Single-Serving Photo

There’s this guy… Let’s call him “Carlo Allegri.” That’s his name, after all. He was born in Bermuda and raised in Toronto, and all he ever wanted to do was take photographs. He started as a photo-journalist and worked his way up over many years to finally become a senior entertainment photographer for Getty in Los Angeles.

The dude loves Profoto gear. Wait, you don’t know Profoto? They make some pretty high-end on-location strobes and other lighting accessories. (Buy ‘em from B&H.) Two 2400 watt-second strobes with basic reflectors, a battery pack, and a case to carry them in is going to run you around $2,500, and then things go up from there.

Anyway, if you’re into off-camera flash, Allegri is someone you should idolize. He has perfected what he calls “guerrilla lighting” wherein he can set up a shoot for an A-list celeb, snap off 20 or 30 photos, and have them off on their way in sometimes less than five minutes. This guy can not only capture the mood and emotion of the individual, but also throw together a creative lighting setup in as much time as it would take you to imagine doing it.

Speed isn’t everything. There is a huge amount of technical savvy and creativity that goes into a successful photography career, especially working for Getty and operating at those high-stakes levels. Still, when it comes to photographing a movie star, pop singer, or even a CEO, you are going to be in demand among publicists and agents if you can pull it off in the time it takes your subject to walk from the stage to their dressing room.

Read more about Carlo Allegri and see some of his great photos on Profoto’s blog

So you guys know that the Canon EOS-5D Mark II can shoot video, right? It seems like video is the latest “must-have” feature for DSLRs, and although I remain skeptical of its utility when it comes to the core function of a DSLR (to make photographs, last I checked), it turns out that there is something to be said for it.

As you read here not too long ago, the season finale of the hit Fox show “House” (which I watch religiously) was shot entirely with 5D Mark II cameras, proving that although it may not be as convenient or feature-rich as a purpose-built digital cinema camera, it gets the job done.

You don’t need to be a technology Nostradamus to see into a future where tools of even the most complex trades trickle down to the masses. Already, software capable of advanced video and music production are within the grasp of any Joe (or Jane) Q. Public. The 5D Mark II is just another example of the ever-increasing accessibility of truly capable media creation tools.

Lest you doubt my words, watch this short film from Philip Bloom called “Sofia’s People.” Shot entirely handheld with the 5D Mark II and a Nikon-mount Zeiss 50mm f/1.4. According to Bloom, there was no post-production other than massaging the frame rate (no image modification at all).

When I say that the 5D Mark II’s video is absurd, I mean absurdly awesome.

View Sofia’s People on Vimeo to see more of Philip Bloom’s work, participate in discussion, etc.

It goes without saying that people are endeared to robots. Why, just look at that lovable Johnny Five over there, the late-‘80s childhood icon of the human/robot emotional connection. And why not? Robots are built to serve us unswervingly and to carry out our commands without a microsecond’s hesitation.

Will and Matt Burrard-Lucas love photography, but they, too, love robots. Okay, I’m using “robot” in a very loose sense here, because what they have built—they call it the BeetleCam—is more of an RC car than a robot, but let’s not split hairs… It’s awesome anyway!

These two guys wanted to photograph African wildlife in a way that hadn’t been done before, and without putting themselves in mortal danger (aye, there’s the rub), so they built, from scratch, a remote-controlled Canon EOS-400D! Then they booked a two-week safari in Tanzania and made some fantastic photographs.

Here is the teaser video:

Read more about the BeetleCam and see their photos on their blog.

The Internet is all a-flutter about this announcement Greg Yaitanes made via Twitter that the House, M.D. season finale (airing next month on FOX) was shot entirely with a Canon EOS-5D Mark II. This makes the 5D Mark II the first video-capable digital SLR camera to ever have been used to film a “prime time” television episode.

Yaitanes, who is a co-executive producer and director of House, M.D., said that they chose the 5D Mark II because they wanted to be able to fit the camera into “tight spaces,” they used mostly Canon prime lenses as well as the 24-70 and 70-200 zooms, and that no brackets or stabilization tools were used. I can’t wait to see how the episode looks!

The video was recorded onto large CF cards (Yaitanes said “18gb,” but I think he meant 16 GB), which afforded only 22 minutes of shooting before tossing in a new card.

You can read PetaPixel’s summary of the Q&A that has taken place so far via Twitter for more luscious details, and read engadget’s coverage as well as Gizmodo’s coverage. If you ladies and gents who are technology-inclined don’t already check out those two blogs on a regular basis, you may want to add them to your news reader of choice.

I have a question to ask you. What do Santa Claus, this portrait of Lincoln, and great daytime television have in common?

That’s right, they’re all mythical. Well, actually, the portrait is real inasmuch as it physically exists, but it’s one of the earliest (now rather famous) examples of photo manipulation. It turns out that although the photo seems to depict a stoic Lincoln standing beside a writing desk, the only thing in that photo that is actually Lincoln’s is his head. The body is that of Southern politician John C. Calhoun.

Apparently, so few “heroic” portraits of Lincoln existed (perhaps because Lincoln was weary of posing for them) that the only logical alternative was to fake it. In addition to pasting Lincoln’s head onto Calhoun’s body, the text on the papers visible on the desk were changed from “strict constitution,” “free trade,” and “the sovereignty of the states” to “constitution,” “union,” and “proclamation of freedom.”

So who needs Photoshop, anyway?

Via Museum of Hoaxes