Archiving

So I havne't been doing "real" work for a couple of weeks now. I have been working though. My life, at least 12 hours a day it seems, has been scanning nine years worth of negatives and slides.

Its a pretty smart plan... I hope.

All of my film or chrome based images are in archival sleeves nominally organized by date in 3-ring binders. I put a sleeve on my flat-bed scanner and hit the scan button. So I have a hi-rez digital contact sheet.

The next step is potentially the most mind bending: putting dates on all of them. I was an idiot and didn't put dates on the sleeve. Love it. I should, I hope and pray, be done with the scanning in the next two weeks.

The final step, of course, will be picking images and scanning them.

New video from yesterday

Here's an edited version of that video from yesterday. I added the stills to it. I'm heading to a dinner party tonight and might take the kit along mounted on my Leica M6.

Simultaneous video and stills

I was hanging with a friend last week when he mentioned a cool piece of kit. Its a way to mount a digital p&s to the flash shoe of a DSLR. Here's a picture:

Another snapper here in town has been doing it. I'll see him tomorrow night at a dinner party to see how, why and what he does with the video. I did notice two minor downsides to this set up. The center of the p&s sits about three inches above the center of the DSLR lens. Not noticeable unless you're really close to a subject, like within two or three feet, but the difference is there. The second minor downside is probably temporary. The p&s lens is ever so slightly off center. Not too big of a deal but some people will always quibble.

Here's some video I did at the camera store (I shot it as an .avi with 640 @ 30 fps then save it as a .mpeg with the same dimensions and fps):

And the photos I made at the same time:

This is the kit:

A couple of side notes. First, there's also the possibility of using my new helmet cam. The current mount may not work but the camera store owner said its possible to make one. Second, the camera store owner also said there's a way to rig up a p&s and audio mic. He went under a counter and pulled out a double shoe mount. Sorry no pictures but here's a quick description. There's a male hot-shoe adaptor and a small platform on top with two other female hot shoes. The male end goes on to the flash. The female shoes on top are for the accessories. Very keen eh?

New photos

Sometimes I take photos. Even at stop lights. Tonight I was driving home over Capitol Hill and then up N. Capitol Street and snapped these. I wont say when I made them.

Enjoy.

*** UPDATE Helmet Cam video. ***

UPDATE *** I've just posted some more video I shot at night. ***

I just shot this video a few minutes ago in my kitchen. But this is pretty cool and something I wish I'd thought about in Iraq. Its a helmet cam. I bought it last night at a store going out of business.

Here are a couple of the features:

• Full-function, hands-free, digital recording
• Waterproof up to 3 meters and shock-resistant for extreme conditions
• Mounts easily on helmets, handlebars, and other sports equipment
• 640 x 480 VGA resolution at 30 frames per second
• USB and RCA cables included for easy playback on PC or TV (NTSC)
• SD card expansion up to 2GB – onboard memory is 32MB

Fair enough on the feats. I like this little device. In fact, I just might carry it aound town with me. Ok, so it's crappy video. And the audio is aweful. I can already tell the low light capability of this thing blows. Who cares? Its fun and a cool piece of kit (who said everything has to be "professional" to work?) Kevin Sites used something similar on the West Bank.

The only drawback is vertical. If you forget you might shoot the video vertically when its mounted on a helmet (which I plan to do). For example, check out Video 3. However I just fixed that problem.

Look for more here.

4,000

4,000 Dead. 29,320 Wounded. 33,320 Casualties.

I look at these figures now and feel something different that most. I know more than my fair share. Some were friends. Most were acquantinces. All of them to some degree left a varying mark on my life.

Some of their images, brief thousandths-of-a-second views, are in my archives. I run across them from time to time wondering what they were thinking when I clicked the shutter (Maybe I failed in my job then. After all the job of any photographer is to capture someone's soul).

A figure of my own: 22 months. That's how much time I spent downrange. I spent that time searching for stories and wondering just what the hell was going on. (Trying to make sense of it all. Now, almost 24 months after coming home I still haven't. Maybe I will. Maybe I won't.)

All of it -- the helicopter rides, the long patrols at night in a Humvee barely armored enough to stop a 9mm bullet (!!!), the raids and down time -- was one big mind trip. And to know someone (a lot of someones actually) who died... it makes the mind trip jump right off that cliff. Getting your head around it is nearly impossible. To know someone you've met, spent time with, eaten with, played cards with, joked with, shared a bottle of water with in the searing searing heat... to know they're not coming home... it hurts. It doesn't matter if we'd only exchanged a few words in the chow hall or seen each other at the PX. They were people who deserve to be remembered.

At times as I write this I feel like a real ass. I've managed to let my first true professional love -- writing -- slip into a state where I find it diffcult to write anything intelligible. The muscle memory in my brain of putting pen to paper or finger tip to keyboard has lapsed into a gooey fat. It takes extrodinary effort in concentration to write words... to break through the goo to express how I feel. Maybe I've let The War get to me, to shut me down. Maybe The War did affect me and I shut down intellectually and emotionally to accept it all.

I do know this: some words need to be out. Including these. I feel terrible about the loss each family has suffered. I hope it ends. I hope it ends soon. I hope all of this was worth it.

More frame grabs

These grabs are made from the squared5 program. The Quictime video was made on a Panasonic DMC-LX2. Like this one. Nice eh? Theses photos/frame grabs aren't poster size quality but good enough for Web pages.

Deinterlaced

Interlaced

Deinterlaced at 1.8 gamma

Deinterlaced at 2.2 gamma

Interlaced at 1.8 gamma

Interlaced at 2.2 gamma

Now do I like this? Professionally no. Personnally no. I feel kinda dirty thinking about as a still photographer. Editors won't though. They'll something "good" and "print" it. Thus I need to get over that dirty feeling and go with it.

The DSLR won't disappear from editoral photography. In newspapers they'll be used for portraits. For the time being, they'll be used in sports but I'm afraid that will end with the introduction of the Red 1 and its follow ons. In magazines, fewer and fewer people will work with still cameras like the Nikon D3 or the Canon 1ds MkII or MkIII. People like Chris Hondros, Brent Stirton and the boys and girls at VII Photo will work with still cameras on a full-time basis. Commercial work will still be done exclusively with still cameras though.