Aerial Haiti

Aerial Hog Island (A Virginia Barrier Island)

Aerial Norfolk, Virginia (Aerials shot at dusk)

Aerial Hog Island, Virginia – Images by Cameron Davidson

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

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.

]]> http://www.camerondavidson.com/blog/2009/06/22/made-the-switch-back-to-home-plate/feed/ 5 http://www.camerondavidson.com/blog/2009/05/14/three-to-one-vanity-fair-anatomy-of-a-miracle/ http://www.camerondavidson.com/blog/2009/05/14/three-to-one-vanity-fair-anatomy-of-a-miracle/#comments Thu, 14 May 2009 15:25:45 +0000 Cameron Davidson http://www.camerondavidson.com/blog/?p=1159

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.

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

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.