Over The Edge
Aug 6th, 2010 by TedYork
I have over 12,000 hours of flying time in jet aircraft. Some of it up-side-down. Executing spins, barrel rolls, and stalls are no big deal to me. But put me on the side of a tall bridge or a skyscraper and wow doggie! Yesterday and today I’ve been and will be up at the top of the Grand America Hotel photographing people repelling off the structure. 
It is a fundraiser for Special Olympics Utah called . “Over the Edge.” They are raising money to help fund the organization and its activities. I’m helping out by photographing each person who has made a donation and is given a chance to go over the side. Everyone is having a great time. As for me – I’m getting sunburned and a little dizzy looking over the edge.
I love those shots of Great Whites jumping out of the water as they chase seals in the waters off South Africa. My son came in telling me I needed to take a look at the clouds outside. My first response was a casual, “Is it better than Shark Week?” But I got up and wandered out to take a look. 
It was better than Shark Week! A large classic Cumulo Nimbus had build over the mountains to the east of our home. The Shears were creating bubble like formations at the bottom of the cloud and the setting sun was casting spectacular color on the entire affair. I didn’t have time to drive to a better location so I did the best I could from the front yard and here are the results. Having over 12,ooo hours of flying time under my belt I know what Mother Nature can do. 
I remember approaching the coast of Florida from over the Gulf and seeing lightening spread across the sky like a giant spider web. I abandoned an approach in the New Orleans when I recognized an impending severe wind shear due to the flight characteristics of my Boeing 727.
Understanding weather and how it affects flight was vital to the safety of my passengers – not to mention me! That same awesome power can reveal great beauty and that is what I had fun capturing on film last night. 
There have been a lot of thunderstorms in Utah this year and I always enjoy listening to the thunder and watching the lightening flash across the mountains. To catch it at sunset was a wonder. I was a spectacular night in Alpine.
Prior to the dress rehearsals I photographed the cast. We didn’t have a lot of time due to the number of images that needed to be shot so I elected to photograph the groups on stage with the theater lights. That way everything would be consistent with the shot of the entire cast on stage. 
While not the perfect lighting I was tickled with the results. I was able to get a consistent color balance with the theater lights and the kids cooperated very well through the posing and photography. I say kids because there were a lot of kids in this show – playing the munchkins. The whole project took me back in time to when I was young and things were simpler. 
The Wizard of Oz was played on TV once a year and it was a big deal for our family to get home and watch it. Things became more nostalgic when I attended an actual performance, and CamilleButler, playing Dorthy for that particular performance sounded just like Judy Garland when speaking her parts on stage. 
Wow!! I will be selling the images at the cast party on the 28th of July for those who were involved with the play or parents whose children starred in the production. The Alpine Community Theater had a winner. I will be looking forward to the new theater coming to Alpine in the near future. 
It will be a marvelous addition to our community. In the meantime – watch out for the wicked witch of the west and her flying monkeys.
Her dad was a college roommate of mine. I have a lot of memories from those days when her mother and father were just dating. They were married in Washington DC where my parents lived and I was home for the summer. 
They got married – I shot the pictures. This is about the only time I’ll use the word “pictures.” I was a budding photographer and not doing it professionally. They liked the photographs, but I’m guessing if I saw them today (because I don’t remember them) I would not be too impressed. 
Thank heaven we change! A gazillion years later and I’m photographing one of their daughters. This time I’m a professional and know what I’m doing. When the bride and I talked about the bridal images and where she might like to go she expressed a desire for something not too off the wall, but somewhere that not everyone went. After thinking about it for a while I decided on a local field I have been eyeing for some time. There is a row of poplar trees and tire tracks through the weeds for a road. It looked inviting to me and just the right spot. We arranged for early in the morning when the light would be right. 
As I began to photograph her I could see more and more the resemblance to her mother. She definitely had her smile. I was also seeing an old-world art image coming together. Her beautiful red hair was the perfect accent for the scenery. It didn’t take me long to find some favorites as I edited the images from the session. But I think the last one is my favorite and I’m not sure why. 
Perhaps because of the straight forwardness of the portrait. It is very honest and simple. That is what I look for in a portrait. It is not about smiles. It is about looking into the soul. A straight forward simply posed portraitdoes that for me. This is a portrait that could easily be digitally painted and would look beautiful. It is a portrait that is timeless. A portrait that could hang on someone Else’s wall and be enjoyed. That is the type of portraiture I aim for. At Ted York Photography it is my goal to turn your loved ones into works of art.
I quickly made modifications to the backdrop because I could see something in the making. I had a piece of cloth I purchase quite a while ago and had never used that matched this young lady’s outfit. We simply draped it over the backdrop we were using to give the feel of curtains. She had the perfect face for what I was after. The preview I’m showing is an unfinished image, but it gives you a feel for where I want to go with this image. It may well be my next digital painting. Anyway – the point I want to make here is that don’t be afraid to dress up when you come in for a portrait. Old world clothing is simple and artistic in nature and lends to a work of art, a portrait that you will treasure forever.
It brings back memories of growing up and my hero Sandy Koufax. My family cheered for the San Francisco Giants, while I – the lone renegade – cheered for the Los Angeles Dodgers (They had Sandy!) Occasionally I would pull for the Yankees – after all there was Micky Mantel. 
I even wanted to be a baseball pitcher. It was just a dream, but I enjoyed the times. The other day a client brought two of her children in and I photographed them in their baseball uniforms. They were young and cute as could be. 
I posed them in an in your face kind of way. Although I did a few smiles for mom, I made most of the images without smiles so you could see into their souls through the windows of their eyes. 
I added their bats, balls, and gloves to accessorize the portraits. I also went with window light to soften the look. As a Utah photographer I get a lot of opportunities to photograph children and this one was a delight. 
It gave me a chance to reminisce of great times in my past watching the great American sport.
Everyone was on pins an needles at the beginning of the event, not sure what the outcome would be. The polls, I was told, varied. One showed Mike trailing, one showed ahead, and their own internal polls showed the race a tie. The news media was there – challenging me - as I was not used to shooting with the Paparazzi. Mike set the tone with a short speech saying that whatever happened he would support the winner in the November election. 
Plenty of food was laid out and the conversations were on going through the event. As the votes began to roll in there were periods of cheering as each new update showed Mike in the lead. For a while the lead seemed to dwindle as the counts were updated, but that eventually flattened well into the evening and soon we knew Mike was the winner. 
The event broke into celebration as Mike left the war room and wandered back into the main room – hugging everyone. Telephone calls rolled in – including one from his opponent Tim Bridgewater congratulating Mike on his win. A victory speech of thank you’s and interviews with the media followed. The night was electric! 
I took advantage of that by positioning myself away from the light using it as a key light. The light would have been flat to the video camera’s view, but from my view it added dimension to Mike’s face giving me a much nicer image. Another problem with this type of photography is that it is on the fly. There is no posing – at least not much. You have to anticipate and be ready to catch the subject at anytime with changing light conditions and little time to react. It’s near impossible to get a full boat of technically perfect images. 
This is not unlike covering a wedding photo-journalistically. The important thing to me in this situation is to capture the emotion. If I can do that I have been successful. If I can do that and be technically perfect it is icing on the cake.
I turned up in morning news, and in the Tribune. I just hope their cameras are alright, but I diverge. It was an emotional night for this Utah photographer and I was glad to be a part of it. I can’t wait until November when I hope to become the photographer for a brand new United States Senator.
Getting five kids ready and out the door for an 8:30 am gathering is no easy task! It was a gorgeous day – hard to come by this spring. We met at my home gallery and caravanned up to one of my favorite locations. I decided not to do much if any instruction during the session because I didn’t want to lose the children. I checked the exposure, set up the pose and went to work. I had one student holding a large reflector to block the splotchy light coming through the trees and on to their faces. I also had another student press the camera’s shutter release when I told her too so I could go in and out to get the family’s attention. The kids were pretty well behaved so we didn’t have to work too long to get a nice shot. After the family left I spent some time talking about how I do what I do and some of the techniques I use to capture the attention of the kids. We finished up the family portrait session part of the day by downloading the images and showing some of the techniques I use in Photo Shop to work the image. All that is boring on a blog, but I wanted to share my favorite image of the day. One think I did differently. I usually sign with a signature, but decided to try signing with my Ted York Photography logo. If you have a chance let me know which you like the best (you can refer to some of my other blogs to see the difference.)
I don’t usually do event groups because it is not in keeping with the image I’m portraying to my clients, but I couldn’t turn her down – after all – my daughter is involved. I decided I would keep it simple and intended to photograph them in the dance studio of the high school where they are performing. Trouble was, when I arrived I found the studio walls to be covered with colorful posters destroying any notion of a simple backdrop. 
I moseyed around and found a spot just outside and fortunately – in the shade. We didn’t have a lot of time to work and there were several groups to photograph. It was a bit like trying to herd cats as I attempted to pose the three-year-olds. The instructor helped with the dance poses and I arranged them the best I could and then made the images. 
At one point I handed her the cable release (technically the electronic release) and told her to press the button when I said to. I then went up and talked to the girls to get their attention. I would slowly back up until I was out of the camera’s view and yell – “shoot.” As it turned out I really like the images! It’s not about the perfect posing of dancers – it is about them and them being themselves. I supposed if I had been handing out Smarties – My favorite bribe – and had an hour to work with each group they would have been a bit better arranged. But I didn’t and we didn’t so I went with the flow and as I said, I like the results. 
It would be great fun to do them individually. Dancers are very artistic by nature and lend themselves to good photography. Perhaps I will have the opportunity in the near future. 
In the meantime this Utah photographer hopes you will enjoy the images of these little – and not so little – dancers. I like the way the instructors at my daughter’s studio work with the girls. For more information you can go to their website at 
When I returned home from the class I had the perfect idea to put spice in their ad. The night we scheduled the shoot our crew and model put everything together and worked until after midnight to complete the job. The resulting image is spectacular. It will eventually have a logo added to it and be turned into a poster among other things. For secrecy I can’t include the logo. I want to apply this in the future to high school senior photography – just not with “Rambo” in it. For now – this remains hush hush. But this Utah photographer has created an image on fire!
Having said all that, I was bound and determined to get the portraits done for my clients – after all they come first. Last Saturday the blossoms were well on there way and the weather was warm so I thought it would be a great day to photograph family “A”, but we had to reschedule so I set the session for Wednesday after the convention. As I watched the weather, it became apparent that Wednesday wasn’t going to work so I called dad on Monday morning to see it we could shoot that evening – nothing like the last minute. I left the convention in the afternoon and photographed this beautiful family. It was a good thing – the next day the wind blew in one heck of a dust storm and by Wednesday we had rain and snow. Thursday I ran up to the orchard and was surprised to find the flowers still on the trees so I called my other family to schedule their portrait session. They could only come on Saturday morning so that’s what we planned on. The weather report called for mostly cloudy so I was hoping it would work. I got out of bed about 6:00 am and found a thick cloud cover. By 7:00 am there were breaks in the clouds and blue sky starting to appear here and there. At nine when the clients showed up it was cloudy again. Not wanting to give up we drove to the orchard and setup for the portraits. 
As I started to shoot a small break in the clouds appeared giving just a bit of directional light and I was able to get some nice images. A short time later the family five-year-old began to shiver in the cold and shortly there after it started to rain. This morning’s shoot was the shortest family session I’ve had todate! A Utah photographer creating outdoor portraits in the spring has to be extremely flexible (and so do the families). I’m happy with the results and despite the weather everyone involved passed the Utah Spring Weather Challenge!
I had to think this one through for a moment. The baby was about 6 months old. He was to big for the newborn look and not old enough to sit up in some of the props that I normally use. 
I decided to lay him on his belly on a bench I recently acquired and photograph him in window light. It turned out to be a good decision. I loved the soft wrap-around light that the large bank of windows gave me. His hair was combed to stand up in the middle of his head adding a wonderful air of interest to the images. 
Babies can be a challenge, but I find that if I pull some of the tricks up my sleeve and be patience I can get what I need for an interesting image. I eventually switched to studio lighting and made the image of the baby with his father. 
I dropped it into black an white, producing an image with impact that reveals the relationship between father and son. Dad was very patient with me and his son who was rapidly tiring of the photography session. I would like to have gone on for a while, but the baby was telling me he was done so we wrapped it up. I think I got some beautiful images. I’ve come to enjoy photographing our Utah children. They are so innocent and full of joy. In Utah we have a lot of them and that means more fun for this Utah photographer.
I was hoping to get it at sunset, but it didn’t look like we were going to get a sunset so we pressed on, heading into Hanksville for a bite to eat and a hotel room. The food was good, but the hotels were full so we got on the road and headed back towards Green River. Coming out of town I noticed a clearing of the skies off on the western horizon. That told me I we would get a glimpse of the sun just before it went down. I didn’t have a lot of time so I pulled off the road, across from some rock formations we had passed on the way into town and set up the camera. I decided to setup a shot of my truck against the rocks for a possible advertisement shot. I took a couple of preliminary shots to check out my composition and then waited for the light. I included one of those shots to show you how boring the light was at that point. 
If I was creating a portrait I would have had to add some light with flash to get some directional light and add depth to the portrait. Anyway – while we were waiting for the light a policeman pulled over a speeder so I had to adjust the camera angle just as the light began to hit. You’ll notice a big difference in the following images. 
I included a black and white to show how it is just as important as in the color images. The final shot of my son was made in a hurry, but it shows how light and shadow can be made to create the illusion of three dimension on a two dimensional surface. It was a good lesson for him as I talked about what was happening. He now knows that for this Utah photographer – it’s all about the light!
Between moving and vacations we spent a lot of time traversing the western United States. At that time I looked at the miles of desert scenery as boring miles of nothing. But what I did not appreciate at the time was the beauty of the wide open expanses of mountain ranges, valleys, unusual vegetation, desert animal life, rock formations, and color that make the desert so fascinating. 
Last Friday, at the urging of my business coach, I took a day for myself. My 17-year-old son and I loaded up the photography equipment and headed out to see what we could see and hopefully create a few memorable images. 
My target was to be in Goblin Valley for the sunset. It didn’t work out that way, but we had a terrific time along the way as we went with the flow, stopping to shoot photographs as interesting views showed themselves along the way. We spent 3 plus hours hiking through Little Wild Horse Canyon. With its slot canyons, so narrow in some locationsthat you had to slide through sideways, it has now gone on my list of things to do again. 
I was mesmerised by the various erosion patterns in the rocks throughout the canyon. It was also interesting to note the cooler temperatures once we were inside the canyon walls. After a great home style meal in Hanksville we were headed northeast towards Green River the sun broke through the cloud cover just before it set giving me an opportunity to teach my son about light and how important it is to photography. 
What a beautiful country we live in. And what a beautiful state Utah is. Some days I have to pinch myself – There is nothing like being a Utah Photographer! 
Today I attended a rally at Noah’s in Lindon, Utah for Mike Lee. Mike addressed the attendees and then broke for questions and some lunch. I found it very exciting. Mike has incredible momentum headed for the Republican convention next month. I’m a bit of a political junky and am passionate about my views. But today I didn’t get a lot of conversation in because I was shooting photographs. 
Anyway – at one point, while I was changing lenses, I noticed a baby in his dad’s arms who kept looking at me. Naturally I had to snap an image for fun and thought I would share it in this blog. While photographing political campaigns and candid images of babies is fun, it is not indicative of the artistic images I create when I make portraits for my clients. But it is important to be involved in politics. 
We have a great country that has allowed us the liberty to try for our dreams. If we are not involved we stand to lose the heart and soul of this land that has made the United States of America the greatest nation on earth. I thought about the juxtaposition of a man running for office with the support of his good wife. I’ve listened to Mike many times in the last few months and I know much of what he is doing is to preserve this country for our future generations who are being saddled with a tremendous debt load to the tune of trillions of dollars. We always picture politicians kissing babies, but sometimes it is about saving the future for our babies. Be involved – it’s that important! Tomorrow I’ll be photographing a Tea Party in Salt Lake City. That ought to be fun for this Utah Photographer!
I’m actually in the process of creating images of all the children in the family and we needed to get this one done ASAP. I found this young man quite easy to work with. 
He posed well and photographed well. He is a piano player so the first thing I did was to pose him in the front room with our baby grand. It took me a while to clear the room of all the images 
I have on display. While I was doing so I remembered some artwork that my client had hanging on the walls in her home that I thought would work well for this project so I gave her a call. I was glad I did because the piece she brought over made a perfect accent for the piano images. 
I used window light for this scene. The only modifier I needed was a black reflector for some subtractive lighting. I think the resulting images were quite nice. From there we moved into studio lighting. 
I varied the poses and the backdrop. The subject also had a change of clothing. I thing the shoot went very well and this Utah Photographer was very happy with the images.
Today I had the family bring her over so I could do a self assignment. I spent a couple of hours experimenting with lighting. I spent some time giving her older sister some pointers on photography and let her trip the camera for me while my youngest daughter helped with various duties. I was trying to get an old world painter look and I thought I would share some of the results. She was very patient with me for the two hours. 
I would have liked to spend more time, but I was able to get a couple of nice images. I want Ted York Photography to be known for classic artistic portraits. Before they left I asked the older daughter what she had learned. Her answer was perfect – “It’s all about the light.” Of course there is a lot more to photography, but understanding light and its qualities is paramount to achieving a good image. 
I’ve heard all the arguments about whether photography is art or not. But even the painters used the Camera Obscura to create their portraits. I just capture mine in a different way. But one thing good portrait photographers and painters have in common is the need to understand light. In photography it is all about the light.
Her parents adopted a beautiful baby some time ago. I was honored to photograph her, now at the age of two. 
As any two-year-old would be, she was very active and it was the usual challenge to draw out and capture her personality. We pulled out all the stops and I was able to capture her in a fun way. 
It took a while to get her to smile for me, but we pulled out a secret weapon; her older sister whom I talked about last blog. She was very good at getting her baby sister to smile and you could tell there was a wonderful bond between the two. While photographing active children can be tiring, it is also very rewarding. I always enjoy looking through the images after downloading them to the computer. 
They are never perfect because small children just do not hold a pose. That of course makes it impossible to readjust the lights to suite the pose. I try not to worry about that. Capturing the moment is more important than the technical – although I do have a way of lighting that works in this instance. 
This child turned out to have many faces and I think I came away from the portrait session having captured many of her varied expressions.
This eight-year-old was darling. The first thing I had to do was help her relax. I had her stand up and shake her arms as we laughed about it. It did help! She was fun to pose and I could see her start to relax and get into the modeling mode. I probably spent 45 minutes or so working with her as her baby sister roamed around the set well below the view of my 21 mega-pixel camera. 
She was wearing blue which matched her eyes. In a couple of the images I worked on for this blog I even tinted the backdrop to a blue with worked well I think. This Utah photographer loves expressing the creativity that Photoshop allows. Of coarse the object is to get the image in then camera. There is nothing worse than taking hours attempting to fix images. In this case the images were perfectly exposed and color corrected. 
Children generally have unblemished skin so there is little retouching to do. So all I had to do was concentrate on the creativity. That meant accentuating eyes and toning the backdrop along a couple of my secret treatments to bring in my artistic style. 
I think the end result was some very telling portraits of this beautiful young child. In my next blog I’ll display some images of her little sister.