Steve Maller Photography

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 30,000 is my guess), I think this is the best one so far. Why? Because it captures a moment in a life that might have otherwise gone missing. Because I love little Ben. He is warming up to his Uncle Steve and just a few weeks ago I never would have gotten this photograph. And because I feel like I could hang this picture on my wall and never tire of looking at it.

I thank g-d every day that I get the opportunity to do what I do with a camera, and I feel so richly rewarded. I just wanted to share that with you, my friends and family.

Happy Holidays.
Steve

My lovely place on Marsten has become no longer the right place for me for a number of reasons. So I found a new place that’s about 150 yards south of this location. It’s a wonderful, funky old building that suits my needs wonderfully well. I’ll be packing up soon, so pardon my tardiness in returning phone calls and emails if that happens!

Wish me luck…there is a lot of stuff to move!

Was playing around with the 5D Mark II at a Mothers’ Day gathering at my sister’s house today and shot some nice video with it. I used the 35/1.4L and 85/1.2L, both wide open using exposure lock. I killed off the audio track in Quicktime Pro, conformed the video to 24fps (slowing it slightly) using Cinema Tools, then re-compressed it to 720P at about 2800bps using DV Kitchen.

Make sure your web browser window is stretched out as big as you can get it.

If you don’t know what any of that means, just watch and enjoy.

My older son Max is a senior at Burlingame High School, and he’s playing Oberon in a 1960’s-style staging of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. He’s the one in this first photo with the amazing hair (and yes, he’s one of the few kids in the play who isn’t wearing a wig). I offered to document this wonderful happening, and I am having a blast being part of this. Here are a few of my favorite photos from the final dress rehearsal last night…

And in case you’re interested in the technical details of these photos, you can look at the enclosed “EXIF” information. They were all shot on my Canon 1Ds Mark III with the 85/1.2LII lens. Most were shot wide open or nearly wide open at ISO of anwhere from 1000 to 1600. All hand-held, too.

My dear friend Ken Wornick invited me along with him to document some of his work today. Ken is a devoted and talented winemaker, and his La Honda Winery in Redwood City is totally a diamond in the rough. He’s also the proprietor of Post & Trellis residential vineyards, and has built some beautiful vineyards all over the San Francisco Bay Area.

Ken’s objective is to decorate the walls of La Honda with some beautiful, large prints of some of their vineyards. So we headed of very early this morning with just enough gear to be able to shoot out in the fields. It was a terrific day, capped off by an amazing lunch at the awesome Village Pub in Woodside.

Ken promised he’d write wrote about our day in his blog, so check him out when you have a chance!

Here are a few photographic highlights of our day:

My dear wife, mother of my children, life partner, and person to call in case of an emergency has become a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist in the state of California (don’t you dare pronounce that like our governor does!). We have put together a little website to introduce what she does at doreenmaller.com and she’s listed on the Psychology Today website, as well.

Please keep her in mind if you or anybody you know is searching for a very talented therapist.

My new studio is working out brilliantly. I love the space. Despite the fact that I’ve been orphaned by my regular assistant (who’s moving to Dallas!) and I’ve still got lots of boxes to unpack, it really feels like home. I finally have room to stretch out, both physically and artistically.

But one of the most unexpected pleasures of my new digs is my neighbor Albert. He’s also my landlord. And he’s is one of the most amusing and interesting characters I’ve met in a long time. Aside from being a very accomplished sculptor, he is also an avid and successful antique car collector. It’s a never-ending source of amusement to me that every few days, I’ll pop out of my cave for some fresh air and there will be the most magnificent hunk of steel, chrome and glass that I have ever seen.

One random evening a few weeks back was no exception. Albert was working a deal with a guy from Dubai to sell him a couple of Albert’s cars. One of them was this breathtakingly beautiful 1950’s Cadillac Fleetwood limo. Suffice it to say they don’t make ’em like this anymore.

By the way, that’s my studio’s roll-up door to the right of this photo. I literally almost crashed into this Caddy when I walked out of my door!

This week’s photoshoot featured fashions for pregnant moms, t-shirts and other stuff for new dads and grandfathers, a bra fit guide for new moms, and a whole mess o’ really cute baby clothes.

And one of our star models was none other than my darling niece Anna. The little pipsqueak charmed everybody in my studio with her good nature, her great “looks”, and her wonderful results. I’m not kidding when I say this kid has talent.

My good friend and partner in many awesome corporate events Rose Lanham has gone solo with an exciting new venture, Bonjour Events. I wish her all the best. I’ve worked side-by-side with Rose in the most stressful situations you can imagine, and she’s always graceful and professional.

If you want to work with somebody for your personal event, your corporate event, or just need a shoulder to cry on when your event (or your event planner!) has you spinning out of control, I encourage you to contact Rose. Go check her out her brand new website at http://www.bonjourevents.com/.

Here are a few words from Rose herself:

Rose Lanham is an event producer with over 12 years of experience in sports and corporate event marketing, most recently as the Natl. Events Manager for Yahoo!’s advertising sales division. She wants to share some of the tips that would have helped her along the way and hopes you find this site to be a useful community for sharing ideas. Perhaps like you, Rose was always attracted to event planning and volunteered at every opportunity to learn more and gain new experiences. Knowing a career in event management was her plan, Rose pursued a role at the Atlanta Olympic Games Yachting division, experiencing first hand the importance of precise event logistics and the stamina it takes to work in this industry.

A hearty and heartfelt “Mazel Tov” to our son Max, his castmates, their awesome director Mary Bettini Blank, the talented orchestra, and all the parents and friends of the Burlingame High School drama program. The show is a fun, irreverent romp and is very entertaining. We are, of course, deeply prideful of Max’s performance as The Narrator. Check out some delightful scenes from the show here on my website.