The Manfrotto School of Xcellence presents Bill’s Shooting Portraits on Location Webinar on January 26 at 2 p.m. (EST).

Webinar attendees will listen to Bill discuss his shooting style, lighting and how he goes about shooting the personalities he photographs.  Bill will show many of his famous portraits, a number of them of sports celebrities.  Lighting for stills and video simultaneously is becoming constantly more and more important.  Bill will discuss how he goes about this challenge to make images seen regularly by millions of readers and viewers.

Registration for the Webinar is now open. Learn more about the Webinar and register for free online at http://manfrottoschoolofxcellence.com/2012/01/09/shooting-portraits-on-location-with-bill-frakes/

In New Orleans this week? Bill along with Corey Rich, Mike Corrado, Rod Mar and Cliff Mautner will be presenting at the Nikon booth (#1301) at the Imaging USA show Sunday, January 15 through Tuesday, January 17. It will be a great time to test out the new Nikon D4  and hear first hand about Bill’s experiences shooting with it.

The presentation schedule is below:

Today Bill’s guest article is on Scott Kelby’s Photoshop Insider Blog. Check out his stories from Istanbul and more about his experience shooting with the Nikon D4.

I spent last night on the sidelines photographing the rematch between LSU and Alabama for Sports Illustrated. That’s six straight BCS National Championships for the SEC. The photos are online now at SI.com, SI Snapshot and on the SI Big Ticket App.

In the morning, I was on a plane from New Orleans to Florida.

And this afternoon, I’m on set directing the incredibly talented Florida-based recording artist Alea. Laura’s directing the photography.

It certainly is a great start to the week!

Testing the Nikon D4 took us half way around the globe to Istanbul for the making of our documentary, “Istanbul and Its Many Faces” shot exclusively with the D4. I’ve worked in more than 130 countries, but this was my first chance to photograph this beautiful and mysterious city.

In this documentary, we sought to capture the people and places that make Istanbul the metropolis it is.  It’s an ancient city with modern rhythms.  It has been inhabited for more than 5,000 years, hosting empires such as the Ottomans and Byzantines. Today it is where east meets west, physically and socially–European flare with Eastern tradition.

To truly test the camera, I wanted to use the D4 as a journalist – to see how it responded to real world situations. We used the cameras 18 hours a day for 10 days straight.  We used it as a still camera, a video camera, an audio recorder and an intervalometer. The thing that stood out most to me about the camera was its ease of use.  I’ve held a lot of cameras in my career and none have felt as comfortable in my hand or worked as intuitively as the D4. I didn’t have to worry about the technical – the Nikon engineers had done that for me.

Instead I could focus on the creative. The camera specifications speak for themselves, and what the camera can do is impressive, but how it feels when you’re actually using it is what is ultimately important.  The D4 allowed me to capture Istanbul in ways I couldn’t have done before.  This camera lets me to see the world with fresh eyes, and that, to me, is exciting.