Videos and photos from radio controlled helicopters

Piloting and camera operating a radio controlled helicopter video/photo platform are new, lucrative niche jobs in an expanding market. With many types of imaging services experiencing lower profits, here’s one that is gaining serious momentum. Aerial filming. Sure, traditional film and even stills from the air was a really cushy job, hard to break into. Real helicopters, real small planes and old school film cameras at insane hourly rates to rent, with serious technical requirements.

Cuba! People-to-people 2012 dream trip for photographers

An great opportunity for an amazing (and legal) culture and people-to-people travel experience awaits a limited group of lucky photogs Everybody knows the mystique of old Habana. Colorful past, music, art and poetry. Incredible 50‘s and 60‘s cars carefully maintained. Beautiful old houses. Glamorous show clubs and equally glamorous tropical paradise. But Cuba has been out of bounds for Americans for decades. No legal travel permitted. Fines and potential imprisonment.

Small Budget Indie Filmmaking with Big Production Value

The screenplay follows a female robot looking for love in a human world. The budget was, well, non-existant, but by calling in friends and favors with some of the inexpensive tools that are available to filmmakers today co-producer/directors Jay Shaffer and David Smart made a success of a completely self-financed project.

Video insider look at the Sony PMW 500 camera with Curt Pair

Sony guru and production magician at Picture this Productions, Inc. explains the PMW 500 camera system. From the small corporate and web film production viewpoint, Sony has been aggressively claiming the market ascendency, just as Canon has done with their high end still camera lines.

Evaluating HDR capture quality with iPhone4

The iPhone4 is not news, but news to me. On my resourceful business side I bought the iPhone4 for the Chase Bank “Square”, which allows the small business person to take credit cards on location and bypass the hidden fees of card companies. On my imaginative side I was dying for the high pixel count, better apps and HDR facility.

Cinematic White Balance Solutions

I’ve been using Kelvin as my preferred WB control for many years, along with White Balance Shift and Picture Style Preset combinations. As a Fusion mixed media HDSLR photographer and videographer I’m naturally using the Canon 5D Mark II, but the principles are equally valid, just different methods, for Karl and his Sony EX3 or FS100.

What’s a Medium Tele Lens & What’s it Good for?

Close-ups are more popular than ever, thanks to TV and movies. I’m a totally happy photographer behind a medium length 85 or 100MM length lens, because I can avoid postproduction time to crop, the consequent reduction in image quality and at the same time take advantage of fast, light equipment.

RayKo Plastic Camera Photo Art

San Francisco’s RayKo Photo Center is hosting a great show I found out about through Dwell magazine. It’s on 428 3rd Street in the SOMA district, on route US80 (which connects to the Bay Bridge). I was impressed to find a comprehensive offering of gallery, classes, darkroom & digital, medium size studio for rent (with assistant available!). What an attractive lobby area. Free to visit, and photo art works to buy.

Integrating Shutter Drag with Flash

A quick PR shot of event decor is really a fairly complex architectural assignment, but you have to get it in about 30 seconds with virtually no equipment. Here’s how to combat low overall light level, nasty contrast and lack of impact.

Canon 5D Mark II Celebrates Chinese New Year

And of course it’s a real boost to have a first class, colorful subject. Sister Cities’ festival dinner for Chinese New Year was a great opportunity to show what this camera can really do.It took a lot of convincing to get the OK to film the traditional dragon dance, drummers, martial arts display and VIPs. Why? Because like a great many non profit organizations, the administration of Denver Sister Cities relies on amateurs to make PR pictures. They all say that they have absolutely no money and that volunteers are “good enough”, especially when those volunteers are long time members and no one wants to offend them. Unfortunately we all know what harm volunteers generally do to the reputation of our profession. I set out to give some serious proof of what good photojournalism can do for an organization. How and why great photos are worth their proverbial weight in gold. A good photographer does not cost money; he or she will make money for any organization.

Photographic Thank You’s Get Noticed and Bring Repeat Business

I make art cards for sale, all from manipulated iPhone photography. In the studio we display them clothes-pinned to vine-y paper rope. Subject matter that does best in iPhone imagery is immediate and familiar, making it a natural for the intimacy of a hand written note. A pertinent photo image card plus few lines of hand written appreciation, recognition or even condolence are so personal that they touch the lives of others in a way both deep and precious - almost forgotten in the mass of terse texting and emailing.

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