A GILT ridden Portrait Shoot

A few weeks ago the style makers and party planners of the national lifestyle collective, GILT Groupe, met at the Hudson Hotel in New York City for their annual sales meeting. GILT asked me to make a series of 80 stylized portraits of executives and reps throughout the day.

This sounded easy enough except for the fact that I had four hours to make the shots. This meant I had 6-10 minutes per person, which is not exactly the type of time you want under normal circumstances, but I accepted the challenge.

My camera of choice for this shoot was the HASSELBLAD H4D-31. I could have selected a Canon 5D or 1Ds MK IV, but I prefer the depth, tones, and most importantly sharpness of the Hasselblad lenses and camera system. 35mm DSLRs are great, but they still don't have the punch of a medium format system. And for me, creating portraits with a medium format camera just feels more natural.

Going this route would not have been possible without an awesome digital tech manning the work station and watching my back. I was lucky enough to grab Mike Isler for the day, which was a good thing considering we ran into a number of technical problems with the camera and Hasselblad software. Shooting with a tight schedule means you have to cover all your bases, have a back-up, and spending the money where it counts to make your life easier.

Organizing hair by and make-up was the key to getting the shoot off to a strong start and staggering the reps. We managed to capture a selection of great shots of each person. Having the client on-site to approve the images for each person was also helpful to keep our momentum.

However, my favorite part of the shoot came the following morning when I took the Hasselblad out for some street shooting. I really enjoy the functionality and ergonomics of the Hasselblad H4D-31. It's controls and autofocus are really quick and I like the positions of the shutter / aperture dials.

All in all... a great day of shooting.

Phantom Camera Shoot - Life at 2000 FPS

Sunday was a definitely a fun day. Yesterday, I had the good fortune to work along side a talented group of professionals that included Director, David Fishel, and Director of Photography, Ian Bloom on a short film born from David's imagination and captured using the Phantom v640.

Pulling focus at a T-Stop of 1.4 and watching the Phantom capture life at 2000 FPS was amazing. Learning the software was equally intriguing from Ian. Shooting at such a high frame rate using an approximate ISO of 200 demanded a large amount of lighting and definitely added to the already toasty temperature of the studio.

The camera was mounted on a Caroni Lambda head via a Z-Jib (also know as a Zero Gravity Boom Arm) that offered DP a number of options to maneuver the camera around the set.

It's always great to work with a talented and able crew that share a passion for a illustrating a good concept especially with such a fun set of toys.

Time Lapse NYC

Like most of the U.S., New York City is currently experiencing a heat wave and for the past three days I've documented this tropical spell while shooting time lapse for a new show to be aired on the Travel Channel.

The production company and crew were great to work with and provided me a enormous amount of freedom to get the shots. I had an opportunity to use the Meade Coronado mount and 497 controller as well as the Orion teletracker.

Both worked extremely well. I am partial to the Orion since I have more experience with this model and can navigate the controller easier.

The rig was mounted on top of a Sachtler ENG 2 D HD tripod with a Video 20 S1 fluid head. I definitely got a workout from carrying this monster set of sticks around NYC, but they provided me a very stable platform to mount the motion controlled head and 5D camera package.

Here are some pics I shot with my iPhone during my shoot:

I look forward to sharing the results with you from my three days of urban trekking when the show airs in the fall.

Frankencamera

Tonight I'm gearing up to film a performance for my friend and long time collaborator, Jorge Rubiera and his band, Animal Tropical. They are making their NYC appearance tonight at The Cake Shop in the Lower East Side. Balancing a Paps Blue Ribbon budget and a desire not to spend any more money, I decided to pool together a bunch of loose parts lying around my apartment.

Tonight I created my first Frankencamera (insert thunderbolt and a screaming damsel sound effect here).

The core of the rig is a Zacuto Universal Baseplate, V3, and 12-inch rods ($530). Yep, it's an expensive baseplate, but it comes in very handy for my steadicam operating because it allows you to manipulate the side-side adjustments to help stabilize various cameras and setups. The camera is a Canon 7D ($1400), Canon 24-70mm lens ($1400) with a Zacuto Z-Finder Pro 2 ($375) and the follow focus is the IKAN Follow-Focus Cine-kit ($400). The light is a Bescor LED-70 ($70) and I'm using a small offset bracket from RedRock Micro as a handgrip.

Finally, after realizing that the rig was going to be too heavy for me to handhold the entire performance I decided to use a Manfrotto 244 Magic Arm ($100) and a standard super clamp as a shoulder brace and counter weight.

Sound will be recorded with a Zoom H4N mounted in the back of the room. A line will be either plugged directly into to the Zoom from the sound board or we will have to settle with capturing the ambient sound.

Pros: Perfectly fine to be used as a blunt weapon in the Lower East Side and it didn't cost a thing since I owned the stuff.

Cons: At $4275 Not cheap by any stretch of the imagine and definitely not appropriate for a paying client.

However, it good to know all those episodes of MacGyver didn't go to waste.

I look forward to posting the results of the shoot.

ProFoto Acute B2 - Tommy Munoz

A day on Deerfield Beach, FL, featuring the ProFoto Acute B2 and the photographic work and technique of wedding photographer Tommy Munoz.

Everything went great, my shoes were soaked and we wrapped moments before a downpour. I was shocked by the weight of the pack and thought the battery was actually missing when I lifted the Acute B2 during the shoot.

In the age of extra baggage fees and excessive charges for cases weighing more than 50lbs, you can bet a few of these will be replacing my Pro7Bs on my next shoot.

Client: ProFoto USA

Creative Director: Ab Sesay, ProFoto

Producer: Richard Patterson

Camera A / Steadicam : Richard Patterson

Camera B : Jorge Rubiera

Editor: Jorge Rubiera

X-Rite: John Paul Caponigro

I had the pleasure to direct and shoot this video piece on artist, photographer, and educator John Paul Caponigro for X-Rite.

We shot this piece in Maine and John took our production team to several amazing spots.

The food wasn't bad either.

I hope you enjoy and thanks John for a great tour.

Weekend GoPro Hero

Ok... GoPro Mr Hero

I decided to finally become a certified scuba diver and it's a shame that I have waited so long. My dive shop, South Beach Dive and Surf in Miami Beach, is a few blocks from my house. The dive destinations were either off the coast of Miami, or we would travel down to Key Largo.

My instructors were very cool and knowledgeable. The prices for the gear and instruction at the shop were very competitive to what I found on-line, so I purchased my equipment there... I say support local businesses when you can.

So, now that I have an excuse to strap a GoPro Hero to my head I decided to make a series of videos documenting my new adventures.

The USS Spiegel Grove served as the backdrop to this video. I spent a little extra time on the edit. Diving from a submarine was definitely not covered in my advanced or nitrox classes.