jeremy bales photography

the tech scout

2011-08-23T14:00:00.002-04:00

A big part of our recent shoots have been been pre-production: the stuff that clients don't always see, but end up making the shoot day move like clockwork.

One of my favorite pre-pro steps is the tech scout. This is where we take the camera to the location to see what the light is going to look like. We get to dream big here. Picking the perfect time of day to pull off the ideal shot. Sometimes we're looking for that dreamy back light that the sun gives us as it lowers toward the horizon.

I'll often circle around to our ideal locations several times during the day and shoot the best landscape I can get. We're able to flip through them later, noting the time stamps, when we're making our schedule.

This tree will probably be somewhere in the background of a shoot that's happening this week. Though It won't be nearly as prominent as it is in this scouting photo, it's fun to break away from shooting people for a moment and give the spotlight to a cool old tree.

southern sabbatical: four coursemen

2011-08-02T10:40:00.000-04:00

Matt Palmerlee is a chef with the Four Coursemen in Athens, Ga. The Coursemen throw dinner parties in a shotgun house on Pulaski Street. More on that here.

He's generally pretty soft-spoken unless you get him talking about carving up a pig's head.

southern sabbatical: secret squirrel

2011-07-26T13:58:00.001-04:00

While in Athens, GA this summer I was invited to a (literally) underground dance party at Secret Squirrel. I'd tell you where it was, but I think it really is secret.

southern sabbatical: claire campbell

2011-07-19T19:23:00.002-04:00

Portraits are are the main thrust of my southern sabbatical in Georgia, U.S.A. Musician Claire Campbell was near the top of my list.
Lucky for me she's photogenic, loves vintage clothes, and has an awesome house in Athens, GA.

We hung out, shot some photos and drank sweet tea. (after the jump)

Then she suggested that she change into a vintage bathing suit and shoot a b.b. gun. Awesome.

my soundtrack: Fan-Tan

2011-06-03T13:30:00.001-04:00

A few of my videos have featured music by Brooklyn band Fan-Tan. Check 'em out!

I shot this photo at a Fan-Tan rehearsal last year.

behind-the-scenes: print ad shoot

2011-05-26T17:11:00.001-04:00

Here's a look at how we work on an advertising shoot. The client on this one was Oral-B.

My agency ME reps wrote a bit more in-depth on this shoot here.
More on my technique can be found in my problem solving post.

little preview of the holgaroid

2011-05-19T14:00:00.001-04:00

I've been spending some time in the workshop disassembling a Holga 120N and a Polaroid 340. After a bunch of dremeling, gluing, and (I admit) gaff taping. I have a truely Frankensteined hybrid: A Holga front with Polaroid back. Worked on the first shot!

I'll have some shots of the camera after I've made a few more tweaks. Until then, here are some photos of swing dancers Danielle and Matt taken with the holgaroid.

If you know anything about the Holga, you might be able to tell which photo I took first in this series. Any ideas?

problem solving: light as a maximizer

2011-05-10T11:12:00.000-04:00

When commissioned by ad agency Publicis to shoot a print ad series for Oral-B I was immediately captivated by the concept: people in important situations who are distracted by food caught in their teeth. The conceptual humor was right up my ally. I was eager to dig in.


One final photo from the series. "If it's stuck in your teeth, it's stuck in your head."

The art director was concerned that the lighting on the location shot and on the separately-shot food item wouldn't match. Poorly planned lighting would have been a dead giveaway that the image was a composite. At our first pre-production meeting we figured that we could shoot the food in the same light as the location shot: just stick the food in the hospital bassinet, shoot it, and enlarge it for the composite.

This didn't work for a couple of reasons. First, we still weren't sure what food we were going to use as the baby even during the nursery shoot. We were debating BBQ ribs, strawberries, etc... We went with broccoli the day after. So we were going to have to shoot it separately anyway. Second, smaller food items were going to look wrong even if they were in the exact same lighting because they would be enlarged.

*this gets a little complicated after the jump*

The big lights: Three Profoto heads (two outside, one inside the nursery) with flags and scrims.

When we enlarge the talent (broccoli in this case) in post, we're essentially enlarging everything else including the apparent size of the light source (medium/small octabanks). So, it appears as though we're compositing larger-than-life broccoli shot with enormous softboxes into a normal-sized nursery shot with medium softboxes even though the lights were exactly the same in real life. Make sense?

To solve the problem, I needed to recreate the nursery set on a miniature scale and use some (much) smaller lights. *cue the strobist theme song* We needed to maximize (or as Ladies Man Leon Phelps would say, "hugeify") the broccoli.

I had my assistant Megan take detailed notes: camera position and distance to subject, position, height and power settings of all lights, meter readings on all sides of the subject, and an overhead diagram of the setup. I used this data to create my tabletop set.

The small lights: LumoPro flash left and mirror right mimic the Profoto heads. White cards reflect light as walls did.

broccoli maximized (opposite of miniaturized)

In the nursery shot I used three lights: medium octabank behind left of subject, small octabank directly across on camera right, and one big square box over the lens to fill in shadow detail. BUT in the food studio I used one. On that small scale, I was able to really bounce the light around and get some great detail on the broccoli. The mirror kicks back almost all of the light and the front white card filled in the shadow detail adequately. Usually a bare flash gives terribly harsh light, but since it was in close to a tiny subject, it acted like a large softbox (we're talking relative size here).

drink tickets

2011-04-29T10:02:00.000-04:00

I've never seen people light-up so much after being handed one of my photographs. My secret: a perforated tab at the bottom that's good for one free drink.

Since the post about my improv event has been featured on the No Plastic Sleeves blog, I've been getting a bunch of emails asking about the custom-designed drink tickets.

They were a fun part of the evening, and I had a blast helping to design them.

We kept them on-theme by using one of the pictures of Sid Viscous! performer Kevin Gottlieb from the promo video.

I really liked that they were big theater-style tickets instead of the little numbered raffle tickets. I found these three in my jacket pocket a week afterward. I'm hoping some of our guests are still finding the stubs too!

Sorry guys, they've expired.

jb + me reps + sid viscous! = a unique promotion

2011-03-29T14:21:00.000-04:00

I think the idea struck us both at about the same time. I had been shooting improv comedy teams in NYC for quite awhile and my rep, Efrat, wanted to see what all the fuss was about. I took her to a show at the Peoples Improv Theater (The Pit) on East 24th Street. They have a brand new theater with a bar as a reception/lobby area and a stage with stadium-seating.

That's me. Watching our guests watch the show.

It turned out that improv team Sid Viscous! (that's viscous as in a thick and sticky liquid, not vicious as in cruel or violent) would be performing every Thursday in March and they were using a promo photo I had taken of them. We thought the show and some drinks would be a great gift for other creative professionals that we had been wanting to meet.

SidViscous! is truly remarkable. Quite funny.


Some improv images (plus some teasers from my upcoming promo)

My rep made me wear a name tag.

SV! was thrilled at the prospect and we worked out a deal with the theater to block off the show on March 24th and offer drink tickets to our guests.

I shot another promo campaign for the team complete with video to augment the photo they were already using. I printed some of my work to hang in the theater hallway. ME reps worked with The Pit on gift bags and custom-designed drink tickets. We mailed, emailed and phoned some invitations and had an event.

The night went excellently. SV! had an eager and engaged audience, we got to meet some cool buyers, art directors, and other creatives, and our guests enjoyed a break from the standard portfolio review.

camera bag essential mark II

2011-01-29T14:37:00.000-05:00

I posted about the NYPD Operations Order 13 awhile back. Here's the federal version that photographers have been buzzing about. Download and Print (via nytimes.com).

It’s important to know the law. But it's more important to know how to use this document when the time comes. I avoid waving it like a flag in the face of authority. Regardless of who is in the right a blown photo shoot is a blown photo shoot. A night in jail is a night in jail. Nobody likes being told what their job is or isn’t.

I usually explain to police what my understanding of the law is and politely ask them to contact a supervisor for clarification. The next step would be to use this document, or NYPD Operations Order 14. It’s always a good idea to vocalize the officer’s point of view: “I understand that you’re just trying to keep everyone safe…” etc.

More on how to effectively use these documents in my original post.

western exposure

2011-01-18T14:00:00.002-05:00

Lately I've been actively seeking non-photocentric activities to nurture my creativity. I find that most of my inspiration comes not when I'm sitting in front of the computer, but when I'm fully engaged in something else. I mean, I'm not shooting photos of photography.

Last week I was in Tahoe City, CA for some snowboarding and hot tubbing. I'm glad I carried my holga with me, though.

donna

2011-01-11T15:00:00.001-05:00

I shot this past week with Jamaican model Donna Davidson. She's got a killer look. I'm hoping to work with her again on her next trip to the states.

eva zeisel: 104 and counting

2010-11-13T15:00:00.009-05:00

I've had the honor and pleasure of knowing and photographing Eva Zeisel. Today she celebrates her 104th birthday. Eva is an industrial designer. She was the first to have a one-woman show at the MoMA.

Eva was born in Budapest. She lived in Moscow and at age 29 was appointed artistic director of the Soviet ceramics industry. She was imprisoned for 16 months, accused of participating in an assassination plot on Stalin. She was released, deported to Vienna, then fled Nazi invasion and moved to New York.

Some of her work is on display today at the MoMA. She has lines available at Bloomingdales and Crate and Barrel to name a few. She continues to work to this day (quite possibly the secret to her longevity).

I produced a short documentary on her creative process two years ago. If you haven't seen it yet, it's embedded below. Happy Birthday Eva.

movie making

2010-11-02T15:00:00.005-04:00

I've had lots of opportunities to work with the Canon 5D Mark II for cinema application.
It's pretty fantastic if you've got someone on set dedicated to capturing good sound. Since there's no way to monitor the sound that's going into the camera, we've been hoping for the best and recording on a separate digital recorder as a back-up.

We had Bryan from Silver Sound on set to make sure that everything was sounding good while I directed the camera crew and Kevin Gottleib directed the actors.

This production and an updated demo reel will be on display here once the client has received their final product.

stand-ins

2010-10-26T15:00:00.001-04:00

You can't expect your talent to sit under the lights while you're framing the shot. Best to have some similarly-built stand-ins.
For the latest round of Geek Goddesses shoots I had Marty and Sean. Thanks guys!

See the updated collection of Geek Goddesses photos here.

youtube filmmakers in the guggenheim

2010-10-22T22:40:00.002-04:00

I'm super excited to have met Sean Metelerkamp at the YouTube opening exhibit at the Guggenheim last night. He's a photographer and filmmaker who introduced Die Antwoord to the world with his documentary-style music video Die Antwoord - Zef Side:

Congrats Sean.

rockland wildlife

2010-09-05T11:07:00.002-04:00

rubin to bales: holy kittens!

2010-06-04T12:44:00.003-04:00

I emailed this sample treatment of my idea for an improv team promotion to Binu Paulose of Rubin.

His response: "Holy kittens, that is FIERCE!"

They perform on June 28th at The Creek in LIC.

improv photo - rubin

2010-05-25T11:45:00.002-04:00

When improv comedy duo Ruby Marez and Binu Paulose AKA "Rubin" commissioned a promotional photo for their live performances I got to do something I've wanted to do for awhile. I've "shared" photo information from separates frames before to make a better moment. Sometimes I've composited one person's facial expression from one frame onto another. It's a good skill to have when working with seven or eight-person improv teams who go wild in front of the camera. But, this time I got to plan out frame-by-frame a fully-composited eight-person group photo using only two models and a lot of character.

Thanks Rubin!

interactive | video | production

2010-05-14T12:38:00.004-04:00

As of today, right now, my latest creation is unveiled online. I teamed up with the clown princesses of YouTube, GraceNMichelle, to dream-up and produce a real-life paper doll video. We pitched the idea to H&M and they commissioned an interactive YouTube Paper Dolls promotion for their Fashion Against AIDS line of clothes.

Grace and Michelle are going to the Fashion Against AIDS launch party in NYC next week and viewers get to dress them up and vote on what they're going to wear on the red carpet. Try it for yourself here .

Enjoy!

the book | see it live and in person

2010-05-14T10:49:00.003-04:00

When I set out to make a full-bleed book, mounted and trimmed by hand, I had no idea that it would take so much effort; making sure my prints would line up, carefully making cuts, scoring and folding gently. But the more I put into the project, the more I realized that the custom, one-of-a-kind nature of the book would be strikingly apparent to anyone who viewed it. The process became a weekend-long practice in zen. It's one that I look forward to doing again when the time comes.

digital filmmaking | demo reel

2010-03-30T20:51:00.003-04:00

Demo Reel: Jeremy Bales Productions from Jeremy Bales on Vimeo.

geek goddesses lp collector: athens, ga

2010-03-16T19:11:00.004-04:00

The first of a couple of Geek Goddesses shoots on the road in Athens, GA went off better than I could have imagined.

Luckily, a good friend of mine Sean Wessling has a killer house AND a killer record collection. We also had an awesome model, Melinda, who had great ideas of her own and lit up when we put on Thunder Road from Springsteen's Born To Run LP.

For this shoot, I really let the location guide the everything else. Sean has great wood paneling and painted wood floors in the record room. He has great taste when it comes to color. I went through his collection and pulled out some iconic rock albums for the display wall. I got rid of his ipod and cd player, pulled out some big speakers and made some stacks of LPs. It hit me pretty early on that this would be a great photo to shoot square. The repeating pattern of the square LPs were perfect and I was able to easily move the stacks around to fill in the dead space. For wardrobe we chose bright yellow and blue to stand out against the muted colors of the room.

We got some great shots early on, but I really wanted Melinda's hair to be flying, so we cranked some Queen and got to work.

now a director of photography

2010-03-11T11:01:00.003-05:00

Just finished up editing this short short for Bales & Bass productions with Evan Bass. I was director of photography for this film.

TAC -- Wii from Bales and Bass on Vimeo.

Credits:

Jon -- Evan Bass
Jeremy -- Eden Marryshow

Written/Directed -- Evan Bass
D.P. -- Jeremy Bales
AD, PA, and Awesomeness -- Miranda Wilson
Sound -- James Corbe
Boom -- Becca Jones

Executive Producers -- Evan Bass & Jeremy Bales
Creators: Evan Bass & Omachonu Ogali

www.balesandbass.com

GraceNMichelle shoot: post production thoughts

2010-03-08T09:41:00.012-05:00

The shoot with vlogger Geek Goddesses GraceNMichelle last week went great. We tweeted about the process as much as we could while staying on track with the limited amount of time that we had. Since we budgeted less than an hour of actual shooting time and two hours for set-up I decided to use set-up time to compose the shot and lock down on a tripod. This way I could composite two shots together, a good shot of Grace and a good shot of Michelle, into one final image.

I picked this one for Michelle's expression.

Then I added Grace from another frame

I did a little bit to soften the fly-away hairs and lines on the faces. I try to be gentle when I'm retouching because I want my subject to look like real people (for the most part).

The fun part is selectively adjusting the contrast and saturation for each part of the photo. Generally, I'm gentle with skin tones, so I can keep a good tonal range. I'm a little bit rougher with clothing, props, and anything else that I really want to pop. I then crop the photo and do a bit of burning around the edges for a vignette.

I may end up taking this photo a little bit further. I'm also considering using a different frame for Grace; which means I'll be starting over for the most part.

this friday - shoot with graceNmichelle

2010-03-02T08:49:00.006-05:00

It's on! Shooting this Friday, March 5th with vloggers extraordinaire GraceNMichelle. They wanted to be part of the Geek Goddesses series and I was like, "OMG" and they were like, "LOL". I posted a little bit about the concept idea here along with some undecipherable rough sketches.

But here's why you should care:
We (Me, Grace, Michelle, my crew members, and you we hope) are going to be tweeting throughout the day about the shoot. There will probably be some behind-the-scenes twitpics of the set, me sweating, GraceNMichelle getting made up, etc.

To tune in, make sure you're following us on Twitter (@JeremyBales, @GraceNMichelle). And if you're tweeting about the project please include #geekgoddesses so we can quickly find your tweets.

snow crew shoot

2010-02-26T14:58:00.008-05:00

So, the trip to California was a vacation. But everyone looked so great in the snow gear that we had to do an impromptu photo shoot off the back deck overlooking a very foggy/snowy Lake Tahoe.

I'm not quite sure-footed enough on the snowboard yet to carry the camera for action shots. Maybe next season?

Thank you thank you to TalismanPHOTO for getting the lights ready, warming up the hot-tub, and shooting a picture of yours truly to complete the series. Mine, is currently my facebook avatar, so let's be friends if we're not already.

Also thanks to the chilly and willing models Olivia, Erica, Griff, Elyse, Tally and Risa.

GraceNMichelle #geekgoddesses rough sketches

2010-02-24T13:55:00.005-05:00

I'm no illustrator. Sketching perspective concepts has always been a challenge for me.

I am pretty handy at drawing an overhead floor-plan on graph paper. And that is actually a great start for me in the pre-production phase of the shoot. I start with an easy overhead plan, pick a camera angle or two, and sketch away.

I got a few snapshots from GraceNMichelle of our Geek Goddesses photo shoot location. It will be a familiar one, because we're using one of the usual vlogging settings of GraceNMichelle and Daily Grace.

The concept, the geeky activity that we decided on for these two goddesses is (surprise) vlogging. We're going to be paying respectful homage to the Numa Numa, Chocolate Rain, and lonelygirl15's out there who open up their lives on the you tubes.

The humor in this one will come from the moment. We're going to be seeing them seconds before their taping as they feverishly prepare the room and themselves for the camera. We talked about in our concept meeting that there have been so many times that they are shoving trash or underwear out of the frame of the webcam before shooting to give the appearance of a clean, tidy room. We're going to catch this moment in a fun way. Maybe they'll be all dolled up from the waist up, and wearing PJs and fuzzy slippers from the waist down.

Right now Risa, our Artistic Director (that's her rough sketch above), and I are thinking of the composition and shape of the photo. It's still a little bit up in the air, so I may make a trip to the location for some more scouting shots. Next we'll be figuring out what props we want in the shot that GraceNMichelle would probably try to hide.

More Geek Goddess posts HERE

#geekgoddesses off to an incredible start

2010-02-11T09:52:00.010-05:00

Electronic invitations went out yesterday in several forms. We sent emails to friends, clients and other creative people with an image of Geek Goddess Christine Miller (of teleyoga) playing a video game.

Tweets about the project were on in full force with the tag #geekgoddesses. Response has been overwhelmingly positive. We've got a few more models lined up for the project including the hilarious and georgeous youtube vloggers GraceNMichelle. I'm almost out-of-my-mind excited about this prospect.

We got a mention on supercreative after pitching the idea to shoot three of the Geek Goddesses shoots as part of their supercreativeten project in Miami this summer. I'm not holding my breath about this one since our shoot pitches aren't Miami-centric. BUT this idea has gotten me really psyched about road-tripping down south for a few shoots.

The video game shot was the first idea that I had for Geek Goddesses. I was playing Rainbow Six Vegas (one of those really great shooting/killing games). Some guests were coming over for dinner and I rushed to hide the headset that you use to talk to other players because it was so embarrassingly dorky. My thought was that if girls played these games, I wouldn't have to be embarrassed. Thus the idea that girls DO play them when no one is looking. Can you imagine such a world?

Geek Goddesses is a new series that I'm shooting. And I'm blogging and tweeting all the behind-the-scenes stuff -- concepts, sketches (stick figures included). Get updates on the entire production HERE and on twitter via #geekgoddesses. Jump in with comments and tweets on what you want to see more (or less) of.

shooting a series - the nuts and bolts

2010-02-08T16:41:00.014-05:00

I had an idea to shoot a series of highly stylized photos. It's been one of those ideas that snowballs and picks up other ideas along the way. I'm thinking self-promotion, printing a photo 'zine, traveling to Georgia for some of the shoots. The ideas keep coming, and the spirit of collaboration is getting my creative friends excited about it.

I've decided that to me the creative and collaborative process of photography is as much (if not more) of a motivator as the final product.

AND I'm going to chronicle the process here and on twitter. I've already started, so there will be a little bit of back tracking.

The big idea is a series on Geek Goddesses. These will be stylized portraits of beautiful women doing geeky stuff. I have some notebook pages filled with ideas like Dungeons and Dragons, lab experiments and comic book collecting. I'm working with an Art Director/Stylist to really make the details look right. We wrapped just the other day on a shot of model Lauren Reeves pretending to read Cosmo, when she's really reading a science book.

Below is the sketch that my AD Risa Puno came up with for the edited image above. We have a few that really closely resemble the concept sketch, but we also wanted some variety and a few tight/vertical shots that could be used on a promotional piece.

I'm mostly shooting this project with what I have available to me. I'm getting friends to model and talent/location scout. I'm using my own apartment and borrowed locations for the sets. I'll probably end up renting props and costumes of some kind, but I'm hoping to find most of what I need.

Let me know if I've left something out. I want the whole process to be an open book.

multimedia featured on nwp.org

2010-01-09T12:27:00.002-05:00

A collaboration between myself and long-time friend John Bishop, co-founder of our multimedia collective honkyCat, is featured on the website of the National Writing Project.

It's a promotion for their Writing Marathon that encourages writers to BE WRITERS. They divide up into groups, head-out into the city, and... well... just watch the video.

on display: Cooper Hewitt

2009-10-13T12:52:00.003-04:00

A short film that I produced will be shown at the Cooper Hewitt National Design Museum. The exhibit is Design USA: Contemporary Innovation celebrates the winners honored during the first ten years of the prestigious National Design Awards.

Industrial designer Eva Zeisel will be honored in this exhibition and a short film that I did about her will be shown in the museum. It's a really cool idea. everyone will be loaned an ipod touch to view films about the honorees.

The Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum is located at 2 East 91st Street in Manhattan. And this is the film that will be shown:

Eva Zeisel: Distinguished By Design from Jeremy Bales on Vimeo.

A portrait of Eva Zeisel's life and current work as she turns 102 years old. By Jeremy Bales

bicycles

2009-09-04T16:43:00.001-04:00

Nice weather in New York yesterday.

dreamy light

2009-08-27T15:24:00.002-04:00

I've been experimenting a little bit with dreamy-looking sunlight in the background and unrestricted lens flare. Not quite portfolio material at this point, but still fun.

Central Park

2009-07-07T13:12:00.001-04:00

Sheep Meadow Soccer

New Yorkers take full advantage of the warm summer day during an impromptu soccer game in Central Park's Sheep Meadow on July 6, 2009.

I couldn't resist

2009-07-06T11:40:00.002-04:00

fireworks photo:

Fever Dream

2009-06-24T12:38:00.002-04:00

I had a fun shoot with improv comedy group Sid Viscous. They perform longform improv in NYC at The Pit.

They had wonderful ideas of mad scientists and we decided that the photo would be the perfect way to introduce the creation of their new longform style "Fever Dream."

Washington Square Park is OPEN!

2009-06-15T20:33:00.002-04:00

Yes. The park has re-open for now. They'll no doubt close off the parts that haven't been revamped yet for more renovations, but I think the brunt of it is over. Caught some hacky sackers celebrating the open space and nice weather recently. I used the opportunity to test out some new location lighting equipment.

Video: Backstage with The Baldwins

2009-05-14T16:56:00.005-04:00

I had a great opportunity to shoot a group portrait of an improv troupe called The Baldwins. They perform long-form improvised sketches on Wednesdays at The Pit in Midtown Manhattan.

We agreed that we wanted some kind of theme or group activity that told a story rather than a lame group shot against a brick wall. I was hoping they would waterboard each other, but they decided on a 1970's swinger key party a-la The Ice Storm.

My personal goal was to create lots of depth and layers in my picture. I opted to shoot diagonally across the living room to avoid putting anyone up against the wall. I could then light from the other two corners of the living room to create some shadow depth in the faces without casting ugly shadows on the walls or other furniture.

Here's some video of what we did:

Yeah, they were so excited about the photo that they wore their 70s clothes to the next performance and projected the picture as an intro. These guys were great to work with. You'll probably be seeing some of them in more of my future photos.

nyc camera bag essential

2009-04-29T15:21:00.004-04:00

Two years ago I was videotaping on a New York Subway platform. A cop told me to stop. I informed him that it was perfectly legal for anyone to take pictures or film in the subway and suggested that he check with his supervisor. He refused and insisted that I turn off my camera and wouldn't let up until I showed him my NYPD issued press identification card.

I was livid. I got my way, but I had to show a special ID. It is not a privilege of the press to be allowed to photograph public places. Anyone can and should do it. I was mad because this cop's ignorance of the law most likely intimidated many other photographers. He has probably bullied others and made them stop filming or photographing AND he might still be doing it because he refused to allow himself to become educated on the law.

Now there's an easy way to educate NYC Police on your rights. Thanks to a buddy of mine who was illegally arrested in Greenpoint for taking pictures of an accident scene, a new Operations Order has been issued that succinctly spells out the rights of photographers in public places. It's one page, so you can (and should) print it out and carry it with your camera when in NYC.

Here it is: print it out now. Print out ten and hand them out to your photo (or cop) friends.

The document covers your rights to photograph in public and in the MTA transit systems. It tells cops that they cannot view or delete your photographs. They cannot make you delete them. If they pull the counter-terrorism card, this document spells out the steps they are required to take if they actually believe your photography to be an act of terrorism.

HOW TO USE THIS DOCUMENT

This is important. Don't EVER appear to be angry when an officer attempts to violate your right to photograph. It is not possible for any officer to know each and every law that they are intended to enforce. I suggest that you express that you understand his or her concern (even if you don't). Then explain that there is no law against photographing in public places (or in the subway) according to Operations Order number 14. Then offer to show your copy. If the officer says he doesn't care or says that you need to move along anyway, ask him to check with a supervisor. Make a mental note of the officer's name and the number on their badge.

You might be through shooting for the day if the officer persists. You need to decide what you're willing to risk. You can move along and file a complaint later OR you can keep shooting and risk arrest. If you're arrested for taking pictures, this will get dropped. It's important that you never raise your voice or make a scene because they can come up with something else to charge you with.

My guess is that this Operations Order was widely distributed. I hope that we see far fewer stops of photographers. I'm also guessing that when the officer realizes that you are educated on the law they'll leave you alone.

IMPORTANT NOTES:

As a general rule, you cannot use "ancillary equiment" such as light stands without a permit. Tripods are generally OK as long as you're not blocking the flow of traffic. You also must allow traffic to flow freely into your frame (don't throw things at people who wander into your shot). Tripods are not OK in the Subway unless you have an NYPD issued press pass or permit. ALSO, it is illegal to photograph on the PATH train for some reason. So, don't try to whip out Order 14 there. You're even prohibited from 'sketching' on the PATH train. Creepy.

holga picture success

2009-04-15T14:14:00.003-04:00

It's been a little while, but I finally have a finished Holga photo talked about in a previous post. It's from a shoot I did with Mike Walters of Mystery Circuits.

I LOVE IT! I'm so impressed with the aged photo quality that the plastic lens adds. The mood is exactly right and the camera worked great with my off camera strobes (you can see my blue-gelled background flash behind Mike on top of the TV). I'm so excited about this addition to my camera bag, that I went ahead and added a holga gallery to the main website (even though there's only one picture in the gallery).

I intend to whip out the little red holga whenever I have lights set up. Please hold me to it.

I scanned the 2 1/4" color negative on a flatbed scanner with a negative scan feature. It doesn't give the file size that a dedicated negative scanner would, but it allows me to scan to the edge of the film. That way I can show off the heavy holga vignetting and the nifty fuji data burned in on the edges. Cool.

tech nerd: pocket wizard relay mode

2009-04-02T14:37:00.003-04:00

This video explains Pocket Wizard's relay mode and how to apply it in a situation where you want to use a remote camera with off-camera lighting.

I stayed up late on Tuesday night to have this post ready for Wednesday, then I realized what day it was. I don't think anyone can get away with a tech blog posting on April 1st after David Hobby's forehead slapper last year. So I waited.

So, how can you use your off camera strobes with a remote camera? This can come in handy in a number of situations including indoor sports photography like basketball where you're using a pre-focused remote camera pointed toward anticipated action. Often you've already put up some lights to use with your primary camera, but you want to make full use of them and sync them up with the remote camera as well. I've seen forum postings saying to just put everything on the same channel and fire them all at once. This ends up not working and causing all kinds of confusion. Here's the solution. Enjoy.

tech nerd: pocket wizard relay mode from Jeremy Bales on Vimeo.

Basically you need to set the transceiver on your remote camera to relay mode. It will receive a signal on one channel and send a signal on a different channel. This is an automatic function built into the Pocket Wizard transceiver (there's no switch to flip) and since everything happens in a split second, it can be confusing. The relay is you remotely trip the camera and the camera remotely trips the lights. Clever.

self-portrait artist (in the presence of greatness)

2009-03-19T21:37:00.008-04:00

I had a great opportunity to join Chase Jarvis and friends for one of his SOCIALS. He's in New York for some reason or another.

I think I was hoping to talk nuts and bolts at this thing. Conversation seemed to revolve mostly around personal philosophy, Nikon vs. Canon, and Chase's tennis shoes. He challenged anyone to go head-to-head, any camera vs. his iphone. No one accepted.

It was a nice place. The SoHo Grand.
Swanky. I'm glad I went. I mean this post less as a criticism and more as an invitation. Chase, let's get together another time. I can't promise that you'll get to sign autographs, but we can talk photography.

Am I being unfair? Probably. I didn't have it in me to wade through the Jarvis groupies to make an introduction. I'm sure Mr. Jarvis would have been more than happy to answer any question I had at the time, but it's wasn't quite my thing.

Very nice work with the tweets Chase. Keep it up. Your idea about transparency in this business is right on. Consider me an ally.

Website Live

2009-03-18T23:09:00.002-04:00

It's up. The new Website, jeremybales.com, is up and running.

Huge thanks to Brody Boyer for his help with writing my name and drawing some lines. I've spent a couple of months working with the folks at livebooks to put together a clean, professional-looking site to show off my pictures.

The great thing about the site is how easy it is to update, change, and re-arrange the pictures. I'm sure there will be lots of re-organizing as I get more more feedback on it.

I'm still tweeking the blog to make it look seamless with the site. I'd appreciate any help with that.

my own horn

2009-03-08T14:57:00.007-04:00

New York Press Photographers Association has announced winners for the 2009 Year In Pictures contest. I did well.

I netted a 3rd place award in the features category for my Times Square shot of Giants fans celebrating the 2008 Super Bowl victory.

A picture story about a crane collapse in Manhattan was also recognized.

I'm most proud, though, of the independently produced (and still unpublished) multimedia story that won 2nd place:

Eva Zeisel: Distinguished By Design from Jeremy Bales on Vimeo.

Alright, enough reflecting. Gotta keep moving forward. One goal this year is a fun, quirky, sports picture story and accompanying multimedia piece. It needs to be a complete, in-depth story with main characters and an actual plot. Not just a series of images. I'm thinking Skee-Ball team.

back from Belize

2009-02-27T14:26:00.002-05:00

Frequent flyer miles (thank you New York Daily News), a winter-time slow-down and a tiny spark of an idea paved (ironic?) the way for me to work in Belize. This was an experiment in working on spec in a foreign country. Could I come up with good enough ideas that would sell? Would I make ANY money on this trip? Am I crazy?

our reliable driver getting us to Blue Creek. (picture: TalismanPHOTO)

The idea was to work with Tally on a personal project, while we each tried to gather individual images of interest. I had a very non-committing nod from a wire news service toward interest in stock agriculture pictures. Another thought was to attempt a travel picture story pitch for a magazine.

It's a tough time for journalists. Oddly, publications aren't as interested in packaged stories with photos, it seems. They want to be able to break apart and rearrange pictures and words from multiple sources. I'm trying to grasp this concept with the emergence of multimedia work hitting the websites of news agencies, and I figure those editors will be looking for multiple sources of all media.

I'm a story teller who relishes the details and subtle flavor of a good piece of journalism. I wonder how these subtle elements will survive being mass produced and packaged as raw materials for assembly overseas. That's why I did as much detail gathering as I could for a work that Tally and I will build and finish ourselves.

Video and photos will be posted here as they are ready.

Oh, and my wire service friends came through for me and bought the agriculture pictures. Sweet.

lo-fi toy

2009-01-29T14:20:00.005-05:00

My lovely and talented girlfriend Tally of TalismanPHOTO surprised me this past Christmas with my first ever medium format camera. The Holga.

This one is made by lomography, so there are a few characterists in this Holga that the original one didn't have. It's got a tripod socket, a built-in flash with built-in colored gels.. Oh yeah, and it's bright red!

I suppose it'll be my little wink to Henri Cartier-Bresson. Next Christmas, I'm asking for a bedazzled Leica.

So I could use the Holga with my strobes, I modified it a bit and did a little testing:

There's no hotshoe, so I'm using an optical slave to trigger my strobes. You can set the slave to trigger the lights directly, but since I'm also shooting with the 5dii, I am using the slave to trigger a pocket wizard which then triggers the lights. It makes sense in my head.
This also means that the Holga flash will be firing. I like to have a bit more control of the light in my pictures than the Holga flash can guarantee, so I green-gaffer-taped three neutral density gels over the flash and tested each of the built-in color gels with a flash meter (took me a while to find it. It was in a box with some Beach Boys cassette tapes and an orange Nintendo Duck Hunt pistol). The red gel cast the weakest light (about f4 up close) which isn't enough to really affect the picture (the Holga's lens is f8, I think).

Yes, they make a Holga with a hotshoe. But not a RED Holga with a hotshoe.

I got a chance to test this out photographing Mike Walters. He's a musician/mad scientist who circuit bends toys and instruments to make wild sounds and thoroughly void the manufacturer's warranty. He calls his creations Mystery Circuits and he's sold a few to DEVO. I shot portraits with the 5dii, adjusted my lights for an f8 exposure chimping with my 'digital polariod', then I took a few with the Holga.

Here's the contact sheet.

This worked great. I love how there's no mask to keep the image away from the edge of the film.

Now I gots to get this scanned.