©Jeff Neu & Dana Allen of PhotoSafari
Dana Allen, Managing Director of PhotoSafari contacted us with an interesting story about some recent close encounters he and his coworker Jeff Neu had on the job on the Busanga Plains of Zambia. Being photo pros, this team knows what they’re doing and how to photograph the local wildlife. No one, though, was prepared for what this beautiful female lion was interested in doing with the camera gear.
©Jeff Neu & Dana Allen of PhotoSafari
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Last year, photographer Curtis Baker found himself with an all-access pass to photograph Dolly Parton at her opening show in Nashville, Tennessee. Luckily, he brought along his PocketWizards so he could get two points of view for the price of one photographer!
He writes:
“After the intermission, I took the D700 and a Nikon 14-24mm 2.8 with a Manfrotto Magic Arm and attached it high up to the huge video wall behind the stage. I used a PocketWizard remote trigger and cord to fire off wide angle shots of Dolly facing the crowd. Every time the house lights came on to light the crowd and her hands went up, I would push the little button on my PocketWizard in my shirt pocket, hoping for a magic shot.”
Nice work, Curtis! Read his full account and see more of his music photography (and the PocketWizard shot) at his site.
All images and quotes in this post are used with permission and are ©Curtis Baker, all rights reserved. This story is ©PocketWizard. Please respect and support photographers’ rights. Feel free to link to this blog post, but please do not replicate or re-post elsewhere without written permission.
We’re very happy to share our short film featuring Bob Carey and the Tutu Project. This past year the Tutu Project has been featured in segments on CNN, The Today Show, Inside Edition, and countless other major media outlets. Few professional photographers have enjoyed the level of mainstream exposure Carey’s work has received.
A commercial photographer from Arizona with decades of experience, Carey’s wife Linda was diagnosed with breast cancer nine years ago. A self-portrait enthusiast who had previously transformed himself in several series of artistic images, Carey eventually began photographing himself in a pink tutu. Linda shared the images with her fellow patients while they were receiving treatment. Soon the Tutu Project was born, and all proceeds go to the Carey Foundation, which provides transportation, meals, and other daily needs to women undergoing breast cancer treatment. Images from the Tutu Project have been collected in the book Ballerina, published September, 2012.
Carey uses PocketWizard Plus III radios to execute his self-portraits taken on location around the United States. Stay tuned for a feature article on Carey’s career, gear, the Tutu Project, and more to be published on the PocketWizard blog.
Images and prints from the Tutu Project can be found at the Tutu Project site. Ballerina, other Tutu Project gear, and donation information can be found here. Bob Carey’s photography can be seen at his site. You can also see the video on Vimeo and YouTube.
All images and quotes in this post are used with permission and ©Bob Carey, all rights reserved. Video is ©PocketWizard, written and directed by Ron Egatz. Story is ©PocketWizard. Please respect and support photographers’ rights. Feel free to link to this blog post, but please do not replicate or re-post elsewhere without written permission.
At the 2012 Olympic summer games, Reuters is trying something new: robots! Using a system they have been developing since 2009, Reuters will place eleven robotic cameras high in the rafters of the Olympic stadium, a point of view otherwise inaccessible to photographers.
The photographers will then be able to control the cameras remotely using a joystick and fire them via wireless transmitter. Pictures will be transmitted wirelessly into their editing system where they can then be sent out all over the world.
Click here to read the full article on Reuters’ site written by Fabrizio Bensch and see more photos of the robo-cam’s installation. In the shot below we’ve spotted a PocketWizard MultiMAX radio trigger helping to get the angles no one else will.
Fabrizio Bensch captures one of his Reuters rigs for the Olympics. Check out the PocketWizard MultiMAX on the left. ©Fabrizio Bensch for Reuters
There’s no expiration date on wisdom, and that’s certainly true in this case. This article might be from 2007, but its wisdom still holds true. Robert Beck has been shooting for Sports Illustrated since 1986 and offered this helpful tutorial on how to use PocketWizard MultiMAX® radio triggers to simultaneously fire five cameras and a set of strobes.
This means every time he triggers the system, “each camera records a beautifully lit image at exactly the same instant, giving you/your editors 2-5 different angles of the same stupendous play.”
In the article, he details exactly how he and his assistant achieve this set up, what equipment is needed, and what settings need some extra attention. All in all, some excellent tips for maximum coverage, vital for high profile sporting events where you just can’t afford to miss a shot!
See the tutorial and don’t forget to check out Robert’s portfolio. An additional source of information on this setup can be found within the MultiMAX manual.
We love seeing people use PocketWizard technology in unanticipated applications. The following is one which made us smile.
Jakob Schiller has written a fascinating story for Wired on photographer Billy Hunt. For a series of portraits, Hunt felt he wanted to shake up his subjects, getting them to step outside their usual poses when getting their portraits taken. He used audio to make this happen, bringing a new dimension to the silent art of photography.
Hunt had a karaoke boom box wired so when a certain volume level is hit, a PocketWizard Plus II is signaled, which then triggers a camera, creating a portrait of a person screaming.
Schiller’s article also includes a strange, two-minute video of people screaming for Hunt in slow motion. Be sure to read the full article, and also check out Billy Hunt’s portfolio on his site.
We genuinely get excited when we see someone posting a photography how-to column on their blog. Here’s one which is worth your time and careful study.
More and more photographers are coming to realize PocketWizard radio triggers can be used for more than just triggering off-camera lighting. If you want to make the most out of your shooting opportunities, why not throw an aging camera up in the rigging or down on the floor of the track, doubling or tripling your coverage with one click of the shutter?
The blog inciteimages explains how Nikon shooters can do just that by publishing a post entitled “How to remotely trigger a Nikon camera using a PocketWizard FlexTT5 and PocketWizard MiniTT1.” Fourteen steps are outlined in the uncredited story. Presumably written by Mark Watson, an Australian photographer, the piece goes into detail on how to get your Nikon bodies shooting in sync with PocketWizard MiniTT1 and FlexTT5 radio triggers.
Even if you don’t shoot Nikon, you can learn something in this informative piece. Enjoy.
Check out more of Watson’s work at his site.
We’ve profiled action sports photograph Scott Markewitz before. We’re happy to see he’s still getting amazing shots. While shooting for Red Bull, he documented a mountain biking first. Here’s Paul’s own report of the event, along with some of his photos.
Paul Basagoitia Double Back Flip 02.04.2012 ©Scott Markewitz
Recently I was on a shoot in southern Utah with a Red Bull crew, there to capture Paul Basagoitia’s attempt at the first-ever double back flip on a mountain bike in natural terrain. I’ve worked with Paul many times and was excited to be there to photograph his attempt. If anyone could pull it off, it was Paul.
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When we last checked in with Philipp Schmidli, he was creating inventive remotely-camera photos of bobsleighs in action. Now he’s traded ice for water, and has some great images from a kayak shoot done this summer.
©Philipp Schmidli
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Just a tidbit today. Looks like this morning’s royal wedding was going to be covered by PocketWizard units doing remote camera triggering duty, according to Phil Noble, who wrote a Reuters blog post covering the gear to be used.
PocketWizard MultiMAX units as part of the Reuters team covering the royal wedding. ©Reuters
Noble reports, “Many of these will be fired remotely using pocket wizard [sic] wireless triggers and will shoot using wider lenses to give an overview of the pomp and ceremony as the day goes on freeing us to concentrate on the more important tighter pictures….”
Can’t wait to see the images, Phil! Thanks for showing the world how hard you and your team work. Cheers!
