365 Project 20100310 - Subway Sweethearts (iPhone)

365 Project 20100307 - Who Needs a Camera Bag? (Video)

365 Project 20100307 - Who Needs a Camera Bag? from John Ricard

365 Project 20100309 - Blonshe and Angelique

(l-r) My niece Blonshe and daughter Angelique

365 Project - 20100308 Lifehouse Performance

Celebrity Photographer John Ricard shoots Lifehouse at Hard Rock Cafe in NYC 03/02/10

This was an easy shoot of a rather dull band.  For this image, I purposely focused on the drummer rather than the lead vocalist.  But since drummers aren't the focal point of most bands or even band images, I wonder if some art director will see this shot, look directly at lead singer Jason Wade and say, "Hey, this image is totally out of focus!"

365 Project 20100306 - Chapter Book

 

My five year old daughter loves to pick up "Chapter Books" now.  She can read every word in some of them, but since they are above her reading level, she can't really understand what she's reading.  The funny thing is, I'm always complaining that adult books should have as many pictures as children's books.  And yet here she is, picking up children's books that don't have pictures...

365 Project 20100305 - Shooting Video with Nikon D3s

 

Celebrity Photographer John Ricard shoots Marcelo Garcia

I have the honor of training in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu with Marcelo Garcia -widely considered one of the best grapplers in the world.  I expect to be doing a lot of photography for Marcelo, but since I recently acquired a Nikon D3s, I decided to shoot some video as well.  I'll do a detailed video about shooting video for my You Tube page at some point.  But for now I'll say this: I like the video mode, but as I expected it is far more difficult to shoot video with a DSLR than it is to do so with an actual video camera.

Filmmakers love the shallow depth of field that you can get with a DSLR video, but for many of us, this isn't desirable.  To ensure that I could get all of the action in focus, I was shooting @ ISO 5,000.  This enabled me to use f/11 on my 17-35mm lens.  By prefocusing to 5 feet, I  had a pretty large area in sharp focus, and I produced some excellent video.

The other problem is that you have to hold the camera far away from your face in order to see the rear screen for composition.  In this position your arms are at their weakest and it can be very difficult to keep the camera steady.

Despite these obstacles however, I was able to produce some really strong video with the D3s.  Since I've never had a super wide angle lens for my real video camera, the video from the D3s looks different (better) from any video I've shot in the past.  You can see my older videos on the NYBJJ You Tube page.

 

365 Project 20100304 - Jewish Wedding

 

I attended the wedding of my cousin, named John Ricard, who converted to Judaism.  This led to my sister saying, "Let me get this straight.  There's a Bishop, a Jewish man and an athiest all named John Ricard?!?!?"

365 Project 20100303 - Maybe we don't need ISO 128,000 after all?

 

John Ricard shoots Raheem DeVaughn

For the past few years I've owned 2 Nikon D3 bodies and a Nikon D3x.  I used the D3x for studio work, and the D3 bodies for press conferences, TV tapings, concerts and events in general.  On the day Nikon announced the D3s, I sold a D3 for $3,800 to help pay for the D3s. I had enjoyed having 2 bodies that are good at high ISO to cover events, but while I was awaiting the release of the D3s, I had to cover a lot of events with the D3x alongside my D3.   


Being able to shoot at high ISO is sometimes necessary, but often it just makes things easier.  The shot above was done on the set of BET's 106 & Park with the D3s at ISO 3200.  Settings were 250/5.  These are great settings when you only have about 3 seconds to nail a shot.  The 250 helps reduce blur from camera or subject motion, and the f/5 provides a little depth of field to ensure a sharp image.

Normally the second body with me this day would have been the D3 but since I had done a quick studio session in the green room with Brutha (the other act that appeared on the show today) I had brought my D3x.  If you visit forums like the ones on DP Review you'll find people who won't buy the D3x because it isn't good at high ISO.  Truth be told, the camera is good up to ISO 1250 and passable at ISO 1600.

This image was shot with the D3x at ISO 1250.  Settings were 125/4.

 

100% crop

Shooting at 125 means I have to make sure the camera is steady.  Also, I need to shoot quite a few frames to ensure there are some sharp images despite subject movement.  And, shooting at f/4 means my focus needs to be precise as well.

The point is, you don't always need super high ISO.  It's amazing to me that some shooters won't buy the Canon IDs MkIV because it isn't as good as the Nikon D3s above ISO 6400.  Is super high ISO that important that it becomes a deal breaker on an otherwise good camera?  I like having the high ISO capabilities of the D3s, but I also like knowing that I could do my job without it...

Good technique should account for something right?

365 Project 20100302 - Jay Sean

 

Celebrity photographer John Ricard shoots Jay Sean

365 Project 20100301 - "Wifey" Moving Picture

Wifey video by John Ricard 

This is my first test of DSLR video and I like it.  I think a lot of photographers believe they are instant videographers just because they can flip a switch and shoot video on their DSLRs.  I discussed the topic in a post on this blog titled,  "You Are Not a Videographer".

I don't like the idea of being forced to shoot video by clients one day in the near future.  Even if they are paying more.  The process of shooting video and stills is so different, that I don't like the idea of having to shoot both for clients.

That said, I am still excited by the idea of creating moving photographs like this one that closely mirrors a still images, but contains subtle motion where a still image cannot.

If you check my You Tube page, you'll see a big difference between what I have done with a video camera in the past and what this clip represents for my future.

365 Project 20100229 - Tia and Jade (iPhone)

 

I am shooting executive portraits on 2/29 and I don't post shots like that online since they are intended for in house use by the corporation.  So instead, I'll jump the gun and just post another shot from 02/28 instead since models are so much more interesting than executives.  And truth be told, I'm actually posting the 02/29 entry on 02/28 since the photo was taken that day anyway.

And frankly, this is one of the joys of doing a 365 Project for myself.  I can break the rules whenever I want, because I haven't made any rules for myself.

365 Project 20100228 - Oleena Ru and Monica (iPhone)

365 Project 20100227 - Nicki Minaj at Rip the Runway

365 Project 20100226 - City of Snow (iPhone)