On some much needed R&R. More posts and pics on the 8th when I get back!
Jun 292009
Jun 252009
We’ve all heard “it’s not about the camera, blah blah blah” but here’s a great illustration of that:
Chase Jarvis recently had a contest to win his old iphone 3g – all you had to do was submit a picture taken with a mobile. (I didn’t because I already have and iPhone, and wouldn’t want to take it away from someone else!) Anyway, he recently posted the winner along with a gallery of favorites.
wow.
There’s some absolutely amazing stuff in there – all shot with mobiles. Damn impressive. So next time you hear someone complaining that they can’t make good pictures because they need X piece of gear or Y isn’t good enough show them this…
(and before I get absolutely flamed – of couse the camera “matters”, some cameras are better suited for some things than others etc… but the point is that you can make photographic art with anything from a box with a pinhole and scrap of film to a D3x to a cellphone. So go out there and do it!)
Jun 222009
…in 1944 
Thanks to Terry Moore for this one… A very good read. Amusing and insightful – kinda puts a perspective on a lot of things…
http://people.rit.edu/andpph/giants/POP-PHOTO-future-1944.html
Jun 222009
… every time I shoot I still get nervous that “what if this is the shoot where I don’t get ‘the shot’“…
Jun 192009
So Interestingly enough, the biggest complaint I’ve seen about the E-P1 is the fact that it doesn’t have an optical viewfinder (or at least an eye-level EVF, though Ironically enough a large complaint about the panny G1 was that it was too big – largely resulting from *having* an eye-level EVF- but no matter!)
Look, I’ve composed images on all kinds of framing devices – rangefinders, SLR prisims, Waist-level MF finders, eye-level EVFs, LCDs, heck even ground-glass on a view camera.
All require a different way of shooting, and all have their pros and cons. But there seems to be almost a knee-jerk reaction against composing an image on an LCD, which I really don’t get. Sure, it has some drawbacks – notably washing out in bright light (less and less of an issue as lcds get better) and being somewhat less stable to hold (just requires adaptation to some new shootign stances, not as much of an issue with IS anyway). But there are also some big pros to it – things like “having a live histogram overlaid while composing” (awesome) or superimposed levels for getting straight horizons (useful when running&gunning).
However, what many folks seem to miss is that one of the LCDs biggest weaknesses is also one of its greatest strengths – you don’t use it against your face. Now while this does make it less stable, it does something wonderful as well – it removes the barrier between you and your subject, allowing a far more intimate and direct connection while shooting. Same as shooting with a waist-level, don’t underestimate the value of being able to make eye-contact with your subject and engage with them while you are taking their picture. It’s a great thing, and in my eyes more than makes up for the drawbacks of framing on an LCD.
So I have to ask honestly – what’s with the vehemently anti-lcd crowd? I’ve never had a problem framing with LCDs – is there really an issue or is it simply coming from folks who grew up on dSLRs and see OVF=SLR=Pro and LCD=pockecam=amateur? To me it’s just another way of framing…
inquiring minds and all… not trying to be provocative, just legitimately curious.
Jun 182009
… I care more about a lens’ speed and weight than its sharpness…
And finally the true strength of the 4/3 system is realized… Just in case there’s anyone who *hasn’t* heard about it yet (my RSS reader already had about 15 articles on it!) Olympus has finally announced their first MFT camera, the e-p1, in a unmistakable homage to the PEN series of old. To me, this is what the 4/3 system should have been from the beginning. high-quality, interchangeable lenses, supercompact body. To me, this is more of a “digital rangefinder” than the Leica M8 (dons flame-retardant suit and hides from the leica-o-philes).
check out the size comparison next to the e-420 *already* the smallest dSLR on the market. 
All the usual goodies are checked, HD video, 12mp (reasonable for 4/3 sensor – glad they didn’t push it), a multi-apect sensor (very cool! – it shoots 1×1! square love!), yadda yadda yadda… The dual control wheel setup is unusual, but I could see myself liking it…
for the full rundown, check dpreviews hands-on preview.
and some more sample photos over at PhotographyBlog.com
Honestly, it’s hard to overstate my excitement at this camera. I’m not all that much of a “gearhead”, but when something like this comes along it’s just like “wow, that’s exactly what I’ve always wanted in a picture making tool”
Jun 152009
… One of the reasons I love B/W is that I don’t have to deal with color corrections
Jun 112009
posted a few of these before, but I am just a sucker for well-done stop-motion. This one is cute, worth a look:
Jun 102009
Ok, a bit of a rant.
I just had a 2nd shoot with a very nice young lady who originally answered a casting call for a shoot that I put up on a social-networking-modeling-site that shall remain nameless… After our first shoot, I liked her energy in front of the camera, and she went into my “folks to work with again” file.
This past week I started setting up a few personal projects/shoots to change gears for a while, and figured I’d drop her a line. However, when I logged into said “social-networking-modeling-site” (that shall still remain nameless) I found her profile was gone. No worries, I had her email, we set up shoot #2 and had a blast. While she was in makeup, we where chatting and I asked her about the profile thing, thinking nothing of it. She proceeded to regale me with absolute horror stories of the creeps who had been literally stalking her (not just through the site, but elsewhere as well) trying to get her into pornographic and pseudo-pornographic encounters (foot fetish shoots, stocking fetish shoots etc…) Until she had to close up every one of her social networking outlets.
I know this is nothing new to anyone who’s worked with models for any amount of time, but that still doesn’t make it any better. This kind of stuff is just wrong, and shouldn’t be happening at all.
Look, bottom line is: Don’t be “that guy” and if you know any “photographers” who are “that guy”, give them a smack upside the head and straighten them out. Our industry doesn’t need that kind of stigma, it just makes photographers as a whole look bad. Always treat your models with respect and professionalism. I know it goes without saying, but it just bears repeating.
/end rant.
P.S. I know none of *my* readers are “that guy”, just venting a bit.
Jun 102009
I’ve written about the Eye-Fi series of SD cards before. Very cool concept, I really wanted to get one but they had just a few nagging issues that prevented them from being suitable for my needs.
Until now.
The newly announced Eye-Fi pro adds RAW transfer and ad-hoc network connection capability – the two things that were conspicuously missing from earlier versions, and now Im thinking I may never buy another card again. So for all practical purposes, this card provides a wireless tethering solution in a box – consider: grab a laptop, set up an ad hoc network, connect the eye-fi. Now every shot you snap on that camera is transferred to a folder on your laptop. Set lightroom to “watch” that folder and bam – now as you shoot, images stream to you laptop and pop up in lightroom in real time.
This my friends, to use the parlance of the day, is EPIC WIN.
course it still has all the same functionality of the earlier eye-fi, as well as adding the capability to selectively upload shots instead of just shooting all of them up by default. Very cool stuff. Kudos to the eye-fi guys for listening to the community and coming back with a product that really seems to knock it out of the park!
combined with the recent series of videos commerating the 50th anniversary of the olympus PEN series of cameras, THIS LEAK seems almost too good to be true…
a MFT, digital PEN. Oh Joy!
(that sound you hear is all the “digital rangefinder” folks squealing with anticipation!)
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