keith haring at the brooklyn museum

Last Thursday, a new exhibit opened at the Brooklyn Museum featuring the art of Keith Haring. Some friends and I attended the member preview. It was pretty cool. Definitely check it out if you are in the area.

tommy x club monaco

This week, street style icon Tommy Ton celebrated the launch of his collaboration with Club Monaco at the CM flagship in the Flatiron district. I totally idolize this dude. I drool over basically every shot that he posts on Jak and Jil. The event was chill and a lot of my friends were there. It was a nice distraction from the complete chaos going on in my person life at the moment. Here are a few additional shots–

 

 

arnette ‘dibs’

One bonus of daylight savings is that there is some daylight left after the market close in the evening. Wednesday evening I worked with the peeps from RC on a shoot for a new model of Arnette glasses. We did the shoot at the newish skate part in Chelsea. It was the first time that I had been inside since it was built. I was so bummed that I didn’t have skate shoes with me. The park is super nice. The model/athlete is Pat [something]. His instagram is @_path. One more shot below–

retna mural on houston x bowery

Retna is the latest to grace the Bowery mural space with his artwork. He just wrapped up the piece Tuesday night. I made it over there right after sunset, as the lights were coming on. A few additional looks below. Before Retna was Faile, then JR, etc., etc…

lets chat about gear for a sec

Happy leap day! This is kind of a random post. But, I want to chat about some new gear I have been excited about, lately. You may recall that my apartment was burgled earlier this year. One of the few things that was actually stolen was my mid-sized camera backpack. I was so bummed about it. It was the perfect size for quick gigs that required a couple of lenses and simple lighting, but not the whole kit and caboodle.

So, I was really stoked when Incase hooked me up with their new SLR pack. I have been using it for everything. Check out my write up about it over on HS.

Speaking of gear, Canon is set to announce the newest edition of the 5D, later this week. I am super excited about this, and cannot wait to order one.

nyfw is all upons

I’m kind of freaking out that Fashion Week is already here again. It is going to be a little bit different for me this week, than it has been in the past. I can’t just duck out of the day job for the duration and shoot everything that I feel like. Nope. In fact, I will probably only be covering a handful of shows. I’m excited, just the same. I’m most looking forward to Band of Outsiders on Saturday.

As a side note, my 7D had it’s first error on Saturday night. It was the dreaded “err 30.” It is an error that happens when the shutter gets stuck open. After doing a lot of reading on Canon forums, I gave the camera a solid smack, then took the battery out, and reinstalled it. It appears to be working like normal again. Phew! I feel like it is pretty amazing that I have gone this long without having any errors. The shutter has well over 50k actuations, and I haven’t had it serviced a single time. I think that I may have to drop her off for a tune-up, once FW is out of the way.

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happy friday

It has been a busy week. I’m so glad that the weekend is finally here. A few highlights from the last couple of days are:

1. My Olloclip arrived in the mail. I ordered one after reading about it in wired. The image above was one of the first ones that I snapped, while using it. Incidentally, this week I read an article in Wired about Instagram. It made me feel a little better about myself, hahaha.

2. Honest people rule. Yesterday I received a mystery paypal deposit. I was a bit nervous, at first. When I checked into it a bit more, I realized it was from a dude in the UK who I had licensed some photos to in May of 2010 for his postcard biz. A welcome surprise. I had basically just written off getting paid for that one.

Have a great weekend.

happy friday

This took me a little longer than I had anticipated, to make. So, it’s kind of late. But it is still January, so whatev. Here is a little video slideshow recap of our 2011.

Have a great weekend!

weekend recap– arnette and other good stuff

I hate to talk about the weather. Because it always seems petty or boring. But, growing up in a place that has four seasons, there are certain sentiments connected to the cold weather (as with the other seasons). The only thing that I can really compare it to, would be something like those instances where you step into the elevator with someone wearing the same perfume that your first girlfriend wore. Although, I don’t think that anyone really wears Liz Claiborne anymore. Not sure if it even exists anymore, hahaha. Anyway, the first really couple of cold days in winter have a similar effect on me. This was that weekend, for me. The temps dipped into the subfreezing range and jackets were no longer optional when making a run to the corner bodega.

Speaking of good times in the winter months, this weekend we booked a snowboarding trip for January. This will my be first trip dedicated entirely to riding, in longer than I would like to admit.

Arnette just launched a couple of new frames. One of them, “Glory Daze” (above) I shot with my homey Sam on Sunday morning. It isn’t the first time that Sam has agreed to model eyewear for me. I have to say that the story, this time around was a lot more fun. Enjoy a few more images, below.

Have a great week!

happy december

Since lately I haven’t really shot anything worth crap, I have to post other people’s images. The above snap belongs to none other than the infamous Tommy Ton, of Jak & Jil (among other things). The dude is hands down my favorite street style photographer. Unlike most of the street dudes in NYC, I have only ever seen Tommy once in real life. Not like it is a competition, but I think that Tommy’s flavor kills Schuman. Plus, Tommy isn’t a pompous, self-absorbed douche. Not sure how this post became about street style photographers, but looks like we are going to be stuck with that for at least a few more sentences. I would have to say that my other favorite street style dude is William Yan. Besides being a friend of mine, I am a fan of William for the street wear flavor that he brings. Not only does William shoot crazy good street style, he is constantly involved in some new collaboration project with boss street wear fashion houses. I have loads of respect for him. All of these guys, of course, take a back seat the the OG Bill Cunningham. I’m sure that they would all agree with that statement (except for maybe Schuman, who probably thinks that he is much better than Bill).

Ok, so the image above is part of Tommy’s set from Paris FW. The reasons that I love it, are: A- the way it is cropped; B- the camel jacket; and, C- because of the cigarette. Have you ever noticed that there are certain places in the world where the two most prevalent objects in public view are sexy early 30s/late 20s humans and cigarettes? You know where I’m talking about–the West Village, Rio, etc.. Anyway, I have been a bit obsessed with shooting hot people smoking, for the past several months.  I also have a pinterest album of such images that I have come across. Yes, I just admitted that I have one of those P-word accounts. Add some winter clothes into the cut and I can barely contain myself. The funny part is that I can’t stand the smell of cigarette smoke. I hold my breath when I get stuck walking behind someone who has a lit butt. I didn’t say it made any sense.

Speaking of butt, my brother comes to town tomorrow morning. Last time he was here was during armory week. We spent the whole time hanging out and shooting art installations. I’m not sure what we will do this time around. No doubt something good will come up.

i want this– SX-70 land camera

I know that there has already been large amounts of camera-speak on Jake’s Mag, this month. But, I saw this fantastic looking camera today, and began to covet. According to Hypebeast:

Parisian boutique colette has teamed with The Impossible Project for a limited number of (50) SX70 Cameras and PX680 Film Kits. Distinctly bold from a physical standpoint, the camera has already been tested out by a number of professional shutterbugs including Mark Borthwick, Lisa Eisner, Vava Ribeiro, Ed Templeton, Todd Selby, Matt Jones, Olivier Zahm and Terry Richardson. These original Polaroids will then be showcased at the colette store. The SX70 Camera retails for €540 EUR (approximately $720 USD)

I have a pair of Polaroid 230 Land Cameras, and love them. Even though my past experience with Impossible Project has not been the best (the film is super temperamental), I would be willing to give Impossible Project another chance, to be able to shoot a bit with the SX-70. I’m even more inclined, since it apparently already has the stamp of approval from Ed Templeton and Terry Richardson.

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extremely biased holiday camera gift guide part deux

Camera gear guide part II.

This post will focus mostly on Canon EOS compatible lenses. All of the disclaimers from the last post still apply.

Before I get to the lenses, here are a couple of awesome accessories:

Canon RC-6 Wireless Remote Control– $25ish

I have the older version of this (RC-1), and love it. This thing is the perfect solution for those botched timer shots. This remote control is compatible with most Canon EOS SLRs, as well as a handful of point and shoot models. It has a setting for a 2 second delay, in case you need to press the button, then hide remote out of the shot.

Intervalometer– $50ish

Perfect for nerds. This tool allows photos taken in increments of 1 second to 10 hour, etc.. I have wanted to get one of these forever, to make time lapse films of very slowly occurring things (think of plants growing). Did you ever see that video the guy did of his flight from San Francisco to Paris, with the northern lights? I’m sure that he used something like this.

Manfrotto Pocket Tripod– $30ish

This thing is awesome. It is sturdy enough to hold a metal body SLR with a modestly heavy lens. I use this thing like crazy when I travel. It is seriously perfect for timer (or remote control) shots. It is small enough, that you can leave it mounted to the bottom of your camera with the legs folded in, and it still fits in the bag.

Moving along to lenses– First, here are a couple of prime lenses I like (fixed focal length):

Canon EF 50mm f/1.8– $100ish

This lens is a great and inexpensive way to expand your arsenal, if you are looking to get away from that kit zoom lens. This focal length is generally considered to be the “standard” or “normal” focal length. However, if you are working with a cropped sensor, it is good to take into account that a 50mm will effectively be a 70ish mm. In my opinion, prime lenses are awesome. A prime lens forces the photographer to work for the shot (since they can’t just zoom in or out), and pay more attention to composition. This lens is also dope because normally you have to pay the big bucks for an aperture that goes any wider that f/2. Not, here. You can get that super buttery bokeh, and low light shots with this lens.

Sigma 30mm f/1.4– $500ish

Normally I wouldn’t suggest buying a non-canon brand lens. But in this case, I deviate from the norm. This lens is pretty awesome. At 30mms, it gives you a 50ish mm equivalent on a cropped sensor (all Rebel SLRs). This lens was specifically designed with cropped sensor cameras in mind. In fact it vignettes so bad on a full frame, it isn’t even worth using on one. For what you get, I think that it is also pretty affordable. It is about $800 less expensive than the closest Canon brand equivalent. The lens is very well made, and comes with a hood, and padded case. The aperture opens all of the way up to f/1.4 making it awesome in low light. I have found that the AF isn’t quite as tight as with the Canon L-series. But what is? I have had this lens for a few years, knocked it around quite a bit, and it still gives me great images.

Canon 50mm f/1.2L– $1500ish

This thing is amazing. Couple Canon’s L-glass with a giant 8 blade aperture and you won’t get any better 50mm lens.

Here are a few zoom lenses for people who are serious about photography, or are starting to get serious about it:

Canon EF 17-40mm f/4L– $800ish

This is the most inexpensive Canon “L” zoom on the market. Don’t let the low price fool you. It is an awesome lens. I use this thing all of the time. At f/4 it is not the best lens for low light, or shooting indoors w/o flash. But, on a cropped sensor, the wide angle options this lens gives are fantastic. Throw in the L-glass, and get some tack sharp images. This lens comes with a hood.

Canon EF 24-70 f/2.8L– $1400ish

Chances are, you already own this zoom. It is probably the most versatile of Canon’s high-end zoom lenses. You get wide and telephoto angles, both with a relatively large aperture. Again, to top it off, you also get that L-glass, making this lens well worth the cash. For those looking to upgrade from a regular EF zoom to a pro-quality lens, this is hands-down the best pick.

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View all parts of this series here.

hola, wednesday. stoked to see you.

At the risk of sounding melodramatic, I’m going to say that it feels like it has already been kind of a long week. I had a bit of a reprieve last night as I attended an event at the BLK Denim Store in SoHo, NYC. The space is absolutely dope (above). Not to brag about my lineage, but if it is Scandinavian, you know it’s good. I wound up with a new pair of jeans. I rarely wear jeans, so I have never been able to justify buying a new pair. All of the jeans that I owned before last night are spill over from the late 90’s/early 2000’s. They don’t really fly for going to social events. Anyway, I love my new BLKs. Here are a few more shots that I liked from last night.

foursquare “wet plate project”

The snowboarding brand Foursquare has put together a pretty awesome project to coincide with the launch of their new website called the “Wet Plate Project.” Snowboarding + old school cameras? This definitely got my attention. Foursquare worked with photographer Ian Ruhter to shoot a series using an old wet plate camera. The wet plate is one of the oldest exposure/developing techniques in photography. The resulting images were pretty cool.

Here is vid that they published outlining the idea behind the project.

 

Check out Ruhter’s images from the first two of five installments, below. The shots feature riders Alek Oestreng and Andreas Wiig. Pretty incredible stuff, for an era where just any ol’ person can walk into B&H and pick up a 5D kit.

Thanks to my amigos at RC for turning me onto this.

Slater, gator

One dope thing about shooting events like FW and action sports, is all of the people that you meet. I linked up with a really cool gent by the name of Tim Schenck the first day of shooting the NY Quikpro. After I had to leave off of the event to cover Fashion Week, Tim stuck around at Long Beach and grabbed this fantastic set of king Slater. Tim is actually the one who snapped this shot of me and Slater the first weekend of the pro.

Check out more of Tim’s photos from the Quikpro on his blog.

yet another sunset photo

After the rain let up, the sun actually came out for while. When the sun went down, there was this.

I guess I ended up making it outside today after all.