My friend Fred Egan came into town to help assist me on the Rachael Taylor  shoot tomorrow. We set out to do some location scouting down town for another up coming shoot. One of the perks of the job, is being able to "work" and hang out with a good friend. I ended up putting a little story together of Fred.

View the story here.

More 1Ds MKIII comments…
The more I shoot the more I like it. It’s a tad bit lighter than the MKII. That’s pretty nice since adding a 70-200mm to the MKII creates a heavy piece of machinery. The large display is awesome, but the poopy color that it adds to your images on the screen is not so appealing. The reward is viewing them on my new 30inch Apple Cinema. A few of the images I shot at 640 ISO and have been adding a little grain to soften them up. They look fantastic. So far I’m a happy camper!

So, my first shoot with the 1Ds MKIII was Actress Tiffany Dupont from the ABC tv show Greek: http://www.nickonken.com/Stories/TiffanyDupont/ Someone asked for a review of the camera, and I can tell you thus far I dig it. What’s not to like right? (except for the fact that about 1000 images equals about 28GB of HD space) Do note that the comments below are in comparison to my now backup camera the 1Ds MKII.

A few random comments about it:
The shutter has a lovely harder crunch than the 1Ds MKII. The 3 inch screen is fantastic although the color of the images on the screen aren’t too attractive. They look amazing on the computer though. There are a few buttons that are a bit different than the MKII, but that you can just get used to using. The controls are more like the 5D and you don’t have to hold down an extra button to scroll through photos. Definitely nice. I don’t shoot tethered much at all, but from what I hear the USB connection used with a mac is a bit of an issue. It’s really slow. The sync cord plug is a little loose, so you need a piece of tape to hold it in. A little ghetto if you ask me. The ability to shoot small RAW is fantastic for shoots that you’ll never need to go huge with and want to save your HD space. The self cleaning sensor. Fantastic. When you turn on the camera a nice little "sensor cleaning" splash comes up. It’s a nice feeling since my MKII is dirtier than a third world country. The battery supposedly last 4000 shots which I’d believe since I shot about 1000 on this shoot and the battery bar went down about quarter. The higher ISO’s are pretty clean.

That’s it for now. Probably more to come.

Found this on APE. Check out all of them at the link below..

http://gayaruangkepelbagaian.wordpress.com/2007/07/30/photography-and-photographers/

In the words of Paul Arden in the book "It’s not how good you are, it’s how you want to be" he has this quote and chapter: "Do not seek praise. Seek Criticism"

Praise is wonderful and we all need it, but we will never grow without the right criticism. No matter where we are, We always have something to learn, and we should always be open to learning. Seek criticism from the right people. Your mentors first off. He’s been Photographer’s who are successful and who’s work you admire, consultants are great as well. Make sure you use the right ones. There ARE pretenders out there.

All this to say, I’m up for APE’s photographer free consultation iChat demo. as you know APE is Rob Haggart, the former editor of Men’s Journal and Outside magazine. He picked a handful of people that  that he would consider hiring that he would love to see how a critique/consult would make them even more appealing for him to hire. I’m in the running, and now it’s up for vote.

Here is the blog post:
http://aphotoeditor.com/2008/01/24/vote-for-the-photographer-consultation/

If you feel so inclined, throw in a vote for me today(at that link)!

Anyone want to buy it? Read the NYT article here.

Checked into the Ace Hotel in Portland last night. Fantastic little eclectic spot right in heart of downtown Portland. I love Portland as it has great restaurants, micro beers, coffee shops, etc. It’s very neighborhoody and community oriented. I have a great group of friends to visit here. Kudos to Portland.

The hotel has a vintage/retro designed look. It’s fit for the hipster traveler. If you’ve ever been to the Standard downtown LA, The Ace reminds me of a vintage version.

Here’s the room:

The digital world is here. Got a last minute Twitter the other day from a friend in Brazil to a quick small gig for Nike. Two days later I find myself in Portland ready to go.

It’s amazing how technology has developed.

Well, it’s about time. The 1Ds MKIII finally came in, so I don’t need to carry my 1D MKII any more as a backup. Therefore I’m going to sell it. I haven’t used it in probably a over year. I’m selling it for $1700. Click here for the tech specs.  If you’re interested, email me.

Viral content is becoming bigger and bigger. Companies are moving towards sponsored content that brings viewers back to their website. My good director friend Omri Cohen and I have been discussing this throughout our research in a Nike project we’re working on.

Through our research we stumbled upon this hilarious series of viral videos. They’re a little under a minute each. Be sure and watch them from the top down in order.

I’ve been recently asked about a bag to carry your gear for traveling. I thought this would be a great post to talk about. Let me preface, that this is my setup if I’m doing low profile travel work. If I am shooting at travel job that requires a production crew, I would carry a different set up.

I swear by the roller suitcase bags for transporting all your gear. Trust me, I learned the hard way of carrying a shoulder bag through 8 countries in Latin America through airports that rollers are the way to go. I had a backpack roller case which may work for some people, but I had one for over a year, and never used the backpack feature. Last year, I decided to pick up the Tamrac SpeedRoller 2. It’s fantastic, and "Carry on compatable" as they claim. That is the key: To carry on all your expensive stuff. The gear that you cannot work without"

The great thing about the SpeedRoller is that it fits 2 pro bodies, 5-6 lenses, a charger, and extra batteries. I’ve snapped a shot with everything in it.

Another great thing, is you can sling your laptop bag on top to carry all your other travel gadgets (another post to come)

Keep in mind, this is just for transporting and not what I use when I’m actually shooting. (more to come on that)

If you’re traveling internationally, you’ll want to get a Carnet for your gear. That means you register your gear with US customs so you don’t get hassled coming back into the states. Or in other countries. I’ve been hassled in India and coming back to the US from Mexico City. They weren’t too nice. Carnets are good to have! You can get one here. or at the customs office at your local airport.