Monthly Archives: January 2010

Air Travel

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PPOC just sent the following. If you are a professional photographer traveling at this time to the US (while carry-on is forbidden from Canada to the US), then you may bring your equipment in a dedicated photography container made for that purpose, and the following applies:

  1. Ensure that you have some sort of Professional Credentials proving that you are a “professional photographer”.
  2. Make sure that there are NO OTHER ITEMS in your camera bag. I am told that if you have a snack, clothing item or ANYTHING other than camera gear, your case may be considered “CARRY ON”.
  3. Print the list of exemptions [to the prohibition, from the CATSA web site] and bring it with you as a reference in case of a dispute.
  4. Arrive early. Persons who attempt to board a plane at the last minute fall under suspicious behaviour and may be given less consideration.
  5. Ensure that you observe all size and weight restrictions with your bag. There are physical limitations to the size and weight of a bag that can be securely stored on an airplane. This may vary between aircraft.

So that’s nice. No snacks. Are my headache pills OK, or will the government now tell me how to pack a camera bag?

I have asked CATSA for a ruling on my equipment and I await (and await, and await) a response from their “customer satisfaction group”. Doubleplusgood!

Chiaroscuro

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A word about a technique that has been used for centuries: Ciaroscuro. Or “light-dark”. Meaning the interplay of, often dramatic, light and dark in a picture.

This is not new; artists did the same in 1490. Chiaroscuro helps introduce depth, dimension, into two-dimensional pictures.

Traditionally, Chiaroscuro refers to any darks and lights introducing such modelling; in photography,  we more often take it to refer to strong contrasts between the dark and light areas.  But in essence, proper lighting is all about chiaroscuro.

And shadows do not only introduce dimension. They also introduce mood, and in contrasty pictures like the one above, drama.

Give yourself an assignment: in your next picture, play with light and dark a bit, and use them to produce depth, character, and mood. Consider using black and white.

And in response to the B/W request:

Tidyness is godliness.

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Flashzebra offers many handy strobe accessories. Together with my Honl accessories (such as the speedstraps, gels, snoot, grids and bounce cards) I have an outfit that is at the same time more professional, more convenient, and more portable.

I talked about the speedlite cables recently. My latest addition is these: small holders for Pocketwizards that allow you to tie them onto a light stand.

This means that your outfit looks more professional, and the antenna points up, but it also means that I no longer need to hang the PWs by the cable. This has always been annoying to me. Problem solved!

Detail view:

Easy: they screw onto the PW at the back and you tie them onto the light stand with a durable elastic. Much recommended.

What is in my bag?

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Further to my recent post on the silliness of the new travel restrictions (punish the innocent, further chip away at our quality of life, while doing nothing to increase security), here’s what I carry in my bag when I travel. This, plus the 1Ds MkIII camera I took the picture with, and my Macbook Air laptop.

Now, how many of those items would a security screener actually know? Let alone understand, and allow through? I mean, even when today’s ridiculous restrictions are lifted?

Snow

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I have a reminder for you of how to expose for snow.

Snow and sand (yes, beaches to a camera look just like snowscapes) are brighter than your average scene.

So to get them to look natural, i.e. to get them to look bright, you need to tell the camera it is looking at a bright scene.

Unless you do this, the scene will look dark.  The camera, by virtue of its reflective light meter technology, tries to make everything look mid-grey (we call this “18% grey”). Like this:

Not bad. But unless you want the dark look for effect, it’s not good either; it was brighter than that outside my second home, the other day.

With +1 stop exposure compensation (that’s the plus/minus button), it looks like this:

And that is better. Your guideline:

  1. Snow should look white, not grey.
  2. The histogram should have a peak (the snow) on the very right, just before the end of the graph.

So use Exposure Compensation, have fun, and dress warmly.

Or if your thing is a beach, don’t dress at all.

You get to tell me.

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So Canada has gone even crazier than the USA in cowardly kowtowing to the terrorist morons.

A clear terrorist suspect tries to blow up a plane with his underwear, and in response our Canadian masters decide the same day that we cannot bring hand luggage on airplanes, must not use our iPods, cannot read books, and may not use the washroom. Ludicrous. Rex Murphy calls it exactly right, here.

But worse. This is real, folks. Much as I resent the decrease in my liberties for no other reason than our moronic and kneejerk-oriented masters’ cowardice, I also have very real practical problems with this. Which is why I am asking for your advice.

I am planning another US trip in late February. Meaning I fly to the West Coast and teach pros and emerging pros how to use flash properly. So this means I need to bring my standard camera bag. This contains a Canon 1Ds MkIII, a 7D, a 70-200 f/1.8, a 16-35 f/2.8, a 24-70 f/2.8, a 35mm f/1.4, a 50mm f/1.4, four speedlights, pocketwizards, and more. Total value around $25,000. I guess I could cut it down to $20,000 if I really tried.

So at Christmas, some idiot religious kid tries to blow up his underwear, and we react by making it illegal for me to bring the above into the cabin. So now I need to check this.

Right. Meaning a very good chance it will not arrive, or will not arrive in one piece. And I mean 50-50. Luggage gets scanned and there are no video cameras down below where the unionised workers open it. Who knows. And we have all seen how luggage is thrown around.

So what do I do? Go, and run a 50-50 chance of losing $25,000 (and getting $100 back from the airline)? Or just cancel my US appearances forthwith and change my market from 300 million North Americans to 33m Canadians? Or drive, and increase my prices eightfold to cover the 8 day drive?

Well, I see no solution. I think professional photographers can no longer travel. It seems to me that we have given Al Qaeda yet another significant and easy victory, totally unnecessarily. This is not Al Qaeda’s fault: it is ours. Our “leaders'” fault.

The odd thing is that I have seen virtually no-one agree with the idiocy. And yet it thunders along, destroying our way of life, bit by bit.

Seller beware

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Since I now have three cameras, and only need two, I am selling my Canon 1D Mark III (since I have a 1Ds MkIII and a  7D as well).

Great camera, as new, low shutter, works perfectly, original box, not the “fixed, blue dot” version but a newer version, all good. $2,750, which is great value.

But seller beware. I’ve put this up on Kijiji and Craigslist, and particularly Craigslist is already engendering scammers who want “the item” sent to Nebraska, etc, and they will pay for “the item” with Paypal etc.

I’m afraid it’s cash only for me… Paypal does seem to bring out unpleasantness!

Here’s a pic my colleague Danielle made of me with it the other day (click for large):

That picture also shows that the megapixel thing is silly. The 1D MkIII is an 11 Mp camera.

That image is scaled way down to 1200 pixels long; the original is much more detailed still. 11 Mp is enough for huge prints (smallest prints I ever make are 13″x19″).

Believe me, more megapixels are all very well, but you’ll never need them. And they come at a price. 15 MB for a RAW from this camera; 30 MB for a RAW from my 1Ds. Megapixels are to a large extent marketing.

Power Tip

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Quick tip for today: you do not need to power down your camera after each use. When timed-out, it uses the same minimal amount of power that it uses when you turn it “off” (which is not in fact really “off” either).  So no need to keep that switch moving: Just leave your camera on all day, and only turn it off at the end of the day, or when you pack it into the bag.

You're in business

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I just read an article about a New Mexico-based photographer who was sued (and lost) for refusing to photograph a same-sex wedding. Something about her “belief system” (not sure how believing comes into taking photos, and not sure how systematic such beliefs are).

I hope it is needless to say that I will be more than happy to shoot anyone’s ceremonies and events, from conservative old-money weddings to leather fetish parties to same-sex ceremonies – hell, if people are having a good time I’d be delighted to photograph it:

But this case does raise an issue: when you go into business as a photographer, do realise that you are in business, and that ordinary business laws apply to you. Copyright, model releases, responsibility for damage, lawsuits such as the one above: all these are worthy of consideration.

So if you wish to do business as a photographer, my advice is to have

  • Good written agreements
  • Stated Dispute resolution policies
  • Model releases
  • Disclaimers
  • Stated policies, and so on.
  • And liability insurance.

Relatively small effort, and you never know when you may need them.

OK, I’ll shoot anything fun: after the break, a few more sample shots of that recent event, but first the legal Disclaimer: if you are likely to be offended by slight lack of clothing, do not proceed past this point.

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Snap

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Photography is about composition/subject + moment + light. I reckon I got several of these right here:

From earlier this year. Using a 35mm lens on a 1.3 crop camera (meaning it’s 50mm), set to f/2.8 at 1/160th second.

Moral of the story: a “standard” lens is great. This is equivalent to a 50mm lens. Do take lots of pictures and do not forget the “moment” aspect.