the things we think but do not say

UPDATE! Just in the nick of time too. I heard for a while that prices for Nikon bodies and lens were on the rise across the world, starting in Australia, then Europe, and now the US. Starting Feb 1st, 2009, prices are rumoured to rise some 10-15%. Via, Nikon Rumous and Thom Hogan.

After an excruciatingly long wait, I’ve finally come full circle on the process I started a few months back: realising the I’m not shooting, looking hard at the gear I was currently not using, deciding on what gear I needed instead, and then selling it all off. Then the time came to decide what to replace my previous camera (the Canon 1D Mark III) with and I was in two minds.

Do I go with the maximizer’s dream and new best all-rounder (the Canon 5D Mark II) or do I go with the focussed, single purpose photographers tool of choice (the Nikon D700)?

As I wrote about most recently, the Canon is a great camera that’s getting a whole lot of attention but really, I don’t need the 21MP of resolution. I don’t need HD video (yet) and when I can’t even get autofocus that’s a nuisance, or any decent audio without an external mic… One day, I might well find myself where every DSLR has amazing video capability, but for now, I’m good. Frankly 12MP is all I need for making prints as big as 17x22 which is the largest I can print to at home anyways.

And after learning a few things about lugging lots of gear around the last couple of years, I went with a very small, light lens and my old favourite the Nikkor 35mm f2. I really should never have sold it! Doh! But this time round it’s going to a real 35mm rather than the kludgy 52.5mm that it was on my D70 (with the x1.5 cropping factor).

I did a lot of soul searching to think harder about what photography meant to me and I remembered that cameras are a function of photography, not the other way around. So when it came down to it, there was really only one choice. I’m extremely excited to get this camera and I’ll be giving occasional updates as I go.

I love photographs.

I love taking photographs.

I love the act of taking photographs.

I love the feelings that photographs give me when I see one that I’ve never seen before.

I love seeing photographs that inspire me to take more photographs.

I love how photographs take a three dimensional phenomenon (life) and makes it into a two dimensional artifact (photograph) and then, over time becomes dimensionless (memory).

I love finding a scene playing out in front of your eyes and the excitement that comes from taking a moment that best sums up those many sequential moments.

I love how photography lets you become an editor. Photographs are edited moments in time. Even the act of choosing which photographs to display is an editor’s role. Being a photographer means being an editor.

I love how there are three parts to every photograph: the subject, the photographer and the viewer. Each is nothing without the other.

I miss photography.

With the announcement of the Canon 5D Mark II the convergence of digital SLRs as video making tools grow. It’s really here and it’s not going away. I still feel on the fence about the whole thing but some background first if I may.

Still picture cameras (including film and digital) are basically boxes that let in light through a lens and take pictures. One at a time.
Moving picture cameras (including film and digital) are basically boxes that let in light through a lens to take pictures continuously.

Sorry to be so childishly pedantic with the descriptions but with the convergence of these devices and their technology, there’s becoming fewer actual differences between the functions and operations of the two kinds of camera. Since there’s so much time honoured process, legacy, tradition and history, how one perceives one kind of camera versus the other is quite different.

Soon enough, that’s all that that will be left: our perceptions of what these tools are and how they should be used.

But before I get all wistful, there’s a very exciting world emerging that even one as “Gizmodo RSS feed breathing” as I am, I was surprised to see how fast its developing.

From what’s I can tell, the Nikon D90 was the first digital SLR to allow for recording at a HD resolution (”720p24″ which means, 1280 x 720 pixels per second at 24 frames a second). The Canon 5D Mark II, is the second digital SLR to allow HD resolution but it one-ups the D90 with a higher HD spec (1080p30 which means, 1920×1080 pixels per second at 30 frames a second). Both are aimed at two very different buyers at two very different price points (D90 street price is $1300, 5DMkII at $2700) both are clearly capable of recording video at a rate that challenges a lot of preconceived notions about what a still camera can do. It makes a lot of people nervous about their industry and more importantly, their learnings and experience with that field.

One could say that this is as worrying to film photographers when digital photography was reshaping the industry. “What about all the years I spent learning how to use all this stuff? What about all the times I screwed up and learnt from those mistakes? Do I have to go through all that again”

And now similar to the ‘invasion’ of digital photography unto film photography’s turf, digital SLRs becoming movie making tools, traditional movie making folk are starting to worry that still photographers are going to be taking over.

Ok, I don’t know if anyone is all that worried since it still takes a lot of work to make a still image to come to life. And you could argue it takes even more to make a whole series of images in a sequence (like a movie) to look great too.

Vincent Lafloret is an awarding winning photographer who shoots for the NY Times amongst others, made a video, Reverie, with pre-production the Canon 5D Mark II over 72 hrs period, single-handedly created a marketing campaign for Canon overnight. The excitement and inspiration brought about Mr. Lafloret gave this camera all the credibility it needed. But outside of the hands of a very talented and experienced photographer (and video editor) who really understands how to lighting sets mood through images (moving or not), the few early examples I’ve seen have been not so good.

Sure, the camera’s low light capability is astounding and the depth of field is now back to what’s film makers were looking for. But after all the slow focus pulls and the well framed shots of people walking through an urban scene set to ambient music… isn’t it just a bit boring to look at?

Its no coincidence that the person behind the camera on a movie set is called the Director of Photography. The DOP really is an expert in taking photographs (usually at a rate of 24 a second). All the visual interest is created using all the sames techniques photographers use and understand every day. Thankfully, in Mr. Lafloret’s case he finally found a tool that suited him and his vast understanding of the principles of visual storytelling. In an interview with him he mentions that he tried to make videos before using the current best video cameras around, but found it to be a less than pleasurable experience. But since this is an SLR and uses all the same lenses that he’s worked with for years, he was immediately at home with it.

The amazing thing is that in a fairly short amount of time an industry is emerging. New films makers (good and bad) are using these new tools in new ways. These guys make rigs for aspiring movie makers using this very same gear we’re talking about. There’s even a forum for the movie making functions the Canon 5D Mark II alone!

Happening alongside this, is the movement of converting relatively low cost video cameras (under $6k) into more movie-like cameras with all sorts of knobs for smooth manual focus on adapated Nikon lens. These rigs by Redrock Micro look the coolest IMHO. And yes, they’re all over the DSLR buzz too.

And before I’m finished, I can’t talk about the convergence of these tools without mentioning Red. Founded by the camera obsessed Jim Jannard (founder of Oakley who sold it to Luxottica for a boat load of cash) he created a movement of his own by making a digital movie making camera from scratch. The Red One camera (and the Scarlet and the Epic to come) are built for recording full cinema-ready resolution images at a cinema-ready rate. Nothing comes close to that much data throughput.

These babies are pumping out full RAW images off their digital sensors at anywhere from 1-100 frames a second (for super smooth slow motion recordings). Not all of them are the same exact dimensions of film (24x36mm) but are close giving movie makers that sexy ‘film’ like depth of field. The Canon 5D MkII for comparison does have a full 24x36mm sensor but it’s video is compressed using Quicktime H264 at a fixed 30 frames a second. Remember, movies recorded to play at a cinema is massively more demanding than movies recorded to be played back on a TV, even one that’s High Definition.

It’s unfair to really compare them both as the difference in financial and training investment between Red One (and their brethren) and the 5D MII is huge. A commonly quote Red One setup is around $25-40k. Which it’s still a bargain compared to a rental of a Panavision setup which I can only guess is about $5k a day.

So where does that leave the lowly, amateur photographer? The guy that likes shoot when he can? I’m considering a new camera body right now and with all the buzz around video capable SLRs, am I interested in taking part in this new movement?

I don’t really know.

For someone that’s on a cleansing kick where clutter and gear are the opposites of what I want in my life, then no, I can’t see where integrating video into a digital camera helps me. “No good can come from this” is an overly dramatic phrase I’ve been kicking around lately (I like to point a shaky finger in the air when I do) and with the 5D MkII making everyone pre-order like crazy, I say to myself, “No good can come of this”.

The uneasy feeling that I get when reading about the Canon’s video capability (and for the D90’s for that matter) is that it’s a hack. It just feels kludgy. Canon and have essentially pressed ‘record’ while the camera is set to ‘Live view’ which is itself a natural extension of the digital sensor technology these companies have implemented on their consumer pocket point and shoots. Even those little cameras have a working AF! Here’s a list of the known issues and workarounds for making video with the 5D MkII. There’s even a problem in the there’s a 12 minute limit to the amount of data that can be recorded at a time, due to the limits of a FAT32 file structure of most memory cards. Perhaps this could be remedied with some form of continuous recording to a hard drive but the FAT 32 issue may well come up again.

But the most worrying part about how the Live View has been shoe horned into a HD resolution camera, there’s been a lot of discussion over how the exposure control has been handled. Normally, for a still image to be made, there’s several factors that give a photographer control over the exposure; aperture, shutter speed and ISO. But due to how Canon has implemented this well touted video capability it’s been crippled by this kludgy implementation. There’s already been a lot of confusion over just how much control is being offered by the 5D MkII. Perhaps all this lack of control is solvable through later firmware releases, but I think it’s odd that this camera offers so much with one hand, then takes away with the other. There’s even talk of using F-Mount to EF adapters just to give you these would-be cinematographers the control they’re seeking.

The 5D Mark II might be the most exciting implementation of high resolution video in a camera so far with its attention grabbing low light capability, but I can’t help but feel that this is no where near as good as it can get. It needs to be simpler, with less caveats and fewer gotchas. I feel that for me to make best use of it I’d have to invest in even more gear and therefore create even more barriers to just simply going out and shooting photos or video. I’ll need more hard drive space, better processors, a new Mac, more lens, more lights, more sound recording gear, more tripods, more training… ugh.

I’m sorry to say it, but I just want it to be simpler.

I want less stuff.

There. I said it.

I want less stuff and adding video to a digital SLR can only mean one thing. More stuff.

Dammit. I was really looking forward to all that new gear too

A new book by Annie Leibovitz is out (at a very reasonable price of $27 on Amazon).

I’m not all that familiar with her work but I believe she’s right up there with Richard Avedon for world renowned portraits. She’s at the top of her game and regular shoots covers for Vanity Fair and Vogue.

A charming interview with her is now up on NPR where she come across very accessible and quite at ease with the level of credibility she’s forged. She even speaks about the criticism that’s been leveled at her work for not really getting to the soul of her subjects. She says that she’s found plenty of interest at the surface. “I don’t think it’s possible [to get the soul] all the time. God, can you imagine you can get the soul every day?”

Thanks for Rob Galbraith’s site for the tip off.

After a year of enjoying my Canon 1D Mark III, I’ve finally given in to the reality that I’m not shooting for the New York Times. Nor am I shooting for Time magazine, National Geographic or even People magazine for that matter.

And while I did become a published photographer this year, through the books I helped design and did the photography for (IDEO: Eyes Open London and IDEO: Eyes Open New York), I’m not going to become a full time photographer any time soon. In fact the closest I’ve come to the rush of being a photojournalist was at the last two Pitchfork Music Festivals, shooting for the best Chicago culture and commentary site, Gapers Block. The shows were perfect for so many reasons: tons of great bands, great live music, great access to the stage and the sense of urgency of wanting to get the best shot you can. See the photos from Pitchfork 2007 and Pitchfork 2008 here. In fact if I had a choice I’d love to shoot music shows a lot more than once a year…

So where does that leave me? It leaves me being very busy working on all sorts of projects that don’t have much photography in them. In my new job as the Lead Designer for the Chicago Transit Authority, I’m designing the new buses for Chicago. Not a small feat and one that takes up almost all my daylight hours. I just gave a presentation about it at the World Usability Conference in Chicago. Then there is of course the latest class at the School of the Art Institute, “Innovation Workshop”, with my ever faithful partner-in-all-ventures, Sara (my new wife!!!!). We’re working on a project for the Chicago Public Library and our client and our students have been great to work with.

With all that’s going on, photographically speaking, it leaves me with a very small number of actual exposed frames, and a lot of expensive photographic equipment sitting around gathering dust. Well, to be honest, it would be if the dust could in fact get past the hard shell of a near indestructible Pelican case and the layers of foam within. What this case is protecting my gear from is anyone’s guess.

The simple lesson is that even with the careful road to learning and path of experience, professional gear does not a professional photographer make.

I think that somewhere in my quest for photographic fame and fortune, I got lost in the pursuit of photographic equipment. More stuff, less photos. More things to manage, less things actually being shot. More gear that needs other gear to support it, instead of just going out and shooting like I used to do.

I swear, I used to enjoy photography much more, the less I knew about it. Back when I was just knocking around with my trusty old Nikon D70 and one 35mm f/2 lens, I carried a spare battery and a few memory cards and thought less about the stuff and way more about the shot. It was as simple a logic as that.

So in an effort to rethink and revive my photography, I’m selling off almost all of my gear in favour of a camera with a smaller than full sized professional body and possibly one lens of a single fixed lens length. And here’s where I caught myself out… If and when I need to shoot a proper gig (wedding, concert, event) I’ll rent what I need instead of having the gear on tap underutilized for 95% of the time.

Coinciding with this recent change of heart about owning so much photo gear is a new emphasis in owning less stuff in general. I’ve found that there’s been more than a few purchases over the years that have been driven from a tiny dream of an idea, that warranted me getting the best stuff. Well, I’ve found that unless I really use it more than 4 times a year, I probably don’t need it all that much.

In an effort to cleanse and reduce clutter, I’ve been selling off all sorts of stuff on Craigslist. It’s been really cathartic.

Less stuff = less waste = less work to maintain = less things to worry about and fix = less things to upgrade = less things to buy and start the cycle of madness all over again.

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FOR SALE. Email if interested (georgeaye [at] gee mail dot com). Prices are negotiable.

Canon 1D Mark III: excellent condition, full size professional camera body, 10.1 MP, 10 frames a second, boxed - $3000

Kirk L bracket for Canon 1D Mark III: good condition, precision machined aluminium, Really Right Stuff compatible - $120

Gitzo GT1540 6X carbon fibre tripod: perfect condition, indestructible, incredibly light - $450

Pelican case 1500, with removable velcro dividers, fits full size camera body and lens with to spare, (Interior Dimensions: 16.75″ x 11.18″ x 6.12″ (42.5 x 28.4 x 15.5 cm): great condition - $70

Canon 24-70mm f2.8 L lens: excellent condition, professional mid range zoom. - $800
Nikon SB-800 flash: excellent condition - $200
Nikon SB-800 flash: excellent condition - $200
Nikon SB-600 flash: excellent condition - $135
Pocket Wizard II transceiver: in perfect shape, with cabling - $160
Pocket Wizard II transceiver: in perfect shape, with cabling - $160
Pocket Wizard II transceiver: in perfect shape, with cabling - $160
Manfrotto 3373 folding light stands and jointed flash/umbrella adapters (plus a bonus shoot through umbrella) - great condition, light, durable - $50
Manfrotto 3373 folding light stands and jointed flash/umbrella adapters (plus a bonus shoot through umbrella) - great condition, light, durable - $50
Really right stuff BH 40 Ball head with quick release LR lever: good condition, beautifully machined, with neoprene pouch - $300
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When I get a replacement, I’ll let you know! I’m looking at the Nikon D700 and the Canon 5D Mark II and as far as the lens goes, a simple 50mm prime lens sound good right now.

Last year at Halloween, Sara and I hosted a party where I created a photo booth for our guests. I wanted to thank everyone for making such a great effort for their costumes but it was also a way to get a chance to experiment with some lights. That weekend was my first experience with rented lights (from Calumet, natch). Well, I’m glad to say I’m a lot more experienced and I got asked a few months ago to try a reprise of the photo booth at a friend’s wedding.

Photo booths can come in all manner of forms. Some are small little box-rooms complete with swiveling stools and curtains. Some are fully manned, ‘booths’ that have a photographer carefully operating them for guests. But the one that I saw that opened my eyes to the whole concept was at a wedding in Martha’s Vineyard, by a photography by the name of Joe Mikos. A terrific wedding photographer btw. Joe set things up so that any guest could take a seat in a special room and shoot photos of themselves for fun with a camera setup on the other side of the room. The experience was enlightening. The shutter was triggered by the guests and everyone gets to pose and look silly. Endless fun.

But there was one aspect that I thought was lacking in the setup I saw. Even though the camera was digital, there was no visual feedback for the guests. You just had to take it for granted that the shots turned out ok. You’d see the photos eventually by contacting the bride and groom, or if you’re willing, through the photographer.

To me, this looked like an easy design opportunity to give the guests that vital piece of feedback. At the Halloween party, I set up the camera to record directly into my laptop and then I simply turned it around to face the people. Pretty obvious really.

Now, I’m hardly an expert so I’m sure that you can probably go about things in a smarter way, but I will try to recount my steps as best I can. And before it gets too confusing, I’m going to be using the words, ’strobe’ and ‘flash’ interchangeably throughout. Same thing, two different names.

Ok, so the setup does requires a fair bit of kit some not so expensive, some kinda expensive.

1. A digital camera or a digital SLR that lets you fire the camera remotely and that has software available that let’s you record your images directly to a laptop. Nikon and Canon digital SLRs have all this in spades. This process is sometimes called ‘tethered shooting’ by some photogs and it’s often used to let art directors (or in this case, drunken guests) view the images as they are being taken.

2. A strobe/flash or two. This can take a wide variety of forms from off camera flashes like the Nikon SB-800 or the Canon 580 EXII, a large soft box, or even a ring flash. I like to rent my lights from Calumet as light are pretty expensive. I’ll assume that you can set them up. I just asked my rental guy at Calumet to run through it all with me.

3. A way for the camera to trigger the strobes/flashes. I’ve only ever had excellent results from with Pocket Wizards (which work by radio which means there’s no line of sight issues) so I would happily recommended them. They are expensive but there’s more than a few ebay knock offs. Just search for ‘wireless radio trigger‘. The cheapest, non Pocket Wizard way is to use a long sync cable for your camera, but you’re probably going to have to make sure you’re got a Wein-Safe-Sync-thingy to make sure you don’t accidentally fry your camera. Radio triggers never have that problem.

Remember this bit does not trigger your camera, only the flashes. To trigger the shutter on your camera go to the next step.

4. The actual remote that fires the camera itself usually comes in two common forms. Many consumer SLRs (like the Nikon D70, 50, 40 etc) have a IR port on the front of the body which can take a IR signal from a tiny little remote which is very affordable (< $20). If you look carefully, you can see it in hands of the photos in this post. I hear that a universal TV remote can even work. Since it's IR it need a good, clear line of sight for it to work. Usually not a problem, just something to be aware of.

The other kind of remote is usually only used on professional DSLR camera bodies, like the Nikon D200/300, D2x/D3, or the Canon 1 Series cameras and the 5D. A port on the front of the camera takes an electronic signal from a little hand held trigger. They're usually branded Canon or Nikon and usually expensive. For some reason, the same type of IR remote for the non pro cameras that were only $20 are now really expensive at $330 for the pro camera bodies.

While no less expensive, but certainly more versatile is employing a Pocket Wizard as your trigger. Now this bit gets confusing.

To get the PW in your hand to trigger the camera, you've got to get a cable that runs from another Pocket Wizard that's sitting on the hot shoe of your camera. You've got to run a cable from the hot shoe mounted PW into a special port on the front of the camera to trigger the shutter. While renting Pocket Wizards is usually not that expensive ($15 a piece) this bloody cable that fires these professional body cameras is not rentable and over $100! Remember, if you do go down this route, you're now looking at renting/owning three PWs: one for the trigger, one for the camera and then one for the strobes.

5. Ok, now this might not be totally obvious, but where you position your laptop will have a huge impact on your photos. The whole point of this kind of setup is so that the feedback from the laptop lets each guest really nail the shot they want. Seeing each shot immediately after each shot encourages a lot of experimentation. When I did my first photo booth, I setup my laptop just somewhere off and to the side of my camera, sitting on a stool I think. I had no idea what a problem this would eventually become. Once a guest saw their photos being replayed on the laptop screen, their eyes were constantly drawn to the screen. You couldn't get them to look at anything else, and especially not at the lens! So, for a lot of the photos from my first party, everyone's eyes were pointing down and to the left of the image. Once it happened, no retraining was going to fix it.

So this time, I wanted to be sure to position the laptop so that it was as close to the lens as possible. And there’s really only a few places that this could mean; either directly above, to the side or below. After trying out all the options, I found to my surprise that setting the laptop just below the lens worked the best. This time around, all the guest eyes look like their looking directly into the camera, when in fact their eyes are glued to the laptop screen.

To position the laptop, I used another tripod and bought myself a “laptop plate”. I had no idea these things existed, but Manfrotto makes one. I got mine for $40 at Calumet even though this link says it’s $100. Its basically a cast iron plate with a reversible 1/4″ and 1/8″ screw thread on it. Heck, anything that you can adjust as a flat level platform will work here.

6. One additional thing that I developed for the booth at the wedding was the use of an LCD projector hooked up to the laptop. By relaying the images from the laptop to a space outside the booth, everyone else got to see what was going on in the booth. It just got even more people thinking of what to do when it was their turn.

Ok, so with that long list of stuff to get, here are the steps for setting up the photo booth:

1. Download or install the software that lets you record your images directly to your laptop. The two pieces of software that I have experience with, is Nikon’s Camera Capture Pro and Canon’s EOS Utility. Nikon’s software is an additional expense to the camera while Canon’s is shipped with it’s DSLRs. If you’ve got a Nikon camera, I’d recommend going here and testing out their 30 day trail. If you’re sneaky like me, you could try starting your 30 day trail the same month your wedding is scheduled…

The software is should be pretty self explanatory but the thing to get right is setting where the files are being written to (your desktop, an external hard drive etc) . Watch out though for a step where you might have to tell the software to open an application to view the images. Canon uses a separate application to view the images called ZoomBrowser EX.

2. Connect the USB cable to the laptop and to the camera. Test out a shot to make sure each image is writing to the laptop and the image is reviewing on screen afterwards.

3. Mount the camera onto a tripod and frame the shot with a test subject (or use yourself if you’ve already got the remote working).

4. Activates the strobes and test fire your flashes directly (no need to confuse matters yet with Pocket Wizards or sync cables).

5. Attach a Pocket Wizard to your camera’s hot shoe mount.

For small flash units like the Nikon SB-800 or the Canon 580 EXII, connect the other Pocket Wizard to your flash with the cable that ships with the PW. One end goes into the PW the other end goes into the flash. You really can’t screw anything up.

If you’re using larger strobes and their power packs (Profoto, Bowens, Hensel etc), then you’ll like need a slightly different cable than the one that ships with the PW. I would recommend that if you rent the lights make sure that the rental location supplies the appropriate cable.

Whenever you use Pocket Wizards, just make sure they’re both on (seriously, I’ve forgotten this step a bunch) and make sure that both PWs are on the same channel.

6. Set up your laptop on to another tripod and sit it on the laptop plate. Position the laptop directly under the lens. If you have it, connect the LCD projector to the laptop and position it outside the booth and project the images onto a screen or a wall.

7. Test fire your setup!

On the night of the party each time someone uses the booth the sequence of events should play out as such:

Drunk guest picks up the remote and triggers it with their sweaty hands,
The camera receives a signal and the shutter on the camera is released,
Simultaneously, the Pocket Wizard mounted on the camera sends a signal out and fires the strobe(s),
The camera’s sensor records an image and the file is written directly to the laptop,
The laptop displays the images on the screen,
The drunk guest is amazed at the feedback and tries the shot again!

Many thanks to April and Lucas Daniel for asking me to setup their photo booth. They created some very handy white board speech bubbles for their friends and family to leave messages in their photo guest book.

Lastly, thanks to Craig for helping me set up the booth this time and suggesting that I write this up.

If you’re looking to have one of these things at your wedding but are stuck on how to do it yourself, give me a shout at georgeaye [at] gmail dot com.

If the craziness of this week with the proposal video wasn’t enough, I got some more great news today.

One of photos taken during the last Critical Mass Chicago ride won third place in the Hidden Chicago photo contest in Time Out Chicago!

The winning photos are available in the “Photo Issue” in Time Out Chicago today and online here.

Woot!

After a few days of riding a huge internet wave, the flood of comments, links and hits are starting to calm down around here.

This tiny insignificant, gnat of a blog went from picking up accidental traffic from random Google image searches (not even real text searches!) to at one point, getting 18,000 hits in one hour. That was more hits than this blog has had in its entire lifetime.

Even though I mentioned this in my last post, I would like to take another opportunity to thank everyone for their support. Sara and I are still in shock over how much heartfelt goodwill this video has generated. We’re honored to have read so many lovely warm wishes.

Some of my favourite comments I read so far:

“You had me at laser cut foam core”
“the feel-good YouTube video of the summer”
“Just an all around feel good video. You watch this video - you’re gonna feel good!” as spoken in a strong southern drawl, by JohhnyTV.

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I’d like to acknowledge a few people whose support was critical in all of this:

Annette Ferrara, my friend the writer and art historian who dug the idea from the start. She was instrumental in helping me find a gallery to host the event.

Britton Bertran (from 40000), for being such a supportive gallery owner and idea patron. Throughout the build and during our initial talks, he was able to give really helpful constructive design critique that made the installation so much more stronger. I think that any artist would do well to have Britton in their corner.

Eli Robb, for his performance on the night of the opening. He brought the artiste, Serge Gandaora to life. The black cut-off t-shirt was a nice touch.

To all my friends that were so good for playing along with the ruse. In particular, I’d like to thank Emily (who also took the photo above). Also to her husband, Craig for his fantastic photos of the night that I used for the video. Also to Erin and Chad for their photos.

And to John Grimley and Matt in the studio for helping me understand how to use the bench drill and for letting me borrow the tools from the IDEO workshop.
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And now some answers to the growing list of FAQ:

The soundtrack is by the Icelandic band, Sigur Ros. The song is called Sæglópur from their album, Takk. Please don’t sue me Sigur Ros! I love your song and think of all the people that now do too.

Everyone at the gallery that night was in on the plan. But I think there were a few people who walked in off the street, thinking it was a real opening. Thanks, random people, for making the event look more “real.”

“My Early Muir Owl” is an anagram of “Will you marry me.”
“Serge Gandaora” is an anagram of “george and sara”.

The white ‘art’ on the walls were the original 3′ x 2′ foam core sheets that I used to cut out the letter forms.

I only got one paper cut during the entire build.

The installation took about 24 hours in total. 4-6 hours each day over four days.

How the installation was made:
Each base was cut from a few bits of spare MDF with a circular saw bit on a bench drill.
The tall rods were made from 8′ length of aluminium screen door frames cut to length. Each stroke of the letter forms was a made from stacks of identical cutouts or folded together from a flattened ‘net’.

The full ‘artist statement’ written by Eli/Serge can be found here.

Sara said yes!

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In the end of all this, we’re just glad we can share our happiness.

Ugh.

Whenever I think I’m free of it’s grasp, I realise that it has still got a hold on me.

Why oh why must I be haunted by you?

Why must you be so damn attractive?

Why must you be such a compelling experience?

Ugh.

I thought the other day, wouldn’t it be cool to show someone your latest photos on this thing? It sure would dumbass. That’s what Stevie J wants you to think! But wouldn’t it be cool to just keep up on just those few blogs and sites you read each day without booting up your laptop? Yup. But wouldn’t it be cool to be able to only carry one device that had a camera, mp3 and phone in it? ARGH!

Damn you iPhone. Your day of reckoning will come…