PixelatedImage Blog

Because I’ve had more email than usual lately asking about my gear,
and because I just got a new Elinchrom Octabank I HAD to try out, I
thought I would present this in visual form. I am, afterall, a
photographer. (Albeit one with a terminal gear fetish)

Click on the image to em-biggen it.

Passport (1)
Greycard (2)
Bandana (3)
Powerbar (4)
Moleskine Notebook (5)
Lip Balm (6)
Pens (7)
Cell Phone with local SIM chip (8)
Leatherman Wave Tool (9)
Think Tank Pocket Rocket with 80GBs of CF cards (10)
Filson Pants - These are the best work pants ever. (11)
Hoodman Loupe. Once I get shooting this goes around my neck. It also makes me look all Francis-Ford-Coppola-esque. (12)

I use the other cargo pocket for my ball cap, because it gets in the way when I shoot, and a Nalgene bottle with water in it.

Because I’ve had more email than usual lately asking about my gear, and because I just got a new Elinchrom Octabank I HAD to try out, I thought I would present this in visual form. I am, afterall, a photographer. (Albeit one with a terminal gear fetish)

Click on the image to em-biggen it.

Storm Case Hardshells (1)
Think Tank Photo Airport Addicted (2)
Think Tank Photo Digital Holster 40 and 50 (not shown)
Think Tank Photo Various modular pouches (not shown)

MedJet Assist Membership (3)

2 Canon 5D Bodies (6)
Leica D-Lux3 used for snaps and scouting (4)
70-200/2.8L (7)
24-70/2.8L (11)
17-40/4.0L (9)
135/2.0L (10)
50/1.4 (not shown)
8 BP511 batteries (24)
2 chargers (23)

Canon 580EX, with Stofen OmniBounce and Honl Speedstrap (19)
Canon 430EX, with Stofen OmniBounce and Honl Speedstrap (19)
3 Pocket Wizard PLUS Transceivers (18)
2 Umbrella Hotshoe Adaptors (25)
1 42″ Umbrella (not shown)
1 Avenger light stand (not shown)
Bag of rechargable AA’s and charger (20)
Gitzo Basalt Tripod with Manfrotto Medium Ball Head (5)
Canon Anglefinder (17)
Lee Filter Sample set - gels for strobes (21)
Honl Snoots, short and long (not shown)
42″ 5-in-1 Lightdisc (15)

MacBook with Adobe Lightroom, Photoshop, etc., 2 AC cables in case one dies (14)
2 100gb Harddrives in Honl Gearwraps (22)
80GB Hyperdrive (not shown)
2 Lexar Professional CF Readers (16)
80GB of Lexar Professional CF Cards (16)
Pelican cases for assorted stuff, spare eyeglasses, etc. (12)
Circular Polarizer (13)
Petzl LED Headlamp (8)

In 200 days Matt Brandon, myself and up to 8 participants will meet in Delhi to begin the 2008 Lumen Dei Kashmir Workshop. If you’ve been looking to hone your skills, add to your portfolio, or just get out with your camera to one of the most beautiful places in the world, check this out. Still not convinced? How about living on a houseboat on Lake Dal in Srinagar, trekking (with your gear on ponies, than you very much) into the Himalaya to photograph the nomadic Gujjar shepherds, and shooting in the chaotic and exotic streets of Chandni Chowk in Old Delhi? Daily lessons, image reviews, and as much discussion about gear, technique and theory as you want?

September 15-27, 2008. $3200.00 from Delhi, INDIA.

This trip was the highlight of my year in 2007, so it’s no surprise I’m counting the days. More information HERE - we’re over half-full now, so if you’re interested now’s the time to get in touch.

I am very excited to see that Think Tank Photo has just announced a line of new pouches for lenses, bodies and accesories. Think Tank Skins are trim, unpadded, silent modular pouches, and I’ve been waiting for someone to make something like this for a while. I’m hoping to get a set soon after their release and will review them here. The posted release date is March 01, and more info on the line can be found HERE

Just before I left for Mongolia I made some decisions about making 2008 the year I dive more pro-actively into strobe lighting. In part because I now have a studio to shoot in while at home in Vancouver, and in part because I’m getting pickier about the look of my images and there is often just no way, without a strobe, to get seperation between my subject and the background when I am shooting in dark huts and gers. Also, I’m a sucker for carrying lots more gear; it makes me feel all manly-like.

So the day before I left I got a package of from David Honl - a couple of his SpeedStraps and two of his snoots, a short one and a longer one. In addition to these snoots, Honl also sells a gobo, a gel set, and coming very soon, a grid. Eventually I’ll have one of each, but I was so impressed with his gear I wanted to push you in that direction.

First, this stuff isn’t rocket science. Honl isn’t opening the door to the magical kingdom of Make Your Flash Shots Not Suck. You could get the same effects with gaffer tape and cardboard, some gels, and some black straws cut to length. What Honl gives you in this gear is the convenience and speed and durability of a product made by a professional who understands that you’re way more likely to set up a snooted or gridded hair light when it can be done quickly and easily.

Basically it works thusly. Buy a Speedstrap and put it onto your strobe. The velcro faces out, no glue, no tape, no sticky. Easy on, easy off. Now stick on any one of his snoots, gobo, or gels, and start shooting.

The snoots and gobo are made of the same cordura his Honl Gear Wraps are made of and I’m a huge fan of them, so they’re durable, and they fold flat in your bag, taking no space. They’re also flexible and there’s no reason a snoot can’t be mounted un-rolled and used as a gobo/flag. The inside of the snoots is reflective, so it can also serve double duty as a bounce card as well.

I used these a couple times in the dark gers (yurts, rount felt tenty thing) while shooting portraits in Mongolia, and the ability to very quickly add a snoot to make a very direct and confined hairlight from across the ger, made a number of shots possible that would have taken much more work otherwise.

Honl’s gear is well-made, well thought-out, and comes at a decent price for those of us who value our time and sanity too much to spend it on DIY projects involving glue, foil, tape, cardboard. When the grid becomes available I will be ordering a set of gels and the grid and it’ll become a permanent part of my location lighting kit. I can honestly say there’s nothing I dislike about the pieces of gear I tested - the only thing I wish Honl offered is a kit with a bit of a “buy one of everything and get a discount” special pricing. It’d be much easier just to pick up one kit for each strobe and be done with it. I have issues and like buying stuff to be pyschologically easier.

If you’re wanting to brush up on your off-camera strobe theory and practise, I can’t recommend a better place than The Strobist for that kind of information and inspiration. Furthermore, you must, must, must read Joe McNally’s The Moment It Clicks - it’ll get you a little more jazzed about using strobes more creatively.

Link to HonlPhoto HERE

YouTube Video showing the product -line HERE

I give this one a 5-Pixel Rating

I’m delayed leaving UlaanBaatar due to high winds. At this point I’ve got no idea when I am going to be home. But the broadband at the Chinggis Khaan Hotel is excellent, so I’ve posted a small gallery of selects on the PixelatedImage Portfolio site. Follow THIS LINK and then look for the Mongolia Gallery.

This assignment was for the World Vision Christmas Gift Catalogue, the images reflect the hope I see in the children and families I meet on these journeys, as well as the profound difference World Vision makes in their lives.

** I’ve also added a few images to the Travel Gallery on the Portfolio site - a few Mongolian shots, a few from China.

2008-02-25 Update.
I got in around 2am this morning. Getting back from Mongolia was an amusing lesson in How Simple Stuff Goes Wrong When Morons Are Involved. Helps to keep your sense of humour. Anyways, safe and sound and on the ground and now settling into a week of digging out from the pile, a couple solid days of post-production on Mongolia images - I’ve got a couple posts in the can for this week but if content’s light around here it’s because I’m emerging from a pile of details.

There are alot of photography books, all drawing from the same lexicon. The Moment It Clicks is different. I read, as many reviewers seem to have done, McNally’s book in one sitting. I was on my way to Mongolia via Beijing and had some time to kill. Others have commented on the conversational feel of the book; several hours flew by as Joe talked and I listened.

The Moment it Clicks is different in tone and style from other photography books. Joe’s no less articulate on the technical stuff when he chooses to be, it’s just that he doesn’t seem inclined to do so very often. In fact it feels, for all that you’ll learn about lighting and the life of a photographer, like he’s more interested in writing about the “why” than the “how.” Approaching it this way, the “how” goes alot further when he chooses to address it.

Joe’s book (see, I feel like I’m on a first-name basis now) wasn’t a revolutionary read for me, but it will be for some of you. It felt like sitting down on a river bank with your big brother as he talks about fishing, tells stories and unloads his passion on you. I’m guessing here, I haven’t got a big brother, much less one who would sit on a riverbank with me and fish. But I do have a friend who’s been an open book with me, left no secret hidden when I’ve asked, and has - in the course of conversation - said little things that I’ve been able to tuck away for later, gems that are laden with such wisdom and experience that they are invaluable - priceless. But for anyone who’s not been so fortunate, The Moment It Clicks might be that for you.

For me it was a reminder of elemental things that we sometimes forget in the gear-frenzied talk and the business-heavy planning and dreaming. McNally’s book is one of those rare influences that will re-calibrate your focus and your passion, remind you why you do this at all, encourage you to pursue the images you are most passionate about, and push you to work harder to get them.

Beyond this Joe doesn’t talk about anything so much as he talks about the one thing you feel he’s deeply in love with - Light. I finished the book feeling like Light is Joe’s mistress (and I mean this in the most respectful way - Joe is also very plainly in love with his wife Annie and his two daughters.) What I mean is that it doesn’t ever seem enough to Joe that a picture is merely about something, lines, gestures - he chases the quality of light as passionately as he does any other element in his images - perhaps more so and that chase results in really beautifully luminous images. Learning the little details about his love affair with light was, well, illuminating.

If you’ve got some spare time to sit down with Joe McNally, buy him a drink and give him the permission to babble away about his career, his photographs, and his affair with light, line, and gesture you’ll come out immeasurably enriched. The Moment It Clicks is that opportunity. For me I’ve come away with the certainty that 2008 is the year I put myself through light school again - learn to finesse it, feel more comfortable with my strobes. Right now I work with them reluctantly - in tension. I’d like to get to that point where McNally is, where his strobes and his lighting gear are familiar allies in creating compelling images, not just the barely-tolerated red-headed step-children (with apologies to red-headed step-children everywhere) of the studio.

Much has been written already about this book, and the first 25,000 copies sold out blindingly fast. Add my voice to the chorus of people recommending you put down the gear catalogues for a couple days and read something that will truly affect your craft.

See you when I get back and thaw out. Have always wanted to go to Mongolia, but doing it in February just never occurred to me!

If you’ve been living under your proverbial rock you might be forgiven if you don’t know who Joe McNally is, or that he’s written what is being hailed as “THE” photography book of 2008. The hype on this book is so universally enthusiastic that I pre-ordered it on Amazon and I NEVER pre-order. But it came today, just after I read on Joe’s blog that the first 25,000 are already sold.

I leave to photograph the mongol hordes on Thursday and Joe is coming with me - in book form - but the next two days as I wait to board the plane to Beijing and crack the spine, are going to be long, long days. But I’m thrilled to know that I’ve got Joe for company on the 12hr 40m flight.

I’ll be writing a review while I’m gone, or at very least while sitting on the plane on the way home and Joe’s tired of talking.

In the mean time - Joe’s website is HERE, his blog is HERE and you should read THIS

On April 05, 2008 Matt Brandon and I will be conducting a one day workshop for amateur and intermediate photographers looking to hone their skills.

Digital photography offers an unprecedented level of control as a photographer, but ya gotta know your stuff. This is “know your stuff” bootcamp. We’ll begin the day with a photoshoot and discuss technical and creative issues, then we’ll show you how to use Adobe Lightroom and dip into Photoshop. Lots of time for questions, too. Our goal is to cram your head full to bustin’ with know-how. Our class is limited to 25 so it’s first-come, first-served, but the small class size means you’ll have a fightin’ chance at working through the hard stuff with some personal attention.

9am to 4pm on April 5th, 2008
Location: PDI, 3407 S.31st St., Temple, TX
Cost is $99.00

For more information contact Matt Brandon at 254-231-1517 or images@thedigitaltrekker.com