July 7th, 2010 § 0
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.
ShareLink: Email • Twitter • FacebookJuly 7th, 2010 § 0
July 6th, 2010 § 0
July 2nd, 2010 § 0
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.
ShareLink: Email • Twitter • FacebookJune 28th, 2010 § 0
I received my iPhone 4 last Wednesday, one of the group to get them a day early from Apple.
Initial thoughts:
The camera has been updated on the new phone. Still images are more detailed and sharper. Video takes a big leap forward, moving up to HD. My main video camera is a seven year old Panasonic which uses mini-DV tapes. It is not HD and I love the camera but it has sat on a shelf since getting video in the 3Gs. I don’t want to deal with tapes and, yes, I know that this is comparing apples and oranges (cel phone vs. dedicated video camera) but for me convenience has been winning out.
I was looking forward to seeing if the HD capability on the iPhone 4 will negate the need for a Flip camera or similar for simple video. It will. If it does for you will depend upon what your standards and needs are – but again if convenience is the determinant then the video on the iPhone 4 can fit the bill. The biggest drawbacks to it are that the camera is so light it can make getting steady video a challenge, the iPhone 4 video does exhibit some rubberyness in the image if the camera or the subject moves too quickly, and some greater control over color, exposure, and focus would be nice.
This was shot and edited on the iPhone. The edit was made using Apple’s new iMovie app.
An HD version of the movie can be found here (for a limited time due to bandwidth.)
Video was shot on Chesapeake Bay in St. Leonard, MD, and in Washington, DC, at the Hillwood Estate Museum and Gardens.
ShareLink: Email • Twitter • FacebookJune 23rd, 2010 § 0
Princeton, NJ, June 22, 2010 (Click to Enlarge)
We had a brief shower followed by a balmy sunset with colors that felt more Pacific than New Jersey. I walked the dog along the same route where we had already been twice today and everyday.
Bats flitted about overhead. The dog, overdue for a haircut, was grateful for the tiny respite from the heat. There were pictures everywhere. I tried to capture the Magritte’ian feel of the light, street lamps and house lights versus the sky, but it was too much for my little point and shoot.
Darkness fell, the green glow of the street lamps took over. It was time to go home.
Bix and I; Princeton, NJ, June 22, 2010
June 21st, 2010 § 0
Webb Cove, Stonington, ME, 2007.
You have to think that at some point in the past man stood on the shore and looked out across the water. Behind him was the land he knew, in front of him the water, the horizon, and the sky. Not having the ability to go to the sky, nor having the ability to travel under the water beyond one breath, he thought, I need to go across there. I need to visit the land off in the distance. I need to discover the land I cannot see. Then, having done that, having ventured across oceans and returned, the next realms were above and below.
To go to outer space, to work one mile down beneath the surface of the water, both are inhospitable environments which test the limits of our technology. Complicate each with additional risk factors, going to space with a reusable rocket like the Space Shuttle, or not only venturing one mile down but actually working there via robots and drilling for oil, and you have situations which demand great respect for planning and fail-safe backups.
The New York Times had an article recently exploring the parallels between the current Gulf situation and Melville’s Moby Dick. What has struck me though is how the oil spill in the Gulf reminds me of the two Space Shuttle disasters. Obviously, the goals in each are wildly different, science and exploration versus profit. But in each case, it was technology which brought us to the forefront of what was possible and it was human planning and decisions which determined whether it could be done safely and smartly.
The Challenger and Columbia Shuttle missions both revealed instances where corners were cut when better backup systems could have been incorporated. For Challenger, ejector seats and pressurized suits were foregone even though they had been included in test flights. For Columbia, the mission brought front and center the issues of designing a re-usable spacecraft without including a method of checking the integrity of the ship before re-entry and of not providing a way to repair simple exterior issues while in flight.
Similarly, in the Gulf of Mexico BP cut corners in its quest to turn a profit quickly and the government was lax its oversight. One would think that to drill for oil without the utmost in safeguards would be a deal breaker. While a business person might argue that the cost of that is too high, it inhibits exploration and production, what we are seeing is that the cost of not doing that is even greater.
The leading edge of technology may make things possible but it’s the human element which will always be the mitigating factor.
ShareLink: Email • Twitter • FacebookJune 15th, 2010 § 0
Apple released OS update, v10.6.4, today. Word is that it adds tethered capability for the Canon 1Ds Mark III , Canon 5D Mark II, and for other Canon bodies. 10.6.4 also updates the way Aperture 3.x handles metadata, making it more widely readable in third-party programs.
I look forward to testing both of these changes. With tethering, Canon’s DPP and EOS Utility have been rock solid but since all my files end up in Aperture, it would be great to cut to the chase.
With metadata, issues have arisen due to inconsistencies in standards between programs. A case in point, Photoshop doesn’t handle metadata consistently between Bridge and CS4. With Aperture 3.x, neither Bridge nor CS4 read all of Aperture’s metadata but Bridge read much more of it. Regardless, it’s incumbent upon Apple to make Aperture as metadata friendly as possible – most images end up in Photoshop at some point (if not in-house, then when they reach the client.) So, the situation where CS4 deleted most of the metadata if an Aperture produced file was re-saved in Photoshop was unacceptable.
6/16: Metadata updates/corrections are confirmed. Export a file in Aperture, open it in Photoshop, and then open File Info via the File menu. Everything is exactly where it should be – IPTC, Description, Caption, etc.
6/16: Tethered support: here’s the updated list from Apple.
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