iamwhite's posterous

Business As Usual

Subtle shifts can make a big difference, featuring photo by @DallasNagata and @HiIAmHelene

The other day Dallas did a gypsy dancer shoot with our friend and go-to model, Helene. While I was reviewing the final images, I was struck by these two images, which were side-by-side. It is said that with humans, 90% of communication is non-verbal, with 70% of that being body-language. We are attuned to the subtlest shifts in body posture, even though we may not be conscious about it at the very moment we're affected by it. Things like the twitch of an eye or a micro-second frown can speak volumes, especially when caught on camera.

Here, Helene changed per posture ever so slightly (I'm not going to say where...let me know what you noticed in the comments!), significantly altering the feel from one frame to the next.

It just goes to show, the art in photography (and modeling) is truly in the small things.

See more from the gypsy dancer shoot at Dallas' blog: http://dallasnagata.com/2011/12/gypsy-dancer/

Subtle_shifts_photography

Absence: @JPACteams and @Daniel_Inouye

Recently I had the honor of being invited to shoot at the gound-breaking ceremony for the new Joint Pacific Accountability Command building or, colloquially, JPAC HQ.

JPAC's mission is to bring soldiers home. As part of the POW-MIA accountability effort, they investigate cold cases and travel the pacific rim matching records to remains in an attempt to bring every one of America's warfighters home. Recently they saw an expansion of their mission, and needed the space to further accelerate their forensic research. Senator Dan Inouye sponsored this expansion, and was present to see the project begin.

It was my first time seeing him in person.

For a man as old and fragile-looking as he is, Senator Inouye has quite a presence. I immediately became fixated his right arm--which he'd lost in World War II--resulting in the photos below, particularly that first one. There is something subtly moving about this absence, and I keep coming back to these pictures and dwelling on it.

These photos also make me think of his speech that day. He explained that he felt he didn't need to justify the expense associated with the expanson of JPAC's mission, regardless of how many jobs and international connections it would bring. For him it was about honor, and about a promise he'd made during the war. At the time it wasn't a political buzzword, but rather a promise between soldiers in the 442nd and across the Army: Everyone comes home, dead or alive. Today the sentiment is enshrined and institutionalized, but I doubt the feeling is as visceral for me--an active-duty soldier--as it probably still is for him. At the lectern, the depths of his passion were palpable.

He wasn't talking to us, he was talking to his lost brothers in arms.

In a way--and I know this is pure conjecture on my part--I guess after the groundbreaking I saw the absence of right arm as symbolic of the absence amongst our ranks (83,579 unaccounted for since WWII), and perhaps that's why I'm drawn to it...that unsettling contrast, knowing something should be there, but isn't.

Quiet, and serene, and in some ways beautiful, but terrible all the same.

Best,

Ed White

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Mixing 1970's Polaroid Land-Cam with a 2010 PCB Einstein on Gypsy shoot with @DaejaFallas and @DallasNagata!

Those of you that know me know that I usually find my brain tickled by marrages of opposites, which I think is best illustrated by my small collection of look-disposable-yet-are-not Starbucks cups. Recently I got a chance to apply this to photography on a Gypsy Lingerie and Swimwear shoot with Daeja Fallas and my wonderful bride, Dallas.

Dallas and I are pretty well equipped with a variety of photographic equipment at this point. Amongst our various tools, we have a few Pocketwizards and two Paul C. Buff Einsteins, which we brought to the shoot. The pocketwizards are pretty new, but the current version of Paul C. Buff's Einstein was only finished in very late 2010...late enough that I'd really call it 2011 tech. I know this is random, but bear with me, it'll make sense in a minute.

So, after shooting the first look, Daeja all of a sudden breaks out a POL 195 land camera, a professional-grade, $700 Polariod camera manufactured in the 1970's! She starts shooting, and I suddenly realize...this thing has a hot-shoe! I get to thinking maybe we can use a Pocketwizard to trigger the Einstein and add pro-lighting to the mix, to increase the overall quality of the shoot...well, I guess that's not entirely true. I was really thinking "how rad it would be if I could get this old stuff and this new stuff to work together!?!?!"

So, I ask Daeja if I can stick a Pocketwizard on there to see whether it'll work. She agrees, slips on the radio telemetry module, and....

Click!

Nothing.

Disappointment :(

Undeterred, however, I sneak over to the camera when Daeja isn't using it to inspect just how this hot-shoe works, and I notice something: a familiar-looking hole.

At this point my dude instincts kick in...there is a hole, so something belongs in this hole, and I think I have just the thing! This hole seems to be an earlier version of the cable trigger slot on our Canon 580EX II, and we have said cable on set! I scurry over to see whether the peg will fit in this particular hole, which it does, but not all the way due to the screw-lock which holds it in modern speedlights. Nontheless, I'm encouraged by early tests with other equipment, I bring Daeja the rig I just cobbled together for her next set of Polariods.

"Is this gonna work?" Daeja asks, still tender from her earlier heartbreak.

"Well, let's try and see." I reply.

She studiously, expertly composes her shot.

Click!

Pop!

We erupt into incredulous cheers and laughter! Our Einstein just worked, taking the afternoon's instant shooting to a whole new level!

Of course, I'm just giggling because of the contrast: our top-of-the-line, modern strobe was just set off by a camera made in the 70's. That was pretty rad. ;)

Here are my celebratory photos, where you can see how the setup worked. Make sure you keep an eye out on Daeja's page, and Gypsy's website for the polaroids, and all the other film photography which was taken that day...I can tell you now that it'll be awesome!

Keep an eye out for my next zany opposites project--linking up our PCB Einstein wireless light setup to Dallas' Lomo Diana Camera! Tightly controlled digital lighting on a camera you can't fully control ever! :3

Best,

Ed

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