News /me often reads :: Photography
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Last Update: October 06, 2008 10:11:26 PM (UTC)
October 06, 2008
Amy
My post-marathon road food of choice for the drive home
amy(k) posted a photo:
Posted by nobody@flickr.com (amy(k)) @ October 06, 2008 09:37:07 PM
Uff da!
amy(k) posted a photo:
Every year I buy the shirt at the Brooks booth. This is by far my favorite. The back says, "yeah sure, you betcha." I will keep it away from any Sarah Palin wannabes.
Posted by nobody@flickr.com (amy(k)) @ October 06, 2008 08:12:44 PM
Another piece by Sammi
amy(k) posted a photo:
Funny how my eyes are bigger than Scott's.
Posted by nobody@flickr.com (amy(k)) @ October 06, 2008 08:04:04 PM
Greatest freebie ever
amy(k) posted a photo:
Runners, you know what I'm talking about.
Posted by nobody@flickr.com (amy(k)) @ October 06, 2008 08:02:43 PM
A happier and less painful us
amy(k) posted a photo:
Scott does not have braces or gunk on his teeth. Bad cameraphone.
Posted by nobody@flickr.com (amy(k)) @ October 06, 2008 05:03:54 PM
Me pre-race in my fancy little running skirt
amy(k) posted a photo:
I did feel better after seeing a few more women wearing them (including the woman behind me in this picture), though I got a lot of stares. Dude, it was comfortable. Don't judge.
Posted by nobody@flickr.com (amy(k)) @ October 06, 2008 05:03:44 PM
Scott pre-race
amy(k) posted a photo:
Posted by nobody@flickr.com (amy(k)) @ October 06, 2008 05:03:32 PM
Nikonians
The Nikonians On Location #36 - Wireless Darkness
Nikonian podcaster Martin Joergensen experimenting with wireless flash in the darkness. Just for fun, nothing big, and no great results - creatively at least.
Click here to download Nikonians On Location Podcast #36 (NPC-OL-2008-10-06; 22:46; 21MB, MP3 format).
Video supplement available here (NPC-OLV-2008-10-06; 4:39; flash format).
Posted by podcasts@nikonians.org (www.nikonians.org) @ October 06, 2008 05:00:00 PM
October 05, 2008
Sainath
The fire within!!??
Does the title sound too deep? :p
Posted by @ October 05, 2008 07:29:50 PM
RonN
Dead Horse State Park, near Moab, Utah
Dead Horse Point, Dead Horse State Park, near Moab, Utah
It was very cloudy and stormy this morning, but just a small bit of sun broke through the thick clouds and illuminated the tree I had in my foreground! It wasn’t the amazing sunrise I had envisioned in my head, but still pretty nice.
Posted by Ron @ October 05, 2008 07:11:49 PM
Nikonians
Nikonians News Flash #103
Tune in for your weekly dose of Nikonians News Flash! Chock full of news from your friendly neighborhood Nikonians Community!
Download Nikonians News Flash #103 (NPC-NF-2008-10-05.mp3; 5:40; 5.2MB; MP3 format)
Posted by podcasts@nikonians.org (www.nikonians.org) @ October 05, 2008 12:43:58 PM
PhotoTips
Shopping for Camera Gear: Is It Safe to Buy Online?
The Internet is all the rage these days. Everything is online it seems. Heck, you're reading this online, now aren't you? So if you're in the market for buying a new camera, lens or something else, the question is: is it safe to buy it online?....
Posted by Bob Johnson, Earthbound Light @ October 05, 2008 07:00:00 AM
RonN
Green River Overlook, Canyonlands National Park, Utah
Green River Overlook, Canyonlands National Park, near Moab, Utah.
Between flying and driving, it seemed to take a long time to get here - but now we are in Moab, Utah .
This was about an hour ago, it has been storming and raining hard all day, but it is still great to be back out and immersed in nature and photography in such a beautiful part of the world!
Posted by Ron @ October 05, 2008 02:47:50 AM
October 04, 2008
Amy
Swag bag
amy(k) posted a photo:
This was right before the iPhone froze up for a few minutes. Scott got it working again, but I have no idea what was going on.
Posted by nobody@flickr.com (amy(k)) @ October 04, 2008 11:20:46 PM
Alberto Salazar
amy(k) posted a photo:
Posted by nobody@flickr.com (amy(k)) @ October 04, 2008 09:49:37 PM
MobileMe Photo: iPhone
amy(k) posted a photo:
Posted by nobody@flickr.com (amy(k)) @ October 04, 2008 05:22:15 PM
Dude.
amy(k) posted a photo:
Street view on Google of Scott's parents' place. Sorry, this is almost
too much information.
Posted by nobody@flickr.com (amy(k)) @ October 04, 2008 03:56:46 AM
October 03, 2008
Amy
Pat and Chuck's magnificent deck
amy(k) posted a photo:
Posted by nobody@flickr.com (amy(k)) @ October 03, 2008 02:50:26 PM
Sainath
A Shining Star
Am back :-) But this time, it wont be just birds :-). Shall spam this journal with my experiments. I need to get a pro account in flickr.
Posted by @ October 03, 2008 07:02:41 AM
Amy
MobileMe Photo: iPhone
amy(k) posted a photo:
Posted by nobody@flickr.com (amy(k)) @ October 03, 2008 01:16:32 AM
October 02, 2008
Amy
What's his name
amy(k) posted a photo:
Peetie? Petey? Archibald Merriweather III?
Sieloffs' new dog, a Maltese Shih-Tzu mix.
Posted by nobody@flickr.com (amy(k)) @ October 02, 2008 05:36:00 PM
What's his name
amy(k) posted a photo:
Peetie? Petey? Archibald Merriweather III?
Sieloffs' new dog, a Maltese Shih-Tzu mix.
Posted by nobody@flickr.com (amy(k)) @ October 02, 2008 05:35:17 PM
What's his name
amy(k) posted a photo:
Peetie? Petey? Archibald Merriweather III?
Sieloffs' new dog, a Maltese Shih-Tzu mix.
Posted by nobody@flickr.com (amy(k)) @ October 02, 2008 05:34:29 PM
What's his name
amy(k) posted a photo:
Peetie? Petey? Archibald Merriweather III?
Sieloffs' new dog, a Maltese Shih-Tzu mix.
Posted by nobody@flickr.com (amy(k)) @ October 02, 2008 05:33:49 PM
Nikonians
ID#76: The Image Doctors
Jason and Rick offer tips on shooting fall colors, and discuss manual focus lens techniques for digital users.
Looking for an Image Doctors Episode? Check the show archives here.
Download The Image Doctors #76 (NPC-ID-2008-10-02.m4a; 56:08; 17.2MB; MP4 format)
Posted by podcasts@nikonians.org (www.nikonians.org) @ October 02, 2008 02:43:40 PM
September 30, 2008
Amy
View fri the third floor
amy(k) posted a photo:
Posted by nobody@flickr.com (amy(k)) @ September 30, 2008 05:57:50 PM
September 29, 2008
Nikonians
The Nikonians On Location #35 - Photokina
A different and much more product centered On Location podcast with impressions from Photokina in Germany and interviews with some interesting people about some interesting products.
Click here to download Nikonians On Location Podcast #35 (NPC-OL-2008-09-29.mp3 31.5MB, MP3 format). Video supplement available here (NPC-OLV-2008-09-29; 6:30; flash format).
Posted by podcasts@nikonians.org (www.nikonians.org) @ September 29, 2008 07:51:19 PM
Amy
Canned
amy(k) posted a photo:
There were about seven pounds of tomatoes from the garden. We wanted to can them before going out of town.
There will be much more canning before fall is over.
Posted by nobody@flickr.com (amy(k)) @ September 29, 2008 12:55:55 AM
Dutch Apple Pie
amy(k) posted a photo:
Cooks Illustrated recipe.
If this thing isn't the greatest apple pie I have ever eaten, I'm not making this one again.
Posted by nobody@flickr.com (amy(k)) @ September 29, 2008 12:55:36 AM
September 28, 2008
RonN
Off to Utah!
- Dead Horse State Park, Utah
This is an older photo, but I wanted to do a quick post for a couple of reasons. First, just to say I may not post anything for a few days because we will be traveling. But more importantly, I just did a long over due update to my blog software. Last time I updated the software, I had a lot of problems, so I wanted to so a quick test before leaving the office. All seems well!
Posted by Ron @ September 28, 2008 04:15:10 PM
Nikonians
Nikonians News Flash #102
Tune in for your weekly dose of Nikonians News Flash! Chock full of news from your friendly neighborhood Nikonians Community!
Download Nikonians News Flash #102 (NPC-NF-2008-09-28.mp3; 6:10; 5.7MB; MP3 format)
Posted by podcasts@nikonians.org (www.nikonians.org) @ September 28, 2008 09:00:00 AM
PhotoTips
A Use for Old Slide Mounts
Back in the age of film photography, 35mm slides were everywhere. Whether they were in stacked in yellow Kodak boxes or something else, most photographers had lots of slides. Slides are a lot scarcer now that digital has taken over though. But if you have an old slide mount lying around still, go dig it out. You can use it to help you improve your photographic vision....
Posted by Bob Johnson, Earthbound Light @ September 28, 2008 07:00:00 AM
September 26, 2008
PocketWizard
20080925_3144
It’s day four at Photokina in Cologne, Germany and ground hog syndrome has set-in with two more days to go. Photokina, for the uninitiated, is the world’s largest photo show. There is more photo gear then anyone could comprehend. There is no chance that one person could see the entire show which spans a dozen massive halls.
For PocketWizard, it is our first time exhibiting by ourselves and it’s been amazing interacting with photographers around the world, both current users and those that have only heard about us. More then 150,000 visitors come to the show and a good chunk of them have stopped by the PocketWizard booth.
After three days, the music in the neighboring booth is forever imbedded into our heads, as it the voice of our own Lorenzo from the product demo video on constant rotation only to be interrupted by his live demonstrations. For the rest of the show it will be an endurance test until we finally get on the plane to head home. Hopefully we can get out of the booth for more then two minutes to check out some of the other stuff around the show. –Dave Schmidt
Posted by PocketWizard Blogger @ September 26, 2008 01:33:16 PM
September 25, 2008
RonN
Sunset Magazine
Sunset Magazine cover, October, 2008.
This just arrived in the mail a few minutes ago, and I gotta admit, it is a really cool to have the cover of a magazine like Sunset!
We had two Zion images being considered as finalist for this cover, the other one was this image of Temple of Sinawava in Zion. That photo ended up being used as a full page in this months issue of Via Magazine - so now both photos are happy!
Here are more Zion National Park photos.
Posted by Ron @ September 25, 2008 11:22:31 PM
September 24, 2008
RonN
Travel Plans
Another Grizzly Bear from last week in Denali National Park, Alaska.
We have taken a few short, 3 to 4 day trips over the last 5 months, but by in large, we have been home working in the office. After two years with a pretty heavy travel schedule in which we spent at least 200 nights away from home, this office time was very needed! We have been able to get caught up, and work on a number of proactive marketing opportunities that we never seem to have time to pursue.
Now I’m looking forward to taking a trip and completely engrossing myself into photography. October is a perfect time to travel - it is wet and dark here in Alaska, fall colors will be gone, but snow has yet to arrive. On the other hand, it is a perfect time in the Southwest - warm days and cool nights, fall colors and few people. The best thing going for Alaska in October is the aurora borealis, but we are still at the bottom of the activity cycle, so like last year, good lights are not nearly as likely.
So where are we going? Good question - we aren’t even sure! We will fly to Palm Springs and go from there. We have some things scheduled in Las Vegas near the end of the month, but before then, I think we will head to Southern Utah - you can’t go wrong there. It is really tempting to return to Zion, as we had such a fun time there last year, but we need new coverage. We are leaning towards Moab - I have spent a couple of days there in the past, but really haven’t scratched the surface of that red rock area. Two weeks there could be really fun and productive. Wherever we go - I should have plenty of new blog material!
Posted by Ron @ September 24, 2008 05:13:35 PM
September 23, 2008
RonN
Fall Reflections
Fall tundra colors reflecting in a pond, Denali National Park, Alaska.
I don’t know if this really “works”, but I kinda like it. At first, I focused on the surface of the lake, but I didn’t care for the results. I then tried focusing on the reflected image and not the surface - this created more of a colorful, abstract image.
Posted by Ron @ September 23, 2008 05:14:05 PM
September 22, 2008
Akira
ZOOMING OUT
Temple at Livermore, CAPosted by Akira (noreply@blogger.com) @ September 22, 2008 10:33:58 PM
Nikonians
The Nikonians On Location #34 - Forest Adventure
Some thoughts about the model shoot in the forest by the stream. We had four models dressed up as a bird-like lady, a witch, a troll and an elf.
Click here to download Nikonians On Location Podcast #34 (NPC-OL-2008-09-22; 20:56; 19.5MB, MP3 format).
Video supplement available here (NPC-OLV-2008-09-22; 6:05; flash format).
Posted by podcasts@nikonians.org (www.nikonians.org) @ September 22, 2008 06:22:37 PM
RonN
Hiking in Denali National Park
Hiking in Denali National Park, Alaska.
Fall has to be the best time for hiking in Denali - not only is it beautiful, but there aren’t any mosquitoes!
Posted by Ron @ September 22, 2008 04:03:38 PM
September 21, 2008
PhotoTips
When Perceptual Rendering Intent isn't Really Perceptual
In the world of color management, not all profiles are created equal. Simply put, some of them are smarter than others. When it comes to understanding rendering intent, not all of them know what you mean if you select Perceptual intent....
Posted by Bob Johnson, Earthbound Light @ September 21, 2008 07:00:00 AM
September 19, 2008
RonN
Red Fox
Red Fox, Denali National Park, Alaska.
Janine says fox are “my animal” because I always seem to see them. I do have unusually good success with spotting these cool guys. If you are going to play favorites, fox seem like as good of an animal as any because they really are beautiful animals that are fun to watch.
This guy was working the road, I assume, looking for road kill hares. Just as he began to pass me, he stoppped ever so briefly and looked my way, just long enough to capture this image.
Posted by Ron @ September 19, 2008 03:38:18 PM
Akira
KACHORI
I still faintly remember the scene; my great aunt seated on the kitchen floor, expertly filling the stuffing into the crust and then flattening them into neat little kachoris, all while maintaining a steady stream of tales from here and there. Although the kachori left such a strong memory, I don't remember having it again......
One of the reasons I enjoy cooking is for the sense of accomplishment that it provides. I go about with a smug smile on my face, after trying out a dish that is not regularly made or after attempting a recipe that requires skill. (of course if they turn out well) Praise from grandma is an added motivation.
Thus I embarked on a kachori making adventure this afternoon. My recipe, as always, was a mash-up of multiple recipes with my own little variations. I like this site because the recipes are accompanied by a video, always helpful when you are not sure about "what should be the consistency of the batter" or "how dry should the filling be", etc. Needless to say I peeped in here before I got down to making my kachoris.
My kachoris turned out tasty but slightly chewy...wonder why!...was it because the crust should have been thinner? or was it because the temperature of the oil while frying was not right? Any guesses?
I served my kachoris with some homemade tangy tamarind-date chutney.
Posted by Akira (noreply@blogger.com) @ September 19, 2008 12:28:15 AM
September 18, 2008
Nikonians
ID#75: The Image Doctors
Black and White extravaganza! Rick and Jason dedicate this entire episode to processing digital images into beautiful black & white photographs, and review a new plug-in, Nik Silver Efex Pro. This is an enhanced (MP4) podcast with embedded images. Read the show notes if you prefer to download the MP3 version of this episode.
Looking for an Image Doctors Episode? Check the show archives here.
Download The Image Doctors #75 (NPC-ID-2008-09-18.m4a; 59:12; 16.3MB; MP4 format)
Posted by podcasts@nikonians.org (www.nikonians.org) @ September 18, 2008 05:00:00 AM
September 17, 2008
RonN
Bear Tundra
A couple of Grizzly Bears feeding on the tundra, Denali National Park, Alaska.
The tundra is sure beautiful in autumn! The fall colors were past in most of Denali - this was by far the most colorful area left in the Park, and it had a couple of Grizzlies! Actually, one of them is the same Grizzly Bear in yesterday’s post. This was about 10 minutes later, and a few hundred meters further away - they couldn’t have wandered into a better spot.
Posted by Ron @ September 17, 2008 11:58:28 PM
PocketWizard
PocketWizard Blogger
After rewarding Ryan with his Plus II’s, we wanted to get to know him a little better. So, we gave Ryan (RyanAllan.com) a ring and here’s what he had to say:
Q: Here we are talking to Ryan Allan, who’s won the first PocketWizard video contest. Hi Ryan, how are you doing?
A: I’m doing great, and thanks for the PocketWizard.
Q: Great. Hope you use them in good health, as they say. Tell us a little bit about where you’re located and what kind of photography you do and some of the basic details.
A: I’m located in Southern California, I mainly shoot skateboard and skateboarding lifestyle, which basically means I go out and hop a lot of fences and climb around a lot of schoolyards, ditches and back alleys for a living and I originally am from Toronto, Canada and after a few years of struggling trying to make it as a skateboard photographer out there I realized that you need to be where the action is. So I moved to California and here I am. Shooting full-time. (read the rest after the jump)
Q: Well good for you. That’s great. I guess that’s also a little warmer down there where you are, also.
A: Yeah, you get about five months a year to shoot out in Toronto, and it’s a full year here.
Q: That’s right. Let’s talk a little bit about your video that won the contest. It’s absolutely fantastic quality.
A: Thank you.
Q: Tell us a little bit about how you came up with the idea for it. Did you storyboard it? Did you plan it out? That kind of thing. Give us some insight into the creative process.
A: Okay. Well, it’s kind of a funny story. A friend of mine, Joe Crollister, the videographer that filmed it, we were working together throughout the week just on, well when you do skateboard photography you always have a video guy there with you to document the tricks and such. Throughout the week we were talking about, you know “We should really do like a little behind the scenes video.” He’s a photographer as well, a great photographer. And so we pulled up to this one location and the kid that was skating had a little time before he was ready to try his really difficult tricks, so I just said to Joe “Hey, do you want to just want to try and shoot it here?”
And Joe is a real champion with all the HD cameras and dollies and everything, and I really did just set up and he ran around with the Dolly, flopping it down, shooting a couple of seconds and then moving to the next location, dropping it down. It really only took about fifteen minutes to film. The whole idea behind it was that I just wanted to have something that was a little more arty than the usual “Follow me with a handicam and I’ll talk about what I’m doing.” Eventually I do want to film one of those where I’m doing more describing what’s going on, but that was pretty much it. We just, you know, said “Hey, let’s do it,” flopped down the dolly and just started filming and it really took maybe fifteen-twenty minutes. He went home and edited it in about twenty more minutes and I had it that night in hi-res in my e-mail.
Q: That’s fantastic. So it was kind of more of a documentary approach than a lot of preplanning.
A: Yeah. I just set up and shot. I slowed my whole process down a little bit because usually when I’m shooting skateboarding I have to be really quick because a lot of times we’re not really supposed to be where we are. But this place was, you know, it was completely open, it’s an old field out in inland California. The property owner doesn’t care. So we totally had lots of time and I just slowed myself down a little bit. We took our time. Fifteen minutes, probably. Twenty, tops. That was it.
Q: That’s fantastic. Tell us a little bit more about what you just said, and that was “a lot of times we’re in places where we’re not supposed to be.”
A: Well, the funny thing is about skateboarding, when I grew up in Canada, we would get kicked out of, you know, storefronts and things like that for skateboarding. And the police would always so “Oh, go to the schoolyards, go skate there where you’re not bothering anybody.” And here, which is, you know, I naturally go to the schoolyards. There’s a lot of open area, pavement, all that, the police are not happy about it whatsoever that we’re there. I guess it’s just a sheer number of skateboarders here. There’s just so many and the kids see all the videos on the Internet and they all want to go to the exact same spots, so if you have a schoolyard that happens to have a very good handrail or a set of stairs for skateboarding, every kid has seen it on YouTube and he’s going there, too.
So in a single day, a schoolyard can have thousands of kids coming through and it’s just not good, I guess, for property and things like that.
Q: So you’re talking, in fact, of the actual skateboarding, not so much as the photographer is in–
A: Well, the funny thing is that I’ve also been kicked out because of heightened security these days people are very wary of someone setting up all this weird camera equipment and believe the way we set up our skateboards doesn’t really look strange. I’ve got tripod bags that, you know, God knows what’s actually in there when you see people walking around in back alleys with those things. There is definitely a concern as to what I’m doing more than what the skaters are doing more and more these days.
Q: It occurs to me that very much your style or your specialty is a sports specialty. And requires an extraordinary amount of timing. How do you develop that sense of timing and how do you apply it to your style?
A: Well, coming from a skateboard background myself, I’ve skateboarded as long as I can remember and I’m 34 now, you kind of learn at what point the trick looks good and at what point a single image describes what the person is doing in the photo. Sometimes you’ll have a photographer that maybe is new to the scene and he’ll shoot a trick a different way than I would and it might not necessarily tell the story as well. That just comes from years and years of seeing these tricks go down and knowing what exact point is going to tell the story.
There are tricks that come out that are new tricks that I look at and I’m like “How am I supposed to tell this in a single image?” And often times I have to resort to, like, a sequence because it’s …(inaudible) sequential image, which is like nine or ten frames. But for the most part I love to try and tell it with a single image because it’s stronger. You’ve just got to know enough about the sport to know when the action is frozen and still tells the story.
Q: Well your work certainly comes through as a very, very exact moment that does tell the story and your work is very strong and beautiful. A gorgeous portfolio.
A: Thank you.
Q: When do you decide that you need flash or artificial lighting and how do you go about visualizing that?
A: I would say for skateboarding it’s mostly 90 to 95% of the time I need lighting. It’s mainly because A) You need to freeze the action and B) you want the action to pop out in the picture. And a lot of times we’re in alleyways where it’s not nice light and also in southern California the sun is constantly beating down on us so we have to separate the guy from the blue sky in the background. So 95% of the time it’s flash.
Q: Gotcha. Gotcha. Which I guess brings us to the question of PocketWizards. How do they come into play and how have you been using them and what have then enabled you to do?
A: Well PocketWizards are what I would consider the only option because a lot of what I do is placing flashes behind walls, around corners and I’m oftentimes fairly far away from them. So I really can’t rely on line of sight or radio. A lot of times I’m in cities and there’s train lines and a million different frequencies flying all over the place. I’ve found the only guys that really cut through all of that are the PocketWizards. With skateboarding you can’t have cords running around everywhere because the guy’s going to run them over, so you really, really need wireless.
Q: Gotcha. Have you found the PocketWizards to be reliable?
A: Oh, yeah. 100%. Rarely do I have anything and usually when I do it’s me putting it on the wrong channel and not noticing. [laughter].
Q: That happens to older photographers, mostly.
A: The thing is, I’m grabbing my gear out of my camera bag so fast– like I said, a lot of times I’ve got to be quick– And as you’re pulling it out you’re dragging it across something and it just switches the channel on you slightly. I usually figure it out pretty quickly when there’s not a highlight on my guy and I can’t figure out why. It’s usually just, you know, human error.
Q: This contest that we recently ran was co-sponsored along with David Hobby’s very well-known site, Strobist.com. Tell us a little bit about what you’re learned from that site and how it’s affected your photography.
A: David’s great. He is amazing for just unloading information, not like the old style where learning something and keeping it and hiding it. He’s wonderful for sharing everything and the community is huge. Just yesterday I was shooting a gallery owner, sorry, a gallery curator in San Diego and my main strobe unit died on me. I use an old Norman 200b for when I’m shooting people and stuff like that because they’re really like tanks, but it died on me. So I had to resort of my Strobist memory and pull out my little FD’s, and light a situation with those and I’m very thankful that I had the Strobist website to go back in my memory and remember how people were doing things. Because it’s been a long time since I’ve just lit people with just little FD800’s, but it worked out great and David and the Strobist website are such a wealth of information.
And for skateboard photographers, I get a lot of e-mails about “Hey, I’d love to do what you’re doing, how do I go about it?” The first site I give them is Strobist, because the information there applies to exactly how we light skateboarding as well. A lot of cross-lighting and a lot of small flashes and that’s because we can’t carry around too much gear. So he really is helping out so many people with his site and it’s a great, great resource.
Q: I think you hit the nail on the head when you said it’s a new era of information sharing and people don’t keep secrets to themselves and David is certainly one of those people that has contributed to that movement.
A: Yeah, a lot of people as digital started coming out got scared because the learning curve is ridiculously fast. I went to college when Photoshop 1 had just been released and we were shooting 4×5 everything and I noticed that as people learned their digital tricks they were really hiding them and, you know, people’s lighting styles were very kept. And nowadays I think it really progresses the business because everyone is sharing their information and having to develop new styles and new techniques as we go. And I think the sharing of information is great and everyone is really progressing and it’s really pushing it. It’s not taking away like a lot of people might think. It really just makes you think “If I’m going to stand out in this really talented crowd, I’m going to have to go one step further.”
Q: Right. Did you study photography formally?
A: Yeah, I took a commercial photography course in Sheridan College in Toronto. I’m really bad with dates in my life, but I think it was in the early 90’s, in ’92, ’93.
Q: Right.
A: It was a fantastic course. I learned a lot and right from there I went for shooting editorially for a skateboard and snowboard magazine.
Q: How else do you market your work other than for the skateboarding magazines?
A: Well, I just started to like really push myself to get outside of the skateboard industry. The skateboard industry is so small and what we call “Bro” that everyone knows everyone and marketing’s almost unnecessary because I know all the people that are running everything and now that I’m branching out further and I’m shooting more editorial and commercial work that’s non-skateboarding, I’m only now just looking at how to market myself with web and print mailers and there’s just so much information that I’m really a little bit overwhelmed at the moment and trying to collect myself in the next year and make a leap out into the commercial world.
Q: Well, good for you.
A: Thank you, thank you. Yeah. Marketing nowadays is a crazy thing. I mean, I’ve always kind of been a monitor of youth culture and how companies kind of attach themselves to it, and I’m not one of those people trying to attach myself to the hip thing and figure out how to get people to pay attention to me, so it’s very, very interesting and it’s an exciting time, definitely.
Q: Your website is beautiful, by the way. I’ve shown it around at the office and everyone is so impressed with it. Beautiful design and treatment.
A: Thank you, it’s funny how that worked out. I had a friend who is a flash web designer and him and I had been talking for a few months about how we were going to do my website. And just as it came time for me to really commit to doing it he got hired at a staff position up in Toronto and I was on my own. So I sat down one night and I thought “How can I pull off what I wanted to do in Flash,” but do it in a way that I could handle because I know very little about web design. And so I just basically made a bunch of JPEGs that I liked the way they looked and had them clickable and that’s why the site’s so simple. It had to be simple. Because I needed to understand it.
Q: That’s fantastic. I thought that was designed by some rocket scientist. That’s amazing.
A: Thank you. I just went for what I know. Make your images as unobstructive as possible and I thought “Well, a book might be the way to do that,” you know? You just flip through the pages and I couldn’t do a flash website that was all flash so I just went very, very simple and clean.
Q: Good for you. What are you going to do with your new PocketWizards?
A: Well, I’m developing a new home studio in true Strobist style in my garage and I want to keep those in good condition in my garage with my home studio and use my other ones that I had previously out in the field. Because they get beat up and I don’t want to beat up the nice new ones. So I’m going to use those here for my home studio and also, being kind of a clumsy guy, I tend to– If I bring my pocket wizards out of my bag and put them in my home studio, next time I go out and shoot skateboarding I’ll reach into my bag and realize they’re not there. So I have to keep things very separate so it actually is a huge blessing to get those because I really need them for my garage setup.
Q: That’s fantastic. Well, we wish you the best of luck in both studio and location work. And it’s been a pleasure talking with you today.
A: You too.
Q: We’ve been talking to Ryan Allan who has won the Pocket Wizard monthly contest with a beautiful, beautiful video, and thank you very much, Ryan.
A: Thank you.
Posted by PocketWizard Blogger @ September 17, 2008 01:35:30 PM
RonN
Grizzly Bear
Grizzly Bear, Denali National Park, Alaska.
Even though I was “safely” by my vehicle, I must admit, as I watched through the view finder and saw this guy turn and head down the hill towards us, my heart started racing. My camera tells me he was 35 meters away, but when he filled the viewfinder, it seemed closer! I do kind of like the perspective of looking up at him from below
We just made it home after a short but wonderful trip to Denali. This has been a good summer for me and bear photography. It wasn’t by plan, but it has sure been fun. Here are more Grizzly Bear photos.
Posted by Ron @ September 17, 2008 01:19:10 AM
September 16, 2008
PocketWizard
PocketWizard Blogger
Ron Nabity, and his wife Laura, have a great habit when they go on vacation. At least once during each trip, they make a dramatic picture of themselves against a scenic background. Now Ron, being a professional portrait and wedding photographer from Sacramento, CA knows a lot more about photography than your average tourista. Also, he’s a regular viewer of David Hobby’s Strobist.com site. So, put two and two together and let’s go to the videotape, and see how he did it. Fun!
Posted by PocketWizard Blogger @ September 16, 2008 07:54:35 PM
RonN
Lynx !
Wild Lynx, Denali National Park, Alaska.
Wow, what a trip this has been! But the highlight was this lynx - I have been trying unsuccessfully for many, many years to capture an image of a lynx, but a couple of hours ago that all changed.
It is late and I’m tired, so I will write more when I get back to Seward - but I had to share my excitement!
Posted by Ron @ September 16, 2008 06:59:13 AM
September 15, 2008
PocketWizard
© Jesse Rosten
Yes, Ladies and Gentlemen, It’s True
A photographer was seen walking down the street with a backpack. Clamped on to the backpack were various pipes, more clamps and an umbrella. Into the umbrella there was a small strobe, triggered by a PocketWizard. Jesse Rosten, the photographer, had cobbled the idea together just to win the 2nd monthly PW video contest. And he won!
© Jesse Rosten
Posted by PocketWizard Blogger @ September 15, 2008 07:38:55 PM
Nikonians
On Location gone fishin'
Literally... Martin has been out fishing these past few days and must regretfully announce that he has concentrated more on scaly creatures than on Nikonians (with good luck he says). Because of this the podcast On Location is cancelled this week, but will be back in full force next Monday.
Posted by podcasts@nikonians.org (www.nikonians.org) @ September 15, 2008 12:57:48 PM
September 14, 2008
PhotoTips
Transform Your World (Or Warp It, If You Prefer)
I mentioned last week that I wasn't a fan of software that claims to correct the distortions caused by shooting with a fisheye lens. It just seems that it defeats the entire point. But sometimes even a well composed "pure" fisheye shot can benefit from a judicious tweak via software. Not to remove any evidence of what kind of lens was used or anything, but just to transform it slightly to stop some trees from falling over perhaps. Or, as Adobe Photoshop calls it, "warp" it a tad....
Posted by Bob Johnson, Earthbound Light @ September 14, 2008 07:00:00 AM
September 13, 2008
RonN
Steller Sea Lions
Steller Sea Lions.
Yesterday we hit the road to spend a few days in Denali. It may be a few days until I can post again. Hopefully my next post will be of a wolverine! I think it is much more likely the next post will be a moose or hare!
Posted by Ron @ September 13, 2008 04:01:45 PM
September 12, 2008
RonN
Aialik Glacier
Yesterday (Thursday) at Aialik Glacier, Kenai Fjords National Park, Alaska.
There are a lot of great things about living in Seward, but number one has to be how close we are to Aialik Bay and Kenai Fjords National Park. The Travel Channel included this area when it did a two hour special on the 10 greatest wonders of the world. Not the U.S., the world! And I’m just a short boat ride away for one of them.
I traveled so much last year, I never made the short trip to the Bay, and so far I hadn’t made it this year either - it should be a crime to live so close and not go at least once a year. It is kind of like being a kid living in Anaheim and not going to Disneyland, except for a nature loving photographer, Aialik Bay is 100 times better then Disneyland! Granted, I know some kids that might disagree.
I have photos with and without the tour boat, but I felt by including a the 150 passenger vessel, would give the viewer a real feel of for the amazing size of this tidewater glacier. I often wait and visit on a sunny day - but the wonderful thing about a glacier on a cloudy, stormy day is it helps emphasise the wonderful blues. On a sunny day, our eyes hardly see the blue. More Kenai Fjords National Park photos.
Posted by Ron @ September 12, 2008 12:00:26 PM
September 11, 2008
RonN
Stormy Weather
Clouds in the mountains of the Chugach National Forest surrounding Seward, Alaska. This was last (Wednesday) night.
This is the first time I have seen the tops of the mountains in more than a week. I figure, if we are going to have stormy weather, it might as well be really stormy! And it has - we have been getting almost an inch of rain a day, with almost 2 inches falling on Saturday. I noticed yesterday that the airport was flooded.
This weather isn’t that unusual for this time of year, September is our wettest month. On average we receive 10.36 inches for the month of September.
It has made it easy to be in the office!
Posted by Ron @ September 11, 2008 12:00:40 PM
September 10, 2008
RonN
Camera Plates and L Brackets
Pictured is a quick release clamp on the top of a BH-55 Ballhead.
Trying to attach your camera onto the threaded post you find on top of many tripods, is a slow, awkward process that will have you leaving your tripod in the car. By using a quick release clamp on your ballhead (pictured above), makes attaching your camera, or lens a quick and easy process. All you need is the corresponding metal camera plate mounted to the bottom of your camera, or any lenses that may have a tripod mount.
The plate is a very simple device, it is basically a flat piece of metal with dove-tails on the edges. This plate slides into the clamp, and allows a quick secure connection between camera and tripod ballhead.
Now in the days of film, my camera was light enough that a simple flat plate on the bottom of my camera was all I used. If I wanted to shot in the vertical position, I would cantilever the camera off to the side as pictured below.
Today, it seems that many digital cameras are extra heavy, and having the camera off to the side isn’t very stable. Now I use a L bracket, which effectively puts a plate on two sides of the camera. This allows you to mount the camera in either a horizontal or vertical position, and still keep the camera centered over the ball head.
There is an additional benefit with a L bracket. With an ordinary plate, even though you moved the camera just a short distance when going from vertical to horizontal, it often meant recomposing the scene. With a L bracket, the lens is kept in the same position – if the scene allows it, you can quickly photograph both a vertical and horizontal without recomposing. Of course, most scenes are not that simple. If I don’t have to recompose when moving from horizontal to vertical, I’m probably not working my compositions hard enough.
Again, these specialized pieces of equipment aren’t cheap – I imagine the market for such items is fairly small. I have always purchased my plates from Really Right Stuff, and a typical plate costs about $55, and a L bracket runs about $180. Really Right Stuff does a wonderful job with their L plates. They are perfectly designed for each camera giving you full access to any buttons or compartments on your camera - nothing is blocked.
Previous Lesson: Ballheads
Next Lesson:
Posted by Ron @ September 10, 2008 12:00:59 PM
September 09, 2008
PocketWizard
PocketWizard Blogger
© Vincent LaForet
Every once and a while a photographer comes along who boggles the mind in terms of artistic ability, commercial success and industry accomplishments. Vincent Laforet is one of them, and if you go to Vincent LaForet’s blog you’ll see what we’re talking about. No grass growing under his feet, as mom used to say.
Vincent recently traipsed off to Beijing, along with a few thousand other photographers, to cover the Olympics. If you think any shooter snuck off to a unique viewpoint, take a look at the results. How did we do it before PocketWizard? Or, imagine if photographers were like those of yesteryear and didn’t play well with others. Thankfully, times have changed.
via Strobist, where David remarks:
Finally, in case you haven’t seen it yet: Vincent Laforet takes a video stroll through Pocket Wizard heaven at the finish line of the 100m sprint at the Olympics. (Patrick Smith, if you are reading this from a public computer, you might want to put a pillow over your lap before you watch it…)
Posted by PocketWizard Blogger @ September 09, 2008 05:32:56 PM
RonN
Bridge to Nowhere Photo
Bridge to Nowhere photo, Ketchikan, Alaska.
Last summer while I was in Ketchikan, I hiked up the hill above town to get a better perspective of the destination for the “Bridge to Nowhere”. I never did anything with this photo, once the funding was lost and the project fell out of the news, the image had little value. Now, thanks to recent news events, this image just may have a life after all.
This is looking from Ketchikan across the Tongass Narrows to Gravina Island, the destination of the bridge. The little bit of development you do see on Gravina Island is the Ketchikan Airport, currently serviced by a ferry. It seems like a small gap for such an expensive bridge, but this is the same channel the cruise ships use to enter town, so I imagine it would have had to be a very tall bridge.
Posted by Ron @ September 09, 2008 05:08:38 PM
September 08, 2008
Nikonians
The Nikonians On Location #33 - Location Scouting II
A walk in the forest - with a purpose. Looking for a good location for an upcoming shoot with several photographers and models and an adventure theme.
Click here to download Nikonians On Location Podcast #33 (NPC-OL-2008-09-08; 17:59; 8.4MB, MP3 format).
Video supplement available here (NPC-OLV-2008-09-08; 3:15; flash format).