Recent or Non Recent Professional Works

[Rob C]

Hello,

Taken back in 1991 at Bland Bay in Northland New Zealand at night using moon light.

Nikon FA using Velvia and exposed onto  Polaroid SX70 in the dark room.

Cheers

Simon

Is this a threat to Vincent Van G that I see? Very nice and an interesting technique too.

Rob C

[Rob C]

Doing some work in NY recently I decided to do a few final setups on way to airport [I had a 6pm flight]. Did some shots in Grand Central, in the Chrysler Building, returned some faulty goods with quite some difficulty and then ended up just off 34th St.
These are from the final location and were taken after I'd done the planned set up with some other dancers that I'd had in mind all week.
Yet this last minute unplanned add on shoot turned out to be my favourite of entire trip.

I too thought, when seeing the thumbnail, that is was a sitting shot, but of the two I prefer the b/w. In fact, were you to have a bash at converting the second one from colour to b/w you would be getting into the same ballgame (if you cared to, that is) as some very famous fashion blokes with their Eiffel Towers and New York roof lines. Certainly, you´d lose the impact of the colours against the buildings, perhaps why you kept it in colour in the first place. Fear would have precluded that second shot in my case - I have no head for heights, quite apart from caring about the model´s welfare! You wouldn´t even get me UP the bleedin´ Eiffel!

Best wishes - Rob C

[jjj]

Love the first one - the swirl of her skirt and the way she's placed her leg makes it look like she's sitting on a giant ball in the middle of the fountain. OTOH, maybe she is.

Cheers, but shssh! You're giving away my trade secrets and hiding the plumbing was a bitch.    

I trust she got extra pay for the second image!  When I was property manager for a resort in Ontario, if one of my workers fell off a roof (due to a lack of a safety harness), the fines started at around $250,000 and that's before any civil action...

Actually she was paying me! She wanted some promo shots for her belly dancing.
The super of the building nearly had a heart attack when he saw her cavorting on the parapet edge 31 floors up.

[HarperPhotos]

Hi Rob,

Thanks for the complement. I did a series of shots like this around this time in 1991.

I  jokingly called it my  Claude Monet phase.

Sorry to read about the loss of your wife.

Cheers

Simon

[jjj]

I too thought, when seeing the thumbnail, that is was a sitting shot, but of the two I prefer the b/w. In fact, were you to have a bash at converting the second one from colour to b/w you would be getting into the same ballgame (if you cared to, that is) as some very famous fashion blokes with their Eiffel Towers and New York roof lines. Certainly, you´d lose the impact of the colours against the buildings, perhaps why you kept it in colour in the first place.

I think I tried B+W initially, but the colours worked better.

Fear would have precluded that second shot in my case - I have no head for heights, quite apart from caring about the model´s welfare! You wouldn´t even get me UP the bleedin´ Eiffel!

I really hate heights too, yet on this trip I even ended up being suspended in the air for one shot. My coping strategy with heights is to not look down.
I certainly don't have Joe MacNally's no fear of heights. He's the second guy from the top...



...and that's the very wobbly antennae on top of the Empire State Building.




.

[KAHA]

I think I tried B+W initially, but the colours worked better.

I really hate heights too, yet on this trip I even ended up being suspended in the air for one shot. My coping strategy with heights is to not look down.
I certainly don't have Joe MacNally's no fear of heights. He's the second guy from the top...



...and that's the very wobbly antennae on top of the Empire State Building.

Do you have a bigger file of this pic I'd love to see up close : )

[Ray]

The next image was also between sessions for the same ad shoot (the following day).  We rented an old Ukranian center and moved most of the furniture out, lit it with HMI's and slight fog machines for the ads.

The subjects were a group from a ballet school we "rented" and the little girls were great.  Even between sessions they just kept dancing, so in between session I just kept shooting.

Leica M8, available light, 28mm lens, f 2.8

[attachment=14423:moscowdance.jpg]

James,
I like it. It's a bit of a snapshot. However, if you'd been assigned to shoot this ballet school, I'm sure you'd have produced an even better shot. You've captured the movement wonderfully, although there are a few minor criticisms, such as the girl's arm covering her face. The composition is also a bit of a jumble. But not lets not be negative. You've captured the essence.

[jjj]

Do you have a bigger file of this pic I'd love to see up close : )

Nope, that was a shot from Joe's blog, full article and more insane photos here. But you do get to see the photo he took from antenna.

[Rob C]

Hi Rob,

Thanks for the complement. I did a series of shots like this around this time in 1991.

I  jokingly called it my  Claude Monet phase.

Sorry to read about the loss of your wife.

Cheers

Simon

Thanks for the sympathy - sort of very bitter sweet ironic that I´m getting a show in April when she had been urging me for years to get off my ass and try... well, she won´t be neglected when it happens, that I have promised her.

But, on your shot - if you still have all the originals of the series, you could do great things with them with today´s possibilities.

Ciao - Rob C

[Rob C]

I think I tried B+W initially, but the colours worked better.

I really hate heights too, yet on this trip I even ended up being suspended in the air for one shot. My coping strategy with heights is to not look down.
I certainly don't have Joe MacNally's no fear of heights. He's the second guy from the top...



...and that's the very wobbly antennae on top of the Empire State Building.

Dear God! I feel ill just looking. Never in a month of Sundays, even if my life depended on it, which it would: I´d lose it.

Rob C

[CaptainHook]

it´s the small, unexpected things that kill you: a single coffee mug in the sunshine on the terrace in the morning; going into the kitchen and seeing a row of knives that I will never have the skill to use; watering her flowerpots; an empty seat beside me in the car - that sort of thing.

Heartbreaking.
Thank you for sharing and the reminder to appreciate NOW. I texted my girl after reading this.
Sorry for your loss.

[HarperPhotos]

Thanks for the sympathy - sort of very bitter sweet ironic that I´m getting a show in April when she had been urging me for years to get off my ass and try... well, she won´t be neglected when it happens, that I have promised her.

But, on your shot - if you still have all the originals of the series, you could do great things with them with today´s possibilities.

Ciao - Rob C

Hello Rob,

Here is another image from my Monet phase in life.

Cheers

Simon

[haefnerphoto]

Some great work being shown lately!  I particularly like the girl and marionette, as well as, the b/w of the gal on the roof in NYC.  Here's something I've been working on for over a month, it's a poster that goes on press next week, aimed at the summer car cruise market.  The cars are quite well known in the Detroit area, the Silver Bullet was actually a stealth experimental car for Chrysler and raced Woodward Avenue as a test track!  What do you think?  Jim
[attachment=14479:Cruisin_...lattened.jpg]

[Rob C]

Some great work being shown lately!  I particularly like the girl and marionette, as well as, the b/w of the gal on the roof in NYC.  Here's something I've been working on for over a month, it's a poster that goes on press next week, aimed at the summer car cruise market.  The cars are quite well known in the Detroit area, the Silver Bullet was actually a stealth experimental car for Chrysler and raced Woodward Avenue as a test track!  What do you think?  Jim
[attachment=14479:Cruisin_...lattened.jpg]

Personally, I always loved Cadillac breasts.

Rob C

[Rob C]

Hello Rob,

Here is another image from my Monet phase in life.

Cheers

Simon

I know that there used to be quite a lot of manipulated Polaroid work around some years ago - the only Polaroid material I had was a back for Hasselblad and one of those plastic SX-something(?) cameras that I had to buy when a client demanded Polaroids of a location scouting I was going to do. I didn´t like using the back for the ´blad at all and afer the first lot I didn´t. An expensive mistake for me, buying it. That resulted in my never experimenting as you did, and the feeling that what I would have had available was ever going to be too little for any impact. Just shows you how time changes things and is certainly something that I think digital post work could open up to great new things, as you are finding. I like that sort of effect; keep at it, but is any Polaroid stuff available today for you to start once more with new ideas?

Rob C

[Rob C]

Heartbreaking.
Thank you for sharing and the reminder to appreciate NOW. I texted my girl after reading this.
Sorry for your loss.

Thanks, but hey, Captain Hook, I didn´t mean to depress anybody, but yes, now is important. Trouble is, even though you can be quite demonstrative during life, when a huge part of it goes, you can start to ask yourself whether what you did was enough. This might simply be part of the sudden awareness of the fragility of everything one took to be for ever, it might just be one of those thoughts that come uninvited and have no constructive purpose whatsoever.

For what it´s worth - I never was a religious person in the traditional religion sort of meaning of that; but, since she died, I have had so many experiences and odd things happen to and for me that I have no doubts at all that death is certainly not the ending of anything other than the chemicals. I have no doubt that there is something we can conveniently label a soul, another dimension which was always with us but usually ignored because of the overwhelming reality of the physical. Frankly, though it should be easy for me to dismiss this as delusion, I can´t, because my personal evidence has been too strong to ignore. I have no intention of going public with any of this - it is too personal to me and I doubt that it would make any difference to anyone else because I think I would have been more than a little skeptical had this come from anyone other than myself and only now, based on what I have experienced personally, can I accept it either.

It truly is a wonderful gift, life.

Rob C

[CaptainHook]

I didn´t mean to depress anybody, but yes, now is important.

Actually, "heartbreaking" for me usually coincides with "inspiring". So thanks.
I can relate to the other stuff you said.

But yes, back to appreciating the photos being shown here for me.

[KAHA]

For what it´s worth - I never was a religious person in the traditional religion sort of meaning of that; but, since she died, I have had so many experiences and odd things happen to and for me that I have no doubts at all that death is certainly not the ending of anything other than the chemicals. I have no doubt that there is something we can conveniently label a soul, another dimension which was always with us but usually ignored because of the overwhelming reality of the physical. Frankly, though it should be easy for me to dismiss this as delusion, I can´t, because my personal evidence has been too strong to ignore. I have no intention of going public with any of this - it is too personal to me and I doubt that it would make any difference to anyone else because I think I would have been more than a little skeptical had this come from anyone other than myself and only now, based on what I have experienced personally, can I accept it either.

It truly is a wonderful gift, life.

Rob C

Hhhhhmmmmm..............

We now know that the matter of the physical universe is made up of photons, little packets of light energy which when colliding with each other form the virtually infinite number of protons, neutrons and electrons which in various combinations make up everything in our physical world.
 
In essence we can now accurately say that all the matter of the physical universe, our selves included is actually light slowed down.
 
Einstein said, “if we were to use 100% of our brains capacity we would no longer need our bodies and we would become pure energy"
 
Consciousness is a form of energy that can be expressed by our interactions in the world of matter through acts of love, compassion and kindness etc. but it cannot be measured, weighed or identified under the intense neutron beams of a neutron microscope, because it exists outside the confines of the physical universe.

Einstein espoused "Energy cannot be created or destroyed, only transformed" this leaves the question, once our bodies have fulfilled their purpose and gone the way of the world, the vessel of our consciousness which has always been Omni present must continue in some form as it is not bound by physical laws.

Just thinking out loud  

[Rob C]

Just thinking out loud

Which, I think, is what makes some sites more interesting than others.

Don´t stop thinking - it´s nice where you´re going.

Rob C

[mike.online]

Some great work being shown lately!  I particularly like the girl and marionette, as well as, the b/w of the gal on the roof in NYC.  Here's something I've been working on for over a month, it's a poster that goes on press next week, aimed at the summer car cruise market.  The cars are quite well known in the Detroit area, the Silver Bullet was actually a stealth experimental car for Chrysler and raced Woodward Avenue as a test track!  What do you think?  Jim
[attachment=14479:Cruisin_...lattened.jpg]

Fantastic  I really enjoy your photos in the large format thread, esp. when you show some of the setup shots or when you explain how you accomplished your shot.

is this image a mix of composites ?