When the Oscar nominations were unveiled two days ago, one name I felt certain would pop up was cinematographer Harris Savides, who was responsible for the lensing of two well-respected genre pictures in 2007: David Fincher's "Zodiac" and Ridley Scott's "American Gangster."  Alas, it wasn't to be, as the nominees included Seamus McGarvey, Robert Elswitt, Janusz Kaminski and Roger Deakins (squared).

It may not have been surprising to other Oscar forecasters out there, seeing as Savides hadn't necessarily popped up during the precursor season and has found himself coming up short in the awards arena for some time.  But there is certainly no shortage of respect for the lenser, considered by many to be the most talented photographer in the business.  It didn't take Tony Gilroy, for instance, more than a moment's thought to call Savides "probably the greatest working cinematographer there is" when I interviewed him back in October, and any given colleague I spoke to over the course of the season (Kaminski, Deakins and Elswitt among them) was quick to call him a personal favorite.

Why, then, has Oscar glory eluded Savides so far?

Granted, the lion's share of his work to date has been in the independent arena.  Savides has found himself the lenser of choice for helmer Gus Van Sant ("Elephant," "Gerry," "Last Days"), having brushes with mainstrem Hollywood entertainment here and there ("Heaven's Prisoners," "The Game," "Finding Forrester").  Perhaps his greatest work behind the camera so far came for a tiny, yet brilliant film that no one might have seen had Nicole Kidman not been in the lead (Jonathan Glazer's "Birth").  But 2007 was a real opportunity for Savides' fellow craftsmen to honor his work, as he had a chance to chew on some of his most commercially accesible material to date.

But a nomination just wasn't in the cards.  Maybe someday soon Savides will get that tip of the hat that his colleagues clearly feel he deserves.  He's hard at work preparing Van Sant's "Milk" at the moment, which may or may not provide that opportunity.

I had the pleasure of speaking to Savides back in December.  Ironically enough, he first called when I was vacationing in San Francisco, the setting of Fincher's grisly account of the Zodiac murders which has become one of the most critically acclaimed films of the year.

On the project, Savides treaded out into the unfamiliar territory of mixing his work with CGI material.  A number of sequences in the flm were manufactured through visual effects technology, something of a necessity, given the urban development of the Bay Area since the days of the Zodiac killer.

Savides and Fincher took a good look at Alan Pakula's "All the President's Men" while prepping, mainly for the simplicity of structure and, of course, the grit of the newsroom.  The filmmaker had already amassed a considerable amount of research before Savides came on board, but the real starting point for the lenser was studying still photography for the film's ultimate look.

"Steven Shore had these banal kind of images of America in the 70s, which were a great reference for colors and for props, and for the world that we were to inhabit and make the audience feel they were watching," he said.  "Something that did concern me, however, was that it was very dialogue-driven, and I wanted to do things that were more cinematic.  But all of David's references were these wonderful movies that had this structure that I became interested in.  The approach that he wanted to take was exciting for me."

Fincher proposed Eric Rohmer's "La Collectionnuese" and Ingmar Bergman's "The Passion of Anna" as source viewing on the project.  Savides says he is quite the fan of Bergman, and that Fincher's preparation techniques have made him an even bigger fan of Rohmer than he already was.

"I didn't come to appreciate Rohmer's movies until I studied this film," he said.

When it came to preparing the Frank Lucas biopic "American Gangster" with Ridley Scott, Savides found himself again digging into still photography as source material, perhaps even more so than on "Zodiac."

"There's a book by Bruce Davidson called East 100th Street, one of those classic black and white monograph collections of Harlem," he said.  "It was the first night Ridley and I met in person, and everything he showed me was black and white, a style which I think was en vogue if you look at the time of Nicky Barnes and Frank Lucas."

Savides also referenced photographer Helen Levitt, looking at her work for color detail.  Scott's mandate, Savides said, was to make a color movie that felt black and white.  Savides took this as a broad gesture and set out to refrain from producing an over abundance of color in the lensing of the pic.

As for compositional techniques, Savides and Scott set out to film the Lucas sequences in a more formal fashion, while looseness was the key to the Richie Roberts portions.

"That's one of the rules I remember us laying down," he said.  "But in retrospect, I don't know if we actually did it!"

If nothing else, Savides comes across as truly passionate about the medium that employs him.  He sounds like the wide-eyed kid who grew up and pinches himself every day because he gets to soak in the fruits of photography and the moving image.  A somewhat raspy but soothing voice, peppered with just the right amount of Big Apple inflection, reveals the thoughts of a man happy to find himself transfixed by what he might find on screen.

"Only movies can to that, to your heart and and your mind," he said, "making this event happen to you.  And even though I'm saying that now, I don't think a movie can sustain that for the whole time.  But if it can do it two or three times while you're watching, that's a great thing."

Here's hoping Oscar catches up to him one of these days.