Steve Salt | Photography

Slow Shutter on campus

Every once in awhile, i get to do what i want. but once i’m there, i realize it’s not turning out the way i wanted. But you start noticing a theme developing in your photos. This night, i noticed the bikers. The students were biking from their last class, heading to friends, groceries, out to eat, whatever. So, even though i was there to shoot city-shots, i started waiting until a biker was there.

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Jacket’s optional

A breezy chilly morning greeted us for outdoor portraits. Luckily we were whisked around in a stretch hummer. saweet. purple neon. Pre-ceremony portraits downtown Madison, and the ceremony and reception in Fitchburg. Great times Tessa and Patrick, congratulations!

Check out their Engagement photos from last year.

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Long exposure, dark shadows, beautiful colors

Of the things Wisconsin is good at, it has a great motivation for protecting nature. There are parks and conservancies everywhere. Peasant Branch Conservancy is one of these great locations. It’s co-managed by several departments, but the public can seamlessly walk or bike quite a ways through Middleton, WI.

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Do any of you guys golf?.. No?

Shot Second Shooter for Matt at FingerPrint Photo.

What a beautiful day for a wedding! Matt and I had all kinds of ideas running through our heads about wedding photos on a golf course. Turns out nobody golfs, just a gorgeous place to get married. Ok. No worries. Plan B.

Kate and Jordan got married, nobody got hit by a stray ball, and the dance floor was rockin. and by rockin, i mean vibrating. Congratulations you two!

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Three feet can make the difference

Thrive gave me call for headshots of their Interim Executive Vice President, Jennifer Post Tyler. “Sure,” I said. Great people, and I have done some other work for them (new website photos) so I looked forward to it.

Well a couple shots in her office then we went outside. That was crazy. limited time, so we shot in the parking lot. we shared it with glaring sun, several dozen cars, man-lifts, cranes, and quite a few construction workers on lunch break. I once heard someone say, all you need for a portrait is three square feet of background. I looked around with tunnel-vision and we pulled off some great shots.

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90 degrees in the Shade

Shot Second Shooter for Matt at FingerPrint Photo.

This time was a little different. In many ways. First, it was, literally, the hottest day ever to shoot a wedding (merino is a man’s best friends, btw) and no air conditioning in the church, although, I understand, it’s since been installed.

Second, Lydia’s family is Egyptian, and it was a Coptic ceremony and a wonderful old church. That was different for me, but certainly gave Matt and I a lot of chances to one-up that last photo, plenty of opportunities.

Third, the reception was at the Orpheum Theatre downtown Madison. What. An. Opportunity (more great portraits at the end).

Fourth, Matt and I totally meshed on the portraits. I covered this earlier on the the photographer as lighting assistant wedding teaser page: “As Matt says on his site: “We would both brainstorm about location, poses, lighting and look. Even if it was my finger that shot the photo, it was truly a joint creation.” I think the difference today was I was fully engaged in the portraits to make them the best they could be. I wasn’t just a Voice Activated Lightstand (VAL), I was still a photographer. I just happened to be holding a lightstand.”

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The following photos are the shots Matt took while I did the lighting. It was truly a collaborative project:

Old Friends Reunited; A wedding I didn’t have to Shoot

I grew up with Mike, many years ago. After high school we lost touch. Through the Magic of Facebook (or curse), we got back in touch again, and pretty much picked up where we left off: with MacGyver.

Then he decided to marry Lynn. A couple months later and I was faced with flying out to New York, not only that, but two days before the ceremony, their photographer took sick with the flu, and I was asked to back up. No problem. I’d love to take a bunch electronics and gear through the airport on the 10 year anniversary of September 11th. Great.

Long story short, the photographer recovered, and I didn’t have to bust out any gear. I snapped a couple at the ceremony, just because i couldn’t not do it, but it was kinda of crazy to sit and listen, and not move around. Refreshing.

The rest of the trip I only used my iPhone. I love the simplicity of not have to think about knobs and dials and all kinds of photo-technical stuff that usually is streaming through my head. All I had to think about was composition. Click. iPhone can’t do a whole lot more than that. I had a lot more fun that way.

I won’t bore you with everything we did this weekend, but suffice it to say, I had a good time with my wife, friends – new and old, I had a good time with photography: all the Best to Michael and Lynn!

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A whole new meaning the phrase Monkey Suit

Oh. Man. Caterer asked my wife if she wanted two [pulled pork] sandwiches. She said no. then looked at me, “And you can’t have two either.” So I didn’t: I had ONE sandwich (with “Wango Tango Habanero Hot Bbq Sauce”), several ribs, and pretty close to a 1/2 chicken. Not to mention fantastic beans and spicy corn. They also had a really tasty blue cheese/chipotle dip for the veggies.Dinosaur barbecue. Fantastic.

Their reception was at SPoT coffee. nice staff, tasty coffee. and they served coffee shakes. yes, not iced coffee, coffee shakes. like a milk shake, but coffee. wowsers.

took dinner with Mike and Lynn and a few others at the Tap and Mallet. Wow. wish i lived closer. it was an amazing place for chow and suds. I could have spent the whole day there. well, we pretty much did, at least six hours.

The area around our hotel was a little sleepy Sunday morning. I went in search of coffee outside of the hotel (you know, the kind that doesn’t make you nauseous?).

And I found a pretty decent place via Canadian import.

Waiting in the airport for several hours due to delays and cancelations, I found a way to amuse myself.

“Stack ‘em and Rack ‘em boys!” The waiting was awful. Delay Delay Delay Cancel. Reschedule. Wait wait wait…

We flew home on the 10th Anniversary of September 11th. I can’t tell you I wasn’t nervous.

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Thoughts on Collaborative Shooting

Hottest wedding ever! And by that, I mean by the time we got to formal portraits, it was 90F in the church (no AC). If I had known that before agreeing to be second shooter for Matt of FingerPrintphoto on this wedding, I may have declined. Ok, not really. I love a challenge. (A couple days later he whacked me again with it being an Orthodox Ceremony too.)

So, we shot the ceremony, and there’s more on that in a future post, but what I want to talk about is the teamwork Matt and I furthered. I owe a lot to Matt over the years i’ve known him. Normally we work really well together, and Matt will say something like, “Hey go get this while I get that”, and off we go. And we’ve done that across several events. This time it was more of all he had to do was nod, or from across the way, point, and several times I was there already. We were totally meshing. Maybe it was the sauna-like atmosphere.

This really smooth coordination ratcheted up quickly into the portraits, like the temperature.

As we scouted the reception, The Orpheum in downtown Madison, we got goosebumps. There really wasn’t a BAD place to do a photo, but the Groom had some specific ideas we needed to fulfill in the process.

For the next hour shooting the reception Matt and I would cross paths, “Hey I found this place” and a few minutes later, “Did you see over here? there’s a great…”

When the time came, I put down my camera, and picked up my lightstand and the four of us headed out. Within 10 seconds on a location, we had the bride and groom posed, the lights positioned and camera composed. Sometimes Matt would want the light higher or over more, or I’d see a slightly better camera angle and motion him over. We were basically a four handed photographer.

As Matt says on his site: “We would both brainstorm about location, poses, lighting and look. Even if it was my finger that shot the photo, it was truly a joint creation.” I think the difference today was I was fully engaged in the portraits to make them the best they could be. I wasn’t just a Voice Activated Lightstand (VAL), I was still a photographer. I just happened to be holding a lightstand.

Matt has put a couple of teaser shots up on his page FingerprintPhoto.

 

An amazing pocket of nature: Pleasant Valley Conservancy (and State Natural Area)

Sometimes, I find an area that is so wonderful I can hardly believe my eyes, and I forget to use my camera. I stop and stare, and become part of the Environment, and seriously consider keeping the camera in my bag, hoarding the experience to myself. But on this trip, my family was along, and my wife wanted some butterfly pictures. And wow, were the butterflies out! Swallowtails, Checkerspots, Fritillaries, Wood Nymphs, Viceroys, Northern Pearly-Eyes, as well as Dragonflies, honeybees, some caterpillars, other insects, and even an Indigo Bunting (bird).

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Pleasant Valley Conservancy: Eastern Tiger Swallowtail
11" x 14" Print Only	$175
11" x 14" Framed	$225
8" x 10" Print Only	$100
8" x 10" Framed	$150

Pleasant Valley Conservancy: JoePie Weed and Birches
11" x 14" Print Only	$175
11" x 14" Framed	$225
8" x 10" Print Only	$100
8" x 10" Framed	$150

Pleasant Valley Conservancy: Birch and Ferns
11" x 14" Print Only	$175
11" x 14" Framed	$225
8" x 10" Print Only	$100
8" x 10" Framed	$150

 

From Cute to Film Noir in one day

Lexxy was so much fun to work with. She wanted everything! Urban, Sports, Nature, Studio! We had to work pretty fast. Before the shoot we worked a lot of logistics. Most importantly was geographic routing as it pertained to outfits. Starting at Point A gave us Nature. Walk a little to the West and we get Sand Volleyball and a slice of Urban life. Walk up the hill into the City and we can get Urban, which leads us to the Studio for last.

Speaking of the Studio, when Lexxy walked out the White dress, I was like: Nuts! White on white background. But with a little twidllin’ of the knobs on the lights, we got some awesome shots!

Great times Alexia, good luck your Senior Year!

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