Waggener Photography Blog

Here is JT and the family. I can’t believe how fast he has grown up. JT is 10 months now. You might remember him from this post. The family and JT are moving out of the area and wanted to get some last pictures in Richmond before they left. We wish them the best in the new job and new city. We will all miss them living in Richmond.

This is Kennan.  She is a cute 3-month-old who had her first photo shoot at Maymont this past week. Battling the heat, we pushed through and got some great pictures.  I officially had my first embarrassing photography moment at this shoot. As we were photographing her up on a hill near the gazebo, I backed up and accidentally bumped her stroller sending it rolling down this big hill with me in chase. As the empty baby stroller  was rolling very fast down the hill, people around the area were gasping and shouting “oh no,” thinking Kennan was still inside. I finally caught up to the stroller and then proceeded to trip and tumble down the rest of the hill still with camera in hand and one hand on the stroller. Once the onlookers realized that Kennan wasn’t in the stroller, they were laughing. I am glad I could provide some intertwinement for the good folks at Maymont. Hope you all enjoy.

Meet Baby Cassie. She is the brand new daughter of one of my good friends from graduate school. This little one was only 11 days old when we photographed her making her the youngest baby I have photographed. I know babies alway look like there parents however, baby Cassie looks just like her mom. I wish all of them the best of luck and I am sure you will all see much more of baby Cassie in the future . Hope you all enjoy.

Going to zoos and aquariums sometimes makes me feel like the National Geographic Photographer I have always wanted to become. However after I get all of the images onto my computer I always have this feeling that I just cheated. The REAL National Geographic Photographers spend months researching and camping out in extreme environments to get that 20 seconds with a snow leopard or almost die from eating or drinking the jungle water when living with native tribes. I feel like I cheated because I stroll up to a tank or an exhibit where animals, lighting, and scenery have all been carefully placed to make it look good. I haven’t backpacked for weeks, or been on a boat for days, I just walk around in an air-conditioned building and shoot dangerous animals through glass or fences. But I still have fun and I still get some images that I am pretty happy with. I have taken pictures at the Baltimore Aquarium before, however, this time was different. I was at a science conference all week and took one morning and went over to the aquarium. It was me and about 10 other people in the whole place. Normally when I go to this aquarium it is wall to wall people and it is very difficult to see all of the exhibits. So this time I just relaxed and really got to enjoy the exhibits and animals that this place has to offer. I don’t know why but for some reason I really liked taking pictures of the alligators and crocodiles. It must be my current obsession with the show swamp people. If you ever get a chance go see this great aquarium. Hope you enjoy.

Tomek and Nadia were married in a small ceremony filled with family and friends at the Edgewood Plantation in Charles City VA. These two have a beautiful son and a super nice family. I throughly enjoyed photographing their wedding. Thanks again, and best of luck to you both in your future together. Hope you enjoy.

The title of this blog post sounds way more glamorous than it really is. It’s just a quick behind the scenes look at how unglamorous a photo shoot can be.

You would be surprised to know what type of simple equipment and resources a many photographers work with. It’s not all big fancy lights and set ups . Sometime the set ups and ideas are rather simple. There are many photographers that take the DIY approach to photography. I do this DIY approach often since I am a PhD. student and my photography budget is quite limited. I alway ask myself why didn’t I choose a cheeper hobby like collecting leaves, watching birds, or running, something not so expensive like photography.

I wanted to take this time to show you how I created the cactus image I showed from the Texas post a few weeks ago. I feel that many of you will be surprised of the equipment used to get the final image. To create the white background I just used old white cutting boards. Yeah, they were a little stained and had some scuff marks on them but you can make them pure white by blasting a little flash on them. When shooting white backgrounds typically light them first so that they are generally 2/3rds to 1 full stop brighter than my key light (main light). I can see this in many cases because the highlight priority warnings on the back of my screen are blinking at me. If you are really fancy you can dial in the proper lighting ratio with a light meter. Since I don’t have an extra 400 bucks laying around I just wing it by checking the histograms and the back of the camera. You can see the background lights on either side of the cactus. If I remember right, they were set to about 1/16th power. The Key light (one lighting the cactus) was about 1/32nd power. Those power settings are for all of you camera geeks out there that like to know that kinda stuff. The key light which is sitting on a cooler was set up after I got the background lights set. It is alway easier to set one set of lights up at a time instead of turning them all on and trying to adjust all of them at once.

The reflection of the cactus was pretty much getto rigged out of an ATV windshield.  You can see the bottle of cleaner next to it to get all of the dust off of it. This smooth reflective plastic surface is what gives you that nice reflection you see. I am sure by now you are looking around the cabin seeing the bottles of alcohol and boxes of food and such. There might have been a little drinking going on while shooting these pictures. Maybe that is why I am still picking tiny cactus needles out of my hand. I never have set up pictures or pictures of me taking pictures because most of the time I am the only one with the camera. So it was nice of my father to snap a few pictures of me setting  this cactus photo shoot up.

Hope you all enjoy. Hit me up in the comments or email if you have any questions about the setup or how to set up a shot like this.

I just noticed I misspelled windshield. I am just to lazy to go back into photoshop and fix the spelling. I guess I forgot that whole i before e thing they taught us in grade school.

The final image.

As most of you know I am originally from Texas but moved to Virginia when I was a child. I still have lots of family and relatives down there including my Father. Since I have been a child I have traveled down to this gigantic state two to three times a year and my father comes up to visit my sister and I about the same amount. Since the age of 12 or 13 my father has had a 1,400 acre place in Llano, TX where we go to deer and bird hunt. There was a lot more hunting in the beginning now we go and just sit around and drink beer, shoot guns, and take pictures. Thats right take pictures we have moved from guns to cameras. My Dad gave me my first SLR in 2001. It was a 35mm Nikon (Nikromat) that was my grandfathers from the 70′s, this metal hunk of steal was nothing fancy, no motor drives, no auto, no hot shoe, and no auto-focus, just a full manual beast of a camera even with the 70′s camera strap. I burned through countless rolls of film shooting this camera in Texas and Virginia. I still to this day love the unique sound it makes when you move the aperture ring and when the shutter opens and closes. From here there were more cameras until I have the one I have now. I am fully digital and really haven’t looked back to the film days much. I like many others have books of negatives and prints still waiting to be scanned in and transferred to a digital format. This “deer lease” in Llano has really made me a much more observant and creative photographer over the years. This place is nothing special in the way of looks. Its no Yellowstone or Florida Everglades. Its just a shrubby, cactus infested, flat place. However, this place as a unique beauty to itself and I truly love it and try to capture it on my camera when I can.

I got an iPod touch for christmas that has one of these fancy cameras on it. Yeah yeah, I know you are probably rocking the iPhone4s or some other smart phone. I am still carrying a phone that has no internet but it has a texting pad so…. this iPod touch was pretty exciting. I have really enjoyed it. This new little device has kinda jumpstarted and pushed me to be a little more creative and bold with my art. I’m not saying it has turned me into Ansel Adams or anything but it has sparked some creativity with me. A great photographer once said, the best camera is the one that is with you. I truly believe this. I am taking this little thing everywhere with me now and not lugging my big DSLR around. Don’t get me wrong I am not going to show up to your house taking your family pictures with it but this little camera has almost turned into a visual journal for me. So in this long winded post you will see pictures shot from my new iPod touch along with pictures I took with the big camera from this unique part of Texas. I hope you all enjoy and have a happy New Year.

Wishing you and your family a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Looking forward to seeing what 2012 has to offer.

Christopher

This is one of our close friends son. He has ben photographed on the blog before. This little guy just recently learned to sit up by himself. He is growing up and developing really fast. I really can’t believe he is already at this stage of development. He has one of the coolest hats in the planet. I wish I could  look half as cool in the lumberjack/cousin Eddie hat as baby J does. Not only is this kid decked out in the finest head wear he has some of the coolest jerseys as well. We got some pictures in his Noter Dame jersey for his Grandpa who is a die hard ND fan. I am sure this won’t be the last time you see baby J on the blog. Hopefully he will rock out some awesome new headwear next time. Hope ya’ll enjoy.

Meet the Stevens. I had the opportunity to photograph the Stevens at one of my favorite places in Richmond, Maymont Park. I have known the Stevens for many years. We met when I was teaching a Randolph Macon. Back during those days, they were just a family of two and now they are a family of four. It’s nice to see that these two boys have taken on their parents’ fun and easygoing personalities. Its always nice to photograph and catch up with old friends. Hope you all enjoy.