Category: Public Posts & Updates

I’ll be adding ZOOM functionality shortly.

    That means next session that has internet will be Live Webcast and all you’ll have to do is Log In and.. View!!!

    I’ve already purchased the Black Box video switcher that will make it possible to switch from one camera view to the next with the push of a button.. and I’m looking to add a third d5100…

→ Why the d5100?
    First of all, I look to Nikon. I’m an old Nikon user. Back when I was looking to work for magazines I did a bunch of research on different cameras. Canon and Nikon came out at the top for sports and action (not something I am truly interested in but I was looking at getting in to shooting MX events… so speed was important). The best story I heard that swayed me came from Wayne Duchart, Photography West in Kelowna and that was… ‘During the Gulf War, photographers would be sent out to capture what ever images they could. The shooters armed with Canon gear came back with broken equipment.. the shooters armed with Nikon.. came back with images.” Why? Because Nikon decided to build the F5 from the ground up as one contiguous unit. You purchased the Body and the Battery Grip all at once because it was.. one piece. It’s a massive “boat anchor” of a camera but it performs. The Canon option at the time was two pieces.. you didn’t have to buy the battery grip (but as a sports photographer you’d be stupid not to). So, that’s the Start of Why.
    So, most of my equipment is Nikon oriented. And keeping things Nikon oriented I can swap lenses out from camera to camera which is awesome.. meaning (for the art cameras) I can shoot one film stock for one pose, swap out bodies but keep the lens/ focal range consistent and then capture that same pose with a different film stock. Like- shoot colour print with one body and black and white // Infrared with the other.. that kind of thing. 
    But why the d5100? First of all, it’s an affordable body. It’s not new so it’s getting more affordable with each passing phase. Also, and this is actually the big reason why I am sticking with the d5100.. Frame Size and Image Depth is consistent from camera to camera so when I bring the raw files in to Premier for editing.. I’m not having to deal with different frame rates and dimensions. It’s a small issue but not having to deal with it helps a lot.

    Next.. I’ll work to make sure the cameras are dialled in. It is difficult and visible with the Kadence shoot.. sometimes the dSLR is set to record and it’s focus isn’t set.. I’ll be playing with aperture and focal ranges in the coming months but… the cool thing about having three cameras?? Two will be hard wired and tethered.. the third *MIGHT* be wireless.. that means it will broadcast in to the ZOOM feed without wires meaning… I can move around with it more freely. Turn it on.. switch the view to the live wireless steadicam camera and.. start moving around the shoot area. No guarantees right now on this but it’s where I want to go with this… and I am setting up an event for later next month that will *need* these items of hardware so.. if it comes together- it’s all dialled in licketty split!

So- 

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While I was living in Kelowna I put together a super cool art show. It featured all the different styles of work I am involved with from soapstone sculpting to black and white photography and oils on canvass paintings.. and I collaborated with two computer based musicians for a poetic performance that was something else. This is the video of that event. Apologies for things not being fully “synced” as this was shot with a low end consumer grade camera.. but it’s fun none the less.

How did I get involved with Fine Art Nude photography? 

I am a soapstone sculptor on hiatus.. I haven’t had the funds for materials nor the space to create such dusty products as freeform soapstone sculptures in quite a few years but.. when I was living in Kelowna I was very busy in deed. I reached out to a Hospital in the southern states as they were looking for an impressive piece for their entrance way. I had a great sketch and idea/ theory.. and the only reason I lost the commission was due to my sex.

Inspired by that experience, I did look further afield. One specific idea struck me- EcoChallenge, the race that takes place over many days and many different terrains, and was produced by Mark Burnet (the original producer of Survivor, the TV show).

I reached out to Mark Burnet directly.. I didn’t have a home phone so I’d laod up with quarters and head to a nearby payphone and plug away.. wait on hold.. and then talk to The Man about producing a large sculpture that would be indicative of his race. My vision would have one sculpture that would have a wonderful base upon which the name(s) of the winners would be applied in plaque form- much like the Stanley Cup. And, as the base would grow with the years. Oh- and for the winning teams, they wouuld receive a Bronze Casting of The Sculpture in miniature- one per team (because they are expensive to produce). We were on track.. our discussions were moving along quite nicely.. until it came time to talk about the content of the sculpture.

My vision would have a “clamshell” orientation with an extrusion of a female bust on one side and, indented in to the back side of that half shell, would be a male bust in relief. I wanted to go this route because it’s easier to carve a male torso in to a female torso.. the other way around would be.. different. I was alive and excited with the possibility.. but Mr. Burnet didn’t like the naked female body idea.. even though~ from my estimation~ his race was celebrating human ability and my sculpture was doing nothing less.

At any rate, a friend of mine volunteered to be the model for the still photographs from which I would source lines etc. She came over to my studio- at that time, I was living with a photographer in his warehouse styled studio in the North End.. more on that situation later.. Anyhow- she came over and posed for what I thought was many images as examples of how the skin lies and body sits in one specific pose. It was super exciting and I was charged with creative energy.

Long story short- the discussions couldn’t get past the content. So, I meandered off on my own direction.. and the race quickly fell off the radar within four or so years as Mr. Burnet was switching gears and interest/ focus to Survivor. So, even if my sculpture had been taken on by EcoChallenge, it was to be a short lived race.

 

Mark Burnet