Specified sensor sizes among a few popular "professional" cameras
At one point, in the history of photography, Medium Format ruled the professional world. Cameras from Contax, Hasselblad, Rolei, Mamiya, Pentax, and others were king of the imaging world. The digital revolution was unkind to the ranks, however, with few companies able to make the leap. Read the rest of this entry »
I recently had the opportunity to shoot local Hip Hop artist, Paris London, in our Oakland studio. Paris’s music is a very cool blend of influences. He’s an Oakland rapper, but uses samples and beats that often draw on other genres, especially, to my ear, jazz. I thought we’d set up a shot that depicted visually what his music sounds like to me, a blend of smooth hip hop and jazz. Read the rest of this entry »
I recently had another chance to shoot with Kelly Armstrong, University of Arkansas football player and NFL hopeful. I’d always wanted to incorporate flames into a portrait and had a blast working on this one. We set up for the first shoot, without flames, on Alameda’s abandoned military base. The open space and runway was intended to give the shot the feel of travel or change, which doesn’t really read like I’d like. None the less, once giant fireballs are on the set, it’s important to pick a relatively remote and non-flammable location. Read the rest of this entry »
The color magenta, depending on your color settings
I was disturbed to read, on the back cover of a recent Newsweek, that the color magenta is no longer public property. “T-Mobile and the magenta color are registered trademarks of Deutsche Telekon AG,” that’s what I read at the bottom of a friendly looking ad featuring Whoopi Goldberg.
Holy Cow, I feel – perhaps – the way Native Americans must have felt as invaders claimed to own parcels of the great outdoors. Colors aren’t trademark-able, and aren’t own-able either! Should I rush to Trademark Black or White? Perhaps the Red at the top of this entry? Read the rest of this entry »
The San Francisco Bay, From Alameda
A 10-shot pano from a recent sunset over the San Francisco Bay (taken from the north tip of Alameda). Read the rest of this entry »
The effects of profiling
It’s been another mad scientist day in the studio and as a warning, this is a very nerdy entry! Left with no options, I recently upgraded our computer monitor and have been reworking the calibration of our capture-process-output workflow. No options were left, because my slightly-past-warrantee Apple Cinema Display died, and projects were already piled high on the virtual desk…
Apple, as a brief aside, was terrible. No customer support. The best offer I got from the Mac people was a “flat rate repair” for $499…. yikes. Is our little computer company outgrowing itself? Read the rest of this entry »
Polaroids, that is. I’m bringing them back, or at least taking advantage of the efforts the good people at FujiFilm are making to bring them back. Last year saw the end of the Polaroid company’s timeless instant film, but then was born from the ashes the FujiFilm Instax system.
I bought one recently, the Instax 200, for $40 and started churning out instant floppy prints like back in the day. Read the rest of this entry »
