Q: When is an iPhone better than $10,000 worth of professional camera equipment?

     I was in Hawaii last week for my brother’s wedding. My partner and I stayed in a rented condo with my parents. We’ve traveled to Hawaii together before, and one of our routines is to walk on the beach every morning. One morning, my partner spotted a large sea turtle in the water. It was less than ten feet from shore in very shallow protected water. We probably could have waded right up and patted it on the head.

     My camera bag, filled with equipment with which I could have undoubtedly gotten a perfect photo, was back at the condo.  My partner’s iPhone was in his pocket.  He got a photo of the sea turtle. I did not.

     That is when an iPhone you happen to have with you is better than all the best pro equipment that is five blocks away.

     On Thursday night, I went down for Art Walk. I haven’t been for a few months. The weather was a bit cool, but surprisingly nice for early February.

     The most interesting thing I saw was an exhibition at the Garde Rail Gallery by an artist named John Taylor. He apparently builds these ships (mostly ships) from scratch using found materials. They are immensely detailed. And unlike a pristine model, these mostly look like what you’d see in a shipwreck, or a ship long neglected and past its hay day, which gives them real character and elicit an emotional response. Plus it appealed to the kid in me that used to build lots of models when I was a boy.

     I won a “Concept Shot of the Day” award on Model Mayhem (a networking website for models and photographers). This was the second time I’ve won; the first time was last November. The theme this time was “hair”. I was a bit surprised, because there were some other really good entries that day. Here is the photo that won:

     Yes. That is actually his hair.

    Here is the story. I had worked with this model several times before. His name is Kince. He had been growing his hair progressively longer over the course of a couple of years. I asked him if he ever decided to cut it short, to please let me know. He is a dancer, and got sick of tying it up and pinning it back all the time, so he did decide to cut it off, and he did call me. I only had a few days to set it up.

     I found a stylist to work with. I rented a straight jacket. We sat down and cut off half Kince’s hair! Then teased out the remaining hair to look ratty. I placed clumps of his hair on the table, put a pair of scissors and a straight razor just out of reach, and asked Kince to look longingly at the scissors, as if he’d done this to himself. We tried several different looks. This was my favorite.

     After we were done, the stylist cut the rest of his hair so it all matched. Fun!

     I don’t use my photo studio full time. So I share my studio with other photographers. It helps defray some of the costs, and allows others to make use of it when it would otherwise sit dark.

     I’ve got a vacancy come up at my studio. So if you are a photographer, or know a photographer, who would be interested in a shared photo studio, please email me for details.

     I’ve seen a lot being made out of the fact that President Obama’s new official photo (you know, the one that will be on the wall of every government office and embassy around the world), was shot with a digital camera. This is the first official presidential photo shot with a digital camera, not film. 

     I’m not really all that surprised. The last official presidential photo would have been taken some time in early 2001. At that time, there were NO high quality digital cameras available commercially. Canon, for example, had only recently debuted the D30, a 3 megapixel DSLR. Very few photographers had them, and it would be considered completely inadequate by today’s standards. A vast majority of professional photographers were still shooting film, and in fact would have considered the D30 inadequate for any professional use.

     Fast forward 8 years. There are now dozens of high quality digital cameras available that could do a perfectly adequate job for a portrait. Most digital point & shoot cameras even have enough resolution for the job. Most professional commercial photographers are now shooting mostly digital. I would have been surprised if this new photo had been shot on film. The particular camera used by the official portrait photographer, Pete Souza, is a Canon 5D mk II, which is arguably capable of higher quality photos than could be done with a medium format film camera. 

     The choice to go digital for the official presidential photo isn’t so much an anomaly as a sign of the times. The simple fact is that 8 years ago almost all portrait photography was still shot on film, and today a vast majority of portrait photography is now digital.

     By the way, I am not overly fond of the official photo. It is a pretty bland portrait, which I suppose is par for the course for an official government photo. I’ve seen many other photos of him that show a lot more personality. Also, he is over 6′1″ tall, and the perspective makes him look short. 

     During the recent cold snap, I went up to Snoqualmie Falls with a friend to see what kind of pics I could get. I was actually expecting it to be more iced over than it was. It was difficult hiking to this spot in the snow; we passed a stuck car, a stuck pickup, and a car about 15 feet down a bank off the road. The spray partly obscured the view. But still, some pretty unusual photos of the falls.

     Click to enlarge:

     I recently did a gig where I shot about 600 Santa photos in about 3 hours. As a photographer, this is a bit of a grind. I think I’d go completely crazy if I had to do this for an entire holiday season. There are screaming infants and toddlers who are terrified by the big guy in the red suit. There are teenage boys who are too cool for Santa and flash gang signs at me when I try to take their photo. There are 300 pound guys that think it is hilarious to get Santa photos (more of a problem for Santa than me, really). And with a huge long line, a big part of the job is to just get through them quickly, so it becomes sort of like the photography version of an assembly line. I have to be fast, but need to make sure the pictures are cute and not inappropriate (imagine in your mind a little girl sitting spread-eagled across Santa’s knee with her pretty little Christmas dress hiked up a bit too high. “No, sweetheart. How about putting your legs together.” Then tug the hem of the dress down to the knees for the photo.) Parents don’t like Santa photos that make Santa look like a perv.

     Doing it for one day is kind of fun. It was for a holiday party a local company was putting on for their factory workers and families. It is one thing for a big wealthy high tech or professional company to do a splashy party. But I think it is generous for a smaller company to do this for regular workers. This was my third year shooting their Santa photos, and the only Santa gig I did this year. 

     By the end, I thought my shutter finger was about ready to fall off. The poor Santa must have bruised legs from having hundreds of kids (and adults!!) sitting on them for 3 hours. The photo above was my parting shot at the end (shot by another photographer I was working with; thanks Morgan!).

     I recently won an award from a website called Model Mayhem. It is a networking site for models, photographers, and other associated professions. The award is a “Concept Shot of the Day”. A theme is chosen, and photos are submitted that fit the theme.

     The concept for the day I won was “Mask”. Here is my photo that won:

     I did my civic duty and voted. I did some work and went to a meeting. I went home and watched the election returns, McCain’s concession speech, Obama’s acceptance speech. I thought about going to bed. Then something strange happened… people started to celebrate.

     A huge, spontaneous street party erupted just two blocks from my studio. Thousands of people poured into the streets. Seattle is one of the most liberal cities in the US, and voted overwhelmingly for Obama. Seattle, obviously, was happy with the results of the election. Very happy. How could I pass that up?

     I decided to go light: one camera body, 2 small lenses, no flash, no tripod. Totally guerrilla. I shot until about 2:00am. The lighting was terrible. All the shots were completely spontaneous.

     People were screaming non-stop. I don’t know if my photos can convey the sense of manic celebration. I called my mother in the middle of it (probably waking her up), and held my cell phone up, just so she could hear all the shouting. A gay bar set up a speaker system on the roof, and a drag queen led the crowd in a rousing (if camp) chorus of the Star Spangled Banner. Police wisely didn’t try to break it up; they simply blocked off about a 4 square block area, and let the party go. Around 1:00am, a similar street party that was going on in the University District marched up to Capitol Hill, and merged with the party where I was. A few people got lifted into the air and passed along like in a mosh pit. I was doused with champagne once (I fear my camera will be pretty sticky in the morning). If the constant cheering, shouting, and singing wasn’t enough, there were also bottle rockets and firecrackers. Good times.

     So… on with the pictures (click “Read More” below to see 15 more photos):

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I’m sure that my choice for president will surprise exactly nobody. But I decided to have some fun with it.