-cg.
"Go early. Stay late. Get the uniform dirty..."
*each image here will link back to my Flickr page, highlighting more of my graduation images.
23 June 2007
*Graduations 2007.
"Or, how I worked my tail off photographing a boatload of graduations the past few weekends, including covering 5 ceremonies in less than 24 hours this weekend...
-cg.
"Go early. Stay late. Get the uniform dirty..."
*each image here will link back to my Flickr page, highlighting more of my graduation images.
-cg.
"Go early. Stay late. Get the uniform dirty..."
*each image here will link back to my Flickr page, highlighting more of my graduation images.
20 June 2007
My take on location lighting. Big & small...
*or the importance of knowing how to light. Period.
I'm old school. Brought up in the business shooting chromes, printing B/W on deadline, and finally years of scanning C-41 negs to transmit, before fully embracing digital systems. I truly believe that working photographers, especially editorial photographers, should know how to light. Even if it's not required (or expected) while on assignment or by a client, one should know how to drag in all the clamps, cables, power-packs, flash heads, stands, wires, Pocket-Wizard or other radio remote triggering systems, umbrellas, softboxes, grids, scrims, gobos, underpaid & overworked assistant(s), and all the other cumbersome & overpriced gadgets, gizmos, & whizz-bang toys we love to pack up & take on location. There's basically no end to the possibilities...
OK, this is gonna be fun...
The team jokester took his seat in front of me during headshots for the Rye HS Boys Varsity Football team's program during "Hell-Week" at Rye High School on Wednesday, August 24, 2005. (I used three portable Nikon SB's triggered by Pocket Wizards; one in the umbrella to my left, one clamped to the bottom of the subject's folding chair pointed at the background to "wash out" the seamless paper background taped to the stone wall, and one about 3 ft. high on a stand to the far right with a Stofen Dome. Camera was a Nikon D-1X with a Nikkor AF-S f/2.8 28mm - 70mm) Photographed in the shade beginning around 8AM before practice.
"A good lighter will always get work..." heard at a Jon Falk 'Adventures in Location Lighting Workshop' years ago.
*Working in a South African hospital operating room last year, I needed to put up another strobe where I couldn't attach a clamp along a bare wall and didn't have time to scour the hospital ward for an IV stand to attach a clamp, so I did the obvious. Don't try this at home with duct tape - Use Gaffer's tape, as it won't rip the paint off your or anbody else's walls... -cg.
I'll be adding samples & techniques of my images lit on location here, both big & small. Everything from small table-top set-ups, to temporarily installing four studio strobes in a college gymnasuim for a week long basketball tournament.
Here's a few recent favorites:
You can check out some of my recent work that's lit on location here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/chetgordon/sets/72157594382635984/
Check back often. Door prizes to be given.
-cg.
"Go early. Stay late. Get the uniform dirty..."
I'm old school. Brought up in the business shooting chromes, printing B/W on deadline, and finally years of scanning C-41 negs to transmit, before fully embracing digital systems. I truly believe that working photographers, especially editorial photographers, should know how to light. Even if it's not required (or expected) while on assignment or by a client, one should know how to drag in all the clamps, cables, power-packs, flash heads, stands, wires, Pocket-Wizard or other radio remote triggering systems, umbrellas, softboxes, grids, scrims, gobos, underpaid & overworked assistant(s), and all the other cumbersome & overpriced gadgets, gizmos, & whizz-bang toys we love to pack up & take on location. There's basically no end to the possibilities...
OK, this is gonna be fun...
The team jokester took his seat in front of me during headshots for the Rye HS Boys Varsity Football team's program during "Hell-Week" at Rye High School on Wednesday, August 24, 2005. (I used three portable Nikon SB's triggered by Pocket Wizards; one in the umbrella to my left, one clamped to the bottom of the subject's folding chair pointed at the background to "wash out" the seamless paper background taped to the stone wall, and one about 3 ft. high on a stand to the far right with a Stofen Dome. Camera was a Nikon D-1X with a Nikkor AF-S f/2.8 28mm - 70mm) Photographed in the shade beginning around 8AM before practice.
"A good lighter will always get work..." heard at a Jon Falk 'Adventures in Location Lighting Workshop' years ago.
*Working in a South African hospital operating room last year, I needed to put up another strobe where I couldn't attach a clamp along a bare wall and didn't have time to scour the hospital ward for an IV stand to attach a clamp, so I did the obvious. Don't try this at home with duct tape - Use Gaffer's tape, as it won't rip the paint off your or anbody else's walls... -cg.
I'll be adding samples & techniques of my images lit on location here, both big & small. Everything from small table-top set-ups, to temporarily installing four studio strobes in a college gymnasuim for a week long basketball tournament.
Here's a few recent favorites:
You can check out some of my recent work that's lit on location here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/chetgordon/sets/72157594382635984/
Check back often. Door prizes to be given.
-cg.
"Go early. Stay late. Get the uniform dirty..."
12 June 2007
"International colleagues, fixers, translators, guides, drivers, assistants, go-fers, or maybe just somebody to meet you at the airport..."
Wanted to highlight some of the wonderful friends & colleagues who've opened their homes, hearts, talents & shared experiences with me through the years. None of my international work, both for clients & personal work abroad would have been possible without the help of the fine people I've grown to know in my travels... -cg.
Vincent Opondo Odour. "Fixer." Translator. Guide. Air-Traffic Conroller. All-Around Good-Guy. Vincent is my main man in Kenya. I can't say enough good things about Vincent. He's bent over backwards for me on numerous visits to Kenya since 2001. I first met Vincent when I was documenting a mission for client Operation Smile in Nairobi, Kenya back in November of 2001. We instantly hit it off, and have remained friends since. I've returned to Kenya three additional times, and each visit has been special for making photographs, thanks to Vincent's help and guidance throughout his country. My relationship with Vincent is very special, and besides he's an air-traffic controller working in one of Africa's busiest aviation corridors at Jomo Kenyatta International & Wilson Airports in Nairobi and Moi International Airport in Mombasa, Kenya. He absolutely knows everybody! And he's got the craziest, high pitched laugh, almost like a squealing pig...! oh yea, and he drinks his beer warm. -cg.
My friend Ivan Shapovalov and I riding (slowly) on the front of diesel locomotive along the coastline of historic Lake Baikal in the Irkutsk Region of Siberia, Russian Federation on Wednesday, June 15, 2005. This was about the midway point of our 11-day journey on the Trans-Siberian Railway across the Russian Federation.
*Ivan Shapovalov is one such person. It was a mind-bending experience to travel across Russia two years ago with Ivan on the Trans-Siberian Railway. Besides being a first class guy, he's a dynamite photographer for the Russian Railway Co., JSCo. I'd initially met Ivan & his wife Natasha in the summers of 1999 & 2000, while documenting facial corrective missions for client Operation Smile in his hometown of Tomsk, in central Siberia. We remained in touch via the internet & set up this working vacation for me for June of 2005. -cg.
More on the 11-day Trans-Sib journey here:
www.chetgordon.com/search.asp?searchfield=trans-sib&Submit=search
Vincent Opondo Odour. "Fixer." Translator. Guide. Air-Traffic Conroller. All-Around Good-Guy. Vincent is my main man in Kenya. I can't say enough good things about Vincent. He's bent over backwards for me on numerous visits to Kenya since 2001. I first met Vincent when I was documenting a mission for client Operation Smile in Nairobi, Kenya back in November of 2001. We instantly hit it off, and have remained friends since. I've returned to Kenya three additional times, and each visit has been special for making photographs, thanks to Vincent's help and guidance throughout his country. My relationship with Vincent is very special, and besides he's an air-traffic controller working in one of Africa's busiest aviation corridors at Jomo Kenyatta International & Wilson Airports in Nairobi and Moi International Airport in Mombasa, Kenya. He absolutely knows everybody! And he's got the craziest, high pitched laugh, almost like a squealing pig...! oh yea, and he drinks his beer warm. -cg.
My friend Ivan Shapovalov and I riding (slowly) on the front of diesel locomotive along the coastline of historic Lake Baikal in the Irkutsk Region of Siberia, Russian Federation on Wednesday, June 15, 2005. This was about the midway point of our 11-day journey on the Trans-Siberian Railway across the Russian Federation.
*Ivan Shapovalov is one such person. It was a mind-bending experience to travel across Russia two years ago with Ivan on the Trans-Siberian Railway. Besides being a first class guy, he's a dynamite photographer for the Russian Railway Co., JSCo. I'd initially met Ivan & his wife Natasha in the summers of 1999 & 2000, while documenting facial corrective missions for client Operation Smile in his hometown of Tomsk, in central Siberia. We remained in touch via the internet & set up this working vacation for me for June of 2005. -cg.
More on the 11-day Trans-Sib journey here:
www.chetgordon.com/search.asp?searchfield=trans-sib&Submit=search
03 June 2007
"Gadgets, gizmos, remotes, & what'chamacall-its..."
Remote camera situations. or putting the camera where you want it when you can't be there to fire it...
To make the image at right of the former fire chief's funeral, I mounted a remote Nikon D-1X with 10.5mm fisheye to a Bogen Magic Arm and secured by a Super Clamp to the top rail of the bucket on tower ladder fire truck. Trigered by Pocket Wizards, with receiver attached in the hotshoe. also used a 3 foot plastic tie-down to run through the camera mounting plate and the trucks halogen light handle for added peace of mind for those us down on the ground...
Two-day NY State Track & Field Championships in Kingston, NY. June 8-9, 2007.
*This top image was made with a remote Nikon D-1X (bottom photo) on the ground. Kept reminding the track official at left to not step on the camera and please, please, please always catch the pole after a vaulter has jumped and watch out for the bouncing crossbar too. I set up a floor remote Nikon D-1X with a 17mm-35mm zoom lens, triggered by Pocket Wizards at the base of the pole vault pit during the NY State Track and Field Championships in Kingston on Saturday, June 8, 2007. this is the same rig used to make the hurdler photo a few weeks ago in the following post, but with a different lens. -cg.
Here's a similar photo that resulted from the following setup a few weeks earlier:
Hurdlers compete in the 110 meter high hurdles at Crusader Relays at Monroe-Woodbury High School on Saturday, May 5, 2007. Times Herald-Record/Chet Gordon
The remote Nikon D-1X I put up, (actually down) is seen in the bottom photo on the ground for a low angle photo at a HS track meet a few weeks ago. I'm hoping for better results at a bigger meet. Remote Nikon D-1X w/ 14mm set-up approximately 3' from lane 1 of high hurdles during the Crusader Relays at Monroe-Woodbury High School on Saturday, May 5, 2007. *It was such a gorgeous day, I decided to try a low angle remote. fired with Pocket Wizards. will continue to use remotes at upcoming sports assignments, including my company Canon 1-D's, which have faster motor drives than my personal Nikon D-1X bodies. stay tuned. -cg.
To make the image at right of the former fire chief's funeral, I mounted a remote Nikon D-1X with 10.5mm fisheye to a Bogen Magic Arm and secured by a Super Clamp to the top rail of the bucket on tower ladder fire truck. Trigered by Pocket Wizards, with receiver attached in the hotshoe. also used a 3 foot plastic tie-down to run through the camera mounting plate and the trucks halogen light handle for added peace of mind for those us down on the ground...
Two-day NY State Track & Field Championships in Kingston, NY. June 8-9, 2007.
*This top image was made with a remote Nikon D-1X (bottom photo) on the ground. Kept reminding the track official at left to not step on the camera and please, please, please always catch the pole after a vaulter has jumped and watch out for the bouncing crossbar too. I set up a floor remote Nikon D-1X with a 17mm-35mm zoom lens, triggered by Pocket Wizards at the base of the pole vault pit during the NY State Track and Field Championships in Kingston on Saturday, June 8, 2007. this is the same rig used to make the hurdler photo a few weeks ago in the following post, but with a different lens. -cg.
Here's a similar photo that resulted from the following setup a few weeks earlier:
Hurdlers compete in the 110 meter high hurdles at Crusader Relays at Monroe-Woodbury High School on Saturday, May 5, 2007. Times Herald-Record/Chet Gordon
The remote Nikon D-1X I put up, (actually down) is seen in the bottom photo on the ground for a low angle photo at a HS track meet a few weeks ago. I'm hoping for better results at a bigger meet. Remote Nikon D-1X w/ 14mm set-up approximately 3' from lane 1 of high hurdles during the Crusader Relays at Monroe-Woodbury High School on Saturday, May 5, 2007. *It was such a gorgeous day, I decided to try a low angle remote. fired with Pocket Wizards. will continue to use remotes at upcoming sports assignments, including my company Canon 1-D's, which have faster motor drives than my personal Nikon D-1X bodies. stay tuned. -cg.
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