Winter Hike

Erin and I decided to get a Sunday hike in - it was cold but we bundled up appropriately. We hiked the Buckeye and Valley Trails from the Pine Lane Trailhead just outside of Downtown Peninsula off 303. I made the brilliant decision to wear my mountain bike shoes because they are warm and waterproof - but they have absolutely no traction. I had a few comical falls made all the more dramatic by my protecting my camera and phone over my body. Anyways - it was pretty....

Cottage Crawl

I had just watched a video about good techniques for handheld video shooting where they demonstrated by shooting the video in a pretty European square/winter market with tons of ambiance.(video after the jump). Erin and I were heading to the 3rd Annual Cottage Crawl to taste some beers at Lock 3 and I had shooting something like that in mind. When we got there it was blustery and cold and we ended up standing around a warm pallet fire in a barrel. We still had good conversations and beers - but it wasn't quite the quaint/snowy/winter scene I had in mind. I made a video anyways...

The Ten & The Show

So I decided that I finally had to switch cell phone companies. I've been on Sprint for years but the coverage is absolutely terrible. My studio is between the two biggest cities in the area and I couldn't talk on the phone here. When Erin and I travel she has to let me use her "wifi hot spot" if I want to upload to Instagram. So I decided to go with Verizon - and I actually made out by getting a cheaper deal(and I was able to make a phone call from the studio today!) I decided to go with the iPhone X even though it is ridiculously expensive. Which leads me to the next item - I've decided to bring back the Fitzwater Photography show to discuss some of my tech/gear choices. Even though I'm not a huge fan of being on camera I feel some of my opinions go against the common YouTube wisdom ....and I'm going to share them goshdarnit!

Bravo!

Today I went over to the Board of Education building to capture some photos of my friend, Patrick Bravo, being sworn in as Akron School Board President. His son, Aiden, started the meeting by leading the Pledge of Allegiance. School board members are heroes in my mind - it is a tough job that I believe can be thankless at times - these people do it because they care deeply about Akron's children.

David @ The Library

Last night I went downtown to the Akron Public Library to hear David Giffles read from his new book, 'Furnishing Eternity', which came out on the Second. I already wrote about how fantastic the book is and my relationship to it in a previous post but it is also really cool to get to hear the words in the author's own voice. The Q&A after the reading was my favorite part. David was hilarious, witty, insightful and touching. The auditorium was packed - standing room only- and on a frigid night. There was also a super long line for the book signing! It was a great showing for "The Bard of Akron".

I've Been Doing it Backwards

As I said in the last post - I've been taking a little time each day to get back to the basics and practice some techniques - even if they are simple. I've been re-reading some articles and websites(such as Strobist.com) that I used extensively to learn photography. I get so used to doing quick and easy two light portraits for clients(a simple look like this is often what they want) that I don't think about it enough anymore. I know my ratios and what modifiers I want to use, take a test and that is that. A good tip I picked up today on Strobist is to set the fill light exposure before the key light(above the first shot). That gives you much more freedom to move the key and change its exposure. One of my 2018 goals is to be more deliberate in my work and ask myself "why?" am I doing something a certain way.

Gear Testing

When I go on location shoots I always bring multiples of everything in case something doesn't work or breaks. Extra batteries, extra camera, extra lights, extra sync cables and multiple ways to fire my strobes beyond that. One annoying thing I tend to do though, is realize something isn't working right, then throw it back in a bag or case and forget about it. So I'll be at the next shoot and hook up that same broken sync cable. Today I didn't have a shoot and I decided to be smart and go through my road gear and test it out. To make the mundane a little more interesting I set up this manikin and also messed around with some simple lighting techniques - basically moving one light around in different positions in a shoot-thru umbrella. Some of my lighting on jobs has become too formulaic and I've decided another 2018 goal is to start back at the basics and build my skills back up - trying old and new things.
So now I know which of my cables work, which strobes need new modeling lights - and I'm on another journey to improve my overall skills.

New Year, New Me

Not really - I just shaved and cut my hair. Happy New Year!

Indoor Droning

My DJI Mavic has a mode called "tripod" which slows down its movements - you would use for slower cinematic shots or flying indoors. I decided to try it out in the studio and capture some images of the drone in flight. I took off and the drone instantly started wandering as warning screens flashed. I promptly freaked out and crashed it into a light stand and the corner breaking two of the propellers. Fortunately I had replacements and no other damage was done. I re-calibrated everything and the drone then hovered perfectly and I captured these photos. Bedsides my pilot error, I'm not sure what went wrong the first time.

Snowy Nephews

My sister had a specific concept in mind for her Christmas Cards this year - but as the mercury started dropping we decided to scrap it until next year and meet down at Szalay's Farm. We used the granary and old red barn as the backdrop and the snow really started to come down - I'd say it was a spur of the moment plan that came together perfectly! I didn't want to share these until after her Christmas Cards had gone out - so now here are a few of my favorites.

In general I don't do a lot of portraits for families - but this holiday season I've done a fair bit of it. The work mostly comes word-of-mouth as I don't really show this kind of thing in my portfolio.

2017

Vlogging in the Gorge on an ice cold day!

Christmas Morning

I wanted to learn how to make video footage from my DSLR look like it was filmed on a old Super 8 - so I shot some footage yesterday morning and watched a few tutorials on Youtube and here it is. Enjoy!

Furnishing Eternity

David Giffels dropped by the studio last summer to get an updated author profile and a couple casual shots as well. He needed them for his new book - 'Furnishing Eternity' - the book ships on January 2nd and can be ordered now. He gave me a proof of the book which I read last Fall. I'm not a book reviewer(or good writer for that matter) but I love to read and the book is fantastic. The book deals with mortality - from the passing of his mom and best friend and the realization that his dad won't be around forever. I'm not a believer in things happening for a reason - but there are coincidences that make life interesting. For example a day after finishing the book David's dad called me and came to the studio to have me scan some old negatives from when he was a kid. I've met David's dad numerous times over the years - but there is still something about having a conversation with a man you just read a book about. There were also a few instances in the book where David was telling a story about his best friend, John, and I thought to myself - oh yeah - I remember that - I was there that night! The descriptions of losing a best friend are poignant no matter what, more so when you know them, and then even more when yours dies a few weeks later - which is what happened to me. Anyways - the book would still be amazing without any of those connections.

You can order it HERE and read an actual review HERE.

The Year in Review

2017 was another great year for my photography - both personal and professional. Professionally I picked up many new clients, did some really cool one-off jobs, and moved farther into the video realm. I also took a lot of short, fun trips that were cool to photograph for myself(this blog). Some of the gear upgrades I made were really beneficial too - getting the drone and GoPro made for some very interesting shots - but the main thing was buying the Canon EOS 5D MKIV. This camera is just a joy to use - it is the realization of what digital should be. The image quality is fantastic but what I really love is that I don't have to think about it - the camera feels like an extension of my hand(and ignore the reviews - it is a fantastic video machine too).

So click HERE to see the REVIEW and lets make 2018 another great year! Happy Holidays!

Winter Over the Gorge

This is kind of like my "Fall in the Gorge" drone photo essay - but in the Winter with snow. We all know how much a blanket of snow changes our Ohio landscape - I think the transformation is even more apparent from the sky.

Throwbacks Throwback

My friend Josh's Dad knows that I like old school technology - especially cameras. He was cleaning out his attic and dropped off this video gear that was his Dad's to me at the studio. I found the Mansfield Reporter viewer thing to be particularly interesting - a device for previewing/editing 8mm(I'm sure they were common I've just never seen one). I haven't done the research on exactly what I have here - I'm much more of a still camera expert - but I will.

I was too busy yesterday to get my "Throwback Thursday" post up but in a way this feels like a big throwback. Spending a Friday night photographing and posting about vintage camera gear is giving me deja vous - as that was often something I would be doing on an uneventful weekend night when this blog started. In fact - shooting my vintage cameras is how I began to learn studio-style lighting.

Nephews in the Snow

Yesterday I photographed my nephews for my sister in the heavy, lake effect snow down at Szalay's Farm. I didn't want to "scoop" my sister's Christmas Cards by sharing those photos yet(as cute as they are) but I did capture some video. So here is a short, fun video of the kids in the snow.

Flight of Fancy 2017

Erin and I headed downtown last night to Akron Coffee Roasters to take part in the coffee tasting game "Flight of Fancy". There are four different coffees that need to be identified. The experts amongst us did that by visual inspection, aroma, cupping(a standardized method coffee buyers use taste coffee) and with a pour over of each. I'm definitely not a coffee expert but I do have much more of a palate for the flavors than I did when I participated last year...I just listen when the origins are being debated though.

The ACR crew also put out a nice spread of food and drink for after the tasting.(I would have been better at blind identifying the beers).