Summer
Once summer rolls around, many of the assignments you are used to shooting aren’t there anymore because school is out, and people are on vacation. So instead, you find yourself searching community centers, pools…etc for interesting pictures. Sometimes you find them, and sometimes there isn’t anything to be found and you just make it up.
For those not on the east coast, it’s really hot. It is so hot, the A/C in the car doesn’t work unless it’s past 2. The sun just blasts away any feeble dribbling of cool air that whispers out of the vents. So you crank it, until you are cold, then turn it to 1, realizing a minute later you may as well turn it back to 2 or 3, and point the vents into the vacant space around your body, trying to create some cool environment in the car, and not so much blast icy air onto your face or chest. I’ve become pretty adept at figuring out the best positioning of vents to achieve that goal. I’ve also become quite adept at finding shade in a parking lot, or if there is no space with shade, then anticipating the path of the sun which will yield the most shady spot, when I come back to my car. This is very important when you own an SUV without tinted windows. It is also, I believe, an acquired talent, and there are certain parking lots in Northern VA where I have specific spots I try to find, knowing they have the best shade depending on the time of day in which I arrive. Damn those new parking lots with small trees!
Back to the point of this post. In the past few weeks I’ve come upon various scenes which illustrate all that I mentioned in the first graph. Good finds, bad pictures made better and the heat that affects it all.
When the heat was at it’s worst (I know the weekend hasn’t come yet, which I’m sure will be blazing), I trolled around the county to find people making due with the heat. Pools, beaches…etc.
For those not on the east coast, it’s really hot. It is so hot, the A/C in the car doesn’t work unless it’s past 2. The sun just blasts away any feeble dribbling of cool air that whispers out of the vents. So you crank it, until you are cold, then turn it to 1, realizing a minute later you may as well turn it back to 2 or 3, and point the vents into the vacant space around your body, trying to create some cool environment in the car, and not so much blast icy air onto your face or chest. I’ve become pretty adept at figuring out the best positioning of vents to achieve that goal. I’ve also become quite adept at finding shade in a parking lot, or if there is no space with shade, then anticipating the path of the sun which will yield the most shady spot, when I come back to my car. This is very important when you own an SUV without tinted windows. It is also, I believe, an acquired talent, and there are certain parking lots in Northern VA where I have specific spots I try to find, knowing they have the best shade depending on the time of day in which I arrive. Damn those new parking lots with small trees!
Back to the point of this post. In the past few weeks I’ve come upon various scenes which illustrate all that I mentioned in the first graph. Good finds, bad pictures made better and the heat that affects it all.
When the heat was at it’s worst (I know the weekend hasn’t come yet, which I’m sure will be blazing), I trolled around the county to find people making due with the heat. Pools, beaches…etc.
The other day, I looked into local summer camps, finding a Cooking Camp for 6-7 year olds. Who knew?
Watching the 'teach add some generic green chiles to the tortilla soup. Too bad they didn't have any New Mexico Green Chiles. y que va...
I guess tomato paste is gross to 7 year-olds.
And then yesterday, I was assigned to photograph a middle schooler who has been invited to a USA Volleyball camp of sorts. She’s very good. Only when we arrived at the high school gym, the doors were locked and the sun was beating down on us, but not from too bad an angle, and I spied a white backdrop…
I used the sun like it was a 1.8gajillion watt octabank fill,
then popped a couple speedlights to create some shape.
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