My first cover shot: Wasatch Woman Magazine

Wasatch Woman - Jan/Feb 2009 Issue, originally uploaded by calanan.

Hey-hey, my photography is on the cover of a regional magazine called Wasatch Woman (Jan/Feb 2009 Issue) and it's now available on Salt Lake City, UT newsstands!

The photo above is of the Wasatch Woman of the Year, Rachel Coleman of the Signing Time sign language program. (I blogged about this photoshoot back in December.)

This is my 2nd issue shooting for the magazine and my first cover with them. You can read some of their articles online but if you're in the Salt Lake City area you can also find the full issue on newsstands, such as at Smith's and Barns and Noble.

In addition to photos of Rachel, the issue also features my photos of their inspiring Wasatch Woman of the Year honorees (in 5 categories), an article on throwing a Sundance Film Festival party, the all-woman music series Hotel Cafe Tour as it passed through Salt Lake City, and a cool conceptual photo of a bride on running track for a story on divorce.

p.s. The Wasatch Woman of the Year awards event is this Friday, 30 January 2009 at the Little America Hotel in Salt Lake City, you can buy tickets online here.

Here are some of my favorite photos from the issue including links to galleries on Flickr.com:

Wasatch Woman of the Year Honorees


Hotel Cafe Tour




Sundance Soiree




Runaway Bride


Flickr:

The Hotel Cafe Tour
Wasatch Woman of the Year shoot
Sundance Soiree

And here's a behind-the-scenes shoot of the Wasatch Woman Editorial Board casting their votes for the Woman of the Year.

Finally, an anecdote about the power of serendipity: While I was in the midst of a photo shoot high up in the foothills above the Salt Lake Valley for my This Is Their Place portrait/interview project, my subject (Jesse) and I were greeted by two trail runners. The runners - a woman and man - did a double-take, stopped and began to chat about what we were doing. After I told them about the project the woman, Pam Baumeister, told me that she was the new editor of this Wasatch Woman magazine. We exchanged info and several months later I received a call from Pam that she was in need of a photographer and we've been happily working together ever since!

My Top 10 Albums of 2008

A tad late but here it is, my top 10 list of albums released in 2008. I'll link to their Amazon.com counterparts where you can sample tracks on just about all of them.

In return I ask the same of you: What are your top albums of 2008? Either share a link to your own blog post or list them in the comments section, thanks!

1.
Vampire Weekend - "Vampire Weekend"

2.
Fleet Foxes - "Fleet Foxes"

3.
Cloud Cult - "Feel Good Ghosts"

4.
The Dutchess & The Duke - "She's The Dutchess, He's The Duke"

5.
The Moondoggies - "Don't Be A Stranger"

6.
Elliott Brood - "Mountain Meadows"

7.
The Hold Steady - "Stay Positive"

8.
She & Him - "Volume One"

9.
Langhorne Slim - "Langhorne Slim"

10.
The Plastic Constellations - "We Appreciate You"

My runner-up:

11.
DeVotchKa - "A Mad & Faithful Telling"

This one stung but despite how much I love DeVotchKa I had to leave "A Mad & Faithful Telling" off the top 10 list as it just didn't impress me as much as their earlier releases did.

So, what are yours?

.p is for pregnable.

.p is for pregnable., originally uploaded by calanan.

State St and N Temple
Salt Lake City, UT

Nikon D700
Nikkor 50mm f/1.8

[Part of my "Drive-By Shootings" street photography series]

This is my first drive-by with my new Nikon D700; I switched from the venerable Sigma 30mm f/1.4 to the Nikkor 50mm f/1.8 for this series as the Sigma was too wide of a field of view and, as it's designed for crop-sensored (DX) cameras, vignettes too much.

More to come...hopefully one day in the form of a show. :)

Nikon Europe posts D3 and D700 firmware updates

Quick note, thanks to the Nikon D700 Flickr Group, I just found out that Nikon has posted new firmware updates for their D3 and D700 DSLRs on their European support web site.

For the D3

About this firmware update
This service provides software for upgrading D3 firmware to v2.01.

 

The following improvements have been made in version 2.01

- Geodetic information is now displayed in ViewNX Ver. 1.2.0 or later and Capture NX 2 Ver. 2.1.0 or later for images captured with the GPS Unit GP-1 mounted on the camera. 
- Autofocus-response performance in focus mode C (Continuous-servo AF mode) with relatively dark subjects has been increased. 
- When the AF-ON button is pressed, the monitor turns off and a focus point can now be selected using the multi selector. 

- Photo information displayed in full-frame playback has been modified as follows: 
  HI-, LO- has been changed to Hi, Lo
  WARM TONE has been changed to WARM FILTER
  COLOR CUSTOM has been changed to COLOR BALANCE

- Manamah, displayed in the Time zone options for the World time item in the setup menu, has been changed to Manama. 
- An issue that, in extremely rare cases, resulted in noticeable black dots in images captured with Long exp. NR in the shooting menu set to On has been resolved. 
- When the Speedlight SB-800 was mounted on the camera with flash mode set to Distance-priority manual (GN) mode, and then the exposure meters were reactivated or the camera was turned on, the distance information displayed on the SB-800 changed.  This issue has been resolved.  
- An issue that, in some rare cases, caused images captured with the following lenses to be under-exposed, has been resolved. 
  AF-S VR Micro-Nikkor 105mm f/2.8G IF-ED
  AF VR Zoom-Nikkor 80-400mm f/4.5-5.6D ED (5.0x)



For the D700

About this firmware update
This service provides software for upgrading D700 firmware to v1.01.

 

The following improvements have been made in version 1.01

- When Custom Setting a4 Focus tracking with lock-on was set to Off in Continuous-servo AF, the lens drive moved gradually without achieving focus.  This issue has been resolved. 
- When the Speedlight SB-800 was mounted on the camera with flash mode set to Distance-priority manual (GN) mode, and then the exposure meters were reactivated or the camera was turned on, the distance information displayed on the SB-800 changed.  This issue has been resolved. 
- When the Multi-Power Battery Pack MB-D10 was mounted on the camera and an EN-EL3e battery inserted in the camera but no batteries inserted in the MB-D10, and SB-900 flash mode set to TTL auto flash mode, the flash mode changed to A mode when the exposure meters turned off or were reactivated, or the camera was turned off or on.  This issue has been resolved.  (This issue has also been resolved with SB-900 firmware Ver. 5.02.)
- An issue that, in extremely rare cases, resulted in noticeable black dots in images captured with Long exp. NR in the shooting menu set to On has been resolved.
- Manamah, displayed in the Time zone options for the World time item in the setup menu, has been changed to Manama.

N. Utah Mod Podo

N. Utah Mod Podo, originally uploaded by calanan.

a.k.a. Jumpin' Podo

At home
Salt Lake City, UT
Nikon D700
Nikkor 35mm f/2

Still playing around with my new Nikon D700 and reviving a lost love affair with my old Nikkor 35mm f/2 lens. We're watching Maude for the weekend and boy does she love to jump!

"Mary and Max"

"Mary and Max", originally uploaded by calanan.

At home
Salt Lake City, UT

Nikon D700
Nikkor 35mm f/2

Last night we saw out very first Sundance movie, MARY AND MAX and we absolutely loved it. A bonus: The director/writer, Adam Elliot and his producer, Melanie Coombs were in the audience and gave both an opening statement and a Q&A session afterward. What a joy! This is a beautiful, moving film that I hope it picked up and distributed.

From Sundance.org

{Mary and Max} is unique. A claymation animation by Academy Award–winning filmmaker Adam Elliot (Harvie Krumpet), it tells the simple story of a 20-year pen-pal friendship between two very different people: Mary Dinkle, a chubby, lonely 8-year-old girl living in the suburbs of Melbourne, and Max Horowitz, a 44-year-old Jewish man, who is severely obese, suffers from Asperger’s syndrome, and lives an isolated life in New York City. It is very much a triumph of emotion, insight, and eccentricity—a complete delight.Animation's ability to capture the intricate complexity of life has never been on display in as absorbing fashion as with the storytelling of this Australian filmmaker, who truly makes you forget what you are watching. The originality of the voices in this ever-spinning kaleidoscope of innocence and idiosyncrasy comes straight from an incredibly rich imagination and complete artistic vision. This desire for acceptance and love amid the pain of existence is masterfully narrated by Barry Humphries and fleshed out by the voices of Philip Seymour Hoffman and Toni Collette.This film that explores friendship, autism, taxidermy, psychiatry, alcoholism, where babies come from, obesity, kleptomania, trust, copulating dogs, sexual and religious differences, agoraphobia, and more, and is rooted in a very personal relationship, is proof of why we go to the movies and a truly exceptional portrait of compassion and love.
CAST
Toni Collette, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Barry Humphries, Eric Bana

It's here!

It's here!, originally uploaded by calanan.

My Nikon D700 is in.

Upper shot taken with the Nikon D200 and Sigma 30mm f/1.4

Lower taken with the D700 and Nikkor 35mm f/2

Woohoo!

.v is for victual.

.v is for victual., originally uploaded by calanan.

Main St
Salt Lake City, UT

Sigma 30mm f/1.4

[Part of my "Drive-By Shootings" street photography series]

Haven't done one of these in a loooong time...I missed it.

Sean, Harv and Me

Sean, Harv and Me, originally uploaded by calanan.

Hanging out with two of my brothers-in-law, watching the Utah Utes whup Alabama in the Sugar Bowl.

Amherst Pizza & Ale House
Amherst, NY

Sigma 30mm f/1.4

The sisters-in-law:



More photos from our trip to Buffalo in this Flickr photogallery.