Kiwi Camera Service

I shoot Nikon and I'm not impressed with Nikon Professional Services. Since I've been a member, I've tried to contact a regional rep to introduce myself. Never got a call back. As an NPS member, you get expedited repairs (which aren't all that expedited) and access to loaner equipment while you wait on your repair. Since I haven't talked to a rep, I don't have access to the loaner equipment. Great camera gear, lousy customer service. Companies can take a lesson from Apple as far as repairs are concerned. I sent a laptop to Apple this past monday that needed a new screen. I received it 3 days later by Priority Fedex. They paid for the shipping both ways.

I'm lucky I have the wizard of camera repair right here in central Florida. Michael Livera of Kiwi Camera Service has saved me more than a couple of times by repairing gear, usually within a day. I had a problem with a D3 this week-Michael had the part overnighted from Nikon and had the camera repaired the next day. If I had sent it to NPS, 2-3 weeks. He's a great guy and he has my gratitude for all his help. Call Michael when you need a repair and visit his shop. It's a roadside museum of photographic parts from the last century. (321) 303-2757

Michael is shot with my newly repaired D3 and a 50mm 1.8 Nikkor in available light.

Don't Call It A Comeback...Yet.

The Impossible Project, a group that bought manufacturing equipment from the defunct Polaroid Corp and leased the production facility Polaroid used in the Netherlands is getting ready to introduce their first product. See it here- http://bit.ly/YhmL Could Type 55 be a reality in the future?

I've just recently been added to the Alltop blog listing service. If you don't know about it, you should. It's a fantastic site that allows you to input a topic of your choosing and then provides a listing of pertinent blogs. You'll be up all night... Thanks, Alltop, for deeming me worthy! Cheers!

Soaking up the Sun...

Just finished an editorial shoot for a magazine I can name once it hits the stands, of a solar powered umbrella. The top of the umbrella is lined with flexible solar panels which pump out the juice for whatever you need under the sun...Pretty cool, I guess it's time to dust off the old school boom box. Blazing hot day in central Florida and Bryan, my assistant, and I were drippin'. Luckily for us, our beautiful model, Lauren kept it cool and never needed a makeup touchup. We're shooting with the Nikon D3, 70-200mm & 24-70mm Nikon glass and cross lighting Lauren and the umbrella from either side with two Elinchrom heads with reflectors and no other modifiers. After the shoot it was off for Cuban sandwiches and mango shakes at Cindy's Tropical Cafe in Orlando. Fantastico!

Nick Merrick Workshop

I recently returned from Santa Fe, NM where I took a workshop from the living legend, architectural photographer Nick Merrick (www.hedrichblessing.com). He's as great a teacher as he is a photographer and the class was far better than I even hoped for. Here are a couple of shots from the workshop...

Profiling

When working at college campuses, shooting profiles of students or teachers is a way for schools to have the people who actually teach or learn there get the message out about how great an experience it is to be at a particular college. The images here will be used as double page spreads in brochures and billboards along with quotes from people profiled.

The first shot of Staci, the soccer player has Staci lit from the left with a large Photek Softlighter and an Elinchrom RX600 from the right and another RX600 to the right of the lockers in the back bounced into the ceiling. The next shot of Doug, the math professor, is lit with an Elinchrom RX600 to his left and slightly behind him to give him a bit of backlight and also light the blackboard in the background. Another RX600 with a large softbox is placed to the left and a little in front of Doug. The last shot of Cathy, a graduate student, is lit with natural light streaming in through the windows behind her and an Elinchrom RX600 with a 10 degree grid as close and as in front of Cathy as possible and aimed directly at her face to give her just a little extra light. All three shots are with the Nikon D3 and the 70-200mm Nikkor zoom except for the shot of Doug which was made with the 24-70mm Nikkor zoom.

Times are Tough

Sometimes my assistant and I will grab a beer after a particularly long day and decompress. We were in the northeast recently in a small town hard hit by the economic crisis and stumbled into a small bar that catered to a community of veterans who are struggling like so many others. Not a day goes by that I'm not thankful for my Dad, Grandfather and all these guys and women who offered their lives in service to our country. Here's to the vets...