The photographer

I started taking photographs for fun when I got my first camera as a youngster about 15 years ago. I had taken a few film-based photography courses in high school and college but photography has really only blossomed into the passion I have for it now starting in the beginning of 2014, when I bought my first DSLR. I rediscovered the joy that photography brings and, feeling empowered by the creative control that a manual settings and digital editing gives, I dove in headfirst. For me, photography is a meld of technical mastery, creative expression, and faithful documentation. It provides the ability to freeze time and capture a moment, an expression or a feeling. Photographs can make a statement about the world, remind us of the past, or just be pleasing to look at. They can also travel through time and, in the same way that the written word has allowed the cumulative knowledge of the world to accrue beyond that of a single generation, photography is a way of capturing the present so that future generations can see what our lives are like. It may be an idealization, but it's my inspiration to keep photographing.

I'm always eager to meet new people and I've found that photography is a great vehicle to do that in. I love sharing photos and seeing the joy someone has when I'm able to capture something that's beautiful and special to them. I also find it satisfying for myself to make an image that offers a unique perspective on some small part of the world.

I have a year-long project on tumblr which you should totally check out. I put up a photo (nearly!) every day and the purpose is to make myself continually look for interesting photographs in the world around me. It's more challenging than I expected it to be but it's forced me to grow and I'm really glad I'm doing it. Some of the photos are actually decent too!

I'm currently doing a lot of pro-bono work for projects that I find interesting, and those areas include music, lifestyle, and portraiture. If you have a project that you want to collaborate on I'm eager to learn about it! If you're interested in my work and want to know more or to inquire about availability please visit my contact me page, or send me an email, chris@chrisaho.com

I grew up in Massachusetts and I currently live in Northampton, a cute little city in the western part of the state. I'm a trained mechanical engineer and my day job involves engine testing in the automotive industry. I sometimes travel far to do engine testing and it's always an adventure. Given that scheduling works out, traveling for a photography assignment is always a possibility!

The cameras

I shoot with a Canon DSLR system and a small Fuji X100S mirrorless camera. The Canon system is fantastic, especially in situations with challenging light or action, and I use it for most of my work. The Fuji's diminutive form factor throws a lot of people off. It doesn't look like a professional grade camera but the images it captures are exceptionally good. I like the Fuji because it doesn't draw a lot of attention and it's super portable. Perfect for getting candid shots at gatherings.

Having a good camera is certainly important for capturing great photos but it's really not the only thing. The lighting, composition, timing and image processing each contribute a lot more to a photo than the camera or lens ever could. I list the camera equipment here because a lot of people ask and the engineer part of me is always happy to talk about technical details but the really important gear that I have is my lighting. I love the variety and quality of natural light but often there's just not enough, or even worse, there's full sun directly overhead and it's just too harsh. To get around this, I make extensive use of portable lighting and light modifiers. These tools let me make great photogrpahs in almost any environment and with almost any camera!

Canon system

Bodies:

6D - Consistently pleased with this camera. It has a full-frame 20 megapixel sensor and I use it all the time.
600D - This is a backup body that I'll sometimes keep a second lens on if I won't have time to switch lenses on the 6D

Lenses:

17-40mm f/4 L - This is a great zoom lens, especially suited for taking photos of groups or when I'm trying to capture the scene with the subject.
24-105 f/4 L IS - A very useful zoom lens that can do it all.
8mm f/3.5 - A prime fisheye lens. This has a lot of distortion but it's fun and I use it mainly for skate photography.
50mm f/1.4 - A 'normal' prime lens - it sees things very similarly to how our eyes do and is the best lens when there simply isn't enough light.
85mm f/1.8 - Typically used for portrait work, also a prime lens
135mm f/2L - This is one is magically sharp with beautiful background blur. I use this one more than any others.

The process

The advancement that photography has seen in the past 10 years has been dramatic. Nearly all professional photography is now done on a digital format and while the switch to digital hasn't changed what makes for a good photo, it has significantly changed the workflow for photographers. I have a lot more creative control and the processing of my images with digital and I love it. I capture images in their raw format, which is akin to a film negative. Just like negatives needed tonal adjustments and color corrections before printing, a raw file has to be processed before turning it into a jpeg for printing or sharing online. I use raw because it gives me more control over exposure, color, and tone than the standard jpeg output from all digital cameras. I use this extra control to ensure that my colors are vibrant, the details are sharp, and that the tone of the image is exactly what I want it to be. The exception to this is the Fuji X100S. If I'm just taking photos for fun I'll set it to a film simulation mode, let it save just the jpeg and let it work. Fuji put some special sauce in that sensor and processor because it makes some beautiful images straight out of the camera with zero adjustments.

My process of photography starts with contact. Someone reaches out to me or viceversa in the interest of getting photos and the planning starts. I'm most comfortable working with creative freedom but I also like collaborating with other people on what a photo should look like. If someone has a specific look in mind then I also like the challenge of working towards that. I'm always trying to visualize what the photo is going to look like before I even pick up the camera. If I'm covering a live event the goal is almost always to capture photos that tell the story, and beautifully! In the studio or a one-on-one session I take a much more nuanced approach and I work with the subject to get the exact photo that I'm picturing in my head. The process continues when I start to edit my photos. I always try to show as many photos that I think are worthy of an audience and I'll go through several revisions to a set of photos until I'm confident that they are all as good as they can be. My goal is to make every photo worthy of printing, even if it's not the huge one that you want to hang in your living room it's one that you'll want to keep and share.

During the editing process I sometimes find photos that work better in black and white instead of color. It might be because of off-colored lighting that I couldn't control or a bright distracting color in the background that draws attention away from the subject. Often times though, it's not for one of those reasons but for something else that's difficult to articulate on. Maybe it's because I learned photography shooting black and white film but I don't think I will ever tire of the simplicity of tone as the defining element in a monochrome photo. The photo on the right is one that I took of some people on a street in Maastricht, Netherlands. They're strangers and didn't pose for the photo, they just happened to walk into the spot where I was hoping someone would. I'll wax poetic about the light some other time, but it's one example of a photo that for all logical purposes could work in color, but it stands out in black and white.

Perhaps the photojournalist Ted Grant said it best,

“When you photograph people in color, you photograph their clothes. But when you photograph people in Black and white, you photograph their souls!”.

For almost everything I do, I use Adobe's creative suite, namely Photoshop and Lightroom and I really enjoy the power those two programs have to offer. When I'm done editing the photos I'll share them through an online gallery on this website or through social media. If there are going to be prints made of the photos I'll make the full resolution files available which are suitable for sizes up to about 2 feet (60cm) on the long edge.

For printing photos, I usually go through adoramapix. They have competitive pricing, a good interface and their prints are great. The metal prints work really well for large photos because you can get a huge a borderless print that doesn't need to be framed. They don't pay me to say this, I'm just happy with their service!

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