Author Archive: ken

I am trying something new. For a very limited time I will be offering a free video with the purchase of a Premium or Ultimate Senior Package. This is a trial offer that I will use in order to determine a price point for the new product. The video is not a slideshow, but an actual live action video with photos from the shoot cut in. The videos will have a running time of 2-3 minutes.

For the people who participate in this offer, you will be a great video for free! Again, this is available for a very limited time.

I have been super busy, but since I have posted any photos for a while, here is a shot from yesterday’s shoot.

Thanks for reading!!

-Ken

“Why use an external light meter?” This a question/debate that still lingers in photographic forums and bulletin boards. There are good points that exist on both sides of the debate. So, what I want to do is just tell you where I come down in the discussion.

I think that the use of a light meter benefits experienced pros as well as beginners. First off, let’s discuss how an inexperienced photographer can benefit from using a handheld light meter. A lot of beginners haven’t yet learned to see light in terms of f-stops. F-stops are basically the way we measure light in order to calculate the correct exposure of images. Learning to see light in those terms takes time and practice. With a handheld meter, it is easy to look a scene and measure the exposure for the highlights and shadows. You can learn to see light in terms of f-stops. Playing with and using a light meter allows you quantify light.

In the studio, this ability to quantify light, means you can recreate lighting schemes consistently. You don’t have to shoot a frame, look at the outcome, adjust a light, shoot another frame, look at the outcome, adjust a light, etc.

On location, it is also helpful to use a meter. Again, it allows you get the lighting right without wasting time making a lot of adjustments.

Many light meters will show you the percentage of light that comes from the strobes versus ambient light. This can be very handy in using strobes to subtly light your subject to maximize the impact from the ambient light.

So if you currently not using a handheld meter, consider getting one. It may help your lighting techniques and give you a better awareness of the light around you.

Thanks for reading! 🙂

-Ken

A few days ago I posted a quick video that was shot with a Canon 7D. I used that video as a basis for an undated version. The new version includes photos from from a recent shoot at a local warehouse. The shoot was for a modeling workshop organized by Barbara Mendez. I set up a bunch of the lighting schemes on some of the sets. In total there were 4 photographers shooting at different locations within the warehouse. There is a link to video at the end of this post. Here are a handful of the photos:

April Berry - Copyright Ken Rieves Photography

April Berry - Copyright Ken Rieves Photography

Brooklyn Sky - Copyright Ken Rieves Photography

Katie and Kendra Rauner

Hanna File - Copyright Ken Rieves Photography

Brooklyn Sky - Copyright Ken Rieves Photography

April Berry - Copyright Ken Rieves Photography

Kendra Rauner - Copyright Ken Rieves Photography

Warehouse Fashion Shoot (click here to view on a new page.

This was fun day of shooting under some challenging conditions. We had to contend with heat, dirt, and even bears. (Just kidding about the bears). It was fun collaborating with some very talented people, special thanks goes out to designer Gunnar Deathridge. Stylists: Ethan Thomas Flores (Planet Color, Chicago), Sara May (The Loft, Fort Wayne), Yvonne Reddy, and Jessica Jager. Models:April Berry (modeling coach), Heather Bonnifeld, Brooklyn Sky, Hanna File, Kendra Rauner, Katie Rauner, Andrea Vega, and Lyse Ebert. The other photographers: Matt Janes and Aaron Robles. Also a special thanks to Gary for providing us with the top secret location. 🙂

Once again, thanks for reading. 🙂

– Ken

OK, if you think is story is about you, it just might be. One of my pet peeves is photographers who post a gazillion images from every photo shoot they do, regardless of quality. (You see this mostly on social media sites like Facebook, MySpace, etc.). It is mostly inexperienced photographers that do this and I can only guess why. I believe that they are unable to recognize good photos from bad. I suppose if you shoot enough pictures, by blind luck you can capture a few good images.

If you can learn what goes into creating a quality image, it makes it easier to repeat it. That’s one of the tricks to improving your skills. Be critical of every image you shoot. What works, what doesn’t, and know why. If you shoot an image that you aren’t thrilled about, don’t post it online, it’ll make it appear that you are unable to distinguish good photography from bad. Not every time you trip the shutter, does a masterpiece get created. Pick apart your images and be hard on yourself. You’ll see the quality of your work improve.

Thanks for reading!

-Ken.

People that know me, know my frustration with working with video. That was the case until recently. A couple of months ago I switched from a PC notebook to a Macbook Pro. After a couple of days I really started to like it. This week I replaced my old Gateway desktop with a 27inch iMac. So with the new machine I had to retry playing with video. There is no comparison, the iMac is about 4.6 trillion times faster. (Ok, maybe that’s an overstatement). But it’s much faster. Here is a quick video shot with a Canon 7D.

Let Me Shoot You Video

In order for the WordPress software to allow me to upload this to my server, I had to compress the video, so excuse the quality. Plus, I could have done a better job editing it. I was doing some testing. 🙂

Anyway, I still have tons to learn about working on Macs, but it’s a pleasant learning curve to climb.

Thanks for reading!

-Ken

As usual, I am behind on my blog. However my clients are happy because I keep their work current and provide them with their images on time.

A while ago I got to shoot some photos of some awesome jewelry, hand made by Jenny Cameron of Glass Addictions – http://glassaddictions.com. This particular necklace was made of handblown glass spheres and hand crafted sterling silver. The results are pretty impressive. It’s truly artwork that you can wear.

Since I shoot such a huge variety of stuff, I thought I’d throw in an image from an industrial stuff I did. It’s always something different, another reason I love my job.

Once again, thanks for reading!!

– Ken

OK. I’ve got a little story to tell about buying stock photography. Once upon a time…

…there was a company called Widgetco. Widgetco made the finest widgets in the land. Their widgets were made of the best materials, the finest craftsmanship, and their customer service was awesome. A couple of years ago they hired an advertising agency (let’s call them Adco) to prepare some marketing materials. Adco hired a good photographer (who we’ll call Ken) who shot photos of the Widgetco’s awesome manufacturing facility and everything looked good. Adco produced some great brochures and Widgetco was very happy.

A few months ago, Widgetco decided to update their website and thought about calling Adco to rewrite their website. However, in case you didn’t hear, the economy is kinda sucking right now. So one of Widgetco’s managers suggested that they use a lower priced guy to revamp the website instead. It would save them some money and everyone likes to save money.

So they hired the guy (we’ll call him Skip) to rewrite the website. A few weeks later, Skip had the website finished. Widgetco was impressed that it was finished so quickly. Upon reviewing it they found that, in some areas where the website discusses information about the company and it’s history, there were a number of stock images used. They showed office scenes, cubicals, a conference room, and things like that. There was also a very poor image of the front of their building, but the sun was behind it so the front of the build is dark and the sky is blown out.

So they called a meeting with Skip. Skip told them that he used stock images to keep the price down. Otherwise he would have had to hire a photographer to shoot the office photos. The front of the building was his photo. Widgetco was disappointed, but Skip convinced them that everyone uses stock photography now and that it was OK to show interiors that were not really part of the company and he removed the bad photo of the front of the building from the website.

So, after a while, a couple of Widgetco’s customers called them. The customers said they were confused because they went to Widgetco’s competitor’s website and saw the same interior photos. The competitor made crappy, cheap widgets and the customer wondered if they were the same company.

It turns out that Skip and the competitor’s web designer unknowingly used the same stock photo agency and had stumbled onto the same photos. As you can imagine Widgetco was VERY embarrassed by all this and hired a photographer (Ken) to shoot interior photos of their offices for the website.

So, the conclusion to the story is that Widgetco could have avoided confusion, embarrassment, and damage to their reputation if they would have used Adco to begin with because Adco would have hired Ken to shoot the photos in the first place.

But in the end, they all lived happily ever after. 🙂

Thanks for reading!

-Ken

This week, I just thought I’d share a tip for studio photographers. At the end of the day, it’s really easy to leave your lights setup as they were for the last shoot. However doing so can lead to some bad habits. Leaving your lights in place means that you will likely leave them in the same configuration for your first shoot the following day. This can lead to pattern of behavior that causes your lighting to look the same from one shoot to another.

At the end of the day, put your lights away. I don’t mean tearing them down, but just move them all to a storage room or to one side of the studio. That way, when you come in the next day, you’ll be forced to rethink your lighting and maybe try some new things rather than rely on old habits.

That’s it for now. Thanks for reading!

-Ken.

In Fort Wayne, the annual Three Rivers Festival is the summer’s biggest festival. In a city full of festivals, that’s quite a big thing. Yesterday afternoon, we went downtown to Headwater’s Park to check things out, grab some BBQ, and a beer. We went to 3 of the gazillion activities that were going on yestereday, the Midway, the chalkwalk, and Art in the Park.

Art in the Park is an art show staged at Friemann Square. Dozens of artists of all types have tents setup to display their artwork. It’s fun just to stroll down the tents and look at all the awesome work. It’s equally amazing to see how many great artists are from Fort Wayne and the surrounding area. Below are some shots:

Art in the Park, the Friemann Square fountain

Art in the Park, a view down Main Street.

Art in the Park, a colorful pillow.

The chalkwalk is favorite at TRF. The chalkwalk is an event where a large section of Main Street in front of the FWMoA is blocked off and a variety of artists use chalk on the pavement to create temporary works of art. It’s awesome to see the creativity of these artists. The artwork should be finished this afternoon and I’ll post more photos later.

A shot down Main Street while the artists are at work.

Chalkwalk as seen on a Scrabble board.

A mostly completed chalk drawing.

The last part of yesterday’s excursion was a visit to the Midway at Headwaters park. There are tons of rides for the young, old, and the brave. I think the photos will explain things. 🙂

A shot of the Midway from the event area steps.

I don't know the name of this ride, but I called it the Vomitron.

Vomitron 2.

Vomitron 3

Vomitron 4.

Another ride was a giant swing that pivoted back and forth. It was another ride that I passed on. 🙂

Giant Swing-like thing 1.

Giant Swing-like thing 2

Giant Swing-like thing 3

Giant Swing-like thing 4

Giant Swing-like thing 5

Giant Swing-like thing 6

We are going down today to see the results of the Chalkwalk and grab a beer and a sandwich. Hope to see you downtown and enjoy a sunny hot day!

Thanks for reading!

-Ken

Well, I finally accepted fate. I started transitioning the studio over to Apple computers. I was just encountering so many problems with my PCs that it finally made sense. While PCs are significantly less expensive, I was spending too much time maintaining them. I started the transition by replacing my HP Notebook with a MacBook Pro. While I am still learning the OS, I really feel that this is the right way to go.

Every PC I’ve bought has always had all kinds of preinstalled applications and programs, usually it was games and crap that I didn’t want. I had to spend time uninstalling all that stuff. I’m sure the programs left artifacts in the registry files. Macs are pretty lean in terms of the preinstalled software. The software that is there is the stuff you need and seem to work well. Now I have to transition my software to the new platform, not a cheap proposition.

Once I gain more confidence in my Mac skills, I’ll start shopping for a desktop for the studio. Plus I still have to resolve some server issues. There’s always new challenges and it’s never boring around here. 🙂

Thanks for reading,

-Ken