Season of Excitment...

The end of the year can be an exciting time for everyone.  Holidays are approaching, some people like snow (seriously, they are out there), looking forward to families, looking forward to taxes, maybe a little time off........any number of wonderful possibilities.  I'm dreading the fact that I'm considering making my blog part of a new years resolution as I've sort of fallen off the blogging train the last few months.  I've said before that I've just been busy, and I have been busy; but that like so many other things is an excuse I suppose.

 

(Canon EOS5D Mark II, 400ISO, Canon EF70-200F2.8L@120mm, 1/80th@F9.  Single 580EX SPeedlight zoomed in to 105mm set to 1/16th power hard light from the left of the frame aimed at where Dr. Evans hands touch the patient. Fired by Pocket Wizards. I chose the dark moody lighting to simulate a private room in the Office, which we clearly weren't in as I was shooting at 120mm.)

Shot some stuff for Pro Chiropractic clinic in Fishers recently.  Was a nice place- good people.  This is Dr. David Evans, who from what I am told has magic fingers.  Can't say I've ever been to a chiropractor or had a massage.  I even know a Masseuse who does a lot of work for the Indiana Fever, but have never taken the plunge.  Not sure if I'm missing anything or not, but one day when carrying all my gear comes back to haunt me, I know of at least a few people that can take care of me. 

In terms of everything, including the gear that'll break my back; this has been a rather exciting year for me over all.  I've grown personally, and photographically more than I ever thought I would.  I've bought and sold equipment, I've learned new types of photography including the use of a Tilt Shift, or Perspective Correcting Lens.  I've also received phone calls from people and picked up clients that I'd never considered possible this year.  All thanks to a little help from friends, and most certainly a lot of luck.

 

(Nikon D3s, 200ISO, Nikon 24mmF3.5PCE 1/200th@F16.  Single Dynalight 400 Uni inside of a 24"x24" Softbox to camera right, white paper surrounding the guitar to camera left acting as fill cards to about 4' tall.  The image to the left is shot at -6 degrees Tilt, and the image to the right is shot square away like a normal camera lens combo would capture it)

That photo above is two consecutive frames from a recent shoot; straight out of camera.  Didn't expect the shoot to require a PC lens, but I have a 24mm one that I purchased for some commercial real estate a few months ago.  I knew absolutely nothing about PC lenses before this year, and had no reason to, but since I bought the lens I've found myself using it in all sorts of strange ways. The nice part about tilt shift is that the image on the left that has been corrected is not only much more flat as if I was directly head on with the guitar; but the the guitar is 100% in focus of depth of field at F16.  This lens is capable of 36" of depth of field from front to back from 7" away from an object when tilt shifted correctly.  Absolutely phenomenal for shooting product, real estate as you can flatten out things that you can't physically center  yourself on.  That's not generally what a Tilt shift, or PCE lens is known for, but it's what it's original design was intended for.  All the way back to the bellows on a view camera. It's not for everything, in fact I kind of wish I'd bought the 45mm instead of the 24mm, but oh well.  Maybe next time. 

Bought myself an iPad too, which after a week I have decided is going to be an invaluable tool in my business.  After forgetting my card reader for the laptop on a shoot I had to proof a few of the pictures on the iPad.  Turns out it can read D3s .NEF files.......Can we say,  blown away?

 

(Photo by Joe Lee)

Not only is the iPad awesome for carrying my portfolio around (you never know when you'll be talking to your next employer), but at the same time it definitely made an impression on the client at this photoshoot.  It wasn't tethered, but to pull a few images and be able to show them large on a screen I could literally hand them made a big impression. 

So yea, kind of a lot has been going on.  Strangely enough some of these things I've been working on I  can't even talk about yet, which is kinda cool and yet nail biting at the same time.  I can assure you though that there will be some very cool blogs coming up soon, and a new website/blog to boot.  Some of which including the Guitars I showed above, Help-Portrait Indy is coming up very soon on December 18th (email me here if you're interested in helping out somehow), as well as I've got one or two more wild projects that I think might make good blog material.  More Soon. 

Blog: Vacation Edition

Everybody likes to have some time off, and I got to experience that Rarity last weekend. I got to spend some time with some of the best friends anybody could ask for, that I never get to see. I studied Photography at Purdue, and I'll tell you what. There weren't many of us that did. Not that I'm saying I'm special, it's just that there were 3,000 engineers for every 1 photo student. Needless to say, all of my friends are engineers that live across the country doing various things to keep us safe, or make sure our ketchup stays red. We are able to get together maybe once a year if we're lucky. They know I'm a photographer for a living, so when I pull out the camera they all attempt to act normal, but are all interested in learning about things like depth of field, and things that I don't really think about anymore. It's really great to be accepted into such a smart group of friends, and be able to contribute to some sort of technical mumbo jumbo conversation that comes up.


That's Doug. Doug is easily one of the smartest people I know, and is definitely an asset to Boeing and the proejcts he works on. Doug is also very easily excited, and yes his wetsuit is on backwards in this photo. This oversight was quickly corrected, but Doug and I had several conversations about depth of Field over the course of the weekend. (intermixed among other conversations regarding how many beers were in a keg, and how much each person in a 12 person group would have to drink in terms of cases to comlete the keg, if it was in case form). Doug is the kind of guy that if asked, and gave a number to a decimal I'd believe pretty instantly. Anyway, Doug was intrigued by being able to isolate an object through a camera optically.

D700, AF-S50mm F1.4 @F1.4, Ambient light.

Even though it was vacation I am more than willing to talk photography, and I only hope that I was able to answer Doug's questions regarding Depth of Field. Unfortunately I didn't have any long glass with me to demonstrate lens compression as well, but if I'd have done that I'd have also tried to set up a speedlight, and then probably take the entire shoot out of control over a simple explanation. I'm sort of a Nut like that. My buddy Brad knows this; He has a brand new Sony A700 and will call and email me at all times of the day with questions. Brad is the kind of guy whose imagination was last seen dry humping a bug zapper. This is more than likely why he and I get along. Brad has been known to assist me from time to time because he's interested in learning anything he can get his hands on; and I greatly appreciate his help. Last week he helped me film some video for Express Effects Cosmetics; the company that makes THINgloss. The owner has launched a new campaign to be a ray of hope in our current economic situation. You can learn more about it here. She is going to put a webisode up every week charting her progress, in a very similar fashion to Reality TV.

I've got some more video to shoot later this week, and this next weekend will start the shooting for the 2010 Roller Derby Calendar. If I can find time and I end up doing something worth writing about I'll be sure to do so. Until then, find something you want and be diligent about it; work for it. If it's really as great as you think it is, the prize will be worth the fight. More soon.


Tony eagerly awaits the time to bulid a campfire.
D700 AF-S 50mm F1.4@F1.4.