I had the pleasure of shooting photos of the 3rd Las Vegas Event for Project Dinner Table. It’s a great event put together by really cool people – benefiting great causes, too. You can learn all about it – and buy tickets to the next one on their website here: http://www.projectdinnertable.com/
The PDT site does a really nice job of getting you the important information, so I’ll keep this post geared to my photographer friends & family. This assignment was a challenge! I shot it with two Digital SLRs, a Canon 5D Mk II with a 24-70mm f/2.8 lens, and my backup camera, a Canon 20D with an 11-18mm lens for the wide stuff. Hey, it was a LONG table! I swapped out and used a 70-200mm f/2.8 IS lens toward the end of the evening, too. The calculation with the smaller sensor makes it an even longer zoom than 200mm.
The most challenging part of this assignment was to get shots quickly – especially the chefs preparing the food – then, jump out to the dinner to see guests enjoying the meal – and be careful not to miss any of the fun activites like the 7th inning stretch poety reading, the presentations, or the singing of the national anthem. There were even some action shots of guests tossing the ball around the diamond!
It’s been a while since I shot events – I used to hate it because I was changing batteries all night with shoe mount flash units, that I didn’t ever really jive with. Now, with the advent of higher ISO settings, I can capture much more color in much lower light. Not to mention have a LOT more fun!
Hope you enjoy the photos as much as I did taking them. Cheers!
Its kind of funny to me that there’s a genre on wikipedia (yeah, I know, it’s wikipedia) called Folk/Punk. The author credits the great Pogues as founders. I credit Bob Dylan, probably, for kick-starting this genre, if it really does exist. You could argue that its origins are within blues or even southern rock – but I always tend to lean toward the great Joe Strummer. The Clash were legends: punk as hell – brutally honest, smart and snide social commentary, no doubt. But it’s Strummer’s late work that really turns up the passion and the wisdom. His worldliness shines in the Hellcat Records discography. Go get these records immediately.
But get this album, too. I stumbled upon Frank Turner’s music recently while researching The Revival Tour, a group of veteran punks that just plain kick some acoustic ass. Same vigor, same angst, but acoustic. Epic story tellers, I gotta say. Turner is bold and grouchy, but insightful and often times gutwrenchingly beautiful, too. I purchased The First Three Years from iTunes almost immediately after stumbling upon Turners MySpace page and listening to all of the sample tunes there. 24 solid, soulful tunes for 8 bucks. Thank me later.
When it comes to discovering new things, I’m like a crazy heroin addict. I think it’s the definition of living. My dad always said (ad nauseum while on vacations) to “expand my horizons” and as a teenager, it drove me nuts. Now, I’m a father… and I get it.
Did you ever hear a song, read an article or a book and go, “How did I NOT know about this!?” I do it all the time. 2 or 3 times a week, lately. So, I’m starting a new string of blog posts called “New To Me” and it’s about people, organizations, bands and such – that are newly GREAT to me. I hope you like it.
This first post is about a photographer who changed the game for me. Bobby Model passed away last fall, and I can’t learn enough about him right now. My introduction to the National Geographic photographer and adventure-seeker came from another magazine, American Photo, who featured him in the July/August 2009 issue. I relate to Bobby Model in a couple different ways. I love extreme, off-the-path places, risk vs. reward photography, and I’m from Wyoming, like Bobby.
Model was named an Emerging Explorer by National Geographic last year, where he was quoted: “I grew up in Wyoming, one of the most isolated areas of the United States,” he explains. “So hanging on ropes and moving around mountains just came naturally. It’s also why I’ve always found it easy to relate to ordinary people who work the land. I really respect and appreciate those individuals and their stories.”
Wish I could have bought that guy a drink, was my first thought, when I learned of his passing.
I talked to an Award-Winning fine-art photographer Steve Campbell from Las Vegas-based Casey’s Cameras last week at our Vegas Photoshop Users Group meeting. We discussed fisheye lenses. He said he sells them to “extreme sports photographers,” mostly.
I can’t help but think of Model as a pioneer in this genre – he shot adventure photos before there was an “extreme” label, and before it became commercial.
The next time I’m shooting an oncoming race car doing 180mph, a mosh pit or a KO’d kickboxer hanging above me on the ropes, I’ll think of Bobby Model – who shot in ice caves, waist-deep snow, hanging from ropes, and on mountain bikes. My kind of office.
