Kim St. Dennis Photography

Digital Photography School.com is an interesting site. Darren Rowse, the editor and founder is Austrian based and post about all things for the digital photographer.
 
The tips and tutorial entries sometimes center around creative inspiration and theory which is why I like them so. Today's post centers around being a curious photographer and Rowse has some helpful tips to check out.


How to Be a Curious Photographer

So I ran across this over at Darren Rouse's Digital Photography School but dont know who the origional author is to give credit to.
At any rate its a fantastic graph of the life of a photographer. Where do you land on it?


Edit: So, my buddy Mike Kang noticed that I hadnt placed myself on the graph. Well, I've been shooting with an old Hasselblad film camera for about 7 months now and recently decided I didnt really care about gear anymore and that the image itself held the only importance. So, I guess that leaves me between, "one exposure per motive" and "Death." Ha!

 I must admit, I love an English accent on a woman. While shooting Tanya the other day I noticed her accent, but it was just slightly off. I thought maybe northern England, Cockney or something. So, I asked. Australian she said.



The set up was 2 softboxes, one large on top, on a boom, the other medium on a background stand. You know the little 3 leg stands. one softbox right on top of the other, concave, directly in front of Tanya for that nice even head shoot look. Then added in one light for fill camera right just with a reflector and 20% grid. The lower softbox and fill were 1/3 of the top softbox which was key.





















 So, on a side note,we caught the World  Cup final on Sunday. There was the two of us Holland suppopoorters in a Peruvian restaurant withabout 150 Spanish supporters. It was fun, but in the end the Dutch lost which was heartbreaking. My sports interest will now wain again for the next 4 years....

Los Angeles is a used tissue for aspiring professional photograhers. I paint that picture only becuase in order to shoot at a lot of our lovely locations around the county, you need to caugh up some dough. This is a side effect of LA being the home of the US film industry for the past 100 years or so. Essentially, unless you "run and gun," every Tom, Dick, and Harry has their hand out to get paid if a tripod or lightstand hit the ground. What can one do?

Well, one can take a class at a local college and use the studio, parking garage, and out door locations there! This maximizes the econmics of paying for shooting space and also gets me out of the house every thursday night (as if someone had to pull my arm to get me out).

So, my buddy James Stiles (www.jamesstilesphoto.com) grabs about 8-10 of us a handful of models each week, we set up some lighting to our desired look, we get the use of a free MUA, and get to shoot away. The studio is about 2.5k sqft. equiped with 6-8 Norman packs and 16 or so heads, super big softboxes, gels, grids, etc. Considering the cheaperst studio Ive found to rent is $25.00 per hour, the cost of the class is not bad at all.

So lots going on, but Ill drag it out over time as I can.

Sold off the Nikon D300 and switched up to a Canon 5D mark II. This means selling all my Nikon gear and picking up some Canon stuff. A few intersting things I noticed...

My photography is at a point where I own and shoot with a medium format film camera (Hasselblad 503cx), have learned enough about lighting to deconstruct photos fairly well, and really dont care about camera brand anymore. I'm at a stage where composition and creativity mean more than anything else.

So, I wrote my favorite Nikon author and asked him for some reccomdations for Canon authors to which he replied "And there’s never really been as much there [Canon] as with Nikon, anyway." Wow, I guess the brand wars go deeper than I thought.Scratch off favorite tech author for future Canon advice. =^)
 
 So, Im loving the camera so far. It hasnt actually been that big a switch not like moving to a hasselblad. Next move I make if I do will be to a H3D or something like that. Ive always eyed this Rolleiflex. But, that can all wait. Ive purchased a new camera and have shedded some of the gear fever that can run so rampant. Now, I just want it to work smoothly. Funny thing is, thats why I bought a mac! hahaha. Even funnier, I get paid to work on Windows!

 

Let me prefrence this by saying I think a still camera should be a still camera and not a all in one multimedia device. Focus on the still sensor, not new features I will seldom use. with that said, Drew Garder is pretty fantastic. Check him out here:
http://www.drewgardner.co.uk/


At any rate hes got a new webinar coming up about video which may be interesting. Check it out and register here:
http://manfrottoschoolofxcellence.com/2010/04/23/still-in-motion-multimedia-techniques-to-shoot-with-the-new-dslr-cameras-with-video-capabilities/

©Drew Gardner. Photo from manfrottoschoolofxcellence.com

Last couple of shots here with the Nikon D300. Its been a good camera for me. Thanks for that. Out with the old and in with the new!






















More to come.

K.

McNally has an online seminar comming up on April 8th. Its on lighting with a single light and should be interesting. Check it out here:

 http://www.manfrottoschoolofexcellence.com/


 Source: manfrottoschoolofexcellence.com
Webinar with Joe McNally
Register for FREE
Date: April 8th
Time: 2:00 PM - 3:00 PM EDT
Title: Effective Lighting With Just One Light.

Description: This webinar, hosted by Manfrotto Product Category Manager David Fisher, with internationally acclaimed photographer Joe McNally, explores the strategies for using just one light, and using it well. Read More



 And for you music lovers:
 Source: manfrottoschoolofexcellence.com

Webinar with Bill Frakes
Register for FREE
Date: April 1st
Time: 2:00 PM - 3:00 PM EDT
Title: Multimedia In The Music Business: Combining Stills And Videos Shot With A DSLR For Maximum Impact.

Description: This webinar, hosted by David Fisher, Manfrotto Product Category Manager, and featuring multi-award winning photographer Bill Frakes, takes you behind the scenes of Bill’s recent shoot of the band Backyard Babies music video “Abandon.” Read More
Contest: What Would You Like to Ask Bill Frakes?

So I was looking over Craigslist for Hasselblad gear to add a brighter focusing screen to my 503CX. The one I currently have is very fuzzy and not very bright, but new screens cost 200-300 US and that can cover the cost of a lens, so its a tough call. Finding something on CL as we know it, would be nice. Used works great for me.

As I was looking I came across a recent listing for Hasselblad and Profoto gear. Well the Hassy gear was a bit high priced for my taste, but the profoto gear was an amazing deal. So, I communicated with the seller, a nice gentleman who owns a design firm, Ron Taft.
 
Photos from Profoto.com
I ended up with 2 compact plus 600 monoblocks, an accute2 1200R generator, a D4 ringlight , and tons of accessories. All this for not much more than my aliens bee investment. Well, maybe a little more. But, Ive got some stuff Im getting rid of that should more than cover the cost. Needless to say, the light is beautiful. Ive got a few shoots this weekend (3/21/10) that should see some use of the new gear. This effectively puts an end to my medium format budget for now, but oh what wonderful light!

So in my recent search for a new medium format camera Im coming across all kinds of stuff. This interesting little device is called a Zigview by Argraph and is a sort of waist level viewfinder for 35mm DLSRs.
inage from Arghraph.com 
It seems you essentially have a view finder that attaches to your cameras viewfinder and can swivel and move like the back on some new consumer DSLRs. The difference here is the Zigviewgives real time image display, shutter trigger, motion detection trigger, timed shutter release, and more. The Zigview works with everything from Canon to Fuji and those in between (Nikon, Sony, etc.).

The very coolest thing that the Zigview does beyond being a WLF (waist level finder) that doesnt require the ridiculous live view modes is detaches from your cameras back and becomes a wired remote with viewing capabilities. Thats pretty fantastic frankly. When I was shooting crowns a lot (the drops of water) I certainly could have used both a wired viewfinder and the motion trigger. Jeez.
                                         image from Argraph.com
Seems extremely useful in the event you need more direct contact with your subject, need to be away from the camera, or are paparazzi and need to hold that camera up high to get the shot. I just dig it for the WLF capabilities with a trigger built in! Google shopper  says it runs from $329.00 to  $400.00 depending on which version your after. Check out more here: http://www.argraph.com/Zigview/page1/Zigview_page1.htm

check this out.














This is fav4.org. If you click on it, it shows your fav4. who knows maybe it defaults to my fav4, but whatever. You can change that easily with the config on the bottom right. It saves a cookie I would imagine. But, pretty cool for a portal or home page.

Quick update. Havent posted in a bit, but Ive been busy. The Holiday season came and went. With that shooting was put on a hold and in place rolled in family time. Christmas is a bit like an ant infestation, it just takes over everything! Some quick notes on what Im doing.


Gallery show opening night!


Tonight at the Altadena Public Library 5 pieces of my work will be shown in conjunction with the Aperture Society of LA. Its a meet up group that Im apart of. Well long story short, the library curator, Tina Wallin joined our meetup group and found out that we were looking for a show venue. She was kind enough to open her library up to us and now we have opening night! The show runs all through March 2010.








Hasselblad... Yum.
(photo from images.fixya.com)
So for Christmas I was the lucky recepient of a Hasselblad 503CX medium format kit. This included a 80mm Carl Zeiss f2.8 lens, a 120mm film back (same as hulga and Diana stuff), and a waist level viewfinder. Well let me start by saying I love it. Its mirror action makes a bang loud enough that people stop and comments. Ive been experimenting with MF films and Fuji instant film a lot. Its a blast. I wasnt the only lucky one though. The wife picked up a Panasonic GF1 4/3rds camera al a me. Although now I just steal it when i want can.



Last up: Rolleiflex 6000 and Hasselblad H

So heres the thing now Im shooting with this medium format (MF) stuff and Im loving it. So its got me thinking about image quality, taking my time shooting, etc. and Ive started to pine for a medium format digital. Maybe some auto focus for as the eyes get worse and a digital back just to make things easy. So whats that 20K? Why yes, new in the box it is.

I bet you thought I was going to say no it was cheap. Well browsing the 'bay as Im now refering to it, I see I can pick up some older gear for MUCH less. Well lets say 1/2 or more. And of course, this leads to more though on buying new things. Its a diseas my wife tells me. Like David Hobby says, "I can rationalize anything to myself, its my wife who I need to rationalize it to." That leads to the final though on the matter and some tech notets. Should I sell the Nikon gear and go MF? Well see. Ok stop reading its the tech notes.

Nikon is easy with iso 50-6400 1/3 shutter stops and the same with F stops and internal metering and fast focus (eat that canon users). Here is the down side, color sucks and the sensor is small. The up side on the MF stuff flash sync for the hassy is 1/800 and the rollei is 1/1000. Lenses are insainly expensive at 1500-2500 each (all zeiss and the other germans for rollei though), the digital backs are iso 800 max although 2-3x the sensor size of FF 35mm and I really like the waist level viewfinder. So well think on it...

-K

Well. Its been a few months, the holidays are over, and things are slowly getting back to normal. Essentially life gets put on hold in the month of December for me. Family fills my time and a form of hybernation seems to set in. Not that I sleep a lot (4-5 hours a night), but it seems things around me just kind of slow down.

So late January is here and Im thinking things will be back to normal soon. Ive started to work on post again. Had a very unorganized shoot last weekend. Didnt turn out well due to time constraints. I suppose the sun has to light the rest of the world as well. There was lots of discussion about where to go with your shooting, how I should learn from other photographers, and what not. It all made for an interesting day.

On the other side of things, for Christmas Santa brought me a new (20 year old) Hasselblad 503cx. Its my jump into medium format film photography. I grew up shooting 35mm slide film and this is just a larger version of it. All manual focus with a 1/500th sync speed. Its been a joy so far. I barrowed a medium format film scanner from this guy and have started to scan the developed film. I get a 30+ MP image with a wide dynamic range. I would imagine though that affordable digital backs will be on the way in the future as well. So all is moving forward again.