Back on the Cape

The ring please?  

This was one of those flawlessly beautiful weddings.  It was a hot, sunny day.  The bride and her bridesmaids looked stunning.  The groom and his groomsmen were out in their finest.

The Fist Bump.  

We were back down on Cape Cod at a large country club.  It was actually like a sort of resort, like you might see in the islands.  It had clubhouses, lots of bars, a restaurant, a pool, and a private beach.  We took the bridal party down to the beach for the formals.  Unfortunately, it was really busy and the tide was in, so there wasn't much room to maneuver, but we made it work.

Elegance in motion.  

The ceremony was outside, in front of a big tree, near the main clubhouse, and I got lots of good shots.  Then the reception was down in the pavilion, which was actually a permanently-installed tent. The cocktail hour was outside by the pool, and the dinner and dancing were inside.

BFFL!

The happy couple hired both a DJ and a band.  Luckily the two were able to work out a schedule, and the guests had a great time partying all night.

Stealing a kiss.  

Hot Tips: The composition and exposure of fire.

That golden moment when the flame is about to go out.  

So I think fire photography ranges from "Awesome!" to "Excellent."  The former is a photograph that shows a whole lot of fire, and it's eye-catching because it looks like someone is setting the entire world alight.  The latter is a well-composed portrait that happens to have a subject who is spinning fire.  In order to do this, I try to keep several things in mind.

1.  Fire is eye-catching in a photograph.  However, a human face is a focal point.  The fire must not obscure the face.  If it does, as a portrait, the photo is meaningless.

Awesome!  Notice you can't see the subject's face.  This does not work as a portrait.  

Despite the flames, the subject's eye is really the focal point of this image.  

2.  Fire is bright.  It is most beautiful if it does not blow out the image sensor.  The images that are dark but show detail and texture in the fire tend to be more aesthetically pleasing.  A lot of people who take these types of pictures love to have long trails that really show nothing but fire, and the fire just looks like a yellow streak.  I prefer to limit it extensively.  To this end, a subject spinning with smaller poi produces a better image than larger fire-spinning apparatus.  And the best time to shoot is the last few seconds, when the flame is dying out.  A shutter speed of .3-1.3 seconds is better than 2+ second.  And sometimes cropping within the trail of the flame produces a curious effect that makes it seem as if there is even more fire.  As part of a rule of composition, a pattern that extends beyond the frame seems larger, perhaps endless, than one that has space around it.

Again, no face.  

Peek-a-boo!  This image is more eye-catching.  

3.  Drag the shutter.  Normally, a longer exposure time created a brighter image, but when the scene is very dark, exposure time is meaningless.  So you use a flash.  Now, a flash only fires for 1/200 sec.  This means that whether you have a long or short exposure time, the light on the subject will be the same, because the light is only present for 1/200 sec.  This is useful in wedding photography, because you can use a long exposure to brighten the background, and a flash to freeze the action and light the foreground.  With fire photography, you don't really need a background, but you want a longer exposure to capture a long trail from the flame.  The flash freeze the subject.  The tricky part is that the fire will also light up the subject, so you get some orange ghosting.  A smaller aperture can control this to some extent, but it also necessitates a brighter flash.

This image has lots of fire, but all the empty space diminishes it.  

By cropping the edges of the flame, the fire really controls the image.  

First Ceremony!

So serene.

Very austere.  

This Saturday was my first experience shooting a ceremony.  Rupert told me that since the ceremony was outside, so he wouldn't need me to hold a light, as long as I could stay out of the way I could shoot the ceremony for my portfolio.  This is pretty important, because although reception shots are great, I think that a lot of potential clients really want to see the ceremony photos.  

The ring please?

The two phases of the event actually pose two widely different challenges.  In a reception, dozens of photo opportunities occur every second.  Every photograph can be fun, sweet, intimate, goofy, or stunning.  However, ceremonies are dark, the lighting is unpredictable, view-blocking crowds appear instantaneously, sometimes the backgrounds in certain directions are unworkable, and the action moves fast.  It's like shooting wildlife.  You catch it the first time, or it's gone.

Adoring fans.  

The happy couple.  

Ceremonies, when outdoors, are brightly lit, have beautiful backgrounds, and tend to be relatively stationary. However, there are certain ceremony shots that are "must haves."  If you take a shot of guy dipping his girl on the dance floor, and it comes out blurry, nobody knows but you.  But if there's no shot of the groom putting the bride's ring on her finger... well, certain states have jail sentences for that.  Also, the reception calls for a little more creativity, and therefore can be a bit more technically forgiving.  Lights can be blurry and streaky to account for movement and action.  But ceremony shots should be perfectly focused, perfectly exposed, and razor-sharp.  Every time.  Ninety percent of the shots should be beautiful and stunning.

Some creative backlighting.  

The camera loves you, and you love the camera.  

Anyway, this wedding was in a beautiful and stately mansion near Newport.  The place is tucked out of the way on a private road.  It has its own dock, immaculate gardens, woods, and a private beach that looks out onto a golf course.  Inside is all chandeliers, gilt mirrors, and marble floors.

A little blur for motion.  

The DJ knew that the guests were there to dance and have F-U-N, so he pumped out dance music all night.  Some people shy away from the camera, but these guys loved it.  I'm not really supposed to take group shots, but every time I lined up a shot, people got into a pose.  It was great.

One of those moments.  

Double Barrel Booty Drop

A little experimental, but it might work for advertising. 

Sometimes you want a wide shot.  

 I currently use four lenses and two camera bodies.  Each does something different.  The problem is, there are too many times when I want something that I'm not holding.  Maybe I'm holding the zoom lens, but I want to isolate the subject from the background, so I need a fast prime.  Or maybe I have a medium-wide 50mm, but I really want the tight crop of the 100mm for a closeup.  So, for Friday night's wedding, I adopted a technique commonly held by many wedding photographers: two cameras.  I put the 50mm on the full-frame camera for medium wide shots, and the 100mm on the crop-sensor for tight closeups.  Sure, I could get pretty much the same result with zoom lens, but the fixed focus primes are sharper and can provide narrower depth of field to isolate subjects from the background.  It's like holding a burger in one hand and a beer in the other.  The compliment each other, and I always have what I want, in my hand, when I want it.  The disadvantage is that I'm holding two heavy cameras, which is kind of awkward.  Also, I only did this for the early part of the reception when we still had a lot of natural light.  Trying this with two flashes is just asking for disaster.

Anyway, this was another massive wedding party.  Eight groomsmen and eight bridesmaids.  I guess they felt intimidated by last weekend's wedding with a party of 17.  The ceremony was in Bristol, followed by a receiving line outside the church, chilled with some Del's Frozen Lemonade, compliments of the bride and groom.  If you're not a New Englander, and you've never had a Del's, you're missing out.  After that, it was the traffic-dodging mayhem to get to the reception in Newport.  Getting through Newport is notoriously difficult because there are so many narrow streets and pedestrians, so traveling through it on four wheels is tedious to say the least.  I tried to take a back route to avoid the main drag, but an error in calculation meant that I ended up on the wrong side of a lot of pedestrian traffic, including a woman who shouted "We're trying to cross the street!" at every car that passed her.

And sometimes, a closeup.  

I nearly got to the venue, but a last-second wrong turn sent me into the  queue to valet my car at a neighboring hotel.  I flagged down a valet when I realized my error, and he gave me directions... right into a conference center parking lot... with gates.  Then when I tried to get out of that lot, I found that I was exiting through the entrance.  To make matters worse, other cars, thinking I was doing something right (for reasons that escape me) lined up behind me, and someone trying actually exit through the exit had lost his ticket, and was causing further backup.  At that moment, I saw the party bus drive right past and into the venue.  But it wasn't all that disastrous, because the groom's family had had similar problems, so they were delayed 15 minuted behind me.

You can't go wrong with a line dance.  

The venue is right on the water, and there's a low, white wall at the edge of the water.  We got the bridal party up on the wall for some formals.  Rupert told them to do some fun poses, and one girl did a sort of squat.  He asked her what she was doing and she said, "Booty drop!"  This became the quote of the evening.

I think he's going for a Booty Drop. 

The rest of the party was pretty amped.  The families did a choreographed dance to a montage of 80s and 90s songs for the bride and groom's enjoyment.  They also did "Cotton Eye Joe."  And the Limbo.  And a Conga Line.  It was probably the standout wedding for dancing this season.

On Fire.

Twirling Fire Batons

As in, on the subject of fire.  Like a Rousseau-ean essay.  But also the pun hearkening back to the classic NBA jam.  Marv Albert shouted it, and your hightops turned fluorescent.  Unlimited turbo, baby.   

Actually, that's all off topic.  My friend Dan spins fire, aka Poi.  You may have seen something like this at a fair, or a performing arts festival, or a juggling/magic performance.  Basically, the spinner has a ball made of kevlar attached to a handle with a chain.  The ball is soaked in fuel, then lit on fire.  It will produce a bright orange flame and burn for several minutes.  During this time, the spinner whips, twirls, spins and throws the device, producing trails of flame that are both beautiful and thrilling to the point of frightening.  

Fire staff producing an unusually rectangular trail.  

About 18 months ago, Dan invited me over to watch and photograph him spin.  It was really a fun afternoon and evening.  It was early winter, and there was a little snow on the ground with grass poking through it.  We took some pictures in the late afternoon sun, and then more in the early evening darkness.  I experimented  with different exposure and zoom settings, and Dan experimented with different costumes, masks, and fire apparatuses.  It was an evening of experimentation.  

More recently, Dan became involved with an organization called the Providence Fire Tribe, which then spun itself (pun intended) into the Providence Spinjam.  Various performance artists would assemble once per week to spin Poi (balls of fire on chains), Snakes (ropes of fire on chains, Dan's specialty), Darts (a single ball of fire on a long cord), Staves (a staff with fire at both ends), Swords (Flaming Swords, that is!), and Hoops (picture a hula-hoop outfitted with a number of flaming marshmallows, ever popular amongst the ladies).  

We all have hoop dreams.  

The Spinjam now takes place in a warehouse near Roger Williams park, in its third semi-permanent location (special shout out to TightCrew for providing the space).  So, how does one describe a group of people who get together to light things on fire and twirl them about?  Well, I would have to start by illustrating it as an artists community.  These are individuals who above all else are dedicated to their art.  I infer that they have a strong dedication to the development of the aesthetic and skill of spinning fire.  This is, at its core, a type of movement-improvisation or perhaps a dance with at most a loose structure.  Second to this, there is a sort of hedonism.  I use this word in the most complimentary of fashions, because I am describing people who live to experience life and all it has to offer to its very depth and dregs.  So essentially, a dedicated fire spinner is one who lives to turn his/her body into a work of art, for at least a few bright and shining moments every week.  

Now, I shy away from calling myself a capital-A "Artist."  I had an oil-painting professor in college who said that he would not call himself an artists.  On his best days, he did something he would call "painting," but until he could look back on his life and confidently say that he had created something that added to the art of painting, he was not prepared to call himself an artist.  I found this remarkable admirable and humble.  It also allows one to experiment freely and objectively without the pressure of grand evaluation.  (Conversely, a classmate's watercolor professor told her, "Call yourself and artist!  If you don't, who will?!")

However, being welcomed, as someone who on his best day does something he might call "photography," into community of artists is remarkably nurturing for the craft.  Essentially, I have subjects and an audience who love to see the work, and unabashedly offer rave reviews in ways that are both affectionate and genuine. At worst, it's an ego-boost, and at best, an inspiration.  

Poi.  

This post is getting a little long.  In the future I'll write another one with some more technical details about composing and exposing fire shot.  In the meantime, please enjoy the photos in the galleries on my website Poi/Fire.