The World's Most Expensive Telephoto Lens - 1600mm Leica Lens for $2 Million US

For those of you who may have a lens or gear fetish, here's something to get excited about!

This one-off extreme Leica telephoto (Leica APO-Telyt-R 1:5.6/1600mm) was created for Sheikh Saud Bin Mohammed Al-Thani of Qatar for 16 million Hong Kong dollars, just over $2 million in the US. 

Sheikh Saud Bin Mohammed Al-Thani, if you need some photography lessons please feel free to give me a call.  

Photo Credit: Leica / Popular Photography

To read more about this lens check out Popular Photography.

Youth Skateboarding Portraits - Austin, TX

Lake S. - Austin, TX
Youth Skateboarding

Here's some skateboarding terminology (via wikipedia) for those of you who don't have a clue about the sport.

Skateboarding trick terminology

Air: riding with all four wheels in the air. Backside: a trick executed with the skater's back to the ramp or obstacle, or a rotation of the rider/board where the front foot moves forward (e.g. a regular-footed skater facing north turning eastward). Caballerial: a 360-degree ollie while riding fakie. The Caballerial was named after Steve Caballero, who invented the trick on vert in the early 1980s. Carve: to skate in a long, curving arc. Fakie: rolling backwards; the rider is in the normal stance, but rolling in the opposite direction.(Basically a switch nollie position) Frontside: a trick executed with the skater facing the ramp or obstacle, or a rotation of the rider/board where the front foot moves backward (e.g. a regular-footed skater facing north turning westward). FS 540: a frontside 540-degree turn. Goofy-Foot: a skater who more comfortably rides with the right foot leading. Grind: scraping one or both truck axles on a curb, railing, or other surface. Crooked Grind: a nosegrind where the nose is angled toward the object and the tail is elevated. 50-50 Grind: a grind on both trucks. Nosegrind: a front truck grind with the rear of the board elevated over the obstacle. 5-0 Grind: a rear truck grind with the front of the board elevated over the obstacle. Smith Grind: a rear truck grind, with the nose pointed below and slightly away from the obstacle. Kickflip: an ollie in the middle of which the skater uses the front toe to kick the board into an Aileron roll. Heelflip: a kickflip in which the skater uses the front heel to flip the board in the opposite direction. McTwist: a backside 540-degree turn usually performed on a ramp (generally a mute grab). Mongo-Foot: pushing with the trailing foot kept on the board; most commonly used to push fakie. Nollie: An Ollie performed with the front foot (N/ollie nose ollie) Can be referred as a fake or switch ollie, or it could be added as a prefix to describe any other trick performed in fake or switch stance (Nollie 360 Flip, Nollie Kickflip, Nollie Lazer, etc.).

Noseslide: sliding the underside of the nose end of a board on a ledge, rail, or lip. Ollie: a jump performed by popping the tail of the board on the ground, and using the front foot to even out your body and attain air. The basis of most skating tricks, named after Alan "Ollie" Gelfand. See: Air, Pop Pop: the act of striking the tail of the board against the ground to propel the board upwards. Boardslide: a trick in which the skater slides the underside of the deck along an object. Regular Foot: a skater who more comfortably rides with the left foot leading. Shove-it: a trick performed by spinning the board 180 degrees beneath the feet without the skater spinning. Switch Stance: riding the board with the opposite footing than usual. Tailslide: sliding the underside of the tail end of a board on a ledge or lip. Pop Shove-it: A shove-it performed while popping the tail to make the board attain air. See: Air, Pop Varial Kick Flip: A trick consisting of a backside pop shove-it and a kickflip. Varial Heel Flip:Same as a hard flip, but you heel flip and the board spins front side. 360 Flip: A 360 shove it and a kick flip. The board does 1 full rotation. Ollie North: an Ollie in which the front foot is taken off the board. Laser Flip: A frontside 360 shove it and a heel flip. The board does 2 full rotations. Hard Flip: Instead of the board spinning backside, the trick is performed by doing a kick flip and having the board spin frontside. Inward Heel Flip: A heelflip variation where the board simultaneously rotates 180 degrees backside

Texas BBQ - Woollven Style.

Texas BBQ - Woollven Style.

Hovering Speeder Bike - The Future Is Here. (Video)

Hovering Speeder Bikes Soon To Be A Reality




Technology is moving at a rapid pace and California-based research group Aerofex has created a hovering bike that can go up to 30mph (48 kmh) and as high as 15 feet (4.5 meters). 

The bike’s technology uses powerful fans and a special control system—in the company’s words, it utilizes “ejector dynamics to augment the thrust and control of ducted-fan aircraft”. 

Read more about the Aerofex hovering bike here.

http://designtaxi.com/news/353378/Star-Wars-Hovering-Speeder-Bikes-Soon-To-Be-A-Reality/

Original Heidelberg Cylinder - Old school printing.

Western Wear Portrait Photography Session

Here's a little zinger that I pulled from my archive, it's a still photo from a video production this past year. This image was shot using a Nikon D7000, natural light and a 50mm Nikkor lens.  I love this image and I truly love that lens.

Go here to see more photography and video production work: http://www.JesseKnish.com

THE ILLEGAL DIRT BIKE GANGS OF BALTIMORE

For the last three years, filmmaker Lotfy Nathan has been documenting the Twelve O'Clock Boyz for a new film called Twelve O'Clock in Baltimore (trailer below), which is now ready for release at the end of this year. 

Ride em' if you got em!





Ride em' if you got em!

Austin Fashion Week 2012 - Hot Fashion Trends

Doa Jafri - Fashion Model, Wilhelmina Brown (2011)

Madison Paige - Fashion Model (2011)

We are in for another year of hot fashion trends during Austin Fashion Week.  Featured designers include Boudoir Queen,  Linda Asaf Design among many other nationally recognized designers.  Be sure to catch all the news and events at the Austin Fashion Week website.


Archive -

Austin Fashion Week 2011- Fashion Runway Presentations Featuring Celestino Couture (New York), Estela Balan (Matamoros Mexico), and Colunga (London). - Driskill Hotel, Austin Texas. To view more images from Friday nights presentation click here. 

To view photography from Thursday nights fashion presentations featuring Boudoir Queen (Austin TX), League of Rebels (Russia / Dallas), and Jamie McCarty (Brooklyn, NY) click here. 

For Editorial Licensing please contact Jesse Knish at www.JesseKnish.com or photo (at) JesseKnish.com 

Red Bull Stratos - Making of: Shooting in the stratosphere

"As Red Bull Stratos prepares to blast off into space, Red Bull Illume takes a look at the cutting edge camera systems that will be used to record this record-breaking mission. Felix Baumgartner plans to jump from an altitude of 120,000ft. It's an incredibly complex mission and the cameras must be every bit as advanced to survive the hostile environment. "

This is just pure awesomeness!