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[OM] Freedom, How cool is that!

Subject: [OM] Freedom, How cool is that!
From: Ken Norton <ken@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Fri, 6 May 2011 10:10:16 -0500
So, a few weeks ago I told you guys about being commissioned to do the
photography for a book. Yesterday we did a fair chunk of it.

The choice was made to shoot the entire project on film. This was an
artistic decision, but also turned out to be a practical decision. Huh? How
can that be?

Well, it's like this.

Much of the photography was very intense in time-constraint. I had to have
the shots completely previsualized and the camera set prior to the shot.
There was absolutely no time for chimping. There were children involved and
of course, this being a commercial project, model releases had to be gotten
for everybody. The MR issue turned out to be a bigger deal than expected
because we literally had to get stuff signed while chasing moving
vehicles...

OK, so the information you all really wanted to know...

The camera gear for almost all shots was the OM-4T with MD2 and 35-80/2.8
zoom. Film was exclusively Kodak Ektar 100. Alternate equipment used:
300/4.5 and 50/1.4, monopod and baby tripod. In the camera bag I also had
the OM-3Ti as backup, Sekonic lightmeter and my filter packet. Oh, and the
iPad for model-releases. Like an idiot, I accidently left my 24/2.8 at home.
Duh!

I'm not at liberty to describe the project in too much detail, but it
involved specially shaped pastries, known as "Dutch Letters". These were
custom made and not very edible. The funny thing was that this was done
during a festival with parades and stuff. So, in a baby stroller we had a
stack of pizza boxes stuffed with these larger-than-normal pastries. It was
great fun moving around amongst thousands of people with a dozen pizza
boxes. Talk about popular! Next time, we'll actually have real pizza in it
and sell it for profit. :)

Due to the festival, parking was a nightmare and then with the chasing down
of parade floats before and after the parades as well as getting shots from
rooftops, there was a LOT of walking/running/trotting involved. Not to
mention the trespassing. Without exaggeration, I think we hoofed it for over
10 miles over a 10 hour time period.

The cover shot for the book happened to be the first picture we took! That
wasn't planned, but when the opportunity struck, we exploited it. The
picture was sooo cute! As we staged it, the parents (remember the model
releases?) immediately pulled out their cameras and got the picture
themselves. No problem. Call it payment. Anyway, it was absolutely adorable.

There was one picture which caused us no end to grief. We knew the concept
of what we wanted, but the picture refused to happen. We must have hoofed it
for four or five miles JUST for this one picture. All day we were trying to
get it but we had to deal with refusals, political-correctness (which forced
us to rethink things a little and altered which letter to use) and
logistics. Finally, as the night parade was beginning, (we're running all
over the staging area trying to find the one float with the person we
needed) we managed to get the guy to agree to the picture but at the tail
end of the parade where the kids were getting off. Meanwhile, I have no clue
what to do with the shot--nothing is working about it. With about three
minutes to go, the float is half a block away from us and its generator runs
out of fuel which causes the lights to turn off! Understand that this was
the ONLY opportunity for this ONE critical picture. An anchor picture for
the book which had no alternative. This was it. I'm out of town for the rest
of the festival and there is no restaging it. Talk about deadline!

So, with extreme panic setting in, I ask if it's possible to get the
generator fired up for a picture. The float driver gives it a shot and the
lights come on... for a few seconds.  "Stop" I tell him. Let's wait till I
get all set up. So with all, but two kids off the float and the main
character, I get them in position. There is just one dim street light a ways
away so I'm working the OM-4T entirely by feel. We get everything all
positioned and I'm wedged up in a nasty position about 10 feet off the
ground. I've got a leg wrapped around something and the other foot with the
toes stuck under something to hold me in place while I'm half dangling. I
ask the guy to fire the generator up. The lights come on just long enough
for me to rattle off about 10 frames. I did estimate the exposure and then
wildly ran bracket shots. Fuel ran out, lights went off and that's all there
was. Finished! The fuel lasted for maybe five seconds at best. Because of
the proximity of the lights to the characters my ideal exposure was probably
around F2.8 at 1/15 at ISO 100. I used my shoulder-stock thingamabob for
that.

Back to the subject line: Freedom, How cool is that!

Earlier this week I shot a two-day even completely digital. The camera's
exposure system just isn't the same as the OM's. Night and day difference.
Therefore, there was a lot of chimping involved--especially in regards to
the flash exposures. But MY operating mode with digital tends to be
compose-shoot-chimp-recompose-reshoot-rechimp-repeat... With film, I tend to
think-compose-shoot-shoot (two shots minimum for anything important in case
of damage to the negative--I almost always do in-camera dupes for security).
The choice in shooting film was absolutely liberating. I KNEW that the film
was going to be exposed correctly and even if it wasn't, I can fix it in
post.

Another aspect, which turned out to be quite significant, was the
viewfinder. Because of the tricky lighting, narrow DoF on some shots and
overall aesthetic, manually focusing lenses were required. The OM viewfinder
proved to be so pleasurable that it makes me wonder why we put up with the
seriously junk viewfinders we get today. More to that point:

I suffer from the occasional migraine headache which can sometimes be quite
horrid. Well, yesterday was one of those. It was a puker of a headache. The
10 miles of running around probably helped it, but my vision was actually
affected by this headache. I actually wouldn't have been able to focus any
of my digital cameras with their nasty viewfinders. But the OM's viewfinder
in conjunction with the 35-80 proved to be exactly what I needed. The image
snapped into place and the focusing aids helped immensely. The headache
finally subsided as it got dark, or maybe it didn't but the body was hurting
so bad by that point that the migraine took a back seat. Regardless, the
artistic choice, made last month, proved to be beneficial to me yesterday.

Something else which is worth an observation or two: Responsiveness. We were
dealing with lots of children. "The Decisive Moment" isn't some cliche, but
actually a real thing. Granted, having to manual focus puts a bit of
pre-setting of the camera in place, but one thing about the OM-4T with MD2
is just how responsive the camera is. You press the MD2 shutter-release and
the camera fires NOW. Not a half-second later, not five seconds later, but
NOW. It really does make a difference! Also, the shutter-release button is
so smooth that you don't move the camera while pressing it.

When shooting casually, the OM-4T, MD2 and 35-80 is one seriously hefty hunk
of camera gear. But when it comes right down to intense shooting, that heft
really comes in handy and you really don't notice the weight. It's just
balanced real well and the MD2 seems to counter any shutter-shock that the
camera is generating.

AG
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