Tryon Palace Interpreters

During the shoot for Tryon Palace I took a few moments to shoot portraits of a few of their Interpreters- the folks who are dressed in period costume. Sometime I'd like to do a whole series of these...

Tryon Palace Production

We did a large production for Tryon Palace to advertise their new NC History Center. I had an incredible crew: Susann Hodges from SKH Producers, Tyler Northrup was my assistant, and Robbie Forrest was our stylist. Here are just a few of the shots:

I'm still waiting to get copies of the final ads, I'll post them here if I ever get them!

Shoot for Guideposts Magazine

Here's a few shots from a shoot for Guideposts Magazine. The subject is Betsy Saul of www.petfinder.com. The job required some shots on white as well as some shots in and around her barn. I set up a white sweep and turned her garage into my studio, then we spent some time visiting with her animals. I really enjoy these shoots for Guideposts!

My camera collection: The Jewel

The jewel of my collection and without a doubt my favorite camera is my Leica M7 rangefinder with the 35mm f1.4 ASPH Summilux lens. If I had to get rid of all my cameras and could keep only one, this is the one.

I found this camera used (barely) in late December 2005 at Southeastern Camera. I was shopping for something else entirely, but I came across this chrome M7 body for a really great price. I told them I'd buy it if they had a 35mm f1.4, and it turned out they had one at their Carrboro location. It was a lot of money, but I snagged it and drove quickly over to Carrboro to get the lens. I didn't know that I'd get the aspherical version- a really great deal for the price!

I've shot some gorgeous images with this little camera. It's the perfect tool for travel and street photography, and at f1.4 the lens has a beautiful signature look that cannot be replicated by anything else. My finest wedding work was shot with this camera, until I had to stop shooting film because clients wanted more instant results. Perhaps one day I will be able to replace the body with an M9 digital, but until then I plan to continue to shoot 35mm film for my own personal use. I love my Leica!

My camera collection: The Workhorses

For years I shot weddings using 35mm film. I'd go through 40 or so rolls of 36 exposures on a wedding day, plus 6 or 8 rolls of 120 for the formals. I needed cameras that could withstand the use and abuse of these hectic shoots.

These 3 Nikon F4S camera bodies were my workhorses; 1 body carried a wide prime lens like the 35mm f1.4 while the other carried a long prime like the 85mm f1.4. The third camera was usually in the bag as a backup, except during ceremonies when it was mounted on a tripod with the 80-200mm f2.8 for the long telephoto shot.

The F4 was the last Nikon professional camera with knobs instead of buttons and an LCD display, making these bodies nearly indestructible. I ran many, many rolls of film through these and they are still in fine working order, though they have been replaced by digital bodies. I've thought about selling them, but nowadays they aren't worth very much so I've just hung onto them. Perhaps one day they'll be worth something as antiques...