Friday, July 31, 2009
Goldberg Upsherin
Since everyone is running to get haircuts today I thought it would be nice day to share images from an Upsherin that I shot last month.
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Schindler's List
Historically, this has been a very rough week for the Jews. As is customary I went easy on the indulgences and spent a bit of time learning and reviewing relevant topics. In addition to spending a lot of time reading Jewish History (from my sister-in-laws mint condition 11th grade textbook) I borrowed my Father-in-laws DVD of Schindler's List. The first and last time that I saw this movie was shortly after it came out in 1993. TABC, my high school, actually thought the movie was so meaningful and well done that they paid a theater to have a special showing and took the ENTIRE school to see it. Surprisingly, despite a fair deal of nudity (as well as the obvious, horrendous atrocities), I don't think any of the parents objected. I remember very clearly how moved I was when I saw it.
After more than 15 years the movie, thankfully, still holds up. No. It remains a benchmark film. Not only is it a remarkable piece of filmmaking (from an objective, artistic standpoint, the movie is well executed in every way) but it is a historic necessity. As any New Yorker will tell you, "Never Forget" is easier said than done. As a witness to the events of 9/11 I myself am at fault for allowing it's significance to diminish over the last several years. While we cannot let the weight of these great events stop us from living we must take them with us every day.
When the film was over I watched and read every bit of the extra features. The main extra was about an organization formed by the films director, Steven Spielberg, called the Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Foundation. The foundation was built and is maintained by the University of Southern California. Through a remarkable effort the foundation has collected video testimonies of over 52,000 witnesses. The record is comprised mostly of Jewish witnesses, but also includes other persecuted groups as well as soldiers, politicians and civilians who saw the Holocaust with their own eyes. Among those interviewed is my ex-landlady Mrs. Hammer.
"Mrs. Hammer" taken five years ago for my as of yet unpublished Frum Faces project.
During our six years living in her house Mrs. Hammer often referred to her interview with Spielberg's crew. Until last night I never really knew what she was talking about. Now I know that her testimony can be seen at any of the numerous locations that have access to the Foundation's archive (in the NY area the closest three are Columbia University, Syracuse University and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in D.C.). You can view a very brief bio of Mrs. Hammer online by searching the Testimonies Catalogue, but I urge you to visit a location near you to see the video. Use the search phrases "Yera Hammer" or Interview Code #18278.
Having never seen her video I decided to sit down with her myself to hear her first hand account first hand. It was exactly one year ago tomorrow (on Tisha B'Av, according to the Hebrew Calendar) that AY and I had the privilege to not only listen to her stories but ask her questions as well. As the great Jimmy V once said "There are three things we all should do every day. We should do this every day of our lives. Number one is laugh. You should laugh every day. Number two is think. You should spend some time in thought. Number three is, you should have your emotions moved to tears, could be happiness or joy. But think about it. If you laugh, you think, and you cry, that's a full day. That's a heck of a day. You do that seven days a week, you're going to have something special."
I agree. If you don't already laugh, think and cry every day why not give it a try tomorrow. For all those participating I wish you an easy and meaningful fast.
After more than 15 years the movie, thankfully, still holds up. No. It remains a benchmark film. Not only is it a remarkable piece of filmmaking (from an objective, artistic standpoint, the movie is well executed in every way) but it is a historic necessity. As any New Yorker will tell you, "Never Forget" is easier said than done. As a witness to the events of 9/11 I myself am at fault for allowing it's significance to diminish over the last several years. While we cannot let the weight of these great events stop us from living we must take them with us every day.
When the film was over I watched and read every bit of the extra features. The main extra was about an organization formed by the films director, Steven Spielberg, called the Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Foundation. The foundation was built and is maintained by the University of Southern California. Through a remarkable effort the foundation has collected video testimonies of over 52,000 witnesses. The record is comprised mostly of Jewish witnesses, but also includes other persecuted groups as well as soldiers, politicians and civilians who saw the Holocaust with their own eyes. Among those interviewed is my ex-landlady Mrs. Hammer.
"Mrs. Hammer" taken five years ago for my as of yet unpublished Frum Faces project.
During our six years living in her house Mrs. Hammer often referred to her interview with Spielberg's crew. Until last night I never really knew what she was talking about. Now I know that her testimony can be seen at any of the numerous locations that have access to the Foundation's archive (in the NY area the closest three are Columbia University, Syracuse University and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in D.C.). You can view a very brief bio of Mrs. Hammer online by searching the Testimonies Catalogue, but I urge you to visit a location near you to see the video. Use the search phrases "Yera Hammer" or Interview Code #18278.
Having never seen her video I decided to sit down with her myself to hear her first hand account first hand. It was exactly one year ago tomorrow (on Tisha B'Av, according to the Hebrew Calendar) that AY and I had the privilege to not only listen to her stories but ask her questions as well. As the great Jimmy V once said "There are three things we all should do every day. We should do this every day of our lives. Number one is laugh. You should laugh every day. Number two is think. You should spend some time in thought. Number three is, you should have your emotions moved to tears, could be happiness or joy. But think about it. If you laugh, you think, and you cry, that's a full day. That's a heck of a day. You do that seven days a week, you're going to have something special."
I agree. If you don't already laugh, think and cry every day why not give it a try tomorrow. For all those participating I wish you an easy and meaningful fast.
Friday, July 24, 2009
Goldstein & Zeltzer Families
This past Sunday I made a trip up to Nyak, NY to shoot the Goldstein & Zeltzer families and we had a blast! The adults were pretty cool but the kids were amazing. I'm sure you can tell from the pictures that these four cousins, Page, Justin, Sara & Miri are all very comfortable in front of the camera.
The goal was to get a few formal shots and a whole lot of candid portraits of everyone just having fun - do you think we succeeded? My camera was happily blasting away for almost three hours and I wish I could share all the final images with you, but you know what they say about too much of a good thing...
...Anyway, enjoy a handful of my faves:
The goal was to get a few formal shots and a whole lot of candid portraits of everyone just having fun - do you think we succeeded? My camera was happily blasting away for almost three hours and I wish I could share all the final images with you, but you know what they say about too much of a good thing...
...Anyway, enjoy a handful of my faves:
Thursday, July 16, 2009
Baby in a Box
It's been a month since I last posted any photos of Leora and several people have been bugging me for an update. Well, to be honest with you, in our haste to move out of our old apartment we misplaced the box that we packed Leora in!
Little Lost Leo finally turned up this morning, in great condition (whew, thank G-D), and I will hopefully get her in the studio for a modeling session over the next few days.
Seriously though, a few days before we had to be out of our apartment (a few days after she was born), when we should have hastily been packing up I decided that I just had to spend two hours setting up and creating the above image. It is indeed a real image and those are actually boxes that we had either already packed up or were waiting to be filled. Had I gone totally insane I would have prepared and stacked enough boxes to fill the background behind her but instead I chose (wisely, as I think I had already exhausted my wife's patience just after telling her about my "Box of Leo" idea) to just tape some collapsed boxes to the wall. Set up was around 1.5+ hours and Leora was only subject to my flashing lights for about 10 minutes. Many thanks to my lovely ladies for their continuing tolerance of my nonsense!
Below is a detail shot of the final image along with a few behind the scenes photos.
Strobist: Canon 30D/EF-S 17-55 2.8 @ 160 sec / f6.3 @ iso 100. One AB800 with shoot thru umbrella triggered via a Pocketwizard Plus 2 mounted on the camera with a pre-trigger motor cord. That allowed me to hold a PW MiniTT1 in my hand and maneuver Leo, step just out of frame, and fire the camera without having to stand behind the tripod.
For post production notes click on the final image above or click here. See the unedited version here.
Little Lost Leo finally turned up this morning, in great condition (whew, thank G-D), and I will hopefully get her in the studio for a modeling session over the next few days.
Seriously though, a few days before we had to be out of our apartment (a few days after she was born), when we should have hastily been packing up I decided that I just had to spend two hours setting up and creating the above image. It is indeed a real image and those are actually boxes that we had either already packed up or were waiting to be filled. Had I gone totally insane I would have prepared and stacked enough boxes to fill the background behind her but instead I chose (wisely, as I think I had already exhausted my wife's patience just after telling her about my "Box of Leo" idea) to just tape some collapsed boxes to the wall. Set up was around 1.5+ hours and Leora was only subject to my flashing lights for about 10 minutes. Many thanks to my lovely ladies for their continuing tolerance of my nonsense!
Below is a detail shot of the final image along with a few behind the scenes photos.
Strobist: Canon 30D/EF-S 17-55 2.8 @ 160 sec / f6.3 @ iso 100. One AB800 with shoot thru umbrella triggered via a Pocketwizard Plus 2 mounted on the camera with a pre-trigger motor cord. That allowed me to hold a PW MiniTT1 in my hand and maneuver Leo, step just out of frame, and fire the camera without having to stand behind the tripod.
For post production notes click on the final image above or click here. See the unedited version here.
Liquors Galore
Late last week I got a call from my friend Dan at U Productions who asked me to take some shots to be used in a TV commercial they are working on. The 30 second spot is for a really beautiful new liquor store on avenue J in Brooklyn called Liquors Galore. Most of the shots that the video crew took were tight close-ups of bottles and the actors, but the viewers never got a feel for what the entire store looked like. I was asked to take some still images that could be used in the commercial to demonstrate just how vast the store and it's selection of products really are. The images needed to include as much of the store as possible. The editors would then briefly pan through the shot so that it matched the motion shots that made up the rest of the video.
Below are the five shots that I presented to my clients as well as a quick video that I put together demonstrating how each image could be panned within the spot. Both of my clients, the U Video Team and the store owner, were thankfully very pleased with the result and are considering using the fifth shot for the commercial.
Strobist info (tech notes): Canon 30D/EF-S 10-22 on a tripod for exposures of around 1 second+ @ f11. Pocketwizards were used to fire one 580ex on a lightstand, one 285 on a lightstand and one 285 either handheld or on the floor (the foot is broken). Each image is a composite of several shots that were taken with the lights pointed at different points within the scene.
While I had two AB800's with me as well as two WL800's there was absolutely no place to bounce any light and it would have been a hassle to set up cords, diffusers and large lightstands since the store was open while I was making these images. Considering this is basically a still life I decided instead to use a tripod and slow shutter speed and combine shots when necessary. Initial editing was done in LightRoom with final composites and corrections done in Photoshop.
Below are the five shots that I presented to my clients as well as a quick video that I put together demonstrating how each image could be panned within the spot. Both of my clients, the U Video Team and the store owner, were thankfully very pleased with the result and are considering using the fifth shot for the commercial.
Liquors Galore from M.Kruter on Vimeo.
Strobist info (tech notes): Canon 30D/EF-S 10-22 on a tripod for exposures of around 1 second+ @ f11. Pocketwizards were used to fire one 580ex on a lightstand, one 285 on a lightstand and one 285 either handheld or on the floor (the foot is broken). Each image is a composite of several shots that were taken with the lights pointed at different points within the scene.
While I had two AB800's with me as well as two WL800's there was absolutely no place to bounce any light and it would have been a hassle to set up cords, diffusers and large lightstands since the store was open while I was making these images. Considering this is basically a still life I decided instead to use a tripod and slow shutter speed and combine shots when necessary. Initial editing was done in LightRoom with final composites and corrections done in Photoshop.
Friday, July 10, 2009
Rabenstein Wedding
Here are a few from my cousin Chaim's wedding this past Monday, July 6th. It's been a while since I have been to the Liberty Jewish Center in Baltimore and, WOW, they did a terrific job renovating the Synagogue. Too bad it didn't look like that when Rusi and I got married there six years ago on the same date!
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