2009 Playboy Jazz Festival – Inside the Camera Bag

I will be covering the 2009 Playboy Jazz Festival this weekend at the Hollywood Bowl as part of the Playboy photo crew. Peter Iovino is my partner in crime. I have covered this two day event for nearly a decade. Over the years, I have brought so many different items in my bag. I even brought remote cameras last year. The more stuff that you bring, the more stuff that you have to carry! I thought that it would be a good opportunity to discuss what will be in the camera bag this year at Playboy.

Cameras

2-Nikon D300 bodies: The DX format is ideal in situations where you need the benefit of a telephoto lens. A 400mm lens on the D300 is comparable to a 600mm on a 35mm camera. During the film days, I would bring long heavy glass to get the same results that I can now get with shorter, lighter lenses.

Glass

300 f/4: Back in the days of film, a fast super telephoto lens was a must. Over the years, I have brought the 400 f/2.8 and the 300 f/2.8 lens to Playboy. This year, my long lens is a 300 f/4. It's a great lens and it only weighs 3 lbs. The 300 f/2.8 and the 400 f/2.8 weigh in @ 6 and 10 lbs. The Hollywood Bowl is a large venue, so weight becomes an issue after the first mile. Plus, I have all access. So, I can get closer to the action, when necessary. I remember the time that I photographed Oscar Peterson @ the Bowl and all media had to shoot from an assigned spot way behind the sound board. I was shooting film then, and a 600 f/2.8 would have been nice.

80-200 f/2.8: This lens usually ends up producing most of the great images on stage. it's really almost like having a 300mm lens during the film days.

Nikon TC-14EII 1.4x: I can use this Teleconverter on both the 300 and 80-200 lenses to get a little closer to the action on stage. The loss of one f-stop isn't really a problem in the digital age; especially with the D300. Image quality at 800 ISO is outstanding.

17-55 f/2.8: This lens is my choice for crowd shots & artist shots back stage.

12-24 f/4: This lens by Tokina is made especially for DX cameras and gives me extreme wide angle coverage.

Other Gear

Sekonic L-558 Meter: I rely on this light meter to get accurate light readings. The spot meter is invaluable once the sun sets, because In-camera meters are sometimes fooled by stage lights.

2- SB 800 Nikon Speedlights: As a rule, the stuff on stage is ambient light only; no flash. The strobes are for shots of the crowd and for artist close-ups back stage.

2- Pocket Wizard Transceivers: I always bring along these remotes because I never know when I want to double light a shot. I use them in conjunction with the Nikon speedlights, but I could also use them to fire a remote camera.

Trek-Tech T Pod: This little tripod is great! There are situations where the monopod is difficult to use. This baby tripod is a great alternative.

Manfrotto 680B monopod: This is attached to the 300 f/4 90% of the time. A steady hand would be nice!

Sony Laptop, Sprint Phone card, 2-300GB External USB hard drives: Speed is critical today! A huge responsibility of the photo crew is servicing media with images; not the next day, but that day.

Here's a quick look at my workflow: Artist A takes the stage, I take a few shots and then head backstage to the computer. I use Nikon transfer to get the images off the memory cards. I then use a program called Breeze Browser Pro to quickly view, caption and tag images. The whole process is repeated for each artist.

The two matching 300GB drives are for safety. Everything that I shoot is backed up on two drives. Several years ago, after an incredible Saturday at Playboy... Wynton Marsalis & Arturo Sandoval on stage, I lost most of what I shot and did not have a backup. Lesson learned!

Once we have our selects for media distribution, I use the Sprint phone card with EVDO speed to upload images directly to outlets on deadline and to a secure online media gallery as well. Playboy publicist, Nina Gordon can then very easily access and send photos.

The most important thing in my camera bag… the knee pads! Most of the shots from Playboy are taken while kneeling on hard concrete.

Looking back at these images from 2005, most of my best shots were taken with the 80-200 f/2.8 lens. The shots of Joe Lovano & Joshua Redman were taken with a 400 f/2.8, but it was a lot of lens to carry around all day.

Super telephoto lenses aren't cheap either... The 300 f/2.8 @ $5,099.95 & the 400 f/2.8 @$8,999.95... make these lenses necessary purchase items for sports shooters only. I usually rent these items from Samy's, but the replacement cost is on my mind every time that I sit these babies down. I personally cringe during football season every time that I see a player run into a photographer on the side lines.

A message to young photographers: The one thing that I have learned over the years is that you can bring a lot of stuff or you can bring the right stuff. Size up the assignment, and then leave the dream lens or lights at home... Keep it simple. It took me a while to figure it out. My back thanks me daily!

These shot of Poncho Sanchez, taken a few weeks before the 2005 PBJF, show the Nikon 300 f/4 at work.



I'm hoping to do a few live blog updates on Saturday & Sunday from backstage @ The Hollywood Bowl and give a little more insight. I will also be on Twitter & Facebook. I get most of my breaking news info today on Twitter. So, I'm hoping to share the energy of Playboy with jazz fans everywhere via Twitter.


Playboy Jazz is an incredible event! Thanks Hef for your vision back in Chicago... circa 1959, when you gave birth to the Playboy Jazz Festival. Your baby is still packing them in.

UPDATE: Just rented a Sigma 170-500mm lens for Playboy Jazz. The Nikon 80-200 is about the same size & weigh, but the zoom ratio of this lens is crazy! it will be a real asset during day time shooting. The f/5-6.3 variable f-stop may be a problem though at night. Most of the night shots come from the stage pit anyway.