Seven Years

"... Mr Marley has been dead these seven years, he died seven years ago this very night."  spoken by Scrooge during "A Christmas Carol"

That line from the classic work by Dickens, really sticks in my craw this year - it has an extra meaning to me - Let me explain.

It was seven years ago this weekend, that my good friend and mentor Joseph Hakey of Wakefield Massachusetts passed away and in the interim, I have thought about him constantly.

You see Joe's passing was at the most inopportune time -like a passing can be at a good time - no I mean in his career.

We were all JUST turning to digital cameras, dit cams, as we called them, and Joe was fascinated by them.

You may have heard me speak of the Old Fart Press Photographers of the North Shore. Well many of those meetings were attended by and presided over, if you will, by Joe and at that time, we all spoke of the upcoming revolution. We really did not know about Megapixels and Resolution, or photoshop or CF cards or any of that. The cameras we talked about were two piece units or the Kodak DCS models - built on either a Nikon or Canon frame but still two pieces. Those were the days!

But we would sit in the darkened back room of that Chinese restaurant, and we would talk of days that had gone by and of days to come. It is the days to come that I miss talking with Joe about.

He had a unique view of the world, I will always remember his sage advice - " A fee is a fee is a fee...", meaning that of you got a job as a freelancer, do the best you could cause you were making your fee and that was your living and you needed to do it often.

We would speak of scanning old slides and negatives, old games and assignments we had done, and how the digital camera revolution would change the business.

It is that topic that I miss talking to Joe about. I wonder what kind of camera Joe would be shooting, and if he would have totally embraced the digital camera revolution. I often wonder what he would shoot for cards and how it would have changed his whole business model. Yes we were technically competitors, but that never really played into our discussions.

I really miss Joe and if you knew him and wish to add a comment or a memory I would love to hear what you have to say.

High ISO - My Thoughts

A connundrum exists here in the digital photography world. 

As photographers, we yelled and screamed at camera manufacturers to give us higher and higher ISO's with lower and lower noise so we could shoot in darker and darker situations.

Well, we pretty much have that now. Indeed the current and upcoming crop of cameras have tremendous ability to shoot in low light with great results.

The connundrum is that photodog's everywhere now do not know how to us high ISO to their advantage. Not just amateur photographers, but many, many, and did I say many, professional photographers.

I was shooting football, at night, recently and one of the guys was commenting about how nice it was to shoot tonight's game at 6400 ISO. I was incredulous. The light at this field is gorgeous and you truly need no more than 1600 ISO to get great action stopping, sharp photos. I have cranked my Nikon D300 to 2000 and 2500 at this field and they photos are fine, but here it is - the Joe Brown Theorum on High ISO:

LESS IS MORE.

That is it. LESS IS MORE.

If you can get away with a lower ISO, then do so. 

You will, in general be MUCH happier with your photos than cranking it up to a high ISO just because you can.

The Bestest Darn Softbox --- EVER

y of you know of my association with SOPHA Studio in Manchester NH. It is a fantastic place to practice the craft of controlled photography, and learn the craft from those who are willing to teach. 

Now since SOPHA has a drive in cyc wall, they have that lit with

 the biggest softbox I think I

 have ever actually seen. It is big enough to light a car front to back, and has something like 7 lights in side of it. Beautiful.

Well, I have found one bigger! And softer! And a joy to work with! Anyone want to guess ??

It is a FOG BANK!

Yes indeed. Fog. Which is a cloud at ground level. 

I know you all think I have lost it, but read on:

I have been shooting lots of sports assignments over the past few days, and the weather here in New Englan has been nothing short of murky. But this, I feel, is an advantage. The sun goes down around 4:30 which requires the lights at the fields to be the primary source of illumination for the soccer or football games. Now invariably there are areas of the field that are unevenly illuminated. It is the nature of the beast.

So here is where the fog comes into play. The fog scatters the light around, and that softens it. But it also fills in some of the shadows, as all thouse photons bounce around. COOL EFFECT!

Here is a shot from Reading High School in Reading Mass during half time of last night's Football game. I realize there are no players on the field, but I am posting this to show the conditions.

Even the kids playing pickup football are fairly well lit.

And that is what takes your photos from snapshots to well crafted photos, see the light and where it does and doesn't go and use it to your advantage.

Well It's Happened Again....

Last night I bumped into a photographer I had not seen in a while. He was proudly, and rightfully sho, showing off his new Nikon Dxxx (the model is not important to this discussion). He told me had it only a couple of weeks, and was really enjoying using it. He pointed out how easy it was to shoot night sports events, as the unit did high ISO with ease.

So I asked him about a particular feature, and all I got was a blank look. Yup, truly a blank look. So for the second time in two weeks, I asked a photographer about his camera and I got the old blank look for an answer.

So here we have two of the best local photographers, both masters in the craft, and they are now using equipment they did not totally understand.

Pardon me, but this totally blows my mind.

Seriously - guys:  RTFM. PLEASE !!!

For the rest of us: RTM. (Expletive deleted). Please.

Thats right. Make a cup of joe, find a cozy nook, put the camera on your lap and read it. If even only for 15 minutes. Skim it if you dont have time to study it, but at least hit the highlights.

Then go out and shoot. Anything, the lawn, the neighbors cat, your 18 year old roommate, anything. And come back in and read the book some more. 

So when I bump into you, and you proudly point to your new camera, you can tell me all about it, and I know my work has been done!