On Assignment: Scout and a Shoot Pt. 1

Gonna do something a little different today.

If at all possible, before a job I try to get to the location a day or two in advance and do a quick scout. This helps me to think a little in the interim and to anticipate any problems I might have during the shoot. It also helps me to decide what gear to bring — i.e., not to overpack.

So let's do a quick scout together. In the next post, we'll walk through the shoot itself.

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One meter drawing, part one of this summers mammoth commission

Disney's Invisible Flashes

While visiting Disneyland Paris, long-time reader Paul Mason of Hartlepool, UK watched a Disney staff photographer work a room doing shots of kids with the characters.

He noticed a remote on the photographer's camera, but saw no flashes anywhere — until they went off.

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Summer

Phottix Mitros [Nikon] Review: The Real Deal

Big changes continue to ripple through the high-quality, 3rd-party flash industry this month. To wit: I've been testing a new $299 Phottix Mitros [Nikon] flash for several weeks now.

Here's the five-word short version: "Nikon, you should be very afraid."

Why? Because this solid, Manual/TTL/CLS/HSS flash delivers all of the punch and practically all of the functionality of your flagsship Nikon SB-910 for about half the price. With twice the warranty.

Put differently: as soon as word gets out, the days of the high profit margin OEM speedlights are numbered.

(More words, getting out, below…)

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Self portrait

QA: Lighting a 1,300-Person Group Shot [Magnum Opus]

Reader Albert Yee asks, via Twitter:

Ever shoot a group of 1,300 before? Trying to wrap my head around a possible assignment: Teachers and staff in a basketball arena.

1,300? 1,300. Hmm.

Lighting 1,300 people indoors is a Herculean task, no matter how you slice it. Can you do it? Do you wanna do it? How would you charge for it? Lotsa questions.

Let's jump in.

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Scanned

Acceptance speech

Dance Gavin Dance upcoming record

http://facebook.com/DanceGavinDance

Putting the pen on top of the drawing

On Assignment: Evoking Expression

Tuesday was reasonably tense. I photographed a breakup, a drug intervention, a high school cafeteria fight and a few other iffy situations.

All told, an enjoyable afternoon. And it will probably change the way I approach my portraiture going forward.

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Small and yellow

Turn your back on me

Blotted

I'm green with envy

Musical chairs

Removed pencil

Uncleaned lines

This is supposed to end up as Dance Gavin Dance's next record sleeve

On Assignment: Cookie Ride

Having lit a full-sun outdoor group shot with a Fuji X100s and a couple speedlights, I had been itching to see what a couple Einstein e640 monoblocs would do.

Way too much, as it turns out. The leaf shutter of the X100s and the insane t.1 times of the Einsteins are a match made in heaven. We had to dial them down quite a bit for this shot of a local food truck scooter operator...

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Ink and pencil

leaving on vacation tomorrow just finishing off a commission piece. Will have to work all over the vacation though, things really have been piling up

Things we saw at the museum

Big problems for early man

Mobile office

LumoPro LP180 Speedlight: Full Walk-Thru

The $199 LumoPro LP180 quad-sync, all-manual speedlight has arrived. I have been shooting with a couple pre-production units for several months now, so have had ample time to formulate some thoughts.

Short version: The LP180 is rock-solid, with a near-perfect feature set for lighting photographers. It's the first flash that I actually prefer over a Nikon SB-800.

Long version: below.

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the last door

Pendant

Browsing copy

My submission to the browsing copy project, check them all out

the inner lobster

Thanks all the birthday gratulations I got yesterday..

Readers Shoot Back: Sergey Zaytsev

You can easily kill an afternoon scanning the excellent work that readers upload to the site's Flickr group. Every now and then one will really stop you in your tracks, as did photographer Sergey Zaytsev's homage to Georgia's Queen Tamar, seen above. Very cool that it was done with more creativity than dollars (or lari, I should say?) and with a strong historical inspiration, to boot.

Would it surprise you to find this was done with a Nikon D300s and a few bare Cactus KF36 Vivitar 285 knockoffs? 'Cause that's what he used.

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Gulf Photo Plus PopUP is Coming to London

One of the coolest things about Dubai is coming to London this fall. No, not the tower—although it would make a nice little spear for London's gherkin, dontcha think?

Nope, even cooler: Gulf Photo Plus is coming to London on Sept. 28th and 29th. I'll be there. So will Zack and McNally. And Heisler. It's gonna be a nonstop firehose of a weekend.

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Artist and artist assistant early neolithic age