I am working several jobs in a row over these few weeks in early March so please excuse any tardiness in responding to your phone calls, cards and letters (and fruit baskets!).
I jumped onto the Aperture 3 upgrade bandwagon as soon as it was announced because I was anxious to take advantage of some of the long-awaited new features. But one that I didn’t expect was the ability to do “local adjustments” using brushes in Aperture’s characteristic non-destructive way.
It didn’t take long for me to grok the brushes thing. It’s incredibly cool, although there are some performance issues with them right now. But that could also be the result of me skipping a few hardware upgrade cycles. I’m still laboring away on the first Core 2 Duo Macbook Pro.
Here is a photograph that I took of Walter (my dog) on the beach a few weeks ago. I love this photo, but it has a huge range of contrast, and I thought I would play with using the Shadows and Highlights tools and their new Brushes augmentation. When you click on the photo, the Quicktime animation will first show you the original, then a version with Highlights and Shadows both set to about 40%. Finally, a version with the same amount of adjustment, but applied locally to the water and sky (Highlights) and parts of Walter (Shadows). What do you think?
I’m really excited to take my workflow to the next level with my favorite photography software!
My dear friends Gary and Liz got engaged last night in the old fashioned way, with a modern, rock ‘n roll twist. See below for the technical nitty gritty!
Here are some technical details on what I had to do. I originally planned to film this with two cameras from the sound booth. I was going to use a Canon HG10 HD camcorder for a wide shot, and use my 5D Mark II with my 70-200/2.8 for a closeup (it’s a small club). But when I got there, I faced a couple of complications. First of all, the club was so dark that my HG10 (which is pretty decent WRT sensitivity) could barely register a picture. Focus [...] Continue Reading…
I very much enjoy the long-standing relationship I’ve established with the Drama department at Burlingame High School. My older son Max was a member of the cast of four plays while he was there. Even though he’s gone now (and sadly, Sam hasn’t joined up…yet), I have stayed close with Mary and all the hard-working volunteers. So each semester since, they’ve asked me to shoot the cast and crew. It’s a fun afternoon, the kids are immensely appreciative, and everybody gets to feel like a real actor. I enjoy the creative challenge, and I know the kids’ parents appreciate the opportunity to get a “real” headshot of their budding stars. If you’re my friend on Facebook, you can see [...] Continue Reading…
I am an Apple Aperture user, and have been ever since version 1.0 was released. Aperture is a terrific tool which is responsible in many ways for the great efficiencies I have achieved in my photo production. It allows me to work quickly and accurately, gives me a good number of editing tools, both for individual photos and en masse changes.
I currently have close to 100,000 photos in my main Aperture library on my studio computer, and I have anywhere from 10-20,000 photos on my Macbook Pro library, which includes my family pictures.
Every once in a while, though, Aperture has a hiccup that causes me trouble. Most notably, I’ve had cases where I’ve tried to move projects between computers, [...] Continue Reading…
This is my brother and sister-in-law Laurence and Katie’s son Ben. Ben’s sister Anna and I were playing with him during a family brunch and he was darting under the table. I stuck my camera down under the table and took this picture blind (meaning I just pointed the camera and pushed the shutter button).
I didn’t do anything to it other than convert it to Black and White in Aperture, the software I use for my pictures.
This is not a perfect photograph, technically speaking. It is slightly out of focus, the background is completely blown out and over-exposed, one of Ben’s hands is cut off, and his hair is messy.
But of all the photographs I’ve taken this year, (around [...] Continue Reading…
One of my clients needed to do a photo layout for a magazine ad/editorial, and I thought our kitchen would be a great location for it. And our old house rocked the shoot. Doreen did a wonderful job of helping me clean up the kitchen, and made some great suggestions that ended up helping me a lot. It was fun WFH today.
The product name is deliberately blurred out in the photo below. And the large black and white photo in the front (mostly blurry) is actually a photo of my brother Dan and me!
Young Marc is having his bar mitzvah soon, and his family wanted me to do some “lifestyle” portraits. The basketball shots were pretty simple, but there was a steady rain falling, which jeopardized our skate shots. However, I relied on my camera gear’s water sealing, and just went for it. Fun stuff!
All the pictures were shot with my Canon 1Ds Mark III using my Canon 580EX handheld with an extension cable. The basketball photos were done with my Canon EF 24 T/S L lens, and the skate photos were shot with the 16-35/2.8 L. Photos processed in Aperture with a little vignette, some exposure adjustments and that’s pretty much it.
I am shooting portraits of the members of the Burlingame High School basketball program. These first photos are of the 2009-2010 varsity boys. My son Sam’s a member of the JV team, which I’ll photograph soon. The “THUNDER” in the title is a reference to the GS Warriors’ mascot and his theme song by AC/DC. Go Panthers!
As a photographer, I have had the benefit of learning from some true masters of my art, both directly and indirectly. I am very fortunate for this. But I have learned not only from the masters, but from you. And you. And her. And him. And hundreds of people who have unwittingly taught me something about how to extend my vision, how to see better. Thank you to all of you. And here I present the first of many installments of photographs I’ve made of so many of you practicing your art.
