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Unlikely Hero.. .. Film Vs. Digital, the neverending debate... Test Shoot on an '07 Corvette..
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Unlikely Hero
Shot for the Tucson Weekly. 
Gilbert has spent most of his life behind bars in California, Mexico, and Arizona. Earlier this year, he risked his life to save a police officer. Deputy Palomino's car caught on fire after rolling in an accident and Gilbert was one of the heros that risked his own life to right the burning patrol car and remove Palomino before it was consumed by the flames. Gilbert is writing a book about his life in an attempt to help spread the word about making good decisions and understanding the impact of our choices. f/16 1/320 iso200 85mm
sb24 in softbox camera left, 1/2 as fill
sb20 behind Gilbert's right shoulder adding edge. 1/16
sb24 camera right 1/8 Post Processing: this image is SooC, with just a quick level adjustment to boost contrast. This shoot was last-minute for next week's issue and I needed to get it 'right' in-camera. I will probably experiment with some post if I decide to use this photo elsewhere..
 I recently photographed a company profile for APC. Most of the images were the 'regular' type without much excitement, but this is one I had some fun with. The employee is fabricating a custom trailer receiver. As a safety reminder, don't look directly at the arc, it can cause permanent vision loss.
Film Vs. Digital, the neverending debate.
I've been testing for an upcoming shoot. I need the highest resolution for large prints and decided to return to my film roots and shoot "large format" -- for the non photographers, this is with those antique looking cameras with accordian style bellows and the big sheets of film. I use the more common 4"x5" format, which yields very high resolution images capable of printing extremely high quality images over 60" long. Here's a web-sized copy of my image from Sunday's shoot. The same Corvette shot at the same location, at the same time: 
Here's an enlargement of the wheel. Check out the detail. This was a 40 megapixel scan. For true fine art work, I will be scanning at 240 megapixels. That's 6x the resolution of this image:
For comparison, here is a similar digital image. Notice the less rich colors lack of visual impact: 
Test Shoot on an '07 Corvette
    Here are my test images from today's Corvette practice shoot. It was extremely windy, so I was limited in my lighting selection. I had originally planned to use foamcore to reflect the sunlight onto the shadowed side of the car, but that wasn't possible with the 30mph winds on the top of that parking garage. So, I decided to use my strobes and add some fill. Two sitting on the ground, just out of camera range. They're set to 1/4 for these shots, so when I made images on Velvia with my 4x5, I just had to turn them up two stops and drop the shutter speed two stops.
Painting With light Exercise #1
I don't normally include test images in my blog, but this was something you may find interesting. As you all know, I have a luxury/exotic shoot coming up in a few weeks and won't have the ability to bring big lights to the shoot. I want to get some images on my 4x5, so have painted myself into a bit of a corner. Large format film requires lots of light. Especially when shooting slow film emulsions, such as my Fujichrome Velvia preference. So, I need to do a bit of testing and double testing with digital. Here was my first attempt to 'paint with light' using an SB24. I shot at 1.8 power, keeping the flash ~4 feet from the automobile. I overlapped the flashes by shooting roughly 3 under the bumper, 3 at the grille, 6 on the hood, 2 on the roof, two behind the car to light the far edge, 6 down the lower side of the car, 4 across the windows of the car, 1 on the a-pillar, and another flash on the near corner. ISO 200, f/11. This will translate to full power flash pops @ f/16 on the large format ISO 50. 
University of Arizona
This week, I was fortunate to have the opportunity to meet Dr. Kevin Fitzsimmons of the University of Arizona. He is working on a fish farming research project. The basics of the project are that we can farm fish in the desert with pre-irrigation water, then the effluent runs into the fields and fertilizes the crops. Their test controls were very impressive, and I walked out of there wondering why every famer doesn't start doing this.  Find the full article next week at azbiz.com Also of note, is that this contact sheet is how I submit my images to the paper. They respond with which ones they plan to publish, and I send the full-res copies with proper exif information to the art department. It's kind of cool... and easy... for me to go ahead and post the contact sheet here to give you a good idea of what I was able to get on the assignment. As a paper assignemnt, I'm sure you realize the tight deadlines and lack of preparation that takes place. I have great respect for the best photojournalists that create artful and documenting images. It's very difficult to do this consistently. Images like these will never make it to my portfolio, but they are an example of what I can do under the circumstances.
Strobist Meetup
Good morning! Last weekend, I organized a photographer's meetup with John Sartin. With all the work of trying to run the meetup smoothly, we didn't shoot much at all. I took a small group of photographers to P1 kart Circuit on Saturday to share some of my auto race photography experience. The guys had a good time shooting supermoto and drifting. Saturday evening, we shot some hot rods with Tiana, Kevin, and Christiana. Sunday was hectic. I spent a short time making sure that we had some quality images of the cars, and the rest of the day helping instruct with lighting, making sure people were shooting and learning throughout the day. I was only able to take a few images -- most of which I've already posted. Here are a couple of the shots i was able to create between emergencies and running.... 
Braman Motorcars, a match made in heaven.
As everyone knows, I've been spending a lot of time in Florida and have some big announcement brewing. Here it is: Marana photography has been licensed as the official photographer for the Braman Motorcars Palm Beach Fine Art Gallery. Braman is a family of Palm Beach luxury car dealerships that include Audi, Bentley, BMW, Mini, Porsche, and Rolls Royce. In addition, Braman has an exotic collection consisting of some of the finest exotics and supercars. Each month, i will be photographing cars from the Braman stable for addition to the fine art gallery. I will be opening an online gallery this summer that will feature my work, with free desktop backgrounds and print sales. The images will be shot with a combination of 4x5 view cameras for the larger fine art pieces and my trusty Nikon digital gear for many of the images.
Street Rods
For all you car buffs -- a couple street rod pictures. The coupe is a 32 dodge with a rumble seat, and the pickup is a dodge as well, not sure of the year. The 427 Cobra needs no introduction. 
Tucson Strobist Day 1
Today's shooting day started at P1, with some supermoto. I was able to strobe them to tame the harsh mid-day sun. Here are a couple examples. More to follow... 
And, here's Kevin with an Dodge Coupe Street Rod. It's a beautiful car that has graced many a magazine page. You can see why. Yes, that's a 426 hemi. 
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