Thanks so much for following my photography blog via email these past couple years. In the past few weeks, I’ve been setting up a new website, and have now moved my blog to the new site at www.jonhaverstickstudio.com.  All new posts will appear there going forward. The new site includes image galleries as well as my blog where I’ll continue to feature current works, lighting and photography instruction, and more – just like the old blog.

I don’t appear to be able to move your subscription automatically, so if you’d be so kind as to take a moment and register on the new site to receive updates via email, you’ll continue to receive updates each time I publish a new blog post.  When you go to the new site at www.jonhaverstickstudio.com.
you’ll see a “Receive Updates by Email” box at the right.  Just fill in your email address, and click subscribe.

Thanks again!  Hope to see you on the new site!

Jon

Thanks so much for following my blog via email these past couple years. In the past few weeks, I’ve been setting up a new website, and have now moved my blog to the new site at www.jonhaverstickstudio.com.  All new posts will appear there going forward. The new site includes image galleries as well as my blog where I’ll continue to feature current works, lighting and photography instruction, and more – just like the old blog.

I don’t appear to be able to move your subscription automatically, so if you’d be so kind as to take a moment and register on the new site to receive updates via email, you’ll continue to receive updates each time I publish a new blog post.  When you go to the new site at www.jonhaverstickstudio.com.
you’ll see a “Receive Updates by Email” box at the right.  Just fill in your email address, and click subscribe.

Thanks again!  Hope to see you on the new site!

Jon

Hi Friends,

About a week ago, my friend (and fellow worship team member), Clayton, asked if I could be available for pictures Tuesday evening at around 6:30. Wouldn’t say why, but after a little arm-twisting (honestly, didn’t take much) finally relented and told me he was planning to ask for Jennifer’s hand in marriage at the beautiful Montage Resort in Laguna Beach (where they had their first date).

Clayton had arranged with the hotel to have flowers and card placed on a bench along a walking path. I was strategically positioned behind some bushes with my 70-200 / TE1.4 combo pretending to take “landscape photos”. (Felt like a stalker, but there were enough other photographers around that I don’t think I was too conspicuous). The happy couple arrived, took a seat on the bench, and the rest is history.

What a privilege to be witness to the moment! Took me back 23 years to the day I proposed to my beautiful bride…brought a tear to my eye and a lump to my throat…

Anyway, a few photos:

Clayton and Jennifer – If you’re reading this, congratulations again to you both!  I know the Lord will bless your new life together as you keep Him at the center of your marriage.

J

Last weekend our Smiles Across the Miles team joined with the good folks at the Orange County Rescue Mission to host a couple families for a day of photography education and portraiture at the “Jewel of the Missions”: Mission San Juan Capistrano. A lovely time was had by all, and hopefully, our families picked up a few photography tips along the way.

A few of my favorites from the day:

Looking forward to our next excursion!

Thanks for dropping by.

J

Had the day off today, and took advantage of it to build something I’d been meaning to do for a long time: a multi-flash lightbar (which I’ve taken to calling my “Stro-Bar”-clever, huh?). The purpose is to be able to mount multiple hotshoe flashes (in my case, Nikon SB-800s) to combine output for situations where I need to work at higher than normal (1/250 sec) flash sync speeds.  What situations might that be, you might ask…

For me, the most common application is what you see here – portraiture in bright sun. You remember the paper inserts that came with Kodak film?  They suggested taking photos with the sun at your back. Fine for exposing your subject – if you like squinty eyes and boring sky.  But, if you position your subject with the sun at his back, an available light photo gives you two options:

1: Nicely saturated sky, but silhouetted subject (ISO 200; 1/6000 sec; f/2.8):

Or, 2: if you spot meter for skin (e.g., face), you get nicely exposed subject, but blown out sky (ISO 200; 1/1000 sec; f/2.8):

So how do you get both a nicely saturated background with a properly exposed subject in this situation?  The answer is flash (ISO 100; 1/1600 sec; f/2.8):

As a portrait photographer, aperture is key – a large aperture gives me a shallow depth of field, resulting in a nice, out of focus background, and keeping the attention on my subject.  When shooting with flash, your shutter speed determines the ambient exposure – in this case, the sunlit background. However, to shoot wide open in bright light requires a really fast shutter speed – well in excess of the standard 1/250 sec. The solution is high-speed (FP) sync. Not all cameras / flashes are capable of this, but my Nikon system is, and I can shoot with flash at shutter speeds much higher than the standard 1/250 sec. The problem is that shooting above 1/250, while allowing me to underexpose my background, reduces the output of my flash units. So, in order to put enough light on the subject at higher than 1/250 sec, additional flashes are required.

Enter – the “Stro-Bar”.  I will be the first to admit that the idea is not original.  In fact, my friend, Bob, recently made one and was the impetus to finally do it myself as well. Now, with three strobes firing at 1/2 power, I’ve got enough light on my subject in direct mid-day sun to be able to drop my shutter speed to a point where I can underexpose the bright sky (which maintains the saturation), and still have enough light on my subject. (ISO 200; 1/6400 sec; f/2.8):

Construction is simple: a strip of aluminum stock, drilled with 1/4 inch holes to accept the 1/4-20 screws for cold shoes, and a 5/8 spigot to mount on a standard umbrella swivel adapter.  I chose to use 1/6″ angle aluminum – seemed a bit more rigid than the 1/8″ flat aluminum strip.  I cut the aluminum to 16″ length, and drilled the holes far enough apart to allow for mounting my Radiopoppers or PocketWizard FlexTT5 receivers. Use it horizontally or vertically.   In the above example, it’s bare flash, but I suppose you could bounce it into an umbrella for a softer look.  You’d need to bump up the power, however, given the additional distance / falloff for using a reflector.  You could also use a shoot-through umbrella – less light loss than reflective.

Now, I’m looking for an outdoor, bright sun portrait opportunity!  Bring it on, Sun!!!

Thanks for dropping by!

J

Just returned from a too short trip to Yosemite National Park.  I’ve lived in California for 25 years, and been close to it several times, but this is the first time I’ve ever actually gone into the park.  Spent the night in a wonderful, quaint, dog-friendly inn just outside the park – about 45 minutes to the classic “tunnel view”.   I was concerned about getting into the park at sunrise for photography purposes, but need not have worried.  Instead of the classic clear blue California skies, we had threatening low-hanging clouds most of the day…even better!

I pared down my kit to two bodies: my workhorse Nikon D2x, and my newly infrared-converted Nikon D100.  This was going to be my first time out with the D100 since the conversion, and I was anxious to see what we could do.

A day in the park is clearly not enough, but just right to whet my whistle for future excursions.  A few favorites from the trip:

The classic “Tunnel View” — our first image of this amazing location (infrared):

Upper Yosemite Falls (infrared):

El Capitan (infrared)

Upper Yosemite Falls:

Yosemite Chapel:

Upper Yosemite Falls:

Tunnel View (El Capitan on left, Bridalveil Falls on right):

I’m ready to go back!

Thanks for looking.

J

My niece and her fiance, David, were out to visit last weekend to shoot a series of engagement portraits.  I’d asked David to bring his USAF dress blues for a portrait to add to my gallery of military / emergency services personnel.  My favorites:

Though not from this specific portrait session, the lighting setup was as below with a Nikon SB-800 in a 15-inch beauty dish as the key light, and a pair of SB-800s in my custom speedlight stripbanks providing the rimlighting:

I’m proud of my nephew-to-be, and his commitment to service!

Thanks for dropping by.

Jon

Been a while since I’ve posted… But I’ve just sent my niece and soon-to-be nephew-in-law off to the airport, and have a few minutes to post a couple images from this weekend’s marathon portrait session.

Sam and David made the trip all the way from snowy and cold Northern Indiana to wet and cold Southern California to let their Uncle Jon do their engagement portraits.  David had never been to California, so we took the opportunity to do all the touristy locations for their shoot: Disney, downtown LA, Griffith Observatory, the beach, Mission San Juan Capistrano.  I think I’ve done more touristy stuff in the last three days than I’ve done in the last 10 years!

Anyway, a couple of my favorite images from the weekend:

Going to be photographing their wedding at the beautiful Baker Street Train Station in Fort Wayne, IN this Summer.  Can hardly wait!

Thanks for dropping by!

Jon

I was back in Indiana last weekend (where, if I recall, it never got above about 12 degrees F).  Went back to shoot cheerleader portraits at my sister’s gym, but before we got started, we headed over to the Historic Baker Street Train Station where Sam and her fiance, David, are planning to have their wedding reception this summer.

Summer temps will make it a little more pleasant to shoot, but here are a couple images we grabbed between episodes of hand-thawing:

Had a little assistance from my sister, Robin, in the VAL (voice-activated-lightstand) category…  Had to  make sure she didn’t lick the aluminum lights stand.  Yeah, that’s Rob in the 3 scarves, mittens, hat and sunglasses…

Fun to visit, but glad to be back in SoCal where it hasn’t been below 70 degrees in the last week!

Thanks for dropping by!

J

I recently had the privilege of photographing Hollie and Shaun’s wedding.  (Hollie is one of my worship team vocalists. No pressure – shooting for one of my team…at my home church… Yeah, no pressure). Well, now that Hollie and Shaun have seen a few of the images, I have permission to share some of my favorites here.

It was a beautiful Christmas-themed wedding.  The sanctuary was gorgeously decorated in reds and greens, and the white Christmas lights and candles provided a glorious warm ambience.

Here are a few of my favorites:

Congratulations again, Shaun and Hollie!

Thanks for looking!

J