I shot this picture at dusk this past Saturday and it is of my cabin I've been working on for the past six months. While not completely finished, I about 98% complete. I can't tell you how relieved I am to see the cabin this far along. I've spent lots of time and a fair amount of money getting it to this point but after staying in it with my wife and kids at Christmas, it is well worth the effort.
For you camera buffs, I lit this image with three flashes: two are hidden on the porch behind the posts and the third is to the north of the cabin and is held by my brother.
I love meeting new, interesting people like Gary Reimer of Corn, Oklahoma. When a client calls and needs images, I always look forward to these kinds of shoots.
The inherent challenge of this type of assignment is that:
1. You don't have any time to scout;
2. The people (namely farmers and ranchers) are extremely busy;
3. You have to shoot environmental portraits as well as supporting imagery to fill in the pages of, in this case, a magazine article.
4. You have to do all of this very fast...
So with that in mind, I traveled to Corn, Oklahoma to shoot these images.
When I got there I didn't have to work that hard for locations. Gary's farm was nice and tidy and with recent rains, the landscape looked great.
So in just a few hours, we have to tell what Gary does in order to illustrate an article.
Here we did the various shots of his operation as well as shot some nice portraits with various backgrounds. Since light tells a story all in itself, we did a variety of poses from lighting him with natural side lighting, used a reflector to bounce light back into his face and backlit him with the sun, and then at the end, we used a simple two flash set-up to light him against a dark sky.
The last protrait was a pretty simple set-up (see diagram). In essence it was a three point system (the bright sky, flash one, and flash two). Of course one flash was used to light Gary while the other was placed just above the milo and spilled across the grain heads. Pretty simple and it took just a couple of minutes to set up.
In the end, I think I should have spilled some more light over to the camera left. However, it was getting dark fast, the other flash was at the truck and it was a long way through the milo.
This afternoon, Kristy and I took Bailee and Ryan to the farm of one of my former students and show pig raiser, Matt Burba.
There, we picked up Bailee's first show pig: a sweet little Duroc gilt that Bailee named Sparkle. Bailee is in third grade this year so she finally became old enough to join 4H. As is customary in our little town, if you are in 4H, you show a pig.
So here we go...
Early in my ag teaching career I messed with show pigs a lot. However, the second half of my sixteen teaching years, I didn't mess with the show program much. Instead, I was in charge of all of our competitive FFA contests. Therefore, I have some catching up to do.
No worries, though. This is going to be fun for all of us.
You know, I have never shot any produce images before. In fact, I am not much of a food shooter as it is such an exacting art, I've never chosen to try and tackle such a demanding discipline.
However, on a recent magazine photo shoot, produce was part of what I had to shoot. The day I shot these images was overcast and the sun was filtered through a cloud bank that acted as a hug soft box.
That light was filtered indirectly through the openings in the produce stand which made it soft and turned the colors super-saturated.
Curiously, all of the food was shot how I found it. No artificial lighting or reflectors - just glorious filtered, indirect light.
Last Saturday I did a magazine shoot of the Andrew Rodeo Company at Addielou, Texas. While it was rainy and nasty, that didn't set me back too bad. In fact, the overcast day made for some great saturated colors.
The tough part was taking the portrait of the Andrews. Since Bodacious was an integral part of the Andrews Rodeo Company's identity, I felt like it was important to feature a small shrine they had to the bull in their back room.
While space was tight, that wasn't the biggest problem as I kept getting a "hot spot" on the cut out of the bull. To mitigate the spot, I used a dual flash set up. the main light was at camera right and shot through an umbrella and the second light was bounced off a silver reflector to add soft, even lighting - thus eliminating the "hot spot."
One of the satisfying parts of photography is taking pictures of my kids. Even more satisfying is when I get to use them for a cover shoot for a magazine. A new magazine came in the mail today and featured Ryan on his first cover. He was in his waning days of being a four year old when we traveled to Palo Duro Canyon to shoot this image.
While I am on the subject, take a look a few other covers that featured mine and Kristy's homemade models.
I've been spending a few days photographing a real estate listing just north of my house and what a beautiful place. Located north of Wellington, Texas on the Salt Fork of the Red River, this place has beautiful, rolling sage hills, wooded draws, and even a stand of hardwoods.
I've never fancied myself as much of a landscape photographer but guys like Texas photographer Wyman Meinzer are masters at the craft. However, the chance to go out and hone the craft is great practice indeed.
Periodically, I'll post an assignment and articulate how the shoot was accomplished in an attempt to educate and stimulate discussion about the images.
In this very first case study, I was assigned to photograph and write a magazine article about a couple who are ardent conservationists and was recently awarded a statewide honor for their work.
The turn around had to be quick. I was in town for a week and the deadline for the images and article were the end of June. So in mid-June I headed to Olney, Texas for a morning visit, an interview, and photo shoot. I had just a few hours to bring everything together.
On the way down, I was concerned that with our late start (8:00am) the "good light" would fade quick because between introductions, exchanging pleasantries, and scouting a location, it would be mid-morning before we were afield.
However, on this morning luck was on my side as a thunderstorm brewed just to the east of their ranch and left the sky in a deep overcast.
It was 10:30 before I shot the lead photo for the story: a simple portrait of the Boydston's. The lack of shadows and soft light made for a good shots of the cattle, plants, and the ponds, I needed to punch a little bit more color into the portrait.
Here's where a some extra gear came in handy.
To add some color to the uninteresting sky, I added a graduated neutral density filter in tobacco color. To add some color to the Boydston's, the Canon wireless flash system came in handy.
I placed a single flash placed on a stand to the camera left and manually opened the flash to throw a 24mm pattern. I then shot the flash on TTL with an initial exposure based ambient light exposure. I then subtracted a bit of light from the flash just to give a punch of color.
This image was shot with a Canon 1D Mark III camera, a Canon 16mm-35mm lens set at 19mm. The composition was shot loose enough to allow an article title and lead text yet still be strong enough to stand alone if no text is laid upon the image.
Manually exposed at 1/160 @ f10 ISO 100, Flash set at -1/3 stop
I was going to name this post "Blog Cabin" because I thought I would be able to post images as the construction slowly took place.
However, building began while I was away and so my brother Bubba keeps me updated on the swift construction progress.
A few months ago, my wife and I decided it would be a good idea to build a small cabin on our land close to where we both grew up in Northeast Texas some 250 miles from where we live in the Texas Panhandle. Call our pending lifestyle bi-residential if you will.
Anyway, while getting started on the construction was painfully slow, it went blazingly fast once the framing crew began. These two images were taken 24-hours apart and show how fast this thing really went up.
It isn't a big place but big enough for sleeping quarters. If you've ever stayed in a hotel suite at a Residence Inn the place is roughly the size of those room. By no means big enough to make a permanent residence but perfect for sleeping, some light cooking, and hanging out.
We've been inspired to go green as well. The walls are framed with recycled lumber pieces finger-jointed together to make the pieces stronger that first-cut lumber. Ample windows allow plenty of natural light and eliminate the need for using a bunch of electricity during the daylight hours, and the water system will consist of captured rainwater, double osomosis filtered and supply a low-flow shower head, toilet, and kitchen and bathroom faucets.
Furthermore, we're installing a U-panel, Galvalume roof which will direct more heat away from the ventilated attic space. For now, we've wrapped the house in a Tyvek material and will insulate the attic with a cellulose material to further reduce the energy expenditures to heat and cool the place.
The cabin's exterior will be lapped Hardy Plank siding stained with a cedar stain.
Sunday, I arrive to start the interior work so I'll keep you updated on the progress.
Last Saturday I went to my buddy David's house (he only lives a couple of miles away) to photograph his annual cattle work. This year, he told me that he was going to get his boys involved as well as some of our other friends and their kids as well.
Ultimately the event turned into cowboy school as the adults showed the kids the how to rope, flank, vaccinate, and brand.
Successful Farming radio called me for an interview about a month ago. While I told them that I no longer do my old job as an FFA advisor, they still wanted to hear my thoughts on teaching agricultural science.
While there are three parts, they are all pretty short.
It's finally here... After a couple of months of planning and work, I am proud to announce the launch of my new micro-site, The Picture Pasture.
The Picture Pasture was designed an an exclusive home for my huge collection of agriculture and rural lifestyle imagery. As time goes on, all of the ag imagery at www.russellgraves.com will be gone and all of it will live on the new site.
While www.picturepasture.com is now fully functional with over 1,200 images on-line, watch for the number to grow exponentially over the next couple of weeks as I work diligently to upload new and fresh content.
For those who have used russellgraves.com a bunch, you'll find that The Picture Pasture's keyword based system makes finding images easy. Furthermore, the ability to build and send lightboxes makes this search system easy and intuitive.
If you haven't worked with a search system like this before, the system works pretty simple.
But wait, you decide you want to see some images of angus calves, then use the advanced search feature and select the "Match all keywords" checkbox and click SEARCH.
There you have it. To make your selections, click the check box beneath each image to save your images in the lightbox. Then to view your lightbox, look at the top of the page and click the "My Lightbox" link.
From there, you can mail the lightbox around to fellow project collaborators or to me in order to have the hi-res images placed on a private link and ready for download.
It is that simple... So take a look around, and welcome to The Pasture.
I've known Cade for a while now and though I am well acquainted with him, I've never spent much time with him at his job.
Cade is in his early twenties and he is doing something most unusual for his age - he is a full time farmer.
The United States Bureau of Labor Statics cites that of the 285 million people living in the United States less than 1% claim farming as an occupation. And of those 1% that are farmers, the median age is 55 - over thirty years older than Cade.
So with a positive attitude, Cade breaks ground a new cotton crop for 2009.
Farming is tough anywhere but farming cotton in the vertical strip of Texas real estate between the 100th meridian and the Caprock Escarpment tests anyone's mettle and resolve due to the fickleness of the wind, hail storms, and rain. So much of this year is reminiscent of what I've read about this part of the country in the 1930's during the Dust Bowl and the depression. Economically tough times coupled with an oppressive drought might make anyone give up. However, the red dirt is part of Cade as he grew up in a farming family just outside of Tell, Texas.
So as this growing season passes, I plan on finding out more about what makes someone so young stake a small financial fortune each year against market volatility and weather. And documenting him every step of the way.
For all my life, I've resided in the country and am a fan of all things rural. I went to school in the tiny community of Dodd City, Texas (pop. 286 when I was there) and lived on a patch of blackland prairie seven miles north of town where my family raised beef cattle, butchered hogs every winter, and grew wheat, milo, and a huge family garden.
For day after glorious day, I'd roam the woods and grasslands of my boyhood home hunting, fishing, and enjoying nature. When I graduated high school and went to college, I majored in a field that would keep me in a rural setting and close to the land - agriculture education.
For fifteen years, I was the agriculture science instructor at Childress High School in Childress, Texas where I was named Texas Agriscience Teacher of the year on three different occasions and received numerous awards and media accolades for my work there. During that time, I have continued to stay connected to agriculture and rural life through my professional career as well as through my photography.
While being a fan of rural life, I also embrace modern technology and all of the capabilities it brings. Capabilities like digital photography, high speed internet, and digital video all help me bring into focus, all the things I love the most.
