(File straight out of the camera, RAW converted to Jpeg only. Nikon D4, 100ISO, Nikon 70-200F2.8VR2@112mm.  1/250th@F11.  Single Dynalite M1000 set to full power shot into the seamless triggered by magic eye. Single Dynalite M1000x set to 1/2 power shot through  a 40″x8″ strip softbox to camera left fired by a Pocket Wizard TT5.  A Photogenic 750 watt light shot through a 40″x20″ softbox to camera right triggered by magic eye.)

They called me, and the Indystar advertising department, because they needed an Ad for the Nikon Expo Weekend during the days of May 18th and 19th at their downtown and Carmel locations.  That’s obviously not me, in fact his name is Corey and he works at Roberts.  I did shoot the Ad though, which is why I was called. (to tie up that story).   I’d be lieing if I said I’ve never been seen like that at an event; in fact I’m probably regularly carrying more stuff than Corey is in that photo.  The other morning I was out at the speedway photographing one of our writers for marketing purposes and another photographer snapped a photo of me wearing my speed belt with an umbrella slid into it like I was wearing a sword.  I’m sure I looked like a fool, and honestly I felt like one because even though I had the umbrella I didn’t even use it for the portraits, or the “hero shot” of our Indystar writer in front of the IMS Pagoda in Pit Row.  There were lots of other things wrong with the shoot that prevented the light modifier usage, and the fact that there was no crowd at the Speedway bothered me; but I digress.

(The Final Ad on the front of the four page piece in Sunday’s Indystar Newspaper)

That’s what you can see in the paper, and the photos will go various other places such as online ads, as well as zone newspaper related ads.  All shot using the new Nikon D4 and all the shots shown here are straight out of the camera.  You can tell because of the slightly vignetted edges thanks to the hood of the 70-200.  We also had lots of other goodies in the studio including another D4 (as shown above, and below), as well as one of the new Nikon D800‘s.

(File straight out of the camera, RAW converted to Jpeg only. Nikon D4, 100ISO, Nikon 70-200F2.8VR2@112mm.  1/250th@F11.  Single Dynalite M1000 set to full power shot into the seamless triggered by magic eye. Single Dynalite M1000x set to 1/2 power shot through  a 40″x8″ strip softbox to camera left fired by a Pocket Wizard TT5.  A Photogenic 750 watt light shot through a 40″x20″ softbox to camera right triggered by magic eye.)

Lot of neat stuff to play with.  I hadn’t had my hands on a D800 to that point, and I’ll tell you what; it’s a beauty.  Not sure if I could handle 75mb RAW files out of the camera from EVERY shot that I take that’s not in the studio, but for in the studio it’s glorious.  The 9 shots that I took with it equated to about 700mb.  Normally I like big files but I can’t imagine shooting an event with something like that.  That being said we did use the new Nikon D800 in the studio, and not just as a prop.  The guys over at Robert’s shot this behind the scenes video.  It was shot using the Nikon D800 using the Nikon 24F1.4 N lens, and the Nikon J1 using the 10-100mm Lens.  Videographetizers were Nick (Roberts Mail order Ninja) and Derek (Roberts Web Guru/Tortured Artist).  I didn’t include many shots from the shoot in the actual video because the punchline is; they were all Corey here on white doing whatever it is he’s seen doing in the video.  The light setup never changed, and neither did the camera setup.  Sometimes that’s the best part of shooting in the studio on white.  I’m not sure how the D800 and J1 were set up, but there were a few shots underexposed in the video despite being a bit shaky at times too.  Either way, hope you enjoy it.  Special thanks to Mary Jane Olinger from Roberts for Art Direction, Indystar for keeping me employed full time and allowing me to do projects like this in the studio while at work, and FreePlay Music for the cheesy Jazz piece playing on top.

And there you have it.  Probably the closest I’ll ever come to actually shooting an Ad for someone like Nikon, but that’s ok.  Love their gear, which is why I own Nikon gear when Canon gear is provided for me at work.  If you’re not a believer, this upcoming weekend Nikon will be at Roberts in Carmel AND at Roberts downtown.  You should check it out, as they will have reps on hand, and they will have bunches of everything to play with and get your mits on.  Nothing smells or feels like new gear (probably all the drool from people handling it so much, but that’s shouldn’t stop you from checking it out).  Speaking of getting excited about gear.  I leave you with a test shot/BTS shot of Nick from the shoot because I think it’s awesome…. More Soon.

Also for more information regarding Expo Days, Call them at 1-800-726-5544.  Or Just check Roberts Website.

(Nikon D4, 100ISO, Nikon 70-200F2.8VR2@112mm.  1/250th@F11.  Single Dynalite M1000 set to full power shot into the seamless triggered by magic eye. Single Dynalite M1000x set to 1/2 power shot through  a 40″x8″ strip softbox to camera left fired by a Pocket Wizard TT5.  A Photogenic 750 watt light shot through a 40″x20″ softbox to camera right triggered by magic eye.)

(Nikon D3s, 1000ISO, Nikon 60mmF2.8N Macro.  1/250th@F5.6)

That’s them.  Well sort of.  That was a shot I took as an example of a portrait without having to actually see someone’s face.  When you don’t have the face in there it could be anybody, and I feel as though in terms of a shot that encompasses a group of Photo100 students; symbolically it works just fine.  The subject’s name is Michael from class and I shot this photo while we were all outside shooting trees and sky’s and things.   Each class I made it a habit to have some sort of camera with me so as I could shoot examples, to demonstrate usage, or just to be able to flat out look things up when I needed a little nudge myself.  Whether it was the Fuji X-Pro 1, the Canon 5D Mark II, the Nikon D3, D3s or D4… I always had something there.  I varied what camera it was in the hopes that some of them would look a little deeper and realize that it wasn’t about what camera you used, but the way you took the pictures in the first place.  I felt as though this was an important fact to grasp as some students came into the class with Point and shoots; and others came in with DSLR cameras.

(“Clover all Over” by Willa W.)

Overall the class was exactly as described by one student who unfortunately didn’t stay with us the entire semester.  He described it as “Wonderfully Intense”, due to the nature of the technical, and sometimes wildly left field ways I found to explain things to the class as they might as well have been all rolled into one greasy ball of knowledge being passed around between everybody.  Honestly I found the class refreshing, and it’s not because I was able to step back from the light modifiers, or the setups and just think about the process of snapping a picture.  The class really made me slow down and think about the WHY to the picture taking or making.  Why is the Aperture F2.8? Not the depth of field, but where did the number come from?  Things like that.  Really the class challenged me to think as much as I attempted to challenge them to think, and that’s really what made the class wonderful for me.  Also keep in mind that we really never addressed constructed lighting more than using a reflector, or a white wall to bounce an on camera flash off of (if the camera was even capable of turning the flash away from straight away).  The class was solely about the art and feeling of making a picture; as well as looking for light that was already there.

(“Rivera”, by Joe C)

Teaching a class like this is incredibly difficult because as many people would agree; photography is subjective.  I may like something that an editor doesn’t.  Or vice versa in fact.  Sometimes you get things where nobody is happy, or where the project just isn’t going according to plan either on account of a subject, the weather or just a memory card that you forgot to clean off.  So many of the students never cleaned off their memory cards out of fear they would lose their photos and I understand that fear, but I assured them that their computer was in fact a relatively safe stronghold to keep the treasures that they created with what is now an exceptionally complex piece of equipment known as a camera.  By the end of the class, the students were without fear of putting the camera to their eyes and snapping away; as well as they were without fear of failure or of criticism (even though sometimes critique got pretty hairy when necessary in order to make them better in their ability to take photos of the subjects of their choosing.)  For these students, the camera should no longer be as mysterious a device filled with crazy numbers that don’t follow the rules of math; but should now be a tool to an insight for others as to how they see the world.

(“Sun Setting on the Farm” by Crystal C.)

I was really pleased in the end with their final portfolios.  Everybody made informed choices and edited the images to be very visually appealing which.  In the end I can’t really think of anything better for a Non Majors class who in most honesty will probably to take photos for the fun of it as opposed to pursue a professional career out of it.  I don’t have enough space in the blog to put up one from everybody, but the few that I’ve chosen should give you an idea as to how the class did.  It’s a pretty good feeling to know that I have influenced at least a few people and how they view the world in their photography.  Despite the fact that my old photo professor is probably rolling in his grave at the fact that I am responsible for shaping peoples minds; I’m looking forward to the possibility of doing so again sometime in the future.  Speaking of being an influence in the future.  It’s worth noting that I will now be one of the judges in the upcoming Roberts Camera Photography Contests.  Read the rules, submit some work, possibly win!  Either way, there will be a critique of the 5 top images after each contest to talk about where things could have been done better, or worse.  Sounds like a solid learning experience right?  I think so.  I’m going to learn a lot….. More Soon.

(Canon EOS5D Mark II, 400ISO, Canon EF70-20F2.8IS@70mm.  1/80th@F3.5.  Single Canon 580EX Speedlight set to 1/16th shot through a 32″ umbrella first by a Pocket Wizard Plus II transceiver, from a Pocket Wizard Plus II Transceiver on the camera’s Hot shoe.)

The photo above was taken at the IU Health North Campus here in Indianapolis.  Sandra here was nominated because of all of her thankless work that shes does in the surgery recovery center.  Her voice would be the first one you hear coming out of surgery, as she is usually there wen patients regain consciousness for the first time.  It’s an unbelievably important job that she does, that in my opinion goes incredibly unnoticed in society as I personally had no idea they had someone specifically for that purpose.  Of course on the opposite end of the spectrum in terms of jobs that the public knows exist:

(Canon 5D Mark II, 100ISO, Canon EF70-200F2.8IS@135mm.  1/160th@F2.8.  Single Canon 580EX Speedlight on a stand shot through a 32″ Umbrella set to 1/8th power to above camera right.  Single 580EX Speedlight set to 1/2 power in the hallways outside the conference room to illuminate the frosted glass background.  Both lights triggered by Pocket Wizard Plus II’s with a Pocket Wizard Plus II in the Camera hot shoe.)

The shot above is of Susan Moore from the IU School of Nursing located here in Indy on IUPUI’s campus.  She was named the educator of the year this year, and along with the others completely deserved it.  She is in charge of of shaping the minds of the future nurses into being the best around.  I happen to know that IU health maintains it’s focus on preeminence, and Susan winning the Educator of the year award proves IU’s resolve at that goal.  My good friends Sam Riche (who needs to update his website) and Matt Dial now work at IU Health coming from the Indystar.  Preeminence was described to me by Sam as being the best, or at the forefront of what one does.  The dictionary simply defines it as having Superiority.  Sam is the man behind the video or still camera, or is in the directors chair with his team proving preeminence by telling stories of success in the IU Health network.  Telling the stories of these nurses, as well as things as simple as letting a premature baby sleep on the mother or fathers chest for comfort, and how it increases the likelihood of growth and proper maturation significantly more quickly than in an incubator.  Sam is a photojournalist that now tells these stories of helping people and he loves every minute of it.  Matt from what I understand has been more on the development side of things to this point, but is transitioning into working with Sam more on presentation and online integration of these projects Sam and his team have been working on; as well as shooting some of these things himself, as Matt is also a capable journalist.  I digress.  Several IU Health nurses were featured in this event, and with IU’s goal of Preeminence I wasn’t surprised.  Despite the fact that I am a Purdue alumni, I have to admit that the IU Health system is definitely in the top percentile.

(Nikon D4, 1600ISO, Nikon 70-200VR2@105mm. 1/200th@F2.8)

Unfortunately, the closest I come to telling the amazing story of these Nurses is by documenting them receiving their awards.  While I am there to meet them earlier, and I even meet their nominators, I don’t ever really get to spend enough time photographing or hearing the amazing journeys that they have taken to deserve such awards as they receive in the luncheon from earlier today.  The photo above is of the keynote speaker this year, Anne Ryder.  Anne was the last person to interview Mother Theresa before she died, and did so by volunteering as a nurse in Calcutta after her request for an interview was denied.  She had several wonderful stories of now nurses had impacted her over the course of her life, and even though some of those stories were intensely personal, and not always good; she saw the immense benefits of the experience provided by each.

(Nikon D4, 6400ISO, Nikon 70-200F2.8VR2@140mm.  1/80th@F2.8 Nikon SB900 Speedlight on the camera’s hot shoe pointed up with the bounce card up set to -0.3 for just a tiny bit of fill.)

That woman with the look of deer in headlights, utter shock and excitement is Beth Tharp from Anderson Indiana.  The Man next to her is Morris Bradley from the Star, who brought her flowers and escorted her to the stage when she won.  She was this years Nurse of the Year as decided by the Indiana Nursing Society, and the Indianapolis Star.  She gave a wonderful thank you speech and also received a beautiful necklace from Moyer Fine jewelers here in Indianapolis.  Honestly it’s probably only a fraction of the thanks that a lot of these nurses (and the many unnamed) deserve.  The photos that I took of each of the winners (mostly portraits) are considered part of their prize, and for that I am humbled knowing what these nurses have done to impact so many lives.  Each will receive a DVD with the video and photos that I created for the upcoming Salute to Nurses special section, and in our online Nursing Magazine.  Now I wait until next year, when I am allowed again a brief brush with these great nurses whose selfless acts have achieved them an incredible recognition.  More Soon.

(Photo Courtesy of Fujifilm’s Website)

Enter the Fuji XPro-1.  Mirrorless camera’s have been kind of the new hotness lately, and with good reason.  They are relatively small unobtrusive cameras that put out a very similar image quality to that of a DSLR.  Fuji took it one step in a design direction by giving their Mirrorless camera’s a retro Rangefinder feel very similar to that of an old Leica of the film days.  Fuji isn’t the only one in this Morrorless Craze though as Nikon has the Nikon 1 Series, Olympus has the E-PL Series.  There are others, but those are the major Players here.  Rumor has it that Canon is working on a Mirrorless camera line as well (The G1X does not count); but after their somewhat failed launch of the 1DX thus far and the reported Light leaks in the 5D Mark III (along with press release), maybe they should work on releasing a Digital Holga.  Joking.

(Fuji XPro-1, 3200ISO, 35F1.4.  1/60th@F4)

The guys over at Roberts here in Indy knew that I’d been toying around with the idea of a mirrorless Camera so they said they would loan me the XPro-1 last weekend in exchange for reviewing it for them.  Seemed reasonable to me.  I had the camera Body, the 35mm and 18mm lenses and a battery charger.  No manual, no instruction, no pre conception other than the fact that everybody thought this camera was epic.  Only thing I had planned was to take the camera on a trip to Kansas City with the love of my life (That’s Shannon in case anybody out there thinks I’m talking about a camera or something) to visit some old college friends that I rarely get to see anymore.  On this trip I planned to use the camera like I would use any point and shoot to document a vacation, which was for documenting the trip and the memories.  I never even put an image the computer before leaving to make sure that I would shoot the way I wanted and hope to be pleasantly surprised by the results.  I’m getting ahead of myself.   First thing that I did was put a memory card into the camera, and start setting the camera to the way that I wanted it.  The card had been formatted previously in Shannon’s D7000 so I didn’t format it again but that was a HUGE MISTAKE.  I’ve got access to lots of cameras, and lots of memory cards of all kinds.  I’ll put one in my Canon 5D Mark II that was last used in my D4, and it works just fine.  I put one from my 1D Mark II into my D3 and it works just fine.  Any other combination of any other cameras I’ve come into contact with and that’s been the case.  NOT HERE.  This mistake caused my camera to start up exceptionally slow.  Between 30-40 seconds kind of slow.  I was annoyed most of the weekend with this startup time because I had no idea the card was the issue until I got home and downloaded the images to a computer; and then formatted the card.  Once the card was formatted in the XPro-1, the camera started up almost instantly every time.  No wait, just start up and shoot.  One could call this an RTFM error, but I personally wonder how the camera got out of Fuji’s R&D this way.  The worst I’ve ever seen a camera do with a card from another camera was write to the wrong folder.  40 second startup lag?  Seriously?  how does that happen?  After some researching, I found that the problem is potentially caused by the Macintosh filing system in Mac OSX.  Apparently if the card has eve been in a mac it makes it difficult for the camera to read the car.  This was learned via word of mouth, and honestly I can’t find much research to support it in any way.  That being said, it is the only reason I’ve found for this to happen so take it or leave it.

Despite all that, in terms of actual image quality I’m BLOWN AWAY.  The camera produces everything I could want from an image straight out of the camera on Jpegs (RAW images can’t be opened in CS5.5 or Lightroom yet).  The images are exceptionally clean too; in fact exceptionally isn’t a strong enough word.  Supermagnumexponentiallymega clean is probably more like it.

(Full Size File, Click to Ultra Biggify.  Fuji XPro-1, 2000ISO 35F1.4. 1/250th@F11) 

As you can see from the caption, that shot was at 2,000 ISO.  If you click to biggify as the caption also says, you can see that all of the leaves are easily discernible at that sensitivity as well.  Bravo Fuji.  Bravo.  The image quality is probably the best that I’ve seen out of an APS-C sensor ever.  A D3, or D4 series camera is probably a bit cleaner, but that’s apples and oranges here.  The point is that this camera can almost fit in your pocket while producing imagery that you could potentially sell or print LARGE scale.

One of the big problems with Rangefinder style cameras that have Optical Viewfinders is called Parallaxing.  That’s when the image you are viewing is at a different angle than the lens is looking at.  It took a little bit of brain power, but after using the camera for a few days I’ve decided that Fuji’s Hybrid Viewfinder is the real deal and should be something that other manufacturers take note of.  When using the regular optical viewfinder the camera displays information in the style of a Heads Up Display. This information is customized depending on how the user sets the camera.  For example, if you set the camera to manual focus a focus rangefinder gauge appears to let you know what range your lens is focused to while you’re looking through the viewfinder preventing you from having to remove the camera from your eye while manually focusing.  There is also a live histogram that can appear in the HUD to help you with exposure.  To deal with the Parallaxing Fuji has implemented a 3 Focus Square Focus point system.  That’s not a Fuji term, that’s just a term that I made up.  It sounds official though right?  I Digress.  The three square system works like this.  You have a square over the focus point you have chosen (there are 28 total I believe that you can get to through the Q Menu, which is very intuitive).  That is the square you will do your focusing through, and it also represents infinity.  To the lower right of that square is a square with an X through it, which represents the close focusing distance AND the perspective change of the Lens/sensor.  The third box appears after you auto focus to let you know about the distance through the range your focus is, and to let you know if you need to re-frame in order to not cut peoples heads off.  If this is all too much trouble though, you can always hit the switch on the front of the camera and have a completely Electronic LCD Viewfinder with the TTL image viewable through either the same optical viewfinder OR on the camera’s LCD.  Complete with Horizon line indicator.  Everything you could ever want in a camera of this size, shape and caliber plus more!

(Fuji XPro-1, 1600ISO, 35F1.4@F1.4.  @1/30th)

That photo is a little fuzzy, but it also goes with my point that this camera is definitely made to bring out your inner Hipster.  You can even tell it you want to shoot in 1:1 ratio mode, for when you want your pictures to be all Instragram like; except on a camera that’ll produce a quality you can reproduce.  That’s not saying your Fuji XPro-1 will provide you with all the Crappifying filters that Instagram uses to make the photos look the way they do, but that you can pretend like it’s a real camera and take the photos the way you see them at the same time.  You can however set your XPro-1 to replicate different styles of Film while you are shooting.  I predominantly had mine set to Velvia, but there were several other choices available as well.  I shot a handfull of photos in the 1:1 ratio, but this one that was slightly camera shake blurry was my favorite because of the colors.

(Fuji XPro-1, 250ISO, 35F1.4, 1/1000th@F2.8)

Over the weekend that I had the camera, I had both the 18mm and 35mm and honestly I’d be ok if the 35 were the only lens option available.  I shot some with the 18mm, but in the end I was looking more of the kind of things I was producing with the 35.  The camera itself has a Macro Setting, so even with the 35mm lens I was able to get sufficiently close enough to things to be pleased with the Macro Performance.  So much so that if I owned an XPro-1 I’m not sure I’d go after the 60mm macro that they offer currently.  Speaking of what they offer, the XPro-1 is not all Unicorns and Rainbows unfortunately.  Fuji did an outstanding job setting this camera apart from the competitors and is obviously gunning for the Leica M Series rangefinder.  The problem that I have with this intentional targeting is what it does to the XPro’s price tag.  For the body alone you’re looking at $1699.  Compared to a $5,000 Leica that’s reasonable, but for a newspaper photographer that would love what this camera produces for its size it’s a little much.  That’s more than Shannon’s D7000 WITH a lens.  Same size sensor, body is just a little bigger, and I GUARANTEE the battery in the D7000 is better since the biggest complaint I have is with the XPRO-1′s Battery.  In fact, I went on a 45 minute brewery tour (source of the first blog image) and the camera didn’t even make it all the way through.  You can say that maybe I was taking a lot of photos, but I wasn’t taking THAT many…The battery life was consistent with the old Coolpix cameras’ everybody used to own that took AA batteries.  You’re looking at sub 200 shots before needing to switch.  No joke.

(Fuji XPro-1, 200ISO, 35F1.4, 1/500th@F1.4)

This trip that Shannon and I took to Kansas City was in honor of several of us couples becoming engaged and getting married over the course of the next year or so.  This is Ben; one of my old college roommates.  Specifically the Roommate that I mentioned in this earlier blog post.  Ben here was kind enough to let me take a portrait of him before he got out of the truck on our way to try out some fine Kansas City Barbeque.  One of the big allures of the Fuji XPro-1 is it’s sensor size, and the quality lenses that you can get for it’s brand new X Mount.  As I said earlier, I was not at all disappointed with the image quality of the camera.  In fact, I feel as though the camera is capable enough that if while we were in Kansas City someone asked me to do a job, I’d probably consider doing it, even with no gear other than the XPro-1.  That’s not to say that it’s a replacement for my D4.  Not a chance.  It’s just a very capable camera once you learn all it’s little quirks.  Most of those quirks (minus the battery and the card formatting thing) are very minor. That being said, did I shoot anything with any intention on this trip? or was the camera just used to document friends, family and at least one of us doing something stupid?

(Fuji XPro-1, 200ISO, F16@25 Seconds.  Lightpainted by the gun’s owner Chris.)

One of the things that Shannon and I have gotten more into lately has been lightpainting.  We haven’t done it for a few weeks, but we talk about the different things that we could do with it and I have a feeling that once it gets warmer there’s going to be a lightpainting spree over the summer.  The Fuji XPro-1 didn’t have a setting to allow to shoot for longer than 1 second on the old school Shutterspeed selector on top of the camera.  It did have a Bulb setting though, which allowed for me to hold down the shutter (very carefully) while the guns owner Chris learned how to lightpaint.  Normally Shannon helps me with these things, but she was with Chris’s Fiancee Ashley talking about girl stuff (possibly halo).  Chris was interested as to what I was going to do to take a photo of his Springfield here with this camera I needed to write about, and offered to help.  Again in this case, the camera performed flawlessly.  It is a fine tuned machine, much like the Springfield in the photo above.  Not the most interesting gun photo I’ve ever taken, but for the purposes of this review it’ll do just fine.  I really wanted a much warmer white balance, but I never really got it set up correctly on account that I was afraid with so many long exposures that the battery wouldn’t last long and we would have to stop.  After about 15 shots we called it a day, and the above shot was the keeper.  ALL of the other shots, have the reflection of the flashlight in the speckled black glass table the gun was shot on. The real beauty though, is that the image is detailed enough that you can see the fingerprints on the guns slide, and that there is absolutely zero long exposure noise.

Conclusion:

Whew!  So that was a lot of information.  In fact there’s still a lot more, except I’m afraid I’ve already got too many misspellings already and the internet will probably shut me down if I keep going.  So what do I think?  I think the Fuji XPro-1 is awesome.  Awesome Like Crazy Awesome.  It’s not without its downsides though.  The battery life is a HUGE DOWNER for me.  The camera’s image quality is beyond superb and I think that Fuji nailed what their market for this camera is looking for in that respect.  The Autofocus is slow, but deliberate.  if you’ve thought out your shot and you have a second for your camera to think about it for itself you won’t be disappointed.  The lenses are of superb quality and your images will be very sharp.  I  personally could do with only the 35F1.4, but they have a roadmap of many X-Mount lenses ahead for everybody’s needs.  If you Format the memory card in the camera before you get started the camera will start right up almost instantly every time so you don’t miss a shot (just don’t forget).  Just let me make it clear one last time though ORDER 5 MORE BATTERIES.  I was absolutely floored as to how short the battery life on this camera was.  At one point we wanted to take a group photo and I had to inform everyone that this camera didn’t have any battery left.  It was 1pm and our trip into the city had started at 10:30.  The camera Completely fits what I personally look for in a carry around camera.  I personally feel as though the Fuji X100 is more within the reasonable price point for what this camera is though.  Awesome performer, but doesn’t intentionally replace the SLR in your bag.  Could it though?  For some things it certainly could.  This breed of camera is meant to be carried, and meant to be used every day.  While the Fuji XPro-1 competes with the Leica M Series, I feel as though hit also Ostracizes a lot of professionals out there that want the supreme quality of their DSLR, with the ability to pocket it and walk around.

With all that being said; is this the camera for me?  Dunno.  I think the search continues.  More soon…

If it’s the camera for you; go get it here.

Oh, and don’t forget THESE.

]]> http://www.lebryk.com/shooting-the-xpro-1/feed/ 0 http://www.lebryk.com/shooting-neutral/ http://www.lebryk.com/shooting-neutral/#comments Sat, 14 Apr 2012 16:07:51 +0000 mlebryk http://www.lebryk.com/?p=2209 Read More]]> One of the most deceiving things about photography, or cameras in general is that the camera can’t see as well as our eyes can.  You may see the most beautiful sunset in the history of sunsets; but you can’t take a  photo of it because it’s too bright.  All you’ll get is a dark red spot that is the sun, and everything else is dark.  OR, the building below the sunset is exposed correctly, but the sky is brighter than it looks in real life.  Problems like this are incredibly common in the world of photography, even with the newest caliber cameras like the Nikon D4.

Let me step back a bit for a moment.  The technology I’m going to talk about in this blog isn’t something new, but something that’s been around for a REALLY long time; that we are going to adapt to Today’s technology and look at in a slightly different way.  This technology is called a “Neutral Density Filter“.  If you don’t know what that is with  modern technology I won’t be surprised.  Honestly it’s not something I had used in years until given the opportunity to play with the new Lucroit Neutral Density filter holder for the Nikon 14-24mm Lens, along with several other similar toys made by Formatt HiTech.  Neutral Density filters were designed to slow down your cameras shutterspeed, so you could shoot shallow depth of field portraits in the daylight outside; or so you could show motion blur either with a motion or by panning a subject in bright sunlight.  These filters are Primarily used by Landscape photographers anymore, who want to capture things like the sky and the ground in their photos, while also in some cases slowing down water to give it a much more appealing “glassy” look.  Hense the problem with the Nikon 14-24, being that it had a rounded “bubble” like front element, meaning that a normal flat 77mm standard filter wouldn’t work.  That being said, let me say a few other things before we go any further.  ALWAYS handle your filters by the outside so it doesn’t affect image quality (duh).  ALWAYS use a tripod when using really slow shutterspeeds (duh).  Make sure your filters fit into your filter holder before you let go of them……Wait what? Yea, my only complaint with the LucrOit is that the 165mm filters that I was provided were hit or miss as to whether or not they fit.  In fact one didn’t fit at all, and required either being taped at the bottom OR I had to hold it in place during the exposure.  Not an ideal situation for an exposure that’s so slow that it requires a tripod or a cable release timer… With that being said; lets move on.

(Nikon D4, 50ISO, Nikon 14-24F2.8N@28mm.  25 Seconds@F22.  LucrOit filter holder with a HiTech regular 0.9 3stop ND Filter, along with a HiTech 0.3 Graduated Neutral Density Filter with the darker portion at the top. Bogen Manfrotto Tripod with Microadjustment head)

That image is almost straight out of the camera.  I slightly added a little sharpening and contrast, but otherwise that’s pretty close.  I was really excited at the opportunity to get to use the kit of Neutral Density filters that Roberts Camera here in Indy loaned me for a week(ish).  I had to do a little research, as I wasn’t exactly sure what I had; but once I got started the process was really easy and the results are incredible.  My Fiancee Shannon has been wanting to do more video with her D7000, as well as I have wanted to do more video on the blog; so here we go.  Forgive some of the rough patches, the very beginning is out of focus and I wasn’t exactly sure how to incorporate all of the different pieces I had; but it gives a better explanation of some/all of these Neutral Density/Filter related products. (As well as sheds light into some of the adventure…)

(Creek and canal scenes shot by Shannon with Lensy; her Nikon D7000.  The other shots were shot via my cell phone.  The shots showing the filters were shot using the D4.  All Footage Edited in Final Cut Pro 7).

(Nikon D4, 50ISO, Nikon 28-70F2.8D@40mm.  8 seconds at F22.  HiTech Modular 77mm Variable Multistop Neutral Density Filter Bogen Manfrotto Tripod with Microadjustment head)

So yea, pretty cool huh?  OK so here’s the rest.  I found Neutral Density filters to be Deceiving.  Originally I looked at the filters and thought; Cool, slower shutterspeeds during the day. That’s almost exactly what it did, but it wasn’t as easy to slow down my shutter as I thought it would be.  It turns out that getting to 30 seconds can be as tough as getting to 1/8000th in meaning that sometimes there are tradeoffs.  The HiTech filters and holder that I was provided came with 3 resign ND Filters, which let me tell you were Brilliant.  I love glass, but I break things as anybody who has read the blog before should know.  The Resign filters worked awesomely, and I’m happy to report that no equipment was harmed in the making of these pictures.  They weren’t heavy since they were plastic, and I stacked them together as thick as I could and didn’t even really start to get into any issue with sharpness.  (Full res version of this photo available down at the bottom of this post)

(Nikon D4, 50ISO, Nikon 28-70F2.8D@28mm.  20 Seconds @F22.  HiTech Modular Filter Holder, with HiTech Resign 0.3, 0.6, and 0.9 filters all in the modular holder.  Full Resolution version with a link at the bottom of this post. Bogen Manfrotto Tripod with Microadjustment head)

In case you were wondering, the filters use standard markings and ratings. (Standard by someone’s standard, I don’t know how they decided these were the numbers they wanted to use.)   The filters I had from HiTech and Roberts were the 0.3 (1 stop), the 0.6(2 stop), and the 0.9 (3 stop) ND Filters.  While these filters are great, and they functioned beautifully, I found that I was wanting more in a lot of cases and ended up stacking them together in more than one situation.  That being said, I never once had a sharpness issue stacking all 3 filters together.  The images were just as sharp through these filters as any other filter, and I was not disappointed with a soft image once during this process.

(Nikon D4, 50ISO, Nikon 28-70F2.8D.  4 Seconds at F22.  HiTech Modular Filter Holder, with HiTech Resign 0.3, 0.6, and 0.9 filters all in the modular holder, Bogen Manfrotto Tripod with Microadjustment head)

I shot that photo on I69 near Exit 5 here in Indianapolis; which if you’ve lived in the area you know is a madhouse around 5pm EVERY DAY.  I wanted a long enough shutter so that It did not appear that there were any cars on the highway.  The longest I was able to get by stacking ALL of the smaller HiTech filters together was 6 stops, leaving me at about 4 seconds; which was barely enough for what I wanted considering if you look closely, you can still see where traffic was getting congested in the frame.  PLUS I also shot a few with the extra 3 stop ND filter that I got with the LuCroit held over the front with a towel over the top to prevent flare.  Is this something you’ll always want?  Not a chance.  But when you want it, you have to build up to it.  That being said, my goal for this shot was to shoot it at one of the clovers/onramps of I69 with the LucrOit and the 14-24; but I only had 3 stops of ND filter and a 2 stop Graduated ND filter, which if you look at the math earlier in this paragraph; clearly wasn’t enough to give us 4 seconds, much less 10 or 15 like I wanted.

(Nikon D4, 50ISO, Nikon 14-24F2.8N@28mm.  94 Seconds@F22 while using a Nikon MC-36 remote release..  LucrOit filter holder with a HiTech regular 0.9 3stop ND Filter, along with a HiTech 0.3 Graduated Neutral Density Filter with the darker portion at the top. Bogen Manfrotto Tripod with Microadjustment head)

Maybe I was out of my mind, but I was thinking these filters were supposed to eliminate enough light to help me catch “That epic sky” that we see later in the evening.  I had no idea I would be using the 3 stop filter, plus the 1 stop Graduated ND filter almost every time I put the LucrOit on the camera.  Not to mention the fact that I would stack the HiTech filters on top of each other almost every time I used them on the 77mm thread lenses.  I am probably a special case though, as I wanted a very glassy, very frothy water as opposed to just a obviously watery surface.  With only a few seconds you have motion, but it’s messy.  With longer times you get a very glassy surface, or with fast moving water it becomes frothy.  You can’t just go and use a 10 second exposure like the ambient light had for above, because then the water wouldn’t be as smooth.  Welcome to having to make choices. In the shot above, I really wanted smooth water, and I was hoping for a little bit more motion in the clouds.

Speaking of making choices.  One of the reasons I end up doing some of these wacky adventures is because sometimes I can be a fool….

(Nikon D4, 50ISO, Nikon 18-35F3.5-4.5D.  327 Seconds (yup, 5 minutes and 27 seconds), using a Nikon MC-36 Remote Release cable @F22.  Hoya NDx400 77mm 9 Stop Neutral Density filter, with the HiTech Modular Filter holder system and 77mm Adapter screwed into the Hoya Filter, while holding the 0.3, 0.6, and 0.9 ND Filters for a total of 15 stops of Neutral Density filtration. Bogen Manfrotto Tripod with Microadjustment head)

Yup.  So that happened.  I couldn’t leave well alone and just HAD to play with the extra 9 stop filter I asked Roberts to find for me.  I had to play with the Hitech one too; at the same time.  This is really where I started to see limitations over all, as I shot this photo around 1pm in what is obviously broad daylight.  My theory was that with a long enough exposure the water would be an absolute mirror wince the water was fairly calm that day.  It was not.  I kind of dig how the photo looks a lot like it was shot with an old pinhole camera; but that’s an effect that can be achieved much more quickly with photoshop and a 60 second exposure using a 9 stop filter, a bunch of other filters, and a D4.  Instead of thinking about that, I combined the two sets for a solid 15 stop filter, and a wonderfully intense 5 and a half minute exposure during the day.  Oh well.  You live and learn right?

(Nikon D4, 50ISO, Nikon 14-24F2.8N, 13 Seconds@F22.  LucrOit Filter holder with a 0.9 ND filter, along with a 0.3 Graduated ND filter with the dark side on the top, Bogen Manfrotto Tripod with Microadjustment head). 

So what do I think?  I think these filters are kind of awesome.  I really enjoyed playing with these Neutral Density filters, and no that’s not because I’m paid to say that; because I’m not.  I did find that there was some trouble with the LucrOit holder and actually holding the filter resigns in place as I mentioned early on in this review.  In the video you can see that I dropped one, which just about gave me a heart attack.  Luckily, the filters are Resign and it didn’t have a scratch on it.  If they were glass it would mean that I’d have owed Roberts some money. Honestly this just makes them much more awesome, and much more highly recommended if you’re in the market for such a thing; because they are durable.  I’m not much of a Landscape shooter honestly.  In fact my Fiancee Shannon and I had to think up different places that we could possibly go to take some of these photos.  Special thanks to my friend Paul over at Indy Hikes for giving me the original creek bed location.  Does that mean that I have no use for a set of filters like this?  Not Necessarily.  For me though, I’m more likely to get the Modular Filter holder set, with several ND slides to put in it.  Mostly because a majority of my lenses are 77mm thread; as well as you can get smaller adapters to put them on any size lens.  (Except of course; the 14-24).  I may even get the Multistop ND filter that I mentioned in the video and the photo of the rocks above.  I had a few troubles with it not being tightened enough and giving me a light leak/reflection at the top of the frame; but that’s my own fault.  Who knows what I’ll do.  If you shoot a lot of landscapes though these Resign filters are highly recommended; at least by me.  Way better than glass, and the sharpness doesn’t really seem to be effected much. Don’t believe me?  Here’s the full resolution shot from the Monument here in Indianapolis. I had 6 stops of ND filter through 3 pieces of resign on the end of the camera for that shot.  Check it out; let me know what you think. More Soon.

As Always; if you’re looking to buy this stuff make sure you get it at Roberts Camera.  It’s where I buy almost all my stuff because they rule.

You can find the Lucroit HERE.

Variable stop 77mm ND Filter and the The Warm/Cool filter deal HERE.HERE.

and the modular filter holder HERE, along with the resign filter kit HERE.

Oh, and to make the Modular holder fit any size lens, you need one of THESE.

There are a few other adapters available for all these products too, so if you don’t see something you may just have to search more specifically for what you need (ie a 52mm adapter for the modular Filter system, ect)

(Canon 5D Mark II, 200ISO, 1/160th@@F6.3.  Canon EF70-200F2.8IS@150mm.  Single Elinchrom Ranger Quadra to above camera right plugged into the A socket set to 1/2 shot into a 42″ umbrella just skimming the front of my subject to give a softer light on their face.  Single Canon 580EX Speedlight on a stand behind my subject zoomed out to 50mm set to 1/4 power.  both lights were triggered by a Pocket Wizard Plus II Transceiver from a Pocket Wizard Plus II transceiver in the Cameras Hot Shoe.)

This set of headshots was done for the a leadership conference in Fishers Indiana.  I walked into the Fishers Train station not knowing exactly what I would find in terms of space, but there were already some tables set out in the way so space was somewhat limited.  Originally I was going to put a white background up, but then I had to make the decision to either go with the wallpaper, or blow the wallpaper out.  I kinda split the difference.  There is a slight gradient in the background of the photo above, and honestly I’m ok with it.  it’s not distracting and it gives the image a little bit more of a personal feel as opposed to either a super fake background; or an epic white one.  Here’s the setup shot below.

(click to biggify)

I’ve had my Elinchrom Quadra for a while now, and I’ll tell you what.  I love it.  I only have a To Go kit right now, which is a single head and pack; but for most of the stuff I do it’s more than enough.  A lot of the derby photos in this flickr set from last weekend as shot with the D4 were shot with the Quadra on a stand behind some hockey glass.  It’s got the power and punch to go a long way; or that killer flick of light to fill in some shadows depending on what you want. In this case, it was able to continually be the main light for around 100 people needing headshots at a few shots each in the lobby of a train station.  No battery changes for speedlights, no 100′ worth of extension cords cluttering the place up.  Just shooting.  Speedlights have their place though when it comes to portraits, whether you are looking for something on a solid color; or you’re looking for something fast with a more environmental feel like below:

(Nikon D3s, 400ISO, Nikon 85F1.4D, 1/100th@F2.8.  Single SB900 Speedlight in a 42″ umbrella to above camera left, single SB800 speedlight set to full power about 20′ to camera right aimed at the ceiling, and a SB900 set to full power about 30′ to camera left aimed at the ceiling.  All speedlights triggered with Pocket Wizard Flex TT5′s from a Pocket Wizard Flex TT1 on the camera, with a Nikon SU-800 in the hot shoe)

One of the potential downsides to speedlights is that you sacrifice recycle time, as well as sometimes actual amount of light.  It takes about 4 SB-900′s to equal a Monoblock and at that you’re looking at having to change 12 AA batteries when they die.  You can’t beat the portability but there is always something to be said for having just a little more power.  The shot above was for a senior community’s marketing booklet down on the sou side of Indianapolis.  Place called Bethany Village I believe.  Speed lights were a great choice here because I had 6 hours to shoot everything about this place.  Going from room to room, doing setup after setup was and will probably always be easier with just a few speed lights.  If you have a controlled environment and you don’t really need to move around though; nothing beats the big guns for power and recycle time.

(Nikon D3s, 100ISO, Nikon 50mmF1.4G, 1/200@F16.  Single Dynalite Uni400 set to 1/2 power shot through a 42″ umbrella from below the camera, Single Dynalite Uni400 set to 1/2 power minus 1/3 stop shot through a 42″ umbrella from above.  Both lights fired by Pocket Wizard Plus II Transceivers from one on the camera’s hot shoe.)

I set up my Dynalites or my Quadra for headshots to make the shoot go very quickly and to make sure I can pop the shots off, and whomever I’m shooting never has to wait.  People like photos when they can be fun, but having a headshot taken isn’t always on peoples top 10 favorite things.  I rarely have someone stand in front of my camera that’s excited about the prospect of an 8×10 of what is really almost a square on shot of their face.  I’ve told a few friends of mine as they eagerly await for their 36 megapixel D800′s that they are really going to enjoy changing their view of beauty because nobody is attractive at 36 megapixels.

I personally prefer environmental portraits, whether they are just headshots in a specific space or they are to show some kind of environment.  Things like this shot below, which an abnormal environment for the character.  This guys name is Terry Adams, and he’s probably one of the Top Flatland BMX riders in the world.

(Nikon D3, 500ISO, Nikon 18-25F3.5-4.5@18mm.  1/15th@F5.  Single SB900 with a 1/2CTO zoomed to 50mm held by Joe Lee over at Big City Photography shot into a white reflector I wedged into the wheel well of this 737.  Second SB900 zoomed to 70mm with a half CTO set in the wheel well behind Terry to illuminate some of the environment.  Both lights triggered by a Nikon SU-800 from the cameras hot shoe.)

Like I said above, I personally prefer the environmental approach as opposed to the flat on white.  I feel like the shot in the landing gear of a 737 like above is significantly more interesting than just a static shot on some obligatory color.  The shot above was done before I had my Quadra, but I probably wouldn’t have used it here unless I used it to light up the bike a bit more (which I wish I had done).  There’s always something to look at.  Always something to reconsider, always something to wonder about doing differently.  I had about 5 minutes with Terry, who loved the photo.  To me that’s what a headshot should be.  Something more than just an Identifier on a name badge, but something that gives a little insight as to who someone is.  Environmental headshots or portraits have their purposes too, I just happen to find them more gratifying to shoot, and pleasing to the subject.  Even though sometimes you can be creative with how you shoot a headshot, as you can see with this post I made a few weeks ago, it’s still not the same as shooting out someplace, and getting something truely original; as only you can see it.  Either way, as a working photographer sometimes you just have to bite the bullet, set up the white paper while boxing up that extra bit of creativity; and then snap away.  More Soon.

Every couple of years every camera manufacturer releases an update to their professional body, that is the combination of all the latest greatest technologies they have been developing for the last three or four years.  I’m guessing Nikon has engineers taking feedback on the D4 already, even though there aren’t very many of them out in the wild yet.  When I met the guys NINJA’S responsible for repairing the gear that I tend to break on a regular basis, they were all incredibly friendly and amped about the D4 that I managed to give back without breaking.  I hadn’t even left their sight with it.  Maybe Nikon should start a program where you can get reward points for not breaking stuff?  I’d probably owe them more money for past repairs, so maybe they shouldn’t do that…..

(The New Nikon D4, 900ISO, Nikon 300mmF2.8DII with a Nikon TC20eIII for a total of 600mm.  1/1000th@F8)

Either way, the D4 doesn’t disappoint me in the least.  Nikon has yet again hit this out of the park, and the thousand plus frames that I’ve put on the camera over the last few days has proved it to me.  One of the first things that I did with the camera was set the AF to 3D, and track birds in the trees behind our house.  The Autofocus seems significantly faster and more accurate than my D3s, and I didn’t think there was anything wrong with the D3s.  The shots that I’ve taken with it, (using strobe and not) have been impeccably sharp.  In fact, I would say that the raw files out of the D4 are inherently sharper than those out of my D3s which I used to sharpen immediately in Lightroom or Photoshop.  Aside from the files being sharp, they are every bit as clean as my D3s was; but with a 33% increase in resolution.  A very welcome 4 extra megapixels as anybody who shoots with a D3 series body knows that 12 megs is a great size, but there isn’t going to be a whole lot of cropping going on there….

(The New Nikon D4, 6400ISO, Nikon 70-200F2.8VR2@200mm.  1/200th@F2.8 shot in really crappy incandescent arena lighting, kind of like the ones you find in high school gyms.  The frame is cropped slightly from original, because I couldn’t get in as tight as I wanted to the game bench during a Jam when this took place, the crop just cut some excess space off of the left side)

Here is the 100% Crop from the shot above.  6400 is every bit as clean as my D3s was.

I’ll tell you what.  Lets really go for the gold on noise here, and lets crank this puppy up to 25,600ISO and see how useable it is. The shot below is a bird that was sitting on my neighbors roof.  I shot it from my porch across the driveway.  It’s uncropped, and has approximately 15 seconds of photoshop applied to it.  Look for the detail shot below…

(The New Nikon D4, 25,600ISO, Nikon 300F2.8DII with a Nikon TC20eIII to make to 600mm.  1/6400@F9)

(100% view of the shot above.  I would have to say that I only used 25kISO on my D3s maybe once, and that was back when I got it.  I don’t honestly remember it being this clean though…)

Professional Photographers love the extra resolution found in most modern day cameras, but most will recognize that 12 was more than enough.  In many cases, 12 has always been more than enough.  Kodak calculated years ago that 12 megapixels was the optimum photosite density and size to collect light with the least amount of noise.  Shannon and I have a wonderful 16″x24″ print of this superbowl image ready to be hung at home, and it was only 5 Megapixels when I shot it having needed to use the DX mode on my D3 in order to get the moon large enough in the frame for the Double exposure to look correct.  That being said, I am amped about having 4 more; especially since you saw above how clean the files are.  Lots of people are upset that the D4 isn’t about a stop better with noise than the D3s was, but lets be honest here, with the D3s and my 24F1.4 I felt unstoppable, and could hand hold a photo in pretty much any light.  The New D4 can actually autofocus in one stop less light than the D3s.  You’d think that it would feel pretty close in actual handling, but it’s actually a very obvious improvement.  I’ve only made the D4 hunt one time, and it was trying to photograph Tuxedo the black cat in a dark room.  (any camera would hunt in a black cat in the dark, you would hunt with manual focus here…)

 (The New Nikon D4, 100ISO, Nikon 85F1.4D.  1/160th@F2.  Nikon SB900 zoomed to 70mm with a 1/4CTO on a stand bounced out of a 42″ umbrella to above camera right set to 1/16th power.  Nikon SB900 zoomed out to 14mm set to 1/2 set on a shelf in the ER Trauma room with a Full CTB to separate the ER from Debra here.  Both Speedlights controlled and fired with a Nikon SU-800 Speedlight Commander in the D4′s hot shoe. File just about straight out of the camera, as shot for this weeks Careerbuilder special section in the Indianapolis Star.)

It’s no secret that I love my 85F1.4D.  What’s not to love?  It’s awesomely sharp, it’s got a very sahweet bokeh, and it only cost me around $900 when I bought it on ebay, as opposed to the G version (which I’d love to own, but never will due to the price), which costs $1699.  My D3s tended to make mistakes with it sometimes though, but thus Far the D4 hasn’t hickuped once; and trust me this was something I was looking for.  If I’m going to talk autofocus though I should mention the new implementation of the “Quick Switch” AF Button on the front of the camera.  When I Autofocus I use 9pt Continuous focus all the time.  Sometimes, I want 21pt, or the 3D Autofocus, but I never switch to them because on my D3s and D3 I always had to go through the menu.  Not anymore.  I hit the button, scroll the front command dial, and on the top LCD and the viewfinder tells me what focus mode I’m switching too.  It’s brilliant.  I can now switch focus modes on the fly, without having to hunt through the menu’s to find it.  One of the other really nice things about the D4 is that you have the option to automatically rotate the AF points in the camera with the camera itself.  Wait, what?  Yes.  When shooting basketball, or Roller Derby, I usually have the cameras 51pt AF system set to only let me select 11 of the points.  It’s just easier to get around the frame that way.  Well, when I shoot I use one point above the center point because I want to focus on someone’s face.  The D4 allows you to set it to automatically rotate the AF point selection with the cameras on-board accelerometer that is used when the Virtual horizon tool is on the screens.  So when you go from turning the camera horizontal to vertical, you don’t have to change the focus point because the camera automatically selects the point in an equivalent position to the one you were using at the other orientation.   To make a long story even longer short, you basically don’t have to change AF points when you change the cameras orientation; it does it for you.  Brilliant Nikon.  Absolutely Brilliant.

(New Nikon D4, 2500ISO, Nikon 70-200F2.8VR2@145mm.  1/250th@F3.5.  Single Elinchrom Quadra A head set to 2/3 power with the standard wide reflector on a stand about 70′ from the track triggered by a Pocket Wizard Flex TT5, from a Pocket Wizard Flex TT1 on the cameras Hot Shoe). 

So I most certainly need to address this new XQD Card thing that came with the D4.  I’m torn.  On one side I love the card and how fast it is.  Really I never have to wait for the card to write.  (not that I machine gun the camera all that often because I don’t).  When the 5D Mark II came out, we discovered at the newspaper that even 133x memory cards were fast enough to handle the bandwidth needed to shoot video.  That was great since at that point 133x cards were relatively inexpensive. (not like they are now, but a 32gb 133x card back then you could get for about $75).  This XQD Card doesn’t even sweat when the camera wants to write to it whether it’s video, or 10fps RAW files.  Doesn’t flinch.  Plus, something that I really LOVE about the card is something that has absolutely nothing to do with the card itself.  Because it’s a separate kind of writable media, I can now download the CF card and the XQD Card to my computer at the same time!  Seriously!  I’ll come home from a major event like a wedding  and have 3 or 4 CF Cards that I need to dump, and it takes forever one at a time.  Now I can plug them both in and have everything downloaded in just a few minutes!  That sounds stupid, and in all actuality it is stupid; but hey I’ll take any help I can get at saving a few minutes…  The cards seem relatively well built, but I’m still not sure I’d be ok running one through the washer.  I’ve run (by accident) many CF Cards through my washer and dryer and they all still function as good as the day I bought them.  SD Cards I haven’t been as lucky with, and even though the build quality on the XQD Card seems good, it doesn’t seem washer sturdy.  It does however seem sturdy enough to store quite a few photos.  Whether those photos are Pulitzer prize winners, or a crappy slightly yellow photo like the one below, the read and write speeds are phenomenal. 

(This crappy photo is a FULL SIZE 25,600ISO  file. Click to ULTRA BIGGIFY) 

(The New Nikon D4, 25,600ISO, 1/500th@F4.  Nikon 70-200F2.8VR2.) 

Speaking of video.  This camera was obviously developed primarily with video in mind.  There is a lot of scrutiny on the internet about how the Files aren’t as 100% as clean as the Nikon D3s, which I suppose depends on how each individual view them.  Either way, the video aspect of this camera is phenomenal.  I was assigned a few weeks ago to shoot a promotional video for the Naptown Roller Girls, for which Shannon and I used my Nikon D3s, her Nikon D7000, and for a brief minute attempted to use a Canon 7D for the 60fps capabilities.  The video turned out really nice, but the D3s always had  a few problems with video.  The video on my D3s always seemed like an afterthought, or like something that was bolted on to make the camera better.  Not with the D4.  The live view screen on the back for editing seems like you’re looking at a 60fps live feed video.  There is very little rolling shutter (although it is possible to produce as it is for any digital camera taking video, but you have to really try to get it).  One of my favorite features is the ability to shoot video as an FX, DX, or 2.7x crop mode.  You can film primarily in FX and DX using ALL of the cameras available recording modes, but the 2.7x crop you can only shoot at 1950×1080 because that is the exact number of pixels you’re using on the sensor; it’s not being sampled down.  Why are FX and DX important?  At last weekends Naptown Roller Girls bout vs Dutchland I was hired to do some filming for a video spot to advertise for the NRG bout in the Bankers Life Fieldhouse on April 20th, 2012.  I took all kinds of lenses in my bag to shoot to get hard hitting action, skates, faces, and other miscellaneous details.  My 70-200VR2 was the primary lens for the day, and in fact I only had it off of my camera one time when I needed my 28-70 for something.  The DX crop mode was fantastic, when shooting video of the action because I was then hand holding, or balancing a 105-300F2.8 instead of having to mount a tripod or monopod to a Massive 300F2.8DII that I brought with.  I can’t post the video yet because it’s not done yet, and it’s not yet approved by the Agency requiring it, but sometime soon I will for sure.  Instead I’m going to post this video of a bird across my driveway.  Shot it at 60fps (primarily because that’s what my D4 was set to when I went out there).  Sorry its a little wobbly, 60omm in DX mode on just a monopod leaning against the railing which just wasn’t as sturdy as it should have been…

So wow.  Am I blown away by the D4?  Yes.  The files are every bit as clean as my D3s was.  Lots of people on the interwebz here are complaining that the D4 isn’t at least a stop cleaner in terms of High Iso and you know I guess it’s sort of a tradeoff.  I felt unstoppable with my D3s, and I took lots of great (and even more crappy) photos with it so I find nothing wrong with the ISO capabilities of the new D4 since it is completely on par with the D3s.  I think it’s a completely fair trade personally, with the trade being really no big jump in image quality towards 200,000ISO, but the extra 4 megapixels instead.  Really if you want to complain about the image quality, then shoot some photos and resize your images to 12 megapixels from 16.  Then you’ll get the extra stop of sensitivity that you’re looking for.  Nikon usually does a pretty awesome job with their cameras.  Their focus is and always has been image quality, and while I’m not really an official product reviewer by any stretch, I am an official photographetizer, full time professional photographer.  Maybe someone will decide to loan me a D800, 5D Mark III, or 1D-X to give everybody a good comparison, but anybody reading this shouldn’t hold their breath.  I am absolutely stunned at this new chapter in professional cameras, and I greatly look forward to seeing what the next few years of producing images with this camera yields.  Speaking of which, how does the D4 hold up in the studio?  Fantastic; just as it should.  More Soon.

If you’re not on the list for the D4 anyplace, go do it at Roberts.

Not interested in a D4?  How about a D800 or a 5D Mark III?  they take care of those too….

(The New Nikon D4, 200ISO, Nikon 70-200F2.8VR2@200mm.  1/200th@F8.  Shot in the Star Studio as a Carpenter Realtor Promotion, Single Photogenic head in a 36″x36″ softbox to above camera right set to 1/2 power, Single Dynalite 4000XL shot through two wesctott 6′x2′ screens onto the background set to 1/2 power, a Single Dynalite 4000xl bounced out of a 32″ umbrella to camera left.  All lights triggered by a single Pocket Wizard Plus II transceiver plugged into one of the dynalites, from a Single Pocket Wizard Plus II transceiver on the D4)

Those guns are a great example of the word “YES”.  Seriously, why on earth would you even attempt something like that?  Someone wants an Engraved Rotating Gatling Black Powder machine gun pistol launcher doppelflinger.  Someone said, “yes; I can do that”.  Alex Jordan was a man who liked the word “yes” (although not the same man that said yes to the Gatling Powder pistol deal above, although he was the owner of it).  He never really took something as impossible, so “no” was not in his vocabulary of sorts.  Granted, he did say “no” quite a few times in his life; either to friends giving him ideas for his house, or just in general.  He believed that anything was possible tough, which is why he started building a great American Landmark known as “The House on the Rock“.  Reports are that he started building this house on his own, carrying stones up to the top on his back and laying them by hand.  Eventually his father stepped in, and started to finance his adventure on this house; which he wanted to build merely to give him and his friends a place to party.

The partying didn’t stop there though as Alex had quite a few dreams for this beloved House on the Rock he was creating.  Like I said, he was creating the house just to party in, but he had other grand ideas, like the image above.  It’s an artists rendering of what is called “The Infinity Room”.  The room extends about 300 feet out over a cliff, and gets smaller as you go; working exactly opposite as the vanishing point principal.  The vanishing point principal being that when you look at a set of train tracks they appear to meet in the center.  This room appears to go on forever like that, but actually does end at a point.  All I could think of is watching fireworks of UFO landings from the more than 3,000 windows that make up the room.  How sweet would that be?  Either way, I digress.  People started wanting tours of Alex’s house, and he charged some people he didn’t know 50 cents a piece to take the tour.  Everybody said “yes” in a heartbeat, and then after they toured the house even thanked Alex for the opportunity!  Eventually his father, who again was bankrolling the operation, told Alex he needed to open this place up to the public; and in not so many words he said, “yes”.

That’s the inside of the infinity room.  See how it appears to go on forever?  One of Alex Jordan’s dreams.  He asked a contractor to work with him, and the guy said “yes” when working out the logistics of the project.  The nameless girl in this photo must have taken 4,000 photos with her cell phone in the infinity room.  Shannon and I wandered around the infinity room for what seemed like an hour (but was really only about 15 minutes), as this girl snapped a photo from what seemed like was from every window up there.  It was cool, but it wasn’t cool enough to take a photo from each of the windows; at least not yet.  The space shall forever remain in history to me and Shannon, but more on that in a minute.

Alex Jordan’s house was a complete collection of ridiculous.  Shannon had always wanted to visit the “House On The Rock”, and I made that a reality last weekend as a surprise.  When I asked if she thought she’d like it she most definitely said “yes!”.  She packed her D7000 which she affectionately named lensy, and off we went to go on to see some of the wild sights.  On vacation Shannon is kind enough to allow me a camera, but generally I get a camera and one lens, which in this case was my D3s, and a 50mm lens.  The house has hallway after hallway of display cases.  Dollhouses, Guns as seen far above, and even replicas of the crown jewels or Faberge Eggs.  Alex learned how to fabricate things, and quite a few of the things on display are replicas that he produced himself.  Other elements of it are completely authentic.  One of the coolest parts was the Carousel, which was partially made famous by Neil Gaiman in the book “American Gods“.  In the book, the gods met at the Carousel in the House on the Rock.  Since Neil is one of Shannon’s favorite authors, she always wanted to see the carousel; which we did last weekend.  In the photo above Shannon is about to enter the Carousel room, but paused to take a photo of some trinket in a display case along the way.

The beautiful part of this whole thing is that I booked the reservation at the hotel and with House on the Rock on opening weekend.  Calling a hotel and asking for a reservation is simple.  It’s their jobs to say “yes”, and to get you the room or reservation you’re looking for.  The big part was that nobody was around.  The whole place was empty.  There must have been two dozen cars at the House on the Rock the entire time we were there.  Shannon and I kept walking around saying, “YOU WANNA ROCK?!  HOUSE ON THE ROCK!!”; then laughing like children.  If there had been more families around I’m sure they would have told their kids “yes”, those two are from the nuthouse!

It was an amazing weekend all the way.  Shannon and I saw lots of crazy things, like in the photo above where Shannon is being all creepy with her camera to a naked statue with a unicorn head.  It’s reasons like that why I love her, because she gets excited about the little things.  All the times we’ve had fun on trips, all the times she’s dealt with my ridiculousness, the photos, the videos, the late nights on assignment and time on the computer editing, working on things like this blog and many others.  Yes, she puts up with me.  Yes, I love her more than anything.  Yes, she challenges me to be better at everything I do.  She said this trip was a dream come true when we were walking in the door to get our tickets.  I figured it would be a tough act to follow; but I had an ace in the hole.  I asked her to Marry me while at the tip of the Infinity room, thus sending it into our history, and making it worthy of a photo out of each window.  She said YES without hesitation.  You can see more of the photos that I took from the trip at my Flickr Account.   When Shannon gets done looking at and playing with the photos in her camera I’ll add a link to them too.   More Soon.

]]> http://www.lebryk.com/saying-yes/feed/ 8 http://www.lebryk.com/knitting-in-the-woods/ http://www.lebryk.com/knitting-in-the-woods/#comments Sat, 03 Mar 2012 05:21:17 +0000 mlebryk http://www.lebryk.com/?p=2086 Read More]]> Last week I announced to the world that I had worked on the wonderful book project called “Knits for Nerds“, a book by Joan Dark; published by Andrews and McNeel Publishing.  The book was shot in several remote locations in the woods of Minnesota including on the property of the incredibly genius and legendary author, Neil Gaiman.  I refrained from mentioning him in the previous post, not knowing if it was public knowledge as to where some of the locations were; but it turns out it said where we were in part of the book.  Huh.  Who knew?  Anyway, as a recap, the book features 30ish knitting patterns from the Dragon Rider gloves featured below to a Princess Leah bun stocking cap, which I expect to see pretty much everywhere over the next year.  (Not just because Shannon has one either).

(Nikon D3s, 250ISO, Nikon 24F1.4N, 1/400th@F2.  Nikon SB-900 set to iTTL on a stand elevated above our model shooting through a 32″ umbrella.  SB-900 triggered with a Pocket Wizard Flex TT5 unit by a Pocket Wizard Mini TT1 on the camera with a Nikon SU-800 in the hot shoe.)

Those are the Dragon Rider Gloves from the first section of the book labeled Fantasy.  This is one of my favorites from the shoot that early Thursday morning in Minnesota.  We drove all night from Indianapolis to catch the Sunrise on our location, knowing that we were going to a great cliff overlooking a waterway that nobody seemed to be able to identify.  (We, can be defined as me, Tom Klubens, The one and only Shannon, Dill Hero (aka Dan Carr, aka Toni’s Husband), Toni Carr (Joan Dark), Megan Gill our Makeup and Style artist, and Summer Keown.)  You can see two of the other official book shots in the last blog that I wrote here.  It was kind of a whirlwind, as when we got there makeup and hair started right away while Tom, Dill, and I went out to the cliff, and to check out the trees.

(Nikon D3s, 640ISO,Nikon 24F1.4N 1/640th@F1.4)

First shot was at 250ISO F2 with an SB900, second shot was 640ISO F1.4, so obviously there wasn’t a lot of ambient light; we did get there pretty early and all.  I also did a longer shot using the trees featuring Dill and our antique crossbow here.  I also enjoyed that shot, but have to admit the shot on the cliff works much better in the book.

(Both shots, Nikon D3s, 250ISO, Nikon 85mmF1.4D, 1/400th@F2.  Nikon SB900 set to iTTL on the end of a stand held up above our models and gloves.  SB900 Triggered by a Pocket Wizard Flex TT5 from a Pocket Wizard Mini TT1 with a Nikon SU-800 in the hot shoe.)

You can actually see the umbrella in both of the shots above.  It was a simple yet effective setup.  Same thing with this shot; just one light.  That one made it in the book though, and it’s also one of my favorites.  Speaking of favorites, this photo of Shannon here is another one of mine:

(Nikon D3s, 250ISO, Nikon 28-70F2.8@45mm, 1/320th@F6.3.  1 Nikon SB-900 and 1 Nikon SB-800 stuck in a 1 gallon ziplock bag, each attached to a pocketwizard Flex TT5 set in the snow zoomed out to 14mm inside the base of Neil’s tree set to full power.  Another SB-900 with a full CTO was on the end of a light stand, hard light zoomed to 200mm  set to 1/4th aimed at a distance by Tom  to be onto Shannon’s face to separate her from the rest of the background.  All Speeedlights triggered by a Pocket Wizard Flex TT1  with a Nikon SU-800 in the hot shoe. The cameras white balance was set to 3200K to give the world the blue look, while being evened out with the slight orange of the Full CTO)

In the last post I wrote that Shannon was very excited to be involved in this project for different reasons than I.  She actually gave me the biography of Neil Gaiman by memory when she found out we were going to be on some property that he owned.  She was also incredibly amped that he tweeted about her when he tweeted about other things regarding our visit.  Mentioning a Roller Girls boobs we were discussing, how Shannon was hilarious, but he still missed someone who didn’t make the journey, and how we all walked to the edge of the property to check out the Supermoon while a few of us made snow angels.

(Ambient Test shot, Nikon D3s, 250ISO, Nikon 24F1.4N, 1/1250th@F2)

That’s a test frame of the hollow tree as seen in Shannon’s photo modeling the Light of Earandil Shrug.  As you can tell the tree is relatively large, as it fits Tom completely inside.  The shot with Tom is also the ambient light in terms of brightness and temperature, which is obviously not what Shannon’s final image looks like…. This series of frames was done after we finished up with the Dragon rider gloves, and believe it or not the shots of Shannon were taken at just about Noon; not in the evening which is how they appear.  Turns out the first thing that I did was take a couple of SB900′s and put them into a gallon ziplock bag with some full cut CTO’s on the top to give them an orange glow emanating from the inside of Neil’s tree.  In my oddball mind, I saw the shot as it went into the book with the blue and orange color contrast giving us this enchanted elven world.  I was lucky that Joan Agreed with me, since we really didn’t shoot many other options.  It’s not like we could have photoshopped the shrug on Tom here above right?  I like the color contrast, and how it makes the image something more than just a photo of someone in a tree.  Here’s another closer shot of Shannon and the shrug for the road.  Shannon was a trooper, and thats why I love her.  She wasn’t exactly warm outside there in the snow standing half in a tree.  My SB900′s get hot; but not that hot….. More Soon.

(Nikon D3s, 250ISO, Nikon 70-200F2.8VR2@155mm, 1/250thth@F7.1.  1 Nikon SB-900 and 1 Nikon SB-800 stuck in a 1 gallon ziplock bag, each attached to a pocketwizard Flex TT5 set in the snow zoomed out to 14mm inside the base of Neil’s tree set to full power.  Another SB-900 with a full CTO was on the end of a light stand, hard light zoomed to 200mm  set to 1/4th aimed at a distance by Tom  to be onto Shannon’s face to separate her from the rest of the background.  All Speeedlights triggered by a Pocket Wizard Flex TT1  with a Nikon SU-800 in the hot shoe.  The cameras white balance was set to 3200K to give the world the blue look, while being evened out with the slight orange of the Full CTO)

]]> http://www.lebryk.com/knitting-in-the-woods/feed/ 3 http://www.lebryk.com/knits-for-nerds/ http://www.lebryk.com/knits-for-nerds/#comments Tue, 21 Feb 2012 17:10:52 +0000 mlebryk http://www.lebryk.com/?p=2040 Read More]]> Knits for Nerd’s is finally here.  The long awaited book by the one and only Toni Carr (AKA Joan of Dark), has arrived in bookstores today and is also shipping from Amazon as I type this.  I’m not a knitter, in fact if you handed me a ball of yarn I’d be more afraid one of Shannon and my cats would eat it completely and require a very expensive trip to the Vet.  I am however a nerd, so when Joan called me up and said she wanted me and Tom Klubens to work on the Photography for her new book, Knits for Nerds, you can only imagine my Excitement.  Shannon was super amped too, but that was for other reasons which I’ll have to get into another time.

(Cover Artwork by Andrews and McNeel Publishing)

I hinted at this project last year with my post named, “In the Barn…”.  For those of you who read that post, previously or just now, the photo of Shannon is still my favorite, and is still my desktop wallpaper.  It was also our Holiday card this year, but that’s besides the point.  The shoot as mentioned in the “In the Barn” post was weekend two of this project, and gosh was it epic.  I shot the cover photo in the studio with good friend Michelle Pemberton as the model along with several other photos inside the book that night.  The studio work was a few weeks before all the location stuff in which we rented a 15 person van and drove all night up to an undisclosed location in Minnesota or Wisconsin. (I don’t know where exactly as I wasn’t driving for that leg of the trip).  Our goal was to arrive at Sunrise to capitalize on the “Magic Hour” of light and get the most of the view off of this particular Peak.  Tom Klubens was large and in charge of this shot and decided since we were in the magic hour to shoot ambient.

(Photo by Tom Klubens)

That first shot is a shot that I took of Tom in Action, and the second is the final image that he took which leads off the first chapter in the book: Fantasy.  My colors in the behind the scenes pic are super off as it was a bit overexposed shot at F2, brought back in camera raw.  Not my finest moment in behind the scenes photography, but we had been up all night to get to this location for the shot directly above. While I think we were all hoping for a slightly more epic sky, I also think we are all pleased with the outcome as this image did run Double Truck.

That was my Detail shot of the Dragon Rider Gloves that ran in the book from Tom’s shot above.  The entire book is filled with fun, Sci-Fi related things that Nerd’s just love.  Things from Comic Books, Science Fiction and Fantasy alike.  From the Dragon Rider Gloves as seen above, to Tank Girl Socks, an Aim to Misbehave Brown Jacket, and the Light of Earendil Shrug, the book is just filled with cool stuff that you can make for yourself, or your loved ones.  There’s more than one shot of each item in the book and even more that didn’t make it into the book at all.  There’s also quite a few stories to go along with this whole project and I hope over the next couple of weeks to go through a few shoots that we did to show some of the other images (and of course shooting info) from that weekend, as well as tell some of the adventure. (There may or may not be a video of me running through a snow bank with a sword and falling flat on my face….  Nobody ever said I was the brightest lamp on the Marquee…).  It’s no secret that Tom and I don’t see eye to eye all the time (I think he’s taller than me, but that’s not what I’m talking about).  Sometimes I think things should be shot differently than him, and vice versa.  In some cases we both shot some items to see what might have worked better.  That may seem like a waste of time, as we could have just fought to the death let Joan decide, but after driving all night and then shooting all the next day, we were all somewhat out of it.  Sometimes that happens though when it comes to projects like this; you shoot until you drop and holy moley  did we did just that.

From Sun up, until after sun down we made the most of our location, and all it had to offer; which included a fantastic library, a couple of cats (that yes made it into the book as well as most of our beds over the nights we were there), a forest similar to the hundred acre woods, as well as the Fabulous Lorraine as our guide to all things of awesome such as the hollow tree seen above.  Speaking of the hollow tree, you can see it above with the Lovely Shannon modeling the “Light of Earendil Shrug” for the book.  It was up for debate as to if I was nuts, but putting my lights inside the tree seemed like the right play to me.  I’ve been itching to post this shot since last March when it was shot, as I just flat out just really like it.  Not just because I love the model in it either (which I do more than anything), but I was very happy with how the picture turned out here.

As you can see by that shot above, there’s lots of goofy behind the scenes stuff, as well as lots of outtakes from the several days spent shooting in the woods of WisconsinMinnesotaland.  As much as I’d like to claim the Foux Hawk in the photo above by Tom Klubens, but I really should give credit, where credit is due; a pillow.  Pretty sure this was the first shot we did this day, and sure enough as opposed to shower I can apparently be found reading after setting up the lights in our location for the morning, unlike the morning below where this was the scene early in the light test.  Moments after this shot we launched a stuffed squirrel out of a t-shirt cannon while waiting for our models.

I wish I could tell everything about that weekend here in this post, but it’s just too much for one post.  All I can tell you for now is that if you’re impatient then you should just order the book.  Actually, you should just order the book anyway, because it’s really very cool and everybody knows a knitter.  Whether a parent, a grandparent, a friend or just yourself it’s a neat, book filled with some pretty solid imagery if I do say so myself.

That shot above is of Summer and it’s not actually the shot that ended up in the book, but I liked it.  That’s going to be the fun of the next few weeks as the books start hitting the UPS Trucks, or hopefully your coffeetables.  Continue to check back here for more information on one of the coolest projects I’ve ever worked on.  Special thanks to Tom Klubens, Summer Keown, Megan Gill, Loraine Garland, the one and only Shannon, Dill Hero (AKA Dan Carr), and especially Joan Dark (aka Toni Carr).   Andrews and McNeel Publishing is also a big thank you, as they made our trip to “Other World”, “The Village of Wall”, or any number of other names for our  magical location possible.  I’d also like to especially thank our host whose identity will remain secret for now, but has seen the book, saw many of the photos that weekend and now actually has one photo hanging in his house; in Scotland I believe.  There are many more people to thank, but too many to list right here. Don’t worry though; More Soon.