Project Planning

I am currently designing in my head and on paper an image for this county wide commission I have been selected to be a part of.
It is coming along at a slow pace but it is coming together. I have been listening to a lot of music that fits my ideas and am processing different ideas from the lyric content of that music. My creative process is random. I have these lightning storms of ideas and I tell myself I will remember them but rarely am I able to. Along with keeping this blog updated more often I am going to start a journal of these ideas so I can reference back in the future when creativity runs dry. Sounds like a good idea and I know a lot of my influences kept them and it was discussed a lot in photo school.
So back to the project. I am to come up with one or two images that explains who I am as an artist and how the local landscape has helped shape me. The word landscape can be literal or interpretive. I have a solid foundation of what I am going to do. That was pretty tricky for me to settle on as I had several ideas. Now the fun part begins, the location scouting. This has started with google map searches and will soon transition over to driving to the possible spots and watching the light. I planned on starting that in the morning, but storms are lined up on the forecast.
So I ask you, how do you go about planning a large scale project? What are your methods?

Location, location, location?

Many times when we schedule a shoot with a client it is at a location around town. Many of us do not own a proper studio so we make due with what we can. Clients always have an idea of what they want their photographs to look like and always give input or have the perfect location in mind. This can be challenging if you have not shot at the location before. What is the sun going to be doing there at the scheduled time? Do I need a permit to photograph there? Even if the place seems abandoned, is it? Who owns the property? These are just a small sample of the questions that go through my head.
I like to scout out the location ahead of time within a few days of the shoot around the time the shoot is scheduled. This will give me an idea of what to expect with lighting and traffic in the area. The location scout is very important and I recommend doing it if you do not.
While I was interning in Las Vegas for Jana Cruder she has a huge shoot booked at Caesars Palace. Her first assistant and I went a week before the shoot to meet their media people and get everything cleared through them. Most of the shoot was in the pool area so all of the equipment was going to be hauled through the casino floor and elevators. While in the elevator I starting wondering how I was going to get a 24 foot roll of paper in there. It looked like it wasn't going to fit. So we got it worked out to use the freight elevators and in the end, the day went flawlessly, on schedule and the photographs looked beautiful. This is a prime example of how a location scout helped the logistics of an all day session.
Commercial work and locations work differently than portrait sessions for me. When shooting a portrait I just want my client to be as comfortable as possible so that comfort comes through in the finished product. Emotions are more involved on their end than with commercial work. So the more comfortable they are the more comfortable I am. That is always evident in the photographs.
As for scenery and landscape images everyone says location is key. I think of Ansel Adams work in the west/southwest when I think of desert landscapes. Galen Rowell running up the side of the mountain as the sun sets to get that beautiful sunset.
I live in Kansas. When you think of the Kansas landscape chances are tornadoes, wheat fields and sunflowers come to mind. While those things are very common in Kansas there is a lot more to the state. You just have to find it.
Which brings me to my point, you have to find the right frame no matter what your locational challenges are. Just look around it will come to you. Leave no road untraveled, no corner unknown or any path unwalked. You never know what you might find.
I started thinking of all of this tonight while sitting at work. Yes, I have a regular job outside of photography like a lot of you do.
I love the sunsets here on the plains. The horizon as wide as it is makes for some beautiful ones and five nights out of the week I am here at work, missing that vastness. So I make it my goal to find someway to take a photo (iphone camera) of it in a new challenging way. It gets hard, but that's the fun of it.
If any of you are interested in seeing my sunset images from work, along with what ever other random images I put up you can follow me on instagram. My user name is @underaglassmoon. Its basically photos of my daily life that are all over the subject matter map. With my sunsets I use the hashtag #holysunset.
I think I just booked a wedding in a town I have never been to. I guess I need to start scouting.

When do you start post processing?

When I photograph something for my self I am always in a hurry to start the processing. But when it comes to clients I want to wait a few days before starting. I have wondered why for a while and through some introspection I have finally figured it out.

I need that time to forget about the specifics and technical information of the shoot so I can focus on making the images beautiful. Beauty always starts before the photograph is taken, but lets face it we all have our own recipe when it comes to post processing. If I don't make myself wait then my brain gets too clogged up with information and my creativity disappears.

I also prefer to do post work in the dark. With it being summer time the sun stay up longer which makes working in the dark a bit more challenging. Working in the dark has several benefits for me. No glares on the monitor to deal with and it gives me that feeling you get in the darkroom developing and printing film.

Now if someone would make a candle scented like Fixer.

2012 Jester Awards

I photographed the nominees for the Music Theater of Wichita's 2012 Jester Awards last Friday evening as they entered on the red carpet.
There was a brief moment where the sun screamed in through the windows creating the perfect moment for my friend Mr Flair.
Pictured here is Sophia Macias and Gavin Myers both of Bishop Carroll High School making their entrance.

Madison

For mother's day I took a photo of the three kids together for Wendy. While setting up for that shot I had Madison stand in. I was pleased with the test shot so I am sharing it with you. The wind picked up to blow her hair across her face. I hope you like it.

rose

Playing in the back yard with the homemade lens.

I hope you enjoy! Please share the link with others, thank you.

Nathanael Everett Ross, Part 4

We had a little photo session one Sunday afternoon.

Colorado Dreamin'

On Labor Day weekend of last year my wife and I took a trip to her families cabin in southwestern Colorado. The cabin's location is great as there are several mountain passes in the area. This image was taken from the same mountain pass as the panoramic image a few posts down, Molas Pass. In my typical fashion, I was so focused on one image that I walked right by these flowers without noticing them. Wendy stayed atop the pass while I hiked down and shot the panoramic. When I was finished she pointed to the flowers and asked me to take a photo of them for her because her camera phone wasn't doing it justice. It is funny how these things work out because this is one of my favorite images from that trip.

Nathanael Everett Ross, Part 3

Nathanael Everett Ross, Part 2

Nathanael Everett Ross

Born on February the 12th, two thousand twelve.

Welcome to the neighborhood.

A lot has happened since my last blog entry.

I was employed at this place called OLC Global for a few short weeks. It was a nightmare. It was in a former daycare building that looked like a castle. What I did there was call small businesses and try and sell them access to their Dunn & Bradstreet business credit report. I feel that it is a giant scam, and had zero heart in it and zero desire to take hard earned money from business who were already struggling to stay afloat. Besides not having any interest in the place, it was ran by a lot people who should not be in charge of anyone. The human resources department was actually fired while I was there, so it was a mess.

So I am happily employed now at a tractor dealership. I work in the parts department doing all sorts of things. This job is great because I each day is something different. I am thankful to have found this job. If you know me, you know that I know absolutely nothing about farming and farm equipment. So I am obviously learning a lot. My daily commute is 100% rural, and I love it. I drive around 18 miles outside of the city into the vast farmland that is Kansas.

Here is the entrance to someones field that I drive by every day. I thought the sign was funny.

Enjoy.

Steller's Jays

Steller's Jays from Tyler Ross on Tyler Photography.

Molas Pass, Colorado

Life Update

I have relocated to my home state of Kansas. Everything is rad right now, and life is what it should be now.

I have randomly been updating my gallery, please take a look, vote, and leave comments.

Have an awesome day!

trying someting new.

blogging.
twitter.
facebook.
google+.

research.

inspiration.

repeat.


This gets old pretty quick. I have done the math on how much time I actually spend doing these things and it is ridiculous.
During some of research I found a website that combines all of these things into one place, streamlining my amount of time spent online. Time is money.
I really do not know how often I am going to be updating this blog.


Please visit www.foveaphoto.com

Thanks.

Portrait Session Preview

Many of you know that when it comes to taking portraits I pretty much suck at it. It's not my thing, it is a weak area that I need to work on, so I am doing just that. Here is a few images from a portrait session I shot Saturday morning of my friends Doc and Stephanie. I went into this session shooting unnatural to me, but then I just started shooting what I was seeing. I hope they like them, I am pleased with the outcome.
Thank you for looking.

You say tomato, I say what ever.

A home away from home.

North Carolina from Tyler Ross on Vimeo.

What I think of when I think of home.

Kansas from Tyler Ross on Vimeo.

Macro shots of a pink flower.

I was again playing with the home made lens and a flower from the greenhouse. This time I added a new element to the shoot, water!

Thank you for looking at this blog.

Fern

Yesterday I had a few moments to play with the lens I built a few weeks back. I grabbed a fern from the greenhouse and snapped a few images.

Rooks County

In western Kansas there are a lot of old houses. This house is located in Rooks County. Back in its time this house would have been massive. I imagine that there are combines harvesting the wheat surrounding this house right now.

continuing images from the custom lens.

I got a rose out of one of the studios today and shot a couple of images.

Thank you for looking.

Can making my own camera lens respark my creativity?

I have had a creativity block for a long time. It didn't matter what I seemed to be doing, nothing was turning out like I hoped, and there was nothing I was hoping to turn out. This is not a new thing for me because this has happened from time to time throughout my life. However this one was longer than what I can remember. I would throw together random videos with random songs post them on youtube, shoot random photos of random things and post them on this blog and nothing would satisfy me. The fact that there is absolutely no traffic on this blog does not help things either. Even thought I would remind myself that this blog is for me and not you, it still bothers me.

So to get out of this funk I have been reading a lot of blogs and looking at things on the internet. One site I ran across was a do it yourself website dedicated to photographers creating things for their craft. The things on there are from basic fixes to complete construction of some complicated things. The one thing that caught my attention was the construction of a custom lens. I had two broken lenses laying around and started thinking I could build a lens from the camera mount plate on them. I also had two broken enlarger lenses for parts to add to the pile and options available to me. Constructing a lens is rather basic, but it can get as intense as you want it too at the same time. I like to keep things basic as I am not a scientist or an engineer.

While trying to figure out the design I was testing in video mode and hand holding things.

Here is a link to that video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0wMZiC5Z3Ls

After coming up with a solid design held together by black photo tape I took a photograph of Super Mario. To shoot this photo I used direct sunlight outside on my patio. The Super Mario is about an inch tall and is on my key chain.

Here is the first photo


After deciding I was happy with the design, I then started the gluing and solidifying process. This took all of one evening.
The next day at work I shot a couple of test shots of flowers. The first shot is of a yellow carnation, and the second is of a some random purple flower off some plant in the studio greenhouse.

Here is the carnation.


Here is the same image in black and white. If you frequent this blog, you know how much I love black and white.


Here is the random purple flower.


Finally if you are wondering what this contraption looks like I have included a photo for you. I am proud of how it looks, it looks pretty legit and honestly I kind of impressed myself here. Included in this photo are the two flowers pictured above.



Thank you to Travis and Lucein for sending me the 35mm film camera with broken lens about two years ago. That lens is the lens mount on this, so without it I do not know how this could have come together.

Thank you for looking, and leave comments if you want too. If you are unable to leave comments because you do not have a sign in, send me an email to foveaphotography@gmail.com and let me know. I can reset the setting on the blog to allow anyone to leave comments. I do not know if it is set up like that right now so until I get an email from someone I will never know if it is.

Have a wonderful day/evening/night/morning or what ever.

Tyler