RSS
 

Archive for May, 2012

orbis® ring flash episode 006 – from Prep to Page

30 May

Sit back, put your feet up and follow orbis™ shooter, *PDN competition winner* and adventure photographer Graeme Murray from prep, to packing, to shooting an editorial mountain-biking assignment. Watch Graeme on assignment 6 hours into the deep New Zealand rain forest as he carries all his gear in, through and out. See his location lighting setups and the results. Final scenes feature the beautiful Carena West filmed on a Nikon D90 with a Voigtlander 58mm f1.4 II.

AirSoft Chile’s “BIG GAME” 250 Soldiers 4 Classic Military Vehicles 1 Chopper Pics Here: www.flickr.com Camera: Nikon D90 – Sigma 10-20mm

 
 

Top Model Interview with Sarah Deanna

30 May

Sarah Deanna and I got together last week and sat on the rooftop of her Soho loft to discuss her career. She explains what helped her in the beginning when she started out and was testing with new photographers, giving some great advice to those of you starting out in the industry and working with agency models.

I remember the first time I met Sarah Deanna. She came to a casting I held for a NYC handbag client about 4 years ago.  I loved her comp card and had wanted to work with her for a long time before I met her. What struck me the most about her was not only was she really beautiful, she was a lovely person. Warm and compassionate, she really appeared to be beyond the outer beauty notion of gorgeous…..she was a awesome girl all around. We’ve worked together on a number of projects since our first meeting and there’s a great chemistry between us. She takes direction well, can move like a champ and she’s as professional as a model can be. The camera loves her, no doubt! She’s done editorials for Italian Vogue, German Vogue, French, L’Official, Amica and Elle. She’s walked runway shows for Dolce Gabbana, D & G, Oscar, Versace, Armani, Donna Karan and Calvin Klein. And her partial client list includes Stella McCartney, Neiman Marcus and Versace! She’s definitely risen to the TOP of her field!!

It was fun to sit with someone in our industry and talk about how she was discovered and how she has made it to the top! And how she wrote a book while doing it! The thing I love most about Sarah Deanna is that she gives back to the industry, helping other models learn how to achieve the weight necessary in the modeling industry in a healthy manner. Her book Supermodel YOU is coming out next year by Hay House! You can follow her on Twitter @SupermodelYOU! I’m so proud of her and I’m excited to share with you guys this short but sweet little interview we did. This is the first interview video and I promise more to come!


Fashion Photography Blog – A Resource for Fashion Photographers, Created by One.

 
Comments Off on Top Model Interview with Sarah Deanna

Posted in Uncategorized

 

Google Glass – The Experience

30 May

While at the Google+ Photographer’s Conference this past Tuesday and Wednesday I had the great fortune of being able to try the prototype of Google Glasses from Project Glass. These glasses provide a heads up display of sorts and also include a built in camera allowing you to capture some amazing photos and videos with a perspective that really hasn’t existed to date. So what were they like?

Trying out the Google Glasses prototype


They weren’t too heavy and they were very easy to wear. Considering what is packed into this small form factor it’s tough to believe how much functionality you actually get out of them. They include a camera, a heads-up screen to review photos and review augmented reality data tied to what you’re seeing and where you are (this later part was not seen nor tested). Unfortunately for me I’m left-eye dominant and the glasses were for a right-eye dominant person. For this reason to really see much I had to wince, closing my left eye.

Much of the recent news about them center on how bad they look, but they could be far worse and given the prospect of what information and value they provide it may be a small price to pay. Clearly given the Google+ Photographer’s Conference was centered around photography much of the discussion about them focused on their photographic and video potential. The Google Glasses photo examples shown during the presentation showed off the unique perspective they provide. Having both of the photographers hands in the scene is one noticeable difference between what is produced with the glasses versus a standard camera, but it is ultimately the point of view perspective (head height, looking down, around and with a wide field of view) that makes them stand out.

Wincing to see the display with my right eye due to the fact I’m left-eye dominant


The resolution of the images, types of sensor used and the manner in which the photos are downloaded wasn’t discussed, but  to be honest the technical details were easily lost in the moment. It was a very overwhelming moment to see this technology at the prototype stage. It’s so radically different that it takes your breath away when you see it and handle it. As you handle the glasses you’re overwhelmed with the feeling that you’re holding the future in your hands. It’s very sci-fi feeling.

When I originally read the news about them I was skeptical, but after trying them on for a short test drive I think they could be great. The one thing that would be weird though is if everyone is wearing them and you’re taking pictures of each other you’ll have the glasses on versus having a more natural glass free presentation of your subjects. As a one-off it’s cool, but if everyone is running around with them on I’m not sure if people will really want the people photos they’d produce. Who knows. I’d rather deal with that dilemma and reap the rewards they provide than not.

Bonus photo provided of Peter Hurley in amazement as he learns about Google Glass from Dr. Marc Levoy. Note Peter was kind enough to take the photos of me wearing the glasses.

Photographer Peter Hurley taking in the Google Glasses demo by Dr. Marc Levoy


Project Glass: One Day (promo video)

Later in the day I had the good fortune of meeting Sergey Brin who was wearing his personal copy of Google Glasses

Sergey Brin wearing his Google Glasses at the Googe+ Photographer’s Conference in San Francisco on May 23, 2012

Copyright Jim M. Goldstein, All Rights Reserved

Google Glass – The Experience

flattr this!



JMG-Galleries – Jim M. Goldstein Photography

 
Comments Off on Google Glass – The Experience

Posted in Equipment

 

Comic Style Painting with Photoshop

30 May

Visit: erickenji.deviantart.com Download (High Quality): erickenji.deviantart.com Tools: Photoshop CS3 + Mouse/Tablet [Wacom Bamboo Fun Small] Credits: Sketch – Ed Benes Colors – Eric Kenji Aoyagi
Video Rating: 4 / 5

 

Photographers: The Good, The Bad & The Ugly

30 May

As a photographer I consider myself fortunate to be alive during an amazing time where a resurgence in photography, thanks to digital, has paralleled an unprecedented revolution in communication, thanks to the Internet.  The Internet has facilitated a constant buzz and chatter relating to everything photography enabling us to learn, gain inspiration and even compete. Every moment of the day we are bombarded with photography whether we’ve taken and shared our photo(s) or someone else has shared their photo(s) with us in the news, on a forum, on a social media site, etc. If you take a moment to put that Internet chatter and buzz on pause and strip away our cameras and computers we are left to see the individuals behind it all. We may not literally see every photographer worldwide, but in our day to day interaction we can see the qualities these people bring to the photography community. We see human nature at its best, worst and ugliest form.

Over the past year I’ve had a couple of experiences that warranted a discussion on photographer ethics, but I put it off. I put off the discussion because it was so disheartening. I was witness to the bad and the ugly, but recently I experienced the good… in fact the very good. Given the nature of my most recent experience I felt I could share my stories so that there was some perspective if not balance. After all I didn’t want to leave you feeling as disheartened as I had and I wanted to highlight an example of where photographers acted their best, exemplifying how our community could be and should be… all the time.

The Bad & The Ugly
Less than a year ago I was in one of my favorite locations, Glacier National Park. It was one of the few times I’ve had the opportunity to visit Logan Pass, home to amazing high altitude meadows. The scenery in this location is jaw dropping with craggy mountain peaks of exposed rock towering above fragile green meadows filled with alpine flowers and softly running creeks and waterfalls. At certain times of the year visitors are confined to boardwalks to minimize foot traffic across the meadow helping them stay healthy and productive.

photographer behaving badly
On the morning I was visiting I witnessed a photographer walking across an area outside the permitted boardwalk, along a perpendicular stone ledge (non continuous) that stretched out to the small valley below. He was returning to the boardwalk. As it so happens the valley below is home to a highly sought after waterfall to photograph. I approached the photographer to let him know that the meadow was closed in case he missed the signs and to make small talk as opposed to being confrontational. Here the wild ride begins and to keep it short I’ll summarize the events that transpired in our conversation:

  • When discussing the meadow closure the photographer felt he knew better than the park service stating the meadow does just fine with foot traffic, after all he’s been visiting the park for decades and there has been no impact to the meadow that he’s seen.
  • When asking where the highly sought after waterfall was I was told it was still under tens of feet of snow given the time of year. This turned out to be a lie as the waterfall could be seen if you knew where to look. I was able to see it later on my hike up the boardwalk.
  • When making small talk to learn about his photography and workshops I was told a fake name and given a fake web site URL
  • When asking about good alternate photography subjects, not subject to the meadow closure, I was pointed to subjects in the opposite direction of the highly sought after waterfall and told times that were polar opposite to when the best time to take photos truly was. If it was a sunset location I was told to go there at sunrise and vice versa.

Fortunately on this trip I had enough information and experience to know that the photographer I had run into was unscrupulous and untrustworthy. It was a very unfortunate encounter, but one that was an eye opener to a side of photography I’ve rarely seen.

The Good (If Not Great)
Recently I ventured out to Lassen National Forest to photograph the annular solar eclipse. The goal was to see the moon centered over the sun revealing a perfect ring of fire around the moon. I had an idea of where to go to make this happen, but not an exact location. Referencing a NASA Google Maps mashup I found a stretch of highway that would allow me to get well positioned to get the photo I had in mind. After driving 5 ½ hours I knew I was in the right place after seeing a small cluster of photographers and astronomy enthusiasts set up at a turnout. What made me realize this was the spot? Easy the astronomy enthusiasts had gigantic telescopes, up to 16”, set up.

cameras and tripods setup to see the May 2012 annular eclipse from northern California

I arrived with an hour to go before the eclipse began, but after I set up my camera I realized I was not going to be capturing any photos worth my while. My plan to stack two vari-ND filters on my 400mm lens was a failed plan as it was introducing too much reflection and ghosting of the sun. Before I gave up hope though I talked with the people around me who knew what they were doing. While I didn’t know any of the people around me, they were well versed in photographing solar eclipses and I was able to glean enough information from them allowing me to create a makeshift solar filter from a pair of eclipse glasses I received from a friend. By holding the filter over my lense I was one step closer to getting a decent shot.

2 minutes later another photographer came over to set up his camera. Space filled up quickly at the rest stop so I offered to remove my extra tripod & camera so he could set up. We got to talking and low and behold he lived about a mile from me. Seeing that I was holding up a filter to my camera by hand he offered to give me a piece of thick paper, blue painters tape and scissors. I instantly took him up on his offer and made an impromptu custom fitted solar filter from my eclipse glasses. It was because of the generosity of several people (my friend providing the eclipse glasses, a stranger providing various supplies and the collective knowledge of the people around me) that allowed me to successfully photograph my first solar eclipse.

Final Thoughts
Back when I was in Glacier National Park it seemed that the ethos of fellow photographers were as bad as they could be. My outlook on the photography community was at an all time low. After my time in Lassen my faith was completely restored. Yes there are always bad apples out there, but at the same time there are some incredible people who are always happy to help.

Over the past year I’ve continued to probe and experiment to see exactly what is the state of ethos and camaraderie amongst photographers and along the way I’ve learned a few important things that lay the foundation to the “good” (if not great):

  1. It always pays to talk to your neighboring photographers.
  2. Be as generous to others as you’d like others to be with you
  3. Never assume anything when sizing up a photographer as you never know who might be setting up next to you.
  4. Always share your contact info to swap notes and see each others photos after the shoot
  5. Don’t get so caught up in your shoot that you lose sight of having fun and making new friends.

So while there’s always a presence of photographers that are good, bad and ugly, the ratio of these types of photographers is dependent on you. The more generous and considerate you are with others, the more generous and considerate others will be with you and those they encounter on their future outings.

Copyright Jim M. Goldstein, All Rights Reserved

Photographers: The Good, The Bad & The Ugly

flattr this!



JMG-Galleries – Jim M. Goldstein Photography

 
Comments Off on Photographers: The Good, The Bad & The Ugly

Posted in Equipment

 

Wanted: Experienced writers to contribute to dpreview.com

29 May

shared:DPRlogo.png

Are you an experienced writer with a passion for photography? Do you want to use your skills to contribute to the world’s #1 photography website? If so, we want to hear from you. To expand on the reviews, previews and news stories that are the core of the site, we’re looking for external contributors with a proven track record of producing top-quality content to deliver a diverse range of other articles. These include photographic technique tutorials, equipment buyers’ guides, book reviews, and everything in between.

News: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
Comments Off on Wanted: Experienced writers to contribute to dpreview.com

Posted in Uncategorized

 

Nintendo Wii U Gameplay Revealed and 3DS June Update! (Excite Bike + Pokedex 3D)

25 May

Nintendo Wii U Gameplay Revealed and 3DS June Update! (Excite Bike + Pokedex 3D) Note: Excite Bike 3D is Free until July 7, 2011 and Pokedex 3D is Nintendo’s gift to you. We start off this video with a link to my friend MarioCenter’s channel containing the recap of Nintendo’s E3 Press Conference in case you missed it. After that LeftyHeat takes a look at all of the games, features, and services added in the June Update for the Nintendo 3DS. It seems like 2011 will be a great year for the 3DS and more info on the WiiU will be released over the next few months. Be sure to subscribe to stay updated: www.youtube.com Note: All Games and Trademarks are Copyright of Their Respective Owners. Nintendo Wii U Console Gameplay Luigi’s Masion 2 3D Super Mario 3D Mario Kart 3DS Nintendo 3DS Internet Browser Excite bike and Pokedex 3DS Fee
Video Rating: 0 / 5

 

Hold On

25 May

Some cool visual art images:

Hold On
visual art
Image by cybertoad

Red Iron Gate
visual art
Image by cybertoad

videobox
visual art
Image by patrizia_ferri

 
Comments Off on Hold On

Posted in Photographs

 

My Design On T-Shirt

25 May

My friend, Sam, recently bought a DTG inkjet printer that can print high resolution full color design on T-shirt. By the way, DTG stands for Direct To Garment. I have made some design last week for my Zazzle account and thought I might as well give it a try on Sam’s DTG inkjet printer. The kitty in my design was my previous rescued, unfortunately he did not make it and died after 2 days due to serious flu infection. He was about few months old at that time. My design is pretty simple, just a bit retouching on the photo mostly the background and add some text in it, that’s all, pretty simple and straight forward which you can do it easily using any photo retouching software such as Adobe Photoshop. Sam has 3 dogs and all of them are pedigree. They are Pin Pin ( Golden Retriever ), Pi Pi ( Poodle ) and the last one is Pau Pau ( Beagle ). Pin Pin is pregnant and we will bring her to my vet probably tomorrow for scanning. The DTG inkjet printer is awesome but it is very expensive ! The colors on the shirt are just so stunning and vivid. Unfortunately I am not sure how long will it last on shirt. The better quality of the shirt the longer the graphic and colors will stay on. I have washed my shirt ( folded inside out ) 3 times now with washing machine and they still look good to me. I will try to wash it until 10 or 20 times and will compare it to the first print out so we can really judge the difference! If you would like to know more about DTG inkjet printers please visit

 

Gorey Castle – Amazing 3D display

25 May

Evan Grant brings buildings to life. As part of Jerseys recent Branchage Festival, the 29-year-old founder of Shoreditch-based arts and technology collective Seeper – www.seeper.com projected ultra-bright video on to the walls of the third-century Gorey Castle

Leave a Like for a sick MW3 Editing Pack!! —————————————————————– Post a comment of what you want to see in the next pack! —————————————————————– I’ve been working for some hours to get you this asap, but I just love MW3 too much and have been playing it a lot. I’m first prestige now and got some clips so I’m thinking of doing Prestige Montages. Original idea by Spratty. I’ll also be editing a sick MW3 montage for Synergy MJC and Synergy zejim and I will be doing a awesome quality tutorial, so stay tuned for more videos soon! —————————————————————– Link to the pack! www.gamefront.com www.gamefront.com www.gamefront.com www.gamefront.com —————————————————————– This pack includes: – MW3 Sniper Gunsounds HQ – Motiontracked MW3 Cinematics, ready to use! – Regular MW3 Cinematics – World’s first MW3 Greenscreens!! —————————————————————– Music: Approaching Nirvana – Sanryd Their channel: youtu.be iTunes: bit.ly Buy directly from us: bit.ly —————————————————————– Follow me on Twitter: www.twitter.com ”Like” me on Facebook: www.facebook.com Watch my livestream on Justin.tv: nl.justin.tv
Video Rating: 4 / 5