official photography thread

***SWEET*** · 07-01-2008 05:07 PM

Mine:

**Mystery Bob** · 07-01-2008 09:30 PM

How old is your son Blix? What's his name?
DCPhotos I'm as curious as Pete about shooting the pros. I once had an invitation to shoot The Washington Redskins play from the sidelines. I burned up 6 or 7 rolls of film and never got one good shot; action is hard to capture: love this sideline photo of yours:

**VertigoJ** · 07-01-2008 10:02 PM

I was in and around Philly Sunday...

Nothing special, though I enjoy the top one for some reason.

**lexx** · 07-02-2008 12:47 AM

Originally Posted by dcphotos

That D700 sounds great, unless you already have a lot of wide lenses. I use a 17-35 and a 10.5 quite a bit, they will be wide. Another thing I am not sure about with that full frame is going back to having my 300 2.8 act like it used to with film cameras. With the D2X I have a crop mode where I can sit behind the end zone and shoot football all the way out to the 50 yard line, it's like having a 600 on a film camera. For those reasons I like the small sensor, but of course there are plenty of other reasons to want the full size. Anyhow, I'm excited about all the new cameras, bout time Nikon!

The D3 and the D700 automatically detect if you're using DX lenses and then crop the active sensor range down (reducing the MPs of course), you can also choose like on your D2x to crop down to the smaller sensor size to achieve the x1.6. That means your really wide lenses can be in a more practical range. I'm not certain about the crop mode that you refer to on the d2x that makes your lens x2, though because I've never had a full play with those kind of settings.

**Blix** · 07-02-2008 03:47 AM

Originally Posted by Mystery Bob

How old is your son Blix? What's his name?

He`s 7 and his name is Dennis.

Yeah, I love that sideline photo too, really dramatic.

**dcphotos** · 07-02-2008 08:22 AM

Originally Posted by pete..

DC im guessing you're a pro photographer, how do you make money for shooting sports? it always seems like there are hundreds of photographers at an event getting the same stuff so how does the pay work? does a buyer just select the images that they want or do most of them work for a speciffic magazine or company?

Most of them are staffers. At pro games you see guys that shoot for the NFL, AP, SI, local news. I am not sure what the policies are on freelance being there. At NCAA games there are freelance shooters, but NCAA rules are kind of tight on how you can sell images. It's about money.

Trying to make anything as a freelancer in sports is tough unless you shoot little league and sell to soccer moms. I know a guy that makes a killing at that. Having a staff job means you have salary and know when you are getting paid, not to mention benefits. The market really varies depending on where you are, in my area there are a few guys shooting commercial that do ok, but the only real good money is in weddings, and weddings suck. Too many assholes are willing to sell images for nickels on istock or similar sites now and the market is changing. That and there are people that get on flickr and either steal images or email photographers offering minimal fees for photos and getting them. I had someone on there write me today asking if they could use a photo for free, citing how it would help me if I got published. I more or less told them to blow me, but not in those words.

I have done news before but I now work for an university on staff. That keeps me really busy and I have a wide variety of things to shoot, hence the photos of science labs and sports. All my images are for advertising and promotion, and we upload sports stuff to media since we are a smaller school and the big ones get covered first when the regular news staff is short handed. Personally I'm ready to win the lottery and be done with it.

**Mystery Bob** · 07-02-2008 01:34 PM

I like those shots Vertigo J.
Thanks for the insight DC.
Blix I have grandchildren around Dennis age. My daughter Michelle shot these of Brynn and Braden holding Frankie. Brady's could use a crop:

**Mystery Bob** · 07-02-2008 01:46 PM

We have these lovely children and grandchildren and are living in a crazy world these days.. So here is a morality test. This test only has one question, but it's a very important one. By giving an honest answer, you will discover where you stand morally. No one else will know, so you won't be fooling anyone but yourself if you give anything but a truthful answer. The test features an unlikely, completely fictional situation in which you will have to make a decision. Remember that your answer needs to be honest. Here's the situation:
You are in Miami, Florida. There is chaos all around you caused by a hurricane with severe flooding, a flood of biblical proportions. You are a photojournalist working for a major newspaper, and you're caught in the middle of this epic disaster. The situation is nearly hopeless. You’re trying to shoot career-making photos. There are houses and people swirling around you, some disappearing under the water. Nature is unleashing all of its destructive fury. Suddenly you see a man floundering in the water. He is fighting for his life, trying not to be taken down with the debris. You move closer... somehow the man looks familiar. You suddenly realize who it is. It's George W. Bush, President of the United States!! You notice that the raging waters are about to take him under. You have two options - you can save the life of G.W. Bush, or you can shoot a dramatic Pulitzer Prize winning photo, documenting the death of one of the world's most powerful men.

So here's the question, and please give an honest answer: >>>>Would you select high contrast color film, or would you go with the classic simplicity of black and white?<<<<

**dcphotos** · 07-02-2008 02:55 PM

Originally Posted by Mystery Bob

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So here's the question, and please give an honest answer: >>>>Would you select high contrast color film, or would you go with the classic simplicity of black and white?<<<<

Geeez, film. That stuff is cool for art, but otherwise it's dead. I'd shoot digital and be the one that made deadline.

**Blix** · 07-02-2008 03:10 PM

Ha-ha, while dcphotos would get the attention at first I`m sure I`d make millions of my superdetailed 8x10" portrait of GWB`s remains.

**lexx** · 07-02-2008 03:24 PM

I'd just post my picture on flickr, have it stolen and not make a penny from it - and worse, no one would make a comment or provide any feedback either.

**Blix** · 07-02-2008 05:13 PM

Originally Posted by Mystery Bob

I like those shots Vertigo J.
Thanks for the insight DC.
Blix I have grandchildren around Dennis age. My daughter Michelle shot these of Brynn and Braden holding Frankie. Brady's could use a crop:

Kids rock!

Grandchildren! I feel young (for the first time on Silverfish)

While going down memory lane, a couple of years ago, a friend of mine donated his freezer content to me, most of it was film expired around 1980, a few rolls of Tri-X(fogged and unusable) and some rolls of Verichrome Pan(best before September 1980) , here`s a photograph from that last roll of VP, shot yesterday, developed today.

**Mystery Bob** · 07-02-2008 07:13 PM

Blix, if that's your wife ... She's beautiful! You dog!!! Pretty cool how the near 30 year old donated film came out so good. One thing about having 8 grandchildren (I got married at 17), I'll be able to play with my great-grandchildren and teach them how to surf/windsurf/skateboard and shoot photos of them doing all that stuff. When I broke my tibia/fibula a few years ago my granddaughter Samantha (in college in Virginia) asked me, "How?" I said "Skateboarding.". She said, "Wow; cool!"

My granddaughters Samantha and Brittany taken by my daughter Michelle with her cell phone:

**PuppY_K1ck3R** · 07-02-2008 07:54 PM

I shot these over the weekend and I decided to play with the blk/wht layer mask.

**VulgarDisplayCFH** · 07-02-2008 08:00 PM

Jumbo, you need to show me a couple things with my camera. Go to the skate on tuesday.

**PuppY_K1ck3R** · 07-02-2008 08:15 PM

Originally Posted by VulgarDisplayCFH

Jumbo, you need to show me a couple things with my camera. Go to the skate on tuesday.

Ok im gonna see if i work late next tue. pm me first then bring ur cam.

**dcphotos** · 07-03-2008 05:53 AM

Puppy, you did that with layer masking? I've done the same effect before, mostly with stuff like bride portraits(it's about the $$, not the art). I just used teh history brush to pull the areas I wanted back to color.

BLIX! Man, you just gave me some huge memories. I used to love that VP! I know I have about 5 sheets left of type 55, it's probably no good and I don't have a 4x5 back for it. I am having a party for July 4th though, I need to ask my buddy to bring his and maybe we will get my 4x5 pinhole cam out. I don't think I can get a hold of the stuff to clear the negs though(is it sodium hydroxide????). Do you shoot type 55? That is a pretty girl, but I imagine you don't have a shortage in Norway.

What I really loved also was Tech pan. Do they still make that stuff? I had some 120 rolls around, not sure if I still do or not.

I might have to get my old Contax gear out of the closet soon. My camera has a roll of HIE in it, another film I used to love. I converted a camera to shoot IR 3 years ago and have not used HIE since, but it did have a nice quality to it.

This is HIE, not digital:

I used to shoot HIE and print it on water color paper with Luminous version of Liquid Light. Tone it and hand color it, that was some cool stuff. I had a series of nudes I shot and produced that way, I don't even know where the prints are anymore.

**Blix** · 07-03-2008 06:45 AM

Yeah, I`ve shot some Poaroid 55 (RIP). You use Sodium Sulphite to clear the negatives, but you can use plain water too, takes a little longer to clear, but no problem.
I can only imagine how nice fresh VP would be..
I haven`t shot much IR, I have couple rolls onfKonica 750 in my fridge, but never seem to get around to use them..

Your HIE shot has a nice luminous quality to it, special stuff for sure.

And yeah, Tech Pan is gone, prices on eBay are crazy now..

**dcphotos** · 07-03-2008 08:32 AM

They sell it on eBay? Damn, I gave a bunch of that stuff to a local high school kid that was doing art photography at the magnet school.

If you want to divulge into IR go with HIE over Konica. The Konica doesn't have the same range. There was an Italian film for a while also, I can't remember the name of it. I tried a couple comes, I think I ordered from Freestyle(are they still around). The HIE can be a pain as you have to load and unload your camera in darkness, but it's worth the trouble. Infrared is awesome for shooting nudes as well as it will render ethereal skin tones. Hot lights have a lot of IR output.