Reaching across for a photo-op

I helped out a (vacationing) friend of mine and photographed the 2012 Lincoln Dinner on Friday. Got to photograph South Dakota Senator (and potential VP hopeful) John Thune and Illinois representative Aaron Schock among others.  

Senator Thune

Representative Schock

staffer on phone

Thune's handwritten speech

 

Fast Foods.

Cheez Whiz

cheese food, pretzels and meat sticks

Goober  

Ramen

It is pretty excited to share some new work from a project I'm calling Fast Foods.  Enjoy!

Fast Foods.

As much as we try to deny it, the stark reality is, the body changes as we get older.  We can no longer drink like a 20 year old, we can no longer eat like a teenager and suddenly exercise and sleep is vital to our health, happiness and personal productivity.  This is all fact that cannot be ignored. 

My last several trips to the doctor (something that only started on a regular basis in the last five years or so) not only confirmed that, I am, in fact aging and more importantly, if exercise and dietary changes were not made now, I am on the cusp of inflicting long term damage to myself. 

While I'm not happy about any of this, for my family and myself, I am challenging myself to make these changes a reality.  I'm not one who enjoys working out, but I'm doing it.  And I'm certainly someone who enjoys sweets.  Growing up with a mother who was (and actually still is) a pastry chef, I come upon my dependence on processed sugar honestly.  Whatever the case, the sugar and other gratuitously evil foods must go. 

If you are at all on the fence about the foods you eat, spend three hours watching independent documentaries, Super Size Me and King Corn.  This will, at the least, put some fear into you.

As I'm struggling to make these life-enhancing changes, I'm reading the ingredients of everything that enters this temple.  This practice alone is turning into quite an education...one in chemistry at least.

Taking a step back, I'm for the first time in my life realizing how far away from basic fruits, nuts and vegetables we, as a society, have wandered.  Our supermarkets aisles are peppered with ridiculous foods that are only there because savvy marketing has made them seem somehow pertinent to our busy lives.  These 'products' will make everyone's lives easier and more enjoyable.

This body of work explores these foods.  Everything that is photographed is not a small, one off, sensation.  Each photograph explores a popular product that in all honesty, used as intended, will only diminish ones health.

Bon Appetite.

Brad

a couple shots of a crazy co-worker Brad Kisner for a magazine article.

stretching myself

Trying to keep the infighting down and let all the cameras in my locker know that I care about each and every one of them, I put some fresh batteries in the XPan and took it for a spin this weekend.  

Holiday Rebound and the G1x!

Had a fantastic holiday season, hosting countless friends and relatives from states as far away as California, Kentucky and of course St. Louis.  It was a fantastic time and I hope our guests had as much fun as we did!


BUT...


Having just opened up the December credit card statements, I suddenly decided the pending NEX-7 purchase was not such a good idea after all.  I just canceled all three preorders!  Which actually worked out OK with yesterdays Canon G1x announcement.  I'm happy to say my G9, G10 and G11 will finally have a worthy leader.  

A pocket size camera that always has the right lens and a decent sized sensor, I am again mugging the UPS man...

Ironically, my daily shooting for a couple weeks now has been with the near perfect form factor (in my opinion at least) of the G11... Enjoy some work from this week!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

John playing with the streamers from the New Years poppers just after midnight

Another use for gaffers tape?

About a year ago photographer, educator and friend Will Crockett did a presentation at Harrington called Getting It Right In Camera.  He took the students through a workflow that yields spot-on color even in tricky situations. 

He was using my favorite grey balance tool at the time (and still is) the Lastolite EZBalance.  I show several different sized of these in Lighting for Dummies along with various other grey cards and Gretag Macbeth ColorChecker Gray Scale charts.

All of which work great, just get one and use it EVERY TIME, the time you spend on location or in the studio performing the custom white balance will be repaid TEN FOLD when you get back to your computer. 

In an earlier post, I mentioned how I was going broke shooting 35mm film again waiting for my NEX-7 to be shipped from its new Japanese plant after the flooding in Thailand wiped out the Sony plant that was slated to produce the NEX-7.  With the holidays swooping in with full force, I thought to myself, if it's not going to be better then my 5dmkII's it's not worth it.  Couple this with the generosity of my brother for sending a G11 which had been sidelined for some time and I decided to pass on the NEX-7, I've always enjoyed shooting with the G's and am glad to be shooting with one again. 

Now I told you all this, so you can share in my geeky amazement at tonight's discovery. For some time now I have been wanting to test something and tonight I finally did it and it worked swimmingly.  Remember the iron-clad Lowel gaffers tape that comes in their lighting kits and a la-carte?  I was thinking that that had a roughish texture that would not reflect light and seemed pretty void of color.  Why wouldn't it work as a consistent neutral point to color balance with afterwards?  Ironically, I went one step cheaper and got the cheapest of the cheap no-name grey gaffers tape for my test. 

So the package from B&H arrived just before a Boy Scout event at school.  I've shot in the school gym what feels like a hundred times and with it's blended lights (sodium/mercury/florescent) and light blue walls,  it has always been a challenge w/o performing a custom white balance.  

before and after a custom gaffers tape white balance 

It was just a social event and I really didn't want to bring a Lastolite with the G11 just for a couple of snapshots, so I discreetly put a square of my new roll of gaffers tape on my jeans leg and off I went.  I was planning on shooting a picture of the tape and sampling it in Lightroom once I got home.  As I sat eating pizza I realized just filling the frame would even save me a couple clicks when I got home. Perfection in a room that ALWAYS required a good amount of post production to make livable.

discreet...?

unretouched file from the camera

unretouched file from the camera

So now a regular part of my location kit (and yours too) will be cheap grey tape in addition to the small black rolls I normally carry.  A small dab of tape on the inside of my shoe may be just the thing so I have an easy and consistent neutral source in every situation.   

Road Closed.

Downtown Chicago peeks from behind a closed road just after sunset this evening.

Windy City

I headed out into the very windy (and cold) evening to shoot some time exposures of trees and clouds.  Here is my favorite.  

to the MAX.

Cool shapes and colors outside the McCook Athletic and Expo center this weekend.

waiting...

So I'm trying wait patiently for my Sony Nex-7 to be shipped and I'm going broke at the drugstore mini lab as I've been carrying around my F1 with a normal lens lately.  Totally fun and enjoying the solid click, advancing with my thumb and everything about shooting film. Except for maybe waiting a day and not being able to shoot with wild abandon, although that is part of the challenge isn't it?

O'Hare at sunset before it was 'suggested' I pack up and move on...

hit up a coworker for a CTA pass
when I saw the post rain light

Vincent Laforet at the Lincoln Park Apple store last night

saw this at a stoplight

??? first shot on the roll...I don't remember shooting it, but i like it

Happy Halloween!

Tonight I shot portraits at our annual Boy Scout Halloween party.  


Used the amazing Canon Speedlite system with modifiers for family shots and it worked swimmingly.  

But I was feeling a bit Martin Parr/Dan Younger/Wayne Lawrence as well, so I put an unmodified flash on the hotshoe of my Canon F1 with a normal lens and here is what I got.

 I got what I was expecting and I have to say the low tech feel is kinda cool, it does not feel gimmicky either.  

b/w film...

Man I miss this shooting 35mm, here are a couple shots after teaching a night class made with with my Canon F1 and 50mm f/1.2L

Practicing what I preach.

I just got an email from a friend, photographer and ASMP board member that my ASMP article looks great.  I haven’t seen it yet (check back, I’ll post it here) but I have a funny story that I wanted to share.  When ASMP/PDEedu editor extraordinaire, Jill Waterman contacted me, I quickly forwarded the chapter from Lighting for Dummies that she wanted to feature (ch 8) and the pictures that I could access quickly.  

You have to know the images for the book live in several places with the largest file being a whopping 2400 images!

my quicky wine glass set 

I couldn’t locate one particular shot.  Then I realized the irony, the AWOL image was the example of the ‘quick one-light wine glass technique' where you can light any clear or lightly frosted glass by simply illuminating the wall behind it. 


Of course it really only works with clear liquids (cranberry juice standing in for Pinot Noir in this case) but in less then 21 minutes, including finding a camera, a CF card, a ceramic tile, dragging stands and lights from the one of our studios to a lounge with a relativity clean wall, I shot the lead picture of the article.  A true testament to what’s inside!  

ASMP members check your mailbox and others; check back and I’ll post it here when I get mine in the mail.

Couple of recent Sunrises

Sunrise at the Lakefront on the dawn of Chicago Ideas Week 

Daybreak from OakBrook IL

Pre-dawn skyline from OakBrook IL