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October 2006 Archives |
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Big picture |
October 30, 2006 |
Miami DJ and producer DJ Khaled in Carol City, FL. Last night, as I was unpacking my bags and trying to sort out a jammed e-mail inbox, I got a call from my sister asking about the trip and my plans for the upcoming holiday season. "Thanksgiving?" I replied. Shit, man, when did the time for turkey and large family gatherings and Black Friday sneak up on us? Thanksgiving?! What happened to 2006? It's been a great year, don't get me wrong, but in flipping through my last 2 moleskine notebooks (I know, what a pathetic stereotype fulfilled...) last night I was struck by how many long term items I have left undone heading into the beginning of the end of this year. Each one is capable of producing a little panic attack. New print portfolios for editorial and advertising work. Fuck. New edit for my Redux online portfolio. Ok, well. Breathe life into PhotoShelter archive. Ouch. Finish bringing all business records into Quickbooks. FUCK. Map out new hard drive storage solution. Umm. Plan holiday travel, coordinate between girlfriend and family, figure out gift ideas. Argh. Prepare for contest season and make list of potential entries for World Press, POY, Magenta, etc. Aghh. Find new apartment for girlfriend and I by Jan. 1st. Make the bad man stop! There is a lot to do. A lot. Some things are obviously major priorities... especially if I don't want to be homeless to begin the new year. Finding a new place to live, getting my books in order, navigating the social and familial politics of holidays... those things are stressful, but to be honest what I'm most reluctant to really sink my teeth into is creating a new set of portfolios. God, how I loathe portfolio time. I produced my last portfolio about a year ago, which isn't so bad except for that book was a pretty tight edit of newish portraits that I made expressly for Redux, and though clients have mostly liked what they saw, they've also routinely asked to see a bigger and more expansive book which so far doesn't exist. This next book needs to be that big portfolio that somehow manages to showcase several different types of work that I do for clients, and also my personal documentary stuff, all in one package that feels coherent and singular in vision. I'm so reluctant to even start because I remember how hard its been to try and balance documentary, editorial, and portrait work side by side in the last 2 years, and I have no reason to think that it will be easier now. But from experience I know the only way to get there is to get there... and so I'll just begin... with a blank screen and a lot of coffee. Posted to Misc., Photographs |
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Download: Travel gear |
October 29, 2006 |
I'm home to Miami at last, but it ended up being the "long road home" after I missed my connecting flight in St. Maarten on Saturday (delays, massive incompetence on the part of WinAir) and was forced to stay overnight. And after I finished editing the almost 1400 images from the assignment, I thought I might pass the time by watching college football and writing a list for myself of my travel gear, especially considering my recent lapse. For the record, thank god, I didn't even manage to drain my only battery half-way while shooting in St. Barths. (By the way, the battery that was DOA is an official Canon battery, the extra battery that worked perfectly and held a great charge is an off brand I bought at B&H at around the same time as the camera). TRAVEL GEAR CHECKLIST: Lowepro CompuTrekker Plus AW backpack Equipment I put in the backpack... Canon 1Ds Mark II with the following: - Canon 20/2.8 lens (w/ lens shade) - Canon 28/1.8 lens - Canon 50/1.4 lens - Canon 100/2 lens - Canon 580 EX speed light (w/ 12 rechargeable AA batteries) - Canon ST-E2 remote transmitter (w/ extra battery) - Canon off camera shoe cord - Canon NP-E3 batteries (x2) - CF cards (x4 in hard case, +1 in bag pocket, 18 Gbs total) - Treo cell phone (w/ extra battery & charger) - Book to read Extra cameras: Holga 120F - film for each of these... 120/220/35, chrome/neg/bw Extra bag stuff... Domke F-3X shoulder bag Lowepro beltpack bag (no idea which one - I think they stopped making it) Canon NC-E2 battery charger Extra extra bag stuff... Finally, when I'm assigned to do a job that requires more lighting I obviously have to bring a whole other big bag, or more, of junk. I know that the lightest, cheapest, and easiest location lighting solution would probably be a combination of hot lights and stands that I could gerry rig into something half-way decent on each gig. But I've chosen to go a different way in terms of my location lighting, and depend on a simple but very capable battery system that is relatively versatile. Wescott collapsible 6-in-1 52" reflector kit Portable light kit... Equipment I put in the Versa-Flex & snow board bag... - Hensel Porty 1000 w/s power pack (w/ extra battery) - Reflectors (x3), barn doors, grids (x3), empty "sand" bags And last but no where near least, I use a Rock N Roller R-2 Micro cart to haul all of the lighting shit around with -- it folds up pretty small and can also easily be carried on (though people look at you funny). After all of this shit, its not surprising I'll occasionally forget to pack socks, but I think that my kit keeps things pretty simple. I know a lot of other photographers who shoot similar stuff that bring more. Some probably bring less too. Over time I've just tried to create a toolbox that I feel comfortable with, and know that I can handle most anything I've thrown. There are some things that are impossible with what I have here (serious location lighting, telephoto sports shooting, etc.) but that's also the point. I bring everything that I can't live without, and nothing more. Posted to Download |
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On Assignment: St. Barths II |
October 27, 2006 |
Thanks very much for all of the notes of good wishes and birthday salutations. It was a busy but overall good day down here in paradise... I'm not sure that's an apt name, but its what the cabbie told me when I arrived from the airport. St. Barths really is an interesting spot, and is notable within the Caribbean not only for its fabulous wealth, restaurants, beaches, and boutiques, but because the island is very white. Unlike any other Caribbean island, St. Barths has a huge caucasian population (relative to its tiny actual population of somewhere between six to eight thousand. For those of you who may have traveled a lot in the tropics, you'll know what I mean when I say its weird to not see any black faces. I don't mean weird/good or weird/bad... just weird. I spent most of yesterday walking around Gustavia, the largest town on the very small island, and stopping by shops and restaurants. Some of them had been called ahead of time and were expecting a somewhat pasty, white dude who probably speaks little to no French to nudge in their door and ask to take pictures. Several others had not, and I spent a lot of my birthday "lost in translation." Having to resort to hand signals, facial expressions, and the like is actually something that ends up making me happy. When I'm actually on vacation, getting lost and wandering about in a place where I don't know the language is one of my favorite things to do. It's only after you are truly, monumentally lost somewhere do you begin to feel like you know a bit about it. But anyway, I never got lost in Gustavia due to a combination of a lot of friendly help from the Charles, the general manager at the Hotel St. Barths Isle de France, where I'm staying, and the fact that Gustavia isn't big enough to be lost in. By the days end I had crossed off more than half of my grocery list of travel shooting and enjoyed some good food and very nice views. I narrowly avoided 3 giant downpours, and passed time between each talking with locals who told me some great stories about the St. Barths days before ultra posh hotels and boutiques lined the quaint streets. I ended the birthday on an ugly note, however, when late last night I got pretty sick from something I had eaten most likely at dinner. Not fun. Puking never is. I feel better this morning after some rest and a lot of water. The girlfriend accused me of "whining" in my last post -- oh woe is me, I have to spend my birthday on a tropical island filled with beautiful French women (I didn't actually add that part before but I think I will now) and get paid for it -- and in response let me be a little more up beat to round out part 2 (not that I think I was that whiny). The battery problem has been one at all. I was 99% sure it wouldn't be, but I don't like to leave things to chance. Getting around the island has been a total pain, but I've figured out how to group things together and am just about down with the rest of the list, including some items that I found on my own. Due to the periodic rain storms, I've been able to begin editing through what will be 1000+ frames on this assignment, and will be transmitting my work back to The New York Times Magazine before I even leave the island. Lastly, my friend Brian exclaimed to me yesterday after reading part 1 of this post, "the whole world knows you forgot your battery charger to a shoot on a remote island." Yeah, I guess; or at least the 15 bored people who read that post do. I just wanted to reiterate that this blog, especially now that it may be getting more eyes on it, was never meant to be anything but a document for myself about what I'm doing, and what I'm trying to do to work and shoot better. I forget shit all of the time. I have bad shoots. I accept work that I'm not interested in just for the money. I do all of that shit... just like pretty much everyone else I know. I guess what I'm trying to say is that I'm hoping to create this blog as a place for me to be real with myself about my work. Good, bad, ugly, this is freelance photography, or at least this is my version. I hope that I can continue to write about things in that spirit. And on that note, its just about time for me to shoot at the spa. Posted to On Assignment |
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On Assignment: St. Barths I |
October 26, 2006 |
A bit of personal news to begin with... I turned another year older today. I'm now firmly in the "30 is just around the corner" camp -- not that I'm complaining. But a birthday can be a strange thing to spend whilst on assignment, especially in a place that isn't super easy to reach by any particular loved ones or friends who want to send you some cheer. I'm not complaining about that either, mind you, because I'm writing this from my beautiful hotel suite listening to the ocean crash over the beach in St. Barths... life could get worse than this. I got a call on Monday from Redux asking me about a job down in the Caribbean. Sounds perfect, right? But after hearing that it was going to be a grocery list-type travel job, where I'd be given a big list and have to run around madly trying to check things off (I'm not a big fan of that both because it can be very stressful and also nearly impossible to finish since there is always more you can check out. And since the editor feels like they've basically sent you on vacation, they expect the world) and once I found out that it was scheduled for the 4 days surrounding my birthday, I politely asked Redux to turn it down for me. Laura, the rep who called replied "uh, really?" And then after I assured her, "really," she quickly replied, "OK, oh, wait, Jasmine wants to talk with you about this." I get transferred to Jasmine who starts in immediately, "are you crazy?! You want to turn down a job in St. Barths for a great magazine?!" You gotta love when your agency calls you crazy. It is a little crazy I guess, but jobs aren't everything. It takes a long time to get to a place, and I'm very fortunate to even have the luxury of turning things down in a way, where that's an OK option. To explain, what I was thinking was that I've been out of town at least a couple of days every single week in the last 2 months, and it was clear my girlfriend was looking forward to having me around a bit. Also, I wasn't sure what plans she had for my birthday and even though its exciting for her that our life together throws a lot of curve balls, I didn't think this one would be met with anything close to enthusiasm. So I said no. 15 minutes passed before I picked up the phone to call back Redux and tell them I'd come to my senses. Yes, I would love to spend my birthday in St. Barths... but that I wanted an assistant. It was an awful 15 more minutes before I heard back that the job was still mine and I should pack my bags. In the mean time I had called my girlfriend and was half-sure that if I could get the assistant budget OK'd, that I could bring her with me and make it a great time for both of us. She has assisted for me several times, and has always been a big help. Using your girlfriend/significant other as an assistant certainly could have some big detractors, but its also a very cool thing... especially when the job can bring you somewhere fun and relaxing. I've long been jealous of my friends Eric and Jen who manage to trek all over the place together for clients and therefore spend way more time together than I get to do with my girlfriend, who doesn't have much time during medical school anyway. By the end of the day the word had come back that there would be no way to bring an assistant (ticket prices were abnormally high because there were very few seats remaining), but the girlfriend was happy I was going and gave her blessing. On Tuesday I talked with my editor at The New York Times Style magazine about the shoot and grocery list (which ended up being smaller than I had feared). That night I got to have a pre-birthday dinner with the girlfriend and a small group of my family which made up for the fact that I wouldn't be around for the actual day. Everything was working out, except for the "getting there" part. Many small islands in the Caribbean have restrictions against direct flights from any major city, so you have to fly into a much small nearby island that has been designated to be the hub in the region, and then find another way to go the rest of the way. Getting to St. Maarten from Miami was a piece of cake -- there is even a daily direct flight. Getting from St. Maarten to St. Barths is normally no big deal either... except when the ferries aren't operating. My first phone call to my hotel confirmed that ferries were out of the question. Shit, OK -- well what else can I do? A prop plane or hire a private boat/jet to take me. At this point I've already plunked down way more for the airfare to get me to St. Maarten than my client was happy with. There are 3 small carriers that use prop planes to bring people to St. Barths from St. Maarten. A flurry of phone calls confirmed that 2 of them were completely book all week. The third and largest carrier, WinAir, was not picking up their phones... literally, I called and called and called, and no one wanted to talk with me. Gotta love the islands. So just to be prepared to answer my editor's first question once I told him that the flights were all full, I called back the hotel to ask about how much a private boat would be from St. Maarten (a 30-45 minute trip by sea) -- the answer was almost hilarious: 1000 Euros. Right, well, hmm. I called my editor and told him the skinny... shit. We had basically gotten me to within 10 miles of my destination, spent over $2000 in expenses, and it was looking like I wouldn't even be able to get there. He decided to call his travel agent and see what we should do. 30 more minutes and there was good news... the travel agent was able to find me what was basically the last seat that day on any airline to St. Barths! But in order for me to actually get the seat I would need to have the printed tickets overnighted to me in Miami (going to the Caribbean without hard proof of your ticket reservation is not a good idea) and though I agreed I immediately had a similarly bad feeling about the likelihood of FedEx's first morning delivery getting to me before I had to leave for the airport. Dinner was wonderful, the tickets arrived on earlier than they were even due Wednesday morning, and I was off to the airport with no problems. Getting to St. Maarten was a breeze, and since I didn't have to check any bags it was easy to get through immigration and customs. However, I just happened to be coming through St. Maarten on the very first day that they had opened their new airport, which was long since been under construction, and it was really not done yet. Signs led to no where, or the wrong way. People stood everywhere looking about them and scratching their heads. I was looking for my WinAir ticket counter, but there wasn't a WinAir ticket counter. I finally found 2 counters that didn't have a sign at all and asked the woman if this is WinAir. "Of course." Yeah, of course. I waited in line while the guy in front of me who just had an electronic confirmation was sent away back to the office because he needed a "real" (paper) ticket (whew). When it was my turn up to the counters the computers froze. Finally they used another computer and gave me a boarding pass. This was going fine. My gate was C-2, but there wasn't a C-2. There was a C, but there were no employees. More nervous waiting and head scratching all around me. Finally a woman came over and was almost literally attacked by a mob of people ready to start their vacations. She assured us that the flight was going to take off a bit late, at around 4 p.m., and we could just sit down and would be called. 20 minutes 'til 4 I happened to be passing the "gate" and heard the same woman ask about passengers to St. Barths. I went closer (I had been heading to the bathroom) and she said, "Who is going to St. Barths on WinAir?" 15 people who obviously knew enough not to listen to the "just go sit down" speech had their boarding passes raised in the air. I put mine up in the air and waded into the crowd just as she counted up to 18, which was the max for the prop plane. The flight numbers, times, seats, etc. -- it meant nothing, and I was just happy to be heading in the right direction at the right time. On the plane the captain/flight attendant steered out to the end of the runway, then turned around 180 degrees and announced for us to fasten our seat belts... "the flight will take about 9-10 minutes and we won't get any higher than 1500 feet." He wasn't lying. 10 minutes later we took a hard dive into St. Barths, barely clearing one of the volcanic peaks, and took a hard short landing perfectly into the airport. The pilot pulled up to the building, shut the plane off, opened his door, and exclaimed, "welcome to St. Barths!" From there I was met by DJ from my hotel and was ushered straight to their grounds, up and down insanely steep, narrow roads. We got to the Hotel St-Barth Isle De France and the general manager greeted me and led me straight to my room, an incredible suite with a beautiful view of the ocean -- which is where I'm sitting right now waiting for the rain to pass. After a nice evening, great dinner, great sleep, wonderful breakfast, some shooting around the hotel, and a swim -- things are going pretty well. Upon getting into my room and doing some unpacking I discovered the one thing that I left behind. It's always one thing, and its never a HUGE problem, but still annoying. I had meant to bring my battery charger with me, but forgot. I wouldn't even mention this at all, but when I grabbed my camera last night and took off around the hotel for the sunset I immediately was greeted with an empty battery on one of my two batteries for my digital camera. Thing is that I intentionally recharged both of them before the trip, which is why I wasn't adamant about bringing my charger. I should have anyway, but I was about to freak out while I went back to my room to check to see how much charge my other battery had left. Thank god its completely full. I've had this problem with batteries not charging when I put them into the charger, but instead doing a total "dump" (completely draining to be refilled so they don't have a "memory" problem). But, there is a button you have to push to "dump" a battery, and I didn't. Just another problem I've had lately with a Canon accessory; my 580 speed light & transmitter have also been going crazy lately too. So other than the nightmare that I would run out of batteries while on an isolated island on assignment, there are a couple of other things I'm trying to overcome to make this job successful. First, there is the fact that I don't speak hardly any French. St. Barths is a French outpost, but there is a lot of English spoken too as you would imagine in a economy based on tourism. Next, I don't have a car on the island because I don't really need one, but getting around may be difficult. Also, its incredibly humid this time of year -- so much so that I really have no choice but to keep my gear on the porch at all times except at night, so that when I leave to go shoot I don't have to wait a long time for the cameras to get unfogged. Lastly, which is the reason I am taking a break to write this post at all, it rains a lot here, so I'm going to have to try and make it not look blue and overcast in every picture. Wish me luck... and happy birthday. Posted to On Assignment |
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Understatement |
October 23, 2006 |
I have been really surprised by how much blogging Alec Soth has continued to do since beginning last month. I figured you'd have a post here or there, some gallery news, etc. But damn, Alec... thanks for putting your passions and thoughts out there and sharing with everyone; I've enjoyed the ride. I've got to say, however, that his post about Christopher Anderson several weeks ago has stuck with me in a bad way every since I read it. To explain, in the post Alec is trying to answer an interesting question about why a so-called "art photographer" like himself would choose to remain in Magnum Photos, the legendary documentary photography co-op. His take on this is great -- the art world is, relatively speaking, sort of bullshit, often fleeting, and sometimes shallow -- but then he does a "oh, and also Magnum has some pretty darn good young photographers too, like this guy Chris Anderson." (I'm paraphrasing, and doing a poor job of it). The thing is that even calling Chris Anderson, at this moment in time, a good and important photographer is such a gross fucking understatement that it made me pretty disgusted to even read his kind post. It then made me laugh out loud at how I perceive this rant against the art world at being out of touch to be itself out of touch to the relative merit of Anderson's work. Right now Chris Anderson is the greatest working photojournalist in the world, period. That's really what I think. Just about everything that I've seen of his in print and on the Magnum site for the last 9 months has absolutely leveled me. He's not even playing the same game as most of the other top guys... its a completely different feeling and depth. Looking at his work now has the same urgency, grace, and incredible genius in it for me as the first time I sat down with Delahaye's Winterreise in the middle of college and was changed. When me and my small group of die hard, cynical bastard photo friends talk these days, we go on and on and on about Anderson because he's that fucking amazing. Maybe Alec's comment says something about his background, or his modesty... or maybe something else about Magnum, and its photographers' tradition of being pretty bad at delivering compliments to each other. (Image of Bruce Davidson beating his hands and feet on the ground like a baby flashes into my mind). As it happens I really liked Niagara too, especially the images of the falls which somehow snuck up on me and were very emotional. But I gotta know... whose dong is that?? Posted to Misc. |
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Blueeyes Magazine: An intro |
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Sometimes when I meet new photographers they get really animated and excited to talk with me. This, however, is almost never because of my own shooting, but because of the other hat that I wear in professional photography as the creator and editor in chief of Blueeyes Magazine. The exchange that occurs is extremely flattering and I'm very happy to receive thanks and support for our celebration of an incredibly difficult and important genre of photography (more on that later), but I'm stuck every single time that their admiration has almost nothing to do with me... which is exactly how it should be. They love the creation of a place that loves documentary project work... Creating a home for the photography that I immensely respect has been a very important part of my life for almost four years. As I've watched Blueeyes grow its been astounding to witness how much people in the industry were looking for a place to grab on to. And one of the reasons that I resuscitated this blog was to likewise create a place to talk about Blueeyes and what I think its importance is... in a hope to help create a more open and valuable dialogue in anticipation of bringing that feedback into the magazine sometime soon. Therefore, this is the intro of a recurring segment where I'll talk about Blueeyes. If you have something in particular you are interested in learning about, just leave a comment. To begin with, Blueeyes was created in 2003 by myself via inspiration from my time at the University of Missouri, where I studied photojournalism amongst a unique and incredibly talented group of friends. We were deeply moved by long-term project photography while students and became obsessed with trying to create our own personal visions of issues and places that meant something to us. But after trying to make our own projects, we were stuck in figuring out what to do with them next. Tragically, over the last 20 years the space reserved in newspapers and magazines, especially in the American market, for serious documentary photography work has dwindled. Actually, that's hardly the word for it -- "lost" is a lot closer to the truth, sadly. And because of this its become extremely difficult to find a place to publish even incredibly good long-term project work. (This is relevant because the point of journalism and photography, as I see it, is to share it with as many people as possible and therefore complete its mission as a medium of communication... this is something I could and will write a few thousand words about, but not now). Therefore Blueeyes was born out of passion, frustration, need, and zero dollars -- which pointed me directly towards publishing online. For the first 2 years or so it was basically a one-man show where I was the editor, designer, writer, and handy man all at once. During that time we published mostly the work of friends, and friends of friends, and began to attract a modest and ever growing amount of attention and support. There were some awards along the way, including a large one from NPPA's BOP (the only competition that Blueeyes has entered to date, because its free), and the magazine started to gain momentum and a sort of street cred as a place that was trying to do something new and passionate (more on that later too). After 10 issues over a couple of years I was pretty exhausted of trying to run an emerging web publication on my own, especially as my freelance career grew more demanding. In 2005 Blueeyes took a long nap while I tried to figure out what should come next for the magazine, or if it should keep sleeping forever. The months of rest did the magazine and myself a lot of good, and that fall I began recruiting several friends to help me try to guide Blueeyes towards its enormous potential. Soon after the Blueeyes was a changed place... it now had an editorial board, a staff, and a well-designed and thoughtful design system. In the spring of 2006 we re-launched, had a fun party in NYC to celebrate, and began introducing new features. Currently the magazine is waiting to launch its 14th issue and is developing several more new features to create new ways for people to interact with the photography and create more dialogue about the stories we feature. In short, its an exciting time for Blueeyes but one that takes an incredible amount of energy and effort. Very certainly this is not a one-man show any longer, which is extremely important for Blueeyes' future and my sanity. I'm joined by 2 extremely talented colleagues on the editorial board, who together vote on what gets in each issue, and who are Matthew Ratajczak and Chris Vivion. Additionally we are very lucky to also have technical lead Seth Bro and communications director Jill Thomas on board with us, making the rest of us look way better than would otherwise be the case. The 4 of us work together to create the magazine in addition to our regular jobs and lives. Neither us nor our contributors are paid anything for their efforts... its truly a labor of love. So that is what Blueeyes is, why it was created, a brief (boring?) timeline of its short history, and where it stands now. To round out this intro post I'd like to talk a bit more personally about what I feel are the main difficulties and pleasures in leading Blueeyes. My next post will deal with what the magazine publishes, why its important, and why its often so hard to find. Recreating the magazine has been a fun and extremely frustrating process that I'm only now getting my grasp around. Last fall when I began looking for friends to help me out, I had a really difficult time finding not only people who I felt confident about their talents and respected their commitment to truly important work (admiration and criticism are not the same thing), but I was also looking for a range of perspectives on documentary photography that would keep the magazine fresh and encourage us to stretch the idea of what was "documentary." That diversity I sought and found has been extremely difficult to later hold together, which while unsurprising has recast my own position as well. When I created an editorial board I was doing so in an effort to make the magazine not just my own, but all of ours together. But to hold everyone together and keep the magazine moving forward -- without the presence of any type of monetary return, which is why magazines are actually published -- I've had to remain at the helm of the ship and continue to play traffic cop and keep everyone else on task and in communication. It sounds naive that I thought I could have it another way, and it was, but I hoped for a different model than I ended up with nonetheless. Despite the potential wrangling of cats metaphor in trying to keep myself and the editorial board moving forward and connected even while we are all the time extremely busy and traveling, Blueeyes is wonderful to be a part of. I think my favorite thing is the ability get my hands dirty digging into pictures and projects and connecting with what it is about photography that really moves me. On a daily basis I'm honored by some photographer often half-way across the world sincerely submitting their work to the magazine and asking for our feedback on their efforts. To this day I still try to send my feedback and suggestions to each submission, which is pretty fucking insane at this point. Another great part of Blueeyes is simply being a member of the staff and our giant debates and arguments in considering what will run in each issue. Some of us are extremely traditional, others more open, and the back and forth is what the magazine a rare place on the web. Each member of the stafff all want to be amazed and reminded of what exactly about documentary photography is important. And though sometimes the last a-ha moment feels too far in your memory, it always happens again, and you open a project that connects you to the world more fully. And that connection is truly what its all about, both inside and ouside the photography community. Blueeyes connects us as staff, and our contributors, to the rest of the world who are passionately trying to do this in their own ways. When the issues are sometimes not that much fun to put together, or things are falling a part in any number of ways, I think about the ways that what I'm trying to do connects me to other people who share in my belief in the power of photography. Posted to Blueeyes Magazine |
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San Francisco |
October 21, 2006 |
Sunrise over the Bay Bridge from the Embarcadero, above, and as seen from Vista Point.
A quick trip to San Francisco featuring a lot of wine and some great food is damn near heaven. Now hopefully I can just take the word "quick" out of that last sentence sometime soon! It was great to be in California with my dad, and also very cool to see my friend and mentor Kim Komenich while in town. I didn't shoot much while I was there, but here is a small look at the mini-vacation. In the very short time I've been gone, my little blog experiment has been outed so I guess there are a few more people watching. Hopefully that won't impact the honesty that Martin was kind enough to mention. In a comment on his recent post, a reader asked why it was so hard to find the RSS of Drinking with a Dead Man... that made me laugh. There is no RSS. This ain't web 2.0, or some shit like that. However, if someone with some tech skills wants to volunteer to polish things up I'd be very grateful... if I had the time or talent to convert over to movable type, everything would be much better. Please e-mail me if interested. Really. [problem solved!] Lastly, Wayne has posted the second installment of his interview with me. This is the part where John plays it all cool and "cagey"...
Tourists click, record, and gape at the views around Pier 39 along Fisherman's Wharf, with Alcatraz, the site of the former notorious prison, in the background. 39 is famous for the dozens of seals that have been allowed to make camp on the pier's slips.
Chris Teachworth sips wine from one of the towers of Castello di Amorosa, a replica Italian castle still under construction in Napa Valley created by wine magnate Daryl Sattui. The castle began with plans for 8,000 sq. ft., but has now ballooned into over 100,000 sq. ft., including giant vaults of wine and underground caves, below, in the dozen years of development.
Headlights streak at twilight returning over the Golden Gate Bridge to San Francisco.
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Second Saturday |
October 17, 2006 |
Art patrons fill the streets of the Wynwood Art District on the second Saturday of every month just north of downtown Miami, in an area which normally belongs to the homeless and textile warehouse workers. Above, gallery walk participants walk in front of a video installation projected on a warehouse exterior. Below, a girl watches another video installation at Locust Gallery on NW 23rd St., one of several dozen small galleries in the emerging Wynwood art scene that are connected by a series of dark streets on the brink of gentrification, bottom.
This weekend I finally got out to another 2nd Saturday gallery walk in my neighborhood with my friend Josh. I had been on a bad streak of either being out of town or otherwise occupied/lazy over the last few months and hadn't seen any of the new gallery shows that are basically, besides the Chinese clothes warehouses, abandoned lots, and a Salvation Army depot, the main outposts in my backyard. My beginning work on the Wynwood/Miami emerging art scene is somewhat connected to my larger project on the development boom -- but I've approached it a little more loosely. Really, I just love to be out in my own neighborhood trying to meet people and get a sense of what is all around me... and I don't do it enough. This Saturday I was lucky to meet, and re-meet several friends of Josh and artists in the neighborhood who I'm going to try and meet up with and photograph their artistic process and connection to where we all live. I don't really think of Miami as a great place for artists -- especially now that the Miami Herald reports that it is the least affordable city in America -- but Jason, one of the artists that I re-met, says that he can't think of a better place to be and show art. I'm excited to learn what he means.
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Hyper promos |
October 16, 2006 |
My friend Kenneth likes to joke that I'm somewhere around 80% made of computer parts, and my friend Jason likes to call me "Dot Com" as in "johnloomis.com" -- but the truth is that out of my group of photo friends, I'm not even close to the most technologically knowledgeable, advanced, or interested. I didn't shoot more digital than film until this year, and was basically the only photographer left shooting film at all while I interned at the Hartford Courant, Palm Beach Post, and Arizona Republic during college. Despite my weak proof of not being a tech nerd (I'm certainly the other, more traditional type), I've recently started to try and better use the internet to promote my work and because of my efforts have gotten calls from at least a half-dozen friends and fellow shooters in the last month asking "how do you do that?" What they are referring to is my latest effort, which has already been in extremely widespread use in many, many other industries, but which is just being implemented en masse by photo folks: the HTML e-mail. Basically... its a web page, but in an e-mail. Yep, that's all. The big deal of it is that by using HTML you can replicate and replace the traditional post card mailer that many of us have long since sent editors (and hoped their assistants didn't immediately trash them), and do so at a very small fraction of the cost. And instead of just having a simple picture, you can also deliver a hyperlink to your web site and e-mail, include news on your recent efforts or awards, and give the busy photo editor and easy way to save your image and pertinent information right there in their mail program (much simpler than keeping filing cabinets). I send monthly promos using HTML to my address book of clients, and friends, which displays a single picture and deliver a bit of news. Some people send them quarterly (which is how often I still send out traditional 8x6 mailers with Redux), and others e-mail even weekly (which is too often, if you ask me). My design has changed slightly over the 8 months (also connected to a web site change), but its always been pretty simple. Here, for your viewing pleasure, is my most recent promo -- which is going out tomorrow morning (9 a.m. if you want to set your alarms, editors) using an online "e-mail newsletter tool" called Campaign Monitor. Through using CM and other similar services, not only do my e-mails go through easily, but I get immediate stats on how many were sent, opened, bounced, which links were clicked, etc. Very cool, and its allows you to learn if and how your promo is being received. My design is solid, but not inspired -- partially inspired no doubt by Apple's roundy boxed newsletters -- and I'll probably change it up once I get enough energy to create/commission an entirely new web site as well. By next month's promo I hope to have my new PhotoShelter archive up and running enough to include links in my "news" section so that editors can choose to jump straight to a gallery of recent work that I mention. Additionally, and this will require help from a bigger nerd than I, I want to set up a way for editors to forward my e-mail on to colleagues who I may not know yet. The overall response to my e-mail promos has been pretty good thus far. I've booked a few jobs, had portfolios called in to be reviewed, and had a lot of positive feedback from editors and friends -- something that is always lacking in being freelance. I've also definitely made a few mistakes as well, including accidentally using an image of my from a new shoot that had not yet been published by my client (there had been a miscommunication, and its not uncommon for me to not see how and when things run.) Oops. Posted to Misc. |
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Clips & bits |
October 15, 2006 |
I've been catching up on office work, and sleep, this weekend and wanted to post a couple of recent bits that I've collected lately. Above is my spread in this week's (Oct. 23 - pgs. 56-57) ESPN the Magazine from my assignment to photograph the Metrodome. I like the layout, and I think its fun, but I wished that they would have given some larger play to a few of the individual pictures I was happy with from the job. Oh well -- since they didn't, I will:
If you want to learn more about the story you can pick up a copy this week, or just refer to my previous post. In the next couple of weeks you may also, if you find yourself bored in a Borders (BiaB), look for a few pieces that I will have in Newsweek and People. When I wasn't cleaning our bathroom (as promised to the girlfriend) or playing Tiger Woods PGA Tour this weekend, I spent a little time finishing up my answers to part II of an interview that I've been asked to give by Wayne Yang, who runs the very smart photo blog Eight Diagrams. You can find the part I on the site here, and the II will join it sometime this week. Lastly, this weekend I finally bit the bullet and opened an account with the good folks at PhotoShelter to begin putting my photo archive online. So far so good, and I have nothing but favorable reviews to report, but it's definitely going to take me a while to figure out everything that I want to put up there, and how to work out the pricing/licensing details. I'm planning to say more about my choice of PS over DRR, and why I'm going this way at all sometime in the future. Posted to Photographs |
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Download: gift ideas |
October 13, 2006 |
At any moment the advertising and marketing firms will start their blitzkrieg of holiday shopping promotions, and as such, and because I've been a very lucky recipient lately of some rad gifts, I thought I'd download some recent gifts and gift ideas that someone may want to check out. Note to mom: I have most of this stuff, so just send cash. And note to the rest of you: John's 27th birthday is Oct. 26th. Camera shit: Canon 28/1.8 USM auto focus lens - $400 SanDisk Extreme IV 4GB CF card w/ FW reader - $330 HyperDrive HD80 portable storage drive - $140 Other tech-y shit: Garmin Nüvi 360 portable GPS navigator - $625 Shure E4c earphones - $300 Apple iPod shuffle (aluminum) - $80 Edirol R-09 Wave recorder - $400 Swift Data 200 G5 drive upgrade system - $80 Nintendo Brain Age for DS - $20 Media, books, shit, etc. Forgotten War: Democratic Rep. of the Congo - $25 Winterreise by Luc Delahaye - $20 The Mennonites by Larry Towell - $40 Yoga for Dummies - $12 Good Night, and Good Luck - $15 All the King's Men - $10 Adrift mobiles - $150-300 The Daily Show iTunes multi-pass - $10 |
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Tough love |
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The girlfriend called me this morning from her sister's new house in West Florida. She had accidentally called the office line and once I picked up I was already in trouble. She was under the very normal expectation that I was supposed to be north of Orlando working on my Everglades project today. And I was. But... My girlfriend is wonderful and wonderfully tough all at the same time, in connection to my work and my personal projects. She keeps the fire under my ass and doesn't let me convince myself out of old ideas, regardless of whether or not they have much potential to yield anything valuable. And I need that and love that she cares enough for push me, even if she annoys the hell out of me occasionally. She believes deeply in showing up and seeing for yourself. I respect and love her for this. But sometimes it so mirrors the grief that I give myself, all of the frustrations I have with my own motivations and energy towards getting out the door and making things happen, that its just too much to take. When you are already very tough on yourself, sometimes that extra chorus of "I don't want to hear excuses" does not help things at all, even if it comes from love. That wasn't the case this morning -- I'm not working on the Everglades today because it became basically impossible. The PR person didn't get back to me after 4-5 calls this week (she is actually having a family emergency I learned, so you can't really say anything about that... I hope everything is OK) to give me even a general idea of where I was to go or who I was supposed to meet up with. Then my flight back in from Nashville got in late last night, well after 10:30 p.m., and I was faced with almost 4 hours of driving in 6.5 hours before the proposed shoot. I was already tired; it wasn't even a remotely good idea. The Everglades isn't going anywhere, and it would have been foolish and dangerous to try and drive up half-asleep. I'm sure, however, that if I hadn't immediately crashed asleep once I drove home from the airport, I would have chastised myself about it in bed. But even given my very valid explanations, and in light of our cancelled trip to North Carolina, my girlfriend was on my ass this morning... God love her for it. I already have a plan to make up for it, however: I'm going to work on another project tomorrow night right in my own backyard. And going to buy her flowers. Pretty ones. Posted to Misc. |
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On Assignment: Nashville, TN |
October 12, 2006 |
I'm sitting at one of the traveling freelance photographer's favorite chain lunch spots -- Panera Bread (free wireless, lots of power plugs) -- near downtown Nashville after my assignment this morning for Newsweek. Honestly, there wouldn't be much to tell about this job normally to make it worthy of a whole post... but I had a special sort of energy going into trying to finish up this shoot today after a problem on another for Newsweek earlier this week in Orlando. Though the problem was not entirely my fault, it left me, as my girlfriend can attest to, feeling really shitty. Going back in time to three days ago... I was hired by one of my favorite editors at the magazine to go up to Orlando and do a story related to the homeless population in the city. Orlando, as the home is Mickey et all, is very protective of its tourism industry and has taken steps to control homeless people's effect on business. The job was an open-ended open, which is to say that I was instructed to go check things out, spend at least a day, and see how much more time I wanted -- ie. there was an opportunity to make this into a longer piece and create a small essay. Now, let me stop right there. For those of you who may be starting out and thinking, "wow, that sounds about how it should be," well its not hardly ever. Hearing "see if you think you want to spend more time on this" is a fucking miracle. It's simply a beautiful, wonderful, and rare thing to hear from your editor, and I was excited at even the remote chance that I could take this story and run with it wherever it may lead. Ah, the set up for the fall to come... sigh. I drove up to Orlando Monday morning -- it has been a long week and a half of 2-4 hour drives for several assignments, but it was nice to be behind the wheel instead of fighting my way through airports -- and met up with the writer on the story, who ended up being a very cool guy and good reporter despite being very young. The immediate plan was to meet up with a local ACLU activist and lawyer and get the low down on the city's homeless scene. We visited a couple of shelters and found some other areas of interest, including a remote camp of dozens of homeless living in the shadow of a downtown freeway overpass right along train tracks. I don't think it will be that surprising to learn that I'm pretty sensitive to photographing situations that deal with people in difficult circumstances, such as homeless people living in squalor. What I try to do is take things slowly, pay respect and attention to the subjects, and make sure that they know I'm only there with their permission. I always make it a point of introducing myself directly, shaking hands, and then engaging with everyone that I meet. Only when the writer or I had been talking with them long enough for them to seem to accept us and open up, did I even broach the subject of photographing them. Even then I made it clear that I wanted their authorization before I would snap a frame and tried to present myself clearly, without lurking in some corner or trying to be coy about what I was doing and why I was there. In short, I treated the situation exactly as I would stepping into anyone else's home, and for the most part almost every person was fine with my presence. But this approach takes time -- time that I thought I had. Basically the first part of our day was doing background while we waited for the main event later in the afternoon that brought us to town. I wanted to make some contacts and gain what trust I could, and then come back later to try and work more and dig in deeper photographically -- also, as always, I wanted to wait for better light. However, it turned out that there wasn't a later, and so I missed dozens of pictures that I could have shot but decided to wait on. Right now the pictures are still waiting there, but the story isn't. As you probably have guessed, the main event turned sour. What was supposed to happen, what made the story visually compelling in a particular and newsworthy sense (and made our reason to choose Orlando specifically --there are homeless people everywhere, right? -- valid), just didn't happen at all. Instead, it went sideways... and sitting there watching it in disbelief, the writer and I sat both summed it up with a "well fuck." The story wasn't over, but it was no longer something that I thought had any legs, whatsoever, especially as far as the photographs were concerned. My job, basically, unless you greatly expanded the overall story to "homeless in Orlando" was pretty much over. I wasn't mad, because it happens sometimes. And because I thought I knew so well the sorry turn things had taken, I made a stupid mistake. I've set this up to be dramatic, but it isn't. I simply didn't pick up the phone, right then and there, and call my editor to tell them that things were looking ill. That's it. I didn't send in an update, or at least I didn't until the next morning. What later got me so angry with myself about it was that I knew much better and felt like I had let down the editor who I have a good relationship with. It was emotional for me, quite honestly. I've talked about before how I really have a hard time dealing with coming up short on an assignment, especially when I could have done more. The lesson for anyone out there is that you have GOT to update your editors, and keep them in the loop constantly, good or bad, so that they are able to help you and direct the story. We all know this. I just forgot for 12 hours. The next day there was nothing left to photograph, so I thought. I was right there too, but it wasn't my call, even if it was obvious. My editor didn't get my update via phone and e-mail until much later in the morning, while I was more than half of the way back driving home to Miami. He had arrived to work assuming everything was perfect. And what made things much worse (it probably wouldn't have even mattered otherwise) is that my editor's editor, who was updated by the rookie reporter, who was totally honest in saying that the shit hit the fan, decided that even though shit was everywhere, the story was in GREAT shape. So not only is my editor without the knowledge he should have been given, he has had his expectations amped up. Then comes my e-mail, and his call to me in total confusion. I explain what happened, and its all fine... what happened is what happened... but then he asks me why he didn't know this sooner. And that is that, folks. Fuck. Who is the rookie after all? So now we can fast forward back to present tense. I've been shooting a lot for Newsweek lately and already had another job for a different editor at the magazine scheduled for 2 days after my botched shoot. Emotionally, I felt that I needed to hit a home run in Nashville, even if it was for a different Newsweek editor, just so that I felt like I was bringing my A game back into play. I really wanted to go way beyond the call of duty. I was asked to do 2 set-ups for this portrait in Nashville, of the same family that I shot at the beginning of the week in Naples. 2? I thought... nah, I'll do 6. So I hit the ground running in Tennessee, and by that I mean I practically ran from my gate to the rental car counter, plopped down my AMEX, and ran to my car. I made it to the assignment 20 minutes early, and spent twice that time looking around the house to find where I wanted to shoot. Ultimately, I did as good of a job as I could on the Nashville job. It doesn't much show, because the assignment is not very visual, or at least not a job that I would ever hire me for (hint: it involves real estate.) I busted my ass and made the kids in this family grow to basically hate me, but the pictures are still only "solid." Not great... but I did everything I could. There is only so much you can do at a house that is preparing for a wedding in 2 days time, and is surrounded on 3 sides by GIANT white wedding tents. Yeah, giant. The larger point for me is to point out that I very often am assigned to photograph things that in some ways I shouldn't be. Alternatively, I'm also almost never asked to shoot assignments that I feel would really showcase my strengths. It's not me in that case, though, its the industry. All you can do is make every job count. Some photo editors don't know that documentary photographers are really bad choices to shoot portraits on a white seamless (or at least a lot of them are.) Some of them do, but they like your work and know you can, at the very least, do a competent job and would rather throw some money the way of a photographer they like regardless. There are risks in this equation too -- namely that you can get pegged into sub-genres of photography that don't even interest you all that much, like business portraiture. You take what you can get early on, and even later if you are slow, and realize that you are running a business and the market is not something you can control. And all of this is why I was even more upset at myself about the Orlando job... here was an editor giving me a chance to do something with more heart and allowance for time than is normally on my plate. Hopefully next time I can push myself to make it work out. Posted to On Assignment |
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New York City |
October 11, 2006 |
It's been in my head all day... living in NYC. Before any of you start to wonder, shit is Loomis about to announce he's going to move?!... no, I'm not. But I've been thinking about The City this morning after reading Martin's new post and then giving a small interview about my early days in photography, during a time when I thought I was about to grab my shit and bolt to Brooklyn like a lot of friends of mine have and did. It was so romantic in the fall of 2000 when everyone seemed to be heading that way. Before the towers, after I had been totally devastated and saved by Kim's photo story class, and right when I had begun to understand that I would never work full-time at a newspaper... there it was, NYC. But I didn't, and I'm not sure I would even still be in photography if I would have. Honestly, the secret of my success as a freelance photographer, outside of ego or talent or luck or savvy, has had a lot to do with my being based outside a major U.S. market, and certainly far away from Manhattan. Before Miami I worked out of Raleigh/Durham for two years, and though I had no idea at the time that I moved, on a whim, really, from my hometown in Tallahassee, it was a great decision and I had a relatively easy time picking up odd jobs from a large variety of clients who were desperately looking for someone to shoot a portrait in bum-fuck Carolina. It was a perfect fit... I didn't have that much experience, and they were in need. Moving on past being the guy-in-the-right-place is another challenge and post altogether; but North Carolina allowed me a solid start in the business in an affordable place to live. After a while the relaxed pace of Durham got to me -- though, it was certainly a lot more relaxed before the Duke lacrosse rape scandal that occurred, allegedly, right next door to my old house -- and after 2 years I wanted to escape to a bigger market and somewhere with more energy. Miami was an easy answer... my native state, birth city, new home to my girlfriend who had just started med school, and a much larger and more diverse market. At the time, though I didn't understand it like this, I felt like the years were slipping through my fingers, and that very soon I'd be 30, happily living in an old house in Durham and in no need of challenging myself with anything more. That wouldn't have been bad, but I wanted to roll the dice for something else, and more. Even in North Carolina -- America's home of tobacco and hogs -- I was deeply connected to NYC for just about everything that I did. Then and now I have very few regional or local clients. Almost every call that matters to me, business-wise, pops up as a 212, 917, 718, or 646. In Miami the conduit is even more pronounced, and sometimes you feel like there must be a metro stop somewhere in Manhattan that terminates in South Beach. Throughout my career, just about every month (only because I don't care to listen up for it... if I did it would be every week, I'm sure), I hear about another inexperienced photographer and their grand plans to pull up their road stake and head to the Apple. More often than not, I think, they'll end up working at Apple, if they are lucky. And recently a friend of mine actually got in a very heated argument with a supremely self-confident and impressively inexperienced friend of theirs after hearing that he also had it all figured out. Maybe some day I will feel like there is a place for me in NYC. I don't know what it will take... but feel like it could be an option in another few years. But I'm pretty stunned by the stupidity that I see in this industry via so many freelance photographers immediate move to NYC. Especially at a time when technology has connected us all in such an immediate way, and when New York has become ever more expensive to live in (Miami is very very pricey too, actually), moving to New York without immediate and full prospects seems like just about the worst business decision one can make. But that's just it, isn't it... its not about business for the thousand young photographers who will move to work this year? month? and look to make a name for themselves. Its an emotional thing. A test. A need. And their emotions are the only way to find the resolve and throw caution to the wind... on paper of course its hilariously stupid, but in the mind, over a couple of pints, its that same romance. And that is what is and will always be so compelling about a place so many people move to despite being terrified of what may happen... all of that energy and fear is in the air; it's incredible. Putting yourself to the test was the reason I wanted to move in college, and the reason I still want to now. Posted to Misc. |
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Big box |
October 8, 2006 |
Customers wait for the grand opening of a new Target store in the Midtown Miami superblock project on Sunday, October 10, 2006. The big box chain is the first to open its doors in the new development which spans 18 blocks from 29th to 36th streets just north of downtown and south of the Design District, on the site of a former railroad depot. The impact of the project, which is still largely under construction, has already impacted the community via the building of high-end loft condos and a emerging art gallery scene, dramatically recreating a neighborhood decreasingly populated by latino immigrants, homeless, and textile warehouses.
I woke up early again today; a slave to the light. It was a really nice morning, even if the Target opening didn't draw as many people as I expected -- and tsk, tsk, no local media coverage whatsoever! In my perspective, the opening of a superstore wouldn't draw any people to wait outside at 7:30 a.m. on a Sunday, but I'm often surprised and wrong about those types of things. Too bad they didn't open on Black Friday, that would have been a scene. There is a lot more to write about the project that these pictures are connected to -- some of which can be seen on my website, as an essay-very-very-much-in-progress -- but I don't have any time this morning to begin to try and lay out the territory of this body of work. I need to get showered, grab my cameras, and pack my lighting kit and bathing suit for a shoot today in Naples.
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So sorry |
October 7, 2006 |
I've been psyched for the last month about an upcoming bit of vacation to head back up to NC with the girlfriend to see our friends and celebrate the opening of Bissey's new restaurant, Rue Cler. Well, unfortunately I'm going to use this space tonight to announce and apologize that Judy and I are going to stay back in FL and reschedule our trip hopefully later in the month. Basically, things have just been really busy, which is great, and I wasn't sure that leaving the state right at this moment was a smart idea... and on top of that, I was going to be missing an important day for my Everglades project. That still wasn't enough to cancel the trip, which was anticipated and deserved, but now it seems that Rue Cler won't be opened on time, so we won't get to eat a disgusting quantity of French food in Durham quite yet. So, I made the executive decision today to not make a decision at all... but to wait for some sort of fate/God/monkey? to make a choice one way or the other for me, most likely via a call from an editor about an interesting assignment late this week. Turns out I didn't have to wait long... Newsweek called and asked me to, in addition to the other two NW jobs I already am working on this week, shoot in Tennessee on Thursday. So sorry everyone... round on me at The Office next time, I promise! Putting this quick trip up to NC on hold had me thinking most of the day about how hard it can be sometimes to just stop working, and get away from it -- especially when you are self-employed, and do what you love. Having the job of your choice doesn't mean that you don't need time off... actually, it probably means that you need it even more, because your brain is going 24-hours a day on every little work related thing. Another vacation trap that I fall prey to is that if the phones are ringing, because other times you know that they won't, you don't even want to entertain the thought of leaving town. And even more dangerous, sometimes its hard to convince yourself, and friends or family, that your slow periods when not much is going on are vacation enough. But that's definitely not the case. You've got to get away; unplug, clear your head, and spend time with people that are important to you. I'm new to this part of the job, but its already clear that finding time for yourself is the only way to stay on top of your game and nourish new ideas and energy to stay productive and satisfied. Putting my money where my mouth is... I'm actually planning another small trip next week with my Dad to a big wine tasting event in San Francisco. I don't think any assignment is going to stop that one! Posted to Misc. |
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Fast-forward |
October 4, 2006 |
With my friend Eric Larson's guidance, I put together a movie of the time-lapse photography from the Metrodome assignment for ESPN. I think its pretty cool, and only partly because if you look very very keenly you can spy me running all around (I'm in a green t-shirt) the field trying to take everything in. The movie can be found here. [link removed] Also somewhat link-worthy... I was given the go ahead tonight by one of my editors at Newsweek to post some unpublished work I shot for a few months ago for the magazine on a story that now has very little chance to see the light of day, unfortunately. I mention this because the work came from two shoots that I felt particularly proud of this year. You can find 4 images starting here. Lastly, I'm going to add a couple of pictures from the same assignment that aren't going to show up on the main web site, but they are ones that I like for different reasons. These type of pictures, ones that aren't wholly successful and yet on the path towards being something new and interesting, are what stay with me the most.
Lt. Col. Frank McClary watches over a platoon of new Army recruits training on the M-16 range at Fort Jackson, SC.
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Download: Maxims |
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From time to time I'm going to throw some words of wisdom directed at yours truly that I've collected or written down various places to help me remember not to be a schmoe. Here is the first such download, taken straight from the "memos" section of my Treo. John's assignment maxims Follow the light Maybe some explanatory text is in order... since those probably only make sense to me, and also probably won't make sense to me if I see them again in 12 months without Cliff Notes. Follow the light... well, I've already talked about the golden hour, and my passion for waking up early and staying late. But, on assignments, even when you don't have any control over time, there are still moments where you can make decisions juggling content vs. aesthetics... and its important to let aesthetics win some of those times, because often the content is total shit anyway. Also, in a sense, follow the light also means for me not to try so hard to recreate my own light in a place that is against the natural flow of what I've been dealt... even if I have my light kit, or reflectors, its still an easier path to modify or fill in nice light that is already there, than to totally create my own system of light. Tight & wide... not brain surgery. I like to make it a point of each assignment to show as much context, and as little; either shooting wide and long, or shooting very close and far away. Editors love choice. Seriously, its crack to them... and as a former (reformed?) newspaper photographer, its something that is very easy for me to deliver. Ask for more... make say no... This is something I've developed over the last couple of years. Basically my thinking is that your subjects, the vast majority of them, want to please you and the magazine you represent. They are flexible, often very very flexible, so why not take advantage of that? If I have a crazy idea, or want to try something, I ask. The only times you'll find me not asking is when I either don't have any time at all (less than 10 minutes total) or if I really don't like my subject and don't want to spend that much time with them. To date, the only people who have said no to me have been Clay Aiken (who said yes to everything but laying on top of the grand piano Fabulous Baker Brothers style) and a couple of athlete ass holes. Being told no is often very useful in another way... it lets you leverage your crazy idea against your not that crazy idea, so that they say NO to your bad idea, but agree to the 2nd idea just because they've already "stifled" your creativity. Fill every hole... this is a professionalism thing. You've been hired to perform a service for a client. Do just that. Do other stuff also, yeah, if you have the time or energy. But make for damn sure that you have checked off every thing on the "what the client requires" checklist along the way. This is where I don't have any patience for photographers whose ego or "vision" means that they can't get an assignment done in a manner that is publishable by their client. What's your sign?... I'm a scorpio. But this is about following the signs of your shoot and taking action based on what is happening, or going wrong. I had a shoot recently for a new client, and things kept going wrong. I'd set up this shot, have my flash just so, starting snapping frames, and then... whamo, the flash stops firing. OK. I check the transmitter, I check the flash, still nothing. What can I do? I'm not going to fiddle with the thing for 20 minutes and try and figure out what is up while my subject waits there... so instead, I say, "fuck the flash," and I move on. Same thing goes for almost anything. I don't believe in whatever would cause this or that to happen, but I'm not going to fight some unseen foe on assignment in front of a subject either. I try and take my cues from the situation, and if need be, improvise. Seriously, there are sooooo many ways that you can take each assignment; so many types of styles, lens combinations, environments, lighting set-ups, etc., that there is no reason to just not relax and enjoy the ride... as long as it doesn't interfere with the above-mentioned check list. Finish twice... lastly, when I'm having a hard time making pictures that I like on a job, pictures that are above and beyond what the client wanted and are really more for my personal satisfaction, no matter what kind of job, I use this technique. I shoot and then finish the shoot, and then start over and finish again. Everyone has a sense of when the shoot is over... its that feeling you have. Well, suppress that feeling. It doesn't have to mean the end. Once I reach the end, I keep going right through and start trying new things, like I was approaching the assignment for the first time. And when I'm through finishing twice, its all over, and I say goodnight. What these mantras are the most applicable to, in my experience, has been assignments that we all take because we are in business and must pay our rent or mortgage. The other assignments... dream jobs, personal projects, all of that... these may be a little less important to consider, and another set of mantras that are a little more idealized can be used. But when you are shooting something that you would definitely not be shooting unless someone had hired you to do so... that's when I force these little nuggets onto myself. Lastly, by way of an apology... when I was in college I spent hours each week in a bookstore pouring over the major publications that I hoped someday to be working for, comparing what I thought my ability was against the stuff I found in the pages. I really thought that I knew something about the photographers whose work I was seeing, and when it was bad work, I thought... fuck, it seems like anyone can do this and get assignments! I was wrong. Or not wrong, but I didn't understand that what you see in a magazine sometimes has very little actual representation of the quality of that photographer, or even of their shoot on that assignment. Now years later when I have a very strong shoot and then am totally amazed about how fucking awful the picture is that got into print in the magazine the week after, or 6 months later, I think about those college days and want to say sorry to all of the photographers that I thought ill, just as I hope the kids in college today may learn to give me a little more credit when they see some of the horrible shit that I've mistakenly let my clients get their hands on from otherwise decent takes. Posted to Download |
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On Assignment: Minneapolis, MN |
October 3, 2006 |
I've been sitting at this noisy Starbucks for almost an hour, racing against the clock to upload the 400 images from part of my job in Minnesota to ESPN's server before my battery on my laptop runs out, because I forgot to throw either my extra battery or the charger into my bag before I ran out the door to find a better high speed connection than my horrible DSL at home. Oh, BellSouth, how I loathe you so! Minnesota is a long way away from Miami. Yep, you heard it here. It's a long way away to the tune of 2 long plane segments beyond the steamy heat of South Florida, and into the crisp, amazing fall weather in Minneapolis. So, to set the stage... Who? Me, and my college friend and occasional assistant Brian Harkin. What? An assignment from ESPN the Magazine, one of my top 5 clients, in frequency and quality, to photograph the Metrodome. Where? Minneapolis, MN. Why? The Metrodome is a very interesting example of one of a handful of multi-use stadiums around the country which are shared by different pro teams in different sports, sometimes on the same day, only hours a part. My assignment was to photograph the transformation of the dome from baseball field to football stadium to starting point of a marathon (Twins to Minnesota/Michigan to Medtronic Twin Cities Marathon) all within 24 hours. How? Documentary photography of the crew breaking down the stadium from baseball to football, including a mounted camera position in the upper deck rigged with a remote interval timer. This year I've had a handful of break-out clients who, though I've shot several things for them each of the last 2 years, have really blown up for me and our relationship has matured to include a lot more travel and more interesting assignments. As a freelance photographer, and as a business owner in general, this is one of the most gratifying experiences there is... delivering a service that is not only good, but good enough that the client returns and increases their order and expectations time and time again. This job for ESPN was one of the most complex I've had given to me thus far, was directly after my last shoot for the magazine which has been my favorite and best shoot I've had all year, and the new job looked like it had the potential to be one of the coolest things that I'd seen in quite a while. And while a component of it (the mounted camera) wasn't really in my normal wheelhouse, the assignment posed a challenge that I was excited to attempt. Notice all of the run-on sentences... its basically how my brain works directly after getting a job... ; ) As I chronicled in the last post, a couple dozen seconds after I wrote about how much I like the day after a bunch of work, etc., I got a call from one of my editors at the magazine and was asked to go to Minneapolis pretty much immediately. The immediately part is not a problem almost ever... I've flown off to assignments on a couple of hours notice at least a dozen times this year, and because I travel pretty light and don't use, or even like, a ton of gear, its a pleasure that I have to always be ready and willing to go do an interesting assignment, no matter the distance. That sounds a little far-fetched, but I actually do like having to extend myself out and head off to some place off the beaten path and get something done quickly. It's probably not healthy in a long-term way, but I grew up in newspapers and its always been part of the terrain that I knew. Deadlines are my friend. However, this assignment's immediacy was matched by 2 potential problems that had to be solved within an hour of accepting the job, or else I was in trouble. First, I couldn't do this job alone -- wasn't even a choice, because of the secondary mounted camera which had to be watched over, and occasionally tweaked. And #2, I had to get my hands on a remote timer to attach to the remote camera. Equipment issues first: normally buying a piece of gear last minute is not a big problem... you either get it locally, or have it shipped overnight from B&H or Adorama, etc. However, I got the call at around 2:30 p.m. on a Thursday afternoon. Slightly bigger problem because that's after the deadline most mail order photo places have for shipping out equipment for overnight that day... so I couldn't buy from NYC or anywhere in EST. Then I had to factor in the upcoming Jewish holiday which could affect hours and work load at almost every mail order place in the country, which are almost all run by orthodox Jewish owners. Also the timer, a Canon TC-80N3, which I researched quickly and found that I couldn't do without, was not an item that many stores kept in stock, especially locally. I called a dozen places in South Florida... no luck. Then I called places in Minneapolis... no luck. The problem was getting bigger within ten minutes of accepting the job. Meanwhile I also started to call assistants. My friends Travis, Kenneth, and Andrea... no, no. no. One in college and busy, one moving Eastward, and one having just left for 2 weeks in Bogota. The question of finding a good, solid assistant has been a big issue since moving to Miami, and since Travis started grad school in Ohio (bastard!), because, even though there are TONS of assistants down here to help with the commercial catalog and fashion shoots, there are very few, so far as I've been able to tell, assistants who do editorial and are fun to be around. Therefore I've had to call on friends who live various places around the country to fly out and meet me at the assignment. It can be done, but its not something that magazines really appreciate (having to arrange travel from multiple locations to the job). So now its 3:15 p.m., I still don't have an assistant or a remote timer, and have now learned that ESPN wants me on the 11 a.m. flight the next morning, which means that even if I could find the timer in a place on the West coast that would ship it overnight to me in Miami, it wouldn't do any good, because I'd already be at the airport and would miss the delivery. Bad. Shit. FUCK. But then I got a call back from Brian, who was on assignment and couldn't talk, but told me that he was free to do whatever it was that I needed (he still didn't know... that's what great about other photographers; they say yes first!). Then I got a bit of inspiration that I should look for a photo store in the Dallas area, where Brian lives, who may have it. Yes! My first call found the timer in stock, but at a considerable mark-up to the price that B&H carried it at. At this point, that didn't matter at all... I needed it, or had to call back my editor and give him the unfortunate news. The other pieces fell into place: ESPN arranged all of the travel for both of us, I called the Dallas camera shop and gave them the situation and my credit card number, and Brian promised to pick up the timer and a few other goodies at the camera shop before he went to the airport. All of the problems had been solved, and I even found 2 micro ball heads that I had packed away in one of my many old camera bags, so I didn't have to buy a new one to use to mount the camera. The logistics and prep for the assignment were done... so I went out for sushi with my girlfriend, as a apology for having to leave, again, and had a quiet and nice night. The flights to Minnesota on Friday were uneventful but long -- OK, because I had picked up Zadie Smith's excellent "On Beauty" on my last assignment. Brian joined me on the 2nd leg, as I was routed through DFW on my way. We got in at 5-ish CST and found our rental car (note to the directors of the MSP airport... for God's sake, make it easier to get to the rental car station from the terminal... its really pathetic). We got to the hotel very easily, not always the case, which was perfectly situated just about 6 blocks walk to the Metrodome in downtown Minneapolis, and after checking in (another note: what ever happened to the ever-expanding network of hotels offering free wireless??), got a great recommendation for a local, independent restaurant called Nochee, where we had a nice dinner. The big bonus of the entire weekend was the incredible early fall weather in Minneapolis, which is a great city itself. Having lived in Miami for 9 months, I can't tell you how fucking awesome it is to again feel the crispness of a fall day. Very glad that I packed my favorite zip-up. After learning that the writer missed his flight Friday night, and would be late getting in, I was also told that the video team (on some ESPN the Magazine jobs, things get slightly more complicated because Bristol (headquarters of the TV network) gets involved and also wants to send their people to do video and sound, in addition to the rest of the team. Sometimes photographers and videographers (and their crew) work very well together, and its all good. Other times, its hell and you are constantly getting in each other's way and crossing swords. Normally, its not great news to learn that Bristol is coming) was not going to arrive to the stadium until 1 p.m. on Saturday, well into the Twins game that began at 11 a.m. So we had tons of time to hang out in the morning, get breakfast, read the paper, and relax. We were relaxing, in fact, when I happened to finally see an update on the baseball game going on down the street, and learned that at 12:20 p.m., the game was already in the 6th inning and was flying straight through to completion. Shit! Brian and I jumped up, got our gear, and practically ran to the stadium just as the writer had gotten in town and arrived himself. We needed to capture, at the very least, the last inning of the Twins baseball game (from the remote camera) in order to show the evolution of the stadium from fully from diamond to football field. With hardly 3 outs remaining in the game, we finally had a position picked in the upper deck directly behind home plate, and got set up and clamped in. The remote timer, which I was worried about and had Brian check again and again all day, worked perfectly. By the last out I was in the team tunnel on the 1st base side and took to the field with the crew members who instantly upon the end of the game began to break the baseball field down and start preparations for pigskin. It was really unreal to watch three guys run at the pitcher's mound and attack it with shovels, breaking away the dirt to expose the edge of the wooden palette that its built on, so the whole mound could be carried off the field and preserved (the mound is too preciously made and perfected to be totally destroyed and remade each time). Literally after 15 seconds, the outfield walls and banners were already coming down. 5 minutes after that another crew was painting the end zone logos of the home town University of Minnesota Golden Gophers. The pace and energy of the crews was absolutely incredible, and I ran from place to place around the field trying to document everything. Photographically it was a pretty easy shoot on the field. The scale and number of people made for easy compositions and dramatic pairings, and the backgrounds were either very clean or had an epic depth (eg. the rest of the dome). It became very apparent that I was going to shoot way more than normal on the job because after 20 minutes I had already filled up the first of my 4 GB CF cards, which is about 300 images in RAW format on my 1DsM2. By the end of the 2nd day of shooting, I had reached the 2000 mark, which is probably the first time I've ever done that on a assignment that short. 2000 digital files is a totally different problem on the post-shoot end of things, of course. On assignments where there is a chance that I'll shoot a lot, and need to download my digital cards on the fly, I make sure to pack a portable hard drive made by HyperDrive that I call my "dump drive." I've now had 2 different types of these, one with a screen to preview the images, which also played music and shit, and the new one with only a LCD panel that told you the bare essentials of information. The new drive is totally great, and very fast. I'm not the type of photographer that wants to see what I'm shooting while on assignment... I actually prefer not to, unless there is a CD or AD present who needs to direct things, which is pretty rare for me. After several hours the field had been transformed, with only the dirt around the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd bases left over as reminders of the diamond. Brian and I had time to head outside and try and find something interesting with the tailgaters, of which there wasn't much. We even had time to try and eat some of the terrible press food, which made me glad I didn't continue in my early-college aspirations to become a dedicated sports photographer. But by the beginning of the football game (Minnesota vs. Michigan -- Mich. dominated the game from the very beginning), Brian and I were both exhausted, and happily packed up our gear and finished the remote timer work with the kickoff. Beer and pizza were in order, and I downloaded all of my cards and made sure that the timer camera had done its job. We made it an early night because the last part of the assignment was to photograph the beginning of the marathon that was using the Metrodome as its starting point early the next morning. The marathon could not have been scheduled on a more beautiful day. In Miami there is often a thick haze and cloud cover at sunrise over the Atlantic, like a lot of other big cities, and you sometimes miss out on the first rays of sunlight. That's not the case, or wasn't on Sunday, in Minneapolis, a city that both Brian and I wondered aloud several times in a our short trip why we didn't just move there. The light was gorgeous as we walked back to the dome, and there were people, happy, excited, and very nice people, everywhere. I had expected that because it was a relatively early start to the race, 8 a.m., that people wouldn't really gather in mass until at least 7:30, but when we got out there 20 minutes earlier than that, there wer | |
