I’m lucky enough to be peripherally involved because my good friends over at Hawaii Women’s Journal are heavily involved. Kathryn Xian, the publisher of HWJ, is the Non-Executive Director of Girl Fest and Jenn Hee one of their esteemed and determined volunteers.  The subjects of the cover stories I’ve shot for HWJ will play prominent roles during the festival.

Left to Right: Amber Tamblyn, Mindy Nettifee, Charlyne Yi

I’ll be at:

Wed – Opening night “Girls Night Out” concert @ Bambu Two

Thu – Spit n Spin DJ & Poets Party @ Fresh Cafe

Sat – Closing Party

Hopefully I can catch a showing of Salt of This Sea as well. If you see me at one of the events say hi and smile if I point my camera at you!

Update: The Advertiser’s TGIF section picked up on Girl Fest and did a pretty lengthy write up and used 2 of my photos (uncredited, but you can probably tell which ones). There’s an online version here but it’s sort of a bastardized version that retains none of the nice layout and formatting.

Update 2: Amber’s confirmed! Updated TGIF/Honolulu Pulse w/ the news here.

So off I drove down to Long Beach to meet them at Mindy’s apartment, not knowing exactly what to expect. I was met with this:

And this:

And somehow the day ended up like this:

Suffice it to say, I was barely ready for what was to happen that day, and suffice it to say, that flask in the photo ended up empty but it did not start that way. Here’s the bleary proof:

The issue should be out this week, so I’ll have a follow up blog with the final results we can see how “robbing for poetry” goes for Amber and Mindy. I’m looking forward to see how the publisher Kathryn Xian laid it out!

It’s always good to see your work in print, even if it’s electronic print. Especially if it’s for a good purpose. The cover in question was for the Hawaii Women’s Journal, which is a non-profit publication that provides a platform for women writers to showcase their talents. I was honored when my good friend, and Editor-in Chief, Jennifer Hee brought me on to shoot the cover for their second issue. Jenn’s fellow Harvard Alum and burgeoning food blogger Jennifer Rogers conducted the hilarious interview. In between laughs I managed to snap off a series of semi-action shots during the interview to establish what it’s like to talk to Charlyne. She was unguarded and honest, and seemed to vacillate between enthusiastic navigation of subject matter that she was familiar with, and slightly flustered consternation over tricky pop culture topics of which she had limited knowledge (definitely by choice!).

At the end of the interview I asked Charlyne if I could have a few more minutes of her time and she graciously agreed. I positioned her by the window and put my eye to the viewfinder when I I heard:

I feel like this the real photo shoot part now. Is this where you tell me to be sexy? Do you tell people to be sexy? I don’t really do that. I can do mad!

Quote of the day.

Which is how we got this:

Mad

Nothing, though, can fully explain this:

Mad with coffee

Here’s one final image that didn’t make the cut for the spread, but I thought really showed Charlyne’s personality

To see the photos that did make publication and read the entirety of Jenn Rogers’ interview with Charlyne, please visit the Hawaii Women’s Journal site and view it in all of its full-screen glory!

Linkorama:

Hawaii Women’s Journal: http://hawaiiwomensjournal.com/
Jennifer Hee’s blog, 30 is the new awesome.: http://jennmeleana.wordpress.com/
Jennifer Hee makes delicious baked goods at health (rabbit) food deli Kale’s Natural Foods in Hawaii Kai. Follow them on twitter to find out goodies are on tap for the day, made from exotic ingredients that I have no hope of pronouncing such as kale, quinoa, and something called fejoida: http://twitter.com/KalesNatFoods
Jennifer Roger’s Domestic Divas food blog: http://www.domesticdivasblog.com/
Charlyne Yi’s Myspace Page: http://www.myspace.com/charlyneyi

OK, now that I realize insightful content that people want to consume is hard to come by, what to do? How about I talk about my ongoing personal photo project? Duh, I should probably have talked about this sooner. Especially considering I have discussed images from other shoots for the project on this blog before, here with Michelle V and here with Michele S. The working title of the project is 35mm Day, and it’s called that because I shoot everything in the project with The 35 (Nikon 35mm f/2), which I discussed in my first two Gear Talk posts. When shooting for 35mm Day I only use this lens due to many of the reasons I described in Gear Talk and it helps me maintain a consistent perspective from shoot to shoot.

What’s the premise? I work with a model (and/or friend) to document a day in her life from a lifestyle fashion perspective. It always starts out at home, trying to capture the essence of how she (or he, though I haven’t work with a male model for this yet) starts her day. Either starting from in bed, in lingerie/pajamas, making breakfast, choosing outfits, putting on make up etc. It’s not supposed to directly replicate reality, but to capture the feeling and process of getting ready for the day in the morning. Or afternoon for some. From there the rest of the day is open ended and is specific to the subject. If she’s into fitness I follow her working out. If she loves a neighborhood restaurant then we grab a bite to eat. If she plays the oboe we make some music. If she’s an actor then I eat dinner at the restaurant she waits tables at. Just kidding. Kidding! Actually I buy a drink for the bar she tends. We can do anything and go anywhere as long as it’s something that she enjoys. It’s basically an idealized version of the subject’s best day, but it has to ring true. All capture in my lifestyle fashion perspective.

For Michelle V, who had just signed with IMG and just moved to New York, we explored her new digs in Williamsburg.

Michelle V trying to figure out which boots were made for walking.

The caption–sorry about that. But really, we just walked around and had a great time and got some fun shots. This was done back in February of last year, and I didn’t do my second shoot specifically for this project until this past January when I decided to resurrect it the project with another model that I had loved working with before, Michele S. I think these shoots work better with people that I already know and am interested in hanging out with and getting to know better. There’s just a higher comfort level and a level of interest from me that shows in the continuity of the story. What I’m saying is I only want to photograph awesome people for this project so that I don’t get bored. Michele S is one such awesome person and  we spent a great afternoon shooting at her house, which had tons of nice vintage styling and then took a little drive down to the beach in her Mini Cooper. I already used some portraits from this set to show the versatility of The 35, so now I’ll discuss the versatility and natural beauty of Michele. Full photo story at http://www.tommyshihphoto.com/commercial/stories/michele-s-home/gallery.html

Michele putting on make up. Note the great vintage mirror in her room.

Not every image is specifically of the model or subject. I like to capture details that provide additional information about the subject and complete the story. For example, I thought this mirror needed further exploration.

Michele's mirror and tangle of bracelets deserved it's own close up

When doing these shoots, my intention is to tell a story, capture personalities, and I want the photos to have soul. One of the things I like to do is catch the subject off guard and get a laugh. If we’re lucky we’ll have a couple of running jokes established early and we can go back to the well when we need a laugh. It doesn’t always work out that way, but with Michele it was easy and natural. I’m pretty sure the jokes were stupid (or more likely brilliant!), but they kept us loose. Or she laughs a lot. Or she laughs when she’s nervous. But I’d be able to recognize a nervous giggle right? Right.

Sometimes being able to get a laugh is key

These next couple images I think have a lot of soul. They are intimate portraits of Michele and I hope they capture the real person, even in our slightly manufactured reality. To me they feel like they are a part of a greater story (see it here), but they can stand on their own as well.

Michele enjoying a private moment in the sun

And here in the last image,  I think it just captures the experience of hanging out with Michele for a day. Fun!

No really, we did have fun and laugh. That part is true.

The rest of the story can be seen at http://www.tommyshihphoto.com/commercial/stories/michele-s-home/gallery.html

I didn’t spend a lot of time talking about the technical aspects of these photos, but if you have any questions on how the photos were made just ask in the comments. Just know that for this series I’m shooting everything natural light and sometimes add a reflector. That’s it. Remember it’s reality…but better!

Not everybody will be a good fit and I’m only doing a limited number of these so I’m not really actively searching for submissions. Most will be done with friends and models I search out, but if you are interested in being a part of this project as a model/subject, please feel free to email me. It can’t hurt:

info@tommyshihphoto.com
Subject line: 35mm Day
Include: name, current face and full body snapshots if I don’t know you or haven’t seen you in a long time, things you like to do that might work well for this series.

The shoot we’ll be looking back at took place on the north shore of Oahu last year. I was asked by Jetset Agency to create new imagery for one of their great models, Calli W (now with Premier). While she had done large campaigns in faraway places including many with her sponsor, Rip Curl, her portfolio was mostly pure cheery and fun lifestyle. They thought she could do more and not be boxed into that genre. I thought to myself–but what I shoot best is lifestyle, why would you want me to shoot something different? So I asked for a reference or inspiration photo to get a better idea of what they were looking for. They sent me this:

Malia Jones by Walter Iooss Jr.

Now I love Walter Iooss Jr’s athlete portraits and was lucky enough to go to an exhibit featuring the work of him and Neil Leifer in LA. But this example provided to me was nothing like my style in terms of how I’d light, compose or really, even style a photograph. At this point I knew I needed to have a conversation about the direction of the shoot with Jetset, because if this is what they wanted, then I would suggest a photographer or two who’s styles would suit. I’m glad I did, because it turns out what primarily drew them to this image was the bikini Malia was wearing! They liked that it was metallic and liked the fashionable details in the piece. What was most important to them was a perception of higher quality in the production value. Great! I explained to them that I felt that getting a great crew together and carefully controlled lighting would get us just that.

The Crew:

We were lucky enough to get the great Pia Sundquist for hair and make up in the morning at her wonderful beachfront apartment before she went off to another job. The type of make up and hair we needed, she could do in her sleep! In fact, you’d be hard pressed to even get a quick nap in because she works so fast. I wanted Calli to look natural, as if she was barely wearing any make up, and to have soft waves in her hair that would catch any trade wind breezes.

Therese Walh was brought on to do the styling for the shoot and she did a great job in pulling together swimwear that had that fashion edge to it that Jetset was looking for. We concentrated on suits with quality fabrics and clean solid shapes that would accentuate Calli’s amazing lines.

Lastly I was lucky enough to get my favorite guy to assist in Hawaii, Elliot Takane to help out on the shoot. It can’t be said enough that a good assistant is what makes a shoot run smoothly. Many photographers, like myself, are extremely scatterbrained and get too caught up in creating photographs to remember things such as where did I put my lens cap/CF card/filter/speedlight/$1700 lens? He knows his photography and also knows how I like to light my images so most of the time I don’t even need to tell him where I need the reflector/beauty dish/soft box/umbrella/all of the above. He’s already standing there ready by the time I look up. Oh and I like taking goofy behind the scenes photos of him when I get the chance.

heh, Iolani

With those pieces in place it was much easier for me to focus on creating imagery that would achieve their goal of higher end fashion-type swimwear photos, while staying true to my own photographic vision. It was time to get started!

I like to shoot natural light whenever I can, and only brought strobes with me as back up. My plan was to shoot this whole thing with just the sun and a reflector. Early on in the shoot, the angle of sun was harsh and really limited our options as I wanted to keep a fairly consistent lighting style throughout the photos. So at that point I decided that I would be back lighting every and using the bounce from a reflector as my key light on all my photos taken while the sun was high in the sky. The good thing about shooting at the beach is the sand works as a reflector to provide a natural fill. You can see here that the sun provides a rim light on her arm and shoulders. Some direct sunlight does spill over to her front, but I never worry about that unless it is a distracting element in the photo.

All photos can be seen here: http://www.tommyshihphoto.com/commercial/stories/calli-w-swimwear/gallery.html

Bikini provided by Vix

Elliot providing fill light with a Westcott silver and gold weave reflector

Even though the focus of the shoot was really on the body and swimwear, I always like to get some beauty shots for the make up artist. This shot was produced in open shade provided by a wall of pine trees. A reflector was brought in mostly to produce the catch light in her eye. It did provide some specular highlights on her lips and chin as well. Again, not too concerned about the light spilling onto her shoulder.

Bikini provided by BCBG

As you can see in this next photo we took a lunch break and it was well past noon so the light wasn’t from quite as high in the sky. Can you guess the lighting set up here? I still felt it would be better to back light Calli at this point though to keep the look consistent. It’s the same setup as the turquoise and brown suit, but the change in sun position means that the rim light is a bit lower. We were also able to catch some of that breeze I was hoping would show up.

We did try to get a few in this suit while sitting on the rocks but there were a few problems. First, the suit bunched up in the stomach area no matter how good Calli’s sitting posture was. Second, this:

I may have forgotten to warn her...oops

Undaunted, in the next look we found a much drier rock and a more cooperative outfit and got the following shot. Throughout this look the sun was going through a bank of clouds so we ended up with very soft lighting. The cloudy sky acts as a humongous softbox and provides a nice look as long as you have enough light to get an exposure. Since it wasn’t that late in the day, that wasn’t a big issue. I lowered my shutter speed one stop and we were ready to go.

Bikini provided by BEBE

These next two are my favorite images from the shoot. Therese was able to come up with beautiful one piece suit with a hood built in to it. The material almost looks like a sheer velvet when it’s dry but also has a metallic quality to it. The first image was a pose Therese had in mind the second she got the swimsuit. It does a great job accentuating Calli’s tiny waist and the silhouette is amazing!

One piece by Gottex

A lot of this shoot was a bit more posed than something I’d typically produce, and that was purposefully done with the client requests in mind. This next image was from the last set of images for the day, and I wanted to make sure that I created the feeling of a captured “moment.” The sun was setting providing a beautiful subtle light and we only had a couple minutes left so I had Calli walk through the tide pool. I asked her to walk away from me and then back towards me. We only got a couple of passes due to the failing light, so I shot quickly and got this.

Therese checks on Calli while Elliot vigilantly maintains his reflecting stance

So that’s it. After that we were out of wardrobe and out of light! While not every image came out perfectly, I feel like the goal of the shoot was accomplished, and the client was very happy with the results. Plus, I was even able to create some photos for my own portfolio! If you have any questions or would like to discuss how we did any of this please feel free to bring it up in the comments. I’d love to share and will elaborate whenever I can. Here’s a nice image to end this post with. All this talk about Hawaii has me looking forward to my next trip back on April 8th. Hope to see you out there!

To see the rest of the photos go here: http://www.tommyshihphoto.com/commercial/stories/calli-w-swimwear/gallery.html

This is part 2 of my overlong review on the Nikon 35mm f/2.0, which I refer to as The 35. If you haven’t read part 1, do so. That’s not a command, just a strong suggestion, since this post picks up where the first part left off.

One thing I didn’t mention in part 1 is why I like to use prime lenses. One reason is the sharpness. Nikon’s primes are for the most part extremely sharp, and The 35 is no exception, even though the way I use the lens that isn’t always critical. I’ll show you an example below. The other reason is the way they handle out of focus areas, or the “bokeh.” The bokeh in most primes has a very appealing look and it makes a difference. Yes, many high end zoom lenses such as the Nikon 24-70 f/2.8 excel in both those areas, but it also cost me $1700. For under $500 I got my most frequently used focal length in that range in a much smaller and lighter form factor. Oh and as for those who complain about not being able to zoom…zoom with your feet!

So you know that I like this lens for lifestyle photography because 1) I can “get right in there,” effectively including the viewer in the photo experience, 2) it shows a lot of the environment behind the subject, and 3) I like the slight edge distortion because it creates a slightly different reality. The other reason I like to use this lens is its versatility. It is the only prime lens that I can shoot an entire lifestyle shoot with and still get everything I need to get. The next set of images are all from a personal shoot that I did with lovely Michele.

I can take standard portraits like the one below. There is little discernible distortion from this distance and I feel very comfortable framing and composing from this distance with this lens.

Another thing to notice here is that The 35 handles back light and flare pretty well. This is very important to me because it’s a lighting scenario that I use very often. In this case I expose for Michele, and allow the sky and highlights in the background to blow out. Yes, I lost contrast on her face. That will happen when there is some lens flare, but it isn’t egregious and I like the effect in moderation. It has to feel right for the subject matter, and I felt this intimate portrait would benefit from the dreamy quality of the lens flare.

Just as easy as it is to compose a standard portrait, I can easily back off and shoot a full length shot without being too far away. Composing full length shots works well when I know that I’ll be cropping down from the original aspect ratio of 2×3 to my portfolio size of 11×14 or for magazine covers and full page layouts that are closer to 8.5×11. I can comfortably capture enough of the background so that when I crop down there is still a sense of the environment. Again, I exposed for the shadow side and used the sun as a rim light here in a standard back lit scenario.

Here is the previously mentioned example of lens sharpness. You can shoot beauty with this lens! I shot this with the lens wide open (f/2.0), and the areas in focus (eyes, lips, hand) are very sharp. Just be careful about what you put in the corners because there is some distortion. In this case her hair bleeds off the top right corner so the distortion isn’t noticeable. Also be careful when shooting wide open because it’s easy to miss your focus point, and if you do it’s very obvious. Also note the nice way that the background elements melt out of focus. Since it’s a wide angle lens the background won’t completely melt out of focus like the 85mm f/1.4, but it looks pleasant. You just need to be a little careful where you put objects in the background in relation to the subject.

So all three of those shots are very different, but still have the same feel to them. It helps me to create a cohesive photo story when I use the same lens throughout, and with The 35 I am confident that I can comfortably do that.

I’ll finish this up with a couple example of travel photography images created using this lens. It’s a great walk around lens due to the diversity I mentioned above, and the wide aperture of f/2 makes it an ideal lens for low light shooting. The first was shot at around 9 AM in NYC while I waited for my subject for an editorial shoot to arrive. Even when on assignment, I always have my camera ready from the get go and am on the look out for potential personal images.

This second shot was taken at dusk, just after the sun had set. The way the light fell delicately on the buildings and the cobblestones was very appealing to me. I knew that I liked the location and wanted to get the buildings in focus, so it was a matter of waiting for the right type of vehicle to speed through the intersection. I spent a good 15-20 minutes crouching watching different types of cars and bicycles pass. The small size of the lens really made this easier on my arms. This shot was my favorite of the bunch, because of the look of the hat/helmet on his head and his bicycle look classic. The perspective of The 35 completed the look for me.

And that’s why I love The 35.

This blog noticed Andy Levin’s workshop first, and if you sift through the comments there is some insightful discussion:

http://duckrabbit.info/blog/2010/01/have-100-eyes-lost-the-plot/

Andy’s cavalier response and attitude are displayed here in a follow up post where he thanks duckrabbit for the free marketing of his workshop:

http://duckrabbit.info/blog/2010/01/andy-levin-a-response/

$4000 to attend this guy’s workshop. After much bad press he added that 50% will be donated to Haiti. Nice of him :0/

http://www.zoriah.net/blog/2010/02/photojournalism-workshops-haiti-earthquake-intimate-group-workshop.html

Source and additional info: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/victoria-fine/is-to-ethical-to-charge-p_b_451899.html

I don’t expect everyone to agree with me. Please feel free to let me know your thoughts in the comments.

Damn some people. Well, now that I’ve gotten all worked up, I think I’ll stare at this happy and hopeful little cloud again for a bit and think about how it symbolizes the triumph of human spirit…at least that’s what I thought when I took it right? (Full disclosure, totally untrue. The full story another time ;oP)

This won’t be your typical gear-head lens review. While I do take into account sharpness, color saturation, resolution etc when I decide to purchase or rent lenses, and I’ll go look up a MTF chart every once in a while, all that information can be found at various sites around the internet. Plus they run countless tests and have greater resources available to them to provide accurate and useful results. I don’t have the time or patience for that, so I’m going to talk about why I like using this lens, and how it functions when I’m on a shoot. I’ll also give some insights on what to consider or watch out for when using this lens.

For example, here is a shot from the Michelle in Brooklyn shoot I did that is fairly intimate (maybe a little bit more intimate with the magazine and cereal), but shows a good deal of the environment behind her. For reference, the table was pretty square in shape and I was sitting in the seat across from her when I took this shot. So I was probably only about 3-4 feet away.

As with any wide angle lens, when using the 35 you have to be aware of distortion when you are close to your subject, especially if your subject is a person. Keeping the plane of your camera parallel to the plane of the subject is a way to reduce distortion. Below is an example with Michelle, even closer but from head to hips she is on the same plane as the camera. Since I am really close to her, if I had shot this from below her hips would have looked wider, and if I had shot down then she would have looked like a bobble head doll. A beautiful one of course, but nevertheless a bobble head.

One reason I love the 35 is that since it’s just slightly wider than a normal lens, it seems like what we see through our eyes…but a little bit different. One example is the dreamy feel of this set of images I did for an editorial last fall in NY. The slight distortion of the background gives it a surreal effect.

Another thing I like about this lens is that I touched on before, is that I am able to be a comfortable distance from the subject when I am shooting. I personally don’t like to be too far away since I don’t have the loudest voice, and also close proximity allows me to “get right in there.” By that I mean it’s almost like it’s just me and the subject–even if there is a make up artist, a stylist, my assistant and a client on the shoot standing off to the side. It also puts the viewer right into the experience of being there. Below are a few images I did where I feel a very personal mood is created. The model is Sonya, and she delivers in every way. And the curly haired cutie with her in the starfish shot is Hailey, daughter of Crystal Pancipanci (a great stylist and make up artist that I often work with).

This post is getting pretty long and I haven’t finished going over the myriad ways I love this lens. So, I’m breaking this off here and will update with Part 2.

Continue to Part 2

Update: The song Tim co-wrote with Jason Mraz and Colbie Caillat, Lucky, won a Grammy last night! Congrats!

Contributed:

• Cover and cover story: Full Circle – Tim Fagan’s quick rise in the music industry
• How to wear it fashion section: 20’s, 30’s, 40’s Carribean Cool (Styled by Stacey Makiya)
• Profile: Body, Mind & Spirit – Brian Shimamura’s personal training on a higher level
• Fashion editorial: A girl for all seasons (Styled by Stacey Makiya)