Wednesday, April 22, 2015

Photography for blogging -- keeping it fast and simple

In addition to running her own successful lifestyle photography studio, Jamie Grill Photography, my daughter, Jamie, also produces an almost daily blog called, Chasing Saturday's, with her blogging partner, Marisa. The two of them keep creating recipes aimed at making Saturday a week long event. Running a blog like this requires a lot of photography, and doing it frequently means no time to dawdle -- get in, set up, get the shots, get out. A workflow like this is best served by having a simplified routine for producing quality images.

The photos are taken mostly in a daylight studio or at home. With no lights to manage except for an occasional tungsten accent lamp, window light is one key to keeping things simple. In the studio, Jamie works with one camera, a Nikon D4, and one lens, a Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8 used fairly wide open. At home she relies mostly on a Nikon D5300 with a 35mm lens, and sometimes a 60mm for tighter close-ups. With the equipment needs kept to a minimum Jamie and Marisa can concentrate on the image concept, propping, and composition.

A by-product of all this blog photography is that Jamie can add the images to her successful stock photo collection, which helps to ammortize the time and expense of running the blog.










































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2 comments:

  1. AnonymousApril 22, 2015 at 6:17 PM

    Hi Tom,
    These are great inspiration for me. One thing that I get stuck on though is the whole "propping" part of shooting stock. What would it look like, behind the scenes, in terms of sourcing the props and setting them up for shoots like this? I mean, do you buy stuff when you see something that looks like it would be good in a shoot, or do you go out specifically? I would guess that having a cupboard full of props may end up being more useful than a cupboard full of gear... Give your daughter my compliments - these are really nice pictures!

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  2. Tom Grill:April 24, 2015 at 6:53 AM

    Thank you for your comment. Yes, we do have a room full of props, such as background surfaces, utensils, etc., that we have picked up over the years at flea markets and on ebay.

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