Shooting the Moon...

Recently I was asked to shoot at a place that for a while was also called by some to be a second home. When I first moved to Indy I had a few friends that loved to frequent Howl at the Moon in downtown Indianapolis. I'll tell you what, It's a good time and I definitely still do enjoy going there even though I don't go as much as I once did.


Someone once asked me what I thought about working here in Indianapolis, and what I thought about the quality of talent it had to offer. Personally, I think that Indianapolis has the same caliber of talented people as you could find in Chicago, LA, New York or anywhere. The musicians, performers, photographers, athletes, ect just don't get the same exposure here. You could travel to lots of places in Chicago and see people that aren't as good of musicians as some of the people that play at the Howl at the Moon here in Indy. Truely a talented group of people.


That's Todd, and he's not only a piano, guitar, and fiddle player but also a firefighter. I swear this guy must sleep less than I do, but he's probably lost more of his marbles than I had to to start with total which would probably explain how he survives the hours. There are some reports that He'll work all night at Howl and then make an appearance at a 2 alarm fire at 5:30 the same morning. It's pretty wild I'm not gunna lie, I don't think I could do what he does. That's for darn sure.


The staff was gracious and helpful, the crowd was excited about my being there even though to them I was more of just Random guy with BIG A$$ CAMERA. There are a few things that I would do differently next time, but that's still to come as I'm not done there yet. I'd like to get a good shot of each of the performers doing there thing, but the lighting doesn't always tend to things like that in such a dynamic environment. Not to mention the very lovely and talented Joanna the piano player who broke her ankle in a Hula Hoop contest. Something tells me she'll be sitting somewhat stationary for a while. I definitely look forward to a return trip in the next few weeks, either for myself; or possibly for them.

On a side note, I was not hired to shoot in promotion of the bar because of a statement that the General Manager made before the Colt's vs. Ravens game a few weeks ago. That had nothing to do with it by any stretch of the imagination. For the record, I do know him personally and anybody that took his message poorly obviously does not understand sportsmanship. I do think that he could have sent his support of his hometown slightly differently; but if you can't take a little smack talk about football than you shouldn't be allowed to watch it. Enough said, and as always; More Soon.

Not Long Now......

(Nikon D3, 250ISO, Nikon 70-200mmF2.8VR@130mm. 1/30th@F7.1. Dynalight 400JR to camera right fired by pocket wizard at 1/4th power though a 60" umbrella. Single Dynalight 400JR to camera left shot through a 24"x24" softbox at 1/8 power fired by pocket wizard.)

Anybody who knows me knows how involved that I am with the Roller Derby team, the Naptown Roller Girls, or the Naptown Tornado sirens if you will. I love roller derby, and quite thankfully it was what helped me make my transition to living in Indianapolis. When I first moved here, I knew not a soul except for maybe a friend or two from college. My then, work acquaintance Michelle Pemberton (Red Rocket to some of you) found out that I used to shoot sports at Purdue and asked me to come check out her roller derby team. Sure enough, I did and I'm now the stain on the back of the bad penny that nobody accepts as current but nobody is evil enough to throw away.

Now 4 seasons later, I have helped produce almost 3 calendars for the team, as well as had photos from bout action published in numerous magazines, books, and other various media outlets. The Roller Derby has afforded me many travels, many friends, and many late nights working on photos for what has ended up to be not for the girls on the team; but for me. I have a lot of portfolio work from the team and for that I am forever grateful. A lot of it comes from the calendar that we put out every year, which will be ready for the Bout in December. While I can't show you the shots from the calendar yet, I think it's only fitting to give you a little something to amp you up before the first bout of Season for tomorrow evening. So what kinds of things might you find in Roller Derby Season 4?


(Nikon D3, 400ISO, Nikon 50mmF1.4AF-S. 1/80th@F1.4)

I made a deal with the devil and can't tell you what you'll find. Yea so I suck. I've been called worse by better so I'm not worried. What I can tell you is that I'm pleased with how things shaped up. Like putting play doh through one of the little spaghetti machines and getting that perfect pasta. Dig it, but don't get all bloodied up over it.


(Nikon D3x, 100ISO, Nikon 18-35mmF3.5-F4.5@28mm. 1/50th@F10. 750w lights set to 1/4 each to each side of the camera shot through 42" umbrellas. 6 400 watt lights around the perimiter of the scene set to 1/2th power hard light.)


Don't expect to see Hellvua like this in the final product. You can dream though, because she got a lot more bloodied up before the end of that day. Little did anyone know, but blood isn't easy to wash off......


(Photo by Tom Klubens)
(Nikon D700, ISO 800, Nikon 70-200mmF2.8VR@70mm. 1/640th@F4.5)


Eventually after a while the rumor is that all the blood came clean without too much of a disaster. Dr. X still has his bloody socks from the even though as he showed me last week at a shoot. For those of you that don't know who Dr. X is, I've got a photo of him right here....


(Nikon D3, 200ISO, Nikon 18-35mmF3.5-4.5@26mm. 1/50th@F14. Dynalight 400JR set to full power to camera right hard light fired by pocket wizard, Dynalight 400JR set to half power to camera left both fired by pocket wizards. This shot was during a light test to fire two SB-800 speedlights with orange gels underneith the awning. They didn't fire on this shot.)


Take from these shots what you will. Every single one of them was from a shoot featured in the 2010 Naptown Tornado Sirens Calendar. Some have more information in them than others, and some I'm not sure will tell you much at all. I just like causing trouble I suppose which seems to be the theme of the week for me. One thing I can tell you for sure; and that is the fact that we were sponsored again this year. Good luck tomorrow ladies, you know I'll be there as usual hoping that maybe I'll be able to get lucky, and fire that shutter at the right moment just a few more times....More soon.


(Nikon D3, 800ISO, Nikon 50mm F1.4AF-S. 1/30th@F1.4)

Canon 5D Mark II....

So I've had a few people notice that I've got access to a 5D Mark II on a frequent basis now and wanted to know my impressions on it. Since it's been one of the things that I've been particularly busy with the last two weeks, so I figure I'll say a few things about it. It probably wont be anything that anybody much better hasn't said somewhere much more important than here as the camera has been in much more awesome hands than mine for several months now. Also I'll probably throw a bit of technical mumbo jumbo that I don't understand in there from place to place too so be warned now. Or if you just like looking at pictures that's cool too as I'll be sure to post some extra ones this time. Nonetheless, here we go.

(Canon 5D Mark II, 250ISO, Canon 16-35mmF2.8L@16mm. 1/30th@F4. Single Canon 580EX Speedlight set to 1/4th power fired by pocket wizard to camera Left held by Suzanne the Koorsen Marketing coordinator. NO light modifier, except for the built in bounce card.)

Quite Frankly the camera is awesome. Yup, I said it. The Canon 5D Mark II is awesome; but it's not an end all be all by any means of the imagination. The shot above is for a special section the newspaper is working on. It is the owner of Kooresen Fire and Safety here in Indianapolis in their firefighting museum. In terms of detail, with 21.1 million pixels the camera does a pretty solid job.


That's a 100% crop of the first image in the blog. As you can tell at 250ISO the image is as clean as you would imagine from any modern digital camera. Notice how cropped in that is too, this camera has some serious resolution. The D3x has marginally more resolution, but at 22ish megapixels you don't notice the 2 more that the D3x has. AKA D3x 2 more megapixels...whoopdy freakin doo. The D3x costs more than twice as much as the 5D Mark II does also.


(Canon 5D Mark II, 320ISO, Canon 16-35mmF2.8L@24mm. 1/50thF7.1. Canon 580EX Speedlight to camera right set to 1/2 power fired by pocket wizard through a 60" Translucent umbrella. Single Canon 580EX Speedlight set to 1/8th power fired by pocket wizard shot into the wall in the booth with the two students in the background.)

The Autofocus has problems in the dark, but the Autofocus is also the exact same module out of the original 5D making it like a bazillion years old. (ok more like 5 but who knows how to count? Seriously?) It does ok, especially with F2.8L glass when using the center Autofocus point in the viewfinder, but I don't trust anything but the center point. The Radiology shot above was about as dark as I'd trust the Autofocus in on anything that wasn't moving while using the autofocus assist. Ambient light in that room was 3200iso, F2.8 1/30th. Turns out you can't take X-Rays in bright places? I don't know thats just one of those things that I just didn't ask. I wanted more of an ambiance shot of the Radiology students, and I think my normal two speedlights provided that just fine. While we are on the topic of darkness though, the High ISO on the camera is pretty solid for the resolution. I'd say the D3 is about 1 to 1.5 stops better at High ISO image artifacting, but the 5D Mark II is twice the resolution. At 50% the 5D Mark II files look just as clean which is outstanding.

(Canon 5D Mark II, 4000ISO, Canon 16-35mmF2.8L@16mm, 1/40th@2.8)


That's Tom. He's a shooter in town that often helps me out with various projects here and there. I bet I could count the number of instances on one hand the photos where Tom ISN'T throwing the bird. Unfortunately I don't know where one of those 4 photos might be, so he gets to show finger extension on the blog to demonstrate High ISO. The images are manageably clean, ESPECIALLY for being 21.1 million pixels. You need to click on the lower photo to see it close up to understand the noise. Funny part is that the way I shoot things, I probably won't go much over 400 except for video. Video which is phenomenal out of this camera by the way. Anybody who has read this knows that I've gushed about the video on this camera. NIKON YOU NEED VIDEO LIKE COMES OUT OF THIS CAMERA. THANKS. Not that anybody who reads this can make any difference in that, but I feel better for saying it.

(Canon 5D Mark II, ISO 400, Canon 16-35mmF2.8L@32mm. 1/50th@F5 Single 580EX Speedlight set to 1/8th power shot on camera shot into a low white florescent light fixture above the receptionists desk.)


Overall Impressions is that I dig the resolution this baby puts out; in stills and in video. Awesome tool for when shooting the types of things that I end up shooting at the newspaper. Yea the Autofocus is a bit slow, but I don't shoot sports for the paper. When I do shoot sports it's on the side or for me which is why I own my own D3. Great Camera, but not an end all be all. I've played with the new 7D and the Autofocus is knock out. I only wish it was in the 5D Mark II. I haven't played with a 1D Mark IV yet, but I'm sure I'll have one in my grubby mitts for a little bit soon enough.

(Canon 5D Mark II, 100ISO, Canon 16-35mmF2.8L@16mm, 1/200@F8. Single 580EX Speedlight set to full power to camera right fired by pocketwizard through a Lumiquest Softbox III.)

I guess that long story short, is that the camera handles like a camera. Use a couple lights, set it to take a photo and shaZam! You've taken a picture. The photo above is a Metromix promo. We wanted Photos of Adrianne on several Metromix boxes around Indy in landmarkish locations. That's one of the things we came up with. Joe McNally equates pressing the camera to your face, and firing the shutter like breathing, and really it's a great analogy. Last week I shot two months for the Roller Derby calendar. Saturday I shot the Tankersly's Family photos and today was a Roller Derby Scrimmage. We had set up to shoot another Calendar month, but it didn't quite work out. At the rate I'm going shooting photos may as well be like breathing; after all it seems like I can't go a day without doing it. Do what you love and you'll never work a day in your life. Maybe someday I'll just figure out what I'm doing. More Soon.

Nikon D3x....

With a headline like that what kind of introduction do I need? Except of course to state that NO; I did not buy this Rolls Royce of a camera. I was very graciously loaned this camera from Jeff Penn and NPS at Nikon. Special thanks to them at least one more time. As mentioned before, this blog is going to be filled with pictures and Nerd speak though, so be fore-warned now. The Nikon D3x is 24.5 Megapixels of amazing that is well worth the $7400 price tag (which is probably significantly less now that I've even just touched it). I however, need to sell a lot more pictures, or either one of my kidneys if I'm going to ever own one. That's all fine and good though, as I've definitely had my fun with it before I've got to give it back in the morning....

(Nikon D3x, 500ISO, Nikon 60mm F2.8 AF-S Nano Macro @F3.5, 1/25thsec. Nikon SB-900 set to TTL to camera left pointed straight up with the bounce card set to -2EV. Nikon SB-900 to behind the ball camera right pointed straight up set to TTL at -3EV. Both Speedlights were fired by an SU-800 Commander module from on top of the camera.)

The shot above has no particular purpose in life, other than the fact that I thought it might look cool. Some people do self assignments with models, others do it with landscapes, and where as maybe I do enjoy lighting things on fire; I very rarely dedicate a shoot just to fire but I do tend to like lighting things on fire.... Maybe I'm onto something here. I wanted to do a Mad Men style shoot with my friend Heather, but she ended up getting sick so I had to suffice for lighting golfballs on fire. I figured that with the extreme resolution of the D3x I'd be able to make some obscene prints or crops with the image. Honestly though, The image above looks good to me AS-IS. Not to say I couldn't crop it down even down to the dimples, I just don't really want to. Also though, as requested by a few different people, the next shot is a behind the scenes shot with the light setup for the above shot. Sometimes all it takes is a little imagination, a little initiative, and some hand sanitizer...


Yup, you guessed it: I shot the golf ball on my coffee table; just with the lights off. Seemed like a good idea at the time. The shot turned out pretty good as far as I'm concerned too. The golf ball was lit using every day hand sanitizer that you could find in walgreens made by purell. Turns out the stuff is 60%-70% alcohol, and burns very cleanly. Mix it with a little lighter fluid to give it some color and shaZam! Burning golf ball. If you do attempt something like this later on your own, make sure you ventilate the room fairy well, surlyn covers of golf balls are somewhat toxic when they burn.

Anyway, I digress. D3x = Awesome. I want one, can't afford one, will dream of them holding my pillow to my face while I sleep pretending to take photos until I wake up having trouble breathing because well.....I'm holding a pillow to my face. Yea no good. Anyway, I've been shooting as much as I can with the darn thing to see what it can do, and I must say I am very impressed.

(Nikon D3x, ISO 160, Nikon 28-70mmF2.8@70mm, 1/125th@F11. Dynalight 400JR to camera left set to Full power triggered by pocket wizard shot through a white fabrick 12'x12' wall. Dynalight 400JR to camera right triggered by Pocket Wizard set to one click under Full power shot through a 12'x12' white fabric wall.)

The shot above was for Ultrasun USA. That is a shot for the USA website, as well as any promotional media the USA division might want/need it for. Our current project is currently in the Beta stage and it's very exciting. I can't say yet what it is exactly but I made a video of the last shoot that I did (with this bed) that will make it on the blog later that will show you a little more what we are working on. With Ultrasun I have been using 12 Megapixel files for a long time, and they astounded at the detail that the D3x provided. It produced a file very similar in size to the Medium Format shots that they produce at the factory every time a new bed comes off the line in Holland. Of course I did use the D3x for more than just product and personal things.

(Nikon D3x, 200ISO, Nikon 18-35mm F3.5-4.5@24mm, 1/50th @F7.1. One SB-900 on a stand set to TTL +1 pointed into the ceiling tiles zoomed to 105mm, One SB-900 set to TTL-2 on the floor bare bulb shot at the chairs zoomed to 17mm. Speedlights both fired by an SU-800 TTL Commander module from on camera.)

This shot is for the Indianapolis Star's Green Indy publication. The company that the shot above is for is named Synergy, and they design Green Office environments. The carpet in the photo is recycled, the table is made of wood, there are big windows to let in natural light AND the lights above are LED lights, meaning that they use very little energy. Cool place; Tough shoot. As far as I can tell the Client was happy, and the Custom Pubs team was happy, which says WIN to me. Not that I couldn't have shot the shot with my D3, or a Canon body even, but I wanted to see how the D3x handled in the field in an On Location environment. It was Perfect.

On top of shooting things for the paper, for my own commercial clients and just for kicks and giggles I also shot a few artistic style shots which is something that I have gotten out of the habit of doing lately. My buddy Brad is playing sponge and trying to soak up every bit of photography that he can. Of which if I call him and want to go do something photo wise he's usually knocking on my front door before I can hang up the phone. He likes to assist at shoots and not only that he's right good at it too. His theory is that a good assistant knows where to find the vending machines. Really this mentality has come in handy on a few occasions too, so I can't complain in the least. Especially since he really seems to get a kick out of seeing how different light setups affect the way people look; turning really beautiful girls, into posters for horror movies because they are poorly lit. With the right light, even a dungeon is inviting. It's either that or I've just been lieing to myself all this time because I spent a lot of time in the dungeon. Either way.

(Nikon D3x, 100ISO, Nikon 18-35mm F3.5-4.5@18mm. 51seconds@F22. Camera was held by a Bogen Manfroto Tripod and fired with an MC-36 Digital Remote Release Cable)

That is the Chase building in downtown Indianapolis. I loved the colors, and thought it might be a nice shot to have while I was out playing around. Of all the shots I took over that few hours wandering the downtown, that is one of my favorites. Maybe someone from Chase will stumble onto my blog and want it. Or maybe it'll just go into the abyss terabytes worth of hard drives that I have on my network at home, hoping someday to be stumbled upon to someday see the light of print. We'll see I say. We'll see. The D3x thought performed flawlessly with long exposures, just as it did with the shorter ones in a studio environment and in the field. All in all, I was very pleased. The only conclusion that I can make is that if I printed very consistently at larger than 24"x36" I would not only NEED to own this Cadillac of cameras, but I could afford it as well. I can't say that I am done with this camera, I can't say that I won't own one at some point, and I can't say that these are the only things that I shot with it over the last week. I can say that you haven't seen the last of the shots that I did take though. Keep your eyes peeled, because I did shoot a few things which will take complete and full advantage of the resolution this camera provided. Possibly even for a Calendar coming up.... Until then though; back to the grind. More soon.

Finding an Xscape...

Last week was a bit of a release from the extreme workload that I've been having between the paper and side projects. Not that I don't have a considerable amount of editing to do, but from time to time it is nice to have a few days that aren't constant bombardment with emails or phone calls ranging from Photos that were needed yesterday, or Video that needs to be shot tomorrow. It's all the life of a newspaper Photographer/Videographer and I can't complain, so don't think that I am. It can just get stressful at times, but in an almost masochistic way I kind of dig it too. On top of the normal load I tend do shoot things on the side of the paper as well. Weddings, Posters for Advertising, modeling comp cards, events and Videos. Between the side projects, the newspaper, and random shenanigans that I tend to find; I keep rather busy. Last weekend was no different.

(Nikon D3, 2000ISO, Nikon 70-200mmF2.8VR@130mm F2.8, 1/60th. I was standing in a 1 foot space against the wall at turn 1 of the track, my assistant Mike was standing on the pitt wall with a single SB-900 zoomed to 50mm, which was fired by my SU-800 Commander unit on Camera.)


That's a shot from the Xscape on 38th Street in Lafayete Square mall. I've shot some things for them in the past, and they asked me to come back and snap a few last weekend. It wasn't a commercial style shoot, as much as an event style. Either way, shooting in a place like this presents several technical challenges to photographers that quite honestly can cause nightmares for many (especially myself). Being as that this was an event style shoot I was pushing my Nikon equipment to the max, trying to get some dynamic shots at a reasonable printable quality. This will be one of the few posts where my Shooting info is at 1600iso or above. That's what the D3 and D700 are known for though, is the clean printable image as high as 6400ISO! (although I dont like going much above 3200 for anything if I even have to go above 200 of course). There was even a shot that was so dark, that I shot a few frames at 1/15th at the dreaded and yet simultaneously awesome 12,500ISO. 12,500?! ZOMG!

(Nikon D700, 12,500ISO!, Nikon 18-35mm F3.5-4.5@18mm F3.5, 1/15th sec.)

It would have been nice to use large and small lights and set things up very commercially, but sometimes there just isn't the budget to do things like that. I understand the challenges of the economy these days, and I understand that's why someone like me gets called. Newspaper shooters are known for being resourceful in terms of ambient light and exposure. Most of the time Newspaper shooters are a one man show that goes to the most random assortment of locations with the requirement of taking a printable shot. I'm a relatively young and new shooter to the profession, but I'm honored to be associated with some outstanding photojournalist photographers at the Indianapolis Star. Many of them are at least 10 times the photographers that I am, which is why I always look at the things they are working on to learn as much as I can. Working for the newspaper, and knowing the people that I've come to know is the most valuable thing that has ever happened to my career as a photographer. The toughest thing I have to deal with though, is having to put advertising's top priority on print quality at the top of the to do list.

(Nikon D3, 2500ISO, Nikon 70-200F2.8VR@F2.8 1/125th. Mike was standing directly across the lane from me with my SB-900 Flash unit dialed to 17mm triggered by my SU-800 Commander unit on camera.)

All in all it was a successful weekend. I am happy with the photos that I took at the Xscape, I got on some roller skates for the first time in quite a while and didn't die (always a plus), and I got a few minutes to relax. This week will be busy at the paper with a video for Gannett Corporate, a run to catch up on Suburban Homes, and in the end another month out of the 2010 Roller Derby Calendar. On Friday night I'll be shooting KJ Testin's Performance at 8 Seconds Saloon here in Indianapolis, and on Saturday I'll be shooting at Skateland on 38th Street where Seth Green and the creators of Robot Chicken will be hanging out with The Naptown Roller Girls. I also have about 1800 photos from Xscape to continue to work on, as well as some Q8 photos that need some more attention. So back to normal for me. I just hope that I don't end up like my assistant Mike from Saturday; who was worn the heck out. Not to mention the fact that the plague is a nasty thing when you're on a putt putt course. More Soon.

Dark week....

Anyone who has ever worked in corporate America knows there is a risk of losing their job for any reason at all. To combat this risk, people formed Unions, which then protected employees as a group. In today's day in age, unions are becoming a thing of the past though, and unfortunately they can not protect people the way that they used to. Thursday July 9th 2009 was a dark day for Gannett, and the Indianapolis Star. The Indianapolis Star had to let go of 37 people who had done nothing wrong, except been deemed to hold a position that was no longer necessary by "higher powers". All of those employees will be dearly missed. One of the hardest parts is continueing to do your job as it happens; continually wondering if that dreaded call will come to your desk. To my friends who are no longer with the Star, or Gannett. The best of luck, my heart goes to you. The sun has set on your time with the Star, but not on your time over all. We're all here for you.

(Canon 1D Mark II Canon EF 16-35mmF2.8@16mm F6.3 320ISO)

Reading what was posted above, you can imagine it's been a very tense week. The shot above was shot on the "Black Thursday" mentioned above. It is for an Ad for Z's Oyster Bar near 82nd Street in Indianapolis. They wanted to illustrate the water, and the porch in one shot. This was my solution. I have a feeling they will be happy with the set of shots I provided considering the shots they had already were shot at noon on a Sunday....For the non photographer readers; yes lots of light is good, but the brightest light possible coming from directly overhead? bad...

The rest of the week I had some Nursing shoots to keep my mind off of the Thursday that all of us at the Star knew was coming. I went into St. Vincent's hospital on Tuesday to shoot inside of the Surgery Ward. It was one of those moments where you wonder how you got to where you are at, because I had to go through preventative measures in order to be back there. They must have seen me eat or something because I had to wear this white body suit, blue booties and a hairnet. If I'd have had a box of Junior mints with me, the scene would have been complete.

(Above Photo by Joe Soria)

(Canon 1D Mark II Canon EF 16-35mmF2.8@16mm F5 1/80th 200ISO)

It just so happened that Joe was wearing a white suit just like mine while he was in the Surgery Ward assisting me. Had him hold an 580EX pointed directly at himself. Instant bounce card. Best Voice Activated Light Stand ever....

Really in the end I guess it has been a productive week. Many know that I'm a gearhead and I've got a great new gadget that I'm hoping to play more with by my next post. It's made by Delkin and it's the Fat Gecko camera mount. Basically it's two large suction cups that attaches a camera to any smooth surface. Does it work? Hells yea it works! Attempt 1 proved to be effective enough, but I'm still looking at other applications for the device. I'm really looking forward to mounting lights to it, in awkward spaces. Whoa baby.

(Above Photo by Brad Clampitt)
That setup stuck to Brad's trunk helped me to grab this:

(Nikon D700 Nikkor 18-35mm@F8 ISO 1600 1/3sec)

The guy on the Bike is my buddy Tom. He's a good shooter here in town, and he's another one of the Staff shooters for the Roller Derby. He also happens to be about as off his rocker as I am; always willing to try something a little new and different. One time he and I convinced two ladies working in a Subway that we were fraternal twins despite the 13 year age difference....

Whew, so yea I've been busy this week and it's not over yet. Tomorrow I'm helping out a friend who is shooting a wedding I was attending already. How many times in your life can you say you went to and helped shoot a wedding for someone named Strawberry Jam? Seriously. Awesome. Then on Sunday is the first month out of the 2010 Roller Derby Calendar, and the launch of Episode 2 of the "One Woman One Million" webseries I've been working on which is why I'm up right now at 5am. Sometimes video just takes that little bit of extra time. That and I went out and shot a little bit on the canal. Brad's been hankerin to do that for his girlfriend Melanie in Canada, and tonight seemed like nice enough night. SO yea, busy week, I'm exhausted. More Soon.

(Sony A700 ISO 200 F9 20sec, Sigma 16mm Fisheye)

Failure can breed Creativity?

So I posted very recently that patience is a MUST have for any photographer to survive the profession. This is very true. You may also recall that the photo shoot at Ultrasun was canned because of a broken wheel on a rotator stand for the tanning beds. Well, after going to the hooters to visit our friend Rachel we decided that taking photos downtown would be the best way to pass some time on a night we had expected to be working late anyway. Crazy thing was that I remembered a video that I saw in the last few weeks where a guy made a video out of a bunch of still images from the interior of his car. Being as we had awesome weather that evening, and we were in a convertible going to head to downtown Indy; I was inspired. The video I saw which inspired this, had done it inside his car which was cool; but how cool would it be in a convertable?

(Photo by Brad Clampitt)

So we mounted my brand spankin new D700 onto a tripod in the back of Brad's SL500 and went for a drive down Highway I-65. I'd be lieing if I said I wasn't a bit nervous; especially with Brad driving..... For the few nerds out there that might read this, I set my camera very similarly to the way the video I saw that was similar was set. The camera was set to 6400iso and Shutter Priority at 1/3 of a second. The camera also had an exposure compensation of +1 stop to make sure that from time to time we could see the inside of the car. I wish i was able to shoot wider than 18mm but that's the widest I have now since I dumped my 10.5 fisheye. I must say I'm very pleased with the results though. The neat part about Nikon Camera's is that they all have Interval timers built into them. So you can set the camera to take 999 shots at almost any interval. This particular one was set to take a shot every 3 seconds. Canon cameras don't have that feature. Sony camera's don't have that Feature either. As far as I know Nikon is the only one that includes it in their bodies. Honestly.....I don't know why nobody else does it's just a simple bit of programming. For something like this you need a BIG memory card. I had the camera set to JPEG with a Kingston 133x 16 gigabyte card. In the end I took 1689 shots.

We drove downtown where we discovered that Brad was so excited about this project he left his Sony A700 at home and he couldn't take any photos downtown. We laughed for a bit, and decided to call it a night considering that we both had a long day to follow. The Q8 no longer failed, and we finally got all the photos shot of it today. I shot about 8 gigabytes of parts photos for Ultrasun as well. Then at about 8:30pm we proceeded to go back to Hooters to edit the video. Why did we go back to Hooters to do this editing? Because who does that? Seriously. Apparently I do.

(Photo by Brad Clampitt)

So I finally got it all edited, I found some music that seems to fit nicely with it (music by Bush: "History [The Dub Pistols Mix] Special thanks to them for sure), and we have a video. For the Record NO I was not sitting facing the wall all night, we moved tables because the waitresses section moved and we are pushovers like that. We had a much better spot overlooking the place but she had to move, and this table had an outlet. Final Cut doesn't like batteries. Eats 'em 3 meals a day as well as a snack. I guess the long winded moral of the story is to go with your inspirations. We could have gone to a bar, or all dispersed to go home to bed, but instead we created something a little different. I may not be the first to do this, but just like the Dancing man; get inspired, break the mold, and you never know what you're gunna get.
Take 5 minutes, enjoy the video, more soon.

KJ Testin

This is a few weeks past but I thought I'd share it on here anyway. I figure why not have some content on the page when everything goes live right?

Joey Fingers approached me about this project a few weeks prior to shooting, wanting to know if I was interested in helping out. I liked the music he sent me and was looking to work on a project like this to really break into the video world with a bang! (I like things that go bang, comes with the territory of being easily amused....) We met with Jim Timperman who is an outstanding cinematographer. Like a real world cinematographer. The kind of guy who lives in Indiana but gets paid to go all over to film things anywhere. Great, very talented guy. That's him to the left of the frame on the photo above (Photo by Brad Clampitt). That's me on the bed mounting the 5D Mark II to the arm we had to suspend it over the bed. He was supervising me on the bed to either make sure ther was no funny business, or to make sure he wasn't the one that dropped the camera on KJ......Freakin amazing camera by the way. Many of you should know I shoot Nikon, and all I can say is that I wish my D3 could put out video like that camera does.....

Anyway, the room above is the Mike Tyson Suite at the Canterbury hotel here in Indy. Great room, although needs some updating. Between all the gear that we all had, it was quite packed in there; even though the suite had 2 levels.


(Photo by Brad Clampitt)

We shot on other various locations though. Got some skyline, got some hallway, even had a few people almost interrupt filming because they wanted to take some photos. It realy was quite the experience. There are talks of doing another video in the next few months. I hope it all works out, I think KJ is very talented and deserves her chance for her music to be heard. I'm not much of a country fan, but I like her stuff. That's enough from me though. Until next time; enjoy the video.