Blog

The Monthly Image Competition has posted the winners for February. Check out all the winning images at the UPAA MIC.

By Kelly Gorham, Montana State University

The first camera I ever got to play with was my father’s Regula Werk King that he purchased while serving in the Army in Germany. It now sits on a shelf in my living room and over the past several years I glanced at it and longingly wished I could have a digital version of a camera like that. Yes, of course there are the Leica’s but…well, we’ll discuss my bank account another time.

Along comes the Fuji X100. On the surface it was exactly what I’d dreamed of, classic styling and high-resolution images. However, it wasn’t perfect, and if I’m going to spend over $1,000 I want what I want. I waited patiently until the arrival last fall of the Fuji X10. Compact, retro, and cheap, this is what I’ve been dreaming of. I put my name on a list and received my X10 in a glossy, black box one day this winter.

Our own Donald Page, staff shooter for the University of Tennessee Athletic Department, wrote a guest post on Scott Kelby's Blog. He shared his insight on how to overcome the fear of failure in our photography. He also shared this video created by his university to showcase his work:

Donald Page - University of Tennessee Sports Photographer from Donald Page on Vimeo.

By Glenn Carpenter/Moraine Valley Community College

“This changes everything.” This was my first thought as I watched the behind the scenes video of Brigham Young University photographers using an iPad at a photo shoot. I watched as the art director held the iPad and the images appeared, I was amazed. This is the future of photography.

I quickly put together a list of what I needed to make this magic in Illinois. Along with the link to the BYU video I submitted the request to be just like BYU! The iPad and Eye-fi card arrived a few weeks later. The only problem is that I use Nikon. You see a Nikon D3 only uses CF memory and the Eye-fi card is SD memory. With the help of an adapter, I eventually got it to work but it was not perfect. I was not like BYU.

Photos and Text by Andrew M. Daddio/Colgate University

Full Disclosure: for the past twelve years all of my personal photo gear has been Canon bodies and lenses. I used to diss on Nikon, quite heavily I may add, until the introduction of the Nikon D3, which really leveled the playing field, if not taking a quantum leap forward. I shoot with Nikon for work, and I still retain and shoot with my Canon gear, but I do on occasion consider jumping ship to Nikon...

A great portrait session where you are able to break through your subjects’ apprehension and genuinely capture the personality of the individual you are photographing... Gaining access to environments and situations that many people will never see... Solving a technical challenge or exploring an untried technique that produces a new body of work... The rush of excitement you receive after seeing the image in the viewfinder as you click the shutter, or when it pops up on the back of the camera, and realizing that you have just captured a great and iconic portfolio shot...

These are some of the high points that are the rewards and pleasures of our professions as professional photographers. One of the other high points that is also central to our experience, since almost all photographers are serious gadget freaks and techno geeks, is that great feeling we get from opening the packaging and taking a brand-new camera out of the box for the very first time. Ah, so factory fresh and clean.

The November numbers are in for the Monthly Image Competition, click here to see the winning photos.

By Mark A. Philbrick and Jaren Wilkey/BYU Photo

A few months back we were approached by our dance department to create a poster for their upcoming concert. One of the featured numbers involved students dancing in the rain so we thought that would make the perfect poster, as long as we provided the rain. In case you were wondering, we kind of have an affinity for water shoots as of late (Softball - Gymnastics).

We secured a local outdoor stage for the shoot that had access to water for the shoot. Mark wanted to create a dry area the dancers could stay in and then we had walls of water sandwiched in front of and behind them. We borrowed a Rain Tower that is used for creating rain on film sets for the back wall of water, and it created a really nice pattern. You could easily make something similar out of PVC and sprinkler heads. For the front wall we bought a simple fan hose attachment that actually worked quite well.

Our own Kurt Stepnitz just started a 7 week marathon trip around the world working on a multimedia project for Michigan State University. This is the first in a series of posts chronicling his journey:

To my colleagues and friends of the UPAA,

After months of planning and about a 30-person support crew behind us, there are 7 weeks of travel and story gathering ahead. Tonight begins a journey for a crew of 10, certainly like nothing I've ever experienced.

By Jaren Wilkey/BYU Photo

This year we tried to create a really unique image for the annual "Christmas Around the World" Concert with the BYU Folk Dancers Company. We wanted to shoot directly down on a group of dancers with some fog and lots of different colored lights. The best way to do this was to attach our camera to a lighting bar directly above the stage and take it up 20 feet above the dancers.

Mark triggered the camera with a Pocket Wizard Remote and the camera was connected to our iPad's Shuttersnitch app with Canon's WFT wireless transmitter. The transmitter is set up to send jpgs to the iPad after each shot it taken. This way we could see the images as they were being shot and make adjustments to the dancers and the lighting scheme.

Photo by Robert Jordan/Ole Miss Communications

This year's Monthly Image Competition has been full of amazing images from the members of the UPAA. If you haven't seen them yet, check out the winners from November. The Best of Show prize went to Robert Jordan for his images called "Doorknob to the Universe" I asked Robert to share how he created the image:

I wanted to share this great behind the scenes video of Mike Ekern shooting the 2012 Football poster for the University of St. Thomas:

To see more photos from the shoot and to gain some insight into how he created these images, check out  his blog post at The University of St. Thomas

The Boys at Baylor are at it again with a video celebrating the social side of the nations first homecoming. Props to Robbie Rogers and Matthew Minnard for the great work!

A Social Gathering from Baylor Photography on Vimeo.

A crazy finish in the October MIC competition with a 3-way tie for best of show and great collection of dynamic photos. Check out the results at upaa.org

By Peter Frey, The University of Georgia

The assignment was to make a portrait of Psychology Department Head Keith Campbell for a back page feature in our alumni magazine. The back page feature contains a unique, conceptual image that portrays the research or work that the professor studies…in this case narcissism.  We had photographed this particular faculty member for another publication a year prior using mirrors and reflections to represent the narcissism factor, but the magazine wanted a fresh concept, and here are the results…

By Mike Ekern, University of St. Thomas

There’s something about being a photographer at St. Thomas that feels just a bit like cheating. You work at an institution that is comprised entirely of beautiful architecture surrounding what is essentially an arboretum.

And every few years the place rents you a helicopter.

Read more at The University of St. Thomas