All handstands on Lincoln Rd

The funny thing about being a young photographer is that I shoot everything. From fancy events at the Soho Beach House, to charity events, to crazy parties at night clubs (most recently, Uncle Luke show at LIV, which was the same day as this event).

This day assignment was to cover the Cirque Eloize iD acrobats on Lincoln Rd, Miami Beach teaching handstands to tourists and other people caught walking on Lincoln Rd at 1pm, in 95 degree weather (it was really hot).

I had been to the show, and actually got the chance to do a photo shoot with the whole crew, on stage (it was amazing, more on that shoot to come later - maybe), so I knew what I was in for...

Extremely energetic people, allowed to mess with people and climb anything in site...


Here's a quick (video of what it was like (via NBCMiami.com)

Cirque Eloize iD: Handstand Day in Miami
http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif
Link to rest of images on Worldredeye.com:

Cirque Eloize iD Handstand Day

Image VIA Worldredeye.com

-Rodrigo

Ps. Pretty proud of this image that looks like a Scott Strazzante original.

Hello?

Marley Williams, bassist for the band Rebelution, poses for a photo before performing at Revolution Live in Ft Lauderdale, Florida.

Is there anyone out there?

Ahh the quiet emptiness of a dead web page. Its eerily beautiful. Just a vast array of old posts, with no one looking at them anymore.

It's been about a year and a half since I last posted on this blog. After the first wave of laziness hit pretty hard, forgetfulness came through and put an end to Mingo. It's not that I havent been shooting - actually (and thankfully) I've been very busy with work, I just forgot how nice it was to give some detail and background into the work that I was doing. I forgot how nice it was to teach something and what a great way this was to keep my friends, family, and clients, in tune to what I was up to.

But Im going to start slow. I wont make any dramatic promises (i.e. A Photo A Day), even if they are quite inspiring after a quick read. Just a few posts a week, some with my personal work - with background on a shoot, and some with just a quick one liners and a funny video. Working now in Miami, as a "professional", life has been different and the blog will show that change.

Some blog changes:

-Time for a new header. I look fat in that photo.
-Blog redesign. Going to get rid of some old widgets and throw in some new ones. And going to throw on a new coat of paint to make this baby shine.
-Website link/name change. Will try to see how I can get rid of the Mingo-pe.blogspot and update it with an easier name (rgayaphoto.blogspot.com?)

First post (after this one) coming up soon.

Thanks

-Rodrigo

Ps. Yea, probably a random photo but I had to go with something nice and lite for the first shot.

How to overpower the Sun

How do you overpower the Sun? And what the hell does that mean?

This is what photographers mean when they use lights to overpower the Sun...



See the difference between the video and the stills? Still cant figure it out? Take the jump.

The idea is to first set your exposure to deal with the ambient light (work with what you got). Not in a way that the ambient light is correctly exposed, but that it is exposed to how you want it.

In this case, Robert wanted to have little to do with the ambient light, so his subject could contrast sharply with the background (and he added a key light behind her to help with that).

So bumped up his shutter as high as he could - remember to find out what your sync speed is - and lowered his ISO, thereby creating a very dark exposure - for the background.

He then found a good ratio (strobe power vs. aperture) to have the subject properly exposed, but still with a dark background.

REMEMBER!!!!!: Ambient light is controlled by your shutter speed. Strobes are controlled by your aperture

This all basically explains the "Self Portrait fo SoFI mag" that I posted about before.

And that is how you overpower the Sun.

Via - RobertBenson.com

-Rodrigo

Sweet photo links and roundup

New image I created for Michigan Radio's Muslims in Michigan series. More on this series later.

I have a ton of info for you guys today. Bunch of stuff I haven't been able to get around to post.

From cool new blogs to great new content on old blogs. There's a little for everyone (or a lot for one).

Also, I'll be covering President Obama's commencement ceremony at the University of Michigan Stadium, the Big House, this Sat, May 1st, for Michigan Radio. Super excited to finally cover Presidential event, hopefully I'll have enough lens to cover it, but it doesn't seem like I will.

But, necessity is the mother of invention in this case. I have to find another way of getting a good shot of President Obama. At little extra challenge sounds good to me.

Anyways, lets get to the meat of this post...

For anyone starting to shoot with strobes or studio lights, you are going to want to have a little key light in the back to separate the subject from the foreground. But you want to be careful that you're not getting any ghosts in your frame. So what do you do?

Strobist recommends home made Go-Bos or Snoots.

Found a new site via twitter (hey follow me!) called Photofocus by photog Scott Bourne. Site has some nice insight into the world of a pro photog. Not a lot of in-depth stuff but has helped me keep focus on what I need to do to become a good pro.

-The Seven Habits of Highly Effective Photographers

Scott partnered up with Skip Cohen to start up a site called Going Pro 2010. Hey thats what I'm trying to do!

Skip Cohen and Scott Bourne, combined, have more than seven decades of experience in the photographic industry. Imagine what would happen if they combined forces to help educate more photographers! It’s time for the industry to be introduced to GoingPro.

Im down.

-Getting The Job – Five Steps in Every Successful Professional Photographic Assignment

I thought this was pretty damn funny. Robert Benson has a cool blog where he has a bunch of different photo stuff, as well as some cool in-depht, BTS photo shoot stuff... look at the fine print:

-Photographer's life in graph

More Strobist... he wants you to Know your sync. Why is that important? Concisely, you need to the limitations of your camera vs off camera lighting, so you dont freak out when your shots arent coming out....

-Know your sync

Commercial photog, Chase Jarvis has a cool site and is constantly updating with great photo info and cool BTS. Here, he posts a video on how to shoot a car commercial with a DSLR and a car that is 1/10 the size of the original...

-How To Shoot A Car Commercial: One Tenth the Size, But 10X Cooler.


Stay tuned for more this week and the beginning of next, just before I head back to Miami. Ohh and check out the new "Greatest Links Ever" tabs.. updated.

-Rodrigo

Uglydolls are for losers

Hopefully by now you have heard of these cute little things called Uglydolls.

They are a 'designer toy' created by artist David Horvath. Not only are these super cool and creative (and seem like they would make great gifts), there is also an amazing story behind the brand, the design, and the artist.

I like to think the content one this site changes as my life does, and at this point, any inspirational life stories will make it on here (cause we all need photo inspiration, yet some of us need life inspiration).

David recently did an interview with Subvert, a great blog/magazine that interviews 'made' artists and finds out how they made it and what they needed to do.

And David's story is one that I feel is the most appropriate at this moment for the site...

Check out the article here: SUBvert -- David Horvath

You need to read it through the 'screen' at the bottom of the page.

Hurry, I'm going to go read it again. Ohh and you'll get the title of the post after you read the story.

Found this article via A Photo Editor


-Rodrigo

A(nother) Photo Editor

The Purpose of MingoPE was to create a place where photographers could come and find a few things: inspiration, motivation, and general knowledge about the various aspects of photography.

I found another amazing site that has the same functions in mind (yet with a little less technical photo stuff and more magazine/freelance photo stuff).

A Photo Editor.com

This site covers a a wide variety of topics in the photo industry, but is a great resource for magazine photography, ad photography, and freelance photogs.

Since my 'switch' to a full time photog, this site has opened my eyes to amazing pieces of literature that have really helped me focus my ideas, and know much more about the freelance industry.

Again, read it here.. and go through the archives. Its well worth it.

Expect to see as many posts coming from APE as you did with SportsShooter.

-Mingo

Rodrigo Gaya Photography - The blog formerly known as Mingo.PE

Hey Mingo-ers,

I am heading back to Miami,FL to start my photography business, Rodrigo Gaya Photography, LLC.

I got sick and tired applying to a lot of photography positions without ever getting a response. So I decided to start my own photography business. Its a major step in my life. And my plan... shoot everything...

From portraits to sports, to weddings and editorial work. Fashion, stock, long term multimedia.

That is until I can focus on one aspect of photography that I love and would enjoy to do for the rest of my life (and that pays the bills).

I'm jumping into this 100%, something that makes me very excited. I feel this wave of perpetual motivation, which is something that Ive never felt before.

I think its more important than inspiration. Actually, its the next step above inspiration I think. Its hard to get inspired to take a photograph. But I'm at a point, where inspiration has combined with excitement and promise, and it has led to motivation.

I'm motivated to start Rodrigo Gaya Photography, LLC. Which has made me motivated to take new photographs; which has motivated me to expand my photo-horizons; which has in turn motivated me to... save money for to invest into my company... establish a great new website... and so on and so forth.

I'm on a wave of exponential motivation that feels great. This blog was created with photo-inspiration in mind, but I never knew that it would inspire me to go head first into a career in photography.

So with that, I want to let you guys know that the name of the blog has changed to Rodrigo Gaya Photography. Your RSS feeds will still work because I won't change that. Just the title.

The blog will still be full-photo, and I will still gear it towards learning about photography. Also, there will be more posts more often (riddled with grammatical errors, just like you like it).

So bear with me. Let me know if you like any posts, comments and criticisms are always welcome. Ideas are as well.


(I feel like I should end this with a "sincerely" - Btw, what is that called? I can't think of it. The ending of a letter, before the signature?)

-Rodrigo, formerly known as Mingo.

Ohhhh and follow me on Twitter here.

Shakim James - Wells St Portrait

I've taken up the advice of a really good friend/mentor of mine, Forest Casey, who told me to start photographing all of my actor/model friends in a mutual-benefit way. Neither of us charges each other, we take as much time as we need (cause its really fun), and in the end we both get the photos. I use them for a portfolio (if its good enough) and the actors/models will usually end up using them for headshots, so everyone wins.

A couple of days ago, my actor/comedian/screen writer/writer friend Shakim James, from Ann Arbor by way of NYC, and I got together to get some photos of him at a place I had seen a few months ago. I told him to meet me at nightfall and that I was only going to use ambient lighting... and this is what we came up with.



I used the ambient light of the street light to wrap across his face. I left the three lights in the background to add a little balance to the image.

All in all, I think it came out pretty solid. Seeing that I shot a 1/6 of a sec at ISO H (on a 20D !!!).

What do you think?

-Mingo

Saturday Quick Post

David Gilkey/NPR. VIA WHNPA/3rd Place Eyes of History 2010 - International News. Guess who got first?

Hello there. Remember me? Sorry its been soooo long between posts but that doesn't mean that I haven't been dealing with photo stuff.

Im currently in the process of some major life changes (all good and very photo related) so I've been a little out of it blog wise.

But Ima make it up to you these next few days.

Here's a little mix of links Ive been taking a look at the past few days.

- White House News Photographers Association takes a look at the best images of WHNPA photogs of 2010 with their "Eyes of History 2010". Very much worth it:

(More links after the jump:)

http://www.whnpa.org/contest/eyes2010/stills/

-A great read from the NY Times:

Every disaster that produces horrific scenes of carnage presents photographers and their editors with the challenge of telling the unsanitized truth without crossing into the offensive and truly exploitative.

Its about photo editors dealing with graphic images:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/24/opinion/24pubed.html?scp=2&sq=public%20editor&st=cse

-On that same theme (graphic images), here are some aerial images from 9/11/01 (not really graphic just an amazing angle). VIA LA Times.

Photos of the Sept. 11 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center is one of 13 taken from a helicopter by New York City police Det. Greg Semendinger.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nation-and-world/la-naw-911-photos10-2010feb10-pictures,0,1217614.photogallery

Any other cool links you've been reading? Send them over in the comments.

-Mingo

Keeping the Blues Alive in Detroit

It is finally here.

After 3 months of work (well working on Mondays only), I finally finished the multimedia piece about a Blues band and how the city has affected their music and lives.

Please let me know what you think. I usually dont ask for comments or 'stars' but it would be great to know what other people think of it.


Here is the link to the article on MichiganRadio.org




Basically what I was going for was showcasing the Flying Crowbars Blues music, telling their stories, and trying to show how the Blues of Detroit is still alive and well.

It was shot with my Canon 20d ... Thanks F-dog.

Again, all comments are welcome.


-Mingo