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Danse des petits cygnes From Swan Lake, by Tchaikovsky.

Sat, 12 May 2012 14:31:10 -0400

Danse des petits cygnes

From Swan Lake, by Tchaikovsky.

Space Shuttle Enterprise flies by New York City On Friday,...

Sun, 29 Apr 2012 17:23:00 -0400

Space Shuttle Enterprise flies by New York City

On Friday, David Pierce and I photographed the Space Shuttle Enterprise for The Verge as it flew by New York City on the back of NASA’s Shuttle Carrier Aircraft (SCA), a modified 747 used to transport the Shuttles.

David shot with a D4 on loan from Nikon, and I brought my Canon 5D Mark II. We rented a 400mm f/4 lens for the D4, and I covered the wider shots with my 70-200 f/4L.

David and I claimed our spot very early that morning. We positioned ourselves right on the river, downtown in Hudson River park, about even with Chambers Street. I chose our location because we didn’t want to fight the crowds at the Intrepid Museum, and Battery Park to the south was almost surely going to be more crowded. This gave us a great view of the aircraft as it approached from the south. We were fortunate to see two good passes before the SCA headed across town to JFK airport. Also, shooting on the west side of the city meant that the sun would light the aircraft from behind us.

It turns out we were right. Our spot wasn’t crowded; a few photographers and regular nice folks turned out to wish the Shuttle well on its last journey. The nice thing about bringing an absolutely monstrous lens to an event like this is that people generally assume you’re there to work (which of course we were) and they stay out of your way. That said, we had some great conversations with some really nice people. NASA always brings out the best in people.

Our strategy was simple: get there early (the shuttle was scheduled to fly by anytime between 9:30 and 11:30), watch the light, meter for the well-lit, puffy white clouds at f/8, and go. We kept our shutter speed at 1/1000 or faster to ensure sharp photos of the aircraft as we tracked it laterally. I think in the end we had less than 3 minutes with the shuttle in front of us to make pictures.

And we made a lot of pictures. The Nikon D4 can shoot 11 frames per second, and the 5D2 can push out a respectable 3.9 (let’s just call it 4, okay?).

We obviously couldn’t publish all of our keepers on The Verge, so David uploaded a ton of photos to Google Plus. I wanted to pick out a few of my favorites from my CF card and publish them here. If I could do this again with a bit more lead time, the only thing I would change is our location. I would have loved to have gone to the Jersey side of the Hudson to photograph the shuttle with New York City in the background. That would have presented a new set of challenges with the sun, but I think it would’ve been worth the trouble.

That said, this was an amazing morning, and I hope you enjoy the pictures.

thisistheverge: NASA Space Shuttle Enterprise: the NYC fly-by...

Fri, 27 Apr 2012 14:29:52 -0400

thisistheverge:

NASA Space Shuttle Enterprise: the NYC fly-by in pictures

This was so much fun to shoot with David Pierce.

Space ninjas!

Wed, 25 Apr 2012 18:55:16 -0400

Space ninjas!

Yom HaShoah on the highway Thursday was Yom HaShoah. Every year...

Sat, 21 Apr 2012 16:14:00 -0400

Yom HaShoah on the highway

Thursday was Yom HaShoah. Every year during April or May (the day falls on the 27th of Nisan in the Hebrew calendar) the world stops to remember the millions of innocent people murdered during the Holocaust. This video of an Israeli highway at the moment the sirens sounded is from last year, and it’s amazing.

(via Dave Pell’s newsletter, Next Draft)

Levon Helm is dead What a musician. I’ll never forget...

Thu, 19 Apr 2012 15:39:12 -0400

Levon Helm is dead

What a musician.

I’ll never forget the first time I saw Martin Scorsese’s The Last Waltz. The film captures one of my favorite performances of one of The Band’s best loved songs, with an absolutely staggering performance by Helm.

Good. Fast. Cheap.

Tue, 17 Apr 2012 21:56:32 -0400

Pick two.

This is the sound of a Nikon D4. Holy crap.

Fri, 13 Apr 2012 16:30:00 -0400

This is the sound of a Nikon D4.

Holy crap.

Spaceship

Thu, 12 Apr 2012 10:30:04 -0400

Spaceship

X-Wing By Ralph McQuarrie

Mon, 09 Apr 2012 09:02:50 -0400

X-Wing

By Ralph McQuarrie

Petrossian

Sun, 08 Apr 2012 21:35:15 -0400

Petrossian

By Chris Foss

Fri, 06 Apr 2012 11:03:29 -0400

By Chris Foss

Moon.

Mon, 02 Apr 2012 13:21:25 -0400

Moon.

“If it can be written or thought, it can be...

Sun, 25 Mar 2012 14:32:37 -0400

“If it can be written or thought, it can be filmed.”
— Stanley Kubrick

I don’t think we survived the crash. Functional...

Sat, 24 Mar 2012 19:51:52 -0400

I don’t think we survived the crash.

Functional perimeters vary from manifestation to manifestation.

Hashtag Beethoven Yep.1 (h/t to the great Thomas...

Fri, 23 Mar 2012 12:46:00 -0400

Hashtag Beethoven

Yep.¹

(h/t to the great Thomas Houston)

Except for when Ludwig preferred these: ♭ ↩

"Science literacy is the vaccine against the charlatans of the world that would exploit your..."

Wed, 21 Mar 2012 13:32:00 -0400

““Science literacy is the vaccine against the charlatans of the world that would exploit your ignorance of the forces of nature.””

- Neil deGrasse Tyson

I can’t wait for Dr. Tyson to join us this Friday for On The Verge.

Alfred Hitchcock on happiness Via Daring Fireball

Wed, 21 Mar 2012 11:15:00 -0400

Alfred Hitchcock on happiness

Via Daring Fireball

No choice. Reblogs of dinosaurs with lasers mounted on their...

Tue, 20 Mar 2012 09:12:12 -0400

No choice.

Reblogs of dinosaurs with lasers mounted on their heads are compulsory.

Neil deGrasse Tyson: we stopped dreaming. Sobering and...

Mon, 12 Mar 2012 17:01:25 -0400

Neil deGrasse Tyson: we stopped dreaming.

Sobering and poignant. He’s one of my heroes.