Living in the desert is a unique experience.  Forget about the 120 degree summer days and the horribly unfriendly plant life.  To me, the weather is quite fascinating.  I love the monsoon rainstorms and the lightning is fantastic.  Other places in the world have their own challenging weather situations, many much more dangerous.  There are tornadoes, hurricanes, earthquakes, blizzards, etc…  and none of these options are very appealing to me, which is why I prefer my native state of Arizona.  But we do have our own unique weather effect: the dust storm.

I was traveling back from a job in Tucson and took a back road route home (rather than the freeway).  I enjoy doing this because everything goes by so quickly on the freeway and there is no inclination to stop and look at anything (and of course, it would be illegal to do so).  So the back roads are much more enjoyable as road trips go.  On my way home, I saw an approaching dust storm and immediately pulled off the road and pulled out the camera and went hiking.  The Arizona dust storm has a beautiful effect on our world.  It creates a ghost of anything in the distance if not, it completely obscures it.  Like a blizzard, it creates a thin sketch of the landscape with little to no contrast.  I am generally haunted by vacancy in an image.  I am not sure why, but of all the photographs I would select to hang in my home, it is those filled with quiet and solitude that appeal most to me.  That doesn’t mean that I choose to photograph this way all the time, but it has the deepest emotional affect on my soul.  I think it is because that is who I am at my core.

If you are drawn to a particular style of photography, or art, and looking at that work brings you home, you can be sure that that attraction says a lot about you as a person.  In fact, weather you like a photograph or don’t, says less about the photographer or the photograph and more about you as a person.  Which is why, I think, that I get along so well with my clients.  They have selected me as their photographer based on their emotional and intellectual response to my work.  Which means that they, in some way, deep down at some root level, are like me.  We agree on what gives us peace and brings us home.

When I got home and started working with this image, I asked my wife about this image.  ”Am I off base, or is this image extremely haunting and beautiful?”

“I can see what you are attracted to in the image,” she replied, “but it’s not all that great!”

No, I wasn’t devastated by her comment.  I just decided she was wrong.  It is great, but perhaps only to me and people like me.  Remember, her reaction to the photograph says more about her, than it does about the photo.  In contrast, I think my friend Isaac Bailey would like it.  But I think we share a common love for solitude (or perhaps it is a sullen longing for sleep).  My wife grew up in the city with all of its distractions and noise, I grew up on the prairies of Northern Arizona where the only noise is the constant wind.  So, my wife’s take on this photo was an instructive reminder to me.  My wife is a good judge of a photograph, which tells me that this image is different, my attraction to it isn’t just about some other brilliantly employed compositional strategy, I didn’t make this picture to sell something or even to make a statement.  I made it because something inside me wanted to go home for a little while and relax there in the shadow of the Zuni Mountains and look over the endless flat land, smell the dust, swap stories with my brothers and wait until dark for a ride back into town.  This was a free ticket back to Bitter Springs after the long climb through The Gap to witness the brilliant view from the tops of the Vermilion Cliffs.  Sometimes photography isn’t about the subject in front of us at all.  The subject is just a catalyst for memory, a sort of psychiatrist’s couch for introspection and self discovery.  And sometimes, a photography session reminds you of who you are.

These introspective moments almost never happen while the camera is in your hands.  They come in the quiet times in the darkroom, or the Lightroom as you study the results.  And while my mantra is always about efficiency in post production. When I feel that prompting, I do my best to slow down, and examine my work closely without distractions or deadlines and find out what it is, I have been trying to say to myself.

A few more images from the series that I think you might enjoy.

Tech Talk: All of the images in this post were completely processed in Lightroom.  They were never opened in Photoshop.  Tones, grain and vignettes were all added in Lightroom without the use of any additional plugins etc.  Below is a video about creating custom vignettes in Lightroom like those you see above.  This video is also on iTunes and on the Pictage Blog.  Check out more of my podcasts at iTunes and more blog posts at Pictage Blog.

Creating Custom Vignettes in Adobe Lightroom 2.6 from Jared Platt on Vimeo.

I ate dinner with the Secret Service the other night.  Former President George W Bush attended an intimate dinner with about 12 people and I was there to photograph the event.  So while they ate, I ate with the rest of the staff and the Secret Service.  There were almost 20 of them, of course I only saw 4 of them at any one time.  It is impressive how thorough the Secret Service is.

I was there mostly to take a few quick portraits of everyone with President Bush.  But I also did some documentary photography of his arrival and his meeting everyone.  Former Vice President Dan Quayle was there as well.  This was one of my favorite photos from the evening.  I love how President Bush’s hand is rising out of the darkness and the determination on his face is indicative of his character.

This next photo just made me laugh, so I am sharing it with you.  It was the perfect out of context moment where everyone looked like they were aghast at conversation.  Mr. Quayle looks like he is saying something like “you have got to be kidding me, I can’t believe you said that…” and you might just disregard that as a poorly timed moment in the flux of speech, but then out of the top right hand corner comes the server who has a similar look of surprise and maybe a hint of disgust.  And that seals the deal.  And all of it was a completely begin conversation, I just happen to capture that exact moment where everything came together in an accidental moment that says the opposite of what was really going on.  That is the trick of photography, isn’t it?  It is at best, a half-truth and at worst, an out-right lie.  Because moments are frozen in time and frames are taken out of context, one can never be certain, or trust that what they are seeing is in fact an accurate portrayal of the real world, even if Photoshop is never used.

President Bush is a very gracious man.  I was surprised at how casual and fun he was.  No matter what your political leanings may be, I would be willing to bet that, once you meet him, you would like him very much as a person.  He has a very pleasant demeanor and makes everyone feel important, from his wealthy and well connected dinner guests, to the kitchen staff.  After dinner, he came back to meet the kitchen staff and thank them for the meal.

I always find the moments between the grip and grin photos to be the more interesting moments.  In this photograph, President Bush has just had his picture taken with this chef, and has begun to chat with the rest of the kitchen staff.  I love the expression on the chef’s face and the relaxed and natural smile on President Bush’s face.

Everyone had a great time whenever he was in the room.  He is simply a magnanimous person with an electrifying personality.  I suppose you don’t get elected to be President of the United States without knowing how to light up the room.

My assistant, Rex, snapped this shot.  I’ll leave it to your imagination what he is saying to me.

I was asked to shoot the Day in the Life of WPPI book with a four other photographers including Andy Marcus, Brett Tyler, John Arcara andTony Corbell.  Each year, WPPI and my album company, GraphiStudio produce a book documenting the convention.  Here are some photos I took at the convention for the project.

While I was on the WPPI show floor, I spent a lot of time speaking at various booths.  One of the booths was the Shoot dot Edit booth.  This company takes over the post production work for small and large photo studios so they are freed from the time consuming process of selecting, adjusting and delivering images.  They are a great company.  I highly recommend them if you want to off load that part of your business and concentrate on other aspects of your business.  I love the dot man doll.  I kind of wish I had one, but apparently, it is a limited edition, so they wouldn’t give me one.  The have the Flat Stanley version in paper, but I want the real thing.

The show floor and the classes can be an overload.  You will see photographers sitting against the walls and windows trying to catch their breath and absorb the information and a little sun.  I particularly loved the back lighting on the banners in this photo.

This is Brett Tyler, one of the other photographers on assignment on the Day in the Life of WPPI project.  He’s a fun guy.  We spent an afternoon walking around vegas taking in the sights and the masses of photographers with their cameras.  I took quite a few photos of him that day.  It’s always nice to have a ready model with you wherever you go.  Anyway, this is a particularly beautiful photo.  I love the bright whites and the few rich blacks.  And I love the person on the cel phone in the background by the window.

Later, at a small private gathering at the Shoot dot Edit suite, I was able to get a nice view of the city.  The greenhouse looking green building in the foreground is part of the MGM Grand hotel where the convention was held.  I think it is the casino floor.

This is Tony Corbell giving a lecture.  He is a very skilled photographer.  I enjoyed listening.

This photo is from a Lecture by photographer Jesh de Rox.  He’s a very entertaining guy.

Pictage, my online printing partner had a number of people running around the show called the pictagerazzi.  These guys were a couple of cool cats.  I liked them a lot.  If they email me, I will send them some photos of them.  Nice to talk to you guys.  Shoot me an email.

One of the evenings, I forget which one, we found ourselves at the Pictage party at Studio 54.  That is one flashy place.

At the Pictage party, there was a little impromptu fashion show put on my KISS BOOKS.  That’s Kevin Swan down there from KISS at the end of the runway.  It was a fun evening, but I called it a night pretty early.  I’m not much for parties.

I have never used the Renaissance album company, but as I walked by their booth, I was struck my the piles of books and the lone man in the left corner trying to organize them.  It is the framing that struck me the most.  I love the emptiness at the bottom of the image with the heavy intellectual weight of the name of the company juxtaposed with the cluttered pattern crammed into the top half of the image and of course the poor guy in the corner, trying to make some order out of the whole thing.

Well, that is my show and tell for the day.  I have so many more photos from Vegas to show.  I will post again tomorrow with a set of my favorite photographs from the GraphiStudio Fashion Show.  It was a great event and I came up with some fantastic photographs.  So tune in tomorrow for some more images from Vegas.

As many of you know, I was in Las Vegas in March for WPPI 2010.  I was there teaching a Master Class on Image Post Processing called “The Ultimate Adobe Lightroom Workflow.”  The class we sold out and people had a great time.  Well, most people who go to Vegas for a convention, spend their spare time gambling, drinking and going to shows and clubs.

Now, there are three things I dislike intensly: noise, large crowds and smoke.  That is vegas in a nut shell.  I don’t drink and I don’t gamble and the nightlife was never my thing, so when I am in Vegas, I either hide in my hotel room, or I run around with cameras and take pictures of others, gambling, drinking and going to clubs and shows.  And sometimes, I run into Elvis.

One thing I will say for Las Vegas is that it is a unique place where everywhere you turn is a backdrop or a subject that you won’t find in many other places in the world.

It is also one of the strangest places.  Perhaps one of the reasons “what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas” is that no other city in the world would accept what happens in Vegas as normal.

Every visit is an experience to say the least.

Next up on the blog: some great photos from the convention itself.  I was asked to shoot the Day in the Life of WPPI book with a four other photographers including Andy Marcus, Brett Tyler, John Arcara and Tony Corbell.  It was a fun project and I am looking forward to seeing the final book, which is being designed and produced by my album company, GraphiStudio.  Tune in for that post.

I have always loved the stage.  Looking out into an audience you know is there, when you can not see them is an exhilarating feeling.  And even though you can not see them, you can feel their energy as they get wrapped up in the performance.  As I posted earlier, I attended Kevin Burdick‘s concert in Arizona and took a few photos there.  I didn’t take a lot of them because I was attending the concert with my kids, so I only took a few at the beginning and a few at the end.  It was a great show with great music and a worthwhile message about following our dreams.

Good work Kevin.

Kevin talks about his little girl, Dempsey during the show and shows a slideshow of images from her life when he sings his song “Too Good for this World,” a tribute to his daughter.  It is a powerful thing to watch.  Especially for me, because I was there for those 30 days while she ws in the hospital fighting for her life.  I photographed her and her Father and Mother as they held on to each precious moment.  Every time I hear that song, or see her photos, I am reminded to thank God that I was allowed to keep mine with me.  But in the end, I truly believe (as Kevin sings) that the “fathers welcomed her home” and that she looks down on us all now.  Someday I will share that set of images, but for now, here is one of them as a backdrop to the performance.

Kevin’s drummer, Aaron “Chives” Chavez, who plays the strangest concoctions of drums and boxes, etc.  He is finishing up his masters in World Percussion and quite a talented man.

And finally, my favorite shot of the evening.  Like I said, I am fascinated with the darkness of the theater.   Enough said.

I have had a few questions about how I accomplished some of these photographs, so I will add a few technical notes to the end here.

Tech Talk:

Photo Settings (for the above photo): 1/60 – f 3.5 – ISO 640 – 16mm – No Flash – Canon 5D Mark II – White Balance Full Sun

Color balance:  If you are shooting in a theater you have to turn your camera off of Auto White Balance.  The color jells and temperature of the theatrical lighting will fool your camera every time.  Theatrical lighting is closer to the temperature of the daylight.  First, try to figure out the actual temperature in kelvins of the lights, but if you can’t get it or don’t want to test or get a custom white balance from one of the spotlights with no gels on it, you can always just turn your white balance to the full sunlight setting.  Shooting in the wrong white balance will result in all sorts of bad color shifts, and even in RAW, you will have a hard time getting the color balance back into line.

Exposure:  Your camera will always meter and expose to make everything middle gray.  Which means that if you are in a dark theater, your camera will see all of that darkness and try to over expose the shot.  So instead of having black blacks, you will have grey blacks and as a result of the over exposure, you will also gain additional noise in what would have been the shadows.  So simply turn your camera to manual exposure and make the decisions yourself.  Fortunately, once you have the setting, it won’t change all that much because the lighting is going to remain fairly constant for each given scene, assuming you have professionals managing the lights.

Focus:  Focusing in the dark is difficult for auto focus.  Don’t even try it.  Instead, look to the rim lights on the body to grab a manual focus.  Remember that auto focus is always looking for contrast to register focus, so if it is dark, you will have a hard time grabbing focus on the subject.