Steve-Z.com

Hi. Steve here. I have a ton of new photos and posts to publish from my latest adventures. But first things first. I gotta change the name of this website! This is a blog of personal photos and adventures, and as a result it is a steadily morphing entity. As I evolve as a human and as a photographer, the look and feel of the site needs to change with me.

“The Dark Side” was a name that I impulsively came up with a couple years ago one late night when I was changing both of my blogs to my new ProPhoto WordPress blog template (great template, there is a discount coupon at the bottom of the page!).  My professional websites took over an all-white theme, and I thought it would be fun to have my personal site reflect the opposite of that. So I just started calling the two, the Light Side, and the Dark Side. It was never really a well thought out plan, I will admit. One was white, one was black. One was professional work, one was personal work. It was really supposed to be temporary, but, I’m pretty busy with all the tons of things to do with this photo biz, so I just never got around to changing it, mostly because I never really thought of anything else to call it.

What is the purpose of this site anyway? Do I really need it? Does it really matter?

To me, it does. I love photography. I’m passionate about it, and addicted to it. I love taking photos when I’m on my adventures. Sometimes the photos are just travel snaps. But once in a while I get a really cool shot, the kind that I’d like to hang on the wall of my house. So I feel the need to put them out there and share them with the world, rather than have them live a cold and lonely life on a computer hard drive. I want them to see the light of day. I’d like to set up a cart where they could be purchased . . . but that’s a whole nutha project.

I need a new title that is more representative to the photography work that I publish here. In all reality, there isn’t much that is Dark about my photography. I’m more interested in beauty than sadness. I do have a quirky sense of humor, no doubt. I love what I do and I do have some pretty cool adventures where I have a lot of fun. The Dark Side had some people thinking that they were going to see horror movie stuff or something! So I need a title that is smart and clever, and possibly hints that this is a photo blog featuring photos from my travel, biking and snowboarding, and other random photos I take in my free time. There is also occasionally some technical and educational info for photographers, although I don’t seem to manage to find the time to publish a quarter of the articles that I think of in my mind. How do I sum all of that up in a title? How do I sum up 39 years of me in a couple words?

Until I come up with a cool new title . . . I’m just going to have a clean white sheet of paper.  The Great Title-less Blog! I just couldn’t stand the old look any more and had to change it immediately! I made a Facebook comment about changing the name; in a dream world someone will come up with a clever name for me! I’m not counting on that though. My best ideas usually come from an unexpected moment of clarity, and will just pop into my head when the time is right. As for now, I’m going to throw out the idea that I’m ready for the new name to come to me.

As for the photo . . . It’s just a funny self portrait that I took on my recent trip to Washington State. My chin is all distorted and enormous due to the distortion of my Nikon 14-24mm lens. I love to take beautiful pictures. But I also like taking funny and somewhat distorted pictures as well!

If you actually read all of this, thanks. I hope you keep coming back for years to come, as this blog will still be around, although the format may completely different. Evolution is like that.  Cheers, Steve Z.

I have lots of difficultly buying a product that just works. It seems like when I purchase something, there is only a 50% chance that I will be able to have it work, function, or look like it is supposed to on the first try.  There doesn’t seem to be quality of products any more. We live in a disposable society, where products are actually designed to fail so that you will be forced to buy a new one in a few years.  Additionally, many are just scurrying about with their tails between their legs hiding from The Recession. Consumers are searching for a cheaper and cheaper deal all the time without thinking about where the costs are being cut.

Photography is a luxury expense. As a result, many photo pros running top notch businesses are feeling the crunch of the economic downturn.  No one really understands why it costs so much to run a photography business these days.  I don’t blame them one bit.  I really didn’t have a very good idea when I started doing this either!  There are so many hidden costs that it never ceases to amaze me. And as long as I continue, more and more costs keep surfacing.  My latest is it’s going to cost $1000 just to adjust and calibrate my cameras and half of my lenses.  How much would the already expensive equipment have to cost for the quality to be perfect, so that I didn’t have to make these adjustments and repairs? Sure, I could just deal with my cameras the way they are, but I’m committed to having perfectly calibrated cameras so that my images are perfectly sharp.

The real lesson here, is that quality is just plain expensive.  Just take this photo of this screw for example. It’s hard to tell from the photo, but there are no true threads, just metal rings!  When did it become difficult to buy something with screws that actually had functioning threads?  There were screws like this in two  sofa tables that I bought to display my albums in the studio.  I really don’t have the funds to buy them from Design Within Reach, so I bought some cheap bolt together ones from Target online.  The first ones showed up with brush marks and hand prints under the clear coat on the wood.  Then the second set showed up with non-functioning screws.  Luckily I had screws from the first set, so I could put the tables together.  So while I got a cheaper deal, I still had to waste a bunch of time assembling, disassembling, calling, reshipping, etc.

What is the cost of the cheap tables?  The margins are so tight that they are trying to remove fractions of pennies out of the cost of the tables, and the screws.  Should I always just buy designer tables so that they will (hopefully) work the first time? Should I support local merchants in the way that I hope to have my business supported? My accounting spreadsheet doesn’t really support buying top of the line studio furnishings in a business where I’m always being undercut by photographers who are willing to sell out their digital files for nothing.
Despite the sliding trend of photo studio profitability, I am working towards reaching the higher end of the market where quality is respected.  I am seeking the clients that will recognize the top quality of the product that I offer.  While some people in the world will continue to be content to display their Wal-Mart  prints with bad skin tones proudly on their Target sofa tables with hand prints and screwed up screws, I pledge to offer services that represent, support, and exude Quality. The perfectionist in me will only be satisfied offering a premium product at a premium price.

For the third class of body form photography, we shot with a single strobe with a soft box.  We warmed up with some long exposure shots using just the modeling light.

Then on to some strobe shots in the black room.

But then we moved to the white room.  I enjoyed this high key setup as a change of pace from the previous shoots.

And to mix things up a little bit I pushed the shadow areas of this last photo to bring in some blacks.

This is the second installment of photos from my nude body study of light and shadows.  This week we used 1 or two constant light sources.  There were no modifiers used to soften the light, thereby producing very dramatic light and shadows.

I signed up for a 4 session Body Form Photography class.  I met the instructor, Rick Cummings, when I did the Latin Teen fashion shoot a couple months ago. Rick has a cool studio location only a couple of blocks from mine in Downtown Boulder.  He is very involved with teaching classes and opening his space to photographers in the community.  So I decided to sign up for Body Form 1 to study light and form in it’s purest form, on the human body.  The first class was all lit solely with natural light coming in through the overhead skylight.  I did not perform any photoshop, other than adjusting contrast and some cropping.  If you are interested in taking a class you can check out the Body Form Workshop Website.

Here is Part 2 of the Steve and Bobbie studio experience. If you missed the story, Part 1 is HERE. I’m going to keep this one short since it’s midnight, I’m off to Europe in the morning, and I haven’t started packing. Stay tuned for European adventures!!!

One of my photographer friends who I share my studio space with is Bobbie Turner. He has a picture of himself attached to the bottom of his email signature that I really didn’t like. Since I’m not one to hold back, I told him that he needed a new one! And actually I needed some of myself as well, so we planned a day in the studio to play with lighting and to each get pictures of ourselves for our own promotion.

You can check out Bobbie’s website and blog by clicking the links.

Bobbie’s cool, he used to race BMX back in the 80′s like me hee-ha!!! As a result, he has hit his head many times just like me.

We couldn’t be serious for too long in there. We were coming up with wild lighting scenarios and busting out some moves. Listing to Kid Rock does these things to you, honest. Look for the sequel to this post with my inverted aerial maneuvers coming soon!

Last week I was in the studio shooting pictures of clothing for the Primal Future website. Patrick wanted to use live models for the product photos for the website. I hired the models and set up the white backdrop for some fairly straightforward shots. After we got done with the standard shots we decided to have some fun. I love making people jump for the camera :>)

I’ve been getting back into the studio after a few months off. In one week I shot three paying gigs there. This is Meliana from Brazil. She is building her modeling portfolio, so look for more shots of her in the near future.

I’ve been following along with Lighting 102 over at the Strobist blogspot. This week was the first class assignment. We were instructed to shoot a single kitchen object, preferably a shiny one. I chose to do my blender. You can check out the full assignment HERE.

I’m still cranking through May’s photo backlog. Cynthia helped me out with some of the wedding shots that I did. As an exchange I shot some pictures of her in the studio for her portfolio. She was great to work with, super easy-going and fun. She told me a story about when she first came to the US from Peru. Turns out she and some girlfriends worked for a winter at Copper Mountain. I can only imagine the attention those exotic girls got in a ski town! Not surprisingly, she was snapped up by a boy from Denver who made sure to come up with a ring!

I’ve been working on getting some of my photo backlog taken care of. I’m now caught up with mid-April. Sweet!

Or maybe you have, she’s kinda famous around here.

I’m too busy cranking out a new website to post anything new here. So here is yet another snake pic in the meantime … good stuff to come here soon.