Little Shop of Horrors photos for the Compass Rose Theater.

The latest show I did photography for – Little Shop of Horrors at the Compass Rose Theater. They have an amazing show, by the way I strongly encourage you to check it out though their shows have been having this habit of selling out so you might want to get your tickets sooner rather than later. If you do manage to get tickets, it’s right there in downtown Annapolis so plan a nice evening out along with it. Their show will be going Through March 30. Check it out, you won’t regret it.

From left to right: Martin Egna as Mushnik, Keila Mumphord as Crystal, Cristen Young as Ronette, and Barret Johnson as Chiffon.

For theater photography you start at the same place with any type of photography – research and planning. Know what the show is about, even better if you can watch a version of it that is probably available on any number of websites if not on YouTube. Understand, of course, that part of the art of acting is that every director and actor is going to interpret and present the show differently. That’s what makes seeing shows at different places so cool – it is never the same.

Left to right: Andrew Agner-Nichols as Dr. Orin, Maxwell Wolf as Seymour.

As for planning, figure out how you are going to approach it. Me personally, I usually see what the directors/producers have in mind as far as marketing goes – usually they have an idea already for some posed shots and start from there. Then I try to get permission to get photos of the dress rehearsal as it is happening because there is usually a shot there the directors and producers don’t realize they want. This sort of hybrid set up tends to get some great results and gives them a lot of photos they can use to market their show with.

Maxwell Wolf as Seymour, Sophie Love as Audrey

Elliot Petrilla as Patrick Martin, Maxwell Wolf as Seymour, Andrew Agner-Nichols as Mrs. Luce

Tyler White as Ensemble, James M. Toler as Wino.

Tyler White as Ensemble, Sophie Love as Audrey, Maxwell Wolf as Seymour, Martin Egna as Mushnik. On ground: Elliott Petrilla as Wino II, James M. Toler as Wino.

Sophie Love as Audrey, Martin Egna as Mushnik, Maxwell Wolf as Seymour, and Amanda L. Matousek as Ensemble.

Sophie Love as Audrey

I have a few more thoughts on this, maybe I will post them next week. But go see Little Shop of Horrors at the Compass Rose Theater.

Photographing cats in studio.

This will likely take a little more patience than photographing dogs as cats dance to the beat of their own drum – they will participate in your photo session when they are tired or when they are ready. That stated, you can do a few things to improve your session.

First off, spend a little time just sitting and either looking at your phone or talking. Let them sniff you and all that cat stuff. It doesn’t matter if they walk off, but don’t follow them around trying to get them to look at you. Treats can help but not all cats are persuaded by treats. I tend to have more luck with toys. Namely those cat-teases or string toys. It usually gets them right into hunting modes.

For these photos, it is two different black cats. One had no problem being in the open. The other was a little more guarded. So, we played the game the way each cat wanted to play. The cat that was in the open, I just used the toy to direct his eyes. Then the dog stepped in to investigate. That happens. For the more timid cats, play the session further away. They need that distance to feel comfortable.

After the session, give them treats. Cats hunt then eat. Play is just hunting practice for them.

Once again, if you need any photography work, contact me – I’ll give something you won’t regret.

Studio pet photography.

Let’s start this week off with some pet photography, specifically dogs and then later in the week talk about cats.

A few things first, as always, our animals just want to make us happy. BE PATIENT. Getting upset is just going to make your project more difficult or even impossible as your pets feed into your frustration. Keep it fun and keep it patient. That stated, there are some tricks to make it easier on you.

Bribery does wonders with dogs. Treats and toys are amazing, especially if you know if your dog responds to them. A word of advice on treats though. Peanut butter is great for getting silly photos as your dog will naturally keep licking due to its texture. DON’T USE DIET PEANUT BUTTER. It contains Xylitol, which is toxic to dogs. For solid treats, which you can use to direct your dog’s viewing direction, use soft meat-based treats as hard ones crumble and leave crumbs all over.

For lighting, this was actually kind of a complicated three light setup. The key light was just above my camera with a soft box modifier reaching out on the arm of a boomstand. The two fill lights are strip boxes with grids on them. I also have a big footstool being used to get the dogs up higher.

If you need any photography work done, reach out to me. I have a few openings. Let’s talke and make it happen.

Professional Headshots

Since I had my suit on for a previous practice shoot, I went ahead and practiced some professional headshots. I’ve done them in all sorts of ways – indoors and outdoors. Indoors, with all sorts of different backdrops. Indoors at offices. Indoors in homes. Indoors in hallways. Outdoors all over Annapolis and around town centers.

Personally, I prefer the black backdrop when I can make it happen. It puts more focus on the subject in my mind. Then it is just a matter of knowing what the subject is trying to convey. The real trick to these is just being honest with your photographer or getting the subject to be honest with me.

Treat what your clients tell you with respect, that means keeping to yourself what they’d prefer you kept to yourself and then going beyond that and keeping even more to yourself.

I have openings for professional headshots. Contact me to set up a session.

#marylandphotographer #annearundelphotographer #photographytips

Torn Paper Practice

A portrait style I’ve seen before is the torn paper portrait. It’s where your subject is framed by a torn paper. Pretty straight forward. I have an idea I want to try with a particular subject (or should I say, subjects) but before I go running off to try and set this up, I wanted to test it out at home.

For starters this requires having a paper backdrop at all. I have two. One was a little more beat up than the other, so I used the beat up one. The other catch is that the backdrop has to be long enough to cut a section off. This will be the torn paper part. Then you use the remaining roll as a backdrop to that. In other words, to do this style of portrait you have to be willing to sacrifice a paper backdrop. You may have some left afterwords. I did, but just enough for it to still be a backdrop.

The hole itself was just knife cuts. You are looking for that general center point because if you are too far off to a side it’s going to be tricky to work your way out of that side. Then practice and posing. You need space if you want your subject to lean out of it. For lighting, it’s a single light believe it or not. It has a softbox and is just overhead pointed at a 45-degree angle.

Now time to run off and try and coordinate this session, but fortunately, I have sample photos to help push the concept with.

I’m open for a few clients, if you need photography work then reach out to me and let’s get this done.

#Marylandphotographer #Annearundelphotographer #photographytips

Snow day!

It’s snowing here in Maryland and it is wonderful. Obviously, all roads lead to my camera and my dogs. My Shih Tzu is too small to enjoy the snow but my Redbone Coonhound is just the right size. Well, at least until she gets bored of it (about 15 minutes) then she wants to go inside. Also, since the area is fenced in and snowed in there isn’t a whole lot of ways to escape so I could take her collar off. Only do this if you are certain you control the area.

All that is photo session planning, right? I know my Shih Tzu doesn’t like the snow so I don’t push him into it. I know my Coonhound will enjoy it but only in 15 minute bouts. So I plan accordingly. Furthermore, the snow is going to get her to leave her legs more to maneuver through it so action shots. But also, her breed is a hunting breed so she will inspect things so expect her to be inquisitive about things so be prepared to switch to shots of her investigating things.

I set my shutter speed up a little and the day light keeps my ISO lower. Since I have so much ISO to work with I can up my aperture and adjust accordingly. Still, it takes a bit of walking around the yard and calling her. At which point she comes running. Then I wait, and get a few shots of her looking around and then I move somewhere else and do it all again.

I have bookings available if you need photography work done. Feel free to contact me.

Snow Tips: January 2025 Edition

Looks like it might be snowing soon in Maryland so here are a few tips about photography gear in the snow. Photo is from 2021, you’ve seen it before if you’ve been watching my posts. Also, any items recommended in this post is purely my opinion and I have not been offered any compensation for these recommendations.

For starters, treat active snowing like active rain and protect your gear. Water and cameras don’t mix well, and snow is just really cold water. Too much of it and you will have a problem. You can use a plastic bag if you don’t have an actual rain cover for your camera. That stated, I’ve tried numerous versions of rain protection for my gear and so far, the one I like the most is the LensCoat Raincoat RS on Amazon. It goes for around $66 to $85 and does a decent job of doing what it was built to do – protect your gear from the rain.

Next up, charge your batteries and have a backup battery. Camera batteries don’t like the cold and have a shorter battery charge in the cold. The colder it is, the more noticeable this shorter charge is. If you want to have your camera out for the duration of your photo session, make sure you have something to fall back on in case that battery in your camera runs out.

Finally, be mindful of snow in trees. Gravity is still in effect and snow in trees is going one direction if it falls out of that tree. Down, and if you are under that tree it’s going to fall down on you and your camera. That’s never a fun experience.

Bonus tip: White snow on a sunny day can be very bright so expect to have to adjust for that. Also, white snow in the shade on a sunny day will tend to look very blue on your camera so expect to color correct for that.

As always, reach out to me if you want some photography work done. I have availability.

Happy new year!

Happy new year!

If you haven’t already, and regardless of whether or not you own a small busines, you should plan out your year this weekend. I’d suggest you set up three goals to work towards:

Personal Goal – Something you want to work towards during the year that revolves around you. This could be spending more time with family or fixing up your home or managing your home time more.

Health Goal – Do you want to try exercising more? Do you want to improve your eating habits? Do you want to work on your mental health?

Professional Goal – What are you working towards professionally. This isn’t what the powers that be want of you, it’s what you want to work towards professionally for yourself.

The catch is you have to make it things you can accomplish in a year. That is, something YOU can accomplish in a year, not some imagined perfect version of yourself that sets a bar that’s way too high. Alternatively, you want something YOU can accomplish in a YEAR, not what some imagined perfectly imperfect version of yourself can easily accomplish and sets the bar too low.  

As always, working with animals – you need to be patient! Getting angry or frustrated will just upset or scare them and make it more difficult to work with them. This shot was at two light setup (plus how many ever lights are on the tree). I started by setting up for the lights on the tree and then worked from there. One of the strobes is overhead with a boom stand and softbox. The other strobe is just off to the side real low with a softbox. Both have grids on them to guide the light.

As always, if you need photography work my schedule is open. I do family photos, sports, events, and weddings. Contact me to setup a photo session!

Solar Eclipse

Here are a few of the photos I took of the eclipse. Once again, I used a special filter to protect my gear and make it easier to photograph. In Maryland it was only a partial eclipse but there was still something to see. Also, while it is easy to get hung up on the most coverage, there is also something to photograph at all times during it. Personally, I liked the ending when the moon was going up on the sun.

Follow up to the previous post.

I mentioned you could do things with the photos from a birthday photo session if you schedule two to three weeks before the actual birthday and this is sort of what you can do. This was only a few minutes’ worth of work. This would be a starting point and then moving on from there. With a few text changes you can turn it into an animated birthday invite or send a special message to family.

The options are limitless with all the tools out there.

Ballon Fun!

Reminder: There is a solar eclipse today in Maryland. The height of it will be at 3:20 PM. DON’T LOOK AT IT WITHOUT SOLAR GLASSES.

Here are some photos for a birthday photo session. I got a basket, a ribbon mesh, and a large balloon for this and put the rest together. The rest is just letting the soon to be 3-year-old explore the prop and capturing her reactions. Right up until she got grumpy because we wouldn’t let her take a nap in it.

Notice I said soon to be 3-year-old. She isn’t 3 yet and you don’t have to do the birthday photo session on their birthday. In fact, if you want them before it, you might want to do the session before their birthday to get them sooner. Afterall, it takes time to process them and get them just right. But if you work with your photographer, you might be able to come up with something extra for social media and stuff. So, a week or two in advance might be useful. You could even use them for a birthday announcement.

For the props themselves, I got the mesh and balloon from etsy. The hardest part was getting helium but then I discovered Party City will fill your balloons for you for a price if you don’t buy them from their store.

Feel free to contact me if you want to do a birthday photo session.

Solar Eclipse Prep.

These are photos of the sun. It is nothing amazing. I was just testing a solar lens filter in preparation for the solar eclipse on April 8, 2024. That stated, I don’t recommend attempting to photograph the solar eclipse without solar eclipse glasses that allow you to view the sun and without a filter that has at least a +15 stop or more.  The glasses protect your eyes, and the lens filter protects your camera. Yes, your camera is a machine but the pieces inside it are fragile and will be at risk of being permanently destroyed if you point it at the sun without preparing it.  Don’t point it at the sun without protecting it.

If you do get everything you need to photograph the solar eclipse know how to switch the view to your camera’s LCD screen. This will further protect your eyes as you don’t want to be looking through the viewfinder unless it is an LCD screen too.

With a little luck, I should have partial solar eclipse pictures after the 8th.

Acting Headshots

Two of the main parts of an actor headshot session:  have enough lights and try to find out if there are any perimeters. Most casting calls I’ve photographed for just want a grey background but some places that isn’t the case. The easiest way to find out is to just ask. If they have no standard, then go with grey, if they mention something else then go with that.

For lighting I pick from 2 options and adjust according to any perimeters requested or subject. But I usually start with a clamshell setup or a 4-light setup. A clamshell setup is to octagon softboxes set up as a clamshell in front of the subject with enough room to shot between them. This does a good job of lighting up a subject. For a four-light setup, I will do two strip softboxes on either side of the subject with an octagon softbox just over the subject and a hair light. I will also have the subject hold a reflector in their lap to bounce some light up on the lower face.

Remember, you don’t want to blow the subject up. You just want to light their face up as evenly as you can. I also tell my subjects to lay off the makeup and show up in what they wore for their headshot to their try out. Casting directors want to get what they see in the photo they were provided with so no photography magic.

For poses, I recommend going through a range of emotions to provide them a number of options to provide based off what role they are going for. If they know the role they are trying for I focus on that but still give them a few other options.

If you need an actor headshot contact me and we will get that scheduled.

Glowing box

This is a good trick that builds off the candle/lantern trick I use from time to time. This time, instead of hitting the area with a yellow light around a candle or hiding a yellow light behind the lantern, I put a speedlight and a yellow gel in a box and aim it out. To make it more intriguing I threw in some canned fog to bounce the light off of. I used the speedlight in the box as the key light and put a longbox softbox on the side as a gentle fill light.

This is another example of how all these effects build off each other. These are all pieces that you need to practice so when you need them you, you will know what to do. Atheletes practice different scenarios in their sports. Pianists play different songs to learn different techniques. It is no different for photography. Like all art, you are practicing to get the skills you need to create your work.

I currently have openings for photography sessions, contact me if you need work done.

Worm Moon

I got up at 3:00 AM so you didn’t have to. Here are 2 pictures of the worm moon in case you missed it. The second one is at 3:12 AM when it was at it’s peak. The first is a few minutes before on my tripod. I hate tripods. They are great wonderful items, but they just don’t jive with the way I do things. But they are also so very useful for photographing the moon.

This is the sort of photography where you will need better gear to do this work. I’m on the very edge of photographing the moon. I am using a 70-200mm lens but ideally, you’d want a 400mm lens or better. A tripod helps but you can also bump up that shutter speed, especially when the moon is full and brighter than usual. You will also need to pay attention to the news or better yet do research on lunar eclipse. If you are planning to photograph the solar eclipse on April 8, make sure you have the proper filters and glasses to keep your eyes safe. Looking directly at the sun can screw up your eyesight both in the short term and the long term.

Flour Dance

Dance is awesome to photograph, but sometimes you want to kick it up a notch. So, we added flour. Two lights in the back will light it up. The real trick is training the subject to spread it. It takes a few tries to get the hang of it so get one of those giant bags from BJs or Costco or someplace.

I prefer dancers because usually they come with motions in mind. Then you work back and forth together to get down something that works with the flour. As for the color, that’s just some lightroom magic. Since the flour is white it is pretty easy to change the color of it. Gymnasts would likely be a good combination too with this sort of photography session.

One last note: in case you didn’t notice this sort of photography is MESSY. It’s messy for the backdrop, the ground drop, and the subject. Expect flour to get everywhere and plan accordingly. I prefer to do this outside in the grass but expect to have flour hanging around your yard until the next moderate rain.

If you are interested in a flour photography session, contact me and we will work it out.

Holding Fire

Note: I am an experienced fire juggler who has looked into fire eating (surprise to all my friends who may not have been aware of that, it’s been that way for about 15 years at this point). This is all done with care, consideration, and experience. Don’t just go grab a lighter and some gas and try this. I am using butane bubbles here with water as a barrier.  That is, they burn quickly, and the water protects whatever is on fire. Also, lots of help on set with several means to put any fire out.

I’ve been doing some sports media day photo sessions lately. It’s been great. But there is always a push to do something more. So, fire. I haven’t actually got anyone willing to try it under the right conditions, so I keep testing. I have set myself on fire so many times at this point. Then I practiced a few poses and then I set up the shot I had in mind. That is, someone holding a lacrosse stick that contains a burning ball. Fun fact, that fire goes for like 3 seconds and then it’s out.

And if you are seeing this on my business site then you see just how much help I had. Thank you to Luis and Christa for setting me on fire and looking awesome while doing it. If you are ever wondering if the people in your life are good for you just ask yourself this question: would they set me on fire? If the answer is no, then you probably got your answer. Mine were more than delighted to set me on fire, which is why I consider them family.

Anyway, if you are interested in a sports session, with or without fire, let me know. I got openings and cool ideas that don’t involve fire too.

St. Patrick's Day Parade

Don’t do what I did for these parade photos.

What you want to do is arrive about an hour to an hour and a half before the parade, if not earlier. This is for two reasons. First, you need parking time. Plan on lots of people planning to see the parade and that means parking might take time to figure out. Second, you want to survey the area. This will allow you to find the best locations to move to and also get a general idea about which areas along the route will likely be more crowded.

What I did was show up thirty minutes before the parade, offset the time sink by parking further away for $20 and booking it to the parade route. Fortunately, I am familiar with downtown Annapolis and the parade, so I had a few ideas of where to be. Not everything was the same, but I knew enough to adjust. If I wasn’t familiar with the area and the parade, then I would have been sunk.

I used my 70-200mm lens for this. It worked well for the areas I was operating in. Straight on photos didn’t work out but I was able to get a spot on the edge and catch them as they paraded towards me. I stood and kneeled to line up shots as needed depending on the crowd.

Low-Key Dog

It feels like it’s been forever since I did any work with my dog and low key work so here is two in one.

A good but, time consuming, trick for dogs is walking them before the session. A tired dog will be more prone to listen to commands it has been taught. An energized dog will be more prone to be excited about anything and everything. On that note, be sure to carefully place any distractions on your set because that is likely the direction your dog is going to look and even try to walk to. And, as always, treats go a long way.

This was a single light setup. I was mostly going for rim lighting, but she had other ideas, so I went with that. I was still able to get that side head shot I was looking for plus a few other variations. That’s what I like about low key lighting, even if it doesn’t go according to plan you should still be able to get something you can use out of it. Also, notice how the light wraps around a little.