Kelly Gorham Photographer

Montana State U earns NCAA FCS 2nd round victory

2011-12-03T16:44:00.000-08:00

I Love Dogs

2011-11-08T11:09:00.000-08:00

Last month I had the opportunity to photograph Montana State University graduate student Jason Baldes. Jason is working to restore buffalo to the Wind River area in Wyoming. You can read about it here. Soon after my arrival though, Jason's dog Beah decided to steal the show. It's probably my fault considering how much I love dogs, and they know this. This became an exercise in what every photographer should be able to do...go with the flow. There was no chance Beah was going to go anywhere else so as I laid in the grass I was happy to let Beah jump on my belly and pose for every photo. The portrait of a man very quickly became a visual story about a dog and her human.

Photographing the stars

2011-11-02T19:48:00.000-07:00

As a follow up to my October 10th post, you can now view a video I produced about Ryan Hannahoe and his craft of astronomical imaging.

Field goals

2011-10-15T17:05:00.000-07:00

I love field goals. Not so much for the one or three points they create but for the great action they present when photographing football. These are a couple images from Montana State University vs Northern Arizona. MSU won to remain undefeated in the Big Sky Conference.

How much stuff can you fit in a studio

2011-10-10T08:50:00.000-07:00

I never set out to fill a studio with lights and props...it just seems to happen. I'm convinced that while I'm working up a scene, little lighting gnomes sneak in and add lights and props to my photos.

This is a wide shot of my studio from a video I was filming Friday about Ryan Hannahoe. Ryan is a Montana State University education major who has built quite a reputation for himself in the world of astronomical imaging. So much of a name that he has earned internships with NASA and is collaborating with top astronomers.

Smoky moon

2011-09-12T19:59:00.000-07:00

Normally I am opposed to wildfires due to the smoke that burns our eyes and lungs but it can make for magnificent sunsets, and in this case, moonrises. This was a simple photo from my driveway Monday evening. For the techies, it was taken with a handheld Nikon D200 and a 400mm APO lens. F5.6 @ 1/30 second.

Game day in a new stadium

2011-09-10T16:52:00.000-07:00

One of the things I love most about being a photographer is the opportunity to document a moment that will never happen again. For example Montana State University running back Cody Kirk's touchdown against UC Davis. Sure, touchdowns are a common Saturday occurance during football season but this one was important because it was the first touchdown in the newly remodeled Bobcat Stadium. By the grace of an educated guess and some luck I was able to capture the touchdown with the new endzone in the background. I love luck.

Below are some more game day action shots for your viewing pleasure.

Ladder 7: Dorchester, Boston F.D.

2011-09-08T16:39:00.000-07:00

In June I had the opportunity to photograph in two separate ladder companies in the Boston fire department. This portrait seemed appropriate given the ten year anniversary of the attacks on New York City.

Students make a new home away from home

2011-08-30T13:49:00.000-07:00

Each year across the nation students move to college for the first time. For university photographers this is a highlight of the year as the event presents numerous sights and sounds to document. Here's a multimedia production I created last week for move in day at Montana State University. I really enjoy this new-ish style of photography. It's an opportunity to appeal to multiple senses and tell a more thorough story than with straight photo essays. Click the link and enjoy!
http://www.montana.edu/cpa/news/nwview.php?article=10133&origin=homepage-l

Quiet morning at York Beach

2011-08-22T18:46:00.000-07:00

As people are returning from their summer vacations and sending the kids back to school I'm reflecting on early summer and how people flock to their annual vacation spots. This photo is from June in York, Maine. It's a popular summer home area for Bostonians. I took an early morning walk and was able to capture this quiet moment of a fisherman working in the fog.

Recent work: Scientists and mold

2011-08-08T09:27:00.000-07:00

Here's a photo from a recent session with scientists studying mold in lungs. Click here to see more of their story.

Nora Grahl and Robert Cramer examine a film used to verify the presence or absence of a specific DNA sequence in different fungal DNA samples. (photo MSU/Kelly Gorham)

Secret Agent

2011-07-23T08:49:00.000-07:00

After months of packing my Minox sub miniature camera around the country I finally processed film. The camera was a gift last year from Jorge Winkler in Bozeman, MT. I met Jorge and his wife through my documentary project about the cold war in Berlin. This particular camera was made in Germany in 1973. Although Minox claims the cameras were only intended to be a quality compact consumer camera, the designs suspiciously lent themselves to use for covert photography. Minox cameras are small enough to be easily palmed or concealed. They are also capable of focusing precisely to film documents. Some of the largest customers of Minox during the Cold War were various intelligence services. It's no wonder that sub miniature cameras are often featured in spy films.

My photos shown here from the Minox aren't covert by any means but the results are really interesting. The quality of the film is very reminiscent of film from the 1960's and 1970's. I certainly had fun and will be doing more photography with my Minox.

California coastline. September 2010.

Virginia City, MT. July 2010.

Harbor in Northern Michigan. June 2010.

Building a better fish ladder

2011-06-27T08:36:00.000-07:00

I had the opportunity to photograph Katey Plymesser last week. Katey is a civil engineering student at Montana State University and was recently awarded a fellowhip to improve fish ladder design. Read the story here. The challenge was to make a gray lab and very large test tank look visually interesting. Fortunately Katey was a good sport so after 20 minutes of modifying speedlights we got something catchy.

Montana State University student Katey Plymesser stands next to a hydraulic plume used as a teaching tool and to calibrate simple computer models. Plymesser was awarded a fellowship to study how fish navigate certain fishways, or fish ladders. (MSU Photo by Kelly Gorham)

Zooming with your feet...getting back to basics to improve your pics

2011-06-20T09:11:00.000-07:00

When I was six-years-old, in the 1970’s, and got my first camera it used film and flash cubes and had a fixed focal-length lens. You may remember a flash cube only had four shots in it. After I threw many tantrums when I’d run out of film or flashes, my mother lectured me and instructed me to make each photo count instead of photographing everything as I did.

This trend continued through my life of photography as I used a view camera with prime lenses in college and a Pentax K1000 with one lens during my first two summers interning with a daily newspaper. It really forced me to think about my photos and zoom with my feet. During these years I managed some pretty creative compositions and explored my subjects more thoroughly since I had to move my body to get different perspectives.

This all fell apart when I upgraded camera systems and got my Nikon N90s with 28-70mm f2.8 and 70-200mm f2.8 lenses. I was working for a daily paper in Nevada and found myself working much more quickly. This was in part due to my heavy assignment load but also because the zoom lenses made me lazy. For years I would get to a scene, have a look around, and then pick a couple good angle and fire away with the motor drive cranking like a lawnmower. There I was, just standing and zooming. Oh, maybe I’d take time to switch between the two lenses but the interaction I had experienced with my subjects from an early age was gone. I used the technology like a crutch and it made me lazy and as a result the photos suffered.

Fast forward twelve years and I’d been shooting digital for about ten of those. Yup, you guessed it, even lazier. With digital I could see every photo as I captured it. We call this chipping in the industry. It’s almost like a funny photo ballet. You really see it at sporting events with a row of photographers bobbing their heads in unison from the action to their LCD screens. So now, I’m still standing and zooming but have even less concerns because I can see instantly if I’m getting the shot. The challenge is gone. Even if it’s a poor photo I’d be in Photoshop trying to salvage it. Of course, photographers are famous for saying, “I never Photoshop, I’m true to the subject,” but let’s admit it, we’ve all gone through that phase of trying to squeeze every bit of information out of every pixel. Is the photo too dark? Fix it in post. You didn’t get close enough? No problem, crop it in post. Too lazy to wait for good light? No problem, shoot a bunch of bracketed photos and merge them in HDR (high dynamic range) software.

In 2008 just as my laziness-induced obsession with HDR imaging and zoom lenses was reaching critical mass, my 28-70 broke. Oh crap. It was a morning before I had several news assignments. The 70-200 would be too long for all these assignments. I grabbed the only other lens that was with me at the time, my trusty $89 Nikkor 50mm f1.8 that I had previously only used when shooting food and products and went off to the assignments.

Suddenly photography was tough again. I was crouching, squatting, laying on my belly and on my back. I stood on chairs and tables. Wow, I was moving again. This lens didn’t allow me to be lazy. I was thinking about my subject and interacting with it. I didn’t even chip. I just shot the photos and hoped for the best, just like the days of slide film. When I got back to the computer I downloaded the photos into Adobe Lightroom and was amazed at the quality. It was like the 23-year-old version of me walked into the room. The photos were interesting, well composed and perfectly exposed. I didn’t change a thing in the computer. I simply exported the images and sent them off to the editors. I was a photographer again.

Soon after, I went to Berlin to shoot a project about relics of the Cold War. I carried a 20mm and a 50mm. The project was the highlight of my career and has exhibited around the U.S. and in Germany. Now in 2011 I carry a 28mm and an 85mm throughout the day. I shoot sports with a prime 300mm f2.8 and use a 1.4x teleconverter when I need the extra oomph. I still have a 70-200 and use it when needed but I travel light and think about my shots. Instead of researching cameras with bells and whistles and massive zoom lenses, I find myself dreaming about compact mirrorless cameras with prime lenses and very few controls. I treat every photo as though it’s the most important image I’ve ever captured.

Here’s a challenge for you. Take one camera with one prime lens and go for a stroll. No filters, no gadgets. Just go and explore your subjects and force yourself to break from the restraints of technology. Enjoy life for what it is and make the most of it.

Welcome

2011-06-20T08:29:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the new and improved blog for Kelly Gorham photographer. Follow this blog to catch up on the latest antics of Kelly and view exerpts from his newest projects.