Metro Detroit photographer shares experience in the field – CBS Detroit

LAKE CHARLES, La. (KPLC) – How would you feel if you got the opportunity to do what you love with your idol? One McNeese State University student earned the right to do just that.

Caitlyn Dionne is an amateur photographer who specializes in equine photography. She said she has been surrounded by horses for as long as she can remember.

Once Dionne was able to pick up a camera, she tells us she never put it down.

“We had a lot of kids who didn’t have horses, and so my mom and her good friend were kind of like the horse club leaders, and they had the idea of let’s try to do events that kids who have horses and kids who don’t can do together and still enjoy, and one of those things is photography,” Dionne said.

Through photography, Dionne was able to show her idol, famous equine photographer Barbara van Cleve, exactly what she was capable of.

“There was something about photography that just clicked for me. I’m not super great with words, English for me was always a subject that I didn’t like, but with a camera, I didn’t have to explain things, I could just show you. And you could also take your own interpretation of what I saw,” said Dionne.

Dionne was selected for the Art of the Cowgirl Fellowship and will spend a week in Arizona with van Cleve soaking up as much new knowledge as she can.

“My mom had known about Art of the Cowgirl, and she kind of told me at one point like you need to do that, I was like umm, I’m not ready. I’m not ready for that, I don’t know about that, and she kind of was like no, you need to do it, and so we applied last year and I really did not think I was going to get it. I was just doing this to make Mom happy,” Dionne said.

Art of the Cowgirl is a fellowship program that is considered very prestigious, and its purpose is to pair less experienced, younger artists with “master artists” for a once-in-a-lifetime learning opportunity.

“I’m very blessed. I’m just very happy I’ve been able to take something I love so much and use it as a career,” Dionne said.

Once the week of mentoring is over, Dionne will get an opportunity to showcase and sell her art to the public.

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Food photography is an exciting offshoot of the still-life genre, where you can really take your time and be a perfectionist with all of the various elements around the frame: from product placement to the position of the sun or your flash. It’s not uncommon for tweezers to be used to carefully position a garnish or detail around the frame for total precision. The best news is, once you’ve wrapped taking pictures you can tuck into some tasty treats!

We recently caught up with professional food photographer Monika Grudzinska, who has perfected her style over many years and now takes the food and product photography for some of Poland’s largest brands. 

• Elevate your food photos with the best lenses for food photography

Monika, 42, is based in Gdansk, Poland, specializing in food and product photography since 2017. She mainly works with Polish brands but has recently taken on work from Swedish and German companies too. She tells us: “All of my work is about creating feelings and emotions while using natural light. I am a total fan of the dark mood style.” 

She tells us her story, her top tips for food photos, as well as the camera set-up she uses, including her favorite lenses. To see more of her fantastic culinary pictures, be sure to visit her website and Instagram.

“I grew up in Gdansk in the north of Poland. When I finished my studies, I left my hometown. I didn’t know what I wanted to do in life, but got into photography in 2009 when I got my first Canon EOS 80D. My love for food photography was born a few years later. Sadly my cameras were stolen and I had to start building it all up again, buying a used Canon EOS 40D from a friend. 

“At the time I worked a 9-5 and spent all of my free time on photography. I cooked and then posted recipes with photos of the dishes on my blog too. Over time, my first clients started to appear, so I started my own company and start working as a full-time food photographer. I gained experience by photographing food in restaurants. These were quick sessions for large culinary platforms, but it wasn’t 100% what I wanted to do. I dreamed of creating beautiful, artistic photos of more than just food. I wanted my photos to evoke emotions. 

“In 2016 my private life was turned upside down and I put my camera away for almost two years. I came back and decided to focus on my love of photography and I so started from scratch again. I worked hard building my portfolio for four years and today I’m proud to say I work with some of Poland’s largest companies.

“After all these years, I can say that I have my dream job and work in my dream photo studio. The road wasn’t easy, but it was definitely worth all the ups and downs I experienced. I know that dreams can come true, you just have to really want it.”

Monika’s pro culinary kit

“The Canon EOS 5D Mark III was my first full-frame Canon EOS camera and was my workhorse for many years, I’ve now upgraded to the 5D Mark IV and use my 5D Mark III as my backup camera. After working with APS-C bodies prior, both of my 5D bodies have shown me the significant improvement to image quality and low light performance.”

“A 100mm macro lens is a must-have for photographers looking to shoot detailed close-ups, whether that’s food, still-life or even insects. The quality and detail in my close-up food shots with this lens are simply incredible and might just be my favourite lens when it comes to food photography.”

“The Canon EF 35mm f/1.4L USM is perfectly suited to my Canon EOS 5D Mark IV full-frame body and is ideal for the times when I need a wider angle to squeeze more of the frame into view. I use this lens alot for food photos and also for time-lapse videos.”

“This is one of the smallest and cheapest lenses you can buy, but this ‘nifty’ 50mm has huge capabilities. This is the first lens that completely changed  photography for me – I discovered the shallow depth of the field and I created my first successful bokeh photo effect! Its wide maximum aperture of f/1.8 also makes it a great option when shooting in a dark environment.”

“The Canon RC-6 is a remote that allows me to fire my Canon EOS 5D Mark IV wirelessly. This is crucial for my work as it prevents camera shake from touching the shutter button, and allows me to fire it when I’m looking at the Live View on my computer screen, and not standing directly next to my camera. It’s an ideal gadget for sharper food photography and making films.”

“The TetherTools TetherPro USB 3.0 to Micro-B is a very helpful gadget that allows me to connect my Canon EOS 5D Mark IV to my computer. This means I can see my image in Live View on a much larger screen, which is essential for seeing which details are sharp when working with a shallow depth of field.”

As we wrap up 2023, a year that featured a ton of incredible photography gear that will undoubtedly feature in many a photographer’s kits for years to come, we began to wonder, “What popular photography gear from years past is much less common now?”

PocketWizard: From Ubiquitous to Rare

Our internal discussions kicked off with PocketWizard. Unlike a later entry, the company still exists, and some photographers still use PocketWizard remote triggers as part of their work, including sports photographers. But these radio triggers used to be everywhere, and now, they’re rarely seen. The company’s last major firmware upgrade was in 2019, and even then, the company had lost much of its once-powerful stronghold on the photo industry and new product released had slowed to a trickle.

What happened? A bunch of things. The most significant shift is that many flashes began to include integrated radio-triggering technology, drastically reducing the need for an external triggering system. PocketWizard products were also costly, and when they were the only major player, that was fine. But cheaper alternatives came along, and PocketWizard suffered greatly, even a decade ago.

Camera Companies No Longer Release Many First-Party Flashes

Relatedly, first-party flashes are also much less common these days for reasons similar to the dramatic downfall of Pocket Wizard. Affordable, feature-rich third-party lighting options have undoubtedly affected camera makers. Brands like Godox, Nissin, and Profoto, among many others, have supplanted camera companies in the strobe space.

For example, in Nikon’s DSLR days, the company frequently released new SB speedlights. Nikon’s current flagship speedlight, the SB-5000, launched in 2016. Coincidentally, it was also Nikon’s first flash to include an integrated radio trigger.

Canon announced a new speedlight, the EL-5, over a year ago. It was the company’s first flash for the EOS R system, arriving a few years after the original EOS R camera.

First-party flashes may matter quite a bit to Sony shooters soon, though, as the company’s upcoming a9 III camera can sync flash at any shutter speed, assuming the flash is up to the task.

Lighter Lenses, Better IBIS, and Improved High ISO Performance Has Turned the Monopod into the Dodo

The lengthy transition to mirrorless camera systems has also impacted another former staple of many photographers’ kits — the monopod. As mirrorless cameras and their lenses get smaller and lighter and in-body image stabilization improves, a monopod is no longer the vital stability accessory it once was, at least for photography. PetaPixel‘s Jordan Drake loves using monopods for video work.

Another factor is the incredible high ISO capabilities of modern image sensors. It used to be that photographers had to be very mindful of their ISO, which, of course, affected the usable shutter speed range. There is no longer any issue with cranking ISO up to 6,400, 12,800, or even higher on many cameras, meaning that shutter speeds can stay higher, and camera shake is much less of a concern.

Between lighter lenses, better camera stabilization, and improved ISO performance, the only photographers who still use monopods are people working with 400mm f/2.8 and 600mm f/4 lenses, which themselves are becoming less common in the age of super-light, compact telephoto lenses with slower apertures.

As Cameras Get More Features, External Accessories Lose Value

Advances in camera technology and features have also spelled the end of external intervalometers, at least for most photographers. Photographers who wanted to do timelapse work or stack a bunch of consecutive images once needed expensive, specialized cable release triggers and intervalometers, like the nearly $200 Nikon MC-36 I used regularly for astrophotography.

Now, most cameras include sophisticated intervalometer functions built right into the menus. As for the camera shake-reducing benefits of a remote release, there are apps for that now. A cable release is overkill for many modern digital shooters outside of some exceptional use cases or when using an older camera.

Cameras have also integrated electronic levels, kicking another old standby in my backpack to the curb — a hot shoe bubble level. The helpful lines on mirrorless cameras are easy to take for granted now, but there was a time when cameras had nothing of the sort. Years ago, the best way to avoid crooked horizons was to use some bubble level, either on a tripod head or on the camera itself. And yes, despite what are essentially foolproof features, I still sometimes capture a crooked photo. You can lead a horse to water, right?

Bigger and Better Memory Cards Killed Gnarbox

Advances in memory card technology have also changed “must-have” camera gear. Current memory cards feature staggering capacities measured in terabytes, not megabytes and gigabytes.

Readers may remember Gnarbox, a now-dead company that promised mobile downloading, viewing, and photo backup. Current cards are so voluminous and affordable that they can themselves be a means of backing images up in the field.

Obsolescence is in the Eye of the Beholder

To be clear, plenty of compelling reasons exist to use any of the equipment we discussed. If something is helpful for you, it is not obsolete; it is a vital part of your toolkit.

However, that doesn’t change the fact that there are accessories that have gone from “essential” to “barely ever seen” for various reasons, primarily because the need for particular gear has been reduced due to advances in camera technology.

Disclosure: The featured image was created using generative AI technology.

The American photographer Elliott Erwitt, who has died aged 95, was renowned for his largely unposed images of famous people. Among the political figures he caught on film were Fidel Castro and Che Guevara, laughing and waving a cigar in Havana (1964); Jacqueline Kennedy swathed in a black veil at her husband’s funeral in 1963; and Richard Nixon, pointing and jabbing his finger at Nikita Khrushchev’s chest in 1959.

Cultural figures included Marilyn Monroe showing a leg while filming The Seven Year Itch in 1954; Jack Kerouac, unusually meditative, wearing a tie, in 1953; and Dustin Hoffman, with whom Erwitt made a short film, The Many Faces of Dustin Hoffman (1968). Animals were his obsession, and he devoted several books to pictures of dogs, with titles such as Woof (2005) and DogDogs (1998), as well as another short film, I Bark at Dogs (2011).

He spent nearly 80 years behind a camera (for preference a Leica 35mm or a Rolleiflex medium format), selecting subjects from around the world, and working primarily in black-and-white, though he could use colour to make a point.

According to Erwitt, who disliked over-theoretical analysis: “Colour is descriptive. Black-and-white is interpretative.” He defined photography as “an art of observation” or “a biography of a moment”. He suggested that artistry lies in “finding something interesting in an ordinary place … I’ve found it has little to do with the things you see and everything to do with the way you see them.”

In his view everything has photographic potential. If you care to look, he wrote, “you can find pictures anywhere. It’s simply a matter of noticing things and organising them. You just have to care about what’s around you and have a concern with humanity and the human comedy.”

He cared a great deal, politically and personally. Erwitt was furious rather than flattered that the Republicans used his Nixon/Khrushchev image (without his permission) for their 1960 presidential campaign, and sent a $500 invoice, which was paid. It can be viewed as Nixon bullishly asserting the US against the USSR, and represented what Erwitt most abhorred in US politics.

He was born Elio Ervitz in Paris, the son of Orthodox Jewish parents, Eugenia and Boris, who had fled Russia following the 1917 Revolution. His forenames were his father’s choice since “he had once attended the University of Rome … and liked it”, and he later anglicised his name. The family moved to Milan, until the rise of fascism prompted their return to Paris in 1938.

Although Erwitt’s parents had separated, a year later all three left together for New York, then Los Angeles. Erwitt completed his schooling there in 1947, and a year later he returned to New York to embark on film studies at the New School. He then joined the US army Signal Corps and, while serving in Europe (1951-53), his fluency in four languages assisted him in compiling his portfolio.

He gained further experience working as a film cameraman in France; a staffer for the Standard Oil Company and Pittsburgh Photo Library; and then – increasingly – as a contributor to a variety of new picture magazines including Look, Life and Holiday, which provided his entry into the prestigious Magnum Photo Agency, established in Paris and New York in 1947.

Robert Capa, one of Magnum’s four founder members, recruited Erwitt, and a fellow founder, Henri Cartier-Bresson, championed him, describing him as “working on a chain-gang of commercial campaigns and still offering a bouquet of stolen photos with a flavour and smile from his inner self”. Praise indeed, which Erwitt later returned in a homage to Cartier-Bresson’s Behind the Gare Saint-Lazare (1932) with Umbrella Jump in Paris (1989), which captures the balletic leap of a man over a puddle beneath the Eiffel Tower during a rainstorm.

Alongside his sense of empathy, Erwitt maintained his sense of humour. Humans’ capacity for projecting their attitudes – and fashion fads – on to their pets was a reliable subject. One image, New York City, 1974 (Dog Legs), taken at knee level, shows a diminutive pooch in a fancy knitted beret, next to a pair of a women’s fashionable, shiny boots, with another pair of taller legs, clearly canine, completing the lineup. It was a perfect example of stylistic crossover: what appears to be a found image was in fact a shoe advert.

In another image from the same year, a disgruntled-looking bulldog squats on a brownstone doorstep, next to a much larger bulldog squatting on the lap of a human, obliterating any view of his master’s face. Erwitt not only loved dogs, but enjoyed seeing the world from a dog’s eye level.

He was not afraid of humour even in more ghoulish surroundings. In 1955, he shot the naturally preserved naked Mexican mummies lining the museum walls at Guanajuato. Their desiccated skins, slack jaws and awkwardly positioned limbs flank a prettily dressed young couple. The blond lad, in an American-style checked shirt, is pointing, in spirited discussion with his girlfriend. They appear as incongruous as their silent observers.

The incongruous and the absurd became hallmarks of Erwitt’s work, as did political events. In one sequence both came together, during Nelson Rockefeller’s campaigning for the Republicans in 1962. Once more taking a mutt’s eye view of humans, the first shot shows one apparently observing intently; in the next he has turned to sniff the ground; and in the third he raises a back leg. “Fair comment,” a viewer might say. Erwitt’s conclusion was, after all, that: “The whole point of taking pictures is so that you don’t have to explain things with words.”

His work appeared all over the world, including several shows at the International Center of Photography in New York, Elliott Erwitt: a one-man exhibition at the Barbican in London in 1989; and a retrospective at the Musée Maillol, Paris, earlier this year.

Erwitt married and was divorced from four wives: Lucienne Van Kan, from 1953 to 1960; Diana Dann, from 1967 to 1974; Susan Ringo, from 1977 to 1984; and Pia Frankenberg, from 1998 to 2012. He is survived by two daughters, Ellen and Jennifer, and two sons, Misha and David, from his first marriage; two daughters, Sasha and Amelia, from his third marriage; 10 grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.