The Best Picture I Never Took

First haircut

In 1989, I did a story on a prison boot camp called Monterey Shock Incarceration Correctional Facility. It was in rural New York State, way at the end of a dirt road. There were no bars, no walls or guard towers, and no visible guns. The program was for young non-violent offenders and, if completed, reduced their sentence from three to nine years to just six months.

It was run like a military facility and the guards were called drill instructors. I spent a total of five days there over a two month period and was able to photograph the entire program with groups of different inmates, from arriving in shackles to graduation day with inmates in jacket and ties. The New York Department of Corrections gave me total access. I was there from 5:00AM to 10:00PM and I could shoot anything I wanted and talk to anyone, anytime. That freedom led me to the best picture I never took.

One morning after calisthenics and breakfast I was passing through the dorm area and went near a bathroom. I looked in and there was a line of toilets, most occupied. No walls between them, no stalls, no privacy whatsoever. Other people, guards and inmates were walking through, so I did too. There was beautiful soft morning light coming in windows opposite and the line of white porcelain, shiny pipes up the wall, gray cinderblock, and a range of skin tones made for an extraordinary image.

I actually brought one of my Nikons with a wide angle lens up to my eye and looked for a moment before lowering it. It was a great picture, no doubt about it. But it seemed unfair to take it. Is there any time when we feel more vulnerable and defenseless than when we’re sitting on the toilet? I don’t think so. I couldn’t bring myself to take advantage of those young men’s vulnerability, no matter how good a picture it was.

I don’t regret not taking that photograph. But I often think about “the one that got away.”

The following are a few of the pictures from that story.

Waiting in line

Dawn reveille

Running to dawn physical training

 

 

 

 

48 men shower in 3 minutes

Superintendent Ron Mosicki

Morning PT

Parole hearing

Graduation day

Elinchrom ELB Review

I got my first generation Elinchrom Quadra in 2010 and I immediately fell in love with it.

I had been using studio/AC strobes for years, but I was sick of the weight and having to be tied to an outlet or generator. Shoe mount strobes were always a possibility, but they were grossly underpowered and dealing with batteries was a pain. There were a few high powered battery strobes, but they tended to be very heavy and very expensive. Along came the Quadra and it felt like my prayers were answered. Small, light, fairly powerful, not too much money, and best of all- they had an LED modeling light which used very little juice. It was bright enough to be of practical value and it didn’t drain the battery with the same speed as the halogen ones in its bigger cousins.

I travelled all over Europe with those Quadras, shooting portraits of small town shopkeepers and residents. They performed flawlessly. At 400 watt seconds, they had plenty of power to give me the apertures necessary. They set up quickly and I especially loved the modeling light. Whether shooting in the low light of a hotel lobby at night 

 or in practically no light in the caverns of an 18^th century winery,

 the LED modeling light was a life saver allowing accurate focus and framing.

Later, I began using them with the ECO ring flash in conjunction with my AC strobes. The ability to power way down and use the ring as a fill in some fairly extensive lighting scenarios was extremely useful. The quality of that fill is very different from using a traditional source or even a bounce card as fill and it gave my work an interesting quality that was difficult to define.

By 2012  Elinchrom had updated the battery in the Quadra from a lead gel to a lithium ion battery.  

What a difference! It was significantly smaller and lighter, the number of flashes per charge was much greater, and the recycle time was reduced. These were all welcome improvements.

Now it’s 2015 and I’ve been working with the latest version, the ELB 400, for a couple of months. 

This time the improvements to the Quadra, while still not revolutionary, represent significant improvements. I must admit, I was very happy with the previous iterations, but this new ELB is really way ahead of the older Quadra Hybrid.

The first thing you notice after unboxing the ELB is that the top panel looks very different from the Hybrid.  

Elinchrom has replaced the hard plastic screw covers on the head outlets with quick flip rubber covers. I wouldn’t consider this a big deal, but it does make set up and tear down that much quicker.

Next, you’ll notice that there are two small outlets on the right side of the panel. One is for the synch cord, but the other is a mini-usb outlet for future firmware upgrades. My guess is that this will make it easy for Elinchrom to add more hyper-sync (the ability to shoot with strobes at a shutter speed higher than the normal limit of 1/160-1/250) and TTL (through the lens metering) capabilities in the future. But there may be other features I haven’t even dreamed of that could be added.

The biggest change to the top panel is the reduction and simplification of the controls. The older unit had seven buttons and five glowing indicators in addition to the power display and battery meter. The menu system was fairly cumbersome and un-intuitive. This didn’t bother me too much since I rarely had a need to change my settings, but when I did, using the manual was absolutely necessary. Even then I sometimes got confused.

The new panel has reduced the buttons to six and an OLED (organic light emitting diode) display. Besides simplifying operation, the best part is that the OLED speaks English and is very intuitive. In fact, it’s modeled after the menu system in the ELC AC strobes, so it felt very familiar to me. There’s really no need for the manual- although I plan to keep mine close by for a while, just in case. It’s really easy to scroll through the options of: 1. photocell 2. skyport 3. audio 4. flash mode 5. power settings 6. statistics

These menu choices give an indication of some of the internal improvements to the ELB. The first three are items we’ve all come to expect from quality studio strobes- an optical slave that we can turn off and on, built in wireless support, and a variety of audio settings. The fourth, flash mode, is a major addition. This adjustment lets you choose between standard operation, delayed synch, sequential firing, or stroboscopic firing. I’ve been using the ELB for fairly traditional location photography, but these new settings will be a huge advantage for action sports shooters, allowing them to do multiple exposures and motion studies in ways previously difficult or even impossible without a truckload of gear and assistants. These options have been available in the Elinchrom ELC series for some time. If you’d like to read about my uses of the ELC go to http://forestmcmullin.blogspot.com/2014/05/new-elinchrom-elc-pro-hd-review.html

There are some fairly significant internal changes to the ELB that I’m very happy about, too. The first is that between an increase in power from 400 watt seconds to 424 and the introduction of the Pro Head, I’m getting almost a full stop more juice out of the unit. The Quadra Hybrid had plenty of power for most of the things I did with it, so what this means is that I can reduce the output for my shots, thus getting many more pops per charge out of the already large capacity lithium battery. I don’t have the patience to accurately test exactly how many pops I’m getting, but I estimate that at 50-70% power, I’m getting well over 500 pops- enough for most days of shooting.

The recycle time has been reduced, too. From full discharge to 100% ready, the original Quadra took almost 2.5 seconds to recycle. Not bad at all. With the introduction of the Hybrid, that was down to just under two seconds. Now with the ELB, recycle time is just over 1.5 seconds. I’m a people shooter and having a recycle time that fast is enormously helpful. My most recent projects have necessitated shooting in very public situations (flea markets and rodeos) and the faster I can shoot and let folks get back to whatever they need to be doing, the better.

One of things that sold me on the original Quadra, still holds true of the ELB- it’s easy to use all of Elinchrom’s modifiers with it. There’s a convenient adapter that lets me use all of my softboxes, grid spots, beauty dishes, and octabanks with this little powerhouse. I think Elinchrom makes the best modifiers out there and there have been many times when the ability to pop one of my “baby” heads into a sophisticated modifier has been a lifesaver.

Lately my work has leaned heavily toward a documentary approach and the ELB is the perfect tool. It allows me the versatility and power of larger, heavier strobes in a package that’s easy to carry and quick to set up and tear down. There are photographers out there who rave about the results they get from using multiple shoe mount strobes and I don’t disagree that it’s possible to do that. But for the money you can spend on three or four of the top of the line shoe mounts, you can get a pretty complete ELB system with two heads and batteries. It will give you way more power and flexibility than the shoe mounts ever could. And you won’t have to invest in hundreds of AA batteries anymore, either.

The following shots show a few of the things I’ve been doing with the ELB and Hybrid. I’ve been using a 17 inch silver beauty dish for a lot of it. I really like the sparkle and punch of that modifier used in daylight situations. The African American cowboy series uses the Ringflash ECO for fill. Shooting on sunny days, people with dark skin wearing cowboy hats is a real challenge trying to get detail in my subjects eyes. The ring on low power opens those shadows just enough without over powering the effect of my main light.

If you have any suggestions or questions about anything in this review, please contact me. I'll get back to you as soon as possible.

Read more about Elinchrom and their products here.

If you'd like to see more of my work, go here.

 (above photo by Hastings Huggins, http://www.hastingshugginsworks.com/)

 (above photo by Joshua McFadden, http://www.joshuarashaad.com/)

Chris Buck's Five Tips for Becoming a Professional Photographer (and my thoughts, too)

Recently the excellent photographer, Chris Buck, posted the following advice on Facebook. Chris has been one of my favorite photographers for a long time. His portraits of the famous and not so famous are consistently surprising and provocative. He's never been a slave to trends- he just continually strives to produce the best work possible.

With all that said, I found his tips a fair bit contrarian. Which is why (with Chris' permission) I'm re-posting them here. Many of my students will tell you that I encourage them to disagree with me. I believe that healthy debate over positions is one of the best ways to learn more about yourself and your opinions. I've taken the liberty of adding some comments of my own in italics after each of his. (Chris, I hope that's OK.)

Here it is:

Much of the conventional wisdom on how to become an advertising and editorial photographer is wrong, so I’ve written up five tips that counter the common narrative. It’s exciting to meet young people who are creative and driven, nothing would make me happier than to see them thrive as professional shooters.

1. Don’t go to College
More and more I’m meeting emerging photographers who are saddled with over 100K of college debt. My advice to young people – skip photo college. You can learn everything you need through books, mentors and short-term courses. It will be a more challenging road, requiring openness, experimentation, and plenty of trail and error but the dividends are astronomical. Imagine spending your twenties with the freedom to live and work anywhere you wanted without a crippling debt hanging over you demanding a substantial and regular income. College is great but spending $150,000 to be a photographer is insane.

Anything I say here has to be taken with a grain of salt since I teach full time at the Savannah College of Art and Design in Atlanta. That said, I can't agree more that taking on huge amounts of debt to get an undergraduate degree in commercial photography is a very questionable strategy. When you start your business, there isn't a client in the world who will care whether you have a degree or even a high school diploma. (If they do, they're clearly an amateur.) All clients care about is whether you can produce what they need, when they need it at the price you agreed to. In fact, most gallerists and curators care only slightly more whether you went to college.

On the other hand, I firmly believe that the more you know about art, politics, literature, cinema, psychology, the world, etc, the more you have to bring to your work. The more interested and interesting you are as a person, the more interesting and complex your work will be. College can be a great place to gain that kind of knowledge. The best photography schools are the ones that require significant coursework in addition to students' majors. The work of students and professionals whose aesthetic views come primarily or exclusively from photography  are little more than technocrats or borderline plagiarists. It's not what we choose to photograph that makes for great work. It's who we are that does that.

2. Don’t be a Photo Assistant
Photo assisting is a procrastination tool. One can make amazing money in their mid-twenties as a photo assistant – and have fun and strange experiences on a variety of photo sets - but what you won’t be doing is building a creative foundation that you’ll need when it’s time to get serious in your early thirties. The longer one waits to transition out of assisting the harder it will be – one goes from making great money to no money (at least initially). A better choice would be interning for a great photographer for a season or two, you’ll be immersed in the world that you want to be a part of, and have the license to ask lots of questions.

Here, I think he's kind of right. Assisting can be a trap and I've seen a few of my assistants fall into it. But, mostly, I've found that when the time comes for them to go out on their own, they start being really shitty assistants. I've had to encourage them, sometimes by firing them, to start their own businesses. When Chris says one should intern instead of assist, I think he sees that as a way of avoiding the trap. I would say that how you do that is what's important. Call it interning, call it assisting- just don't do it for too long.

3. Don’t Move to New York
I’ve met more than one young person who told me that they moved to New York to be inspired and be a part of a creative community only to find themselves feeling isolated and exploited. It seems that there are two kinds of people in New York, those with a vision, and those without who work for peanuts for those who do. New York (and other important cities like Los Angeles and London) is primarily a marketplace – cultivate your vision elsewhere then bring it to market and show us something new. New York welcomes you – but come when you have something to say.

Boy! Do I ever agree with this one, although not necessarily for the reasons Chris gives. I believe that success can be measured in a lot of different ways and being a big time New York or LA photographer is not the only way to do it. I think that success can come by means of a healthy life and a solid family. I believe that great work can be done almost anywhere and being in a major metropolitan area is not the only way to achieve it. I spent most of my career in the Rochester, NY area- not the center of the communications and publishing world by most measurements. But I lived in a big old house on an acre of land and my wife and I raised three incredible kids who are now incredible adults. And I did really good work, work that I'm still proud of. Some of it was for national clients, some for local clients. And while I was doing that, I lived a life that I was proud of, too. And, even more importantly, the life that was right for me.

Now, as Chris says, if/when you feel the time is right, then, of course, move to New York. Dazzle them and continue to do great work. But remember, if you decide not to go, that doesn't mean you're a failure. It means that New York wasn't for you. And that's all.

4. Don’t be Successful
If you’re any good you’ll find yourself at some point as out of line with the culture. Your clients will be uninterested or confused by your latest work. Go with it, as it means that you’re onto something special. Of course one needs to make a living, so hit the sweet spot for your clients too, but keep shooting the less obvious pictures along the way – this will be the work that really makes your name down the road.

I like this and have nothing to add. Well said, Chris.

5. Do be a Hater
I’ve found that I make my most interesting and original work when reacting against a prevalent trend rather than being inspired by some well-achieved work. When you’re inspired by a great photographer you tend to make some variation on that person’s work. But when you react against something you set the bar higher, “these folks are getting it wrong, and I’m going to show them the right way.” For me that means digging deep into myself and asking the hard questions about where photography should be going and how I might help bring it there.

I like this one, too, although the title sounds a little like, "Do be an asshole" but that's OK because the reasoning that follows is sound. I'd add that you need to figure out what's interesting to you and then figure out how to make pictures about that. I've found that if I pursue a topic that I'm kinda, sorta interested in, then the pictures are only kinda, sorta interesting. But when I follow up on something I think is REALLY interesting, then the pictures are almost always solid.

His last line is the best. By asking the hard questions we get the most fruitful answers, the ones that allow us to make the most progress and produce the work that has the most impact. And if you find any of those answers, let me know. I'm pretty good at the asking. The answers, not as much, but I'm still trying. 

Thanks again to Chris Buck for starting this conversation. Please let it continue in the comments section below.

Why social media matters and excerpts from an article about Day & Night

If you've been following this blog or watching my other social media outlets, you know that I've been getting a lot of press lately. I thought it might be useful to understand why that's happening.

Back in January, I was invited to join a web site called Lens Culture. I was only slightly aware of them, but after going to the site and realizing it wouldn't cost me anything, I joined and posted a couple of my projects there.

In June, I was lucky enough to spend two weeks at an artist residency in the north Georgia mountains. I wrote about it here. When I returned I posted a number of pictures from a new project called American Flea on my Lens Culture page. Then on August 6, Lens Culture posted American Flea in the Spotlight position on their home page as one of their Editors Picks.

Within a few days, apparently after seeing my work on Lens Culture, a number of widely read blogs ran pieces about another project of mine, Day & Night. These included Beautiful Decay, Dark Silence in Suburbia, Design Taxi, and USvsTH3M. These stories were re-posted dozens, possibly hundreds of time, all over the world, in a variety of languages.

Then came the two big ones. About August 22, Distractify and Huffington Post each ran stories. Distractify's was about American Flea and Huff Post's was about Day & Night. These sites get millions of hits a month. I immediately saw the hits on both my blog and my Lens Culture profile page skyrocket. This in turn has generated a number of inquiries from web publications asking permission to run various projects of mine.

The big question is (or should be), that's nice, but is there any income involved in all this? Well, I've just signed with a picture agency in the UK to syndicate Day & Night worldwide. They're confident that there will be print sales to magazines internationally. So that's a good thing.

Most of the pictures in Day & Night were taken in 2009 and 2010. I've had them exhibited in a number of shows in Atlanta, Alabama, Pennsylvania, and Washington, DC. Now I'm hoping, after all this publicity, some curators will take notice. I'd like to show this work again.

Another nice result was the posting this week of Day & Night on the web site, Feature Shoot. Their writer, Ellyn Ruddick-Sunstein did an e-mail interview with me and I'm especially pleased with her insightful comments at the beginning. Below is an excerpt, posted with her permission.

"For Day and Night, Atlanta-based photographer Forest McMullin explores sexual desire and its relationship to human identity, photographing individuals and couples once throughout their daytime routine and again in the privacy of their own bedrooms. On the left, we find a standard vision of middle-class American men and women, enjoying the conventional activities of daily life; in the righthand frame, we discover the same subjects adopting nighttime fantasy roles, morphing into dominatrixes, bondage players, cross-dressers, swingers, and furries.

"In arresting diptychs, we are presented with two sides of the same human coin, the easily accessible public self set against the vulnerable sexual self. In these stolen moments of intimacy, in which the protagonists radiate a palpable sense of confidence, the gap between what we consider to be ordinary and atypical is diminished, reduced to the space as narrow the thin white border that separates the images. Here, we are asked to abandon judgements for a deeper understanding of human erotic diversity. McMullin’s sitters are remarkable for their perceived eccentricity, but they ultimately become surrogates for us all, boldly bringing to light private yearnings that most keep in darkness."

I have no idea how long this will last. But it sure is fun for now.

Doing what's right vs doing what is your right

My project, Day & Night has suddenly been receiving a lot of attention. It's a little weird for a project I shot most of four years ago, but I'm not complaining. It started when the site, Lens Culture featured my project, American Flea, in the spotlight position on their home page. This drove people to my profile page where they found several of my projects, including Day & Night. Within days, excerpts from Day & Night appeared in dozens of widely viewed web sites and blogs like Beautiful Decay, Dark Silence in Suburbia, Design Taxi, and sites around the world in countries like France, Portugal, Greece, England, Spain, Russia, and South Africa.

After Huffington Post did a story on it last week, I got an urgent email from one of the people in the photographs. This person told me that they had radically changed their life since I had shot their portrait, they had found Jesus, and they were terrified that if the wrong eyes saw the picture they would lose their job and it would ruin their life. They asked if I could please get their portrait taken off the Huff Post site.

What was I to do? Whenever I shoot people for Day & Night, they must sign a model release before I take out the camera. Besides signing the release, I emphasize that my intention is for mainstream publication, not some shady little web site that hardly anyone will see. I could not have been clearer. I wanted everyone who participated to be completely comfortable with the process and results. They were, after all, opening up the most intimate details of their lives to me and to public scrutiny. And I'm grateful to them for the trust they show me. I want the pictures to be honest and direct, but respectful. I believe they are.

So- I have every right, legal and otherwise, to include this person's picture when the project is reproduced.

But. . .

What is my human responsibility? How can I, in good conscience allow the possibility of my photograph having a major negative impact on someone's life? How can I say, I'm sorry, but you're not allowed to change your mind, especially if it inconveniences me? And, would Huffington Post even care if I asked them to remove the picture in question?

As it turns out, Huff Post was willing to remove the picture. (Thank you, Katherine Brooks.) And I removed the picture from the Day & Night section of my Lens Culture profile that Huff Post linked to. I told the concerned individual that I would not include their picture in submissions to any mainstream web sites or publications based in the US in the future. I would not include their picture in any exhibitions in their home city. I also made it clear that the picture is already available in many many web sites and blogs around the world and I have no control over who sees them or re-blogs them. This person needs to be prepared and there's really nothing I can do about it at this point.

I suppose this is a bit of a compromise. I haven't promised to do everything in my power to remove all traces of this person's photograph from Day & Night and its circulation. But I'll try to keep it out of places where it could conceivably do damage. And I'll sleep well tonight.

Thoughts?

#19 from Out on Buford Highway

Way back in September, the third post I put up from this project was shot early in the morning at La Chiquita Cafe. A couple of weeks ago, I finally went back and shot inside. The owner, Jose Lopez was nice enough to let me shoot a portrait.

Jose Lopez, Fuji X-E1, 18-55mm lens, ISO 800, 1/140 @ f/3.2

Fuji X-E1, 18-55mm lens, ISO 800, 1/220 @ f/2.8

Two Interesting Projects

My son sent me a link to a project on the CNN Photos blog today. "The Waiting Game" is a documentary piece about prostitutes in Spain who work along highways. The photographer, Txema Salvans worked primarily on the Mediterranean coast photographing women waiting for johns to stop and pay them for sex. The pictures are simultaneously provocative and banal. There is nothing particularly sexual about what is shown, but there is still an air of anticipation as we see these women, sometimes wearing fairly revealing clothing, attempting to entice passing motorists to make a (presumably) short detour as they travel. The pictures are landscapes with the prostitutes appearing relatively small in the frame. Everything is sun drenched, parched, and a little faded looking, running counter to other images of hookers we may have seen at night in "red light" districts. Their postures make many of the women looked bored and tired, even though we can never really see their faces. It's excellent work.

It made me think about another project about sex in public places called "Cruising" by Chad States. States' work is more explicit and shows men cruising for and sometimes having sex with each other in public parks and highway rest stops. Like Alvans, the pictures are always shot on sunny days and superficially appear to be landscapes. Only when we look closely do we see men, sometimes alone, sometimes in pairs, engaged in having or waiting for sex. Because of the heavy vegetation, the pictures aren't explicit. They suggest the activities rather than describe them. They are, however, more active than Slavans and, as a result, are kind of creepy, at least to me. They, too, are excellent work.

New Line of Manfrotto Bags- Part 1

For the last few months I've had the opportunity to use and test a number of the new bags in the Manfrotto Professional Collection. I've been a very happy user of Kata bags for many years now and I was a bit skeptical about finding anything that made me want to switch. After using these new bags for a while, I can honestly say that, although they may not make me get rid of all my Kata bags, they are a worthy addition to my inventory.

Finding the right bag is a pretty personal choice. You need to find a balance between what is the perfect size for what you need to carry, what has the features you need, and what feels the best on your back or shoulder. I'm happy to report that these new bags come through on all these accounts.

First the backpacks.

Manfrotto Professional Backpack 20

These packs look a little different than a lot of similar packs- they have a more geometric outline. This is because the outer skin is reinforced with a semi-rigid material. It's not a hard bag like a Pelican, but it offers a ton of protection against the impact of any hard or sharp object.

In most ways, they're what one expects from a quality bag. They have well padded shoulder straps and backs and multiple padded inserts that attach with Velcro.

Manfrotto Professional Backpack 20

Manfrotto Professional Backpack 20

These packs are comfortable and have plenty of zippered compartments, inside and out. On a non-shooting trip recently, I pulled all the inserts out and found it to be an efficient briefcase/backpack. It held my 15 inch Macbook Pro in the slot in back easily.

Manfrotto Professional Backpack 20

Where these packs really excel for me is in a few details. First, they have quick release straps that serve as a back-up to the zippers. For those of us who routinely over stuff our packs this is a well considered and necessary feature to ensure the bag stays closed in case of a blown zipper.

Manfrotto Professional Backpack 20

Secondly, it has the tripod pocket built in. This may seem minor, but if you're like me, you don't carry a tripod all the time and when you do you have to find the pocket (sometimes a pain) and then put it on the pack to use it. Having it integral to the pack is a very nice touch. By the way, notice the little plastic feet on the bottom. These make the bag sit upright and not fall over.

Manfrotto Professional Backpack 20

Manfrotto Professional Backpack 20

The last detail I want to tell you about is so small you might miss it. Waist straps have to be long enough to accommodate a wide range of body types. Some people (me for instance) almost never use them at all except when carrying a large, heavy load. When you're not using them or if you're relatively slender, these straps are long and hang down, way down. Manfrotto has had the good judgement to include little Velcro straps that allow you to roll them up and keep them out of the way. I really like this.

Manfrotto Professional Backpack 20

These new packs come in three sizes- the 20, the 30, and the 50. I'll probably use the 20 most often since I've lately been shooting a lot with the Fuji X system. These cameras are smaller and lighter than my Nikons and the body, several lenses, and various accessories is held easily with the bag. The largest one, the 50 is big enough for me to use when I'm doing "Studio in a Backpack" shoots. The 50 is a bit smaller than the Kata backpacks I used to use for these shoots, but between smaller cameras and the smaller and lighter Elinchrom Quadra Hybrid strobes, the 50 is just fine. Its large, padded waist belt is very sturdy and helps enormously when I have to carry this heavy load.

My final verdict? If the size of one of these three backpacks is right for you, I really don't think there's any downside. They're well-built, have great features, and are priced right- not cheap, but competively. Now, they don't have twenty different sizes like some other brands, but if the size works for you, you should definitely take a look.

Back to Buford Highway (#15)

It's been exactly one month since I last posted, but I think most will forgive me if I plead "The Holidays". It's been a blur with all three of my kids and two of their significant others in Atlanta to spend Christmas with Andrea and me. Eating, drinking, and great good cheer were the order of the day(s).

But, I'm back with more pictures from Out on Buford Highway. I'm going to start with additional pictures from two of the restaurants I've already posted about and then add more new ones. Please check back here often or sign up to follow it via e-mail to stay current.

First, is a return to Ming's BBQ. They call themselves a "Peking Duck house". They serve a range of food, but duck is their specialty and it deserves to be. If you go for dinner, remember that they don't have a liquor license.

Wole Doherty, Nikon D600, 20-35mm, ISO 1600, 1/125 @ f/5.6

Juan Qin, Nikon D600, 20-35mm, ISO 1600, 1/125 @ f/4

Number 14 from Out on Buford Highway

Lee's Bakery is at 4005 Buford Highway. It's one of the most popular banh mi and pho places on Buford Highway and that reputation is mostly deserved. It can be tough to find a table during lunch hours, so consider take-out if that's the only time you can get there. The food is very good, but I like some of the places that are a little further off the beaten track. Maybe I'll write about those in the future.

Fuji X-E1, 18-55mm lens, ISO 200, 1/400 @ f/5.6

Fuji X-E1, 18-55mm lens, ISO 200, 1/60 @ f/5.6

Week 10 from Out on Buford Highway

I posted two pictures from El Taco Veloz a few weeks ago, but I decided these were worth showing, too. It looks fantastic at night.

Leo Roque, Pentax K-5 IIs, 16-55mm, ISO 1600, 1/100 @ f/2.8

Fuji X-E1, 18-55mm, ISO 1600, 1/80 @ f/3.6

Week 8 from Out on Buford Highway

Taco Market, 3304 Buford Highway, is a combination convenience store and Mexican specialty market owned by Koreans. I don't know why Koreans own a Mexican food store, but judging by the number of people there who appeared to be Hispanic, I guess they're doing something right. I just loved the simplicity of the color and geometry.

Nikon D600 20-35mm f/2.8 lens, ISO 100, 1/320 @ f/5.6

Nikon D600 20-35mm f/2.8 lens, ISO 200 1/15 @ f/5.6

Week 7 from Out on Buford Highway

I'm not an expert, but people I trust tell me that the Havana Restaurant is one of, if not THE best Cuban place in the Atlanta area. It's in the Crossroads Village Shopping Center at the corner of Buford Highway and Clairmont. I DO know that I loved their fried plantains. And that the staff is extremely friendly and welcoming.

Nikon D600 w/20-35mm f/2.8, ISO 100, 1/320 @ f/6.3

Dora Corena, Pentax K-5IIs, 16-50mm, ISO 1600, 1/125 @ f/2.8

Miriam, Rosa, & Miguel Amaya, Pentax K-5IIs, 16-50mm, ISO 1600, 1/40 @ f/2.8

Pentax K-5IIs, 16-50mm, ISO 1600, 1/60 @ f/2.8

On Location

I recently took students from my Portrait Photography class to the sculpture studios at SCAD Atlanta. We did three shots in a little over two hours and had a great time. Susan Krause and Steve Jarvis were kind enough to let us take over their facility, as well as pose for us. We did three shots- one with four lights, one with two, and one with only one that also incorporated the available light. My Elinchroms worked perfectly and had plenty of juice to light such a large space. And the Skyports once again were flawless, both triggering and adjusting the strobes remotely.

If you'd like to see what it looked like, you can see a web gallery here.

Light Meters

Sometimes I wonder if I'm old school and a borderline dinosaur. But then I think about it and I realize that sound technique is critical to fine photography. It's not a substitute for a keen eye and interesting content, but when combined with those attributes, a photograph sings and encourages the viewer to spend time and linger.

I've been a diligent user of handheld light meters for a very long time. My first serious meter was a Gossen Luna Pro. It was the industry standard for decades- if you wanted the most accurate results, you owned a Luna Pro. As I started using flash, my meter use became even more important. When I light a scene, I can do it faster because I've taken meter readings all over and I know exactly what things will look like.

Now, many years later, I still use Gossen meters. In my Studio in a Backpack I carried the Gossen Digisky. It's a very full featured meter with a huge range of f/stops, shutter speeds, and ISO settings available. It's always on the money and consistently repeatable. And the nicest thing is that it has a wireless transmitter built in. The Elinchrom strobes I use (stay tuned- there will be an in depth article about them in next week or two.) have a wireless system built in, too. The Skyport system (also to be reviewed in coming weeks) is a small and powerful radio slave and having it inside my Digisky makes things simpler and more convenient. My Skyport can stay connected to the camera while I walk around reading the strobe exposures. Nice.

Now, if you don't need the extensive features contained in the Digisky, you might want to look at the Digipro F. I carried it as my back up and I've found it to be a perfect complement to the more expensive unit and available for a price that the budget conscious photographer will find attractive.

Tripod, Light Stands, and Modifiers

On the outside of the pack, I carried my tripod, light stands, and light modifiers. I didn't try to take these on board with me when I was flying- they went in my checked bags then. But, whenever I went out shooting, they were with me.

I don't use a tripod all the time- in fact, I use one for fewer than half the photographs I make. I generally like to stay quick and agile and move around a lot to find the perfect vantage point for whatever I'm shooting. I always have one with me, however. I don't like to be caught unprepared for any situation I might run into. For my European trip, I brought the Gitzo #1541 Series One tripod with the #GH1781QR Series One quick release ball head. I've owned other tripods in the past, but when I made the switch to Gitzo, I was shocked and amazed at what a difference it made. The sections always open and close quickly and smoothly. The legs open flat to allow a low vantage point. The ball head operates exactly the way I prefer. And they last forever. I actually own the larger 3531 to use when I'm not traveling. It's beefier and can hold big cameras with long lenses in the wind and stay steady. But the 1541 was the perfect blend of light weight, small size, and adequate sturdiness to be the right tool for the job I needed when I was carrying it on my back.

The light stands I chose were two Manfrotto 5001B's. Like the tripod and some of the other items in the pack, these were chosen because of their size and weight. They're not as heavy duty as the stands I carry in my usual shooting kit, but they raise to over six feet, they hold what I need them to, they are very small when folded, and they weigh about two pounds each.

I most often use portable softboxes when shooting portraits. Depending on the size, they provide a stunning quality of light. But they can be a little bit of a pain to set up and with the quick rings necessary, they're bulky and little heavy. Umbrellas solve the problems of set up time, bulk, and weight, but they just don't provide the control because their design allows light to bounce all over the place. (By the way, I carry both softboxes and umbrellas in my standard kit.)

The Elincrom Varistar was the perfect compromise. It essentially is a shoot through umbrella that has a black skirt on the back that keeps light from bouncing back and all around. It allows for almost as much control as a softbox, but it sets up as quickly as an umbrella- and there's no quick ring to carry. It's a great design and I carried two in the 33 inch size in my Studio in a Backpack.

In the next post I'll talk about my reflector/scrim set and the hardware I use with it.

The Kata Beetle 282 Backpack

At the heart of my "Studio in a Backpack" is the Kata Beetle 282 backpack. There are a lot of things I like about this pack, but let me tell you about a few of them. It's a fully adjustable pack, just like sophisticated camping packs and it has both shoulder straps and a waist belt with dual adjustments. What seems like a minor detail, but one that I particularly like, is found on the long straps that adjust the waist support. They have little velcro tabs attached that allow you to secure the long ends of the straps when you've found the right length. This may seem like a little thing, but not having lengthy flopping straps is a really nice touch.

Another feature that makes this pack unusual is the fact that it opens from the side holding the supports. With most similar packs, you put the pack down with the straps on the ground and then zip it open from the reverse side. This means that you put the side you're soon going to put on your back in the dirt, mud, and crud, thus transferring that stuff onto yourself. With this Kata, you put the opposite side down and open the pack from the straps side, keeping the side that goes against your body clean. Smart design, if you ask me.

Once the pack is open, you see the Kata feature that seems very simple, but no other companies have followed- that is, the interior of the pack is bright yellow instead of the usual black.  This means that it's much easier to find your black cameras and lenses when the lights are dim. Again, it seems like a little thing, but if you've ever fumbled around looking for a certain lens or body and you can't find it because black on black renders it invisible, you know what I mean. It's a very nice detail.

The rest of the 282 is what you'd expect from a quality camera bag. It has a fully customizable interior, allowing you to set it up with multiple configurations. There's plenty of cushioning to protect your gear, in case you have to check it with the airlines. There's a laptop compartment that accommodates a 17 inch computer. You can even get an optional wheel system ( Kata calls it the Insert Trolly) so you don't have to carry the pack if you don't want to.

This pack sells for around $ 290.00 in the US and I think it's worth every penny. If you'd like to learn more you can check it out on the Kata site .

My next post will discuss the items carried on the outside of the pack.

Hermann & Franz

Andrea and I ended up in the tiny town of Wesenufer on the Danube River in the north west corner of Austria near Germany. We're headed for the Czech Republic and the pouring rain finally got to us, so we stopped. The Gasthof zum Schiffmeister was the first place we went into looking for a room. There was a long table with a few folks drinking beer and they seemed friendly in spite of the fact they spoke almost no English and we speak no German. After we had checked into our room, we went back down and sat at a table near them, drinking beer and playing gin rummy. I asked if I could take some pictures and they agreed after I assured them I wasn't the papparazzi. Over the next several hours, we noticed that people came and left, but that table was always busy. The cast of characters changed continually. Sometimes it was more boisterous and sometimes less, but it was always occupied and always lively.  Several times we accepted schnapz from people sitting there and they eventually invited us to join them. 

Franz and Hermann were two of the regulars.

Dino

Dino Spreafico runs the Hotel Flora in Chiavenna, Italy. It's been in his family for sixty years. Although much of his time is taken up with the hotel, it was clear that his passion is photography. He showed me some of his published work and I was impressed. He seems comfortable making his living one way and indulging his passion in another.