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April 2008 Archives |
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Welcome to Miami |
April 28, 2008 |
This is my third year back in Miami (I was born here, my family has lived here for generations, but I've only worked professionally here since 2006) and I thought it would be fun and informative to create a mini welcome guide to doing business in the city as a freelance editorial photographer. Weather, locale, getting around. So welcome to Miami and good luck. It's a great place to have fun and a great place to watch shrink away in your rearview mirror or your way home. Shooting here can be easy, breezy, but just as often it's a total hassle. A lot depends on the time of year and on location. To begin with, Miami isn't that big of a place, even though it stretches for miles and miles. Only certain parts even feel like a big city, and if you are coming here for a shoot you probably only need to know 2 places: the airport and South Beach (Miami Beach south of 23rd St). Getting here is not hard with dozens of daily directs into MIA or FLL, but god help you if you are coming in from out of the country (esp. at MIA). Arriving and hoping not to need to get a rental car? Dream on, you're going to need one. Why?, well for one our taxis are total shit and very expensive. Even if they weren't, our mass transit is non-existent and mostly useless, on top of most of everything you'll need being 10 miles and 25 minutes away from each other. If you are just going to be at one hotel in South Beach and then right out on the beach next to it, you are probably fine. But if you have multiple locations or a tight deadline, you need a rental. Sorry. And even though I said you need a rental car, let me go ahead and apologize about the traffic/maniacs on the road here. Yes, its true (and verified by a nationwide poll in 2007), traffic and drivers in Miami are fucking horrible. There, I said I was sorry and I warned you. Life in Miami is broken into two distinct periods of time: season vs. not. During season (roughly December (Art Basel) until May (Mother's Day)) hotels are booked with a million conventions and vacations, rental houses are empty because of the commercial shooters, and everything is more expensive; the upside is that the weather is heaven (mid-70's with a breeze and lots of sun). During off-season the place heats up (mid-90's+ and humid) and empties out. All of the snowbirds head back to fucking New Jersey or wherever and its easier to get deals on hotels and flights. You are going to sweat your ass off, but hey, nothing is perfect; plus down here no one dresses up for anything except the clubs, which you should stay away from anyway, so you'll be comfy in shorts and flip-flops. Just as an aside, even though Miami and the Keys are very close relative to New York and, say, Chicago, they are not really that close at all practically speaking. Therefore, you can not shoot in the Keys but be based in Miami - you can try but you'll spend the entire time driving between on US-1/Overseas Hwy, which is not a fun thing to do (trust me). Key West is a good, long 2-lane drive away and just like an island in the Caribbean, it operates on its own time and has scarce local resources (no rental, no film, no assistants, no problem mate!). Sleeping and eating. Depending on your client and location, staying in SoBe is fun but going to run you between $250-$500+; but you will be within easy walking distance to hundreds of spots to eat, get coffee, jog, and club. Walking distance in Miami is a rare, rare thing. Staying north on the beach will save you money but you'll have very few appetizing options if you care about food. Another option is staying in Miami proper (I would unless its your first trip), but most of the hotels are either in downtown (no man's land after 5 p.m. generally), Aventura (Jewish 70+ paradise of mall shopping and corporate eating), Doral (way, way West of Miami only convenient for golfers), South/Red Road (near University of Miami campus and nothing else), or near the Airport (just close you eyes and pick randomly at that point). OK, so you have a hotel, but where to eat. Like any major city Miami has a lot of everything and every major chain, but there are some highlights you should know about. If you must have a steak in Miami, it should probably be at one of the many Argentinian or Brazilian carnivor-a-thons dotting the landscape. There is a general consensus that you must try some of the Cuban fare (most famous is Versailles in Calle Ocho (SW 8th)), but just make sure you have plenty of time for a nap afterwards. If you love Indian, Vietnamese, Thai, Ethiopian, Chinese, or Mexican food then sorry, you should really just wait until you are back home. Instead pick just about any seafood, Italian, Russian, or Latin spot and you'll probably be fine (hit up OLA on James Ave. in SoBe for great nuevo-Latin cuisine); even better fuck the good food and capitalize on the great views. If you are a veggie/vegan and don't eat fish, then buy some crackers, baby, it's going to be rough. Time for work. With a place to sleep and a full stomach, it's probably time to get some work done, so lets talk about what you'll need to know in terms of shooting in Miami and around South Florida. First of all there are some good rental studios and film labs (well, 2 of each). For rentals check out Aperture Professional and Carousel Studios, and for film labs I like using The Color House. Now if one of these studios can't help you then you are in a spot, because you can not depend on any of the photo shops in Miami to have anything in stock you may need (seriously). But if you don't believe me, the largest is Pitman Photo Supply (way the fuck down in South Miami), and your 2nd (and even more gruesome option) is World Wide Foto (near the Design District). You'll find out very quickly that if you need a piece of pro gear which can't be rented in town, then you are going to either have to bring it with you or have it shipped in from the big boys (sigh, last minute overnight shipping to hotels is AWESOME, right?!). Speaking of gear its common for photo editors to hear the word Miami and begin to have wet dreams about underwater angles for their assignment, no matter if its a business portrait 10 miles from the ocean. On that score I just recently came across someone who rents pro underwater housings (Stephen Frink Photographic), but if he's out then it ain't going to happen. Do what I've been advised to do and buy yourself a Canon G9 with a housing (both are out of stock in Miami, I bet you $20). OK, moving on. If you are shooting on the beach you technically are going to need a permit. I've shot on the beach dozens of times and never had one but I don't have big sets with lots of gear. So if you are planning on a full-day shoot or big operation you should be smart and give the City of Miami Beach a call just in case. When shooting on the beach you absolutely are going to want to have a few things: a beach cart (photo gear cart with large tires for the sand), a photo hood or screen for seeing laptops or even chimping, either tie downs, many assistants, or MANY sand bags, and sunscreen (duh), dark sunglasses, and/or a hat (getting burnt is no fun). If you like using large soft boxes, scrims/flags, or anything else (common sense alarm) you are either going to hire a small army to keep them secure and in the right orientation or are going to be smart and leave the 5' octodomes or (eek) 12x12's at home and use a beauty dish instead. Beauty dishes are worth their weight in gold in Miami because its always windy. Miami has a lot of very good commercial assistants (so I hear) because of the advertising and film work that is constantly going on down here. However, it does not have that many decent editorial assistants. You really can't depend on finding local help at the $200 range last minute down here unless you have a friend who owes you a favor. Instead have the client eat another plane ticket and get something who you can depend on. That being said, you don't need to worry about finding good local stylists of any stripe (hair, makeup, wardrobe, etc). There are plenty in Miami who have a ton of experience and most of them are great to work with. And because this is party central, catering is not going to be a problem either. Unlike New York, most of Miami is not so media savvy that you'll need pay for access to use a location (usually). Most of them are totally fine with you shooting as long as you have proof of liability insurance (which you should anyway, right). Also, just like any major city there are many areas that you don't want to get stuck in at the wrong time of day, just be smart about it. It should be said that Miami is much safer than it was in the Cocaine Cowboy days of the 70-80's. Still, stay away from parts of South Miami, Liberty City, Overtown, Opa-Locka, and Hialeah after dark unless you have local assets watching your back. Summing it all up. I've certainly missed dozen of things here but this is a solid beginning. I'll try to add to this guide to keep it relevant and to respond to any questions that might come. Hopefully others of you out there can share of your knowledge of working in and out of other major cities that all of us have to spend time in. Atlanta anyone? Houston? Lets see some love get shared! Posted to Misc. |
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Sell out |
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Apologies for this lapse into practical use of DwaDM, but I've been wheeling and dealing a bit lately and as a result have some excess gear on my hands that I'd like to find a friendly new home.
Mamiya super wide angle 50mm f/4.5 lens for the Mamiya 7 II - $1300
Epson Perfection 3200 Photo scanner - $30 / OBO Apple DVI to ADC display adapter - $70 Mountainsmith Paragon camera daypack - $60 / OBO I will accept PayPal (International or U.S.) or check for the items (U.S. only, delivery after check clears) and don't mind shipping them anywhere (except for the scanner and daypack). If you are interested send me an e-mail.
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Cool beans |
April 21, 2008 |
Workers speed drying of the late harvest coffee beans in the open sun at Doka Estate, part of the Santa Eduviges farms in Costa Rica. See much more in the archive. Found in this Sunday's New York Times business section are the "cherries" from the last half of my week down in Costa Rica back in February and a small photo essay on Starbucks Coffee and their farmer education program. Despite being pretty exhausted from the hike, Andy Martin (the writer) and I had a really great time with the Starbucks folks as we saw just a tiny corner of their operation in central Costa Rica and the way that they teach sustainable methods and quality control to help farmers around the world not only produce better beans but also become able to earn a much higher premium for their efforts and families. No matter what you think about Starbucks as a company you have to be impressed by the lengths they go around the world to source their product. They look at the whole thing a bit like I try to with my freelance work -- I don't want a single job from someone, I want to build relationships that can deepen and strengthen over time. The same is true with their relationships with farmers (which in many of these places is really just huge extended families who have worked the same ground for generations), some of which are 20+ years old. Photographically speaking we were off in our timing down in Costa Rica and had missed the first big harvest of the year; so many of the images I wanted just didn't exist. Instead I did portraits and details and tried to make something interesting, while also trying just to soak up the environment while simultaneously not getting attacked by bugs. Big ups to Sbux rockstar Scott McMartin (seen below) who was fun to hang out (bullshit) with during the trip.
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Rattle |
April 16, 2008 |
After a week of admiration I finally exchanged virtual credit for a virtual copy of the new R.E.M. album Accelerate after watching the Stipe & Co. collaboration with Vincent Moon and the amazing Take Away Show crew. I already knew the album was a return to all of the things that had resounded in me with the band pre-Berry's exit, and had earlier in my older brother Ryan back when we lived in rural Georgia during the Chronic Town days, but it was seeing the band after all of this time and fame open themselves up/bare to something as potentially difficult as indie/DIY live music filmmaking that loosened my purse strings. If I ever get to the point where I can quantify that I made it in whatever way is important to me, I hope I have the integrity, humility, and passion to risk/disregard that success again with returning back to the beginning and sinking into something hard - such as the subsequent collaboration between R.E.M. and Moon and creation of video web projects NinetyNights and SupernaturalSuperserious. The whole affair, regardless of the outcome, deeply turns me on from a creative perspective. I suppose its the basic reason why we keep moving with Blueeyes... I was thinking about all of this yesterday when I bounced over to a day-in-the-life post from Timothy Archibald via Rachel/PhotoShelter recounting his recent composite shoot for Runner's World (*RH, this is by FAR your best post yet - thanks). Interspersed with the how do I do this stuff is the note about authenticity and the search for humanity in editorial portraiture and I was struck in the same way again. I had recently been spending a good deal of time on TA's website when preparing my new stripped down best of '08 JL.com update (I think its cool how few images you have there, Timothy - very elegant approach to what you are about), and that play between authenticity/humanity and the logistical challenge of larger productions that create these fictional empty, but very pretty, concept-driven visions was heavy on my mind. So I guess the way it distills in my head is in thinking about the way that my own editorial work has been shifting (over the last few years) and the way that I've been using and thinking about light. Honestly I've just finally gotten familiar and comfortable with all of the tools of location lighting that I'm really starting to enjoy how I can use it and make it my own, which is perhaps the way that TA feels about the larger productions... its finally become something he is good at so there is an inherent pleasure in pulling them off for his clients. Last week I bought a fairly polarizing piece of lighting equipment that I had planned on always keeping at a distance because of its constant overuse over the last several years. But with the hope that I can do something different with it I'm excited to open myself to something different and redefine the way that I try to record authenticity in my portraits. Maybe its a bit backwards, but with all of this more I want to try to strip things back and bring the subject forward in a bigger way. Like TA and a lot of us, I suspect, the ultimate judge will be The Fiancée and her wonderful ability to see through all of the bullshit and figure out if I've actually achieved anything at all. |
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Cousteau vs. Cousteau |
April 10, 2008 |
It's been a good week in the JLPFL mailroom, highlighted by some long awaited checks (straight to the AMEX) and the new (May) issue of Men's Journal for which I shot a really interesting feature on the legacy of ocean explorer and environmental champion Jacques Cousteau. Its a meaty piece and I was very excited to work on it with Rob just before he made his exit (stage West). The shoot was first mentioned vaguely on DwaDM back in November, but there was ultimately a lot more to it. The idea for the piece was to shoot Cousteau grandsons Philippe Jr. and Fabien, and contrast the different ways in which they've used their famous last name in a profile on the bitter family feud that erupted after Jacques death. I was initially only hired to make an "authentic" portrait of Philippe and we went out on a boat off of Lighthouse Point to shoot early in the morning. As I mentioned in the previous point it was gnarly with bad luck, seas, weather, wind... but Philippe was super awesome to work with and despite shooting 6x7 film with lights on a small boat while trying not to be tossed into the rocks, we managed to get some cool stuff. A couple of weeks later Rob was back in touch and I was asked to photograph the other half of the family represented by Fabien. Sweet! Only problem was that MJ wanted to try to exactly match the best selects from the first shoot again for the second shoot of Fabien, and of course I hadn't exactly been taking notes on the positions, angles, lighting, exposure, time of day, etc. from Philippe's session. But no problem, right?! At the very least we were certainly not to get shit weather two straight times! Ah, well, no. Not only was Fabien's shoot extremely tight on time and at a different part of the morning, the conditions were even worse. Immediately upon getting out on the boat with him and his very cool sister (regardless of whatever tension there is in the Cousteau family, I had a killer time meeting and working with everyone), we found out that we didn't have all of the (scuba) gear we would need to really mock up the first session, which sort of didn't matter anyway because the only suits that Fabien had were their very cool new free diving suits (I was thankful that they were different colors, lending to the Spy vs. Spy aesthetic of the final layout). But with 8x10 print outs of my Philippe selects (Rob picked 3 to do our best to replicate), we tried to make the best of it. Out on the water the wind was whipping like crazy and the sun was in a completely different spot and height than I wanted it in (matching would be impossible given our time frame). As soon as we got in position my assistant almost immediately had 2 of the 3 8x10 selects fly out of her hand and right overboard into the rough water. Amazingly we were able to save 1 of them, but there was a very awkward moment when one half of the family was all huddled around looking at these images of Philippe in the exact same setting. I don't think I would have been very cool with this, but they were and I respect them for being open and honest. With a beauty dish being hand held by my assistant Erica off to my right, she holding on to the rail for dear life, I had 15-second window opportunities kneeling in the right position with Fabien in place to shoot before the captain had to gun the engines and keep us from crashing on the rocks. We only had a total of about 15 minutes out on the water, and I had maybe 10 of these 15 second bursts. We only had 2 of the 3 8x10's left to compare with (next time I'll me smarter and laminate and bring extra copies), but with all of the rough water and wind I was trying hard just to get my exposures right let alone match horizon lines and body posture. By the time we wrapped I was pretty bummed that we just didn't get it done. My 6x7 selects of the 2nd shoot got to the Men's Journal office the day before Rob left (bummer), but Jenn Santana picked up the pieces and made some great sense of the images. I was super excited to get a call from her a couple of weeks ago that they loved the results and wanted to get me to get back out on the water for another feature story coming up this weekend (I must be crazy). Nothing better than that though! I'll leave you another frame that I liked of Philippe Cousteau, Jr.
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Viral |
April 8, 2008 |
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I'm back in the office today after a quick and soggy trip up to Amelia Island, FL for a shoot with ESPN the Magazine this weekend. Easy shoot, fun subject, and part of a little mini-roll I'm trying to cook up to begin April at JLPFL. Another building block of my wished-for roll is a total website refresh that I installed last week @ JL.com which is in part inspired from Rob's promo slideshow that you see above. The redesign is a bit radical but I really want to keep myself and my clients' focus on what is new and where I'm heading, instead of where I've been. Thus the 2008 framing and the extremely limited initial gallery of just 20 images, which will be added to on a weekly basis for the rest of the year, building up to 2009, when I'll launch a brand new super bad ass website that I'm beginning to mock up and get bids on from design firms right now. Its all about the new this year. Nü, baby. And speaking of fresh/clean, APE's slideshow is a cool first attempt at creating a free and open promotional stage for photographers to be found by the people who need them. I think that using Flickr creates some logistical challenges that need to be ironed out, and there are WAY too many pics for my taste in this first slideshow (cue Rob trimming the slideshow by *2, ahem). But its a great experiment nonetheless and hopefully some ADs and PEs will be turned onto new photographers outside of their normal circle of inspiration. *EDIT - Rob sized the final show down a bit more and polished things. You'll have to look pretty hard to find my image. Thanks for putting it together, Rob. Posted to Photographs |
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