Film > Digital

first test of the rebel t2i. 60 fps conformed to 24, first grading attempt in color. Used a Hague stabilizer and 50mm f1.4 prime lens!

And (hopefully) twice, unfortunately.

I have been in a photo contest for what feels like eternity on yobi.tv, it’s for a prize of $10,000 and a trip to NYC. I have now made it to the top three and the final two weeks thanks to the votes of wonderful folk such as yourself. One person gets eliminated per week, so one of the three will be knocked out Sunday night, then votes are reset for the next week (so I need a new vote after Sunday!).

So please, vote for my photograph by going to the following link: http://yobi.tv/yobipics/finalists/view/44

The photograph you are voting for is one I did in the Salt Flats in Utah last summer on my long Warped Tour road trip:

Keaton Andrew Salt Flats

Every time I have a chance to shoot film, it makes me feel alive as a photographer again. This isn’t about the trend, pretentiousness or anything of the sort. It just feels real. It also usually edits better than digital, negative film has a wonderful ability to hold highlight details that digital cameras simply can’t capture.

The color images in this post are shot on a Mamiya 645AF w/ the stock AF 80mm f2.8 lens. The black and white images are shot on Neopan 400 with my new baby, a Canonet QL-17 G-III.

An Horse

An Horse

An Horse

Kelley James

Kelley James

I recently added a new camera to my gear case – Canon’s Canonet QL-17 G-III. Whew, that was a mouthful! The ridiculously long name aside, this camera from 1972 has the ability to create some stunning images in the right hands.

The Canonet QL-17 G-III is a wonderful miniature 35mm rangefinder. You don’t focus through the lens like an SLR, you look through the viewfinder on the top right and line up two images until they’ve merged. There are various Canonet cameras, mine has a 40mm f1.7 lens. It’s pocketable and fast! It’s been referred to as the poor man’s Leica, and I back that statement after using it some. It doesn’t match the build or optical quality of a Leica, but for the cost there’s not much that comes close. It’s surprisingly well-built, the camera feels wonderful to hold. It also one-ups most Leicas by having a leaf shutter rather than a focal plane shutter. This means full flash sync up to 1/500 of a second, even with a wireless system such as a Pocketwizard.

Fast flash sync is important to outdoor strobist photographers since you knock down ambient and freeze motion better at 1/500 than the 1/200th-1/320th of a second common in most current DSLRs. Indoors it doesn’t matter since the strobe’s flash duration is often even faster than that, 1/1000 of a second or shorter.

This camera has awakened the street photographer hidden inside of me that I didn’t know existed. There’s another advantage to the leaf shutter – It’s a mirrorless system. On a SLR, when you take a photograph you hear a big slap and THEN the photo is taken. That’s the mirror moving so that the sensor/film can be exposed. This causes vibration throughout the camera (read: blur) and is quite noisy. When I take a photograph with the Canonet, no one knows it happened! The leaf shutter is so quiet that it normally can’t be heard by anyone but the photographer. The 1/focal length rule for shutter speed also can be modified, I can easily handhold a sharp photograph at 1/8th of a second or longer with this camera. Of course, this doesn’t keep people or objects in the shot from moving, but it’s a great ability to have!

As with all that is great, there are issues that prevent perfection. While the Canonet can sync at 1/500 of a second with lights, that’s as fast as the leaf shutter will allow. A non-buld exposure of longer than 1/4th of a second can’t be made on the Canonet, either. You could have issues outdoors in sunlight if you’re shooting fast film, you can also forget shooting outdoor sunlight at a large aperture without the use of a ND filter. I find it difficult sometimes to focus using the rangefinder, the little yellow patch can be hard to line up sometimes. The rangefinder brightening trick can help with that, though. This camera also takes a now-illegal mercury battery, alkaline replacements have different voltages and cause issues with the meter exposing correctly. Correct me if I’m wrong, but I believe it tried to overexposure by 1-1.5 stops.

A blog post of mine would not be complete without photographs, so enjoy! I’ve only put two rolls of film through the camera so far, but I plan on making extensive use of this camera in all of my future work. I’m looking forward to shooting it with color film and strobes on a sunny day!

An Horse - Canonet QL-17 G-III

An Horse - Canonet QL-17 G-III

Never Shout Never - Canonet QL-17 G-III

Canonet QL-17 G-III

An Horse are a wonderful Australian indie musical duo signed to mom+pop records who have toured with the likes of Tegan and Sara, Silversun Pickups, Death Cab for Cutie and Cage the Elephant. They were coming through town (town being Atlanta) and I managed to snag a quick little photo shoot with them. I mainly shot black and white film though, so you’re going to have to wait a little while for me to post more photos from this shoot. In the meantime, here’s a digital photo from the shoot. The rest will come in a later blog post, stay tuned!

An Horse

Sometimes it’s fun to do a last minute shoot! I hit up Kelley James via twitter the other week and photographed him tracking some songs in the studio, then did a quick shoot afterwards. I still haven’t had time to finish editing this shoot, but I attached a few photos to satisfy your curious eyes.

Kelley James

Kelley James

Kelley James

Kelley James

Oh, and don’t forget to get crunk!

Had a photo shoot the other week with the new Atlanta, Georgia group Woe, Is Me. They recently signed to Velocity/Rise records. Here are a few photos from the shoot, seven member bands are rough to photograph!

Woe, Is Me

Woe, Is Me

Woe, Is Me

Got an email from Alternative Press back in February about doing a shoot with the Valdosta, GA group From First to Last. I accepted and proceeded to dive right into some of the craziest weeks of my life. The shoot went well, but I had multiple, large and well paying shoots all fall through at the same time that the engine in my Honda CR-V decided it wanted to completely stop working. I’m extremely grateful that the FFTL guys let me stay at their place for a while as my engine was slowly replaced by a local mechanic, there was no way I could afford a hotel.

Here are the tear sheets from the AP article, it’s actually my first feature article in three years of doing photo shoots for them. WHOA… has it really been three years? I’m getting old. Also, there was a last minute change that caused them to swap the two photos… the second photo was supposed to be the spread, I was pretty bummed over that change since I shot it all with a certain usage in mind.

From First to Last - Alternative Press Feature 2010

From First to Last - Alternative Press Feature 2010

90’s grunge band, anyone? (outtake):

From First to Last

I also did some setups for their new label, Rise Records. Here are a few select images from that (not all were used):

From First to Last

From First to Last

From First to Last

Seriously, some of the nicest guys I’ve come across in the music industry. Always a pleasure to work with them!

I had a shoot a few weeks back for their label, Fearless Records. The photos were for promotional use, I’m assuming for the upcoming summer (warped tour and more). If you’re not a photographer, skip the following two paragraphs and go enjoy the photos!

I’m always attempting to figure out how to do something different in photos, I’m past the point of putting out the same drivel over and over. If you’re searching for inspiration, push yourself to photograph someone in a way they’ve never been captured before. I chose to shoot with gels and use multiple exposures on film to capture a unique look on some of these photos. Maybe for you this means lighting by using a mirror to reflect a light. It also might mean photographing without a face being shown at all.

Push yourself, find something else! It’s so difficult to separate yourself as an image maker in this industry. Would you rather be one of 500 people who put out a certain consistent look or one of one? Even if that image is one less sought for, you’ve put yourself ahead by having less competition. Strobist.com recently featured the work of Atton Conrad on a post about light painting. I highly doubt Atton is facing as much competition as most photographers.

anyway, photos from my Breathe Carolina shoot! The first four are film shots, the last one is digital.

Breathe Carolina

Breathe Carolina

Breathe Carolina

Breathe Carolina

Breathe Carolina