Monthly Archives: May 2010

People who have seen my work before know that I love to experiment with stitching.  And HDR.  And split-toning.  So why not all three at once?  For this image, I used a Canon 16-35mm lens.  The final image is actually a stitch of 6 images taken while swinging the camera in a rainbow arc to create the severe distortion (pausing for each exposure, of course).  Trinity Church stands in stark contrast to its  much taller lower Manhattan neighbors.  Its also surprisingly peaceful, despite its proximity to Wall Street; just entering the courtyard felt insulating.  I worked a few blocks away in the late ’90s, but never set foot inside until this year.

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I don’t think I’d seem Lem since college.  And I have only seen Sam once in the last 15 years.  But this weekend the three of us got together in frigid Minneapolis.  A gathering of the fellas to talk about…anything and everything.  Both Lem and Sam were grad students whom I met as a freshman at Northwestern.  They were great role models then and are even better ones now.  Seeing Lem’s family (his wife was actually my freshman Chemistry TA) was especially fun, and you can see from the pics that none of his 3 kids is especially camera shy.

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We had the chance to see Raul Midòn perform at the San Francisco Palace of Fine Arts Theater recently.  He is incredible.  Take a look at this video to see how fantastic a performer he is.  I also had never attended the SF Jazz concert series.  Joshua Redman at Grace Cathedral (!!!), Bobby McFerrin (who amazed me in concert when I was 11 and I would have loved to see again), Maceo Parker, Booker T…you get it…the lineup is ridiculous.  Damn!  Just saw that the Bela Fleck show is sold out!  Anybody got extras??

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  • Akintayo Adewole

    I have Raul’s “State of Mind” album pretty much memorized. I used to rock Sade asleep to it every night… it calmed her right down and it became our thing. Hands down an amazing guitarist and vocalist. Wish I was there!

This weekend I attended a lighting workshop with Canon speedliter Syl Arena.  Actually it was much more a seminar than a workshop in that I took exactly zero pictures.  But it was great for reinforcing some of the stuff that I’d picked up about lighting over the past couple of years.  My kit doesnt come close to scratching the surface of what Syl carries in his gearbag.  Probably never will.   But that didn’t stop me from coming home and trying to rig up some relatively elaborate (with my normal lighting scheme as the baseline) setup to get a shot that I had been thinking about since seeing reading Joe McNally’s book The Hot Shoe Diaries.  Both Syl and McNally are lighting savants, and if I ever thought either would come within 100 mouseclicks of my blog, I wouldn’t dare attach his name to this attempt in any way.  The image didn’t live up to the lofty goals I had for it when it was just in my head.  But this is what you get when you have two speedlites with no wireless trigger and have to bounce a pre-flash signal around a corner and down a hallway with the help of reflectors, mirrors, and foamcore.   I definitely had it coming.

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  • Anera Lys

    You captured me at “reflectors, mirrors and foamcore.” The dramatic lighting works for me. I’m still debating with myself who is after who. Sleeping with the lights on tonight for sure.

    BTW, thanks for coming to the Speedliter’s Intensive.

    I’ve always wanted to be called a “savant”… without the obligatory “idiot” in front of it. Thx for that too.

  • Harsh Patel

    Very nice! Now you have to post the setup shot for your signal bounce … reflectors, mirrors and foamcore? That’s commitment. 😉

  • Caren

    Should NOT have read this before going to bed. Please don’t have nightmares, please don’t have nightmares, please don’t … !!!