I just wanted to point you towards a great project that photographer Tim Mantoani has been working on since 2006.  ”Behind Photographs” is a series of portraits of “historic photographers and their images” shot with a 20X24 Polaroid camera.   The Polaroid camera he uses is a rare and mammoth view camera that is not easy to transport - let alone shoot with.  To date Tim has photographed more than 100 photographers.   Somehow I made it into that group which obviously questions his entire selection process.   I’ve got to say that this is to say the least - a very ambitious project - as you know that getting any photographer IN FRONT OF THE CAMERA - is close to impossible (let alone some of the best photographers in the world who are sure to be critical of your work!)

I  had a fantastic time for two reasons:  First, they scheduled my portrait session right after James Nachtwey - which was a huge honor for me on a number of levels.   Second - I NEVER have had a portrait made of me (unless I’m goofing around at the end of a shoot) in close to a decade - and definitely never with a 20X24 Polaroid.   On average Tim shot 1 maybe 2 Polaroids of each photographer - period.  So forget shooting at 10 frames a second or thousands of frames in a portrait session.  It brings it back to the ways things once were - and where they should be… nail the portrait in one, maybe two frames.

Check out Tim’s site here.

Mystery Gear...

Mystery Gear...

I sometimes wonder if it’s fair to others to share some cool stuff that’s being worked on - without giving them all of the details.   Definitely feels like a bit of a tease for sure.

Then I remind myself of how excited I feel about these things and how a smile is plastered on my face when I get to work with people on these things,  and I’m hoping to share some of that glee with others - albeit without ALL of the information.

Here is a collection of such pictures of prototypes that you’ll see out in the market prior to NAB.

I obviously can’t tell you exactly what these things do, what they will cost, exactly when they will be available - but I have gotten clearance from the people working on them to share these with you w/o a single additional word.  Hopefully you can take it for what it’s worth - and let your imaginations run wild.  I know my imagination is exploding to think of what you all will be able to do with this stuff once it becomes available!  Note that there are many companies working on these types of solutions at once - so it’s an exciting time.

I’m gearing up for a big shoot tonight and tomorrow night in LA and hope to be sharing more about the reason behind the shoot and how it involves you within a week from now. (more…)

Support Help Portrait today!   I’m doing something to support this on my own - but I would like you all to think about a way that YOU might be able to help others with your photography/video.

Remember - wonderfully lit photographs are beautiful - but the effort and connection even with a simply point and shoot or iPhone would work!  BE INVOLVED - HELP OTHERS.   Check out the Help-Portrait site to find out more about this project.

Perhaps you could photograph / film people who need a new headshot or video profile so that they can find a job… there are endless ways to give back - frankly: even if it’s not today!

Decade from Hell? NOT! Maybe for magazines though...

Wow so much to say.  Some Key announcements below.

Time’s latest covers call the first decade of the new millennium “The Decade From Hell.”

Wow… I thought the world was supposed to end on Y2K…?  We made it didn’t we?

Sure - we’ve lost 90,000 print jobs this year (BRUTAL - especially to see the excellent photo team at Newsweek slashed. These were forward thinking photo editors who had us blogging from Beijing as an equal priority to shooting for the mag… )

OK so some news:

First - I’ve got 3 commercial/video+still jobs in a row over the next 2 months - so that’s going to make it hard to post. That’s why this blog has been a little quiet (I’ve been tweeting too - which is a bit easier)

Second - I’ve got a pretty major announcement coming - that will actually potentially involve all of YOU.  Something to do with a  nationwide film contest over an 8th month period w/ 7 winners - just dotting the “I”s right now before I make the official announcement - hope to announce it within the week.  I’ve been hard at work on it since July.

That means I’ll be posting a LOT more of course - so disregard the first thing I said.

Also - I’ve wrapped shooting the example videos for my DSLR instructional video - despite all of the work I was fortunate enough to be awarded this week - the plan is still to release it within the next 1-2 months.  I will pretty much share everything I know / have learned as it relates to HD DSLR video, gear, theory, workflow etc.  Not holding anything back.  If you would like to be notified of the video (downloadable) release (before the end of the year) pls e-mail me at production@vincentlaforet.com - with the word “NOTIFY” in the subject and I’ll ping you when it’s available.  We are currently in pre-production on the series.

As I’ve mentioned on twitter - there are some extremely exciting pieces of gear coming out early next year.  I’ve been working with quite a few companies with the current HD DSLR cameras (5D MKII, 7D) and we’ve been measuring the 1D MKIV as well… expect to see a bunch of pretty much the most interesting developments in HD DSLR accessories in time for NAB in April.

2010 will be the year where HDDSLRs come of age in my opinion.  So many companies have been hard at work making the necessary pieces of gear to make these cameras truly production worthy.  I just shot a network television opening credit sequence a few weeks ago and it went absolutely, perfectly, smoothly - even though we had 3-4 prototype pieces of gear in the mix.   A veteran Steadicam operator was so impressed with these HDDSLR’s camera’s performance that he put in an order for a 1D MKIV the very next day and started to make custom mounts for his rig as well.

Lastly - I’m looking for potential advertisers for this blog.  If you are interested please send me an e-mail directly at studio (at) vincentlaforet.com.   As many of you know - I’ve been incredibly resistant to putting any form of advertising on this site.  I’ve loved the fact that it’s ad free and revenue free.  But lately - I’ve become a bit too busy to edit the videos etc. to put up on this site as often as I’d like.  I need some help in terms of aggregating and editing the content for this blog.

I intend to take the income from advertising on this blog and put it right back into producing original content for the blog.  If there is anyone in the LA area that is interested in volunteering for now - and getting paid when we get advertisers - please e-mail me at the same address.  Video shooting skills and editing are obviously a pre-requisite.

Well that’s about it.  More to come very soon.

It took me long enough… but I’m Tweeting now…

My username is @vincentlaforet (yes…spent a lot of time thinking of that one…)

Some of you may know that I SWORE that I would never tweet… then I realized it could actually be pretty cool.

This blog is great - but I don’t post as often as I’d like to.   Facebook - is a disaster.  I never have time to check it (truth be told, I have over 900 friend requests - problem is:  every time I accept one friend - I get 12 suggestions - and it takes forever to go down the list… does anyone know how to “accept all?” As silly as that excuse is - that’s pretty much why I ran away from Facebook close to 9 months ago…)

OK - so here goes something else.   For the record:  I resisted blogging at first as well.  As much of an “early adopter” that I am in terms of cameras and new technology (I should have named my kids Beta and NDA given how often I hear those words!)   I’ve always resisted ’social’ internet trends for some reason…

That being said - I’ve been enjoying reading many of the tweets of those I follow (see my twitter page for a list of people that I’m following) and a few friends finally got me to take the plunge.

If anything - tweeting may allow me to be a bit more liberal about what I share… NDA’s don’t really exist in the twitter sphere do they?  ;)

Pls post your twitter addresses in the comments below - always looking for cool people/things to follow!

Click on this link to see the trailer to Jamie's new film "WHO IS J.O.B?" That I collaborated on with him (in part) earlier this year.

So here’s an update on the Jamie O’Brien collaboration.   I’m real excited to have been a part of this project with Jamie - a lot of others contributed to this film of course to be clear - I’ve known Jamie for almost a year now and he’s been hard at work on this video for close to three years.

We spent a month together earlier this year and shot a bunch of aerial, surf, underwater and interview footage over that period.

I hope you enjoy this trailer.  Looking forward to pushing the envelope as much as possible with this project… more to come…

This is a pretty huge development for me in terms of my post workflow with the new breed of HDDSLR cameras - so I hope that many of you too willx be excited with the upcoming piece of software from Glue Tools.

I know that the developer has been working on this for quite awhile - and I’ve been waiting to share the news for a release candidate to be on the horizon.   (Check the Glue Tools website for updates on pricing and availability - don’t ping me - I’m just reviewing the beta at this time and announcing it)

Of course - this workflow only applies to Mac people and Final Cut Pro users at this point.   But for those who do use FCP - this is a very very nice solution that will solve many problems for a lot of folks.

So what does this plugin software do?  Well on a basic level - it’s “simply” a Final Cut Pro “Log and Transfer” plugin.   Stick a disk in - launch FCP - and open the Log and Transfer menu up and you’ll be greeted with the familiar FCP menu here. (more…)

Jim Denevan's 2009 Land Drawing in Nevada is pretty gorgeous - shot by Peter Hinson.

I wanted to point out some pretty powerful artwork by Jim Denevan.

Truth be told - Jim contacted me a few months ago and asked if I might be interested in coming out to document some of his works from the air and I had a work conflict and could not make it.  I have to say that I regret not being able to make it now even more as I see how beautifully it turned out  - shot here by Peter Hinson.

Check out their work here - and enjoy what is a very very cool way to express oneself - and something that even “the Gods” would enjoy from above I’m sure.

As someone who does a fair bit of aerial work - this is a feast for my eyes.

p.s. anyone who rides around in Elvis’ old bus - doubly cool by my standards.

MPEG Streamclip for Mac or Windows is a CHAMP at converting the H.264 footage! And it's FREE.

One of the most common questions that I get from people regarding the new breed of HD-DSLR cameras is “What’s your post-workflow?”

Truth be told - most of it is actually extremely straightforward.  It does get fancy when you try to do some high end stuff- but that workflow applies to maybe one percent of people - so here is the simple workflow:

Simply put - all you need to do is to convert the native footage from the Canon 5D / 7D / 1D MKIV from the AVC H.264 format to a format that your computer and software will support.

For me it’s simple given that I work with Final Cut Studio - I work with Apple’s ProRes codec.  What this means is that I simply convert the H.264 footage to the higher quality (and less compressed) ProRes format. (Avid supposedly supports the H.264 format natively according to some post houses that I’ve worked with - but I admit to not being an Avid or Adobe Premier expert by any means.) (more…)

I’ve been debating a bit on whether or not to post this one - but I think it’s necessary - so here goes:

New technology is great.  It allows us to do things we previously thought impossible.  It empowers us to “push the envelope” if you will.

That being said, one of my favorite axioms came to mind after I read the PDN Article at left, namely: “Just because you can - doesn’t mean you should.”

First - I should say that I don’t know Jason Lam (the person selling these helicopters) nor is this aimed at him or critical of him.  Jason has EVERY right to sell his services and helicopters - unequivocally.

But I do think it’s a tad bit irresponsible for PDN (and perhaps Jason’s site as well) to fail to mention two very key things in their article/site:

1. Flying a remote control helicopter over New York City (as in the island of Manhattan) is ILLEGAL. (w/o a special permit - which is virtually impossible to obtain due to safety concerns.)

2. It’s extremely dangerous to fly such a helicopter (1. in general and 2. especially over a heavily populated place such as NYC.) Think of a flying blender if you will… if the operator/pilot makes a mistake the thing will crash or worse maim someone.

God forbid an errant radio signal interferes with the helicopter’s signal and the thing goes haywire (these things don’t exactly float down if you catch my drift.)

What I’m trying to say is:  you can kill someone (or yourself) if you don’t know what you’re doing.  Trying to fly a helicopter and trying to take pictures as well - is more that twice as dangerous! (more…)