Opportunity to shoot a...

[Bitter Jeweler]

OK, here's the skinny on the "Memorandum of Understanding" between Cleveland Photographic Society and the Western Reserve Historical Society. First, many of you were right, I could have paid to get in and taken pictures without any sort of "rights agreement". I was right in that we recieved special access to the event, in that we were allowed ON the battlefield. We were told we could go anywhere, BUT, once on the field we had to stay put. Unfortunately it rained, so we stayed off to the tree line. A couple of guys with better gear, prepared for rain were out on the field. Interestingly, a member from another area photo club, jump the fence to join them, claiming where he was from, that he too had special access. Well, not so much. He was yanked back across the fence by security, while claiming to be a photographer, was told "Sorry, buddy, wrong color wristband" .

The "Memorandum of Understanding" agreement's only bad thing is if are images are published for monetary gain, the WRHS wants to review the image(s) and give permission. They are not asking for monetary gains. The pros in the club, who do sell their work have no problem with this saying "it just adds a small hoop to jump through". This agreement is also not just for this event. It applies to all WRHS properies, to which we gain free access for as long as this aggreement stays in place. So if I want to be held to this agreement, I get in free, if not I pay to get in. No big deal.

I see giving them my images, and rights to use them, crediting the photographer, as a donation. I have no problem with this. If you all do, that's fine. ~END~

To talk about the experience...Wow. It's going to take me a while to get over my hangup of taking peoples pictures. But in the mix of of that is, when you ask to take someones picture, they do dumb poses and stupid smiles, for the most part. I can see getting a better longer lense and trying to capture better candid shots from a distance. I did most of my walking around shots with my 100mm, because it is the sharpest, fastest, fast focusing lense I own. It took some getting used to, but I enjoyed it. It gave me enough distance that I wasn't immediately noticed. That's the other thing, as soon as you are noticed, the whole dynamic changes.

Shooting at this event had other problems. Such as trying to get shots of the actors, without the general public in the shot. Often, I would see a shot, get ready and in position, then have to wait for Average Jane and Joe to walk by, and lose the shot. :meh: Also, I felt, trying to shoot people dressed for the period, I had to pay soooo much attention to the background. I had to watch for people in the background on cell phones. Pay attention to obvious modern chairs and other things laying around. It was hard to shoot convincing "period" images with all the anachronisms.

It rained on and off all day and was very cloudy. Dealing with shade from the trees, or shooting into tents and buildings, I had my ISO up to keep my shutter speed above the focal length, so some of my images are a little noisy. The first pic I posted above was cropped which showed the noise, so I did some noise reduction which made the image a little soft. It doesn't kill the image for me, but I think it is noticable. Doing people shots put me back at square one with learning to see the composition I want. I am back to shooting large, and cropping what I see later when I have more time to think about it. That's fine. In time I will learn to get what I want full frame like I have with inanimate objects. it's all good.

The first image I posted, and this one, below, are my favorite shots of the day.

#3

#4 You can see raindrops. If I ever print this image, I will edit them out.

#5 Does the brown paper bag bother you?

#6 The posing chair from the Tin Type photographer.

Hope you enjoy these. Thanks for looking. Feel free to coment or critic as you see fit.

 

[Bitter Jeweler]

 

[BoostedHoo]

the first picture literally had me going WOW! it told so much story for me. i can feel the intensity and almost anticipation in that picture
:thumbup::thumbup::thumbup::thumbup::thumbup::thumbup:

 

[linpelk]

Hi David!
These pictures are AMAZING!! I love these last two shots in the field of flowers. Absolutely breathtaking. I was cracking up when you were talking about people walking by in the background with their cell phones. I had almost forgotten that these pictures came from a re-enactment. They are THAT good!

 

[rufus5150]

Pictures are on pages 2 and 3!

You realize that the number of post per page is configurable?

 

[Gaerek]

OK, here's the skinny on the "Memorandum of Understanding" between Cleveland Photographic Society and the Western Reserve Historical Society. First, many of you were right, I could have paid to get in and taken pictures without any sort of "rights agreement". I was right in that we recieved special access to the event, in that we were allowed ON the battlefield. We were told we could go anywhere, BUT, once on the field we had to stay put. Unfortunately it rained, so we stayed off to the tree line. A couple of guys with better gear, prepared for rain were out on the field. Interestingly, a member from another area photo club, jump the fence to join them, claiming where he was from, that he too had special access. Well, not so much. He was yanked back across the fence by security, while claiming to be a photographer, was told "Sorry, buddy, wrong color wristband" .

The "Memorandum of Understanding" agreement's only bad thing is if are images are published for monetary gain, the WRHS wants to review the image(s) and give permission. They are not asking for monetary gains. The pros in the club, who do sell their work have no problem with this saying "it just adds a small hoop to jump through". This agreement is also not just for this event. It applies to all WRHS properies, to which we gain free access for as long as this aggreement stays in place. So if I want to be held to this agreement, I get in free, if not I pay to get in. No big deal.

I see giving them my images, and rights to use them, crediting the photographer, as a donation. I have no problem with this. If you all do, that's fine. ~END~

That's a much better agreement than what I had been imagining. Even though the stipulation of needing permission for monetary use is somewhat strange, it doesn't seem like a bad agreement. I'm guessing the important thing for you was the experience.

As for the photos you took, wow. I will really have to see about going to one of these things at some point. I live in the wrong part of the country, unfortunately, but if I have the opportunity to do this, I think I most certainly would.

My favorite photo you've posted is the very last one. It has an ominous feeling to it, like the soldier is walking into the unknown. The negative space really gives the shot a feeling of loneliness to it. You did an astounding job here.

 

[c.cloudwalker]

I like what you've done. My only comment is try and keep the toning the same through the series. If you're going to show them as a series that is.

And I would love to see you give an old look to the color shot. An Autochrome look would be very nice, I think.
autochromes - Google Images

 

[inTempus]

Great shots man! Sounds like you had a lot of fun.

 

[Bitter Jeweler]

Wow! Thanks for the responses!
I really had fun with this. I did a lot of PP, trying not to overdo it, but get the feel I wanted. There are some issues I see after, that I want to do a little better job with. But overall I am quite pleased for stepping out of my comfort zone. I actually want to do more people now, but I like the idea of costumes and creating a scene/mood/feel. So now I want to look for more events like this.

I agree the sepia tone should match. What happened was, with the earlier shots I liked it toned back to 12%. It felt right to me. But once I did the soldier shots, they needed to feel darker. I experimented with gradient channels, which I read about here, and love what they can do! When I go to print these I will get the tones the same.

I redid this one because the umbrella-ella-ella was solid black. Better.

 

[camz]

I like what you did with these. I really connected with #6 the empty chair and the last one with a group of ladies - got lost in time with these two pieces the most.

Great shots!

 

[manaheim]

These are awesome. I think the treatment is critical... the color totally disspells it for me. Very nice work, though.

 

[Eyetattoo]

Amazing shots, really like the two with the soldier in the field.

 

[Bitter Jeweler]

The guy that was the soldier in the earlier three shots contacted me on flickr. He loves what I did. He also told me when the next reenactment will be :thumbup:.

With the canon shots...I tried to get a good one when they fired it. I shot continueous, and they are mostly blurry because I apparently jumped a little. :lmao:

I am currently editing the brothel pictures. Tose ladies were a hoot!

 

[Bitter Jeweler]

I learned even more about the "Memorandum of Agreement" between the historical society and our photo club. This ongoing agreement could prove rather interesting, in a good way. The historical society like to keep records of events, so they are talking to various other organizations and businesses to get us (photographers) in on some interesting behind the scenes shoots. The first upcoming event they want us to be at is the re-opening of a steel mill. How freakin' cool is that? With all that has been discussed about this agreement and rights, etc...I think it's a pretty sweet deal to get to go places nobody would otherwise. :thumbup:

So here's a couple from the brothel. I didn't like most of my shots from them, because they tried to hard to pose. But I like these two the most. the women in the first image were quite the characters, and I would love to work more with them.