A bag that I recommend if you are photographing using portable lights, a light stand, battery pack, reflectors and a few other loose equipments. It’s a light stand holder, a carry-on lugguage, a battery pack holder, lightstand strap, a sandbag and much much more. No, not affiliated with them but they are quite amazing.
This is a specialized bag that they put together for me. If you want one, call Susan at Tutto and tell them that Michael Soo sent you.
I was recently bitten by the slow shutter bug. As you may have noticed from some of my work such as, the previous blog posting, Feb 2007 issue and the most recent June 2009 (page 58) issue of of Popular Photography magazine. All of them using ND filters, at times, stacked with a polarizer.
The interesting part of this filter is that I’ve been sandwiching a polarizer and 1-2 3-stops ND filter in the past few years of my life, with the polarizer being a slim version. This filter single-handedly remove those 2-3 filters from my bag of filters. Although I wouldn’t call it a slim filter, it’s pretty easy to handle and adjust.
As you may already know, sandwiching a combo of filters has its pains. Whenever I need only the polarizer, I’ll need to unsandwich the filters. Then, there’s the handling of three filters instead of one. More surface area exposed to dust, dirt and smudges.
So, the Vari-N-Duo solves all that issue. On top of that, it allowed polarizing effects (really great for waterfalls, reduce glare and reflections in your shots) and slows down the shutter for up to 8-stops!
The drawbacks? It’s a thick filter (size of 3 filters put together), can cause some vignetting and it can be an issue fitting into some bags. However, since I’m using the 1Ds3 to shoot, I have plenty of pixels to play with. Thus, I often shoot wider than normal to allow myself cropping opportunities. Having that in mind frees me from having to worry about the vignetting. I’m also using a bag that fits 6 filters. So, there are definitely enough room for me to fit this baby in.
I was flabbergasted when I told someone that I was going to Shanghai and was returned with the question, “What is Shanghai?” So, I figured I’ll have to deal with my own standards & ideals and move on to explain about Shanghai.
The reason I went to Shanghai, really though is to lead a photography project within Lytro, aka Refocus Imaging and Intel’s CTO, Justin Rattner‘s keynote speech in the Intel Developer Forum in Shanghai. Justin, unfortunately was too sick to make it to the conference and had Vice President, Andrew Chien replace him.
The whole keynote was recorded with the actual slides in the IDF’s website (Time: 36m50s to 46m:00s) but the part that we really care about is here below, in a YouTube video.
Conferences such as the IDF takes months in advanced of preparation for a 1-2 days event. My part in the photography within the keynote was a mere 1-2 minutes but took over one week in preparations. Preparations include project managing, such as hiring the models, makeup artists and wardrobe selections. Local photography lighting gear rentals have to be managed, as well as, photography work in Shanghai and surrounding city, in HangZhou (for the slideshow to showcase the technology). I also had to ensure multiple backups of workflow in case of failures, etc.
We had to hire assistants, compose several dry-runs, rehearsals, on-site problem solving photography issues (such as the issues of lighting in the impossibly difficult lighting conditions within the huge conference hall.
Whatever simplicity you see in the show was backed up by layers of complexity of preparation in the background.
We got extremely creative in the lighting department. For the studio photography enthutiasts out there, I was shooting at F4.0 & ISO 1600 with a Profoto D4 2400 at near max as the main!!!!!!! If that doesn’t send fear up your spine, I don’t know what will. Renting more lighting units will overdrive the budget of the client. Profoto, broncolor and high end lighting gears are 4X more expensive to rent in China than in the United States.
Incompatibility in voltage, weight of equipment through air travel, extension cords, all have to be placed into consideration. No, it was no walk in the park. I had to lug 4 large and heavy suitcases across the Pacific Ocean for a mere 2 minutes of airtime. And that’s on top of renting 4 more suitcases of lighting gear.
Who says Commercial Photography is easy?
A few fun facts about Shanghai:
Shanghai is the most expensive China city to live in.
The mass rapid transit here is very well connected. They have
a whooping 17 lines. Taxis are in abundance. The starting price
is 11RMB, which is about USD$1.50
The Shangri-la hotel employs a cute girl to knock on your door for morning calls instead of a phone call. I specifically asked for a phone call the 2nd day after running around in my underwear when a door knock came on my 1st day’s call.
Shanghainese dialect are spoken alongside Mandarin in Shanghai.
You can custom tailor a full 2-3 piece business suit in China for
US$50 and a wonderfully customed tailored shirt for US$15. Mind you,
the material used is better than those I’ve seen in some high end stores
at Nordstrom.
The snow of change floats over me
like a scrim of dressed white breeze.
Dancing in the air, nuance in grace
wrapping my soul in a tight embrace.
Strolling and crunching on fresh snow powder
upon an old shop of magick, its candles flicker.
I pin my nose onto the cold window
in hopes to find the perfect gift bestow.
Naught just of plain games nor of large monies
but of a simple writing utensil, my son fancies.
Stepping inside the myth, an old man bellows
none other but the red suited, bearded fellow.
“A thousand miles and more, hast thou travelled
searching a majestic wonder that thou wish acquire.”
“‘Tis naught of magical pencil that thou require
but of a wielder of artistic marvel that thou already acquired.”
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