One more round of Cicadas...

Just a quick post of some more cicadas shot in a more controlled setting.  As I don't shoot much studio work this was very slow going for me.  Lots of light experimentation to get what I was after.  I also used a proper macro lens instead of just using extension tubes.  It certainly helped with depth of field.

Brood II - Periodical Cicadas

If there is an insect you can have fond memories about, mine would be the cicada.  I collected their shells every summer morning filling Folgers Coffee cans in my Parents garage.  I remember me and a childhood friend searching the trees for cicadas for hours.  I had a hard bound copy of Borrow & White's The Field Guide to the Insects, all black and white with color plates in the middle.  It had a picture a cicada but it was dark with orange wings and red eyes and that was not what we were finding in the trees in Tulsa.  At the time, I didn't realize they were a species only found in certain areas and mainly the east coast.

So Now that Brood II has arrived, I have found the bug I was searching for so many years ago.  And I think I am as fascinated with them now as I was back then.

These guys were shot in the wild just south of Ft. Belvoir, VA.  They encompass a couple of different trips to the same local.  I hope to return again in the evening to witness a nymph and the amazing transformation they go through.

I have also decided to collect a few specimens for some future studio photography.  They are still in the process of drying and I hope to shoot them soon.  But in the mean time I think I will visit these guys again.

Night Hawk - Touch and Goes

A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to shoot touch and goes at the Naval Observatory in DC.  These are the choppers used to ferry the President.  While most people will associate them as Marine 1 and 2, those call signs only occur when the President or Vice President is actually occupying the chopper.  Their call signs were Night Hawk 5 and Night Hawk 6.

I arrived as Night Hawk 6 was finishing up their last round of touch and goes.  The Sikorsky UH-60 was what I had envisioned I would be shooting, as I see them flying all over the DC area all the time.

But Night Hawk 6 was a Sikorsky VH-3D Sea king.

I have had an affinity towards flight since I was young.  My Brother is the pilot but I think I'm more caught up in the romance and the fantasy of flying and especially its visual impact.  This was certainly the closest I have been to helicopters taking off and landing.  At one point on its approach I was directly under Night Wing 5 balancing precariously on a knee when its down wash blew me on my backside.  I kept shooting but I couldn't help but wonder if the pilots were laughing.

And while I never had the opportunity to meet the pilots, they were kind enough to maneuver and hover the chopper so I could get some decent shots.  Have to say a big thank you to my buddy/Neighbor Thom for setting this up.  In fact it was his idea to begin with!

Promotional Material - MP 1-13

This has been in production for a while and they were finally set free yesterday.  The concept started gestating back in March.  The execution is nothing new to the photographic world - a small portfolio of images bound as a small book - but the aesthetic concept was, for me, the spark that initiated this project into fruition.  I do not like campy or novelty promos.  Not that they don't work but they are not me.

I wanted a larger canvas upon which to brand future promotional material.  I based it largely on Military and Government Manuals of the 50s and 60s.  Very Utilitarian (to a fault) but also an interesting tie in being DC based.  The one aspect that I miscalculated was how much time an endeavor like this entails.  After getting the measurements and layout together, it took me one day to print and crop all the prints.  Another day to score each page and the cover.  And another day to drill, bind and address each piece.  There are a few aspects that I will be changing for future construction but the end product is exactly what I wanted it to be.  Now hopefully people will just open it.

Horseshoe Crab

I have had a love affair with this sea creature as far back as I can remember.  Sitting in my bedroom in Tulsa with some Time Life or National G book stating it as a living fossil, I knew one day I would get to see this creature first hand.  Finally, thirty-some odd years later, I see one... At Cape Henlopen State Park just north of Rehoboth Beach, Delaware.

LIghting Test and Local Curiosity

So I'm definitely funneling my inner "Dan Winters" on this lighting set up.  He is a major influence on my current evolution and philosophies of lighting, so it was inevitable.  I think I could stand to ease up my fill to allow a little more contrast in my lighting ratio.  None the less, I'm pleased with the outcome but I hope to have better subject matter and a set next time round...

A couple of weekends ago this vehicle was sitting out in a nearby park where I live.  I drove by it a number of times and just could not stop staring at it.  Its some kind of post drilling vehicle.  But its utilitarian design is fascinating.  I can't stop looking at those tires on the back axle and wondering why they have to be so big? 

LINKS Magazine - Keith Foster - Email Blasts Work!

While I will admit that the stars probably lined up for this to happen, but back in October, with the help of Agency Access,I was on my third series of email blasts since moving to DC and it just happened to land in the inbox of the Art Director of Links Magazine and it just so happens he was in need of a photographer in the DC area.  So upon receiving my email, he gave me a call and the rest is history.  We shot this back in October but the issue is out now.

Kieth Foster is a Golf Course designer half of the year and the other half he sells antiques in at his store the Outpost in Middleburg, VA.  I was given fairly loose instructions - Horizontals and Verticals of Mr. Foster in the store.  So I pretty much showed up and scoped the place and shot what I wanted.  This particular room was last and required pretty high ISO due to the black walls.  There is a small strip soft box camera right high in the corner aimed at the table in the background.  Its feathering the side of Keith's face and I'm filling with a ring flash.  Both with 1/4 CTOs.  What makes this setup significant is I tried it for the first time a few days earlier only to have a malfunction (Operator Error) with the ring flash so I was dying to give it a go.  Here are a couple of other outtakes from the shoot.