Photography

Yes, I was surprised by the amount of positive feedback I got for a photo I took of the band One Rock at the Self-Help Festival in San Bernardino, California. I had not been familiar with the band before and was shocked to see how many fans they had in Japan after the photo went up on Instagram. I had to turn off notifications for a few days due to the overwhelming response.
 
Transcript: "So the question is, have I ever been surprised by the amount of positive feedback to one of my photos? And yes, this photo right here, this is a band by the name of One. Ok, Rock I photographed at self-help festival. San Bernardino California a number of years ago. I don't remember the exact year and fantastic Band live, so enjoyed photographing, these guys, and when I got this shot, I posted it on Instagram and I did all the normal tags. And I tagged the bass player here that's in the shot. And I tagged the band And and use hashtags as well as that tags. And little did I know because I had not been familiar with the band. Before I photographed them, they are huge in Japan and all the fans found that shot and it got so bad that I had to turn off notifications for about three days."

A two-page spread of a volleyball shoot I did for Sports Illustrated in college launched my career, and an image from a swimmer's Training Center was featured as Image of the Year.
 
Transcript: "Hey, Lucas Gilman here. And the question was, Was there an image that launched your career? For me when I was in college at the University of Colorado, Boulder USA volleyball called me, and asked me to do a shoot, which gave me phenomenal access. I shot this on slide film, with a 300 millimeter straight down from the catwalks. Submitted it to Sports Illustrated. It ended up running as a two-page spread in their leading-off section. Which was phenomenal exposure for a young photographer. Shortly thereafter, this is during the transition to digital, I shot this image again at the Training Center of a competitive swimmer. And it ran as leading-off and ended up-- both images ended up being, Images of the Year for Sports Illustrated, for their leading-off sections. Which I guess you can say, the rest is history."

Back button focus is a technique that uses the AF button on the back of the body to isolate the shutter. This way, you can keep your thumb on the shutter and still be in auto focus. It is beneficial for when you have a static object and are ready to take the photo, or if the lens is doing focus hunting.
 
Transcript: "How and why to use the back button focus. Alright so basically what it does is it isolates the shutter so taking the photo, the actual point of taking the photo to the AF button on the back of the body. And so that means that when you press that shutter, all it does is actually take the photo so half pressing it doesn't take the ñ doesn't try and auto focus. The benefit of that is that you can leave your thumb on there and it stays in auto focus. So if you move around, objects move around, it will still auto focus and do it. As soon as you take it off, it's locked in and so it's kind of the best of both worlds. You have auto focus and manual focus. So if you're in a position where you have a static object and you're propped and primed and ready for them to come out, then you can have it set and then if something comes in right at that last moment or if you're at the point where the lens will do that focus hunting, it just gets rid of all that. So I use it, I love it, I teach it to everybody, recommend it to everybody."

I typically use a landscape 16.9 aspect ratio for my photos, but I'm not rigid in my use of aspect ratio and will adjust it to best suit the image.
 
Transcript: "Are you rigid in your use of aspect ratio or do you adjust the best suit the image? I wouldn't say rigid but I would say 90% of my photos I crop in landscape 16.9 and the reason why I go 16.9 is two things. One, I don't print my photos anymore. I display them on a screen at home on the wall, have them rotate through there. I love it because the photos are fresh and also for the website. So my website, SmartphonePhotographyTraining.com, I've got lots of photos in there to demonstrate things with tutorials and thumbnails for YouTube, that sort of thing. So 16.9 works for me consistently with my outcomes and outputs that I want from my photos but sure, sometimes, absolutely, 16.9 doesn't work for the composition so I definitely use a different aspect ratio. Thank you."

It depends on the subject matter, but I usually make pictures in color for the Washington Post and archive, but may switch to black and white for exhibitions if it's more powerful that way.
 
Transcript: "Do you prefer making pictures in black and white or color? The subject really dictates that. I mean, there are certainly some places that I go that have a certain feel to them. It might be a rather melancholy, where tones of gray work really well for the story. I worked on a series of stories out of Mexico, and that's one that I actually pushed our editors at the Washington Post to run in black and white and was successful doing so, because the subject matter really lent itself to black and white. Others I find much more powerful in color. The majority of the work I photograph is in color, because I'm photographing for the Washington Post and the archive and their demands are in color. But oftentimes if I'm entering it for an exhibition or something like that, I may change it to black and white if I feel that it's stronger that way. But I tend to think about that before making the pictures so that I'm thinking about it in tones of gray or in color, because that makes a big difference. That color palette, you really have to be thinking about it when you're assembling a photo story to make one picture work with the next."

Prime lenses are much more cinematic, with a 1.4 aperture and beautiful bokeh and sharpness. If starting out in fashion photography, the 105 millimeter is a great lens to invest in.
 
Transcript: "Zoom or prime lens? I would go with the prime lens every day. Every single day. There's something about the prime lenses. They're so much more cinematic, especially with say a 1.4 aperture. And I just love the bokeh and the quality that you get from the prime lenses, and the sharpness. So I actually only own primes and I will rent zooms when I need them for say documentary type projects, like runway events, and fashion photography events that are going to be super fast and I got to have that zoom. But otherwise, if I have full control of the production and the fashion shoot, I always choose primes. Some of my favorite primes are the 105 millimeter Nikkor, the 1.4. Gosh, I love the 200 f/2. Oh, such a great lens. And the 85, the 50, the 35. I have them all. So yeah, I definitely recommend the primes. And if you're just starting out in fashion photography, my go-to would probably be the 105 millimeter, if you could just choose one lens. So hope that helps. Peace out."