Sunrise, New York, NY, August 17, 2010

An outtake from the assignment mentioned in the previous post.  The buildings I was photographing were behind me but this was too good to pass up.

I’m realizing I haven’t posted in a couple of weeks other than earlier this evening. There have been assignments but I have also been gearing up for my first film assignment. It’s part of an annual report shoot. I’ll be creating a dozen environmental portraits (still images) and then producing/directing/shooting six short video pieces to accompany the annual report when it appears online.

The nature of the job is such that it is more cost effective to buy the needed equipment (HDslr, sound, continuous lights) than to rent because the work will be spread out over a significant amount of time.

Over the years I have owned between five and eight cameras at any one time. With the switch to digital that got whittled down to three and with the current generation of cameras, they’ve been rock solid, so I’ve only needed two. I shoot with Canon 1Ds Mark III’s. That body is pushing three years old so it does not have HD video.

Prior to this assignment I kept video as a professional option at arm’s length, even questioning the convergence of still and video. I was shooting video for myself but I was content knowing that when video reached the camera models I use, I would be able to dip my toe in then. Well… times change and so do clients’ expectations. With HD quality video becoming more prevalent in higher end dslr cameras and with the demand for video growing, clients are beginning to ask for and expect video.

So, for me, the first step was figuring out which camera body to get. In full disclosure, the film project I need to complete could be shot with a pro-level video camera. In fact, on a certain level it might be simpler that way. But if I’m going to do this I need to do it in a way which takes advantage of my current stable of lenses, my knowledge of still cameras, and sets me up for future projects. Those factors point toward getting a dslr with HD capabilities and which can create the shallow depth of field film look those cameras are known for.

Since I shoot Canon the options were the 7D, 5D Mark II, and the 1D Mark IV. I can’t go wrong with either of these for the upcoming assignment so it became a question of which will benefit me more after the assignment. Each camera has its strengths and weaknesses. The undisputed king is the 5D Mark II because of its full-frame sensor but it is also the most temperamental of the three. It doesn’t have the range of HD settings of the other two, it can be hard to focus, and it doesn’t play nice with external monitors once you start recording. It also does not have the build quality of the 7D or the 1D Mark IV.

In the end I went with the 1D Mark IV as much for it’s similarity to what I currently use as anything. Same body size, same build quality, same batteries, same accessories, same button layout. What it will add to my kit for the future is higher ISO capability along with the video strengths mentioned above. Would I rather have full-frame (the 1D Mark IV’s chip has a 1.3x factor)? Yes. Are the odds of Canon announcing a replacement for my current cameras, the 1Ds Mark III’s, this August good?  Yes, they are very good and, yes, it will probably have HD. But I need a camera now and one which can be vetted prior to this assignment starting.

While this has no bearing on the upcoming assignment – here’s a quick test of the 1D Mark IV’s low light capabilities:

This was shot a few nights ago, about 10PM. 1D Mark IV, handheld, 50mm f/1.2, @ 1.2, 1/50, 30p, 1080P, ISO 12800. The only tweak to the camera was to set the picture style to Neutral.

I am amazed you can see levels of detail in the trees, in the clouds, and those dots at the end are not noise. They are stars. Here’s a larger version (you can see the stars better.)

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09/01/10 – Realizing that Firefox does not play well with self-hosted *.mov or *.m4v movie files. It presents them as dark and contrasty. Safari works fine. So, if you are viewing this video (or any others on the blog) via Firefox don’t expect to see the detail I describe above.

Videos hosted by third-parties (e.g. Vimeo, YouTube) appear fine in any browser. I will look into these or WordPress’ VideoPress in the future.

Two shoots in two days postponed. Tuesday, just prior to leaving. Today, after having prepped two portrait setups.

~1:30 PM, *driving in, wondering how hot our rooftop location will be.

Setup #1: camera #1, light, laptop, and 7' Sunbuster at the ready.

Setup #2: camera #2 and light ready to go.

We pack up. Mike marks light & camera spots for our return on Friday.

*Hard to believe I had my car washed just over a week ago.

I’ve been spending time going through lots and lots of images as I prepare new print portfolios. One group of images sits in a sort of quasi-netherworld, not full-on produced portraits but not candids either. These are images I created for the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton University.

It was a fun project which ran for just over four years, portraits of faculty members and administration. These graced the walls of the light filled hallways, just outside the primary lecture hall, and just off the atrium of their main building, Roberston Hall.

WWS Faculty, 2004-2007, (click to enlarge.)

What stayed consistent over the years was the setup: full-frame Canon digital camera, 85mm f/1.2 lens shot anywhere between f/2.0 and f/4, and the subject lit a stop or so under ambient with a Canon flash in an XXS Chimera softbox. Whenever possible the photos were taken outside so that they would feel fresh and open. This also allowed me to challenge myself. Each portrait was limited to ten to fifteen minutes of set up time and ten minutes with the subject. Working with those constraints and photographing as many as fourteen subjects in a day, I did my best to vary the background on each and every image while still staying within a stone’s throw of their main building.

Beyond the lobby display, the portraits were used for publications, press, and development.

This past Friday I photographed Njoya Tikum, moments before he graduated from Columbia Law School.

Njoya Tikum, New York City, May 14, 2010

A native of Cameroon, Njoya was arrested, re-arrested, tortured, and his family abused because of his political views. He came to the United States in 2006 and was granted political asylum in 2008.

New York Times profile of Njoya (December, 2008).

Njoya Tikum, New York City, May 14, 2010

I’m excited to announce that I have just joined up with Wonderful Machine, a web portal and photographers’ representative dedicated to connecting art buyers with photographers. Part sourcebook, part agent, Wonderful Machine actively promotes its photographers through its website, print ads, direct mail, email promos, and portfolio showings. It has managed to hold buyers attention in a crowded dissonant marketplace by carefully selecting its members and promoting them only within areas where Wonderful Machine sees a deep proficiency.

When you sign up with Wonderful Machine, as with any rep, they decide how you will be marketed and which images will be used. Users of the web portal can search by city or specialty, or contact Wonderful Machine directly to find the best fits for their projects.

It was great to see that Wonderful Machine’s photo editor saw the depth in my work to include me in five categories: architecture, corporate, institutional, landscape, and fine art.

My page at Wonderful Machine.

Wonderful Machine’s home page.

Wonderful Machine has a great blog, too. Well worth a look and a subscription.

Goldman Sachs is in the news. Executives are on capital hill today to testify to whether they led investors astray by playing both sides of fence, aggressively selling mortgage derivative products while betting against them at the same time.

I photographed E. Gerald Corrigan, a Goldman Sachs partner and managing director, at the corporate headquarters in New York, in 2009.

New York, NY, February 24, 2009

I did two scenarios, one in a conference room adjacent to the hallway above and the other in the hallway. Both were setup and pre-lit in advance of the subject’s arrival, a needed step since he allotted me less than ten minutes. The conference room was the safer bet and led to a safer, less interesting, image. Corrigan conceded to the hallway image only because it was directly in his path out of the conference room.

The advantage of a bit of window light and the glow from behind made the image. I used only one light, an extra-small softbox with a grid to provide fill from camera left. The backlight glow is from a piece of artwork embedded in the wall and just peeking into the frame.

At the time it was late February, the economy had fully tanked the fall before. The golden glow seemed a nice play on Goldman Sachs’ name and it left room for the viewer to interpret the image as they saw fit.

As I continue to shoot with both of these lenses neither disappoints. Neither has needed an AF microadjustment and both lock focus quickly and accurately.

I first mentioned the Canon 24mm f/2.8L II and the Canon 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II in the KGB post last week. A few days after the KGB assignment I was shooting for a private secondary school, creating marketing images for their print and online use. Acting in fly-on-the-wall mode both lenses saw a lot of use.

The 24mm f/2.8L II

Canon 24mm f/1.4L II; f/4 @ 1/60, ISO 800, full-frame (click to enlarge)

100% Crop, focus point in the camera was on her eyelid, toward her nose.

70-200mm f/2.8L IS II

Canon 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II; f/4 @ 1/1000, ISO 400, slight crop (click for full-frame)

100% Crop, focus point in the camera was to the left, just outside of the frame.

The 70-200 is the biggest surprise. The prior generation lens was very good but the new lens follow-focuses really well (AI Servo mode on a Canon.) It’s the first time since shooting with a Nikon F5 (on film and with a telephoto zoom, mid to late-90′s) that I feel I have an equivalent setup in terms of its ability to follow a moving subject.