Cameron Davidson – Photographer

I finished uploading three new galleries to my Aerialstock.com site this morning.

Aerial Haiti

Aerial Hog Island (A Virginia Barrier Island)

Aerial Norfolk, Virginia (Aerials shot at dusk)

Aerial Hog Island, Virginia – Images by Cameron Davidson

Playing around a bit with a Canon G10 that has been converted to infrared.

This was shot west of Amarillo and north of Interestate 40.

My first photographic heros were Jay Maisel, Pete Turner and Eric Meola.

When I started shooting in high school, I lived in a small town in central Michigan. My two choices for color film in those days were Agfachrome CT-18 and Kodachrome II. Both needed to be sent to the lab by U.S. Mail. I’d scour the back pages of Modern Photography to find the best deal for Agfachrome or Kodachrome mailers or the film/combo package that some dealers offered. As a high school student with little funds, I usually would go for a three-pack or ten-pack and try to make every image count. I’d spend my evenings studying the yearly photo annuals of U.S. Camera and Popular Photography. The people whose photographs touched me were Hiro, Arnold Newman, Bruce Davidson, Pete Turner and Jay Maisel. I wrote Hiro about interning at his New York Studio and he sent me a gracious note asking me to stop by the studio when I came to New York.

I choked about going to New York on my own with no financial support. Instead I headed to DC and the Corcoran School of Art and started working at Charlie Scheer’s National Camera near the White House where I met my next set of influences. Frank Johnston of the Washington Post and Fred Ward of the Geographic were mentors of sorts to me along with the wonderful Fred Maroon. All of them influenced my approach and style. Frank shot B&W for the Post, but Fred Maroon and Fred Ward were masters of Kodachrome. My heros shot Kodachrome, the Geographic used Kodachrome with a special messenger run for their film at the Gaithersburg, Maryland processing facility. Kodachrome was the film to use. I remember “RUSH” processing of Kodachrome. You would drive your film to the Gaithersburg lab, hand it over with a store film envelope to someone who reluctantly met you at the side door and then you could pick it up the next morning or have it delivered to your camera store. I also remember shooting 120 Kodachrome for an editorial feature, waiting a week for the processed film and then shipping by FedEx the selects to the photo editor in New York. I can not imagine doing that these days.

Copyright Jay Maisel

How can a film influence a style or approach? The beauty and simplicity of Kodachrome was, you knew what to expect. If you shot under fluorescent lighting you added a 30 or 40 magenta filter and nine times out of ten, you were good to go. If you needed a little pop for color at sunset or in the afterglow, you added a bit more magenta. Usually a twenty would do it. In the early morning pre-sunrise mist, Kodachrome would give you soft colors. In crisp sunlight with bright colors you were good. Add a polarizing filter and underexpose by a half-stop and you were golden.

When I look at my pictures from High School, I see the beginnings of my style. The use of empty space with graphic patterns and always influenced by color or form. Kodachrome helped me achieve my early style by allowing me to trust its consistency and bold colors. Now that Kodak has announced the retirement of Kodachrome, you hear of people buying up as much of it as possible at often prices that seem foolish. Yes, I have a stash of Kodachrome 64 and I plan to shoot it this fall in Haiti. I’ll send it off to Dwayne’s in Kansas and wait patiently to open that box of mounted slides for the last time. When Kodachrome 25 was announced, I recall professionals in DC coming into National Camera and buying up as much of the Kodachrome II as they afford. Seems like history is repeating itself.

Alex Webb, Bill Allard, David Alan Harvey and Medford Taylor were all Kodachrome users. Their photography showed me how to use Kodachrome in low-light and to push past the cliche colors into a softer palette.
In the past I’ve written small posts about scanning Kodachrome transparencies and on the amazing collection of 4×5 Kodachromes from shot during the forties that can be seen at the Shorpy’s web site. Take a look at the collection of images at Shorpy’s. Kodachrome on 4×5 is amazing: clean rich blacks, intense skies and a smoothness that you can only come from large format.

Kodak has decided to retire Kodachrome and Dwayne’s will continue to process the film through December of next year.

For years I was a Nikon shooter for my 35mm work.  In 2003, I changed over to the Canon 1Ds digital kit primarily because I wanted to continue shooting with a full-frame camera.  I bought into the system heavily.  Full range of glass, multiple bodies, strobe kit plus purchasing every new body.  I never felt one-hundred percent comfortable with the camera.  Too much muscle memory from years of shooting the Nikons. Some of the Canon glass is drop-dead amazing and  I will miss using them:  The 35 f/1.4, 85mm 1.2 and the 135 F/2 are in a class of their own.

But then again, Nikon has the amazing 24-70 Nano-coat zoom, the 85 1.4 and the wonderful 105 Macro.  Plus KEH has a great collection of old manual focus Nikkor lenses that have a unique look to them (and price) – such as the 35 1.4, the 50 1.4 from the late seventies-early eighties and the much sought after 28mm f/1.4. (Out of stock right now – you can pick one up on eBay for 4K.)

Two or three years ago, Joe McNally introduced to me to Bill Pekala of Nikon Professional Services.  Bill sent me a D2X kit with some lenses and I was very tempted to return to the fold.  The files were a delight to process and the color was perfect.  I decided to wait to see if Nikon would create a full-frame machine.  They did:  they knocked the ball out of the park with the D3 and then one-upped it with the new D3X.

Last week, I made  the switch.  New glass plus some old favorites.  The camera feels right: it feels like home. Focus confirmation in the viewfinder instills confidence.  The files are beautiful in Capture One.  The Nikon CLS strobe system is pure genius and I plan to put it to heavy use come annual report season.

The past couple of weeks have been a bit of a blur with all the rain on the east coast pushing shoots back.  I attended Look3 and loved the work of Callie Shell and Simon Bruty.  Saw a bunch of friends and hung out for a bit with them.  The weather was changing and I hit the road to shoot landscapes for a campaign.  Last Sunday had been the only good day to shoot landscapes in a couple of weeks.

Yesterday and this morning I drove the mountains of Virginia for the same project.  This time shooting with the D3X and a D3.  Three lenses to keep it simple.

These two frames are from this morning.

I enjoy shooting before sunrise.  I saw and photographed at least ten fawns with their mothers close at hand, Ravens krawking at my intrusion into their space and a pair of Turkey hens escorting a brood of poults across a two-lane road  with a laggard poult rushed on by its mother who fanned her tail to speed up the proceedings.

Chris Mueller Photo Illustration from three images - Chad Slattery - Interior, Ismael Jorda/Ait Team Images pilot and my aerial of the Hudson

Anatomy of a Miracle – US Airways 1549

In late March, Vanity Fair called and asked me to shoot aerials of the Hudson river for a piece on Capt. Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger, the US Airways pilot who landed an Airbus 320 in the Hudson river after ingesting geese into the engines and the behind the scenes look at how this miracle happened..

The story is much richer than a one-person profile; William Langewiesche wove in the reality of Canadian Geese flocks near airports , the turbo fans, the glide ratio of the 320, the engineers who designed the engines and aircraft and most of all, the incredible textbook landing of Flight 1549 on the Hudson.

The idea behind the shoot was to follow his exact flight path and shoot aerials from the same angle of descent and altitude. The helicopter pilot and I did a pre-brief by phone and I sent him the GPS and altitude coordinates for the flight. He worked out the details with Laquardia and two other air spaces we needed to cross for our flight. Since I was shooting two months after the event, I needed to match my light with the light the day of the landing. I matched the angle of the light as close as possible by using sun plotting software. The goal was to recreate the view from the cockpit as the aircraft descended toward the river.

My friend Chad Slattery flew to Arizona to photograph the flight deck of an Airbus 320 so Chris Mueller could put the images together as an photo illustration. Ismael Jorda/Ait Team Images created the photograph of the pilots that completed the image.

What I liked about this assignment was working with Ian Bacsetta, an Associate Photo Editor at Vanity Fair and my friend Chad. Ian had a very clear idea of what he wanted me to shoot and how it would all come together. Ian and I talked about weather, light, helicopter altitudes and my ideas on how to create the image. Chad and I spoke about my images and how he would approach the interior views to create a sense of being there for the reader.

The pilot I worked with flies primarily in New York and New Jersey and only for aerial photography. He knows the airspace and he enjoyed the challenge of making this shoot happen. I started shooting near Columbia University a little above 2000 feet and finished up at five feet off the deck near the piers where the aircraft landed. The river was full of water taxis and cargo vessels. Not only did Captain Sully and his crew have to land a unpowered aircraft in the middle of a tidal river he needed to set his glide path to make sure he did not swamp or hit the boats crossing from New Jersey or Manhattan.

Thanks to Ian for the trust to make this shoot happen, to Chad for his connections within the aviation industry and Chris Mueller for bringing it all together and making it believable.

OK – here is what I have come up with . This is not too expensive and it works.

This is the Garmin hand-held unit I chose and ordered. I will output the track files and combine with Photo Mechanic to enter the GPS data into the EXIF Canon Files.

I also ordered a small unit that fits on top of the camera that outputs a log. I am going to test them against each other.

The Garmin eTrax Vista HCx unit I chose has an excellent reputation and the reviews are positive. It includes altitude in the track logs. (which could be positive or negative)

http://tinyurl.com/qrc7xo

If you are a Nikon shooter – Nikon makes a GPS add-on for your cameras. Nikon has a plug that GPS units can connect to the camera and the data is written to the files. Canon makes you jump through an extra hoop plus expense of adding the wireless transmitter for the 1Ds III or 5D II.

This is the GEOPIC. Rated very well for Fuji and Nikon cameras.

http://tinyurl.com/q5to39

Plug from GPS Units to Nikon Camera

http://tinyurl.com/q9z2w9

ARTICLE on the BH Photo web site about GEOTAGGING

http://tinyurl.com/pqjyvq

NIKON branded GPS

http://tinyurl.com/ql37jk

JOBO Unit that will fire from any camera. (reviews are good and bad)

http://tinyurl.com/qb4w6h

HASSELBLAD GPS UNIT for H cameras.

http://tinyurl.com/qrodfn

Gisteq Photo Tracker is less expensive than the JOBO and the reviews of the new unit are very favorable. I ordered this unit from Amazon.

http://tinyurl.com/pmcqzp

If you are a Nikon user, you are pretty much good to go with plug-in-play units. For Canon users, you need to use Photo Mechanic to bring the data from an outside file into your RAW files or purchase the wireless transmitters in order to plug in a GPS unit that will write to the camera files as when shot. Roughly $700 for the 1Ds III and $900 for the 5D II.

Photo Mechanic 4.6 will write combine the data so it is readable in Photo Mechanic and can be placed in your caption info or any field you choose. Version 4.6.1 will write it so it can be read by any software program that can display EXIF data.

http://www.camerabits.com/site/index.html

This winter I’ve shot mostly close to home. Which is unusual for me. I love to travel and the joy of being in a new location always inspires me.

Last week, I headed to San Francisco for an editorial shoot that will be published later this spring. After the shoot was over, I grabbed a helicopter for a couple of hours of personal shooting. Shooting mostly abstract aerials from a San Francisco shot list I have added to over the years. A few images were for stock and a few just for the joy of seeing.

It was time to explore for a while and check out Point Reyes, Inverness and the famous Route One along the shore. After a few hours of driving in the fog, it was time to find some sunlight again. I spent part of the afternoon chasing windmills and enjoying the crisp sunlight and solitude of a day with no expectations other than making my dead-eye flight out of Oakland late that evening.

I finally got the chance to hang out for a bit with a former assistant who has done quite well. Lenny Gonzalez and his lovely bride Susie, live in Alameda with their two children. Lenny shoots editorial, musicians and corporate while Susie shoots weddings.

It was a good trip: successful images for my client plus a day of relaxing travel for me.

Tomales Bay before sunrise, yesterday morning.

Zen and the Art of UK Stock Photography

OK. Let’s set the scene.

Stock photography is for many Brits fast becoming one of their main hobbies. It comes pretty high on the pastime list. Just behind gardening, keeping pets and fiddling with train sets but before DIY home improvement and tinkering with the car. In other words, it’s big. Very big.

These days, every hobby photographer has a digital camera capable of taking a stock shot that will cut the mustard and the UK is small, very small. Smaller than Finland, smaller than Spain, smaller than Italy, smaller than France. In fact, it’s about the same size as Georgia, USA.

So, what we have is a very small island with a vast number of people taking stock images of it and in it, above it and around it. Especially landscape and flowers guys….enough is enough OK?! The market here is pretty saturated and growing every day thanks to regular media articles that are popping up along the lines of “make easy money from your photographs”. Yeah right. Wake up call reality check forthcoming…! There’s no easy way to make money in stock. There’s no free lunch.

Stock for professional assignment photographers like me is becoming a vital part of their income. The recession has meant job fees are being squeezed (some editorial fees haven’t increased in years but that’s another post altogether!) and we can’t rely on getting the usual large-scale ad projects multiple times a year. Stock is a good way of leveraging additional income from our talents in another direction.

All these factors: the increase in hobby stockers, the size of the market and the dilution of the income for pros both from assignments and stock has to lead to a big change in the way professional photographers in the UK approach the business. We have to think harder, work smarter, up the production values and use those talents, contacts and opportunities the amateur shooters don’t regularly have.

Making a good return on stock has become an art but as many discover, art does not always sell well as stock. But more than this, the search for enlightenment by stock industry professionals has become an obsession – one that we all strive for on a daily or even hourly basis! If not quite a religion, then stock is certainly a huge driving force, an adrenalin-filled roller coaster of a game that wakes you in the night wondering if you shouldn’t add a couple of keywords before breakfast.

For the working pro, increasing your stock opportunities (no not the money kind – we don’t have any of those!) is a sneaky game of Bond-style 007-type hide and seek with its own set of rules and regulations. Tell no one what you might shoot next. Tell no one where you are placing certain images. Tell no one what you plan to do next. Well, tell no one you don’t trust! But at the same time – know thy enemy! Find out all you can as quickly as you can to save you from financial death by a non-selling image!

We are obsessed with statistics. We cut things by type, by license, by library, by return per image over the period, by location, by style, by return per shoot, by general subject matter. We analyse stats until our eyes burn and calculate until our calculators break – which mine did last week – gave up the ghost, chucked in the towel, shuffled off this mortal coil and went to join the choir invisible….and no, it wasn’t just a flat battery caused by over-use.

And what do we learn from all this cutting and dicing and analysing I hear you ask? Well……you need to shoot more stock. That’s it. The end.

That’s what it boils down to. It’s a profession within a profession and one that consumes an awful lot of time and effort but it can be extremely rewarding if you learn to play it right.

In the UK we have a lottery game on TV and while we all play it every week (because you’d be mortified if your numbers came up and you’d not bought a ticket) we know – off by heart – that the odds of winning are 14 million to one. Everyone knows this. Kids of five know this. It is an accepted truth. But we still play it.

And while the odds are much better that the next shot I produce for stock will sell, it’s still a lottery, albeit with better odds. Despite this we keep going. Keep putting images out there to our favourite libraries, still striving for that one big sale, still speaking in hushed tones about when Joe sold that image of his for $10,000, still using every opportunity, every day, every holiday to shoot more and more and more.

It has its downsides too. No longer do I see on my travels a beautiful landscape, a picturesque town – I see a potential stock shot and wonder what crop might be the most saleable or whether I can wait until someone in a red jacket pops into view and get a model release. How sad is that! I look at the perfect meal my wife has just cooked for me and wonder whether I ought to nip into the studio and shoot it before I devour it.

When you are zoned into the mechanics of producing images for resale, shooting for stock is all-consuming.

But you know, we love it! Stock is fantastic. You can make money while you sleep – what’s better than that? And while for me, editorial photography of real people on location will always be my first love and will always be how I define myself; my stock side gives me both great challenges and rewards in equal measure!

For more of my musings and to see some of my work you could go to my blog www.jonboyes.com/blog or see my website at www.jonboyes.com

I am in the thick of several corporate shoots the next few weeks.

Yesterday and today, we are in DC shooting super shallow depth-of-field portraits with a lighting scheme that consistently looks like north window light – of course it includes two reflectors, three scrims, two road road flags and the wonderful Canon 85mm f/1.2 L lens.

Tomorrow and next week are for a Fortune 100 corporation – all outside! (brrrr) – then a shoot for a Toronto agency for a client based in Milwaukee.