Interview with Khara Plicanic

This post marks the first of an upcoming series of interviews with photographers doing unique, interesting, and/or exceptional things.  When I recently learned about Lincoln, Nebraska, based wedding photographer and instructor Khara Plicanic, I could think of no better person for my kick-off interview.  Besides doing some excellent wedding (and formerly, portrait) work at KaBloom Studios, she has just published her first book, Your Camera Loves You:  Learn to Love It Back, and she is an avid speaker who loves sharing her passion and workflow techniques with the world.  In fact, she and husband Emir are currently in the midst of the [UN]tour, a cross-country bicycle tour on which Khara is presenting two free photography workshops in a handful of cities across the southern United States.

New camera releases

I'm not generally going to focus much on newly released equipment in this blog, but I'll make an exception here because I've already posted my speculations on one of these new cameras a few months ago.  Today, Lytro finally announced the commercial offering of their new light field camera.  Canon also announced a refresh of their flagship DSLR, the 1DX, earlier this week.

Post-shoot culling/rating workflow

A few months ago, well known photographer Chase Jarvis posted the steps he uses to weed thousands of photos from an extended professional shoot down to just a handful of truly wonderful shots -- in just a matter of hours.  In a recent session, he culled 21,000 photos down to just 50-60 keepers in only five hours.  Granted, that was an exceptional case given the low hit ratio of the subject matter, but it's still an impressive degree of efficiency.  The key, according to Chase, is making multiple high-speed passes through your images and incrementing the star rating of appropriate images with each successive pass.

Black & white photography pointers

Early photographers -- during the first 100 years of the technology -- shot in black and white because it was the only thing available to them. This is the primary reason that most of Ansel Adams' great photos are in B&W. It wasn't until the late 1930's that color film became readily available. Still, many photographers prefer B&W photography because it produces a simpler image that allows the viewer to concentrate on what the photographer was trying to communicate through the photo.

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.

Old glass: Yashica ML 75-150mm f/4

Many of you know that I like old things, and that includes camera lenses.  I love using inexpensive, old, manual-focus glass on my new DSLR bodies.  This is the second in an ongoing series of posts in which I highlight one of these old beauties.  This time, the spotlight is on my Yashica ML 75-150mm f/4 zoom lens.  It's an uncommon and inexpensive lens, even my my standards, but it still gets lots of use.

United Way Campaign Kick-Off

A few days ago, I had the opportunity to photograph the local United Way / Community Health Charities' Campaign Kick-Off breakfast / tailgate party, which featured inspirational speaker and former Husker football player Aaron Davis as the keynote speaker.  Football season has started, and along with it the main fund raising campaign for the United Way.