Visiting the Monterey Bay Aquarium with the family

After returning from the Olympics in Milan and recovering from a week of being sick in bed, I finally had a chance to reconnect with my son and his family. 

Since they were planning on spending a night in the beautiful town of Monterey, CA, it was a perfect spot to reconnect after more than a month without seeing them.

I drove down in the evening and met them for dinner with a plan to visit the Monterey Bay Aquarium the next morning. Was I shot out from Milan? No. I wanted to bring a camera to capture photos of the grandkids.

I brought my new Canon R6 MKIII camera with the Canon RF 24-105mm f/4 lens. I cranked the ISO to 1600 in order to get enough light to capture images inside. I got some fun photos of the fish and the jellyfish, but really wanted to get photos of the little ones interacting with the exhibits. 

I saw my grandson mesmerized by the jellyfish, so I backed up and grabbed this shot.

My granddaughter then got in on the action, and I captured this photo of both grandkids and my daughter-in-law watching the slow movement of the jellies. 

I saw that the yellow light reflecting off the jellyfish and onto the kid's faces and took this shot. The cutest!

I stood above and right behind my grandson as he tried to grab the miniature jellies.

I had so much fun photographing the kids, just standing back and watching them up against the glass.

All of these photos tell a story. Sure, it is not the Olympics, but it is as, or more, important to me.

We came across these sardines which were swimming in circles on the inside of the tank. It was really dark, and I thought that there would be no way to get a shot of these fish. Then I thought I would have some fun and try motion panning one of the fish. I set the aperture to f/4 and lowered the ISO of the camera to ISO 500, which gave me a shutter speed of 1/60th second. I moved the lens with the sardine with his mouth open and voila!

My son was standing in front of me as we were watching a shark swim by. Without missing a beat, Connor opened his mouth and I moved a little to get this photo. We both laughed at the final image.

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I was going through my father's old slides and look at what I found!

Many years ago I had a chance to go to the top of the Golden Gate Bridge where I was able to capture photographs from the North Tower. It was an amazing experience, and one that I will never forget. For many years, I thought that I was the first and only one in my family to have this privilege. It turns out that this was not the case!

Here is a photo I took facing San Francisco (although the fog had covered the city in this shot).

I also took photos facing the North side of the bridge, facing towards Marin County.

About a year ago I found all my father's slides in a box and I went through hundreds of photos to see which ones I wanted to have scanned. As I was going through the slides and trying to make out what my dad had captured, I came across something amazing. In one of the boxes there were photos that HE had taken from the same location on top of the bridge!! 

Now, you have to remember that this is not open to the public and I have NO idea how he managed to get access to this spot. It took me many years to get up there. He was a doctor and I am assuming that one of his patients had connections, but I am not sure. My father died more than 30 years ago and I don't think there is anyone alive who would know this information.

This is my father's photo from the same North Tower, and as you can see, there have been some changes in the 50+ years that had gone by.

I also found this long exposure photo that he had taken of the Bay Bridge. I know that he had a Leica camera, and assume that he took all these photos with that camera. Back then, this shot was much harder to take since he was shooting film and could only guess at the right exposure. 

Here is one of my Bay Bridge photos taken from below the bridge, and look how much the San Francisco skyline has changed in all these years!

I know the spot where he took this photo, but this vantage point does not exist any more. I believe that this was taken before the road was built, leading to the fort.  He was low enough that we can not even see Fort Point (which has been there for more than 100 years).

Here is a more recent shot that I took from a similar location. You can see the retaining wall and road where a sandy beach used to be.

Here is an aerial photo that my father took over San Francisco. I am assuming that he took this out of a big airplane while coming into or out of San Francisco Airport.  It is crazy to see how few high-rises existed back then.

And here is an aerial photo that I took a couple of years ago from a small airplane, as we circled the city specifically for me to get photos.

This is a night shot that I took over the city, which would have been almost impossible to take back in my dad's days. I was using a Canon R5 mirrorless camera, pushing my ISO to 6400 and able to check my exposures as I was shooting.

Even though my father was an amateur photo enthusiast, it was really cool to see what he had captured back in his time. The funny thing is...I don't remember him taking many photos and never heard him talk about his camera. But all these years later, it is fascinating that we shared a similar rare and unique experience being at the same location on the Golden Gate Bridge and capturing images from the same vantage point. I love that!

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My New Favorite Photos!

It was a last minute thing on Sunday, when my daughter-in-law asked if I would take family portraits of her, my son and my granddaughter. It was late in the morning and the light was not great, so we headed to the one park I know that stays in decent shade for most of the day. I always try to photograph portraits in the shade so that there is no harsh light on my subjects. 

I also try to place my subjects in front of a darker background so that they "pop out" more. The light behind them was a little brighter than I prefer, but not bad. My granddaughter does not love being photographed, but in front of grandpa she does pretty well. I think that smile says it all.

I love capturing family portraits (or any portraits for that matter), but these were extra special. I was using the Canon R3 with the Canon RF 70-200mm lens for all the photos. I also used the Canon 600 EX-RT flash turned down to -1 to add just a little catch light in the eyes and light them slightly. For these portraits I set the aperture to f/4.5. I did this because I wanted to make sure to have all three of them in focus.

We tried different locations in the park, to get a variety of images. Really...we went anywhere we could find good light. Both Connor and Emma are excellent photographers and videographers themselves (running their own business now), so they know good locations.

Two of my favorite young ladies in one photo.

As you can see, they are expecting their next child pretty soon, so this was a great chance to get those pregnancy photos before the big day.

Aurora was getting a little tired of being held, so they let her down and I took photos as mom and dad stood behind me and made funny gestures. Now that I only had one subject in front of my lens, I changed the aperture to f/2.8 to isolate my granddaughter and to let the background go totally out of focus.

I always love going through my images, and retouching favorites, but these were extra special. As I retouched them on my flight to Costa Rica, I was all smiles.

We had fun trying different poses. I know that these will be memories that will last forever. 

As I mentioned, we were looking for the shaded areas of the park. I knew that this location would be good, with shade and repetitive patterns of wood in the background. 

Then it was up to Connor, Emma and Aurora to do the rest. 

After taking these group photos, Aurora started running around on the platform. 

I got down low, turned off the flash, put the camera in high-speed burst mode, used the face tracking and fired off a bunch of photos as she ran towards mom and dad. 

Of all the images, these were definitely our favorites. 

And you can bet that at least one of these will be printed and framed in my house.  Maybe I will frame more than one in succession. I love the pure joy and happiness in her face.

If you saw my social media post yesterday, you saw that I got all new equipment from Apple. And as part of that, I finally made the switch from my Fitbit watch to the Apple Watch 9 (more on that to come in another blog post). I used some of the long flight to learn the new WatchOS, and loaded this photo as a watch face. Fun!

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• If you are interested in purchasing ANY equipment, please click here to go to B&H Photo, as I get a referral from them if you enter this way. It does not change the cost to you in any way, but it helps me keep this blog up and running.

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The modified Kate Middleton photo - what's the big deal?

I woke up the other day and turned on the news. One of the big stories of the day was the controversy about a modified image of Kate Middleton and her family. Being a photographer, I was highly intrigued by this story. 

By now, most of you have seen the image.

At first, people were talking about one or two areas of the image that were manipulated. Now that a couple of days have passed, experts have located many areas of the photo that have been retouched.

But my question is: Why is this such a big deal?

I can tell you that every family portrait I have ever taken has been retouched to one extent or the other. 

Here is what I am typically modifying:

* Adjustments to exposure, shadows, highlights and white balance (if needed)

* Removal of fly away hairs that are distracting (either going through the face, flying into the air, or going into another person) 

* Removal of dust or pet hair on people's clothing

* Removing skin imperfections (bad acne or shaving cuts)

* Removal of strings hanging off clothing

* Removal of distractions in the background (bright spots, exit signs, polls)

And sometimes I will even do the following:

* Whitening of eyes if needed

* Lightening of wrinkles (typically around the eyes)

* Head swaps (if a person had their eyes closed in a group shot)

During the CBS newscast, one of the anchormen said "I don't understand why any photo needs to be retouched" to which I laughed. I am sure that this same person has plenty of portraits that have been taken and modified, whether he knows it or not.

I have said this many times in the past. I think that every photo needs some retouching, in one form or another. So I don't understand why people are making such a big deal about this photo. Kate Middleton is known for being a photo enthusiast and she has taken many of her own photos in the past. But she is not a professional, and would not have the same Photoshop skills as we would. It looks to me like she was making the same modifications I would do, but just not as proficient at the process.

Yes, she is a royal which means that the spotlight is on her and her family. But is this photo controversy really worth the scrutiny that they are putting her through? I think that there are much bigger and more relevant issues in the world. 

I just thought I would put my thoughts out there. What do you think?

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• If you are interested in purchasing ANY equipment, please click here to go to B&H Photo, as I get a referral from them if you enter this way. It does not change the cost to you in any way, but it helps me keep this blog up and running.

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We are not just photographers, we are historians

I am writing this blog at 4am, since I am not able to sleep. Yesterday I spent the first half of the day at a funeral. Not for someone who was elderly and had lived a good long life, but for an 18 year old who's life ended way too soon. I have photographed for this family for more than 10 years and it has really hit me hard. This is now the third kid that I have photographed who has past away, and all three of those happened in the most tragic ways. 

I am not writing this to depress all of you, I am writing this because, as I processed images for the funeral it reaffirmed how important these photos are. For the last 15 years I have told people that I don't just think of myself as a photographer, I see myself as a historian. This was just reinforced this week. 

When I heard about the passing of this brilliant young man, I waited a couple of days and then reached out to the family to see if I could help in any way. I know that these photos are important to the family and that it is my way to help. Being a photographer who has every image I have ever captured (on multiple QNAP NAS drives), I offered to go back and find the best photos from past events. Over the last 11 years I have photographed four bar/bat mitzvah, family portraits, a baby naming and more for them. 

Since I have the Canon Pro-4100 large format printer, I offered to print poster sized images for the service. I heard back from the family that they would love to have these. Then came the hard part. I poured through thousands of photos taken as far back as 2013, and it was really sad. I saw this smiling boy, full of energy, who is now no longer with us. 

I tell people that I have the best job in the world because 99% of the time I am capturing happy occasions, athletes competing at the Olympics, and taking people to exotic places around the world. But over the last couple of days I saw my job as a photographer in a less glamorous light.

This time I saw the fragility of life, but also saw the immense power of the photos. As sad as it is, it is also a way for us to remember this young man. Yes, I was hired by the family, but is still my gift to them. When I photograph events (no matter what they are), I pour my heart and soul into that. It is not just a job, it is a chance to create memories, to be creative, and to record history.

People often ask me why I always shoot my images to two memory cards at a time. The first time I was asked this, I responded by saying that in the most important moments, I want to make sure I have those photos. I was thinking of the Olympics when I said that. But then I thought "but just about everything I photograph is important to someone." When I capture a personal event, those images are very important to that family. Arguably more important to them than any Olympics I have ever taken. Even when I am messing around and taking photos of my granddaughter playing in the back yard, those are incredibly important to me.

I am not going to post images of the any of these kids, since I want to honor the privacy of those families, but I do want to share this photo with you.

This is a photo of my mother. It was taken 14 years ago, and it was the one of the last photos I captured of her before she unexpectedly passed away. It was way back then that I realized the importance of a photo, and the responsibility of a photographer. And it is for that reason that I take every photo job so seriously (but in a fun way). What we do is important! As photographers, we need to remember this every time we pick up our cameras.

At the service yesterday they said that the young man loved math and physics and he loved to talk about rainbows and why they occur. They ended the service by saying, whenever you see a rainbow, think of him.

Not more than an hour after the service, I was out for a walk and saw this. It is a simple iPhone shot, but the meaning is far greater than the overall quality of the photo. I definitely thought of him.

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• If you are interested in purchasing ANY equipment, please click here to go to B&H Photo, as I get a referral from them if you enter this way. It does not change the cost to you in any way, but it helps me keep this blog up and running.

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Having Fun with Photoshop!

A couple of months ago, I had just finished photographing an event here in the Bay area and had some extra time to visit a friend in the area. When I walked into their house I immediately noticed that something was wrong. It turns out that Mike had been stung by a bee right on his right eyelid. Ouch! 

His family suggested that, since I had all my camera gear with me, I should take his portrait. I grabbed my Canon R3 with the Canon RF 70-200mm lens and took some photos of Mike against his kitchen wall. After taking the photo, I told him that he looked like he had been in a boxing match. We all had a good laugh and that was that. Well...until I had an idea.

When I got home and downloaded all the images, I saw the images of Mike and thought that it would be fun to put him into a boxing scenario. What better than a "Rocky" poster! I searched the Internet and came across this Rocky III poster at a pretty high resolution. Now it was time to have fun.

I removed Mike's face from the background and resized it to fit over Sylvester Stallone's face. At home I have a Wacom Intuos Tablet which makes it way easier to manipulate the process.

Since this was on a separate layer, I could paint in his face without leaving any obvious lines between his jaw and the original neckline. I got really lucky that the light on Mike's face (coming from a nearby window) matched the direction of the light on Stallone.  

After looking at the photo a little longer, I decided that I needed to enhance the redness of Mike's right eye. I created an adjustment brush, increased the saturation of red and painted that in. After having a good laugh to myself, it was time to share the image with Mike and his family. I texted them the image and they thought it was hysterical.

Since I have the Canon Pro-4100 printer in my office, I had to take the image and print it poster size!

I have a bunch of 24x36 inch frames and saw this as the perfect gift for them. A couple of weeks later I framed it and brought it over to them. Now the big question is, where do they put it in the house? Mike wants it front and center in the house and his wife wants none of that! That makes me laugh even more.

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• Subscribe to the Jeff Cable Photography Blog by clicking HERE!

• You can now purchase Jeff Cable Photography images from my new fine art site at: https://fineart.jeffcable.com/

• If you are interested in purchasing ANY equipment, please click here to go to B&H Photo, as I get a referral from them if you enter this way. It does not change the cost to you in any way, but it helps me keep this blog up and running.

• Check out my upcoming photo tours to amazing places around the world. I have photo tours to Africa Costa Rica and more. And Canon will loan you any gear you want for FREE for any of my tours. _________________________________________________________________   

Taking portraits of my granddaughter - portrait tips for all of you

Before I give you some tips on taking portraits of toddlers, let's start with the most important question: Am I old enough to be a grandfather? I sure don't feel like it!

But I love having my granddaughter visit any time and getting the chance to photograph her as she grows up. 

When she was 3 months old, it was tough to get good photos of her, since she could not sit up and did not have a whole lot of expressions. Of course, that did not stop me from photographing her. We would just prop her up in a pseudo-sitting position and I would fire away.

It is amazing how much she changes in such a short period of time. This photo was taken only 6 weeks after the previous image and she was now smiling. I put her down on a white backdrop to try and get a passport photo of her. (This image would not work because they do not want smiling and there was too much shadow and they do not allow that.) But I liked seeing that smile.

Last month was the first time that I took care of her on my own for two days. It was all consuming, and I really did not have time to think about photos. But late in the afternoon on the second day, we were out in my backyard and I thought "this would be a great photo moment". I went and grabbed the Canon R3 with the Canon RF 70-200mm lens and a Canon 600EX-RT flash. I was laying down on the grass in front of her, since it is important to be down at their eye level, and I focused on her eyes. I made sure to include her crazy hair in the shot! I turned the flash power down by 1 1/2 stops so that the photo would not look "flashed" but it would add catch light in her eyes. This photo is framed in my house right now.

A couple of weeks ago, my daughter-in-law was back at my house with her precious little girl. And now she is starting to eat solid food, so I had to document that! I grabbed the Canon R6 with the Canon RF 85mm f/1.2 lens and started taking photos. The light was not great in the kitchen so once again I added a Canon 600EX-RT flash with a MagMod MagSphere 2 diffuser so add a little more light on her. I waited for her to grab the spoon and look me and bam, captured this. I love the way that the 85mm f/1.2 lens (shooting wide open at f/1.2) removes all the distractions from the image, so we can focus just on her cute face. No, I am not biased at all. :)

Then it was time to try the same camera and lens (no flash this time) outside.

Just like before, I got down low on the grass so that I could photograph her at eye level. I had Emma (her mom) behind me doing funny things to make her laugh. The great thing about the Canon R cameras is that they lock into the eye so perfectly. Normally when shooting at f/1.2 with previous DSLRs, the "take rate" was about 50%, but with the new cameras it is almost 100% sharp on the eyes. I LOVE that!

Uh oh, was she already giving me attitude? 

When going through the images (using Photo Mechanic). Emma and I both agreed that this was our favorite photo. This one will be printed and framed any day now. And yes...I could remove the drool from her chin, but I decided to leave it alone. She is teething and this tells a story.  

Before putting the camera away, I asked Emma if she would get in the shot with my granddaughter. She happily agreed and I got this image. I made sure that they were both at the same distance from me, and I had to change the aperture from f/1.2 to f/2.5 in order to get them both in focus. I made funny sounds and got both of them to smile for this photo. Another keeper.

As many of you predicted, this little one is going to be a great subject for a long time!

 

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If you are interested in purchasing ANY equipment, please click here to go to B&H Photo, as I get a referral from them if you enter this way. It does not change the cost to you in any way, but it helps me keep this blog up and running.
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Check out my upcoming photo tours to amazing places around the world. I have photo tours to Africa, Costa Rica, Cuba, Europe, Asia, India and more. And Canon will loan you any gear you want for FREE for any of my tours. 

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