Ronnie Hilderman "Portraits of 100 Strangers" 3 of 100

Ronnie Hilderman was actually not a stranger to me. He didn't know that though. I actually met Ronnie at Publix back towards the beginning of the summer of 2009. I was working at Publix at the time.
Around 2:00 p.m. the sirens at the court house went off. We were under a tornado warning. All of the managers and employees at the store scampered to get all of the customers inside. Of course I had my nose all up in the window looking for this massive beast of a tornado.
The emergency broadcasting system was buzzing like crazy so, I knew that it had to be bad. Somehow I managed to weasel my way out the front door to watch for this thing. It wasn't long till I actually saw it making its way toward us over the tree line. Quickly I ran back inside and informed the managers. This thing was a beast.
Every one was instructed to go back to the back of the store and get into one of the coolers where it would be safe. The beast actually sounded like a freight train as it grew nearer. I was always told that they sounded like a freight train and, that it did. After about a minute or two it grew quiet again. Just like that it had come and gone. Leaving 23 miles of destruction and devastation in its path. Two lives were taken that day and hundreds of homes were destroyed.
Ronnie Hilderman was one of the customers in the cooler that day. I remember thinking to myself, boy id love to do a shoot with him. Well this week as I was out and about looking for my next subject, there he was. Sitting in the barbers chair at the local barber shop. I knew at this point that I had to go and talk to him and ask him if he would be my subject.
Ronnie replied that he had to get back to work and that he was on his lunch break. "I'll see if I have enough time after having this hair of mine cut," he said.
I was able to get about 10 minutes with Ronnie. Just enough time to get my lights set up camera adjusted and fired off a couple of shots. The wind was also bad that day so it made it hard to keep his hair out of his face, much less keeping my lighting from getting blown over. I'm hoping to find Ronnie again soon, when he has more time. Id love to do a good 30 minute photo session with him.
Yes I did use the my Exposure Card on this shot. It has given perfect exposure for my off camera strobes every time. However, I did take exposure down just a little on the first image of this story. Not much about .17 of a stop just because personally I wanted this image just a tad darker.

Exposure Card

Hey every one I am currently working on a new project. Its called the exposure card. Now I know what you all are thinking, just another gray card,but this is very different from a grey card. This little gem is used to aperture for off camera strobe lighting.
Forget paying hundreds of dollars for a digital light meter. The exposure card is intended for amateur photographers (strobist) who are on a budget. At the moment we are looking at around $35.00 U.S. dollars for this little gem. You wont believe what it can do. I have a prototype that i have been using for about a month now and it gives me a perfect exposure setting for my off camera flash every time. I was kind of sceptical about how well it would work at first and caught myself still trying to chimp on exposure. After a couple of sessions I learned to trust it. every shot on my blog has been metered with the exposure card and I have not had to do any out of camera exposure adjustment. Please leave me a comment on this post if you are interested in my product. I will send you a notice just as soon as I have the exposure card out on the market.

Thanks again,
James Strength Photography

Portraits of 100 Strangers Update

Just want every one that's viewing my page that I will try and have a new portrait up at least once a week. Please don't give up on me. This is a tough project and takes great skill in talking someone into doing a shoot with me, especially if I have just approached them on the streets. Thank you for viewing my page and have a great day.

"Portraits of 100 Strangers" 2 of 100

This weeks portrait is actually through a contact that I had made last week. As I was out on my daily walk around the square in Murfreesboro, trying to find my next subject for this project I spied a sofa in one of the local shops. This thing just reached out and grabbed me. It was avocado green with white star bursts. How 70's Retro! I loved it and absolutely had to have it in a photograph.

Without hesitation I ran into the salon and asked for the owner. The receptionist told me that she was in a meeting and asked if she could be of assistance.
Well maybe, I'm out in the field working on this project. I then proceeded to let her in on what I was doing. Talk about a strange look from a stranger. The look that I received from her was, "BOY YOU GOT SOME BALLS". Just going around asking people that you don't know if you can take their picture. The receptionist said that she would give her manager the message.
I didn't have time to waste waiting around for the manager to get out of a meeting. Who knows how long that meeting was going to last. Instead I told the receptionist that I would be here on the block for a while today and that she could call me on my cell if she was interested in helping me out.
Back out the door I went. I continued to scout the streets downtown for another prospect for about another hour. Not having any luck I decided to pack it up and head home. "forget it the salon owner isn't going to call me back".
A couple of days had passed and I had forgotten all about asking the salon owner to call me on my cell. Wednesday afternoon my phone rang. I assured and low and behold it was the owner of the salon with that Beautiful Retro green couch. I briefly filled her in on what I was doing and before I could even finish she said sure come on down and we can shoot. We set the date for Monday September,22.
Monday morning had arrived and I was so ready for this shoot. I called Valery the store owner to confirm. She said that she wasn't dressed for taking photos today and didn't want to participate. Oh well I thought to myself, another one down.
However I do have my little 15 month old with me and you would be more that welcome to come and do a shoot with him. Wow I thought!! OK I'm on my way.

I used a process on the image above called loom. It simulates the effects of a lomo camera. For those of you that don't know what a lomo camera is, Its a very inexpensive Russian made camera. The poor quality lens of the camera actually causes vingetting around the frame of its photos. It also causes very high color saturation and blown out whites. I thought that this process that very fitting with the old green couch.

Lighting: 2 Vivitar 285hv's bounced out of a reflective ubrella left of camera. Big bay window on right for some fill. It was a cloudy day out so the light coming in from the window was nice and soft.

Portraits of 100 Strangers

Over the past two days I had continued my search for Portraits of 100 Strangers to no avail. Rather than not post any thing at all this week I will make a posting about my shoot with a coworker and good friend (Brittany).

Brittany and I had arrived at Murfreesboro Battle Grounds 8:15 a.m. Monday morning. Eager to start shooting I grabbed my things from the truck and headed to a field of wheat grass, with Brittany right on my heals. Once we arrived at the location where we were going to shoot, I made her wait while I checked for snakes and trampled down some of the tall grass where we would be shooting.

I began setting up my lights when I was approached by the park ranger. "You guys aren't doing a commercial shoot are you"
No I told the ranger. "Just some work for my portfolio".
The park ranger proceeded to inform me that if we were doing a commercial shoot that we would need a permit. I assured him that it wasn't commercial.

He also proceeded to inform us that the grass that we were going to be shooting in was full of chiggers. I didn't care. I had had this spot in mind for months. I was only waiting to find the right person to be my model for the day. Brittany definitely fit the scene. I asked her if she minded if there were chiggers and she made it clear that she didn't mind. Brittany was a real champ. I think she ended up rolling in the chigger infested grass for about 30 minuets. "YOU GO BRITTANY"!!!

Below is the lighting diagram for the above shot.

My light source was 2 Vivitar 285hv's bounced out of a silver umbrella.

Camera Settings: ISO 100, F/10, Shutter speed 1/100

I used a gray card for an ambient light reading. I bumped the shutter speed up 2 stops to cut back on ambient light and make Brittany pop just a little.

Thank you Brittany for making this shoot possible.

My Apologies

Just want to let you all know that I am sorry that I havent made any posts in the past couple of days. I have a full time job with my little one and a part time job at Publix. My next post for Portraits of 100 Strangers should be this Monday. I am also hoping to make another post on Tuesday as well. Im am going to put a full day in on this project on Monday and hopefully I will get more than one stranger to work with me. Keep your fingers crossed for me anyway.

"Portraits of 100 Strangers" Subject 1/100

Day one, and so my journey begins. Portraits of 100 Strangers. Today I will start my journey at Old Fort Park, Murfreesboro Tennessee. Filled with hundreds of people every day I figured that this would be as good a location as any.

I have had the opportunity to do a few shoots in this location. Although not an easy task to get a parents consent to let a total stranger take photos of them and their children, it has worked for me before.

I arrived at the park at around 10:15 am. unloaded my gear walked into the park planted myself on a bench and began to write my days events down in my journal. There were several people there but no one seemed very friendly. I tried to strike conversation with several and all I got was a grunt. 11:15 rolled around, I had been there an hour so, I decided to roll on over to the local gas station and grab myself an Ice cold watter.

12:05 pm. I wanted to give the park one more shot for the day. Not long after my arrival a lady with two children came and sat at the other end of the bench. I somehow managed to spark up a casual conversation, as well as introducing myself. Eventually working my way around to telling her what I was up to. I told her that I was on a mission to shoot portraits of 100 strangers. Pausing a moment, I asked her if she would be up for being my model for a short photo shoot. With no hesitation, she agreed.
Thank you Megan and thank the two cute little boys that were with you!

For the shoot I used 2 off camera speed lights bounced out of a reflective umbrella positioned just right of camera about 45 degrees of camera and subject. So sorry I didn't get a setup shot of the shoot. I was so excited about Megan letting me shoot her and the boys that I totally forgot.

Photographing 100 Strangers

I'm thinking about dedicating this page to photographing total strangers. Meaning, I'll be going out on the streets finding a place to set up my lighting equipment and doing a shoot with the first stranger that agrees to sit for me. It's going to be a hard task, as people aren't as friendly in front of cameras these days or with other strangers as far as that goes. I have asked strangers before and have gotten results. The little girl in this short post was one of the few that had agreed. Of coarse her mom and dad gave their consent as well. I am interested in seeing how this goes and the people that will actually sit for me. With each shoot I will post the lighting set up and camera setup. I would like to do this as a 365 day project meaning, finding a subject every day but, I know that wont work due to the fact that I do have to work a job to support my family. Ah I just saw a post for 100 strangers. I think that this project will be more feasible for me. Tuesday September 8 will be my first day of the project. Wish me luck.

Daily Photographers Quote

"Making pictures is a very simple act. There is no great secret in photography...schools are a bunch of crap. You just need practice and application of what you've learned. My absolute conviction is that if you are working reasonably well the only important thing is to keep shooting...it doesn't matter whether you are making money or not. Keep working, because as you go through the process of working things begin to happen". Elliott Erwitt

Nashvile Strobist Meet... August 15, 2009

I'm going to back up for just a minute. On August 15, 2009 John Birdsign and I hosted the Nashville Strobist Meet. The event took about three months of preparation sweat and dedication.

August 15, 2009 8 am. The moment had finally arrived. John and I met Outside of Marathon Motor Works front doors. Excited to see each other after several months we embraced in a firm hand shake and friendly hug. It was finally time to get the ball rolling.

Not long after our arrival all the other photographers, models, hair designers, and makeup artists started rolling in for a day of fun and excitement? Oh no we couldn't get into the building that had been lent to us for the day. The grounds keeper hadn't shown up to let us in. 45 Minutes had passed since our crew had started rolling in, and still no grounds keeper. What were we to do? Some of us began to search the building across the street that was also lent to us, still part of Marathon for another rout in. After about 15 minutes of searching one of the other photographers reported that there were double doors that were unlocked at the other end of the building. Shew what a relief. At least we could get into one of the buildings. We managed to get in to the biggest part of the building which was where we wanted to be any way. Only one problem, we didn't have running water for the MUA's and hairdressers. Immediately I headed down one of the long corridors of the building, searching for another room that would accommodate them.

It wasn't long till I ran into a gentleman standing in the corridor at the other end of the building. I explained to the man what was going on and why we were here. Yes he said I own the gym here on the bottom floor. You and your crew are more than welcome to set up in our shower rooms. He also stated that he had dressing rooms for the models if we needed them. Awesome, everything was falling into place. My nerves were starting to calm a little now.

After getting the Hair Designers and MUA's settled in I headed back toward the other end of the building to meet back up with the other photographers. We had all congregated in this huge massive loft area. Perfect for a day of shooting. John and I explained the do's and donts as to where they could set up and where they couldn't set up. Which took all of 15 minutes.

After the brief meeting we all split up into groups to begin the days journey. Here are some of my shot from the days shoot.

Todays Quote

Desire
And that desire--the strong desire to take pictures--is important. It borders on a need, based on a habit: the habit of seeing. Whether working or not, photographers are looking, seeing, and thinking about what they see, a habit that is both a pleasure and a problem, for we seldom capture in a single photograph the full expression of what we see and feel. It is the hope that we might express ourselves fully--and the evidence that other photographers have done so--that keep us taking pictures. - Sam Abell

About Me

Hello all, I don't really know how to start this page so I guess I'll just jump right in. I have started this page in order to keep track of my life as a photographer. To record the good times and the bad.

Lately it seems as though all I have run into is bad luck. Last September I was froced to close down a business of which I ran for four years very successfully, due to the fall of the housing market, leaving me in much disarray and heart ache. Over the past year I have struggled to make ends meet for my family and my 18 month old little boy Nicholas. At the moment I am working at the local grocery store and trying to make a few extra bucks on the side as a photographer. Such an up hill battle this has become. At times it seems as though I'll get three steps ahead and then get hit in the face with a basebal bat knocking me back another ten.
Photography has been a passion since I was a teenager. Only over the past 2 years have I decided to put my heart and soul into the profession.

Just to let you know, I am a man of simple words, nothing to complicated. I hope you enjoy my blog and look foreword to posting more about my life and photography here in this community.