Hey Kids, check it out, The Athlete Recovery Fund is a group that helps injured action sports athletes (skate, bmx, and fmx). How rad is that! And right now they are teamed up with Ball Park Franks who will donate $1 to the ARF every time you watch this video, so watch it all the way through at least once and help out those in need! Remember many professional action sports athletes do not have health insurance and cannot get it due to their high risk profession.

China Design Now opened this weekend at the PAM. I was lucky to see a preview of the show last week and it was incredible. Here is a little bit about it… 

China Design Now is an immersive, multi-sensory exploration of the graphic design, fashion, interior design, and architecture emerging from China today. By focusing on the creative output of three distinctive cities, China Design Now presents a rapidly changing cultural landscape that is transforming China and our collective definition of urban life.

NEMO is super excited to be a part of this event through community programming. We have a fantastic surprise for November’s First Friday show. Save the date for November 4th.  Check out more here… www.chinadesignnowportland.org

However hard it is to look at…we need to see it. If this isn’t seen then it dosent exist. It needs to exist to make a personal connection to those of us sitting at our desks sipping our morning coffee. I’m not saying there isn’t a boundary being over stepped for the family but its worth it for the world to see what they do so well to ignore. This could have been your loved one. This is the war you support. This is the war you ignore. This is us keeping the peace.

Kevin Vertucio had a funny, yet oh-so true article in issue 3 of Living Proof Magazine. Please read  for a good chuckle and a heavy dose of truth!

Crazy!!!!!

Paul Melcher attacks everyone below, check out his site for a response from Daryl Lang of PDN who claims that they have covered the story a lot….

If you thought that the money you had given to this or that photo trade organization was useful, think again. ASMP, APA, EP, PPA, WHNPA, SA, and all of the other siblings are guilty of the same crime. Silence. Chris Usher has lost his appeal after a seven year battle against Corbis and each of his 12,640 images lost will be compensated for a lousy $7.00 a piece.

(see previous post for more detailed explanation)

This ruling means that from now on, any agency, any magazine, any publisher will never have to worry about losing your photographs, since it will cost them peanuts to pay you back. It will be cheaper for them to trash them then returning them to you.

Also guilty are PDN, supposedly a trade news magazine, and other photography blogs, that are more interested in getting volumes of traffic to please their advertiser rather than report fairly on this industry.

They should all be put on the wall of shame for ignoring one of the longest and possibly important case in modern photography. Chris Usher was maybe crazy to take on the infinite cash Corbis but he did what he thought was a fair battle and lost. Not just because he couldn’t afford a legal team as powerful as the Bill Gates funded Corbis, but also because everyone ignore his battle, probably thinking it was a personal one.

In times where it is even more challenging to be a photographer than ever before, it is sad to see how helpless this industry has become, especially on the photographer’s side. It is sad to see how apathetic everyone is in face of challenges that will surely, one day, affect them too. Finally, it sad to see that, in the face of adversity, a photographer has no friends.

We just received the new issue of PDN, inside they highlight their choice for their favorite 30 new and emerging photographers, 2 highlighted are Studionemo’s friends Cole Barash, and Corey Arnold. Click here to go to PDN’s online gallery featuring work from all 30 featured photographers.

Portland photog, Jake Stangel took a trip up to the 24th annual Mt. Baker Banked Slalom this year and has presented his article in an interesting format, like a mag quality story but for his web site. Solid portraits and and words from the riders really give you an “insiders” feel to what the Banked is all about. Target and Playstation be damned, this is real snowboarding! Check it out here.

This is what roughly 2 million people look like during 44Th president Obama’s inauguration just one week ago, taken by the GeoEye Satellite. WOWZA! Almost 3 times the population of AK was in attendance. (I grew up in AK, I had to calculate some frame of reference, heh.) Mind. Blowing. Check out more images from around the world here

Get on the Grease Bus, for just $10 bucks gets you to Mt. Hood meadows and back! What a deal! Just sign up on their website and wait at your designated pick up spot and sit back while used veggie oil takes you up to get down on some shred! check here for more info and get down with grease!

Click here for more information and entry form, and make sure to check their website to get more info on past competitions and judge bios.

CONGRATS Danielle!!!!

StudioNemo was proud to present Lucien Pellegrins’ LOVECITYLOVE show on Dec. 5th. Nemo was spewing with creativity in many forms at the show. With Lucien talking to most all patrons and giving insight into his work and also gaining new perspectives from other people, it was a inspiring event for many. The creation station table was a big hit, more of an interactive group art project everyone was free to contribute a drawing or words on the table,or just hang out and chat. Music was provided by Amos Miller kicking all his original beats. Good times and great vibes had by all. Definitely stepped up to a new caliber of show here at StudioNemo. Thanks for everyone’s help.

This Thursday
December 11th
4:00-6:00 PM
Stanford Theatre, TWC
WHQ

Kids and families are welcome.
Nike 6.0 athletes Nigel Sylvester and Mike Spinner will be signing autographs. No RSVP required. Spread the word!

About Writing on the Wall
The four-man crew of Garrett Reynolds, Dennis Enarson, Nigel Sylvester, and Mike Spinner spent over a year living out of suitcases to film the first Nike 6.0 BMX movie, Writing on the Wall. From 4-wheelin’ to 4-star, ditches to public parks, the 6.0 crew scoured the corners of the Earth to discover the undiscovered and lay down new lines. Battling school calendars, narcolepsy, ridiculous competition schedules, and border patrol; the crew rallied to capture amazing riding. Writing on the Wall showcases the distinct style of each rider, from Nigel’s street skills to Spinner’s technical prowess; from Dennis who rides anything at any time to Garrett’s assault on cities around the world. The 6.0 crew represents the next generation of riders driving the progression of BMX. Enjoy the tour, as one of today’s most diverse BMX teams travels to Beijing, Dubai, Barcelona, NYC, Australia, and more.

Add Nike 6.0 Writing on the Wall to your page

]]> http://www.studionemo.com/2008/12/nike-60-writing-on-the-wall-invitation/feed/ 0 http://www.studionemo.com/2008/12/lovecitylove-by-lucian-pellegrin-studionemo-this-friday/ http://www.studionemo.com/2008/12/lovecitylove-by-lucian-pellegrin-studionemo-this-friday/#comments Tue, 02 Dec 2008 19:46:48 +0000 mertzy http://www.studionemo.com/?p=2018 LOVECITYLOVE

By Lucien Pellegrin

I gain inspiration from the clean, dirty, gritty subcultures of humanity who have been torn and beaten by a social construct that is no longer conducive for their personal condition. Through this inspiration, I see the Beauty in all that we are. In essence, there is no one way to live life, no right way to make art, no perfect way to die.

Lucien Pellegrin lives and works in Seattle as a teaching artist for a non-profit organization by the name of Arts Corps. Come check the Lucians art out Friday Dec 5th 6-10 PM at StudioNemo 1875 SE Belmont st. Portland,OR.

Photos, video and words by Austin Will.

Salomon and Bonfire went for gold this year for their second annual Backyard Bang Rail Jam. Teaming up with the Art Institute of Portland gave them prime location in the heart of the Pearl District in Portland, Oregon. 30 some odd competitors climbed the scaffolding time and time again to impress the celebrity Judges, Josh Dirksen, Nick Dirks, and Tim Windells. Sadly, only a handful could make it to the end of the rail, another handful couldn’t even make it down the initial slope without face-planting, which gave announcer Jesse Burtner a lot to talk about. Granted one can’t expect to much from an amateur rail jam in the middle of the city, the riders who made it to the finals stood out miles ahead of the rest. Between hanging in the VIP Free Beer section and the judges booth, I heard some notable honorable mentions. Jarad Hadi was granted most consistent. Alex “Wildcard” Burton was noted as the most Hazardous Material, and best trick on the wall-jam. Tyler Verigan easily took the best trick with a first try 180 switch nose press. A bum danced his way into a VIP pass courtesy of Salomon. Austin Sweeten received first place by doing 180 wizard switch up swivel variations on everything. There were some great bails, good tricks, and over all it was a fun time with amazing friends and fantastic beer. Cant wait for next year. Click ahead for some photos.

Photos, video and word by Austin Will.

If you remember a few weeks ago, Trevor Graves posted his thoughts about Canon’s new Powershot G10. I know I know, you can’t believe someone would ruin such a new camera blah blah. Before you get all in a twist about Trevor’s smash happy video again, remember we put  the smashed cam up for auction?  Well, it sold! We actually donated 100% of the proceeds directly to Boarding for Breast Cancer. We were surprised to even see people bidding on the thing, so we were blown away when 10 bids were placed. It topped out at $300.00. So here is to you anonymous bidder, you will receive your framed hunk of scrap art in a few days to remind you, you rule because you love boobs, and so do we!

Robbie Cooper set out on quite an interesting photo/video series this year. He set up a Red Cinema Camera up behind a screen to which children and teens played various video games. He captures something that we rarely see in people, raw character. In 2009 Robbie is teaming up with Bournemouth University to study the video footage, interviews and psychological profiles of new gamers and analyze their perceptions and reactions to playing war games. The project will appropriately be called: “War & Leisure” Make sure to check Robbie’s site for video of the kids playing.  Robbie Cooper’s website.

Today RED Digital Cinema Cameras issued a press release about their much talked about and hyped up Scarlet camera system. Looks like they’re giving the DSLR market a whirl as well. Aside from taking HD video, The scarlet’s “brain” unit as they are called, also takes quality stills. The “brain” of the unit is essentially an interchangeable sensor module, you can literally switch out between a feeble 4.9 megapixel to hefty 65 megapixel, even switch to a 261 megapixel panoramic back. Sounds sweet and dandy but, In my research it seems like people are on one side of the line or the other. On one hand you have the people who would give their first born just to get on the 1-2 year waiting list to throw down loads of cash-ola for this “revolutionary” product, on the other side you see people who are a bit more cautious to accept this DSLR “killer” as it has been called. Personally, I am not buying into this so soon.

Generally with all new product releases you have a very detailed tech spec sheet such as, ISO speeds, shutter speeds, flash sync, frames per second, you know, useful information. Not the case with the RED cameras, yes they do have some specs, but just enough to get your mouth watering, and if you have the budget why not, right?? But for those of us generally interested in this piece of equipment that threatens to render DSLR’s obsolete in one fail swoop, we’d like to see more information. Not raving applause from starry eyed gear fiends with cash to blow. I talked to a couple videographers about the red camera to get their perspective, They did generally agree that these are good quality video cameras, but from whats been said, that it beats 35mm film cameras and high end Sony cameras hands down with minimal evidence to back it up is a bit curious. A few movie clips here and test reels there was not enough to convince these seasoned videographers to make the switch.

As a photographer this makes me all too suspicious that people would put such blind faith in this case to a new DSLR that has yet to see the light of day. Yes, it is a cool feature to switch out sensors, you can even use Canon, Nikon, and RED lenses on the same body and bells and whistles to add out the wahzoo. Lots of flash and pizzaz around this one, but no meat on the bone, so to speak. Basically if this thing is going to put millions of neurotic control freak photographers out of biz we better have a good reason to run for the hills, instead of telling us the boogey man is real, does that make sense? Either way it will be interesting to see how RED cameras pan out in the long run. Hmm maybe it should come with these free pair of shades, I’d be sold!( Jim Jannard is both the CEO of Oakley sunglasses and RED Cinema. )

Make sure to pick up this month Issue of both Print and PDN. Nemo and two of our employees are featured in Print Magazine for their regional design 08 issue, congrats Garth Weber and Justin Dickau! PDN Magazine did a write up on Nemodesign and Studio Nemo for their current issue. They chatted up Trevor Graves , Chris Hotz and Heather Hanrahan to get the scoop on the global design cult that is Nemo, be sure to pick them up if you see them on the rack! Click ahead to view pages from the mags!

PDN cover

Josh Letchworth photo from current 6.0 campaign

Trevor Graves photo from Merrell catalog shoot.

Carlin Sundell photo from Nike SB Beijing shoe

Cover of Print

Nemo’s Justin Dickau designed this album cover/ packaging for musician Brock Tyler.

Garth Weber worked on the design end of this “vintage” Nike campaign

Credit goes to Nemo design for this last one, it’s a 6.0 ad campaign, art direction by Chris Hotz and Mark Lewman, and illustration by Adam Haynes. Good work everyone!

Come check out the new shred Releases this Friday @ StudioNemo! Make sure to RSVP to:

Austinw@nemodesign.com

The Art Institute of Portland put on a great show for their in house gallery this month, curated by Nemo’s own Todd Templeman. On display was the the art of painter and tattoo artist Jacob Redmond, graphic / collage artist Nubby Twiglet, funiture artist Dave Seoane, painter and exhibitionist Dustin Flath a.k.a. “Nudist” and photographer Carlin Sundell. Make sure to stop in if you find yourself in the NW neighborhood of Portland to take a look. Click ahead to view more.

Nubby Twiglet

Shes by Nudist a.k.a. Dustin Flath

Photos by Carlin Sundell

Paintings by Jacob Redmond

More J.R.

More shoes from Nudist

The locals were amazed with Dave Seoane’s wood work

The “Nudist”

I am so stoked Heather has a write up on line with Photo District News. Its so cool to be included in a prestigious publication like PDN! 

In our November Client Meeting we profiled Nemo Design, a Portland, Oregon-based agency that specializes in youth culture and action sports, and counts Nike and Hewlett Packard among it’s clients. Here we speak with Heather Hanrahan, the woman behind StudioNemo, the full-service studio and production company that generates images for Nemo Design and other agencies, about the atmosphere in the studio, what it takes to shoot athletes, and how she finds and hires new photographers.

PDN: Tell me about your background.

Heather Hanrahan: I went to work in the action sports industry in marketing, and I worked for a company called Bonfire Snowboards. I used to produce all of their photo shoots and we did all of their catalogs in-house, so I did all the photography for them, and I would do all the art buying for all the action photographs taken of our riders by freelancers. Then I went back to school to the University of British Columbia, and I got a masters in womens’ studies in the visual arts area—it’s sort of a masters in visual narratives.

Then I came back to Oregon and I worked in film and photography freelance for a while, producing and styling and coordinating, and then I ended up at Nemo through someone who had my position before, she hired me as her replacement.

PDN: Do you have an official job title?

HH: Well, I wear many hats. I think that my official title is photography project manager, but I am the producer and art buyer and studio manager… curator, lunch getter.

PDN: Do you notice any trends in the types of photography your clients are after, or is there a certain visual style that StudioNemo is known for delivering?

HH: There’s not an exact style. I think that we have a lot of variety and it depends on the photographer that we hire. I think that one of the trends that’s going around in youth culture and action sports is using more of a documentary style of photography, capturing athletes in their own environments. We do a lot of athlete shoots here and it’s trying to capture what they do best, either around town [Portland] or in this studio. And the great thing about StudioNemo is the actual environment that the studio is in. We have kids that come in and skateboard up and down the hallways and BMX, it’s really encouraged here and it’s a very fun environment.

PDN: After you and your client have agreed on a photographer, how much input does the photographer have creatively?

HH: I think the photographer actually has quite a bit of input. The art directors that I’ve always worked with are big on collaborating with the photographer to come up with better solutions to get the grander scheme of the idea. I think we give our photogphers a lot of creative here. There’s a lot of trust put in them, and the art directors don’t micro-manage, they step off when need be. I think it brings a lot to the photography if the photographer is invested in what he’s doing and is not just a hired gun.

PDN: When you are thinking of hiring a photographer, how do you evaluate whether they are someone who will be able to contribute creatively rather than just execute?

HH: There’s something on [the Web site of] MS Logan, they have this “Two Minutes With” feature, and I really like that. I think that is the best thing I’ve seen from any artist representative, is showing their photographer and their personality. When I pick a photographer it’s partly for the photography, but it’s partly for how they can interact with the client and how they interact with athletes. A lot of the time we shoot athletes here rather than just models, and it’s being able to take those kids that are used to mountain biking all the time, and if you have a studio shoot, being able to draw personality out of them and make it so they’re not bored. I think that’s really important, I look for that. I look for personality a lot.

PDN: How do you prefer hearing from photographers?

HH: I like promo cards. I’m not really interested in getting a “Hi my name is” e-mail, but if they wow me with something interesting that catches my eye, a little package or whatever. There’s a photographer that I became friends with because he stopped into Nemo to show his book, and then he started sending me little video clips of his shoots. He does these funny personal shoots, like he went to India and traveled 2000 km in a little electric car and took photographs, and so he would make these little videos and e-mail them to me and I thought they were just hilarious. He definitely got my interest and I always think of him when a job comes up that’s right for him.

PDN: Beyond looking at what comes to you, what do you do to seek out new photographers to work with?

HH: I’m constantly searching blogs, I love the I Heart Photo blog, and I do use Le Book, and I’m always looking at the New York Times Magazine, they use some amazing photographers. I’m looking at all sorts of different magazines and different media. I have certain reps whose esthetic I’m drawn to and I look at their stuff.

PDN: How many new photographers would you say that you use per year?

HH: I probably bring in about five new photographers.

PDN: What are your biggest needs in terms of style and specialty?

HH: We need everything. I definitely think that Nemo, not only their design but also on the photography side, caters to a younger generation, a generation that’s interested in sports and in music culture, and interested in not only entertainment, but also the environment and politics. That’s what’s great about being in Portland, Oregon, is that we’re so much more than just youth culture, we’re definitely invested in a different type of lifestyle.

PDN: Can you think of a photographer that you recently started working with and what stood out to you about them?

HH: I really enjoy working with Josh Letchworth. He has this almost Buddhist quality to him, because he’s just so calm and happy at all times. He’s just one of those people that’s great to be around, and like I said about shooters, their personality really is everything, and he brings that to the table.

PDN: So it’s a given that the work needs to be excellent, but beyond that personality is what sets people apart for you?

HH: One of my favorite photographers is Cass Bird, and I feel like her photography is so great because her personality is so great. I think they go hand-in-hand, I don’t think they’re separate. I think that if you’re a curmudgeon it’s going to show in your work.

PDN: How much of your work comes from Nemo Design versus outside agencies?

HH: We’re always trying to get work from other agencies, but most of my work right now comes from Nemo Design. If it’s not exactly through Nemo Design it’s through our mutual clients.

PDN: What are the biggest challenges for you and the studio on any given day?

HH: What to have for lunch. That’s always a big one. I guess my biggest challenge as a studio within an agency is getting other agencies to feel comfortable coming in. It really shouldn’t be an issue. They’re bringing their work in on other turf and there’s definitely some trepidation, and I think it’s unwarranted. Nemo Design is a great company and their not interested in taking other people’s work away from them, and I think that Nemo Productions is open to so much more than just what Nemo Design does.

Heather Hanrahan
StudioNemo
1875 SE Belmont Street
Portland, OR 97124
www.studionemo.com

Revarie is a short film by NYC photographer Vincent Laforet. What makes this film Unique is that it was filmed entirely with Canon’s new EOS 5D Mark II. Which up until recently had just been a DSLR. Now they have added the capabilities of 1080p HD video to its feature list. I think we’ll be seeing more of this crossover of mediums. Which is pretty exciting to think of what is next to come. Who knows any of us photographers could be a closet videographer and we just don’t know it yet! Check out the video on Vincent’s site here.

I haven’t seen this yet but looks pretty sweet. I was fortunate enough to shoot with these guys for a week at Mt. Bachlor last season. Give it a lil look see!

Photographer and StudioNemo’s good friend Kevin Zacher has a treat for us all, in the form of his new website. Check it out, make sure you got a good hour of nothing to do because its all too easy to get sucked into his site checking out all the amazing eye candy. Have fun! www.kevinzacher.com

Back around 05/06 I stumbled across an amazing Sony commercial for their EU brand BRAVIA, It was titled simply “Balls” directed by Nicolai Fuglsig. (we’ll get back to him in a second.) It has to be the most stunning commercial I’ve seen to date for a mainstream brand. (its better viewed in High Def, not youtube quality.) The best part, no computers were used to add CG balls at anytime! What you see actually took place on the streets of S.F. Bravia commercials have always been massive productions, exponentially pleasing the eyes of their European consumer with each ad while never losing site thus keeping it creative and unique along the way. See more here.

Fast forward to 2008. Sony has extended their colorful BRAVIA branches to the Asia Pacific market. Seems fair enough they hire a production Co. from the region expect to sell to. Enter Bates 141, out of Singapore. This being their inaugural commercial for BRAVIA, a lot is riding on a project like this. One would think, all stops must be pulled, bars must be raised and need to squeeze all creative juices out to make a banger of an ad, right? Wrong.

Take a look at their ad HERE. Hmm, slow motion shots coupled with pretty, soft vocals and acoustic strings. Strange how that seems all too familiar. Just coincidence right, yeah… Until I started doing a little digging and found this little number. (click here) Strange, another ad with a domino theme, just another coincidence…sure. But I found it odd that the director of both the BRAVIA “Balls” and Guinness’s “Tipping Point” happen to be Nicolai Fuglsig! Wow, I find it hard to believe Bates 141 did not do it’s research, this is just damn embarrassing. Oh, I love how the Bates slogan happens to be: “Change Happens, When You Look At Things Differently.” Really Bates? Come on.

OH, P.S.! Half the domino shots were CG… Booooooo!

I got in to work today not in the best mood, possibly from the spontaneous rainstorm I peddled through on the way in. But that’s just Portland, right? Boo hoo. All that changed when I saw Itunes was selling That’s It That’s All, the new snowboard video from Travis Rice and Curt Morgan, without batting an eye I bought it. I ended up watching it almost twice through before I forced myself to shut it off. I am at work, and should be working. I can only tell my boss I’m “researching” the video so many times before the jig is up.

This video sets the bar I had no clue existed for snowboard flicks. I got a sneak peek of some stills late last season from Tim Zimmerman who was photographing all the action along the way, those alone were making me drool to see this film. The film itself is a work of art, using the same camera rigs as the Discovery Channel’s Planet Earth documentaries they captured some of the greatest shots Ive seen in a long time or ever! The selection of riders is without compare and the tricks are amazing, who knew double corks could be done in so effortlessly? I think this video came at a great time in snowboarding, with Mack Dawg out of the game, someone needed to set up to be the “it” production company for snowboarding.  T.rice and Curt took that step…  in to a helicopter, blasting Maiden, and looking for the next pow line to film. Can’t wait to see what you guys come out with next!

Boring poster I know, but if your in the PDX area you should go check out “Wild Beauty” at the Portland Art Museum. Its put together by the Northwest Photography Archive. It’s a collection of photos from various photographers such as Carleton Watkins, Lily White and Sarah Ladd. Its a look in to Oregon’s past and growth during the post industrial revolution era, pristine scenery captured on film at a time when people were just beginning to harness the Columbia for economic growth through trade/fishing, power etc… A definite must see.

My friend Mikey H. in NYC just Ichatted me saying he just saw the Banksy show mentioned below (Which he said was rad.). He asked me if I have seen photos for the giant rat pieces Banksy did in Soho, they’re all legal too since they are commissioned pieces. Simply put, amazing stuff. Click on for more!

Photo cred: Mikey’s friends Iphone!

Call For Entries

Fat Flake Photo Contest

Categories: Ski and Snowboard

Prizes: $1000 for the best photo in each category.

Deadline for Entry: November  1, 2008

Rules: All entries must have been photographed in Utah during the 2007/2008 season.  Images will not be returned.  In consideration for participating in the contest, participants agree that Ski Utah, or it’s designate, may publish images without remuneration to the participant in the Fat Flake Photo Contest, in displays associated with the Fat Flake Festival, and on our websites.

Submissions:  All photos must be submitted in digital format to fatflakephotos@gmail.com in either RAW format or a minimum 300 ppi and 8×10” .jpg or .tif format.  Maximum 2 entries per category.

Big buzz of this photo making its rounds on the internet. People are up in arms, blah blah, saying this photo is sexist. I think of it as more distraction from actual issues that the “McPalin” team are not exactly facing head on. But really folks, who cares about politics when you have Miss Alaska ’84′s “gams” to look at? AUUUUUGGGAAAAA!

p.s. 5 bucks says the kid in the photo is more worried about the inflation in his pants than the market.

Things got sweet last night at Nemo Design when Glass Candy made a special appearance on stage in Studio Nemo. Ida No and Johnny Jewel rocked a crowd of nearly 300 sweaty Portlanders till late in the night, and stayed after to dance. Here are a few pics of what went down, the rest of the party shots are soon to come, so stay tuned!

YoBeat recently took a keen eye to StudioNemo, and put up the video from our last art show on their site. We love YoBeat and so should you. They are full of content making fun of a world that takes it’s self too seriously at times, I’m talking of the “action sports” world. Some of you know what I mean. Anyways, Holler at YoBeat!

One of our many radical clients, Skull Candy received a well earned write up in this months Inc. magazine! They are number 31 of the 500 fastest growing private companies this year! Skull Candy’s bread and butter is audio head phones, but their market definitely focuses on the action sports world, and they sponsor a number of pro riders. Participating in our clients success weather large or small is always what we are after. Congrats Skull Candy!

On 9/5 StudioNemo was proud to present Adreinne DeBoers “The Preservation of Fleeting Moments”. Adrienne explains that she is compelled to create a memory that will be transformed into the tangible before it is too late. Were excited to have her work on our walls, come in to check it out this month.

Adam Kimmel presents: Claremont HD from adam kimmel on Vimeo.

A Film by: Ari Marcopoulos

Director of Photography: Colin Blackshear

Producer: Neville Wakefield

What is Ari Marcopoulos the author of Transitions and Exits up to today? Ari is a documentary photographer and filmmaker whose work has appeared in The New York Times, Interview, Paper, Blind Spot, and most major snowboarding magazines such as Transworld Snowboarding and Snowboarder.

Hangin with Ari on a Burton shoot in Tinge, France he was abel to smooth talk his way onto the shoot without having any snow skills at all. He showed up with rear entry ski boots and the wackiest steeze for gear. There he is all skinny chilling with the Johan Olsson and the Gucci, smoking them out and getting everyone to embrace his presence. It’s with this family sense of security is when Ari works his magic as a documentarian. 

This quote from beastiemania.com outlines his genius. 

“The Beastie Boys photos is like a six year period, but I didn’t constantly shoot. The hardest part was when you do a subject like the Beasties, they’re such a popular band that the subject is bigger than you, and it’s almost like you’re riding the wave of them. That was the first thing I considered, then I was like ‘Fuck it, I’m just going to do it.’ and the band was really into it. A lot of these pictures were not taken for assignment or anything. I was just hangin” out with them and going to the studio.” – Ari Marcopoulos

So what do three guys dress in 80′s prom suits have to do with Ari? Colin Blackshear, Patrick Rizzo, Noah Sakamoto, race down Claremont canyon passing a video camera back and forth at break neck speed on skateboards. Ari of course is right there to embrace their brilliance and package it up. This film was produced for Adam Kimmel clothing. 

The is nothing more practical for learning than to be surrounded by mentors and get your feet wet. Scott Bourne is leading the charge. Check his G9 videos on his site. 

The Aperture Nature Photography Workshops at Olympic, Tetons, Yosemite and Yellowstone National Parks will take four groups of professional and amateur photographers to America’s most scenic destinations to make spectacular images while learning how to get the most out of Apple professional photo editing application, Aperture.

Beginning in September 24-27, 2008, a group of four professional photographers will be joined by four amateur photographers at Grand Tetons National Park for unparalleled photo opportunities, followed by first-hand instruction in Apple Aperture by a team of Apple-certified Aperture trainers.

Prizes: Prizes will be awarded to each winning photographer. The prize package is subject to change at the full discretion of the Aperture Nature Photography Workshops.

As of August 1, 2008 the prize package includes but is not limited to:

1 USB Drobo – approximate value $500
1 Lensbaby – approximate value $350
1 Premium subscription to lynda.com value $375
1 set of all current Peachpit Press Photo-related books – approximate value $500
1 ThinkTank 360 Photo Bag – approximate value $350
1 Apple Aperture 2.1 – approximate value $200
1 Lifetime Pro Membership to Photrade – approximate value $500

HOW: Each participant may submit one photograph in total. All images must be digitally uploaded.

WHEN: Submissions open August 15 at Noon, PST and close September 5, 2008 at 5:00 PM, PST.

Questions can be address here: 

 aperturenatureworkshops@gmail.com

Photo_Mertz

Dave Seoane, steward and fabrication genius of Nemo Design took it upon himself to create an apple box for one of our favorite photographers, Carlin Sundell. Dave saw opportunity for improvement when he spotted our 6′ 7″ Carlin, sitting awkwardly on a standard size apple box while shooting. So, he created an amazingly beautiful and much more functional box for Carlin. Using Plyboo he designed a sturdy, large, and wild looking apple box for Studio Nemo. Thank you Dave!

Powder & Rails is a new video series on VBS.TV. It covers snowboarding’s early days, day-glo and all! With interviews from Pat Bridges of Snowboarder Magazine, Kevin English of HCSC, Nemo’s own Trevor Graves and many more legends in the game! They give the low down on those days of tindy’s, grassers, eggplants and stiffy mute’s! TUNE IN!

Voo Dew Doughnut – Nemo and the Dew Tour from Dave Allen on Vimeo.

Does that guy have a stain on his shirt, or is it just me????

David Emmite was one of the local talent mentioned for his work with Nike. He worked on this beautiful Nike piece with the talented Mr. Michael Shea as creative director and Angelo Colletti and Eric Duvauchelle as art directors, all of whom we’ve had the great pleasure of working with here at Nemo. Congrats! 

Another friend of Nemo who was featured in the annual was Embry Rucker, for his work on a Billabong ad campaign. Congrats! 

The always observant Mr. Graves noticed the abundance of animal photography in this issue (I can’t help but love it!), so I’ve picked some of my favorites…

Peter C. Lavery

and Nina Francois

Hope you enjoy!

Here are a few photos of students of the HCSC Photo Workshop in action capturing the action!

Click the jump for MORE!

Day one-

Arrival Day. The camp was sold out 2 months in advance and had a waiting list of 10. The lucky 24 that were able to attend this years session at Mt. Hood and High Cascade Snowboard camp were witness to snowboard history. Snowboarding photog and icon, Bud Fawcett gave the class a history lesson and set the foundation for how snowboarding as we know it today actual started. In many ways, the surf and skateboard industries embrace their heritage. Snowboarding is less historical so it is nice to have Bud to remind us all where we came form as snowboarders. Studionemo is stoked to be a sponsor of the event!

I was checking out the PDN blog this morning and was really sad to see not one, but TWO articles about celebrity baby photos- the ubiquitous Brad and Angelina twins and Jessica Alba’s baby. I guess it spurns the question of whether a blog should adhere to any standards? Of course it depends on the blog, but a blog linked to a respectable photography publication looses points in my book for even discussing paparazzi crap. Am I wrong? 

The water cooler conversation goes something like this….Hey Harry, how was your weekend? 

Harry replies, well since you asked, I flew to Ramadi, in Western Iraq. While on the ground with the Animal Company 3rd 103rd Armor. We felt the hight of the Sunni insurgency and were able to come home to talk about it. 

Long time buddy and shooter Bill Thomas took on the challenge of illustrating a civilian point of view on a business that traditionally has been a Government job. 

weekendwarriorproject.com

Recently here at Studio Nemo, we were having trouble with our 5 year old Imacon Ixpress, nothing severe, just time consuming hiccups that bogged down shoot time, not good for us or our clients. So after a few months of research and meeting with some digi back companies, we ended up going with the Phase One P45. Although the P45 is not 100% perfect I’d say the pros definitely outweigh the cons, the only cons being the software interface is not the most user friendly. The best part about the P45 is its portability compared to the Imacon. With the P45, you can slap in a Compact Flash card and shoot away. Unlike the Imacon where your lugging around and plugged into a power pack/hard drive you wear over your shoulder. Not to mention the resolution of the P45 sports 39 megapixels to Imacons 16! We did some test shots to see how they compare, check em out after the jump! (And yes, I did the cheesiest photoshop job on purpose! Kinda going for a Back To The Future pt.2 (above) and part 3(below) heh.)

So you have to use your imagination because these are VERY scaled down photos than the ones we took, imagine the 100% zooms being on our 30in monitor and taking up the whole screen.

Here is the shot from the Phase one at 100%

Here is the shot from the Imacon at 100%

Here is how the 100% zooms compare to each other from the image in full view (top left), you can clearly see that the phase one grabs more detail to give you a rather large image in good quality, were talking billboard size people! This is gonna be fun!

Last week Nike6.0 photographer Josh Letchworth dropped in to our studios to shoot various 6.0 athletes while Nike was hosting the kids for migration week, which they do every summer. Migration is an activity filled week and a meet and greet for all the athletes from the different sports to get to know each other. Even after running around all day, the kids were good about having to stay up til 2am-ish to get their photos taken. We were hammering out 16-18hr days, everyone pulled their weight and kicked ass. It was also the biggest build we’ve done for a set to date! All in all, it was lots of lights, lots of fun, lots of laughs! BIG thanks to Josh, the athletes, and everyone involved!!!!! Enjoy the video.

In the early morning of July 1st 1908 in Siberia, there was a great explosion. Eyewitnesses close to the explosion reported the loud thundering sound moving east to north. The sounds were accompanied by a shock-wave that knocked people to the ground and broke windows hundreds of miles away. The explosion knocked over an estimated 80 million trees over 830 square miles. Estimates of the energy of the blast to be about 1000 times as powerful as the bomb dropped on Hiroshima. It is estimated that the earthquake from the blast would have measured 5.0 on the Richter scale, which was not yet developed at the time. Since there was no discernible impact zone, meteor impact was ruled out, theories for the cause range from black holes, anti-matter, to a UFO crash. Today the more popular theory is whether it was a comet or meteor, it exploded 8 or 9 km over the earth’s surface, from immense built up pressure from traveling over 21,000mph into our atmosphere. Later in 1966 Guiness book of world records calculated that if it were to hit earth 4 hours and 47 min later it would have completly destroyed St. Petersburg, Russia! They say the earth gets these mid-sized hits once every 300 years or so. 100 down 200 more to go!

I grabbed the Canon G9 and headed to Brooklyn Projects opening and launch of the Nemo produced book FREESTYLIN’. Nike SB’s, John Martin asked Nemo creative director Mark Lewman if he could do anything for BMX what would he do. Lewman brought the old band together from the Freestylin’ days and put together an amazing historical outline of the pioneering days of freestyle BMX. Spike Jones and Andy Jenkins collaborated in their original roles and put together the book.

BMX racing will debut in China at the Olympics next month and Nike SB has been doing promotions to bring focus to the new event. Michael Lau designed special limited edition Blazers for the promotion and if you were at the party in LA the he also design two special edition toys and a show box that is so unique and original!

Mark Kohlman an retired Nemo photo assistant, gone snowboard photog now editing for ESPN has put an old shot of Shaun White up on the EXPN website. I hope the surprise and delight of seeing my work published never goes away!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EAX_3Bgel7M]

Could this be a marketers dream come true?

Install secret (or branded) messages into flash photos. Aparently Julius von Bismarck has McGivered a remote optical slave through a telephoto lens to project a message onto any surface. From the reaction of the people on the video it is a real deal. It isn’t rocket science and he shows you how to do it on his website.

Do you think it is real or staged?

Check out this article with Julian Richards and you’ll see that the personality behind the talent is just as interesting…

Photojournalist Ziv Koren shows how he combines still photographs and video to create a new photographic language for the Internet. The idea of the minds eye behind the lens sounds amazing. This dude gets into the think of dangerous situations. Is it worth dieing to get the shot?

Here are some pics from the Leo Kesting Gallery. Ironically, my favorite gallery show I visited in NYC happened to be work from the lovely and talented Jonny Fenix (living right here in portland, or). The rocking gun is amazing! And Jon Benet Ramsey, Jesus riding a bronco, the purple tiger!!!! I love it all. I hope you all enjoy these pics. 

www.catherinesanimals.com

A great story about a good project getting better! The book sales went well so Catherine Ledner took it to the next step and made original prints available for sale thru a custom website http://www.catherinesanimals.com/

Did you ever sleep in class? I used to in college and I walked out of there with a 4.0 GPA. I learned that my “visual” brain worked at lighting speed, while my “audible” brain, or reading brain, wasn’t as quick to learn. I’ll try to clarify, when I would put my head down in the classroom, shut my eyes and truly listen to the lesson the teacher was giving, I would make up stories in my head to support the lesson. While my eyes were closed, I wasn’t distracted by the pretty girl from Buffalo or see my buddies in the court yard skateboarding. The brain was busy learning. The traditional sense of learning is to read a thick book. The same story telling goes on in the brain while reading and I understand the pleasure surrounding reading. However, my visual brain would “hog” the eye time and be on the scan for any composition, color, texture surrounding the essence of creating stills. While my head lay on the desk, I learned that I need to learn in a visual way as opposed the the traditional audible/ book way.

Mentors have shown me the ropes along the way. Nothing beats a professional showing you how it is done. Today, we have tools like videos, to help the visual learners of the world. One of these guides to higher learning is a website named Lynda. The video tutorials walk you thru the tools in a simple logical way. I went thru the Lightroom tutorial and it helped.

Here is the blurb on LYNDA:

The lynda.com Online Training Library and CD-ROM titles include such subjects as Photoshop, Flash, Dreamweaver, Illustrator, Office, digital photography, Web design, digital video, and many others. lynda.com’s all-star team of trainers and teachers provides comprehensive and unbiased movie-based training to an international membership of tens of thousands of subscribers. Considering the speed at which technology evolves, the Online Training Library is a great solution for keeping your skills current. Library subscriptions begin as low as $25 a month, with no long-term commitment required.. For more information and to view free demo movies on all courses in the library, visit www.lynda.com.

I’ve been in NYC for the Le Book Connections event. I’ve got lots of photographers and agencies to rant about… but I’ll post in bits to keep you interested. I’ve also got great news to come on NY gallery shows, the lovely Dona and NYC street art. 

Before heading to NY, I shot up north to Connecticut  to visit my lovely Gram. Here’s me and Gram (obviously on an earlier trip, but we found some great old photos that I couldn’t pass up sharing). Highlight of the Grandma trip was definitely water aerobics at the retirement community! 

The idea of sharing photos with friends and presenting to clients on the fly hasn’t been easy. An instant slideshow that fits in your pocket.

Aiptek is showcasing its PocketCinema V10 mini projector at Computex 2008.

Aiptek’s PocketCinema V10, is a pocket-size media player projector equipped with 3M’s revolutionary miniature projection technology, which can project a 50-inch image. The display content can come from a cell phone, iPod, Wii or other video capable device via the 3-in-1 AV jack. The device can also playback videos and photos from the 1GB internal memory or the SD/MMC/MS Pro card. The V10 supports JPEG, ASF, AVI and MPEG-4 formats and features a stereo speaker and built-in battery.

I’ll bet that battery last all of 5 minutes

Shayla Hason showcased her “Hope is a Muscle” show at the Nemo studio Friday night. One of the bands from the Rock and Roll camp for Girls, played a set. BluBird, played Little Lemon Yellow and I thought Shayla was going to cry.

Born June 17, 1949, in Pomona CA., Edward Curtiss Colver (a third-generation Southern Californian) was named after his twelve-times removed great-grandfather, who arrived in the U.S. from Cornwall England in 1635.

Edward is essentially a self taught artist; his brief formal training occurred during night classes at UCLA, where he studied beginning photography with Eileen Cowin.

Three months after he began taking photographs, Edward had his first photo published: an image of artist Johanna Went, featured in Bam magazine. Since then he has shot for dozens of record labels including EMI, Capitol, and Geffen. His photographs have been featured on more than 250 album covers and include some of the most recognizable and iconic covers of the late 20th century. In 2006 he published a book about the Amercian punk rock scene, Blight at the End of the Funnel.

Colver has not watched TV since 1979. He currently lives in a 1911 Craftsman House in Los Angeles with his wife Lani.

In August, Freshjive will be hosting a photography exhibit of renowned photographer Edward Colver’s more obscure work at the Reserve Store. Edward was one of the best and most prolific photographers during the late 70′s and early 80′s Los Angeles music scene and beyond. Along with the exhibit will be a release of special edition t shirts. Stay tuned.

 ”Different websites can use BrowserPlus to support things like drag and drop from the desktop, easier file uploads, more efficient and secure acquisition of feeds and information, and native desktop notifications.”

Yahoo is demonstrating the power of the software with one of its own popular web apps, Flickr. The Browser Plus Uploadr [sic] allows users to simply drag and drop photos from their desktop folders into the browser, where basic edits such as cropping, resizing and greyscaling can be applied, before the photos are subsumed into your Flickr account.

Looks good in therory. Check it out here:

BrowserPlus is currently in beta (or ‘sneak peak’ mode, to use Yahoo’s parlance) and is available for download here. Visit our Nemo Flickr account: trevoratnemo.

Do you think money exchanges hands between Benjamin Linus (Michael Emerson) and Nikon on this product placement?

Has the celebrity obsessions have gone too far? It used to be the National Inquire with run out and shoot celebrities sun bathing in the nude, it was understood that the celebrity would sue the publication and the media feeding frenzy that would ensue would propel the actress’ career into high gear! To keep up and contribute the frenzy coolspotters.com has launched the BETA site.

The coolspotters.com site is full of celebrity profiles, product profiles, movie profiles, and so much more. These Profiles are where you can learn about the associations between your favorite celebrities, entertainment, products, events, and places.

Be the first in your neighborhood to be the ultimate consumer of useless information and gossip!

The 2008 Teva Mountain Games photography competition has evolved into a new and challenging format to truly test a Photographer’s skills. Competitors will have 80 hours to take photos during the Games.

At the conclusion of the Games, photographers will submit their top three photos online to a jury. The photos will be judged on the subject of “Iconic Teva Mountain Games”. The person compiling the top “portfolio” will be awarded the winner. The top three Photographers will be awarded cash and their final work will be displayed on the Teva Mountain Games website and in Outside Magazine!

Don’t miss your chance to shoot some epic mountain scenary and compete for a heft cash purse!

PRIZES:
1st – $2500
2nd – $1500
3rd – $1000

More info CLICK HERE

Nemo’s very own Mark Lewman, an OG of BMX’s Freestylin Magazine, was one of the brains behind the event. He has been hard at work creating an anniversary edition of Freestylin (that will have a very special limited release) and designing his very own number plate. YEAH Lew!

Read more about the event at hypebeast and 6.0s blog. 

NIKE ART OF FOOTBALL EXHIBITION
April 16th – May 5th 2008

Nike studio
Via Sacchi 7, Milano
Tuesday to Saturday
from 12:00 to 8:00

View the installation: Click here

I’m not bashing anyones trade here and I respect the skills photoshop retouchers have but really? when did it become know as photography to not compose a shot on camera and create cool lighting on set? to build a masterpiece from pieces of mediocre photography? EVERYTHING nowadays is photoshop…take the recent cover of Vouge with Gwyneth Paltrow for example…its seems as if they tried to make her and the entire set look as fake as possible! My god you guys, she’s gorgeous without that much airbrushing.

As a photographer I wouldn’t want my name on a “Photo” that is 99.9 percent photoshoped imagery. But wether you agree with me or not, check out Christopher Huet’s photoshop skills. Its kind of disturbing when you watch the process.

There is a lot that goes into getting ready for a day of filming/shooting snowboarding in the back country. Wake up at dawn, gas/oil up the snowmobile, drive x amount of hours, unload, start up the sled and get up that hill. While it is very convenient rooping around on a sled to get the shot, being out is such beautiful scenery choking on the two stroke engine exhaust can take away from the experience. So what is a snowboard film crew to do? Well if your involved with Leeward Cinema you gather a group of riders, pack your provisions ,strap snowshoes/split-boards on your feet, hike out, and camp out in the snow for a few days documenting all shredding/ shenanigans along the way. No engine exhaust, no gasoline, no digging out a flipped over sled, (shudder) just hiking out, and taking time to really appreciate the whole experience. They have a laundry list of amazing riders to boot. The teaser is rad as well, I think the beetlejuice theme really tops it off. Good show guys/gals,can’t wait to see the final cut!

Click here to watch the teaser (click on “video” on the left hand side of the page)

Make sure to pick up the newest issue of Juxtapoz, great collection of photographes from 60 photographers. Too many great photogs to mention but a few include: Peter Beste, Alex Prager, Ricky Powell, Amy Stein and Corey Arnold. Again go out and buy it!

Nemo Design hosted Furry Kama Sutra, a photo show by Michael Cogliantry. Here are some images from the event in all its sexy costumed glory!

The man behind the furry mask, Michael Cogliantry.

Free drinks make people happy.

“Yeah that me.”

Gangster bunny.

The rabbits were hard at work behind the bar serving drinks.

Popping bottles…

Leads to this.

Big Thanks to everyone that came out to see that show!

-Alex Mertz.

The Story

It wasn’t an intentional test drive for either system… The harsh reality of shooting professionally,  is that ability overcomes harsh situations. This story outlines just such an event. Neither the Nikon D3 vs. Canon EOS3 is my primary system, my main “gun” is the Nikon D2X. Keep in mind, I am an old film guy who has taken on the learning curve of the digital world.

In all fairness to the tech geeks seeking out technical reviews on the camera systems, this story isn’t going to go there. It is more of an emotional walk with the camera systems just as a creative working a brush on their canvas.

Let me set the stage. I will qualify my shooting style to help set what features are important to me and why. I grew up shooting action sports and more specifically snowboarding. I was a senior shooter for SNOWBOARDER magazine for 13 years and traveled the globe chasing the snow. Powerful motor drives, reliability, access to rental gear in foreign cities, fast auto focusing, accurate metering and lens quality and selection are all key to needs in a camera rig. The funny part of brand loyalty is it starts with that first camera. I started on a Nikon FE 2 back in the day and have sequentially gone thru each new model, F3, F4 and so on to my current body the D2X. In my pier group, my buddies are on the Canon systems and they love them. There were points along the way I felt the need to convert but the financial hit to do it kept me from leaping over to the Canon side of the fence. I swear the companies talk and decide who is going to have which special features first to keep everyone buying. That is another story.

Jump ahead to the week of April 17th, 2008. I had an assignment thru my friends over at JDK, to shoot active lifestyle here in Oregon. Mountain, biking, kayaking, running and bungee jumping. April is hit or miss for weather so I wanted to rent a back up body in case the trusty D2X went down in the rain. Greg over at CLUTCH rents Canon systems so I grabbed the Canon EOS3 as a back up. I was nervous about not knowing it intimately and excited to actually field test the Canon to see what the hype around Canon was all about.

Back Focusing is a four-letter word
The drama and the test of being a professional started on the first shot. It is 5:50 am under the Hawthorne Bridge in Portland. The story is to capture a group of friends on an early morning run. The weather was misty, at best, and cold. To add to the confusion in analyzing the camera problem later, John Siddel the Art Director on the shoot, wanted some pan blurring to capture the speed and honesty of the morning run. We started with simple stretching all yoga style. I am locked down on a tripod and using some fill light to separate the subject from the background. It was a basic 101 shot and as Jonah Sutherland, our digital tech for the shoot was “souping” the images he reported some focus problems. I blamed myself as the eyes are going soft in my ripe old age and the low light tends to cause motion blur. I kept shooting. As the afternoon rolled around I noticed the problem didn’t get any better, I became even more frustrated and my confidence started to dwindle. I finally did a test to prove to myself it wasn’t me and it had to be the camera. I locked in on a street sign and had the speed and F-Stop at more than generous numbers to insure a sharp focus on the text. Bam, there it was! Jonah processed the shots and we noticed the top of the sign was in focus and the bottom was soft. Troubleshooting, I tried a different lens and it happened again. The body on the D2X was messing up; it had a symptom called BACK FOCUSING. I had never had this problem and don’t really want to go to deep into it for this story. 

Deliver the D3
In the pandemonium of the D2X shitting the bed, I had Kari Rowe, my assistant that day, scrounge up another back up body for the Canon as the weather forecast was for rain and snow and we had kayaking in the river, yet to go. In these remote location there was no way I wanted to be left with one camera body. She was all amped on the Nikon D3 and jumped at the chance to run to the local shop to rent it. It was in the quiver but the spot lot for now was on the Canon.

Canon EOS 1 Mark 3 back up to the rescue.
In a weird way I was stoked to try the Canon in a real shooting situation and really put it thru its paces. I huge relief was lifted from my shoulders knowing it wasn’t it and me was the camera. The creative mojo was on the mend. The first thing I noticed was focus was opposite of Nikon. Other dials are also opposite of Nikon so the challenge was to try to think backwards to get the flow of the focus going again. The grip with the motor drive on the Canon was very mechanical feeling for me. The rounded handgrip was less ergonomic than the Nikon. The Canon glass was excellent. They had plenty of lenses to play with. The shutter made an OK noise, not as cool as the Nikon motor drive noise. The image quality at 1600 ISO was good. What came up short for me was the processing speed. I would click off a sequence of action and the drive would stop, as the camera needed more time to process the images. The large RAW images I understand take a little longer to process but this was unacceptable for me. I slowed my shooting down to compensate for the camera. No one wins in that situation. The first negative feedback on the Canon. I had heard the Canon had an amazing auto focus. When it was tracking it was Ok. What I found out was how clunky the button placement was on the body and how it wasn’t laid out intuitively to the users experience. You can pick an auto mode and it picks a point to focus on. To switch the areas of focus to match your composition you needed to pull your finger off the shutter, reach for the button for focus on the right side of the camera and roll the dial on the left side to move the points of focus. Clunky at best. I did like the auto sensor cleaning as I inserted a new card. Reviewing images was excellent, as well. The histos came up and you only need to push the INFO button to gather information and zooming in to check the focus was easy.

Enter the D3
The rumor on the street was the D3 had a full sensor and was able to shoot in dark situations and hold the quality of the digital image. I stuck the 14mm on with the on camera strobe to get running action in the parking lot of a Shilo inn. We had been shooting for 14 hours already and the talent was ready to relax. I promised a 10-minute session and we did it. The Nikon felt great in my hand and because I am a “Nikon guy” it was good to be back behind the Nikon. We popped off some action and headed to the motor home to process the images to see the results. Amazing!  I was blow away with how sharp and noiseless the night shots were. The Nikon D3 was bumped from the bench to playing in the game. I had decided to keep the Nikon close at hand for the rest of the shoot.

The Nikon D3 is the best camera ever made by Nikon. It was announced on August 23rd, 2007. And as of the beginning of 2008 it’s just starting to trickle into the hands of photographers.

The Nikon D3 excels for news, sports and event photography where you need it to work under any condition. If you get knocked over and knocked out, you’ll come up shooting with the D3 even if you’re still seeing stars. The D3 just works as an extension of your imagination.

D3 really can crank at 9FPS

The D3 works in more crazy lighting conditions than any previous camera. I can shoot at ISO 6,400 without any excuses. I can get good color rendition in any crappy lighting, even in low light action situations, due to the astoundingly large range of accommodation of the manual PREset (gray card) white balance. This is HUGE. For the first time, I wasn’t making creative excuse for difficult lighting situations. On this shoot I was in a rubber raft drifting in a shady canyon. The kayaker was dropping a small waterfall and I was able to choose a high speed with a large F-Stop to cover both crisp action and depth of field. Normally I would drag a ProFoto lighting kit into stop the action and whatever F-Stop I got was what I had to live with. The D3 opened up so many more creative solutions. The idea that I am not handcuffed to the heavy, 1200-watt portable lighting kits is liberating! The 2-mile hikes into location with all this gear could kill a camel.

Auto Focus
The AF system just works. Set to the All Areas dummy mode (the big white rectangle), it really just finds the correct sensors and uses them without you or I having to jack any switches around for each shot. This opens up the number of compositions I can get in a situation. During the kayaking, the park ranger showed up to kick us out of the area. She granted us one shot at the waterfall drop. I had a vertical composition with the action but wanted a horizontal shot as he paddled toward me. The thumb toggle made it easy to flip back and forth. With the Canon, too many steps and buttons are in non-intuitive places.

From a convenience aspect, the larger 3″ LCD screen is nice, but far nicer is how much faster playback responds to button presses. I can scroll around a magnified image much faster, and RGB histograms come up instantly.

In a head to head real life test, the D3 was the winner in my mind!

UnionDocs presents a photography and video installation by Brooklyn-based artist, Sam Falls. Please come to UnionDocs on Friday, May 9th and enjoy the opening night shindig. Party time is 7-10pm.
In a departure from traditional studio portraiture, Falls uses expansive natural settings as the backdrops for carefully constructed portraits. The large color photographs in many of his series depict eerie scenes in which the viewer feels an unavoidable tension between the stillness of the landscape and the urgency of the protagonist.
Falls’s large color photographs depict an instant within a longer video piece–or vice versa–the video footage documents the process of taking a still photograph. For this installation, Falls recorded video footage of the same scene that he then photographed with his medium-format camera. The installation requires the viewer to literally stand between the static and the dynamic images, and in doing so, it urges the viewer to question notions of time and space in relation to photo-documentation.

Our buddy Dano Pendygrass has been battling a “moody” spring in his efforts to entertain the masses with amazing snowboard imagery.

re:vision is the product of Craig Arnold’s unbridled passion for cameras, recycling and polishing. Handmade in Adelaide Australia, from discarded camera components and reshaped with love, re:vision brings old school cameras into an entirely new focus. Get it?

The Canon G9 went to work Friday night covering the action around the Big Giant Beard Bake off event. The 20 or so contestants all grew our their facial hair to win unique cataogries like “most Pubic Like.” Gary Franz the Nemo Design IT guy dominated the event! Jason Maranda of Big Giant, thanks for being the host with the most!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M0PVUB3hKB4&hl=en]

Baryshnikov’s newest incarnation is as a Photographer. Yes, I am talking about that Baryshnikov. Twinkle toes, White Nights star, Russian renaissance man.  Have I given away my affinity for him? He was just in Portland last year for a performance at Pica’s TBA festival. I was this close to seeing him live, but had to give away my ticket and go out of town on short notice. I may never get a chance to see him dance, but now I have the opportunity to see his photography of dance. For his latest project, Mikael Baryshnikov worked with choreographer Merce Cunningham taking photographs of his troupe. The photos are beautiful, conveying emotion, color and movement. Check out this NY Times slideshow/interview about his exhibit here. 

And for your viewing pleasure, a little reminder of his genius… [vodpod id=ExternalVideo.489246&w=425&h=350&fv=%26rel%3D0%26border%3D0%26] from www.youtube.com posted with vodpod

“Back in the day” we used to have Pen Pals. Today, we Twitter, IM and email all our friends and colleagues. Josh Letchworth has been sending me the Eye Candy to keep me stoked up while I jockey my desk at Nemo Design. Josh is living at sea level doing the STANDARD magazine project. Recently, Ski Doo brought him up to the mountain to shoot snowmobiles and he shared some of his thoughts and shots from the adventure in Yellowstone:You know, now I understand the “fish out of water” feeling TG was getting when he was down in the keys for the Nike shoot last spring. In December, I had the chance to shoot up in West Yellowstone for Ski Doo. Yes it was cold, there was a lot of snow and I quickly learned that jeans and a pair of flip flops just wouldn’t cut it. So, before i left, I made this laundry list of questions to ask Trevor about how to survive out there. He kindly replied with some vital info and many links to REI’s website. Thanks, now I am addicted to buying really cool stuff that i will never use. Love it. The trip was great. I actually really enjoyed shooting in those conditions once I got in my rhythm. It was all about having the right stuff at the right time…like fingerless gloves, pocket warmers, lithium batteries and a good backpack. i found it nice to not be sweating, salty and sunburned. The light bounced around off the snow like a giant studio and when it did get cloudy, at least the light was even. I guess that’s what is fun about life sometimes….stepping outside of your comfort zone. You always come back a bit more perspective on things. I’d go back to shoot in the snow anytime, just have the fire burning and the hot toddy ready by 5. -josh

Jeff and his wife Jess recently move to Portland and in all honesty, the guy is on the road more than he is not. Hotel rooms, ski resorts and airports all start looking the same. It’s not a glamorious as it sounds being the number one documentarian of the Burton Snowboarding brand. To get more insight to the life and times of Jeff Curtes check out his blog, “THIS IS MY BED”. www.jeffcurtesphoto.blogspot.com.

An insider told Star Magazine that Steve-O was hospitalized Sunday at the Thalians Mental Health Center, specialized in crisis intervention, where he was put on 72-hour-hold, which has been extended to 14 days.

“Steve is stabilized on meds at this point,” the source told Star. “He was also treated for burns on his skin as if he had been putting cigarettes out on his own body.”

Seems his friends had enough of his antics and pulled a Survivor move and voted to call the cops.

They suspect that he maybe Bi-Polar. Dah.

Rick Kosick has been documenting Steve-O and the crew for year.