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We Don't Need No Stinkin' Permit

Yesterday I had another shoot with innerpartysystem. Kerrang really liked my photos of the guys in the video monitors and will be running one of those images as a poster in an upcoming issue. But for the "introducing" piece on them, they wanted something where you could see them a little better.

We decided that the band would put duct tape over their mouths and pose in Times Square. Since we picked this location just a couple of days ago, I called the Mayor's Office of Film, Theatre and Broadcasting about obtaining a permit on the day of the shoot. I specifically mentioned Times Square and the nice girl on the phone said it wouldn't be a problem.

That's actually code for "Don't be silly, sir. Of course there will be a problem."

As a side note, the permit office is in the Ed Sullivan Theatre where they shoot the Late Show with David Letterman. When I went down there, I was in the elevator with building engineer George Clarke (a character who often appears on the show), and on my way out of the building I practically walked into bass player extraordinaire Will Lee. The cool thing about New Yorkers is that celebrities walk around on the street and everyone is too cool to care. But we can still write about it on our blogs!

After turning in my permit application, I waited for a bit before being informed that they now require seven days advance notice for Times Square permits.

After explaining that this wasn't a big production -- just four guys in a band with me and my assistant, she told me that my application was denied. Perfect. I asked if I needed a permit if I wasn't going to use a tripod or put down any stands. She said if I looked like a tourist and didn't block any traffic (pedestrian or automotive), I would be fine.

That night at the shoot I had my assistant Jenica Miller hand-hold a small flash as we walked around Times Square with the band. This was guerrilla shooting at its finest.

At the first set-up, it took literally three seconds before a cop came over and told us to move on. I politely pointed out that we weren't blocking anything and asked if we could shoot there for a few minutes. He politely told us to move on. Immediately.

We walked down the street a bit and started to shoot under an overhang at a theater. I got off a few frames before a private security guard informed us that we were on private property and had to leave.

It looked like this was going to be a long night but things got better after that. We walked a couple of blocks away from the chaos and were able to shoot without any hassles - even posing in the middle of the crosswalk about 15 times.

At one point, a cop started coming towards us so we turned away and walked in the other direction. He called out and asked us what we were doing and why we walked away when we saw him. We told him we were just taking some photos. He was totally cool and said it was fine as long as we didn't block traffic.

So I guess it just depends on which cop you get and what kind of mood he's in. Unless of course you're a celebrity. Then no one would care.

Lighting Up Blacklisted

I've really been enjoying using the Nikon wireless flash system and today I had a chance to try something different during my shoot with the band Blacklisted.

For the first setup, I went traditional and used a funky little dressing room at the Knitting Factory here in NYC.

But then I took the guys outside and gave each one of them an SB-800 flash unit. After explaining to them which part had to be facing me (the IR sensor) and which part had to be facing them (the flash head), I let them aim the lights however they wanted.

We were in the middle of the street so the shoot was interrupted about a dozen times for cars, but it gave me a chance to shake up the positioning each time. By the end, I had them bunched up pretty closely and I think it made for an interesting photo.

Not too long ago, getting the correct exposure on each person would have been a nightmare. But the Nikon TTL wireless flash system makes this shot incredibly easy -- as long as you watch out for cars.

Breaking In and Breaking Out

Yesterday I spent the day with Brendan James and his manager Ben Singer. His first full-length album was released on Universal today, and I documented them going around New York City for rehearsals and interviews.

I've worked with Brendan before (click for my old blog post) and he's an incredible talent. He recently got a rave review from love-him-or-hate-him celebrity blogger Perez Hilton. You can take a listen and buy the album on iTunes.

I started at a rehearsal studio where he was putting the finishing touches on the set list for the big CD release show on Wednesday at the Highline Ballroom. It felt like it was 110 degrees in there, but the foursome sounded great.

From there we jumped on the subway down to the West Village for a video interview with UncensoredInterview.com. Because it's "uncensored," the producer told Brendan he could say anything and even (gasp!) use bad words if he wanted to. It's just not his style to curse, though, so it was never even an issue. I did find out that he likes to wacth UFC, which is a bit surprising for such a gentle guy.

From there, they made one stop to pick up the posters for the new CD and and then went over to the Waldorf Astoria in Midtown where he did a live performance on the Fox Business show "Happy Hour." It's a bit of an odd set-up as it takes place in the hotel bar while actual patrons mill around and drink. Every time Brendan sings though, he attracts more fans and I think some of the business people in the bar might turn up at tomorrow's show.

A few years ago after Brendan moved to New York City, he would sneak into hotel ballrooms to play the piano. Most of the time he was kicked out, but sometimes he'd get a couple hours of practice time in before anyone realized he wasn't supposed to be there. He even called his old EP "Ballroom Break-In."

We had some time to kill before his TV gig at the Waldorf, so Brendan and I snuck away and went in search of a piano. There was some big convention in the hotel, so most of the ballrooms were being used. But we stumbled into one on the top floor of the hotel. With the light streaming in from the windows, I got a ten-minute private performance.

He actually came up with a song while in the ballroom and used my phone to leave himself a voicemail message with the tune. He's done this before because he has a super secret Maxwell Smart recording method where he puts the phone on his shoe. Apparently if he puts the phone right on the piano it will rattle around as he plays.

I'm happy to document this time in Brendan's life and career. It doesn't seem like much, but one day we might look back and laugh when we see photos of him carrying his keyboard into the hotel and playing in a bar in front of 50 people or so (even though the show was on live national TV). It's not a stretch to imagine a day in the not-too-distant future when roadies will unload his piano from a semi into an arena.

The Dichotomy That Is My Photography Career

When I went freelance in 2001, I decided that I was going to focus on two specialties - sports and music. I sometimes live in two different worlds and one has little to do with the other.

Last week was one of those weeks.

It started with a trip to Washington, DC to make portraits of USA women's soccer goalkeeper Hope Solo. I had planned to photograph her outdoors in the goal under beautiful blue skies. Mother Nature didn't cooperate so we were forced to shoot in a hotel ballroom. We had some fun playing around with the curtains that were already there.

The next day I photographed USA vs. Canada at RFK Stadium. Hope didn't have much to do because the USA won 6-0 and Canada didn't have any shots on goal.

During the week, it was mostly music. I shot both Filter and Serj Tankian in concert, did a portrait of Torche in Philadelphia, and covered the New Kids on the Block's first performance together in 15 years.

Somewhere in there I also did a shoot for Folio Magazine with three executives from The Atlantic Monthly.

The week ended with me shooting three days of LPGA women's golf in New Jersey.

Looking back, it was definitely an odd week. There have been some periods of time when either one of my specialties dominated, but last week it was about 50/50. I'm fortunate that I have some variety but still get to shoot the types of jobs that I really enjoy.

Depeche Mode meets Deliverance

Wednesday was a really cool day. In the morning, I was the featured speaker at the "Apple Campus Lecture Series Photography Tour" in Philadelphia. I spoke for about an hour and a half - plenty of time to show some of my images and go through my Aperture workflow.

After the talk, I met innerpartysystem manager Stephen Penta for a two and a half hour drive to the band's house in Mohnton, PA. Their music is hard to describe - sort of electronica with rock and metal influences. Depeche Mode meets Nine Inch Nails.

Mohnton is in the middle of nowhere. The four guys live together in this house and are pretty much surrounded by computers and keyboards all the time. It reminds me of my time as a student at the Berklee College of Music in Boston.

In addition to managing the band, Stephen is also a video director so we spent the entire week before the shoot coming up with funky photo ideas. The guys didn't want to do any traditional band photos, so we decided to play around with some old TVs and video cameras.

In one of my emails with Stephen, I mentioned that it might be cool if we had a smoke machine but I wasn't sure where I'd get one out there. He responded with, "Of course we have a smoke machine!"

We put the guys in the house and I set up the TVs and my lighting in the backyard. I shot a few different arrangements, but these are my two favorite images.

Caged In

Last week, I photographed Ministry in concert during the band's farewell tour.

I knew it was going to be an interesting night when I walked in and saw them erecting a 10-foot high chain link fence in front of the stage.

The show wasn't easy to photograph because I had to shoot through the fence most of the time. Also, this band must be allergic to light because they didn't have any.

Luckily, Al Jourgensen would poke his head out over the top of the low fence section every once in a while.

What's with the "no flash" rule at a show like this? The default rule for concert photography is "three songs, no flash." Since I was on assignment for Kerrang Magazine, I was able to shoot the whole show, but why no flash? During the set, the band had a lot of strobe lights. I can't imagine that they would even notice a photographer's flash going off.

I've asked performers about it and they never have a problem with flash. Maybe it wouldn't be appropriate at a quiet James Taylor show, but no one cares at a heavy metal gig.

So I kept the strobe on my camera "just in case." Of course, as soon as Al popped his head out from behind that fence, the flash somehow accidentally went off. Oops. Not sure how that happened.

The Best Damn Photo

Earlier this month I shot a handful of concerts for Avril Lavigne. She's currently on tour to support her album, "The Best Damn Thing" and is putting out a live DVD from the Toronto show.

I've worked with Avril before but had not seen this tour. She really knows how to work an audience and her fans love it. The last time I photographed her she was just a kid, but now at the ripe old age of 23 she really seems to be having fun on stage.

Screaming by the Rapids

On Sunday I flew to Grand Rapids, MI for the afternoon to photograph Mayday Parade.

The band picked me up at the airport in their rental RV. It's a major step up from the beat up van that most bands travel in when they're on tour.

I immediately hit it off with Brooks the guitarist because he was reading a book about how to properly play and bet blackjack. I learned the game by playing a video game when I was a kid. I still enjoy playing whenever I find myself in Vegas or Atlantic City. Not big money - just for fun.

Good luck Brooks and let me know how you fare.

I took the guys downtown near the river and we spent a couple of hours shooting. I always like to make people scream for photos and it was easy to get the guys into it. I usually scream first and then they follow along.

I'm surprised that no one called the police as we were right in front of the Gerald Ford Museum.

Day in the Life of a Draft Pick

For the last 4 or 5 years, Sports Illustrated has assigned me to cover the NFL draft. On the days leading up to the event, they take some of the top prospects around New York City and I'm granted exclusive access to ride around town with the guys.

It's a bit like Groundhog Day considering that they pretty much do the same 6 or 7 events every year -- the network morning shows, football drills with local kids, visiting sick children at Mt. Sinai Hospital, etc.

I've posted a few images of #1 pick Jake Long -- having makeup put on with his mother for the Today Show, getting destroyed at Wii boxing by a 10 year old at Mt. Sinai, and looking at cheap handbags on the streets on NYC with fellow draftee Chris Long (no relation).

It's pretty funny to see them checking out the wares on the street because Jake signed a deal with the Dolphins for almost $60 million. I'm sure Chris, son of hall of fame player Howie Long, won't do so badly either since he was the #2 pick on Saturday.

Overall, this group of guys was great to deal with and didn't seem to mind me being in their face for two straight days. I spent some time chatting with Boston College QB Matt Ryan and was really impressed with him. He seems to have a good head on his shoulders.

He'll need it because he was the third overall pick and will be taking the reins for the Falcons someday soon. Their last star quarterback (2001 #1 draft pick Michael Vick) didn't fare too well.

At the draft itself, I put a lot of pressure on myself to make unique photos each year at Radio City Music Hall. This time I set up a couple of remote cameras including one with a fisheye lens behind the stage.

Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. I'll let you decide.

Polish Me Up

Entertainment industry website Starpolish recently interviewed me for a feature piece. Here's their intro:

Professional photographer David Bergman has figured out a way not to have a "job" -- he loves what he does so much, it rarely ever feels like work. StarPolish Associate editor Kristina Mondo recently caught up with Bergman to talk about shooting sports and music, how he got his start, and what he thinks of the paparazzi.

Read the whole thing here.

Buried in Brooklyn

I traveled all the way down to Williamsburg in Brooklyn today with my assistant J. Karsten Moran. When you live in Manhattan, going to Brooklyn is like going to another country. The truth is that it was only about a 45-minute cab ride, but I digress.

We spent some time shooting three guys in the band A Place to Bury Strangers. Somehow I forgot to ask them about the name, but maybe it's better that I didn't.

The guys were great, so we spent some time shooting a few different set-ups with a lot of lighting.

I was just about ready to pack it in when I saw this wall with three cutouts in it. Karsten said, "Why don't you put them with their faces in the holes?"

I shot it using only available light in open shade, and it turned out to be the best image from the day. Thanks, Karsten!

Praying with Ziggy

Yesterday I covered the 79th Annual Blue-Gold Game, otherwise known as the Notre Dame spring football scrimmage. Since I attended the University of Miami I have an innate dislike of the Fighting Irish. Also, Notre Dame's football stadium is traditionally one of the worst places for photographers to work because the sidelines are always packed with people who don't mind stepping in front of a camera lens whenever they feel like it. On top of that, it was forecast to rain all day.

I went into the Sports Illustrated assignment hoping for the best but expecting the worst. There must have been some divine intervention because the sidelines weren't overly crowded and there wasn't a drop of rain during the entire scrimmage.

I played around with a little device I call "Ziggy." It's actually the ZigView - a video monitor that I hook up to my camera so I can fire the shutter remotely while still looking through the viewfinder.

I placed a fisheye lens on a monopod and held it up as high as I could get it. Most people who try this just wind up doing a "hail mary" (appropriate at Notre Dame), but since I had the video monitor I could actually compose the image while shooting.

Here are a couple of frames I made with Ziggy.

TRAVEL FUN: Sometimes you just have one of those days. Flying to Chicago on Friday was one of those. I had the car service pick me up, but it took much longer to get to LaGuardia than normal due to "Pope traffic." The Pontiff was in town and it was wreaking havoc all over the city.

I arrived about 30 minutes before my flight. I didn't expect it to be a problem because the Delta shuttle flies out of the less-crowded Marine Air Terminal. The agent at the counter must have been new because he somehow accidentally canceled my reservation. It took him about 20 minutes to get it back, although I lost my medallion upgrade. After being help up at security (very typical for me with all of my gear), there was some question as to whether I'd get on the flight at all but I managed to snag the last seat on the plane.

The landing at Midway in Chicago was one of the harriest I've ever experienced. We had a lot of turbulence and right before we landed the pilot did this crazy 180 degree turn at an angle I've never quite experienced on a commercial flight. I thought maybe he was training to be a Blue Angel.

Then, at the last minute, he revved up the engines and pulled back up. That's not good. After we leveled out, he made an announcement that traffic was a little tight at the airport so we had to abort the landing and come around again. I think that's pilot code for "there was another plane on the runway and I didn't want to crash into it."

On the second approach, he did that same crazy 180 turn and bounced down a bit on the runway. On the way off the plane, I asked the pilot if that was the normal approach for Midway. He said because of the strong winds, the tower was having planes land that way. I also asked how low we were the first time when he had to pull up. 400 feet. Fun!

Oh, the places I've been

The last couple of weeks have been quite an adventure. I was on planes, trains, and automobiles - sometimes all in one day. I travelled back and forth across the U.S. twice, and even visited Canada for a few days. It's amazing that I get paid to do this.

It started in Bridgeport, CT where I covered the first round of the women's NCAA tournament for Sports Illustrated. Four basketball games in one day. I had a few remote cameras set up which pushed my total number of photos to more than 6,000 for the day.

After a short bout with strep throat, I was off to San Francisco to speak for Apple on the Aperture World Tour. Since it's so close to Cupertino, there were a few Apple managers sprinkled in the crowd of about 300. No pressure, right? The day went smoothly and feedback was great, so I can't complain.

The only hitch was that after flying for almost 7 hours I had to take a shower in the hotel health club because my room wasn't ready. I also panicked fora bit because I thought the front desk staff lost my drivers license. That would have made it difficult to get on my flight home the next day. But then I remembered I had turned it in for a locker key at the health club and they simply forgot to give it back. Whew.

I was in California for one day before flying back to NYC.

TRAVEL FUN: There was a guy on my flight who refused to move his clothes from the last open overhead bin so that I could put my roller bag up (containing $15,000 worth of camera gear).He had a tweed coat and what looked like a fedora and the items were taking up a ridiculous amount of space. I asked him nicely and he simply refused to move his stuff. I was about to push harder when the flight attendant came over and forced him to take down his stuff So I could put my bag up.

The next day I drove to Atlantic City to work for Avril Lavigne. I was hired to shoot the stills for her live DVD filming in Toronto so I decided to go to the Atlantic City show in advance to see the show and the lighting.

I drove back home after the concert and got in around 2am. Twelve hours later I was on a plane back to California.

I'm proud to say that I won the plane-wide trivia contest on the seat-back video monitor. My late father would have been proud because his brain was filled with all kinds of useless trivia. I usually don't retain data like that in my brain, but I had just enough to beat out about 25 other passengers.

I spent a few days at the Palm Springs Photo Festival and met a lot of cool people including awesome portrait photographer Frank Ockenfells III. He's surprisingly down to earth considering his list of big time clients.

I was home for another 12 hours before heading to Toronto. I spent one day documenting a video shoot for three bands on Wind-Up Records and the next day shooting the Avril show. Those two days accounted for another 4,000+ images.

One advantage of having that much time in the air is that I was able to re-watch the entire third season DVD of the new Battlestar Galactica - the best show on television.

Band in Distress

Yesterday I photographed Armor for Sleep.

You know it's going to be a great shoot when you say, "How about if I gaffer tape the four of you to a tree," and they say, "Sure!"

Drilling for Photos

On Thursday I photographed the band Emmure at the Blender Theatre in New York City.

It was a pretty typical shoot and I love when this happens. I show up to shoot a band. They don't know me from Adam, nor should they. I'm just another photographer that has to take their picture for some magazine.

It helps that today's shoot is for Kerrang, since these guys all want the publicity. But I know that bands are usually all about the music and like doing the photo shoot shuffle about as much as most people enjoy a root canal. I try to make it painless, but I still need some cooperation on their part.

I show up with all my lights in tow and start talking to them about different picture possibilities. We don't have too many options because we're locked in a venue and they don't want to go outside. So, I'll say something like "Wouldn't it be cool if we took the barricades from the front of the stage and stack them behind you," or "How about if I light it like this and put you guys over here?"

Sometimes they don't think it will work or they want to do something else so I'll use my Jedi mind trick ("These are not the 'droids you're looking for") to get them to go along with my idea.

I get everything set up and take a test frame. Because I'm shooting with strobes, they really can't see what the photo is going to look like until they see the actual image. Thanks to digital technology, I can show them the picture immediately on the back of the camera. Here's the good part. Most of the time, they go, "Oh man, that's cool!"

From there it's smooth sailing. They trust me now and will go along with whatever I want. "Hey, can you stand up on those two rickety tables in the middle?" No problem.

At the end, the guys told me this was the best batch of photos they've ever had done. Of course, they only saw them on an un-calibrated, 3-inch screen, but I'll take it. I certainly don't think this particular shoot was my best work ever, but I accomplished what I wanted and got in and out without having to pull out my dentist's drill.

Raining in the Laughs

Saturday morning I headed out in a rental Toyota 4-runner to shoot Virginia at Princeton lacrosse for Sports Illustrated.

I knew I was in trouble when I checked weather.com the night before. The spot where they show a little Denny's picture menu icon to tell you what to expect was a big cloud with huge drops coming off of it. I think it actually wet my monitor.

On the drive down it was only raining a little bit. By the time I got to Princeton Stadium, the floodgates had opened.

I was smart enough to rent an SUV so that I could unload my gear while standing underneath the open hatch. However it doesn't help too much when the rain is coming in at a 90 degree angle.

I bagged my gear up, hermetically sealed myself in plastic, and grabbed an umbrella.

I think I've shot lacrosse 3 or 4 times at Princeton and it's ALWAYS raining. What's that about? I wonder what that place looks like in sunlight?

Anyway, I parked myself in a corner and sat down on the track around the field. I've never done this, but I actually opened my umbrella and kept it over my head while I was shooting. Since I was staying in one spot, it worked pretty well! I didn't even need my rain hood.

My gear was fine until the temperature went up about 10 degrees in the span of 5 seconds. No joke. This blast of warm air came in and while it felt good to not be freezing anymore, my lenses didn't react well to the shift. A layer of condensation deposited itself on my front element and wouldn't go away.

I thought I had imagined the temperature change, but I looked around and all of the photographers and TV guys were desperately wiping their lenses.

For most of the fourth period, I was able to shoot in 20 second bursts until the lens had to be cleaned again.

I've always said that if the weather is going to be bad, then please be horrendous because it makes better pictures. It almost doesn't matter what's happening in the photo if there's a blizzard or monsoon out there. It'll always look cool.

After surviving that storm, I got home with just enough time to take a quick shower and go downtown to shoot the taping of a standup comedy show for Comedy Central called Live at Gotham.

I did this job as a favor for my friend, photographer Brian Friedman (the money doesn't hurt either!). They were taping for four nights and he had a conflict on Saturday and asked me to fill in.

The job was fun. I did 30-second portraits of each of the two hosts for the night, Rich Vos and Kevin Hart. The funny thing is that I just watched the movie 40-year-old Virgin on my iPhone a couple of days ago and Kevin is one of the stars. Turns out he's as nice as he is funny.

One of the comedians was T.J. Miller. He's the guy who holds the camera in the movie Cloverfield. He did a really funny bit about people who use inappropriate Asian expressions in conversations.

I had to put a "blimp" on my camera to shoot during the show. The blimp goes around the camera and lens to (mostly) silence the sound of the shutter so the audience watching at home doesn't hear me snapping away.

The industry standard is a hard version (the Jacobson blimp) and it's what is always used on movie sets. I don't need one very often so I have a less-expensive soft blimp (Sam Cranston's Camera Muzzle) that works pretty well.

My only issue with it is that after you have your hand inside of this contraption for a few minutes, it's gets awfully sweaty in there. Yuck.

But I can't complain. It's always cool when you can get paid to watch comedy all night.

Dead to Fall

Yesterday I went down to The Living Room, a very cool music space in Tribeca, to shoot a band called Dead to Fall. They're a metalcore band from Chicago and Minneapolis.

Why does it seem that the heavier the music, the nicer the guys are who play it? These guys couldn't have been cooler. I'm sure they're nuts on stage, but I found them to be relatively normal.

Hope I didn't just ruin their image.

We started in the club and I used a beat up red wall as the backdrop. I usually like to start with something simple so I can get to know them a bit and we can all get warmed up.

After I felt good about the red wall, I took them and my lights outside. The guys immediately gravitated toward a tractor that was sitting on the street. There was also a shopping cart next to it and Jon, the lead singer, jumped right in.

With traffic flowing down the street, they spent some time playing around on that tractor. Jon wrote the word "HELP" on a piece of cardboard and the guys looked like out of work musicians.

At the end, he lit the sign on fire, although it never really turned into a big enough flame to look good in the photo. For safety sake, we're probably all better off that way.

Phone Home from the Garden

I spent the better part of the day Thursday at Madison Square Garden.

In the afternoon, I did portraits of the band Chiodos. They were opening for Linkin Park that night.

When I emailed the tour manager in advance, he told me that the band didn't have their bus because of construction around the arena and that they'd have to stay in the general area. No problem. I'm used to showing up and trying to find something interesting for a photo.

I told him I'd arrive early and scout out a location nearby.

I know the MSG area pretty well and have always wanted to shoot in front of the giant post office across the street. This isn't just any post office. It spans two full city blocks, sits on eight acres, and is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

It also boasts the longest giant order Corinthian colonnade in the world. It says so in wikipedia, so it must be true.

The point is that the front is beautiful and would make for a great photo. I wasn't sure if I'd be allowed to shoot there without a permit, but we could make it quick.

So the shoot time comes and I call the tour manager. He says it's too cold outside and there are too many fans around.

There goes that idea. I'll save it for another band over the summer.

So on to Plan B.

Inside the arena, we had to tread lightly for two reasons. First, Chiodos is the support band so we didn't want to get in the way of anyone from Linkin Park's crew while they were setting up the stage.

Also, the Garden has very strict union rules and they don't generally allow photography lighting backstage without paying a lot of money to a union electrician. I really don't understand it, but that's the way it is.

I figured I could shoot with four small Nikon speedlights because they don't require any power from the wall.

There are six guys in the band, which is always tough to shoot. But I found a spot where there were six pay phones. Actually there were only four phones, but it looks like there were six there at some point.

They guys came in and we shot that setup and another one right nearby in the span of about 20 minutes.

Everyone was happy.

That evening, I shot the concert. Unfortunately someone forgot to tell the lighting tech that Chiodos was on stage. There was almost no light on them. I was able to make a few frames with the Nikon D3 at ISO 6400 (which looks amazing for what it is), but the quality of the light was horrible.

Luckily, Linkin Park's lighting was great. They're always fun to shoot because Chester and the boys have so much energy. I shot my three songs and went home.

Show the Apple Love

I've always been a huge fan of Apple Computers. The first time I touched a computer was in the early 80's when my folks brought home a state-of-the-art Apple IIE. Man, that thing was cool. BASIC programming language and hours of Castle Wolfenstein. Does it get any better?

Well of course it does. I've owned Macs my entire professional life and can't imaging using anything else. I currently work on a number of different Mac laptops and hook my MacBook Pro up to a 30" cinema display when I'm in my office

Over the past few years I've done some speaking for Apple both here in NYC and on national tours.

A few months ago I was fortunate enough to be invited along with 10 other photographers to the mother ship -- Apple headquarters in Cupertino, CA. This photo was taken right out by the big "1" in front of 1 Infinite Loop.

In the group were top photographers from the wedding, sports, photojournalism, and portraiture fields. They asked us about the state of the industry and what we need our software to do.

We were dubbed the Aperture Advisory Board.

Fast forward a few months. This week Apple announced the release of the newest version of it's pro level photo software - Aperture 2.0. Many of the new features in there are a direct result of our feedback.

Not only am I happy to be a part of this elite group, but I'm thrilled that Apple actually listened to the needs of professional photographers. I sat down with the people who actually write the code and discussed the give-and-take that happens with every feature addition. I certainly have a new respect for the work that the software engineers do.

Aperture 2.0 is now a daily part of my workflow. The program boasts over 100 new features, but the biggest improvements are in image quality and speed. It can handle anything that I throw at it.

I used to believe that the camera manufacturer's software would always do the best job decoding RAW files. I'm a changed man. The Apple team has worked incredibly hard to decode and decipher every bit and byte in the RAW files to make our images look their absolute best.

You can read all about Aperture and the new features here. They've also dropped the price to $199 (it was $499 when the program was first introduced!) and there's even a free 30-day trial available.

Four Years in the Making

Each year on or around my daughter's birthday, I make an official "portrait" of her. This started at six months when I took a photo of Amanda trying to eat her own foot (she's brilliant!). I have all of the photos hanging in chronological order on the wall in my office.

Amanda turned four in January and we had a party for her with most of her friends from the pre-k class. It was a busy day (ever try to wrangle a dozen four-year-olds?), so I didn't really have a chance to set up my lights.

Later that week, the three of us flew to Florida to go on the Barenaked Ladies cruise. It's awesome when my family can come with me on a job that includes a Caribbean cruise, although they generally don't see a lot of me during the week.

When we were visiting Grandma's house in Boynton Beach, I made this photo of Amanda running down the sidewalk after checking out the pool. I was shooting a Nikon D300 with the 17-55 lens and ran backwards as she sprinted down the street. Auto-focus is a wonderful thing in this situation as I wasn't even looking through the lens.

After the trip, I showed Amanda a few different pics that I shot of her and asked which one she wanted to be her "official" four-year-old portrait. This is the one she picked. She's actually a pretty good photo editor!

Fish on the "L"

Yesterday I went to Chicago to photograph the band Kill Hannah for Kerrang.

These guys wear quite a bit of makeup and I thought it would be interesting to do a "fish out of water" shoot and bring them on the subway (locals call it "the L").

We shot "guerilla style" and walked to the train while stopping to snap pics wherever I thought it might look good. I had two people holding lights for me and we only stopped traffic and got honked at about a half dozen times.

It was 20 degrees out, but they braved it without any complaints (except for Elias, who lives in Arizona!).

TRAVEL FUN: O'Hare is my least favorite airport in the US. It's rare when there aren't flight delays in Chicago and if you have a connection to catch it always seems that you land at gate A3 and have to get to Z48 in 5 minutes.

Yesterday my inbound flight was delayed, but not because of O'Hare. We were waiting for our flight attendant! Ugh.

I was about an hour late to the shoot, but the guys were still in makeup so no harm done there.

Trying to get out of Chicago was a bit tougher. The last Delta non-stop flight from O'Hare to JFK - two of the biggest airports in the country - is at 5:30pm. As we shot throughout the day, it was becoming apparent that I wasn't going to make that flight - especially if you factor in the two hours of rush hour traffic.

I found a 7pm flight out of Midway airport that would fly me into LaGuardia. I'm gold medallion on Delta so changing my flight should be no problem, right?

First it took over 30 mins to get our car from the valet. I'm pretty sure they couldn't find it. I spent the entire car ride on the phone with Delta, getting different answers about their ability to change the ticket and what it would cost. The problem was that my ticket was booked through the client's travel agency in London.

The Delta rep actually took my number and said she would call me back - which she didn't.

I wasn't sure we would make it to the airport in time, but thanks to an illegal u-turn at the last minute, my assistant got me there at 6:25 - right before the 30 minute cut-off to check my bags.

I've always had more luck getting things done at the ticket counter rather than on the phone, so I ran inside, went to the counter and changed my ticket for $75. No problem. I even got my complimentary medallion first class upgrade. Whew.

The highlight of the evening - by far - was the incredible view as we approached Manhattan. I love the LaGuardia approach, but visibility car vary. This was a perfectly clear night and I could see the entire island lit up as we flew just east of the city. It was breathtaking.