It’s Saturday and we are out on location…in Manchester, NH. Vehicle loaded up with photographer, assistant, client, stylist to shoot a testimonial portrait. Nice work. nice family. All good. We arrive abut 40 minutes ahead of schedule (always budget time for the unforeseen, and it will, alas, remain unseen) so we stop at a CVS/Rite-Aid or one of the other ridiculously prolific ubiquitous mega-pharms to… use the restrooms. I couldn’t resist grabbing this shot of the now nearly obsolete, yet itself once prolific, pay phone. It tells its own story, no?

It was a great shoot. thanks to all including the willing subjects, and their herd of cats. (images to follow)

Zoom vs Prime.

While out shooting a CEO today, I processed this test frame of James just for grins and giggles. It has nothing to do with my ramblings today…

One thing that has been noticed recently… as the cameras get better and better… the weak links begin to show themselves. Some once faithful and trusty lenses are turning out to be a big ‘maybe not so much’. More and more I am reverting to the shooting style of days gone by: Prime glass. Back in the day, zoom lenses were always considered inferior when sharpness, contrast,  and color integrity were concerned. Then as auto focus became prevalent, and glass was made better, with all sorts of exotic coatings and three letter acronyms that few of us understood, zooms became acceptable. Some even were perceived to be better than the primes of the same focal length. But, alas, I am believing that is not true for the current crop of technology.

As digital cameras out resolve their earlier film counterparts, it becomes clear that ALL older glass is inadequate. I recently took full advantage of the technology of my cameras to calibrate the bodies to each lens for focus accuracy. Wow. What an amazing difference in auto focus ‘success rates’. Though all that resolution testing of each lens I own really made the poorer performers stand out… as they say in Australia, “Like Dog’s balls, mate!” And even the zoom glass which I previously would have hailed as magnificent is starting to be viewed as a bit shabby. Canon has been realizing this and slowly replacing all their zoom glass with new versions. Rumors about a new 24-70/2.8 aka a Series II are floating around. And not a moment too soon as this is the lens that is slowly falling out of favor with me. When I compare the results, on sharpness, with my primes in the same range, it is hard to go back. For me, in this age where mediocrity seems to be the new excellence for many, I am happy I still strive, and occasionally obtain, excellence…

Keep making those excellent primes dear Canon.

While looking for another photo in the archives, I stumbled upon this…

Proof that I do indeed allow time for the assistants to eat lunch on my shoots… of course multitasking is always beneficial.

Usually, when I am heading out on a shoot, I require at least one photographer’s assistant. This past Friday, I had a shoot bump up the schedule due to concerns about weather (and rightly so - it turned out great) but this left me without my usual suspects for assisting. So with the help of another professional photographer (Thanks Brian!) I found Charlie.

And much as someone who hires me needs to have a high level of trust in my abilities to not only make the shot happen, but to represent the various organizations involved with professionalism, so too is my relationship with an assistant. Charlie came highly recommended from a trusted source, and he exceeded my expectations.

So as a thank you, I will post these relatively embarrassing photographs of him on my blog. Thanks Charlie, a job well done.

Jack - The Peace Pup. Hopefully, never to get a mouth full o’ quills. A specific reference to my post of Tuesday.

No, he was not posed nor a PhotoShop creation. He is not a taxidermy wonder child either. It appears my little friend likes to consume clover, which was present in abundance due to my somewhat casual approach to modern lawn care. His presence does now offer a new incentive for more frequent maintenance of the clover, dandelion and yes, I guess there is some grass in the mix too. Jack the Peace Pup (whose photo will appear shortly) likes his late night solo strolls in the back two acres. Similarly, I like evenings uninterrupted by pricey late night visits to veterinarian emergency rooms. So in the interest of keeping the peace, I will be ever more diligent with my mowing. And it does pay off, as on Sunday night (post mowing mayhem) this lil’ guy was back out but in the neighbors yard, beyond the range of Peace Pup.

And here is the second, which actually is the first, of the series. James was there assisting, and being the lighting ‘lab rat’. As such he got snapped…

But this is Liz, who, as some of you may be aware, we are in the midst of a film documentary on. She is an amazing boxer, and a fabulous person… been through the worst of it and still smiles, big.

Keep your eye out for more photo sets from this series in progress.

Ok… so here it is. The concept. I have James shot, and one other. I will begin to shoot many more over the coming months… faces & hands. The two most exposed pieces of our bodies. The parts we see of each other every day. Why not…. I hope you enjoy, and I would love to hear any feedback.

I am starting a project, self assigned, to keep the creative juices flowing and fresh. Like a watermelon in July.

This image was taken on the first round, which was a test of concept, lighting, subjects… and is only 1/2 of each subject. You’ll see where this is going in the near future. First I need to figure it out. Meanwhile, here is James, Assistant Extraordinaire, standing in for the second shots. Nice hat. Note: the first one is shot already, but still in ‘post’.

The Exciting Life. Traveling for an Annual Report Photoshoot.

Just a quick note to show the devotion it takes to make sh*t happen. This snap was taken as we returned to our hotel @ 4:20 AM in Memphis. We had left @1:30 AM and apparently left the light on in our room. We arrived from Portland @ about 1:00PM Wednesday, checked in to the hotel, then off to the location to shoot one shift from 3 - 5pm… back to Hilton to have dinner, maybe a beer or two, and sleep. But only till 1AM. Did I mention that though we did return, as pictured here, at 4:20am, we were BACK at the location at 8AM for more shooting? Then off to New Orleans for the next segment… Sleep IS greatly overrated.