Learning to See » Portrait

RRBB Accountants + Advisors | Stills + Motion

Jon Roemer — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 18:15:22 +0000

This past fall I helped with the re-launch of the RRBB Accountants + Advisors web site. First doing portraits of the partners and then, having established a rapport with everyone, being asked to come in and create a short video overview of the firm.

Some of RRBB's partners. August, 2011. Click to enlarge.

Portraits were shot against white seamless. Video was a mix of ambient plus 1×1 LED Litepanels for the interviews and available light for the b-roll. To further differentiate the interview vs. b-roll feel, interviews where shot locked down on a tripod and b-roll was shot using a monopod. The latter introduced a bit of movement and helped enhance a documentary feel.

The Burgermeister Meisterburger

Jon Roemer — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 19:58:45 +0000

Max Berger of Bernstein Litowitz Berger & Grossman LLP photographed this past summer for a magazine profile:

Max Berger, BLB&G, New York, NY, July, 2011.

FU Got Game

Jon Roemer — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 19:43:03 +0000

Just before the holidays I premiered a time-lapse video created for Fordham University. It announced Fordham as the home of College Basketball – New York Style. While that was an ad and, as we know, ads can say almost anything… this tag line is turning out to be true. Earlier this week Fordham defeated No. 22 ranked Harvard, their first victory over a ranked opponent in more than a decade.

I was up at the Rams’ “old bronx gym” in early December to photograph ESPN & ABC sportscaster Mike Breen for a magazine story. Additionally, I captured some of the game on my iPhone resulting in my first published Hipstamatic image.

ESPN & ABC sportscaster Mike Breen, Fordham Gym, NY, NY, Nov. 29, 2011.

Fordham vs. Colgate, Fordham Gym, NY, NY, Nov. 29, 2011.

I’ve always joked that someday I’ll shoot a job on my iPhone…

Thinking, Fast and Slow

Jon Roemer — Sun, 11 Dec 2011 16:12:27 +0000

Today’s New York Times Sunday Book Review includes Daniel Kahneman’s Thinking, Fast and Slow in its 10 Best Books of 2011, calling Kahneman the “world’s most influential psychologist.”

I don’t have a best selling book or any where near that degree of influence but I can claim one degree of separation. I took the author photo:

Daniel Kahneman, 2002 Nobel Prize Winner, Author, "Thinking, Fast and Slow." Princeton, NJ, May, 2004.

I photographed Daniel in 2004 as part of what I call my academic trading cards – a series of portraits shot for Princeton’s Woodrow Wilson School. The photo is being used for the book and its promotion.

Psst, Psst… HISP

Jon Roemer — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 17:49:19 +0000

In early November I spent the day with Taiye Lambo of eFortresses, a data and information security training and certification company. To a non-corporate person like myself that’s a mouthful but if you live in the corporate world and your job intersects with data then you are likely to know and call on someone like Taiye.

eFortresses is partnering with Marlabs of Piscataway, NJ, to bring Taiye’s HISP program (Holistic Information Security Practitioner) to the northeast. My job was to create a video announcing the program, emphasize eFortresses holistic approach, and keep it interesting so that it is not just a one-shot of a talking head.

This was done on a tight budget with a limited crew (myself & one assistant.) Since it was a one-camera setup we filmed Taiye’s primary script with additional takes from a second angle. This gave us footage to cut to to keep it interesting visually.

Taiye’s diagram work at the board meshed beautifully with his voiceover helping to support the words with images. These latter clips were filmed with the camera on a monopod to introduce a bit of movement and to counter the locked-down-on-a-tripod interview segments.

Other b-roll includes the course materials. These are shot with a Kessler 3′ slider – the motion helps give a sense of the breadth of the course materials, their organization, and overall quality. The slider move, like the monopod for the diagrams, adds some visual variety to the piece.

The last b-roll comes from working in Marlabs’ server room. When brainstorming about potential b-roll and how to efficiently show data on the move, the server room was a perfect fit.

In terms of lighting I have three 1×1 Litepanels in my kit along with two Lowel Omni lights. We took the existing tungsten light in the boardroom as a given. Its color temperature was read via a color meter and the 1×1′s filtered to match. They provided the key, fill, and rim light on Taiye. The rim light also help spark up the row of chairs behind Taiye.

The two Omni lights did not need filtration since they are already tungsten. One provided fill in the back and the other was blasting the chair on the far right. That chair, for whatever reason, sucked up light like a black hole and needed anything I could throw at it.

Most of the b-roll was shot available light except for the course materials. They were shot with one 1×1.

Web Site Updates

Jon Roemer — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 20:31:00 +0000

Portraits - Recent Gallery - thumbnail view.

Updates today to the Portraits – Recent gallery on my main web site. Plus some tidying up to the splash page slideshow, currently showing 2011 portraits.

More to come…

Banner Images: Peddie School

Jon Roemer — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 15:31:29 +0000

Early this year I did two blog posts looking at how clients were using my images to define and market their brands.

Banner Images: Creating a Brand for NYU’s Gallatin School

Banner Images: Fordham University and the Woodrow Wilson School

In the past month I spent two days shooting for the Peddie School and before I could follow up on the assignment images were already gracing their home page:

The Cranes and Me

Jon Roemer — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 03:46:06 +0000

On location Wednesday morning to continue a construction progress project. I had three cameras running – two on autopilot shooting time lapse and one, manned by me, for candid shots and other angles.

The wide shot leaves room for the future building to fill the frame.

Lincoln Center construction site. NY, NY, November 2, 2011. Click images to enlarge.

From the plaza level. NY, NY, November 2, 2011.

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Update – 12/09/11: To see a short video created from the time lapses described above please see: The Crane Life.

Great Thinker Award

Jon Roemer — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 18:30:05 +0000

Rees Morrison of General Counsel Metrics. Princeton, NJ. August, 2011. Click to enlarge.

Working this summer with fellow Princetonian Rees Morrison while on assignment for the Canadian Bar Association magazine. Limited budget shoot, no assistant. I did a few setups with my Canon speedlites in softboxes and then noticed his son’s award on the kitchen wall. That with the step stool, the tiles, and how it played with scale – was too good to pass up and Rees was game.

A Pilot Lost, a Friend Found, a Student Remembered

Jon Roemer — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 16:43:36 +0000

Dorene Prinzo holds a portrait of her brother, Lt. j.g. Roy Haviland, one of the last service members killed during the Viet Nam War. Belford, NJ, August, 2011. Click image to enlarge.

A tale of loss, remembrance, and honor. Fordham graduate Lt. j.g. Roy Haviland’s plane was lost at sea due to a radar malfunction and collision in the waning days of the Viet Nam war. His sister, Dorene Prinzo, worked to keep his memory alive within her family. Unbeknownst to her a classmate of Roy’s, James Flaherty, wondered what had happened to his friend and upon hearing the news set up a scholarship in Roy’s name.

Usually the story would end there but a cousin of Roy’s, another Fordham graduate, read of the scholarship and contacted Dorene, so she could be aware of the honor bestowed upon her brother and how it would help others for years to come.

The full story is in Fordham Magazine.