Tim Hall

David; Does work as newspaper photographer or work on a national magazine qualify for any of those 100 days? Been doing this for over 10-years now.

Phil; You are right, as long as I'm able to pay my mortgage and have enough left over to buy some more camera gear, I'm happy. I am waiting for Nikon's new D2X camera to be released. I will be getting one of those as part on my salary. I can't wait! Tim Hall :)

Sometimes I wonder if the trust they have in me is a little bit misplaced! But this is the second time I have been hired away by another company. I can't remember the last time I had to apply for a job! And even with all this, I still would like to shoot production stills. Go figure!

Shootist, thanks for the info. Everytime I think I'm at the stage in my professional life where I can attemp to do something about this crazy desire to be a unit photographer I get a another wonderful job offer! I have been growing tired with my chief photographer duties at a three paper news group in San Diego, shooting news can wear you down. But now my old employer goes out and buys a national magazine and wants me to come back and run the visual end of the business for both his newspaper and the magazine! Oh well, one of these days I will shoot unit stills full time! Tim Hall

Thanks David and Mitch thats the kind of info that truly helps those of us who are in the dark over this. I'm going to e-mail the local 600 (now that I have found an address) and see what the fees are to join. Thanks again Tim Hall

I have to aggree with what Carlos said above, I think an 8-meg sensor camera like the Canon EOS-1D mark II, would be about my limit for on set photography. That size is large enough for a double truck (two-page spread) in a slick-stock national magazine like Time, People, etc., yet small enough not to overload your system. Plus it is much cheaper than going with Canon's 16-meg camera, in fact I think you can get two of the 8-meg cameras for the price one 16-meg camera. The one thing I do like about the Nikon D2X camera (I'm a Nikon owner) is its 'high speed crop mode.' Instead of a 5 fps 12-meg camera you get a 6.8-meg 8 fps camera with this mode enabled. Kind of gives you the best of both worlds, but since there is no D2X's on the market yet (Jan 2005) the jury is out on how well it works. I would'nt mind the Nikon D2H (4-meg, 8 fps) but it is Nikon's first attemp at building its own sensor and it seams to produce a lot of noise above 800 iso. Also I stay away from those Microdrives. Being very tiny hard drives, with tiny moving parts, they don't stand up well to any kind of shock, like dropping them on the ground nor do they take the heat very well. I had many photojournalist friends that lost images when their Mircodrives failed. I only use solid-state CF cards. You can even recover images from those CF cards if you dropped them in water, or left them in your pants pocket when you washed your clothes. Of course you won't want to use that card again, but you will be able to get the images off of it. Tim Hall

100 days over a 3 year period does not sound to bad. Do you have to have an application into the union first and then get your 100 days, or can you do your 100 days first then apply? Tim Hall

I think the only problem with the newer high meg sensor cameras (besides the cost) is what those much larger image files will do to your workflow. At the end of a 500-1000 image day on set you still have to process and back up all of those files. One of the more interesting things coming from both Nikon and Canon is WiFi wireless image transfer systems. It will automaticly upload the images that you take and transfer them to a computer while you are shooting. I don't know all of the details involved with the process but it sure sounds like a great idea for a still photographer on set. Tim Hall

I posted this same message on the www.cameraguild.com website but it seams that not very many people reply to the posts there so I thought I would ask here. What is the requirement for joining the Local 600 as a still photographer? How many documented payed days on set are needed? How much does it cost to join if you meet all the requirements? Is there any required still camera equipment needed? Do you have to be able to juggle three running chainsaws at the same time while singing the "Star Spangled Banner?" Thanks Tim Hall

I shoot digitial so I would have to get a blimp. The shutters on modern day digitials from Nikon (which I use) and Canon are rather loud. I have a cloth type muzzel that I use when I cover the courts because the judges get a little tick-off if they hear a high-frame-rate camera going off. As for copyright I think the DP's work and the still photographers work are two very different things. The DP's work is owned by who-ever owns the film, be it a studio or after many years someone like Ted Turner and his networks. But the still photos, if not owned by the photographer that took them, tend to get filed away, many times never to be seen again, by the studio PR departments. I would love to retain the rights to any major film projects that I would be lucky enought to shot. If nothing else than to make a nice "making of" or "behind the scenes" type coffee table book. I don't think the still shooter is making as much money as the loader or 2nd assitant camera person is, so this might be seen by the "Money People" as a perk for the still guy. So he won't complain that much about the pay. Besides, the loader or 2nd doesn't have to have $25,000 to $30,000 of his own equipment to do the work. I think that the ownership of copyright my the SMPSP members is a good thing. And on the small shoots I have done, I have kept my copyright. Tim Hall

I also didn't see any message boards on the camera guild website.

I did send the e-mail to the contact person on the SMPSP website, and didn't get anything back. I thought it would be better to use the contact person first instead of just contacting the members out of the blue. Maybe thats my only option?

Andy; At a $700 price point there is not a lot of "professional" type cameras to chose from. The Canon digital Rebel and the Nikon D70 are about the only interchangeable lens type cameras I could think of that might meet your needs. I shoot on a daliy basis with Nikon D1's and D1H cameras, (I'm the chief photographer at a company that has three weekly newspapers and a monthly magazine.) And though those cameras 'only' have a 2.7 meg sensor they do just fine. Granted I can't make 16x20 prints from my cameras without a little software help, but I can make full frame 8x10's from my dye-sub printer and you would be very hard pressed to tell if it was film or digital. In most cases it is not the number of pixels per sensor (though more is better), it is the phyical size if the sensor that seems to be more important. It is kind of like shooting video with a camera that has 1/4 inch ccd's vs 1/2 or 3/4 inch ccd's. The smaller the pixel pitch the greater the 'noise' generated by the camera. Now all I have to do is save my pennies so I can get Nikon's new D2X camera. I've got too much money tied up in Nikon lens to even think about switching to Canon. Tim Hall

I recently sent this e-mail to a group called the Society of Motion Picture Still Photographers or SMPSP, in truth it was sent to the contact address posted on their site. And I never recieved anything in return, to be fair they might be just to busy to answer my questions. Anyway, I thought I would post it here in the hopes that all of you D.P.s and 1st cameramen and other pros could help point me in the right direction. Do any of you know of any Unit Still Photographers that I might be able to talk too? Thanks From: Timothy J.Hall <thallca@earthlink.net> Date: Thu Oct 7, 2004 5:01:08 PM US/Pacific To: lanicola@aol.com Subject: Unit Still Photography Information Hello; I am currently the chief photographer at the Pomerado Newspaper Group (www.mylocalnews.com) located in Poway, CA just north of San Diego. We publish three weekly newspapers plus a monthly magazine. I have, on occasion, had the opportunity to act as the unit still photographer for a number of small independent projects filming in the San Diego area over the past couple of years and it has been a great deal of fun and a lot of hard work. I pretty much just covered them the same why I would cover any other news event which was the only way I could think of to do it. I didn't really know what all the requirements where for the position (still don't), kind of just flown by the seat of my paints thing. My problem is I cannot find very much information, in print or on the internet, about this position. There seems to be tons of information out there on almost every other aspect of filmmaking. I can find out everything I ever wanted to know about gaffers, grips, loaders, 1st cameramen, directors of photography, you name it, it's there, but nothing about the still photographers. Do you know of any resources out there on the web where I can find more information on unit photographers? Such as; Do they just act as a photojournalist, providing a visual documentary of the production? Do they work for the director, producer or publicity department? I have a bunch of questions on the subject and the sad part is I have no idea where to ask them! Any help would make me a happy man! Thanks Timothy Jay Hall Chief Photographer Pomerado Publishing 13247 Poway Road Poway, CA 92064 (858) 748-2311 ext. 229

zhivago; Here are a few tips for shooting fireworks they will work for both digital or film cameras but only if you can shoot in full manual mode. A lot of the lower priced point-and-shoot cameras don't give you that option. 1. It's best if you use a tripod, you are going to be making a long exposuer too capture muli bursts. 2. Use a cable release if you have one, or you can use the camera's timed-release fuction to fire the shutter. (Both of these options are used to keep camera shake to a minimum.) 3. Use the BLUB setting on your camera if you have a camera release. 4. Use slow ISO film or set your digitial camera to it's lowest ISO setting, which on my Nikon D1's is 200 iso. 5. If you are using a digitial camera set the white balance to the 'Daylight' setting. 6. Set your lens f stop to f/11 or f/16. 7. Set your lens focus to infinity and turn your autofocus system off. 8. Don't use a lens that is longer than about 50mm, unless you really know where the fireworks are going to be in the sky. Then just sit back and have fun. Remember the fireworks are making the exposuer not your shutter, just keep the shutter open for a couple of seconds and you shoud get some really nice fireworks photos. And don't forget to bring a small flashlight to check your camera settings before the event. I have forgotten my little flashlight once and it was a pain in the butt. I have a few fireworks photos on my website that I took using the above techniques. It's www.hallimaging.com they are in the 'Editoral Photos" section. Good luck