Here's an eye-popping video showcasing some amazing technology -- images shot at 1000 frames per second. Compare that to a digital SLR's roughly 8 frames per second, or standard video's 24 or 30 frames per second, and you'll see why this looks familiar, but different.
The movie was created by David Coiffier, mostly at a rugby match, and Coiffier identifies the camera as a SprintCam v3
I-Movix SprintCam v3 NAB 2009 showreel from David Coiffier on Vimeo.
Sunday, April 19, 2009
Friday, April 10, 2009
Senegal Guide Published
Hot off the presses: Insight Guide to Gambia and Senegal. I'm happy to say it includes a handful of images the publisher licensed from me. Most of those were images I created in Podor, Senegal.
Quite the multi-continent transaction. I'm located in North America, I created the images in Africa, the publisher is in Asia, and the publisher's representative (who contacted me) is in Europe.
Wednesday, April 8, 2009
Beachside Photoshoot
It's true for everyone, I'm sure: Just looking at a photo can bring back a wave of memories. One of the more convenient things about being a photographer is that, just by doing my job, I have pretty good documentation for large chunks of my life, so I don't have to work too hard to rattle around my brain for details. The pictures are there for me.
Memories came flooding back, then, as I happened to check on the website of a band I had photographed a couple of years ago. To my delight, they're still using the photos from the two photoshoots we did together.
The band is called Tambours Africains Sans Frontiers. Check 'em out, and hear the sweet stylings of Moise, Tinte, and Akira.
I remember it was maybe 100 degrees, and we hit the beach around noon. Not the ideal time for a photoshoot, but I had to leave to catch a plane in an hour, so it was our only option.
Moise -- the singer -- also teaches music to children, and maybe 30 of them had gathered around. The heat kept everyone else away.
I had made plenty of portraits during an earlier session, so for this one we figured we'd get some shots of the band performing. Essentially, then, the band gave me and these 30 kids a private concert on the beach while I photographed.
For that wonderful hour I forgot that I hadn't packed or showered yet. Time stood still. When I look at the images today I can hear the music.
Monday 2/26 Moise's Drumming Group - Images by Shelley Cryan
Memories came flooding back, then, as I happened to check on the website of a band I had photographed a couple of years ago. To my delight, they're still using the photos from the two photoshoots we did together.
The band is called Tambours Africains Sans Frontiers. Check 'em out, and hear the sweet stylings of Moise, Tinte, and Akira.
I remember it was maybe 100 degrees, and we hit the beach around noon. Not the ideal time for a photoshoot, but I had to leave to catch a plane in an hour, so it was our only option.
Moise -- the singer -- also teaches music to children, and maybe 30 of them had gathered around. The heat kept everyone else away.
I had made plenty of portraits during an earlier session, so for this one we figured we'd get some shots of the band performing. Essentially, then, the band gave me and these 30 kids a private concert on the beach while I photographed.
For that wonderful hour I forgot that I hadn't packed or showered yet. Time stood still. When I look at the images today I can hear the music.
Monday 2/26 Moise's Drumming Group - Images by Shelley Cryan
Monday, April 6, 2009
Coney Island Images
This weekend marks the opening of the 2009 season for the fabled Coney Island. Its future is in limbo, what with the differing ideas of developers, municipal leaders, and locals.
But it's still the only place I know where you can attend Sideshow School, ride a roller coaster, and participate in the Mermaid Parade.
I'm hoping to go back soon, but until then, here's a slideshow of some of my Coney Island images from the off-season. Feel free to embed it wherever you'd like.
But it's still the only place I know where you can attend Sideshow School, ride a roller coaster, and participate in the Mermaid Parade.
I'm hoping to go back soon, but until then, here's a slideshow of some of my Coney Island images from the off-season. Feel free to embed it wherever you'd like.
Monday, February 23, 2009
100-year-old artist and portrait phobia
Update May 2009: The image at the bottom won in a photo contest and is hangs in a gallery in Fairfield, CT.
The 100-year-old artist I photographed recently was perhaps the most reluctant photo subjects I've come across. Her aide warned me as I walked in the door.
Glenora Richards is famed for her beautiful miniature portraits, complete paintings just a bit larger than a book of matches. She still creates them, without the use of a magnifying glass. Dozens of them -- each one exquisite, some perhaps created 70 or more years ago -- lined her living room walls.
"I look like a rhinoceros!" she yelled after looking at a head-and-shoulders image of herself on my LCD.
Her aide said, "so why don't you smile? You'll look better!"
"You try smiling when you have no teeth!" She had a point.
Another challenge was that I was reluctant to ask her to move from her chair, since she looked pretty comfortable there, and hey, she is 100 years old. Gotta respect that.
Richards is a great conversationalist, and her winning personality, plus my professional pride, had me trying to figure out how to get three different images, given the constraints. I knew the newspaper had planned a lovely feature on her, and figured they'd need three: One for the lede, one for the jump, and one for insurance, in case they were lucky enough to have a bit more space in that day's paper.
After Richards rejected yet another head-and-shoulders image -- a go-to composition -- I started looking around the room and spied a poster on the wall. It was an enlargement of a magazine cover, featuring a seated young woman with her head resting in one hand. Miniature paintings decorated a table in front of her.
"Is that you?" I asked.
"Yes," she looked up.
"Do you like that picture?" I asked. The picture was likely taken nearly 70 years ago.
"Yes, I do," she beamed.
"So let's recreate it, OK?"
She loved that idea, and I asked her aide to help me set it up. The aide directed me to a TV tray in the kitchen, and I set that up in front of the artist's chair. I asked if I could bring over some of her paintings to place on the table, like in the old poster. She agreed, and I used some tissue boxes and salt and pepper shakers to prop them up. I asked her to put her head in one hand, like in the poster, and she did. We got this frame:
The second picture was easy. I asked her to hold one of the miniatures -- a painting of her late husband, when he was in his 40's -- and I snapped a detail shot:
I got the idea for the third and final image while I was taking the detail shot. I noticed I had to position myself carefully so as not to get a reflection on the glass of the miniature. I figured I'd use that type of reflection in the next shot, which took only a moment -- with careful attention to positioning -- to compose:
Happy 100th birthday, Mrs. Richards. I hope I get to photograph you for your 101st.
The 100-year-old artist I photographed recently was perhaps the most reluctant photo subjects I've come across. Her aide warned me as I walked in the door.
Glenora Richards is famed for her beautiful miniature portraits, complete paintings just a bit larger than a book of matches. She still creates them, without the use of a magnifying glass. Dozens of them -- each one exquisite, some perhaps created 70 or more years ago -- lined her living room walls.
"I look like a rhinoceros!" she yelled after looking at a head-and-shoulders image of herself on my LCD.
Her aide said, "so why don't you smile? You'll look better!"
"You try smiling when you have no teeth!" She had a point.
Another challenge was that I was reluctant to ask her to move from her chair, since she looked pretty comfortable there, and hey, she is 100 years old. Gotta respect that.
Richards is a great conversationalist, and her winning personality, plus my professional pride, had me trying to figure out how to get three different images, given the constraints. I knew the newspaper had planned a lovely feature on her, and figured they'd need three: One for the lede, one for the jump, and one for insurance, in case they were lucky enough to have a bit more space in that day's paper.
After Richards rejected yet another head-and-shoulders image -- a go-to composition -- I started looking around the room and spied a poster on the wall. It was an enlargement of a magazine cover, featuring a seated young woman with her head resting in one hand. Miniature paintings decorated a table in front of her.
"Is that you?" I asked.
"Yes," she looked up.
"Do you like that picture?" I asked. The picture was likely taken nearly 70 years ago.
"Yes, I do," she beamed.
"So let's recreate it, OK?"
She loved that idea, and I asked her aide to help me set it up. The aide directed me to a TV tray in the kitchen, and I set that up in front of the artist's chair. I asked if I could bring over some of her paintings to place on the table, like in the old poster. She agreed, and I used some tissue boxes and salt and pepper shakers to prop them up. I asked her to put her head in one hand, like in the poster, and she did. We got this frame:
The second picture was easy. I asked her to hold one of the miniatures -- a painting of her late husband, when he was in his 40's -- and I snapped a detail shot:
I got the idea for the third and final image while I was taking the detail shot. I noticed I had to position myself carefully so as not to get a reflection on the glass of the miniature. I figured I'd use that type of reflection in the next shot, which took only a moment -- with careful attention to positioning -- to compose:
Happy 100th birthday, Mrs. Richards. I hope I get to photograph you for your 101st.
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
Soccer star Marcus Tracy
One of the things I like best about this job is that I get to meet some interesting people, from all professions. Recently I caught up with Marcus Tracy, a soccer phenom who won the Hermann trophy, awarded to the best college soccer player of the year.
He lives in the area, having graduated from Wake Forest, and stays in shape with the help of trainer E.J. Zebro.
Driving over to the gym, I'm expecting grey cinderblock walls, high ceilings, ugly flourescent lighting, ya know, standard gym decor. When I saw the red walls, I knew this was gonna be fun.
Bonuses: the ceilings were low and painted an orangey-yellow, perfect for bouncing a flash and warming up the light. The windows added a cool blue contrast. There were lots of mirrors that, once I positioned myself to stay out of 'em, added some nice depth.
Tracy and Zebro just went about their business, and I had a great time experimenting with angles, light bounces, and composition in this super room.
Monday, January 26, 2009
Rock Concert
When I walked into the club concert venue, I figured it might be tricky getting images for the newspaper. The band was playing, but the lights were off, as in no light at all.
Sure, there was a faint glow from the streetlights outside coming through a window, but that was only good enough to keep me from tripping over people. Even at a high ISO, no light is no light. I had a flash in my bag, but I hate to use that at a concert. Wrecks the mood and the resulting image only captures that wrecked mood.
So I waited. Surely there must be SOME lights, sometime, right?
Fortunately, there were two strobes set up on the side and slightly behind the band that would go on for a second or two every few minutes. I positioned myself to take best advantage of those lights, adjusted my settings, then waited some more.
Sure enough, the lights blinked again. When you're shooting at 1/100th of a second, a full second of light is really plenty of time to get an image. Two seconds is plenty long enough to wait for some decent emotion, especially when your subject is an energetic rock band.
The images below are of one of the bands, Ice Nine Kills. The image up top is Mercury Sky.
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