Today’s Post by Joe Farace
Sculpture is something you bump into when you back up to look at a painting.–Ad Reinhardt
If you’ve been reading this blog for a while. you know there are several favorite subjects that I like to photograph in Parker, Colorado. One is the gazebo in O’Brien Park and the other is the giant Ball and Jacks sculpture in Discovery Park. Christopher Weed’s sculptures are an impressive sight and for a long time I had the idea of using them to shoot portraits there but I was never quite sure to how much interference from the general public or even local authorities, I might encounter. I finally got a chance to make some portraits using the Jacks as a prop when the famous Internet model, Maria Cedar came to Colorado and I suggested we shoot there. She agreed and today’s featured image was just one of the 95 images, with three wardrobe changes, we made together.
First some background
Several years ago, during a group model shoot , I was photographing a model outdoors and a bunch of photographers started hollering at me, “Look at that dummy, he turned the model away from the sun and is using flash.” They thought the former Kodak-recommended method of having the sun over your right shoulder was the best way to photograph a person outdoors, when all it would really do was produce a portrait of a squinting subject. Back to Maria…
On one of her visits to Colorado, Maria Cedar asked if we could do some outdoor photographs of her wearing “promo shirts.” After picking her up at the airport, I drove her past the giant Ball and Jacks sculptures and suggested we shoot there. She liked the idea and my next decision was about what camera to use. The choice was my Olympus E-M10 Mark I.
Photographing models outdoors in a public place almost always attracts the attention of gawkers as well as local law enforcement. As it turned out that was not a problem. The original Olympus E-M10 is a small, understated-looking camera and I thought using it would make us look like a couple of tourists, which essentially we were. For this series of portraits, I shot all the images in RAW+JPEG mode, giving Maria all of the JPEGs for her social media use but processing and retouching the RAW files for other applications, such as her annual calendar.
The Olympus E-M10 Mark I is a terrific entry-level mirrorless camera, although the construction of the third and fourth generations changed from metal to plastic bodies. I’ve always been pleased with the image quality from this 16-megapixel camera and its IBIS makes it useful when shooting outdoors at modest ISO settings. OM Systems has not, so far, created their own version of this camera and is currently marketing it as the OM-D E-M10 Mark IV.
How I made this portrait: Although it was cloudy most of the morning, the sun broke through during the shoot that Maria and I had around the sculptures. Lighting-wise, I used my preferred outdoor portrait technique posing Maria with her back (more or less) to the sun, back or side lighting her hair and using the E-M10 Mark I’s built-in flash (GN 19) as fill. Surprisingly this tiny flash did an excellent job. The lens used was the wonderful M. Zuiko 45mm f/1.8 lens (90mm equivalent) with an exposure of 1/250 sec at f/5.6 and ISO 320
and an exposure compensation of plus one-third stops.
My book Joe Farace’s Glamour Photography is full of tips, tools and techniques for glamour and boudoir photography and includes information on all of the cameras used as well as the complete exposure data for each image. Used copies are $33.71, as I write this. The Kindle version is $19.99 for those preferring a digital forma