Use what you have.

I don't have a fancy studio....YET. I don't have assistants.....YET. I don't have a unlimited budget....probably never will. But I do have friends that will help me out and tolerate a lot of stuff so I can try some things that I have been wanting to do. I had an idea for the cagefighter shot a few months back. I talked to Sean about it and he was game, we just had to pick a time and do it. I procrastinated all summer it seams and waited until the day before he had to go back to college. I didn't need much in the way of props, but I did need striking gloves....off to Dick's Sporting Goods and I was in there. This was done on two different locations. The first shot was done in my livingroom with a black background. The second shot is just of the fence and that was done at an elementary school later that night. I combined the two, blurred the fence a little and viola.

Sometimes the treasure is in your own backyard!

I live in a really small town, kinda far away from any city. Not many models around here. I usually shoot models from Orlando or Jacksonville. One or both of us has to drive a fair distance, it's hard to get things set up. Big ordeal if you get the picture, especially if I am not getting paid. I end up not shooting as much as I would like, and I have always believed that you play like you practice, and sometimes I need to practice. I am a good photographer, I can't shoot anybody but experienced models, I can't waste time on someone that doesn't know how to pose. BULLCRAP! This is Kaley. I have been knowing her since she was four years old. She grew up with my kids. She was a cute kid and she has grown up into a beautiful young lady. We had talked about doing some pics a couple of times, but she had never modeled. I needed to shoot, so we set it up. She could just stand there right? Boy was I in for a pleasant surprise! She was a natural. I have never had a first time model do so well. She was better than a lot of experienced models that I have shot. Soooo, I guess what I am trying to say is don't overlook the people that you know when you need to work on your craft. Most of them can't model, but every now and then, you will find the treasure.

Oh Savannah!

Well I have had some major changes in my life since my last blog. I was laid off from my job! That's the half empty version. The half full version is " I have the opportunity to pursue my photography full time!" I like that one better! It's hard not to get into a funk when you lose your income. I needed a getaway! Oh Savannah, the city that I love. I don't care what you want to photograph, you can find it in Savannah. I took an unplanned, not very well thought out road trip last Wednesday. I arrived in Savannah early in the after noon, had some lunch and enjoyed a fierce thunderstorm. I don't photograph lightning at all. Later that night I grabbed my camera and a tripod and headed out. I had never done much long exposure night photography but I had always wanted to. There are so many things to shoot in Savannah, you could easily spend an entire week just shooting buildings at night. Every one is different.

The next morning I woke up just before sunrise and headed out again. The squares are beautiful first thing in the morning. I love the look when the streetlamps are still lit, providing a warm glow to the buildings and statues. People are jogging, walking their dogs and scurrying off to work. A street photographers paradise. That afternoon I headed off to Tybee Island, I would love to call that place home. There is Fort Pulaski, beaches, a pier, two lighthouses, shrimp boats....you get the picture..pardon the pun. I had a great time, got, away from some stress, and got some pretty good images. I can't wait to do it again!

So Busy!

Well, I haven't shot, blogged, edited, or anything else in awhile. I am a space shuttle technician and we are working around the clock to get the very last one ready to launch. That's right, no more shuttles. Do you know what that means, no more job. I have been working very hard on my photography and I am ready to go full time anyway. Sometimes something bad has to happen so something good can follow. So starting in mid July, I will be full time. So be sure to book a shoot with me so I don't starve to death LOL!!!

You gotta let go!

I started taking my photography semi-serious about 4 years ago. Then, with the election of a new President, I found out that I would be losing my job at Kennedy Space Center. I became a lot more serious real fast. When I first started out, I was using Photoshop Elements 5. It did everything that I ever wanted, healing brush, clone, vignette, and soften. I practiced until I could take a face full of pimples and make it look as smooth as a baby's butt. As I progressed as a photographer, my technology didn't. It really hit home when I was at a workshop Holly Gordon put on a few weeks ago and I believe I was the only one there that wasn't running "real Photoshop" and Lightroom. Joey Wright did a class on workflow while I was there and I was blown away by the speed at which he could go through images and pick the keepers. The transition between Lightroom and Photoshop astounded me. Well that was nothing the credit card and the internet couldn't remedy, I ordered Photoshop CS5 and Lightroom. Welcome to the the 21st century. Today I am going over to Joey's for some Lightroom training. I hope he can bring this caveman up to speed. This is the first image that I have processed in CS5. It's a little different, but I think I like it already. The Model in the image is Makayla Goings, she rocks!

Making an Idea into a Product!

I have always loved football. Once you have been a player, football always has a draw on you. I am 46 years old and I often dream that I have one more season left. Well we all know that I am never gonna put the pads on again. My start in photography was shooting high school football games and I have always wanted to do a studio shot of a player. Well Jacob contacted me about shooting some senior pics for him and I asked about football shots. I told him of a vision I had in my head and asked if he wanted to give it a try. He was all game. In this vision, I saw a player wet with sweat, misty rain illuminated from behind by stadium lights. I started planning how I was gonna pull this off in my livingroom studio. Jacob came over with a uniform, I set up 3 speedlights and my two daughters were more than happy to spray him down with water. The image we captured is exactly like the one in my head. I was very happy with the outcome. It gave me a great morale boost to be able to create an image from an idea and have it come out so well.

Shooting Outside of the Box II

Good evening loyal blog followers. Let me tell you about a great time I had last weekend. I went to Holly Gordon's workshop "Shooting Outside of the Box II" in Jacksonville Florida. It was the first workshop that I have ever attended and I didn't really know what to expect. The two big kahuna instructors were Anthony Neste and Joey Wright. These guys are incredible. Not only are they two of the best photographers that I have ever seen, but they didn't hold anything back. They answered every question and made sure everyone understood what they were talking about. The models, oh the models, were first class. Just gorgeous actually. And these girls, and a couple of guys, could work it for the camera. There were makeup artist, stylists, and the food was outstanding. Holly has a wardrobe that makes Hollywood envious. I made alot of friends that I hope I can stay in touch with. Everyone connected. I could go on and on about the weekend. Let's just say it was one of the best weekends that I have ever had. I came away with more knowledge and confidence. It far exceeded my expectations. Oh yeah, I modeled for Joey Wright.......how many photographers can say that.......

Don't Miss the Bus!

This Afternoon I had a shoot with Amanda Slayman. She is an up and comming songwriter that I have known since she was a kid in middle school. She has grown into a beautiful young woman. Man, I am getting old. Anyhow, let's talk about these pics, shall we. I was driving home the other day and I noticed this bus for sale. I stopped in and talked to the owner and got permission to use it for pics, and immediately thought of Amanda. In the top pic, the main light is a SB800 camera left, with a SB600 camera right for a little fill. I have a SB600 at the back of the bus with a red gel on it. (Call me on my cell Kim and I will explain the gel thing again.) I had a fog machine back there too but the wind was too much for the fog. In the middle pic, mainlight Sb800 camera left with a shoot through umbrella, SB600 fill light camera right, and a blue gel'd

SB600 aimed at the bus. The bottom pic is the same setup, shot vertical with a little photoshop hocus pocus. And there you have it. We did these 3 light setups in less than an hour, Amanda helped me quite a bit. It's good to have a model that will carry things. Oh yeah, I almost forgot to tie all this in to the title "Don't miss the bus". When you see a good location, don't hesitate, go ask if you can shoot there. The worse thing that can happen is they say no. Or they have a pitbull dog you didn't see when you stopped. That would really suck.

My Morning with Henry

Today, I spent the morning photographing South African artist Henry Jackman. What a fascinating man. I had never met someone from South Africa before and his accent blows me away. I think he was speaking Dutch to me about half the time. This shoot took a little work to get off the ground. Several phone calls from his art director in Nigeria.....that's right Nigeria....were needed to make sure we had the right concept that he was looking for. I love shooting on location. Everyday there is a new challenge to deal with. I know I could never sit in the studio everyday, shooting against the same backdrop, using the same light setup, yada, yada, yada. Oh it would be easy, figure it out one time and shoot everybody the same, just like the department stores do. I would end up in the nut house!

No I don't need you to help with the lights!

During the warmer months, I seem to shoot quite a few beach shots. This can often attract a lot of attention from people (men) on the beach, especially when your models look like Emily and Krista. I wish I had a buck for every time someone offered to help me with the lights.

This shoot was one I did last summer. We had a great time and these ladies are blast to work with. It doesn't seem like work at all. I am looking forward to a little warmer weather. We are already planning another shoot. I will post a pic or two.

Senior Pics Should be FUN!!!!!!

This week I shot Meggie's senior pics. We had a blast. Meggie is a great young lady, I have been knowing her for years. I know she is going to be very successful. Now on to the technical stuff. When I shoot at sundown, which I love to do, I adjust my camera for the ambient look I want, then I bring my flash power up to properly expose my subject, which in this case is Meggie. Hey Meggie, was that a run-on sentence? Anyway, that's how you get a shot like this. It wasn't as dark as it looks, I underexposed the background a little bit. I think it looks more dramatic.

Goose Bumps!!!

Monday afternoon I photographed Amanda. She needed a few shots for her agency and I was free that afternoon. Little did we know we were gonna be dealing with an Artic Blast. We had high winds and low temps. It was howling, two sandbags did not keep the lightstand down. Luckily my daughter Haleigh was there and held the stand for me. Amanda is so naturally beautiful and easy to photograph. She is enthusiastic and very fun. I loved every minute of it. And talk about a trooper, I had a coat on and was still a little chilly, she never complained. I did see her shivering a little bit though. I hope we can shoot together again in the near future.

Great Afternoon with Becca!

Sunday afternoon, I shot some senior portraits with Becca. She went to school with my daughters and I have known her for a few years. The weather was not ideal. The wind was whipping her hair into her eyes, making her eyes water. Trying to stick an umbrella on top of a lightstand was totally out. I couldn't carry enough sandbags to hold that baby down. It was natural lighting all the way. She hung in there like a trooper and we captured some nice images. I love doing senior pics. I really enjoy talking to the students about their plans and seeing the excitement in there faces. They are about to start a new adventure, to places unknown. I remember those same feelings........it wasn't that long ago.

Beautiful Day with a Gorgeous Model!

Today I had a shoot for Blue Threads Clothing. You may recognise the model I photographed today, she is in the header of my blog. Her name is Melinda Mann, and I think she is gonna be a big name in this industry. She is a pleasure to work with and she is just gorgeous. This was the third time that we have worked together and we are becoming quite a team. I just hope she remembers me when she's famous. If you haven't seen Blue Threads Clothing, check them out here. http://www.bluethreads.com/ I think you will be impressed.

Baby Steps

I ventured out of my comfort zone a little a couple of days ago. I shot a baby. I had only done this once before and really didn't know what to expect. My kids were really good when they were little, but I've seen other kids that seem to scream from sunup to sundown. Maylin did great, especially with 4 wardrobe changes, flashes going off, and a strange man looking at her through a camera for an hour. One piece of advice on baby photography, practice drool removal in photoshop, then it's a piece of cake.

Today's shoot with Devin and Macy

Today I photographed two wonderful young ladies just beginning their modeling careers. Our location was a cow pasture that was full of cow patties. We had to watch every step we took. I love this location because there are no distractions, there is plenty of shade, and it is mere feet from my house.
The top shot was taken using natural light. The shade from the Live Oaks provides some wonderful soft light. You just have to be careful that you don't get any little sunburst coming through the leaves and landing on your models face.


The shot to the left was taken using two flashes, one to light the models front, and since Macy has dark hair, one as a rim light to the right side of her. Her pose is showing attitude and I love it.

The shot at the bottom was taken at the edge of the pond the cows use as drinking water. Devin is lit from camera left and I used a 2/3 CTO gel on a hair light camera right. The pond made a great backdrop and really makes her blond hair stand out.

Both of these girls are just beautiful and were a real pleasure to work with. The rest of their pics will be on my facebook page as I process them. Look me up on facebook.

Cliff Hodges

What do I look for in a Portrait

There are several things I want to capture when I shoot a portrait. First, I want to have an interesting background. I hate the canvas backgrounds that you see in everybody's family pic they have hanging in their hallway. Nothing about it is interesting at all. Sometimes it looks like a dirty sheet from some seedy motel. The second thing I think about is, where is the sun? If I can, I like to position my model so I get backlighting in her hair and maybe a rimlight around her body. This adds a 3 dimensional look to your photo by providing separation from your background. Next I want to evenly light her with a flash. I want to make it look like I didn't really use a flash at all. I do want to see the catchlight in her eye from the flash. The eyes are very important to me. I will focus on her eye that is nearest to me. Last but not least, I like to have something in the foreground if at all possible. You really can't do this often with a headshot, but if you are doing 1/2, 3/4, or a full body shot, this should be easier. Oh, I almost forgot, it really helps if you have a stunning model like my friend Emily. She makes it easy to take some good pics. There you have it. Not that difficult if you just plan a tiny bit and use what's around you.

It's all about the eyes!

Always remember when you are taking a portrait of someone, to keep the eyes as sharp as possible. To do this, I always focus on the nearest eye to me. I always try to make sure I get a catchlight (the reflection of whatever light source I am using) in the upper part and off to one side of the pupil. This makes the eyes stand out. Whatever I do in post processing, I never blur the eyes. This photograph was blurred a little in post, but I removed the blur from the eyes. We set up and took this shot in less than five minutes. One SB-800 flash camera right triggered wireless by a SU-800 commander. I get asked often why I don't just use the commander built into my Nikon D-300S. The reason is the SU-800 uses infared light to trigger the flash and the onboard commander on the camera uses a series of really fast pulses from the on-camera flash to trigger the off camera flash. These pulses of light, although they won't show up on your image, will cause your subjects pupils to contract to almost a pinpoint. I like big pupils!

Cuz came to visit

My cousins Christine and Pauline came to visit us today. We did the usual chit chat, catching up on family members, talking about the fun times Pauline and I had when we were growing up. Of course we had to go get some pizza and pie. When we got back to the house I drug out the black background and 3 speedlights. I had been wanting to try a beauty setup with the lights. One softbox high, one low, and a hair light. It took a little while to get my mojo going but we got a couple of nice shots. Here is one of Christine. She is gorgeous don't you think.

Looky what I found!

I was looking through some pics that I took last year. Look what I found! This isn't one of the best pics that I have ever taken, but there is something about it that I like. It may be that the model is not looking at me.( Trust me, I wasn't creeping up on her, I promise.) This is something she did own her own. That is what's cool about working with experienced models, they know what to do and what looks good. It may be the wind blowing through her hair. ( We had a little storm right after this shot.) This is a natural light shot. I love the highlight on her right cheek. Whatever it is, I like it. Don't be shy, comment and let me know what you think of it.

You gotta Move!

Lately I have been feeling a lot like this osprey. If you look at the right side of the pole he is sitting on, you can tell this fellow hasn't moved in awhile. That's the way my photography has been going for the past few months. It has been kinda chugging along, doing a few shoots here and there. I have been doing my normal reading blogs on the internet, trying to further my skill some, but not really jumping in with both feet. I am mostly a self taught photographer, and I think I take some nice photo's now and then, but I am ready to bump it up a notch or two. I have always wanted to go to a workshop, but with the economy like it is, I didn't want to spend the bucks. I have been to a couple of seminars where some semi known photographer shows you a powerpoint and has tables covered with his sponsor's latest gadgets, but never a full blown workshop. Well I did it. I signed up for one Holly Gordon is putting on in Jacksonville. I think it will be a great time, and I think I will learn a lot.

It's not always about the babes!

Today I had the pleasure of photographing an amazing young man that I know from Church. I don't have men contact me too often about getting some pics done and Dan wanted something different from everybody else. Of course I was game, I love a new challenge. We decided on an Indiana Jones kinda shoot. One fedora, a jacket, and a bullwhip later, we are in business. It had been awefully windy all day, but it died down during the shoot and everything went perfect. Man that whip sounded like a rifle going off. Dan asked me if I wanted to try it, but all I could think about was the line from The Christmas Story, "You will shoot your eye out kid".

But I don't have all that cool equipment.......

When I first started shooting with off camera lighting, I used two shoplights that I had purchased from Sears when I was building my house. Since then I have purchased 3 speedlights (one at a time as I could afford them), and no longer use the shop lights. I still don't have any way cool studio lighting, but I do see some in my not so distant future. It is way better to have a limited amount of equipment and know how to use what you have, than to have all this cool stuff and not know how to get the results you need from it. I have always loved to fish and even spent five years of my life as a light tackle fishing guide. I have often noticed that the guy with one of every lure ever made in his tackle box, usually can't catch a fish to save his life. Now the angler with a couple of different lures in his box more than likely knows how to use them, and has a great deal of confidence in them. The same applys to photography. Don't over complicate it with every gadget you see in the popular mags. Get a little equipment and learn to use it right. Build your confidence with results. This shot of Haleigh was accomplished using just two speedlights. One is behind her and has a full CTO (orange) gel on it to make the tree behind her look like fall. The other flash is used without a gel to light her from camera left. Simple setup, not alot of equipment, but great results. At least I think so.

Time to get my butt back in gear!!!!

I hope everyone had a great Christmas. Mine was incredible. I got to spend it with my wife and kids, and my wife's parents. Great times. I had all intentions of doing some shooting over the holidays, but never even came close. It's time to get back to the grindstone. Since I have no new pics to show you, I will post one from earlier in the year and talk a little about how I got it. This is Charis. She is a beautiful young lady that lives pretty close to me. She photographs extremely well and tolerates my experiments with light and angles. I had a sunset shot in mind this day but it was very cloudy, so I made my own sun. I used a speedlight camera right with a full CTO gel on it and used a cloudy white balance on the camera. I purposely set the flash at an angle to get some lens flare. An ungel'd flash was set up camera right to give nice highlights and to not make everything look so orange. Well you see the finished result and I like it. It is one of my favorites that I have taken. Oh yeah, I did find the coolest Cypress tree that I have ever seen last week. I am gonna go back with the Nikon later this week and see what I can do with it. I think it will make an awesome black and white.