Kim St. Dennis Photography

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