I decided to make some changes with my AerialStock.com site.
Cameron Davidson - web site: http://www.camerondavidson.com
Yesterday, FedEx delivered a package from California Sunbounce.
Today she was in full gallop as her mother tossed a tennis ball for her morning exercise.
I am carrying the Canon G10 with me everywhere I go these days. For recording life and the little visual gifts that unfold before me.
The Piaggo P180 Avanti. One of the coolest looking aircraft to grace the skies. The Beechcraft Starship was even cooler, but very few of them are flying anymore.
Driving from Augusta to Columbia, I decided to take a break at exit 22 off of Route 20. I spotted Joey's Famous Bar B Que across from the Aiken airport.
Joey is a former Trucker who owned a diner in South Carolina. Originally from Georgia, he married Marion Lynn, a South Carolina "Valley" girl. Joey is putting all his effort into his amazing Bar B Que which he calls Georgelina, a combination of Georgia and South Carolina style Que.
His BBQ is moist and tender. The sauce is unbelievable: it is a mixture of sugar, mustard, steak sauce, spices and apple juice.
Joey moves around a bit, selling his BBQ at car shows and church events. His goal is to build the business at this location a few days a week. It is a new trailer and a new cooker. If you're near Columbia or Augusta, take Route 20 and exit onto Route 1 heading toward Aiken. Joey's will be on the left, next to the Shell station.
Shot with my new point and shoot, the killer 14.7 MP Canon G10.
I arrived in NY via Amtrak on Thursday: fresh from Puerto Rico via a quick sleepover in Virginia. Headed to the show for two hours of quick viewing and way too many conversations with fellow photographers.
Friday was reserved for friends. I spent the day with an incredible group of talented people that always rev me up when I am around them. In the evening, I joined some more friends for a fusion dinner with hilarious conversation. Riding the subway at 1:00 am in NY is so very different and safer than it was twenty years ago.
Saturday morning, I headed back to the Javitts Center to look at some strobes I am considering buying. I saw my major influence, Jay Maisel and had a chance to sit down with him for a while. Jay has always been kind to me and come to a couple of presentations of my work. I owe him some prints, so I know what I'll be shipping off next week.
I ran into Tucker and we ran into Yair from Leaf. I had not seen Yair in two years and it was nice to catch up with him again. Yair took us over to see this super cool little view camera kit that you put together from cut-out parts. (UPDATE: Yair knows these guys BullDog Cameras - the link.)
Mark and Yair talked about backs and the new Leaf camera. The new camera is pretty amazing: very well designed, super bright viewfinders with an optional 45 or 90 degree viewfinder that can be shot from any position. The camera is easy to use and feels right in the hands. I think Mark is heading back to medium format digital soon.
I left them at the Leaf counter and headed toward the Quantum Flash folks. The new Q flashes are perfect for editorial shoots with minimal production support. I like the larger flash tube, power and control via their wireless kite. I plan to purchase two of the units.
Next on the meet and greet tour was Allen Murabayashi from PhotoShelter. Alan showed me some new tricks to the archive and how I can create flash "movies" that can go viral on the web. I plan to test it later today with a link to the blog.
Three steps away, I run into my old studio mate, Joan Marcus, a super fine portrait and theatrical photographer. Following her, a few steps behind were fellow DC shooters, David Burnett and Bill Auth. Then NY shooter, former DC photographer, Bruce Katz comes rolling up. Burnett, Auth and I head off to meet Rob Haggart of A Photo Editor fame. On the way to Haggartville, David pulls out this tiny little Ricoh camera and shoots a killer self-portrait of himself with a road scene from a manufacturer display.
David splits to a meeting after meeting Rob and shooting a few frames. Bill and I chat for a while then head for the door. I'm tired of the crowds and ready to catch the train home. Caught a cab and hit Penn Station as the rain started to pour. The Megabuses were lined up outside of Penn with a solid crowd of travelers waiting to board for the four-hour trip to DC. I prefer the train, getting up and being able to walk around a bit. However, for less than fifty-bucks round trip, it has to be worth trying once or twice. Burnett wrote about it on his blog and seemed to enjoy the ride, the wi-fi and leather seats.
I've stayed there twice.
Hope you enjoy them.
New Images. New Personal portfolios.
Recently I ran four different programs in an attempt to recover the four frames I was missing from a CF card that went belly up as I was downloading to my Powerbook..
The
winner by far - in ease of use and its ability to select which images
you want to salvage (recover) is: Camera Salvage by SubRosaSoft.com
It
gives you a list of files by type after it has scanned your card or
hard drive. You select the ones you want to recover and choose the
drive to place them.
$39.00 for the download.
Next up
is Photo Rescue by datarescue.com. Offering two choices of recovery - a
quick recovery and advanced. Photo Rescue found images that have been
erased and riding on the hard drive for two years. The only problem I
had with it, is it dumps everything into one folder.
So, instead of selecting what you want to recover, it does everything.
$29.00 to download
Third
in the line-up is Rescue Pro from Sandisk. It does a very good job and
like Photo Rescue, dumps everything from jpegs to tiffs to raws into
one folder.
Last in test is DataRescue II from Prosoft
Engineering. A $99.00 program it is very effective and is good for much
more than image files.
I prefer Camera Salvage over the others, however, I own all four and hopefully, I will never have to use any of them again.
A couple of years ago, at the urging of a photographer friend of mine, I expanded my online portfolios to include Photoserve, Workbook, Blackbook and APA.
I recently updated the Photoserve, Workbook and APA portfolios.
Here are the links.
The new version of my web site is coming along and is almost ready for re-launch.
Thursday and Friday were pre-pro and shoot days for a Bank ad that we shot in Northern Maryland for a NY agency.
This is where the petal meets the metal.
Real photography showing a horrible disease created with honor toward the subject and integrity of vision.
http://xdrtb.org/photographs.php
The link above takes you to an incredibly well edited collection of images.
Recently shot a piece for Virginia Living on the Bealeton Air Circus. The assignment was to shoot a mix of people, aircraft and behind the scenes images.
For quite a while, I've been a user of Capture One and Raw Developer as my primary converters. Raw Developer by Iridient Software is my new go-to converter for B&W conversions.
RD has a several options for B&W conversions that I like. They include CIELab Lightness, Luma, Desaturate, Intensity, Custom Tone (for Sepia or Blue Tone effects) and my favorite, the Custom Mixer with presets for five classic films plus Neutral, Infrared and the standard traditional B&W filters for Pan films: Yellow, Orange, Red, Blue and Green.
These images were shot backstage at the Dr. Ralph Stanley Music Festival in Wise County, Virginia. Most of my shooting was with M Leicas using Tri-X or Across 1600. These were shot with the 1Ds Mark II and converted with RD. I noticed that I had shot several musicians tuning up and thought I might be fun to share these with you.
(I've purchased and used just about every RAW converter available on the Mac - from Camera Raw to Aperture to DXO to Lightroom to C1 and RD. I am looking forward to the October release of C1 Pro 4. I like the Capture One workflow and expect that the new version will be an up-to-date program with vibrance, highlight recovery, etc.)
Since 1999, I have been part of a group of Physicians, Nurses, Pharmacists, Lay People and Hospital Administrators that help guide a small hospital in Central Haiti.
Jon and Mark are both blogging now. Roemer kinda sticks to point and writes primarily about his work and all things Canon. Tucker is writing about other photographers, health insurance, his work and explorations in general.
(photo Jon Roemer)
(photo Mark Tucker)
Recently completed two Vanity Fair assignments. The first one was an all aerial shoot. The second was a mix of people on location, landscapes and aerials. Look for those stories in the November and December issues.
Also shot for a portrait project for an international law firm based in DC. We created a modified "V" flat using scrims to mimic very soft and controllable "window" light. I shared it with a friend of mine this morning and he is going to use it in his home based studio for his portraits.
My two Rolleiflex TLR's came back from restoration with new mirrors and new focusing screens. I have three personal projects that I plan to shoot color negative film with the Rollei's.
East of Tucson.
Jennifer Cole Phillips and I have been friends for many years. She is an incredibly talented designer and educator. Last spring, Jennifer asked me to contribute a selection of my aerial images for use in the book "Graphic Design | The New Basics" authored by Ellen Lupton and herself.
Jennifer is the Associate Director of the MFA Graphic Design program at the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore. She designed my first national promotional campaign in the early nineties.
One image that was published as a page and a half is of flowers growing in central Florida. The idea was to show color theory and use in real life.
It is an interesting book and an important read for designers as well as photographers.
Last portrait in a campaign of eighteen for a tourism project. (along the Virginia | West Virginia border)
