sure to use a small-soft edged brush to create these holes. Now, apply the “Motion Blue” filter. Adjust the distance to simulate the amount of diffusion you want to apply to the steam. The more distance you use, the more diffusion will be apparent in your steam. Adjust the angle of the Motion Blur to change direction of diffusion. This should be in agreement with the movement of the steam (usually up). Set this layer’s blend mode to “Overlay”. This will cause the steam to fade into the background. You will need to make adjustments to your steam that cannot be quantified in this paper. Use the “Free Transform” tool to rotate and/or stretch the steam shape to look more realistic. Duplicate the layer, if needed, to make adjustments to the blend mode. You may also reduce the opacity of any of the steam layers you create to make them less apparent.

            In my case, I had a photograph of steam, but it needed to be added to my photo of my product as a composite. In order to do this, I added copy and pasted the photo of the steam into the photo of the coffee and used the techniques listed above to fine-tune the appearance of the steam.

            This may seem like a lot of complicated steps just to get a simple thing like steam, but steam is really a very important part of food and drink photography. A steaming plate of food makes the mouth water more than a static plate of food. Steam provides a dynamic movement to the photograph. A steaming cup of coffee makes the person thirsty. In terms of advertising, steam is the difference between an okay photo, and a photo that produces results in the form of interest and purchase.

photography show poster

This poster (size 11" x 17") was created to advertise my photography show, which will be in Room S221 (KTC Library) in the Kansas Technology Center from Sunday, November 6 until Sunday, November 13. Photos used in the show and photos of the show will be posted later. The six photos above are a sample of the photos that will be in the show.