Rebecca H. Romano Photography

Minimo Workshop

2008-11-24T15:13:00.001-06:00

Mary Rose's Last Election

For my photo story class, we went to St. James, Mo for a four day weekend in October to find a story of our own that will eventually be published in a book on the town of St. James, Mo.

A couple of weekends before, participants of the Missouri Photo Workshop spent a week finding a story in this small, Missouri town. This was our opportunity to find those stories that had yet to make it into the book and complete the story of St. James.

Because of the prominence of the election, I decided to do a story on the GOP office in town. It was the first year that St. James opened a Republican office, and it did quiet well, say the organizers, Mary Rose and Clark Harrison. "St. James is 99% Republican," says Mary Rose, who is the main director of the office in St. James.

Both Mary Rose and Clark have volunteered their time with the GOP. Mary Rose started at the age of 19 with the Young Republicans, doing door-to-door campaigning for candidates. Today, Clark is a committee man for the party.

This will be Mary Rose's last year to run an office, however. She is almost completely blind. It is a sad for her, as she has dedicated her life to the Republican Party. She hopes to dedicate her time to Pro-Life, instead.

Staff Photojournalism Photo Story - Judith McKenney

2008-08-15T23:47:00.000-05:00

Judith McKenney had been preparing for the Ms. Missouri Senior Pageant for three months, since Feb. I took photos of her at the second of the three practice run-throughs. The pageant was held on July 12, 2008 in Florissent Civic Center in Florissent, Missouri. She won second-runner up.

Top Pics from Staff Photography Spring semester '08

2008-08-15T22:33:00.000-05:00

Working as a staff photographer for the Columbia Missourian was more than I could chew at times, but I found myself to be quite the sports shooter. For some reason, it seemed to fit. It's another cup of joe than I enjoy, considering that my start in photography was art based. And I consider the training a much needed purpose of my journey.

Some top pics below of my staff experience:

Multiple Flash

2007-12-03T14:16:00.000-06:00

Whitney Colvin, a senior at Halias High School, puts away ice skates at the Washington Park Ice Arena in Jefferson City, Missouri, Sunday December 2, 2007. This is her second season at the Ice Arena. She says that the Ice Arena is a very interesting place to work because of the type of people she gets to interact with. “When schools like the Missouri School of the Deaf come in, I know I’ll have the chance to connect with the students over the season. It’s a great place to work, because I get that kind of interaction.”

Critique

I have to say this was the hardest of all our assignments. Multiple flash doesn’t seem that hard, but when you can’t get your flash to sink with your partners, or the equipment guy at the window didn’t give you all the equipment that you needed, what can you do? I'm not very HAPPY about this pic or the circumstances I was given to get this done, so with that said:

My select was shot from the left side of the skate rental desk. My flash was off- camera and then Colleen flashed toward the inside of the room about 10 feet to my right. It was shot at f8 at 1/20 at an ISO of 800, at 95 mm focal length. I set my white balance to florescent and we gelled our strobes green. I dialed my flash up to +3. Because of the grid in front of me, I had a hard time with my automatic focus, but I felt she was in focus with good lighting on her face and with the skates a little out of focus, it gave a little movement to the picture.

Multiple Flash Lighting

2007-12-03T14:13:00.000-06:00

Audio Slideshow Selects

2007-11-27T13:51:00.000-06:00

Here are a few slideshows that I thought had some interest. I looked through a lot of slideshows - it seems that none were perfect, but I picked these either because the pictures, the audio, or both were good. Some are better than others.

St. Louis Dispatch
From Afghanistan by David Carson
http://www.stltoday.com/multimedia/

Elvis is Leaving the Building
By David Carson
http://www.stltoday.com/mds/news/html/673

Dallas News
*Evi’s Still Evi
By Cheryl Diaz Meyer
http://www.dallasnews.com/s/dws/photography/2007/EviHulls/

Elvis is Leaving the Building had an intriquing way about it - I'm guessing it is the story that is intriguing - who does this. The pictures aren't that great, but the audio is what captures the story. But I did feel that it did a good job showing what the museum was about, from the flow of the pics with the overall sound. It had a good variety of pics (indepth pics of the memrabilia to normal shots and wide angle shots) of which it enhanced the story, but also the interview was very well done and enhanced the story. Had good opening pics, with the Elvis recording that drew the viewer in (I was definetly intrigued), and I felt the closer pic wrapped up the story. Although most of the pics show what is inside the museum, I felt that was part of the narrative. The owner was selling the contents of the museum, and those things he enjoyed. For him, it would be hard to let them go.

I liked From Afghanistan by David Carson because it showed the different aspects of issues going on in Afghanistan. Each segment brought the viewer into the story. The segment on the hosipital was probably the best, because the sound and the pictures give it more depth. I don't feel that this is a perfect piece - it seems there could be less pictures, and the pictures could line up better with the sound. But overall, I understood what was happening there. The pics captured what was lacking for the hosipital in this community, and the sound gave the listener the intent of its doctors and the community's desire to keep the hospital running. I had wished that the audio had lined up better with the pictures, but in some ways with the doc talking about his experience within the hospital, the audio backs up the story, and the audio doesn't necessarily have to match up.

Eve's Still Evi
I felt this soundslide was overall put together well, from the technical aspects to the sound meshing well with the story. It just seemed to flow. And I liked how they opened up with the song, the focus on the subject of the story, the little girl. The pics showed her personality, her courage, and her adjustment to life with her new legs. The story portrayed hope for her life and her ability to handle her circumstances well. I also thought the pics were strong, good content, and they kept the viewer interested. The only flaw is the ending. I think it could have been cut off at the end of the mother speaking. The girl's voice was distracting and it confused the viewer as how it related to the story.

Fill, Balance, & Blend

2007-11-16T16:18:00.000-06:00

An Elvis impersonator dances with one of the women from the Wilson’s Total Fitness booth at ‘Dream Night in the Tropics’, a fundraising event for Dreams to Reality on Saturday, November 10, 2007. Dream Night in the Tropics is a fun-filled evening for woman to have a girl’s night out. The event brought together area merchants and service providers such as spa services, boutiques, wellness centers to area restaurants and local chefs. The proceeds from the event goes toward the daily operations of Dreams to Reality, a not-for-profit organization based in Jefferson City that serves low-income women from Mid-Missouri counties. Their mission is to provide interview-ready apparel to low-income women of Mid-Missouri who seek employment, thus promoting self-esteem and enhancing their employability.

Critique

For the blending technique, I shot at an event on Saturday, called Dream Night in the Tropics, at Truman Hotel in Jefferson City. But it was extremely difficult to shoot there, because the room was packed with people elbow to elbow in this tiny conference room. I tried to shoot the Elvis impersonator, but he was constantly running around and (I couldn’t catch him fast enough through all the people), get a good picture compositionally, or without so many people jammed into me, pushing me out of the way. This is pretty much the only one I got that looked good. I think my select is pretty cool, and it was pretty much given from the Photo God.

For my select, I shot in front, off center just a tad, with my flash on camera, directed at the subjects. I shot at F4.5 at a shutter speed of 1/1/6 at an ISO of 250. I used TTL flash, dialed down to 1 stop. I also had an orange gel on my flash for the tungsten light. This is from my blending outtakes.

Blending Light Set Up

2007-11-16T16:15:00.000-06:00

Color Correction

2007-11-07T16:19:00.000-06:00

Sara Hotop, a senior at Hickman High School, shares her “hi and low” of the week at a Young Life Campaigners event as Molly Sjurson, a senior at Hickman, and Mary Kate Loring, a junior at the University of Missouri, look on. Young Life is a parachurch organization that trains leaders to develop relationships with kids in high school and middle school. Each week, the girls meet with their leader, Amy Neal, as a time to study the Bible and share their experiences with each other.

Critique

I enjoyed this assignment, BUT . . .why is flash so dang hard to learn? And boy is it hard to find interesting content for F-light, something that isn’t someone sitting at a desk. For this assignment, I found myself fumbling over so many of the details entailed in this project that I lost track of what is important. It was frustrating to find that when the shoot was almost over I had my settings set at the wrong place, my flash wasn’t gelled at the appropriate time, or my flash got dialed down a stop.

However, it was fun to see how each picture comes out depending on the gel used and the temperature of light. I had always wondered why pictures looked a certain color over others. But why do my pictures have such an orangish and greenish cast after the gel is on the flash? It seems that the pictures without the gel look better. Am I doing something wrong – maybe my custom setting wasn’t right, I’m not sure!

Anyway, my select was shot from the right of the subject, at a 45-degree angle. I shot at F4.5, 1/200 at ISO 100. I bounced the flash off the walls. I was kind of limited with space, but felt I did an adequate job. I felt I couldn’t do off camera flash, as it would have been too disrupting. I think maybe the shadows under the subject’s eyes could be a little better? Not sure and the yellow cast to the picture is a little strong when printed out. But the subjects’ skin tones seem to be right on. This select was from my Tungsten shoot.

Painting With Light

2007-10-25T15:13:00.000-05:00

It was a sultry night of karaoke jazz in the University of Missouri photography studio in Columbia, Missouri on Monday, October 22, 2007. Josh Bickel, who played the trumpet in his high school band, “always wanted to play the saxophone”.

Critique

I enjoyed this assignment. As always, the hardest thing for me is coming up with good content, and then getting that idea out of my head and technically right on camera. Basically, we just played around with the light, getting used to our light sources and how much output they had. It was fun to see what came up on the camera, but frustrating too because to paint the sax, I had to be dead on the bell and perfect at painting every time: Would the light be in the frame of the camera, look natural, and be ascetically pleasing as far as how much light was burned in. (Groping around in the dark was the biggest challenge, I think.) But the more takes we did, the more we began to get the hang of the effects that could be done with light.

I was trying to get a picture that showed some sort of motion, to portray the emotional side of jazz. After looking at my outtakes on my computer, I realized that I had a pink gel on my flash (from our previous shoot of me on point shoes). I didn’t think about how that would look on Josh’s skin.

For my select, Josh started at the left side of the frame. I popped the flash once on the left side of the room about 10 feet away. Then he moved to the middle right of the frame and bent down. I popped the flash again at the same distance. And then came over and painted light with a reading light (with a pink gel) around the bell, creating swirls going out. I think my only gripe about my select is the pink gel muddied his skin and brown sweater. I should have taken off the gel. Also, I wish that the backdrop were a little blacker on the left side of the picture between the two saxes. The picture also feels a little under exposed to me. I had dialed down the flash to 1/16 because I felt the light output was too bright. But I think 1/8 or ¼ probably would’ve been better. My select was shot at an ISO of 500 and F8. Shutter put on bulb.

Single Flash assignment - Cooking for Alpha Phi Sorority

2007-10-18T15:27:00.001-05:00

Bob Heyn cooks quesadillas, while James Wood cuts and prepares them for the buffet lunch at the Alpha Phi Sorority House on the University of Missouri campus in Columbia, Missouri on Monday, October 15. 2007. The men work for Sterling Food Service Management, who are contracted by the sorority house. Sterling Food Service prides themselves on being “the Cadillac brand” of contracted food services within the fraternity and sororities on the MU campus, says David Barry, owner.

Single Flash Assignment - 'Fall Into Style' for Cancer Awareness

2007-10-18T15:23:00.000-05:00

A model shows off a dress made by a student at Stephen’s College for the ‘Fall Into Style’ Fashion Show at Commerce Bank. The dress was made out of recycled gloves and an old wedding dress to promote awareness in that “everyone has a hand in fighting breast cancer”. The fashion show featured styles from local downtown boutiques and dress designs of recycled materials by Stephen’s College fashion students followed by a raffle and open house, trunk shows, and refreshments at downtown boutiques with proceeds from any sales benefiting the Susan G. Komen for the Cure Foundation. Stephen’s College and The District sponsored the event.

Critique

This assignment was emotionally hard for me. I felt I was up against every technical challenge known to man: how do I control such harsh shadows, how do I hold the flash and take pictures (and that won’t blur), where do I bounce the light, who will finally let me continually flash them for an hour, not much news worthiness out there this week, why did my autofocus not work right. But I felt the more I practiced, the more I began to understand flash, and I was able to understand proper placement of the flash. It’s certainly tricky trying to figure out where to bounce the flash. For some reason, most of my pictures are blurry and the auto focus lever on my camera got moved to a different setting. I didn’t realize those images I wanted in focus were blurry, as it was focusing on the other stuff. It was quite discouraging when I downloaded the pictures onto my computer!

For my first shoot, I shot at the ‘Fall Into Fashion’ Fashion Show. It was held in the Commerce Bank, which had very high ceilings, and there was nothing in there that had adequate walls or floors to bounce off. So I knew I would have to shoot with off-camera flash. I put the flash on manual to practice the distance ratio and F-stop equivilants. I found it to be a helpful exercise. But I was also frustrated that my flash didn’t recharge more quickly, and that I couldn’t stabilize my camera very well, only having one hand and all. I found most of my pictures to be underexposed, because I shot too early when the models were too far from me. I couldn’t open my lens any wider, and since the flash didn’t charge as quickly, I found I lost out on pictures that were better framed and more visually interesting.

At my next shoot, I shot the house chefs at the Alpha Phi Sorority house on the MU campus. There wasn’t much lighting in the kitchen, so I thought the flash might overpower and produce some harsh shadows. So I put the camera on TTL. Most of the kitchen was covered with metal, so I bounced off of it, but felt there was a grey cast to the skin. I then started bouncing off of the chefs white jackets. This seemed to cast softer shadows. I think I got some visually interesting pictures. But this was the shoot that my autofocus lever got moved from what I was used to working in, so many of my pictures are focused on the wrong things or are blurry.

My final shoot was at Bluestem Crafts. I felt more relaxed with this shoot, because the women I shot were very willing to help me. I approached this shoot by slowly myself down and worked through the process more slowly. I felt I could do this, because there were few customers coming in and out of the shop. I shot both in TTL and manual, and I shot on and off camera (mostly off). However, although there were white walls, they were covered with many colorful things, and the ceilings were too high and colored black. Trying to bounce off of something became challenging, so I pulled out my white card, but found that most of my pictures had harsh shadows and hot spots. I did try to turn down the flash for less power output. I guess I am still just confused by the process of it all.

For my selects, I chose those from my first shoot. I picked the picture of the two chefs, because I felt that it was visually interesting, was adequately exposed, and the flash did a good job highlighting without overpowering. This was my bounced select. I shot this at F5.6, 1/125 at 100 ISO with TTL bounced flash (off of his jacket), and with a 28.0mm lens. I shot directly to the left of the men. I decided to bounce off of his jacket because where the men were directly working, they were surrounded by grey metal and it was producing greyish skin tones. The walls and ceilings weren’t good to bounce from either.

I chose my other select, the girl in the dress, because I felt the light created from the direct off camera flash the feeling of being at a fashion show. And although, I’m not particular happy with the deep shadows around the shoulders (I think I should of waited just a little longer for her to move closer to me to produce the correct angle and shadow and to evenly distribute the light on the dress), the light enhances the cause of the show – breast cancer awareness. The dress was made out of recycled gloves and an old wedding dress to promote the cause in that “everyone has a hand in fighting breast cancer”. I shot this at F5 at 1/125 at 100 ISO with a 50 mm lens. This was off camera direct flash. I was to the left of the models in the middle of the runway. With this shot, I was down on the floor sitting, trying to stabalize my camera with my elbow on my knee, while raising the off-camera flash high over my head hoping to highlight the entire dress with light.

(Metal) and Glass

2007-10-05T22:42:00.001-05:00

Need an idea that will make your sweetheart swoon? Get creative with construction paper, glue, and scissors and cut yourself a bouquet of flowers. Colored paper and textured shapes, combined with your favorite vase make an easy and sweet project for the one you love. A love preservative is all that is needed to keep this bouquet fresh for years to come.

Critique

For my select, I used the pexi glass stand. I used two lights and a reflector. The main light was the boom with a soft box on it, and I put it directly behind the pexi glass. Then I put a light on a low tripod under the pexi glass and directed it back at a white reflector I put beneath the boom. This was to get rid of that grey line that seems to be prominant at the base of the pexi glass. I used 300 watts for each light. I shot at 1/125 shutter speed at F22, at a 200 ISO. My focal length was 80mm. This particular shot I felt was still a little underexposed, but I had a hard time trying to balance the exposure of getting detail in the glass vase without it be overexposed and then making sure I was getting proper exposure for the backdrop pexi glass. I found that I had to go up on my tiptoes and get at a certain angle just to have proper detail in the vase, but it limited my artist elements of the picture. I tried different angles, but all my other pictures had clipping in the white areas. This seemed to be my best one, artistically and technically.

Classmate Portrait - Alex Grigsby

2007-10-02T18:25:00.001-05:00

Alex Grisby, 28, a senior convergence journalism major at the University of Missouri, is in his last semester. He hopes to take pictures for a living after college, and he is presently working to establish a photo business. When asked what his friends would say about him Alex commented, “They would probably say that I am crazy and ready to do anything that gets a laugh or the adrenaline pumping. I love to laugh and have a good time. I strive for a surplus of laughter in my life.”

Critique

For my final select, I used only one light with a softbox. It is to the camera’s right hand side at 45 degrees. I also used a tan reflector on the left side of the camera at 45 degrees from the subject. I had 800 mw of power. I believe I had a 2:1 ratio. I shot an exposure at F18 at 1/125 shutter speed, with my ISO at 200. I used a 46 mm focal length for my lens. I decided to use a softbox because I felt that it created a softer look for the hair and skin. The specular light was a little too harsh, and the diffuse light added to the more playful look of the shot.

I learned a lot from the project and I am interested in learning more about portraits and perfecting my technique. I think the more you work at something, the better you become.

Changing the Light

2007-09-15T21:31:00.000-05:00

This assignment seems easy – pick a place and capture it five different times. However, I quickly realized that to make a ‘great picture’, I needed either a place or object that had some color, or artificial light or natural light to enhance or make color to give it more interest. Otherwise the picture would be boring without those elements. I also found that the direction or relation of the sun to the object caused problems as well. I recognized that the place or object had to be free from shadow, from the rising of the sun in the east and again as it set from the west. For me, this was the problem. I scouted out so many places, but quickly found that the spot would look great as the sun rose, but by sundown the object or place was in shadow. And being in the city, my choices seemed limited for some reason, for I am one who loves to take landscape or architectural photography. I quickly found this to be somewhat difficult, because of the tree and shadow factor and without the time to go find a great landscape spot. So, I choice the Stephen’s Lake area, thinking that although the color would be somewhat limited (differing shades of green), the area had enough space that the sun would illume all parts of my spot and the sunlight would bring color to the water. Also, the bridge and landing area had some good shape and form that could bring interest as well. Hopefully, throughout the day, folks would be out and about enjoying the park and would make it into my picture. A little less boring indeed!

Luckily for me, Wednesday morning produced some amazing fog on the lake as the sun rose. As it did, the light really brought forth streaks and color across the area. It was a cold and breathtaking morning, but lovely pics. No one came out until after the sun rose, but they made it into my picture.

As I approached how to meter early morning, I knew I needed a fairly high ISO. I then opened up as far as my lens would go (F3.5), metered the sky and then adjusted my shutter speed to what my meter said. I then recomposed my picture toward the lake. Because I wanted a story telling view, i.e. great depth-of-field, I set my lens to F16. Since I stopped the lens down so many stops (after metering the sky), I had to do the same with my shutter speed. I needed to increase my exposure time by an equal number of stops. I set my camera on a timer and took the picture. Although I got many pictures with adequate detail and lighting, I liked the darker pictures, because I wanted the focus to be on the fog and not so much on the lake or grassy detail.

The midday pics are fairly boring. What do you expect with lots of green and the same shades of colored water and grass. But as the sun began to set, its warm tone brought out color again upon the water.

I liked how this assignment really made me look at the direction of light. It helped me stay aware of the direction of the sun. Also, after exploring the city of Columbia, I had a better idea of what areas were lit and shaded at various times of the day. I also got more familiar with my camera controls – seeing the differences that one stop can make, and the differing degrees of creativity it brings to each picture.

I think I need to learn to keep looking at all sides of an area to get the best picture, to not just settle. However, I felt because I had limited amounts of time in that 30-minute magic hour that to keep looking for the perfect shot was not as possible. But I reminded myself that there is always the next morning to come back and shoot again at a different angle, and perhaps find a better shot. I did use different lenses, and increased and decreased my tripod for differing views as well. But I realized that I had too many different angles to chose from and this created an editing nightmare, as I want out again in those 3-hour increments. But it did give me lots of possible choices and it helped me understand my camera more. I still see the necessity to keep using the creative brain – to find the creative picture and not just the perfect exposure.

Assignment#1 - Copy Test

2007-08-28T15:27:00.000-05:00

For this assignment, I tried to go out to as many local events as possible. For some reason, I captured better pictures from my tungston shoot than my daylight pictures, probably because I was less tired.

On my CT select, I shot from a distance from the left side of the stage. I had a clear view of her and the stage with relatively few interruptions. Because of the layout of Cherry Street Artisan, I felt it was obtrusive to be walking around a shooting, so I kept to a table. The lighting was fairly low, so I boosted my ISO up to 1000, and then used a telephoto lens (135 – 200) to get close. I opened my F-stop as far as I could go (F5.6), and then metered at a shutter speed of 1/25. I tried to meter an area of lighting that I felt the light was falling on the subject. To tell you the truth, I am still a little inexperienced at understanding exposure and metering. So I’m not exactly sure what I was going for, only that I felt the sharp contrast of light created a picture that showed some emotion. The subject wasn’t one to show a lot of emotion as she sang, so I thought the lighting could portray what she did show. Also, I struggle with editing my pictures, choosing a good select. So I’m not sure if this is the best choice or not, and I hope to get more confident in that, understanding the process of selection.

On my MT select, frankly I felt none of my pictures were that great. For those pictures that weren’t that great, I had great caption information. But, I didn’t feel they were as strong to choose from. I chose this picture because of the emotions on their faces, the way the light fell, and the colors. It creates a sense of fun and the viewer feels they are apart of the ride. I knew I needed a fast shutter speed to stop the action and to get relative detail on the subjects faces. So I chose 1/500 to stop the action. I then metered my light, and it came to F8. I kept my ISO at 200 because of the sunlight. However, I didn’t get a lot of caption information, which was my fault. I seem to be more concerned with the technical aspects, and forget the details of caption writing. I know I need to work on that. Hopefully, it will become second nature. But there is sooooo many details.

I noticed on many of my pictures that my subjects were looking down a lot. In many of them, the viewer can’t see their eyes. I sense in myself that I need to be more proactive in asking my subjects to look up if they are posing per se. Or to really be observant and aware of the subjects body language and act on that when necessary, so that I can get better shots of their faces. I also struggle with being quick enough to capture the subjects when they move.

Also, I come from an art photography background and I am struggling with the artistically posed shot, instead of capturing pictures that tell more of a story – movement, more people, interaction, etc. I found that my pictures were starting to look the same. I need to be more aware of that as well. How do I learn to shoot more journalistically, instead of artistically? I need some pointers on that.