It Happened Last Night - Apple Pro Sessions

For myself, as well as for most of the photographers I know, the vast majority of the images I've made the past forty years (since I was a twelve year-old) exist on film so... when Gene Mopsik, ASMP's Executive Director, asked me to speak at the ASMP/Apple Pro Sessions, I quickly began thinking about what I might show. Those first thoughts were immediately followed by a minor panic attack as I realized that just about everything I want to show exists on film in one (or another) of the many steel filing cabinets which populate my office, and, of course, this would have to be an all-digital presentation.

A week of frenzied scanning ensued and it finally came to a close yesterday afternoon. As the departure deadline neared, I decided that six slide shows was going to have to be enough (actually, there were seven but one was just the credits, with pictures!).

I showed the six slide shows, each of the first four representing a unique body of work. The fifth is my actual portfolio. The sixth recaps an ongoing stock photo project and the seventh, as already mentioned... the credits. I then showed, using the Internet, "how all of this is promoted and marketed... moved from my desktop to yours."

I think, judging from audience reaction, that the presentation was well received. (and, yes, I was shooting during the presentation)

Anyway, it went off without a hitch if you don't count the fact that my Macbook's screen saver cuts in very rapidly and had a tendency to take over right in the middle of whatever point I was trying to make... I got through it.

Also pleased to see (among the sixty or so who attended) one of my neighbors, my cousin Rachel (my first cousin's daughter... took her out to dinner after, living so far from her parents I've gotta be sure she's eating, it's the Jewish mother in me); and Julia Graham, CEO of APA/NY (first row on right, green dress), Louisa Curtis of Chatterbox, Matthew Schwab (a new ASMP-NJ member); Robin Schwartz, an old ASMP/APC friend I haven't seen in 25 years... and great to meet many others who stayed to chat after the presentation.

Throughout the entirety of my preparations I'm pleased to report that my trusty Nikon LS-2000 Super Coolscan never missed a beat (or a pixel), and for that I really have to thank my friend David Riecks, who advised that I buy the VueScan software that drives it when I migrated to MacOS X two years ago.

Thanks, David. And thanks to all who attended, it was great seeing or meeting you. Perhaps we'll have this opportunity again someday?

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Above: Canon EOS-5D, 28~105/3.5~4.5 Canon EF Ultrasonic lens, ISO 1600

The Night Life Ain't No Good Life, But It's My Life

If you've been following along you'll recall that, when I'm not photographing fires or... otherwise... working (making money), I've been preparing for a talk I'll be giving on Monday evening at the Apple Store in New York (SoHo). I've been looking at pictures trying to locate originals to scan, things I remembered shooting and would like to show. As a byproduct of my search I've found a few things that I'm not going to show but, because I'm weak, I scanned them anyway. This image is one of my favorites from the distant past.

Twenty five years ago I was living in a castle-shaped apartment building on the corner of Union Street and Eighth Avenue in Brooklyn's "Park Slope" neighborhood. Rumor has it that the building I lived in was the farmer's house (I guess when it was all farmland around there?) but I tend toward disbelief.

Anyway, I lived on the top floor and across the landing was another artist, Stephanie Jaffe, who worked in glass. Stephie also had a line of fantasy doll lamps called Night Life Night Lights and, being that I lived across the landing, you can guess who was tapped to do the photography for her advertising.

I don't remember the exact idea but it was as if the lamp... with four Barbie doll legs and an animal head (all glass), a few bits of fur, some toole and a lightbulb... was a real creature out for a night on the town. Stephie and I and my assistant, Keith Megay (who still remembers this shoot as a highlight of his career despite the fact that he's gone on to much bigger and better things) went down to Spring Street in SoHo and set this up.

I'd scouted the location earlier and arranged a permit. The shoot was tricky because it had to be in the evening, the light had to light-up and we didn't want to see any wire... and there was no budget for retouching. It took us a relatively long time to get the angle, set the camera and wire this thing so the wire wouldn't show. Well, almost two hours and a quarter mile of zipcord later, the lamp was lit and the shoot was underway.

The whole time we were making a spectacle of ourselves crawling around on the sidewalk, gaffers taping wire in the gutter, etc, etc, we drew very little attention. As soon as the light went down and I started shooting a couple of cops arrived to shut us down. Keith had the permit and nipped that in the bud right away. The result, above.

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Night Life Night Light - Nikon F, 85/1.2 Nikkor lens, Kodachrome Type A film

Taking A Break - Going Out For A Quick Smoke

I've spent every spare minute the past few days scanning images to use in my Apple Pro Sessions talk. In fact, I was getting so paranoid about being ready that I was up at 4:00 AM this morning and started scanning early.

By lunch time I was fairly burned-out (pardon the pun in advance) on the task and I turned on the television while I stuffed a sandwich down my throat, just a little diversion while I should be dining rather than eating for survival. Anyway, it was a Clint Eastwood movie and, as in most Clint Eastwood movies, sirens were plentiful. I didn't think anything of it, really, when I noticed that the sirens continued throughout most of the commercial break until... wait a minute... those sirens sound much too real and... it really smells like something's burning. Just as I was thinking about the power of suggestion and the efficacy of special effects, I realized that I was watching the Geico gekko, not Clint.

This is when I realized that something was really burning! My first reaction was to go to the door and feel it with my hand, to see if it's hot. When I realized it wasn't hot, I opened it and looked around in the hall. No problem here but I still smelled smoke. Going back inside I ran to the window, then I ran to get a camera. I immediately started shooting out my window, then decided I'd be better positioned on the roof of the building so I grabbed my camera bag and headed upstairs. Shot a bit from the roof, then went downstairs and across the street to the side of the burning building where the fire did the most damage. This was a genuine five alarm blaze. In addition to Maplewood's, four other departments responded: South Orange, Irvington, Millburn and Livingston. One hundred forty one (141) images later..... there's really nothing like a little spot-news coverage, about four hours worth, to break-up a marathon scanning session. Hello? Newark Star-Ledger?