Buddy's Big Adventure as...

HTMD

HTMD

Joined
Feb 15, 2002
Messages
1,705
knife show photographer! Whoo-Hooo! What a great experience - a lot of work, yes - didn't get rich (but was able to cover expenses and pay my son for his help) - saw some cool knives, met a lot of nice folks - but best of all I was able to learn a ton of stuff I don't think could be learned any other way.

Thanks to Terrill Hoffman for pitching this opportunity my way. Terrill wasn't able to make the trip this time (The Professional Knifemakers Association show in Denver each August has been his gig for some years now). He knew I lived in Denver and believed I (might) could do a good job, so.... I jumped in the deep end!

My contact for this job was Craig Camerer - one heck of a nice guy who is making some very nice (seriously, I mean it!) knives. Craig took care of me and made sure I had everything I needed. He's the kind of guy I really respect. He's a worker - working hard for the greater good! You won't find a better man than Craig. Here's one of his knives. This one was sold or I would have bought it in a heartbeat!

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Here's 'best of show' - a $2,200 miniature approximately 2 1/2 inches long when all the blades and tools are folded into the handle. It's really spectacular and the maker had a full-sized one just like it.

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The pace was such that I had time to even do a few shots with two views. This is a collaboration between Audra Draper and Elizabeth Dolbare honoring a local volunteer fire department.

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Audra cracks me up. She had these outrageous T-shirts made and gave one to my wife who bought a couple of miniatures from her. Check out the graphic on this shirt.

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This was probably my best shot.

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And to top it all off, when the show was over on Saturday everyone was leaving for the evening and we saw the most incredible double rainbow I've ever seen. It arc'd all the way across the sky. You could see the whole thing uninterupted from horizon to horizon. My camera lens could only get a piece of it. Included in the group are my son, Audra Draper, her daughter and three other makers whose names I don't recall.

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Anyway - I wouldn't reccommend the knife show photographer thing for the faint of heart. There's a fair amount of pressure to work fast, deal with folks who have no idea how much they're asking of you when they request 'a small favor' etc. Then there's the "gear issues." I started to get worried about my prints when every time my printer was printing it set up this vibration in the table, causing it to move back and forth rapidly. I put the printer on a chair and the chair wobbled too. My USB cable wasn't long enough to put the printer on the floor. Fortunately it didn't seem to affect print quality

Also, I had to put of with endless comments about how great Terrill Hoffman is, how funny he is, how much everybody likes him and how they always have to keep him away from the women because he knows so many dirty jokes etc., etc., etc. Jeesh! Terrill, if you ever again bail on these folks I fear they'll turn on you. Then you'll be just so much dead meat. :rolleyes:
 
This was my biggest challenge - Don Heathcoat's "Hand" knife and stand. He wanted the knife both in and out of the stand (He's great though. He said, "Charge me whatever think it's worth." AND, he was very appreciative of my efforts.) The horn is overly dark in this 'shrunk for the web' version but the print looked quite good. The Damascus, as you can tell, was exceedingly bright and shiny in contrast with the black horn. The background color was a dicey call on my part but Don insisted he was pleased with it.

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This one was both easy and fun. It was my son's idea to put the bear paw print into the nap of the suede. In fact he had a couple of great ideas that really caused me to reconsider my formerly low opinion of his brain functioning! He also suggested I photograph the 'kitchen set' above out of the box. The result was, as I mentioned, my best shot of the day.

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Buddy,
Nice pics! :thumbup:
Sounds like you had a great time,will second your comments on Craig Camerer's knives as I just acquired one of his Bowie's and the fit and finish
are impeccable,same goes for the sheath. :cool:
Cool double rainbow.

Doug :)
 
I am not surprised at the outcomes. Excellent work, and congrats on the task! Thanks for the smiles. :) Now we can REALLY talk shop! ;)

Best,

Coop
 
Congrats Buddy - very well done indeed! Love that little Camerer.

Roger
 
Thanks, guys. Glad you got a kick out of this little story. Speaking of stories, I was approached by a gentleman collector who made a few vague inquiries about getting some knives he owned photographed in the future. I explained it wasn't really my thing (just a hobby for me etc.),that Terrill, Coop and others would be glad to work with him. But, like I said - he was somewhat vague so I asked him, "What's your goal - what are you wanting to accomplish?" He asked if I'd heard of Bill Moran (here we go again) and said he owned a few Morans and was thinking about some 'publicity' or maybe a book. Turns out that, among others, he owns the Moran European Stiletto pictured on pps. 133 & 135 of the book, Master of the Forge. I looked it up and was interested to see that Moran said of this piece (and it's fancy curly maple with silver wire inlay custom box), "This is certainly one of the finest pieces I've ever made." We chatted further and it turns out he lives just down the road from me! We agreed to speak further about some photographs and at least an article. One just never knows what will happen next.

Coop - you said, "Now we can really talk shop." Yes, and believe me I was humbled by this experience. Even so, it couldn't have been nearly as traumatic as your first knife show photographer gig. After this weekend I can't imagine how you pulled off getting called out on the spur of the moment to fly yourself and all your gear from CT to San Diego to do your first ever knife show - the world famous Art Knife Invitational. By comparison I had a relaxed time of it - shot 19 knives and that was it. Mac Overton was hired by the PKA to do people shots and write the show review so I didn't have to mess with any of that. Still, as I said, I learned tons of stuff I don't think I could ever have learned without an experience like this.
 
Nice work Buddy. Hopefully Terrill appreciates what you did for him.

I just fell in love with that Patton fighter. Is it okay if I steal it and use it as an avatar in the future?
 
Keith - Terrill has been very appreciative, gentleman that he is. Sure, feel free to use the pic of Rob Patton's fighter. It was oh-so-much-more beautiful in person. The details are: OAL 15 in., Blade 10 in., L-6 steel, Ironwood handle (particularly striking), Blued iron guard and textured blued iron fittings, brass spacers, $800 for a similar knife, approximately one year to deliver, contact www.pattonknives.com
 
Joss - I did indeed use the Canon 90mm TSE f2.8 'tilt/shift' lens and in fact (except for the rainbow shot - my backup camera with the 24-70mm zoom for that one) I can't imagine not using it for stuff like knives where you're too close to get much depth of field with a standard lens. Good examples are the Rob Patton fighter (a long knife photographed at an angle to lend a little visual drama) and Don Heathcoat's "Hand" which is probably a hair over 11 inches top to bottom. Getting opposite ends of these somewhat bigger pieces in sharp focus at the same time is so much easier with the T/S lens. Plus it allows me to shoot in the aperture's sweet spot between f8 and f11 so the resolution is optimal. With these two and others like them, using a standard lens I'd have to go out to f22 and use a long exposure to get enough depth of field and that degrades my images, introducing more digital noise and the images just don't look as good to me in other ways I can't define. Now other photographers with more skill and experience than I have obviously do just fine with standard lenses. In my case I also find I don't have to shoot so many shots to make sure I have one in total focus. With the T/S lens what you see through the viewfinder is what you get. This enabled me to get into a groove and keep the work flowing because often (I shot 19 knives for this show) I would set up the shot in terms of background and positioning, dial in the f stop and shutter speed I wanted, twiddle the tilt and shift (mostly tilt) knobs and shoot one single shot - with confidence that it would be a keeper shot. I never could do that before. No wonder so many medium and large format photographers (used to T/S being built into their big cameras) have been reluctant to switch over exclusively to SLR format! I'm pumped about that lens, can you tell? My motto: "Gear is good" (or at least good gear is good).
 
I did indeed use the Canon 90mm TSE f2.8 'tilt/shift' lens and in fact (except for the rainbow shot - my backup camera with the 24-70mm zoom for that one) I can't imagine not using it for stuff like knives where you're too close to get much depth of field with a standard lens. Good examples are the Rob Patton fighter (a long knife photographed at an angle to lend a little visual drama) and Don Heathcoat's "Hand" which is probably a hair over 11 inches top to bottom. Getting opposite ends of these somewhat bigger pieces in sharp focus at the same time is so much easier with the T/S lens. Plus it allows me to shoot in the aperture's sweet spot between f8 and f11 so the resolution is optimal. With these two and others like them, using a standard lens I'd have to go out to f22 and use a long exposure to get enough depth of field and that degrades my images, introducing more digital noise and the images just don't look as good to me in other ways I can't define. Now other photographers with more skill and experience than I have obviously do just fine with standard lenses. In my case I also find I don't have to shoot so many shots to make sure I have one in total focus. With the T/S lens what you see through the viewfinder is what you get. This enabled me to get into a groove and keep the work flowing because often (I shot 19 knives for this show) I would set up the shot in terms of background and positioning, dial in the f stop and shutter speed I wanted, twiddle the tilt and shift (mostly tilt) knobs and shoot one single shot - with confidence that it would be a keeper shot. I never could do that before. No wonder so many medium and large format photographers (used to T/S being built into their big cameras) have been reluctant to switch over exclusively to SLR format!
Click to expand...

I didn't understand a word you wrote (almost;) ) but what I do understand is that you make a hell of a picture:thumbup:

Marcel
 
I would like to thank Buddy and Wes on behalf of the PKA. They jumped right in and handled the photography duties for us on very short notice. Everyone was very happy and pleased with their photos. Again a big Thank you!
 
Great pics........:cool:

That's Paul Soo's artwork represented on those T-shirts he did for Audra.....goes Sniperboy on these Forums. ;)
 
Thanks, Dawkind, for helping Paul Soo get credit for his fantastic artwork on Audra's T-Shirt. Well done, Sniperboy. All she had left were the small size so I couldn't get on for myself (I'm an XL guy). Very cool, though. One of the coolest things I've seen any knifemaker do (or have done) in a good while.
 
HTMD said:
knife show photographer! Whoo-Hooo!

Here's 'best of show' - a $2,200 miniature approximately 2 1/2 inches long when all the blades and tools are folded into the handle. It's really spectacular and the maker had a full-sized one just like it.

standard.jpg
Click to expand...


I just saw this thread and wanted to say congrats on some great pictures. But I thought this one deserved highlighting again. Man! That lil sucker is awesome!

That folder by Rick Nowland also looks pretty good- I think it's better than some of his work I've seen in the past. He only lives a few miles from me, and one of his minis on permanent display in a local archery shop inspired me as a grade schooler.
 
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