I use to have a love/hate relationship with the AA battery. They was small, lightweight, easy to carry, and most importantly it powered my beloved Nikon flash units which all together still weight less, and take up less space than a single mono-light strobe head – that was the love. The hate – They didn’t last very long, recycle times were slow, the good ones were expensive, recycle times were slow, they were expensive, recycle times were slow, they were expensive. Yes I know repetitiveness can get old, but so can feeding $19 worth of batteries to each flash every single wedding. No longer though. I have finally found a rechargeable battery that lives up to my demanding standards. Powerex AA Batteries are 2700mAh NiMH sticks of pure power pleasure. My Nikon flashes now charge with authority and recycle times are dramatically improved. The best part is I am no longer throwing away $60 every wedding. I am never going back to disposables again.
Please Nominate Me for Best of 225
225 Magazine is now accepting nominations for their annual Best of 225. Please take the survey and nominate me for best visual artist (I think it is on the bottom of page 3). Please note: once you click done you can’t go back and edit your entries. This is just the initial nomination process. It will then be narrowed down to the top 5 in each category and then a second round of voting will take place. So please help me make the list.
Enter Kenneth Wilks as best Visual Artist
Submit your nominations for this years Best of 225
Nikon Annouces 2 New Wide Angle Lenses
Yesterday Nikon announced the introduction of two new wide angle lenses.
This is the new AF-S 16-35 f4G VR. It features a constant f4 through out the zoom range, integrated silent wave auto focus, vibration reduction, and Nikon’s renowned Nano coated ED optics. This lens seems to perfectly positioned to help fill a gap in Nikon’s advanced amateur / pro-summer lineup.
This is a lens I’m really excited about. It’s Nikon’s AF-S 24mm f1.4G. Yes that’s right Nikon has finally heard the cry of professional Nikon shooters and started to reinvest in prime lenses. This is an ultra-fast wide-angle prime with integrated silent wave auto focus. I’m really looking forward to getting to try this lens. I only hope its has a longer production life than Nikon’s previous attempt at an ultra-fast wide-angle their venerable 28mm f1.4
Photography Quote – Gregory Crewdson
“Every artist has a story to tell and the impossible task as an artist is to express that story visually.”
- Gregory Crewdson
I’m a serious slacker – sort of
I haven’t posted in the past week, but in my defense life has been crazy. Wednesday and Thursday most of my time was spent preparing for a website update that should happen next week sometime. Friday I spent half of the day at the DMV getting a new license. Finally!!! The second half of Friday I was helping my little sister move into her new apartment in New Orleans. Saturday was a mix of shooting, and staking out my property lines in preparation for construction. Sunday was some bridal consultations, helping a friend cut down some trees and mark out his land, and then the Super Bowl. I have to be honest trying to write everyday has become more difficult than I first imagined. I am finding I’m too busy living my life to actually write about it.
14-24mm Oh how I want Thee.
This is the Nikon 14-24mm 2.8G I had the opportunity to borrow one from a fellow photographer last friday, and I am now in love. This lens is AMAZING. It is an ultra-wide zoom that has a crazy 114 degree angle of view. I had to be extremely careful when I was using it to not get my own feet or knees in a shot. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to put this beast through its full paces as we were confined to indoors because of the weather. I’m going to see if I can convince her to lend it to me again on a nice bright sunny day so I can play with it outside.
After having used this thing I am convinced that it has to get moved higher up on my toys I want list.
Just got WP for my Blackberry
I just got the new Wordpress client for my blackberry and I have to try it out. Hopefully now I can post a bit more often.
Trash the Dress: Emily Mabile – New Orleans, LA part.1
Saturday was great. I shot an awesome bridal portrait and trash the dress session in New Orleans. This was an all day event between packing, travel, preparation, walking the streets of New Orleans to get to the various locations, and the necessary breaks in shooting for poor Emily to warm up. This girl was a serious trooper. It never got above 50F, the wind was blowing at 15 to 20 mph and she never once complained about being cold despite the fact she was in a halter dress.
I also have to give thanks to my three assistants: Mike Liuzza – a great friend who also happens to be an amazing vocalist and musician from New Orleans; Jarod Normad – a fellow photographer who is doing some pretty cool experimental art photography; and JP Schilling – Mike’s sound man and travel support. With out these guys the shoot would not have gone as smoothly as it did.
And finally I want to give a big thank you to Rick, a street painter in Jackson Square, who painted my human canvas.
Weekend Update
This weekend was a non-stop blur. Friday I had a bridal shoot with Daryl, and I had to edit the and prep the hundreds of pictures from my four corporate jobs earlier in the week. Saturday I woke up early did a little more editing then prepared for my day trip to New Orleans for Emily Mabile’s trash the dress session. Saturday evening was more editing. Sunday guess what – more editing. While I do love the editing process I am starting to understand why other shooters are willing to let an assistant handle this part of their work flow.
Trash the Dress: Emily Mabile – New Orleans, LA part 2
A little over a month ago I was in New Orleans for a trash the dress shoot with Emily Mabile. I am finally getting around to posting some of the images from that shoot.
Ok so we started our day in one of New Orleans oldest cemetery for a couple of alternative bridal portraits.
After hanging out in the cemetery for a while we were all cold and a bit hungry so we headed out to find a place to warm up, get a cup of coffee and bite to eat.
On the way to Jackson Square we came across a couple of old guys who play chess for a living. Emily just couldn’t pass this up; she had to play at least one game.
After Emily was done getting beaten at a game of chess we continued our walk to the square, along the way we saw this outside one of the local shops and just wanted to play with it. Funny huh?
Notice those awesome hand panted shoes – I painted those. The great thing is she wears them out and about quite often. Maybe I should think of starting my own line.
So before we totally trashed her dress she wanted one picture in front of the cathedral showing off her fun shoes.
And now what you have all been waiting for. Lets trash that dress !!!!
Naturally we had to take one posed shot in from of the cathedral before we got poor Emily all cleaned up and into the nice warm truck.
What a great day, and it wouldn’t have been possible with out everyone I mentioned in part one.