2010 | Jay Eads Photography - Part 3 » Jay Eads Photography

DC ONELIGHT + ZACK ARIAS | THE ONLY WORKSHOP I’VE EVER TAKEN

Zack has been an inspiration for me since 2006, roughly the beginning of of my professional career. I’ve always been fascinated with music, so music photographers hold a special place in my heart. Jeremy Cowart, Annie Leibovitz, the late Jim Marshall, Mark Seliger, and Zack Arias, to name a few music photographers I love, bring two artistic mediums together in different ways, all of which speak to me as a person.

Zack teaches a lighting workshop and has a DVD called the OneLight, which is focused on off-camera lighting (my favorite way to shoot). You’ll work with speedlights, Pocket Wizards, softboxes, umbrellas, and a number of other light modifiers. You will also do some math. Sorry, it’s just part of the process. I’ve wanted to attend this workshop for years, and 2010 was my year, it seems. I chose DC, and aside from a monster $187 ticket for being a single-occupant driver on a freeway, not a LANE, mind you… an entire freeway (like I could possibly know anything about that, thanks a lot officer Sensitivity of the VAPD), it was a great workshop. I’m pretty comfortable with lights already, although I admit I rarely use speedlights, it’s usually my Alienbees, so it was nice to gain speedlight experience with the modifiers I already use. The math aspect was one that I was specifically interested in. I hate math. To quote Will Ferrell’s George W. Bush, “math is very much a part of the Axis of Evil.” I think the officer who decided an Oregonian didn’t deserve a warning about a violation he couldn’t possibly know about is also in the Axis of Evil.

To explain why I wanted the math aspect, I’ll step back 4 years or so. I love natural light, but back in the day I loved natural light partially because I was scared of flashes, strobes, umbrellas, and all of the off-camera wizardry. I didn’t understand it, so therefore I loved natural light 🙂 Now, I still love natural light to this day, however; I feared strobes. I decided I didn’t like avoiding something because I was afraid of it, that’s a foolish rationale, so I bought a Canon 430EX and an Alienbee 400 with a standard shoot-through umbrella. Major fail. I didn’t get it and I didn’t do it well… so I set it all aside for “a while.” Like over a year “a while.”

Then I found Zack’s work. I saw a Flickr photo with the tag under it “Screw you all, I still love jump shots.” I instantly loved the photo and the photographer. It was now 2008 and I started paying a lot of attention to people with lights, Zack in particular. Fresh, clean, easy to understand lighting. I tried my hand at lighting again. This time I fell in love and have been using them more frequently ever since. All because I decided not to be afraid of something and was willing to make some atrociously bad images until I felt comfortable.

Fast forward to why I want the math. I don’t want to think about how to light, I just want to do it… I want it to be as second nature as aperture, ISO, and shutter speed are. That’s the “why” behind wanting the OneLight DVD and workshop experience. This July I got both, and I am so thankful – bucket list item, for sure. Zack put on a legit program, not forgetting Zack’s right hand Dan, and I highly recommend it. I’m still digesting the math, as it is my weakness, so we’ll see if I ever get to the place where it is second nature.

Zack demonstrated the techniques, then we implemented them. Pretty simple, huh?

Dan gets lazy, but Zack shows him how to do it right. We got turned loose to do our own thing, these are some of the images I came up with.

Tags: ONELIGHT WORKSHOP, ZACK ARIAS

A BEAUTIFUL FAMILY

100 foot oaks, the McKenzie river, flowing fields, people who love each other… beautiful is the best word I could come up with to describe the shoot. Kelly and Brandon have an adorable family, and an even more adorable way with their kids. I appreciate good parenting in a much deeper way ever since I became a parent myself. Calm, patient, loving… it takes work to keep that up in real life, not to mention at a family shoot (note previous family shoot scars in tone of type). But, this was my kind of family shoot; great people, amazing location, the request for fun and not overly pose-y, oh, and she wants all black & white. Yes please, and thank you.

Brandon works for the electrical vendor I contracted with at my previous job, and if you have work to be done, do yourself a favor and call New Way Electric first. There’s a very good reason they were on the short list of my “favorite vendors” for over 10 years.

I hope I never get tired of this job.

Tags: eugene oregon family portraits, Eugene Oregon Portrait Photographer, family portraits, jay eads, lifestyle portraits, marriage, oregon, Oregon Portrait Photographer, walterville oregon

I LOVE PORTRAITS + I LOVE MUSIC

I have never found much interest in landscape photography, it’s all about people, for me. I enjoy the interaction, the give and take of subject and photographer, and most of all, I love seeing and hearing the reaction to the images we come up with.

I’m sitting at home today, a little sick and itching to go outside and shoot… so I thought I would write. I needed to do it anyway, so here I am. The first thing I do when it’s time to get into the mindset is turn on some music. The sound fuels my work, it directs it, it informs it. Often it’s music that inspires me to take a certain photograph in the first place. It’s not uncommon for me to have a particular song in mind when photographing something. I recently discussed this very subject with a musician named Andy Zipf, who finds inspiration for his songs in images from time to time.

The type of music I choose is usually determined by the type of work I have in front of me. For example; weddings usually require some chill music, such as, Over the Rhine, William Fitzsimmons, or Peter Broderick. I need the lovely, the sentimental, the emotional to step into my head and make me think “wedding.” Portraits are different. Some portrait sessions are moody, and fit nicely with the likes of Radiohead, or Sigur Ros. Other sessions are light and fun. I grew up on 80’s and 90’s pop music… so when we’re talking about fun and light music, it’s gotta be Wham!, Milli Vanilli, Michael Jackson, or, if I really need fuel – it’s Color Me Badd. With two “D’s” there, folks. They’re that serious about being bad.

Hip Hop is a great energizer for days when the tasks is large. The Beastie Boys, Public Enemy, Run DMC… all were in my heavy a rotation.

Art inspires me. Music, dance, painting, films. Being a witness to someone else creating is an honor, and it helps to keep me moving towards my goal of documenting life for other people.