Canon 5D MKII

Hi all,

Been shooting a lot with the Canon 5D MKII for sometime now!  Currently, I am putting it through the rigors of shooting a documentary.  So stay tuned for more on that!  While some of the info is not new, many have been asking me these questions while in the field, especially about the audio while shooting video,  so here it goes.

The recent firmware update for the 5D MKII has unlocked the camera’s ball and chain while in video mode! The focus is still a challenges, especially while in the working on the fly and not on a tripod, but like many things learn the limits and break the rules!  It’s still great to have a camera that uses all the L series glass, allowing me the versatility to create what I want when I want without having to be weighted down with more gear!

For audio I use the Sony UWP-V1 Wireless Lavalier ENG Microphone Package while following a subject.  The great thing about this system is that the receiver has a monitor out, so you can listen to the audio, since the camera doesn’t have a way to listen to the audio as it’s being recorded.  I purchased this set up at B&H. I use a tram mic “vampire” clip, so I can place the mic out of sight.  I also use an XLR to mini for a shot gun mic and other hand held mics.

While I’d love to shoot with the Redrock MICRO that’s not in the cards right now, here’s video showing the setup of a REDROCK rig!

Keep shooting!

Marc

Here’s some shots quickly taken of my set up.

Portrait of Matt White

Making Ends Meet by Way of Rubbish

Marc Steiner/Agency New Jersey for The New York Times

By STEVEN KURUTZ

Published: June 17, 2009

Consider home-related reality TV shows as an economic barometer: in the fizzy sub-prime era, get-rich programs like A & E’s “Flip This House” and Bravo’s “Million Dollar Listing” filled the airwaves. Now there are more recession-appropriate shows, among them DIY’s “Operation Salvage,” which follows the Whites, a Barnegat, N.J., family whose members run an architectural salvage business called Recycling the Past and spend their free time on thrifty projects like making dining tables out of scrap wood.

Matt White, who works alongside his brother, Josh, and his father, Steve, took a break from his seven-day workweek to chat.

How do you differentiate between junk and something valuable?

Nothing is junk. But often you get called last minute and have 24 hours to get everything out of a house. You have to focus on the best investment for your time.

Like what?

Old-growth wood, for example. Years ago, chestnut trees were killed in a blight, so the only way to get that wood today is with salvage materials.

Do you salvage big items, too?

We took four 40-foot-tall limestone columns from a nursing college in New Jersey. People say, “Why did you bother with that?” Well, who else has got it? I don’t care if I sell them or not. It makes our yard look great.

Has the recession affected your business?

Things are tight, but people still want to work on their homes. To get a custom door built might run you $500 to $3,000. You can get that from us for maybe $75.

Did you use salvage in your home?

We brought in stained glass from a house in Westchester. The flooring came from a barn in the Shenandoah Valley. The sink is from a house in St. Louis. The countertops are railroad car floorings. Walking around the house, there are so many stories.

TO VIEW MORE IMAGES OF MATT

More info on Matt White’s show & work.

DISCARDED BUILDING MATERIALS BECOME AMAZING PIECES ON
DIY NETWORK’S NEW SERIES, OPERATION SALVAGE

Host Matt Whites Provides Unique Ways To Add Character And Value To A Home

NEW YORK – May 7, 2009 – Matt White, architectural salvage expert and host of DIY Network’s new series, Operation Salvage finds innovative ways to turn building materials such as rare Indian castle doors, Ancient Greek Pillars and railroad ties from the Australian Outback into some of the coolest furniture and decorative items ever seen. Tune in to see ratty boards become amazing floors, rusty iron transformed into a flat screen TV stand, and doors turned into amazing kitchen cabinets when Operation Salvage premieres on Monday, June 1 at 6 p.m. ET. The series will air every night from 6 p.m. – 7 p.m. ET from June 1 – 5.

“I have been recycling materials since I was a kid,” White said. “I credit my father for my love of construction, carpentry, landscaping and re-creating and being able to work with him and my brother on restorations makes the experience of seeing the transformations that much better.”

White is co-owner of Recycling The Past, an architectural salvage shop and family business in Barnegat, N.J. which is housed in two historic homes, circa the 1820s and 1860s. He also refurbished his personal 1851 residence with all salvage items. White and his family use cranes, Bobcats, wrecking balls, hammers and more to tear through abandoned structures hunting for unusual, old objects to restore. At the top of their wish lists are immense Victorian sandstone mantles, 19th-century porticos, tiles, huge walnut doors, antique brick, and claw-foot tubs. When they can’t find these, they turn raw materials into wholly new decorative items

For more information about Matt White, Operation Salvage or DIY Network’s experts, tips and home improvement programs, visit the network’s companion Web site at www.diynetwork.com. Members of the media may also obtain additional press materials, talent bios and show images by registering at DIY Network’s online media newsroom. Viewers can also become fans of DIY Network and interact with other home improvement enthusiasts and do-it-yourselfers through facebook. DIY Network is available nationwide on DISH Network Ch. 111 and DIRECTV Ch. 230, and additional cable channel designations may be found by checking local listings and www.diynetwork.com/tv.

04.29.09 What a long strange trip it’s been…

Marc shooting on Shakedown

Well today we visited Shakedown Street at the Izod Center. Some things never change, well they do a little. We set up a backdrop and shot portraits of people coming to their 300th, and some to their first show. We collected some audio and grabbed some images of the action in the parking lot. We packed up and headed out before the show started, luckily I had been to the show at MSG the other night, so I got a taste. Check HERE to see those strange folk at Shakedown and the multimedia piece we put together.

CLICK HERE FOR AUDIO SLIDE SHOW

04.27.09 What a weekend

Well I spent the weekend shooting the Shad Festival out in Lambertville. Nice town, big crowds, events spread throughout town- sampled the shad- pass on it if you have the chance- fishy like bluefish. I met a guy who had a makeshift stage set up on one of the side streets. He and his boys were jamming and were taking a quick break. I thought it might make for a cool image….but I had to get back to Red Bank to take a train up to MSG to catch a Dead show…later. Funny thing is, he wasn’t playing long as he was on his way up there also. Great show. We’re kicking the idea of shooting portraits at Shakedown at the Izod Center on Wednesday…and we both need miracles. Back to Saturday, as I’m making my way back towards Red bank on Route 195 is see that the NJ Turnpike is shut down at Exit 7a southbound. I reach over to the news pagers and there’s nothing on them so I go on my way. Later I learn that 5 people died in a multi vehicle crash in Mount Laurel. A year ago I would have kicked my self in the ass for not knowing, two years ago I would have kicked myself for not going. Now, I just shrug my shoulders. I saw that a couple of Gannett shooters were able to make images of a tarp covered car…nice…glad to see someone was out there. So Monday I get my early morning papers and as I flip through the Record I see that the Associated Press moved an image of the car fully involved in the middle of the Turnpike with the first arriving fire units preparing to extinguish the car. Wow…nice…really nice. Then as I study the frame I see the outline of a car window and realize someone shot it while passing by. Hopefully it was a photographer who was working or on their way to Great Adventure with their family and got a frame off. I know, I know…it’s the way it is..citizen journalist…blah,blah,blah…don’t fight it. I just hope whomever it was GOT PAID! I think of what it would have cost me to try and get some kind of image of the accident…probably 30 bucks…gas, tolls…and plus whatever damage I did to my equipment trying to sneak through the woods to get close enough. Most likely I wouldn’t have made it back…another one for the archives! Maybe, just maybe..one day I’ll get lucky enough to be somewhere and make an image that won’t cost me money or time to make.

04.23.08 No shoot day

Made my way down to the Photo Center in Brick- needed a step down ring for a macro filter. I also got a prize for the NJPPA POY dinner that’s coming up in May. Seems that some new products are on the way- Canon is releasing it’s new Rebel T-1i, a 15 mega-pixel camera, with a 3 inch LCD and full HD video capture at 1920×1080. All that for under $ 800. Also a Canon rep was there and I told him I wanted a Mark III 1Ds- and he said to wait, in the fall, the next generation will be out. Some kind of cross between the Mark III 1Ds and the 5D Mark II, if you can wait. I’m just looking to have two camera bodies that are the same, with one being full frame- so I guess I do need a 1Ds- any out there?

04.21.09 Back, well really starting, to blog

So I guess I am done fighting what everyone else has already been doing. I constantly hear about Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, blogs and the like. I am told I should have friends, join groups, and network and share experiences and ideas. Maybe I feel that whatever I have to say wouldn’t interest or entertain anyone. So here it goes. I work for Agency New Jersey, which I co-founded with Marc Steiner in September 2007, and luckily we are still around. Like other photographers working in New Jersey we are all just trying to figure out what’s next, and earn a living long the way. It isn’t easy. The decline of the newspaper industry, advances in technology that gives all a chance to make, and send, a decent image, and staying true to cover the CDB (cost of doing business) has become a focus and struggle. Unfortunately, the images that make you money, sometimes more then once, become your best images. We would all like to shoot what we would like to shoot. But that doesn’t change if you are staff, freelance, or own your agency. For me, shooting what I would like, hard breaking news- just doesn’t have a consistent positive financial reward. It’s just not worth it. Most times, chasing news costs us money. We used to run all day and night, cover the state from top to bottom. Then the papers pulled back, or stop covering the state, or they just covered it themselves- while it was happening- or the day after. News events had to have certain criteria in order to get an outlet to bite-how many dead, how many buildings, anyone well known, anything juicy. Then maybe- if they didn’t get a provided image, or get something in house-would they give you a call back for an image. So, where our website was an early morning read for editors and shooters to see what happened during day or night, we realized that we were “tipping” or providing content for free, without an image purchase. That hurt, and so did the $4.00 per gallon gas during last summer. Imagine getting in a Suburban and traveling to Atlantic City for breaking news, and then getting home at Exit 109 on the Parkway, only to have the pager chime in about a fourth alarm in Hoboken. Risk vs gain. Pictures for the wall, instead of cash in the wallet. So we’ve been reinventing ourselves of sorts. Shooting more features and portraits and connecting more with the people, events, issues, and destinations from New Jersey. We are constantly learning, what people want (to pay for), what we really enjoy shooting, what we need to do business wise, and how too keep the edge and interest up. So I as I write this I keep my news pagers close at hand- just in case. Enough with that- congrats to some shooters in my area that have done well recently, Damon Winter on his Pulitzer for covering Obama, Aristide Economopoulos for his 2008 NJPPA Photographer of the Year, Ed Murray for his honorable mention in the NPPA 2008 POY, and our own Marc Steiner- who took four third places and two honorable mentions during the 2008 NJPPA POY contest. Now I have to figure out how to post an image on this thing, cheers.

D.C., Inauguration Bound

Gonna give this blog thing a whirl!
Got press credentials…and place to stay in DC! All we need is for someone to pay the heating bill down there to warm things up !
Tomorrow morning I’ll be loading my car with camera gear and warm snow gear to wear. I’m heading down earlier than Colin, cause I’ll be documenting the first-ever Disability Power & Pride Inaugural Ball, at the NATIONAL PRESS CLUB! I’m working on a larger story that I’ll fill you in on over the next several months as it develops.

For now enjoy the warmth wherever you can get it!
Stay tuned,
Marc

12.20.08 Sign of the times

Colin Archer/ Agency New Jersey

This week I did an assignment for the New York Times on the unemployment insurance benefit fund in New Jersey. I arrived at the One Stop Career Center in Neptune early Wednesday morning and made phone calls to Trenton in order to get the okay to shoot inside the agency. These days clients seeking unemployment insurance must use the phone or internet to file a claim. I was looking for a large sign on the side of a building that said “Unemployment Office” with a line of people stretched around the corner, but not any more. There was only a few people that came to the office to file their claim so I was able to get off a few frames of that for this weekend New Jersey section of the Times.

12.11.08 Here we go

Today Agency New Jersey joined the world of blogging. Sitting in the office doing paperwork before heading out for an assignment for the New York Post we joined up and became “bloggers”. Soon our blog site will mask our other sites with Neon Sky and Photoshelter. 

Well goodbye for now and happy shooting

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