My Visit With DigitalRev, or, What's Kai Wong Really Like?

Earlier this month I traveled to Hong Kong to be a guest on DigitalRev's Pro Tog, Cheap Camera series. (Full video and final pic edits below.)

Which meant I also got to hang out with the DR team, including Lok, Alamby, Theo—and of course show frontman/international sex symbol/Man of Mystery Kai Wong.

And you are probably wondering right now: what's Kai really like? Read more »

2012 Year-End Post-a-Palooza

It's always a good idea to look back before heading forward. So as is tradition, we end 2012 with a rundown of your favorites (and mine) from the past year.

As is not tradition, and because of a special circumstance, this likely will not the last post of the year. Pics, posts and an explanation, below. Read more »

Don't Miss: Gregory Crewdson: Brief Encounters

©Gregory Crewdson

I posted about filmmaker Ben Shapiro's documentary, Brief Encounters, when it was first released. I have finally gotten a chance to see it and wanted to make sure as many of you as possible did, too.

For those of you not familiar with photographer Gregory Crewdson's work, he meticulously creates his photographs on an epic scale. For instance, that photo above is completely staged—and lit. As in, they lit the whole freakin' street scene.

Below, the film's trailer, an extended clip, and how to catch this worthwhile documentary in its cross-country, limited-release tour.

Read more »

AurumLight: Mixing Flash and Modeling Lights

One of my New Year's resolutions is to learn to be more creative and adventurous with mixing color and light. UK-based photographer Jarek Wieczorkiewicz's photograph of Jay Jessop does just that—using daylight flash, gelled flash and tungsten modeling lamps.

I love this kind of thing, and would like to evolve my lighting to the point to where I can have the confidence to almost never use just white light. Below, a full BTS video on how Jarek lit this image. Read more »

Jay P. Morgan on Feathering Grids

Using a KESSLER slider and a TAMRON lens and a DYNALITE flash and some NIK software, human Nascar* Jay P. Morgan will now give you some pretty darn good advice on grid spots.

But the real gem here is the feathering, which will almost always make your light more interesting.
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* I kid, Jay. Props to you. And also to LENS PRO TO GO. And GLIDECAM. And PHOTOFLEX. And VANGUARD. And AAZDEN. And ROSCO. And TRIPLE SCOOP MUSIC. And PHOTOGRAPHY TALK.

(Seriously, someone make this guy a jacket. This needs to happen.)

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On Assignment: Light That Isn't There

I'm as guilty as the next guy when it comes to over-the-top lighting. And why not? It's fun, it's cool and it can amp up an otherwise boring scene.

But that kinda stuff is not always necessarily the best choice. Often the best light is light that doesn't call attention to itself, but rather allows your camera to see a scene the way your eye would normally see it.

Take this biz portrait for example, which looks pretty natural but in fact is lit by three different sources. Read more »

New Book, Doc from Joey L are Both Pretty Awesome

I was just planning to write about Joey's new book today, when he and Cale Glendening up and dropped a free, high-def 43-minute documentary onto Vimeo. Both are inside.

Long story short, cancel any remaining cubicle productivity for the afternoon. Your work can wait. Read more »

Call Me Crazy: LS Lens Adapter Tube Concept

See this? This is an 80mm lens from my old Hasselblad film camera. It was built 50 years ago. The leaf shutter is built into the lens. It syncs at 1/500th of a second.

My current 80/2.8LS is a PhaseOne leaf-shutter lens. It syncs at 1/1600th. And it would be very possible—perhaps even simple—to manufacture an inexpensive tube to marry a PhaseOne LS lens to a Nikon or Canon DSLR.

Why, and how, inside. Read more »

Rock 'n Roll: Jaleel King

Anything worth accomplishing is going to include hurdles and barriers to overcome. You can treat them as the reasons you can't do something, or you can simply refuse to acknowledge that the barriers exist and plow through them.

This is Jaleel King, and this is how he rolls. Read more »

Brilliant DIY Underwater Strobe Triggering Rig

Oh, this is just genius.

JP Danko of blurMEDIA photography has created a captive, optical syncing system for his Pelican-encased SB-800s using cheap, off the shelf TOSLink fiber-optic cabling.

More vids, pics, etc at DIYPhotography.net.

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