So, last night I left my computer at the church I am working with this week, but I got it this morning and here I am to put up my first post on this blog.
So, for those of you who don't know what Salkehatchie is, the Salkehatchie Summer Service project is a camp that was started by a pastor working with some youth one summer trying to find something to occupy their time. the solution? Helping with home repairs for people who were underprivileged.
Now over 30 years later, Salkehatchie Summer Service has grown from one camp down in the lower-state of South Carolina to a growing state-wide phenomenon that over 2900 youth and adults will participate in this summer. Each camp is one week long, from Saturday to Saturday, and each camp's participants come from all over the state.
Our church has attended the camp in Summerville, South Carolina for the past 4 years, and I have gone each year. This year was a little different though because I was the "official" photographer for the camp. The reason I did this was because I have (obviously) recently become quite skilled and quite involved with photography, and I felt that the way that I could best help the camp was to document everything. At the same time I took it upon myself to try and get some really good shots that could become posters to promote Salkehatchie Summer Service next year, because the camp is growing and, well, let's face it, they need a new PR strategy (they don't really have much of anything in the way of marketing right now).
So, I set out to take some pictures that I though could be used as ads, and I am rather happy with what I managed to get.
This is the first one that I came up with, and I realize that it is not the best poster style ad. (It doesn't show anyone doing work, just playing.) While it is a cool picture, it doesn't really show what the camp is about, and the word play with the volleyball lingo, while creative, is not exactly compelling, because he isn't serving the ball. My original idea with this ad was a 2 page magazine type of ad, where you see the first part of the ad, and then when you flip a few more pages you see the other part that makes the whole ad come together, but it didn't work out because I wasn't going around with a group of models posing them the way that I wanted - I was getting candids and trying to use what I could to get an awesome shot. But, I liked the idea for the ad, and it was actually while I was playing around with this picture in photoshop that I finally had a breakthrough in design and discovered my own way of post-processing photos to give them a more "ad/poster" type of feel.
I may go into detail later about how I do one of the posters, but for now, I am going to keep my technique to myself ;p
So anyway, I got that picture on the first day and I got excited about what the following week would bring. My second picture came on the next day, and I have been told that it is similar to some older (50's-ish maybe?) style ads from back in the day.
I really like the post that I did on this one. It is more "new-age" and "video-game" looking than the later ads, but I like them all just the same.
I was having a good run, two days in and two ads, but then I hit a kind of wall. I did get a shot that I thought was good on Day 2, but I was a little too far to the left, and it was more risque than an ad promoting a church event should be (you can use your imagination because I am not going to post that one, well at least not in this post, and well, maybe you shouldn't use your imagination too much ;D) But then on Day 4 I somehow got re-inspired and had a case of being in the right place at the right time. I produced two ads from Day 4, and then on Day 5 I got another one.
I really like this one a lot, but after I finished it I was still feeling a little down because Salkehatchie camps are all about youth coming and serving God. So far all I had produced was a group of early 20 year olds playing volleyball, and two adults working. While they were all good pictures, they weren't really pictures that would bring many youth in, which is really the prime marketing target. But, as I was relooking at the day's pictures and trying to find one that I though would bring in youth, I did! (yay! haha)
And on Day 5 I got one with two people in it (this is actually a remake of the "rejected" ad that I got on Day 2, it wasn't this exact composition, but it was a shingling picture). I think that it is always good to get more than one person in them, but it is sometimes hard to do, especially when you are trying to have candid shots and not pose people too much.
In closing, I guess that I would like to say that I hope I get a chance to see some of these pictures that I am taking this week and last week as some posters that people actually use for promoting Salkehatchie, and who knows, there may even be a Salkehatchie PR role somewhere in my future ;) but we will just have to see where it goes, and be praying that it goes where God wants it too, since it is a church camp and all :)
Look for updates on the camp I am working at this week too,
-joshua
One of the advantages of having a wide-angle lens is that you can get a lot in frame (especially on a full-frame camera) and that means that you can get some cool shots, especially in the concert type settings like BigStuf.
I really like this photo of the worship leader praying because of the lighting on him.
Again with the wide-angle (my favorite camera combo lately is the 16-35 on my 5D) I think that here having the speaker in the middle with a really open frame gives the picture a feel of a big stage. But at the same time I think that there is a good balance between feeling lost in the picture and giving enough impression of "big-ness."
I did take my 70-200 with me of course, and it saw use too. 
But I found myself going back to the wide-angle to give the impression of a big concert feeling. 
Though as every good photog knows, for emotion usually the best bet is to crop tight (except for in those rare occasions) 
The lighting was pretty interesting for the most part; there was a lot of blue and a lot of purple in most of the sets, but I think that the pictures still turned out good.
