I’d Like To Thank The Academy

The wonderful and brilliant “A Photo Editor” (you’ll see why I’m kissing up below) decided to team up with photo consultant Leslie Burns-Dell’Acqua and do a “live” consultation with a photographer for purpose of posting the results on his blog. Much to my surprise, out of hundreds (thousands, millions maybe?) of photographers I was among the few he selected to get the consultation. However, there is one last step… the “winning” photographer is being selected by the public on his blog.Now, I’m not posting this to get you to go over there and vote for me. I just wanted to let people know that I was chosen to be considered for the consultation. Check out the other great photographers and vote for the one you like best. Of course, how many of them were in a life threatening car accident recently?Whether I win or not isn’t important, I am just happy to be nominated. Did that sound sincere?

Blinded By The Light

So far I haven’t made any posts about the technical side of photography, topics like equipment for example. This is actually quite amazing given that I am such a tech/equipment dork. It had to happen eventually so here I am with my first equipment post. And in true tech dork fashion, its a complaint.

I’ve been shooting with the Phase One P25/P25+ for about a year now. Before that I was shooting with a Canon 1DS MkII, which I still have and use for certain shoots. I’ve been mostly happy with the Phase One back, with one major exception: backlit scenes. When shooting into the sun or an artificial light, image detail is lost on a “strip” of the image near the light source. Here is an example:

Here is Phase’s response to the issue:

“the light is hitting the ccd at such a strength that is goes way above and beyond the dynamic range capabilities of the sensor. The anolog electrical signal produced in the pixel is more than it can handle and it gets passed to the next photosite in progression, hence the straight line. A similar thing happens in silver hallide crystals of film with the exception that they pass energy in all directions.”

Not very helpful to someone who likes to shoot with heavy backlight.

The problem I have with the response is, I never experienced this with my Canon 1DSmkII. So, I’ve sent off an email to Leaf to see if their digital backs would exhibit the same problem. I fully expect an email touting how great the Leaf back is and that it will not have the problem. If that is the case I’ll blindly buy the Leaf back and live happily ever after… yeah, right. In reality, if I do get a response saying the Leaf back won’t exhibit the problem I’ll have a Leaf tech come to my studio and prove it does in fact work well in backlit scenes. I’ll keep you posted on the results.

If anyone reading uses a Phase, Leaf, or another MFDB and sees or doesn’t see this problem, let me know.

How did I get here?

I always find it interesting how people get to my website or blog. Some come directly here and some arrive via another website. But often people get here via search engine searches. Here are some of the more interesting ways people found my website and blog:

i get naked but girlfriend doesnt
how to forget your girlfriend
post your girlfriend
why girlfriend doesn’t want pictures taken
how to become a maxim photographer
how to look charming to your girlfriend
forget girlfriend
photographing nude
naked workshop
dirty photo very funny picture happy christmas
you suck maxim
bel biv devoe (are people really still searching for them?)
alone with her nude
nude chilly
high school nudes (disturbing to say the least)
assignment photography self nude shy portrait
make my pictures look cool
stop junk mail from playboy
entry into locations other tourists can’t get into, photography
what singers ever get naked on the internet
40 year old woman naked
how to photograph a woman naked
how woman feel about having there picture taken while naked
dirty christmas cards
I DONT WANT TO BE YOUR GIRLFRIEND
san francisco undercover cop
PEOPLE LOOKING COOL
“tail end” “magazine”" ass”
jeffs naked girlfriend

And, just today I found my favorite:
naked girl duck hunters

I’m surprised I didn’t see this one in the list:
Jeff Singer is a complete hack

I get over 600 different search phrases a month. Since I don’t feel like going through the whole list, this list was only from the last few months .

Of course, by now everyone knows that search engines index websites based on the words found on the site. So, I’m going to seed this post with some words to see what other interesting search phases I’ll find in the future… here we go:
I’m often excited by
horses
impregnate
my next door neighbor’s
mexican brothel
best way to
how to tell parents
my boss is a
unrelenting itch
red bumps on my

That’ll do… can’t wait to see what I find.

FS: 2004 BMW X3

FS: 2004 BMW X3. Low miles, slight wear, air bags never deployed.

Some more pics from the tow yard.

Merry Christmas…. Look out!!!!

Unfortunately for my friend Jennifer (hey, this is her second blog entry in a row), she asked me to pick her up from her family’s Christmas to take her home… I say Unfortunately because on the way home, while driving along on the highway, we were greeted by an out of control car… The other car suddenly lost control and veered right into us. I had no time to react beyond a quick (and apparently futile) attempt to avoid the car. I’m not sure what things looked like on the outside, but on the inside we had a long and terrifying ride, most of it upside down. According to a very kind witness who stopped to help, we flipped 3-4 times. I can tell you that whatever was going on, it seemed like it lasted forever.

Thankfully nobody was seriously hurt… But as you can see by the pictures, my car didn’t fare so well. Even the firemen were amazed we just got out and walked away.

Some other nice people, possibly feeling the Christmas spirit, helped by stopping and gathering all of our things that were scattered about the freeway.

Needless to say I feel very grateful that Jennifer and I were not more seriously hurt than we were. After many hours in the ER getting patched up and after a brain scan (with which the doctors could find no conclusive evidence of my having one) they let us leave the hospital. Head and neck pain and some cuts are what we are left with today and hopefully that will pass soon.

Here is the fine print for you lawyers and insurance adjusters out there: (please read in very fast unintelligible legal disclaimer voice) I am in no way stating that we have no permanent life altering injuries. I am not a medical professional and have no way of knowing the true extent of our injuries. I am in no way relinquishing any claims for any damages caused by or because of the wreck. . Odds of winning are 1 in 3,000,000,000. No participation necessary. May cause dizziness, headache or leaky bowels. Offer not valid in Ohio or Maine

I figure i had to say something like that because you know lawyers and insurance people would just jump at the chance to use this entry as an admission of some sort.

Anyway, I hope everyone else had a good (and safe) Christmas… Here is to a great new year.