Sheila

Special Delivery

Here we go.

Well, we’re waiting at the gate to board our flight to Tokyo. Blog posts may be sparse for a couple of weeks, but I promise to make up for it when I return in a couple weeks.

Shuttle Trip

It’s always been one of my dreams to see a Space Shuttle launch. Tried a few years ago with my best friend andrew but they delayed two weeks so that was a bust
Just landed in Orlando for attempt two tomorrow night. No computer or real camera throught Saturday.
I’ll post when I can from my phone.
Follow me on twitter. @billwadman

Tom in Type 55

The 15 or so frames of Polaroid 55 I have left are now past due, so I’ve got to use them or lose them.  So last night while I was shooting Tom, I pulled out the 4×5 and shot a frame.

God I love this stuff.  I’ve got a renewed sadness about it’s demise.

Trouble Shooting.

So I’ve been hired to shoot some portraits of alumni for a business school catalog.  They’re going to be a cover group shot and some individual interior ones, so they’ve got to be good. While the pictures are nothing challenging, the setting might be, so I thought I’d write a quick post on my thought process about this kind of thing.

Most of the stuff I’ve seen that they’ve used in the past have been daylight shots outside on campus looking locations.  However the school is in California so my idea is to shoot outdoors with the facade of the New York Stock Exchange building as our background.  Sounds good in theory until I tell you that the 3 people can’t get there until 6:30, which in NYC this time of year means that we’re shooting in the dark.

My initial answer to this was to use a high enough iso and slow enough shutter speed to expose the hopefully well lit building in the background.  Then use a speedlight or two into an umbrella or equivalent to light the subjects in the foreground.  This setup might work fine for one person, but I’m worried that I won’t be able to stop down the lens enough with the above contraints to keep all 3 people in focus unless they’re standing shoulder to shoulder. Plus, the building 50 feet or more back will at best be a nice bokeh blur.

So, my current idea, and this may change by tomorrow night, is to shoot the building from the same position separately and on a tripod before or after I finish with the people, so that I have it in case I want to replace the background with a more in focus and properly exposed shot.  In effect, separating the one difficult shot into two easier ones.  Though I’m not sold that this will work.

If I had a big strobe, softbox, and battery setup I’d feel more secure in the situation, but alas, I don’t.  I haven’t had the chance to go take some test shots to see if it’ll work, both because the weather has sucked, and regardless of what they light is like, I’ve got to make the best of it, so what’s the difference of knowing the situation now or tomorrow.

Then there is the permit thing. Legally doing what I’m going to be doing, I shouldn’t need a shooting permit since it’s a small group for a short amount of time with only handheld gear (I spent a half hour tonight reading the latest rule PDF).  That said, we will be shooting in the financial district which is more restrictive and not all cops know what the rules are. So I’m probably going to get on the train and go in and try to get an optional permit signed in the morning for the corner I ‘think’ we’ll end up on.

I’ll let you know how it goes.

Another Twilight Photo

Silly Photography Bans

Here is a photograph of my friend and author Mary Elizabeth Williams in the Pinkberry on 32nd street.  As you can see, it’s taken from outside, and through a dirty window.  It’s also perhaps the worst photography of mine that you’ll ever see, but I digress.

If you’re not aware of Pinkberry, it may be because they currently only exist in LA and NYC.  It’s a frozen yogurt place which as it turns out seems to be a knock-off of a Korean place called Red Mango. They seemed to have copied them right down to the color/fruit name and even the Cap’n Crunch topping (for those into Pinkberry, my sister Melissa is so addicted that she has created a blog about it complete with an AWFUL digicam shot of me).  But as New York Magazine said recently, ‘pinkberry stinkberry’, this is not about the yogurt or terrible pics of me, but rather the fact that they’ve got a big sign on the glass at the entrance of a camera with a slash through it and ‘No Photography Allowed’.  It’s right below the ‘No Pets’ and ‘No Shoes, no Shirt, no Service’.

I can imagine a swanky restaurant saying “no photography”, or inside a sensitive government building (whatever that means), or at a museum where the art is sensitive to light and stupid people don’t know how to turn off their flash, but a frozen yogurt shop? This trend of silly photography bans has swung WAY too far to the right.

A few weeks ago I was standing on the platform for the F train at 23rd street and took a picture of the empty platform with my Leica and a guy behind me said, “You know you’re not allowed to take pictures, right?”  And I said, “Actually I am, the subway ban didn’t get passed” and he said that a few weeks ago he saw some guy get ticket for taking a picture.  I did some research last night and you are allowed to take pictures in the subway.  See Section 1050.9 (b) of the rules.

The problem is that everyone is ill informed, especially the police and security people.  So try to talk your way out of trouble by telling them you know the rules better than they do. As long as you have confusion on the subject, people are too scared to cross the line.

And now it extends to Pinkberry apparently.  Seriously, does anyone else think the world is going nuts, or is it just me?

Brent – Red Horse Cafe series

Stuck in ft lauderdale

Damn the low ceiling at LGA