Real People vs Fashion Models

I like shooting real people and actually left the fashion business when that look of the drugged out waif was getting hot. I don't find it interesting, sexy or worthy of adulation so I said 'screw it' and moved to more editorial and corporate. I am back shooting and very excited about the real people look.

Rise Of the Real People | Newsweek Culture | Newsweek.com: "Much of this interest in real-looking models is driven by the Internet, which has democratized the once rarefied world of high fashion. 'Fashion shows used to be for a very small number of people, very exclusive,' says 'Look Book' editor Amy Larocca. 'Now you can see them an hour later on the Internet. Everyone can be involved.' Larocca also links the increased accessibility of fashion to the number of high-end designers creating affordable lines for mass-market stores, such as Isaac Mizrahi's collection for Target, as well as reality shows such as 'Project Runway.'"

A tutorial on using fill flash at sunset at Lighting Essentials.

A tutorial on using fill flash at sunset at Lighting Essentials.
Originally uploaded by Wizwow

Here's a tutorial for doing a quick Fill Flash technique. We had very little time to make this image and how we did the fill flash could be of value to you as well. I am updating Lighting Essentials every week. This is the most recent update.

Portfolio Reviews Without Having to Drive to New Mexico

... not that there's anything wrong with driving to New Mexico. Only problem is they only happen once (twice?) per year. Jorg Colbert is one of the brightest writer and contributor to art photography around. This offer is incredibly generous and in keeping with the style of this gentleman who shares everything with his readers.

"Over the past couple of months, I spent quite a bit of time thinking about this, and I now want to offer portfolio reviews. Needless to say, I have no idea how much interest there is in something like that, so this is going to be quite interesting. Also with time there might be modifications to the whole process, we'll see."

If you are an art photographer, you should definitely look at this offer quickly and fast. At the price he is quoting, they will go fast. Dang, I wish I was an art photographer so I could just see what he has to say.

Rain...

I love the sounds of rain. The faux stillness that reveals the hushed sounds of dripping rain into puddles below. The dampened sound of tread and the thickness of the cloudy sky. I like the way it makes things that aren't reflective as shiny seeming as chrome. The smell and the way the air feels... rain has its own manner of making a statement.

Today in Phoenix it has been raining all day. I wanted to capture an image or two that would mean rain, so my little one and I went out for an hour with my RB and a roll of C41. I will have to wait for the lab to send my images back, but I did manage a polaroid or two. This one was damaged due to the rain. No matter, I like it. It says wet.

It says rain.

Seth's Blog: Who Are These People

Geeez... makes you wonder if there is a conspiracy of stupid doesn't it? If you haven't read Robert's post on advertising and photography, read it after you read this one. BTW... it is right below this post.

Seth's Blog: "Doesn't it make more sense to incrementally earn the attention of a smaller, less glitzy but far more valuable group of people who actually engage with you? And the best part is, your odds of success are a lot better."

Yes it does.

Robert Wright on Advertising and Photography

He has presented an interesting topic. Go over and add to the discussion if you are an advertising shooter or want to be. And take a look at Robert's images too. I think you will enjoy.

robertwrightphoto.com: "The impulse in advertising photography is always to limit, replace, or recreate reality in the belief that it is too messy, incomplete or lacking. However, reality is always unlimited, irreplaceable, and continually creative.

This is obvious when you see the rare example of advertising where they have transcended the medium and created art. Then everyone points to this and says, see, it can be good. But what has happened is the reverse, it is not advertising that has won, it is art. Ads that are so creative and interesting that they become something else were never ads in the first place. Usually the product is hardly seen, sometimes it is felt, but only in a way that points to life and to the product by secondary association. These things rarely get made because the process is designed to make this the last thing you would want."

OK, this guy is really funny... and pretty good at Photoshop too

I feel yer pain, Donnie.

According to Bill Gates...

Capitalism sucks.

I'll just let you think about that on your own. No comment coming from me. Just an observation.

I thought it was Vista that sucked... but then, who the hell am I?

Oh yeah... I'm the guy who's next computer purchase will be a MAC!

Well, well, well...

I been tellin' ya'll about it for years... There is gold in creating a web site that makes sense. Search technology is hot. People (AD's are people too, ya know) want to be able to search for things and services... even photographs. That means html (CSS, XHTML, XML... all kinds of things you can do, but bottom line it is text that can be indexed) and a clean design. You want a full Flash site? Go ahead... but read this first.

Cradoc's Blog
"Q: Do you use search engines (ex: Google, Yahoo!) to find photographers?
A: The answer was no surprise, 79% said yes, and 21% said no.

This means that those photographers interested in assignment work need to make sure that their website is constructed in a way that pleases the search engines. It should include a lot of what search engines love the most: text. That's right, I said it - TEXT! Make captions and keywords on your images visible with the image. Use HTML instead of Flash, because HTML is text."

Oh, and there's a lot more to this survey that will make you think about getting a site that looks cool AND works instead of one that only looks cool. There are ways to do it... and this survey is so amazingly in sync with one we did last year as well.

Look, as I've said before, you could certainly use Flash on the page as an element, but making the page all Flash is like building a store in a mall and then walling off the mall entrance. Of course you can buy ad pages in magazines, directories and other media that is willing to take your money to drive visitors. (Right about here someone pipes up and tells me about some incredible shooter with a Flash web site... someone like Jimmy Williams. He has a rep, and producers and a book of clients a mile long. I would say to that person... you ain't Jimmy Williams. When you get to that stature... Flash away.)

If you want to know more about how this stuff all works, let me know and I will prepare a special blog post for it. I am working on a large form piece for the Lighting Essentials site. Hope to have it up for March.

Some Interesting Links

Steve McCurry is one of my favorite PJ shooter. He is interviewed at PDN.

Steve McCurry: An Interview with PDN: "'When shooting Kodachrome rated 64 or pushed to 80, when it got dark you simply couldn’t stop action or you had to go to a tripod. In shooting digitally, you can change your ISO and keep on going.' For a shot like this, he recalls, 'I used to do a lot of bracketing, but you never knew exactly what you were getting in that kind of situation. Now, if the exposure is reasonably accurate, you can salvage details later with the RAW file.'"

Take a look at Simon Norfolk's work. Tasty and cool.

Do you have a Carbon Made Portfolio yet? Free and really fun.

Time to register for my next Lighting Workshop.
It will be on a Sunday for some of the wedding shooters who have been asking for it. I do three Sundays per year, maybe a few more if needed. I am also looking for photographers who may want to host a workshop in their town. If you do, drop me a line and I will elaborate. Essentially, if you are the local host, you take it for free.

We are in the planning stages for a workshop in Mexico. Same low price, way cool site with a beach. We may run two in a row, and I will have more information on that soon. Rocky Pointe area of Mexico at a very nice resort. Cool, eh?

Lighting Essentials is Down

UPDATE: It is back up. That is a real nightmare story!!!

Hi all,
The dang server is down at Lighting Essentials.
AAAARRRGGGHHHHH... it will be up later.

cheers,

Happy Little Explorations

I did a portfolio shoot this past weekend and we ended up going to Casa Grande. I wanted somewhere that I hadn't been before and I wanted it to be close enough to not require a lot of travel. I have never been to Casa Grande... been through it a few times, but never got out except once to have breakfast.

We (Megan, Briana and I) stumbled upon the little downtown district after lunch. Had missed it for most of the morning, shooting over near the RR tracks and old warehouses. It was a lot of fun and work, and I am just starting to convert the images. More on the day coming soon.

We took a break mid-afternoon and stepped into this great little coffee shop. Between the three of us we had a sampling of the little shop's beverages. They serve coffee, Chai, smoothies and great little natural sodas. If you are downtown Casa Grande, stop in "The House of Brews" and have a Mocha or a smoothie. Great stuff.

(Photo By Megan)

At Seth's Blog: Workaholics

I love to work on what I love to work on. Ya know. Everyday I get to design, write, shoot or edit is a joy. When that doesn't happen I get a longing that is palpable. I wonder how many people get to love what they do? I thought this a perfect post to go with the previous post on Chris's interview with Andrew H.

Seth's Blog: Workaholics: "It was hard to imagine someone being passionate about mining coal or scrubbing dishes. But the new face of work, at least for some people, opens up the possibility that work is the thing (much of the time) that you'd most like to do. Designing jobs like that is obviously smart. Finding one is brilliant."

Andrew Heatherington interviews Chris Floyd

And we are the lucky folks that get to read this interview. It is a passionate view of a photographer who is dedicated to making images that matter in a business environment that doesn't care. Read it all, every word. I is so compelling that I have read it three times now.

I gotta thank Andrew for getting this in print - man that's a lot of typing - because it is invaluable. We are facing challenging times as photographers of every stripe. Knowing what we are up against is most important. Thanks Chris for the incredibly frank words. Great pics too, BTW...

whats the jackanory ?: "AH: No worries man, you are obviously passionate about your art, you have referred to yourself as a journeyman. I liked that, care to elaborate ?

CF: Sure. I take a great deal of pride in the fact that you can send me anywhere and I will bring you something that is a) compelling and b) will tell you something vital about the subject. I can find something to be curious about in pretty much anyone. It's like that line 'How can you justify your fees ?' It only took you 20 minutes to do it!' - 'Yes it did but it took me 20 years to learn how to do it in 20 minutes.'"

Entrances Fascinate Me

This underground parking escaltor had an eerie feeling made all that more dramatic by the difference in light color. I knew the escalator would go green due to the amount of FL , and the warm Tungsten really set it off.

Trees and Sky

I was drawn to the interesting wall and sky at the General Patton Museum which is in the middle of nowhere, above Indio, CA. We were on our way to do some shooting on the coast, and decided to stop for a look. It is kinda cool, and they have a bunch of tanks there. Hmmm....

"Her models were all dogs..." Incredible

So I am cruising around and find this site on a forum. The photographer has a link to her site and I click on it. First thing I see is "Pet Photography" and visions of Fido sitting on a bedsheet in the corner with bad lighting come flooding in. The whole idea of shooting someones dog on a sheet of seamless is beyond boring to me.

Well, sheesh... good thing I stuck around. The photographs are stunning and the work so imaginative that I found myself mesmerized. My 11 year old daughter just found a new hero and wants to come to the studio with dad to learn how to make pictures so she can be like this wonderful shooter and make portraits of animals. Laurie Meehan-Elmer doesn't share my dismal view of pet photography, instead bringing a fresh, exciting, humane and intimate lens to subjects that bark, purr, shed, bite, pee, growl, snap and crawl.

"Show me something I have never seen" is something I read somewhere and it blasts on the iPod of my mind whenever I pick up a camera. Here is an example of that mantra... images of pets, yet portraits of friends. An image of a cat that transcends the simple idea of a 'pet' portrait. These images will make you laugh, smile, chuckle and stare in awe as she must possess the patience of a saint to get those shots.

Take a moment or three to spend some time with these wonderful friends. Even if you aren't a pet lover (we have 2 dogs, 2 cats, fish, lizard and a gerbil...), you will find the images to be beyond what you expect. See images of furry friends you see everywhere in a way you have never seen them.

Lighting Essentials: January 15 Update: Dramatic Headshots

Here are a few simple methods to create some dramatic and unique headshots. More on the Lighting Essentials site.

Yep... THAT Bryan Adams

Rock and roller and pretty damn good shooter too! I am not much of a Lindsay Lohan fan, but these are pretty cool shots. Check out his Heather Graham shoot too. Bryan Adams.

Well this SUCKS! You Gotta FaceBook Page?

Just after posting the insane rantings of the Ford legal team, I find this interesting nugget. How many of you photographers have FaceBook pages? Did you read the TOS? Did you know you just gave your pictures away. Yep... You did. And you can take them down, but you already gave them to FaceBook.

How you feelin' now? Huh?

Can you imagine the frikkin' balls of these people? (sorry for my language, but I am absolutely astounded, amazed and pissed off.

Thoughts of a Bohemian: "“By posting user content to any part of the site, you automatically grant … an irrevocable, perpetual, non-exclusive, transferable, fully paid, worldwide licence … to use, copy, publicly perform, publicly display, reformat, translate, excerpt (in whole or in part) and distribute such user content for any purpose, commercial, advertising, or otherwise. … Facebook does not assert any ownership over your user content.”

CBC.CA, the Canadian news website, has a great story about Facebook. I a nutshell, it explains, with a recent example, that any image that you upload to you Facebook account can be used without your authorization, for free, anywhere . And unlike the tricky option of Creative Commons, Facebook does NOT grant you a choice. It is all or nothing."

On the other hand: Copyright Madness and Absurdities

Via Adrants:

Ford Slaps Brand Enthusiasts, Returns Love With Legal Punch » Adrants: "While brands certainly don't want people using their products, logos and other related imagery to create products of their, own, the hammer that Ford legal dropped on the Black Mustang Club seems a bit heavy handed. Recently the club created a calendar which contained images of club members' cars photographed by the members themselves. Ford didn't take kindly to this and asked CafePress, the service the group had chosen to print the calendars, to kill the project claiming all the images in the calendar are the property of Ford...including the Black Mustang Club logo."

So pictures of your kids in the tub are property of Kohler's? Pictures of my office infringe about ten thousand copyrights cause I collect junk? So the shot of me working on a photograph is infringing the Canon copyright cause I am wearing my OWN FREAKING CAMERA?

This kind of bullshit makes it so much easier for the nitwits who want to have open access to our IP. It is stupid, petty and takes such a swipe at the loyal customers who love their product. You want to drive public opinion away from your stand? Just do incredibly lame stunts like this.

Ford: Find the idiot attorney who started this. Fire him/her. Sue them for causing you a lot of grief, cause you're gonna find the blogosphere less than interested in your back-pedaling and spinning.

Sheesh.

OUCH! Thomas Broening Brings It

Sure its an older post, but you will have a hell of a time catching up. Great blog Thomas.

Thomas Broening: "Complaining complainers complaining

I have noticed out there on the web a slew of photographers whining about the state of the industry. For sure there is a lot to be concerned about in our business: Magazines going out of business, WFH contracts, Getty under cutting us all etc. But it has been my experience that as a class: photographers are a big bunch of whiners."

Knocked Out Time

OK... for your Sunday perusal:
Four photographers who really knocked me out this week.
Take a look at some incredible work and get inspired!

Benjamin Fink


David Burdeny


Polly Chandler


Joni Sternbach

APE: Copyright on the Internet

I guess what I should do is just post a link on the right side that says "Read APhotoEditor Today" cause I link to Rob's site all the time. This is an excellent post and I will let you go off to the links he has posted from his site. Read it and the links he points to. Do it now.

A Photo Editor - Photographers Copyright on the Internet: "It’s sort of a reverse psychology for all the numb nutz out there. Publicly declare how much money you can make off people misusing the CC license and you will eventually scare everyone away from even trying. He’s got a huge audience so I don’t doubt this idea has legs."

Check This Out

You will no doubt be knocked out by how far they have come. I saw a demo of this technology a couple of years ago and was really amazed. One of the things they are promising is an image comparison. If you want to see if someone online is stealing an image, simply upload your image, push a button and it would let you know if that image exists and on what pages... even if it is part of a collage. Cool, eh?

Ridiculous Image Technology Coming Video: "This video clip is just a taste of Photosynth Technology. The possibilities of the uses of this program are endless...the speaker barely scrapes the surface."

Wildlife Photographers: Amazing List

Here is a fine list of wildlife shooters. See the comments for more as they are added.

A Photo Editor - Wildlife Photographers: "Wildlife Photographers"

Wanna Learn to Light...

... with all kinds of tools?

I am embarking on a year long mini school on the Lighting-Essentials site. There will be tutorials there every week. All will have video, links, diagrams, charts... whatever it takes to get the information out. From studio strobes to speedlights, hot lights to natural light, we will cover it all. Please feel free to visit and comment and tell your friends!!!



First episode is an introduction to umbrellas. We work with only one umbrella and add a single fill card to it. Movie is 12 minutes and while not action packed, it is still kinda fun. Comments about my ass will be removed and commenters banned for life.

Cheers,

A 'Shoot' Video by Blaine

A friend of Briana asked to shoot a video of us working together so we did. You have already seen a shot from it previously but here is the video Blaine made. I think he did a great job with it. Thanks Blaine.