Let’s do an Ironman!

Mark your calendars for Sunday, September 22nd, 2013.   That is the date of Ironman Lake Tahoe and the culmination of my 14 month effort to raise money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society while getting myself back in top shape. I've participated in the Wildflower Triathlons for about 15 years now, completing the long course (half Ironman distance three times, 10 years ago) and the Olympic distance each year since then.  I was never into organized sports as a kid but I had a blast on the Cal Poly Triathlon Team as a grad student and I've been missing that level of camaraderie in sports ever since.

Although I've been coasting through the Olympic distance race at Wildflower for the last few years, I got some sort of new inspiration this May and I decided to step it up a level and get back to the long course.  I knew this would require some level of actual training, as opposed to simply riding my bike and jogging occasionally.

The same weekend I was having a blast at Wildflower my friend Greg entered the hospital for his third battle against cancer over the last 5 years.   It's August now and lymphoma is taking a heavy toll on him.   He's not out of the woods by any means and visiting him last month really drove home how difficult this has been for him.   His very survival depends on a huge network of support services, and the treatments he's received are the results of billions of dollars of research and development and years of hard work on cures for lymphoma.  Looking back on the impact Greg has had on me over the last 20 years drove me to figure out some way to help.

These two things are now interrelated.  By joining the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society's Team In Training organization I will be committing myself to raising thousands of dollars for LLS to search for a cure as well as offer support services to those with blood cancer and their families.  Over the same 14 month period I will be getting into the best shape of my life, in order to complete one of the hardest events in sports.

Team In Training offers a unique proposition.  In exchange for a fundraising commitment to LLS they offer a full-throttle 10 month long training regimen, including workout with coaches, practice races, skill improvement clinics, etc.  There will be a group of about 40 of us from various backgrounds that will train together for an Ironman.  We will be together for 10 - 15 hours a week for most of next year.  This will be like some combination of Cal Poly's triathlon team, boot camp, and a reality show.

Obviously this is going to be a huge undertaking, on both physically and on the fundraising front.  The Family and I have had many discussions about this over the last month and we are behind this effort 100%.   I don't generally ask for too much from others but this will require a large amount of support from lots of different people.   From my family I'm asking for a huge time commitment in order to train.   From my friends and associates I'm asking for the financial backing to reach my fundraising goals.  My official webpage with Team In Training is here, where you can monitor my fundraising progress or make a donation.

Regardless of whether I'm able to complete the race next September, this is going to be a blast.

Triathlon consumes my brain

[Edit: to find out why I was so consumed by triathlon thoughts when I wrote this post, see my next post to find out what the result of all this thinking was.] This post marks a change for me - a post that has nothing to do with photography.   It turns out that as things change in my life the photography ebbs and flows.   This has been a serious year of ebbing for me.  In place of photography I've been dealing with home remodeling, raising a kid, and trying to be good to myself, all while stepping it up at work a bit.   The photography has taken a back seat but I'm not too broken up about that yet.

Ever since Wildflower (early May) I've been thinking about triathlon all the time.   Over the years I've gone through phases of seriousness and lack-of-seriousness but this seems to be a big period of seriousness.   The family and I have been talking about what sort of commitment it would take to move back to the longer distance race at Wildflower next year.

Over the years I've attempted various training routines including moderate training, t-shirt training, and no training; but this year I'm considering something novel:  actual sustained training.   Like, planning workouts, logging them sticking to them, etc.   I seem to get slightly slower every year that goes by so if I'm going to step it up, sooner is probably better than later.

Perhaps next year will be a big year for me, which means this year needs to lay a string base.

Another wedding photobooth

I did another photobooth at a wedding last week and it worked out really well.  (Pics are here on flickr)   The biggest improvement this time:  A laptop for instant review. People really seemed to react to being able to see their antics on the screen and I think this is a "must have" for future setups.   I did this by having Lightroom 4 in tethered mode, in the loupe module with no toolbars visible.   Valuable sides effects being the ability to check focus if needed, and no work required at the end of the day to download cards.

If I had it to do again I would have an external monitor visible for public reviews but not have the keyboard accessible.  There were a few people who always wanted to go back and review previous shots or delete bad ones and that's a level of fussing I don't want to allow.

Also, next time I'd like to bring some props. :-)  Some hats, a feather boa, or something like that.  In this case though, people had no trouble having fun.  (And the reception was dry too!)

Lightroom 4 is here!

As you probably know, I'm a big fan of Lightroom.  Well, Lightroom 4 was released minutes ago, so you might be able to say you saw it here first. Get more info from Adobe.

I really liked the preview version that was released earlier this year and I'm sure they've integrated a lot of feedback into the final version.   Not sure if they integrated any of my feedback...

Behind the Scenes on Georgia's shoot, and folding a big reflector

I took some pictures with Supermodel Georgia last month, and those pictures have been getting some great reviews Flickr.  Let's go behind the scenes on that shoot briefly.

As you can see, I have a large white paper backdrop lit by two Alien Bees strobes.   There's a Canon 580 EX on manual mode as a hair light just out of frame on the upper right.  The yellow tool caddy is my stand-in for checking exposure and lighting.

Most of the shots are full-length on the white background but sometimes girls look better with a lower key background.  When I want to switch to a black background quickly I use the Botero 037 black/white foldable reflector hanging from a lightstand. It's really quick to switch from the room-filling white backdrop to a 3/4 length black backdrop and the only real drawback is the length, as you can see in this shot:

I just put the lightstand holding the backdrop straight on the white paper.  You can see the home-made snoot for the hair light in the upper right corner.   The black rectangle on the left is a large piece of foam core board I use to block the camera's view of the left strobe, to but down on lens flare, glare, and washout.

Once you've got the lighting mostly right, two backdrops to switch between quickly, and a model, the only thing left to do is shoot!   The results are here on Flickr and there's a mix of black and white backdrops.   Notice how the black background shots don't include the feet?

Well, there's one more thing left to do, and that's clean up afterwards.   Somehow that reflector folds into box the size of a large pizza and sometimes it's not obvious how to do it.  You especially want to look like you know what you're doing when you're in front of a paying client, so watch the following video and practice!

Fold a large reflector like a pro

or if you hate music:  http://youtu.be/sIn4_wHwfL4

PIPA and SOPA

A lot of major websites are taking themselves offline today, or at least changing their logos in protest.  We here at Brian Johns Photography World Headquarters are not altering the website, but we still want to raise awareness of the issue. PIPA and SOPA are toxic to to the culture of user generated content on the Internet and here's why:  SOPA means that if a user uploads somebody else's copyrighted content to a website, the website can be liable for extreme damages.   If SOPA/PIPA are enacted, websites that rely on user-uploaded content will have to either strictly police every single upload (which probably isn't possible) or change how they do business.

The main proponents of SOPA/PIPA are the big media conglomerates which love to sue people out of business.   You can see how this would stifle the online creativity and sharing.  Most "2.0" style websites would probably have to shut down and small companies with no legal staff would be foolish to start up.

How does this affect Brian Johns Photography?   Well, we don't accept user uploaded content here, so I don't have to worry about that.   In fact, this law might even be good for us in the short term - let's say a website posts a photo of mine without permission.   I could theoretically take over the domain as punishment!

So why are we opposed to it?   It's the principle of the thing.   I support every single SOPA/PIPA protest action I've seen today and I encourage you to learn more about the issue and express your opinion on it.