Think Small

Sometimes photography is about what you don't see, and more to the point, what you shouldn't see. As I am about to finish up my wedding season that drove hard toward the end with 11 weddings over 13 weeks, it inspired me to touch on something aspiring wedding photographers or just the casual photo enthusiast may be interested in considering... small spaces.

If you've shot a wedding, taken photos as a friend during the wedding day, or been a part of the bridal party you'll know that the preparation phase of day is pretty hectic and can be quite cluttered. Often times you are relegated to the cramped quarters of a bedroom, hotel room, or a Sunday School classroom where there is an entire group of people (with all of their things scattered about) as they prepare for the big day. As a photographer you need to get clean shots of the dress, rings, shoes, jewelry, flowers, and the details that are important to the client without the distractions of suitcases, shoe boxes, duffel bags, posters, and the like. You need to do all of this without rearranging the entire room and without being a nuisance to the bridal party. It is time to start thinking small.

In the shot at the top of the page...the room had busy backgrounds everywhere I turned and there were people constantly moving about as they got ready for the day. Not a problem. I used the simple, yet small space provided by a windowsill for this shot.

This bride, who is a hunting enthusiast, requested that I incorporate a pair of her boots into some of the photos. I shot this laying on the floor to avoid all of the boxes, bags, and other odds and ends that were on the bed and nearby tables.

The cramped space of a hotel room can be made to seem open with the use of a wide angle lens and simply moving a few items aside. Here there were tables and chairs to both sides of the windows in this hotel room. I moved them just a few inches out of frame, laid on the floor on the far side of the bed, and shot around the foot of the bed.

This is the same dress in the same room. I slid the chair over to where it was when I arrived, closed the sheer curtains, incorporated the veil and shoes, and shot from a different perspective.

In "Sunday School" classroom situations, look for every and any opportunity to eliminate distractions and clutter. You can make it seem as if there is no one and nothing else in the room, even when there are people, suitcases, posters, and boxes all around you.

Here I simply used a chair that was in the room and a shallow depth of field as the rest of the bridal party was getting ready just a few feet from me.

Along For The Ride

Back when disposable waterproof cameras were hitting the market we’d grab one and my friends and I would take turns shooting photos while we surfed. After getting back a number of rolls of blurry prints, it was apparent we weren’t going to get the type of photos we’d hoped for. Fast-forwarding a number of years…when my friends and I would go surf on the Outer Banks, I usually took first shift behind my DSLR with the 400mm lens. We’d drive our SUVs out on the beach, sit in the cargo area, and shoot out of the back of my truck. This worked great unless there was a side shore current causing my subjects to drift down the beach or, in my case, most of the time they wouldn’t paddle in to take their shift behind the camera. In December of 2010 I was given my very own, personal “in the water” photographer and videographer…a GoPro camera.
The GoPro is quite a nifty little gadget. It has a waterproof housing that you can mount almost anywhere, it shoots HD video, and shoots 5MP digital stills. Since my friends and I picked one up, no one has to man the tripod anymore. Unfortunately the east coast didn't get much surf this summer, however, the GoPro provided all sorts of new possibilities and perspectives I just couldn’t get before.

The camera is just below the water's surface as I paddle out.

I breach the surface after "duck diving" a wave

Up-close photos and perspective you can't get from shore

Whether shooting digital stills or HD video, every wave I ride can now be documented from start to finish.

A special thanks to my folks for giving me the gift of being able to document one of my deepest passions...surfing.

Insurance: A No-Brainer

Most 4th of Julys end in a flurry of bangs, this year mine ended with a gut wrenching splash. I met with a few friends to spend the 4th of July on the Outer Banks to enjoy an extended weekend of sun, surf, and good times. All of those things fell right into place. Earlier in the day we moved my friends' sailboat down to the end of the marina to get a front row seat for the fireworks in Manteo, NC. I was going to able to post up on the dock and shoot some photos to incorporate the sailboat and the fireworks. I set up my tripod by simply opening the legs to give my rig the lowest center of gravity possible and I was ready to go.

When the fireworks started I began shooting away with a remote trigger and all was going well. I went over to my rig to recompose a shot. I sat down on the dock behind the tripod as the viewfinder was perfectly at eye level and I scooted forward just a bit to look through. As I scooted forward, my knee ever so slightly bumped one of the tripod's legs and the whole set up fell like a cut tree. The rig hit the edge of the dock about half way down the tripod and, being top heavy, it went "head first" into the murky depths of the Marsh's Light Marina. I didn't yell, cuss, cry, or even punch anything. I just sat there staring at the black water; I was speechless and it was gone.

I took a few minutes to collect myself and then my friends and I began the salvage mission to recover the only thing that was going to be unaffected by being submerged in 9' of saltwater...the tripod. After a bit of coaxing I hurled myself into the filthy water of the marina, held on to one of the boat's spring lines that was overhead, and began probing the bottom with a long pole. After 20 minutes in the water and several dives to the bottom, I found my rig. Once I was back on the dock, I took off the lens and water poured out of the camera body. It was at that point it finally hit me...my 7D was dead.

Moments After Salvage; photo: Rob Nelson

The first question everyone asked was, "Do you have insurance?" My answer, "No." One of my buddies who is a photographer said to me, "Ugh. Insurance is a no brainer my brother." Insurance was one of those things I was going to get around to doing, but never did. It was a hard (and expensive) way to learn the importance of something very simple and inexpensive. If you don't have insurance, get it, or even add your gear to your homeowner's or renter's insurance.

As it turns out the tripod wasn't the only thing that survived undamaged, my San Disk Extreme 8G card was unaffected. All the photos (including one of the last photos I shot that night, at the top of this blog) were still on the card and it works as if nothing happened. I wouldn't go tossing memory cards in to 9' of murky saltwater but San Disk gets my vote for making a solid product!

7D corroding just 18hrs after recovery

Battery grip corroding just 18hrs after recovery

Even the batteries were shot