Mercedes Benz Fashion Week: Nicholas K
Nicholas K was the first show of the season & the 1st major runway shoot of my life. The night before I was so excited & super nervous about being able to make it happen.
The next morning before the show began, I realized that all of my nervousness was for a good reason & that’s because I left my ball head (mono/tripod mount) at home.
How was I gonna hold 10 pounds of camera & lens & still get unusable shots? I had no idea but I had to do what I had to do.
Needless to say, I struggle throughout the show like a mutha. My arm grew tired quickly, my neck started to hurt & I became unsteady. It was the longest eleven minutes of my LIFE!!!
After the show, I loaded the images onto my laptop & was really disappointed with what I captured & just considered this show to be a loss & a big trial run.
So I collected my thoughts & tried to call a few places around town to get a ball head. Wellllllll, long story short is no camera store was open due to it being Rosh Hashanah. At this point, I’m in panic mode & wondering how I’m gonna pull off 10 more shows with this heavy ass 300mm f/2.8 lens.
Fast-forward about 45 minutes & I’m in the AOL media lounge charging my phone when photographer Jennifer Calias Smith walked in. She looked friendly so I took a chance & asked her if she knew of any open camera stores.
To my luck, she knew of two that were open & one had exactly what I needed. I thanked her as if she saved my life then hit the subway to FotoCare.
I get there and it just seemed like a damn photo oasis of epic proportions.
While talking to the clerk about the weigth of my equipment he w slike you need to spend like 300 bucks to get what you really need. I’m like that’s a no go! Then he suggested that I rend a ball head. That was the perfect scenario & it was only 30 bucks for the days that I needed it.
While I was there, I picked up anther camera bettery because I left mt extra battery at home and I also picked up a roll of film.
I felt so so so much better after leaving Fotocare so I treated myself to an expensive lunch with cocktails.
The rest is history & my NYFW experience was saved!
So anyway, back to Nicholas K!
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The NYLA Report September 18, 2010
By: Asia Wills
Kicking off the season, Nicholas K made fashion history as the first designer to show at Lincoln Center and making their Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week debut. We gave you a sneak peek of the collection back in August.
Utilizing a militaristic motif for their collection, Nicholas K designer infused an avant-garde vibe with dusty, earthy tones to create a modern utilitarian-inspired collection. With an array of downtown looks, chocolate jackets and hoodies are must-haves for spring.
They played off leather jackets, aviator shades, berets, combat boots, slouching shirts, and draping silhouette to give the collection an urban edge. Totally diggin’ the combat-boot-in-the-middle-of-the-desert feel. The color palette consisted of grays, browns, blacks and army-green.
The styling was incredible and what a great way to start off Fashion Week!
To check out the entire slideshow of runway photos, click here.
Damn, that’s a rough story. Were any of those images from the slideshow from before you got your ball mount? I didn’t see anything bad. Then again, I doubt you’d post anything that was bad.
So you used a monopod with the mount and the 300mm? Did you employ a burst of any kind? I figure that’d help increase the likelihood of coming away with something you like.
All of the photos here where done free hand. I think there are a few images that I took with my 70-200mm f/2.8 here also. I did switch it up a bit. The 300mm f/2.8 was HEAVY as hell!
A burst? Never heard of that. School me.
I was not all that happy with the images here but like I said, It was my first show. I got much better from here.
Well I can’t guarantee that the D300 has it, but if my camera has it, your D300 sure as hell should. Anyway, it’s the release mode. We typically shoot in “s” for single frame. Push the shutter button, it opens/closes, we take one picture. There’s a button you can hold down on my D90 that allows you to change the release mode. It looks like stacks of paper and it’s near the shutter button.
So say you want to use a remote so you can take self portraits. You would change the release mode from “S” to the one that looks like a picture of a remote. There’s another with a picture of a remote and a timer. With that one, when you push the remote button, there’s a 10-sec countdown before the picture is taken.
This is also how you put it in burst mode. I think it’s also called continuous release or something. The logo looks like the same stack of books, but it has an L or an H next to it. L is for low speed, H is for high. In that mode, as long as you hold the shutter button down, the camera will take rapid-fire frames in succession. In high speed mode, depending on what shutter speed you’re working with, you can hold the button down and fire off a couple of frames per second. So I would probably use it for something like that. If I could work up a decent shutter speed, since the models are moving, I’d put it in high speed burst and see if I could fire off a quick 2-3 frames per second. That way, I increase my likelihood of getting a sharp one.
OK, here it is:
http://www.kenrockwell.com/nikon/d300/users-guide/images/200_9784-top-left.jpg
I believe the S is the single frame that I mentioned, Cl is continuous low, and Ch is continuous high. I read the Cl can be set to shoot from 1-7 frames per second, and the Ch shoots at 6 frames, or 8 with a battery pack attached.
Ah yes, continuous shutter. The D300 has 2 options for CSP
low-speed [CL] mode; 1-7 frames per second
high-speed [CH] mode; 8 frames per second
In my experience doing the shows, I found that it was batter to shoot single frame. I also think that I got better results this way although it required more effort on my part.
Maybe it was the lens, maybe it was the camera. *shrug*
Next go round Im serious considering using my 70-200mm f/2.8 only for the shows. We will see.