RIT Tiger

Posted on October 13th, 2007 by HuthPhoto.
Categories: Shoots, Funny, Photo, Rochester NY, Colleges, Events.


Ahhh… I finally got the joke, while editing for the RIT Reunion.

RITchie the RIT Tiger was given a button with a tiger on it and people told me to take a photo of it… which I did (what great customer service ;-)

Anyway, as I was editing, I noticed that I took many photos of the (human) alumni with buttons showing them in their younger days…

…and it finally hit me, that the button was funny because it was the RIT Tiger in his young college days too.

The ladies from the RIT archive or alumni office that pulled the photos from the yearbook and made buttons must have stumbled onto an old RITchie graphic and made it for him too… hee… he looks a bit down in his college days though, don’t you think??  Maybe he wasn’t the cool athletic-type he is today.

PS- I’m thrilled we have the new RITchie costume (sorry to spoil the magic for anyone, but he’s not real). The old one had such a broken up nose, that I spent hours in Photoshop retouching it in every alumni photo. Now I can relax and enjoy shooting the RITchie antics.

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Les is More

Posted on October 12th, 2007 by HuthPhoto.
Categories: Shoots, Personal, Photo, Teaching, Rochester NY, Colleges, Famous People, Events.


I love seeing my old professor Les Stroebel (left in the photo) at the RIT Reunion each year.

Les was one of my profs for ‘Materials & Processes of Photography’ (known as M&P, it was every science rolled into one class… we learned photography down to the atomic level!)
So Les and John Compton did a great job making a tough class interesting and useful and when we had our final class, we created a ‘Les is More’ banner that hung in the class and we all wore similar buttons.

One lesson I have today from that class is that the real, solid basics will never go out of fashion. The same histograms we learned (and honestly thought we’d never use, are part of my everyday life in Photoshop and in-camera, judging exposure… the histogram is the hills and valleys plot of how bright/dark a photo is).

This year Les beat me to the punch, he said:
‘Hi Ken, You looked surprised when I beat you to the punch and took this picture.’

and sent me this photo:

and here’s my photo of him at the same time… OK, Les won…


I’ll get him next year  :-)

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Now that’s how to do a ‘Famous Person’ meet and greet

Posted on September 25th, 2007 by HuthPhoto.
Categories: Shoots, Skills, Photo, PhotoJava, Rochester NY, Colleges, Famous People, Rants, Events.


The UofR Medical Center held the annual Golf Glassic with Pro Jeff Sluman there to visit and work with the golfers.

Now, often these ‘Famous People’ Meet & Greets I’m hired to shoot, usually go like this:
Cattle-line of folks waiting to meet ‘Mr. Famous’, They shake hands and I take a photo, the donor gets to say ‘I really like your work’ and then on to the next person.

Now hey, I don’t want to bust on anybody… just rave about how it went at the URMC.

For anyone that showed up early, Jeff did a clinic, told stories along with Oak Hill pro Craig Harmon.

Then Jeff was at one (very challenging) hole and he’d chat with folks while waiting for the foursome ahead to get off the green, we’d snap a quick shot of the foursome with Jeff and he’d hit a ball with the group… pretty cool seeing a pro at work up that close, and…if you could hit it closer to the pin, you got a gift certificate from the pro shop.
 

Another cool touch, my UofR contact Tom and Jeff worked out that Jeff signed the balls, and no matter if you won against Jeff…the golfer who was closest to the pin on that hole got to keep Jeff’s signed ball.

So, kudos to URMC’s development folks and Jeff, who’s got the personality (and funny stories) to make it all happen!

See more of my photos from the event HERE

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Canon Sports Shooting Tips

Posted on September 7th, 2007 by HuthPhoto.
Categories: Shoots, Skills, Equipment, Teaching, PhotoJava, Rochester NY, Colleges, Canon Cameras.


Canon has done a nice job of giving some tips on shooting sports. I know people always ask me about things like this and it’s a great summary if you need to do that kind of thing. Check it out HERE

I tell young shooters that getting good at sports helps you with all photos, since learning the perfect moment in a game is really no different than the perfect moment when a portrait subject smiles, or an award is given, or news action is happening.

Here are some recent fun sports shots I did for RIT’s team. They are doing a huge banner with the senior photo below.

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RIT NRS in the Tropics

Posted on July 16th, 2007 by HuthPhoto.
Categories: Shoots, PhotoJava, Rochester NY, Colleges, Events.


I had a great time shooting the RIT NRS event as always this Summer…they always pick a fun, casual theme (last year was the ‘Wild West’).

I’ve posted a Flash gallery of some of my favorite shots HERE.
Congratulations to the Awardees, welcome to the NRS to our new President and first lady, Dr. Destler and Rebecca Johnson.

One neat thing RIT did is instead of the usual ‘play a CD’ thing, they rented a new jukebox setup that goes way beyond what any of us have on our iPods…so you can program a whole event and have control over what plays when. I was impressed with the breadth of music it had (like tons of Island music for this event)

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Photographing ASL Speakers

Posted on May 10th, 2007 by HuthPhoto.
Categories: Shoots, Skills, Funny, Photo, Teaching, Rochester NY, Colleges, Events.


It can very tricky to photography a person speaking in American Sign Language. I get lots of practice with my RIT, NTID, Rochester School for the Deaf Shoots and thought I’d mention a few things that might help someone.

Honestly, part of it is shooting lots of frames. ASL is a fast moving, arm-waving experience, so it’s easy to get blurred shots. One of the toughest things is that the language is so expressive (due to how much meaning is conveyed by expression since there is little voicing), and you can get some really awful expressions as well. Sort of like when someone is really into singing or dancing and their face makes sense if you are their live, but as a frozen frame… it can be nasty.

Here’s a series I shot at the RIT Celebration of Scholarship. This student is (I believe) the incoming student government president, and really lively & terrific.

And this is just a few of the frames… with the worst ones cut.

How’d I do… well, I know I got one or two OK shots, and I wouldn’t use this one…

as the sign (and expression) is too close to ‘Where’s the toilette’… although she’s obviously not saying that! But it does bring up the issue that know some sign is not only useful in life, but helps in editing. And when you are shooting, you can catch some positive signs that photograph well like ‘Thank You’ ‘I’ ‘Congratulations’, ‘Love’… that kinda stuff.

This one is just plain bad:

So learn some sign, shots lots of frames and try to get in synch with your speaker and her expressions. The best news is that it does lead to great expressive images with lots of gesturing, which we shooters all love.

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