Welcome to Ken's Life!

Social media has risen rapidly to generate the most traffic on the Internet. The main players, or the ‘Big Three’ as I like to call them, are Facebook, Linkedin, and Twitter. Many small to mid-sized business, however, have a hard time keeping all these monsters fed, let alone keep their own web sites up to date.

Over the past two years, I’ve been incredibly busy building lots of web sites on a content management platform that integrates with these social media outlets. Nearly every site I build now has a blog roll or news feature that automatically pushes content out to a Facebook page, Linkedin profile, or Twitter feed.  Now my clients can focus on feeding just their web site which in turn feeds their social network presence.  With any web browser they can access all the content on their site, create or edit new pages, and enter new posts for their blog roll or news feed.  Some even use the iPhone or Blackberry apps that allows them to snap a photo with their phone, write a few lines of text, and instantly broadcast it out to their web site and social media.  Never before have small business owners been able to edit their own web site content while one the go.  With the online world now more than ever such a crucial venue for marketing, these sort of web sites are proving to be valuable tools.

For some interesting stats on the zeitgeist of social media, check out this video:

Hello, neglected Blog! I’ve been rather busy lately, and I fear I’ve dropped the ball a bit on our relationship. But someone has to pay the bills, right?  Well, in a feeble effort to make amends, here’s a quick post on one of the many things that has been keeping me from you.

I spent this past Saturday morning shooting people.  Two to be exact.  What’s more, I first put their arms and legs into casts.  But don’t worry, though about 400 shots were fired, no blood was shed, and the police should leave me well enough alone.

Saturday’s photo shoot was for some product packaging for one of my clients, G4 Medical. The products are cast protectors, used to keep a cast or bandage dry while taking a bath or shower.  We shot at two lovely homes in Greenwich, where I was able to find bathrooms large enough to fit my lighting gear and allow enough room to use my 50mm lens without distortion.  Here are a few shots from the day.

And Blog, please don’t be jealous… I’ll be making a conscious effort to devote a little more time to you in the near future. I promise.

Entering the Canon Expo

I spent today at the once-every-five-years Canon Expo in New York. As expected, the hot topics on the seminar agendas were related to shooting video with DSLRs.  I attended sessions with Steven Poster (president of International Cinematographers Guild and Director of Photography for a slew of feature films from Blade Runner to Cats and Dogs), Shane Hurlbut (Director of Photography for Terminator Salvation and upcoming Acts of Valor), and other HDSLR mainstays such as Vincent Laforet.  I was particularly impressed with the work Shane has done with the upcoming Acts of Valor, an action film about the Navy SEALS. He shot all the main action shots with Canon 5Ds and 7Ds, and the results were stunning. Even more interesting, when the …continue reading »

chocolate lava cake and cappucino

I’m currently working on a new web site for Cafe On The Green, a fine restaurant at Richter Park in Danbury.  Richter has been rated among the top 50 public golf courses in America.  Built around some reservoirs, it is extraordinarily scenic and rather hazardous for hacks like me.  This is where I play (*cough* shank) most of my golf, so I have a Pavlovian happiness whenever I head over there… even if I’m not pulling out my golf clubs.

It had been several years since I ate at Cafe On The Green, but I remembered it having good food, and probably the most scenic setting in Danbury.  I knew that the new web site needs to capture these two important elements, so photography was going to be an important part of the project.  You can’t capture taste or smell, but with vivid photographs, you can provide some powerful suggestions.

So last week I spent a few hours at the restaurant, shooting a bunch of photos.  Photographing food presents its own challenges.  Often you have only a couple of minutes to capture the food before it looses its fresh appeal.  By dinner time, the restaurant is lit very dimly, so I had to setup my key and fill lights.  I shot mostly with an open aperture, using my 50mm 1.4 lens, grabbing very narrow depth-of-field shots.  This was my first shoot for fresh, hot food, and it was lots of fun!  I learned some new lessons, but for the most part, I’m pleased with the results.

The best part is that after the shoot, I got to eat the food!