Gersh Photo Post | Max Gersh | Multimedia Photojournalist

Cell phones are everywhere. Most people have one. Many people have more than one. It should come as no surprise to me for people to be using their phones in my pictures.

As a society, we are now used to seeing citizens take out their phones to snap pictures at the passing by celebrity or even from the upper deck at a sporting event. National Geographic even published a book on how to optimize your cell phone photography.

Wednesday, November 19, 2008 Fans embrace Will Smith as he exits the St. Louis Post-Dispatch building Wednesday afternoon. One fan in the lower section of this image can be seen photographing Smith with a cell phone. Max Gersh | Post-Dispatch ©2008

But is it always appropriate to be on your phone? Does it sometimes go beyond what social etiquette deems acceptable?

I want to say upfront that I pass no judgment on the people in these photos. I have no idea what is considered acceptable in their fields. These images just struck me as peculiar.

This first photo is from St. Louis on the Martin Luther King Bridge. There was a fatal car accident. I was shooting from the MetroLink station in Illinois just south of the bridge.

The police officer in the photo had already taken what I presume were the official photos of the scene with a DSLR. Then, it appeared as if he were taking shots of the wreckage with his cell phone.

Friday, December 5, 2008 A police officer holds up his cell phone at the scene on an early-morning fatal accident that blocked all traffic on the Martin Luther King bridge. Max Gersh | Post-Dispatch ©2008

Today while photographing a meeting of the New Castle/Henry County Economic Development Corp. (EDC), one of the panel members seemed to have trouble staying off of his phone.

Scott Hayes, right, a New Castle-Henry County Economic Development Corp. board member, talks on Monday about problems the EDC has with a proposal for an economic development alliance while County Commissioners Kim Cronk and Bill Cronk listen. (C-T photo Max Gersh) ©2010

These photos have no significant meaning other than the included cell phone usage caught me off  guard.

Again I want to stress that I pass no judgment on the people in these photos. I don’t know if there was something of the utmost importance that couldn’t wait. I just felt like sharing these images to see if anyone else had to think twice about the situation.

I’ve always been a supporter of the idea that it is the photographer that makes the image and not the camera that he/she uses. While my close friends constantly hear me praise Canon and bash Nikon (jokingly, of course), a good photographer can make a dynamite image with a disposable film camera.

That being said, I had an opportunity to shoot with a fantastic camera - the Pentax K-7. This is Pentax’s ultra-rugged flagship camera. Considering that I learned photography on a Pentax ME Super, this was a very welcome homecoming to Pentax for me.

While I didn’t get to test the dust, weather or cold resistance of this camera, I did get to shoot a handful of portraits with it. I paired it with a Pentax 50-135 f/2.8 DA* lens and a Pentax AF-540FGZ flash used in wireless mode off camera. For a few shots, I even used the kit 18-55 WR lens. I had no trouble picking up the entire system on the fly and sincerely enjoyed the results.

The 14.6 megapixel files aren’t given any justice on this blog, but take my word for it that they are stunning.

Gavin Culbertson and Yuefeng Deng - Shot on the Pentax K-7 with the 50-135 DA* lens. © 2009 Max Gersh

Gavin Culbertson and Yuefeng Deng - Shot on the Pentax K-7 with the18-55 WR lens. © 2009 Max Gersh

It isn’t usual for me to take “Fall color” pictures. In fact, I can’t think of a time I did other than last year…and that didn’t really count because that was in my front yard.

This year, I felt compelled to try since I never really put forth any effort into capturing the beauty of the season. I drove out to the massive cemetery at Jefferson Barracks. This is the first time I’ve been to a cemetery since I went to Miles Mausoleum in Illinois.

Without further ado, here are a handful of the images I made today:

Fall colors at Jefferson Barracks © 2009 Max Gersh

Fall colors at Jefferson Barracks © 2009 Max Gersh

Fall colors at Jefferson Barracks © 2009 Max Gersh

Fall colors at Jefferson Barracks © 2009 Max Gersh

Fall colors at Jefferson Barracks © 2009 Max Gersh

Fall colors at Jefferson Barracks © 2009 Max Gersh

Fall colors at Jefferson Barracks © 2009 Max Gersh

Fall colors at Jefferson Barracks © 2009 Max Gersh

Fall colors at Jefferson Barracks © 2009 Max Gersh

Fall colors at Jefferson Barracks © 2009 Max Gersh

Fall colors at Jefferson Barracks © 2009 Max Gersh

Fall colors at Jefferson Barracks © 2009 Max Gersh

Fall colors at Jefferson Barracks © 2009 Max Gersh

For what it’s worth, I don’t normally do the dutch angle thing (the slanted image in the photo above) but I kind of liked the way this one turned out.

***Please forgive the somewhat heavy JPEG compression. I only realized that I had my compression settings improperly set after I uploaded them all and I don’t feel like going back through them all again.***

Have you ever wondered what the St. Louis Gateway Arch and its surroundings would look like if it were its own planet?

Probably not…But I did.

Today, I went down to the Arch grounds with the express purpose of making a 360 degree panorama and warping it into a two-dimensional globe. I only had a vague idea of what I was doing.

Just like any panorama, it is best to set your camera on a tripod to get equal and level rotations. I set my Canon EOS 1D Mark II on the tripod and took pictures in a full circle with the camera leveled. I then made a second and a third pass, one with a high angle of view and one with a lower angle.

This was tedious. I had to make sure there was some overlap so the photo stitching would be easier. It wasn’t long before my friend, Gavin, had a better suggestion for capturing the angles.

He recommended putting my camera in full motor drive (8.5 frames per second on my camera) and just spin it quickly while running a circle around the tripod. This worked like a charm capturing at very even and overlapping intervals.

After capturing 89 frames, I rushed home to see my finished product.

I opened Photoshop’s photomerge program and set it to auto. I figured that I could fine tune the problem spots by hand.

An hour later, my straightened 360 panorama was complete.  One step remained. Stretch the image so it is equal in height and width and then run a Polar Coordinates filter on it.

After all that work, I was tremendously disappointed.

Photoshopped version of the 360 panoramic of the St. Louis Arch grounds. Photoshop left sloppy merge lines and caused significant distortion. ©Max Gersh 2009

That is when I decided to edit it a different way. I had read about a method of 360 photo merging called stereographic projection. In essence, it is a way of wrapping the images without distortion around a circular (almost spherical) plane. That yielded much better results.

Stereographic projection of the 360 panoramic of the St. Louis Arch grounds. All merge lines have vanished and the distortion is so minimal that you can even clearly see my friend sitting on the grass meditating. ©Max Gersh 2009

One St. Louis themed Little Planet / Wee Planet / Stereographic Projection down. The rest of the town to go.

Last month I had the opportunity to do some headshot work for Talent Plus, St. Louis’ leading talent agency.

I worked with an actress named Sarah Price. Even though I was running a fever of almost 104, she made the shoot easy. Thank you Sarah for being a great subject.

Sarah Price headshot in Tower Grove Park ©Max Gersh 2009

Portrait of Sarah Price in Tower Grove Park ©Max Gersh 2009