How big should my home studio be?

I frequently see people who are remodeling their house and want to create a proper photo studio as part of that space.  Since space is almost always at a premium during a home remodel, these folks want to know how small a space they can get away with allocating to their studio without making it so small that it's not really usable.  Of course, the answer depends on what type of subjects you're photographing:  automobiles require more space than jewelry.  However, by breaking it down and adding up the space required for each individual component, it's not hard to come up with a number that serves your needs.

Shooting Sandhill Cranes with my daughter

My 11-year-old daughter loves animals.  She also loves art work, including photography.  Consequently, every year, she and I make a 24-hour pilgrimage to Nebraska's Central Flyway to photography Sandhill Cranes together.  It's a fun trip, and one that we've made for four years now.  My previous blog post explained the basics of the great Sandhill Crane migration and gave tips on how best to enjoy their annual, spring stop-over in central Nebraska.  This time, I wanted to share a play by play of our most recent trip.

Documenting 3D wall art

My dad is a pretty good artist.  His current medium of choice is acrylic-painted 3D wall art, and he's been amassing a healthy portfolio of work in preparation for a gallery show.  He had been taking photos of the pieces to display on his web site, HollingsworthArt.com, but his point & shoot camera was giving him lackluster results, so I volunteered to come photograph all of his recent work before he hauled it to the gallery for the show.  Photographing--or more specifically, lighting--large, semi-gloss objects of varying sizes can present some challenges, so I figured I'd share the process I used.

A day in the life of an LBC concert

8:54pm - Performance

Several times each year, our church hosts concerts for A-list contemporary Christian musicians.  My wife heads up hospitality (food & green room) for these events, and I usually help her.  It takes scores of volunteers an entire day of work to put on a show that provides the attendees with 2-3 hours of entertainment, but most people have no clue what really happens behind the scenes to make a show like this happen.  After several years of watching this, I proposed to our head concert organizer that I shoot a personal project documenting a day in the life of one of our concerts.  He loved the idea, and thus began one of the busiest single days of photography that I'd done to date.

1941 Chevy portraits BTS

In my previous post, I presented a number of photos that I've taken over the years of my uncle's first car, a 1941 Chevy Master Deluxe Business Coupe.  The last of those images were taken on my final day with this rusty, old antique.  While most of the earlier photos were taken in natural light, these were artificially lit and composed against a black background, giving a decidedly "portrait" feel to the images.  Today, I want to go into some detail on how these photos were created.

This shoot was for the birds

I've always enjoyed Joel Sartore's "Photo Ark" project, wherein he photographs simple portraits on black or white of endangered animals.  When I as asked to shoot images of some birds for the web site of a local parrot rescue organization, the Photo Ark was the first concept that popped into my head.  I had never made serious portraits of animals before, so I did a test run with a friend and her cockatiels.  The goal was to photograph her birds on black and white backdrops, sometimes posing with her family.  Kids?  Animals?  Flaky equipment?  What could possibly go wrong with that trio?

Portrait postprocessing

I had the opportunity recently to shoot some portraits of couples for a local charity.  While it's always preferred to get the best shot possible in camera, sometimes that just isn't possible for a variety of reasons.  Even when it is, portraits often require some additional postprocessing to clean up various stray hairs and skin blemishes.  I'm fairly new to portrait work, and don't intend to do a great deal of it, but I wanted to share some of the steps that I took to process the photos from this gig.

Shooting hoops with the kids

My oldest son loves to play basketball.  Warm afternoons will often find him out on the driveway with the neighbors and a ball.  He just finished his sixth season of YMCA youth basketball with a second place tournament finish.  These games always pit the photographer against the father, as it's very difficult to follow the game while looking through the viewfinder.  Hence, I only shoot a few games each year for posterity, and simply enjoy the others along with the rest of the parents.  I therefore don't get a whole lot of practice photographing these games.  I did, however, shoot their final tournament weekend (three games).  I got stopped by several parents asking how to make their own shots better, so I wanted to share what I've learned.  It's no coincidence that March Madness is in full swing as I write this.

Christmas party corporate head shots

I was recently asked to make some business portraits for an entire company of 13 people.  Since most of them were salespeople and rarely in the office at one time, and since that office was 60 miles from my base, it was decided that I would shoot these head shots during their annual Christmas party, because they would all be in once place and dressed up anyway.  I've worked with this company before and will again, so I wanted to make this session happen despite sub-optimal conditions.  Given the unusual situation surrounding this session, I figured I'd share it with you all.

One-light pocket watch

For my previous blog post, I wanted a photo of a watch -- and I wanted it quick.  My son is the latest owner of an old, well-worn pocket watch that originally belonged to my great-grandfather, and I figured that would be a perfect subject for my shot.  I was able to throw together a graphically-simple image using a single flash and some found props to create just the right image straight out of the camera.

DIY light tent + product shot BTS

I have an ongoing series of posts here at Prairie Rim Images in which I highlight many of the older, manual focus lenses which I love to use.  Because these are relatively small subjects, many of the photos that I take of these lenses can be made in a simple, table top studio made of parts scrounged from around my house and lit with only a single light source.

Drinking in the rain

For a recent blog post, I wanted to create an image of a tray of coffee cups in the rain, preferably being held by me doing my best impression of a drowned rat.  I'd had this image in my head for a couple months, since I first conceived of the article.  Unfortunately, the shot didn't turn out quite like I'd planned.  In this BTS post, I want to discuss how I did what I did and what I should have done differently if I'd had sufficient time and ambition.

Making the money shot

If you can't tell already, I'm a teacher at heart.  Whether it's via one-on-one conversations or published text, I love to help people learn.  One good way to bring newcomers up to speed is to explain how I obtained a certain effect in my photos.  The first of these "behind the scenes" (BTS) scenarios describes how I obtained the "money shot" used to illustrate a previous blog post about David Hobby's business advice.