Ted York Photography

Over The Edge

TedYork — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 13:19:46 +0000

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.

A Spectacular Night In Alpine

TedYork — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 22:34:02 +0000

After a long day yesterday I sat down to relax and catch a little Shark Week on TBS. 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.

The Wizard of Oz

TedYork — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 21:09:33 +0000

The Alpine Community Theater put on The Wizard of Oz this past week. 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.

A Nostalgic and Timeless Portrait

TedYork — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 21:08:38 +0000

I’ll be photographing a wedding on July 30. This one will be a bit nostalgic for me. I photographed the bride’s parent’s wedding many moons ago. 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.

Dressing Up For A Work Of Art

TedYork — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 15:03:30 +0000

“Turning your loved ones into works of art” is Ted York Photography’s motto or catch phrase. I didn’t make it up. It came from comments my clients made as they viewed their finished portraits for the first time. It is important to me to deliver a work of art to each client. I can see myself turning down work in the future because some clients put requirements on me that make it impossible for me to deliver what I think is the full value that they deserve when they hire me. Yesterday a mother brought one of her daughters over for a portrait.(She actually brought two, but I will show images of the second in a future blog.) The daughter I’m choosing to blog about here is one who brought over a costume to wear for some of the shots. She came out dressed in a toga/robes with flowers in her hair. 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.

The Great American Sport

TedYork — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 15:05:40 +0000

I know there are a lot of you soccer and rugby players out there, but to me, baseball is still the great American sport. 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.

An Emotional Win

TedYork — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 00:05:54 +0000

As one of the official photographers for the Mike Lee Senatorial campaign I was asked to cover the celebration party last Tuesday evening. Mike Lee supporters gathered at Noah’s in South Jordon to watch the votes come in for the primary election. 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!

Covering a political figure is different than studio portrait photography. For one thing I have little control over the available light. Sometimes I’m forced to make my own while other times I have to make use of what it there. As an example, during Mike’s victory speech there was light falling on the side of his face from one of the news team’s video camera. 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.

One of the advantages of being an official photographer for the campaign is that I could go anywhere. That helped me in using the videographer’s light that I mentioned about, but it was not good for the other photographers. While I was on the stage I ended up in much of the footage coming from the news photographers. 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.

Super Monday

TedYork — Sat, 22 May 2010 01:27:00 +0000

Last Monday I taught a class for photographers under the Professional Photographers of America’s Super Monday program. I decided I would like to photograph a family for the class and asked one of my clients and former neighbors if they would mind posing for me. I had not photographed them for several years and two children ago. They happily said yes and were willing to come early in the morning. 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.)

Little (and some not so little) Dancers

TedYork — Fri, 14 May 2010 20:42:30 +0000

My daughter’s dance instructor asked me if I would photograph her dance students during their dress rehearsal for their upcoming recital. 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 http://creativedgedance.com/CreativEdge_Dance_Studio/Home.html

On Fire!

TedYork — Tue, 11 May 2010 21:27:51 +0000

I learned a new technique while studying with another international award winning photographer. Prior to the seminar I was contacted by someone wanting to create an advertising piece for a video project. 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!