New Year, New Studio, New Car and a Newish Business.

I know, I know, I’m a bit behind in posting to the blog. But, as I had last time, there are some compelling reasons.

First, there was all that holiday celebrating, family visiting and end of year project finishing. Then there were a number of decisions to be made about where to relocate my studio and if it should be big enough to accommodate a small auto restoration shop, as well. In addition, there were a number of possible restoration candidates that came available and deals had to be made in quick succession.

So, let’s start with the latest project that generated a short video production; cover art for a Neiman Marcus catalog this spring. I had the chance to work with Aargon Neon again on the project and it was a pleasure to collaborate with Bill and Arlo. I built a small corner set in the studio, set up my Canon 5D Mark 2 with an intervalometer and hired my friend to shot video with the Panasonic AG-HMC15o and Panasonic ZS-10. I also shot a few clips with my iPad2. It was a work filled, but fun day and you can see the process and final images here:

I also photographed 6 more Bay Area women for Makers to Watch in November on location in and around the Huntington Hotel on Nob Hill in San Francisco. These highly motivated, accomplished, talented and socially responsible ladies were all delightful to photograph. All of them were articulate, interesting and impressive communicators. Interacting with them to create some insightful portraits was probably the highlight of 2011. My crew, Amanda Hibbert and Kimberlie Sandie, and I photographed in one of the hotel rooms the first day and out on the street the second. We used the Broncolor strobes with Chimera softboxes in the hotel room and remote-controlled Canon 550EX flashes and Westcott reflectors on the street, in a park and on the sidewalk. Here are a few shots from the project:

                                                                                                                                            Jennifer Seibel Newsom

                                                                                                                                             Tiffany Shlain

                                                                                                                                             Laila Janah

In late November I decided to find a new location that could serve as both my photography studio and a small workshop. Thanks to Rich Little of North Bay Properties, I was excited to lease a 1200 square foot warehouse space in North San Rafael just off Old Redwood Highway near Smith Ranch Road at 128 Carlos Drive, Unit E. I have a small office, print studio, a medium-sized product and portrait photography area and a decent sized work area which will accommodate 3 or 4 of the small MG TD and MG TF cars I which I specialize. So far, we have four TD projects, two TF projects and one TD Replica made by FiberFab in 1981 which is powered by a 1.6L SOHC engine with a 4 speed transmission, custom frame and Chevrolet H body suspension units.

1954 MG TF and 1953 MG TD

Also in November and December I worked with a crew at the Community Media Center of Marin in San Rafael where I directed several episodes of live painting demonstrations. The artist, Bernard Healey, has taught Marin landscape painting for over 50 years. One of his students and CMCM member, Patricia Hartigan produced the series which is soon to air on Cable Channel Marin TV 26, a public access channel. We all had a good time and, I think, made some pretty good shows in the process.

Photography, video, writing, auto restoration, medical issues and profit centers…

You’re thinking, “He’s off his nut!”

Well, a bit, maybe I am, at least metaphorically.

I worried there would come a time when I would not have anything to say; nothing to talk about, pontificate at, explicate, educate to, report on or even ruminate about. I have geared my posts in this blog to my areas of interest and expertise, thinking that I would not run out of topics… things to explain and video to show you. Well, that hasn’t happened, yet. What has happened is my relative level of busy-ness has risen precipitously. It has kept me from sitting down and forming sentences designed to create a narrative about all I do in the course of a month.

To wit, I have had a bit more minor surgery on the skin thingies(I did get the all clear! Yay!), acquired a couple of new photography clients(Yay, again!), started a video project about my fine art, completed a number of automobile transactions and directed two live television shows at the local public access station state of the art studio.

First, let me tell you about the cars. I sold the 1975 Chevrolet Cosworth Vega to a fellow who said he was going to ship it to Norway. It is a beautiful example of the marque, no doubt, but I couldn’t fathom it traveling to Scandinavia to rest in a heated Motor Museum. Who’d a thunk? I also sold a number of auto parts. With this cash infusion, I purchased a 1953 MG TD with a Volvo engine and Volvo transmission. It is a car in need of resurrection, but a good deal, nonetheless. I also purchased another 1953 MG TD which has been partially restored; also a good deal, I think.  I purchased a 3rd 1953 MG TD that has been fully restored and needing only a minor amount of refurbishment, as an investment, to sell in the spring, when a young man’s fancy turns to love and an old man’s fancy turns to the cars he obsessed over in high school or college. Now that the old man can afford that obsession, I hope to turn a nice profit. I mean, do you ever see a young man driving a cool old collector car? Rarely, as they can’t usually afford them.

About a week ago, I received a phone call from a NY based film producer asking me if I was interested in shooting a series of portraits of well known influential women in the Bay Area. I think my mouth was saying yes before my brain could process the request. Last Wednesday, I had the privelege and pleasure of photographing Rita Moreno at her home in the Berkeley hills. What a sweetheart she is, as well as being a very attractive and vivacious woman of 80 looking maybe 60!  Wow, what a day that was!

Bill Zemanek and I, with BZ on camera, went over to a cow pasture near St. Vincent’s in San Rafael to shoot some short clips of me talking about one of my better know photographs, “St. Vincent’s and Eucalyptus” for a series of such videos explaining a bit about my infrared photographic fine art landscape series. We plan to do more locations in the near future, hopefully, before the winter rains come to Northern California.

I have been taking some classes and meeting other interested videographers at the Communtiy Media Center of Marin in San Rafael. One of my classmates was keen to create a series of 45 minute shows featuring Bernard Healey teaching landscape acrylic painting, much as he as done in person in Marin for the last 50 plus years. After setting up the cameras, tweaking the lights, helping to coordinate the graphics and acting as an assistant producer on the show it was quite an experience to call live camera shots of Berny painting. During the shows, I also piloted the four joystick controlled cameras.

Through it all, BevMo, my best commercial studio photography client, has kept me quite busy with holiday projects. I am also working on project for a Dallas based firm which designs the Nieman Marcus catalogs and sales materials. I am currently editing video for a wedding, an oral history project and a round of presentations on pension investment and management in Pacific rim countries.

So, you see, I am managing to stay out of trouble, even though I play golf once a week, which is the kind of trouble I would love to get into more often.

Cheers, Ken.

Shooting Stills and Video with the Canon 5D Mk 2 at a Wedding and Editing with FCP X.

Saturday, September 10 was a cool, overcast and windy day in the Presidio and Lincoln Park in San Francisco. Nonetheless, the bride and groom were in a celebratory mood, as were their 80, or so, guests. There was plenty of love, plenty of caring, plenty of friends and family to crank up and maintain the enthusiasm, the party mood and the warmth needed to carry the day.

We met at the Log Cabin in the Presidio, a former US Army Officers Club converted to a rustic and commodious event center with views of the city and the Golden Gate. The building dates from the earliest organized military encampment of the location but has been tastefully kept up to date with the modern conveniences needed to serve as a 21st century party center. There we boarded a limo service bus to take us to the locations desired for some group and couples photos.

No one gave much thought to the large fireplace at the west end of the hall until we returned from a little over 2 hours of formal and informal portraits, candid shots and video at the California Palace of the Legion of Honor in Lincoln Park, the pier outside Crissy Field’s Warming Hut and the grounds of the Log Cabin. As we entered the venue, we were met by a hearty fire on the hearth, a warm room and an eager bar staff to provide warming beverages to the wedding party.

I was hired as a stills photographer only for this event, but decided that I would take advantage of my 5D Mk2′s video capability as well as hiring my friend and colleague,Patti Brunelle, to capture some HD video footage for a wedding mini-documentary. My only directive to Patti was to shoot what she wanted, when she wanted, but to always be looking for the romantic moment, possible human interest interlude and use every angle in the book. I did lean on her to shoot stills a bit later in the reception of the garter and bouquet tosses.

After reviewing the stills and raw video footage, I am quite happy to report that there is plenty of material for a 20 minute piece. If you have shot video with the 5D Mk2 you know that still frames can often be used for still photo prints up to about 5″ x 7″ with very nice acutance, color rendition and contrast.  I know some of you straight up photographers would like to argue with me on this, but, in my experience, most digital wedding images never leave cyberspace; and if they do it’s usually not bigger than 8″ x 10″, so I am quite happy to offer them, if needed. Of course, it all depends on how you have shot the video. The footage and stills from the T2i were impressive, as well. I am considering the purchase of a Canon 60D for a backup unit and as a primary video camera as it uses a similar sized, but denser pixel sensor as the T2i, but has more controls and that coveted, articulated LCD screen.

I used a Canon 24mm – 105mm f4 USM IS as my primary lens. I shot in Program, Manual and Video modes. I used ISOs from 100 to HI2. My on camera flash was the trusty Canon 550 EX tethered to a Digital Camera Battery unit I have had for several years. My primary JPEG editing program is Light Room 2 and for RAW files I use PhotoShop CS5.

I had read many scathingly negative articles and reviews of Apple’s Final Cut Pro X when it first came out, so I was reluctant to try it out. I had edited a few short pieces on iMovie, FCPX’s older, less capable sibling, and was not enthused by it’s interface, simplicity and lack of the many tools available to the Final Cut Studio 7 suite I use. However, I saw a couple of glowing reviews on video by long time video editors and thought I might give it a try.

I downloaded FCPX Wednesday afternoon at about 3PM and had completed the 4 minute piece linked to this blog at about 9PM. I did not read any of Apple’s “manual”, but did ask a few questions of the cyber community and received some straightforward easy to use tips. If you ask me what I think about FCPX; I’d say it’s brilliant for what it is. I do think it needs some code warrior refinement and a few more options for import, export, media management and tool usage parameters, but overall I give it an A minus. I do retain my feelings that Apple didn’t just drop the ball on Final Cut Studio users, they fumbled ugly and into the hands of the competition in some cases.

Here are the first four minutes of the video. Enjoy!