Sam Comer Photography

I could publish a posing guide from this shoot

Only one other time have I photographed a model that was so fast and comfortable and easy at posing as Shae. At first, I was concerned that our one hour and a half or so shooting window would limit how many images we could get. By the end, I had shot nearly 700 images! One pose right into the next. I found myself giving her actual direction very very rarely. Usually she was one step ahead of me.

Not only were we able to get 700 images, but she was able to get in more than a half dozen outfit changes. The bad thing is, I now have to sift through 700 images. The good news is, they’re all so good and should require so little editing that it won’t be difficult to get some quality photographs at the end of the day.

Heather and Chris – September 5, 2009

I mention on the weddings page of my website that, while I have done the big, fancy (AKA “expensive”) weddings, I generally prefer to shoot the smaller, less traditional type. This past Saturday was certainly an example of that. Heather and Chris had a nice little wedding at their home just north of Knoxville with a small gathering of guests and no attendants. Everything was very casual. The reception was held in the Gilligan’s Island-themed garage decorated with Star Wars memorabilia – including a life-sized Yoda guarding the cake.

The most important part is, aside from the casual nature of the event (or perhaps because of it), I got some really nice pictures of the couple. Here are a few samples.

Cool Shot from the Office

I caught this yesterday while one of the construction workers was cutting up the concrete floor in our office. It was one of those impromptu, “Better get my camera” shots. I think it turned out pretty cool.

Great shoot today

I had a great shoot today with a model from modelmayhem.com.  Below are some samples of those images. We shot in my home studio and then took a trip out to Mead’s Quarry in South Knoxville to do some more shots out there.

All in all, I think I made nearly 500 images. Now the fun begins – how do I filter through all those to come up with a handful of great images? That’s the problem, I guess, when a shoot goes really well – you shoot and shoot and shoot. Then there’s hell to pay when it’s time to edit. (Not that I mind looking through all these images of a rather amazing looking model.)

Some of these will be up on my website soon. Next shoot? Looks like it’s going to be deep under ground! Fun stuff.

Shooters Everywhere!

What a great weekend. Perfect Spring weather – in the middle of July! Awesome.

Saturday I rode my bike down to Market Square for the Knoxville Farmers Market. Picked up a few small produce items (including some “Tennessee Redneck” garlic – strong stuff. I like the strong stuff).

Anyhoo, it seemed that the nice weather brought out a lot of photographers and snap-shooters. About every other person I saw on the Square had a camera in his or her hand. They were photographing crowds, buildings, kids playing in the fountains … name it. I usually try to keep a camera with me at all times, but I’ve somehow misplaced my little Nikon Coolpix pocket camera. I hate that. It’s usually in my bike “trunk” to keep with me always. I guess I need to get on the ball looking for that thing. Never want to miss an opportunity for that perfect shot.

Impossible Monsters

Imagination abandoned by reason creates impossible monsters. United with her, she is the mother of the arts, and the source of their wonders.

Those are the words of 18th century Spanish painter Francisco de Goya. I’ve always liked his work, not because he had amazing skills as a painter (he really didn’t) but because he was a real no BS kind of guy. As a court-appointed portraitist for royalty, he was assigned to paint portraits of kings, queens, princesses, etc. Unlike his predecessors and successors, he pulled no punches. If the darling little princess had a big nose with a giant mole, it was in the painting. How he kept his job (and avoided being executed) I’ll never know.

I certainly would do what I could to accentuate the positive traits in anyone I’m photographing, and remove anything unflattering or distracting (Photoshop rules!)

But back to the quote. “Imagination abandoned by reason creates impossible monsters. United with her, she is the mother of the arts, and the source of their wonders.”

I’ve been in many discussions before about whether photography was an art or a craft. I’ve met both sides of the coin. I once knew a fellow who knew everything to know about photography –  the most minute intricacies of exposure, optics, mechanics, etc. He couldn’t take a good picture to save his life. On the other hand, I had a customer at the camera shop where I worked here in Knoxville who made some absolutely gorgeous photos. Calendar type stuff. Beautiful light, color, perfect composition … Didn’t know an f-stop from an effervescent cold preparation. Did she need to, getting such great photos?  Did she need to have the same level of knowledge as the other guy? Of course not. She got great photos.

However … what if she did? What if she were able to combine that knowledge of the craft with the eye and the artistic spirit she already possessed?

I’ve always tried to maintain that balance of art and craft. Yes, I can get geeky about f-stops and shutter speeds, and discuss depth of field and circles of confusion and camera controls and camera models and hyperfocal settings and pixels and dpi until the cows come home and make fun of me for being such a geek.

But I’m also an artist. And having all that geeky stuff in the storage banks of my mind allows me to focus on the art side, while the craft side goes on automatic. I don’t have to think about it. It makes the art happen. My imagination works with reason, instead of it being abandoned.

De Goya's "The Sleep of Reason."

Slow Down!

Subtitled: Somewhere between 16 and 2/3 and 33 and 1/3

Names omitted and details changed to protect the (currently) innocent.

An acquaintance of mine was telling a story the other night that had a nice little nit of insight. It was many years ago and he and some of his friends were sitting around listening records – yes, vinyl records. Charlie “Bird” Parker albums, as a matter of fact. As they started a record and began to listen to the first tune, they were blown away by the smooth, slow, melodious sound coming from the turntable. Not your typical Bird be-bop brandish. A few minutes into it, it was discovered (an “herbally induced” discovery, but a discovery nonetheless – this WAS the 70s) that the record player had been set to 16 and 2/3 instead of 33 and 1/3 – half speed. When the setting was made right, it was the old familiar controlled chaos of be-bop that they loved so much.

One of the first lessons in photography that I ever read in some book whose name I forget now was: “Slow Down.” Take your time to look at your subject. See what it is about it that you find photogenic. Too often we see something that looks worthy of a photo, shoot it, then look at it and wonder what we found so interesting about it. In the days of digital, that’s not a huge deal. But I started with film. The only way to know you got the shot was to wait until you got your processing back. This made it ever so important to make sure you would take your time, find what it is about the subject you like, and then take the picture.

I still carry that philosophy today, even though I shoot digital and have instant feedback. Do I “chimp” after I take a few shots? Oh sure. But before I shoot, I’ve already gone through the motions in my head about what the shot should end up looking like. I’ve set the turntable on 16-2/3 to see what’s there. What is really going on beneath the be-bop that’s worthy of capture? Can a ramshackle, makeshift dwelling under a downtown Knoxville viaduct be a study in afternoon light and the subject of a “fine art” folio?  That’s what I hope to find out.

Boy, howdy!

I wrote just a couple of days ago re: the update of my website-

Everything should be working and linking the way it’s supposed to, but I’ll be checking back with it over the next couple of days to see if it needs to be tweaked any.

Boy, did it need some tweakage! Some weirdness with the headers (font issue – fixed) was the most glaring thing. It looked fine on my computers at home because they have the font I was using. Most people don’t. (It’s called “Maximo,” but don’t go looking for it. I’ve found dozens of fonts called “Maximo” and they’re all different. There really should be some standardization for font nomenclature.)

The navigation is more intuitive now, and it’s a little more colorful.

Anyhoo, thanks to those who gave me some feedback to let me know what was what!

Here ’tis:

Photo clichés

I was going to write a blog about photo cliches, but in doing some research to find some good examples, I found a million blogs about photo clichés. How cliché!

So, suffice it to say, I avoid them. Sure, in my early days, I’ve done the model with a gun; the model on the train tracks; the model in a cheerleader outfit; the sunset silhouette, the bumble bee on the flower, etc. I think it’s necessary early on in any artist’s career to emulate what others have done.

In addition to photography, I am a musician. When I took jazz piano many years ago, it was a common exercise to study those who had come before and learn their solos, note for note. Not just play them, but transcribe them. It’s a great exercise to get an idea of just how it’s done – what’s the thought process going on by the player and how do different scales work within different chords ands chord progressions.

However, when it’s time to get out on stage to play for real, it’s generally not the best idea to play that Coltraine solo note for note, like someone just aping what’s been done. You have to develop your own style. Sure, elements of what you’ve learned to copy will be a part of your style, but it’s the mark of competence and skill to effectively hide the source.

Perhaps the best way to do that is to study several different styles and incorporate what you like about each of those into your own – turn them upside down, sideways, backwards and inside out until it’s unique to you. In Steven Spielberg’s earlier films, you can see elements of Hitchcock, Ford, Capra, and many, many others. Now his own style influences up and coming filmmakers who wish to emulate him.

There. I’ve done it. The cliché blog about clichés.

Update to the update

I updated the way my web galleries work. I think they’re a lot smoother than the old way. Unfortunately, the version of the site building software I have made those galleries not viewable in certain versions of certain web browser. Aarg!

After much flustration and searching about, I was able to find an update to make them work. So  http://www.samcomerphotos.com is now up with some new images and some new pages.