Sustainable Red-Wine

Phase one at Hallmark is winding down, and our final project is due in a week. One picture we have to shoot is a product with an appropriate background or location, and I just happened to pick up this cool bottle of wine from a local store. While driving back to the studio, I also passed a tree with some great red leaves that were falling. Some people driving past may have seen me picking leaves up off the ground and shoving them in a plastic baggie.

The cool thing about the commercial bays at school are that, right now at least, it's pretty empty after school. I get to use equipment from 2 or 3 bays instead of having to keep changing everything out when i start a new picture. Luckily, this was a fairly simple setup, but I think a few weeks of instruction and some lighting diagrams will do me good.

The setup, which I actually do have a picture of this time, was a little more complex than I've done in the past.

A softbox in the back through the infinity table, one in the front right for the bottle, and a third bare bulb underneath the table. No bounce cards, but I did have to black out the wall on the left side to get rid of some highlights. Post processing was cleaning up the bottle and re-arranging some of the leaves, curves, and some trade secrets.

It likely won't get used for class for one reason-they want us to be turn in lightroom edits only, and this shot, like most product shots, is a disaster till it gets polished. I'll definitely be holding onto this one for a while.

Keep coming back to check out new pics that will be getting posted, we're just getting started.

Hallmark in Motion- Weeks 3 & 4

After watching most of the class get jump started from zero to 'pro' photographers, we hit the ground running, literally. Our assignment this week included techniques on capturing motion, and my experience as a 'sportraiture' photographer came in handy. Josh was willing enough to run endlessly through dirty puddles in the unusually wet Massachusetts weather so I could get a great shot like this one. More after the jump.

Without 'distractions' like things to do on the weekends, we have plenty of time to throw on a jacket and spend a few hours in the rain. Josh, Colin and I took the day to do our motion assignment, and ended up with some great shots. Nearly running over Josh just so that Colin could get his homework done was priceless.

Coming up in the next couple weeks we have a few field trips, including one to New York for PhotoExpo, and to some smaller locales around the Massachusetts area. Assignments should start falling out of the sky any day now, and I'll have something a bit more interesting to talk about than how I captured movement with a fast shutter speed.





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Best Camera

I got on board with Chase Jarvis' "Best Camera" because I missed the way I used to take dozens of pictures on my cell phone before I even had a real camera. Having something that can grab the things you see every day in a split second is a great way to stay creative, take notes, and keep yourself occupied.

Having used the previous Jarvis approved camera app, I wasn't disappointed by the way the app handled, it had plenty of features and a lot more control than other iPhone apps. I miss some of the presets from Camera Bag, but the options in Best Camera aren't lacking, and the sharing feature that uploads to twitter, facebook, email and the Best Camera website is really cool, and I'm sure more features will be rolled out soon.

Overall, it's a great and ambitious foray into a web app and social site, and I've been going crazy editing a whole backlog of iPhone pics from the past year. Check it out on twitter or Facebook.







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Hallmark 2010- Weeks 1-2

So as most of you know, I'm out in Turners Falls Massachusetts where I've just started Phase 1 of the most comprehensive photographic education anywhere in the US. Weeks one and two blew by pretty quickly, with guest speakers and equipment being handed out, and our first assignment shot in neighboring Historic Deerfield. We're getting to know our teachers and their backgrounds, and getting settled into the program thats as demanding as they come.

Our week one assignment, with one of my final images posted above, was really an eye opener for me. Working mostly with artificial lighting, I usually never had to worry about the quality of available light. Having to work exclusively with said natural light put me on the spot, especially when the weather turned sour, giving us nothing but even, diffuse light for the entire day.

Read more and see some other shots from the day after the jump.


Coming from a very strobist background, having to deal with the giant softbox in the sky wasn't exactly intuitive. I've never had to work with models in all natural light, so it threw me for a bit of a loop when we had to photograph three different sets of subjects using it. The weather that day wasn't exactly cooperating, and trying to find a shadow was next to impossible.

Luckily, I still remember how to work without cranking down my exposure and blasting something with light. The above shot of Claudia was shot with an 85mm F/1.2 @ F/2.8 in the middle of a corn field we walked past. The new 5D Mark II creates literally noiseless images at ISO 50, and the color comes out fantastic in Photoshop CS4. Claudia, the 'model' for the day is another student whom I spent some time working with for our people assignment.

Another all natural light subject was more of an exercise in manually focusing toy lenses than anything else. Our not-so-little Chinese Sharpei friend here was excited by all the paparazzi attention he was getting.

Class is moving along slowly while all the students are brought up to speed, so I get a chance to relax and stretch myself on assignments. Keep checking back for more info on my new work and the Hallmark class of 2010.

Hallmark 2010

Finally, made it to Mass., and to the Hallmark Institute of Photography. Like I may have mentioned, this town (Turners Falls) is TINY. I mean, three stoplights and one main street tiny. From 1st to 7th street is less than half a mile.

But we made it through three days of orientation at the awesome school they have set up here. The equipment is all brand spankin' new, and the building is practically an oasis for photographers. Huge portrait and commercial bays, gigantic imaging and design labs, it's one heck of a place to do some work. I can see why some students 'lived' there all year. If they didn't have to kick me out every night, I'd just bring my bed and some PJ's. Read more about the school and our awesome guest speakers after the jump.

Orientation every day was ended with a lecture from a noted photographer, and while they're not exactly household names, they sure aren't obscure. First was Gregory Heisler, who's shot over SEVENTY Time Magazine covers, from Clinton and Arafat to Bruce Springsteen and Michael Phelps. He's also our 'Artist in Residence' for the year, meaning we get unfettered access to an extraordinarily accomplished photographer.

Next was fashion photographer Barbara Brodnick, one of the first major female fashion photographers. What I admired her the most for was these amazing 8x10 peel apart polaroid pictures of 'Women of Jazz'. It made me want to run out and get an 8x10 camera and beg Fuji to start producing film for me. She also had a collection of images for her three books on flowers, shot from perspectives that are so unique that she describes them more as landscapes than just pictures of plants.

Our final orientation week speaker was Clay Patrick McBride, who's shot a huge range of music talent including Metallica and Fifty Cent, along with NBA players and Japanese biker girls. He's also made the move to multimedia, delivering videos to his clients for 'online content', and was actually the photographer who inspired the well known stop motion music video of the girl walking on her bed. But his idea was much cooler, if not raunchier.

All three were amazing inspiration for a group of presumably nervous new photographers, many of whom haven't picked a direction to take their work in. For me, it was a great way to see the type of work that gets put on magazine covers, and to realize that I'm getting to that point. For the rest of the year, I'll be (trying) to blog about the whole experience here, to both document my progress personally, and to be a resource for new students who want to know more about the school.

My first impression? This is the place to be, hands down.

Meetup V-Mission Accomplished

Despite 90+ degree weather and the distinct lack of an air-conditioned workspace, we had a blast at our final summer meetup. While we changed the name (Strobist A2/DT), the incredible time we had with everyone stayed the same. Our only regret was that we didn't do this sooner and more often. With a group this successful, monthly meetups would have been easy to accomplish. Read about our final (for me) meetup and our plans for the future after the jump.

Our location was a repeat from an earlier meetup because of our time constraints, but with everything moving around as quickly as it does in there, we still had plenty of new places to shoot. Like a forklift, or a solar collector, or in a spate of daredevil behavior, from the rafters. New photographers and models created incredible opportunities to stretch our creativity, rehash old ideas, and collaborate on new ones. We've formed such a tightly knit group and gotten into a rhythm that we already know what our next step is going to be.

While this was unfortunately the last meetup I'll be able to personally organize and come to, the group is definitely not going away. Several of our members have stepped forward to donate their time and effort to keeping the meetups on schedule. And while I'll be away in Massachusetts, it's easy enough to book models online and keep myself involved in the group that means so much to me. It's been a privilege to work with everyone that comes to our meetups, and created more opportunities than I ever imagined.

From here, the new content I promised will start coming in, starting with some new equipment reviews, techniques and other ideas I want to share with everyone. School starts in just a few weeks, and lighting lessons will be coming in frequently as I pass on information that anyone interested in Strobist type photography will enjoy.

Also, as soon as some good, royalty free, non RIAA controlled music is made available, the video from meetup V will be posted as well. For now, we have a slideshow with pictures from all our members that attended.

Grosse Ile Airfield Video

Heres the long awaited (two days and change) video of our meetup! Check it out, and we'll see you at the next one.

Meetup IV success!

Meetup IV at the Grosse Ile Airfield was an absolute and stunning success, and we had a blast hanging out with some great photographers and models in a one of a kind location. Planes, snakes (and snakes ON planes), motorcycles, and oddly enough a hearse and casket were just some of the attractions this time. See everything we did and a slideshow after the jump.



Getting nearly unlimited access to a decommissioned military hangar is a great way to bring out some unique shots, and as always, this group did not disappoint. Everyone outdid themselves in their new work, and we're impressed with the variety of work getting put into the pool. We even had a celebrity appearance, Paul Mobley.

We tried a few new elements for this meetup, and everything came out great. We've gotten this down to an art and science, and we're ready to get right back to planning the next meetup in late August. Also, look for a video of the meetup, coming soon.

Meetup July 2009

We're looking forward to sunday with our hugely awesome meetup planned at the Grosse Ile Airfield. I'm immensely excited for some of things we have planned, this one is going to be beyond anything we've done yet. And don't worry, we're still looking at planning one more before the summer is over.

Apart from planning this meetup and getting ideas for the next one, It's been pretty busy with everything else going on. I'm in the process of packing up to move home, so I can pack up and move to Massachusetts at the end of August. I've had to put some of my personal work on hold to spend some time with my friends and family, so these meetups are really my only chance to work at all, apart from the occasional odd job that falls in my lap.

I'm also looking into producing a series of how-to videos for lighting, model interaction, and some cool DIY projects I've been working on. It was good getting the blog up and running, now we're going to kick it up a notch and make it even better.

Sneak peaks includes my latest project, a giant psuedo-softbox that I'll be using to shoot planes, cars and people this weekend, an editing how-to for photoshop, and our long awaited meetup video to make us look cool.

Strobist Ann Arbor Meetup IV

Thats right, we've had so many meetups I've had to go to Roman numerals. And as you can see by the lovely picture to the left, we have something that most meetup organizers only dream of; A de-commissioned airbase with a hangar for us to enjoy. We're also hearing some rumors of some equipment that will be available for props, pun intended.

We've been trying to get one of these for a while, but sometimes what we need is hidden in plain view. In this case, a member who has been to nearly every meetup just happened to know someone who happened to work at said hangar. He just hadn't seen the posts on flickr where we begged people to help us find one that would be open for use. More after the jump

The success of the last meetup is going to be hard to follow. We had a great location despite the mishaps, weather and other forces of nature, and we had a really great set of models, in addition to the types of models without legs. Or warm blood. But I think with what we have planned for this, it's going to be completely off the charts.

Scott, our snake handler is going to bring his menagerie for us again, and that's just the beginning. His custom bike shop Ghost Werkz (myspace) is also home to some great bikes that he'll bring in to be shot, as well as a couple friends who do some stunt riding.

We're working on how much leeway we have around the airfield, there's a whole bunch of stuff we want to offer that we just need to make sure is kosher with everyone involved. If this location works out well, I'm sure we'll want to come back...immediately.

In the meantime, don't forget to sign up now. No limits on models or photographers, we just need to know how many people to expect.