Since they opened in the Spring, the Annenberg Space for Photography has been offering us a chance to hear from working photographers, speaking about their work, and sharing images, both part of our visual collective and some so personal you gain a new insight into the mind behind the camera.
What a great way to start your Thursday evening. And it’s free. And Parking in the tony Century City complex is only a dollar.
Each photographers name below links to their websites so you can check out their work.

With speakers like Steve McCurry,
@ Damon Webster

Dan Winters,
@ Damon Webster

Matt Black,
@ Damon Webster

Emilio Morenatti
@ Damon Webster

and a huge list of upcoming lectures you can see here.

Like Pulitzer prize winner, David Hume Kennerly, this Thursday.

© Damon Webster

The photographic community has been given a gift of a venue where the you can hear from photographers themselves, the stories behind their work. Perhaps you can get a personality check that may influence your perception of an image. Or learn a tip about how you can pursue a similar path.
As they are videotaping each lecture, it appears that the lecture will be made available to the public at some point in the future. We don’t like telling you about stuff that you can’t take advantage of, but we know this particular situation will change.

We talk about this space from time to time because it is a unique venue in Los Angeles, that has brought a ton to the world of photography.

This is what the venue looks like, and we think there is a chair for you in there.

The real world this camera bag lives in and our would are, honestly 2 different things.
What we mean is that Lowepro, who is truly the leader in outdoor, backpacking camera bags, and has been for many years, has produced a bag that lives best on the trail, in our opinion.

Lowepro Toploader Pro 75 AW

Lets go through some of the key points here:

* It holds a full size DSLR, with a solid lens on it (24-70 2.8 w/lens hood attached, or 80-200 2.8 without lens hood attached)- no battery grip

* convenient CF card holder in lid, which can also hold extra batts, or perhaps a compass or small flat GPS unit

* zipped side pouch for maps, notepad, etc.

* expandable elasticized pouch for whatever you may need to stuff in there.
* zipper loops so, even with a glove, you can open all parts easily
* the lid opens out from your body, allowing smooth access to your camera
* The shoulder and mid body strapping secure the bag to your body very comfortably
* strong, padded, perforated, side panel that goes against your body for extra comfort

* rain cover tucked neatly into an near invisible pocket

The bag is very well crafted and the details make it a high quality choice for the hiking photographer.
As we always insist on doing a real world review, we took the bag for a walk. Not in the forest, but in the concrete jungle.

After a 90 min. walk the bag stayed close to the body, without getting in the way of natural movement or climbing stairs.
The DSLR was easily accessible and went back in smoothly , with no fumbling or bits getting in the way.
The body strapping was pretty easy to set, and adjust for max comfort.

The conclusion: for the hiker who wants to travel light, keep the gear simple, and have their camera at the ready on a moments notice, this is a great choice.You may even consider it as an addition to your backpack filled with life goods, keeping your camera in it’s own place.
We feel it’s that comfortable.
In the city, this is not our first choice, nor is it intended for that market. Yes, it offers great protection for the camera, but we either go more stealth in the city, or right out in the open with camera at the ready, almost like an appendage on our shoulder.
Which it totally is.

Here is a video showing the bag, including how it straps onto your body, plus some other items in the Lowepro line:

It’s about the summer heat and the winter chill.

Photographer Saul Leiter, was able to bring a temperature gauge to his photographs, along with a gritty city feel, that put you there.
Whether it was his photographs of a waiter working in the sweltering humidity, or his classic wintry window, that let you experience the season with a human, working class ethic, told with a graphic design sensibility.

Photograph at right
© Saul Leiter

Including selections of his archive of Kodachrome slides, mostly unseen before this, the book came out last year and still remains one of our top choices for your 6ft of books. It is a blend of color and B&W work, printed by one of the best companies today, Steidl.

What’s up with 6 ft of books? Essentially, photographic books you should have, minimally, that would fill a 6ft bookshelf.
If you have no others, these are the books to have. Our opinion, for sure, but we do consult.
Let us know what would fill yours.

To quote Mr. Leiter:

“I spent a great deal of my life being ignored. I was always very happy that way. Being ignored is a great privilege. That is how I think I learnt to see what others do not see and to react to situations differently. I simply looked at the world, not really prepared for anything.”

Although making his primary living as a fashion photographer, he took to the streets with the rich palette of Kodachrome film, and the subtle tones of black and white to brought a beauty, to a raw urban scenario.
Not to change the flavor, or color something in that wasn’t there, but to point out the subtlety of the reality.

He is still shooting at 86, and is thankfully enjoying this rediscovery of his work.
This week we have a copy of this book, Saul Leiter
for one of you.
Add it to your shelf, but before you do, spend some time looking through it. A couple of times at least.

Details on getting this free from us will be in the NEWSLETTER, coming to subscribers at 9:00AM PST, on Weds.

There are a few other books of Saul Leiter’s work, and you should also consider Early Color

Seriously.
We were working on an article about tethered shooting, when this came along.

Tethered shooting; you know, where your camera is USB connected to your computer, and as you shoot, the photographs get displayed on your computer monitor, be it laptop or desktop.
Very handy to see what the heck you have, and let your clients (gulp) comment along the way.

All it really took was a nice long USB cable
cable, a sweet right angle connector
and a bit of software such as Nikon Camera Control Pro 2 Software or equivalent Canon software, actually included free with the camera, to control your camera right from your computer, if you liked. Or just shoot at the camera, and the photos were sent to the computer, and opened up in Lightroom, so you could see, in all of their glory, your images, in a great usable size. Not for run and gun, but location, absolutely.

Yep, we set it all up and it worked like a charm.

Then came this game changer.

The brilliant minds at onOne software, makers of some of the best plug-ins ever for Photoshop, such as their current hit Plug-In Suite 4, came up with this iPhone or iTouch app:
DSLR Remote for your Canon or Nikon cameras.
Now you can control your DSLR with ALL functions right from the palm of your hand. For $20.
We have been playing with this since Friday and are fully blown away.
OK, you need to download the app to your phone, then download the companion software to your computer(s).

Connect your camera via the USB cable, confirm that the iPhone is on the same network as the computer and follow some easy directions.
(We dig the right angle for better chance of cable staying in. We think.)
Honestly, manual reading, wa never our strong suit, so we forged ahead, and ended up speaking to some very helpful and friendly techs at onOne.
Mainly operator error issues, but we did find out some tips. More on that later.
Once your camera is hooked up, your screen will look like this:

And then you may want to adjust things like this: Continue Reading »

You will be spending more money. Oh yeah, sounds great, right?
As still cameras gain acceptance as HD video cameras, you really have to look at the whole picture (sorry) and what that means to you in gear purchases, coming your way.
This collision or convergence of mediums, will affect you shooters out there.

HO, HO, HO! Santa may have come down the chimney for the manufacturers, but what do you REALLY need ?

Let’s see:
Sound (mics,mixers,cables, transmitters,off-camera recorders booms) light (hot lights, softboxes for hot lights, LED panels), editing software ( Final Cut Pro, Adobe Premiere or iMovie), licensed music tracks ( you must be able to use the track if you are posting online), monitors (you want to trust your focus to that tiny screen? Why? no one else does), brackets, braces, heads, and many, many more things.

On the half-full version of that, you will be learning a whole new set of skills to help carry you into the future. Or 2008 at least.

We have been diving in, doing the research and testing out the gear. This weekend in LA, there is a Collision Conference, with 2 days of seminars and retailers showing you what they have.

And today we just found out that the Cinematographer and Still Photog Union Local will be doing a day of seminars and training on that very subject this weekend, also. We can’t attend because of that Union deal, but we have friends and will get you some 441 on the day.

For you, we’ve got the hot DSLR HD cams to check out, some mics we like, a range of rigs for your mixing pleasure and budget, and one of the sweetest monitors we’ve seen for this purpose has already made it to our rig: the SmallHD.

True HD, 720P, 1280×768 Native Resolution, HDMI, component, VGA, S-Vid, Composite inputs.
What does that all mean?
You paid for the HD, so you better see what it really looks like. Love that large LCD screen on my camera but this is the real deal.
Right now, this is the choice for us. Full review and video on the unit is forthcoming. Give us a chance to work it hard. Now, we use it for video cams as well, so it’s dual purpose for our need.
Our accountant will vouch for that.
Another option for you is the Hoodman Loupe.
They make a set of rubber loupe connectors
to let you attach the loupe to your LCD on the camera, and use it as a magnifying viewfinder.
(You did know that these cameras shoot video only in the “live view”, right?)

You have seen Vince Laforet’s video Reverie, correct?
How about that crisp dialogue?
Oh right, there was no dialogue. Although the 5D has a ext. mic jack, no one really wants to talk about it.
So add in mic(s), a mixer, pre amp and headphones (earbuds in a pinch)

How to attach them all for use? We just tried one of our Stroboframe brackets and although not ideal, will do in a pinch. This weekend we’ll see what else is in the marketplace.

And then you will have to pack this stuff around with you. ThinkTankPhoto has the edge right now.
Check out their vid on the site.

Ok. We don’t mean to pile on. We truly feel that this is an incredible new category.
But which is the best way to approach it ?
Video camera shooting at 30FPS and pulling stills from that? Vince showed a print doing exactly that. Pretty amazing, actually. You know the main advantage on the DSLR for video, is using the lenses. So much better than standard vid cam lenses.
Or just using a video camera for video.
We use stills and vid on our site all of the time,and have for years, so if there is something that can improve what we do, in a smaller, dual purpose package, we want to know.

The camera manufacturers themselves know this is all first generation stuff. They are waiting for everyone to give feedback so the next unit is better.
Call us crazy, but their main concern is that these are phenomenal STILL cameras.

So, we’ll go to this conference and stay up late reading and researching.
But YOU know the best way to find out the info: see and hear the results of using the gear.

We do want to remind you that the manufacturers of all of that other cool new gear you’ll be looking at, are waiting for you. This will become their stimulus package also.

And in the fall, as we start to see new gear in the photo world get released, so it goes in the other gear worlds too.
For instance, in the sound area, after extensive research, we know what portable recorder we are getting for the field and the portable recorder for carrying around always. ( for interviews and recording on the fly, not sync with vid)
Just like photographers, sound folks carry a recorder with them, because you just never know what you may hear.
We know a ton of them and we’ve been speaking with them. And trying out their gear.
As we were about to walk into the shop to buy, after research, we heard about the new, better, sleeker, smarter, cooler, sound recorder from Sony, the PCM-M10, coming in October.
Aaaarrrrggghh! It’s the same story all the time.

There was a certain solace today, walking around with just my Nikon D700, taking pictures of life before me.
But if I added a sound track…….hmmmmmm.

Stay with us. We are just getting started.

By the way, did we tell you we saw one of the first national commercials shot with a 5D. More on that coming.

Please post questions here in the comments section. We are still working out a bug in there and even when it says your post didn’t work, don’t worry, it did.