Ken Rieves Photography

Yesterday I got the chance to go up to Lake Wawasee and shoot some photos of Stephanie. I was up a few weeks ago and never got the chance to shoot on the water. I asked Barbara Mendez (an ex-intern) if she would assist for me. For those of you that aren’t photographers. An assistant can be a vital part of a shoot. For a lot of outdoor shoots a large reflector is used to fill in shadows, particularly in bright sun. One of the assistant’s duties is to find the right angle to catch the sunlight and direct it to soften shadows. So I owe Barb a big thank you for helping me out.

The weather was not cooperating with us yesterday. The day started off nice ana sunny, but the wind was brutal. As soon as we got out on the water we saw that there were huge whitecaps coming from the East. Being that we were on the West side of the lake meant we had to battle the wind and waves head on. Then once we started shooting clouds started rolling in. So we shot what we could on the water.

After I got some good shots, we came back ashore. We passed by a local pool that Steph was a member of and I suggested we shoot some at the pool while we had a tab bit of sun.

So, I got a few good photos and we had a ton of fun. We finished up by going The Frog in Syracuse for a nice late lunch. Overall a productive day.

Yesterday I shot some photos of a local model named Rohma. Last year she was selected in the top ten of the Miss Teen Indiana Pageant and was chosen as Most Photogenic. She asked me to shoot some headshots to be used in this year’s pageant program and for other promotion materials. Could she be the next Miss Teen Indiana? You betcha. We had a fun shoot and got some nice images. Expect to see more from this young woman.

For the key light I used a reconfigured octobox that acts more like a beauty dish. A gridded strip box was used for a low fill.

Also, my studio is featured on a local blog. Go to Jennifer’s website and check it out - http://glassaddictions.blogspot.com/2009/06/open-studio-friday_26.html. Also check out her work, it’s pretty amazing.

Well, Summer is really here. This weekend was extremely hot and humid, but we survived it.

Yesterday morning we got to watch an egret have a sushi breakfast. There is an egret that frequently hangs out at the lake in our back yard. He is fun to watch because it’s amazing how perfectly adapted he is for fishing. Normally I can’t watch him too long because Kate hates him and barks her head off till he flys to the other side of the lake.

 In Fort Wayne, there are quite a few summer festivals. This past weekend was BBQ Ribfest. So, yesterday my wife and I headed down to Headwaters Park to try some BBQ and enjoy live music.

I must confess, while we had fun at Ribfest, we were disappointed with the food. We got brisket and ribs from Texas Pit Barbeque and it was just not good. The ribs were fatty and yet tough. The brisket was dry and unremarkable. Even the baked beans were bad. They tasted like they came straight from a can of beans and franks. I am convinced that my ribs are some of the best in the world. At least the music was good and they had a nice variety of performers. While we wished we could have stayed and listened to several bands, it was just too hot and humid.

This past weekend I had the opportunity to shoot with a couple of other photographers, just for fun. Barbara Mendez (a Fort Wayne based photographer), Alvaro Balderas (a photographer visiting from Mexico) and myself had Friday and Sunday to shoot. We enlisted the help of some aspiring models I’ve worked with in the past and were able to shoot at two locations. The first shoot took place at Cancun on The Landing on Columbia Street. We had access to the entire building and shot mostly available light.

Tasha

The second shoot took place at Lake Wauwausee. We found a cool tunnel to shoot in.

Stephanie


Stephanie and Tamara

It was real interesting to be working with other photographers. Even though we shot the same people, because of differences in our shooting styles, each of our photos were quite different.

Here are some more outdoor shots. I love finding new and different locations. If you take the time and keep your eyes open, you can find lots of cool places to shoot. It seems we (photographers) find a neat location and keep coming back to it. As a results other photographers discover it as well and shots in that location lose their novelty and become cliche’.

The first photo was shot at my new top secret location.

This photo was taken at? Guess.   

Location photography is fun and can be challenging because there are tons of unknowns. Plus conditions are always changing and you have to adapt quickly.

Right before the first of the year I bought a new camera. It has higher resolution and better overall image quality. We because each image file is double the size of my old camera, the first causualty was my desktop computer. It was so tedious editing images because the computer couldn’t handle the file sizes. So I upgrade to a 64 bit computer with 8 gig of RAM and a quad core process. I’m very happy with its performance.

The next causualty  was my notebook computer on my shooting station. Here are photos of the old notebook:

I use the notebook computer for tethered shooting. This is where I attach my camera to the computer while I’m shooting. That way my client and I can evaluate photos as we are shooting. It means my client gets photos that they are happy with. 

With the new computer (an HP) I should be up to date with current technology. At least for the week. Next time I budget for a new camera, I have to consider what other hardware will have to be upgraded.

Once again I am apologizing for being late on posting to my blog. With the long weekend I forgot about posting something new. The photos this week are of Chrissy whose an avid car buff. Her baby is a 2002 Trans Am. This is real go-fast car with numerous tweaks to the original 350 HP engine. The car sounds awesome too.

And here is a photo of just Chrissy.

These photos were shot in downtown Fort Wayne last Friday.

Now that temperatures are warming up, I’ll be doing more outdoor and location shoots. While I love shooting in my studio, I also like the challenges of shooting on location. Things are less predictable and that usually leads to interesting results.

Yesterday I shot some photos of local actress and model named Stephanie. We shot some photos in the studio and the weather was so nice, we went to a local park and shot more photos. I brought along a couple of lights, one with a 36 inch octobox with a grid and the other light was a strip box with a grid.

Here is one of the photos:

Here is a behind the scenes shot:

It was a really fun shoot and now with everything greening up I’ll be working more outside.

Also, I am looking into hosting a studio lighting workshot in a few weeks. I imagine it will run for about 4 hours on a Saturday afternoon. If you are interested, let me know and I’ll send you more information.

One of the aspects of photography that I enjoy is shooting bands and musicians (both live and for promos). I think that one reason I find this fun is that musicians are creative, artisitic people and have some interesting ideas on how they want to be photographed.

I guess on some level I can identiy with bands because I play guitar and had a band in college. We were really bad, but it was a ton of fun. I still play guitar and am still bad at it.

Over the past few years I’ve shot a number of bands in a bunch of interesting locations. In terms performance locations I’ve shot at the Embassy Theater, Pierres, and tons of smaller venues such as Columbia Street. The smaller venues pose some unique challenges, mostly getting decent lighting. In terms of more unusual promo shots, I’ve shot at an abandoned crack house in downtown Indianapolis for a Rap/Hip-hop band. I’ve also shot in the basement of Columbia City Haunted Jail for a metal band from Warsaw. I’ve also shot tons of sessions in my studio.

Kan-Tis  (Cancun on The Landing, Fort Wayne):

Da Syndicate (downtown Indianapolis):

A few of the other bands I’ve shot are Soulfyre, Jacob’s Well (now named Out From Darkness), Paradise, Key2Eden, Grave Robber, and many more bands and solo artists. Anyway shooting bands is a blast and tons of fun.

Every year the Allen County Parks department, along with some corporate sponsors, host an event called SolFest. It is a two day music festival highlighting local bands. There is a really cool vibe that’s kinda a throwback to 1960’s. It’s not real commercial or highly structured so it has a real informal, comfortable feel. They have tons of stuff for kids to do, plus a beer garden for the adults.

It is held at Fox Island County Park, which is the perfect venue. Fox Island is the largest nature preserve in Allen County and has lake, hiking trails, and a nature center. I always look forward to SolFest.

This year’s had a great line up of musical acts. The schedule run from noon to 8:00pm today. I was only there for about 4 hours and enjoyed the great food and music. I also snapped a couple of photos. I’ll comment about each photo.

In an empty field near the stage, a young girl chases some bubbles:
 

Dan Dickerson invited people to paint his short school bus:

A local 12 year old singer - Marnee. She is quite talented:

The singer from the band Orange Opera:

Chris Dodds and his acoustic guitar:

Gene Donnelly performed solo:

They had an exhibition on birds of prey:

SolFest runs tomorrow from noon to 8:00pm. It’s definately worth the $5 admission. Check it out!!