A nice man in a brown uniform brought me two very nice pieces of gear today: a Nikon D700 camera and Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 lens.  Adorama has some great package deals going on Nikon gear right now, so check em out if you’re in the market for some new toys tools.

Why the D700?  Two reasons: full frame and high ISOs.  That, and it’s being phased out later this year and won’t likely get any cheaper.

I made the mistake of shooting a ton of 35mm film last year and falling in love with the wider viewing angles of full frame cameras (I was using a Nikon F100).  I’ve moved past my infatuation with film (mostly–I still dabble with my Olympus OM-1) and the D90’s smaller viewing circle just wasn’t giving me the coverage I wanted.  I considered picking up something like Nikon’s 10.5mm fisheye lens for a wider perspective, but since it’s a lens that only works on Nikon’s DX series cameras I held off.  Why?

Because I knew that eventually I’d be upgrading to an FX series, full frame, professional camera in order to take advantage of the excellent performance at high ISOs.  I shoot a lot of concerts in low light, so having a camera that can produce great images at ISO 1600 and above will allow me to use faster shutter speeds and freeze the action.

And today, I made that upgrade.  I’ll be giving both pieces a full workout at a concert shoot tomorrow night.

So no excuses.  If my shots suck from here on out, it’s clearly my fault.

Today’s Project365 photo, amid great fanfare:

A commenter on this very blog recently asked me if I am “self-taught”.  My first instinct was to answer proudly, “Why yes!  YES I AM!”. After all, I’ve never taken any formal photography classes or attended any seminars or such.  But upon further reflection (and a heavy dose of reality) I realized that I am most certainly not self-taught.

I am, however self-motivated.

My Self-Teaching Curriculum

Two years ago when I first picked up a “real” camera I literally became obsessed with it and read absolutely everything I could get my hands on:  an ancient series of Minolta photography books from my local library, the entire Ansel Adams series, and dozens of magazines.  By the way, most of the photo mags you find at the newsstand suck.  Save your money.  They’re 90% ads and 10% fluff.  The two exceptions are the fantastic pro-oriented PDN and Britain’s aptly named Practical Photography.  The latter can be hard to find here in The Colonies, but Borders usually carries it and you can subscribe via the link above.  It’s worth the hunt though, as it’s chock full of useful tips for noobie photogs as well as inspiration for the more jaded seasoned shooter.  In addition to the ridiculous over-abundance of glossy mags full of “handy tips” and “the hottest gear reviews” there are tons of great photo art mags like Aperture and 125 which, if you’re short on inspiration, are awesome to have around.

Flickr is another massive repository of knowledge and inspiration that helped me tremendously as I was finding my way photographically.  At first I was using it just to store and share my images, but once I discovered the vast variety of discussion groups on the site I was enthralled.  No matter what your photographic interest, there’s a group (or several) devoted to it.  Only use C-41 processed black & white films?  There’s a group for that.  If you want to be inspired and pushed to improve your work, join one of the dozens of “challenge” groups that provide weekly themes and assignments for their members to work on.  A Flickr group was even the basis for my own Project365 endeavor.  And talk about inspiration–the quality of work on the site is mind-blowing.  You can get all this for FREE, but it’s only $25 a year for the Pro upgrade which offers unlimited uploads/storage and a lot more.

As I have developed my abilities I have found myself seeking less technical knowledge and more inspiration.  I keep up with all the big-name photo bloggerati like David Hobby, Zack Arias, Joe McNally, David DuChemin et al (see my Inspiration links below) but I have reached a point where I’m focused on creating better work (and getting paid for it).

That’s where the self-motivation comes in.

Just Do It GET OFF YOUR ASS

Sorry, Nike.  I don’t wanna get sued. Zack Arias uses the more polite acronym “GOYA”.  He’s classier than I am, I’ll admit.

It’s a daily struggle for me to get out from behind this computer and make photos.  Sure, it’s no problem when a client is paying me do it.  But since I’m a relative newcomer in my market I have to focus on constantly improving my work and getting it noticed.  That means taking lots of photos and pushing my limits on a daily basis.  There are more people with better cameras and internet access to share their work than ever before, and I know that if I don’t bust my ass every single day then I will be just another guy with a nice camera.

As it is Oscar season, I’ll put you in an actor’s shoes and ask:  what’s your motivation?

Creating great art?  Making a living?  Fear of failure?  Telling a story?  In my case, all four.  That, and I would probably stab someone if I had to hold down a job in a cubicle all day.  I simply have to do this.  I tell myself that every single day when I start to plunge deeper into the great rabbit hole of Teh Interwebz, and I remove my butt from this chair and force myself to go make some photos, meet some potential clients, or learn something new about running this business.

So find your motivation.  Embrace it.  Light the fire any way you can and stoke the hell out of it if you want to get better.

I admit, it’s very easy to look out the window and say to myself “meh, it’s a bad day to go shoot”.  Too hot, too cloudy, too cold, nothing interesting to photograph, blah blah blah.  If you look, you’ll find something.  If you just GO you’ll get there.  Or somewhere interesting at least.
And on that bombshell…here’s yesterday’s Project365 shot.  An outtake from a corporate portrait shoot.

I have always had great performance from my Sandisk Extreme memory cards, but a couple weeks ago the locking tab on one of them mysteriously fell off and disappeared.  I remembered that the cards carry a limited lifetime warranty, but having been down that road with other companies in the past I figured there was some loophole that my hard earned card buying cash would disappear into.

Nope.  Sandisk rocks.

An email to a warranty link on their website got the process going.  I answered a couple of questions in two subsequent emails, received an RMA number and a UPS label, and shipped my sick little card off to Sandisk.  Less than a week later I have a brand new card, and Sandisk has an even more loyal customer than they had before.  One with a blog and a Twitter account.

Thanks Sandisk, for standing behind your products and doing what you said you would do.  I shouldn’t be surprised by a company doing this, but it’s all too rare these days.

Oh, here’s yesterday’s Project365 shot.  Made using a Sandisk card, natch.

I have a confession to make:  music was my first love, not photography.  Listening to it, playing it, talking about it.  Didn’t matter.  Still doesn’t.  Anything to do with music and I was excited to do it.  And for the last three years I’ve played music for a full-time living.  I got to travel the country doing what I love most and get paid for it.

So when things started slowly going downhill with my main musical project over the last year it was a bummer.  Then it was frustrating.  Eventually is became flat-out depressing.  The project stalled, there was no direction, no new ideas.  And two months ago a key member decided to move on, basically sealing my fate.

Saturday night I decided to pull the plug on my tenure as well.

Why am I sharing this?  Because it hurts. But also because it’s a monumental opportunity.

You see, if I’m playing gigs it’s really difficult to photograph them.  Actually, I plan to try doing both soon but that’s besides the point.  I’ve turned down opportunities to shoot shows and work from the other side of the barrier a lot over the last year and the time is right to make amends for that.  It’s what I really want to be doing right now and now there is one less obstacle in my way.  One less excuse.

Day job?  Gone.  I quit last October to begin this adventure.

School?  Gone.  I quit wasting my time last month.

Band?  Gone.  Well, one at least.  I still have a regular project and will certainly pick up some gigs here and there.  It’s part of my soul, just like making photos.  I can’t not do it.  Physically impossible.  And psychologically unhealthy.

And speaking of health, another new endeavor of mine is running.  I promised my wife that I’d train with her for a 5K race in June.  Lord knows I need the exercise and it’s actually been going pretty well.  Changing my horrid eating habits has been somewhat painful, just like quitting my band.  It’s been a tedious, long process but so is becoming a success at anything: music, photography, running, whatever.

So here’s to making sacrifices in favor of moving forward.  One step at a time.

The Shots

Taking up jogging is also a great excuse to buy new kicks.  Hence the subject of tonight’s pics.

These shots are all straight from the camera.  I admit when I get lucky.  All three used the same lighting set up:  just a pair of Nikon SB-600’s firing from the sides.  The first two used a homemade light tent made from a cardboard box with tracing paper sides for diffusion.  High tech stuff.

Click each shot for the bigger versions.

Tried the shot against white background first.  Crisp, but what not what I had in mind.  Swapped out the white poster board for black.  Too gray and no way to gobo the lights with the box.

Chucked the box and put the shoes on a piece of plexi with the black poster board underneath.  Black foamcore background, lights gobo’d with Honl speed gobos.  That’s the ticket.

Headed north to Springfield, IL tonight to take mom out for her birthday.  On the way home we decided to stop at this weird antique mall in Livingston.  I’ve driven by it a hundred times and always marvel at the ever-growing collection of strange stuff that surrounds the building.  Tonight we noticed there is now a flying saucer on the grounds and decided to stop for a closer look.

The shot below is a composite of three images, mainly to get the whole interior glowing green (I manually tripped a gelled SB800).  Click each for the full size eye-popper version.

Other shots from today: