On the Hunt...

Every year at the newspaper during the winter we do a weekly special section called Read the Indianapolis Zoo. Primarily in accordance with the Zoo of course because people don't go to the zoo as much during the winter due to the cool weather. I don't even go to the Zoo much when it's nice outside, not except for when my mom comes to town, a date, or for a wedding. The cool part about shooting the 'Read the Zoo' section isn't that the images go on trading cards for families and kids all over Indianapolis, but that I get real one on one time with some of the cooler animals that live there.

(Canon EOS1D MARK II, 1600ISO, Canon EF100mmMacro, 1/250th@F2.8. Canon 580EX Speedlight shot through the left part of the tank through the glass at 1/16th power, fired by pocket wizard)

Yup, I found Nemo. I'd say that was this guys actual name, except I'd be lying. The trainer that is assigned to escort e through the zoo from animal to animal is usually filled with excessive amounts of trivia about the animals. In fact they mentioned that this particular type of clownfish his actually poisonous. I had no idea, and actually can't really verify that fact using online research as apparently there are a bunch of different kinds of clownfish.

(Nikon D2x, 400ISO, Nikon 70-200VR@200mm. 1/80th@F2.8. Single Nikon SB-800 Speedlight set to iTTL to camera left shot through the Lexan safety glass fired by SC-28 Off camera Cable.)

Speaking of Poisonus. This little (or actually very large) dude was shot through about an inch of Lexan shatterproof glass. This is the King Rattler and dang he was a mean looking snake. The year I shot this, I shot it with my own Nikon equipment because the newspaper couldn't spare a 400mm during Football season for me to shoot some of the birds in the Atrium. He was awake, and obviously not happy he was in his 3 foot by 3 foot glass box in the dark. I didn't spend much time on this guy...

(Canon EOS1D Mark II, 400ISO, Canon EF100mmMacro, 1/250th@F5.6. Single Canon 580EX Speedlight shot into a reflector to camera left set to eTTL while attached to a Canon Off camera cable.)

This little treefrog guy was a blast to work with. Lot of fun, great smile and very cooperative. Whether you believe it or not he was shot on a regular potted plant on the back counter in the staging area of the Zoo. The trainer pulled him out of his little environment and either he was too petrified to go anyplace, or he just didn't care. Either way, it all worked out nicely. After about 10 minutes, the trainer put him back where he belonged where he again proceeded to just sit and hang out, and I moved to the next animal on my list. Really I can identify with that frog, although I go new places all the time. Sometimes you just don't want to go and do what you need to do. Last weekend I was out shooting and ended up shooting a male stripper doing his routine. Was a little awkward, but ironically not the worst thing I've ever had to do.

(Canon EOS1D Mark II, 400ISO, Canon EF16-35L@16mm, 1/160th@F5)

These little guys are exactly what you'd think they are. Roosters. If there was anything more special about them, I don't remember but whether you want to believe it or not we do have roosters at the zoo. I found it funny that we had roosters in the zoo, but I can imagine that there are a lot of city kids out there that had never seen a rooster, or would never see a rooster in real life. there are a lot of animals I suppose that you don't see in the city, and really it only makes sense that the zoo give everyone that opportunity. Which would only make sense in the movie "I am Legend" with will Smith except that we at Indystar checked with the Zoo in Manhattan and they don't have any deer there on display which is what Will Smith was hunting in his Shelby Cobra Mustang on the Island known as Manhattan..... More soon.

Making yourself a change...

A lot of people in life talk about how hard some things are in their lives, and with all due respect those things are probably pretty difficult. Life is mostly a choice though, and to prove that today is Karl.

(Canon EOS5D Mark II, 160ISO, Canon EF24-70F2.8@42mm. 1/80th@F7.1. Canon 580EX Speedlight zoomed to 70mm behind the panel pointed into the wall set to 1/4 fired by pocket wizard. Canon 580EX Speedlight zoomed to 105mm to camera right about 10 feet, set to 1/32nd power to illuminate the controls on the front of the panel fired by pocket wizard)

Karl is 51 and has decided to go back to school to learn Aviation Technology. He found the program through Careerbuilder.com. Careerbuilder wanted to feature him in their print publication showing that anyone can make a change in their life, and they can help. It just goes to show that no matter where you are in life, you can always make a change to do what is right for yourself. If you want to learn a skill, take a class. If you've dreamed of doing something, try it. You never know what could happen.

(Canon EOS5D Mark II, 200ISO, Canon EF100F2.8Macro, 1/80th@F6.3. Single 580EX Speedlight set to 1/2 power fired by pocket wizard through a FotoRosa 16"Softbox above right of the camera. Canon 580EX Speedlight zoomed to 70mm set to 1/8th set on the table about 10 feet behind Karl fired by pocket wizard pointed into the wall for a little background fill.)

In these photos Karl is rebuilding the Fuel valve training console at the Aviation Institute of Maintenance here in Indianapolis. They had everything in this hangar for students to learn on. Engines, planes, cookies, gasoline..... lots of great stuff. Very similar to the Vincennes Aviation Technology Center at the Indianapolis Airport. Another great place to learn aviation. This is definitely a great story of chasing a dream though. No, it may not be chasing a girl across the world to fall in love, or winning the lottery, or even eating that 60oz steak in order to get it for free. But it's being proactive in one's life. There's not enough of that in the world these days. More Soon.

(Canon EOS5D Mark II, 200ISO, Canon EF100F2.8Macro, 1/80th@F6.3. Canon 580EX Speedlight shot into the wall behind the panel at 1/4th power zoomed to 70mm fired by pocket wizard. Canon 580EX Speedlight set to 1/8th power on the table about 6 feet to the left of Karl set to 1/16th power fired by pocket wizard to shed a little light on the control equipment.)

On a side note, I'd also like to wish all the dads out there a Happy Fathers day. I don't know where I'd be without my Dad.

Ghosts of Cameras past...

Constantly I am out shooting, putting actuation's on the camera that is in hand, setting lights, moving models, taping something to another. All of this without even thinking in most cases, and yet more often than not about how I could do it, should do it, or how I even used to do it. The little things in photography that every single modern day photographer takes for granted, such as 1600ISO, iTTL, Rechargeable Lithium Ion batteries, lastolite trip grip diffusers, FotoRosa shoe flash softboxes, or even Duct tape. From time to time, (time to time being very rarely) I find myself wondering how I used to do things before my D3 and SB-900's. Before the SU-800 allowed me to control my lights outputs from where I was shooting, instead of having to move to each light to change the output in increments larger than I wanted to. Or in even some cases, doing what I know a lot of photographers now do; and that's use High ISO instead of using lights at all.

(Ricoh KSX Super, Fuji 200 Slide Film. 50mm F1.8 Screw mount lens. Tripod of some sort.)

I shot that photo while doing a series of photos regarding Dorm life. Remember taking the shot in a bracket of 5, of which that was the one I liked. Today, this should would have been made differently. I'd have taken 20 or 30 shots, wouldn't have bracketed but just checked the histogram on the back of the camera. Back then that 20 or 30 shots would have been a whole roll of film, or at least most of one and I'd have had no idea if I got the shot until the next day when the slide film processing came back. I was a lot more deliberate back then and cautious of my shots as I was shooting on my dime in this case. Looking at the full size scan of this image off of the 35mm slide, it wouldn't even have been sharp enough for me to keep it today.

(Ricoh KSX Super, Fuji 200 Slide Film, 50mm F1.8 Screw Mount Lens.)

The shot above ranks itself by today's standards as an 18 megapixel slide. It's dark, , slightly out of focus, and anybody that looks at this would never know that the guy on the right is playing a video game of sorts. My journlaistic abilities at the time, however lacking, aren't the point of the photos though. When I think about how far technology has come since things like this were taken, I am amazed not only at the technology but how much I learned while shooting film. To this day I maintain that you'll learn more ruining a roll of film than shooting a thousand digital images. Just think back to the cameras that you've sold, broken, or just put into a box and under your bed because the trade in value was equivalent to a White Castle Crave Case. Just think about what they taught you, and how great you thought those images were back then.

I've bought and sold more equipment than I thought I would have ever thought would be the case by this point in my young career, but I can definitely tell you that I recognize the influence that every awesome then, crappy now photo has had on my shooting. All things are priceless bits of information as learned by mistakes made with old technology, or just lack of knowledge in general. That's what I love about my profession that to this day my accountant still refers to as a hobby. Every day, it's something new. Another mistake made, another lesson learned, another moment captured inching me closer to the best shot I've ever taken; and then the one better than that. More Soon.

Purdue Grand Prix...

Every now and then I am offered an opportunity to go and shoot something to give back to the photographic community, as well as to the University that I received my education at. I say received as though they offered me that education freely, where as though in reality I paid (and am still paying) quite a bit for it. When in contact with a Student organization I used to be involved with, my shooting of the 53rd annual Purdue Grand Prix race came up, to which I couldn't refuse. I had already planned on going up to Lafayette that weekend to see some very good friends from a galaxy far far away (Utah, Pennsylvania and the like) so I thought, why not. They would be partaking in their own festivities that day so it seemed like a great opportunity.

(Nikon D3, 500ISO, Nikon 70-200mmF2.8VR@190mm, 1/1600th@F2.8)

That was a relatively common scene in the Pitts on Saturday at the Race as it looked pretty gloomy outside. Ok maybe that's not what she was contemplating, for all I know she could have been contemplating her decision to eat Taco Bell for lunch or the decision to paint her fingernails red on such a doom and gloom stormy day. Little did I know at the time, but this young lady was standing next to the car that would win it all in the end. It just goes to show you that sometimes you are in the right place at the right time. For me, I just happened to notice this young lady, and decided to make the picture. This was a great opportunity for me to shoot and make some very journalistic black and white photos, which isn't part of my normal routine.


(Nikon D3, 220ISO, Nikon 70-200mmF2.8VR@200mm, 1/1250@F2.8)

No lights, no tripods, no products, no models or wild complex setups involving bedsheets. I was out on the track running and gunning to look for the angle that would give me a shot setting me apart from the rest of the mass of photographers out there. This crash occurred early in the race, at about lap 7 I believe. I was terribly blocked from seeing what was going on in regards to the driver and that's not to mention the fact that I was far too far away. I guess it just goes to show that sometimes the real photo isn't what's right in front of you. I was intrigued by Purdue Pete taking a knee for one of his downed students.

(Nikon D3, 200ISO, Nikon 70-300F4.5-5.6VRII@300mm, 1/250th@F5.6)

It was a lot of fun being out on the track, which to someones lack of better judgment let me dangerously close too. Don't underestimate the term dangerously close either, I definitely ran across the track during part of the race at an opening so I could get into the middle. I didn't use the bridge to cross, I was foot to pavement on the actual track. Obviously the people putting on this event weren't given the proper information allowing me to be on the property, as frogger is my game of choice...

All of the drivers were in search of one thing though, and that was the trophy for the Win. It turns out that Justin Penix was the Pole sitter that day as well, who for a while as I recall was bumped back a few spots. In the end he pulled through though, and good for him. I wanted to do something a little different with the shot of the winner, and that's where the Overcast crappy day came into play as crappy cloudy days can make much more epic photos of triumphant people whom you want to represent very dramatially.

(Nikon D700, 200ISO, Nikon 18-35mmF3.5-4.5@18mm, 1/400th@F10, Nikon SB-900 set to iTTL +1EV zoomed to 200mm attached to the camera via SC-28 Off camera cable aimed at Justin using my left hand at arms length)

So I couldn't go the whole day without doing something with my Strobe. I was happy with the shot, so what? I did play with a lot of black and white though, and I encourage you to check out the rest of the shots here. I enjoyed the day, and the rain held out for the race, which was amazing. Everyone was sure we were going to get soaked, including me. Glad we didn't as I've found that water and cameras don't always get along.

I feel as though the day was a success on many accounts. I saw some very dear friends, I shot some photos that I like from the race (I shot lots lots more that I didn't like though too), I also ran into a reader of the blog whom I'd never met before. One of the shooters at the track is a reader, and I'd like to say thanks again to everyone that does suffer through my horrible grammatical and spelling travesties for the sake of looking at the pictures. It does mean a lot that you are here, and It was incredibly awesome, and humbling to find out that there are people out there whom I don't know that read this. So thanks again, and without a doubt; More Soon.