Stephen Zeller is a San Diego-based portrait photographer, with his primary focus being families and children. He enjoys sharing what he's learned with other photographers in addition to creating stunning images. Be sure to check out Stephen's Galleries!
At first I thought this was going to come about back in July of this year, but things have worked out a little differently. Tomorrow I am heading out for a six month deployment aboard the USS Sterett (DDG 104). Part of my duties involve being the Assistant Public Affairs Officer and Command Photographer. I will be extremely busy working on projects like the cruise book and other media-related items.
I am looking forward to the trip, although I will miss my family and friends terribly. It’s hard to beat getting paid to travel the world, take photos, and shoot video.
I hope to visit some great places (some of which I have been to before, and some I haven’t) and be able to experience new things and get some great photographic opportunities.
That being said, the blog here will be a little scarce over the next several months. I will update when I can, but it will only be when I am in port and able to get WiFi somewhere. I will post images and experiences of how some of the gear I use has held up.
Thank you to all my readers and I hope that you enjoy sharing in my travels and adventures until I’m back at home again.
Assignments can be boring and assignments can be a blast – literally! This past week I was out shooting the first Tomahawk missile launch aboard the USS Sterett (DDG 104) off the coast of Southern California. The test firings went well and I was able to capture a few good frames.
Shooting a missile launch is quite challenging and it happens very quick, so knowing your equipment and your technique are the key to getting the shot. Timing and exposure are the two largest obstacles because you don’t want to miss the launch, and you also don’t want an under or overexposed photo that is completely unusable.
To counter the timing, I watched closely for the cell hatch to open as I knew I would have a few seconds afterward before the actual launch. Exposure being the other challenge, I underexposed the ambient by 1 and 1/2 stops in order to ensure I would be able to retain some detail in the fireball that would surround the missile.
I also got to meet a fellow photographer, Carmichael Yepez who also there to document the launch. He even put together a couple of videos from the launch, which was a nice addition to the photography. Sterett launched two missiles, and on day one we shot on board the ship and on day two we were out in a Rigid Hull Inflatable Boat (RHIB), 500 yards behind the ship to capture the actions. Carmichael’s videos capture some of the fun, as we proceeded to perform high-speed maneuvers in the RHIB after the launch in less than ideal seas.
The shot above was from the perspective we got while shooting in the RHIB. It was a lot of fun and something that I hadn’t done before.
I also took the opportunity to take several portraits of the crew, including the two gentlemen that actually fired the two missiles. I went for the bare bones as far as gear was concerned with my D90 and an SB800 triggered with CLS. Came up with some cool stuff though, thanks to a couple of VALs (Voice-Activated Lightstands).
All in all, I had a great week and got a lot of shooting done. I picked up some cool tips and tricks from my new friend Carmichael, and look forward to doing some more shooting with him in the future. The only way to sharpen you skills and improve your photography is to get out and shoot and shoot and shoot and shoot and shoot some more. Can’t say that enough.
Yes, I know… it’s been a long time since I have posted an update to the blog. Unfortunately, when things get busy something has to fall off the plate and that usually means the blog. It also translates into a longer than usual post when I get back to it. The good news is that I’m going to stop writing and carry out the rest of this post with some images from the past month. I hope you enjoy ‘em!
I hope you all have an awesome Memorial Day weekend! I’m relaxing and enjoying today with my family and tomorrow I’m off to Napa, CA to teach a portrait photography workshop. Looking forward to sharing some images from my trip! Have a great day!
If you are a Facebook fan or follow me on Twitter, you might have noticed my post last week about Joe McNally shooting a ballerina on the foc’sle (bow) of a destroyer. Joe’s no stranger to shooting on military installations, but this time he brought a ballerina from the California Ballet.
I got a call on Wednesday afternoon from my buddy RC, explaining that Joe was in San Diego and he was looking for locations to shoot at. He asked if I was free and if I was interested (which of course I was) and then he put me in touch with Joe’s First Assistant, Drew.
I called Drew up to find out exactly what they were looking for and gathered as many details as I could in order to present something solid to my Chain of Command on the ship. Note: It’s always advisable to put together a solid plan before approaching anyone with something like this because it’s a helluva lot easier to sell on such a short fuse.
After getting it all set up, I met up with Joe, Drew, Kayla, her Mom, Brad (ballet instructor), and Rob Stephen and we headed to the ship. In Joe’s usual lighting style, he was thinking Rangers, 74″ Octa, and Lastolite panels. Well, the wind didn’t lend itself to Octas and Lastolite panels that day. It was blowing so hard that you might have thought we were at sea.
After Drew, Rob, and Joe lugged 150 pounds of gear onto the ship, Joe went with natural light. I don’t blame him one bit either! As you can see from the BTS shots I took, the light we had was absolutely gorgeous! Who would’ve guessed?!
When all was said and done, it was a great shoot. I’m looking forward to seeing the selects. Thanks to Kayla for being a great sport and braving the elements of probably the worst week of weather San Diego has seen in a long time.
No, I’m not joking. Earlier in the month I had gotten in touch with Dave Cross and RC Concepcion about taking a tour of the ship and doing some shooting while they were in town for the Adobe CS4 Unleashed Seminar that they taught last Friday. Dave asked me if it would be okay to bring a model on board and shoot a 40s-style pinup shoot. I thought, “Why not?!”
So I cleared the shoot with the powers that be and made sure no one would get upset. We weren’t going to take too long and we tried to be as unobtrusive as we could, but we drew a lot of attention from folks walking down the pier, other ships, etc.
The day was bright and sunny and it was about 2:30 in the afternoon, so we were going to be competing with the sun. Luckily, RC brought an SB900 with him. Those little flashes are VERY powerful and we were able to shoot mostly with just that one flash. We did have to bring in an SB800 for this shot though, because we were at f 22… yikes!
RC – VAL’ing for Dave while he shoots.
When all was said and done, everyone had a great time and we were able to capture some great images. Hope you enjoy ‘em and let me know what you think in the comments!
Happy Friday out there to the 3 people who read this blog. I wanted to pass along my sincere thanks and appreciation for all who voted for my team’s poster in the Navy’s Suicide Prevention Poster Contest. We were voted #1, thanks to your votes and support!
As the selected winners, our poster will be featured in the November issue of All Hands magazine. All Hands is a very popular Navy publication that is circulated to all Navy commands. As a Sailor who isn’t a Mass Communication Specialist, it’s a big honor to have our work published there.
Our CO gave us the day off because of a couple of recent certifications our ship has passed, so I’m spending the day working photography stuff, drinking coffee, and hanging out with my kids. We’re having a big birthday party for my youngest and his friend tomorrow and expect around 60 people between parents and kids… nuts.
Have a great weekend, get out and shoot, and don’t forget to back up your photos! I’ll see you back here on Monday!
