Bounce Flash

Connie Almueti proudly displays her plaque and medal which inducts her into the Civil Affairs Hall of Fame at Fort Bragg, N.C., Sept. 25, 2012. Almueti has served seven commanding generals over 42 years as a Department of the Army civilian, and has been a critical contact for countless commanders in the field. (U.S. Army photo by Staff Sgt. Felix R. Fimbres)

   In case you haven't been following along, I've kind of been gushing about Flash. I talked about flashing in the morning, Flashing  in the evening, and Flashing at Supertime.

[This is a reference to the  song"Sugartime" which I honestly have no idea how I know about this song, possibly I heard it in an ad? Moving on...]

   Needless to say, I'm a big fan of flash. In fact, a friend of mine said the other day,

"Appreciate natural light, but bring your own just in case."

   Okay, enough gushing. So lets talk about this photo. Connie was inducted to the Civil Affairs Hall of Fame, hence the medal and the plaque, and I was tasked with writing the story.

   Unfortunately administrative work doesn't exactly lend itself to very memorable photography, and really the big story was that she was becoming a member of the Civil Affairs Hall of Fame, a first for any woman. So I said to myself,

"Damn the torpedo's lets pose a photograph!" 

   This was also the second attempt, the results of the first weren't really up to snuff. Yes, I have had plenty of bad days photographing, luckily I was able to go back and try again.

I wanted soft light because it's just more flattering. My favorite method of getting soft light is to bounce it off the ceiling. I aim my flash straight up, crank it up to 11 and let it rip. The light actually bounces off the ceiling and cascades downwards like fairy dust.

You'll notice this isn't quite the exact same picture, I can't

find the one I posted. Regardless, it's pretty awesome, in my

opinion to have anything of mine hanging in the pentagon.

Note: High ceilings laugh at your attempts to bounce flash, many flash units just don't have the umph to launch light beams 10 feet up and 10 feet back down. Also some ceilings will absorb the light.

   The only real problem was that the glass on her plaque was the right height to just catch to tip of my flash. That's a big no no because it breaks the fourth wall. I didn't have access to any sort of off camera flash, not even a bracket, so I just had to work with what I had. I strongly considered removing in in post, but decided against it because editing anything in post is frowned upon in Army photographs, more so than posing. As such, it sits there mocking me.

Turns out, this photo is hanging on a wall in the Pentagon. The small photo shows it hanging out with some other photos. As far as I know it's the only photo of mien hanging in the Pentagon, which to be honest is probably more so because of the content (Connie is a pretty big deal) and no so much the awesomeness of the photo. Regardless, I think it's pretty cool.

If your interested in learning more about Connie you can read about the story I wrote here: http://www.dvidshub.net/news/95899/general-aid#.Ul4bWFA3v8k

Beach Balance

Pfc. Thomas J. Snyder takes a photo of Pfc. Christerpher F. Coleman on Omaha beach in Normandy France on June 7, 2010. Snyder and Coleman are PSYOP soldiers with the 325th Tactical PSYOP co. in Nashville, TN and are participating in Operation Air Drop Warrior 10 which commemorates the 66th Anniversary of the D-Day invasion. (U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Felix R. Fimbres)
 
   I started this weeks theme yesterday with "Leading to balance" so today's image will continue that trend.

   Quick sidebar: We don't normally associate beaches with soldiers in uniform, but during Operation Overlord (D-Day) the U.S. poured thousands of them onto beaches like this off the coast of Normandy, France. When I was with the U.S. Army Civil Affairs & Psychological Operations Command (Airborne) [we also dropped thousands of paratroopers behind enemy lines, thus why we as an airborne unit came to commemorate this historic series of battles] we took soldiers from across our command to remember and be inspired by the hurdles our predecessors had to overcome.

   When I went through my photography training with the Army, posing was frowned upon. With the exception of award ceremonies. Similar to the cries of, "Photoshopped! I can tell by the pixels," I'd often hear,

"Oh, that's posed." and instantly the photograph wouldn't be considered not worthy because it's essentially been faked.

Balance? Check. Leading Lines? Check. Rule of Thirds? Fail.

   So what does any of that have to do with this shot? Well, I didn't fake it for one. For two [yes grammatically incorrect] because of that my subjects, in my opinion, aren't as clear as I would have liked them to be. Is that an excuse? No, of course not, I still used at two elements of composition, so there.

   All joking aside. You'll notice right that my subjects aren't in any of the points of interest. But they are balanced. The sky, ocean, and beach are ALMOST balanced horizontally as well, but not enough that I would consider that balanced. Those two soldiers however are well balanced. Their heads/eyes also give us leading lines.

   So, back to the "observe and document, don't interfere" philosophy I was taught. I saw these two guys and started taking pictures because I had no idea how long they would be there taking this photo. Since I couldn't recreate the moment I had to get what I could. 

   I can tell you with this photo I was fairly far back. I carry two camera bodies with me when I shot uncontrolled action, a wide and a long lens. Because they were so far away I reached for my 70-200 lens. I zoomed in and took the shot.

   Because of the long focal length I was able to compress the distance, including more of that wavy low tide beach sand. Which was good, and I was able to make my subjects bigger, also good. But not big enough for my taste. So how would have made this shot better?

   Well I would have liked the two of them to have been closer together. I should have said, 

   "You should get closer and zoom out, you'll get just as much beach but have a better focus on your subject than by just stepping back." 

   To which he probably would have accepted my professional opinion and moved closer. Then they would have been closer to each other. At which point I too could have stepped closer and zoomed out to a wide angle. My subjects would have been clear because they'd be in points of interest, they would have been balanced, and they would have had leading lines.