Picture Stories by Stephen Alvarez

The Shard: a time lapse study via DSLR News Shooter

 

DSLR News shooter has a write up about making it (here).

Stephen Alvarez

Chicago

 

Goodbye Doc Watson

Doc Watson passed away yesterday at the age of 89. I met him only once, at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, TN. I was noticeably nervous photographing a living legend. Doc assured me that he had all the time in the world for me and put me at ease by telling me stories about growing up blind. He let me photograph during his sound check, it was like having a private concert. I left the Ryman that day even more impressed by the man than his wonderful music.

Goodbye Doc.

Stephen Alvarez

Chattanooga, TN

Panasonic GF-2 still going strong after year

My sister married a wonderful man this past weekend. Congratulations Katherine and Paul. It was a wonderful celebration. I am always nervous about which camera to take to a wedding. The temptation is to just take the IPhone, but lets face it IPhone's don't perform well in the dark and that is when things at a wedding, or any party really, get interesting. I decided to take my GF-2, it is not much bigger than an IPhone and works a whole lot better when things get dark.

Look at the photo above from the Panasonic. ISO 1250 looks great. Yes I know the camera has been replaced with a much newer and I assume better version. But the camera in your hand is always much better than the camera than the camera still at the store. I've been shooting the GF-2 for a year now and I still think it is a super impressive machine. Also since you can buy it with a lens for under $400 (DMC-GF2 ) it is even more impressive.

Stephen Alvarez

Sewanee, TN

On the acella

On board the acella headed to New York.
Stephen Alvarez

Climbing in Tsingy de Bemeraha #madagascar

This is definitely one of my favorite frames from the Tsingy story. I like it not just because it is dramatic but because it show just has difficult moving throught the tsingy is. It is the NGM photo of the day today and on the NG site someone asked where I was shooting from. Well, I am perched on one of those sharp pinnacles and leaning out over John as he climbs out of that gap between pinnalces. I'm shoting with a real wide lens and looking almost straight down.

"I didn't just build a camera I created a time machine"

 

This starts a little slow but is so worth watching, talk about pouring yourself into a project. Building a wet plate camera out of a bread truck, Inspirational...

Stephen Alvarez

Sewanee, TN

Photographing in the final stretch

Having Ora cave come up as an NG photo of the day last week reminded me of that long, hard expedition to Papua New Guinea. Exploring any cave is hard, big river caves are among the hardest. Not only are you fighting white water and gravity and darkness but also the constant roar of the river is deafening. Dave Nixon is heading back upstream from the end of the cave. At least we called it the end. It was the place that white water rapids began slapping the ceiling and further exploration was closely aligned with certain death. I remember all of us heading down to the last rock we could hold on to and looking around a corner at the maelstrom. No way to go on, certain death around the corner...

Ora Cave is the NGM photo of the day

I was happy to wake up this morning and find my Ora Cave photo as the NGM photo of the day. The photo came as part of a 3 month expedition to the Island of New Britain in PNG. It is a place I have always wanted to return to. There are huge, unexplored caves in the jungle there. Trying to find funding for geographic exploration in this economy is pretty tough so far there are no backers on a return trip.

Stephen Alvarez

Sewanee, TN

Alabama Aerial

The beautiful clear air this morning reminded me of this day a few years ago shooting aerials over the Paint Rock River. 

Stephen Alvarez

Sewanee, TN

Manfrotto Sympla System review

 

above, the Canon 5D MK III tricked out with Sympla rails, matte box, shoulder support, follow focus, Small HD EVF, Zoom recorder, Rode NTG3. It is a load...

Video enabled DSLR cameras are the most cost effective way of producing beautiful, big budget looking video. But 3 years after they took over the market place the cameras still have shortcomings that have to be addressed before they can work their best. 

Sound was the initial biggest issue,and the current line up of cameras largely take care of sound so the two biggest remaining issues are the cameras are difficult to focus and hard to hold.

A DSLR is ergonomically designed to hold against your face with two hands and shoot still photos with. If you are a little shaky that way it is ok because the shutter speed will likely compensate for the shake. Shooting video is an entirely different matter. You can’t hold the camera against your face so it is difficult to be steady. More importantly the cameras gather video using a rolling shutter and any shake can end up looking like jello. Auto focus that most of us rely on no longer works.

There are lots of supports and focus systems on the market that help correct those problems. Manfrotto enters the market this year with the Sympla system, a comprehensive group of supports and innovative focus assists.