Wick Beavers Editorial Portrait and Editorial Fashion Photographer

Mango Strut Coconut Grove Putting the Nut back in Mango (or something)

2012-01-01T10:35:00.000-08:00

Mango Strut Street Portraits

The day began with trepidation, excitement and a mild 78 degree breeze here in Coconut Grove.
If you put your ear to any tree (preferably coconut) in Miami Dade, you might hear the stirrings of a band member wirelessly dialed to a mobile amp, a princess or a wall street pot or tunity lurking in his head on wheels. Smiles and flip flop flipping, too, were coming to a confluence, the best $3 hamburger cookers lighting up, kids of all ages from all over glomming into the Grove for this year's annual running of the mildly fractured Mango Strut.
The various paradeers, announcers and security officiants (or are they paradeers, too? I mean, what if there's a stick up at Moe's Bar and one of these fonay security people is called upon to shoot back... with a cardboard gun?? I felt insecure in the fog of security these days in which we live).
But 5 mpix in hand, I used the phone- armed with Hipstamatic's Libatique lens and Salvador film- with periodic false caller dialing in to give the portrait poacher iPhone 4 a more realistic look and sound to the unwary subjects close up and familiar with cloistering humans cell phone jammed in their ear.
Herein is a look at how the politically incorrect and mostly irreverent and comedic Mango Strut looked to be seen by us, the Public of Coconut Grove and points afar and away...

~Happy New Year~

Wick Beavers Photographer

www.wickbeavers.com

Damage in Cville - Which way to LA!

2011-10-25T09:17:00.000-07:00

Outer Banks Outer Limits, a Portrait of a Virginian Woman and some Beauty Photography for Bristles Hair Design and Day Spa...

A swell and creative time in Charlottesville, VA.

The idea behind this photograph was to simulate walking on water. As sunset loomed, the shoot evolved into a Vitruvian Woman concept as well.

Cool to let ideas run the direction of a shoot!

Above, two "Portraits of a Virginian Woman", the setting is her home, a very chic pad in the heart of the old town of Cville...

Here above are 3 images shot for a cool large hair design and day spa in Charlottesville named Bristles. The idea obviously was to avoid using stock, emphasizing inner and outer beauty as well as claiming Bristles is the BEST Hair Design and Day Spa this side of the Blue Ridge, maybe Mars.

Shot some wonderful stuff here in Charlottesville and points nearby enroute to LA.

From a full wall size portrait which will act as a "come on and get a tattoo, like mine" to a cool looking Town and Country inspired Portrait of a Virginian, to an all out Beauty cool Photo shoot for my pals at Bristles Hair Design and Day Spa here in town.

For all shoots, I used at least 2 lights, mostly several more. You will see a more "equitable approach" than normal in the Portrait of a Virginian as the sitter knew she wanted me to shoot her portrait but we agreed the final photograph had to suit her expectations for herself as well as having it meet mine. Cool!

Check these out with a particular eye to the lighting and how the subjects are separated from their backgrounds. I like that as a concept as well a a portrait technique- all I really want to convey is the subject but I love placing them in their own environments.

Next Post will be coming at you from West of the Mississippi River- spell it!

Brought to you by Wick Beavers Photographer, LA

Lighting it up in August

2011-08-25T09:11:00.000-07:00

It's hot I heard her mutter as she stepped out of the door and into the mid day glare.

Sheesh, for sure. It must be 94 with 98% humidity... in the shade.

Well, good lordy lad!

WAKE UP!

You think the cowboy gunslingers left Tombstone in August?

You think the Satellite TV installer stops working for the summer in Death Valley?

It ain't just the cubans who love this weather down here in Miami, it ought to be us photographers, too!

Why?

Light, dude, light.

Glare? Cool. Heat? Cool.

Remember my mantra? USE it, just like Marlon Brando and Jimmy Switts. Any good method actor, methodist minister or methodology practitioner ought to get outside in the middle of a white hot damp day and fire away.

Just keep the sweat out of the little openings and away from the joints in your electronics.

Happy Hot Hunting!

Damn Hasselblad cut out on me...

2011-08-19T16:21:00.000-07:00

Well, things do work out... after all.

Snapping my 56,267 actuized H2 Hasselblad at a cute girl, I SUDDENLY get an error message::: mirror screwed up, then autofocus error, then t buzzes and cuts off- DOA.

So, whaddya do?

My pal Bico just shot a playmate of the Year shoot for Brazilian Playboy and did the whole thing is iPhone 4. Same with a campaign for FLOR.

Considering he's a real good photo boy and I;m a big fan? I run with it. And the girl is a little perturbed but she's gonna stand in cuz she's got some soul.

Snap snap snap. Just a few and we pull it off I believe.So does she.

Check out the latest greatest and get over to my site, then hire me to snap your coolest imagery requirements.

Best

Wick

Editorial Portrait Photography IMPROVISE Wick Beavers Photographer

2011-06-20T07:08:00.000-07:00

bare bulb hard light makes it happen!

photo of a rockin' power couple, where the hard light rocks with them

Bare Bulb Editorial Portrait Photographer Wick Beavers Photography --- keywords but more importantly, USE it all, even the stuff you forgot. The cliches, the rain, the skies, the weather,

the mood all add up to collaborating with you POSITIVELY if you USE it.

It all adds up to inspiration , redirection and new horizons.Sheesh, times are busy busy so I move stuff I like to keep handy and suddenly along comes the call. The nod outta nowhere: "I have a deadline and need some great pictures of a power couple in YOUR town today..." well, that's not true, closer to a paraphrase. But I rush to get the gear and sometimes a battery tests low, a modeling bulb gives out or the ladder just doesn't make it into the SUV. So

IMPROVISE.

That's really what we do all the time anyways.

No reflectors, no softboxes, no aa batteries, no remote triggers/pocket wizards? No worries.

Just don't forget the camera or the sensor!

For this reason, my editorial pack is always loaded with charged battery grips and handy cam batteries for the digital back and camera power, the camera body and 2 lenses. The image bank, the cable...

1) No reflectors? Feather the bare bulbs away untl you get just a small crescent visible to the model, use the major light source as a bounce back mostly, the small crescent as a hard edge.

Remember to place the other lights in the same way. Closer is softer so get them in tight.

You may never bring another reflector with you once you get this dialed!

2) No wizards? Use the dinky little and heretofore ne'er used on camera flash set at -2 under so it puts nice little catchlights in the eyeballs AND so it triggers your strobes set as SLAVEs.

Little tiny pop = BIG POP! You're back in business w/o triggers. Yeah, you might have to move the packs so they're out in front of you so they "see" the little pop...

3) No softboxes? If you haven't figured out how to soften hard light you might ought to not be playing with cameras, but here are 3 quickies: a) get the barebulbs right up tight (closer is softer), b) place another light set down at -1.5 or -2 below the main light close for fill and to calm the gradient from light to dark, c) bounce your hard light at a big wall. Sometimes, a colorful wall can kick things up, often a white wall is more better! I've used the sides of cars,

buildings across the street, and even a line of green leaves such as a hedge row. Obviously, remember the darker a color the MORE it absorbs light (so the LESS it reflects). Darker bounce surfaces need more light!

hard light is great and usually handled beautifully by young people

Finally, if you forgot the background, thanks be to Allah and Jesus! DO!!

Those things ought to all be burned at the stake for holy sacrelige!

Try this: Put a bare bulb strobe right in the subject's small of the back and aim it straight up. Dial it up to starting +2.5. You can make yourself a real nice white background with the subject stepping out of a "white closet" just like That!

You want a black background on a bright day in the jungle? Use full power strobes (pro ones, please) and shoot at highest shutter speeds possible. You can make night time happen midday with strong enough lights. Oh and that might require minimum 2400 watts. Minimum!

To drive the packs out in the wild, get yourself a Honda EU2000i or better, 2 to wire up in series.

Now you're lighting!

Gotta go but check the hard bulb pics out- you'll like the look (the little old lady from Lincoln, NE might be a little irked with the brutal honesty, though!).

Best Wick

author Erik Calonius, hard light lit editorial portrait

Inspiration from... the Ages (and great masters)

2011-06-06T10:45:00.000-07:00

Alice in the Looking Glass

The Thinker... thinking

The Hand of God Giving Life to Eve

When things start to burn, frazzle or chill off, ponder what you've been struck by and ingest, regest and digest the feeling you got- and have- made by that little moment of thunder-struckedness.

Put it into a project or your next produced photo shoot.

You'll be glad you did- you'll make more friends, eat less food, and probably feel a whole lot less bleak about the times we live in.

See, I just forgot about the highland gorillas, the coal fired plant in Craig and even the assassination of John F Kennedy there for a second.

Nothing comes from nothing is about all I can tell you that is absolutely true. Stir things up, make a little noise, put that rim light way over there in the bushes. Make something!

Great week,

Wick

The Making of a Model Portfolio in Artsy Ghetto Land

2011-04-09T06:39:00.000-07:00

You Need a Model Portfolio?

Here's what you might ponder...

Pedro Salado, Model

When an up and coming Person, who has a little knowledge (yes, a good portfolio costs money and it has a far better chance to work) about the business and their place in it, shows up and asks "what do I need to do to get my mug in front of a lot of people to show them I'm serious about my commitment?" I tell them 5 great pictures. Full body, dressed up, formal, to nearlynaked so all can see your self, a fun shot where you're kicking back that shows whoyou are to work with, and a couple of you doing something "in the act" that might express your abilities, your uniqueness, your physicality.

And please- studio shots up against a white or black- read, PLAIN- BACKGROUND HAS NO PLACE in your portfolio.

Get outside in the woods, the streets, the canyons of some big city and rock it!

Ahhhh, Life to you!

Nobody has time to look at more than 5... and if the first 1 is dullsville, they ain't gonna leaf through the rest. Too many fish in the sea. And don't forget- their job depends on YOU showing up and looking good and working hard. If you blow it- "OMG, sorry I slept late", or "yeah, I was out til 4 last night, can't you just photoshop these eyeballs back to normal?", not only do you

look bad, the agency that reps you looks bad, real bad. So YOU have a BIG responsibility to think about your rep as your partner. You're in it together and that's the way it works.

If you want a great portfolio, talk to agencies, talk to photographers, and talk to other models. The ones that are working are probably the ones you want to talk to, duh.

So, this guy, Pedro, from Madrid, calls me up and he wants to shoot a portfolio and he sends along some pix he likes and he also wants to do a Zombie Boy look. Cool- the guy is serious, is willing to pay for a great job, is easily convinced he needs to include a great make up artist for the airbrushing and off we go to the Wynwood Arts District, generator, lights, airbrush, and gas mask!

Here are some shots from said shoot.

If you're interested, feel free to call or email me. Its not cheap, but the pictures don't show that either.

What you need and what it might cost:

1) 1/2 day of photography $500 volkswagen to $3500 top of the line rolls royce

2) 1/2 day Hair and Make Up $150 volksy to $450 rolls

3) clothes- an assortment of clothes ranging from casual to undies to black tie/ evening dress $0 to $5000

4) 1/2 day Stylist who might or may not contribute clothes and/or accessories $100 volksy to $2000 over the rainbow

5) Prints of your top 7 or 8 selects- 5x7 from Target $48 to custom printed 11x14 at $350 is happening these days.

6) a book to stick the prints in to pass around ranges from $23 piece of junk to $2500 or so custom etched leather or metal portfolio from any few of a group of top end portfolio case makers (names on request).

7) a good haircut a few days before your shoot at $12 to $250

8) come showered and clean, no make up, ready to spring happily into action.

Remember: you need to let it go, and jump for this. Nothing held back because there are 1 million 289 thousand 349 happy and competitive people ready and clamoring to take your place.

Best for the new week,

Wick

all photography by me

hair make up and airbrush by Teresa Morgan

Executive Portraits- a cooler hipper more connecting style

2011-03-21T08:05:00.000-07:00

Warren Newton, Executive Portrait

People (not as in "the amerikun peeepul", here- we're not making a polidikull speech) generally think of their executive portrait, their corporate headshot, their work photo, their most irritating event of the month picture, as nothing more than an incrementally little baby step up from a passport picture.

And it's only gonna say, "Let me in your country, can't you see I have a state issued Visa here?" or even more, "damn this thorn in my foot is really starting to throb, I think it's infected, it feels like it looks like Curt Shilling's (now in the Baseball Hall of Fame) bloody sock, say, can you spare some tweezers?"

Tweezers/Headshot

Bloody Sock/Corporate Portrait

Frontal Lobotomy/Executive Photograph

I'd Really Rather Have Cosmetic Dentistry/Company Picture

NOT no way, no more-

NEVER

Hey, what if your portrait was actually fun, cool and it ended up conveying who you really are (or think you ought to be) and it actually helps make the first connection for your next business deal and all that future income, maybe even laying the foundation for a great long term business partnership where you and your new client get together every spring break and fish together off Punta Negra for Hemingway sized Black Marlin?

And they pay? And you get the bonus, the fish and the BIG signing award?

And what if you could also use that "corporate headshot" as your main photo on Match.com and connect with all those right people?

And your mum wants a printed and polished pewter framed 11x14 copy for Christmas?

And, when asked for a new picture for your South Dakota DL, you proffer "the dreaded headshot"? Can I please use this one?

Well, NIAO it can be FUN, cool, hip, painless and it will reflect all that and get you the open doors, the connections, the friends, the deals, the awards, the income you want.

Guaranteed! (unabashedly extracted from late night tv's, "stop eating so much and win allies" campaign-3.2 hours or 100 feet)

Hold up to the screen now, in your right hand, a 4x6 print of your present executive headshot and eyeball it against the WICK BEAVERS corporate portrait below.

No corporate portrait?

Open up your wallet and hold up your Driver's License:

Who is more fun? Honestly.

Who is the person you more want to meet? Honestly.

Who would you rather meet- for an hour in a bank, a law office, a shareholder's meeting? Honestly.

WHICH PORTRAIT IS BETTER?

If you used to think your corporate portrait sounded like less fun than Curt Shilling's sock, then we need to talk- and shoot your next portrait.

It will open doors and help make deals.

Like I said- Guaranteed!

Unlike no other.

www.wickbeavers.com

Warren Newton- Mr Miami, Man of Steel or Chief Dealmaker to be?

A cool portrait no matter how you slice it.

Better than most for a look at my work.

Great week!

Wick

Tired of the fight? Yearn for the good OLD Days? YOU were the one that used to Yell EXPAND YOUR MIND! Or, the Making of an Old Photograph

2011-01-14T13:35:00.000-08:00

Vincent Chooses a Brush, Arles, late 1888

Wick Beavers Photographer, 2011

The Making of an Old Photograph

It's a fight, getting people out of their ruts- especially when they learned it right the first time.

Talk good photography, talk the masters, talk the history and you're talking:

1) 10 stops from totally Black to totally White (the Zone system of Ansel Adams),

2) Blown out whites, major black in the shadows, what choice is made by the artist? To allow the high end to blow out or the low to go to black. Sometimes, there is no choice, it ALL goes.

3) Use of so-called black and white spaces as the artist's "compositional elements" in a masters print,

4) Lack of color,

5) In studio lit photographs, are the images dancing in the high key end or stumbling like a dullard in the low? Or did the Photographer strive to get it all within the limited 10 stop histogram (what? you snuck this word in to describe the gamut of old film based photographs? yeah, it works and we all know what it means).

What about my beloved GRAIN?

So, this week I gave up defending the amazing dynamicism of the new age in Photography.

And I'm not talking about digital. But a realm of photography as we knew it that is falling fast.

Which I have talked about for a few years now. HDR.

And Dan Margulis' super sharpening using hi radius low amp

litude (hiraloam) to control blooming and other artifacts derived from sharpening in the traditional manner. Which, if I were really speaking tradition, we'd be talking about UNSharpening, right?

So, here are two pictures in the love it left it and came back department from a couple of portraits shot yesterday and recently.

See if you see what I mean.

Best

Wick

Grant Wood's

"American Gothic, Post Divorce"

Wick Beavers Photographer, 2011

Tops Motel, Calle Ocho, Little Havana, Feliz Navidad, Merry Christmas from Wick Beavers Editorial Portrait fashion Photographer

2011-01-07T14:16:00.000-08:00

Happy Days are Here Again!

BUT, we should (have, as its passe now I sit down and blog on to you, dear reader) all stop counting the seconds til we get what we want and give a little to others less fortunate.

Less fortunate than I (using proper engleesh), you say?

You got 2 legs and they both work (most of the time)?

You living an unknown time and space here on this planet?

You got ears, eyes and maybe one mouth?

You paying rent or a mortgage by the month and NOT the night?

You're much more fortunate than many and thanks be to allah, the chosen one, hayzeus, Jesus, Buddha or maybe even just your mum.

In thinking about those folk, and imagining

the people who live in the cheapest motels around, I went to the Tops Motel on Calle Ocho in Little Havana and got Ernesto Fernandez, the proprietor to give me a room for ... 2 hours for $15 is our standard rate.

"No Prostitution" signs above the heavily barred in receptionist's cage, I mean office.

$15 for 2 hours it was, and the room came with a bedside full length (horizontal) mirror, a single towel and a very thin but full roll of pale blue toilet paper.

So, no more BS or blather, I just gotta say thanks to Ernesto and my two valiant models.

Thanks and Merry Hannuka, Happy Daze and Molested Infested New Years!

Til we hang 'em in the stunt gear,

Wick

Photographic Rhythm, or visual Keith Richards

2010-11-03T14:16:00.000-07:00

I heard the Terry Gross podcast of her npr radio talk show "Fresh Air" featuring the interview with Keith Richards. Smith. Jones? Edwards??

Google him. One of the most common names in the language... yet. YET.

YET!!

The greatest electric rhythm guitar player ever (and it's probably because he sleeps with his axe, pounded the H and smothered his inhale with barbies, cross tops and meth).

It struck me I'd like to try to photograph like he plays.

And so another bit of fertile cross pollination, strum the nation, exclamation. The THE situation. Cocknee knee bend side swipe.

Idea is cool- play a backing riff that's cool to the goings on that's bright light and focussed.

That hits a note...

I shot editorial at Rick Scott's election night victory non announcement cuz it was so close and got this:

Why BUY when you can RENT the very Best and Latest Gear?

2010-10-07T12:06:00.000-07:00

Hey! DO NOT BUY anymore GEAR.

Renting is easier and a whole lot cheaper.

Wanna try out that fish eye?

That 5D Mk2?

Go here to rent instead: http://www.borrowlenses.com/?blpid=yBUY_rentinstead

another good idea brought to you by TGKLJH^%&*%GHB

Trauma Center Fundraising Campaign

2010-09-28T11:29:00.000-07:00

Campaign to Raise Funding for Trauma Center at Jackson Memorial Hospital

Premature by 12 weeks or so, this kid is all there and styling in his cool hat!

Mom sings him Greek lullabies every day.

This kid was 70% sunny side up. Fried. But he is the most normal cool kid I have met in a long time! Back at ya, dude.

a lengthy coma after a serious car crash and I'd be so furious I'd never heal.

The amazingest thing about each of these people is they have been through their own versions of hell. And you'd think they'd have every reason to be furious, hit the bottle, smoke the hooch or just lose themselves in any way.

Not.

They have inner strength unimaginable to us mortals.

I gotta say, this hospital is doing something deeper- and better- than fixing physical trauma injuries- it's healing people. And how!

Honored to have met you all...

Wick Beavers Editorial PortraitPhotographer

Stem Cell Researcher playing tennis for Sabrina Cohen Foundation Calendar

2010-09-08T14:03:00.000-07:00

Not the calendar shot

Last week I, Wick Beavers Editorial Portrait Photographer, drove up to Jupiter, the Florida home of the celebrated and world famous Scripps Institute, to shoot Dr Don Phinney, a PhD stem cell research scientist.

This portrait was to be thematic, in that it had to jive a lot more than I like with other Months' portraits and that die was already cast in 4 or 5 portraits- the photographers that had already shot their CELLebrity researchers had done nice, respectful, calm, attractive and generic (so sorry) snaps of their subjects and I was left trying to feel like your high school contract portraitist. Oweee.

Make the best of it and calm down...

I arrived about 20 minutes early and picked a spot that had potential. The theme was the favorite sport of the researcher and Don's was tennis, anyone, so we had agreed to meet at Egrets Landing Tennis Club.

Light flash -Test dial test dial and now we're ready- Don drives up and snap snap. These are the money shots for the calendar, nice straight, evenly lit, cool looking hero shots of our Doctor.

$ shot Yes the Calendar Shot

Alright! Now let's hit some forehands hard, backlit by the early rising sun and look at the lens not the ball and more ---snap snap. Trying to guess for the lag in both the camera and my brain to finger to coincide with Don's full forehand swing was a trick but I thought okay we are done now.

Oh no! My sensor!! The sun just cuts the pixels. Okay, swap a head- think it's too big? yes- and yes, next! Swing harder!! But keep your head in front of the soleil per favore.

Next, serve the ball with the sun in your face. Kitsch and cool and needs a little post on the junk in the background but hey- why don't you just keep your eye on the ball?

Thanks Don! And I hope the Sabrina Cohen Foundation Calendars make a large fortune for you guys and stem cell research!

And me, too...

See my site for some cool pictures and have a great week or three.

A lot of talk about White Balance. Why? It's the most IMPORTANT ADJUSTMENT you can make.

2010-08-23T06:32:00.000-07:00

WHITE BALANCE

and why it is the MOST important color adjustment you can make

Sensors to date shoot everything in color. For black and white images, there are innumerable ways to "lose" your color. If you simply use a format to black and white command, you generally throw out about 75% of the digital information of your original capture. If you ponder that most great

black and white photographers shooting digital today maintain their black and white images in RGB color space and while you've got that in your craw, go look at the old masters and you will note there is almost always some degree of tonality in the image. For sure they were shooting black and white film, so the tonality came in at the printing stage. Or it was hand toned after the print was made.

For us, the tonality is implemented at the post production/image processing stage. And I recommend you NEVER produce any of your images in grayscale and never throw away any information that came with the original image. But I already digress.

I wanted to speak quickly about WHITE BALANCE and why I believe it is the most important color adjustment you can make. Period.

Picking the color of your whites results in setting the tone, the mood of the entire photograph. No really! And the best way to pick your whites, working on a calibrated monitor, is to use LAB color Mode Curves and a color picker dropper tool to read your numbers.

And killer thing is, you can do this non destructively on any image- from a fresh new TIF to an old and tired jpg. It can result in an entirely new way of seeing your image!

Here's how:

1) Open any image file and put it into LAB color mode (Mac: IMAGE>MODE>LAB).

2) On your layers palette, open up a curves adjustment layer. You will notice there are only 3 channels, Lightness, A and B. Your lightness channel adjusts luminosity, the A channel curve will adjust the Red and Green channels and their respective relationship, the B channel curve will adjust your Blue and Yellow channels respectively. For our purposes, it might suffice to consider only the color channels for this MAJOR move in White Balance as Luminosity is a contrast/brightness issue, not a white balance one.

3) Open A Channel curve and place a point on 0,0, right smack in the middle of the chart and the curve. This IS your present Red/Green White Balance Point. If your midpoint is BLACK, that means it is active and can be moved with your keyboard arrows. Move it right to make your White Point more GREEN, move it left to make your white point more RED. Set it to your new choice. For a warmer final image, you might bump it slightly into the RED. For a greener final image, move it right into GREEN. Click OK.

4) Open another LAB curve and this time open the B channel to adjust the Blue and Yellow channels selectively. Same thing, put a point in dead center of the chart in the midpoint of the

curve, Right, that's the present Blue Yellow balance of your image's present White Balance. For warmer tones, bump the point left into Yellow, or for cooler tones, bump the midpoint of your curve right into Blue. (I prefer to use separate LAB curves even though one can get the same end result to this point, but I like to go back to my adjustment palette and reduce opacity moving the opacity percentage sliders to fine tune the end result of my adjusted tones.

5) To alter nothing but the colors in this procedure, make sure your adjustment curves are in COLOR blending mode as opposed to Normal blending mode. You can experiment with blending modes,one of the more interesting, and as expected, would be to change the blending mode to Luminosity when you are adjusting the A or B channels (color channels, NOT a luminosity channel) and you will see you have NOT affected the colors in the Luminosity Channel whatsoever. As opposed to RGB color spaces where a color adjustment WILL affect the Brightness of the image and a brightness adjustment will affect the colors, in LAB mode these

adjustments are perfectly independent. NICE and non destructive. And MORE control.

So, once you've made some adjustments in both A and B channels and your blending mode is set to COLOR to make sure we are not changing anything BUT colors, play with the Opacity of each curve to make your image's tone/White Balance sing!

6) There are times when you need a pure neutral white balan

ce. Like when you're shooting a product like paint or fabric for absolutely correct color rendering. In this case, when each curve is open and you are looking for perfectly neutral white. remember there has to be something in your image you declare is white or neutral- without color or tone. Hopefully you shot a greytag macbeth color card, but if you didn't, you have to choose something in your image that is neutral. Once you find something, open your LAB curve adjustment layer and put your highlighted point

in your curve midpoint, open your INFO palette and NOTE the Lab readout in your info palette when you place your color picker on a chosen neutral point in your image. I chose the white glove as being "neutral white" in this image. You will see how my B channel reading is -9 from neutral (which is of course, 0). I need to move my white point to the Yellow side to bring the glove, which is reading blue in my image to neutral "0" white balance point. I leave the highlight picker on Info on the Glove and using my keyboard arrows to move the B curve midpont left until the B channel INFO reading is 0 or neutral.

Next I do the same thing for the A channel noting the original image's neutral white balance is actually too GREEN or set at -3. I need to bump the curves midpoint to the right to make it neutral/ equally red and green. At this point, you might notice a small change in the other channel, due mainly to your choosing another point on the glove for being your neutral white point. You can go in close and make sure you pick the same pixels if you want to get exact but remember!! You are just choosing your own NEUTRAL, not what is actually. So this method is always going to be subjective. To get it dead right, you need to shoot a color card.

Okay, I claim with a little or a lot of tweaking of the tone of your image, you will affect the way it is perceived a whole lot more than changing anything else in your image.

Any argument will NOT be accepted..

Ha!

Have a great photographic week!

Please visit my website www.wickbeavers.com for a look at some cool (or warm) images.

Wick

Faces of the Gulf or summer vacation in 105

2010-08-04T07:24:00.000-07:00

catfish and a sea trout

Cocodre shrimp fleet, now all working for BP on the Oil Spill

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Theresa's Seafood, Closed, St Bernard Parish

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Running around the Gulf Coast with cameras and lighting in 105 degree heat index ain't so bad if you have a little funding and some cool beer in your 12 volt cooler.

These are some of our own

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Gulf Family Catfishing off the Morgan City Docks

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Donated Frozen Dorado arrives at the shut down Ameripure Oyster Packing Company, Franklin

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Kids playing in the Motel Pool rather than across the street in the Gulf of Mexico, Biloxi Beach

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Garden City General Store, a fixture for 100 years, sees times slow down with fishing industry taking a beating. The gulf region 100 miles inland is heavily invested in- and tied to- fishing.

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A closed BP gas station in Theodore, near the bird clean up facility where Joe Biden spoke

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Driving along I-10, and the more intimate and local Rt 90

- from Pensacola to Biloxi, Gulfport to Theodore, Bayou Le Batre to St Bernard Parish, Morgan City to Franklin-

hunting for Faces to Snap, a very limited budget in a gas guzzler humping too much portrait gear, a DNA swabber's dream in each cheap motel, and no A/C

sound like fun?

you bet!

_______________________________

A shrimp boat crewman, Gulfport, now a BP "Vessel of Opportunity" worker, repairing genset

______________________________

Ameripure Oyster Packing Employee, Out of Work as the company has shut down due to spill

__________________________________

Shrimper crewman, Biloxi Beach, now working for BP on a "Vessel of Opportunity". There are perhaps 4500 shrimpers in LA area, of which 400 or so have been hired on by BP as "Vessels of Opportunity". Many out of work shrimpers have taken BP safety courses to enable them to work on the clean up in this way, but BP only has needed a limited number (10%) of the entire shrimp fleet. The remaining shrimpers are out of work.

Please Ponder a donation to the cause which helps the affected families. This is NOT going to go away any time soon.

Some of my portraits will be accompanying a Garnet Rogers song, which is being put together by VML marketing agency, in order to allow you a most facile methodology to donate.

I will post the link when it is available soon.

For more cool images, please check out my site here.

Good week!

2010-07-08T13:21:00.000-07:00

The Train and the Transvestite (is that okay to say? I went to prep school i don''t know)
I had the urge to (for some reason) talk about the power of powerful lighting.
A lot of battery powered lights, ie. "mobile" lighting, give the shooter a lot of advantage and i won't leave the house/studio without them on any (ANY) assignment. Even if I know there are working plugs, I bring battery driven lighting. The uses are innumerable: you can add light anywhere in an architectural photograph, you can put a kicker behind a subject outdoors and not worry about having to photoshop out the wires from a mains driven pack, you can CARRY and point the strobe with your left hand (batt pack slung around your shoulder) or have an assistant carry one on a pole and drop it into the middle of cocktail conversations at big events while you snap your fine camera at the subject. It can be radio slaved, IR slaved or light slaved, so if you have a dorky dinky little "supplemental" flash on your camera (witness the flagship camera, the Hasselblad, and its TOTALLY DORK ETTA FLASH).
Back again- you can USE the dorky little flash to slave drive the battery powerpack and OVERWHELM YOUR VICTIM WITH SUBLIME AND USEFUL LIGHT.
Now don't forget that. Yes, you forget your pocket wizards. No problemo, The dorketta little flash mounted on your digital back wearing $50,000 digital camera can
STILL SNAP REMOTE FLASH!!!
Wow.
And all I thought I was getting was a promised 2 years of corporate support.
Yes, battery packs are stupidly pricey.
Yes, the batteries NEVER fire as many pops as the manufacturer claims.
Yes, they are slow lights.
Yes, they are usually built poorly.
Yes, the fail to fire frequently.
So.
BUY A HONDA GENERATOR!!!
AND TAKE YOUR STUDIO LIGHTS
WITH YOU.
Hey hey.
Cheer up.
IF
you buy a generator, you can fill up your tires with air. You can charge a flat car battery.
You can power your computer and charge your iPhone.
Most importantly,
YOU RULE THE WORLD OF LIGHT!
hooooooorrrrrrrayayyyyyyy!
That's what we want.
So here's some light ruling snaps from this week.
For glorious photographs and enjoyable viewing,
feel free to look here at some more PICTURES.

This is a pal named Frida. She was made up and hair worked by Richard.
The location is in Florida. Mighty Hot here in the summer.
But location pictures wherein the snapper rules the light?
OLD TOMATO
('ultimate' in spanish)

Be sure to tune in for some more dullness to the senses next week as BP gets our attention!
www.wickbeavers.com for the latest

Life's Full of Contrasts- from a Pool in the Grove to a Yacht in Fisher Island to a homeless shelter nearby...

2010-06-01T05:51:00.000-07:00

A Pool in the Grove, A World Class Billionaire's Yacht and Some Girls in a Homeless Shelter-

Contrast is Life!

The Beautiful Model, Delya, Make Up by Rick Lesser

The Royal Denship, Betty

Go here for a complete slide show

The Top Deck with Hot Tub and HD Video Monitor, along with Satcom to stay in touch

from anywhere... anytime!

Young Ladies in Homeless Shelter, their parent(s) are getting back on their feet

A month of contrasts

Please see my site for more fun Pictures

King Me, Boris! and The Thinker

2010-05-03T05:16:00.000-07:00

The Thinker and King Me, Boris from my Live Nude Photoshoot

You missed it? Oweeeeeee.

Le Nomade Gallery

Coconut Grove

The Thinker... Thinking

The Two Thinkers

King Me, Boris!

Saturday Night Gallery Show at the new Gallery, Le Nomade, owned by transplanted Parisienne and freshly hitched Brigitte Serfaty- Photoshoot and the Re-construction of August Rodin's, "The Thinker", got some great PR and- with signage all over the front of Le Nomade Gallery's street side windows claiming "Live Nude Photoshoot" enter with no faith all ye all ye- also drew some good crowds of art interested folk. Well, maybe art had a bit to do with the draw but, for sure, nude drew them in. And kept out a few kids on the arms of their more progressive and risque 'rents. No kids allowed and a huge Broncolor Para umbrella increased the allure whilst shrowding the models from the dogs, rats and skaters passing by.

Frankly, we see much more lewd and lascivious behavior emanating from a single passing taxi cab these days (or how about the BP disaster in the G of M??) but the signage was a big factor getting people out of their post dessert mode art walk and into the fray.

So, "The Thinker" went well and the models were both stupendously hip and cool in front of the masses, paying little heed to the eyeballs popping out of the dark. Lights Off Please, Firing on the Set! Then we re-set things and shot a ditty to be titled, "King Me, Boris!" I had in mind commemorating the greatest tournament of all times- The "Match of the Century" as it was called, the international chess match of 1972 in Iceland at the height of the cold war between Bobby Fischer and Boris Vasilievich Spassky, a suitably momentous and serious event to lend massive credence to my work in front of such a large witnessing crowd- no time from frilly imagery here!

So my weight as an emerging fine artist has been tested and I await the (expected) limited edition print orders. A 6ft x 4ft archival fine art framed artist signed limited edition museum quality print can be had for the minute amount of $8500. Please email me for details.

And see my site here for a look around.

Great week to you and Yourin.

Nomade Gallery Photoshoot Coconut Grove May 1, 7-10PM

2010-04-28T12:30:00.000-07:00

Come one Come all to le Nomade Gallery in the heart of the Grove this Saturday night, May 1, from 7PM to 10PM to experience the making of my version of Rodin's most famous sculpture, The Thinker. Boy and Girl Versions followed by a new tableau titled tentatively, "Checkmate", commemorating Bobby Fisher's Victory over Boris Spassky.

I will be shooting live nude models and will make limited edition and artist's proof prints available for sale. The prints will range in size from 8x10 to 4ft x 6ft and will be limited to 20 prints in each size. You might even walk away with a signed proof on the spot as I will bring along a professional series wide format Epson archival Inkjet Printer.

Come along and enjoy the night of creativity and fun!

No cameras please.

Nichole Hawkins and Wesley Vaux they just got married they hired me but they just wont pay up

2010-04-28T12:13:00.000-07:00

It's the EconoMy stupid.

Wesley Vaux and his Bride Nichole Hawkins, whose sister told me was gonna be married this year, got hitched and hired me to photograph their wedding. A list followed, a deposit and I showed up and did my jpb with an assistant, Craig Z Talkington. We shot the wedding, the dressing, the make up and hair, the boys boozing it up, the beach marriage, the reception and all the shots with the cake and other stuff like good little paid photographers.

But we never got paid!

All I got is Oh? the check is in the mail. Nada. Nothing.

Unpaid it remains.

And yeah, I called her boss at the hospital where she works and asked if she still worked there cuz I was trying to get her to pay her photographer,

And you know what? He tells me she is an honest hard working art director!

Imagine that- an art director lying to her wedding photographer about the check in the mail.

Holy smokes.

Then the boss freaks out as if he just remembered there's a recording device (which I used) on the phone and told me this was gonna have to stop. Click.

I called back and he said he was taking me to the legal department and the Boca Raton Community Hospital. And I get a notice that I am in violation.

Now, I have a signed contract and am not paid for photography work I performed for an employee whose boss tells me she is honest and hard working. And she is a creative. And supposedly knows a few photographers and the value of some.

A contract and I get this notice to NOT bother trying to collect my money.

Sick isn't it?

But frankly, the only reason I rant here is in case YOU are asked to shoot for the hospital and have to deal with the creative department there to get paid.

Beware. At least 1 art director there named Nichole Hawkins Vaux is a liar and a thief.

UnPaid

If you decide to buy a home, finance a car or hire a wedding photographer, you're gonna get asked to pay the bill.

Nichole Hawkins and Wes Vaux, if you're still married, please pay your photo boy- it's been 10 months and you have been contacted numerous times by phone, email, and return receipt requested letter as advised by my lawyer.

If not, I'm sorry. But you probably can't return the ring and you still have to pay your wedding photographer.

We'll set you up on a payment schedule and you can still (eventually) own your wedding pictures.

Here's another photo of your happy extended family with some text in Layers we can quickly and easily remove once you pay for what you contracted for.

Portraits of Haiti Relief Workers revisited in Black and White

2010-03-04T17:17:00.000-08:00

A couple of posts ago, I mentioned I'd gone to Port au Prince on a private charter 707 Boeing Charter delivering medical goods, some fresh aid workers and to pick up and bring home 30 or so doctors and nurses who had been down there in Port au Prince helping the earthquake victims since the day after the earthquake.

I shot the delivery of goods on the ground and the airport, then had the honor of making portraits of each of the returning relief workers on the jet ride home to Miami.

When I posted them a while back, they were in color. I have re-processed them into Black and White, possibly (up to you) a better treatment for such a heavy load?

Anyways, here are a few of them. You can see more here.

All best

Wick

Python Hunt in The Everglades, the rest of the story

2010-03-01T13:37:00.001-08:00

An article in the Daily Beast featured Catharine's story and some of my pictures.

Thought a few more might thrill.

These snakes are B.I.G. Big!

Portrait of Captain Jeff Fobb with his pet Burm

Northern African Rock Python Caught by Jeff

Joe Wasilewski , pals, a ford truck and 13 foot Burmese Python caught 2nd Day

A girl poses with her catch- a 13 foot live Burmese Python

Joe Wasilewski Holds the head of a 13 foot Burm in his hand while the rest hold the body

This is the result of the python hunt- this snake can swallow Rin Tin Tin whole for breakfast.

Please visit my site for some cool pictures

AMADEUS (and the gang) do el Greco in Ponce de Leon Land

2010-02-18T06:43:00.000-08:00

Amadeus, the Jumping Horse

It may not come as a surprise that out in Hollywood, they have automatic budget "add-ons" that producers count on when they are doing their "cost to make the movie" math:

Animals and Kids, add 30% each for production costs.

So, when for some reason, it got to be an itch to scratch- the creating of a modern masters painting, specifically, el Greco's "St Martin and the Beggar"- and I wanted to use a "big white horse" for the shoot, I vaguely remembered hearing that bantered around when we were making a Lexus ad (using horses for a Marlboro ad), or maybe it was on the Walt Disney set out in Crested Butte (using kids in Snowball Express). Since we were shooting this with NO BUDGET, what the heck, right?

I remembered fast when one of the models I casted didn't show up at all. Another got up on the horse and fell off.

When I met Simone, the guy that owns the stables, he took me into the stall area and asked, "which one"? How generous was that? A stable full of jumpers, dressagers, and polo ponies, each horse worth more $$ than all my digital gear AND the cars we came in on.

Of course, the biggest, proudest, whitest horse of all would be the only one and his name was AMADEUS- I should have known...

After setting up 6 lights, one big stripbox on the beggar, an open snooted head for St Martin, the rider , a couple of fill lights, a rim light and a couple of ambient space lights for lighting up the oak tree behind the scene, Simone brought on the grand horse, Amadeus. Emily once again told me she wasn't scared and got boosted up into the saddle, when we (Amadeus and the rest) realized Emily's skirt wasn't exactly saddle wear, making her a little shy and jiggly, which Amadeus sensed as he just started walking off, snorting. Pull him around! No no no, not on both reins, he's going backwards and bucking!

Finally, we got it down to where Amadeus wouldn't freak about the softbox, the flashes, the generators, the people, the rider and he just walked around the tree in circles, leaving "the beggar", Oliver, to close in on him and me to time and shoot "the photograph" once every 3-5 minutes- when Amadeus decided to kind of cooperate with Emily and with a little help from time to time from Simone.

Did Amadeus walk within the 2 foot lighting zone every time? Once in 10 maybe he was just close. Too hot, too dark...

Did he stop and raise his left fore leg like St Martin's big white horse in el Greco's painting? Once or twice that whole afternoon. I guess I could have asked for a prancing Austrian?

Did Oliver, the beggar, converge into frame in that 2 second window when Amadeus was in the lighting zone and Emily was turned sideways like St Martin in el Greco's painting? Once or twice that afternoon he did. But he never stopped paying close attention to Amadeus. Shoot, he was barefoot and had good reason!

Did we have any technical difficulties outside the actors/subjects/location/lighting/weather? Typically, yes. The lights didn't fire all the time when I snapped the photo- the pocket wizards were not cooperating perfectly. I missed several shots and had to rework the wizard placement to get better results.

Did I catch the focus just 'so' when everything was just 'right'? No- originally, I wanted to set the focus and have Amadeus and Emily converge with the beggar, Oliver, at the perfect pre-focused spot, but not once did this happen- they never once walked into the same point. So I had to follow the action with my focus as it unfolded, accounting for the more than usual out of focus shots...

Did the models handle their jobs as required? They were stars, especially after watching Elvys got this one shot before he hit the deck with Amadeus heading for the barn and dinner. He didn't regain his confidence or spirit for the rest of the shoot. Luckily we had two more models! A couple of extra models is really a great idea on a shoot like this!

Did I get the perfect shot? No, but with a tiny bit of photoshop (I moved Oliver, the beggar, in closer to Amadeus and Emily by about 2 feet), happily, we almost did!

And sometimes, you get a photograph you didn't plan on getting at all (when a smaller, more manageable horse was brought in after Amadeus got fed up):

I think, considering this is an "animals at +30% budget add-on" shoot, we did get a great and useful photograph I am proud of having made.

Thanks over the top to Rick Lesser, hair and make up, Simone for the use of Amadeus and the location, to Emily and Oliver as models and to Elvys, model, who fell a grand 10 feet or so when Amadeus headed for the barn. He's putting in his contract he won't ever work again with animals.

I will! It was a challenge and a blast!!

Check out Wick Beavers Photography

FIRST CLASS TO HAITI

2010-02-06T17:25:00.000-08:00

FIRST CLASS TO HAITI

part 1)

Shoot the interior of a beautiful rock star Boeing 707 Jet

The Master Bedroom on a 707 Boeing Jet

originally commissioned by the Emirate of Oman

I asked, if there were 30 guests who got the master bedroom.

The guy that's paying. I mean, obviously.

The Galley Capable of 5 star Gourmet Cooking

the Main Salon Area- DP and Salmon with fine Lebanese Capers?

part 2

relief mission to Port au Prince

HAiTI

Portraits of Returning Relief Workers

These portraits were shot in the 707's office cabin enroute to Miami in flight from Port au Prince airport where we dropped supplies off and picked up relief workers, some of whom have been in Haiti since Day 1.

The look on their faces, what they had seen, where they had been...

I spent some time shooting the interior of a private 707 that was outfitted originally for the Finance Minister of Oman, gold plated faucets, a big liquor cabinet, some 30 or so Recaro Rolls Royce Valencia Leather Seats, Bird's Eye Maple and all the accoutrements for a pleasant stay wherever in the world your ministry sent you. Now the plane is in service of chartering to rock stars, emissaries and dignitaries from countries all over the world. Great crew, fun work and killer travel!

Anyways, after we got done shooting the interior, the plane was called away to fly some relief flights to Haiti, bringing in medical supplies and doctors and picking up workers who had been there 4 or 6 weeks. I was invited to come along and see the airport happenings in Port au Prince and maybe help out with some PR photography.

I snapped some editorial stuff documenting the work with the unloading and distribution of goods we brought down, but mainly (!!), I brought along a couple of Profoto B600's and my H2 for the set up of a little in-flight portrait studio to capture the gaunt, wasted, drained look on the faces of some 25 or so relief workers that joined the plane back to Miami from Port au Prince.

Check them out, along with a couple of interior shots.

Little Haiti Miami Grieves

2010-01-13T12:46:00.000-08:00

Little Haiti Community Grieves Miami Dateline more to come

Wick Beavers Photographer

FrostProof Florida Citrus Groves Freeze in Icy Cold Winter Blast

2010-01-12T07:13:00.001-08:00

Just say AL

2009-12-30T13:01:00.000-08:00

This weeks posting is a little testy and some fashionista tres chic sheik may just put me in the same abu graib cell as Salman R Rushdie. Give me a phat won. What's the R stand for? Same thing as the A in my old fishing boat, the Jose A Gomez. Alvarez. Duh. Who asks? Who goes there? My mother always called any boat The name name name. The Jose A Gomez, The Longhorn, The Windhover. The Queen Mary, now that works. But not a private yacht...

So it's enjoining time- time to get mixed up in the battle for hearts and minds. The trenches in advertising agency budgets have been dug deep and strong. Just play some dirty old boy holler dwelling country music at 10000000 decibels so the fiddles warble off the low lying hills on the outskirts of Fallujah and crash back into the ear canals of the terrorists as George Jones yodels the last verse of "west texas waltz" and snap (shoot) some advances the troops are making in mingling with the local pops/paps/peeps and seeking to develop relationships of a more personal nature. As General Al Haig used to say to W, "we kin get the job done if we let people jes be people."

here's why I win awards. It's tough getting the arab girls to pose. I may be the only shooter in Ramadi that has this shot, just contact Getty for usage.

This is one of "ours". Godspeed and happy hearts and minds, my friend.

What? God, I don't know what to think about this. Jesus christ, is this crazy or what? Holy mother Mary and Buddha, Krisna tell me please, what is the meaning of this?

Some crackpot in Tehran or Java is complaining that the mere mentioning- the rolling off of the lips- the most holy word rolling off the lips of a non believer will (further) defile the world's most overly protective. most prodigious, maybe most reactionary and most populous religion's numero uno? Allah! ALLAH! shhhh. don't say IT! Al! Please, speak to your faithful and ask them, what do you want them to call Me??? Jesus?? God??? The One and Only??? The greatest show on earth??? Just Say AL. Call me Al. A1 AL.

I mean will they cut my hand off if they hear me mutter something like, " y'all ah like goin ta the ah beach taday? vat? you say all ah? that sound like blashphemy youngster. chop chop say little (china) man. sloppy lingo equals a serious loss of limb. Jesus. Oops. Hey do they say Allah H Christ like we do but substitute Allah for Jesus? Allah Christ, Holy mother of Allah. Allah H fucking Christ when they're really pissed off?

Last time I was this confounded I tried to say the name of the artist who goes by the sign of ????#$ and whom we used to call Prince and whom we call Prince again but I don't think his real name was ever either. Now let's discuss the guy the camel jocks put their greatest hopes in, the virgins in the clouds for, the palace in which every dung burning peasant will inhabit eternally next time around but we can't say Alla... but we CAN say Boingo! Rather, let's call him Al. Paul Simon sang the song. And Buddha can be Bud, God can be Go, or, I prefer it in reverse and reverse capitalized for the jesus fucking H allah fun of it as doG, and Krisna can be Christopher.

Let's ban religion and turn the tables on these simple minded crack pots that wanna just be kill joys and issue Fat ones (phatwahs).

Al Bud Chris doG and we have most of the planet covered using our secret code which won't offend anybody. What will offend me is the full body scans at Skip hole Airport. They get to look, I better get to as well, what? Free speech and one for all and all for one ...look. But hurry up, will ya, my plane is em-planing (as opposed to DE planing?)?? Which reminds me dear reader. an ageless query almost always on my mind: if two rivers come together, it's called a confluence. What do they do when they get there? Confluct? Conflow? Lemme know so I can go to Abu Graib happily.

Do you think it's high time we ban religion and teach people that they ought to have faith in their own abilities to think critically when they get through school? That's S C (HHHHHH!!!!!!) Hool like Fool. Fool. Kansas, Hello. Calling Kansas. You are stupid. Stooopid. Stooopit. Now you know.

So why am I wandering into this dull and pointless space occupied by loud mouthed thugs ranging from Rush Limbahhh to Sheik Khomeini? One reason is that's where the money is- marketing 101 says give them FAITH. Second, cuz I just spent a month shooting material for our 'hearts and minds' campaign in outter hinterland of rag heads camel jocks and bright white crusaders and got some gritty sandy pix to post here for your new years' looking pleasure.

It LOOKS like we're WINNING the war of HEARTS AND MINDS! Looks being the keyword, and 'winning Hearts' the more meaningful of the dualie "h and m". Believe me, there's not a lot of Mind in percolating the local population that comes with a 2 year education and no books, tapes, stations, movies, or teachers. No ahhht at all.

Everywhere I went in the areas fought over- veritable octogons- by the faithful with different faiths (think Al meets doG, they have a few beers, they start yelling, they fight, they get chucked out of the pub into the sandy cobbled frozen street strewn with ass dung and chicken shit, and they see a couple of cute girlz in long dirty black robes. Whoa, my eyes!! Forget the fight, forget the faith, they say hello and the site of paradise rises anew!), there's an underpinning, a subtle moaning, a working refrain: the boys are winning the hearts- and peace and love are coming to the hinterland. Maybe girls in the military is a whole lot better idea than we thought? I wanna see them take off the collars and just get in bed with the local lads. Make Love not War. Remember when we used to say "if only the war mongers got laid? There'd be peace on earth". I digress: that was years ago on Telegraph Avenue. Now's now. But! That's when we're gonna finally have a happy coexistence. That's when we're gonna see capitulation.

That's when Al's gonna pal around with Chris and doG and Bud and maybe they're all gonna get back-burnered while they hang out at the pub casing the chicks and we can maybe take a look at some more important issues than just smackin' each other over dirty old black tar sands and blue haze-making fossils. Save some whales, some polar bears and, allah jesus h krisna, hire some good photographers. Shit I finally realized I just can't get what I need by putting this thing on auto... MATIC.

The only words I heard uttered by our peeps out on h and m ops were "oh yeah, baby!". Forget about Al and doG. Glance down. Look away. Dance. Get laid.

Brought to you by Wick Bea ver z name mispelled to keep the phat wons off my trail

Art Basel Miami December '09

2009-12-02T19:38:00.000-08:00

man pauses for impact

i wonder how many shades and hues of blue this artist looked at?

juxtaposition shot taken before the velvet cordons were flung open

This was a portrait (by me) of a woman riding public transport on the way over to Miami Beach- not sure she entered the fray

In case you can't get there.

Today was the VIP Collector's Preview Day -buy without the dregs of Miami beach hanging around? Guess so. I didn't see anybody really famous and nobody landed a chopper in the driveway. Quiet wealthy...

Click here for a quicktime tour.

A demain

Wick

http://www.wickbeavers.com/sources/frontsite/display_file.php?file=slideshow/12/Art Basel Miami Dec 1.mov

Portrait Season, High School Portrait Lighting Tips and Religious High Art -have faith shooting both

2009-11-27T04:40:00.000-08:00

Happy Thanksgiving and Holidays, 2!

A great time to make the portraits of the family you always wanted to make but were just too busy.

...even in the face of too much Turkey, Punkin Pie- the faces you snap might be enjoying these times.

Happy Thanksgiving!

This is it- the time of year to look back and ahead- at my thumb, who's dumb?- get a shot at summing it all up, and what better way than to fire at friends and family?

Show 'em you're a value to the family, a cool uncle, a wondrously creative brother-in-law.

Take that feeling and shoot a fun for yourself creative photograph, produced as you dream.

If you don't dream, then as you wonder.

If you don't wonder, then as you question.

Big concepts, "the meaning of life" or small, "I woke up this morning and my shoulder ached, wonder why?" all can contribute to a seed which might germinate into some concept to chase and build. If it doesn't, get a bigger group to throw in and collaborate with- somebody will tell you they once woke up with an aching shoulder "because". Because, of course, I shoulda thought of it, they cradled the dead Jesus in their arms while Michelangelo chiseled a marble obelisk into a glorious Pieta for the Pope's grand basilica of St Peter.

I wonder: how many plagued rats have run in its shadows?

How many one eyed one armed 9 year old Russian girls?

How many of these Rusky girls have been to Orlando to see Miguelito Raton?

You see? Let it happen and if necessary, allow collaboration. You don't have a corner on ideas and the best ones come from many places, many sources.

Your mind is your partner- listen. If it's quiet, you're dead, so stop using our air. It's not, ever in this world so use it. LISTEN LOOK SNAP SNAP

Back to business--- High school portraits, anyone?

The dreaded high school portrait session. Or is it?

Put some fun into it. Put one or 3 extra lights in that do fun things.

THIS IS SERIOUS- stop making that dumbass look, will ya?

See, it's harder than you think. No, my camera is not set on auto. Yes, it is aimed at your belt- did you leave me any turkey?? And so on.

These questions and all that jazz that goes into that moment are what make portraits of your family fun, interesting and possibly even more introspective than you've been all year with the people who are close to you.

Whoa or wow?

Here's how to light them up so you too can get award winning portraits.

Don't forget to ask if they will play an icon, a saint, a mother of one.

1) Pick an f stop that starts to go blurry at the plane of the ear but which stays sharp between the nose and the eyes.

2) Set you f stop and your complete all together lighting to that metered f stop.

3) I like to use a 1x6 foot strip box for my only frontal light, look for a rembrandt look and then use a gold reflector down lower and off to the darker side of the face to open it up a bit.

4) I have to have a rim light- or two- but they don't have to hit the top of the head at all. Try barn dooring or snooting them to skim across the nape of the neck, the dark side ear, shoot, ok, the hair. Use one on either side stationed well behind the subject position. You might have to flag these lights to keep light from firing back into your lens.

5) I put a single snooted head behind the subject aimed back at the white seamless background. I like the snooted look with no grids as it gives you a real nice round background frame to put the heads inside. Real angelic you know? Often, it is very cool to have the background light off axis so it works in cahoots with the front/key/face light- if the dark side of the face is camera right, make the background light brighter on that side and darker on the lighter side of the face. Using this dark/light idea, you get a real pop for the face to jump right out of the picture at the viewer. Cool! It's there in this instance but very subtly.

6) Set the lights based on your f stop. OK, the anchoring point is the f stop you choose based on lens that will focus tight at eyes but go soft at ears, usually a long or telephoto lens 15 feet or so back OR a wider lens a lot closer to the subject. When you have the room, start back with a longer lens. Midway, switch lenses and get in close. It'll help your subject if you stay back until they get comfortable with you.

Now DROP the front light 1 stop below the chosen f stop and raise the rim lights 1.5 or even 2 stops. You'll get enough wrap to bring back the face to the right exposure. And you'll generate a lot of dynamicism with light that moves, rather tha light that is real flat and dialed in the same strength. Make those light shapes (how hard, how soft, how wide, how tight, how focused, how de-focused, how strong) work to create movement and style in you portraits, even if the subjects are not the best sitters/models (certainly NOT the case with in-laws at holiday time!).

Lighting IS it. Period, If you don't work your lighting, you're not drawing with light.

PHOTO + GRAPHIS ====greek===== LIGHT + DRAWING

Merry Merry Happy Happy Joyeux Lux y Amor e

somebody is flying around in your mind's sky

somebody walked a mile in your blues

as Senor Carton (name changed to protect identity), PhD and USGS Geologist, used to say he wanted to be an altar boy because he thought they all got to be Mexican Cowboys- I'm a cowboy, I'm a cowboy, I'm a Mexican Cowboy. Guilt-ridden youngster and his church, his faith led him to believe if he lit the candles he'd be riding a wild eyed and bucking calamitous cayouse right after the service.... whoopy ti yi yay, get along little dawggie

There is usually a solid good reason behind the loopiest choices, faith based especially.

Hand that boy another Lollipop, oh and get his mother another sweet tea.

Great season to be wondering....

Wick

CARS AND GIRLS, BIG REMOVES are all WHAT FUN!

2009-11-19T18:01:00.000-08:00

--Sam the repo man's very lovely automobiles--

silver cloud

--e multi rapidomentissimo lambo- qui amori?!--

fire it up and turn it around!

leight greight rambling jack elliot:

I am getting 'Removes' a bit more frequently as of late in reaction to my mass email (read spam casts) marketing blitzkreig campaigns. Which reminds me- if you'd like to be on the LIST, let me know. That way you can remove yourself and cause me to wonder...

Now that's either a result of people (art directors mostly) feeling like I am moving off base (was I ever on???but times are tougher, tempers are flaring, jobs are insecuring, work IS slowing), I am making poorer pictures or making pictures that pique or repel?

I admit, tastlessness, like hurtfulness, is not great art, but it is art (Maplethorpe, hello?) like a gunshot wound or a 6 inch wood splinter up under your fingernail and I'd rather have viewers look and exclaim "how cool!" rather than look and pass or lash out.

REMOVE! In fact, I have gotten MORE work deriving from an email blast that also got more "REMOVES", so it's maybe a real good thing, not such a bad thing...

Who really needs to pitch to Appalachian Organic Florist anyways? What, Bay Area Bowling is no longer in my "quiver" of potential future jobs?? Shit, that blows. But so do bowling and flowers. So solly, flower and dollar lovers.

--the very lovely Cole twin sisters and their very hungry hounds--

Speaking of what DOESN'T... Cars and girls were 2 subjects I shot lately and am happy to post about here. Patty Daniels of Town and Country Studio in Lauderdale contacted me and asked to come along to light and fire at a mom and daughter combo for a magazine cover here in Miami, also, the beautiful and way enthusiastic King Cole Twins at Mrs. Sandler's home in Boca. A repo man needed his high end bank repo cars shot for ebay and was gonna get a hacker. But he got me instead: "Wick, cut the ahht shit and make these pictures all look the same will ya? This is just ebay and wholesale magazines!" Can't resist- but found the main problem with that directive was finding a location that would remain available throughout 10 or more car shoots. Light it, move the car. Light it, Move the car.

--the very lovely Pascal mum and daughter and their very lovely religious art--

for a more in depth gander at world news, log on to the daily beast. (this a vain, futile and ill hoped for valuable link for google seo optimization).

For fun, check out more of my stuff at POT and why not?

Wick Beavers wishes you a grand week.

A Visit to the Florida Keys

2009-10-04T09:16:00.000-07:00

One thing about living in Miami -it opens up and transmits into field of view the Atlantic

Ocean, the Gulf Stream, the Sand and Coral, the tropics, the bugs, snakes and stinging rays, scorpions and palmetto bugs (COCKROACHES Please, let's call a spade a spade here)...

No pictures of bugs here other than the damn little rat dog, Taler, who is in her terrible two's and just won't stop running. Use a VERY high shutter speed or she's a total blur as usual!

A purty colorful snapshot of a mangrove island out in the Bay of South Florida, and yes, we drove a bit to juxtapose the cloud and island:

Or you want it in Black and White?

For this, it's NEVER really in Black and White or Desaturated -it's processed in a Greg Gorman Black and Wgite Action and left in color so it looks like it's a silver gel print, a platinum print, a colorized hand tinted black and white print.

Which all yield a mild colorizing to the final look of the print don't they? So, it's like Eros Magazine/Allen Ginsburg touted a long time ago: Black and White in Color! There's some dark blue in this one:

And a white dog in color

Here's Brian his self in a 2 D version of a view off his doorstep:

We stopped in on Brian King and caught him firing his new 5D mark 2 in film mode, then watched the rendered shot in 1080P on his HD tv in the bungalow that is now his pad.

The photos in blues, greens and whites, look so 3-D to begin with, no wonder there seem to be human shadows cast onto a "screen" which is the snapshot you're looking at and driving through. The road is getting better which means it's getting closer to being over for the keys.

A shooter for NBC pal of mine just got one last Friday, too. Nice stuff and so sharp and cool and easy. Next media to check into and explore, get final cut pro and work it.

Get down here asap and ...bring your still and film cameras!

The Florida Keys are best to the west or east for snapping. High time of day is always.

Right side of the highway is west. East. West. The only problem you might have is finding the right direction to point your snout/lens with no high line wires hanging over your image. Just go on down a little further.

And don't forget to bring your rods! Tarpon are still hanging around, bonefish is up and starting, and snapper, snook and jacks are plentiful right now. Dorado are big outside.

Yahoo Wahoo!

Wick Beavers Photographer

Down Island Photo Shoot in Old San Juan

2009-09-24T13:54:00.001-07:00

Rest Relaxation and Snapping- a trip to the Happy Caribe

Wick Beavers Photographer

757 to San Juan and a cab ride to the Old City- in 2 hours and 15 minutes, you are hanging out with Ponce De Leon and Chris Columbus, maybe Cortez hit the oldest church in the new world before he passed the clap around to the Aztecs and Incas and went north to Taos for some killer skiing and maybe a Navajo sweat lodge for some soul searching and good insider info on where the hell Cibola REALLY is/was... the COLORS of Old town will get any architectural photographer's heart rate clocking, the architecture is old world- this place, in maybe 8 x

4 blocks at the end of the point on the east/ocean side of the harbor of San Juan is Sevilla, Barcelona, Toledo and the Alhambra all in one.

So, after a little screwing around snapping the walls and fort, the wonderful and brilliant Miss Cindy Lou shows up with her bag of goodies and she starts in on a very young and very excited little girl, then she does Krystle, Lee and the rest and we are snapping at the laundry across the street from the Sol de Mexico, which is our base after we get booted by the land lords for having the audacity of bringing in sexy models and a make up artist, imagine- this has to be the oldest building a laundramat is parked in between 3000 miles to the west and

maybe 25,000 miles to the east. Unreal! And the floor is tiled black and white like La Mancha and the laundry spins and the colors are saturated and the driers go round and round and the place makes me sing and my sensor cry.

Then it's off to Culebra, so named by the same fellow the great city in Ohio is named for, only there- in Columbus- Chris never stepped on a snake. If he had, he would have named the city in Ohio, Snake City. He didn't land on one THERE (in fact, he never even showed up in Cleveland), but he did indeed tread on a serpent in the little spanish virgin island off to windward of Puerto Rico proper, which is still named today the name he called it then (according to Anone, the one armed helmsman of the fine yacht, Pinta), Culebra.

WHAT?

A few landscapes and architecturals and we came away with some fun stuff that looks pretty unique and makes me feel like I was on a big multi dimensional level photo shoot abroad.

What are we advertising? Our talents, my friends, our talents and our love of the medium.

Remember, stay thirsty, be vigilant and Go Shopping.

Finally, ask AIG for the money back.

Another Blog Post brought to you by your fine and handsome neighborhood lensman,

Wick Beavers

Go Snap.

Bars for Barcode Magazine Fort Lauderdale

2009-09-08T10:00:00.000-07:00

fast shooting to capture the ambience, the nuance that makes each joint unique

The task is to shoot around 300 places economically and nicely, doing justice to the places' atmosphere and ambiance, to convey what it's like to walk into this particular place, what you'll see, hear and maybe even feel when you do. 3 shots- 1 exterior and 2 interior. Has to be fast, unscheduled drop in and talk my way into getting the owners/managers to allow me to shoot their places while customers were there or not. The only way this could happen profitably would be if I could get through a minimum of 15 or 20 per day. Wow! You know a refined and skilled architectural photographer might take 6 hours or more on a SINGLE interior shot, right? So, what's the angle and how does this job get done?

Polite, camera preset on tripod, get permission, set the tripod down to shoot the coolest vignette or POV possible, and BRACKET BRACKET BRACKET. No on camera flash or otherwise and all these places are pretty dark. Lucky that in the higher end joints, a designer has been there and worked out the lighting so it's easy on the eyes, as should your money flowing out of your wallet... Then drop the raw files into Photomatix and let it cook up the HDR images for the end product. Without Photomatix, I think I'd be depressed. With it, I am pleased. So is the magazine editor.

Brought to you by Wick Beavers, where you can check out the latest photography.

A portrait just worked this afternoon:

The Death of Miss Anna Log

2009-07-27T07:31:00.000-07:00

The DEATH of Ms ANNA LOG

I really don't know why everything HAS to go digital these days. In fact, late-comers like moving picture and television media, should take note of many retro movements hearkening back to the "good old days" of analogue.

Many indie self produced rock bands are pressing 7 inch vinyl (what is that? what does it play on?), audiophiles have never fully accepted digital versions of warmer, more "present" LP records and some magazines (newsweek, for example) have selectively/occasionally hired film shooting snappers for various editorial jobs that they felt would present their new demograph of older more affluent readers with a more "artistic" and "photographic" approach.

Funny, because I easily remember (and that is indeed saying something) the days when digital photography masters and market leaders, such as John Paul Caponigro at Maine Photographic Workshops, where I took his class one time, were exclaiming "Ansel Adams would go digital NOW". Back then in prehistory.

The shoot most fun this week was produced with Vivianne Gutierrez, Make Up artist, and models Wanderson and Rosa with the intent of making an image that showed a contrast between young and old, happy and sad, hope and hopelessness, down and up, black and white, fat and thin, digital and analogue. Snuck that one in there... But check it out, that little TV up there on the dining room table (for the photo) has sat on the kitchen sink for 10 years, every day faithfully spouting out the morning and evening news... in a very news oriented home. Even has battery power back up to keep abreast of hurricane tracks when all electricity is out and TV stations run on generator power. Sadly, now it's only use is to produce white noise and as a little crummy radio receiver. Not that I am not a BIG fan of digital, but I kinda liked the tube the way it was.

Good week,

Wick

BLACK BOOK OF PHOTOGRAPHY TRIPLE BLACK and target marketing

2009-07-02T11:49:00.000-07:00

Did a photoshoot at Ed's Garage this week- was really fun and way too hot. Old Mustang, a pace car, a chopped hot rod, which car, which car? I had Rick Lesser for hair and make up, excellent, and Virginia Alexander, a producer and stylist, as well as a business owner, Ed with the cars and Ashleigh, Aaron and Whitney of Front Management modeling. Some fun pictures in the illustrative vain of mildly eclectic and slightly wigged I like and then on to my gripe with Black Book, the old formerly venerable art director's source book...

Hey, man oh man. So, times are tough, business is slow and money AND clients are ... are where? EXACTLY. So, you make your marketing decisions carefully, shrewdly and hopefully, profitably.I heard a story about some fishing guys running away from a grizzly bear. They were

moving fast when one of them stopped and put on his running shoes. One of the other two exclaimed, "man, you can't do that, you're gonna play with that bear?" "No", said the guy donning the shoes. "I just realized I don't need to beat the griz, I just need to beat one of you."

So lemme think, the bear is the economy? Or, rather, is the bear the adversity I face with my marketing plan? Or is it just my marketing plan? I'd run with that. I gotta NOT let it eat me up, let it eat THEM up, not me, I survive to run away another day.

So, I live in Miami and shoot here and everywhere, but a big majority of THEM come HERE to shoot starting in November and running til make up starts melting off end of April. The "season" therefore is November through April and I try to fit my marketing in to target the season.

In line with that and Black Book's pitching their new more powerful, eye catching Triple Black for 'only' $several G, AND the pushing from a grizzled old pal, I threw in. And paid in for a two pager. Due out October 2008. Last push for this last year's season. Gulp and card number.

I worked up a two pager and flew with one I discussed with Black Book's art department and my contact, Joanna, there. Selected more for how many people UNSUBSCRIBED to my email blasts and how fun the colors emulated the Old Masters Tuscan colors, I post it here but you HAVE to see it in its two page glory so order the book. I get no $$ for saying such.

Sadly, Dennis Dunbar (www.dunbardigital.com) out in LA helped me with his creative touch on the addition of wounds on another shot after the due date so there was no sword wound in his side or nail holes in Jesus' hands for this shot BUT I did present the wound-fested version at a little talk I gave for the Kendall Camera Club and mentioned I get comments from viewers who said my "wounds looked photoshopped". That was following my favorite introduction grunting shreiking, guttural, snort, whiz... no rules-based lingo here. Universal grammar may dictate language communication but not so with visual, where rules are far less rigid. I digress.

real wounds, real people, really Jesus, really ft lauderdale, really ascending, really

OK, so Jesus and Mary are real but the wounds are NOT? You can see Dennis' wound here above, it is real. Real chicken bones! He asked me to send him a photo of old buried rotten chicken bones that he placed into layer 23 or something. Really real. The chicken/rice/tomato garbage bones in the wound:

Below is the final print with Dennis' wounds. Unreal right?!

Now, these pictures are huge, file-wise and will look stunning at 4ft x 6 ft above any church altar.

Back to the Black Book...

December comes and no book. Some calls and things are rearranged, the account rep is gone, the phone girl is terse and short, the magazine printer in Europe screwed up the paper and things are way behind... etc. etc. For a targeted market timing is a significant part of that aim.

February, March, April... Finally, it is in my hands end of May and hopefully in yours if you are an art director, too.

So, check out pages 120/121 and let me know if Jesus looks photoshopped. While you are at it, do you think Auto Nation in Ft. Lauderdale complied with the production manager's wishes to extinguish all the office lights save those to make a large cross? Hmmm. It's post May Day and Veteran's Day... Hey, It's almost perfect for the 4th of July if I throw in some fireworks.

Happy 4th!

Days are Getting Shorter.

Stay Thirsty my friends, Be Vigilant and Go Shopping...

Wick

Shooting Location Editorial Style cool and hip Portraits

2009-06-02T14:52:00.000-07:00

Lighting a portrait is not so hard.

It just takes experience, an eye for form and a command of lighting. rules. and no rules. and you gotta bend and break them rules if you want something better than just fine. "That's fine, Mr. Beavers, how much are you nailing us for this dull looking portrait of my boss?" Or would you rather be hearing, "Man, that is, oh wow, kick ass, Wick, rocking dude, fantastic, I never knew I looked that cool! How much can I pay you?? How soon??? It ain't about the money because we might have poked into Yale Law rather than hanging around park benches, bar rooms or railroad freight yards as young snappers...

Getting it just right takes judiciously making choices as to all the contributive aspects you bring to- and come along with- the creative portrait process --- and here are a few:

1) Location- where do you shoot your subject? What do they do? Where do they hang? What are they known for? What do they love to do? Editorial stuff usually gets handed down -a person with a location- "go shoot Lenny Kravitz in his recording studio next Tuesday at 3". Who what where when - all they leave you is how! So suck it up and take the money.

If it's left to you, remember- more and more these days, portraiture shot in the studio is basically left to the state photographers- working at the DMV and the criminal justice systems. Avoid that look unless you rebut it for a fair reason and it works. Maybe your father-in-law ought to be in prison?

2) Background- Once the location is chosen, get specific and dig for the background- look for contrasts and lines, shapes and light that you can build into a background that complements the subject. Remember your portrait's constraining dynamic range- if you have too much range, you're gonna start losing highs or lows. If your subject is light-haired and skinned, try looking at putting them in front of a dark background. Opposite for dark-haired and skinned. This will help make them pop off the background and be better seen in the portrait. If you break forms or lines with a head or body, if you light one side of the face and put it in front of the darker part of the background, if you put the dark part of their face in front of a brighter part of the background, if you break/segregate different light temperatures, and many more ideas that stop the viewer from being swirled around in the photograph, you will begin the creation process of 'making a great editorial portrait'. You want to stop eyes from moving at your subject, get them to draw to the subject, maybe even the eyes of the subject. Stop, meet, see, look, learn, know. Next!

3) Clothing color and selection is also something to consider, as are any extraneous accessories your subject may wish to accompany him/her/themselves with in the portrait. I am not for the khaki and oxford look alike outfits in any way- when does anybody really dress that way? When I was a kid, my mother got me and my brother both blue blazers. I never wore mine on days when my bro wore his. Imagine wearing khakis and a blue brooks brothers shirt - just the same as everybody else? Sick. And THEN go stand in the sand dunes at dusk? SICKER. And pay some wack job for that so-called creativity in making my "family portrait"????

I wanna gag, hold on, right back. Hey, get out of those dunes- you're stepping all over the grass, and that grass holds the beach in place, you idiots!

OK, alrighty, that's better now.

Here we fade out of the numbered points and just go native:

Anyways, any portrait can follow rules or break them. There really are no rules- you think da Vinci or Michelangelo followed rules? let me see, eye before e except after si- but let's start with what we see: I wanted to show you something about what looks cool and interesting and what doesn't. And let's see- one breaks rules and the other follows them. Which one would you rather see? Which one do you prefer to look at? Which one holds more interesting information about the subject?

Like a boat builder once told me: 'if it looks good it is good', when speaking about yacht design. Of course, this intuits somebody must have thought a double ender looked good or they never would have built them... There's enough different folk in the world and we are never gonna please everybody. But let's try to please ourselves and get on with this ok?

Check these out and let me know which picture you like better.

Actually, also look at the well-lit side and the less well lit side of the second photograph and ask yourself, which side of this guy's face is more interesting to look at? The fully lit, standard, well covered, well exposed side OR the jagged, hollow'ed out, sculpted, shadowy, flaring, light/dark contrasty side? We ought to know that in order to get texture, we like hard light at rakish angles... I really try to avoid big soft boxes in portraiture, but you have to be polite to especially women of age (who after all are paying you) when you start looking at showing off your abilities as a strobe meister to show skin textures and little wiry unplucked whiskers hanging off wrinkled plump double chins, right?

The portrait above- as well as the one below- is shot at 5.6 at around 1/8 second (camera was tripoded, two flash heads/lights, key was off to right side of photo and was set at 1 exact stop above ambient/natural light, iso 50). So let me pause and remind and re-ask: is this a two light portrait? I used two flash heads. Or is it a three light portrait? It's actually a 4 light portrait, as the tungsten kicks in its own bright little way... All lights are metered and placed in intelligent pre-visualized spaces in the photograph's exposure zone (system).

Remember- meter the ambient by finding a place that you and Ansel want in Zone 5 (18% grey). Use that meter reading to add 1 stop for your key light flashing from the other side of the face. Set your light to that reading. Now you have a 2:1 ratio of key to fill lighting. You are using ambient as fill in this case. Obviously, you can use the ambient as key by simply dialing in your flash 1 stop BELOW ambient. Hey what if there's no ambient? Use a reflector, a white card or use another light, duh. I set up the rim/backlight at a stop above key to make it kick. Sometimes, for a halo look, kick up two or even three stops. Be careful though, if you go more than two and a half, you're gonna start frying (not literally, but you'll be overexposing) hair on your subject...

Obviously the short duration flash holds the image sharp if there is not excessive movement. One little gear freak pointer for location portraiture: go to your hardware store and get yourself a few of those rheostats on extension cords so you can unplug the lights that will effect the portrait and replug them into your rheostated extension cords. You then have full finger tip control of the tungsten lamps involved in the portrait as well as all your other lights based off ambient.

Looking again at the first portrait: fact is, we have a pretty (dull, if you ask me) basic ratio of 2:1 when you compare ambient to flash. Check it out. It is better than an on camera flash any day, but to my eye it totally lacks zing, song or clout. Might be the model (ahem) but we were shooting this for demo'ing the lighting weirdness I bring to portraiture that breaks rules and make portraits look real"er", better and cooler.

Next one below is totally different and breaks the old PPA and classic photography portraiture rules! To good effect. Yeah! But this doesn't mean we give up control in any way- we still strive to use the light as a tool to get us more information about the subject. How sharp is the line between the eye socket and the forehead? How about the jaw bone line? How about the shape of the head and the wrinkled brow? Or the break between the arm and shoulder and the background? You wouldn't have any of this information about your subject if you didn't have that raking overextended rim light busting over onto the guy's side view, would you?

Does it really look fake or placed? Or do the lights you see in classic portraiture begin to look more fake and set up? How about the nice little round highlight on the background behind the classic studio or office portrait? Dead and Gone- Good riddance! I am fed up of seeing the same old portrait style again and again.

Let those photographers who follow the rules deliver the typical classic portraits.

We'll bring in the cool, hip, fun and happening ones.

The lighting ratio on the second portrait between the key light/flash camera right (same as above) and ambient is still 2:1, but I have now simply spun the backlight from the photograph above around to fire at the guy's rear/ right side. This gives the portrait more edgy form as well as a hair/rim light effect and breaks the guy away from the busy tungsten/ambient lit background- this is that aspect of using a break in light temperatures I mentioned above- you have the tungsten and the daylight in the background. The flash light helps separate the subject away from his background with just a little selective and judicious use of unique light color/temp. It also blasts into the darker side of the otherwise short lit and dull 2:1 ratio short lit portrait. To my eye, this is a much more interesting and exciting portrait than the classic borderline khaki and brooks brothers shot above it- the one you might have learned in photo school from some old geezer that smelled like fixer -what the f*(*&k is that?? a new ABC weekday series, the FIXAH. Nope. You youngsters may have heard of film?

One other point of interest is the tungsten light, the natural daylight and the flash are all nicely balanced spatially and doing their thing to help create and make the subject's surround/environment a lot more fun and interesting. I thought for a moment about gelling the rim/hair flash with some very warm gel but thought- again, straining myself- for a couple of seconds about how the light temp/color contrast was gonna make its own little mark, thereby anchoring the subject in the photograph even more. Also contributing- the repeating rectangular forms of the window and paintings on the wall help frame the subject, too.

Finally, even the seat post of the mountain bike contributes to anchoring the subject into the frame of the portrait. Simpler is better usually, but sometimes you can use mayhem to find attractive angles that help define your subject and give your portrait a look even a great stylist could not have effected better.

Summary

You do have to retain a little jusiciousness as to when you are asked to photograph the women's sewing association and church group. They are not gonna be so happy with broken rules portraiture. But a rockstar? A cool dude? A beautiful dame? A powerful exec? You bet!

Break them RULES! Put down that racing form and pay attention. BREAK THEM RULES.

Get on over to my website for a look at how good it looks to break rules!

Wick

This MUST be Portrait Week?

2009-04-28T13:13:00.000-07:00

These are last year's contestants of Model La Latina, with one of the judges

Lucky Guy!

This is lit with one head in umbrella camera left and a snoot behind up right

These are two bros from a family I shot at Shepherd's Way, Ft Lauderdale.

shooting into a corner is an old portrait idea but still- it makes a good composition

lit with a profoto 5ft Octa camera left and a snoot up right behind, see how it works time and again?

I had some good hunting and some better. Lucked out and didn't run into anything bad. The people were all nice, easy and fun.

The first shoot was a job I had for SiTV in LA. Marcus Best rang and let me know they'd weeded out the choices and I'd gotten the job. Which no matter how much you claim you don' t care, you do. Thanks, Marcus!

The task was to cover the grand finale of this season's Top Model La Latina, a tv show run on SiTV similar to Tyra Banks' show America's Next Top Model but running only hispanic/Latin women. Mi Gusta!

This couple came out of the crowd for a nice portrait using a wood trimmed column as a backdrop. Here, because the tv crew had swiped the velvet curtain, we posed this up against a column and the lighting is solely a single light, behind a collapsed brollie camera left. I love the collapsed brollie not only for its less predictable hot spots but also for its effect on the subject, who generally wonder if I am really too broke to buy one the stays open!

The simpler the lighting for portraiture I think the stronger is the result. But my urge is to light it up and I can see many places I'd like to see a little more light. But then, sometimes it's the darkness which is created by the light which speaks to us. Oh yeah.

The show was coming to Miami and was taking over the 14th Floor of the astoundingly cool new building/Hotel, the Epic, downtown Miami. They even had their own labelled H2O.

"Cover the runway" (ie deal with flash placement so the TV guys don't get anxious) and "get us a few group portraits of some of last year's, this year's models/contestants/judges/producers/hair and make up/affiliates/managers/tv crew/cleaning lady. etc.". 2 Hour job went to 5 instantly.

When you're shooting on a TV set, you ought to be prepared to use powerful lights as their placement won't be convenient to small ones. Luckily I brought 4 heads and a D4 profoto Powerpack. Along with my road kit of 2- B600R Profoto pack and battery powered heads, I felt 6 or 7 heads would cover things nicely.

Lucked out, the gang had a velveteen curtain set up for me to shoot groups in front of so I set up the battery packs there and went into the runway room to set up the D4 lights. Since this is fashion and the women start out looking great and young and wrinkless, I nail them with bare bulbs, setting the lights up to catch the girls ate the end of the catwalk. Bang! I put some barn doors on the two offset lights to spare the tv cameras and obviously run no modeling lights. Plus, no way to slave anything as there are flashes firing everywhere and would have fired my lights blind. Channel 26 on the wizards and synched to the camera.

In the cocktail/party room, where we hang between contestants (there are only 2!), I have the battery packs and the velvet background set up and ask gangs to copme on over. Marcus is working the crowd to incorporate all last years' contesatants, producers, judges and so on and on we go. I like the 2 light look, it's easy with the key light to my left and a snooted head up and behind to the right, no grid. Again, since these are beautiful youngsters, I hit them hard and use a skimpy umbrella on the key light. Otherwise it's mostly bare bulb shooting.

This lad came in with his Mom and we worked it (it's really great when kids get into it and help get a certain look) - I shut down the right side snoot and shot this more moody shot with just the soft box stood camera left and flared along the wall...

Yeah, the chair is garish, but it helps give a location and a sentiment here, I actually like it for that!

Back to delivering pictures.

Good days!

Wick Beavers site for a look at more cool stuff.

ALL HAIL THE ALIENS! FOR VISHNU HAS LANDED!!

2009-03-31T15:33:00.000-07:00

HAIL OH HAIL

all hail the aliens and Teresa's cat!

_________________________________________________

VISHNU HAS LANDED HAIL OH HAIL ALL HAIL

THE ALIENS WONDER BEFUDDLED AND WACKED

HAIL ALL HAIL

THE MAN DRESSES THEM UP AND RIGS THE TOGS

IN FINE BLUES AND GOLDS, GREENS AND REDS

AND COOKS THEM LIKE NO MORTAL CAN

HAIL OH HAIL

FERNANDO GARCIA HE CUTS THE CLOTH

TERESA MORGAN SCULPTS THE HAIRS AND SWEETS THE SKIN

HAIL OH HAIL

THE ALIENS ARRIVE AND DON THE VESTS

HAIL OH HAIL

NO WORDS DESCRIBE THE WONDER AND GLORY

HAIL OH HAIL

I AM SNAPS THE SHIT AS ABLE AS CAN

F 8 AND FAST A-SHUTTER SHOOTIN

HAIL OH HAIL

ON DOWN INTO THE POOL, THE EARTH THE PODS

SEND THE ALIENS DRESSED IN YARDS

DOWN INTO CORAL AND DARK LIMESTONE

HAIL OH HAIL

THE UNFINISHED POND OF NESTOR THE CAT

HAIL OH HAIL

WHILE WE LIGHT THEM TO LOOK LIKE

MODELS

HAIL OH HAIL

VISHNU stands between the blue man and the babes whilst he protects the females of the subterranean race, a defensive posture as as not to spoil the clothes.

The alien girl Marcella dives in to the deep end whilst Fernando the Man slugs it out with accoutrement.

An albino cat is a prized possession down under.

If one girl becomes enraptured in the deep, she is said to be "bent". This one is BENT and gets more so as she stares at the blue-ish light.

Fernando Garcia Couture and Styling

Teresa Morgan Hair, Make Up and Air Brush

Alexa, Wanderson, Nestor and Marcella rock stars and clothes hangers

Wick Beavers Photographer

North Miami Pool by Nestor

Profoto Lighting, Hasselblad Cameras and Glass

Squeezing Every Last Drop of Color Out of my Pictures with Photomatix and LAB mode color curves, a practical look with pictures

2009-03-18T16:43:00.000-07:00

Ascension of Christ Ft Lauderdale Series

Wick Beavers Photographer

Hi there! Hope you're cooking in these slow times. Good time to learn and rework and rethink and retarget. I plan on coming outta this thing a whole lot better so I don't have time to feel glum. Hope you are doing well and being constructive.

I was thinking I ought to try out Photomatix. I shot recently a personal project I called "Little Pink Houses", documenting the always and ever expanding growth outwards from any city center. Miami, I have noted, due to its being contained on 3 sides (Everglades to the West, Ocean to the East and South), is in a bigger pickle than most.

And so I shot many photographs of the dull repetitious suburban architecture growing up around the edges. And I shot many in the middle of the day- my preferred time!- I just shoot several bracketed images of the same scene and expect to comp them in photoshop in post. I like harshness and reckon we'll all be seeing soft box light for eternity soon enough.

Well Photoshop's HDR automated task is "you might as well do t yourself" bad for compositing under and over exposed images- it's actually worse than that!- and I have been seeing and hearing gathering and LOUD compliments about Photomatix so decided to scope it out and use it on some of the Little Pink Houses Series. And man and WO man, I swear, Photomatix totally and completely ROCKS!

Here's the good stuff and don't look elsewhere or under the table or behind you cuz you're not gonna find the bad...

1) You download it quickly in both ready to roll and demo versions. When you

buy it, you get a key and can instantly unlock it. Or just play with it and deal with that ugly triple watermark later. Problem is you're gonna love it and you're gonna be irked you went through the process and wound up with a watermark so just BUY IT straight off. TRUST UNCLE WICKY!!! BUY IT! I make nothing...

2) There is a plug in you can buy for an extra $20 which I am not sure I'd buy. I haven't. It simply goes into Photoshop and I guess looks more streamlined but since you really need to use it FIRST in the workflow, you might as well leave it stand alone. I might change my POV when I know more...

3) Simple to use, fire it up and open the first dialogue box, IMPORT the images. Locate them, then let it rip!

You can load up the short sweet tutorial and set the settings the way they recommend- very intuitive.

I have run up to 5 -127 mb files in one batch process and the thing processes pretty quickly.

4) Mid processing, you will be delivered a wild looking image that I suppose is the composited image, seemingly half of which falls outside the monitor's gamut (and probably OUTSIDE every extant device's gamut!) with the highs flying off to way past monitor white and the blacks heading so far north they look like deep pools of carbon. So what next?

5) Tone mapping dialogue box pops up and the image is now ready to be pulled together within gamut. Detail is more painterly, the other is more photographic. I prefer to use the tone detail so far but I have only processed a pretty limited number of images thus far...

This above is the tone mapped image, 16 bit full size 127 mb ready to customize for output to Photoshop.

I save the final Photomatix HDR comp'ed image to desktop and then open it in Photoshop.

I have recently adopted Dan Margulis's Picture Postcard Workflow which is based on LAB color mode CURVE adjustments and then using apply image in (mainly) blue channels back in rgb mode to get every drop of color out of your image.

Here above is the Photomatixed image heading into Photoshop>IMAGE>MODE>LAB color mode. Wow! Remember, we are NOW gonna squeeze colors out of an image that already is marvelously WAY beyond anything we have seen or worked with color-wise since we have composited lows and highs that were beyond the gamut/luminance range of anything ever used before to capture photographic-based images. Getting closer and closer to being able to SHOW/represent all the colors in the gamut of the human eye! Remember though, we have not increased the gamut of our device, we have simply found ways to represent and bring into gamut colors and light that have never been able to be represented before. A little confusing, but LOOK!

To get a bird's eye view and a complete and thorough lesson on working Dan Margulis' Picture Postcard Workflow, check out Dan's video lessons in Kelby Training on line- worth 100x more than the cost!

So, in LAB mode, we open Curves in the layers palette and adjust the Luminance fir

st (in Luminance mode for no image destruction), then A and B channel colors (in color mode for no image destruction).

Above is the worked image. Every last drop of color -some I've never even SEEN- are in here now and the image has been touched up -first globally, second, locally to look its best. I have a live books site which requires images to be no more than 100kb and no longer than 920 pixels. After a very slight over sharpening (the upload and web presentation takes a piece of the unsharp masking), I save my files after making sure the metadata (FILE>INFO) is complete and has my copyright info embedded, then upload them to my site through live book's editsuite.

I know I am in a processing space right now where I am gonna overdo things- that's the way it goes- if you got it, USE it!

Hope this makes some sense and happy shooting!

You will find several images processed this way on my site especially in my architectural portfolio, SPATZI.

Things you will need to remember shooting for HDR:

a tripod, camera set on manual with focus set. Do not change the focus or the aperture, changing the aperture will obviously affect the focal plane/depth of field. To change exposure values, just adjust the shutter speed!

It's recommended to process RAW DNG files but I have been experimenting with Photomatix'ing TIF files processed in different color temps, so a dark file would be processed from RAW to TIF Cooler, then composited with the lighter warmer image... I think that will make the 32 bit high dynamic range image even cooler!

Oh and if you are shooting for HDR on a windy day, shoot the images fast or you're gonna get some serious ghosting in the (overlain) blowing clouds.

Kelly Isabelle Falk, America's Next Top Model

2009-02-06T10:50:00.000-08:00

Kelly Isabelle Falk

America's Next Top Model!

Sometimes, rarely, happily, talent is palpable, even a little contagious.

It's the kind of thing that's fun to feel, to be around, to see.

Frequently, I shoot people who share the same thrill of creating a great photograph- some fall crashingly groundward when the camera peeks, some fly heavenly, and you may never have known.

Kelly 'Isabelle' Falk is the latter- she's drop dead magnetically cool looking in person . But although she's quiet and genuinely warm and real, she unabashedly screams on camera-- you get better pictures than you'd have ever imagined!

And

that's real cool when she starts out looking so fun and cool and vibrant and beautiful to begin with.

She gets in front of the camera and works it over.

I had the good fortune of shooting for a long day several righteous models who had been selected to pose for me by a client and friend named Cathy Burton of BRISTLES DAY SPA AND HAIR SALON in Charlottesville last July, 2008. Kelly was a real breath of cool, fresh air on that scorching 98 degree 100 per cent humidity day. She didn't sweat a drop but looked pretty hot just the same!

Kelly has been recognized and chosen to one of 13 models competing for an ELITE MODELING AGENCY CONTRACT and $100,000 green ones on AMERICA'S NEXT TOP MODEL Cycle 12 with Tyra Banks and crew, which starts on February 25 on the cw 8/7 C

Gotta catch it and shout it out for Kelly Isabelle!!

Come on over to my SITE for more cool photos of Kelly like Kelly and the Long White Cloud and other great models

www.wickbeavers.com

Chow for Niao from Sunny but COLD Miami

please ask about image usage

Coral Gables is OLD Miami and it's a great Place to Take Photographs!

2009-01-30T16:13:00.000-08:00

Just walking around Coral Gables, South Miami, can be very productive in looking for- and finding- some cool old and photogenic Old Miami structures and edifices. From the large and manicured plantings and fine architectural detail, there's a lot of stuff to shoot. Here are a few shots from today, right before it rained hard for the first time this winter.

The above is the obvious and almost ever present in old Coral Gables Biltmore Tower.

This is a block of new to look like old of probably gonna be trendy and hot shopping stores at the very end of Miracle Mile.

This is the Coral Gables Administration Building, at the south end of 'Miracle Mile'.

The Biltmore Hotel again, shooting out my car window spot through the neighbor's trees.

For most of this kind of shooting, I prefer to use a light slr, and love the Leica V-Lux. I think I might prefer the M 8.1 but feel it's way too expensive for how much noise it produces presently. Mighty fine glass and I think the V-Lux's is pretty good. For a look at some wigged and cool photography, click here to come on over to my site, www.wickbeavers.com

Darker side of 18%

2009-01-26T13:47:00.000-08:00

The POWER of Dark

What is too dark. Hatred, death, sickness, disease and a lot of really beautiful painting and photography. Darkness forces light to speak a lot. Make sure what light is visible is doing something BIG. Low Key is really a poor choice of words for such awesome power!

Eat More FOOD

2008-12-08T15:58:00.000-08:00

EAT MORE FOOD AND ENJOY A FULLER LIFE EXPERIENCE

Get a date, find friends and companionship, get out more often, become popular, be cooler and

maybe even get laid!

All you gotta do is EAT MORE FOOD!

Like these happy folk from Asheville...

Be sure to get to my site for a full look at this fun obsession.

Wick Beavers Photographer: Holidaze Portrait time...

2008-12-04T05:16:00.000-08:00

Wick Beavers Photographer: Holidaze Portrait time...

www.wickbeavers.com

Holidaze Portrait time...

2008-12-01T07:08:00.000-08:00

I am not one for typical portraiture- the family thing where everybody gets dressed up a la the Gap or Polo in khakis and blue brooks brothers shirts and heads off to the sand dune grass at sunset where mom and the kids hold hands and dad gets snarly fed up and NEEDS a big shot or two FAST! I do anyways!

Or everybody starts crying and screaming and the sunset portrait ends up being the first thing tossed in the impending divorce.

So, what do I do instead when somebody calls and asks me, "please"?

I call the best hair and make up person and get ahold of a world renowned couturist and tell my clients "OK".

IF!

If they go for the hair, make up and couture right down to the shoes and jewelry. AND the location has to be agreed upon, sometimes requiring permits and all that jazz.

How come?

Cuz it's what we're brought up to believe in as "fine portraiture" and it normally puts me right to sleep.

It is indeed more expensive than your average studio portrait.

But is it worth it?

Every penny.

Happy Holidaze!

Wick

A collaboration with a great digital artist, a full page ad in Newsweek and a 2 page spread in Black Book and...

2008-11-08T13:15:00.000-08:00

The above photo is gonna be coming out as a full and glorious 2 page spread in the BLACK BOOK volume 3 Photography and should be pretty disruptive I hope. Black Book is the leading resource in the world for creative pros and that's me, yes? You betcha, wink wink, let's go moose hunting.

ALSO-

I had the great fortune and real honor of having Dennis Dunbar of Dunbar Digital out in LA work the nail holes in the hands of Christ in my Ascension of Christ Ft Lauderdale photo. He immediately grasped the illustrative and kitsch nature of the task and returned me his 15+ layers, masks and adjustments to "get" the rotting, splayed back, bruised nature of the nail holes. Below is a close up of the forward hand. I attach a copy of the final full image as well for a look at the whole image. He left me a single layer he titled "MEAT", for which I shot week old chicken bones and bowtie pasta dug out of our nice compost pile. Yes, gross to the max, but worth the effort in the end!

There is a real need today for collaboration in the making of any photograph, but especially when it's high rez digital with several people involved and an art director has asked for a specific look. Many shooters (Stan Musilek, Finlay Mackay, Gregory Crewdson and many others) rely heavily on in house post production, a very complete option for leading photographers.

Dennis does lots of big time Hollywood work and we chatted we'd like to do some more stuff together again. Yessir.

This was (kind of) the image that ran as a full page spread in Newsweek this last week. I had to put the dollar sign a-glowing over her head for this version, it just struck me. I don't think there's any other reason for an MBA degree, other than to make big money. Not like us, right? Come now, we make big money, it's just too rarely...

Some afterthought compositing and a wander by with my 2 mpix iPhone camera finish off this week's drone. Tome, sorry.

You know how you just are STOPPED DEAD IN YOUR TRACKS when you move along sometimes and realize there's something unique and expressive and attention grabbing about a thing you see. This happened to me when I passed this bible thumping, evangelical church in South Miami (whilst canvassing for Obama!) the other day. It just had the right light, the right colors, the right balance. For ME! Waddya think?

Next photoshoot coming up is going to be about bodies and the human fascination with eating food- consumption. Or so it's called. What is it replacing in our more balanced past state I wonder? Parenting, love, sex? It's gonna be really cool and I'm shooting it in Asheville, NC with some cool local talent both couture-wise and actor-wise.

Look for it soon.

Plus, we have the Black Book, volume 3 coming out any day with a full eclectic 2 page spread of the one photograph this year that illicited more "unsubscribes" from my bought email lists than any other.

To see some really cool pictures or to buy a drop dead print, please come along and visit my site MY SITE IS HERE

And you can BUY some photography that will only increase in value just like your IRA or your social security checks.

How about your margin account?

Great week to you!

Wick

College DAZE revisited

2008-10-13T13:55:00.000-07:00

Portraits for College Ad Campaign

A guy named Corey gets the B and W treatment.
An MBA grad student poses in the College Business School Conference Room

looking just like the high powered exec he's gonna be in a year or two.
A surgery MD student, looking at a video presentation of a brain transplant

Not! But he's gonna know where to bleed you in a knife fight.
This grad student is gonna be mixing chemicals in the real world shortly after she gets her Chemistry PhD.

I enjoyed her sense of humor, she sounded like she was from Akron and mentioned she was so not Chinese she didn't even like the food. A business partner of mine, a guy from Beijing, tells me he doesn't know why we like hamburgers- half an hour after eating one, he says he's hungry again.

Wonder what that yellow stuff is anyways...
A guy that was studying to be a laboratory tech I think, or maybe the fund raiser for a stem cell research lab?

Dunno...

BUT I HOPE THEY AND YOU ARE ALL VOTING FOR OBAMA/BIDEN!

This stuff was shot for an ad agency whose client was a University in South Florida called Nova Southeastern.

The college seemed like a very cool place and they practiced what they preached-

the kind of place where you actually practice your future practice!

Now just because the photos are made for commercial use doesn't preclude their processing and use as mini art works, fine commercial photographs, mildly skewed lifestyle, or even something verging on twisted high fashion.

If you shoot with love what you love to shoot, you may just get hired to shoot the same vain. Or is that vain with "e"?

This shoot was originally scheduled for 4 or 5 portraits per day, stretched out to as many as we could humanly pull off. Juiced with generators and/or in wall plugs when we had them, running mostly 4-7 head setups, we jumped to make maybe 8 portraits per day for 3 days running. Started at 4:30AM and finished at 9PM.

A whole lot of shooting fun!

Coke Bust at the Tamiami Airport, Miami

2008-09-26T16:04:00.000-07:00

The most beautiful DRUG BUST since 1988 at the Tamiami Airport in Miami

some editorial fashion pictures

Hair and Make up by Teresa Morgan

Styling and Clothes by Fernando Garcia

Guns by Parker and Fox

Got to My Site to see more Photographs by Wick Beavers

The small plane arrived late from Colombia, piloted by two glamorous cartel vixens

The local dealer, Nestor, arrived with his bodyguard, Tito, to pay the girls and take the hand off.

Sadly, the happy days of drug dealing in Miami are coming to an end.

The undercover squads are always on the alert and take down more kingpins than you can shake a good old bird gun at.

But even the good guys succumb to the debilitating and enthralling sweet succor of the street candy...

We might see this cop on the street beat when she gets out in 10.

Thanks to Teresa, Fernando, Nestor, Tito, Alex, Martine, Tatiana, Lloyd and Yulia!

Choice of background conveys vastly different emotional response to overall image sentiment

2008-09-18T11:36:00.000-07:00

If you're a thug, a bank robber or one of america's top wanted persons, make sure your photographer uses a seamless white background for your next portrait. It conveys open-ness, conviction, truthfulness, directness and honesty, brutal honesty. So, your next picture- with the right choice of background- ought to get you off the hook real fast. Do that next sitting with a confusing, muddy, dark or black one and you'll be stalked by the G-men forever. Or maybe a mysterious person of interest just out of the peripheral. Take a hit and the paranoia gest thicker.

Here's what I mean:

I want this young model to come to my kid's 10th birthday party! Just keep her in the well lit kitchen and things will be just fine...

Even pictures with body parts a-bare look more innocent and uncensore-able:

Now let's look at dark, mottled backgrounds and see how shady, dark and downright guilty your subject looks:

30-Life! Guilty as convicted and maybe even mildly macabre...

This guy is Lebo, an artist/cartoonist from Miami who's really known for his bright fun cartoon drawings and who's also very much like that. So, I shot him as a guilty, dark, diabolical, neoclassical-style portrait to jump against his real life style. For him and the art director, I think this rendering didn't work out, but I like the portrait anyways. I'm not gonna tell you who the girls are, solly.

So, to get shooting better pictures that emote the feelings you're looking for, using a well chosen background is a great fast way to get those sentiments into your portraits right away. Once you begin to "see" the backgrounds more as part of the total composition, you'll see how important they become and how you might ought to consider them more carefully in your next compositions.

Fun pondering and great looking!

Elaine Lancaster's Birthday Party The Forge MIami Beach

2008-08-29T10:41:00.000-07:00

Elaine Lancaster's 24th Birthday Party

Ms. Elaine Lancaster, Miami's socialite and greatest diva, turned an unknown (she can tell you) age last evening

and I was there at the Forge to catch the event in Photoz.

Technical: We used three lights- an on camera (Leica V-Lux 1 my new favorite light game camera) flash set to

-1.5 under, a profoto Acute B 600R attached to an

acu te B head and hand held by pal and miami paps photographer craig talkington and another

pack and head of same profoto ilk hand held in the left hand by me, yer photographer.

Camera snapped in right hand.

I was able to slave the packs to the teency on camera flash and therefore avoided that particular garish on camera/on camera bracket flash look by cranking the camera flash down to minimum fill status (-1.5).

Shooting in the dark at parties requires a few things set up in advance as well as of the camera:

1) a great autofocus sensor with IR distance seeker

2) a hot shoe for when your assistant hand hand holds the remote flash a

greater distance than the slave can handle or for when you need to go to wizards set on private channels if

many other snappers are roving around in the dark and setting your flash off

inadvertently.

3) A commitment to manual exposure! Get it off automatic anyway most always.

4) And a commitment to a predetermined fairly low or midrange aperture setting (mainly due to portrait interests) and therefore a specified distance from subject for the handheld flash(es).

The Leica Image stabilization seems to handle my handheld speeds down to even 1/4 second. The noise has always been a problem for Leica sensors to date unless you restrict yourself to shooting at ISO100, in which case the cameras are very sharp and noise-free. Well, relatively.

This is really a kicking system and I love the profoto light from their new acute B road warriors- we just sling the packs around our necks off a comfortable shoulder strap and coil up the extra wire in the same hand as the one that holds the head. Tons of room to get creative and edgy! I hold mine as key high and get Craig to shoot me a vignette light on the wall behind, or hold mine lower and get craig to get closer and shoot a rad key from way off to the side, or bounce it off the

back of their head, etc. etc.

I look at this kind of shooting as being as

much fun as watching images appear in the developer bath in days passed. It's just late for an old guy! And the girls I wanna shoot look at me like hey daddyo, why aren't you in bed yet?

You're never entirely sure what you're gonna get which adds to the fun.. But you will always get some good stuff if you set everything up right.

Craig and I talked tactics through but I know he needed to take matters into his own hands when it was just too crowded for instance to get the right distance away. If

he were too far, he'd need to spin the dial and crank up the flash pack output... How far? 3 clicks? 8? Fire in the hole!

From this perspective, it's really great to work with the same person/people as much as possible.

With a little luck, some cool gear, a great birthday party at a great location, we were able to get some cool stuff.

the idea is the idea

2008-08-25T17:35:00.000-07:00

to my purist friends, no I take that back- you aren't my friends at all

Olympix are done and I wish I'd been there for 15 minutes to make the perfect portrait....

Anyone doubting the after effects of a good edit should pay close attention.

Same blog as last week's but edited by a guru,

Yes they were lit nicely. yes exposure was nice. Yes the photos were above average.

BUT CHECK THESE EDITED COPIES OUT!

Murder in the Everglades

2008-08-08T16:54:00.000-07:00

MURDER IN THE EVERGLADES

Wick Beavers Photographer

hair and make up by Rick Lesser

Thanks to Rick, Amber, Ignacio, Jon Paul and Gabe

for the use of his really REALLY BIG truck

the kids drive deep into the everglades as the "date" goes awry...

"Hey Ignacio, dig the grave while I have my way back here"

Now die bitch dog! Wearing Krelwear couture, Amber is almost smiling, shaking her pretty head in defiance

Remembering a few sweet moves from her daddy, the martial artist, she is able to turn the table on her would be assassins... but what's life without a latte?

One down, one to go. The old axe move little man or a quick bullet to the mallyggoshopping hippodrome?

Maybe I'll just play with the cute one first. After all, it's just another Tuesday night sighs Amber...

Too late, too dark, too many lights to set up,might be a cloudburst, lots of thunder, too few ready models, too many rain showers, too many bugs, too many lightning strikes and a few really nice photos!

Thanks to the crew, we were able to nail 150 or so pops with various poses and lighting set ups. Gabriel Perez of Hertz Heavy Equipment Rental South Florida let us use his near monster truck, Rick Lesser, Hair and Make Up Artist extraordinaire contacted and psyched up his pals, models Amber and Jon Paul, and I was able to get hotelier Ignacio to come back again, even after shooting the Jesus rising shots in Lauderdale a couple of months ago as second disciple...

Also,. thanks very much to Karelle of Krelwear for the really cool clothes for Amber.

The story line: the girl is absconded, abducted and brought in the back of the guys' truck to a way out distant lonesome place in the everglades. She's allowed to say her prayers before she is abused for the last time and thrown into a shallow grave dug by the smaller man. Watch what happens when you misjudge a woman's power!

For more death in the everglades, see my site.

For a look at more of Rick Lesser's work in hair and make up: click here

For a look at more clothes by couturist Karelle Levy of Krelwear, Miami, click here

Wick Beavers Photographer: pose or not to

2008-07-29T07:03:00.000-07:00

Wick Beavers Photographer: pose or not to

pose or not to

2008-07-24T08:08:00.000-07:00

To pose, to compose- get it together!

Brought to you with love and addicttion by Wick Beavers Photographer.

Too many -aspiring and otherwise- photographers never consider camera position, much less perspective, depth of field (of focus), focal plane, shutter speed- to drag or not- or even the most important of the non-subject aspects of a good photo, the composition, the background behind and around the subject.
I am a firm believer in cropping to find a just right aspect ratio and/or balance to the final image (sorry eliot erwit and henri cartier bresson but I think ansel would be using digital backs and photoshop and you guys would be cropping to make better your great photos), and really love the high rez digital backs for giving me more than enough room to make good crops, but you gotta get close as possible so if you do need to make large high rez prints some day, you'll be able.
You gotta ponder this hard cuz it makes or breaks a snap shot into or out of being a "nice photo".
Look at your subject carefully, but absolutely see their surroundings. Some people claim to see better two eyes open, I prefer one, but it's your choice, as long as you see the subject in a strong composition.
Remember thirds until it's instinctive, ponder diagonals and contrast/light. Think about motion and how the flow of looking at your composition will work to draw the viewer in towards your subject or focal point. OR Not!
Go with and go against, but make your choices and fire, don't leave these issues up to luck or native instinct until you do the above without forcing/thinking. You'll be amazed- rather than the 1 good shot every 50, you'll be upping the ante to a much higher level, when you really get this dialed in, the editorial part of making good photos will take a lot more time- you'll be pressed to pick the best from a slew of really good images!

Hot Summer Days In Charlottesville, Virginia

2008-06-18T12:55:00.000-07:00

Posted with Love by Wick Beavers Photographer

In Virginia's Jeffersonian and Hot Summer Daze

a shoot for bristles salon in charlottesville turned out 11 models in their finest!
plus, couldn't pass this location up:

a stairway by a mall developer leads on to heavenly cow pastures

whilst a model and a by-standing very game little girl step in

choo choo woo woo

2008-05-21T04:59:00.000-07:00

amber and rick lesser joined me at the commercial maintenance and loading platform at Lauderdale's train station where we were able to feature amber wearing some beeeeeeeautiful ema savahl designed dresses.

it's summer now in miami and anything we do outside has to be done in the shade, lit to look "as if" we're out in the sun.

persistence and maintaining focus is essential when conditions for shooting are tougher or less comfortable than we'd like- it'd be too easy and tragic if we threw up just a half ass effort, you know?

see my site for more pix!

For more of Rick Lesser's work, click here

For Ema's incredible line of clothing, click here

Going BACKWARDS to find good NEW STUFF

2008-05-04T05:40:00.000-07:00

styles change, 'tudes change, techniques change...

so get back to your older libraries and archives and look again- guarantee you'll find some cool stuff you overlooked for your portfolio today.

Here are a couple of shots I took more than 2 years ago and never even processed from camera raw. Nice stuff- especially from client shoots- WILL indeed pop out at you.

Why client base?

Cuz they pick the things they want and bypass anything that might have piqued your eye when you were shooting in the first place.

After all, one should ALWAYS snap something for oneself!

Check out my site for a look at some more cool stuff- www.wickbeavers.com

Cheerio!

Lightin' up the college kids

2008-04-27T12:03:00.000-07:00

campus shoot from predawn to post dusk with a downtown permit to shoot in public places

downtown ft lauderdale museum of art:

Shooting nice college kids for an ad campaign. They be loving their excellent lives- and futures- at the BEEEautiful university of Nova Southeastern here in sunny, multicultural South Florida...

Coeds are fun, vivacious and easy going, and they outnumber guys by tons. Go SHARKS!

Masters programs in medicine and business designed by guiding hands of America's most famous entrepreneurs make the garnering of an advanced degree here a shoe in for a rockin good time in the real world!

Fun 3 days!

We're not all going to die of thirst and Jesus has a-risen, thank you lordy

2008-04-08T08:15:00.000-07:00

Finally rained pretty heavy down this way and the Lake is swellin' to near 10 feet below normal and there's already talk of abandoning the water restrictions. Might even save a toad or other lake dwelling creature for a short while now...

So. In celebration of the downfall, I got jazzed to do an ascension. Like giving back? I guess so. The rain falls down, I'm gonna shoot a guy dressed in your grandmother's couch material back up. Yeah, and maybe it'll look like a Titian, Caravaggio or a Da Vinci... In doing this little project- and we're on for a big dinner as well- I caught myself believing Jesus and Mary M, that lusty woman of the night who was no member of any local tribe of Jesus lovers with her flaming red/blonde hair (strawberry, truly), really do NOT look like 17th century renaissance men just because they were so masterfully painted in those times. I like to believe

they might look a little more like the way I shot them herein.

Cheers and good luck to Zac this weekend. I hear he and the rest of the Gamers for Jesus crew at Bowdoin are having a knockdown thumbfest with Colby College. Go Gamers!

Hey, will that be on espn2 after world cage fighting championships?

Many thanks to Rick Lesser, hair and make up for this mildly irreverent off shoot.

And to slimster, ignacio, my haitienne pal and the quite pregnant Iryna!

Spring is nearly here and you KNOW what that means!

2008-03-31T10:53:00.000-07:00

BAR-B-Q TIME!!

Get out the sweet breads, the pickled hooves, the hanging game, the gizzards and tails.

And grizzle them up on your outdoor Barbie!

Down here in sunny Floride, we never stop cooking outside, but you folks in Steamboat and Sugarloaf are hankering for mud season and a few last runs in slush spring mashed potato conditions, right?

Bet cuz those last of the season runs serve to remind you to "GET OUT THE BARBIE!!"

So in celebration of that expectation, I shot ya some pix Sunday last, reminding you how NOT to do it.

I'm pretty darned experienced on the Weber and hardly serve anything cold in the middle anymore, but we all get rusty and so we all make mistakes.

Yeah, even in Florida, we forget to not clean the grill when it's still torturously hot (here seen vulcanizing my right hand to the wire grate cleaner and my left to the Weber. Hey, where'd it say "Caution, may be hot" on this thing? When I can use my writin' hand again, I'm gonna see if one of those accidente abrogates on the billboards can handle my case).

I was so irked and heated when my dang little bird dog started laughin' at me flying around the back yard almost a-flame and dancin' the St Vitus.

Here using the Old Biscuit Trick.

Now who's laughin', tenderfoot?

Plus, it took care of all that hair between his toes where the burrs get stuck when he's runnin' the quail. Speaking of which, season is coming up. Couldn't care less about the geese, but the quail ought to be a layin' like mad.

Puff Puff

Some people like to say there's not enough of a story behind some of my pictures...

I think that it's just cuz they don't have a large enough imagination.

Like I was on my way from Virginia to Maine recently and heard about this insane gunman in the act of killing off a bunch of children real close by to where I was on 95 North, so I spun off the road and went the 8 miles or so, following the choppers, to the Nickel Mines school house.Flashed my press creds and drove into the little amish village, which ordinarily would have been siesta-ing in the warm mid day sunshine. Bam Bam Bam Bam Bam Bam for each life therein. And the Amish community reported they held no animosity towards the truck driver that snapped? Here's a neighbor who's now got 23 satellite RV's parked next to his buggy on the front lawn:

Maybe the best way to defuse the scene is to act if nothing's happening? But I can see something in this cat's face that doesn't look "settled" or peaceful, like he's wrestling with an emotional bear....

You gotta look to

see.

Check out my site as it almost always has some new stuff on it that might make you wanna look.