first test of the rebel t2i. 60 fps conformed to 24, first grading attempt in color. Used a Hague stabilizer and 50mm f1.4 prime lens!

I have been in a photo contest for what feels like eternity on yobi.tv, it’s for a prize of $10,000 and a trip to NYC. I have now made it to the top three and the final two weeks thanks to the votes of wonderful folk such as yourself. One person gets eliminated per week, so one of the three will be knocked out Sunday night, then votes are reset for the next week (so I need a new vote after Sunday!).

So please, vote for my photograph by going to the following link: http://yobi.tv/yobipics/finalists/view/44

The photograph you are voting for is one I did in the Salt Flats in Utah last summer on my long Warped Tour road trip:

Keaton Andrew Salt Flats

The color images in this post are shot on a Mamiya 645AF w/ the stock AF 80mm f2.8 lens. The black and white images are shot on Neopan 400 with my new baby, a Canonet QL-17 G-III.

An Horse

An Horse

An Horse

Kelley James

Kelley James

The Canonet QL-17 G-III is a wonderful miniature 35mm rangefinder. You don’t focus through the lens like an SLR, you look through the viewfinder on the top right and line up two images until they’ve merged. There are various Canonet cameras, mine has a 40mm f1.7 lens. It’s pocketable and fast! It’s been referred to as the poor man’s Leica, and I back that statement after using it some. It doesn’t match the build or optical quality of a Leica, but for the cost there’s not much that comes close. It’s surprisingly well-built, the camera feels wonderful to hold. It also one-ups most Leicas by having a leaf shutter rather than a focal plane shutter. This means full flash sync up to 1/500 of a second, even with a wireless system such as a Pocketwizard.

Fast flash sync is important to outdoor strobist photographers since you knock down ambient and freeze motion better at 1/500 than the 1/200th-1/320th of a second common in most current DSLRs. Indoors it doesn’t matter since the strobe’s flash duration is often even faster than that, 1/1000 of a second or shorter.

This camera has awakened the street photographer hidden inside of me that I didn’t know existed. There’s another advantage to the leaf shutter – It’s a mirrorless system. On a SLR, when you take a photograph you hear a big slap and THEN the photo is taken. That’s the mirror moving so that the sensor/film can be exposed. This causes vibration throughout the camera (read: blur) and is quite noisy. When I take a photograph with the Canonet, no one knows it happened! The leaf shutter is so quiet that it normally can’t be heard by anyone but the photographer. The 1/focal length rule for shutter speed also can be modified, I can easily handhold a sharp photograph at 1/8th of a second or longer with this camera. Of course, this doesn’t keep people or objects in the shot from moving, but it’s a great ability to have!

As with all that is great, there are issues that prevent perfection. While the Canonet can sync at 1/500 of a second with lights, that’s as fast as the leaf shutter will allow. A non-buld exposure of longer than 1/4th of a second can’t be made on the Canonet, either. You could have issues outdoors in sunlight if you’re shooting fast film, you can also forget shooting outdoor sunlight at a large aperture without the use of a ND filter. I find it difficult sometimes to focus using the rangefinder, the little yellow patch can be hard to line up sometimes. The rangefinder brightening trick can help with that, though. This camera also takes a now-illegal mercury battery, alkaline replacements have different voltages and cause issues with the meter exposing correctly. Correct me if I’m wrong, but I believe it tried to overexposure by 1-1.5 stops.

A blog post of mine would not be complete without photographs, so enjoy! I’ve only put two rolls of film through the camera so far, but I plan on making extensive use of this camera in all of my future work. I’m looking forward to shooting it with color film and strobes on a sunny day!

An Horse - Canonet QL-17 G-III

An Horse - Canonet QL-17 G-III

Never Shout Never - Canonet QL-17 G-III

Canonet QL-17 G-III

An Horse are a wonderful Australian indie musical duo signed to mom+pop records who have toured with the likes of Tegan and Sara, Silversun Pickups, Death Cab for Cutie and Cage the Elephant. They were coming through town (town being Atlanta) and I managed to snag a quick little photo shoot with them. I mainly shot black and white film though, so you’re going to have to wait a little while for me to post more photos from this shoot. In the meantime, here’s a digital photo from the shoot. The rest will come in a later blog post, stay tuned!

An Horse

Kelley James

Kelley James

Kelley James

Kelley James

Oh, and don’t forget to get crunk!

Here are the tear sheets from the AP article, it’s actually my first feature article in three years of doing photo shoots for them. WHOA… has it really been three years? I’m getting old. Also, there was a last minute change that caused them to swap the two photos… the second photo was supposed to be the spread, I was pretty bummed over that change since I shot it all with a certain usage in mind.

From First to Last - Alternative Press Feature 2010

From First to Last - Alternative Press Feature 2010

90’s grunge band, anyone? (outtake):

From First to Last

I also did some setups for their new label, Rise Records. Here are a few select images from that (not all were used):

From First to Last

From First to Last

From First to Last

I had a shoot a few weeks back for their label, Fearless Records. The photos were for promotional use, I’m assuming for the upcoming summer (warped tour and more). If you’re not a photographer, skip the following two paragraphs and go enjoy the photos!

I’m always attempting to figure out how to do something different in photos, I’m past the point of putting out the same drivel over and over. If you’re searching for inspiration, push yourself to photograph someone in a way they’ve never been captured before. I chose to shoot with gels and use multiple exposures on film to capture a unique look on some of these photos. Maybe for you this means lighting by using a mirror to reflect a light. It also might mean photographing without a face being shown at all.

Push yourself, find something else! It’s so difficult to separate yourself as an image maker in this industry. Would you rather be one of 500 people who put out a certain consistent look or one of one? Even if that image is one less sought for, you’ve put yourself ahead by having less competition. Strobist.com recently featured the work of Atton Conrad on a post about light painting. I highly doubt Atton is facing as much competition as most photographers.

anyway, photos from my Breathe Carolina shoot! The first four are film shots, the last one is digital.

Breathe Carolina

Breathe Carolina

Breathe Carolina

Breathe Carolina

Breathe Carolina

Quote from an Alternative Press story:

In 2006, Chris Shively, 27, a DJ from Chicago who performs as CHRISSY MURDERBOT broke his arm very badly and required surgery.

Chrissy Murderbot

“They put a metal plate and eight screws in my wrist, a procedure for which I owe about $10 thousand that I still haven’t paid. In any other developed country, this procedure would’ve been free, and it damn well ought to have been free in the richest country on earth.”

Really? So you get hurt, go to a hospital, have doctors work on you and supply you with medical items and products… and you think this ought to have automatically been free?

I’m not sure how I feel about my generation.

Photographed the new band Woe, Is Me on Sunday. Photo shoot location was at the Cotton Mill lofts, sweet place for shoots.

I can’t release the group shots yet, so here’s an individual photo of one of the members, Austin Thornton. It didn’t need much editing at all, just a slight contrast tweak and the removal of a cord in the shot.

I have a tremendous opportunity to win a contest. Here’s the link: http://bit.ly/yobipage

In short, the reason I beg you to take the two minutes to register and vote for me is because the prize is $10,000 and a trip to NYC. If there’s anything I desperately need, it’s that!

The contest is set up in rounds. I am currently in round two of five, 8 people out of the original 40 picked are eliminated after each round. Each week the votes are reset, so I really need you to come back each week and vote! Monday starts a new week.

Here is the photo that was selected as a semi-finalist:

http://www.keatonandrew.com

The bird was a really, really loud bird at a host home we stayed at. Wonderful place otherwise, but not a great sound to wake up to!

Ocean is Theory - Day nine (cold indiana)

Ocean is Theory - Day seven

Loud bird - Day eight

www.myspace.com/oceanistheory

www.keatonandrew.com

Here are the dates I have so far, we will be in Nashville the 22nd of Jan as well and there should be another TN date the 21st of Feb.. Most of the dates (26-19th) are with Nineball and Leo:

(also playing nashville feb 8th and apparently feb 13th date is now Jacksonville, FL, not Panama City. Feb 18th is In South Carolina now instead as well.)

Ingredients -

One giant blanket acting as a cheap 4×8 flag.

Three lights

One smoke grenade (note – obtain more next time. They don’t last long)

Various mixed surplus war apparel.

Fake blood and soot

One killer cigar.

Mix well in an empty field area, bake at ISO 100 400 and pick the best shot for final promotional use. Season to taste.

You can’t build it up so much that it’s only about you, some people do that and come across as full of themselves.

You must make a name of yourself and create an image that sells. Just as you might work in an industry where you create an image for other people in order to sell them, you must create one for yourself that sells you to people who want to hire you to create images for other people.

Image is important in the web 2.0 world.

Your portfolio must represent who you are as a creative. It must represent what you enjoy doing. It has to represent YOU.

YOU are your portfolio. Your PORTOFLIO is YOU. Represent it well.

Let’s capture it that way.

If you go to school for anything, go for business. Or accounting. Or anything that will help the business side of things along and help you keep food on your table and a roof above your head.

The best way to learn is to go out there and do it. Learn on your own and assist other people, learn from them. Just keep rule number one in mind, see the previous post.

Ignore the rules. Break the rules.

Rules are there to mold you. Destroy them and create new rules for everyone else, and then destroy them over and over again.

Do this and you will be five steps ahead of everyone else.