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It either takes a lot of guts, or a lot of stupidity for Fujifilm to actually release the new GF670 in America. Either way, it’s a pretty sexy looking camera. I used to own an old voigtlander 6×9 camera that looked very similar (in an old and beaten up sort of way), and I would often get stopped and asked about it.

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I got to photograph a very interesting ‘meet and greet’ with Time Magazine Journalist Bobby Ghosh the other day. He presented a great lecture about what has been learnt by all sides during the war in Iraq. It was both informative but a little depressing as he pointed out all of the mistakes made and presumptions that America and its soldiers were a part of. It made me want to pack my camera equipment and travel more.

ISO 6400, 1 Second @ F4 (10pm)

As a freelance contributing photographer I own all of my own equipment. I recently upgraded my body to the 5D markii and it has made my life much easier. Not only is it able to shoot images at ISO 3200 that are useable but it has also made my 16-35 lens an actual 16-35mm (rather than a 25-55mm on the 1.6x crop). Getty has recently switched all of their staff photographers over to Nikon. I’m sure they cut an amazing deal with them but I bet it still cost a pretty penny. Good equipment doesn’t guarantee the photographer will make great images, but it sure does help, and it certainly creates more sharp and detailed images when your target is skiing downhill at high speeds.

I finally took the time to put some new work on my website – benhider.com. I also took out some galleries and consolidated the work so that it should be easier to navigate for people looking for either my fine art photography or my event work as seen below -

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I’ve posted a different version of this song before and I’ve also mentioned this blog before. My monday morning suggestion is to listen to more Bon Iver and read more La Blogotheque! I had Bon Iver playing while walking around NYC during the snow storms last week which felt very fitting.

Bon Iver – Skinny Love – Une Soiree de Poche from La Blogotheque on Vimeo.

Buy a “Cotton Carrier” here

I can’t explain why I want this cardigan…. but I do.

The song is – Savage Garden: Truly Madly Deeply

Aaron Gustafson has been taking 4×5 negatives while free falling. I don’t think it’s a recommended way to make large format landscapes. This project was part of his MFA Thesis project at Parsons. You can’t fault him for all of the effort even if you don’t like the work.

Canon make it easier and easier for the everyday consumer to make ‘amazing’ images. Well, maybe that’s not completely true, but with a little photoshop and some over shooting the everyday photographer can make some ‘nice enough’ images. This bodes poorly for the professional who used to have to own prime lenses, pro bodies and have some training to get the shot. Now you can set your Canon Rebel T2i at ISO 1600 and your 18-135 IS kit lens will get the rest. The 18 megapixel files (5184 x 3456) allow for plenty of crop capability and a pretty solid dynamic range so photoshop away, or does iphoto cover that?

Of course I could argue that the better cameras also benefit the professional, but I think it’s more worrying as publications and websites don’t always require the highest quality. It seems to be more about getting some content at the lowest prices. It comes back to what Scott Gries always tells me, “It’s all about access.”

These are screen shots from my phone of an application called Live Cams. Some of the cameras I can move around and some are fixed but they all show real time video footage of different places around the world. It’s sort of creepy travel photography from my own couch.

Sometimes I get roped into stuff while I’m working that I don’t always think is the best idea. After a long day of photographing on set for this music video I became a part of the whole thing. The director made me move around, ducking and bobbing like a deranged Steve Sands, while snapping as many pictures as possible. Thankfully, you can hardly even tell it’s me and it doesn’t look anywhere near as silly as it felt.

I really liked working with the family. They were from the North of England but had moved to the Barbados for the good life.