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A Round Up of Miscellanea
July 23rd, 2009
I nearly neglected y’all for two days in a row. Sorry ’bout that. Sharon’s on vacation with friends in Florida and I’m using the time to catch up on creative things I’ve been meaning to get a jump on. So, plenty of distractions. Where does the time go? But I’ve got some tidbits I’ve been meaning to get to you and this is as good a time as any to do it. The image above is from Saturday’s Worldwide Photowalk – we had a great time and our models were such great sports. Posing for 50 people is hard! We did our walk like the rest of the world, we just ended up at the beach with models and truck-full of lighting. I’d feel guilty about this but it seems everyone learned something and had a good time, so I’m unrepentant 
The above shot is Anna, lit with a large Lastolite diffusion panel – she’s looking right at it in this one.
Within The Frame Podcast Series Renewed
I’m please to announce that I’ve recorded my 10th episode of the Within The Frame Podcast and while that was slated to be the last episode it’s been popular enough that Peachpit TV has renewed it for another 10 episodes. The podcasts are a critique-based series based on principles found in the book. If you haven’t seen them, you can find them on iTunes by searching for Within The Frame in podcasts, or going to the WTF podcast page on the Peachpit TV site HERE.
APC, and Lumen Dei
I’ve been raving about APC – Artistic Photo Canvas, link HERE – for a short while now and in that short while I’ve become a total convert. There is something about seeing your work big and I’ve been getting some really large canvases of some of my favourite work. In part in anticipation of a gallery show I’m dreaming of, in part as preparation to begin selling larger copies of my work. The service and quality I’ve experienced at APC has been second to none. I’m also pleased to say they’ve agreed to sponsor our Lumen Dei trip and are giving participants a chance to print a piece of their work with after the trip. If you want to see your images with the impact that size and quality can bring, I suggest you treat yourself to a really big canvas from APC – I can’t stop staring at mine – mesmerizing.
Elinchrom Quadra
I saw this on Scott Kelby’s blog a week or two ago. If I write too much about it I’ll want one. Small 400 watt-second strobes with small battery pack. Ideal for location work needing something more than speedlights. With adaptors it’ll fit all my current Elinchrom softboxes. Did I mention it was small? How small? Check out the post on Scott’s blog and watch the short video. Oh man, these are cool.
Lite Panels
One of my big issues on assignment is dealing with natural lighting conditions in which a catchlight in the eyes is hard to get. Yes, I can rig up flashes and umbrellas but that takes time, is fussy, can force me to a tighter aperture than I want, and can spook the animals making a fussy job even more difficult. Today I found a potential solution and I can’t wait to try it. It’s from Lite Panels, and it’s a small panel of AA-powered, variable brightness, daylight balanced LEDs. They need to be in close – not a problem in my work – and they won’t replace strobes for jobs needing more power, but for assignment work and street portraiture, I can’t WAIT to try this out. It’s small enough to fit in a Think Tank Skins pouch on my belt and can be held easily in one hand while shooting. The light is soft and even, and comes with a couple warming gels – 1/2 CTO and full CTO, I think. No softbox needed. And it’ll mount on a hotshoe or a monopod if needed. How cool is that? The one I got is the MicroPro and you can find more info HERE.
HyperMac
After the gong-show of my last assignment I began to think through some power issues for more remote work. Camera batteries are easy to purchase and pack fully-charged, but laptop batteries, especially the new 13″ MacBook Pro without a user-replaceable battery for which I could otherwise carry spares – that requires a different solution. Shy of going to a full-blown solar solution, I found this: The HyperMac (link HERE). It comes in 4 sizes and can provide up to an additional 33 hours of power for the 13″ laptop. It’s not tiny, especially the big 222 watt-hour version, but it’s pretty small for what it is, and a great solution to the need for more power away from reliable AC sources. I ordered the 100 Watt-hour version.
My Travel Schedule
I leave for Thailand on July 31, gone until August 14. I’d love to be able to post something occassionally, but I’m taking this one as a relaxing trip – shooting images for the third book and spending a day or two just doing nothing. So blogging won’t be high on the list. But I’ll be thinking of you, promise I’m then back for a while – a couple weeks – before leaving for India for the Lumen Dei workshop with Matt Brandon and Ami Vitale between Sept 09 and 28th. Then I’m home for 2 days before dragging my jet-lagged butt to Photoshop World in Vegas. Would love to see you there!
Happy Thursday, folks.
Third book?! You’re on a roll! What’s the subject of your third book, or is it too soon to tell? :p
I live in Thailand! Where are you going? It’s an amazing country.
All those flights! I get tired just thinking of all the travel you do. Enjoy your rest in Thailand.
Great shots! I was just joking when I said on my blog that you “cheated.”
Congrats on the podcast renewal – I’ve tried to jump into the flickr group and offer up some opinions and constructive feedback; some people are VERY defensive of their images. Don’t make them public if you don’t want me to say something!
I’ve used MPIX as my Gallery print maker lately – I did a few through costco, but found them a hastle and not much cheaper. It looks like APC does some bigger prints sizes too – which is probably great with your new 5DMKII – did you get any smaller res. files done big? Do you use something like Genuine fractals to upscale or are you recklessly printing downscale from recommended sample size?
RC posted a pick of the Quadra on Twitter… I told him he should have warned me it was NSFW cuz that’s stuff is so nice it’s light-porn.
Speaking of – very sweet light panels – Vistek carries them here in Ottawa but WOW $500+ buys me babysitting for half a month.
You’re on a Mac frenzy of late, I’ve said it before; it’s all that big book money going to your mac habit. Maybe you’ll get a drobopro next.
TTFN
We are definitely tracking on the Lite Panels. I just ordered one too!
I love the Quadra Ranger, just started playing with the two light kit.
And if you don’t need to add light, but just want catch-lights where there were none, there’s always Photoshop.
The litepanels are expensive, but handy. I’m looking at them for portable, small-quarters lighting of video portraits. Up close a 12×12 would be a decently soft light.
ah next time you head to Thailand give me a shout and I could probably hook you up luxery-style
My wife use to be the vice president for supplements at the Nation media group so its banyan tree all the way
If not i got a spare condo there
Those Lite Panels look great.
Book yourself a stopover in Taipei on the way to or from Thailand. I’ll show you some cool places to shoot (and eat authentic Chinese food).
It looks to me like Anna is benefitting from a large fill reflector on the right and the nice light on her face is coming through the parasol. The hot light on the dress indicates the lack of a diffuser on that side. I just like to deconstruct lighting scenarios.
Just so you you know your podcasts still don’t play on a “pod”. Yours is still the only podcast I subscribe to that I have to watch in iTunes because it won’t play on my iPod Touch.
Glad to hear you will be making more though because I certainly learn a lot from hearing about how you look at images. Thanks again for all that you are willing to share!
Good news! Your last podcast (like your very first one) works on my iPod. Looks like something got resolved which is great because I prefer being able to watch the podcasts when I am away from the computer I spend all day at!