Who's a nerd? I am! I am! Who's got the first PowerPC chip photo?

Back before the bulk of the Twitter-Babies who now cruise the hallowed halls of social media were even toilet trained and before they entered the workforce with a swagger that said, "We basically invented high tech," we still had computers and we still had something that resembled the internet.  And we used it to do stuff.  Microprocessors got invented.  And improved.  Usenets spread info, sans virus or Viagra advertising.  And back then some American companies even came together for a while to improve the construction and design methodologies of chip making (not Taco Cabana).  If I remember correctly the first PowerPC processor was code-named Somerset and came from a partnership between Motorola, IBM and Apple.  That was back in the Camelot years of U.S. dominance in almost all things tech-y.

The whole design process was based around reduced instruction set computing (RISC) and it worked out pretty well for a while.  Well enough for me at least because I got to photograph a lot of the product they put out.  This was well before digital.

The above device was glued down to a white plexiglas plane, rear lit with blue gels and then the areas we wanted to go black where masked off.  I used some fiber optics piping to guide white light onto the chip surface from a halogen source.  The shot was done in two exposures,  one for the chip and the front light, the other for the background blue glow.

The device was rather small and we wanted a big transparency so I used an Apo-Symmar 210mm lens on the front of a Sinar 4x5 view camera.  The camera was specially rigged with a Hassleblad 2001 FC body, prism finder and A12 back.  This allowed me to take advantage of big bellows extensions for magnification,  image placement and management using the camera movements, all the while being able to view the image directly in the finder.  Every component was locked in place and we used the Shutter in the camera to control overall exposure.

We bracketed through one roll of 120 professional color transparency film, left everything set up until the film came back from the lab and then sent the selected frame out for a drum scan.  The image was used everywhere the big three went.  Including a 12 by 12 foot version for stage shows.

Might be a bit easier to shoot now but it really didn't seem like a big technical deal back them.  Just had to make sure all the planes were planar and all movement was cancelled.  Don't want any jiggle between your two exposures.

I found the above image in a drawer on a 5x7 inch piece of color print paper.  They used to send them out by the hundreds during the first product launch.  Nice to remember how we did stuff old school.  I'm still pretty proficient with products.  I don't like shooting them as much as shooting gorgeous models but, really, who would?

I'd link to a lot of the product I talk about above but.......but "that train has sailed." (quote: Austin Powers).

On a random note:  I was so proud of the new Hasselblad system I bought and was using on an assignment at Motorola.  One day I was monologuing about how cool and costly it was.  He obviously was tired of my BS and wanted to get back to work.  He said, "That's a really cool $5,000 camera.  Now will you stop leaning against my million dollar electron scanning microscope?"  Puts the toys in some sort of perspective.

Intense Theater is different than intense movies. You're actually in the same room with the intensity..

 I am wholly unqualified to review live theater.  I've seen a lot and I can tell good craft from bad but I'm shallow when it comes to much of the subtlety of scriptwriting and the nuance of great direction.  Last night I photographed the dress rehearsal for The Book of Grace,  the play by Suzan Lori-Parks.  The one thing I can comment on is the difference between two dimensional entertainment, like movies and TV,  and intimate, live theater.  With live theater when the action gets intense you are pretty much in the middle of it.  You feel the emotions projected by the actors in a much more direct way.  The Book of Grace had me on the very edge of my seat for the first 2/3rds of the performance.  By the last third I was  making plans to duck and cover right up to the end.  Amazingly powerful theater.

I went into the performance with several cameras and two primary lenses.  I started out shooting with the Canon 5Dmk2 and the Zeiss 85.  Then I switched to the 50mm Zeiss on the 5Dmk2 and put the 85mm on the Canon 1Dmk2n, just for safe keeping.  Big mistake.  The first time I pulled the 1D+85 combo to my eye and clicked I was hooked and shot most of the evening with that combo.  Why?  Great focusing acuity,  lightening fast system response and the perfect ergonomics.

The play was staged in the round in the smaller theater at Zach.  It's always tough and kinetic to shoot theater in the round.  Unless you've been in multiple rehearsals you don't know where to actors are going to end up or just where you need to be to get a good two person grouping.

You are constantly trying to balance your need to be discreet and invisible to the actors with your need to get the images you know the marketing people need to sell the show.  Of course I dress in dark colors, try not to move during emotionally charged scenes, and stay low.  As cameras have evolved I've found my original way of shooting theater to still be the most compelling.  That's manual focus and manual exposure.

There are no "do overs" for the photographer during the dress rehearsal.  This is the last chance the cast will have to go straight through the performance before they have an audience.  If I don't get what I want it's just too bad.

The only issue I have with shooting performances these days is with the color filtering of the light sources.  And this will be a point of contention between lighting designers who are moulding the light to drive an emotional context and photographers who are (wrongly) trying for neutral accuracy.  At some point you have to accept the lighting as it is and move on.  A strongly gelled light will defy any attempt to bring the scene back to neutral color, no matter how good your PhotoShop skills are.  The light is part of the artistic collaboration of theater.  It's part of what I'm there to document.

Shooting dress rehearsals is incredibly good for practicing your integrative photography skills.  You have to think on your feet, react, make fast decisions, understand the value of exposure compromises and anticipate action and blocking.  And, you'll be doing this in the dark since the house lights are gone and all the light is on the stage.  That means you better know how to use your camera blindfolded.  

Just takes a little practice.  Better get started now.