DoD worldwide photography workshop

Wow it has been a long time since I've touched this thing, I have been so busy in my personal life and honestly just wasn't motivated enough to keep posting here. Well here goes again I will try to keep this thing going this time.

So in 2008 and 2009 I was lucky enough to attend the DoD photography workshop. Only 25 photographers are selected from the entire Department of Defense including civil service photographers. The staff and presenters at this thing are a who's who in our field. Joe McNally, Greg Hren, Jamie Rose, Earnie Grafton and Mary Calvert to name a few. Plus they bring the top military shooters from all the branches to mentor the attendees. JT locke, Bennie Davis , Tom Sperduto are just a couple I was lucky enough to meet.

The first year I attended I was on Earnie Grafton and Bennie Davis' team Earnie is a retired Marine Gunnery Sergeant who won multiple military photographer of the year awards, he currently works for the San Diego Union Tribune. Bennie is a super talented Air Force photographer who works for Airman Magazine. So the way the workshop works is the first day all the presenters give presentations of their work or classes they have prepared and speak to the group about how they go about their craft etc... After that we break up into teams and receive our assignments. We shoot for the rest of the week and present our top ten at the end of the week. Judging then takes place and winners are decided.

My Assignment was a stable in Columbia, MD. At this point in my life I was a very timid photographer. So the majority of the stuff I was getting involved not having to speak to people. Once my mentors visited the stable they offered some advice and motivated me to keep shooting and focus on a human element.

The experience was absolutely amazing and the mentorship you receive at the workshop is beyond incredible. If this was a civilian workshop being able to have access to these genius' in our field as mentors for a week would probably cost you well over $3,000 IMO.  This was honestly the best experience of my entire Military career.

This was the one photo that wound up in my top ten that I honestly still don't get. I love Earnie, and think he has an amazing photography and editing eye, but to this day this one boggles my mind.

Not much else to say about the 2008 workshop, I enjoyed it soo much I had to come back....

Ok so in 2009 I applied again with an entirely new portfolio, and was selected again to attend the workshop. This time I was lucky enough to be placed on the Incomparable JT Locke's team. JT's approach, work ethic and knowledge is simply astonishing to behold, he really opened my eyes during this workshop. My assignment this time was the WWII memorial in DC. I was still coming out of my shell a little bit at this point in time. I was also getting married a week after the workshop took place and was anticipating a change in duty assignment in the Military, so my mind was a little preoccupied to say the least.

Just like the last workshop I spent the first part being frustrated with myself, and struggling to find anything worthwhile. I got a couple decent shots but never really honed in and made the set of images center around one theme. I ended up trying to theme the images around the mixture of old and young that enjoy the monument, the old because they understand the sacrifice and really appreciate what this monument truly means. The young just enjoy being around the fountain and being out on a beautiful DC day do they truly understand the meaning of the monument, probably not but they enjoy it just the same.  

After a site visit from JT and a couple pep talks I just let it all go said screw it and on my final day of shooting tried some more interesting angles took some chances and engaged with more people than I did the entire rest of the week. I think we ended up using 6 or 7 images from that morning in my final selects.

I absolutely love that umbrella photo, I took it based on some advice from JT. The camera is resting on the ground and I'm no looking through the viewfinder just pressing the shutter as I hold it as low as possible. It givers the viewer the feeling of being under the umbrella. Before attending these workshops I was just focused on taking cool looking photos, but learned that I really need to be focusing on Moments. Capturing the emotion and rare glimpses in time when a person will let you in to their soul.

While I never won anything from either workshop, the experience was absolutely priceless, I gained a greater understanding for my craft and there are still some things I learned that took a couple years to really sink in. This workshop helped me grow so much as a photographer and as a person and I highly recommend any Military shooter to attend, it will literally change your life. Not to mention the mentorship doesn't end at the workshop, every one of the mentors would be more than happy to give you their info and encourage you to continue seeking critiques from them.   

Alrite now that I'm back in the swing of things and stuff has settled down a little for me hopefully I can keep this thing going. Until next time Cliqers Peace - Mike W.

Officer Candidate School: best of

Back in '07-08 I was the photographer for Marine Corps Officer Candidates School (OCS) in Quantico, Va. This was one of the first real challenges and opportunities that presented itself for me to grow as a photographer. At first it was very nerve-racking to go into the OCS environment, drill instructors screaming at the top of their lungs, candidates running around everywhere, pretty much everything you shoot is at a frantic pace.

I credit this experience with instilling a lot of the principles and practices that I incorporate today. Learning to maintain my cool in a panicked environment is one of many tools I took away from OCS. I remember shooting candidates during the in processing phase where the Drill Instructors are running all over the place screaming their heads off at candidates, and one of the DI's pulled me aside and said "I don't care if you stand on a candidates head just let me know before you do it". From that point on I was at ease and just had fun with the entire situation. 

Once I got into the swing of the OCS schedule I was able to do what I love most takes risks and experiment. One of my favorit pieces of advice as a photographer is get what you need then shoot for yourself. Every shoot I go into I get the photos that the requester is asking for first then go do my own thng and shoot what I want. OCS runs on a training schedule so once I shot an event the first time I knew what to expect and with 4-5 platoons in a cycle I was able to shoot and reshoot the same event, knowing the best spots the next time around.

Hope you enjoyed this post, right now I am emptying out my archive, but check back soon for new projects. Lastly in site news expect the posts to be coming through slowly for now, I am focusing my energy on new projects/ moving again and will be posting less frequently. Til next time CliQers :)

Charleston Center for Photography

So my PAO shop recently attended a photo training course at the Charleston Center for photography
The whole experience was absolutely incredible and reenergized my photographic drive. We only spent two days in Charleston, but it was one of those experiences that you always keep with you and draw back on for motivation. First of all the city of Charleston is absolutely awesome. It makes Savannah look like a third world country. If you walk down the historic King street and stop by any restaurant you literally cannot have a bad meal. And I'm not talking chains, almost every restaurant is a local unique spot and the variety is astounding (Thai, Pizza, Italian, hell even a macaroon parlor). Aside from the awesome food the city is drenched in history and a very beautiful locale to boot. I could go on about the city forever but alas the reason you came here is for photo related topics. The Charleston center for photography is an informal photography training school that offers a wide variety of courses, workshops, and free seminars. The staff is mostly former military photographers and they are all extremely experienced.
Our instructors for our mini workshop were Stacy Pearsall and Andy Dunaway, two former Air Force photographers who have won multiple awards for their amazing work.
The first day of the workshop centered around lighting for portraits. We learned about different lighting set ups (rembrandt, broad side, short side, butterfly, clam shell), learned how to use lots of lighting enhancers (beauty dishes, reflectors, soft boxes) and then played around with all of them. If you ever find yourself in the beautiful city of Charleston and have an interest in photography I highly reccomend CCforP.

Here are a couple of the lighting tools and techniques we fooled around with. the top one used a softbox as the main light a reflector to bounce some light onto the face and a single srobe as a hair light positioned behind the subject. The second one we used a tri grip to soften a strobe on one side of the face and then a softbox on the other side and although  you can't see it there is also another strobe behind her for a hair light.
After playing around with these toys we took everything outside to practice some on location lighting, these are all unedited images.

As you can see the first step is to expose for your background, we applied this technique and then started adding lights one by one to expose for the subject. Finally we got even trickier by adding more lights to create seperation.

 

On the second day we took to the streets and tryed to apply some of the new techniques we learned. Stacy and Andy were very helpful with any questions or comments we had. One of the things I have always struggled with as a photographer is the creeper factor. (When you are taking pictures in public and people always seem to shy away and generally be freaked out by the fact that you are holding a camera.) Stacy offered me this nugget on the subject. If your camera is always up to your face you never give anyone the chance to give you the stink face and start the awkwardness. It's still a work in progress but it is definitely something I'm getting better at. Anyways here is a nice moment I was able to capture during our time in a park downtown. Til next time CliQers :)

Nikon CLS fun

So I was playing around using the Nikon Creative lighting system (CLS), and gels and came up with some interesting results. Don't be a stranger leave a comment and let me know what you think thanks.

Welcome to CliQ Happy! and Chex!

Welcome everyone to my very first post on CliQ Happy! My intent for this blog is to share my experiences and inspirations for doing what I love...Making pictures. In turn I hope photographers and everyone else who finds joy out of clicking that magic shutter button will find this blog as an environment to grow and share inspiration and advice. Seeing as I have no experience writing a blog there will be a feeling out process for a while, so expect changes aplenty in the beginning.
Now for a proper introduction. My name is Mike Walters, and I am a 25 year old photographer in the United States Marine Corps. I am happily married to my lovely wife Ashley. Currently I am stationed in Parris Island, SC and live in Ridgeland, SC. I got into the photography field by chance, after getting hopped up on Bud Lite one night and watching Jarhead I walked into the recruiters office and signed up (just kidding). I actually signed up for the videography field but I guess the field was full or they felt the need to move me to photo, whatever the reason I picked up a camera and never looked back.
Alright, with the introduction out of the way let's get to the reason you came here...photos (finally that guy was going on forever). Recently my wife and I made an addition to our family, so say hello to Chex!

Say hello to Chex

Funny thing about these two photos. For the first one I was trying to get a nice full body portrait of Chex, but everytime I pointed my camera at him he would move or try to attack it. So I put my camera on live view mode (I'm using a Nikon D300 by the way), placed my camera on the ground and snapped away. PERFECT! he didn't even know I was taking pictures, Live view is an awesome tool when used in the right situation, like when people are being camera shy, Bravo Nikon.

For the second one Chex kept fidgeting everytime I tried to take a picture of his collar. So as my lovely wife Ashley tried to hold him down my challenge was to keep her hand out of the frame and catch Chex in a still moment. This shot took me probably twenty frames, patience is something I have always struggled with. I have been known to jump around and always see something else going on over there. Squirrel! Lesson learned. Know what you want and don't quit until you get it.

 Now this dog is pure awesomeness. It is impossible for me to walk him by someone in my neighborhood without them stopping to admire his cuteness. It is a beautiful thing to see a dog bring joy to so many people just by walking around. For those of you wondering about the name we named him after Chex Mix because he is a mixed breed Boston Terrier and Cockerspaniel. He is 8 weeks old and enjoys chewing everything he comes across.

Chex being goofy

Biting Ashley's hand

Now let's talk about something that many young photographers, myself included struggle with. Capturing moments. Anyone can take a picture, it takes a photographer to capture the mood and a key moment that tells the viewer something. Now my wife has a baby face, and my Chex is obviously adorable, put the two of them together and it's not even fair. The challenge of being a photographer is making your subject comfortable and free to show you their personality, then capturing that personality during a very brief and candid moment. As a photographer there is nothing like the feeling when you know you nailed a great shot the moment it clicks (a great book by an amazing photographer Joe Mcnally).
To me there is no such thing as a failed photo shoot. Look at it this way, you picked up a camera while someone else sat at their computer all day. I ran out of fingers to count how many times My old Master Sergeant (and I emphasize old) yelled at me for screwing up a shoot (sorry top piece). Shout out to retired MSgt Kevin Williams.
Soo lets take a look at what can be learned from this shoot.
-stay with a picture until you get the results you want.
-a great photo can be taken anywhere: at your home, your car your desk. anywhere.
-live view can be used to capture a moment when your subject doesn't suspect it.
There is a common message that is told in the Combat Camera community. "give back what people teach you as freely as you received it". This blog is my way of giving back what has been freely given to me by so many great Military photographers. Please enjoy :)
Well that does it for my first blog entry please feel free to leave me feedback, comments or advice. Critiques are welcome let's try to keep it positive y'all. Till next time cliqqers. -Mike  


Yes that is yours truly chewing a dog bone. I have no shame. photo credit to my beautiful wife Ashley