Since this section is the one of the few on this forum that doesn't have restrictions, bring on your best, recent/non recent, or experimental work.

(Try to keep cat pictures, camera comparisons and sales messages to a minimum).

So let's see those Holgas, 5d's, 8x10 Deardorffs, glass plates, Hasselblads, Reds, High Def or Low def video, or Terry Richardson point and shoots and show something interesting.

No cops, no rules, no negativity.

I'll start it off

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1ds3, 400 iso I think F2 something, available light with flex fill.

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1ds 3, 800 iso, 1/2oth of a second F 2 point something, room light and one bounce 1k tungsten Frensel.

JR

James, I think this is a great idea! Perhaps it's worthy of it's own category. Michael, what do you think? Here's a couple of recent images, the cars are for a poster I'm producing (still a work in progress) and the building I shot Thursday. Jim

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5D f/10 or so

Not that I'm feeling ignored but just getting tired of the "format matters" forums.
I've been shooting for coming up on 30 years. I don't need a pat on the back, I just wanted to show others some of my simple yet meaningful images, that are also professional (meaning I got paid for them and they are not a test or sitting on my wall in my office, not directed at your initial post James).
Here they are
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They were for British Telecom series on testimonials. They were reproduced as 48 and 96 sheet billboards (2:1, 4:1).
James, love what you are doing with available light, looks great.

Jim, who was the client for the car shot you posted? I used to have a Galaxie 500 but mine was a '64.

thanks for starting a new thread

r

rc, I like those images alot! Being a car guy I'd have kept the white car a little darker but that's of little matter, nice work. The poster is something I'm producing in hopes of selling to the sizeable summer cruise market here in the Detroit area. The center car is a 61 Galaxie Starliner which when I find the time to image I'll post some details I shot of it. By the way, the Oceans Apart work is beautiful. I'm very familiar with the Salton Sea having shot a number of projects in that area. Did you ever stay at the Casa del Zorro in Berrago Springs? Jim

How about some Japanese landscape for a change?



250 megapixel panorama from D3x/Zeiss ZF100mm f2.0, shot 10 days ago in the Japanese Northern Alps after a 10 hours, 5000 feet vertical trek that left me with just enough energy left to assemble my pano head take a few shots and go to bed.

Cheers,
Bernard

Hey Jim
Does that Galaxie really have a SOHC in it? Really?
I used to stay in ElCentro (No Country for Old Men country). I usually go for the dive places more than anything. I did my time in Salton, covering off most angles I could think of. I still have one up my sleeve that could be really interesting but I need to get back this winter to shoot it.
Whats Casa del Zorro like?

r

I dig what everyone has shown so far

I also like that Berard and RC and Jim gave a small back story

This is a good place to talk/show photography without the pixel comparisons or brand agenda, just a place where we can show images we like, or at least like at the moment.

It will probably take a while for it to build momentum as old habits are hard to break, but regardless it can be a free zone for photography.

thanks everyone

JR

Thanks for adding the camera and lighting stuff. For me it's not about "JR used Canikon" or whatever. It's, OK he's shooting high ISO, widish aperture, and slow shutter, not complex lighting, and it's working pretty well. Food for thought.

Wollom

.

James
thank you for putting this thread up, I've been keeping out of the MF one as well I shoot mosltly DSLR
so to keep it fun and easy on the eyes, here's 3 images from a look book for swimwear client.
1Ds3 with 50f1.2
profoto acute
am

Nice Shot Klane, Was that ring flash for fill?
Like the contrast of her nice white skin and hair.
Snook

Very Nice!!

The car is a legendary street racer from the 60's (as are the other two) and yes, it has a SOHC. The vehicles came to me after an exhibit at the Automotive Hall of Fame (next to the Henry Ford Museum), the owners and I are producing the piece. Something to keep my mind off the local bankrupties! I've been to El Centro and my story about that place is that it's about 15 miles from Brawley (the closest neighboring town) and no one in El Centro I asked had ever been to Brawley, pretty weird! Anyways, if you go to the Casa del Zorro stay in the grand piano suite and have dinner at their restaurant but don't forget your dinner jacket, no jacket, no service! Of course, you can always eat at the bar. I miss those extended location shoots, I got to see so much of the country. Attached is something I shot of the Salton Sea when I was still an assistant (1978) with Kodachrome. Jim

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Some 5D MKII shots.

Canons, Broncolor and ambient light.
All Shots taken in the Swiss Alps.

canon/elinchrom

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sn

An image of the then yet-to-be-opened Nautica store in NYC for Unilever Prestige. Click to view attachment

Morelondon, London. Taken with Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III and TS-E 24 f/3.5L

Wow James,

I would have sworn the first shot was done with the Phase, because of the depth of the picture and the texture in the windows behind her. "Feels" like no anti aliasing filter was there between you and the model. The detail of the clothes and the beautiful colors are amazing. Outstanding post processing. Guess the 50 mm 1.2 was involved here, since the image quality at F2 is unbelieveable. Available light and a reflector: Man this is what photography is about! Well done! Beautiful shot. One of the best I've seen lately.

Kind regards,
Bart

Bart,


Thank you.

I like talking about photography . . . sometimes, I even like talking about cameras . . . sometimes.

One of the reasons I started this thread was to get away from the pixel counting, ca, dr, 4:3, 2:3 type of talk that never seems to go anywhere.

Photography is just about the photograph, not a lot more and if the viewer likes it it works if they don't, it doesn't.

I'm not brand specific, but I do like the Canons, mostly because I like the color.

I usually have a way of working that I try not to over light or better put impose a specific lighting style to the photograph. Sometimes that's impossible to do with commerce, or working in studio, because in studio there isn't much to do other than direct the subject and light it.

Location, I like to find what is there and just make that work, so I only use additional light because I need it to make it work.

In other words I don't want someone to think, wow he must have used a gilflop 1280 with a big moola 44" beauty dish, with the special, silk cut, hand woven diffuser.

I shot this with the 1ds3, the 50mm 1.2 at around f 2 point, something, about 1/60th, 800 iso. (I think).

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This shot was there. I saw it, ask the model to move over a little, and then just added a flex fill behind my head (basically because I'm pressed against a wall in a small room.

I might have used a fraction of tungsten bounced, probably off a cealing, but just a tiny, tiny fraction, and just enough so the face wouldn't go to hard lost shadows, though in reality the key light is the juke box and a very dim window light behind the model and to the left of the juke box.

This shoot was in Mid May after we shot a commercial gig in our Dallas studio. I had crew in so I held them over for another day and we shot this series, three locations in about 5 hours. The crew wasn't huge, had three assistants, stylist, prop stylist and makeup artist and could have had less help, except I had one person ahead of us moving equipment into the next shot.

It was editorial, we had a letter of intent, but in the world of editorial nobody knows anymore if anything will run, so in reality t it was for us, actually every photograph should be for us. around

This is what all of us love. No pressures of client committees, or fitting anything to a preconceived idea. Just shoot and have fun. The last location was this bar, a funky place called Lee Harvey's in Dallas, they allow dogs, everybody is having a great time, people come over when you shoot, look at the images in the computer, laugh, drink, make comments, after we shoot, everyone keep on partying, even back to our studio until 3 am.

We had a discussion earlier of working in different places in the world and I could have shot this in a lot of places, but I love working in Dallas. No hassels of permits, nobody requiring 22 letters of intent, and 12 insurance bonds. People say uh sure, just pay the bar tab.

JR

P.S The 50mm I have is kind of screwed up looking. I got the front of the lenshade caught on a piece of foam core in Korea and it pulled the front retaining ring off

Now it kind of moves around a little but it works fine and now looks like a pancake lens with a silver ring on the front. I thought about sending it in, but I like the way it looks and it works so I just leave it alone

I guess eventually all the elements will fall to the floor, but until then it's kind of cool looking.

I must say I am really pleased James Russell started this thread. so first let me say to James Thank You and next let me say that I am forever amazed at his work! The thread work posted at Medium Format Digital has been one of the best ever at any forum. But I too found it limited because it is about the photo although I find the technical side behind the photos fascinating and of course greatly instructive. For me it has ben invaluable, as I have never assisted or taken a course or anything of the like. I jumped in some years back and made my way. When I get the chance to attend seminars or workshops I have. And when I get lucky enough to hang out on friends shoot I do.

But back to this thread. I shoot medium format film, digital and 35mm film and digital. I even break out the Polaroid now and then. I like it all. So along with my niche in bodybuilding and fitness, it really makes me the odd guy. So anyway here is one from my part of the photo world. A gym shoot, which is typical for me, destined for a cover, double spread and additional photos in one of the bodybuilding magazines. Photographed with a Canon 5D, 24-70L lens and on camera flash with the Canon 580.

Thanks James, for the great reply.

Seconded.

2 recent personal snaps:

Leaf A65s/RZ67
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Panasonic LX3
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James, your work and others here is fantastic. Thanks for sharing!

Recent shoot, 5DmkII.













Credits as follows:

Photography/Retouching: CaptainHook
Fashion director: Vicki Lin
Stylists: Vicki Lin, Sacha Young, Jasmine Kroeze
Art director: Shahlin Graves
Make-up/Hair: Elise Anderson
Models: Anouk (62 Models & Talent) and Marcus (Red 11)

Thanks.

I love all of them, good job mate.

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Saxophonist/Bandleader Stephan-Max Wirth on location tour in Berlin.
Nikon D70 built in Flash. 24mm f2,8 1/4 s.

Thanks
Martin

Leonardo DaVinci in his workshop designing some optical equipment.

Interesting thread with some diverse images being shown.

The following car pictures were taken with a Mamiya 7 & 43mm @ F8 shot on Kodak VPL and cross processed. The locations were Oaxaca Mexico & NYC

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The people images were taken on a Mamiya RZ 110mm @ F8 shot on Kodak Portra 160 unretouched additional lighting elinchrom ranger.

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Adrian

I likey. How did you scan these?

Hey Harold
are you from Toronto?

r

Yes indeed, what are you up to in Ireland?

This was an out-take from a shoot I did for New Zealand Fitness Magazine. I really intentionally photographed this frame with this perspective because I thought it was fun. It shows one of my typical setups, an outdoor studio against a seamless and strobed. The model is professional bodybuilder Moe Moussawi, one of the top ten pro bodybuilders in the world. Canon 5D and 24-70L 2.8. Profoto Acute 2400R with two heads.

CaptainHook, love the retro-look, excellent post and great atmosphere!

Here one from last weekend, Amstel Hotel in Amsterdam shortly after sunset. I went all out with the bracketing: 1 sec, 2.5, 5, 10 (ETTR), and 80. I ended up throwing 2.5 out as that was not needed. I have found these kinds of shots require three brackets: one for the extreme highlights, one with ETTR (excluding said hilights), and one to reduce noise in shadows, 4 or so stops longer than ETTR.

Canon 450D, Canon 24-105mm IS @ 56mm (35mm equivalent), f/5.6, ISO 100. I ended with a 4x2 frame pano bracketed four times, put together in Autopano, resulting three shots (one thrown out) fused together in Tufuse. Flags shot separately at full zoom and high ISO to freeze them a bit. Final post in PS, nothing drastic. There still a bit more noise than I would've liked, I got better results with the Hong Kong panos - don't know why that is.

You can view the full 161 megapixel pano here. Looking at full magnification now it looks like I went a bit overboard with sharpening, will have to tone it down a bit when I have some time.

As a sidenote, I recently bought the full version of Zoomify since it enables fullscreen viewing, and it's now my preferred way to look at large panos.

Thanks for starting this thread James, I like to talk about and view photography as well.

A few weeks back I spend the best part of the week visiting with family in Denver. I had the good fortune to stay wih my brother and his wife, as their house is akin to living in a gallery. My sister-in-law is the granddaughter of Edward Weston, daughter of Cole. Gracing their wonderful home are numerous prints by the Westons, and a few Peter Stackpoles. Its really quite nice to live among these prints for days, absorbing the rich textures and unbelievable printmaking. Quite humbling.

I had a day to myself, with a rental car, my wifes lowly 450d and a 24-105 lens. It was not suprising to find myself drawn towards textures and the rich tonality of B/W (ok..I left a few in color:). All told a fitting end to the trip

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Here are some I did for a company that maintains and refinishes stone, wood, and metal surfaces in high end buildings.

Greets,

Thanks for the topic start James!
I work for a couple of weekly papers in the Central Coast of California and this particular image has stuck with me ever since I shot it even though it was never published. The paper has a few special editions each year and in this particular issue we were featuring images of people who actually make things with their hands as segue pages into the various sections of the edition.
This man is J.R. Jennings, he has lived in the Arroyo Grande area for all of his 70 some odd years and for 51 of those years he was a farrier. In his garage he still had his original coal fired, open forge and his original anvil. After we had shot the needed images for the paper, I just directed him to stand with his anvil, his hammer, and a horse shoe - really no direction at all and out came this image.
I regret I did not notice the softbox light in his glasses, but I still think he is one of the most magnificent faces I have ever shot.

1DMark3 - Medium softbox right with AB1600 - silver 6 foot calumet reflector on the right.

Cheers,

*steve

Very interesting thread and some very fine photography.

I met my new friend Jim while dumping off bottles at a bottle depot in Calgary one morning this past winter. I noticed him waiting for the bottle depot to open and struck up a conversation with him. I asked him if I could photograph him and this photo is one of a number of photos that I came away with.

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James

For what it´s worth, my first impression on looking at your model pix was Leica M8, not Canon. I don´t pretend to be an expert on either- just a gut reaction is all.

Rob C

Rob,

Every image (until now) I've posted on this new thread has been with the 1ds3, just because it was our most recent work.

I work with a lot of different cameras.

This image is from Last week, a still from a motion and still project we are working on at present.

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Shot with a Nikon D700, actually no raws, just jpeg only, but obviously worked in post in photoshop.

BTW: love the black and white shot you posted of the model. Looks as contemporary today as it did when you shot it, of course the "wardrobe" helps.

JR

Another typical of what I do; photography in the gym.

a shot from today, I wanted to relax a bit so I walked around my school with my camera and tripod. I was trying to emulate the look of old film

Love the idea of this thread. However, given the absence of restrictions I am a bit disappointed with the results so far. One would expect some wild and powerful experimental stuff. I think I have some, so I'll give it a try now.

Since I am interested in the raw side of humans too I have asked a bunch of 16 and 17 year old teenagers to live out their darkest fantasies and write a script for a short movie in which they would play the characters themselves. I coached and directed them and did the lighting and photography as well. I made two of these short films with two different groups. Here is the compiled "storyboard" that I made from the first one. I am going to print it big so that the video noise will be clearly visible. There is another one (similar shape) from the second group, but I am not sure it will be legal to show it in some countries.

Warning: not for the faint hearted!

EDIT: OK, some 48 hours later and after over 200 downloads of this (rather provoking) work, while receiving only one comment, has me convinced me that this is not the place to discuss the how and why of photography. Have fun discussing chicks for the rest of your lives.

EPd

Thanks for the comment. With a Nikon Coolscan 9000

Adrian.

Oh well, I suppose we can´t expect our kids to do other than reflect what they see/hear on tv or read - read? - in their literature. Cute to see them being encouraged! Catch ´em young, I always say! Love it.

Rob C

Thanks, James; sure is a cool necklace!

Rob C

Been poking around at a new series about my guitar maker friend. Not sure what it'll evolve into, but that's half the fun of any project.

Have a looksee:
http://www.tylermallory.com/gallery/guitar.html

This is a wall of my photos (10 photos) each blown up to 16 feet tall (almost 5 meters) on the wall of a facility in Kansas City, MO USA. The files from Nikon D3 camera were printed on an Inca Spyder Digital UV inkjet printer in 4' x 8' sections.



JohnCote
www.johncotephotography.com

PG rated explorations of me using 1st Generation camera phone, at least first gen US camera phone. Circa 2002 or so if I remember right.