The New Ship in Town

A short while ago, those of us who live along the Hudson River were treated to the breath-taking sight of NASA's space shuttle "Enterprise" performing a fly-by of the Manhattan skyline, mounted atop a Boeing 747 jumbo jet.  It was absolutely stunning!

The atmosphere was truly that of a carnival, as a small band of photographers, school kids and their teachers, locals and tourists, gathered in this small park, high up on the palisades of Weehawken, waiting to witness a piece of history.    

As a group we scanned the skies for about an hour until finally, a unique silhouette appeared against the hazy white sky to our south.  Sarah spotted it first. 

"Here is comes!" and the cameras started clicking in ernest.  It was all very exciting.

I was filming in HD using my PMW-F3 camera with a vintage Angenieux 25-250 zoom lens from the 70's.  A wonderful combination that let me hone in on my subject and slowly zoom in as it approached.  You see stuff like this on TV but when it shows up in your own viewfinder it takes on a whole new meaning.  I'm thrilled to say that the lens performed exceptionally well, yielding razor sharp detail and a wide depth of field, leaving me only with the task of smoothly tracking the craft as they soared by.  Very cool, indeed!

The combo flew north for a few miles, turned back to the south and made another pass, but this time it was too high overhead and difficult to track.  It circled the area once more and slowly headed off to a landing at JFK airport, were it would later be transferred to a special barge, for it's final voyage to its new home on the Intrepid aircraft carrier.

Several weeks later, Sarah suggested I check out a new 9/11 monument that had been built along the Hudson for inclusion in our Getty stock footage collection.  Usually a quiet location near the NY Waterways ferry terminal, a small crowd of photographers had again gathered, only this time, they were about to lift the shuttle from it's barge on to the carrier.   OMG!  I had totally forgotten the date and it was only luck and Sarah's suggestion that put me in the right place at the right time.

Well, it's Murphy's Law that the day you bring out your wide angle lens is the day you need the telephoto, but fortunately, Sarah and Ellie were able to bring over our new Nikon 400mm lens to capture a unique angle, over a mile away, across the Hudson.

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The Wills Eye Institute

I've often mention that one of the greatest appreciations I have had for my career in both photography and film has been the access allowed to behind-the-scenes.  Few professions touch so many people, places and events in this way.

A few weeks back, Evan, one of our clients at Sony asked us to travel down to Philadelphia to do some filming at the Wills Eyes Institute, a non-profit clinic, hospital and research center dedicated exclusively to the care of eyes.  Since 1990, Wills Eye Institute has consistently been ranked as one of the best ophthalmology hospitals in the United States.


Our assignment was to film and photograph a small, HD camera that is integrated into the microscope system used during eye surgery and we were asked to capture some of our images while a surgery was in progress.


After a few painless interviews in the executive boardroom, my assistant, Arion Doerr and I suited up in sterile garb and with the guidance of one of the hospital's directors, quietly walked into the operating room. 

The room was anything but silent.  Aside from the normal beeping and whirring of heart monitors and machinery, there was music playing loudly in the background and between the request for surgical instruments, informal chit chat about the weather or the price of gas.  We could have been in Starbucks.

The lead surgeon and her assistant were both viewing the operation thru a large, dual microscope, hovering over the patients head.  The camera we needed to film was mounted on top of it. 


Although the immediate vicinity of the operation was extremely bright, the room itself was fairly dim.  No problem for my Nikon D3, but less friendly to Sony's EX3.  Fortunately, the camera was white and there was just enough light to pull off the shots.  When surgery ended and everyone left the room, it was easy to move in for some closeups.

In recent years, surgeons at the Wills Eye Institute have successfully planted artificial retinas in patients that have been totally blind since birth, allowing them to experience shades of light and to distinguish basic shapes, such as a door or a table.  Pretty incredible.  
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Something Old Something New

There is a certain joy and empowerment attached to a piece of gear with karma and such has been the case with a lens I received from my dear friend and fellow DP, Roberta Findlay.

I use a Sony PMW-F3 for much of my work.  The F3 is a large sensor, state-of-the-art digital camera and I am currently mating it with a lens that is over 40 years old.  The lens, an Angenieux 25-250 3.2 zoom lens, was also state-of-the-art, somewhere around 1970, right around the time it was used to create a string of low budget horror flicks including the cult classic "Snuff".

When I first received the lens, it was a bit stiff and I immediately brought it over Du-All camera in Manhattan for service. A place you just have to visit if you've ever, seriously used a super-8 camera,  Although my lens was certainly, no longer state-of-the-art, the crew at Du-All treated it with the utmost respect and within a couple of days, they had cleaned, lubricated and collimated the lens to properly work with my camera.  It was like new.

I took it out to my favorite spot overlooking Manhattan for a test drive and the results where no less than amazing.

Like classic guitars and microphones, lenses, each have a personality all of there own.

In the days when I used to shoot with 4x5 and 8x10 cameras, it was not uncommon to own three of the same focal length lens, each from a different manufacturer and use each for a different, desired result.  For example, Nikon lenses were cold and clinical, while Schneider lenses had a bit more warmth  and roundness.  Warmer still were lenses from Goertz or Kodak.

If I was photographing a new bottle for Clinique, I would use the Schneider, but if it was a beauty shot of a model's face, I would definitely use the Goertz.  No need proving how sharp a lens could be there.

And although a lens might not be critically sharp, that doesn't mean the image is soft, either.  When you are speaking in terms like "roundness" or "creaminess", it's not just about technical accuracy.  Many shooters are finding the quality of older lenses from Cooke, Zeiss, Nikon, Pentax and others are giving them the look they desire.

Now, I know that there are issues with using older technology.  At T4.0, this lens is very slow, especially considering I have to stop down to at least 5.6 to get a decent image.  (Fortunately, the F3's low light sensitivity works in my favor there).  The lens "breathes", which means the focal length might appear to slightly change when focusing, but for most of my NYC filming, this is not an issue.  And finally, it is heavy, which necessitates rails and lens support provided by a rig from Genus.

Still, all of this becomes secondary after seeing the stunning images the lens delivers.

If you ask The Edge or any other well known guitarist why they travel with 20 different guitars, they will tell you that each has a unique sound and personality and so it goes with lenses.  There will also be an added boost if one of those guitars was owned by some legendary character making it special to the artist and so it is with Roberta's lens.

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