Monthly Archives: November 2011

An Evening with Vincent Laforet

Okay, maybe not a full evening but an hour and a half so close enough.  A damp Monday evening in early November is not the sort of time that you are planning a trip out.  However, Vincent Laforet was giving a talk at one of the local Apple stores and I was keen to be there.

I saw Vincent once before at my first ISAP symposium in Pensacola FL.  He was still predominantly a still photographer in those days.  He gave a talk about his aerial photography in New York and an unbelievably moving account of his time in New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina which was accompanied by some equally moving imagery.

When Canon released the 5D MkII, Vincent filmed a short called Reverie to demonstrate the capabilities of the camera and it went viral.  I don’t know whether this was the start of his move to film or whether he was already on the way there beforehand but he is now a director and a bit of a go to guy on the techie issues with HDSLR video.

His talk was a combination of some of his history – a fair bit of stills work since his audience included a lot of photographers – along with some of the video work he has been doing.  I follow his blog so the video material was stuff I had already seen but that was not a problem.  He talked a bit about what the newer technology is bringing to the video world and how different the workflow is.

The real interest came at the end of the evening though when he had a Q&A session.  This really got to the heart of the issues people were interested in and he was very frank in his answers.  He challenged people to think about what they were doing and who was going to be coming after their work environment (and what that environment would even be).  He answered technical questions and gave thoughts on how to self-teach some of the things associated with film making.

He was a very approachable guy and willing to talk to everyone who wanted to get a moment with him afterwards.  If you get a chance to see him at any event, I would certainly recommend it.  In the mean time, his blog is well worth a look.  He doesn’t always blog regularly but, when he does, it is good stuff.  He also has a great gear page if you want some insight into the stuff he uses himself.  Check it out at blog.vincentlaforet.com if you are interested.

Halloween at the Zoo

Whether it is the weather or whether it is some subconscious thing, it appears that we get lured to the zoo at Halloween.  The weekend weather forecast looked very promising so we thought we pop out to Brookfield to see what the animals were doing.  It was only when we got there that we realized that, being Halloween weekend, everyone was there in costumes.

This triggered something from our recollection that we had done the same thing last year.  Let’s go to the zoo when everyone else is planning on being there and all dressed up!  (I will leave my thoughts on Halloween for another post I suspect.)

As it turned out, the center area of the zoo was very busy but the rest of it was no busier than most weekends.  The sun was out and the animal were active so it was a good time to go.  We got particularly lucky with a couple of things.

I have never seen the kangaroos move before.  They have always been lying down taking a nap when I have been there.  Sometimes, this is tucked up against the  wall for extra shade.  However, this time they got up and fed for a while and even hopped across the enclosure.  That was a big plus.

Next we arrived at the brown bear enclosure and the staff were seeding the place with vegetables for the bears to find and feed on.  Consequently, we got a couple of grizzlies rummaging around the enclosure for a long time.  Given their love for dozing this was a result.  I guess the polar bears had already been fed since they were out for the count.

The lions are always a stop for us.  The male was lying down and looked like he was falling asleep.  A lion roaring has a very small mouth shape which doesn’t look like much.  A lion yawning, on the other hand, has a wide mouth and lots of teeth.  A good photo opportunity!  A little patience and we were rewarded with a big view of fangs!  As an aside, lions are not empathetic creatures since we tried yawning a bunch of time to try and induce a yawn but to no effect!

Out last stop was the leopard.  Normally another one having a nap when we are there, this time he was also on the prowl.  We only had a few minutes before it was time to lie down again but even so, this was better than normal.  Not a bad day out!

A retro Night Out

It seems to have been a musical time for me recently.  The other week I saw Thomas Dolby do a short performance which was great (although if you read the blog post you will have noted my disappointment at the session afterwards – all of which was my fault).  This time it was another throwback to my youth.

Howard Jones has recently reworked his first two albums and was undertaking a mini-tour to promote them.  He came to Chicago and performed at the Bottom Lounge so we went along to see him.  The show was in two halves with one album for each half.  First things first.  It was excellent.  You often wonder how a performer will be after a few years (quite a few) out of the spotlight.

He really did a great job for us.  The venue was a nice size to feel involved and he certainly got the crowd involved with it all.  Being someone who based his music on synths, getting a big stage effect is not going to happen.  However, he did still make a good job of it – even if I did chuckle a little at his two support musicians.  His drummer was too cool for school and the guy running the sequencer amongst other things at the back looked like he was more comfortable in a studio than on stage.

Still, a crowd that was predisposed to be welcoming certainly got what they wanted and I have to say we were very pleased to go.  (I suspect a few members of the audience had been brought by their friends but why they couldn’t head to the back of the room if they want to ignore the stage and talk is a mystery to me.  Rudeness is alive and well in the US!)

Thanks, Howard, for making an old git feel a bit younger for a while!

You Want What You Haven’t Got

This post is a little bit of an odd one compared to the usual reports of things I have been out and about shooting.  I was recently putting together an article for a magazine on the 20th anniversary of the first flight of an airliner.  (A quick Google search might tell you which one but if you are interested in the article, click here to see the full digital magazine.)

I knew I had some images of the prototype aircraft when it first flew at Farnborough in 1992.  This is pre-digital days of course so it was time to head to my binders of negatives.  I will save the discussion of how shooting in the digital era differs from shooting with film for another post.  I will also keep my head down for those of you who will wonder why I wasn’t shooting transparencies.  We learn as we get older I guess.

What did catch my eye as I foudn the appropriate shots was that I had seen a bunch of different aircraft at that event and I should really get them scanned.  It was while I was going through this process (that took far longer than it really should have courtesy of a film scanner that, I suspect, is getting towards the end of its useful life) that I noticed something about the way I look at new aircraft.

I think there is a bit of always wanting something that is different to what you have.  When an aircraft first flies, it is obviously the prototype (or prototypes) that fly first.  These appear in lots of press release images and they will be the first ones to show up at trade shows.  Given the length of development programs, you can get a bit bored with seeing the same aircraft all the time.  You long for more of them to be built so you can see the finished product.  You also want to know what they will look like in service since prototypes rarely are finished the way the majority of the aircraft will be.

Eventually production gets underway and you see the real deal.  This is briefly exciting.  New color schemes and users appear and there is something different to learn about.  Over time, many more are produced and then they become a bit boring.  At this point, the idea of seeing a development aircraft – possibly incorporating modifications for some test program – is incredibly interesting and a nice change from the many “normal airframes around.

Are these the same airframes you originally were bored with?  Yep!  Am I being contrary?  Yep!  Such is the way it goes.  I will probably find that someone who is near to the airfield where testing is undertaken probably is bored of the same development airframes and longs for some variety.  I guess we can’t ever be happy!

The Spam Has Evolved!

I previously wrote about how I would get spam comments on this blog.  Since I wrote that piece, my spammers have moved on.  Some times they leave me alone completely.  Nothing for a day or so.  I get quite perplexed by what must have gone wrong.  However, they always show up again.

I wonder whether they read the previous piece on spam since I get a lot less spam for the bio image they used to use.  Maybe they track responses to spam and lay off those that are not any use.  I do still get some, though, so it can’t be that entirely.

Now I am getting some far more varied spam efforts.  They pick on any post and they come in three categories.  The first are the weirdos that have huge messages about everything from movie downloads to fake passports.  They are so obvious, I can’t imagine why anyone would accept them.

The next group are the SEO crowd.  I get so many messages from people who are offering to improve my website from a search engine optimization point of view.  They all come with similar templates so whether I actually need their help or not, I have no idea.  I don’t want it anyway!

The others are brand sellers.  Right now I am getting a ton of Ugg merchandise sites showing up and have started to get NFL jerseys now the season is underway.  Again, since the title of their comment is the website, they are not too hard to spot!  I sometimes read the contents and that can be hilarious.  They write something that is designed to sound like they have read the post and found it the most inspiring piece of work ever.  Fantastic stuff.

What I am hoping for today is to see whether I can get a nice dose of irony and get some of them to comment on this post.  We shall see!  Meanwhile, congratulations to the one spammer that described my site as awful!  Originality is appreciated.