Ride for Meadow Pollack and 16 other fallen children at MSD High

Ride for Meadow Pollack and 16 others who lost their lives on Valentine’s Day in Parkland Florida.

I decided to participate in this ride because my 18 year old daughter Allison brought it to my attention.  I thought I would bring along my camera just in case there were some special photography opportunities there. 

The event was organized to meet at the Palm Beach Harley Davidson, have breakfast and ride (motorcycle) to the Pollack’s house in Coral Springs for “a cold one”.  I am not sure how many people attended, but it seemed like 600+ attendees maybe 100 or so of them were Motorcycle Policeman supporting the event and helping the riders during their 50 mile trek from the dealership to the Pollack’s house.

When I pulled my camera out at the dealership, people seemed to naturally gravitate towards me and want their picture taken.  I keep mentioning that many feel very comfortable asking me to take their picture.  I love that sooooo much!  There were of course other photographers there, news crews there, newspapers and magazine coverage, you name it.  I had a blast and would like to thank the dealership for not kicking me out with my camera in hand and especially all those who supported this fantastic cause.

I am sure there were many famous people there not including the world famous photographer Thomas Schmuki ….  Some of those notables included Paul Teutul, Sr, star of the cable TV show “Orange County Choppers”, and former Miami Dolphins running back Terry Kirby and chef Ralph Pagano.

Unfortunately while riding my Harley to the Pollack's house in Coral Spring my Harley Davidson had a flat tire.  Thank goodness I did NOT loose control of my bike.  Happend right as I was getting off the Sawgrass expressway (freeway).  I therefore missed the goings on at the Pollacks house.

Included in this BLOG are a few of my photos from the event.  If you were there and your photo is not here, please reach out to me, I will attempt to get you your photo.

Tom Schmuki, photographer, motorcycle lover for 40+ years, father and husband.

Wynwood Walls Swimsuit Shoot with Samantha

Every once in a while I reach out for a photo shoot.  I guess my camera just gets lonely.  I don’t take enough pictures ... over 25,000 photos taken in 2017.

Wynwood Walls/Arts District is always such an exciting place to go.  First of all they are always camera/model friendly.  Police officers and grounds crews don’t come up to us and ask us for our “permit” and if we don’t have it, we are asked to leave or even worse yet escorted off.

Every time I go to Wynwood, which seems to be 2-3 times per year, there are new paintings that were painted on top of previously painted walls.  Ever changing.  That’s exciting, except when your favorite wall/painting is no longer there.

My models family drove all the way down from Orlando (4 hour drive) just to shoot with me at Wynwood.  What an honor.  Samantha is one of KK Swimwear’s premier swimsuit model The President/Owner/Creator of KK Natalia Garcia responded to my search for a shoot on Sunday.  She had planned on shooting Samantha herself.... a very good photographer in her own right.  She asked me to fill in for her because of personal issues that came up.

I would like to personally thank Samantha, her parents and especially Natalia for the invite.  Samanthas father was so helpful lugging around my heavy equipment and holding my lights!  I could not have done this without you. 

You will see some fantastic photos in the near future.  Here are just a few of my first edits.

A few photo tips when shooting Wynwood Walls:

If you are shooting a model, people, THEY are the subject, NOT the walls.  If you want to include detail of the WALL painting and the model, make sure your F-STOP is approprate based on your lens choice, your distance from the model and the models distance from the wall.  I frequently shoot multiple F-Stops so I can choose later the best choice.  Last tip; there are lots of lines, use them (leading lines).  Always make sure the lines draw attention to your subject, the model.

Thomas Schmuki 954-439-1999, www.tesphoto.co

Email: tesphoto3@gmail.com Instagram: thomas_e_photography

Instagram - Fake users or am I just confused

I have in the past been a very casual user of Instagram focusing most of my social network posts on Facebook.  I have decided to give Instagram a more focused trial.  So far, I am very confused.  

Confusion #1: as soon as I post a picture, dozens of followers “like” the picture.  There is no way they even had a chance to pull the picture up and see it in that amount of time.  I have been a  software developer for decades and have focused most of my programming in the last 5 years on SPIDER BOTS.  Whats is that you say?  Well - automated routines to touch web sites and do things. GOOGLE does this so they know where all the content exists.  Clearly there are dozens if not thousands of Instagram BOTS out there.  Not real people, just fake account acting like they have looked at your photo and liked it.  I am also sure they also can and do automate actual written comments like - “beautiful, nice, great shot, I love your site….”

Confusion #2: How is it when that dozens of people add me as a “follow”.  I see it happening on line.  While they are adding my follower count is going down.  How can 15 new people follow me in 10 minutes and 30 people stop following me in the same period of time.  ---- FAKE stuff happening out there.

Beware: Be careful if you are lured into buying Instagram followers.  

https://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/12/18/millions-of-fake-instagram-users-disappear-in-purge/

https://boostlikes.com/blog/2016/09/check-instagram-followers-fake

Why I shoot in RAW

Most photographs taken  and posted today on social networks are not taken in RAW but taken in standard JPEG format.  Most of these photos are taken by your mobile phone, mine being an Iphone.  

What do you mean my phone is taking JPEG’s not RAW?

I primarily shoot Nikon cameras, including D850, D810 and D500.  My D850 captures and saves 45.7 megapixels of data when I shoot RAW  When I use that same D850 in JPEG (High Density/Fine) mode, my file sizes are approximately the files range from 18MB-25MB in size.  In either case these numbers are INSANE.  So what is the difference?  When I shoot in JPEG mode instead of RAW, my camera makes the following choices for me:

• Contrast – (What to capture in highlights, mid-tones, and shadows). Probably the most important thing to me
• Sharpness
• Hue/Saturation
• Sharpness
• Etc.

The number one reason I shoot in RAW

 I want ALL the DATA

Once these decisions have been made when shot in JPEG – recovering DATA which the camera decided NOT to capture is NON-RECOVERABLE.  You cannot recover details from the darkest shadows, nor from the blown out highlights.  In other words, once the camera has made the decision what to capture, ALL the other DATA is thrown away and gone forever.

The number two reason I shoot in RAW

Non Destructive Editing

Every time you edit a JPEG the quality is diminished.  Edit the same photos 10 times and compare the quality with the original.  Shooting in RAW allows you to edit NON-DISTRUCTIVELY.  My original RAW file remains in-tact and never changes.  All my edits and edit history are back traceable right to the original RAW file.

If you are buying a new camera, buy one that can shoot in RAW even if you don’t know how.  You will thank me later.  You can always shoot in JPEG while you learn how to process RAW

What are the downsides to in shooting in RAW?

1.       File Size – your memory card on your camera  fills up faster, and your permanent storage requirements on your computer or in the cloud becomes much greater

2.       Slower- Your camera will BURST slower when saving RAW versus JPEG, it takes longer to save those big files.  Your camera’s BUFFER may even fill up faster while you are continuous shooting.

3.       Immediate results . JPEG’s are ready to go, as bad or as good as they may be.  You can share them on social networks and give them to friends right away

4.       Learning curve of editing and processing RAW images.  I believe you can learn within 1 hour of time a process that will allow you to edit your files in RAW and have better results than your JPEG’s out of the camera

5.       I am sure there are more downsides, but WHO cares, I shoot in RAW.  I often shoot in RAW and JPEG at the same time, and frankly NEVER use the JPEG images.

I welcome comments, conversation and rebuttals.  Hey, I don’t know everything.  As a matter of fact I know very little, but at least I am trying to learn and grow and get better each day.

Tom

A Shy man with a camera

This was written by me more than 3 years ago, but still find it interesting.

I was always the party pooper that hated to go to parties. I felt so uncomfortable talking with people I never met before, will probably never see again. More im

portant than that in my mind was that I was not the most interesting person at the party.
Now I have a camera to hide behind. I can go to parties with my camera. Those who know my photographic work are more likely to want me to take their picture. They actually look my direction and graciously thank me for taking their picture. I can almost feel their excitement and anticipation to see the end result. I now feel naked in public without my camera. I go back to my normal shy self and wonder why people won't look my direction. It is sort of funny because many people believe I am an outgoing and gregarious socialite. I guess compared to my nerdy software programmer peers I am.

If you see me with my camera, look my direction and indicate you want your picture taken. If I am with or without a camera, take me out of my comfort zone and carry out a conversation with me.

Thank you Nikon for making me feel more comfortable in public. Tom

TESPhoto
Thomas Schmuki Photography

Paparazzi – Now I understand

This is my first real attempt to start a BLOG.  My blog will definately be focused on my experiences in around photography.  I will discuss events, best practices, experiences, tutorials and of course point my peers to other postings I find interesting and useful.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pegasus_World_Cup

http://www.gulfstreampark.com/racing/contests/pegasus-world-cup-betting-championship

After photographing the Pegasus World Cup Invitational in Miami Florida I understand more clearly the world of Paparazzi.  I have always said I don’t want to be one of those …. Chasing after the famous, interrupting their world, getting their attention, begging for their photograph and of course fighting the other photographers who are all looking for the same.

Shame on you my fellow photographers for treating your peers with such disrespect.  I observed arguments, mostly about allowing other photographers in the back row to get the shot.  I was asked by a fellow photographer to move because he had his name on the floor.  Guess I was not one of the named privileged few.  He was not only rude, but he seemed 2 miles wide, taking up the space of 2 photographers with his girth.

No wonder celebrities avoid paparazzi like the plague.  I don’t blame them.  While photographing the celebrities on the blue carpet with the paparazzi all around me, I heard a constant barrage of pleas from the photographers … “Hey, look my way”, “Up here”, “Take our hat off”, “take your glasses of”, “put your hand on your hip”, “blow me a kiss”, “how about a wink”, “do you remember me at the …. Party?”, “can you come back, I never got the shot”, “loved you in … name the movie/event”.  Lenny Kravitz, now I know why you made a v-line move right through the paparazzi not allowing any pictures to be taken.

I always said I am a people photographer, and what I really mean is I totally enjoy taking photographs of people who want me to take their photograph.  When I got away from the crowd of the paparazzi I finally started to feel like myself again.  Almost everyone graciously respected me and anxiously wanted me to take their photo.  They were kind, courteous and respectful.  I could tell how excited they were to be there and to possibly get a fantastic photo to represent their day.  I got out of my comfort zone and approached people asking them if I could take their picture.  Not a soul said no.  After showing them my photo in the back of the camera, I got what I almost always get…. “that may be the best picture I have ever seen of me …. How do I get it?”