Calm Before The Storm

Calm Before The Storm, originally uploaded by ArcherVision.

This was taken moments before all hell broke loose on flight 3472 from Washington DC to Hartford Ct. After 2 grueling hours for a 45 minute flight, 3 hair-raising attempts to land and my reconsidering religion, we diverted to Providence RI for a scary landing. After several passengers called the police once we landed, demanding to be let off the plane, we joined them. No way was I about to stay on for "another try". Happily, we rented a car and drove two hours with a very nice retired couple, getting there only about 30 minutes after the plane made it to Hartford. Either way, the return flight must have totally sucked, as the weather did not improve much. I will certainly fly again, but next time the clouds look like this, I will wonder how horrible it might get.

Del Padre Digital shoots Johnny Saxx video

4k RED ONE, originally uploaded by ArcherVision.

I took our brand-spanking new RED ONE camera out to Detroit to shoot a music video for Hip-Hop artist Johnny Saxx recently. Including a shoot in Blue Sky Studios, an office set and club scene in Lansing and a moving car scene on Lake Shore Drive in Grosse Pointe, it was a very full couple of days.

The rig was fitted with The Redrock microMattebox which we got a few days before to write a review on the product for Studio Monthly Magazine. You'll have to wait for your issue to find out the full story, but I can say it was sweet!

The video is for the song "Take Me Away" and is now in editing. Of course, the RED workflow is, let's say...a challenge, but the image quality and dynamic range is just astounding. Paired with our Nikon prime lenes, we had excellent depth of feild control and plenty of light. Incredible support and lighting from Dave St. George of Advanced Multimedia. I literally would not have made it through without him, and his parents, who put me up for a solid four hours of sleep per night, and wonderful breakfast in the morning. So much better than a hotel.


The footage is ready to go, so I get to editing tomorrow, after Nino DelPadre spent the last 6 days and nights working out the kinks in the notorious RED workflow. Talk about "Bleeding Edge", at this point we are ready to get to the fun part, seeing it come together.


The video is headed for MTV, BET and ANT1 in Greece, so of course we plan to pull out the stops and get pretty extreme with the edit and postproduction. Johnny is a very cool guy, and his crew are all righteous dudes, so we are looking forward to heading back to Detroit soon.


First, let's finish the video.

Barney Family Mausoleum, originally uploaded by ArcherVision.

Standing Guard

As a photographer, you constantly want to find new subjects and new places to shoot. But more often than not work, weather, traffic jams or missed air shows (see post below) lead you to what is available to shoot. At least you get out, right? I am fortunate to have a pretty cool spot called Forest Park right at the end of my street. I hiked into the park from the Washington Street cul-de-sac after taking this quick pic of a very cool house at the end of the street that has a very out of place Antebellum type of look.

I don’t have any idea about the house, but I can imagine the original owners most likely, being the closest neighbors, knew the Barneys pretty well. Everett Hosmer Barney, whom made a fortune with his famous Barney and Berry ice skates, donated his incredible 110 acre park to the city of Springfield. It is one of the nicest city parks in the country, and has many rare plants from Europe, Egypt, China, Japan and India.

And it also has a very interesting subject to shoot, the Barney Family Mausoleum. This sun-draped sphinx guards one of Springfield’s most interesting and generous figures. It was also a subject of one of my Grandmother’s favorite photos of mine, a black and white from when I was in high school. I will have to dig that up and scan it.

Air Show

Air Show, originally uploaded by ArcherVision.

After about 2 hours of horrible traffic attempting to get to the Great New England Air Show at Westover Air Force base I just plain gave up. It was the first air show at Westover in 4 years, and the first one I almost got to see in more than 10 years. I had really been looking forward to shooting, so I bailed out of the traffic and headed to one of my stand-by photo haunts, Forest Park.

While shooting the Barney Family Mausoleum, a place I have shot countless times but keep going back to, I looked up and realized that 40,000 feet was about as close as I was going to get. I kind of like the shot I got. Sort of minimalistic, I'll admit it but it does give you the feeling that some things are just way out of arms reach.

Del Padre Digital goes RED!

Nino's RED Camera, originally uploaded by ArcherVision.

RED Camera, that is.

Over a year in the waiting, we finally took delivery of our RED and gave it a test drive. It is absolutely incredible at 113 frames and the image is flawless.

Nino is currently out in Denver shooting with it for clients Proficient Audio and Speakercraft. We produced video elements for both company’s booths at this years CEDIA show, the "Big One" for the audio industry. We created 8 new product videos for Proficient that included some new 3d renders and studio photography of their new line of sub woofers, electronics and in door-out door speakers.

The Speakercraft video, playing on a 17 foot screen, has interviews of the SC crew talking about business and audio gear chroma keyed onto some wacky footage, ranging from cattle drives and cowboys (Last Stand At Apache Pass, 2005”) to Roman epic footage (Romulus, 2007). And don’t forget Duck and Cover, which coincidentally was made way back in 1952 by Archer Productions (unfortunately no relation) and plenty of Godzilla. And all that is intertwined with footage of the incredible "Goth du'Sole-like" troup Lucent Dossier.

Although it was full HD and we had about 2 weeks total to go through about 5 hours of source footage and edit down to a 40 minute loop with music including the Doors and Rage Against the Machine, it turned out killer and one of the funnest projects we have had in a while.

If you are looking to shoot with a RED camera, you can rent our services through-out the North East and pretty much any where else you want to shoot. Check out our site for more info and keep an eye out for samples from the RED soon.

www.delpadre.com

Stank Puss

Stank Puss, originally uploaded by ArcherVision.

O.K. Even I can't make this up. This was an actual product, on sale at an actual arts and craft fair and were actually scratch and sniff panties. Made by Dirty Britches, these would make killer stocking stuffers.

Face In The Crowd

LEGO Crowd, originally uploaded by ArcherVision.

We are all individuals. All have our quirks. Good points and bad. But we also all have things that make us different. Sure, maybe we all have the same type of arm sockets and hand shape. But we can wear a different helmut or possibly a full face war mask. You might not be able to bend at the waist too well, but give the head a full Linda Blair turrn, and you really stand out.

So, next time the pegs just dont fit and you feel like a brick remember this: what fun would it be if we were all the same?

Big Brother & the Holding Company

Big Brother & the Holding Company, originally uploaded by ArcherVision.

August, 2 2008
Mill Street Blues with Big Brother & the Holding Company
millstreetbrews.com, South Bridge, Massachusetts

Great show and nice folks. Mary Bridget was incredible and did Janis proud. I took these shots right after my own band, The Concoction warmed up the crowd. The set was fun and the drum kit sounded great on stage, one of the factors that I judge gigs on. Had fun seeing David Getz lay down some nice grooves. Drums and Photography. Two of my favorite things.

Besides having low light and shivers up my spine from Mary's intense vocal performance, I think I got a few shots that I like. Hopefully, you agree.

If you get a chance to check out Big Brother...do it. It's a great night of masterful music and if you close your eyes, you can picture Janis, belting out some serious classic rock.

check out:
http://www.bbhc.com/main.html
http://www.theconcoction.com/

King of All Frogs

King of All Frogs, originally uploaded by ArcherVision.

When given a choice of a quick shot out of a moving car with an unfamilar, very slow point and shoot or no shot at all....I have to go with whatever I can get. And sometimes you get a really interesting image.

I was on my way to Mohegan Sun to see Rush with my friend Shawn when we came on this bridge adorned with some pretty fancy frogs.

Not the shot I would have liked to get, but not a total croaker either.

Why Ducks Float

Feather floating, originally uploaded by ArcherVision.

When shooting in a place that you have been to countless times, you need to start finding new things to capture. Today, that was the case for me at Forest Park. One block away and also one of the largest urban parks in the country, I have hiked, biked, walked and shot my way through every inch of it by now. So, today I took only a long lens and went after the small things. The less obvious. I took a little more time. Occasionally standing in one spot looking for something with detail, or an interesting play on the light.

A wire mesh and stone block wall keeps the far edge of one of the duck ponds from totally backing up into the outlet of a small stream that I have been going to for so long, the edge of the pond has filled in about 30 feet. I guess that would do it, about a foot a year.

Anyways, while I was on that stone wall, crossing to the other side of the end of the pond I found this nice single white feather, most certainly from one of the ducks I shot a little earlier. Maybe it was even from Whitey Beakman. This one lone feather was floting on the green film of tiny little pond things. You know the ones. The ones that look like green scum from a distance, but are really little green floating things. (I would get more specific, but I’m tired.)

Looking closely at this picture you can see how little of the feather is actually touching the surface. Now, I’m no specialist in North American aquatic plant studies, or how the upward force on an object produced by the surrounding liquid or gas in which it is fully or partially immersed, due to the pressure difference of the fluid between the top and bottom of the object, enables the object to float but I think this may have something to do with why ducks don’t sink.

Flowers. Everyone is doing them.

Yellow Bloom, originally uploaded by ArcherVision.

Does this sound familar?
You spend countless hours of searching for new places to shoot, tons of expensive fossil fuels to find them. You take photo after photo, retouching and cropping. Experimenting and learning. You buy expensive cameras and test lens after lens. You then only put up the good ones. The ones worth pushing get into Flickr groups and maybe, if you're lucky someone notices.

Or:
You take a small point and shoot, grab a close up of a flower, and "Zing...!" you're being invited to groups left and right, favorited, blogged about and might even end up on a kitchen wall some where in Sheboigan.
Go figure.

Caves at Grotto Bay

Caves at Grotto Bay, originally uploaded by ArcherVision.

So much to talk about....so little time.
Here is one of many images from my recent honeymoon in Bermuda. Like most die-hard photogcouples, it turned into a great photo safari with the areas incredible views, colors and locals being around every twisty narrow road.

You can check out some of my Bermuda images here

Our Sewer Cap

Our Sewer Cap, originally uploaded by ArcherVision.

And no oxygen in sight!

My studio set

Studio set, originally uploaded by ArcherVision.

My kit while recording at Bat Cave Studios, Southbridge MA. The Concoction finished up our cd "Sonic Elixirs Served Daily" and you can rush right over to www.theconcoction.com to get a copy. It is also up on www.cdbaby.com .

UH-60A Black Hawk

UH-60A Black Hawk, originally uploaded by ArcherVision.

One of my favorite shots from a shoot I did for Barnes Aerospace while shooting the Connecticut Army National Gaurd.

GT2 @ Lime Rock Park

GT2 @ Lime Rock Park, originally uploaded by ArcherVision.

Spent a day last weekend at Lime Rock Park, a unique and historic road racing track in Connetticut to take in some racing and research for a documentary I am thinking about making.

Being an open track day there were plenty of cars from daily-drivers to classics to high-end highly tuned sports cars. Although this GT2 almost looks like its parked, it was actually wizzing by at about 100.

This is great track for spectators, offering rolling green lawns instead of grandstands and more trees than billboards with oil company logos. You can also learn to race there at the Skip Barber Racing facility.

I really need to go back and do that!

Eco 8 Royal after test flight

Eco 8 Royal after test flight, originally uploaded by ArcherVision.

Weather still cold, but still getting out flying a bit...in between crashes, that is.

ArcherVision Helicam

Not entirely finished, but it is flying....well, sort of. All I need now is a new Bell-Hiller Mixer Arm, which I broke.

Need....bigger.....heli....!