New authors and a new theme

This blog has been dormant for quite a while as I have been busy writing a book and shooting professionally more and more lately. It's nice to be busy again, this is the third recession I've been through as a photographer and the hardest part for me (aside from money) is that I just miss having projects in production. If I could, I would be on a set shooting at least three days a week. I just love the work.

I've found that the NYU blogs that I have set up in the past for individual classes are a little cumbersome, and since I originally started this blog as away to archive useful information for my students (even though they might have graduated) I figured I'd just open it up to my current students as a place to share information or thoughts about photography. Dig around a bit and you'll find more stuff on 5D video and even a couple of tips about health insurance that might be handy in the future.

I know that I've been kind of obsessed with the video capabilities of the 5D for a while now and I do think it's the future of what I do: create content and stories, but I actually think there's another very bright horizon for studio/still life photographers.

Check out my friend Charles Nesbit's website. Charles and I were talking one day about the death of print catalogs, which were the bread and butter for a bazillion studio photographers.

But what are ebay and amazon but giant interactive catalogs? Why are they still using still photography? Studio photographers have mad skills to light and portray things perfectly and digital photography allows us to take these images and animate them. Why aren't we seeing machines and appliances working? Why can't I shoot a video of a car driving down the road and then have the viewer click on the wheel and get detailed information on the tires and brakes?