As can be seen in my 2020 Clematis flowers, my garden is growing beautifully this year! This is despite my very limited knowledge on how to grow anything out of the ground. When the blooms start to come out in Spring, I usually get a few photos. However, the quarantine keeping us at home gives me a new subjects to test some lighting setups.
During this shoot, I used my camera with two speedlight flashes. Although you see two speedlights here, only one was actually adding light to the photos. One was only used as a trigger for the off camera flash. While moving the lights around, I found that the small lights were nice to control what parts of the flowers were illuminated. After each photo, I could move either the flash or the camera with very slight movements. It produced a large set of varied images! I felt it was a productive way to spend a lock-down afternoon.
Last week, I was saddened to hear of the passing of Leonard Theiss. In a world that is full of strong personalities, preferences, and emotions, he was a gentle presence. Whenever we photographed an Arthur Murray event, he was there to dance, judge, and be an ambassador for his art form.
It was not an exaggeration that he was at EVERY Arthur Murray event we attended. To illustrate, we first attended a large Dance-o-rama in 2007 at the Bally’s in Atlantic City. Being that this was my first serious ballroom dance photography, many of my memories have long since left me. I found the folder of photos, and saw him at the dais with his cousin, Steve sitting next to him.
Alexandria, Virginia
Soon after, the 2008 Northstar Dance-o-rama was officially the first event where TimeLine Media was the photography vendor. At this time, he brought students far from his home studio in Alexandria, Virginia to compete. I noticed how soft spoken, and gentle he was both on and off the floor. Likewise I saw many other dance teachers and students that were so happy to see him. Although he was an important person in the company, he gave so much of his attention to his students.
Throughout the years, Leonard became more familiar with us. Of course, we made lots of photos of him and his students, and he always made us feel welcome. Rarely, we would visit his studio to dance, and he was happy to see us do more than play with cameras. I’ll remember him as a friend to all of the staff in the DC area – a dancer that appreciated studying the craft and passing his passion along to staff and student. To all of the Theiss family, and the extended Arthur Murray family, please accept our condolences.
Earlier this month, the America Strong flyovers started over the East Coast of the US. With attention to saluting first responders, hospital workers, who are on the front line of this disease, these planes flew to lift spirits. Moreover this was another reminder that working together is the only way we will get through this difficult time.
Since I had a few days notice, I scouted a few different places to see the teams flyover. The teams released flyover maps, so in general I had an idea where they would be overhead. When I was looking for a spot, some were nice, but had large powerlines. Some, I thought had trees that were very tall. In summary, there are obstacles, that I never saw while casually traveling through the neighborhood.
In this case, I decided that just going across the street would be the best place to catch the flyover. As for camera gear, I put my iPhone on a tripod to get video and sound of the flyover while I had two still cameras ready. One had a longer 70-200mm telephoto lens, and one a normal 24-70mm zoom lens.
America Strong Flyover
Reviewing the video, this flyover lasted only a few seconds! While the teams were over downtown Washington, DC, and Arlington, VA, I could hear them approaching. Even though I had three cameras available, I only had time to use the telephoto lens. Knowing that there would only be one pass, I got as many photos as they were overhead. Although 200mm was the longest lens I had, it was still a bit short without large cropping in the final images.
By all means, this was not the best photos from this flyover. Similar to other photo shoots, it is important to review afterwards to see how things could have been done better. I hope I would get better results with a different shooting position, and a longer focal length. I hope all of you are staying safe, and I look forward to getting out and seeing you in person soon!
