Monday, January 31, 2011
Thursday, January 27, 2011
Manhattan 'design firm' is looking for a 'photobitch' so be on the lookout for any talented people who have no idea at all...
Please note that this is a partner position and compensation is less than $150 per shoot (including post-production.)
My favorite line:
"We are a small, award-winning design agency..."
Yes. I'm sure you are.
Something You Just Know to Be True, But Yet Had Never Expressed It. (Chris Schweiger tells us about an interesting photograph)
Combining a Fish Tank, a Jalapeno Pepper and lots of Club Soda can be very entertaining
Yes, Chris. It can be.
Check out the whole article for some very cool shots of a hot pepper as well as how Chris conceived and photographed a bubbly Jalapeno.
The Visual Science Lab / Kirk Tuck: A plug for a great lighting workshop in Austin. Not mine. (Actually MINE!)
Don is coming to Austin at the end of Feb. and doing one of his two day workshops. The price is right. The class size is right and Don's attitude is right. In the interest of full disclosure I need to say I'll get nothing from plugging his workshop. In fact, it's already going to cost me a few rounds of Coronas and a trip to Fonda San Miguel. But that's okay because when I show up at his studio in Phoenix I'll expect the same.
Thanks Kirk! Kind words and ones I work hard to live up to.
3 things I look forward to:
1. Teaching photographers how to think about light, work with light and expand their abilities to light.
2. Seeing Austin. Never been there, so it will be a blast to be somewhere new.
3. A deep and investigative discovery of these things called 'Corona' at the equally mysterious 'Fonda San Miguel' with my intrepid guide and great photographer bud, Kirk.
I will work to keep each and every one of you informed on how these inquiries develop. I may have to sample the mysterious 'Corona' several times to totally understand its golden revelations...
heh.
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
Show this to the next client who thinks they can get crap photography (or worse, their own) and make something that works.
It goes without saying: large high quality product shots are a key element of success on e-commerce websites.
A pet peeve of mine. Clients who do not want to pay for good photography, but complaining when their site looks less than stellar.
Photograph a Stranger: Project 52, Assignment Two | Schweiger Photo Challenges Himself and Wins Big
I am sure that any photographer, professional or amateur, has suffered from some form of “photography-block” – including me. No inspiration, no motivation and the list goes on and on and then come all the excuses as to why you cannot take any “great” images.
Let me tell you, participating in a photography project will definitely help open your photographic eye, especially if your are not shooting on a regular basis
Nice photograph of an interesting guy.
Sometimes we have to get out of our own way and make the images that should be made. Chris got a prod to do something out of his comfort zone and makes something cool.
That's a win!
Beware of cut and paste culture: Whether in Music or Photography, the slide to mediocrity can be devastating
Contemporary culture has fallen into the trap of confusing the medium and the message identified by Marshal McLuhan back in 1964.
Yep.
Monday, January 24, 2011
This is one of the most terrible things a photographer or entrepreneur could ever consider
On Shooting Video with Your DSLR: My thoughts on it (PC be damned)
It is about the history and legacy of the art.
It is about taking that legacy and creating something interesting.
It is about using the moving picture and all that it entails to engage the viewer. A shitty film maker using a 5DMKII is a shitty film maker. Chances are shooting it on a $300K camera would be just as shitty.I can also imagine that a skilled story teller could do a wonderfully engaging film on an iPhone. I am still in awe of how many people think that by purchasing a 5D or a 7D they will now become - instantly and nearly overnight - the next Steven Spielberg or Cannes award winner. Just as most still shooters have nothing to say with their still images, adding the ability to further say nothing at 30fps is not going to up their game. Most still shooters don't see moving pictures. The few that do are usually exceptionally good at adding motion to their skill set.But they are rare and exceptional. I suck at movies. I am not that enamored of the art form anyway, so maybe I am not the best judge. Most of the stuff I have seen coming off of still shooters with their new 'video rig' is not that interesting to me. (Oh, wow, the 'bokeh' is creamy just sounds moronic...) But I know that they are starting out with a new medium so I cut them some slack and look forward to being impressed at some point. I do.
Don Giannatti:
www.dongiannatti.com / www.lighting-essentials.com / www.learntolight.com / www.steelid.com / 602 814 1468
Sunday, January 23, 2011
Yeah... but we got snookie and kanye and reality tv and pop culture... who needs anything more?
Greatness must be worked for and won by each new generation. Right now that is not happening.
Sigh...
No. No it is not.
Friday, January 21, 2011
My Assignment List from when I taught PS Ed. Heh... yeah, they were pretty tough. So? You were expecting easy?
1. An image of one thing, that says only one thing about it.
2. A person who represents what you wanted to be when you were 6.
3. A kid who loves you... and I gotta see the love.
4. The thing that makes your mom your mom (or dad, or sister)? Shoot it.
5. You know your favorite song? The one you always turn the radio up on? Shoot a photograph to go on the cover of that album. I don't care if I get it... do you?
6. A bridge. From one place to another. One soul to another. One child to another. A bridge.
7. Your most hated food (for me - liver and onions) but make it look so good you are even tempted. You can have people in the shot, but not more than 12.
8. Show me a sports game in a landscape. No athletes, just the game. No sports field, just the game. No balls, no hockey sticks, no buckets of ice. Just the game as a landscape.
9. Happiness.
10. Any musical instrument, with people or not. Here's the deal though, we should feel something when seeing it, not just 'see' it.
11. Cute kitten... nawww... just kidding. Make it a place that seems abandoned, or lonely... if a place can be lonely make me feel it.
12. The one photograph you would want to sum up your photographic career today. You have been invited to show at the most prestigious show in NY and you can show only one picture. Show me that picture.Good luck...
Don Giannatti / Designer / Photographer / Author / Consulting
(Sent from Studio Workstation #2) 602 434 1765 / Grand Central 602 325 3211
Lighting Essentials | Don Giannatti | It's What I Do | Lighting Essentials Forum
wizwow 
wizwow
Bonus Payments to City Retirees Are Drawing Ire - NYTimes.com
Why? Seems reasonable. The ruling class is, you know... the ruling class.
- Sent using
"Don't attach to the negativity... find ways to move your business forward" - Selina Maitreya on YouTube
There is way too much negativity out there. I have received a couple of emails about my post yesterday on Editorial photography. I was not trying to be negative, folks. Realistically, it has changed. But there are many photographers who are figuring out how to work with that change and thrive.
Selina's February 11, 12 Teleseminar will be a milestone in this business. Something I think people will talk about for years to come. Join her for free:
Selina Teleseminar 
Thursday, January 20, 2011
Editorial Photography - some thoughts on a late Thursday
Don Giannatti:
www.dongiannatti.com / www.lighting-essentials.com / www.learntolight.com / www.steelid.com / 602 814 1468
Filed under "Duh"
We encourage walking/jogging, etc. We just want to make sure that this doesn't lead to more needless deaths.
Let's not go too nanny-state here. He wants a guaranteed safe community.
Yep.
Don't we all.
Texting woman falls in fountain, files lawsuit | abc30.com : The new poster child for classless stupidity and tort reform
Marrero has hired a lawyer to pursue legal action. The investigation is ongoing at the mall as to who leaked the video online. You can hear more from Marrero and her attorney Thursday on Good Morning America.
Moron.
Josh Brewster on Photographing for the dance. Josh is a photographer in Austin. TX
The Assignment
My girlfriend manages a dance studio, so occasionally small gigs float my way. A few days ago, I received an email from a parent whose daughter, Kaila, is enrolled at the dance studio. Her daughter was applying to a number of intensive ballet camps this summer; each application required her headshot as well as photographs of a few dance poses. The applications were due in less than two weeks so the images needed to produced and delivered quickly.Research and Preparation
Dance, especially ballet, is very detailed and very precise. A pose or leap can be ruined by a shoulder that is slightly too high, or an arm slightly too straight. In real-time, an incorrect pose can be covered up by swift motion or forgiven due to the complexity of the dance routine. A photograph, however, freezes that motion and removes the dancer from any form of context. Any mistake, slight or significant, becomes glaringly obvious. So in terms of an application process, she had to look perfect.With perfection in mind, I made a few executive decisions:
Josh is a great guy and really getting his photography into shape for a possible run at full time pro. I am constantly delighted to hear and see former students making the break and getting after it.
Too many people wringing hands and acquiescing to fear out there. Josh has no time for that stuff, he is far too busy building a portfolio and getting his work in front of the people that matter.
I am glad to present his work to my 'people that matter' - the readers of my blog.
The Dying Art of the Darkroom: a very poignant video portrait of rare, mystical, magical places. Digital photographers don't know what they missed.
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Part inner-sanctum, part personal space, part scientific experimentation lab and part man-cave (or woman-cave).
The darkroom was where the second part of the process would occur. Mostly in the dark... or with a dull red bulb giving only enough light to barely make out the tools and processors we used.
My darkroom is packed up and sitting on the side of my garage. Two enlargers, 5 lenses (damned expensive Nikkors and Schneiders), Cibachrome processing tubes, dryers, film tanks and more.
Maybe someday I say to myself when I glance at that little stack of boxes... maybe someday.
But that day may never come, and I realize that. And I keep the boxes anyway.
My wife doesn't prod me to give them away, or donate them or whatever. She knows that some things are meant to be kept... for reasons other than the rational.
Digital photography is wonderful. And I have fully embraced it (as my three licensed copies of Photoshop will attest to).
And yet I miss the silence, and the chemistry, and the ability to screw up so prevalent in every darkroom adventure.
Holding a print that looks like you thought it would when you clicked the shutter... after processing it in chemistry, printing it with an enlarger and dodging and burning and bleaching and toning and drying...
Yeah... watching one spit out the front of the Epson is not the same. It just isn't.
Alex Ross: The Rest Is Noise: You pay your singers? (or your photography?)
Why have so many people become resistant to the idea of paying for music, even as they unthinkingly drop bundles of money on overpriced coffee drinks?
I love this... heh.
Kirk Tuck: Can we talk very frankly? About the serious, red dot issue????
You've been able to do this with any camera you can think of. And pretty reliably too. Just shoot stupid.
Kirk reminds us of the difference between doing it and, you know, talking about it.
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
When the press doesn't get it right, it can have serious consequences. Leaving out a "0" leads to photographer woes.
Despite the challenges and pay rates that are significantly lower than other forms of photography (Hargis said he charges around $200 for most of his shoots), being able to go into some of the nicest homes in the country makes it worth it.
No, SFC, you missed that price by a bit. It is only one "0" but it makes a bigass difference when it is published and people call you names and are angry when they call to book you cause, you know... it was in the paper. After all, it isn't like you have any responsibility to get it right. It's just the news.
'S OK, though. They get all the other stuff right. (LOL)
Errr...
I have been interviewed over a dozen times and only once was I not misquoted. It is one of the reasons I have little (to no) respect for urinalists.
What a screwup.
Model homes / The challenges and rewards of residential photography. Scott Hargis profiled at San Francisco Chronicle
Instead of curb appeal, it's Web appeal," he said. "If you've got blurry, crappy photos, people aren't going to take the time to look and see if the home is a good deal.
I recently reviewed his book at Lighting Essentials.
http://www.lighting-essentials.com/real-estate-and-architectural-photographer...
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
Behind The Scenes Videos are popular: One photographer tells us why he does them. Thanks, Jaren.
I don’t know what it is, but people love BTS. A big part of it is that so many people are interested in photography, but I also think that they love to take a look behind the curtain at see how things are made. There is also an element of vocational envy; when people see these video they think that this is what we get to do every day and it is far more exciting than what happens in their cubicle. This is why I don’t shoot BTS of check passings or banquets; why should I destroy their perceptions of the photo profession? When all is said and done, we get to create for a living, and that is something special. We primarily do BTS videos for self-promotion; the best way to promote yourself as hard-working creative specialist is to show prospective clients how you create.
I love behind the scenes shoots for several reasons, but for the most part they are simply fun. We get to see our peers at work. And many times we see something that triggers an idea for how to do something that has been cooking around in our heads for a while.
For me, the more 'amateur' they are the better. Overly produced BTS stuff is less interesting to me, as it then seems everyone is 'playing' to the camera. Meh.
Jaren has done several fun BTS for BYU... take a look at his site for a look into the different kinds of things a shooter has to do these days.
http://www.upaa.org/blog/why-i-bts/
Thanks to Jaren for the heads up on this post.
Boing Boing Refuses to be Bullied by Credentialed Idiots. Heh.
No, this is pure legal thuggery, a completely indiscriminate bid to intimidate bloggers and publishers into censoring themselves by threatening dire legal consequences.
Sunday, January 16, 2011
Friday, January 14, 2011
Quick: Which one of these websites is in Flash? C'mon... it's easy.
That would be the one... oh, heck. You know which one it is. Sadly it is one of my buds site and it cost him a hell of a lot more than most of the rest on that page cost.
Again, there is so much about the usability of the web, and how people interact with it that gets missed by design that doesn't fit. Design that doesn't relate, or adapt, or simply work. Looking good is NOT the end of design's usefulness. Design has to include the way people interact with something that is interactive. A book that wouldn't stay open would be bad, well, design. Right? Thumbnails of sites is not even new anymore. I expect to see it. I have add-ons on my FireFox to help me preview. It isn't new technology - and it helps people remember and relate.Remember. And relate. Basic tenants of the marketing world that gets so much lip-service today.But if the site is built in Flash, there is no thumbnail. No hook. No remember cue. No relate.Hey, I'm just sayin'...
Don Giannatti:
My partner Robin getting ready for a meeting at jobing.
Sent from my Android. This post made possible by qwerty. Email: don@steelid.com
From the hotel window, Portland.
Sent from my Android. This post made possible by qwerty. Email: don@steelid.com
Downtow Portland just after a rain... and snow.
Sent from my Android. This post made possible by qwerty. Email: don@steelid.com
Where wizwow is now.
Sent from my Android. This post made possible by qwerty. Email: don@steelid.com
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
Across America, Latino Community Sighs With Relief that Shooter was Not Latino. What?
In short, the only reason the nation is taking a few days to reflect on the animosity in politics today is precisely that the shooter was not Latino.
This is a great start toward that healing process we hear about. The amount of speculation, jumping to conclusion, conjecture, downright guessing, racism and sheer hatred exhibited by this author shows that some people learned nothing from the senseless and horrible brutality exhibited by a crazed human being who was unleashed on the community by a terrible, incompetent sheriff.
Race, Daisy... is that all you see?
Is that all that it was for you?
"It's painfully ironic that a gay Latino man came to the aid of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords in the storm of gunfire."
Why would this be 'painfully ironic'? To you, maybe, but not to me. My partner is hispanic. My buddies are hispanic. The cop who helped my daughter when she needed it was hispanic.
What is painfully ironic, miss, is that someone who is so fully functioning as a racist has a job at a 'news' source in which to spew more filthy hate.
Take your racist beliefs and do something else.
You have nothing to add to the discourse, you only offer more division and hatred. You are simply a tool, maam.