I was going to write some long, drawn out, and probably boring as hell blog post about me moving up to medium format digital. I was going to talk about file size, how great the systems white balance was, the specs, zoomed in crops at 100%, and how much it kicks DSLRs S @ss, but, no, I am going to keep things simple.

I saw a print from a digital medium format body while at a portfolio review two years ago, and it made me feel, small, so to speak. Looking at those prints, the quality, detail, depth, and color, just blew my damn mind. I hate comparing my work to others, but this persons prints were like nothing I have seen in person. It was like the images looked like at any moment they would turn to me and say, “Nice huh?”. It was just insane. After seeing those prints and looking at my own, from DSLR 35mm bodies, I almost felt like launching my damn portfolio off of the roof of the tallest and nearest sky scraper.

I was hooked, drawn in, taken aback, sprung, and a bunch of other verbs I can’t list here. At that moment, my study into the world of medium format digital began. I ended up choosing to go with Phase One, because I have used Capture One Pro before and loved it, and felt that Phase One had some of the best customer support around. I ended up purchasing a Phase One 645 DF body, and a Phase One P40+ digital back, used. All images in this blog post have been shot using the Phase.

I have only been shooting with the camera for about a month and a half, but I will say this, It kicks any other camera systems butt that I have used personally in terms of image quality, except for my Mamiya RZ 67. My Nikon bodies are starting to look more and more like Ebay bait by the day. It’s that serious.

A few bullet points,

• Hell yes it’s an expensive system to get into, regardless if its Hasselblad, Phase One, Mamiya, or Pentax
• There is one heck of  a learning curve(I myself am still learning of course)
• No, I cannot justify the purchase of this system, but I bought into it anyway(I have always had an affinity for all things troll anyway)
• It forces you to slow down due to the focusing system

Now, most photographers won’t tell you this, but there are always ideas/concepts/lighting diagrams for shoots always rolling around in our heads. Seldom do we share them because, we haven’t gotten around to casting for it, let alone shooting it.

Well, I am going to buck the trend and talk about how I came up with the concept for my holiday 2012 promo piece. I easily get into the Holiday spirit, and there are three movies I must watch around the holidays, “A Christmas Story”, “Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer”, and last, but not least, “March of the Wooden Soldiers”. I absolutely love watching these classics. In November of 2011, while getting in the holiday spirit, “A Christmas Story” came on TV. While watching the movie(that I’ve seen at least 26 times), the thought hit me to shoot something pertaining to the movie, but with my interpretation of it. I absolutely love the different parts of the movie, they’re like little day dreams, where the adults tell “Ralphie”, a 9-year-old boy, who is the main character of the movie, that if he gets his coveted “Red Ryder BB gun” for Christmas, he will shoot his eye out. Just absolutely classic.

Out of nowhere, the thought hit me like a ton of bricks. I asked my often weird/off kilter self, what if “Ralphie”, did in fact shoot his eye out, but was an adult, and still stuck wearing that horrible pink bunny pajamas one piece that his aunt had given him(you have to see it in the movie, hilarious).

Tada, photo shoot idea! Now, the hardest part was casting for the part of an adult version of “Ralphie”. I basically put a line out for a blonde/dirty blonde, blue-eyed male. After about 2 weeks of sifting through faces, I finally found my “Ralphie”. I chose Mr. Jonathan B. Lerner for my version of “Ralphie”. Funny thing is, when I told Jon about the concept, he actually was pretty excited about shooting it. I purchased the pink bunny one piece from amazon.com, as well as the “Red Ryder BB Gun” replica. I bought the eye patch from my local CVS store.

Once all of the elements were in place, I was extremely excited to shoot the concept. I booked a studio out in Long Island City, Queens, by the name of Queensbri Studio. Believe it or not, the shoot actually went off without a hitch. Smooth, smooth, smooth. Jon was a great sport and really brought my concept to life. I was looking for a sort of pouting type “Ralphie”, due to the fact he did shoot his eye you. I absolutely love the results. Couldn’t have asked for things to go any better than they did.

Below is the final edit that was sent out to everyone on my contact list. Happy Holidays!!

Anyone that knows me, knows that I absolutely love my nephews and niece. They have such great little personalities already. There has been times when I have been down, and after about 10 minutes with this crew, you forget all your worries and troubles.

Every year, I buy their costumes for Halloween. I have been doing this for the past 10 years, and love every minute of it. The problem is, I rarely get to photograph them in their costumes. This year, I took the early route. I  had them dress in costume, and I photographed them today.

As I have said earlier, I always miss them on Halloween. Besides, would you want to stick a camera in a kids face on the biggest, free candy day of the year? Not me, so, you get them early. Prior to the sugar rush so to speak. Till next time.

Was going through my archives and found this. This was from a shoot I did in February, earlier this year. I remember shooting this while just testing my settings. Some people might say, “well, what was she doing on here phone man”?, but hey, not making excuses, but I told her it was ok, because I was testing the light. It was only the second time I was using this modifier and was just seeing how the light looked.

I  actually feel like its a good image  of her because I caught her in the moment and I don’t even think she knew I was pointing the camera at her. Really love the way she angled her body. Its like she just naturally relaxed after I told her to take a break.

I have been working on a new promo, that I will be sending out next week. It’s the most hands on I have been as far a the postcards are concerned. All in all, I think they turned out pretty well. I actually did a post on how I lit this portrait as well, you can read about it here.

Finally, yes I am moving on to medium format digital. I am looking at Mamiya, Phase One, and Hasselblad systems right now. I actually was going to pull the trigger on a DM33 kit, but pulled back and kept my options open for now. More than likely, it will be early next year when I make my choice and purchase. Till next time.

Yes, yesterday was the last day for my Coney Island, Faces of the Boardwalk project. I thought is was kind of fitting being that yesterday was the last day of Summer. I have been shooting this project for 2 years, and it’s been a great experience.

I have met so many interesting people. It has really been a blast. The main reason I stopped shooting it is because I have a couple of other projects that really need my attention, and I haven’t been shooting those projects because I was shooting the Coney Island project during my free time. Now, don’t get me wrong, I will occasionally visit and shoot, but as far as the project is concerned, that’s done.

Also, not really related to this post, but I recently attended the Luminance workshops. I attended Zack Arias, Joe McNally, Robert Seale, and Brian Smith‘s classes, and they were excellent. I loved every class save for one. One of the photographer’s groups I attended made what I took as a racial wisecrack, or a very stereotypical statement at least. This is exactly what the photography industry doesn’t need. I was appalled to say the least, the comment, which was made while discussing a portrait he had shot, went like this, “that was one of the rappers (lil Boosie) people holding a flash inside the vehicle, don’t know if it was his friend, his bodyguard, or his drug dealer”. Really burned me up, but I kept my cool. There is an old saying, “Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me”. I will never support this person in any way, ever.

Now, for the good part, or bad part for me. As I said earlier, I attended Zack Arias’s class first. At the end of the day, I was able to corner Zack for an impromptu portfolio review(always carry your port folks). Now, I will be honest, I was nervous to show him my book at first, but, I value his opinion, because he is where I myself, am trying to get to. Zack shredded my work, but it was definitely a wake up call. It let me know what was weak in my book, and what I could do differently while shooting. I really have a lot of respect for Zack for doing this. Don’t really know what I will blog about next, but I will say this, my next target as far as gear, is………………..I think I am moving on to medium format, digital. Dun, dun, dun, (laughs like Vincent Price at the end of Thriller)!!

I am posting the portraits that I never used/published for the project due to whatever about them that I felt at the time, wouldn’t work for the project. Till next time.

I love using strobes to tell a story, or put light where I need it, but sometimes, God provides all the lighting you need. This was shot just prior to the sun going down, and as you can see, it made for some really great light. I think one of the components of  becoming a good/great photographer is knowing when to draw the line. Meaning, don’t use strobes if the light is great, and you don’t need a c stand, light stand, boom arm, sandbags, etc. It’s really all about timing. At different times of the day, you get different effects from natural light. Want hard shadows or flat lighting, noon to about 2pm is your time. If you want beautiful side light, it’s either an hour before sunrise, or an hour before sunset. From my experience, I prefer shooting right before the sun goes down, the light is just great that time, and you can really get some great shots at that time. But I am rambling. This was shot with no reflector just straight natural light.

This is going to be a quick post. I love different genres of photography, but I am a portrait photographer first. I can’t speak for others, but compositing images just isn’t my cup of tea. I don’t have any real reason behind it except I am a firm believer in getting it right in camera. A lot of the great composites I see are usually 3 to 11 different images combined. I have seen some that are simply mind blowing, and I love them, but you just have to have that composting gene, that I think I lack. Not saying that I cannot do it, I can, but it’s not my “calling” so to speak.

Now, the image at the beginning of this post, is actually a composite. Yes I know, very contradictory from the title of this post, but let me explain. If you don’t push yourself with your work, you won’t grow. So, basically, this is me pushing myself. This is a light composite, (no pun intended). Meaning, it’s a combination of just two separate images. The first image I shot for this, was of just the empty space, no subject. Now, I actually messed up and shot the first image at f13, 100th of a second, and then shot the actual image with my subject, and background, with the light stand and beauty dish, at f14, 200th of a second. Not the end of the world, but still, small mistakes like this on a paid gig wouldn’t go over too well, and can give you a headache in post, and who wants to sit behind the computer for an ex amount of time for a slight error as 1 and 1/3rd of a stop, when client want their images yesterday, not me. I had to fix it in post of course, but it really wasn’t that difficult. Just some adjustments in exposure and everything was fine. As you can see, I also cropped the final image a little. I think it turned out pretty good for someone who is not really a composite type of shooter.

For those that wanted to know, I used an Einstein 640ws by Paul C. Buff, with their white beauty dish, and a 3o degree grid. The fill is actually the ambient light, which is shade from the shelter I was shooting under. I thought it made a nice contrast against the sunny beach behind him.

It’s true. Shooting film just continues to amaze me. I don’t know what it is exactly, but film just looks timeless. I still like shooting digital, but film

is just crazy. All of these were shot with my Mamiya rz67. I am not going to go into technical details, just look at the quality of these images. One quick note, Photoshop, Lightroom, forget it. You only need the most basic retouching for film. Sharpening, nope. White balance, nope. Not sharpening alone is enough for me. Just can’t say enough great things about film.

I know I have been forgetting to talk about my switch to a different lighting rig, so, here I go. I recently dove into the wild, and wonderful, albeit expensive, world of Profoto lighting. Why, one might ask. For me, it was 2 simple factors.

The first one would be the quality of light. I know, I know, you’ve heard it before, but, have you shot with any of these babies? The quality of light from shot to shot is second to none. I have only used them in a couple of shoots, but so far I am blown away by the quality of light. It’s simply just something to behold. I bought 80% of my Profoto gear on Ebay, and saved a kings ransom by doing so.

Secondly, this may sound crazy to some, but the mount is top notch to me. Profoto’s mounting system is very, very secure to say the least. The catch is, you have to use Profoto mounts for everything, or else you are taking a gamble. Would you gamble on a $1000 dollar head, that has a $500 dollar flash tube if it needs to be replaced? Me, hell no. So, I only purchase Profoto mounts.

The thing is, I am still using my Alien Bees rig. Yes, you read that right. I have an Einstein 640, a B1600, a B800, and the ABR800. As far as my Profoto gear, I have exactly what you see in the image above, and that’s it. I figured, let me start small, and If I get in over my head, I can easily back off for a while, but still get a lot of work done with this set up. As of right now, I am switching back and forth between these two rigs as far as soft boxes are concerned. Meaning, I switch the mounts when I want to go from AB to Profoto, or vice versa.

I figure the more gigs I get, the more I can slowly build up my Profoto rig. One thing that shooting with the Alien Bees taught me, was that I don’t need a huge arsenal of gear to get the majority of the shots done. You just need to know your gear, and how it performs. I am still learning both systems, though I have more experience with the Alien Bees of course(had them for about 4 years).

Also, before any arguments start, I am not making any comparisons between the two. Honestly, an Einstein gets you very close to Profoto’s consistency. I will however, tip my hat to Paul C. Buff for their service. They really stand behind their products. Haven’t had any real issues with the Profoto’s, so, I can’t say anything about their customer service. Anyway, as I stated, I don’t want to get into a debate. Won’t be putting up quadratic equations, guide numbers, f stops at God knows what distance from the subject, or 32 different pictures of squirrels, cats, and dogs. Just sharing my experience so far. Til’ next time.

Nine years ago, her daughter lied to her and said, “Hey Mom, I need you to meet me at the airport”. So, she went to the airport, thinking her daughter was coming in from California. Little did she know, that a month old, pure bred chihuahua  would be waiting instead, fresh from Mexico.

Just another story, and portrait, from my personal project, Coney Island, Faces of The Boardwalk.