The Global Photographer

Something New at the DIY Photography Network...

2008-11-20T10:21:00.000-08:00

Anyone who's a fan of DIY photography equipment -- or just happens to enjoy clever solutions to some of the technical issues that come up in photography -- would be well advised to check in regularly with Udi Tirosh's DIY Photography Network website. Honestly, the online learning environment that Udi has created with the DIY Network (in his spare time, btw) is as good (or better) than most of the photography workshops that you'd be likely to attended, and the site is constantly being updated with new articles, hot links, and well thought-out solutions to age-old imaging challenges. Myself, I've been a huge fan of Udi's writings and technical solutions for quite some time, and in a bit of "mutual admiration society" back scratching, he's been kind enough to direct tons of traffic (several tens of thousands of hits) over to the blog that you're reading right now.

In his most recent posting at the DIY site (as of November 18th, 2008), Udi has put up a very interesting article about a photography project which he's co-sponsoring with the folks at Borrow Lenses.com. The project (which could also be called "a contest" of sorts) is a bit difficult to explain in just a paragraph or two, though in Readers Digest terms it involves individual photographers teaming up with a photographic partner -- and then exchanging with each other a piece of equipment that the other photographer doesn't own. The real key to this project/contest -- and what makes it really interesting -- is that you and your photographic partner must then go out and shoot as a team, each using the gear that has been exchanged. To give an example: if you happen to be a Nikon shooter -- and your project partner is a Canon shooter -- exchange cameras and see what happens.

The actual rules for the contest are kinda' lengthy, and so I highly, highly recommend spending some time and reading the entire article over at Udi's site. You can either click on this hotlink here, or just head on over to the DIY Photography Network homepage and look for an article entitled: "Something New -- A Photography Project."

Oh! Did I mention that there are prizes? Three lucky winners will get various amounts of free gear rental from the folks at Borrow Lenses.com. Again, the rules and details are a bit lengthy, and so you'll need to pop on over to Udi's site in order to get the full gist of what's being offered and how to enter.

Matt

P.S.: For the moment, prizes can only be given to U.S. entries into the project/contest, though Udi is working hard at getting a European co-sponsor.

P.S.S.: The final entry date into the contest is December 20th., 2008.

P.P.S.S.: This sounds like a ton of fun, and so I'll likely enter into the contest myself.

Along the Highway at Siletz Bay...

2008-11-19T07:17:00.000-08:00

Normally, I would never pull out my camera to shoot an image right at sunset (I'm more likely to wait about twenty minutes after the sun has gone down before taking a picture), but I was more than happy to make a photographic exception this weekend while driving along the Oregon Coast.

Crazy color tones in the sky...

Very "Lord of the Rings" sorts of rocks jutting out of the water...

And located just fifty feet from the Oregon Coast Highway (U.S. Route 101), at the South end of Lincoln City.

I see RED...

2008-11-13T08:01:00.000-08:00

The good folks at RED must have know that today is my birthday, because they just announced this as I woke up...

Holy crap! Not to be too over the top or anything, but THIS might very well be the photographic "game changer/DSLR killer" that people have been discussing for much of the past year. Things are now going to get really, REALLY interesting...

Matt

It coats, it soothes...

2008-11-11T11:01:00.000-08:00

I'm back in the States, having recently returned from my Third World sojourn...

I can't talk a whole lot about the project... A non-disclosure form was signed.

I can't post any images... Again, a non-disclosure form was signed.

I can tell you that I was NOT working for the C.I.A...

I can tell you that -- where I was working -- that it was hotter than hell...

I can tell you that I lost a good chunk of weight, and that I brought some sort of stomach bug back with me as a souvenir...

I can also tell you -- in fact, advise -- that you should never, EVER, EVER let your clients chill your water bottle down with ice purchased from the open bed of a pickup truck.

Just sayin'...

Regular posting will resume soon.

Out of Country... Out of Contact...

2008-10-29T15:03:00.001-07:00

I will be out of the country -- and pretty much out of contact -- for at least the next two weeks. Unfortunately, I can't talk about where I'm going (a non-disclosure agreement has been signed), and it's likely that I'll have little-to-no e-mail or cell phone communication with anyone. When possible, I'll try to check in with my e-mail account, though I might have to wait until the end of the project before I'm actually able to actually chat with anyone.

Also, I won't be able to post any images from the project... Again, a non-disclosure agreement has been signed.

Matt

Working with RED... A Few Real World Observations from Ryan E. Walters.

2008-10-23T20:42:00.000-07:00

Recently, I'd asked Portland-based cinematographer Ryan E. Walters if he'd be willing to come up with a few words of commentary about a blog post I'd written last month -- an article which detailed my oh-so-brief experience with the RED camera system. What I'd originally posted can be found by going here, and what I wrote was presented from the perspective of a stills photographer trying to get some sort of mental grasp on the whole RED technology. Ryan -- who has a ton of real world working experience with the RED camera -- was kind enough to send along his observations, all written from the perspective of a cinematographer who'd been asked if the RED was some sort of substitute for a DSLR.

Here's what he had to say...

**********************************************************************

Using RED as an SLR:

As technologies merge paths -- with some of the newer DLSR's being able to shoot video -- and the ability (or need) to pull high resolution still frames from video cameras, opportunities for thinking outside the box and finding new applications for these technologies has never been better. With the RED cinema camera, users now have the ability to pull 4k stills from their video stream for use as photos. And while it is possible to generate a high quality still image using this camera, unfortunately -- at least for the moment -- the RED falls far short of being an DSLR killer.

There are four main areas where the current version of the RED camera systems comes up a bit short when compared with DSLR cameras:

1. Weight and size. The lightest setup of the Red comes in at just under 20 pounds and it is about 5 times bigger then a DSLR - nowhere near the form and function of a DSLR.

2. Chip Size. The Red offers a Super 35mm sized sensor which is only half the size of a full frame sensor of the Canon 5D MKII.

3. Low Light. One of the drawbacks of the smaller chip is the low light performance. The Canon and Nikon DSLRs can go up to 3200 ISO and show very limited noise in the shadows. The Red starts to show noise at round 600 - 800 ISO.

4. True RAW. While the Red does shoot raw video, it is not the same as RAW in DSLRs. The RAW format in DSLRs is a lot less compressed then in the raw of Red. The wavelet raw compression of the Red is great for video, but it is not the same as the RAW in DSLRs.

********************************************************************************

Let me (Matt) just add that -- as far as I'm concerned -- that Ryan has hit the nail on the head when he points out that the 20 pound RED system is nowhere close to being a "DSLR killer," simply by virtue of its weight. Honestly, picking up a RED camera is an experience somewhat akin to performing a bicep curl at the gym (that is, if you do moderate strength training on a regular basis), and the only thing in danger of getting killed by the system is a bank account.

By the way, please take the time to head on over to Ryan's website. He's doing some extremely interesting things with high-def video cameras (along with RED), and has actually come up with a means of doing motion picture HDR imaging using the RED camera system and ~~an insanely complex~~ a quite involved editing technique. His own write-up about the HDR technique can be found by going here.

Matt

The DIY Flexible Hotshoe Clamp -- An Initial Look...

2008-10-22T08:02:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since any equipment builds, gear modifications, and DIY projects have shown up on this blog...

Indeed, quite a few people have asked "What's up?" during the past month or so, with the more detailed queries going something along the lines of "When are you gonna' make more stuff?"

The quick answer?

Right now...

What you see above is a lil' DIY project that I pieced together yesterday afternoon. Basically, what's been done is that a small locking Pony Clamp has been attached to one end up a flexible microphone mount, while a detachable hot shoe foot has been attached to the other. This is actually an assembly that I've been thinking about for quite a while, though it was only until the beginning of this week that I was able to find the sorts of parts that I thought would be suitable for putting together the project.

I'll need to spend some time during the next few days just figuring out how useful this device actually is. I suspect that it will turn out to be fairly handy, though I'd certainly like to run it through a few real world scenarios before coming up with any sort of detailed report and review.

Please stay tuned...

Matt

Double Dutch -- Part Three

2008-10-19T18:07:00.000-07:00

During the past decade or so, projects and clients have taken me out to the remote Alaskan fishing port of Dutch Harbor about -- on average -- once every twelve months. Due to the ferocious weather systems that pass through the region (hey, it IS in the middle of the Bering Sea) air travel into and out the area is often subject to delays and cancellations and -- myself -- I've always managed to get stuck in Dutch for a few extra days each and every time I work there, with my record being a week long stranding ten years ago.

Two weeks ago, as I was making a mind-numbing, jet-lagging, frequent-flyer mileage enhancing journey from Southern Florida to the central portion of the Alaska's Aleutian Island Chain, I could feel my "spidey sense" tingling as I headed up North, and I just knew that -- after my gig was over -- that I would end up getting stuck in Dutch one more time...

I was right.

Fortunately, being stuck in Dutch Harbor is not quite the exercise in frustration that most people would imagine, as a steady stream of high-octane alcohol is readily available in most of the town's restaurants and bars. Having a strong tolerance for nicotine and cigarette smoke also helps in weathering out the storms (not there's much choice in the matter), with nearly every bar and hotel in town having the ~~stench~~ ~~scent~~ smell of tobacco fumes perma-embedded in the ceilings, walls, flooring, and furniture.

Having said all this, let me also say that Dutch Harbor, Alaska, is one of the most fascinating places in the world, and that I've enjoyed every single trip that I've taken up there -- delays, weather, and tobacco stains not withstanding.

A quickie landscape image, taken while stuck at the Dutch Harbor airport... Semi-long exposure (two seconds), and no tripod (camera resting on a large rock and my wallet). This misty shoreline is about 50 feet from the airport tarmac.

From a photographic standpoint, the hills, bays, valleys, inlets, and mountain peaks that surround the port of Dutch Harbor are absolutely, positively, jaw-droppingly gorgeous -- and I would suggest that anyone with a serious interest in landscape photography should consider Dutch Harbor (and the entire Aleutian Chain for that matter) as a "must see" location. Please be aware that you'll end up spending quite a bit of money to get out there (a minimum of $1000 for a round-trip ticket between Anchorage and Dutch), and that hotel rooms and meals do tend to run a bit on the expensive side. It's also important to realize that -- aside from crab legs, halibut, and cod -- that everything (and I do mean EVERYTHING) is shipped into Dutch Harbor, and the expense of this shipping factors heavily into the everyday costs of living/traveling/working in the area.

Another long-exposure landscape (13 seconds), taken from roughly the same position as this shot, though just slightly later in the morning.

From an economic point of view, it's important to know that Dutch Harbor is one of the biggest fishing ports in the entire United States, and a quick walk through any portion of the town will emphasize just how important the ocean (and what the ocean has to offer) is within the community. Crab pots, buoys, and fish netting can be found practically strewn about in nearly any section of flat land larger than a basketball court -- and this would includes people's backyards, the parking lot of the local grocery store, and embankment right across the street from the biggest/fanciest hotel in town.

A casual shot, taken straight out of my hotel room's window.

Crab pots, buoys, and netting galore....

For anyone with an interest in history and (especially) World War II history, I highly recommend buying/borrowing/stealing a copy of Brian Garfield's fantastic book The Thousand Mile War, though I will warn that -- once you start ready the first few pages -- that you'll have a very difficult time putting down this exceptionally well-written and well-researched narrative about the United State's Northern-most war efforts in the Pacific.

An absolutely amazing sunset (this photo doesn't even begin to do it justice), taken from the site of a former military overlook.

For a exceptionally different take on World War II (and for a shockingly unknown piece of American history), I highly recommend the PBS film Aleut Story -- a feature length documentary which details the evacuation, interment, and exploitation of Aleut Natives during the North Pacific battles between the United States and Japan.

Another "casual" image, showing one of the many gunman's bunker which are scattered around the Dutch Harbor area.

My hotel parking lot had a bunker much like this smack dab in its middle.

Finally, it goes without saying (though I'm going to say it anyways) that Dutch Harbor has a newfound fame, all due to the popularity of Discovery Channel's documentary program Deadliest Catch. I actually have a fair amount of insight and background with the program, as I actually worked on the original pilot for the show nearly ten years ago. For anyone out there who doubts the "reality" of the various scenarios and situations that the captains and crews get into on the show, let me just say that -- yes -- crab fishing is scary, scary dangerous, and that I have the utmost respect for anyone willing to get on a boat and head out into the Bering Sea. Were I a younger man (and I once was), I'd probably sign up to do a full season of at-sea production work with the Discovery crews. As an older man -- with an older man's appreciation for life -- I'm quite happy just heading on up to Dutch Harbor, doing my quickie little two and three day projects in the town, waiting out at the airport, making friends with the bartenders and ticketing agents, breathing deeply of the cigarette smoke, and then getting back to the mainland.

Damn, I've become middle aged...

Matt

A duotone that I've salvaged from a dramatically overexposed shot. Taken just outside the fencing of the Dutch Harbor airport.

Double Dutch -- Part Deux...

2008-10-16T19:00:00.000-07:00

I'm still a bit numb in the head from my recent travels (going from Southern Florida to the central portion of Alaska's Aleutian Islands in 30 hours was a bit much), and so I've yet to come up with anything about Dutch Harbor that is in any way written in a recognizable form of English. On the other hand, I do have several images from the Dutch Harbor that I'm quite happy with -- extremely happy with, actually -- and it's certainly worth taking the time to put one of the photos up on this blog and writing about it in my still limited English.

Above, you can see my favorite "off hours" photos taken while in Dutch Harbor. I say "off hours" for a variety of reasons, though the primary being that the picture was taken while I was in standby mode, waiting for a plane -- any plane -- to take me off the island. A massive storm had come through the Aleutian chain on the day that I was originally scheduled to fly out, and so I ended up having two extra days of just hanging around, making friends with the airport bartender, drinking gin 'n' tonics, making friends with the airport ticketing agents, making friends with the local Customs agent, drinking more gin 'n' tonics, and taking a fair amount of photos near the airport and just outside my hotel.

I took this photo about 100 yards from the front of my hotel (the Grand Aleutian), roughly an hour or so before the actual sunrise. Obviously, this is a relatively long exposure -- 13 seconds long -- and I had my camera set up on a tripod and locked down. What's not so obvious is that it was still quite dark outside as I was taking this photo, and I kinda' had to stumble around on rocks and through tidal pools in order to get to a position that I really liked for the shot. My boots ended up getting soaking wet.

Though the color and tone might look as though they've been played with quite a bit, what you see in the image is pretty much what my camera captured on location. The pre-sunrise lighting in the Aleutian Islands is phenomenal, with a palette of blues that I've never seen anywhere else in the world. The tone that can be seen before sunrise is very unusual, and I suspect that it has something to do with both the high latitude of the Aleutians, and the fact that light ends up getting bounced all around between the sky, ocean, and surrounding mountains.

One of the cool details that I stumbled across -- after loading the image into my computer -- is that I found a small group of birds who actually managed to stand completely still while I was taking the image, though another set from that same group moved around during a portion of the exposure . Below, you can see a 100% blow-up from that portion of the photo.

Yes, it's a small detail, but it's always the little things that give life to an image.

I do promise to -- in the very near future -- to post more images from my recent Aleutian Island travels, and I'll try to give as much technical detail as is possible for each shot. I also promise to write in much better English. Please stay tuned.

Matt

Double Dutch

2008-10-14T07:22:00.000-07:00

My lack of communication during the past two weeks has been due to a crazy travel schedule (ten thousand air-miles since the beginning of October), minimal wi-fi access, and my ending up getting stuck (again) in Dutch Harbor, Alaska. In the photo below, you can see just how happy I was to be hanging out in the Dutch Harbor airport.

I'll resume semi-regular postings (and show some pretty nice photos) in a day or so -- once I've had the chance to regroup a bit and get back into a more regular routine.

Matt

In Transit Glorious...

2008-10-01T05:19:00.001-07:00

I will be in full on travel mode for the next week-and-a-half, and for those clients and friends who wish to reach me, the best bet for actually getting in touch would be to give me a call on the cell phone. Internet access won't always be available during much of my traveling.

Matt

A Quick Heads-Up on RED....

2008-09-26T22:29:00.000-07:00

************************************************
The post that you see below is something that I've been trying to put together for most of this week, after having spent a bit of play time with two of the RED ONE systems. This is not intended as any sort of authoritative review of the camera or -- especially -- a detailed report on its capabilities as a motion picture camera. Primarily, I went in with the mindset of exploring just how applicable the RED system would be for stills photography work...
************************************************

As many of you know -- earlier this week -- I had the opportunity to play around with two of the RED ONE cameras that are here in Portland. A special thanks needs to go out to everyone at Koerner Camera and Picture This Production Services, as both companies were kind enough to set up some fairly tricked out RED rigs in their offices, and then let me play around with the gear for hours on end. Though I never had the opportunity to actually take a RED out of the office and into the real world, I was able to do a good amount of in-studio playing around, and everyone was more than happy to answer my multitude of (naive) questions.

Originally, I'd hope to do a lengthy write up of the RED system, highlighting its strengths (its got a lot of them), and pointing out a few of the camera's weaknesses (it has those too). Unfortunately, I'm packing my gear right now, getting prepped for two huge travel gigs that will have me flying all over the country. A lengthy write-up about RED will probably have to wait a while, though -- for the moment -- I'm certainly more than willing to talk about certain aspects of the camera that stick out to me.

To begin -- for those who aren't familiar with the system -- the RED ONE is (at the most basic level) a super-duper mega high-rez digital motion picture camera. Though it would be tempting to call the RED system a Hi-Def camera, the reality is that RED goes waaaaaaaaaaaay beyond standard Hi-Def (barely two megapixels worth of resolution, and highly compressed) by placing an imaging chip in the camera body that's capable of spitting out 12 megapixel uncompressed RAW files at standard film and video frame rates. At the same time, the whole RED system is modular in physical form (i.e.: you can add or subtract parts as needed) and extremely software driven. In "Readers Digest" terms, the RED ONE camera is pretty much a high-end computer that also happens to have a lens sticking out from one end.

Using software to drive the system means that most operational upgrades can be made via simple downloads off the internet. Using software to drive the system also means that most operational adjustments done to the camera (i.e.: exposure tweakage, color balance, frame rate, etc...) can only be made via a series of cascading menus rather than through simple and obviously labeled buttons, dials, and switches. Personally, I tend to prefer obvious buttons, dials, and switches, though I also understand the need for a certain amount of menu driven operations -- especially with something that's as complex as the RED. For the most part, I found the menus to be semi-intuitive (not too confusing), though a definite amount of play time with the camera was needed in order to understand the structure and layout that the menus followed. As a sidenote: I found the audio menus to be the most poorly put together aspect of the whole system -- which is all too typical with motion picture and video cameras.

Sooooooo.... Getting down to brass tacks, just how do the images from a RED ONE camera look?

They look really, really good.

The phrase that I keep hearing over and over from folks is that RED images have a certain "creamy" aspect to them and -- after having played around a bit -- I have to concur. I'm not quite sure just how to define this "creamy" aspect, though I suspect that the way in which RED handles fine gradations in color and brightness is what lends the "cream factor" to the images. Everything just seems to have a certain smoothness -- a smoothness that's remarkably film-like in quality. I was especially pleased with the way in which the camera handled extreme highlights and (more importantly) the way in which it handled the transition areas around major highlights. Banding just didn't seem to be much of an issue (when shooting at the system's native ASA/ISO of 320). The only time that banding became obvious was when I would make adjustments to the operating ASA/ISO, and dropping down to ASA/ISO 100 -- or cranking up to 800 -- would create some noticeable transition bands around highlights or in shadow areas.

One truly great thing about the RED system (at least from my stills photographer's point of view), is that the quality of images coming out of the camera have a richness and resolution that's on par with just about any high-end digital SLR, and these images are being created at standard film and video frame rates. Stated another way: imagine for a moment that your nice lil' Nikon or Canon set-up could fire away at 24 to 30 frames per second, with each individual frame coming out of the camera being a 12 mega-pixel RAW file. Well, the RED can do this, though with quite a few caveats.

To begin, the RED ONE camera is not flash friendly at all. Not in the least. The "rolling shutter" used by the system can create a lot of missed or partially strobed frames, especially at shutter speeds (not frame rates, but shutter speeds) above 1/60th of a second. Even when I rolled at 1/30th of a second and then fired off a series of flashes, the camera would typically miss (or partially strobe) about 20% of the frames. Anyone who would consider using the RED camera as a motion picture camera that -- for individual frames -- could be strobed (an awesome sports application, BTW) would be well advised to rethink this sort of technique. For the moment, firing off a strobe and hoping that RED will capture the flash of light throughout the entire frame is not something that's reliable. On the other hand, I suspect that -- back at RED headquarters -- engineers and technicians are already working on some sort of fix for this issue. Some mighty smart folks are working at RED.

Another issue that comes up -- which prevents the current RED ONE system from being any sort of "DSLR Killer" -- is the whole issue of ASA/ISO. In its current configuration, the RED camera operates at a native sensitivity of ASA/ISO 320, and images look great at this particular setting. Myself, when shooting stills, I tend to place my ASA/ISO all over the map, and I'm more than happy to drop down to 100 (or crank it up to 800) should the need, situation, and lighting require it. Unfortunately, the RED ONE doesn't look quite so good once it gets away from its native setting and -- lets be honest -- there are a whole lot of reasons for getting away from an ASA/ISO of 320. For the moment, cinematographers working with RED are typically using neutral density filters to artificially lower the sensitivity of the camera -- a usable work-around, though not nearly as handy as just being able to "dial in" the speed.

Also -- just in case anyone from RED is reading this post -- please, please, please make it possible for future iterations of this camera (or especially, your upcoming DSMC system to be able to drop waaaaaaaaaay down in sensitivity. I would love to have a DSLR that could shoot at ASA/ISO 25.

Just saying...

Finally, as an issue that's centered around shutter speed and motion capture, shooting at relatively high shutter speeds (Oh.... Let's say anything above 1/125th of a second) often creates images that look kinda' weird and jerky when played at back as video or motion picture images. In other words, firing away -- and then playing back -- at 30 frames per second to capture motion picture images is all fine and dandy, especially when using shutter speeds between 1/30th and about 1/125th of a second. Things start looking a bit jerky above this speed, because each individual frame ends up being just a bit too solid and "blur free". One of the aspects of video and motion picture images that give them their "look" is the inclusion of motion blur when people or objects move. By using a high shutter speed, much of this blur is removed (great for all sorts of still shots), but not so great for the overall look of a moving image when played back. More than anything, it's this certain esthetic aspect that prevents the current RED system from being any sort of "DSLR Killer." At least for the moment.

Remember, things will change...

Okay, I need to go back to my luggage, bags, and equipment cases. I've got a lot of travel ahead of me during the next two weeks. I'll try to fire off more reports while on the road. Please feel free to shoot me back any comments, criticisms, ideas, or observations.

Matt

P.S.: To all of the cinematographers and videographers out there -- yes -- I'm very aware of 30 fps vs. 29.97, and 24 fps vs. 23.98. I was just trying to keep this post from being too "tech head" oriented.

P.S.S.: I did shoot the image at the very top of this posting... I forgot to put a label/watermark on it. Taken with a Nikon D200 camera, a tripod, one Vivitar 285 in a softbox, and three separate exposures. I merged my different exposures -- and lighting angles -- together in Photoshop using layer masks

************************************
Hmmmm... After having posted this article, packed my bags, and then come back to re-read the article, I can see that I really didn't make clear one very important point: the RED camera can be used to shoot still images at both a high shutter speed and a (relatively) high frame rate. Doing so will create a ton of individual photos (I wouldn't want to be the one doing "selects") and eat up quite a bit of hard-drive space. Also, strobes would be pretty much useless in this particular scenario. More importantly, if you (or your client) are expecting to shoot usable motion footage and usable stills shots at the same time from the same RED camera, well, you might not be all that pleased with the look of your motion footage, as a fast shutter speed will often give a weird "jerky" look to moving objects. On the other hand, shooting with a relatively slow shutter speed -- which would smooth out the image for any sort of motion work (and is what helps to give "the look" to film and video) -- would create a collection of still images that just might end up being blurrier than intended or acceptable.

***********************************

"Good Pay Awaits Trained 'Still' Photographers..."

2008-09-23T17:03:00.000-07:00

A special thanks goes out to Perry Loveridge (over at Portland's Picture This Production Services) for showing me this magazine ad from the mid-1930's.

The entire ad can be seen below... And by clicking on the picture and re-opening it in a new window, all of the text should become fairly easy to read as I've saved the image at a fairly high resolution.

As an interesting little sidenote, a company exists today that also calls itself the "New York Institute of Photography". I'm not sure if the new "New York Institute of Photography" is the same business that's featured in the above advertisement, but -- if they are -- I congratulate them for staying around for so long.

Fire and Water -- Part Deux

2008-09-18T13:06:00.000-07:00

For the most part, the projects that give me the most personal satisfaction (after the shoot is over) also happen to be the projects that -- during the pre-production and actual shooting -- typically give the most logistic and technical challenges.

This past weekend's "fire dancer" shoot down at (and in) the Willamette River gave me a whole stack load of logistic challenges -- permits from the local Fire Marshall, dealings with the police department, permission from the parks department, notifications to the local river patrol, etc, etc... And from a technical standpoint... Sweet holy crud! Both myself and second shooter A.J. Meeker had to stand knee deep to waist deep in cold murky river water (after sunset and in the dark) and set up our lights and tripods in the water too.

Jenny (the very talented fire dancer who modeled for the camera) also had to stand in cold murky river water -- in the dark. And her typical fire dance routine had to be altered dramatically because, well, fire and water just don't mix...

Adding to all of this, ambient light levels changed rapidly as the sun dropped further and farther below the horizon and -- last but not least -- the intensity of the flames that Jenny was spinning would vary greatly as fire and centrifical force reduced the amount of fuel contained in her spinning poi.

In other words, this was a really great shoot.

In the photo that you see above and to the left, Jenny was being illuminated by a combination of strobelight, moonlight, firelight, and late-in-the-evening dusklight. An exposure time of 6/10th of a second was used to capture the motion of the spinning flaming poi, with the camera at ASA 100, and an aperture of f4.5. From camera right, a Vivitar 285 at 1/2 power (with a full CTO gel) was blasting away and helping to illuminate Jenny's upper torso. The strobe also had a very tight snoot on it. Directly behind Jenny was another Vivitar 285 (un-gelled for this shot) and at 1/16th power. All of the strobes were triggered via Pocket Wizards, and all of the stands were in the water -- as was I, A.J. Meeker, and some old beat-up tripods.

The technical specs for the shot that you see to the right are fairly similar to the specs I've listed for the image up above. A slightly shorter shutter speed was used (3/10th of second, rather than 6/10th), and no strobes were fired as backlights. Again, I used a Vivitar 285 with a full CTO gel (camera right), and I set my camera's white balance to "tungsten" rather than "daylight" or "strobe." Using the "tungsten" setting pretty much guaranteed that my sky and water would have a super-saturated blue tone (a look that I happen to like quite a bit for night shots), and gelling my strobes brought them into the proper white balance for my tungsten setting.

More technical information (along with another fire dancing image) can be found by going over to my first post about this weekend's shoot, which I wrote about this past Monday. My favorite shot from the project can be seen at at that posting, along with a very lengthy narrative about fire, photography, fire spinning, long exposure work, strobes, and growing up in Northern Michigan.

As a quick lil' aside, the vast majority of images that I shot for this particular project ended up looking like... Uhhhhhh... Like not so good stuff... Photographing a performer (especially a spinning performer) who happens to be spinning flames around his or her body is very technically challenging, and most of the shots that I walked away with from the shoot looked kinda' like the image that you see to the left.

Ouch.

Fire and Water...

2008-09-15T12:44:00.000-07:00

I can trace my initial fascination with fire back to the fifth grade when -- as a child growing up in Northern Michigan -- my father decided that we needed to heat our house with a wood stove, rather than using the extremely expensive fuel oil that was in short supply during the mid 1970's.

Two responsibilities that were thrust upon me (within minutes of the stove being installed in our living room) were: 1) learning how to use an axe, sledge hammer, and maul to split the (literal) tons of wood that were delivered to our house each year. 2) Building and maintaining the wood fire that kept our house warm.

It's now more than thirty years later, and though I have no desire to ever pick up an axe or sledgehammer ever again, I do have to admit that -- despite the thousands of fires I've built over the years -- I still enjoy a well put-together fire.

Not in any sort of creepy pyro sort of way of course...

I also happen to really enjoy the art/performance of fire dancing, and this past weekend (yesterday, actually) I was able to coordinate a photo shoot with a very talented fire dancer here in the Portland area.

Right now, I'm still going through the images -- pulling out selects, doing Photoshop tweaks -- but I wanted to post the photo that you see above and give a brief technical breakdown of the shot. I will have quite a few more images to post later on in the week, so please check back in during the next few days.

First things first... This was an incredibly fun shoot to do. Not only was Jenny (the fire dancer) incredibly talented as an artist, she was also a great sport -- as I made her stand (in the dark) waist deep in the incredibly murky (and chilly) waters of the Willamette River for some shots. Of course, I was also waist deep in murky waters for most of the shoot, as was another shooter at the site (the very talented A.J. Meeker).

Please realize that the shoot you see above is a long exposure combined with strobe work... A loooooooooooooong exposure... Just how long? Well, five seconds worth of fire spinning, and then two sets of strobes hitting Jenny (and the rocks below her) at the end of the shot. In terms of set-up, I had a Vivitar 285 at 1/4 power about ten feet away from Jenny, camera left. A full CTO gel was on the strobe, bringing its white balance down to tungsten. I also had a very severe snoot on the light, keeping most of its light tightly focused on Jenny's upper body. I then had a second strobe (at 1/16th power and also gelled) on the extreme left, and aimed down at the rocks and water below Jenny's feet.

The long exposure work was needed in order to bring out the remnants of blue in the sky behind Jenny. This photo was taken about an hour or so past sunset, and I was trying my best to squeeze every bit of blue that I could out of the sky and water. This also explains my reason for going with a tungsten white balance.

For this shot, I did happen to be in the water -- about waist deep -- and I had my camera on a tripod (an old junker) to keep the shot steady. Out of the dozens of shots that I took of this particular scene/set-up, the image that you see above is really the only one that turned out well. Most of the other shots had way too much motion blur for my taste, though I might end up posting a few of these non-selects just to show how difficult on an image this was to shoot.

Again, please stay tuned... More will follow.

Matt

Embed Your Contact Information...

2008-09-11T10:32:00.000-07:00

An extremely powerful tool that's contained within Photoshop, Adobe Bridge, Lightroom, and Aperture also happens to be a tool that can make you -- the photographer -- a good amount of money should you happen to take apply it properly and take advantage of its power. Applied improperly, this tool won't really do any sort of harm to your images, and the time that is spent entering information into this toolset will -- in the end -- make it easier for you to search through that pile of image files you have sitting on your hard-drive, and will most certainly help you to find very specific shots within your database.

Sooooooooo... What is this tool? And how can it make it easier for you -- the photographer -- to actually get paid for your work?

Well, the tool goes by many names (e.g.: "File Info;" "Append MetaData;" "Catalog"; etc...) and it can found in just about any high-end photo editing software program. What makes this particular tool so important is that (when used properly) it embeds important contact information into your photographs -- allowing individual purchasers, businesses, and agency people to track you down and actually purchase (or purchase the rights) to an image.

This past week, I've sold two of my images to two separate advertising agencies, and both agencies were able to track me down because I'd taken the time to embed full contact information (i.e.: my full name, my e-mail address and my cell phone number) into the metadata of some images that I'd posted up on my Flickr site. One of the companies that found me via Flickr is a quite large and quite well-known agency in Europe, and it's pretty dang' interesting to me that a company with such a high profile would be pouring though the Flickr archives in order to find photos for advertising work.

To the right, you can see just what it is that I embed within my images (this is a screen grab from one images' metadata), and you can see that it's fairly complete information. Basically, I do this because I want to make it as easy as possible -- and give as many options as possible -- for potential buyers and clients to get in touch with me.

How can this tool be found? Well, in Photoshop, going to the FILE menu (at the very top of the Photoshop screen), and then scrolling down will bring you to the FILE INFO option. Within FILE INFO itself, it's very easy to enter your contact information, keywords, copyright information, website information, etc, etc... And much of this information can be applied from a basic template.

Within Adobe Bridge, metadata and contact info can be batch applied to a whole collection of images, and this is typically the route that I take for applying an overall template. Within Bridge, the commands to follow are TOOLS (at the top of the screen) and then either APPEND METADATA or REPLACE METADATA. Again, a template can be created which contains your basic contact and copyright info.

Though I don't use either Lightroom or Aperture (I've been told repeatedly that I should), I do know that both programs contain the means for enbedding metadata/contact information into images, and that this can be done as a batch operation.

Peter Parker Would Love Parkour...

2008-09-07T08:08:00.000-07:00

The art/sport/practice of Parkour is something that's been on my mental and visual radar for quite some time. And though my middle-aged body would never allow me to actually participate in the high-speed running, scrambles, and acrobatic leaps that parkour entails, my thoroughly middle-aged body is more than willing to watch other -- more younger-aged folks -- scramble about, run like the devil, and make (literal) leaps of faith while engaged in the practice.

This past week, the Portland, Oregon chapter/division/offshoot of David Hobby's Strobist group held a photographic meet-up in -- of all places -- Portland, and we (i.e.: members of the Portland Strobist Group... Two quasi-official websites can be seen here and here) spent the better part of a late afternoon and early evening photographing some of the local "traceurs" (those who engage in parkour) during a very informal "parkour jam" here in the downtown Portland area.

One of the great things about parkour (at least from an imagery perspective) is that it's an activity which photographs beautifully. Honestly, any sport or art which involves really fit young people making dramatic leaps, spiderman-like ascents up walls, and Olga Korbut-esque gymnastic maneuvers -- all with an urban environment as the visual backdrop -- is an activity which practically screams out its need to be photographed. From a technical point of view, it's also an activity which calls out for plenty of bright strobe lighting and/or rather quick shutter speed because, well, you're gonna' want to freeze the action somehow...

The photo that you see above and to the right is probably my favorite image from this past week's parkour/Strobist meet-up. It's also a good illustration of the need for both bright strobe lighting and/or a quick shutter speed when shooting any sort of parkour activity. The traceur (Alex) making the leap in this image is moving very quickly as he spans about six horizontal feet -- and jumps up at least two vertical feet -- in order to reach the opposing wall. Even with my strobes blasting away (two Vivitar 285s, 1/2 power and full power) and a shutter speed of 1/320th of a second, there's still a bit of motion blur to the shot. Nothing too objectionable I hope, but still enough to catch my eye.

As a brief technical/design aside, I ended up doing a bit of a Dave Hill Photoshop treatment to the above photo. Nothing too crazy, but a bit of large radius Unsharp Masking and some extra grain via the "Add Noise" function help to give the image an extra edge.

Aside from a slight bit of cropping, no extra Photoshop was involved with the image that you see to the left: a trio of traceurs just hanging out (literally) in the doorway of a local church. This was a really fun shot to make and take, though hopefully -- twenty years or so down the road -- none of the participants in this photo will ever run for public office. Just image what the press and pundits would do to a future politician should he (or she) ever engage in Parkour A Trois...

Technical note: Illuminated with a single Vivitar 285 at full power in a medium-sized Chimera Softbox. The light is just slightly above frame, about five feet away from the door, and aimed roughly at the middle of the door.

As I state in the title of this posting, Peter Parker would love Parkour... And in the shot that you see just to the right, a bit of a Spiderman homage is taking place as a local traceur (Stu?) climbs up the narrow passage between two buildings. This particular shot kinda' violates my rules about using bright strobes and fast shutter speeds when photographing parkour (In photography, rules are made to be broken), and I ended up using quite a slow shutter speed to capture the ambient lighting of the glass bricks (1/3rd of a second, handheld), along with a fairly dim and highly snooted strobe (Vivitar 285 at 1/16th power).

In retrospect, I kinda' wish that I'd tilted my camera so that Stu (?) would appear to be leaning out from a wall (which he actually was) rather than looking as though he were sitting in a pit -- which he most definitely was not.

Questions? Comments? Technical concerns? Do you practice Parkour in the Pacific Northwest and have a strong desire to be photographed? Give me a shout....

Matt

Doing the Dew... Hanging out at the Portland AST Dew Tour

2008-08-27T21:03:00.000-07:00

Though I'm neither a fan of highly fructosed syrupy beverages nor over-caffeinated soft-drinks, I do have to give a the folks at Mountain Dew the highest accolades ever... THEY know how to put on a sporting event.

This past week (August ~~22nd~~ 20th through 24th), the AST Dew Tour sports extravaganza came to Portland, and for anyone with a press pass and camera in hand, well, it was the opportunity to see -- up close and personal -- some of the most jaw-dropping displays of athleticism, balance, and guts imaginable. This was also an opportunity to hang out with some amazingly humble and gracious athletes... Folks who truly appreciate just how fortunate they are to be doing what they're doing.

During the Skate Vert event, athletes drop vertically about five or six feet (on a skateboard) before hitting the curved surface of an enormous half-pipe which (if they stay upright on the board) will shoot them over to the other side of the pipe and then rocket them straight up the opposing vertical surface. The pictured pipe is about twenty feet deep and maybe about fifty or sixty across.

Pro skater Andy MacDonald goes into a very meditative mood before dropping down the pipe.

Shot with a Nikon D200 at ASA 640. Nikkor 16mm prime at f2.8. Black and White conversion via Photoshop.

Andy MacDonald giving me the eye...

Shot with my Nikon D200 at ASA 640. Nikkor 10.5mm prime at f3.5.

Insanely talented (and insanely nice guy) Sandro Dias realizes that he's just lost control of his skateboard and gets ready to take a really long drop down the sides of the skate vert half-pipe.

Again, Nikon D200, at ASA 640. A Nikkor 16mm prime at f2.8.

As an odd technical aside, in this photo Sandro ended up being illuminated by the strobe from another photographer at the skate vert. The odds of this happening are/were pretty slim, considering that I was shooting at 1/250th of a second.

How crazy was the AST Dew Tour? Well, I never would have imagined that snow could be made and blown onto the outdoor steps of a sporting complex IN THE SUMMER, and that snowboarders would then ride that snow and various rails and ramps in 70 degree weather. Check out the foliage in the upper right hand corner of the image.

Nikon D200 at ASA 500. 10.5mm Nikkor prime lens at f3.5. Shutter speed at 1/250th of a second.

Had I been working with an assistant, I most certainly would have had him or her blasting this BMX biker with 500 watt-seconds of strobe power. Instead, I went with an ASA of 500 for this particular shot, though I would have preferred the extra juice of a moderately powered flash.

Nikon D200 at ASA 500. Nikkor 10.5mm at f2.8. Shutter speed at 1/320 of a second.

A few brief technical (and stylistic) notes:

1) I tend to go with wide lenses when photographing sporting events, especially when I can get up-close access to the athletes and/or event setting. Myself, I've always enjoyed the way in which a wide lens sets the scene for both people and locations -- more of a "documentary" feel as far as I'm concerned -- though I have no problems at all reaching for my telephoto when something a bit more in-your-face is required.

2) High ASA... Hmmmmm... I have yet to join the Nikon D3, D700, or (just announced) D90 revolution, and so I can't really crank my camera up to 6400 and be happy with the resulting images. On the other hand, I'm not freaky paranoid about noise, and so I have no problems at all taking my older D200 up to ASA 640 or 800. If I'm absolutely positive that I'll end up converting my final image to black and white, I'll shoot at ASA 1600 -- do my conversion -- and be super happy... Looks almost exactly like Tri-X film.

3) I hate the way in which formatting a photo for web use (at 72 dpi) sucks all the fine detail and resolution out of a shot.

Matt

Words of Wisdom from Webb Wilder...

2008-08-24T18:58:00.000-07:00

Alt-Country/Singer/Songwriter/Thrash/Pub Rock/Metal/Twangster-Guitarist Webb Wilder is one of the best performers around working the small club circuit. His particular brand of music is pretty dang' unique, he's cultivated a larger-than-life on-stage persona, and he has an encyclopedic knowledge of music, musicians, and musical stylings

As luck would have it, Mr. Wilder also happens to be a very smart man when it comes to business, and about a year ago or so, various pearls of "Webb Wilder Wisdom" started appearing on the internet -- genuine pearls of wisdom, not the fake stuff. Though his advice is aimed more towards younger folks trying to get started in the music industry, much of what he has to say can be applied directly to younger -- and more middle-aged -- folks working in the world of photography, media, art, and entertainment (trust me, they're all related). One of his best segments ("The Key to Artistic and Music Business Success") can be seen below.

P.S.: If your taste in music is broad and/or you're a bit of a guitar geek, it's worth picking up a copy of Webb Wilder's Hybrid Vigor album. GREAT guitar playing, clever (and often funny) lyrics, and Webb just has a awesome singing voice... Kinda' like Hank Hill with a really good set of pipes.

P.P.S.: About fourteen years ago, I wondered backstage after an amazing Webb Wilder show just the shake the man's hand. He was the nicest guy imaginable -- funnier than hell -- and he gave me a ten minute run-through of the various tunings that he uses and some of his favorite guitar licks. Honestly, a true gentleman.

Back in Town... Making Turtle Tracks

2008-08-20T11:14:00.000-07:00

Just a quick note to let clients and readers know that I'm back from Florida and happily hanging out in the Pacific Northwest again. Tropical Storm "Fay" made my return travels a bit more complicated than they should have been -- airport delays, cancellations, etc, etc. -- and so it's good to be home.

Unfortunately, due to a nondisclosure agreement, I can't show too many photos from my Florida trip. In fact, I can hardly show any at all. The one image that I have posted at the bottom of this page isn't really all that special (at least, from an artsy-fartsy point of view), though it does bring back a very good memory for me from this trip. As things turned out, the ocean beaches around Eastern Central Florida are the nesting grounds for a wide variety of sea turtles, and right now just happens to be the prime nesting season for Loggerhead Turtles. Especially in the Satellite Beach/Melbourne Beach region, the beaches are practically covered with fresh turtle tracks -- from their trips up onto the dry sand in order to build nests for their eggs -- and at least a hundred egg nests can easily be spotted by anyone willing to walk along the sands for a half hour or so.

I actually did end up seeing two huge (and I do mean HUGE) turtles up on shore while doing a late night beach walk. One turtle was about three feet long by about two feet wide. The other turtle was about four-and-a-half feet long by about three feet wide. Unfortunately, I don't have the pictures to prove this because: 1) It was late at night and fairly dark. 2) I was told that it's illegal to use a flash to photograph the turtles while they're laying eggs.

The quasi-artsy shot that you see to the side is my one piece of proof that giant sea turtles actually do come ashore along Florida's Eastern Beaches. As an indication of just how large the turtles can actually get, please realize that the track you see in the photo is about four feet in width, and was created by a turtle using it's fins to push its (huge) shell up the beach towards a nesting site.

If anyone is headed towards the Cocoa, Satellite, Indialantic or Melbourne Beach area of Florida during the next few months, I would highly recommend a stop at the Sea Turtle Preservation Society storefront (in the town of Indialantic), just to spend some time chatting with folks who've made it their mission to help save some mighty impressive animals. They also organize a series of beach clean-ups and late night "turtle walks" during the egg laying season, and I recommend both activities as a nice alternative to watching crappy television in your hotel room, or eating lousy fried food at some local greasy spoon.

Matt

Palm Trees and Thunder Storms...

2008-08-12T18:41:00.000-07:00

I'm on the road right now, with my final destination being down in the Eastern Central Florida area. Basically, I'll be hanging out in an area know as the "Space Coast:" that part of Florida where all of the space shuttles, rockets, and satellites are launched from.

Unfortunately, the weather conditions down in the Space Coast area are supposed to be pretty wet, with lots of thunder and lightening storms. I probably won't be doing a whole lot of outdoor photography work, though I do have my rain gear with me just in case. I've also brought along an Ewa-Bag underwater housing (a total pain-in-the-butt to use), if it looks as though I might get the chance to do some in-the-water photography.

E-mail access? Who knows... I'll be staying at a very funky hotel in Satellite Beach, and I'm not quite sure if they'll have Wi-Fi or not. Anyone who wants to reach me in person is best off calling my cell phone (which can be found on the "contact" portion of this blog).

Hopefully, photos (that I can publish) will be up on this site within a few days.

Matt

The Beer Cozy Lens Protector...

2008-08-05T21:58:00.000-07:00

The beer cozy that you see just to the right is excellent at keeping bottled beverages properly chilled. As luck would have it, the pictured cozy also happens to be perfectly designed for holding a Nikon 10.5mm Fish-Eye lens. In fact, the cozy (which can be purchased for the low, low price of $1.99 at most outdoors and fishing supply stores) is much better at holding and protecting a 10.5mm Nikkor than the lousy cloth bag that Nikon supplies with the lens.

Myself, I own two of these cozies. One for my Nikon lens... Another to keep my beer cold.