Saturday, October 2, 2010

Karl Grobl: Humanitarian Photojournalist

Have you ever wanted to see some of the most exotic places on Earth? Go to these far off lands to experience the people, their culture, their world,  and take some great photos along the way?
Absolutely!  you say.  But where to go?  Where to stay?  How and where to shoot?
The answer to all these questions is Karl Grobl!
Karl Grobl is an award winning humanitarian photojournalist.  He has worked in over 50 countries in the past ten years.  His work has appeared in numerous publications including Newsweek, CNN, and Town and Country.
Karl specializes in photographic documentation of relief efforts and development work of NGO's (non governmental organizations) worldwide.  There's a good chance that when you see an image of the 2004 indian ocean tsunami, or photos of peace-building efforts in Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, and East Timor, that you are looking at a Karl Grobl image!
In addition to working with NGO's, Karl teaches photography workshops and leads international photography tours.  Take a look at Karl's amazing body of work @ www.karlgrobl.com.

I have been following Karl's work for about two years now.  I don't think I need to tell you that I am a fan of his work.  I recently got the chance to meet Karl.  Here is a photo of us.

 Karl is the good looking guy on the right :) !

After meeting Karl, I knew right away why he is so successful at what he does.  He has a true passion and deep understanding of the many people and cultures of the world.  Combine this passion with his strong artistic ability as a photographer, and you begin to understand who he is and why his images are able to tell such compelling stories. 
To say that I had a great time talking with Karl would be an understatement!
Take a look at Karl's work.  Better yet, sign up for one of his workshops or tours!  www.karlgrobl.com

Friday, October 1, 2010

Off Camera Flash

The great thing about SLR cameras is the flexibility to do so many different things in terms of lighting, interchangeable lenses, etc.
Beautiful natural light is the best.  But, as we all know, often the light outdoors is just not the light you were hoping for.  It's either too bright, too many shadows, not bright enough, the list goes on.  The cool thing about getting the flash off camera is that you can simulate exactly the lighting scenario you want.
In this family portrait below, the sun was still pretty high in the sky casting shadows and causing the background to be too bright.  I under exposed the overall scene by 1.3 stops to darken the background and bring in detail.  Then I increased the output of the flash by about 1 stop to get back the light I lost by under exposing the whole scene.  The result is an image that looks more like it was shot at sunset, not mid day.

            

In this example I used Nikon's CLS system with a SU800 commander mounted on my D3.  Only one SB900 flash was used camera right.  I used a 1/2 CTO (color temperature orange) filter on the flash to warm up the image as bit.
If you have never tried off camera flash, give it a try.